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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/7883.txt b/7883.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a4c850 --- /dev/null +++ b/7883.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25091 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren + +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: Expositions of Holy Scripture + Second Kings Chapters VIII to End and Chronicles, Ezra, + and Nehemiah. Esther, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Posting Date: October 18, 2012 [EBook #7883] +Release Date: April, 2005 +First Posted: May 30, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, David King and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +SECOND KINGS FROM CHAP. VIII, AND CHRONICLES, EZRA, AND NEHEMIAH + +ESTHER, JOB, PROVERBS +AND ECCLESIASTES + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS + + +THE STORY OF HAZAEL (2 Kings viii. 9-15) + +IMPURE ZEAL (2 Kings x. 18-31) + +JEHOIADA AND JOASH (2 Kings xi. 1-16) + +METHODICAL LIBERALITY (2 Kings xii. 4-15) + +THE SPIRIT OF POWER (2 Kings xiii. 16) + +A KINGDOM'S EPITAPH (2 Kings xvii. 6-18) + +DIVIDED WORSHIP (2 Kings xvii. 33) + +HEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE (2 Kings xviii. 5, 6) + +'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED' (2 Kings xix. 20-22; 28-37) + +THE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS (2 Kings xxii. 8-20) + +THE END (2 Kings xxv. 1-12) + +THE KING'S POTTERS (1 Chron. iv. 23) + +DAVID'S CHORISTERS (1 Chron. vi. 32, R.V. margin) + +DRILL AND ENTHUSIASM (1 Chron. xii. 33) + +DAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE (1 Chron. xxii. 6-16) + +DAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON (1 Chron. xxviii. 1-10) + +THE WAVES OF TIME (1 Chron. xxix. 30) + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE DUTY OF EVERY DAY (2 Chron. viii. 12-13, R.V.) + +CONTRASTED SERVICES (2 Chron. xii. 8) + +THE SECRET OF VICTORY (2 Chron. xiii. 18) + +ASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY (2 Chron. xiv. +2-8) + +ASA'S PRAYER (2 Chron. xiv. 11) + +THE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS (2 Chron. xv. 15) + +JEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM (2 Chron. xvii. 1-10) + +AMASIAH (2 Chron. xvii. 16) + +'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES' (2 Chron. xix. 1-11) + +A STRANGE BATTLE (2 Chron. xx. 12) + +HOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST (2 Chron. xx. 20) + +JOASH (2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 17) + +GLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS (2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14) + +PRUDENCE AND FAITH (2 Chron. xxv. 9) + +JOTHAM (2 Chron. xxvii. 6) + +COSTLY AND FATAL HELP (2 Chron. xxviii. 23) + +A GODLY REFORMATION (2 Chron. xxix. 1-11) + +SACRIFICE RENEWED (2 Chron. xxix. 18-31) + +A LOVING CALL TO REUNION (2 Chron. xxx. 1-13) + +A STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS (2 Chron. xxxii. 1) + +MANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE (2 Chron. xxxiii. 9-16) + +JOSIAH (2 Chron. xxxiv. 1-13) + +JOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW (2 Chron. xxxiv. 11-28) + +THE FALL OF JUDAH (2 Chron. xxxvi. 11-21) + + +EZRA + + +THE EVE OF THE RESTORATION (Ezra i. 1-11) + +ALTAR AND TEMPLE (Ezra iii. 1-13) + +BUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES (Ezra iv. 1-5) + +THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP (Ezra vi. 14-22) + +GOD THE JOY-BRINGER (Ezra vi. 22) + +HEROIC FAITH (Ezra viii. 22, 23, 31, 32) + +THE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS (Ezra viii. 29) + + +THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH + + +A REFORMER'S SCHOOLING (Neh. i. 1-11) + +THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS (Neh. i. 4) + +'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE' (Neh. iii. 28) + +DISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE (Neh. iv. 9-21) + +AN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST (Neh. v. 15) + +READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY (Neh. viii. 1-12) + +THE JOY OF THE LORD (Neh. viii. 10) + +SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Neh. xiii. l5-22) + + +THE BOOK OF ESTHER + + +THE NET SPREAD (Esther iii. 1-11) + +ESTHER'S VENTURE (Esther iv. 10-17; v. 1-3) + +MORDECAI AND ESTHER (Esther iv. 14) + +THE NET BROKEN (Esther viii.3-8,15-17) + + +THE BOOK OF JOB + + +SORROW THAT WORSHIPS (Job i. 21) + +THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE +(Job v. 17-27) + +TWO KINDS OF HOPE (Job viii. 14; Romans v. 5) + +JOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER (Job xiv. 14; John xi. 25,26) + +KNOWLEDGE AND PEACE (Job xxii. 21) + +WHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE (Job xxii. 26-29) + +'THE END OF THE LORD' (Job xlii. 1-10) + + +THE PROVERBS + + +A YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR (Proverbs i. 1-19) + +WISDOM'S CALL (Proverbs i. 20-33) + +THE SECRET OF WELL-BEING (Proverbs iii. 1-10) + +THE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM (Proverbs iii. 11-24) + +THE TWO PATHS (Proverbs iv. 10-19) + +MONOTONY AND CRISES (Proverbs iv. 12) + +FROM DAWN TO NOON (Proverbs iv. 18; Matt. xiii. 43) + +KEEPING AND KEPT (Proverbs iv. 23; I Peter i. 5) + +THE CORDS OF SIN (Proverbs v. 22) + +WISDOM'S GIFT (Proverbs viii. 21) + +WISDOM AND CHRIST (Proverbs viii. 30, 31) + +THE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING (Proverbs +x. 29) + +THE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY (Proverbs +xii. 1-15) + +THE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR (Proverbs xiii. 7) + +THE TILLAGE OF THE POOR (Proverbs xiii. 23) + +SIN THE MOCKER (Proverbs xiv. 9) + +HOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY (Prov. xiv. 13; John xv. 11) + +SATISFIED FROM SELF (Proverbs xiv. 14) + +WHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF +ME (Proverbs xvi. 2) + +A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS (Proverbs xvi. 22-33) + +TWO FORTRESSES (Proverbs xviii. 10, 11) + +A STRING OF PEARLS (Proverbs xx. 1-7) + +THE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST (Proverbs xx. 4) + +BREAD AND GRAVEL (Proverbs xx. 17) + +A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE (Proverbs xxiii. 15-23) + +THE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE (Proverbs xxiii. 17, 18) + +THE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKARD (Proverbs xxiii, 29-35) + +THE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE (Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12) + +THE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN (Proverbs xxiv. 30, 31) + +AN UNWALLED CITY (Proverbs xxv. 28) + +THE WEIGHT OF SAND (Proverbs xxvii. 3) + +PORTRAIT OF A MATRON (Proverbs xxxi. 10-31) + + +ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER + + +WHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES (Eccles. i. 4; I John +ii. 17) + +THE PAST AND THE FUTURE (Eccles. i. 9; I Peter iv. 2, 3) + +TWO VIEWS OF LIFE (Eccles. i. 13; Hebrews xii. 10) + +'A TIME TO PLANT' (Eccles. iii. 2) + +ETERNITY IN THE HEART (Eccles. iii. 11) + +LESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK (Eccles. v. 1-12) + +NAKED OR CLOTHED? (Eccles. v. 15; Rev. xiv. 13) + +FINIS CORONAT OPUS (Eccles. vii. 8) + +MISUSED RESPITE (Eccles. viii. 11) + +FENCES AND SERPENTS (Eccles. x. 8) + +THE WAY TO THE CITY (Eccles. x. 15) + +A NEW YEAR'S SERMON TO THE YOUNG (Eccles. xi. 9; xii. 1) + +THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER (Eccles. xii. 1-7, 13-14) + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS + + +THE STORY OF HAZAEL + +'So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of +every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood +before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to +thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10. And Elisha said +unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the +Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 11. And he settled his +countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. +12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I +know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their +strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay +with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women +with child. 13. And Hazael said. But what, is thy servant a dog, that +he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath +shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 14. So he departed from +Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to +thee? and he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. +15. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and +dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and +Hazael reigned in his stead.'--2 KINGS viii. 9-15. + + +This is a strange, wild story. That Damascene monarchy burst into +sudden power, warlike and commercial--for the two things went together +in those days. As is usually the case, Hazael the successful soldier +becomes ambitious. His sword seems to be the real sceptre, and he will +have the dominion. Many years before this Elijah had anointed him to +be king over Syria. That had wrought upon him and stirred ambition in +him. Elijah's other appointments, coeval with his own, had already +taken effect, Jehu was king of Israel, Elisha was prophet, and he only +had not attained the dignity to which he had been designated. + +He comes now with his message from the king of Damascus to Elisha. No +doubt he had been often contrasting his own vigour with the decrepit, +nominal king, and many a time had thought of the anointing, and had +nursed ambitious hopes, which gradually turned to dark resolves. + +He hoped, no doubt, that Ben-hadad was mortally sick, and it must have +been a cruel, crushing disappointment when he heard that there was +nothing deadly in the illness. Another hope was gone from him. The +throne seemed further off than ever. I suppose that, at that instant, +there sprang in his heart the resolve that he would kill Ben-hadad. +The recoil of disappointment spurred Hazael to the resolution which he +then and there took. It had been gathering form, no doubt, through +some years, but now it became definite and settled. While his face +glowed with the new determination, and his lips clenched themselves in +the firmness of his purpose, the even voice of the prophet went on, +'howbeit he shall certainly die,' and the eye of the man of God +searched him till he turned away ashamed because aware that his inmost +heart was read. + +Then there followed the prophet's weeping, and the solemn announcement +of what Hazael would do when he had climbed to the throne. He shrank +in real horror from the thought of such enormity of sin. 'Is thy +servant a dog that he should do such a thing?' Elisha sternly answers: +'The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' The +certainty is that in his character occasion will develop evil. The +certainty is that a course begun by such crime will be of a piece, and +consistent with itself. + +This conversation with Elisha seems to have accelerated Hazael's +purpose, as if the prediction were to his mind a justification of his +means of fulfilling it. + +How like Macbeth he is!--the successful soldier, stirred by +supernatural monitions of a greatness which he should achieve, and at +last a murderer. + +This narrative opens to us some of the solemn, dark places of human +life, of men's hearts, of God's ways. Let us look at some of the +lessons which lie here. + +I. Man's responsibility for the sin which God foresees. + +It seems as if the prophet's words had much to do in exciting the +ambitious desires which led to the crime. Hazael's purpose of +executing the deed is clearly known to the prophet. His ascending the +throne is part of the divine purpose. He could find excuses for his +guilt, and fling the responsibility for firing his ambition on the +divine messenger. It may be asked--What sort of God is this who works +on the mind of a man by exciting promises, and having done so, and +having it fixed in His purposes that the man is to do the crime, yet +treats it when done as guilt? + +But now, whatever you may say, or whatever excuses Hazael might have +found for himself, here is just in its most naked form that which is +true about all sin. God foresees it all. God puts men into +circumstances where they will fall, God presents to them things which +they will make temptations. God takes the consequences of their +wrongdoing and works them into His great scheme. That is undeniable on +one side, and on the other it is as undeniable that God's foreseeing +leaves men free. God's putting men into circumstances where they fall +is not His tempting them. God's non-prevention of sin is not +permission to sin. God's overruling the consequences of sin is not His +condoning of sin as part of the scheme of His providence. + +Man is free. Man is responsible. God hates sin. God foresees and +permits sin. + +It is all a terrible mystery, but the facts are as undeniable as the +mystery of their co-existence is inscrutable. + +II. The slumbering possibilities of sin. + +Hazael indignantly protests against the thought that he should do such +a thing. There is conscience left in him yet. His example suggests how +little any of us know what it is in us to be or to do. We are all of +us a mystery to ourselves. Slumbering powers lie in us. We are like +quiescent volcanoes. + +So much in us lies dormant, needing occasion for its development, like +seeds that may sleep for centuries. That is true in regard to both the +good and the bad in us. Life reveals us to ourselves. We learn to know +ourselves by our actions, better than by mental self-inspection. + +All sin is one in essence, and may pass into diverse forms according +to circumstances. Of course characters differ, but the root of sin is +in us all. We are largely good because not tempted, as a house may +well stand firm when there are no floods. By the nature of the case, +thorough self-knowledge is impossible. + +Sin has the power of blinding us to its presence. It comes in a cloud +as the old gods were fabled to do. The lungs get accustomed to a +vitiated atmosphere, and scarcely are conscious of oppression till +they cease to play. + +All this should teach us-- + +Lessons of wary walking and humility. We are good because we have not +been tried. + +Lessons of charity and brotherly kindness. Every thief in the hulks, +every prostitute on the streets, is our brother and sister, and they +prove their fraternity by their sin. 'Whatever man has done man may +do.' '_Nihil humanum alienum a me puto_.' 'Let him that is +without sin cast the first stone.' + +III. The fatal necessity by which sin repeats itself in aggravated +forms. + +See how Hazael is drifted into his worst crimes. His first one leads +on by fell necessity to others. A man who has done no sin is +conceivable, but a man who has done only one is impossible. Did you +ever see a dam bursting or breaking down? Through a little crack comes +one drop: will it stop there--the gap or the trickle? No! The drop has +widened the crack, it has softened the earth around, it has cleared +away some impediments. So another and another follow ever more +rapidly, until the water pours out in a flood and the retaining +embankment is swept away. + +No sin 'is dead, being alone.' The demon brings seven other devils +worse than himself. The reason for that aggravation is plain. + +There is, first, habit. + +There is, second, growing inclination. + +There is, third, weakened restraint. + +There is, fourth, a craving for excitement to still conscience. + +There is, fifth, the necessity of the man's position. + +There is, sixth, the strange love of consistency which tones all life +down or up to one tint, as near as may be. There comes at last +despair. + +But not merely does every sin tend to repeat itself and to draw others +after it. It tends to repeat itself in aggravated forms. There is +growth, the law of increase as well as of perpetuity. The seed +produces 'some sixty and some an hundredfold.' + +And so the slaughtered soldiers and desolated homesteads of Israel +were the sequel of the cloth on Ben-hadad's face. The secret of much +enormous crime is the kind of relief from conscience which is found in +committing a yet greater sin. The Furies drive with whips of +scorpions, and the poor wretch goes plunging and kicking deeper and +deeper in the mire, further and farther from the path. So you can +never say: 'I will only do this one wrong thing.' + +We see here how powerless against sin are all restraints. The prophecy +did not prevent Hazael from his sins. The clear sense that they were +sins did not prevent him. The horror-struck shudder of conscience did +not prevent him. It was soon gagged. + +Hear, then, the conclusion of the whole matter. Christ reveals us to +ourselves. Christ breaks the chain of sin, makes a new beginning, cuts +off the entail, reverses the irreversible, erases the indelible, +cancels the irrevocable, forgives all the faultful past, and by the +power of His love in the soul, works a mightier miracle than changing +the Ethiopian's skin; teaches them that are accustomed to evil to do +well, and though sins be as scarlet, makes them white as snow. He +gives us a cleansed past and a bright future, and out of all our sins +and wasted years makes pardoned sinners and glorified, perfected +saints. + + + +IMPURE ZEAL + +'And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab +served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. 19. Now therefore +call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his +priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to +Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it +in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of +Baal. 20. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they +proclaimed it. 21. And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the +worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came +not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was +full from one end to another. 22. And he said unto him that was over +the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And +he brought them forth vestments. 23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the +son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers +of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the +servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only. 24. And when +they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed +fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought +into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for +the life of him. 25. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an +end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to +the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they +smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains +cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. 26. And they +brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. +27. And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of +Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 28. Thus Jehu +destroyed Baal out of Israel. 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam +the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after +them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in +Dan. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in +executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the +house of Ahab according to all that was in Mine heart, thy children of +the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 31. But Jehu +took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his +heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made +Israel to sin.'--2 KINGS x. 18-31. + + +The details of this story of bloodshed need little elucidation. Jehu +had 'driven furiously' to some purpose. Secrecy and swiftness joined +to unhesitating severity had crushed the dynasty of Ahab, which fell +unlamented and unsupported, as if lightning-struck. The nobler +elements had gathered to Jehu, as represented by the Rechabite, +Jehonadab, evidently a Jehovah worshipper, and closely associated with +the fierce soldier in this chapter. Jehu first secured his position, +and then smote the Baal worship as heavily and conclusively as he had +done the royal family. He struck once, and struck no more; for the +single blow pulverised. + +The audacious pretext of an intention to outdo the fallen dynasty in +Baal worship must have sounded strange to those who knew how his +massacre of Ahab's house had been represented by him as fulfilling +Jehovah's purpose, but it was not too gross to be believed. So we can +fancy the joyous revival of hope with which from every corner of the +land the Baal priests, prophets, and worshippers, recovered from their +fright, came flocking to the great temple in Samaria, till it was like +a cup filled with wine from brim to brim. The worship cannot have +numbered many adherents if one temple could hold the bulk of them. +Probably it had never been more than a court fashion, and, now that +Jezebel was dead, had lost ground. A token of royal favour was given +to each of the crowd, in the gift of a vestment from the royal +wardrobe. Then Jehu himself, accompanied by the ascetic Jehonadab, +entered the court of the temple, a strangely assorted pair, and a +couple of very 'distinguished' converts. The Baal priests would thrill +with gratified pride when these two came to worship. The usual +precautions against the intrusion of non-worshippers were taken at +Jehu's command, but with a sinister meaning, undreamed of by the eager +searchers. That was a sifting for destruction, not for preservation. +So they all passed into the inner court to offer sacrifice. + +The story gives a double picture in verse 24. Within are the jubilant +worshippers; without, the grim company of their executioners, waiting +the signal to draw their swords and burst in on the unarmed mob. Jehu +carried his deception so far that he himself offered the burnt +offering, with Jehonadab standing by, and then withdrew, followed, no +doubt, by grateful acclamations. A step or two brought him to the +'eighty men without.' Two stern words, 'Go, smite them,' are enough. +They storm in, and 'the songs of the temple' are turned to 'howlings +in that day.' The defenceless, surprised crowd, huddled together in +the dimly lighted shrine, were massacred to a man. The innermost +sanctuary was then wrecked, corpses and statues thrown pell-mell into +the outer courts or beyond the precincts, fires lit to burn the +abominations, and busy hands, always more ready for pillage and +destruction than for good work, pulled down the temple, the ruins of +which were turned to base uses. The writer, picturing the wild scene, +sums up with a touch of exultation: 'Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of +Israel'--where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the +king, the god, and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible +deed. + +Now the main interest of this passage lies in its disclosure of the +strangely mingled character of Jehu, and in the fact that his bloody +severity was approved by God, and rewarded by the continuance of his +dynasty for a longer time than any other on the throne of Israel. + +Jehu was influenced by 'zeal for the Lord,' however much smoke mingled +with the flame. He acted under the conviction that he was God's +instrument, and at each new deed of blood asserted his fulfilment of +prophecy. His profession to Jehonadab (ver. 16) was not hypocrisy nor +ostentation. The Rechabite sheikh was evidently a man of mark, and +apparently one of the leaders of those who had not 'bowed the knee to +Baal'; and Jehu's disclosure of his animating motive was meant to +secure the alliance of that party through one of its chiefs. No doubt +many elements of selfishness and many stains mingled with Jehu's zeal. +It was much on the same level as the fanaticism of the immediate +successors of Mohammed; but, low as it was, look at its power. Jehu +swept like a whirlwind, or like leaping fire among stubble, from +Ramoth to Jezreel, from Jezreel to Samaria, and nothing stood before +his fierce onset. Promptitude, decision, secrecy,--the qualities which +carry enterprises to success--marked his character; partly, no doubt, +from natural temperament, for God chooses right instruments, but from +temperament heightened and invigorated by the conviction of being the +instrument whom God had chosen. We may learn how even a very imperfect +form of this conviction gives irresistible force to a man, annihilates +fear, draws the teeth of danger, and gathers up all one's faculties to +a point which can pierce any opposition. We may all recognise that God +has sent us on His errands; and if we cherish that conviction, we +shall put away from us slothfulness and fear, and out of weakness +shall be made strong. + +But Jehu sets forth the possible imperfections of 'zeal for the Lord.' +We may defer for a moment the consideration of the morality of his +slaughter of the royal house and the Baal worshippers, and point to +the taint of selfishness and to the leaven of deceit in his +enthusiasm. We have not to analyse it. That is God's work. But clearly +the object which he had in view was not merely fulfilment of prophecy, +but securing the throne; and there was more passion, as well as +selfish policy, in his massacres, than befitted a minister of the +divine justice, who should let no anger disturb the solemnity of his +terrible task. Such dangers ever attend the path of the great men who +feel themselves to be sent by God. In our humbler lives they dog our +steps, and religious fervour needs ever to keep careful watch on +itself, lest it should degenerate unconsciously into self-will, and +should allow the muddy stream of earth-born passion to darken its +crystal waters. + +Many a great name in the annals of the Church has fallen before that +temptation. We all need to remember that 'the wrath of man worketh not +the righteousness of God,' and to take heed lest we should be guided +by our own stormy impatience of contradiction, and by a determination +to have our own way, while we think ourselves the humble instruments +of a divine purpose. There was a 'Zelotes' in the Apostolate; but the +coarse, sanguinary 'zeal' of his party must have needed much purifying +before it learned what manner of spirit the zeal of a true disciple +was of. + +Another point of interest is the divine emphatic approval of Jehu's +bloody acts (ver. 30). The massacre of the Baal worshippers is not +included in the acts which God declares to have been 'according to all +that was in Mine heart,' and it may be argued that it was not part of +Jehu's commission. Certainly the accompanying deceit was not 'right in +God's eyes,' but the slaughter in Baal's temple was the natural sequel +of the civil revolution, and is most probably included in the deeds +approved. + +Perhaps Elisha brought Jehu the message in verse 30. If so, what a +contrast between the two instruments of God's purposes! At all events, +Jehovah's approval was distinctly given. What then? There need be no +hesitation in recognising the progressive character of Scripture +morality, as well as the growth of the revelation of the divine +character, of which the morality of each epoch is the reflection. The +full revelation of the God of love had to be preceded by the clear +revelation of the God of righteousness; and whilst the Old Testament +does make known the love of God in many a gracious act and word, it +especially teaches His righteous condemnation of sin, without which +His love were mere facile indulgence and impunity. The slaughter of +that wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of +divine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was +entitled to slay them. To that question believers in a divine +providence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship +and the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab's family were +sufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in +Jehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God's was +the hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life +and death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers. +Granted that the 'long-suffering' which is 'not willing that any +should perish' speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice +which smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is +possible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a +loose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at +the thought of the 'wrath of God,' and recoils from the contemplation +of His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness +of His love. + +From the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are +not made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation's +history, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful +system is to be crushed, there will be violence, at which easy-going +people, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their +hands in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law +than Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love +in the place of what was 'said to them of old time.' But let us, while +we obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men +of old 'according to that which they had, and not according to that +which they had not.' Jehu's bloody deeds are not held up for +admiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us +if we obey our better law as faithfully! + +The last point in the story is the imperfection of the obedience of +Jehu. He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves. +That shows the impurity of his 'zeal,' which flamed only against what +it was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and +older idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be 'all in all, or not at +all.' We may not 'compound for sins we are inclined to, by' zeal +against those 'we have no mind to.' Our consciences are apt to have +insensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough +to remove the grosser evils, and leave the less, but white ants will +eat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little +use if we keep the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Nothing but walking in +the law of the Lord 'with all the heart' will secure our walking +safely. 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' needs to be our daily +prayer. 'One foot on sea and one on shore' is not the attitude in +which steadfastness or progress is possible. + + + +JEHOIADA AND JOASH + +'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, +she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the +daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of +Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; +and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from +Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the +house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4. +And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over +hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him +into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an +oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king's son. +5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; +A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers +of the watch of the king's house; 6. And a third part shall be at the +gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall +ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 7. And two +parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep +the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8. And ye shall +compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: +and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with +the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 9. And the captains over +the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest +commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the +sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to +Jehoiada the priest. 10, And to the captains over hundreds did the +priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple +of the Lord. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in +his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to +the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 12. +And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and +gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and +they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 13. And when +Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to +the people into the temple of the Lord. 14. And when she looked, +behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes +and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land +rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and +cried, Treason, Treason. 15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded the +captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto +them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her +kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in +the house of the Lord. 16. And they laid hands on her; and she went by +the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there +was she slain.'--2 KINGS xi. 1-16. + + +The king of Judah has been killed, his alliance with the king of +Israel having involved him in the latter's fate. Jehu had also +murdered 'the brethren of Ahaziah,' forty-two in number. Next, +Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah and a daughter of Ahab, killed all the +males of the royal family, and planted herself on the throne. She had +Jezebel's force of character, unscrupulousness and disregard of human +life. She was a tigress of a woman, and, no doubt, her six years' +usurpation was stained with blood and with the nameless abominations +of Baal worship. Never had the kingdom of Judah been at a lower ebb. +One infant was all that was left of David's descendants. The whole +promises of God seemed to depend for fulfilment on one little, feeble +life. The tree had been cut down, and there was but this one sucker +pushing forth a tiny shoot from 'the root of Jesse.' + +We have in the passage, first, the six years of hiding in the temple. +It is a pathetic picture, that of the infant rescued by his brave aunt +from the blood-bath, and stowed away in the storeroom where the mats +and cushions which served for beds were kept when not in use, watched +over by two loving and courageous women, and taught infantile lessons +by the husband of his aunt, Jehoiada the high priest. Many must have +been aware of his existence, and there must have been loyal guarding +of the secret, or Athaliah's sword would have been reddened with the +baby's blood. Like the child Samuel, he had the Temple for his home, +and his first impressions would be of daily sacrifices and white-robed +priests. It was a better school for him than if he had been in the +palace close by. The opening flower would have been soon besmirched +there, but in the holy calm of the Temple courts it unfolded +unstained. A Christian home should breathe the same atmosphere as +surrounded Joash, and it, too, should be a temple, where holy peace +rules, and where the first impressions printed on plastic little minds +are of God and His service. + +We have next the disclosure and coronation of the boy king. The +narrative here has to be supplemented from that in 2 Chron. xxiii., +which does not contradict that in this passage, as is often said, but +completes it. It informs us that before the final scene in the Temple, +Jehoiada had in Jerusalem assembled a large force of Levites and of +the 'heads of the fathers' houses' from all the kingdom. That +statement implies that the revolution was mainly religious in its +motive, and was national in its extent. Obviously Jehoiada would have +been courting destruction for Joash and himself unless he had made +sure of a strong backing before he hoisted the standard of the house +of David. There must, therefore, have been long preparation and much +stir; and all the while the foreign woman was sitting in the palace, +close by the Temple, and not a whisper reached her. Evidently she had +no party in Judah, and held her own only by her indomitable will and +by the help of foreign troops. Anybody who remembers how the Austrians +in Italy were shunned, will understand how Athaliah heard nothing of +the plot that was rapidly developing a stone's throw from her isolated +throne. Strange delusion, to covet such a seat, yet no stranger than +many another mistaking of serpents for fish, into which we fall! + +Jehoiada's caution was as great as his daring. He does not appear to +have given the Levites and elders any inkling of his purpose till he +had them safe in the Temple, and then he opened his mind, swore them +to stand by him, and 'showed them the king's son.' What a scene that +would be--the seven-year-old child there among all these strange men, +the joyful surprise flashing in their eyes, the exultation of the +faithful women that had watched him so lovingly, the stern facing of +the dangers ahead. Most of the assembly must have thought that none of +David's house remained, and that thought would have had much to do +with their submitting to Athaliah's usurpation. Now that they saw the +true heir, they could not hesitate to risk their lives to set him on +his throne. Show a man his true king, and many a tyranny submitted to +before becomes at once intolerable. The boy Joash makes Athaliah look +very ugly. + +Jehoiada's plans are somewhat difficult to understand, owing to our +ignorance of the details as to the usual arrangements of the guards of +the palace, but the general drift of them is plain enough. The main +thing was to secure the person of the king, and, for that purpose, the +two companies of priests who were relieved on the Sabbath were for +once kept on duty, and their numbers augmented by the company that +would, in the ordinary course, have relieved them. This augmented +force was so disposed as, first, to secure the Temple from attack; +and, second, to 'compass the king'--in his chamber, that is. We learn +from 2 Chronicles that it consisted of priests and Levites, and some +would see in that statement a tampering with the account in this +passage, in the interests of a later conception of the sanctity of the +Temple and of the priestly order. Our narrative is said to make the +foreign mercenaries of the palace guard the persons referred to; but +surely that cannot be maintained in the face of the plain statement of +verse 7, that they kept the watch of the Temple, for that was the +office of the priests. Besides, how should foreign soldiers have +needed to be armed from the Temple armoury? And is it probable on the +face of it that the palace guard, who were Athaliah's men, and +therefore antagonistic to Joash, and Baal worshippers, should have +been gained over to his side, or should have been the guards of the +house of Jehovah? If, however, we understand that these guards were +Levites, all is plain, and the arming of them with 'the spears and +shields that had been king David's' becomes intelligible, and would +rouse them to enthusiasm and daring. + +Not till all these dispositions for the boy king's safety, and for +preventing an assault on the Temple, had been carried out, did the +prudent Jehoiada venture to bring Joash out from his place of +concealment. Note that in verse 12 he is not called 'the king,' as in +the previous verses, but, as in verse 4, 'the king's son.' He was king +by right, but not technically, till he had been presented to, and +accepted by, the representatives of the people, had had 'the +testimony' placed in his hands, and been anointed by the high-priest. +So 'they _made_ him king.' The three parts of the ceremony were +all significant. The delivering of 'the testimony' (the Book of the +Law--Deut. xvii 18, 19) taught him that he was no despot to rule by +his own pleasure and for his own glory, but the viceroy of the true +King of Judah, and himself subject to law. The people's making him +king taught him and them that a true royalty rules over willing +subjects, and both guarded the rights of the nation and set limits to +the power of the ruler. The priest's anointing witnessed to the divine +appointment of the monarch and the divine endowment with fitness for +his office. Would that these truths were more recognised and felt by +all rulers! What a different thing the page of history would be! + +The vigilance of the tigress had been eluded, and Athaliah had a rude +awakening. But she had her mother's courage, and as soon as she heard +in the palace the shouts, she dashed to the Temple, alone as she was, +and fronted the crowd. The sight might have made the boldest quail. +Who was that child standing in the royal place? Where had he come +from? How had he been hidden all these years? What was all this frenzy +of rejoicing, this blare of trumpets, these ranks of grim men with +weapons in their hands? The stunning truth fell on her; but, though +she felt that all was lost, not a whit did she blench, but fronted +them all as proudly as ever. One cannot but admire the dauntless +woman, 'magnificent in sin.' But her cry of 'Treason! treason!' +brought none to her side. As she stood solitary there, she must have +felt that her day was over, and that nothing remained but to die like +a queen. Proudly as ever, she passed down the ranks and not a face +looked pity on her, nor a voice blessed her. She was reaping what she +had sown, and she who had killed without compunction the innocents who +stood between her and her ambitions, was pitilessly slain, and all the +land rejoiced at her death. + +So ended the all but bloodless revolution which crushed Baal worship +in Judah. It had been begun by Elijah and Elisha, but it was completed +by a high priest. It was religious even more than political. It was a +national movement, though Jehoiada's courage and wisdom engineered it +to its triumph. It teaches us how God watches over His purposes and +their instruments when they seem nearest to failure, for one poor +infant was all that was left of the seed of David; and how, therefore, +we are never to despair, even in the darkest hour, of the fulfilment +of His promises. It teaches us how much one brave, good man and woman +can do to change the whole face of things, and how often there needs +but one man to direct and voice the thoughts and acts of the silent +multitude, and to light a fire that consumes evil. + + + +METHODICAL LIBERALITY + +'4. And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated +things that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of +every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set +at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into +the house of the Lord, 5. Let the priests take it to them, every man +of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, +wheresoever any breach shall be found. 6. But it was so, that in the +three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired +the breaches of the house. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada +the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye +not the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of +your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. 8. +And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, +neither to repair the breaches of the house. 9. But Jehoiada the +priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it +beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of +the Lord: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money +that was brought into the house of the Lord. 10. And it was so, when +they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's +scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told +the money that was found in the house of the Lord. 11. And they gave +the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that +had the oversight of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to +the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of the Lord, +12. And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed +stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all +that wast laid out for the house to repair it. 13. Howbeit there were +not made for the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, +trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that +was brought into the house of the Lord: 14. But they gave that to the +workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord. 15. Moreover +they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the +money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.'--2 KINGS +xii. 4-15. + + +'The sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of +God,' says Chronicles. The dilapidation had not been complete, but had +been extensive, as may be gathered from the large expenditure recorded +in this passage for repairs, and the enumeration of the artisans +employed. No doubt Joash was guided by Jehoiada in setting about the +restoration, but the fact that he gives the orders, while the high +priest is not mentioned, throws light on the relative position of the +two authorities, and on the king's office as guardian of the Temple +and official 'head of the church.' The story comes in refreshingly and +strangely among the bloody pages in which it is embedded, and it +suggests some lessons as to the virtue of plain common sense and +business principles applied to religious affairs. If 'the outward +business of the house of God' were always guided with as much +practical reasonableness as Joash brought to bear on it, there would +be fewer failures or sarcastic critics. + +We note, first, the true source of money for religious purposes. There +was a fixed amount for which 'each man is rated,' and that made the +minimum, but there was also that which 'cometh into any man's heart to +bring,' and that was infinitely more precious than the exacted tax. +The former was appropriate to the Old Testament, of which the +animating principle was law and the voice: 'Thou shalt' or 'Thou shalt +not.' The latter alone fits the New Testament, of which the animating +principle is love and the voice: 'Though I have all boldness in Christ +to enjoin thee ... yet for love's sake I rather beseech.' What +disasters and what stifling of the spirit of Christian liberality have +marred the Church for many centuries, and in many lands, because the +great anachronism has prevailed of binding its growing limbs in Jewish +swaddling bands, and degrading Christian giving into an assessment! +And how shrunken the stream that is squeezed out by such a process, +compared with the abundant gush of the fountain of love opened in a +grateful, trusting heart! + +Next, we have the negligent, if not dishonest, officials. We do not +know how long Joash tried the experiment of letting the priests +receive the money and superintend the repairs; but probably the +restoration project was begun early in his reign, and if so, he gave +the experiment of trusting all to the officials, a fair, patient +trial, till the twenty-third year of his reign. Years gone and nothing +done, or at least nothing completed! We do not need to accuse them of +intentional embezzlement, but certainly they were guilty of carelessly +letting the money slip through their fingers, and a good deal of it +stick to their hands. It is always the temptation of the clergy to +think of their own support as a first charge on the church, nor is it +quite unheard of that the ministry should be less enthusiastic in +religious objects than the 'laity,' and should work the enthusiasm of +the latter for their own advantage. Human nature is the same in +Jerusalem in Joash's time, and to-day in Manchester, or New York, or +Philadelphia, and all men who live by the gifts of Christian people +have need to watch themselves, lest they, like Ezekiel's false +shepherds, feed themselves and not the flock, and seek the wool and +the fat and not the good of the sheep. + +Next we have the application of businesslike methods to religious +work. It was clearly time to take the whole matter out of the priests' +hands, and Joash is not afraid to assume a high tone with the +culprits, and even with Jehoiada as their official head. He was in +some sense responsible for his subordinates, and probably, though his +own hands were clean, he may have been too lax in looking after the +disposal of the funds. Note that while Joash rebuked the priests, and +determined the new arrangements, it was Jehoiada who carried them out +and provided the chest for receiving the contributions. The king +wills, the high priest executes, the rank and file of the priests, +however against the grain, consent. The arrangement for collecting the +contributions 'saved the faces' of the priests to some extent, for the +gifts were handed to them, and by them put into the chest. But, of +course, that was done at once, in the donor's presence. If changes +involving loss of position are to work smoothly, it is wise to let the +deposed officials down as easily as may be. + +Similar common sense is shown in the second step, the arrangement for +ascertaining the amounts given. The king's secretary and the +high-priest (or a representative) jointly opened the chest, counted +and bagged up the money. They checked each other, and prevented +suspicion on either side. No man who regards his own reputation will +consent to handle public money without some one to stand over him and +see what he does with it. One would be wise always to suspect people +who appeal for help 'for the Lord's work' and are too 'spiritual' to +have such worldly things as committees or auditors of their books. +Accurate accounts are as essential to Christian work as spirituality +or enthusiasm. The next stage was to hand over the money to the +'contractors,' as we should call them; and there similar precautions +were taken against possible peculation on the part of the two +officials who had received the money, for it was apparently 'weighed +out into the hands' of the overseers, who would thus be able to check +what they received by what the secretary and the high-priest had taken +from the chest, and would be responsible for the expenditure of the +amount which the two officials knew that they had received. + +But all this system of checks seems to break down at the very point +where it should have worked most searchingly, for 'they reckoned not +with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money' to pay the +workmen, 'for they dealt faithfully.' That last clause looks like a +hit at the priests who had not dealt so, and contrasts the methods of +plain business men of no pretensions, with those of men whose very +calling should have guaranteed their trustworthiness. The contrast has +been repeated in times and places nearer home. But another suggestion +may also be made about this singular lapse into what looks like unwise +confidence. These overseers had proved their faithfulness and earned +the right to be trusted entirely, and the way to get the best out of a +man, if he has any reliableness in him, is to trust him utterly, and +to show him that you do. 'It is a shame to tell Arnold a lie; he +always believes us,' said the Rugby boys about their great +head-master. There is a time for using all precautions, and a time for +using none. Businesslike methods do not consist in spying at the heels +of one's agents, but in picking the right men, and, having proved +them, giving them a free hand. And is not that what the great Lord and +Employer does with His servants, and is it not part of the reason why +Jesus gets more out of us than any one else can do, that He trusts us +more? + +One more point may be noticed; namely, the order of precedence in +which the necessary works were done. Not a coin went to provide the +utensils for sacrifice till the Temple was completely repaired. After +they had 'set up the house of God in its state,' as Chronicles tells +us, they took the balance of the funds to the king and Jehoiada, and +spent that on 'vessels for the house.' A clear insight to discern what +most needs to be done, and a firm resolve to 'do the duty that lies +nearest thee,' and to let everything else, however necessary, wait +till it is done, is a great part of Christian prudence, and goes far +to make works or lives truly prosperous. 'First things first'!--it is +a maxim that carries us far and as right as far. + + + +THE SPIRIT OF POWER + +'And Elisha said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. +And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's +hands.'--2 KINGS xiii. 16. + + +This is part of one of the strangest narratives in the Old Testament. +Elisha is on his deathbed, 'sick of the sickness' wherewith he 'should +die.' A very different scene, that close sick-chamber, from the open +plain beyond Jordan from which Elijah had gone up; a very different +way of passing from life by wasting sickness than by fiery chariot! +But God is as near His servant in the one place as in the other, and +the slow wasting away is as much His messenger as the sudden +apocalypse of the horsemen of fire. The king of Israel comes to the +old prophet, and very significantly repeats over him his own +exclamation over Elijah, 'My father! My father! the chariot of Israel +and the horsemen thereof.' Elisha takes no notice of the grief and +reverence expressed by the exclamation, but goes straight to his work, +and what follows is remarkable indeed. + +Here is a prophet dying; and his last words are not edifying moral and +religious reflections, nor does he seem to be much concerned to leave +with the king his final protest against Israel's sin, but his thoughts +are all of warfare, and his last effort is to stir up the sluggish +young monarch to some of his own enthusiasm in the conflict with the +enemy. It does not sound like an edifying deathbed. People might have +said, 'Ah! secular and political affairs should be all out of a man's +mind when he comes to his last moments.' But Elisha thought that to +stick to his life's work till the last breath was out of him, and to +devote the last breath to stimulating successors who might catch up +the torch that dropped from his failing hands, was no unworthy end of +a prophet's life. + +So there followed what perhaps is not very familiar to some of us, +that strange scene in which the dying man is far fuller of energy and +vigour than the young king, and takes the upper hand of him, giving +him a series of curt, authoritative commands, each of which he +punctiliously obeys. 'Take bow and arrow,' and he took them. Then the +prophet lays his wasted hand for a moment on the strong, young hand, +and having thus either in symbol or reality--never mind +which--communicated power, he says to him, 'Fling open the casement +towards the quarter where the enemy's territory lies,' and he flings +it open. 'Now, shoot,' and he shoots. Then the old man gathers himself +up on his bed, and with a triumphant shout exclaims, 'The Lord's arrow +of victory!... Thou shalt smite the Syrians till they be consumed.' + +That is not all. There is a second stage. The promise is given; the +possibility is opened before the king, and now all depends on the +question whether he will rise to the height of the occasion. So the +prophet says to him, 'Take the sheaf of arrows in your hand'; and he +takes them. And then he says, 'Now smite upon the ground.' It is a +test. If he had been roused and stirred by what had gone before; if he +had any earnestness of belief in the power that was communicated, and +any eagerness of desire to realise the promises that had been given of +complete victory, what would he have done? What would Elisha have done +if he had had the quiver in his hand? This king smites three +perfunctory taps on the floor, and having done what will satisfy the +old man's whim, and what in decency he had to do, he stops, as if +weary of the whole performance. So the prophet bursts out in +indignation on his dying bed--'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six +times; then hadst thou conquered utterly. Now thou shalt conquer but +thrice.' A strange story; very far away from our atmosphere and +latitude! Yet are there not obviously in it great principles which may +be disentangled from their singular setting, and fully applied to us? +I think so. Let us try and draw them from it. + +I. Here we have the power communicated. + +Now the story seems to indicate that it was only for a moment that the +prophet's hands were laid on the king's hands, because, after they had +been so laid, he is bidden to go to the window and fling it open, and +the bedridden man could not go there with him; then he is bidden to +draw the bow, and another hand upon his would have been a hindrance +rather than a help. So it was but a momentary touch, a communication +of power in reality or in symbol that the muscular young hand needed, +and the wasted old one could give. And is that not a parable for us? +We, too, if we are Christian men and women, have a gospel of which the +very kernel is that there is to us a communication of power, and the +very name of that divine Spirit whom it is Christ's greatest work to +send flashing and flaming through the world, is the 'Spirit of Power.' +And so the old promise that ye shall be clothed with strength from on +high is the standing prerogative of the Christian Church. There is not +merely some partial communication, as when hand touched hand, but +every organ is vitalised and quickened; as in the case of the other +miracle of this prophet, when he stretched himself on the dead child +eye to eye, and mouth to mouth, and hand to hand; and each part +received the vitalising influence. We have, if we are Christian +people, a Spirit given to us, and are 'strengthened with might by the +Spirit in the inner man.' + +That gift, that strength comes to us by contact, not with Elisha, but +with Elisha's Lord and Master. Christ's touch, when He was on earth, +brought sight to the blind, healing to the sick, vigour to the limbs +of the lame, life to the dead. And you and I can have that touch, far +more truly, and far more mightily operative upon us than they had, who +only felt the contact of His finger, and only derived corporeal +blessing. For we can draw near to Him, and in union with Him by faith +and love and obedience, can have His Spirit in close contact with our +spirits, and strengthening us for all service, and for every task. +Brethren! that touch which gives strength is a real thing. It is no +mere piece of mystical exaggeration when we speak of our spirits being +in actual contact with Christ's Spirit. Many of us have no clear +conception, and still less a firm realisation, of that closer than +corporeal contact, more real than bodily presence, and more intimate +than any possible physical union, which is the great gift of God in +Jesus Christ, and brings to us, if we will, life and strength +according to our need. I would that the popular Christianity of this +day had a far larger infusion of the sound, mystical element that lies +in the New Testament Christianity, and did not talk so exclusively +about a Christ that is for us as to have all but lost sight of the +second stage of our relation to Christ, and lost a faith in a Christ +that is in us Brethren! He can lay His hand upon your spirit's hand. +He can flash light into your spirit's eye from His eye. He can put +breath and eloquence into your spirit's lips from His lips, and His +heart beating against yours can transfuse--if I may so say--into you +His own life-blood, which cleanses from all sin, and fits for all +conflict. + +Then, further, let me remind you that this power, which is bestowed on +condition of contact, is given before duties are commanded. This king, +in our acted parable, first had the touch of Elisha's fingers, and +then received the command from Elisha's lips, 'Shoot!' So Jesus Christ +gives before He commands, and commands nothing which He has not fitted +us to perform. He is not 'an austere man, reaping where He did not +sow, and gathering where He did not straw'; but He comes first to us +saying, 'I give thee Myself,' and then He looks us in the eyes and +says, 'Wilt thou not give Me thyself?' He bestows the strength first, +and He commands the consequent duty afterwards. + +Further, this strength communicated is realised in the effort to obey +Christ's great commands. Joash felt nothing when the prophet's hand +was laid upon his but, perhaps, some tingling. But when he got the bow +in his hand and drew the arrow to its head, the infused power +stiffened his muscles and strengthened him to pull; and though he +could not distinguish between his own natural corporeal ability and +that which had been thus imparted to him, the two co-operated in the +one act, and it was when he drew his bow that he felt his strength. +'Stretch forth thine hand,' said Christ to the lame man. But the very +infirmity to be dealt with was his inability to stretch it forth. At +the command he tried, and, to his wonder, the stiffened sinews +relaxed, and the joint that had been immovable had free play, and he +stretched out his hand, and it was restored whole as the other. So He +gives what He commands, and in obeying the command we realise and are +conscious of the power. Elisha and Joash but act an illustration of +the great word of Paul: 'Work out your own salvation ... for it is God +that worketh in you.' + +II. And now, secondly, look at the perfected victory that is possible. + +When the arrows, by God's strength operating through Joash's arm, had +been shot, the prophet says, 'The arrow of the Lord's victory! ... +thou shalt smite ... till thou have consumed.' Yes, of course; if the +arrow is the Lord's arrow, and the strength is His strength, then the +only issue corresponding to the power is perfect victory. I would that +Christian people realised more than they do practically in their lives +that while men's ideals and aims may be all unaccomplished, or but +partially approximated to, since God is God, His nature is perfection, +and nothing that He does can fall beneath His ideal and purpose in +doing it. All that comes from Him must correspond to Him from whom it +comes. He never leaves off till He has completed, nor can any one say +about any of His work, 'He began to build, and was not able to +finish.' So, Christian people! I would that we should rise to the +height of our prerogatives, and realise the fact that perfect victory +is possible, regard being had to the power which 'teaches our hands to +war and our fingers to fight.' A great deal of not altogether +profitable jangling goes on at present in reference to the question of +whether absolute sinlessness is possible for a Christian man on earth. +Whatever view we take upon that question, it ought not to hide from us +the fact which should loom very much more largely in our daily +operative belief than it does with most of us, that in so far as the +power which is given to us is concerned, perfect victory is within our +grasp, and is the only worthy and correspondent result to the perfect +power which worketh in us. So there is no reason, as from any defect +of the divine gift to the weakest of us, why our Christian lives +should have ups and downs, why there should be interruptions in our +devotion, fallings short in our consecration, contradictions in our +conduct, slidings backward in our progress. There is no reason why, in +our Christian year, there should be summer and winter; but according +to the symbolical saying of one of the old prophets, 'The ploughman +may overtake the reaper, and he that treadeth out the grapes him that +soweth the seed.' In so far as our Christian life is concerned, the +perfection of the power that is granted to us involves the possibility +of perfection in the recipient. + +And the same thing is true in reference to a Christian man's work in +the world. God's Church has ample resources to overcome the evil of +the world. The fire is tremendous, but the Christian Church has +possession of the floods that can extinguish the fire. If we utilised +all that we have, we might 'smite till we had consumed,' and turned +the world into the Church of God. That is the ideal, the possibility, +when we look at the Christian man as possessor of the communicated +power of God. And then we turn to the reality, to our own consciences, +to the state of our religious communities everywhere, and we see what +seems to be blank contradiction of the possibility. Where is the +explanation? + +III. That brings me to my last point, the partial victory that is +actually won. + +'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten +the Syrians till they were consumed. But now thou shalt conquer but +thrice.' All God's promises and prophecies are conditional. There is +no such thing as an unconditional promise of victory or of defeat; +there is always an 'if.' There is always man's freedom as a factor. It +is strange. I suppose no thinking, metaphysical or theological, ever +has solved or ever will, that great paradox of the power of a finite +will to lift itself up in the face of, and antagonism to, an Infinite +Will backed by infinite power, and to thwart its purposes. 'How often +_would I_ have gathered ... and ye _would not.'_ Here is all +the power for a perfect victory, and yet the man that has it has to be +contented with a very partial one. + +It is a solemn thought that the Church's unbelief can limit and hinder +Christ's work in the world, and we have here another illustration of +that truth. You will find now and then in the newspapers, +stories--they may be true or false--about caterpillars stopping a +train. There is an old legend of that fabulous creature the remora, a +tiny thing that fastened itself to the keel of a ship, and arrested it +in mid-ocean. That is what we do with God and His purposes, and with +His power granted to us. + +A low expectation limits the power. This king did not believe, did not +expect, that he would conquer utterly, and so he did not. You believe +that you can do a thing, and in nine cases out of ten that goes +nine-tenths of the way towards doing it. If we cast ourselves into our +fight expecting victory, the expectation will realise itself in nine +cases out of ten. And the man who in faith refuses to say 'that beast +of a word--impossible!' will find that 'all things are possible to him +that believeth.' 'Expect great things of God,' and you will feel His +power tingling to your very fingertips, and will be able to draw the +arrow to its head, and send it whizzing home to its mark. + +Small desires block the power. Where there is an iron-bound coast +running in one straight line, the whole ocean may dash itself on the +cliffs at the base, but it enters not into the land; but where the +shore opens itself out into some deep gulf far inland, and broad +across at the entrance, then the glad water rushes in and fills it +all. Make room for God in your lives by your desires and you will get +Him in the fullness of His power. + +The use of our power increases our power. Joash had an unused quiver +full of arrows, and he only smote thrice. 'To him that hath shall be +given, and from him that hath not shall be taken.' The reason why many +of us professing Christians have so little of the strength of God in +our lives is because we have made so little use of the strength that +we have. Stow away your seed-corn in a granary and do not let the air +into it, and weevils and rats will consume it. Sow it broadcast on the +fields with liberal hand, and it will spring up, 'some thirty, some +sixty, some an hundredfold.' Use increases strength in all regions, +and unused organs atrophy and wither. + +So, dear friends! if we will keep ourselves in contact with Christ, +and tremulously sensitive to His touch, if we will expect power +according to our tasks and our needs, if we will desire more of His +grace, and if we will honestly and manfully use the strength that we +have, then He will 'teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight,' +and will give us strength, 'so that a bow of brass is bent by' our +arms, and we shall be 'more than conquerors through Him that loved +us.' + + + +A KINGDOM'S EPITAPH + +'In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and +carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in +Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7. For so +it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their +God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under +the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And +walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from +before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they +had made. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that +were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high +places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the +fenced city. 10. And they set them up images and groves in every high +hill, and under every green tree: 11. And there they burnt incense in +all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away +before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: +12. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye +shall not do this thing. 13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel, +and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, +Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, +according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I +sent to you by My servants the prophets. 14. Notwithstanding they +would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their +fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. 15. And they +rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their +fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they +followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were +round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they +should not do like them. 16. And they left all the commandments of the +Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made +a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17. +And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the +fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do +evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18. Therefore +the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His +sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.'--2 KINGS +xvii. 6-18. + + +The brevity of the account of the fall of Samaria in verse 6 contrasts +with the long enumeration of the sins which caused it, in the rest of +this passage. Modern critics assume that verses 7-23 are 'an +interpolation by the Deuteronomic writer,' apparently for no reason +but because they trace Israel's fall to its cause in idolatry. But +surely the bare notice in verse 6, immediately followed by verse 24, +cannot have been all that the original historian had to say about so +tragic an end of so large a part of the people of God. The whole +purpose of the Old Testament history is not to chronicle events, but +to declare God's dealings, and the fall of a kingdom was of little +moment, except as revealing the righteousness of God. + +The main part of this passage, then, is the exposition of the causes +of the national ruin. It is a _post mortem_ inquiry into the +diseases that killed a kingdom. At first sight, these verses seem a +mere heaping together, not without some repetition, of one or two +charges; but, more closely looked at, they disclose a very striking +progress of thought. In the centre stands verse 13, telling of the +mission of the prophets. Before it, verses 7-12, narrate Israel's sin, +which culminates in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 11). After it, +the sins are reiterated with noticeable increase of emphasis, and +again culminate in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 17). So we have +two degrees of guilt--one before and one after the prophets' messages; +and two kindlings of God's anger--one which led to the sending of the +prophets, and one which led to the destruction of Israel. The lessons +that flow from this obvious progress of thought are plain. + +I. The less culpable apostasy before the prophets' warnings. The first +words of verse 7, rendered as in the Revised Version, give the purpose +of all that follows; namely, to declare the causes of the calamity +just told. Note that the first characteristic of Israel's sin was +ungrateful departure from God. There is a world of pathos and meaning +in that 'their God,' which is enhanced by the allusion to the Egyptian +deliverance. All sins are attempts to break the chain which binds us +to God--a chain woven of a thousand linked benefits. All practically +deny His possession of us, and ours of Him, and display the short +memory which ingratitude has. All have that other feature hinted at +here--the contrast, so absurd if it were not so sad, between the worth +and power of the God who is left and the other gods who are preferred. +The essential meanness and folly of Israel are repeated by every heart +departing from the living God. + +The double origin of the idolatry is next set forth. It was in part +imported and in part home-made. We have little conception of the +strength of faith and courage which were needed to keep the Jews from +becoming idolaters, surrounded as they were by such. But the same are +needed to-day to keep us from learning the ways of the world and +getting a snare to our souls. Now, as ever, walking with God means +walking in the opposite direction from the crowd, and that requires +some firm nerve. The home-made idolatry is gibbeted as being according +to 'the statutes of the kings.' What right had they to prescribe their +subjects' religion? The influence of influential people, especially if +exerted against the service of God, is hard to resist; but it is no +excuse for sin that it is fashionable. + +The blindness of Israel to the consequences of their sin is hinted in +the reference to the fate of the nations whom they imitated. They had +been cast out; would not their copyists learn the lesson? We, too, +have examples enough of what godless lives come to, if we had the +sense to profit by them. The God who cast out the vile Canaanites and +all the rest of the wicked crew before the sons of the desert has not +changed, and will treat Israel as He did them, if Israel come down to +their level. Outward privileges make idolatry or any sin more sinful, +and its punishment more severe. + +Another characteristic of Israel's sin is its being done 'secretly.' +Of the various meanings proposed for that word (ver. 9) the best seems +to be that it refers to the attempt to combine the worship of God and +of idols, of which the calf worship is an instance. Elijah had long +ago taunted the people with trying 'to hobble on both knees,' or on +'two opinions' at once; and here the charge is of covering idolatry +with a cloak of Jehovah worship. A varnish of religion is convenient +and cheap, and often effectual in deceiving ourselves as well as +others; but 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,' whatever his +cloak may be; and the thing which we count most precious and long most +for is our god, whatever our professions of orthodox religion. + +The idolatry is then described, in rapid touches, as universal. +Wherever there was a solitary watchman's tower among the pastures +there was a high place, and they were reared in every city. Images and +Asherim deformed every hill-top and stood under every spreading tree. +Everywhere incense loaded the heavy air with its foul fragrance. The +old scenes of unnamable abomination, which had been so terribly +avenged, seemed to have come back, and to cry aloud for another +purging by fire and sword. + +The terrible upshot of all was 'to provoke the Lord to anger.' The New +Testament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting that there is the +capacity of anger in the God whose name is love, and that sin calls it +forth. The special characteristic of sin, by which it thus attracts +that lightning, is that it is disobedience. As in the first sin, so in +all others, God has said, 'Ye shall not do this thing'; and we say, +'Do it we will.' What can the end of that be but the anger of the +Lord? 'Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the +children of disobedience.' + +II. Verse 13 gives the pleading of Jehovah. The mission of the +prophets was God's reply to Israel's rebellion, and was equally the +sign of His anger and of His love. The more sin abounds, the more does +God multiply means to draw back to Himself. The deafer the ears, the +louder the beseeching voice of His grieved and yet pitying love. His +anger clothes itself in more stringent appeals and clearer revelations +of Himself before it takes its slaughtering weapons in hand. The +darker the background of sin, the brighter the beams of His light show +against it. Man's sin is made the occasion for a more glorious display +of God's character and heart. It is on the storm-cloud that the sun +paints the rainbow. Each successive stage in man's departure from God +evoked a corresponding increase in the divine effort to attract him +back, till 'last of all He sent unto them His Son.' In nature, +attraction diminishes as distance increases; in the realms of grace, +it grows with distance. The one desire of God's heart is that sinners +would return from their evil ways, and He presses on them the solemn +thought of the abundant intimations of His will which have been given +from of old, and are pealed again into all ears by living voices. His +law for us is not merely an old story spoken centuries ago, but is +vocal in our consciences to-day, and fresh as when Sinai flamed and +thundered above the camp, and the trumpet thrilled each heart. + +III. The heavier sin that followed the divine pleading. That divine +voice leaves no man as it finds him. If it does not sway him to +obedience, it deepens his guilt, and makes him more obstinate. Like +some perverse ox in the yoke, he stiffens his neck, and stands the +very picture of brute obduracy. There is an awful alternative involved +in our hearing of God's message, which never returns to Him void, but +ever does something to the hearer, either softening or hardening, +either scaling the eyes or adding another film on them, either being +the 'savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The mission of +the prophets changed forgetfulness of God's 'statutes' into +'rejection' of them, and made idolatry self-conscious rebellion. Alas, +that men should make what is meant to be a bond to unite them to God +into a wedge to part them farther from Him! But how constantly that is +the effect of the gospel, and for the same reason as in Israel--that +they 'did not believe in the Lord their God'! + +The miserable result on the sinners' own natures is described with +pregnant brevity in verse 15. 'They followed vanity, and became vain.' +The worshipper became like the thing worshipped, as is always the +case. The idol is vanity, utter emptiness and nonentity; and whoever +worships nothingness will become in his own inmost life as empty and +vain as it is. That is the retribution attendant on all trust in, and +longing after, the trifles of earth, that we come down to the level of +what we set our hearts upon. We see the effects of that principle in +the moral degradation of idolaters. Gods lustful, cruel, capricious, +make men like themselves. We see it working upwards in Christianity, +in which God becomes man that men may become like God, and of which +the whole law is put into one precept, which is sure to be kept, in +the measure of the reality of a man's religion. 'Be ye therefore +imitators of God, as beloved children.' + +In verses 16 and 17 the details of the idolatry follow the general +statement, as in verses 9 to 12, but with additions and with increased +severity of tone. We hear now of calves and star worship, and Baal, +and burning children to Moloch, and divination and enchantment. The +catalogue is enlarged, and there is added to it the terrible +declaration that Israel had 'sold themselves to do evil in the sight +of the Lord.' The same thing was said by Elijah to Ahab--a noble +instance of courage. The sinner who steels himself against the divine +remonstrance, does not merely go on in his old sins, but adds new +ones. Begin with the calves, and fancy that you are worshipping +Jehovah, and you will end with Baal and Moloch. Refuse to hear God's +pleadings, and you will sell your freedom, and become the lowest and +only real kind of slave--the bondsman of evil. When that point of +entire abandonment to sin, which Paul calls being 'sold under sin,' is +reached, as it may be reached, at all events by a nation, and +corruption has struck too deep to be cast out, once again the anger of +the Lord is provoked; but this time it comes in a different guise. The +armies of the Assyrians, not the prophets, are its messengers now. +Israel had made itself like the nations whom God had used it to +destroy, and now it shall be destroyed as they were. + +To be swept out of His sight is the fate of obstinate rejection of His +commandments and pleadings. Israel made itself the slave of evil, and +was made the captive of Assyria. Self-willed freedom, which does as it +likes, and heeds not God, ends in bondage, and is itself bondage. +God's anger against sin speaks pleadingly to us all, saying, 'Do not +this abominable thing that I hate.' Well for us if we hearken to His +voice when 'His anger is kindled but a little.' If we do not yield to +Him, and cast away our idols, we shall become vain as they. Our evil +will be more fatal, and our obstinacy more criminal, because He +called, and we refused. 'Who may abide the day of His coming? and who +shall stand when He appeareth?' These captives, dragging their weary +limbs, with despair in their hearts, across the desert to a land of +bondage, were but shadows, in the visible region of things, of the far +more doleful and dreary fate that sooner or later must fall on those +who would none of God's counsel, and despised all His reproof, but +cling to their idol till they and it are destroyed together. + + + +DIVIDED WORSHIP + +'These nations feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'--2 KINGS +xvii. 33. + + +The kingdom of Israel had come to its fated end. Its king and people +had been carried away captives in accordance with the cruel policy of +the great Eastern despotisms, which had so much to do with weakening +them by their very conquests. The land had lain desolate and +uncultivated for many years, savage beasts had increased in the +untilled solitudes, even as weeds and nettles grew in the gardens and +vineyards of Samaria. At last the king of Assyria resolved to people +the country; and for this purpose he sent a mixed multitude from the +different nationalities of his empire to the land of Israel. They were +men of five nationalities, most of them recently conquered. Israel had +been deported to different parts of the Assyrian empire; men from +different parts of the empire were deported to the land of Israel. +Such cruel uprootings seemed to be wisdom, but were really a policy +that kept alive disaffection. It was the same mistake (and bore the +same fruits) as Austria pursued in sending Hungarian regiments to keep +down Venice, and Venetian-born soldiers to overawe Hungary. + +These new settlers brought with them their national peculiarities, and +among the rest, their gods. They knew nothing about the Jehovah whom +they supposed to be the local deity of Israel; and when they were +troubled by the wild beasts which had, of course, rapidly increased in +the land, they attributed it to their neglect of His worship, and sent +an embassy to the king of Assyria telling that as they 'know not the +manners of the God of the land,' He has sent lions among them. + +This is an instructive example of the heathen way of thinking. They +have their local deities. Each land, each valley, each mountain top, +has its own. They are ready to worship them all, for they have no real +worship for any. Their reason for worship is to escape from harm, to +pay the tribute to which the god has a right on his own territory, +lest he should make it the worse for them if they neglect it. 'The +mild tolerance of heathendom' simply means the utter absence of +religion and an altogether inadequate notion of deity. + +So the settlers have sent to them one of these schismatic priests who +had belonged to the extinct sanctuary at Beth-el, and he, apparently, +not having any truer notions of God or of worship than they had, +nothing loth, teaches them the rites of the Israelite worship, which +was not like that of Judah, as is distinctly stated in the context. +This worship of Jehovah was, however, blended by them with their own +national idolatry. How contemptuously the historian enumerates the +hard names of their gods and the rabble rout of them which each nation +made! 'The men of Babylon _made_ Succoth-benoth' (probably a +deity, though the name may mean booths for purposes of prostitution) +and the others '_made_ Nergal and Ashima and Nibhaz and Tartak.' +What names, and what a pantheon! 'They feared the Lord and served +their own gods.' + +This was the beginning of the Samaritan people, whom we find through +the rest of Scripture even down to the Acts of the Apostles, retaining +some trace of their heathen origin. Simon Magus bewitched them in his +sorceries. They began as heathen, though in lapse of years they came +to be pure monotheists, even more rigid than the Jews themselves, and +today, if you went to Nablus, you would find the small remnant of +their descendants adhering to Moses and the law, guarding their sacred +copy of the Pentateuch with unintelligent awe, and eating the Paschal +Lamb with wild rites. They have changed the object of their worship, +but one fears that it is little more real and deep than in old days, +2500 years ago, when their forefathers 'feared the Lord and served +their own gods.' + +Now I venture to take this verse as indicative of a tendency which +belongs to a great many more people than the confused mass of settlers +that were shot down on the hills of Israel by the king of Assyria. It +is really a description of a great deal of what goes by the name of +religion amongst us. + +I. The Religion of Fear. + +These people would never have thought about God if it had not been for +the lions. When they did think of Him it was only to tremble before +Him. The reason for their trembling was that they did not know the +etiquette of His worship; that they thought of Him as having rights +over them because they had come into His territory, which He would +exact, or punish them for omitting. In a word, their notion of God was +that of a jealous, capricious tyrant, whose ways were inscrutable to +them, in whose territory they found themselves without their will, and +who needed to be propitiated if they would live in peace. + +And this is the thought which is most operative in many minds, though +it is veiled in more seemly phrases, and which darkens and injures all +those on whom it lays hold. Need I spend time in showing you how, +point by point, this picture is a picture of many among us? How many +of you think of God when you are ill, and forget Him when you are +well? How many of you pour out a prayer when you are in trouble, and +forget all about Him and it when you are prosperous? How many of you +see God in your calamities and not in your joys? Why do people call +sudden deaths and the like the 'visitation of God'? How many of us are +like Italian sailors who burn candles and shriek out to the Madonna +when the storm catches them, and get drunk in the first wine-shop +which they come to when they land! Is not many a man's thought of God, +'I knew Thee that Thou wert an austere Man, and I was afraid'? + +The popular religion is largely a religion of fear. + +There is a fear which is right and noble. That is reverend, humble +adoration at the sight or thought of God's great perfections. Angels +veil their faces with their wings. Such awe has no thought of personal +consequences--is inseparable from all true knowledge of God; for all +greatness of character is perfected by love. Of such fear we are not +now speaking. + +Terror of God is deep in men's hearts. + +Fear is the apprehension of personal evil from some person or thing. +Now I believe that terror has its place in the human economy, and in +religion, as the sense of pain has. There is something in man's +relations to God to cause it. + +The Bible sets forth 'the terror of the Lord,' that men may tremble +before Him. Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake.' But that +terror is only right when it proceeds from a sense of God's holiness +and a consciousness of my own sinfulness. It is not right when it is a +mere dread of a hard tyrant. That terror is only right when it leads +to a joyful acceptance of God's revelation of His love in Christ. + +Fear was never meant to be permanent, it is only the alarum-bell which +rings to wake up the soul that sleeps on when in mortal peril. And it +should pass into penitence, faith, joy in Jesus. 'We have access with +confidence by the faith of Him.' The brightness is great and awful, +but go nearer, as you can in Jesus, and lo! there is love in the +brightness. You see it all tender and sweet. A heart and a hand are +there, and from the midst of it the Father's voice speaks, and says, +'My son, give Me thine heart.' + +The religion of fear is worthless. It produces no holiness, it does +nothing for a man, it does not bind him to God. He is none the +stronger for it. It paralyses so far as it does anything. + +It is spasmodic and intermittent. It is impossible to keep it up, so +it comes in fits and starts. When the morning comes men laugh at their +terrors. It leads to wild endeavours to forget God--atheism--to +insensibility. He who begins by fearing when there was no need, ends +by not fearing when he ought. + +II. The Religion of Form. + +The Samaritans' whole worship was outward worship. They did the things +which the Beth-el priest taught them to do, and that was all. + +And this again is a type, very common in our day. Religion must have +forms. The forms often help to bring us the spirit. But we are always +in danger of trusting to them too much. + +How many of us have our Christianity only in outward seeming? The only +thing that unites men to God is love. + +So your external connection with God's worship is of no use at all +unless you have that. + +Church and chapel-goers are alike exposed to the danger of erecting +the forms of worship to a place in which they cannot be put without +marring the spirit of worship. Whether our worship be more or less +symbolic, whether we have a more or less elaborate ritual, whether we +think more or less of sacraments, whether we put hearing a sermon as +more or less prominent, or even if we follow the formless forms of the +Friends, we are all tempted to substitute our forms for the spirit +which alone is worship. + +III. The Religion of Compromise or Worldliness. + +They had God and they had gods. They liked the latter best. They gave +God formal worship, but they gave the others more active service. + +Such a kind of religion is a type of much that we see around us; the +attempt to be Christians and worldlings, the indecision under which +many men labour all their lives, being drawn one way by their +consciences, another by their inclinations. + +You cannot unite the two. God requires all. He fills the heart, and +claims supreme control over all the nature. There cannot be two +supreme in the soul. It cannot be God and self. It must be God or +self. You may look now one way and now another, but the way the heart +goes is the thing. Mr. Facing-both-ways does not really face both +ways. He only turns quickly round from one to the other. + +Such divided religion is impossible in the nature of God--of the +soul--of religion. + +To attempt it, then, is really to decide against God. + +It is weak and unmanly to be thus vague and decided by circumstances. +You would have been a Mohammedan if you had been born in Turkey. + +You ought to decide for God. + +He claims, He deserves, He will reward and bless, your whole soul. + +'Choose you this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord be God, follow +Him' If Baal or Succoth-benoth, then follow him. 'You cannot serve God +and Mammon.' 'He that is not for us is against us.' Be one thing or +the other. + + + +HEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE + +'Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel.... 6. He clave to the +Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His +commandments.'--2 KINGS xviii. 5,6. + + +Devout people in all ages and stations are very much like each other. +The elements of godliness are always the same. This king of Israel, +something like two thousand six hundred years ago, and the humblest +Christian to-day have the family likeness on their faces. These words, +which are an outline sketch of the king's character, are really a +sketch of the religious life at all times and in all places. He +realised it; why may not we? He achieved it amid much ignorance; why +should not we amid our blaze of knowledge? He accomplished it amid the +temptations of a monarchy; why should not we in our humbler spheres? + +There are four things set forth here as constituting a religious life. +We begin at the bottom with the foundation of everything. 'He trusted +in the Lord God of Israel.' The Old Testament is just as emphatic in +declaring that there is no religion without trust, and that trust is +the very nerve and life-blood of religion, as is the New. Only that in +the one half of the book our translators have chosen to use the word +'trust,' and in the other half of the book they have chosen to use, +for the very same act, the word 'faith.' They have thus somewhat +obscured the absolute identity which exists in the teaching of the Old +and of the New Testament as regards the bond which unites men to God. +That union always was, and always will be, begun in the simple +attitude and exercise of trust, and everything else will come out of +that, and without that nothing else will come. + +So this king had a certain measure of knowledge about the character of +God, and that measure of knowledge led him to lean all his weight upon +the Lord. You and I know a great deal more about God and His ways and +purposes than Hezekiah did, but we can make no better use of it than +he did--translate our knowledge into faith, and rely with simple, +absolute confidence on Him whose name we know in Christ more fully and +blessedly than was possible to Hezekiah. + +And need I remind you of how, in this life of which the outline is +here given and the inmost secret is here disclosed, there were +significant and magnificent instances of the power of humble trust to +bring to an else helpless man all the blessings that he needs, and to +put a crystal wall round about him that will preserve him from every +evil, howsoever threatening it may seem? + +'It has come addressed to me, but it is meant for Thee. Vindicate +Thine own cause by delivering Thine own servant.' And so, 'when the +morning dawned, they were all dead men,' and faith rejoiced in a +perfect deliverance. And you and I may get the same answer, in the +midst of all our trials, difficulties, toils, and conflicts, if only +we will go the same way to get it, and let our faith work, as +Hezekiah's worked, and take everything that troubles us to our Father +in the heavens, and be quite sure that He is the God 'who daily bears +our burdens.' Let us begin with the simple act of confidence in Him. +That is the foundation, and on that we may build everything besides. + +Let us see what this man further built upon it. The second story, if I +may so say, of the temple-fortress of his life, upon the foundation of +faith, was, 'He clave to the Lord.' + +That is to say, the act of confidence must be followed and perfected +by tenacious adherence with all the tendrils of a man's nature to the +God in whom he says that he trusts. The metaphor is a very forcible +one, so familiar in Scripture as that we are apt to overlook its +emphasis. Let me recall one or two of the instances in which it is +employed about other matters which throw light on its force here. + +First of all, remember that sweet picture of the widow woman from Moab +and the two daughters-in-law, one sent back, not reluctantly, to her +home; and the other persisting in keeping by Naomi's side, in spite of +difficulties and remonstrances. With kisses of real love Orpah went +back, but she did go back, to her people and her gods, but 'Ruth clave +unto her.' So should we cling to God, as Ruth flung her arms round +Naomi, and twined her else lonely and desolate heart about her dear +and only friend, for whose sweet sake she became a willing exile from +kindred and country. Is that how we cleave to the Lord? + +More sacred still are the lessons that are suggested by the fact that +this is the word employed to describe the blessed and holy union of +man and woman in pure wedded life, and I suppose some allusion to that +use of the expression underlies its constant application to the +relation of the believing soul to Jehovah. For by trust the soul is +wedded to Him, and so 'joined to the Lord' as to be 'one spirit.' + +Or if we do not care to go so deep as that, let us take the metaphor +that lies in the word itself, without reference to its Scriptural +applications. As the limpet holds on to its rock, as the ivy clings to +the wall, as a shipwrecked sailor grasps the spar which keeps his head +above water, so a Christian man ought to hold on to God, with all his +energy, and with all parts of his nature. The metaphor implies +tenacity; closeness of adhesion, in heart and will, in thought, in +desire, and in all the parts of our receptive humanity, all of which +can touch God and be touched by Him, and all of which are blessed only +in the measure in which, yielding to Him, they are filled and steadied +and glorified. + +And there is implied, too, not only tenacity of adherence, but +tenacity in the face of obstacles. There must be resistance to all the +forces which would detach, if there is to be union with God in the +midst of life in the world. Or, to recur for a moment to the figure +that I employed a moment ago, as the sailor clings to a spar, though +the waves dash round him, and his fingers get stiffened with cold and +cramped with keeping the one position, and can scarcely hold on, but +he knows that it is life to cling and death to loosen, and so tightens +his grasp; thus have we to lay hold of God, and in spite of all +obstacles, to keep hold of Him. Our grasp tends to slacken, and is +feeble at the best, even if there were nothing outside of us to make +it difficult for us to get a good grip. But there are howling winds +and battering waves blowing and beating on us, and making it hard to +keep our hold. + +Do not let us yield to these, but in spite of them all let our hearts +tighten round Him, for it is only in His sweet, eternal, perfect love +that they can be at rest. And let our thoughts keep close to Him in +spite of all distractions, for it is only in the measure in which His +light fills our minds and His truth occupies our thoughts that our +thinking spirits will be at rest. And let our desires, as the +tentacles of some shell-fish fasten upon the rock, and feel out +towards the ocean that is coming to it, let our desires go all out +towards Him until they touch that after which they feel, and curl +round it in repose and in blessedness. + +The whole secret of a joyful, strong, noble Christian life lies +here--that on the foundation of faith we should rear tenacious +adherence to Him in spite of all obstacles. So it was a most +encyclopaedic, though laconic, exhortation that that 'good man' sent +down from Jerusalem to encourage the first heathen converts gave, when +instead of all other instruction or advice, or inculcation of less +important, and yet real, Christian duties, Barnabas exhorted them all +'that with purpose of heart'--the full devotion of their inmost +natures--'they should cleave to the Lord.' + +Then the third stage, or the third story, in this building is that, +cleaving to the Lord, 'he departed not from following Him.' The +metaphor of cleaving implies proximity and union; the metaphor of +following implies distance which is being diminished. These two are +incongruous, and the very incongruity helps to give point to the +representation. The same two ideas of union and yet of pursuit are +brought still more closely together in other parts of Scripture. For +instance, there is a remarkable saying in one of the Psalms, +translated in our Bible--'My soul followeth hard after Thee. Thy right +hand upholdeth me,' where the expression 'followeth hard after' is a +lame attempt at translating the perhaps impossible-to-be-translated +fullness of the original, which reads 'My soul cleaveth after Thee.' +It is an incongruous combination of ideas, by its very incongruity and +paradoxical form suggesting a profound truth--viz. that in all the +conscious union and tenacious adherence to God which makes the +Christian life, there is ever, also, a sense of distance which kindles +aspiration and leads to the effort after continual progress. However +close we may be to God, it is always possible to press closer. However +full may be the union, it may always be made fuller; and the cleaving +spirit will always be longing for a closer contact and a more blessed +sense of being in touch with God. + +So, as we climb, new heights reveal themselves, and the further we +advance in the Christian life the more are we conscious of the +infinite depths that yet remain to be traversed. Hence arises one +great element of the blessedness of being a Christian--namely, that we +need not fear ever coming to the end of the growth in holiness and the +increase of joy and power that are possible to us. So that weariness, +and the sense of having reached the limits that are possible on a +given path, which sooner or later fall upon men that live for anything +but God, can never be ours if we live for Him. But the oldest and most +experienced will have the same forward-looking glances of hope and +forward-directed steps of strenuous effort as the youngest beginner on +the path; and a Paul will be able to say when he is 'Paul the aged,' +and 'the time of his departure is at hand,' that he 'forgets the +things that are behind, and reaches forth unto the things that are +before, while he presses towards the mark.' Let us be thankful for the +endless progress which is possible to the Christian, and let us see to +it that we are never paralysed into supposing that 'to-morrow must be +_as_ this day,' but trust the infinite resources of our God, and +be sure that we growingly make our own the growing gifts which He +bestows. + +And so, lastly, the fourth element in this analysis of a devout life +is 'He kept the commandments of the Lord.' That is the outcome of them +all. Faith, adhesion, aspiration, and progress, all vindicate their +value and reality in the simple, homely way of practical obedience. + +Let us learn two things. One as to the worthlessness of all these +others, if they do not issue in this. Not that these inward emotions +are ever to be despised, but that, if they are genuine in our hearts, +they cannot but manifest themselves in our lives. And so, dear +Christian friends! do you not build upon your faith, on your adherence +to God, on your aspirations after Him, unless you can bring into +court, as witnesses for these, daily and hourly, your efforts after +the conformity of your will to His, in the great things and in the +small. Then, and only then, may we be sure that our confidence is not +a delusion, and that it is to Him that we cleave when our feet tread +in the paths of goodness. + +And on the other hand, let us learn that all attempts to be obedient +to a divine will which do not begin with trust and cleaving to Him are +vain. There is no other way to get that conformity of will except by +that union of spirit. All other attempts are beginning at the wrong +end. You do not begin building your houses with the chimney-pots, but +many a man who seeks to obey without trusting does precisely commit +that fault. Let us be sure that the foundations are in, and then let +us be sure that we do not stop half-way up, lest all that pass by +should mock and say, 'This man began to build and was not able to +finish.' + +How many professing Christians' lives are half-finished and unroofed +houses, because they have not 'added to their faith'--that is, to +their 'cleaving to the Lord'--endless aspiration and continual +progress, and to their aspiration and their progress the peaceable +fruit of practical righteousness! If these things be in us and abound, +they mark us as devout men after God's pattern. And if we want to be +devout men after God's pattern, we must follow God's sequence, which +begins with trust and ends with obedience. + + + +'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED' + +'Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the +Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me against +Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21. This is the word that +the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, +hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of +Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22. Whom hast thou reproached +and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and +lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.... +28. Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine +ears, therefore I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy +lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. 29. +And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things +as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of +the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, +and eat the fruits thereof. 30. And the remnant that is escaped of the +house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit +upward. 31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they +that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do +this. 32. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of +Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, +nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33. By the +way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into +this city, saith the Lord. 34. For I will defend this city, to save +it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake. 35. And it +came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and +smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five +thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were +all dead corpses. 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and +went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37. And it came to pass, as +he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech +and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into +the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.'--2 +KINGS xix. 20-22; 28-37. + + +At an earlier stage of the Assyrian invasion Hezekiah had sent to +Isaiah, asking him to pray to his God for deliverance, and had +received an explicit assurance that the invasion would be foiled. When +the second stage was reached, and Hezekiah was personally summoned to +surrender, by a letter which scoffed at Isaiah's promise, he himself +prayed before the Lord. Isaiah does not seem to have been present, and +may not have known of the prayer. At all events, the answer was given +to him to give to the king; and it is noteworthy that, as in the +former case, he does not himself come, but sends to Hezekiah. He did +come when he had to bring a message of death, and again when he had to +rebuke (chap. xx.), but now he only sends. As the chosen speaker of +Jehovah's will, he was mightier than kings, and must not imperil the +dignity of the message by the behaviour of the messenger. In a +sentence, Hezekiah's prayer is answered, and then the prophet, in +Jehovah's name, bursts into a wonderful song of triumph over the +defeated invader. 'I have heard.' That is enough. Hezekiah's prayer +has, as it were, fired the fuse or pulled the trigger, and the +explosion follows, and the shot is sped. 'Whereas thou hast prayed, +... I have heard,' is ever true, and God's hearing is God's acting in +answer. The methods of His response vary, the fact that He responds to +the cry of despair driven to faith by extremity of need does not vary. + +But it is noteworthy that, with that brief, sufficient assurance, +Hezekiah, as it were, is put aside, and instead of three fighters in +the field, the king, with God to back him, and on the other side +Sennacherib, two only, appear. It is a duel between Jehovah and the +arrogant heathen who had despised Him. Jerusalem appears for a moment, +in a magnificent piece of poetical scorn, as despising and making +gestures of contempt at the baffled would-be conqueror, as Miriam and +her maidens did by the Red Sea. The city is 'virgin,' as many a +fortress in other lands has been named, because uncaptured. But she, +too, passes out of sight, and Jehovah and Sennacherib stand opposed on +the field. God speaks now not 'concerning,' but to, him, and indicts +him for insane pride, which was really a denial of dependence on God, +and passionate antagonism to Him, as manifested not only in his war +against Jehovah's people, but also in the tone of his insolent +defiances of Hezekiah, in which he scoffed at the vain trust which the +latter was placing in his God, and paralleled Jehovah with the gods of +the nations whom he had already conquered (Isaiah xix. 12). + +The designation of God, characteristic of Isaiah, as 'the Holy One of +Israel,' expresses at once His elevation above, and separation from, +all mundane, creatural limitations, and His special relation to His +people, and both thoughts intensify Sennacherib's sin. The Highest, +before whose transcendent height all human elevations sink to a +uniform level, has so joined Israel to Himself that to touch it is to +strike at Him, and to vaunt one's self against it is to be arrogant +towards God. That mighty name has received wider extension now, but +the wider sweep does not bring diminished depth, and lowly souls who +take that name for their strong tower can still run into it and be +safe from 'the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,' and the +strongest foes. + +There is tremendous scorn in the threat with which the divine address to +Sennacherib ends. The dreaded world-conqueror is no more in God's eyes +than a wild beast, which He can ring and lead as He will, and not even +as formidable as that, but like a horse or a mule, that can easily be +bridled and directed. What majestic assertion lies in these figures and +in '_My_ hook' and '_My_ bridle!' How many conquerors and mighty men +since then have been so mastered, and their schemes balked! Sennacherib +had to return by 'the way that he came,' and to tramp back, foiled and +disappointed, over all the weary miles which he had trodden before with +such insolent confidence of victory. A modern parallel is Napoleon's +retreat from Moscow. But the same experience really befalls all who +order life regardless of God. Their schemes may seem to succeed, but in +deepest truth they fail, and the schemers never reach their goal. + +In verse 29 the prophet turns away abruptly and almost contemptuously +from Sennacherib to speak comfortably to Jerusalem, addressing +Hezekiah first, but turning immediately to the people. The substance +of his words to them is, first, the assurance that the Assyrian +invasion had limits of time set to it by God; and, second, that beyond +it lay prosperous times, when the prophetic visions of a flourishing +Israel should be realised in fact. For two seed-times only field work +was to be impossible on account of the Assyrian occupation, but it was +to foam itself away, like a winter torrent, before a third season for +sowing came round. + +But how could this sequence of events, which required time for its +unfolding, be 'a sign'? We must somewhat modify our notions of a sign +to understand the prophet. The Scripture usage does not only designate +by that name a present event or thing which guarantees the truth of a +prophecy, but it sometimes means an event, or sequence of events, in +the future, which, when they have come to pass in accordance with the +divine prediction of them, will shed back light on other divine words +or acts, and demonstrate that they were of God. Thus Moses was given +as a sign of his mission the worshipping in Mount Sinai, which was to +take place only after the Exodus. So with Isaiah's sign here. When the +harvest of the third year was gathered in, then Israel would know that +the prophet had spoken from God when he had sung Sennacherib's defeat. +For the present, Hezekiah and Judah had to live by faith; but when the +deliverance was complete, and they were enjoying the fruits of their +labours and of God's salvation, then they could look back on the weary +years, and recognise more clearly than while these were slowly passing +how God had been in all the trouble, and had been carrying on His +purposes of mercy through it all. And there will be a 'sign' for us in +like manner when we look back from eternity on the transitory +conflicts of earthly life, and are satisfied with the harvest which He +has caused to spring from our poor sowings to the Spirit. + +The definite promise of deliverance in verses 32-34 is addressed to +Judah, and emphasises the completeness of the frustration of the +invader's efforts. There is a climax in the enumeration of the things +that he will not be allowed to do--he will not make his entry into the +city, nor even shoot an arrow there, nor even make preparation for a +siege. His whole design will be overturned, and as had already been +said (ver. 28), he will retrace his steps a baffled man. + +Note the strong antithesis: 'He shall not come into this city, ... for +I will defend this city.' Zion is impregnable because Jehovah defends +it. Sennacherib can do nothing, for he is fighting against God. And if +we 'are come unto the city of the living God,' we can take the same +promise for the strength of our lives. God saves Zion 'for His own +sake,' for His name is concerned in its security, both because He has +taken it for His own and because He has pledged His word to guard it. +It would be a blot on His faithfulness, a slur on His power, if it +should be conquered while it remains true to Him, its King. His honour +is involved in protecting us if we enter into the strong city of which +the builder and maker is God. And 'for David's sake,' too, He defends +Zion, because He had sworn to David to dwell there. But Zion's +security becomes an illusion if Zion breaks away from God. If it +becomes as Sodom, it shares Sodom's fate. + +It is remarkable that neither in the song of triumph nor in the +prophecy of deliverance is there allusion to the destruction of the +Assyrian army. How the exultant taunts of the one and the definite +promises of the other were to be fulfilled was not declared till the +event declared it. But faithful expectation had not long to wait, for +'that night' the blow fell, and no second was needed. We are not told +where the Assyrian army was, but clearly it was not before Jerusalem. +Nor do we learn what was the instrument of destruction wielded by the +'angel of the Lord,' if there was any. The catastrophe may have been +brought about by a pestilence, but however effected, it was 'the act +of God,' the fulfilment of His promise, the making bare of His arm. +'By terrible things in righteousness' did He answer the prayer of +Hezekiah, and give to all humble souls who are oppressed and cry to +Him a pledge that 'as they have heard, so' will they 'see, in the city +of' their 'God.' How much more impressive is the stern, naked brevity +of the Scriptural account than a more emotional expansion of it, like, +for instance, Byron's well-known, and in their way powerful lines, +would have been! To the writer of this book it seemed the most natural +thing in the world that the foes of Zion should be annihilated by one +blow of the divine hand. His business is to tell the facts; he leaves +commentary and wonder and triumph or terror to others. + +There is but one touch of patriotic exultation apparent in the +half-sarcastic and half-rejoicing accumulation of synonyms descriptive +of Sennacherib's retreat. He 'departed, and went and returned.' It is +like the picture in Psalm xlviii., which probably refers to the same +events: 'They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and +hasted away.' + +About twenty years elapsed between Sennacherib's retreat and his +assassination. During all that time he 'dwelt at Nineveh,' so far as +Judah was concerned. He had had enough of attacking it and its God. +But the notice of his death is introduced here, not only to complete +the narrative, but to point a lesson, which is suggested by the fact +that he was murdered 'as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch +his god.' Hezekiah had gone into the house of _his_ God with +Sennacherib's letter, and the dead corpses of an army showed what +Jehovah could do for His servant; Sennacherib was praying in the +temple of _his_ god, and his corpse lay stretched before his +idol, an object lesson of the impotence of Nisroch and all his like to +hear or help their worshippers. + + + +THE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS + +'And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have +found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Hilkiah gave +the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9. And Shaphan the scribe came to +the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have +gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it +into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the +house of the Lord. 10. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, +Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book: and Shaphan read it +before the king. 11. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the +words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 12. And the +king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and +Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a +servant of the king's, saying, 13. Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, +and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this +book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled +against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of +this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning +us. 14. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, +and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the +son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she +dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her. 15. +And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the +man that sent you to me, 16. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring +evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the +words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: 17. Because they +have forsaken Me, and have burnt incense unto other gods, that they +might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore +My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be +quenched. 18. But to the king of Judah, which sent you to enquire of +the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, +As touching the words which thou hast heard; 19. Because thine heart +was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou +heardest what I speak against this place, and against the inhabitants +thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast +rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith +the Lord. 20. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, +and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes +shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And +they brought the king word again.'--2 KINGS xxii. 8-20. + + +We get but a glimpse into a wild time of revolution and +counter-revolution in the brief notice that the 'servants of Amon,' +Josiah's father, conspired and murdered him in his palace, but were +themselves killed by a popular rising, in which the 'people of the +land made Josiah his son king in his stead,' and so no doubt balked +the conspirators' plans. Poor boy! he was only eight years old when he +made his first acquaintance with rebellion and bloodshed. There must +have been some wise heads and strong arms and loyal hearts round him, +but their names have perished. The name of David was still a spell in +Judah, and guarded his childish descendant's royal rights. In the +eighteenth year of his reign, the twenty-sixth of his age, he felt +himself firm enough in the saddle to begin a work of religious +reformation, and the first reward of his zeal was the finding of the +book of the law. Josiah, like the rest of us, gained fuller knowledge +of God's will in the act of trying to do it so far as he knew it. +'Light is sown for the upright.' + +I. We have, first, the discovery of the law. The important and +complicated critical questions raised by the narrative cannot be +discussed here, nor do they affect the broad lines of teaching in the +incident. Nothing is more truthful-like than the statement that, in +course of the repairs of the Temple, the book should be +found,--probably in the holiest place, to which the high priest would +have exclusive access. How it came to have been lost is a more +puzzling question; but if we recall that seventy-five years had passed +since Hezekiah, and that these were almost entirely years of apostasy +and of tumult, we shall not wonder that it was so. Unvalued things +easily slip out of sight, and if the preservation of Scripture +depended on the estimation which some of us have of it, it would have +been lost long ago. But the fact of the loss suggests the wonder of +the preservation. It would appear that this copy was the only one +existing,--at all events, the only one known. It alone transmitted the +law to later days, like some slender thread of water that finds its +way through the sand and brings the river down to broad plains beyond. +Think of the millions of copies now, and the one dusty, forgotten roll +tossing unregarded in the dilapidated Temple, and be thankful for the +Providence that has watched over the transmission. Let us take care, +too, that the whole Scripture is not as much lost to us, though we +have half a dozen Bibles each, as the roll was to Josiah and his men. + +Hilkiah's announcement to Shaphan has a ring of wonder and of awe in +it. It sounds as if he had not known that such a book was anywhere in +the Temple. And it is noteworthy that not he, but Shaphan, is said to +have read it. Perhaps he could not,--though, if he did not, how did he +know what the book was? At all events, he and Shaphan seem to have +felt the importance of the find, and to have consulted what was to be +done. Observe how the latter goes cautiously to work, and at first +only says that he has received 'a book.' He gives it no name, but +leaves it to tell its own story,--which it was then, and is still, +well able to do. Scripture is its own best credentials and witnesses +whence it comes. Again Shaphan is the reader, as it was natural that a +'scribe' should be, and again the possibility is that Josiah could not +read. + +II. One can easily picture the scene while the reader's voice went +steadily through the commandments, threatenings, and promises,--the +deepening eagerness of the king, the gradual shaping out before his +conscience of God's ideal for him and his people, and the gradual +waking of the sense of sin in him, like a dormant serpent beginning to +stir in the first spring sunshine. + +The effect of God's law on the sinful heart is vividly pictured in +Josiah's emotion. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin.' To many of us +that law, in spite of our outward knowledge of it, is as completely +absent from our consciousness as it had been from the most ignorant of +Josiah's subjects; and if for once its searchlight were thrown into +the hidden corners of our hearts and lives, it would show up in +dreadful clearness the skulking foes that are stealing to assail us, +and the foul things that have made good their lodgment in our hearts +and lives. It always makes an epoch in a life when it is really +brought to the standard of God's law; and it is well for us if, like +Josiah, we rend our clothes, or rather 'our heart, and not our +garments,' and take home the conviction, 'I have sinned against the +Lord.' + +The dread of punishment sprang up in the young king's heart, and +though that emotion is not the highest motive for seeking the Lord, it +is not an unworthy one, and is meant to lead on to nobler ones than +itself. There is too much unwillingness, in many modern conceptions of +Christ's gospel, to recognise the place which the apprehension of +personal evil consequences from sin has in the initial stages of the +process by which we are 'translated from the kingdom of darkness into +that of God's dear Son.' + +III. The message to Huldah is remarkable. The persons sent with it +show its importance. The high priest, the royal secretary, and one of +the king's personal attendants, who was, no doubt, in his confidence, +and two other influential men, one of whom, Ahikam, is known as +Jeremiah's staunch friend, would make some stir in 'the second +quarter,' on their way to the modest house of the keeper of the +wardrobe. The weight and number of the deputation did honour to the +prophetess, as well as showed the king's anxiety as to the matter in +hand. Jeremiah and Zephaniah were both living at this time, and we do +not know why Huldah was preferred. Perhaps she was more accessible. +But conjecture is idle. Enough that she was recognised as having, and +declared herself to have, direct authoritative communications from +God. + +For what did Josiah need to inquire of the Lord 'concerning the words +of this book'? They were plain enough. Did he hope to have their +sternness somewhat mollified by the words of a prophetess who might be +more amenable to entreaties or personal considerations than the +unalterable page was? Evidently he recognised Huldah as speaking with +divine authority, and he might have known that two depositories of +God's voice could not contradict each other. But possibly his embassy +simply reflected his extreme perturbation and alarm, and like many +another man when God's law startles him into consciousness of sin, he +betook himself to one who was supposed to be in God's counsels, half +hoping for a mitigated sentence, and half uncertain of what he really +wished. He confusedly groped for some support or guide. But, confused +as he was, his message to the prophetess implied repentance, eager +desire to know what to do, and humble docility. If dread of evil +consequences leads us to such a temper, we shall hear, as Josiah did, +answers of peace as authoritative and divine as were the threatenings +that brought us to our senses and our knees. + +IV. The answer which Josiah received falls into two parts, the former +of which confirms the threatenings of evil to Jerusalem, while the +latter casts a gleam athwart the thundercloud, and promises Josiah +escape from the national calamities. Observe the difference in the +designation given him in the two parts. When the threatenings are +confirmed, his individuality is, as it were, sunk; for that part of +the message applies to any and every member of the nation, and +therefore he is simply called 'the man that sent you.' Any other man +would have received the same answer. But when his own fate is to be +disclosed, then he is 'the king of Judah, who sent you,' and is +described by the official position which set him apart from his +subjects. + +Huldah has but to confirm the dread predictions of evil which the roll +had contained. What else can a faithful messenger of God do than +reiterate its threatenings? Vainly do men seek to induce the living +prophet to soften down God's own warnings. Foolishly do they think +that the messenger or the messenger's Sender has any 'pleasure in the +death of the wicked'; and as foolishly do they take the message to be +unkind, for surely to warn that destruction waits the evildoer is +gracious. The signal-man who waves the red flag to stop the train +rushing to ruin is a friend. Huldah was serving Judah best by plain +reiteration of the 'words of the book.' + +But the second half of her message told that in wrath God remembered +mercy. And that is for ever true. His thunderbolts do not strike +indiscriminately, even when they smite a nation. Judah's corruption +had gone too far for recovery, and the carcase called for the +gathering together of the vultures, but Josiah's penitence was not in +vain. 'I have heard thee' is always said to the true penitent, and +even if he is involved in widespread retribution, its strokes become +different to him. Josiah was assured that the evil should not come in +his days. But Huldah's promise seems contradicted by the circumstances +of his death. It was a strange kind of being gathered to his grave in +peace when he fell on the fatal field of Megiddo, and 'his servants +carried him in a chariot dead, ... and buried him in his own +sepulchre' (2 Kings xxiii. 30). But the promise is fulfilled in its +real meaning by the fact that the threatenings which he was inquiring +about did not fall on Judah in his time, and so far as these were +concerned, he _did_ come to his grave in peace. + + + +THE END + +'1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth +month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of +Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched +against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2. And the +city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3. And on +the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, +and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4. And the city was +broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the +gate, between two walls, which is by the king's garden; (now the +Chaldees were against the city round about;) and the king went the way +toward the plain. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the +king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were +scattered from him. 6. So they took the king, and brought him up to +the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7. And +they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes +of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to +Babylon. 8. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, +which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, +came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of +Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and +the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great +man's house burnt he with fire. 10. And all the army of the Chaldees, +that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of +Jerusalem round about. 11. Now the rest of the people that were left +in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, +with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan, the captain of +the guard, carry away. 12. But the captain of the guard left of the +poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.'--2 KINGS xxv. +1-12. + + +Eighteen months of long-drawn-out misery and daily increasing famine +preceded the fall of the doomed city. The siege was a blockade. No +assaults by the enemy, nor sorties by the inhabitants, are narrated, +but the former grimly and watchfully drew their net closer, and the +latter sat still in their despair. The passionless tone of the +narrative here is very remarkable. Not a word escapes the writer to +show his feelings, though he is telling his country's fall. We must +turn to Lamentations for sighs and groans. There we have the emotions +of devout hearts; here we have the calm record of God's judgment. It +is all one long sentence, for in the Hebrew each verse begins with +'and,' clause heaped on clause, as if each were a footstep of the +destroying angel in his slow, irresistible march. + +The narrative falls into two principal parts--the fate of the king and +that of the city. It is unnecessary to dwell on the details. The +confusion of counsels, the party strife, the fierce hatred of God's +prophet, the agony of famine, are all suppressed here, but painted +with terrible vividness in the Book of Jeremiah. At last the fatal day +came. On the north side a breach was made in the wall, and through it +the fierce besiegers poured--the 'princes of the king of Babylon,' +with their idolatrous and barbarous names, 'came in, and sat in the +middle gate.' It was night. The sudden appearance of the conquerors in +the heart of the city shot panic into the feeble king and his 'men of +war' who had never struck one blow for deliverance; and they hurried +under cover of darkness, and hidden between two walls, down the ravine +to the king's garden, once the scene of pleasure, but waste now, and +thence, as best they could, round or over Olivet to the road to +Jericho. The king's flight by night had been foretold by Ezekiel far +away in captivity (Ezek. xii. 12); and the same prophet received on +that very day a divine message announcing the fall of the city, and +bidding him 'write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame +day,' as that on which the king of Babylon 'drew close unto Jerusalem' +(Ezek. xxiv. 1 _et seq._). + +Down the rocky road went the flying host, with 'their shaftless, +broken bows' closely followed by the avenging foe with 'red pursuing +spear.' Where Israel had first set foot on its inheritance, the last +king of David's line was captured and his monarchy shattered. The +scene of the first victory, when Jericho fell before unarmed men +trusting in God, was the scene of the last defeat. The spot where the +covenant was renewed, and the reproach of Israel rolled away, was the +spot where the broken covenant was finally avenged and abrogated. The +end came back to the beginning, and the cradle was the coffin. + +Away up to Riblah, in the far north, under the shadow of Lebanon, the +captive was dragged to meet the conqueror. The name of each is a +profession of belief. The one means 'Jehovah is righteousness'; the +other, 'Nebo, protect the crown.' The idol seemed to have overcome, +but the defeat of the unbelieving confessor of the true God at the +hands of the idolater is really the victory of the righteousness which +the name celebrated and the bearer of the name insulted. His murdered +sons were the last sight which he saw before he was blinded, according +to the ferocious practice of the East. It was ingenuity of cruelty to +let him see for so long, and then to give him that as the last thing +seen, and therefore often remembered. Note how the enigma of Ezekiel's +prophecy (Ezek. xii. 13) and its apparent contradiction of Jeremiah's +(Jer. xxxii. 4; xxxiv. 3) are reconciled, and learn how easily the +fact, when it comes, clears the riddles of prophecy, and how easily, +probably, the whole facts, if we knew them, would clear the +difficulties of Scripture history. The blinded king was harmless, but +according to Jewish tradition, was set to work in a mill (though that +is probably only an application of Samson's story), and according to +Jeremiah (Jer. lii. 11), was kept in prison till his death. So ended +the monarchy of Judah. + +The fate of the city was not settled for a month, during which, no +doubt, there was much consultation at Riblah whether to garrison or +destroy it. The king of Babylon did not go in person, but despatched a +force commanded by a high officer, to burn palace, Temple, the more +important houses (the poorer people would probably be lodged in huts +not worth burning), and to raze the fortifications. In accordance with +the practice of the great Eastern despotisms, deportation followed +victory--a clever though cruel device for securing conquests. But some +were left behind; for the land, if deserted, would have fallen out of +cultivation, and been profitless to Babylon. The bulk of the people of +Jerusalem, the fugitives who had joined the invaders during the siege, +and the mass of the general population, were carried off, in such a +long string of misery as we may still see on the monuments, and a +handful left behind, too poor to plot, and stirred to diligence by +necessity. So ended the possession by Israel of its promised +inheritance. + +Now this fall of Jerusalem is like an object-lesson to teach +everlasting truth as to the retributive providence of God. What does +it say? + +It declares plainly what brings down God's judgments. The terms on +which Israel prospered and held its land were obedience to God's law. +We cannot directly apply the principles of God's government of it to +modern nations. The present analogue of Israel is the Church, not the +nation. But when all deductions have been made, it is still true that +a nation's religious attitude is a most potent factor in its +prosperous development. It is not accidental that, on the whole, +stagnant Europe and America are Roman Catholic, and the progressive +parts Protestant. Nor was it causes independent of religion that +scattered a decaying Christianity in the lands of the Eastern Church +before the onslaught of wild Arabs, who, at all events, did believe in +Allah. So there are abundant lessons for politics and sociology in the +story of Jerusalem's fall. + +But these lessons have direct application to the individual and to the +Christian Church. All departure from God is ruin. We slay ourselves by +forsaking Him, and every sinner is a suicide. We live under a moral +government, and in a system of things so knit together as that even +here every transgression receives its just recompense--if not visibly +and palpably in outward circumstances, yet really and punctually in +effects on mind and heart, which are more solemn and awful. 'Behold +the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked +and the sinner.' Sin and sorrow are root and fruit. + +Especially does that crash of Jerusalem's fall thunder the lesson to +all churches that their life and prosperity are inseparably connected +with faithful obedience and turning away from all worldliness, which +is idolatry. They stand in the place that was made empty by Israel's +later fall. Our very privileges call us to beware. 'Because of +unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.' That great +seven-branched candlestick was removed out of its place, and all that +is left of it is its sculptured image among the spoils on the +triumphal arch to its captor. Other lesser candlesticks have been +removed from their places, and Turkish oppression brings night where +Sardis and Laodicea once gave a feeble light. The warning is needed +to-day; for worldliness is rampant in the Church. 'If God spared not +the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' The fall +of Jerusalem is not merely a tragic story from the past. It is a +revelation, for the present, of the everlasting truth, that the +professing people of God deserve and receive the sorest chastisement, +if they turn again to folly. + +Further, we learn the method of present retribution. Nebuchadnezzar +knew nothing of the purposes which he fulfilled. 'He meaneth not so, +neither doth his heart think so.' He was but the 'axe' with which God +hewed. Therefore, though he was God's tool, he was also responsible, +and would be punished even for performing God's 'whole work upon +Jerusalem,' because of 'the glory of his high looks.' The retribution +of disobedience, so far as that retribution is outward, needs no +'miracle.' The ordinary operations of Providence amply suffice to +bring it. If God wills to sting, He will 'hiss for the fly,' and it +will come. The ferocity and ambition of a grim and bloody despot, +impelled by vainglory and lust of cruel conquest, do God's work, and +yet the doing is sin. The world is full of God's instruments, and He +sends punishments by the ordinary play of motives and circumstances, +which we best understand when we see behind all His mighty hand and +sovereign will. The short-sighted view of history says 'Nebuchadnezzar +captured Jerusalem B.C. so and so,' and then discourses about the +tendencies of which Babylonia was exponent and creature. The deeper +view says, God smote the disobedient city, as He had said, and +Nebuchadnezzar was 'the rod of His anger.' + +Again, we learn the Divine reluctance to smite. More than four hundred +years had passed since Solomon began idolatry, and steadily, through +all that time, a stream of prophecy of varying force and width had +flowed, while smaller disasters had confirmed the prophets' voices. +'Rising up early and sending' his servants, God had been in earnest in +seeking to save Israel from itself. Men said then, 'Where is the +promise of His coming?' and mocked His warnings and would none of His +reproof; but at last the hour struck and the crash came. 'As a dream +when one awaketh; so, O Lord! when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise +their image.' His judgment seems to slumber, but its eyes are open, +and it remains inactive, that His long-suffering may have free scope. +As long as His gaze can discern the possibility of repentance, He will +not strike; and when that is hopeless, He will not delay. The +explanation of the marvellous tolerance of evil which sometimes tries +faith and always evokes wonder, lies in the great words, which might +well be written over the chair of every teacher of history: 'The Lord +is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but +is long-suffering to us-ward.' Alas, that that divine patience should +ever be twisted into the ground of indurated disobedience! 'Because +sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the +heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' + +God's reluctance to punish is no reason for doubting that He will. +Judgment is His 'strange work,' less congenial, if we may so +paraphrase that strong word of the prophet's, than pure mercy, but it +will be done nevertheless. The tears over Jerusalem that witnessed +Christ's sorrow did not blind the eyes like a flame of fire, nor stay +the outstretched hand of the Judge, when the time of her final fall +came. The longer the delay, the worse the ruin. The more protracted +the respite and the fuller it has been of entreaties to return, the +more terrible the punishment. 'Behold, therefore, the goodness and +severity of God: towards them which fell, severity; but toward thee, +goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt +be cut off.' + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE KING'S POTTERS + +'There they dwelt with the king for his work.'--1 CHRON. iv. 23. + + +In these dry lists of names which abound in Chronicles, we now and +then come across points of interest, oases in the desert, which need +but to be pondered sympathetically to yield interesting suggestions. +Here for example, buried in a dreary genealogical table, is a little +touch which repays meditating on. Among the members of the tribe of +Judah were a hereditary caste of potters who lived in 'Netaim and +Gederah,' if we adhere to the Revised Version's text, or 'among +plantations and hedges' if we prefer the margin. But they are also +described as dwelling 'with the king.' That can only mean on the royal +estates, for the king himself resided in Jerusalem. He, however, held +large domains in the territory of Judah, on some of which these +ceramic artists were settled down and followed their calling. They +were kept on the royal estates and kept in comfort, not needing to +till, but fed and cared for, that they might be free to mould, out of +common clay, forms of beauty and 'vessels meet for the master's use.' +Surely we may read into the brief statement of the text a meaning of +which the writer of it never dreamt, and see in the description of +these forgotten artisans, a symbol of our Christian relations to our +Lord and of our life's work. + +I. We, too, dwell with the King. + +The Davidic king was in Jerusalem, and the potters were 'among +plantations and hedges,' yet in a real sense they 'dwelt with the +king,' though some of them might never have seen his face or trod the +streets of the sacred city. Perhaps now and then he came to visit them +on his outlying domains, but they were always parts of his household. +And have we, Christ's servants, not His gracious parting word: 'I am +with you always'? True, we are not beside Him in the great city, but +He is beside us in His outlying domains, and we may be with Him in His +glory, if while we still outwardly live among the 'plantations and +hedges' of this life, we dwell in spirit, by faith and aspiration, +with our risen and ascended Lord. If we so 'dwell with the King,' He +will dwell with us, and fill our humble abode with the radiance of His +presence, 'making that place of His feet glorious.' That He should be +with us is supreme condescension, that we should be with Him is the +perfection of exaltation. How low He stoops, how high we can rise! The +vigour of our Christian life largely depends on our keeping vivid the +consciousness of our communion with Jesus and the sense of His real +presence with us. How life's burdens would be lightened if we faced +them all in the strength of the felt nearness of our Lord! How +impossible it would be that we should ever feel the dreary sense of +solitude, if we felt that unseen, but most real, Presence wrapping us +round! It is only when our faith in it has fallen asleep that any +earthly good allures, or any earthly evil frightens us. To be sure, in +our thrilling consciousness, that we dwell with Jesus is an +impenetrable cuirass that blunts the points of all arrows and keeps +the breast that wears it unwounded in the fray. The world has no +voices which can make themselves heard above that low sovereign +whisper: 'I am with you always, even to the end of the world'--and +after the end has come, then we shall be with Him. + +But we find in this notice a hint that leads us in yet another +direction. They 'dwelt with the king' in the sense that they were +housed and cared for on his lands. And in like manner, the true +conception of the Christian life is that each of us is 'a sojourner +with Thee,' set down on Christ's domains, and looked after by Him in +regard to provision for outward wants. We have nothing in property, +but all is His and held by His gift and to be used for Him. The slave +owns nothing. The patch of ground which he cultivates for his food and +what grows on it, are his master's. These workmen were not slaves, but +they were not owners either. And we hold nothing as our own, if we are +true to the terms on which it is given us to hold. + +So if we rightly appreciate our position as dwelling on the King's +lands, our delusion of possession will vanish, and we shall feel more +keenly the pressure of responsibility while we feel less keenly the +grip of anxiety. We are for the time being entrusted with a tiny piece +of the royal estates. Let us not strut about as if we were owners, nor +be for ever afraid that we shall not have enough for our needs. One +sometimes comes on a model village close to the gates of some ducal +palace, and notes how the lordly owner's honour prompts its being kept +up to a high standard of comfort and beauty. We may be sure that the +potters were well lodged and looked after, and that care for their +personal wants was shifted from their shoulders to the king's. So +should ours be. He will not leave His servants to starve. They should +not dishonour Him and disturb themselves by worries and cares that +would be reasonable only if they had no Provider. He has said, 'All +things are given to Me of My Father,' and He gives us all that God has +given Him. + +II. We dwell with the King for His work. + +The king's potters had not to till the land nor do any work but to +mould clay into vessels for use and beauty. For that purpose they had +their huts and bits of ground assigned them. So with us, Christ has a +purpose in His provision for us. We are set down on His domains, and +we enjoy His presence and providing in order that, set free from +carking cares and low ends, we may, with free and joyous hearts, yield +ourselves to His joyful service. The law of our life should be that we +please not ourselves, nor consult our own will in choosing our tasks, +nor seek our own profit or gratification in doing them, but ever ask +of Him: 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' and when the answer +comes, as come it will to all who ask with real desire to learn and +with real inclination to do His will, that we 'make haste and delay +not, but make haste to keep His commandments.' The spirit which should +animate our active lives is plainly enough taught us in that little +word, they 'dwelt with the king for his work.' + +Nor are we to forget that, in a very profound sense, dwelling with the +King must go before doing His work. Unless we are living continually +under the operation of the stimulus of communion with Jesus, we shall +have neither quickness of ear to know what He wishes us to do, nor any +resolute concentration of ourselves on our Christ-appointed tasks. The +spring of all noble living is communion with noble ideals, and +fellowship with Jesus sets men agoing, as nothing else will, in +practical lives of obedience to Jesus. Time given to silent, retired +meditation on that sweet, sacred bond that knits the believing soul to +the redeeming Lord is not lost with reference to active work for +Jesus. The meditative and the practical life are not antagonistic, but +complementary, Mary and Martha are sisters, though sometimes they +differ, and foolish people try to set them against each other. + +But we must beware of a common misconception of what the King's work +is. The royal potters did not make only things of beauty, but very +common vessels designed for common and ignoble uses. There were +vessels of dishonour dried in their kilns as well as vessels 'meet for +the master's use.' There is a usual and lamentable narrowing of the +term 'Christian work,' to certain conventional forms of service, which +has done and is doing an immense amount of harm. The King's work is +far wider in scope than teaching in Sunday-schools, or visiting the +sick, or any similar acts that are usually labelled with the name. It +covers all the common duties of life. A shallow religion tickets some +selected items with the name; a robuster, truer conception extends the +designation to everything. It is not only when we are definitely +trying to bring others into touch with Jesus that we are doing Him +service, but we may be equally serving Him in everything. The +difference between the king's work and the poor potters' own lay not +so much in the nature as in the motive of it, and whatever we do for +Christ's sake and with a view to His will is work that He owns, while +a regard to self in our motive or in our end decisively strikes any +service tainted by it out of the category. + +We are to hallow all our deeds by drawing the motive for them from the +King and by laying the fruits of them at His feet. Thus, and only +thus, will the most 'secular' actions be sanctified and the narrowest +life be widened to contain a present Christ. + +There are subsidiary motives which may legitimately blend with the +supreme one. The potters would be stimulated to work hard and with +their utmost skill when they thought of how well they were paid in +house and store for their work. We have ample reasons for dedicating +our whole selves to Jesus when we think of His gift of Himself to us, +of His wages beforehand, of His joyful presence with His eye ever on +us, marking our purity of motive and our diligence. + +There is a final thought that may well stimulate us to put all our +skill and effort into our work. The potters' work went to Jerusalem. +It was for the king. What can be too good for him? He will see it, +therefore let us put our best into it. And we shall see it too, when +we too enter 'the city of the great King.' Jars that perhaps were +wrought by these very workmen of whom we have been speaking turn up +to-day in the excavations in Palestine. So much has perished and they +remain, speaking symbols of the solemn truth that nothing human ever +dies. Our 'works do follow us.' Let us so live that these may be +'found unto praise and honour and glory' at the appearing of 'the +King.' + + + +DAVID'S CHORISTERS + +'They stood in their office, according to their order.'--1 CHRON. vi. +32 (R.V. margin). + + +This brief note is buried in the catalogue of the singers appointed by +David for 'the service of song in the house of the Lord.' The waves of +their choral praise have long ages since ceased to eddy round the +'tabernacle of the tent of meeting,' and all that is left of their +melodious companies is a dry list of names, in spite of which the dead +owners of them are nameless. But the chronicler's description of them +may carry some lessons for us, for is not the Church of Christ a +choir, chosen to 'shew forth the praises of Him who has called us out +of darkness into His marvellous light'? We take a permissible liberty +with this fragment, when we use it to point lessons that may help that +great band of choristers who are charged with the office of making the +name of Jesus ring through the world. Now, in making such a use of the +text, we may linger on each important word in it and find each +fruitful in suggestions which we shall be the better for expanding in +our own meditations. + +We pause on the first word, which is rendered in the Authorised and +Revised Versions 'waited,' and in the margin of the latter 'stood.' +The former rendering brings into prominence the mental attitude with +which the singers held themselves ready to take their turns in the +service, the latter points rather to their bodily attitude as they +fulfilled their office. We get a picture of the ranked files gathered +round their three leaders, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan. These three names +are familiar to us from the Psalter, but how all the ranks behind them +have fallen dim to us, and how their song has floated into inaudible +distance! They 'stood,' a melodious multitude, girt and attent on +their song, or waiting their turn to fill the else silent air with the +high praises of Jehovah, and glad when it came to their turn to open +their lips in full-throated melody. + +Now may we not catch the spirit of that long vanished chorus, and find +in the two possible renderings of this word a twofold example, the +faithful following of which would put new vigour into our service? We +are called to a loftier office, and have heavenly harmonies entrusted +to us to be made vocal by our lips, compared with which theirs were +poor. 'They waited on' their office, and shall not we, in a higher +fashion, wait on our ministry, and suffer no inferior claims to block +our way or hamper our preparedness to discharge it? To let ourselves +be entangled with 'the affairs of this life,' or to 'drowse in idle +cell,' sleepily letting summonses that should wake us to work sound +unheeded and almost unheard, is flagrant despite done to our high +vocation as Christians. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' but +not if in their waiting their eyes are straying everywhere but to +their Master's pointing hand or directing eye. The world is full of +voices calling Christ's folk to help; but what a host of so-called +Christians fail to hear these piteous and despairing cries, because +the noise of their own whims, fancies, and self-centred desires keeps +buzzing in their ears. A constant accompaniment of deafness is +constant noises in the head; and the Christians who are hardest of +hearing when Christ calls are generally afflicted with noises which +are probably the cause, and not merely an accompaniment, of their +deafness. For indeed it demands no little detachment of spirit from +self and sense, from the world and its clamant suitors, if a Christian +soul is to be ready to mark the first signal of the great Conductor's +baton, and to answer the lightest whisper, intrusting it with a task +for Him, with its self-consecrating 'Here am I. Send me.' + +It used to be said that they who watched for providences never wanted +providences to watch for; it is equally true that they who are on the +watch for opportunities for service never fail to find them, and that +ears pricked to 'hear what God the Lord shall speak,' summoning to +work for Him, will not listen in vain. Paul saw in a vision 'a +_man_ of Macedonia' begging for his help, and 'straightway' he +concluded that '_God_ had called' him to preach in Europe. Happy +are these Christian workers who hear God's voice speaking through +men's needs, and recognise a divine imperative in human cries! + +May we not see in the attitude of David's choristers as they sang, +hints for our own discharge of the tasks of our Christian service? +There was a curse of old on him who did the work of the Lord +'negligently,' and its weight falls still on workers and work. For who +can measure the harm done to the Christian life of the negligent +worker, and who can expect any blessing to come either to him or to +others from such half-hearted seeming service? The devil's kingdom is +not to be cast down nor Christ's to be builded up by workers who put +less than their whole selves, the entire weight of their bodies, into +their toil. A pavior on the street brings down his rammer at every +stroke with an accompanying exclamation expressing effort, and there +is no place in Christ's service for dainty people who will not sweat +at their task, and are in mortal fear of over-work. Strenuousness, the +gathering together of all our powers, are implied in the attitude of +Heman and his band as they 'stood' in their office. Idle revellers +might loll on their rose-strewn couches as they 'sing idle songs to +the sound of the viol and devise for themselves instruments of music, +like David,' but the austerer choir of the Temple despised ease, and +stood ready for service and in the best bodily posture for song. + +The second important word of the text brings other thoughts no less +valuable and rich in practical counsel. The singers in the Temple +stood in their 'office,' which was song. Their special work was +praise. And that is the highest task of the Church. As a matter of +fact, every period of quickened earnestness in the Church's life has +been a period marked by a great outburst of Christian song. All +intense emotion seeks expression in poetry, and music is the natural +speech of a vivid faith. Luther chanted the Marseillaise of the +Reformation, 'A safe stronghold our God is still,' and many another +sweet strain blended strangely with the fiery and sometimes savage +words from his lips. The Scottish Reformation, grim in some of its +features as it was, had yet its 'Gude and Godly Ballads.' At the birth +of Methodism, as round the cradle at Bethlehem, hovered as it were +angel voices singing, 'Glory to God in the highest.' A flock of +singing birds let loose attends every revival of Christian life. + +The Church's praise is the noblest expression of the Church's life. +Its hymns go deeper than its creeds, touch hearts more to the quick, +minister to the faith which they enshrine, and often draw others to +see the preciousness of the Christ whom they celebrate. How little we +should have known of Old Testament religion, notwithstanding law and +prophets, if the Psalter had perished! + +And it is true, in a very deep sense, that we shall do more for Christ +and men by voicing our own deep thankfulness for His great gifts and +speaking simply our valuation of, and our thankfulness for, what we +draw from Him than by any other form of so-called Christian work. We +can offend none by saying: 'We have found the Messias,' and are +adoringly glad that we have. The most effectual way of moving other +souls to participate in our joy is to let our joy speak. 'If you wish +me to weep,' your own tears must not be held back, and if you wish +others to know the preciousness of Christ, you must ring out His name +with fervour of emotion and the triumphant confidence. We are the +'secretaries of God's praise,' as George Herbert has it, for we have +possession of His greatest gift, and have learned to know Him in +loftier fashion than Heman's choristers dreamed of, having seen 'the +glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' and tasted the sweetness of +redeeming love. The Apocalyptic seer sets forth a great truth when he +tells us that he first heard a new song from the lips of the +representatives of the Church, who could sing, 'Thou wast slain and +didst redeem us to God with Thy blood,' and then heard their adoration +echoed from 'many angels round about the throne,' and finally heard +the song reverberated from every created thing in heaven and earth, in +the sea and all deep places. A praising Church has experiences of its +own which angels cannot share, and it sets in motion the great sea of +praise whose surges break in music and roll from every side of the +universe in melodious thunder to the great white throne. Without our +song even angel voices would lack somewhat. + + 'God said, "A praise is in Mine ear; + There is no doubt in it, no fear: + Clearer loves sound other ways: + I miss My little human praise."' + +The song of the redeemed has in it a minor strain that gives a +sweetness far more poignant than belongs to those who cannot say: 'Out +of the depths I cried unto Thee.' 'The sweetest songs are those which +tell of saddest thought,' and recount experiences of conquered sin and +life springing from death. + +But it is also true that no kind of Christian service will be +effectual, if it lacks the element of grateful praise as its motive +and mainspring. Perhaps there would be fewer complaints of toiling all +night and wearily hauling in empty nets, if the nets were oftener let +down not only 'at Thy word' but with glad remembrance of the +fishermen's debt to Jesus, and in the spirit of praise. When all our +work is a sacrifice of praise, it is pleasing to God and profitable to +ourselves and to others. If we would oftener bethink ourselves, and +herald every deed with a silent dedication of it and of ourselves to +Him who died for us, we should less often have to complain that we +have sowed much and brought back little. A pinch of incense cast into +the common domestic fire makes its flame sacrificial and fragrant. + +The last important word of the text is also fertile in hints for us. +The singers stood in their office 'according to their order.' That +last expression may either refer to rotation of service or to +distribution of parts in the chorus. They did not sing in unison, +grand as the effect of such a song from a multitude sometimes is, but +they had their several parts. The harmonious complexity of a great +chorus is the ideal for the Church. Paul puts the same thought in a +sterner metaphor when he tells the Colossian Christians that he joys +'beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ,' +where he is evidently thinking of the Roman legion with its rigid +discipline and its solid, irresistible, ranked weight. Division of +function and consequent concordant action of different parts is the +lesson taught by both metaphors, and by the many modern examples of +the immense results gained in machinery that almost simulates vital +action, and by organisations for great purposes in which men combine. +The Church should be the highest example of such combination, for it +is the shrine of the noblest life, even the life of its indwelling +Lord. Every member of it should have and know his place. Every +Christian should know his part in the great chorus, for he has a part, +even if it is only that of tinkling the triangle in the orchestra or +beating a drum. That division of function and concordance of action +apply to all forms of the Church's action, and are enforced most +chiefly by the great Apostolic metaphor of the body and its members. +Paul did not delight in 'uniformity.' Inferiors calling themselves his +successors have often aimed at enforcing it, but nature has been too +strong for them, and the hedge will grow its own way in spite of +pedants' shears. 'If the whole body were an eye, where the hearing?' +The monotony of a church in which uniformity was the ideal would be +intolerable. The chorus has its parts, and the soprano cannot say to +the bass, 'I have no need of you,' nor the bass to the tenor, 'I have +no need of thee.' + +So let us see that we find our own place, and see that we fill it, +singing our own part lustily, and not being either confused or made +dumb because another has other notes to sing than are written on our +score. Let us recognise unity made more melodious by diversity, the +importance of the humblest, and 'having gifts differing according to +the grace given unto us let us wait on our ministry,' and stand in our +office according to our order. + + + +DRILL AND ENTHUSIASM + +'[Men that] could keep rank, they were not of double heart.'--1 CHRON. +xii. 33. + + +These words come from the muster-roll of the hastily raised army that +brought David up to Hebron and made him King. The catalogue abounds in +brief characterisations of the qualities of each tribe's contingent. +For example, Issachar had 'understanding of the times.' Our text is +spoken of the warriors of Zebulon, who had left their hills and their +flocks in the far north, and poured down from their seats by the blue +waters of Tiberias to gather round their king. They were not only like +their brethren expert in war and fully equipped, but they had some +measure of discipline too, a rare thing in the days when there were no +standing armies. They 'could keep rank,' could march together, had +been drilled to some unanimity of step and action, could work and +fight together, were an army, not a crowd, and not only so, but also +'they were not of double heart.' Each man, and the whole body, had a +brave single resolve; they had one spirit animating the whole, and +that was to make David king, an enthusiastic loyalty which made them +brave, and a discipline which kept the courage from running to waste. + +I take, then, this text as bringing before us two very important +characteristics which ought to be found in every Christian church, and +without which no real prosperity and growth is possible. These two may +be put very briefly: organisation and enthusiastic devotion. These are +both important, but in very different degrees. Organisation without +valour is in a worse plight than valour without organisation. The one +is fundamental, the other secondary. The one is the true cause, so far +as men are concerned, of victory, the other is but the instrument by +which the cause works. There have been many victories won by +undisciplined valour, but disciplined cowardice and apathy come to no +good. + +These two have been separated and made antagonistic, and churches are +to be found which glory in the one, and others in the other. Some have +gone in for order, and are like butterflies in a cabinet all ticketed +and displayed in place, but a pin is run through their bodies and they +are dead; and others have prided themselves on unfettered freedom, and +been not an army, but a mob. The true relation, of course, is that +life should shape and inform organisation, and organisation should +preserve, manifest and obey life. There must be body to hold spirit, +there must be spirit to keep body from rotting. + +I. Organisation. + +This is not the strong point of Nonconformist churches. We pride +ourselves on our individualism, and that is all very well. We believe +in direct access of each soul to Christ, that men must come to Him one +by one, that religion is purely a personal matter, and the firmness +with which we hold this tends to make us weak in combined action. It +cannot be truthfully denied that both in the relations of our churches +to one another, and in the internal organisation of these, we are and +have been too loosely compacted, and have forgotten that two is more +than one _plus_ one, so that we are only helping to redress the +balance a little when we insist upon the importance of organisation in +our churches. + +And first of all--remember the principles in subordination to which +our organisation must be framed. + +What are we united by? Common love and faith to Christ, or rather +Christ Himself. 'One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are +brethren.' So there must be nothing in our organisation which is +inconsistent with Christ's supreme place among us, and with our +individual obedience to Him. There are to be no 'lords over God's +heritage' in the Church of Christ. There are churches in which the +temptation to be such affects the official chiefly, and there are +others, with a different polity, in which it is chiefly a Diotrephes, +who loves to have pre-eminence. Character, zeal, social station, even +wealth will always confer a certain influence, and their possessors +will be tempted to set up their own will or opinions as dominant in +the Church. Such men are sinning against the very bond of Christian +union. Organisation which is bought by investing one man with +authority, is too dearly purchased at the cost of individual +development on the individual's own lines. A row of clipped yew-trees +is not an inspiring sight. + +And yet again what are we organised for? Not merely for our own growth +or spiritual advantage, but also, and more especially, for spreading +faith in Christ and advancing His glory. All our organisation, then, +is but an arrangement for doing our work, and if it hinders that, it +is cumbrous and must be cut away or modified, at all hazards. +Ecclesiastical martinets are still to be found, to whom drill is +all-important, and who see no use in irregular valour, but they are a +diminishing number, and they may be recommended to ponder the old wise +saying: 'Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by +the strength of the ox.' If the one aim is a 'clean crib' the best way +to secure that is to keep it empty; but if a harvest is the aim, there +must be cultivation, and one must accept the consequences of having a +strong team to plough. The end of drill is fighting. The parade-ground +and its exercising is in order that a corps may be hurled against the +enemy, or may stand unmoved, like a solid breakwater against a charge +which it flings off in idle spray, and the end of the Church's +organisation is that it may move _en masse_, without waste, +against the enemy. + +But a further guiding principle to shape Christian organisation is +that of the Church as the body of Christ. That requires that there +shall be work for every member. Christ has endowed His members with +varying gifts, powers, opportunities, and has set them in diverse +circumstances, that each may give his own contribution to the general +stock of work. Our theory is that each man has his own proper gift +from God, 'one after this manner, and another after that.' But what is +our practice? Take any congregation of Christian people in any of our +churches, and especially in the Free Churches of which I know most, +and is there anything like this wide diversity of forms of service, to +which each contributes? A handful of people do all the work, and the +remainder are idlers. The same small section are in evidence always, +and the rest are nowhere. There are but a few bits of coloured glass +in a kaleidoscope, they take different patterns when the tube is +turned, but they are always the same bits of glass. + +There needs to be a far greater variety of forms of work for our +people and more workers in the field. There are too few wheels for the +quantity of water in the river, and, partly for that reason, the +amount of water that runs waste over the sluice is deplorable. There +is a danger in having too many spindles for the power available, but +the danger in modern church organisation is exactly the other way. + +Every one should have his own work. In all living creatures, +differentiation of organs increases as the creature rises in the scale +of being, from the simple sac which does everything up to the human +body with a distinct function for every finger. It should not be +possible for a lazy Christian to plead truly as his vindication that +'no man had hired' him. It should be the Church's business to find +work for the unemployed. + +The example in our text should enforce the necessity of united work. +David's levies could keep rank. They did not let each man go at his +own rate and by his own road, but kept together, shoulder to shoulder, +with equal stride. They were content to co-operate and be each a part +of a greater whole. That keeping rank is a difficult problem in all +societies, where individual judgments, weaknesses, wills, and +crotchets are at work, but it is apt to be especially difficult in +Christian communities, where one may expect to find individual +characteristics intensified, a luxuriant growth of personal +peculiarities, an intense grip of partial aspects of the great truths +and a corresponding dislike of other aspects of these, and of those +whose favourite truths they are. One would do nothing to clip that +growth, but still Christians who have not learned to subordinate +themselves in and for united work are of little use to God or man. +What does such united work require? Mainly the bridling of self, the +curbing of one's own will, not insisting on forcing one's opinions on +one's brother, not being careful of having one's place secured and +one's honour asserted. Without such virtues no association of man +could survive for a year. If the world managed its societies as the +Church manages its unity, they would collapse quickly. Indeed it is a +strong presumption in favour of Christianity that the Churches have +not killed it long ago. Vanity, pride, self-importance, masterfulness, +pettishness get full play among us. Diotrephes has many descendants +to-day. A cotton mill, even if it were a co-operative one, could not +work long without going into bankruptcy, if there were no more power +of working together than some Christian congregations have. A watch +would be a poor timekeeper, where every wheel tried to set the pace +and be a mainspring, or sulked because the hands moved on the face in +sight of all men, while it had to move round and fit into its brother +wheel in the dark. + +Subordination is required as well as co-operation. For if there be +harmonious co-operation in varying offices, there must be degrees and +ranks. The differences of power and gift make degrees, and in every +society there will be leaders. Of course there is no commanding +authority in the Churches. Its leaders are brethren, whose most +imperative highest word is, 'We beseech you.' + +Of course, too, these varieties and degrees do not mean real +superiority or inferiority in the eye of God. From the highest point +of view nothing is great or small, there is no higher or lower. The +only measure is quality, the only gauge is motive. 'Small service is +true service while it lasts.' He that receiveth a prophet in the name +of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward. But yet there are, so +far as our work here is concerned, degrees and orders, and we need a +hearty and ungrudging recognition of superiority wherever we find it. +If the 'brother of high degree' needs to be exhorted to beware of +arrogance and imposing his own will on his fellows, the 'brother of +low degree' needs not less to be exhorted to beware of letting envy +and self-will hiss and snarl in his heart at those who are in higher +positions than himself. If the chief of all needs to be reminded that +in Christ's household preeminence means service, the lower no less +needs to be reminded that in Christ's household service means +pre-eminence. + +So much, then, for organisation. It is perfectly reconcilable with +democracy that is not mob-ocracy. In fact, democracy needs it most. If +I may venture to speak to the members of the Free Churches, with which +I am best acquainted, I would take upon myself to say that there is +nothing which they need more than that they should show their polity +to be capable of reconciling the freest development of the individual +with the most efficient organisation of the community. The object is +work for Christ, the bond of their fellowship is brotherly union with +Christ. Many eyes are on them to-day, and the task is in their hands +of showing that they can keep rank. The most perfect discipline in war +in old times was found, not amongst the subjects of Eastern despots +who were not free enough to learn to submit, but amongst the republics +of Greece, where men were all on a level in the city, and fell into +their places in the camp, because they loved liberty enough to know +the worth of discipline, and so the slaves of Xerxes were scattered +before the resistless onset of the phalanx of the free. The terrible +legion which moved 'altogether when it moved at all,' and could be +launched at the foe like one javelin of steel, had for its units free +men and equals. There needs freedom for organisation. There needs +organisation for freedom. Let us learn the lesson. 'God is not the +author of confusion, but of order, in all churches of saints.' + +II. Enthusiastic devotion. + +These men came to bring David up to Hebron with one single purpose in +their hearts. They had no sidelong glances to their own self-interest, +they had no wavering loyalty, they had no trembling fears, so we may +take their spirit as expressing generally the deepest requirements for +prosperity in a church. + +The foundation of all prosperity is a passion of personal attachment +to Christ our King. + +Christ is Christianity objective. Love to Christ is Christianity +subjective. The whole stress of Christian character is laid on this. +It is the mother of all grace and goodness, and in regard to the work +of the Church, it is the ardour of a soul full of love to Jesus that +conquers. The one thing in which all who have done much for Him have +been alike in that single-hearted devotion. + +But such love is the child of faith. It rests upon belief of truth, +and is the response of man to God. Dwelling in the truth is the means +of it. How our modern Christianity fails in this strong personal bond +of familiar love! + +Consider its effect on the individual. + +It will give tenacity of purpose, will brace to strenuous effort, will +subdue self, self-regard, self-importance, will subdue fear. It is the +true anaesthetic. The soldier is unconscious of his wounds, while the +glow of devotion is in his heart and the shout of the battle in his +ears. It will give fertility of resource and patience. + +Consider its effect on the community. + +It will remove all difficulties in the way of discipline arising from +vanity and self which can be subdued by no other means. That flame +fuses all into one glowing mass like a stream that pours from the +blast furnace. What a power a church would be which had this! It is +itself victory. The men that go into battle with that one firm +resolve, and care for nothing else, are sure to win. Think what one +man can do who has resolved to sell his life dear! + +Consider the worthlessness of discipline without this. + +It is a poor mechanical accuracy. How easy to have too much machinery! +How the French Revolution men swept the Austrian martinets before +them! David was half-smothered in Saul's armour. On the other hand, +this fervid flame needs control to make it last and work. Spirit and +law are not incompatible. Valour may be disciplined, and the +combination is irresistible. + +And so here, till we exchange the close array of the battlefield for +the open ranks of the festal procession on the Coronation day, and lay +aside the helmet for the crown, the sword for the palm, the +breastplate for the robe of peace, and stand for ever before the +throne, in the peaceful ranks of 'the solemn troops and sweet +societies' of the unwavering armies of the heavens who serve Him with +a perfect heart, and burn unconsumed with the ardours of an immortal +and ever brightening love, let us see to it that we too are 'men that +can keep rank and are not of double heart.' + + + +DAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE + +'Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house +for the Lord God of Israel. 7. And David said to Solomon, My son, as +for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord +my God: 8. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed +blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an +house unto My name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth +in My sight. 9. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a +man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round +about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and +quietness unto Israel in his days. 10. He shall build an house for My +name; and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will +establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. 11. Now, my +son, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of +the Lord thy God as He hath said of thee. 12. Only the Lord give thee +wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that +thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God, 13. Then shalt thou +prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments +which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of +good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed. 14. Now, behold, in my +trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand +talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of +brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and +stone have I prepared and thou mayest add thereto. 15. Moreover, there +are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and +timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. 16. Of +the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. +Arise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.'--1 CHRON. +xxii. 6-16. + + +This passage falls into three parts. In verses 6-10 the old king tells +of the divine prohibition which checked his longing to build the +Temple; in verses 11-13 he encourages his more fortunate successor, +and points him to the only source of strength for his happy task; in +verses 14-16 he enumerates the preparations which he had made, the +possession of which laid stringent obligations on Solomon. + +I. There is a tone of wistfulness in David's voice as he tells how his +heart's desire had been prohibited. The account is substantially the +same as we have in 2 Samuel vii. 4-16, but it adds as the reason for +the prohibition David's warlike career. We may note the earnestness +and the motive of the king's desire to build the Temple. 'It was in my +heart'; that implies earnest longing and fixed purpose. He had brooded +over the wish till it filled his mind, and was consolidated into a +settled resolve. Many a musing, solitary moment had fed the fire +before it burned its way out in the words addressed to Nathan. So +should our whole souls be occupied with our parts in God's service, +and so should our desires be strongly set towards carrying out what in +solitary meditation we have felt borne in on us as our duty. + +The moving spring of David's design is beautifully suggested in the +simple words 'unto the name of the Lord my God.' David's religion was +eminently a personal bond between him and God. We may almost say that +he was the first to give utterance to that cry of the devout heart, +'My God,' and to translate the generalities of the name 'the God of +Israel' into the individual appropriation expressed by the former +designation. It occurs in many of the psalms attributed to him, and +may fairly be regarded as a characteristic of his ardent and +individualising devotion. The sense of a close, personal relation to +God naturally prompted the impulse to build His house. We must claim +our own portion in the universal blessings shrined in His name before +we are moved to deeds of loving sacrifice. We must feel that Christ +'loved me, and gave Himself for me,' before we are melted into +answering surrender. + +The reason for the frustrating of David's desire, as here given, is +his career as a warrior king. Not only was it incongruous that hands +which had been reddened with blood should rear the Temple, but the +fact that his reign had been largely occupied with fighting for the +existence of the kingdom showed that the time for engaging in such a +work, which would task the national resources, had not yet come. We +may draw two valuable lessons from the prohibition. One is that it +indicates the true character of the kingdom of God as a kingdom of +peace, which is to be furthered, not by force, but in peace and +gentleness. The other is that various epochs and men have different +kinds of duties in relation to Christ's cause, some being called on to +fight, and others to build, and that the one set of tasks may be as +sacred and as necessary for the rearing of the Temple as the other. +Militant epochs are not usually times for building. The men who have +to do destructive work are not usually blessed with the opportunity or +the power to carry out constructive work. Controversy has its sphere, +but it is mostly preliminary to true 'edification.' In the broadest +view all the activity of the Church on earth is militant, and we have +to wait for the coming of the true 'Prince of peace' to build up the +true Temple in the land of peace, whence all foes have been cast out +for ever. To serve God in God's way, and to give up our cherished +plans, is not easy; but David sets us an example of simple-hearted, +cheerful acquiescence in a Providence that thwarted darling designs. +There is often much self-will in what looks like enthusiastic +perseverance in some form of service. + +II. The charge to Solomon breathes no envy of his privilege, but +earnest desire that he may be worthy of the honour which falls to him. +Petitions and exhortations are closely blended in it, and, though the +work which Solomon is called to do is of an external sort, the +qualifications laid down for it are spiritual and moral. However +'secular' our work in connection with God's service may be, it will +not be rightly done unless the highest motives are brought to bear on +it, and it is performed as worship. The basis of all successful work +is God's presence with us, so David prays for that to be granted to +Solomon as the beginning of all his fitness for his task. + +Next, David recalls to his son God's promise concerning him, that it +may hearten him to undertake and to carry on the great work. A +conviction that our service is appointed for us by God is essential +for vigorous and successful Christian work. We must have, in some way +or other, heard Him 'speak concerning us,' if we are to fling +ourselves with energy into it. + +The petitions in verse 12 seem to stretch beyond the necessities of +the case, in so far as building the Temple is concerned. Wisdom and +understanding, and a clear consciousness of the duty enjoined on him +by God in reference to Israel, were surely more than that work +required. But the qualifications for God's service, however the manner +of service may be concerned with 'the outward business of the house of +God,' are always these which David asked for Solomon. The highest +result of true 'wisdom and understanding' given by God is keeping +God's law; and keeping it is the one condition on which we shall +obtain and retain that presence of God with us which David prayed for +Solomon, and without which they labour in vain that build. A life +conformed to God's will is the absolutely indispensable condition of +all prosperity in direct Christian effort. The noblest exercise of our +wisdom and understanding is to obey every word that we hear proceeding +out of the mouth of God. + +III. There is something very pathetic in the old king's enumeration of +the treasures which, by the economies of a lifetime, he had amassed. +The amount stated is enormous, and probably there is some clerical +error in the numbers specified. Be that as it may, the sum was very +large. It represented many an act of self-denial, many a resolute +shearing off of superfluities and what might seem necessaries. It was +the visible token of long years of fixed attention to one object. And +that devotion was all the more noble because the result of it was +never to be seen by the man who exercised it. + +Therein David is but a very conspicuous example of a law which runs +through all our work for God. None of us are privileged to perform +completed tasks. 'One soweth and another reapeth.' We have to be +content to do partial work, and to leave its completion to our +successors. There is but one Builder of whom it can be said that His +hands 'have laid the foundation of this house; His hands shall also +finish it.' He who is the 'Alpha and Omega,' and He alone, begins and +completes the work in which He has neither sharers nor predecessors +nor successors. The rest of us do our little bit of the great work +which lasts on through the ages, and, having inherited unfinished +tasks, transmit them to those who come after us. It is privilege +enough for any Christian to lay foundations on which coming days may +build. We are like the workers on some great cathedral, which was +begun long before the present generation of masons were born, and will +not be finished until long after they have dropped trowel and mallet +from their dead hands. Enough for us if we can lay one course of +stones in that great structure. The greater our aims, the less share +has each man in their attainment. But the division of labour is the +multiplication of joy, and all who have shared in the toil will be +united in the final triumph. It would be poor work that was capable of +being begun and perfected in a lifetime. The labourer that dug and +levelled the track and the engineer that drives the locomotive over it +are partners. Solomon could not have built the Temple unless, through +long, apparently idle, years, David had been patiently gathering +together the wealth which he bequeathed. So, if our work is but +preparatory for that of those who come after, let us not think it of +slight importance, and let us be sure that all who have had any +portion in the toil shall share in the victory, that 'he that soweth +and he that reapeth may rejoice together.' + + + +DAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON + +'And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the +tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king +by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the +hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of +the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, +and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem. 2. Then David the king +stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: +As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark +of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had +made ready for the building: 3. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not +build an house for My name, because thou hast been a man of war, and +hast shed blood. 4. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all +the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for He hath +chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of +my father; and among the sons of my father He liked me to make me king +over all Israel: 5. And of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me +many sons), he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of +the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6. And He said unto me, Solomon +thy son, he shall build My house and My courts: for I have chosen him +to be My son, and I will be his father. 7. Moreover I will establish +his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do My commandments and My +judgments, as at this day. 8. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel +the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and +seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may +possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your +children after you for ever. 9. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou +the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a +willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all +the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found +of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever. 10. +Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the +sanctuary: be strong, and do it.'--1 CHRON. xxviii. 1-10. + + +David had established an elaborate organisation of royal officials, +details of which occupy the preceding chapters and interrupt the +course of the narrative. The passage picks up again the thread dropped +at chapter xxiii. 1. The list of the members of the assembly called in +verse 1 is interesting as showing how he tried to amalgamate the old +with the new. The princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, +represented the primitive tribal organisation, and they receive +precedence in virtue of the antiquity of their office. Then come +successively David's immediate attendants, the military officials, the +stewards of the royal estates, the 'officers' or eunuchs attached to +the palace, and the faithful 'mighty men' who had fought by the king's +side in the old days. It was an assembly of officials and soldiers +whose adherence to Solomon it was all-important to secure, especially +in regard to the project for building the Temple, which could not be +carried through without their active support. The passage comprises +only the beginning of the proceedings of this assembly of notables. +The end is told in the next chapter; namely, that the Temple-building +scheme was unanimously and enthusiastically adopted, and large +donations given for it, and that Solomon's succession was accepted, +and loyal submission offered by the assembly to him. + +David's address to this gathering is directed to secure these two +points. He begins by recalling his own intention to build the Temple +and God's prohibition of it. The reason for that prohibition differs +from that alleged by Nathan, but there is no contradiction between the +two narratives, and the chronicler has already reported Nathan's words +(chap. xvii. 3, etc.), so that the motive which is ascribed to many of +the variations in this book, a priestly desire to exalt Temple and +ritual, cannot have been at work here. Why should there not have been +a divine communication to David as well as Nathan's message? That +hands reddened with blood, even though it had been shed in justifiable +war, were not fitted to build the Temple, was a thought so far in +advance of David's time, and flowing from so spiritual a conception of +God, that it may well have been breathed into David's spirit by a +divine voice. Sword in one hand and trowel in the other are +incongruous, notwithstanding Nehemiah's example. The Temple of the God +of peace cannot be built except by men of peace. That is true in the +widest and highest application. Jesus builds the true Temple. +Controversy and strife do not. And, on a lower level, the prohibition +is for ever valid. Men do not atone for a doubtful past by building +churches, founding colleges, endowing religious or charitable +institutions. + +The speech next declares emphatically that the throne belongs to David +and his descendants by real 'divine right,' and that God's choice is +Solomon, who is to inherit both the promises and obligations of the +office, and, among the latter, that of building the Temple. The +unspoken inference is that loyalty to Solomon would be obedience to +Jehovah. The connection between the true heavenly King and His earthly +representative is strongly expressed in the remarkable phrase: 'He +hath chosen Solomon ... to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of +Jehovah,' which both consecrates and limits the rule of Solomon, +making him but the viceroy of the true king of Israel. When Israel's +kings remembered that, they flourished; when they forgot it, they +destroyed their kingdom and themselves. The principle is as true +to-day, and it applies to all forms of influence, authority, and +gifts. They are God's, and we are but stewards. + +The address to the assembly ends with the exhortation to these leaders +to 'observe,' and not merely to observe, but also to 'seek out' God's +commandments, and so to secure to the nation, whom they could guide, +peaceful and prosperous days. It is not enough to do God's will as far +as we know it; we must ever be endeavouring after clearer, deeper +insight into it. Would that these words were written over the doors of +all Senate and Parliament houses! What a different England we should +see! + +But Solomon was present as well as the notables, and it was well that, +in their hearing, he should be reminded of his duties. David had +previously in private taught him these, but this public 'charge' +before the chief men of the kingdom bound them more solemnly upon him, +and summoned a cloud of witnesses against him if he fell below the +high ideal. It is pitched on a lofty key of spiritual religion, for it +lays 'Know thou the God of thy fathers' as the foundation of +everything. That knowledge is no mere intellectual apprehension, but, +as always in Scripture, personal acquaintanceship with a Person, which +involves communion with Him and love towards Him. For us, too, it is +the seed of all strenuous discharge of our life's tasks, whether we +are rulers or nobodies, and it means a much deeper experience than +understanding or giving assent to a set of truths about God. We know +one another when we summer and winter with each other, and not unless +we love one another, and we know God on no other terms. + +After such knowledge comes an outward life of service. Active +obedience is the expression of inward communion, love, and trust. The +spring that moves the hands on the dial is love, and, if the hands do +not move, there is something wrong with the spring. Morality is the +garment of religion; religion is the animating principle of morality. +Faith without works is dead, and works without faith are dead too. + +But even when we 'know God' we have to make efforts to have our +service correspond with our knowledge, for we have wayward hearts and +obstinate wills, which need to be stimulated, sometimes to be coerced +and forcibly diverted from unworthy objects. Therefore the exhortation +to serve God 'with a perfect heart and with a willing mind' is always +needful and often hard. Entire surrender and glad obedience are the +Christian ideal, and continual effort to approximate to it will be +ours in the degree in which we 'know God.' There is no worse slavery +than that of the half-hearted Christian whose yoke is not padded with +love. Reluctant obedience is disobedience in God's sight. + +David solemnly reminds Solomon of those 'pure eyes and perfect +judgment,' not to frighten, but to enforce the thought of the need for +whole-hearted and glad service, and of the worthlessness of external +acts of apparent worship which have not such behind them. What a deal +of seeming wheat would turn out to be chaff if that winnowing fan +which is in Christ's hand were applied to it! How small our biggest +heaps would become! + +The solemn conditions of the continuance of God's favour and of the +fulfilment of His promises are next plainly stated. God responds to +our state of heart and mind. We determine His bearing to us. The +seeker finds. If we move away from Him, He moves away from us. That is +not, thank God! all the truth, or what would become of any of us? But +it is true, and in a very solemn sense God is to us what we make Him. +'With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou +wilt show Thyself froward.' + +The charge ends with recalling the high honour and office to which +Jehovah had designated Solomon, and with exhortations to 'take heed' +and to 'be strong, and do it.' It is well for a young man to begin +life with a high ideal of what he is called to be and do. But many of +us have that, and miserably fail to realise it, for want of these two +characteristics, which the sight of such an ideal ought to stamp on +us. If we are to fulfil God's purposes with us, and to be such tools +as He can use for building His true Temple, we must exercise +self-control and 'take heed to our ways,' and we must brace ourselves +against opposition and crush down our own timidity. It seems to be +commanding an impossibility to say to a weak creature like any one of +us, 'Be strong,' but the impossible becomes a possibility when the +exhortation takes the full Christian form: 'Be strong in the Lord, and +in the power of His might.' + + + +THE WAVES OF TIME + +'The times that went over him.'--1 CHRON. xxix. 30. + + +This is a fragment from the chronicler's close of his life of King +David. He is referring in it to other written authorities in which +there are fuller particulars concerning his hero; and he says, 'the +acts of David the King, first and last, behold they are written in the +book of Samuel the seer ... with all his reign and his might, and the +times that went over him, and over all Israel, and over all the +kingdoms of the countries.' + +Now I have ventured to isolate these words, because they seem to me to +suggest some very solemn and stimulating thoughts about the true +nature of life. They refer, originally, to the strange vicissitudes +and extremes of fortune and condition which characterised, so +dramatically and remarkably, the life of King David. Shepherd-boy, +soldier, court favourite, outlaw, freebooter and all but brigand; +rebel, king, fugitive, saint, sinner, psalmist, penitent--he lived a +life full of strongly marked alternations, and 'the times that went +over him' were singularly separate and different from each other. +There are very few of us who have such chequered lives as his. But the +principle which dictated the selection by the chronicler of this +somewhat strange phrase is true about the life of every man. + +I. Note, first, 'the times' which make up each life. + +Now, by the phrase here the writer does not merely mean the succession +of moments, but he wishes to emphasise the view that these are epochs, +sections of 'time,' each with its definite characteristics and its +special opportunities, unlike the rest that lie on either side of it. +The great broad field of time is portioned out, like the strips of +peasant allotments, which show a little bit here, with one kind of +crop upon it, bordered by another little morsel of ground bearing +another kind of crop. So the whole is patchy, and yet all harmonises +in effect if we look at it from high enough up. Thus each life is made +up of a series, not merely of successive moments, but of well-marked +epochs, each of which has its own character, its own responsibilities, +its own opportunities, in each of which there is some special work to +be done, some grace to be cultivated, some lesson to be learned, some +sacrifice to be made; and if it is let slip it never comes back any +more. 'It might have been once, and we missed it, and lost it for +ever.' The times pass over us, and every single portion has its own +errand to us. Unless we are wide awake we let it slip, and are the +poorer to all eternity for not having had in our heads the eyes of the +wise man which 'discern both time and judgment.' It is the same +thought which is suggested by the well-known words of the cynical book +of Ecclesiastes--'To every thing there is a season and a time'--an +opportunity, and a definite period--'for every purpose that is under +the sun.' It is the same thought which is suggested by Paul's words, +'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men. In due +season we shall reap if we faint not.' There is 'a time for weeping +and a time for laughing, a time for building up and a time for casting +down.' It is the same thought of life, and its successive epochs of +opportunity never returning, which finds expression in the threadbare +lines about 'a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, +leads on to fortune,' and neglected, condemns the rest of a career to +be hemmed in among creeks and shallows. + +Through all the variety of human occupations, each moment comes to us +with its own special mission, and yet, alas! to far too many of us the +alternations do not suggest the question, what is it that I am hereby +called upon to be or to do? what is the lesson that present +circumstances are meant to teach, and the grace that my present +condition is meant to force me to cultivate or exhibit? There is one +point, as it were, upon the road where we may catch a view far away +into the distance, and, if we are not on the lookout when we come +there, we shall never get that glimpse at any other point along the +path. The old alchemists used to believe that there was what they +called the 'moment of projection,' when, into the heaving molten mass +in their crucible, if they dropped the magic powder, the whole would +turn into gold; an instant later and there would be explosion and +death; an instant earlier and there would be no effect. And so God's +moments come to us; every one of them--if we had eyes to see and hands +to grasp--a crisis, affording opportunity for something for which all +eternity will not afford a second opportunity, if the moment be let +pass. 'The times went over him,' and your life and mine is parcelled +out into seasons which have their special vocation for and message to +us. + +How solemn that makes our life! How it destroys the monotony that we +sometimes complain of! How it heightens the low things and magnifies +the apparently small ones! And how it calls upon us for a sharpened +attention, that we miss not any of the blessings and gifts which God +is meaning to bestow upon us through the ministry of each moment! How +it calls upon us for not only sharpened attention, but for a desire to +know the meaning of each of the hours and of every one of His +providences! And how it bids us, as the only condition of +understanding the times, so as to know what we ought to do, to keep +our hearts in close union with Him, and ourselves ever standing, as +becomes servants, girded and ready for work; and with the question on +our lips and in our hearts, 'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do? +and what wouldst Thou have me to do _now_?' The lesson of the day +has to be learned in a day, and at the moment when it is put in +practice. + +II. Another thought suggested by this text is, the Power that moves +the times. + +As far as my text represents--and it is not intended to go to the +bottom of everything--these times flow on over a man, as a river +might. But is there any power that moves the stream? Unthinking and +sense-bound men--and we are all such, in the measure in which we are +unspiritual--are contented simply to accept the mechanical flow of the +stream of time. We are all tempted not to look behind the moving +screen to see the force that turns the wheel on which the painted +scene Is stretched. But, Oh! how dreary a thing it is if all that we +have to say about life is, 'The times pass over us,' like the blind +rush of a stream, or the movement of the sea around our coasts, eating +away here and depositing its spoils there, sometimes taking and +sometimes giving, but all the work of mere eyeless and purposeless +chance or of natural causes. + +Oh, brethren! there is nothing more dismal or paralysing than the +contemplation of the flow of the times over our heads, unless we see +in their flow something far more than that. + +It is very beautiful to notice that this same phrase, or at least the +essential part of it, is employed in one of the Psalms ascribed to +David, with a very significant addition. He says, 'My times are _in +Thy hand_.' So, then, the passage of our epochs over us is not +merely the aimless flow of a stream, but the movement of a current +which God directs. Therefore, if at any time it goes over our heads +and seems to overwhelm us, we can look up through the transparent +water and say, '_Thy_ waves and _Thy_ billows have gone over +me,' and so I die not of suffocation beneath them. God orders the +times, and therefore, though, as the bitter ingenuity of Ecclesiastes, +on the lookout for proofs of the vanity of life, complained, in a +one-sided view, as an aggravation of man's lot, that there is a time +for everything, yet that aspect of change is not its deepest or +truest. True it is that sometimes birth and sometimes death, sometimes +joy and sometimes sorrow, sometimes building up and sometimes casting +down, follow each other with monotonous uniformity of variety, and +seem to reduce life to a perpetual heaping up of what is as painfully +to be cast down the next moment, like the pitiless sport of the wind +amongst the sandhills of the desert. But the futility is only +apparent, and the changes are not meant to occasion 'man's misery' to +be 'great upon him,' as Ecclesiastes says they do. The diversity of +the 'times' comes from a unity of purpose; and all the various methods +of the divine Providence exercised upon us have one unchanging +intention. The meaning of all the 'times' is that they should bring us +nearer to God, and fill us more full of His power and grace. The web +is one, however various may be the pattern wrought upon the tapestry. +The resulting motion of the great machine is one, though there may be +a wheel turning from left to right here, and another one that fits +into it, turning from right to left there. The end of all the opposite +motions is straight progress. So the varying times do all tend to the +one great issue. Therefore let us seek to pursue, in all varying +circumstances, the one purpose which God has in them all, which the +Apostle states to be 'even your sanctification,' and let us understand +how summer and winter, springtime and harvest, tempest and fair +weather, do all together make up the year, and ensure the springing of +the seed and the fruitfulness of the stalk. + +III. Lastly, let me remind you, too, how eloquently the words of my +text suggest the transiency of all the 'times.' + +They 'passed over him' as the wind through an archway, that whistles +and comes not again. The old, old thought, so threadbare and yet +always so solemnising and pathetic, which we know so well that we +forget it, and are so sure of that it has little effect on life, the +old, old thought, 'this too will pass away,' underlies the phrase of +my text, + +How blessed it is, brethren! to cherish that wholesome sense of the +transiency of things here below, only those who live under its +habitual power can fairly estimate. It is thought to be melancholy. We +are told that it spoils joys and kills interest, and I know not what +beside. It spoils no joys that ought to be joys. It kills no interests +that are not on other grounds unworthy to be cherished. Contrariwise, +the more fully we are penetrated with the persistent conviction of the +transiency of the things seen and temporal, the greater they become, +by a strange paradox. For then only are they seen in their true +magnitude and nobility, in their true solemnity and importance as +having a bearing on the things that are eternal. Time is the +'ceaseless lackey of eternity,' and the things that pass over us may +become, like the waves of the sea, the means of bearing us to the +unmoving shore. Oh! if only in the midst of joys and sorrows, of heavy +tasks and corroding cares, of weary work and wounded spirits, we could +feel, 'but for a moment,' all would be different, and joy would come, +and strength would come, and patience would come, and every grace +would come, in the train of the wholesome conviction that 'here we +have no continuing city.' + +Cherish the thought. It will spoil nothing the spoiling of which will +be a loss. It will heighten everything the possession of which is a +gain. It will teach us to trust in the darkness, and to believe in the +light. And when the times are dreariest, and frost binds the ground, +we shall say, 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?' The times +roll over us, like the seas that break upon some isolated rock, and +when the tide has fallen and the vain flood has subsided, the rock is +there. If the world helps us to God, we need not mind though it +passes, and the fashion thereof. + +But do not let us forget that this text in its connection may teach us +another thought. The transitory 'times that went over' Israel's king +are all recorded imperishably on the pages here, and so, though +condensed into narrow space, the record of the fleeting moments lives +for ever, and 'the books shall be opened, and men shall be judged +according to their works.' We are writing an imperishable record by +our fleeting deeds. Half a dozen pages carry all the story of that +stormy life of Israel's king. It takes a thousand rose-trees to make a +vial full of essence of roses. The record and issues of life will be +condensed into small compass, but the essence of it is eternal. We +shall find it again, and have to drink as we have brewed when we get +yonder. 'Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man +soweth that shall he also reap.' 'There is a time to sow,' and that is +the present life; 'and there is a time to gather the fruits' of our +sowing, and that is the time when times have ended and eternity is +here. + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE DUTY OF EVERY DAY + +'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord ... Even after a +certain rate every day.'--(A.V.) + +'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord, even as the duty +of every day required it.'--2 Chron. viii. 12-13 (R. V.). + + +This is a description of the elaborate provision, in accordance with +the commandment of Moses, which Solomon made for the worship in his +new Temple. The writer is enlarging on the precise accordance of the +ritual with the regulations laid down in the law. He expresses, by the +phrase which we have taken as our text, not only the accordance of the +worship with the commandment, but its unbroken continuity, and also +the variety in it, according to the regulations for different days. +For the verse runs on, 'on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on +the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the Feast of +unleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and in the Feast of +Tabernacles.' There were, then, these characteristics in the ritual of +Solomon's Temple, precise compliance with the Divine commandment, +unbroken continuity, and beautiful flexibility and variety of method. + +But passing altogether from the original application of the words, I +venture to do now what I very seldom do, and that is, to take this +verse as a kind of motto. 'Even according as the duty of every day +required'; the phrase may suggest three thoughts: that each day has +its own work, its own worship, and its own supplies, 'even as the duty +of every day required.' + +Each day has its own work. + +Of course there is a great uniformity in our lives, and many of us who +are set down to one continuous occupation can tell twelve months +before what, in all probability, we shall be doing at each hour of +each day in the week. But for all that, there is a certain individual +physiognomy about each new day as it comes to us; and the oldest, most +habitual, and therefore in some degree easiest and least stimulating, +work has its own special characteristics as it comes again to us day +by day for the hundredth time. + +So there are three pieces of practical wisdom that I would suggest, +and one is--be content to take your work in little bits as it comes. +There is a great deal of practical wisdom in taking short views of +things, for although we have often to look ahead, yet it is better on +the whole that a man should, as far as he can, confine his +anticipations to the day that is passing, and leave the day that is +coming to look after itself. Take short views and be content to let +each day prescribe its tasks, and you have gone a long way to make all +your days quiet and peaceful. For it is far more the anticipation of +difficulties than the realisation of them that wears and wearies us. +If a man says to himself, 'This sorrow that I am carrying, or this +work that I have to do, is going to last for many days to come,' his +heart will fail. If he said to himself, 'It will be no worse to-morrow +than it is at this moment, and I can live through it, for am I not +living through it at this moment, and getting power to endure or do at +this moment? and to-morrow will probably be like today,' things would +not be so difficult. + +You remember the homely old parable of the clock on the stair that +gave up ticking altogether because it began to calculate how many +thousands of seconds there are in the year, and that twice that number +of times it would have to wag backwards and forwards. The lesson that +it learned was--tick one tick and never mind the next. You will be +able to do it when the time to do it comes. Let us act 'as the duty of +every day requireth.' 'Sufficient for the day is the work thereof.' + +Then there is another piece of advice from this thought of each day +having its own work, and that is--keep your ears open, and your eyes +too, to learn the lesson of what the day's work is. There is generally +abundance of direction for us if only we are content with the +one-step-at-a-time direction, which we get, and if another condition +is fulfilled, if we try to suppress our own wishes and the noisy +babble of our own yelping inclinations, and take the whip to them +until they cease their barking, that we may hear what God says. It is +not because He does not speak, but because we are too anxious to have +our own way to listen quietly to His voice, that we make most of our +blunders as to what the duty of every day requires. If we will be +still and listen, and stand in the attitude of the boy-prophet before +the glimmering lamp in the sacred place, saying, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy +servant heareth,' we shall get sufficient instruction for our next +step. + +Another piece of practical wisdom that I would suggest is that if +every day has its own work, we should buckle ourselves to do the day's +work before night falls and not leave any over for to-morrow, which +will be quite full enough. 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' was +the preaching of one of our sages, and it is wholesome advice. For +when we do that duty, the doing of it has a wonderful power of opening +up further steps, and showing us more clearly what is the next duty. +Only let us be sure of this, that no moment comes from God which has +not in it boundless possibilities; and that no moment comes from God +which has not in it stringent obligations. We neither avail ourselves +of the one, nor discharge the other, unless we come, morning by +morning, to the new day that is dawning upon us, with some fresh +consciousness of the large issues that may be wrapped in its unseen +hours, and the great things for Him that we may do ere its evening +falls. + +Each day has its tasks, and if we do not do the tasks of each day in +its day, we shall fling away life. If a man had L. 100,000 for a +fortune, and turned it all into halfpence, and tossed them out of the +window, he could soon get rid of his whole fortune. And if you fling +away your moments or live without the consciousness of their solemn +possibilities and mystic awfulness, you will find at the last that you +have made 'ducks and drakes' of your years, and have flung them away +in moments without knowing what you were doing, and without +possibility of recovery. 'Take care of the pence, the pounds will take +care of themselves.' Take care of the days, and the years will show a +fair record. + +Secondly, we have here the suggestion that every day has its own +worship. + +As I remarked at the beginning of my observations, the chronicler +dwells, with a certain kind of satisfaction, in accordance with the +tone of his whole writings, upon the external ritual of the Temple; +and points out its entire conformity with the divine precept, and the +unbroken continuity of worship day after day, year in year out, and +the variation of the characteristics of that worship according as the +day was more or less ritually important. From his words we may deduce +a very needful though obvious and commonplace lesson. What we want is +every-day religion, and that every-day religion is the only thing that +will enable us to do what the duty of every day requires. But that +every-day religion which will be our best ally, and power for the +discharge of the obligations that each moment brings with it, must +have its points of support, as it were, in special moments and methods +of worship. + +So, then, take that first thought: What we want is a religion that +will go all through our lives. A great many of you keep your religion +where you keep your best clothes: putting it on on Sunday and locking +it away on the Sunday night in a wardrobe because it is not the dress +that you go to work in. And some of you keep your religion in your +pew, and lock it up in the little box where you put your hymn-books +and your Bibles, which you read only once a week, devoting yourselves +to ledgers or novels and newspapers for the rest of your time. We want +a religion that will go all through our life; and if there is anything +in our life that will not stand its presence, the sooner we get rid of +that element the better. A mountain road has generally a living +brooklet leaping and flashing by the side of it. So our lives will be +dusty and dead and cold and poor and prosaic unless that river runs +along by the roadside and makes music for us as it flows. Take your +religion wherever you go. If you cannot take it in to any scenes or +company, stop you outside. + +There is nothing that will help a man to do his day's work so much as +the realisation of Christ's Presence. And that realisation, along with +its certain results, devotion of heart to Him and submission of will +to His commandment, and desire to shape our lives to be like His, will +make us masters of all circumstances and strong enough for the hardest +work that God can lay upon us. + +There is nothing so sure to make life beautiful, and noble, and pure, +and peaceful, and strong as this--the application to its monotonous +trifles of religious principles. If you do not do little things as +Christian men and women, and under the influence of Christian +principle, pray _what_ are you going to do under the influence of +Christian principle? If you are keeping your religion to influence the +crises of your lives, and are content to let the trifles be ruled by +the devil or the world and yourselves, you will find out, when you +come to the end, that there were perhaps three or four crises in your +experience, and that all the rest of life was made of trifles, and +that when the crises came you could not lay your hand on the religious +principle that would have enabled you to deal with them. The sword had +got so rusty in its scabbard because it had never been drawn for long +years, that it could not be readily drawn in the moment of sudden +peril; and if you could have drawn it, you would have found its edge +blunted. Use your religion on the trifles, or you will not be able to +make much of it in the crises. 'He that is faithful in that which is +least is faithful also in much.' The worship of every day is the +preparation for the work of that day. + +Further, that worship, that religion, wearing its common, modest suit +of workaday clothes, must also, if there is to be any power in it, +have a certain variety in its methods. 'Solomon offered burnt +offerings ... on the Sabbaths, on the new moons,' which had a little +more ceremonial than the Sabbaths, 'and on the solemn feasts three +times in a year,' which had still more ceremonial than the new moons, +'even in the Feast of unleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and +in the Feast of tabernacles.' These were spring-tides when the sea of +worship rose beyond its usual level, and they kept it from stagnating. +We, too, if we wish to have this every-day religion running with any +strength of scour and current through our lives, will need to have +moments when it touches high-water mark, else it will not flush the +foulness out of our hearts and our lives. + +Lastly, take the other suggestion, that every day has its own +supplies. + +That does not lie in the text properly, but for the sake of +completeness I add it. Every day has its own supplies. The manna fell +every day, and was gathered and consumed on the day on which it fell. +God gives us strength measured accurately by the needs of the day. You +will get as much as you require, and if ever you do not get as much as +you require, which is very often the case with Christian people, that +is not because God did not send enough manna, but because their +_omer_ was not ready to catch it as it fell. The day's supply is +measured by the day's need. Suppose an Israelite had sat in his tent +and said, 'I am not going out to gather,' would he have had any in his +empty vessel? Certainly not. The manna lay all around the tent, but +each man had to go out and gather it. God makes no mistakes in His +weights and measures. He gives us each sufficient strength to do His +will and to walk in His ways; and if we do not do His will or walk in +His ways, or if we find our burden too heavy, our sorrows too sharp, +our loneliness too dreary, our difficulties too great, it is not +because 'the Lord's hand is shortened that it cannot' supply, but +because our hands are so slack that they will not take the sufficiency +which He gives. In the midst of abundance we are starving. We let the +water run idly through the open sluice instead of driving the wheels +of life. + +My friend! God's measure of supply is correct. If we were more +faithful and humble, and if we understood better and felt more how +deep is our need and how little is our strength, we should more +continually be able to rejoice that He has given, and we have +received, 'even as the duty of every day required.' + + + +CONTRASTED SERVICES + +'They shall be his servants: that they may know My service, and the +service of the kingdoms of the countries.'--2 Chron. xii. 8. + + +Rehoboam was a self-willed, godless king who, like some other kings, +learned nothing by experience. His kingdom was nearly wrecked at the +very beginning of his reign, and was saved much more by the folly of +his rival than by his own wisdom. Jeroboam's religious revolution +drove all the worshippers of God among the northern kingdom into +flight. They might have endured the separate monarchy, but they could +not endure the separate Temple. So all priests and Levites in Israel, +and all the adherents of the ancestral worship in the Temple at +Jerusalem, withdrew to the southern kingdom and added much to its +strength. + +Rehoboam's narrow escape taught him neither moderation nor devotion, +his new strength turned his head. He forsook the law of the Lord. The +dreary series, so often illustrated in the history of Israel, came +into operation. Prosperity produced irreligion; irreligion brought +chastisement; chastisement brought repentance; repentance brought the +removal of the invader--and then, like a spring released, back went +king and nation to their old sin. + +So here--Rehoboam's sins take visible form in Sheshak's army. He has +sown the dragon's teeth and they spring up armed men. Shemaiah the +prophet, the first of the long series of noble men who curbed the +violence of Jewish monarchs, points the lesson of invasion in plain, +blunt words: 'Ye have forsaken Me.' Then follow penitence and +confession--and the promise that Jerusalem shall not be destroyed, but +at the same time they are to be left as vassals and tributaries of +Egypt--an anomalous position for them--and the reason is given in +these words of our text. + +I. The contrasted Masters. + +Judah was too small to be independent of the powerful warlike states +to its north and south, unless miraculously guarded and preserved. So +it must either keep near God, and therefore free and safe from +invasion, or else, departing from God and following its own ways, fall +under alien dominion. Its experience was a type of that of universal +humanity. Man is not independent. His mass is not enough for him to do +without a central orb round which he may revolve. He has a choice of +the form of service and the master that he will choose, but one or +other must dominate his life and sway his motions. 'Ye cannot serve +God and Mammon'; ye must serve God _or_ Mammon. The solemn choice +is presented to every man, but the misery of many lives is that they +drift along, making their election unawares, and infallibly choosing +the worse by the very act of lazily or weakly allowing accident to +determine their lives. Not consciously and strongly to will the right, +not resolutely and with coercion of the vagrant self to will to take +God for our aim, is to choose the low, the wrong. Perhaps none, or +very few of us, would deliberately say 'I choose Mammon, having +carefully compared the claims of the opposite systems of life that +solicit me, and with open-eyed scrutiny measured their courses, their +goods and their ends.' But how many of us there are who have in effect +made that choice, and never have given one moment's clear, patient +examination of the grounds of our choice! The policy of drift is +unworthy of a man and is sure to end in ruin. + +It is not for me to attempt here to draw out the contrast between man's +chief end and all other rival claimants of our lives. Each man must do +that for himself, and I venture to assert that the more thoroughly the +process of comparison is carried out, and the more complete the analysis +not only of the rival claims and gifts, but of our capacities and needs, +the more sun-clear will be the truth of the old, well-worn answer: +'Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' The old +woman by her solitary fireside who has learned that and practises it, +has chosen the better part which will last when many shining careers +have sunk into darkness, and many will-o'-the-wisps, which have been +pursued with immense acclamations, have danced away into the bog, and +many a man who has been envied and admired has had to sum up his +successful career in the sad words, 'I have played the fool and erred +exceedingly.' I cannot pretend to conduct the investigation for you, but +I can press on every one who does not wish to let accidents mould him, +at least to recognise that there is a choice to be made, and to make it +deliberately and with eyes open to the facts of the case. It is a shabby +way of ruining yourself to do it for want of thought. The rabble of +competitors of God catch more souls by accident than of set purpose. +Most men are godless because they have never fairly faced the question: +what does my soul require in order to reach its highest blessedness and +its noblest energy? + +II. The contrasted experience of the servants. + +Judah learned that the yoke of obedience to God's law was a world +lighter than the grinding oppression of the Egyptian invader. + +God's service is freedom; the world's is slavery. + +Liberty is unrestrained power to do what we ought. Man must be subject +to law. The solemn imperative of duty is omnipresent and sovereign. To +do as we like is not freedom, but bondage to self, and that usually +our worst self, which means crushing or coercing the better self. The +choice is to chain the beast in us or to clip the wings of the angel +in us, and he is a fool who conceits himself free because he lets his +inferior self have its full swing, and hustles his better self into +bondage to clear the course for the other. There is but one +deliverance from the sway of self, and it is realised in the liberty +wherewith Christ has made us free. To make self our master inevitably +leads to setting beggars on horseback and princes walking. Passion, +the 'flesh' is terribly apt to usurp the throne within when once God +is dethroned. Then indulgence feeds passion, and deeper draughts +become necessary in order to produce the same effects, and cravings, +once allowed free play, grow in ravenousness, while their pabulum +steadily loses its power to satisfy. The experience of the undevout +sensualist is but too faithful a type of that of all undevout livers, +in the failure of delights to delight and of acquisitions to enrich, +and in the bondage, often to nothing more worthy to be obeyed than +mere habit, and in the hopeless incapacity to shake off the adamantine +chains which they have themselves rivetted on their limbs. There are +endless varieties in the forms which the service of self assumes, +ranging from gross animalism, naked and unashamed, up to refined and +cultured godlessness, but they are one in their inmost character, one +in their disabling the spirit from a free choice of its course, one in +the limitations which they impose on its aspirations and +possibilities, one in the heavy yoke which they lay on their vassals. +The true liberty is realised only when for love's dear sake we +joyously serve God, and from the highest motive enrol ourselves in the +household of the highest Person, and by the act become 'no more +servants but sons.' Well may we all pray-- + + 'Lord! bind me up, and let me lie + A prisoner to my liberty, + If such a state at all can be + As an imprisonment, serving Thee.' + +God's service brings solid good, the world's is vain and empty. + +God's service brings an approving conscience, a calm heart, strength +and gladness. It is in full accord with our best selves. Tranquil joys +attend on it. 'In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward,' and +that not merely bestowed after keeping, but realised and inherent in +the very act. On the other side, think of the stings of conscience, +the illusions on which those feed who will not eat of the heavenly +food, the husks of the swine-trough, the ashes for bread, that self +and the world, in all their forms set before men. A pathetic character +in modern fiction says, 'If you make believe very much it is nice.' It +takes a tremendous amount of make-believe to keep up an appetite for +the world's dainties or to find its meats palatable, after a little +while. No sin ever yields the fruit it was expected to produce, or if +it does it brings something which was not expected, and the bitter +tang of the addition spoils the whole. It may be wisely adapted to +secure a given end, but that end is only a means to secure the real +end, our substantial blessedness, and that is never attained but by +one course of life, the life of service of God. We may indeed win a +goodly garment, but the plague is in the stuff and, worn, it will burn +into the bones like fire. I read somewhere lately of thieves who had +stolen a cask of wine, and had their debauch, but they sickened and +died. The cask was examined and a huge snake was found dead in it. Its +poison had passed into the wine and killed the drinkers. That is how +the world serves those who swill its cup. 'What fruit had ye then in +those things whereof ye are _now_ ashamed?' The threatening +pronounced against Israel's disobedience enshrines an eternal truth: +'Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with +gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore +shalt thou serve thine enemies ... in hunger and in thirst, and in +nakedness and in want of all things.' + +God's service has final issues and the world's service has final +issues. + +Only fools try to blink the fact that all our doings have +consequences. And it augurs no less levity and insensibility to blink +the other fact that these consequences show no indications of being +broken short off at the end of our earthly life. Men die into another +life, as they have ever, dimly and with many foolish accompaniments, +believed; and dead, they are the men that they have made themselves +while living. Character is eternal, memory is eternal, death puts the +stamp of perpetuity on what life has evolved. Nothing human ever dies. +The thought is too solemn to be vulgarised by pulpit rhetoric. Enough +to say here that these two tremendous alternatives, Life and Death, +express some little part of the eternal issues of our fleeting days. +Looking fixedly into these two great symbols of the ultimate issues of +these contrasted services, we can dimly see, as in the one, a wonder +of resplendent glories moving in a sphere 'as calm as it is bright,' +so, in the other, whirling clouds and jets of vapour as in the crater +of a volcano. One shuddering glance over the rim of it should suffice +to warn from lingering near, lest the unsteady soil should crumble +beneath our feet. + +But the true Lord of our lives loves us too well to let us experience +all the bitter issues of our foolish rebellion against His authority, +and yet He loves us too well not to let us taste something of them +that we may 'know and see that it is an evil thing _and a +bitter_, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.' The experiences +of the consequences of godless living are in some measure allowed to +fall on us by God's love, lest we should persist in the evil and so +bring down on ourselves still more fatal issues. It is mercy that here +chastises the evildoer with whips, in hope of not having to chastise +him with scorpions. God desires to teach us, by the pains and +heartaches of an undevout life, by disappointments, foiled plans, +wrecked hopes, inner poverty, the difference between His service and +that of 'the kingdoms of the countries,' if haply He may not be forced +to let the full flood of fatal results overwhelm us. It is best to be +drawn to serve Him by the cords of love, but it is possible to have +the beginnings of the desire so to serve roused by the far lower +motives of weariness and disgust at the world's wages, and by dread of +what these may prove when they are paid in full. Self-interest may +sicken a man of serving Mammon, and may be transformed into the +self-surrender which makes God's service possible and blessed. The +flight into the city of refuge may be quickened by the fear of the +pursuer, whose horse's hoofs are heard thundering on the road behind +the fugitive, and whose spear is all but felt a yard from his back, +but once within the shelter of the city wall, gratitude for +deliverance will fill his heart and 'perfect love will cast out fear.' + +The king concerning whom our text was spoken had to suffer humiliation +by the Egyptian invasion. His sufferings were meant to be educational, +and when they in some measure effected their purpose, God curbed the +invader and granted some measure of deliverance. So is it with us, if, +moved by whatever impulse, we betake ourselves to Jesus to save us +from the bitter fruits of our evil lives. The extreme severity of the +results of our sins does not fall on penitent, believing spirits, but +some do fall. As the Psalmist says: 'Thou wast a God that forgavest +them though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.' A profligate +course of life may be forgiven, but health or fortune is ruined all +the same. In brief, the so-called 'natural' consequences are not +removed, though the sin which caused them is pardoned. Polluted +memories, indulged habits, defiled imaginations, are not got rid of, +though the sins that inflicted them are forgiven. + +Is it not, then, the part of wise men to lay to heart the lessons of +experience, and to let what we have learned of the bitter fruit of +godless living turn us away from such service, and draw us by merciful +chastisement to yield ourselves to God, whom to serve accords with our +deepest needs and brings first fruits and pre-libations of blessedness +and peace here, and fullness of joy with pleasures for evermore +hereafter? + + + +THE SECRET OF VICTORY + +'The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord +God of their fathers.'--2 CHRON. xiii. 18. + + +These words are the summing-up of the story of a strange old-world +battle between Jeroboam, the adventurer who rent the kingdom, and +Abijah, the son of the foolish Rehoboam, whose unseasonable blustering +had played into the usurper's hands. The son was a wiser and better +man than his father. It is characteristic of the ancient world, that +before battle was joined Abijah made a long speech to the enemy, +recounting the ritual deficiencies of the Northern kingdom, and +proudly contrasting the punctilious correctness of the Temple service +with the irregular cult set up by Jeroboam. He confidently pointed to +the priests 'with their trumpets' in his army as the visible sign that +'God is with us at our head,' and while charging Israel with having +'forsaken the Lord our God,' to whom he and his people had kept true, +besought them not to carry their rebellion to the extreme of fighting +against their fathers' God, and assured them that no success could +attend their weapons in such a strife. The passionate appeal had no +effect, but while Abijah was orating, Jeroboam was carrying out a +ruse, and planting part of his troops behind Judah, so as to put them +between two fires and draw a net round the outnumbered and +outmanoeuvred enemy. + +Abijah and his men suddenly detected their desperate position, and did +the only wise thing. When, with a shock of surprise, they saw that +'behold! the battle was before and behind them,' they 'cried unto the +Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.' The sharp, short cry +from thousands of agitated men ringed round by foes, and the blare of +the trumpets were both prayers, and heartened the suppliants for their +whirlwind charge, before which the men of Israel, double in number as +they were, broke and fled. The defeat was thorough, and, for a while, +Rehoboam and his kingdom were 'brought under,' and a comparatively +long peace followed. Our text gathers up the lesson taught, not to +Judah or Israel alone, by victory and defeat, when it declares that to +rely upon the Lord is to prevail. It opens for us the secret of +victory, in that old far-off struggle and in to-day's conflicts. + +I. We note the faith of the fighters. + +'They relied,' says the chronicler, 'upon the Lord.' Now the word +rendered 'relied' is one of several picturesque words by which the Old +Testament, which we are sometimes told, with a great flourish of +learning, has no mention of 'faith,' expresses 'trust,' by metaphors +drawn from bodily actions which symbolise the spiritual act. The word +here literally signifies to lean on, as a feeble hand might on a +staff, or a tremulous arm on a strong one. And does not that picture +carry with it much insight into what the essence of Old Testament +'trust' or New Testament 'faith' is? If we think of faith as leaning, +we shall not fall into that starved misconception of it which takes it +to be nothing more than intellectual assent. We shall see there is a +far fuller pulse of feeling than that beating in it. A man who leans +on some support, does so because he knows that his own strength is +insufficient for his need. The consciousness of weakness is the +beginning of faith. He who has never despaired of himself has scarcely +trusted in God. Abijah's enemies were two to one of his own men. No +wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair +shake their courage. And who of us can face life with its heavy +duties, its thick-clustering dangers and temptations, its certain +struggles, its possible failures, and not feel the cold touch of dread +gripping our hearts, though strong and brave? Surely he has had little +experience, or has learned little wisdom from the experience he has +had, who has yet to discover his own weakness. But the consciousness +of weakness is by itself debilitating, and but increases the weakness +of which it is painfully aware. There is no surer way to sap what +strength we have than to tell ourselves what poor creatures we are. +The purpose and end of self-contemplation which becomes aware of our +own feebleness is to lead us to the contemplation of God, our immortal +strength. Abijah's assurance that 'God is with us at our head' rang +out triumphantly. Faith has an upper and an under side: the under side +is self-distrust; the upper, trust in God. He will never lean all his +weight on a prop, who fancies that he can stand alone, or has other +stays to hold him up. + +But Abijah's example teaches us another lesson--that for a vigorous +faith, there must be obedience to all God's known will. True, thank +God! faith often springs in its power in a soul that is conscious but +of sin, but a continuance in disobedience will inevitably kill faith. +It was because Abijah and his people had kept 'the charge of the Lord +our God,' that they were sure that God was with them. We can only be +sure of God to lean on when we are doing His will, and we shall do His +will only as we are sure that we lean on Him. Our trust in Him will be +strong and operative in the measure in which our lives are conformed +to His commandments. Much elaborate dissertation has been devoted to +expounding what faith is, and the strong, vivid Scriptural conception +of it has been woefully darkened and overlaid with cobwebs of +theology, but surely this eloquent metaphor of our text tells us more +than do many learned volumes. It bids us lean on God, rest the whole +weight of our needs, our weaknesses, and our sins on Him. Like any +human friend or helper, He is better pleased when we lean hard on Him +than when we gingerly put a finger on His arm, and lay no pressure on +it, as we do when in ceremonial fashion we seem to accept another's +support, and hold ourselves back from putting a weight on the offered +arm. We cannot rely too utterly on Him. We honour Him most when we +repose our whole selves on His strong arm. + +II. The increase of faith by sudden fear. + +'When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind +them.' The shock of seeing the flashing spears in the rear would make +the bravest hold their breath for one overwhelming moment, but the +next moment their faith in God surged back with tenfold force, +increased by the sudden new peril. The sharp collision of flint and +steel struck out a spark of faith. 'What time I am afraid, I will +trust in Thee,' said an expert in the genesis and growth of trust. +Peril kills a feeble trust, but vivifies it, if strong. The +recognition of danger is meant to drive us to God. If each fresh +difficulty or danger makes us tighten our clasp of Him, and lean the +harder on Him, it has done its highest service to us, and we have +conquered it, and are the stronger because of it. The storm that makes +the traveller, fighting with the wind and the rain in his face, clasp +his cloak tighter round him, does him no harm. The purpose of our +trials is to drive us to God, and a fair-weather faith which had all +but fallen asleep is often roused to energy that works wonders, by the +sudden dash of danger flung into and disturbing a life. It is wise +seamanship to make a run to get snugly behind the breakwater when a +sudden gale springs up. + +III. The expression of faith in appeal to God. + +When the ambush was unmasked, the surrounded men of Judah 'cried unto +the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets,' before they +flung themselves on the enemy. We may be sure that their cry was short +and sharp, and poignant with appeal to God. There would be no waste +words, nor perfunctory petitions without wings of desire, in that cry. +Should we not look for the essential elements of prayer rather to such +cries, pressed from burdened hearts by a keen sense of absolute +helplessness, and very careless of proprieties so long as they were +shrill enough to pierce God's ear and touch His heart, than to the +formal petitions of well-ordered worship? A single ejaculation flung +heavenward in a moment of despair or agony is more precious in God's +sight than a whole litany of half-hearted devotions. + +The text puts in a striking form another lesson well worth learning, +that, in the greatest crises, no time is better spent than time used +for prayer. A rush on the enemy would not have served Abijah's purpose +nearly so well as that moment's pause for crying to the Lord, before +his charge. Hands lifted to heaven are nerved to clutch the sword and +strike manfully. It is not only that Christ's soldiers are to fight +and pray, but that they fight by praying. That is true in the small +conflicts and antagonisms of the lives of each of us, and it is true +in regard to the agelong battle against ignorance and sin. Christian's +sword was named 'All-prayer.' + +The priests, too, blew a prayer through their trumpets, for the +ordinance had appointed that 'when ye go to war ... then shall ye +sound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before +the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.' The +clear, strident blare was not intended to hearten warriors, or to sing +defiance, but to remind God of His promises, and to bring Him on to +the battlefield, as He had said that He would be. The truest prayer is +that which but picks up the arrows of promise shot from heaven to +earth, and casts them back from earth to heaven. He prays best who +fills his mouth with God's words, turning every 'I will' of His into +'Do Thou!' + +IV. The strength that comes through faith. + +'As the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam +and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.' There is no such quickener of +all a man's natural force as even the lowest forms of faith. He who +throws himself into any enterprise sure of success will often succeed +just because he was sure he would. The world's history is full of +instances where men, with every odds against them, have plucked the +flower safety out of the nettle danger, just because they trusted in +their star, or their luck, or their destiny. We all know how a very +crude faith turned a horde of wild Arabs into a conquering army, that +in a century dominated the world from Damascus to Seville. The truth +that is in 'Christian Science' is that many forms of disease yield to +the patient's firm persuasion of recovery. And from these and many +other facts the natural power of faith is beginning to dawn on the +most matter-of-fact and unspiritual people. They are beginning to +think that perhaps Christ was right after all in saying 'All things +are possible to him that believeth,' and that it is not such a blunder +after all to make faith the first step to all holiness and purity, and +the secret of victory in life's tussle. Leaving out of view for the +moment the supernatural effects of faith, which Christianity alleges +are its constant consequences, it is clear that its natural effects +are all in the direction of increasing the force of the trusting man. +It calms, it heartens for all work, effort, and struggle. It imparts +patience, it brightens hope, it forbids discouragement, it rebukes and +cures despondency. And besides all this, there is the supernatural +communication of a strength not our own, which is the constant result +of Christian faith. Christian faith knits the soul and the Saviour in +so close a union, that all that is Christ's becomes the Christian's, +and every believer may hear His Lover's voice whispering to him what +one of His servants once heard in an hour of despondency, 'My grace is +sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Faith +joins us to the Lord, and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit'; and that Lord has said to all His disciples, 'I give thee +Myself, and in Myself all that is Mine.' We do not go to warfare at +our own charges, but there will pass into and abide in our hearts the +warlike might of the true King and Captain of the Lord's host, and we +shall hear the ring of His encouraging voice saying, 'Be of good +cheer! I have overcome the world.' + + + +ASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY + +'And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his +God; 3. For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high +places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 4. And +commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the +law and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of +Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before +him. 6. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, +and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest. +7. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make +about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet +before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought +Him, and He hath given us rest on every side. So they built and +prospered. 8. And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, +out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare +shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these +were mighty men of valour.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 2-8. + + +Asa was Rehoboam's grandson, and came to the throne when a young man. +The two preceding reigns had favoured idolatry, but the young king had +a will of his own, and inaugurated a religious revolution, with which +and its happy results this passage deals. + +I. It first recounts the thorough clearance of idolatrous emblems and +images which Asa made. 'Strange altars,'--that is, those dedicated to +other gods; 'high places,'--that is, where illegal sacrifice to +Jehovah was offered; 'pillars,'--that is, stone columns; and +'Asherim,'--that is, trees or wooden poles, survivals of ancient +stone- or tree-worship; 'sun-images,'--that is, probably, pillars +consecrated to Baal as sun-god, were all swept away. The enumeration +vividly suggests the incongruous rabble of gods which had taken the +place of the one Lord. How vainly we try to make up for His absence +from our hearts by a multitude of finite delights and helpers! Their +multiplicity proves the insufficiency of each and of all. + +1 Kings xv. 13 adds a detail which brings out still more clearly Asa's +reforming zeal; for it tells us that he had to fight against the +influence of his mother, who had been prominent in supporting +disgusting and immoral forms of worship, and who retained some +authority, of which her son was strong enough to take the extreme step +of depriving her. Remembering the Eastern reverence for a mother, we +can estimate the effort which that required, and the resolution which +it implied. But 1 Kings differs from our narrative in stating that the +'high places' were not taken away--the explanation of the variation +probably being that the one account tells what Asa attempted and +commanded, and the other records the imperfect way in which his orders +were carried out. They would be obeyed in Jerusalem and its +neighbourhood, but in many a secluded corner the old rites would be +observed. + +It is vain to force religious revolutions. Laws which are not +supported by the national conscience will only be obeyed where +disobedience will involve penalties. If men's hearts cleave to Baal, +they will not be turned into Jehovah-worshippers by a king's commands. +Asa could command Judah to 'seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to +do the law,' but he could not make them do it. + +II. The chronicler brings out strongly the truth which runs through +his whole book,--namely, the connection between honouring Jehovah and +national prosperity. He did not import that thought into his +narrative, but he insisted on it as moulding the history of Judah. +Modern critics charge him with writing with a bias, but he learned the +'bias' from God's own declarations, and had it confirmed by +observation, reflection, and experience. The whole history of Israel +and Judah was one long illustration of the truth which he is +constantly repeating. No doubt, the divine dealings with Israel +brought obedience and well-being into closer connection than exists +now; but in deepest truth the sure defence of our national prosperity +is the same as theirs, and it is still the case that 'righteousness +exalteth a nation.' 'The kingdom was quiet,' says the chronicler, 'and +he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.' 1 +Kings makes more of the standing enmity with the northern kingdom, and +records scarcely anything of Asa's reign except the war which, as it +says, was between him and Baasha of Israel 'all their days.' But, +according to 2 Chronicles xvi. 1, Baasha did not proceed to war till +Asa's thirty-sixth year, and the halcyon time of peace evidently +followed immediately on the religious reformation at its very +beginning. + +Asa's experience embodies a truth which is substantially fulfilled in +nations and in individuals; for obedience brings rest, often outward +tranquillity, always inward calm. Note the heightened earnestness +expressed in the repetition of the expression 'We have sought the +Lord' in verse 7, and the grand assurance of His favour as the source +of well-being in the clause which follows, 'and He hath given us rest +on every side.' That is always so, and will be so with us. If we seek +Him with our whole hearts, keeping Him ever before us amid the +distractions of life, taking Him as our aim and desire, and ever +stretching out the tendrils of our hearts to feel after Him and clasp +Him, all around and within will be tranquil, and even in warfare we +shall preserve unbroken peace. + +Asa teaches us, too, the right use of tranquillity. He clearly and +gratefully recognised God's hand in it, and traced it not to his own +warlike skill or his people's prowess, but to Him. And he used the +time of repose to strengthen his defences, and exercise his soldiers +against possible assaults. We do not yet dwell in the land of peace, +where it is safe to be without bolts and bars, but have ever to be on +the watch for sudden attacks. Rest from war should give leisure for +building not only fortresses, but temples, as was the case with +Solomon. The time comes when, as in many an ancient fortified city of +Europe, the ramparts may be levelled, and flowers bloom where sentries +walked; but to-day we have to be on perpetual guard, and look to our +fortifications, if we would not be overcome. + + + +ASA'S PRAYER + +'And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing +with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: +help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go +against this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail +against Thee.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 11. + + +This King Asa, Rehoboam's grandson, had had a long reign of peace, +which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he +had rooted out idolatry from Judah, 'The land had rest, and he no war +... because the Lord had given him rest.' + +But there came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly +over the land, and a great army--the numbers of which, from their +immense magnitude, seem to be erroneously given--came up against him. +Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed +next. He set his troops in order, and then he fell down on his knees, +and spoke to God. + +Now, it seems to me that this prayer contains the very essence of what +ought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions +and threatening dangers and conflicts of life; and so I wish to run +over it, and bring out the salient points of it, as typical of what +ought to be our disposition. + +I. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence. + +It did not take much to convince Asa that he had 'no power.' His army, +according to the numbers given of the two hosts, was outnumbered two +to one; and so it did not require much reflection to say, 'We have no +might.' But although perhaps not so sufficiently obvious to us, as +truly as in the case in our text, if we look fairly in the face our +duties, our tasks, our dangers, the possibilities of life and its +certainties, the more humbly we think of our own capacity, the more +wisely we shall think about God, and the more truly we shall estimate +ourselves. The world says, 'Self-reliance is the conquering virtue'; +Jesus says to us, 'Self-distrust is the condition of all victory.' And +that does not mean any mere shuffling off of responsibility from our +own shoulders, but it means looking the facts of our lives, and of our +own characters, in the face. And if we will do that, however +apparently easy may be our course, and however richly endowed in mind, +body, or estate we may be, if we all do that honestly, we shall find +that we each are like 'the man with ten thousand' that has to meet +'the King that comes against him with twenty thousand'; and we shall +not 'desire conditions of peace' with our enemy, for that is not what +in this case we have to do, but we shall look about us, and not keep +our eyes on the horizon, and on the levels of earth, but look up to +see if there is not there an Ally that we can bring into the field to +redress the balance, and to make our ten as strong as the opposing +twenty. Zerah the Ethiopian, who was coming down on Asa, is said to +have had a million fighting-men at his back, but that is probably an +erroneous figure, because Old Testament numbers are necessarily often +unreliable. Asa had only half the number; so he said, 'What can I do?' +And what _could_ he do? He did the only thing possible, he +'grasped at God's skirts, and prayed,' and that made all the +difference. + +Now all that is true about the disproportion between the foes we have +to face and fight and our own strength. It is eminently true about us +Christian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You hear +people say, 'Look at the small number of professing Christians in this +country, as compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the +use of their trying to convert the world?' Well, think of the +assembled Christian people, for instance, of Manchester, on the most +charitable supposition, and the shallowest interpretation of that word +'Christian.' What are they among so many? A mere handful. If the +Christian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world +by its own strength, we might well despair of success and stop +altogether. 'We have no might.' The disproportion both numerically and +in all things that the world estimates as strength (which are many of +them good things), is so great that we are in a worse case than Asa +was. It is not two to one; it is twenty to one, or an even greater +disproportion. But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of +non-effectives, mere camp followers, loosely attached, nominal +Christians, have to be deducted from the muster-roll, and the few who +are left are so feeble as well as few that they have more than enough +to do in holding their own, to say nothing of dreaming of charging the +wide-stretching lines of the enemy. So a profound self-distrust is our +wisdom. But that should not paralyse us, but lead to something better, +as it led Asa. + +II. Summoning God into the field should follow wholesome +self-distrust. + +Asa uses a remarkable expression, which is, perhaps, scarcely +reproduced adequately in our Authorised Version: 'It is nothing with +Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.' It +is a strange phrase, but it seems most probable that the suggested +rendering in the Revised Version is nearer the writer's meaning, which +says, 'Lord! there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and +them that have no power,' which to our ears is a somewhat cumbrous way +of saying that God, and God only, can adjust the difference between +the mighty and the weak; can redress the balance, and by the laying of +His hand upon the feeble hand can make it strong as the mailed fist to +which it is opposed. If we know ourselves to be hopelessly +outnumbered, and send to God for reinforcements, He will clash His +sword into the scale, and make it go down. Asa turns to God and says, +'Thou only canst trim the scales and make the lighter of the two the +heavier one by casting Thy might into it. So help us, O Lord our God!' + +One man with God at his back is always in the majority; and, however +many there may be on the other side, 'there are more that be with us +than they that be with them.' _There_ is encouragement for people +who have to fight unpopular causes in the world, who have been +accustomed to be in minorities all their days, in the midst of a +wicked and perverse generation. Never mind about the numbers; bring +God into the field, and the little band, which is compared in another +place in these historical Books to 'two flocks of kids' fronting the +enemy, that had flowed all over the land, is in the majority. 'God +with us'; then we are strong. + +The consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why +people in the world are always patting each other on the back and +saying 'Be of good cheer, and rely upon yourself.' But the +self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more +reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness +of need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always +find the lakes in the hollows, so you will always find the grace of +God coming into men's hearts to strengthen them and make them +victorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered +estimate of one's self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and +God will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength bestowed. +The more I feel myself weak, the more I am meant not to fold my hands +and say, 'I never can do that thing; it is of no use my trying to +attempt it, I may as well give it up'; but to say, 'Lord I there is +none beside Thee that can set the balance right between the mighty and +him that hath no strength.' 'Help me, O Lord my God!' Just as those +little hermit-crabs that you see upon the seashore, with soft bodies +unprotected, make for the first empty shell they can find, and house +in that and make it their fortress, our exposed natures, our +unarmoured characters, our sense of weakness, ought to drive us to +Him. As the unarmed population of a land invaded by the enemy pack +their goods and hurry to the nearest fortified place, so when I say to +myself I have no strength, let me say, 'Thou art my Rock, my Strength, +my Fortress, and my Deliverer. My God, in whom I trust, my Buckler, +and the Horn of my Salvation, and my high Tower.' + +Now, there is one more word about this matter, and that is, the way by +which we summon God into the field. Asa prays, 'Help us, O Lord our +God! for we rest on Thee'; and the word that he employs for 'rest' is +not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. +Let me illustrate it by a reference to another case where it is +employed. It is used in that tragical story of the death of Saul, when +the man that saw the last of him came to David and drew in a sentence +the pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted, +discrowned, desperate monarch, _leaning on_ his spear. You can +understand how hard he leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how +heavily his whole languid, powerless weight pressed upon it. And that +is the word that is used here. 'We lean on Thee' as the wounded Saul +leaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith, my friend? Do +you lean upon God like that, laying your hand upon Him till every vein +on your hand stands out with the force and tension of the grasp? Or do +you lean lightly, as a man that does not feel much the need of a +support? Lean hard if you wish God to come quickly. 'We rest on Thee; +help us, O Lord!' + +III. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning God +by faith. + +It is well when self-distrust leads to confidence, when, as Charles +Wesley has it in his great hymn: + + '... I am weak, + But confident in self-despair.' + +But that is not enough. It is better when self-distrust and confidence +in God lead to courage, and as Asa goes on, 'Help us, for we rely on +Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.' Never mind though +it is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are +well enough, but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want +of faith in Christian people, both in regard to their own lives and in +regard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading under +much too respectable a name, and calls itself 'judicious caution' and +'prudence.' There is little ever done by that, especially in the +Christian course; and the old motto of one of the French republicans +holds good; 'Dare! dare! always dare!' You have more on your side than +you have against you, and creeping prudence of calculation is not the +temper in which the battle is won. 'Dash' is not always precipitate +and presumptuous. If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting +the dangers and difficulties that beset us, and be sure that He will +help us. + +IV. And now the last point that I would notice is this--the +all-powerful plea which God will answer. + +'Thou art my God, let not man prevail against Thee.' That prayer +covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your God you +will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made +God's cause yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not +be beaten. + +'Thou art our God.' 'It takes two to make a bargain,' and God and we +have both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but +there is an act of ours required too, and you must take the God that +is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His. +And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, +to all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. When I can say, +'Thou art my God, and it is impossible that Thou wilt deny Thyself,' +then nothing can snap that bond; and 'neither life nor death, nor +angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things +to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any _other_ creature' can do +it. But there is a creature that can, and that is I. For I can +separate _myself_ from the love and the guardianship of God, and +He can say to a man, 'I am thy God,' and the man _not_ answer, +'Thou art my God.' + +And then there is another plea here. 'Let not man prevail against +Thee.' What business had Asa to identify his little kingdom and his +victory with God's cause and God's conquest? Only this, that he had +flung himself into God's arms, and because he had, and was trying to +do what God would have him do, he was quite sure that it was not Asa +but Jehovah that the million of Ethiopians were fighting against. +People warn us against the fanaticism of taking for granted that our +cause is God's cause. Well, we need the warning sometimes, but we may +be quite sure of this, that if we have made God's cause ours, He will +make our cause His, down to the minutest point in our daily lives. + +And then, if thus we say in the depths of our hearts, and live +accordingly, 'There is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, +O God!' it will be with us as it was with Asa in the story before us, +'the enemy fled, and could not recover themselves, for they were +destroyed before the Lord and before His hosts.' + + + +THE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS + +'They ... sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of +them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.'--2 CHRON. xv. 15. + + +These words occur in one of the least familiar passages of the Old +Testament. They describe an incident in the reign of Asa, who was the +grandson of Solomon's foolish son Rehoboam, and was consequently the +third king of Judah after the secession of the North. He had just won +a great victory, and was returning with his triumphant army to +Jerusalem, when there met him a prophet, unknown otherwise, who poured +out fiery words, exhorting Asa and his people to cleave to God and to +cast away their idols. Asa, encouraged by the prophetic words of this +bold speaker for God, screwed himself up, and was able to induce also +his people, to effect a great religious reformation. He made a clean +sweep of the idols, and gathered the sadly-dwindled nation together in +Jerusalem, where they renewed the covenant with the Lord God of their +fathers. The text sums up their work and its result. 'They sought Him +with their whole heart, and He was found of them; and the Lord gave +them rest round about.' The words express in simplest form what should +be the chief desire of our hearts and occupation of our lives, and +what will then be our peaceful experience. We shall best bring out +these points if we take the words just as they lie, and consider the +seeking, the finding which certainly crowns that seeking, and the rest +which ensues on finding God. + +I. The seeking. + +Now, of course, there is no doubt that what the chronicler meant to +describe by the phrase, 'seeking the Lord,' was largely the mere +external acts of ritual worship, the superficial turning from idols to +a purely external recognition of God as the God of Israel. But while +there may have been nothing deeper than a change in the nominal object +of nominal worship, so far as many were concerned, no doubt a very +real turning of heart to God underlay the external change in many +other cases, of which the destruction of idols and the renewed +observance of the form of Jehovah's worship were the consequence and +sign. That turning of mind, will, and affection towards God must be +ours if we are to be among those wise and happy seekers who are sure +to find that which--or rather Him whom--they seek and to rest in Him +whom they find. That search is not after a lost treasure, nor does it +imply ignorance of where its object is to be found. We seek that which +we know, and which we may be assured of finding. Therefore there need +be no tremors of uncertainty in our quest, and the blessedness of the +search is as real as, though different from, the blessedness of the +possession which ends it. The famous saying which prefers the search +after, to the possession of truth, is more proud than wise; but the +comparison which it institutes is so far true that there is a joy in +the aspiration after and the efforts towards truth only less joyous +than that which attends its attainment. But truth divorced from God is +finite and may pall, become familiar and lose its radiance, like a +gathered flower; and hence the preference for the search is +intelligible though one-sided. But God does not pall, and the more we +find Him the more we delight in Him; the highest bliss is to find Him, +the next highest is to seek Him; and, since seeking and finding Him +are never wholly separate, these kindred joys blend their lights in +the experience of all His children. + +But our text lays emphasis on the whole-heartedness of the people's +seeking of God. The search must be earnest and engaged in with the +whole energy of our whole being, if any blessing is to come from it. +Why! one reason why the great mass of professing Christians make so +little of their religion is because they are only half-hearted in it. +If you divide a river into two streams the force of each is less than +half the power of the original current; and the chances are that you +will make a stagnant marsh where there used to be a flowing stream. +'All in all, or not at all,' is the rule for life, in all departments. +It is the rule in daily business. A man that puts only half himself in +his profession or trade, while the other half of his wits is gone +woolgathering and dreaming, is predestined from all eternity to fail. +The same is true about our religion. If you and I attend to it as a +kind of by-occupation; if we give the balance of our time and the +superfluity of our energy, after we have done a hard day's work--say, +an hour upon a Sunday--to seeking God, and devote all the rest of the +week to seeking worldly prosperity, it is no wonder if our religion +languishes, and is mainly a matter of forms, as it is with such hosts +of people that call themselves Christians. + +Oh! dear brethren, I do believe there is more unconscious unreality in +the average Christian man's endeavour to be a better Christian than +there is in almost anything else in the world:-- + + 'One foot on sea, and one on shore, + To one thing constant never.' + +That is why so many of us know nothing of a progressive strengthening +of our faith, and an increasing conquest of ourselves, and a firmer +grasp of God, and a fuller realisation of the blessedness of walking +in His ways. + +'They sought Him with all their heart.' That does not mean, remember, +that there are to be no other desires, for it is a great mistake to +pit religion against other things which are meant to be its +instruments and its helps. We are not required to seek nothing else in +order to seek God wholly. He demands no impossible and fantastic +detachment of ourselves from the ordinary and legitimate occupations, +affections, and duties of human life, but He does ask that the +dominant desire after Him should be powerful enough to express itself +through all our actions, and that we should seek for God in them, and +for them in God. + +Whilst thus we are to give the right interpretation to that +whole-heartedness in our seeking God, on which the text lays stress, +do not let us forget that the one token of it which the text specifies +is, casting out our idols. There must be detachment if there is to be +attachment. If some climbing plant, for instance, has twisted itself +round the unprofitable thorns in the hedge, the gardener, before he +can get it to go up the support that it is meant to encircle, has +carefully to detach it from the stays to which it has wantonly clung, +taking care that in the process he does not break its tendrils and +destroy its power of growth. So, to train our souls to cleave to God, +and to grow up round the great Stay that is provided for us, there is +needed, as an essential part of the process, the voluntary, conscious, +conscientious, and constant guarding of ourselves from the vagrancies +of our desires, which send out their shoots away from Him; and when +the objects of these become idols, then there is nothing for it but +that, like Asa and his people, we should hew them to pieces and make a +bonfire of them; and then renew our covenant before God. I desire to +press that upon you and upon myself. The heart must be emptied of +baser liquors, if the new wine of the Kingdom is to be poured into it. + +True it is, of course--and thank God for it!--that the most powerful +agent in effecting that detachment of ourselves from lower things is +our fruition of higher. It is when God comes into the temple that +Dagon falls on the threshold. It is when a new affection begins to +spring in the heart that old loves are thrust out of it. But whilst +that is true, it is also true that the two processes run on +simultaneously; and that whilst, on the one hand, if we are ever to +overcome our love of the world it must be through the love of God, on +the other hand, if we are ever to be confirmed in a whole-hearted love +of God, it must be through our conquest of our love of the world. +'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' was the profound prayer of the old +Psalmist; and the 'heart,' according to Old Testament usage, is the +central fountain from which flow all the streams of conscious life. To +seek Him with the whole heart is to engage the whole self in the +quest, and that is the only kind of seeking which has the certainty of +success. + +II. The finding which crowns such seeking. + +'He was found of them.' Yes; anything is possible rather than that a +whole-hearted search after God should be a vain search. For there are, +in that case, two seekers--God is seeking for us more truly than we +are seeking for Him. And if the mother is seeking her child, and the +child its mother, it will be a very wide desert where they will not +meet. 'The Father seeketh such to worship Him,' that is--the divine +activity is going about the world, searching for the heart that turns +to Him, and it cannot but be that they that seek Him shall find Him, +or 'shall be found of Him.' Open the windows, and you cannot keep out +the sunshine; open your lungs and you cannot keep out the air. 'In Him +we live and move and have our being,' and if our desires turn, however +blindly, to Him, and are accompanied with the appropriate action, +heaven and earth are more likely to rush to ruin than such a searching +to be frustrated of its aim. + +Brethren! is there anything else in the world of which you can say, +'Seek, and ye shall find'? You, with white hairs on your heads, have +you found anything else in which the chase was sure to result in the +capture; in which capture was sure to yield all that the hunter had +wished? There is only one direction for a man's desires and aims, in +which disappointment is an impossibility. In all other regions the +most that can be promised is 'Seek, and _perhaps_ you will find'; +and, when you have found, perhaps you will feel that the prize was not +worth the finding. Or it is, 'Seek, and _possibly_ you will find; +and after you have found and kept for a little while, you will lose.' +Though it may be + + 'Better to have loved and lost, + Than never to have loved at all,' + +a treasure that slips out of our fingers is not the best treasure that +we can search for. But here the assurance is, 'Seek, and ye +_shall_ find; and shall never lose. Find, and you shall always +possess.' + +What would you think of a company of gold-seekers, hunting about in +some exhausted claim, for hypothetical grains, ragged, starving--and +all the while in the next gully were lying lumps of gold for the +picking up? And that figure fairly represents what people do and +suffer who seek for good and do not seek for God. + +III. The rest which ensues on finding God. + +'The Lord gave them rest round about.' We believe that the Jewish +nation was under special supernatural guidance, so that national +adherence to the Law was always followed by external prosperity. That +is not, of course, the case with us. But which is the better thing, +'rest round about' or rest within? We have no immunity from toil or +conflict. Seeking God does not cover our heads from the storm of +external calamities, nor arm our hearts against the darts and daggers +of many a pain, anxiety, and care, but disturbance around is a very +small matter if there be a better thing, rest within. + +Do you remember who it was that said, 'In the world ye shall have +tribulation ... but in Me ye shall have peace'? Then we have, as it +were, two abodes--one, as far as regards the life of sense, in the +world of sense--another, as far as regards the inmost self, which may, +if we will, be in Christ. A vessel with an outer casing and a layer of +air between it and the inner will keep its contents hot. So we may +have round us the very opposite of repose, and, if God so wills, let +us not kick against His will; we may have conflict and stir and +strife, and yet a better rest than that of my text may be ours. 'Rest +round about' is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is often bad, for +it is the people that 'have no changes' who most usually 'do not fear +God.' But rest within, that is sure to come when a man has sought with +all his desire for God, whom he has found in all His fullness, is only +good and best of all. + +We all know, thank God! in worldly matters and in inferior degree, how +blessed and restful it is when some strong affection is gratified, +some cherished desire fulfilled. Though these satisfactions are not +perpetual, nor perfect, they may teach us what a depth of blessed and +calm repose, incapable of being broken by any storms or by any tasks, +will come to and abide with the man whose deepest love is satisfied in +God, and whose most ardent desires have found more than they sought +for in Him. Be sure of this, dear friends! that if we do thus seek, +and thus find, it is not in the power of anything 'that is at enmity +with joy' utterly to 'abolish or destroy' the quietness of our hearts. +'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' They who thus repose +will have peace in their hearts, even whilst tasks and temptations, +changes and sorrows, disturb their outward lives. 'In the world ye +shall have tribulation.' Be it so; it may be borne with submission and +thankfulness if in Christ we have peace. + +Thus we may have the peace of God, rest in and from Him, entering into +us, and in due time, by His gracious guidance and help, we shall enter +into eternal rest. Whilst to seek is to find Him, in a very deep and +blessed sense, even in this life; in another aspect all our earthly +life may be regarded as seeking after Him, and the future as the true +finding of Him. That future will bring to those whose hearts have +turned from the shows and vanities of time to God a possession of Him +so much fuller than was experienced here that the lesser discoveries +and enjoyments of Him which are experienced here, scarcely deserve in +comparison to be called by the same name. So my text may be taken, as +in its first part, a description of the blessed life here--'They +sought Him with all their heart'--and in its second, as a shadowy +vision of the yet more blessed life hereafter, 'He was found of them, +and the Lord gave them rest round about,' as well as within, in the +land of peace, where sorrow and sighing, and toil and care, shall pass +from memory; and they that warred against us shall be far away. + + + +JEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM + +'And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened +himself against Israel. 2. And he placed forces in all the fenced +cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the +cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3. And the Lord was +with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father +David, and sought not unto Baalim; 4. But sought to the Lord God of +his father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings +of Israel. 5. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand; +and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and +honour in abundance. 6. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the +Lord: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah. +7. Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to +Ben-hail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to +Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. 8. And with them he sent +Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asabel, and +Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and +Tobadonijah, Levites: and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests. 9. +And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with +them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught +the people. 10. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of +the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war +against Jehoshaphat.'--2 CHRON. xvii. 1-10. + + +The first point to be noted in this passage is that Jehoshaphat +followed in the steps of Asa his father. Stress is laid on his +adherence to the ancestral faith, 'the first ways of his father +David,'--before his great fall,--and the paternal example, 'he sought +to the God of his father.' Such carrying on of a predecessor's work is +rare in the line of kings of Judah, where father and son were seldom +of the same mind in religion. The principle of hereditary monarchy +secures peaceful succession, but not continuity of policy. Many a king +of Judah had to say in his heart what Ecclesiastes puts into Solomon's +mouth, 'I hated all my labour, ... seeing that I must leave it unto +the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a +wise man or a fool?' + +But it is not only in kings' houses that that experience is realised. +Many a home is saddened to-day because the children do not seek the +God of their fathers. 'Instead of the fathers' should 'come up thy +children'; but, alas! grandmother Lois and mother Eunice do not always +see the boy who has known the Scriptures from a child grow up into a +Timothy, in whom their unfeigned faith lives again. The neglect of +religious instruction in professedly Christian families, the +inconsistent lives of parents or their too rigid restraints, or, +sometimes, their too lax discipline, are to be blamed for many such +cases. But there are many instances in which not the parents, but the +children, are to be blamed. An earnest Sunday-school teacher may do +much to lead the children of godly parents to their father's God. +Blessed is the home where the golden chain of common faith binds +hearts together, and family love is elevated and hallowed by common +love of God! + +Jehoshaphat's religion was, further, resolutely held in the face of +prevailing opposition. 'The Baalim' were popular; it was fashionable +to worship them. They were numerous, and all varieties of taste could +find a Baal to please them. But this young king turned from the +tempting ways that opened flower-strewn before him, and chose the +narrow road that led upwards. 'So did not I, because of the fear of +God,' might have been his motto. A similar determined setting of our +faces God-ward, in spite of the crowd of tempting false deities around +us, must mark us, if we are to have any religion worth calling by the +name. This king recoiled from the example of the neighbouring +monarchy, and walked 'not after the doings of Israel.' His seeking to +God was very practical, for it was not shown simply by professed +beliefs or by sentiment, but by ordering his life in obedience to +God's will. The test of real religion is, after all, a life unlike the +lives of the men who do not share our faith, and moulded in accordance +with God's known will. It is vain to allege that we are seeking the +Lord unless we are walking in His commandments. + +Prosperity followed godliness, in accordance with the divinely +appointed connection between them which characterised the Old +Dispensation. 'Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; +adversity is the blessing of the New,' says Bacon. But the epigram is +too neat to be entirely true, for the Book of Job and many a psalm +show that the eternal problem of suffering innocence was raised by +facts even in the old days, and in our days there are forms of +well-being which are the natural fruits of well-doing. Still, the +connection was closer in Judah than with us, and, in the case before +us, the establishment of Jehoshaphat in the kingdom, his subjects' +love, which showed itself in voluntary gifts over and above the taxes +imposed, and his wealth and honour, were the direct results of his +true religion. + +A really devout man must be a propagandist. True faith cannot be hid +nor be dumb. As certainly as light must radiate must faith strive to +communicate itself. So the account of Jehoshaphat's efforts to spread +the worship of Jehovah follows the account of his personal godliness. +'His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord.' There are two kinds +of lifted-up hearts; one when pride, self-sufficiency, and +forgetfulness of God, raise a man to a giddy height, from which God's +judgments are sure to cast him down and break him in the fall; one +when a lowly heart is raised to high courage and devotion, and 'set on +high,' because it fears God's name. Such elevation is consistent with +humility. It fears no fall; it is an elevation above earthly desires +and terrors, neither of which can reach it, so as to hinder the man +from walking in 'the ways of the Lord.' This king was lifted to it by +his happy experience of the blessed effects of obedience. These +encouraged him to vigorous efforts to spread the religion which had +thus gladdened and brightened his own life. Is that the use we make of +the ease which God gives us? + +Jehoshaphat had to destroy first, in order to build up. The 'high +places and Asherim' had to be taken out of Judah before the true +worship could be established there. So it is still. The Christian has +to carry a sword in the one hand, and a trowel in the other. Many a +rotten old building, the stones of which have been cemented in blood, +has to be swept away before the fair temple can be reared. The Devil +is in possession of much of the world, and the lawful owner has to +dispossess the 'squatter.' No one can suppose that society is +organised on Christian principles even in so-called 'Christian +countries'; and there is much overturning work to be done before He +whose right it is to reign is really king over the whole earth. We, +too, have our 'high places and Asherim' to root out. + +But that destructive work is not to be done by force. Institutions can +only be swept away when public opinion has grown to see their evils. +Forcible reformations of manners, and, still more, of religion, never +last, but are sure to be followed by violent rebounds to the old +order. So, side by side with the removal of idolatry, this king took +care to diffuse the knowledge of the true worship, by sending out a +body of influential commissioners to teach in Judah. That was a new +departure of great importance. It presents several interesting +features. The composition of the staff of instructors is remarkable. +The principal men in it are five court officers, next to whom, and +subordinate, as is shown not only by the order of enumeration, but by +the phrase 'with them,' were nine Levites, and, last and lowest of +all, two priests. We might have expected that priests should be the +most numerous and important members of such a body, and we are led to +suspect that the priesthood was so corrupted as to be careless about +religious reformation. A clerical order is not always the most ardent +in religious revival. The commissioners were probably chosen, without +regard to their being priests, Levites, or 'laymen,' because of their +zeal in the worship of Jehovah; and the five 'princes' head the list +in order to show the royal authority of the commission. + +Another point is the emphasis with which their function of teaching is +thrice mentioned in three verses. Apparently the bulk of the nation +knew little or nothing of 'the law of the Lord,' either on its +spiritual and moral or its ceremonial side; and Jehoshaphat's object +was to effect an enlightened, not a forcible and superficial, change. +God's way of influencing actions is to reveal Himself to the +understanding and the heart, that these may move the will, and that +may shape the deeds. Wise men will imitate God's way. Jehoshaphat did +not issue royal commands, but sent out teachers. In chapter xix. we +find him despatching 'judges' in similar fashion throughout Judah. +They had the power to punish, but these teachers had only authority to +explain and to exhort. + +The present writer accepts the chronicler's statement that the +teachers had 'the Book of the Law' with them, though he recognises it +as possible that that 'Book' was not identical with the complete +collection of documents which now bears the name. But, be that as it +may, the incident of our text is remarkable as being the only recorded +systematic and complete attempt to diffuse the remedy against idolatry +throughout the kingdom, as putting religious reformation on its only +sure ground, and as hinting at deep and widespread ignorance among the +masses. + +'When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be +at peace with him.' So Judah found. 'A terror of the Lord fell upon +all the kingdoms' around. No doubt, the news filtered to them of how +Jehovah was exerting His might on the nation, and a certain +indefinable awe of this so potent god, who was defeating the Baalim, +made them think that peace was the best policy. Each nation was +supposed to have its own god, and the national god was supposed to +fight for his worshippers; so that war was a struggle of deities as +well as of men, and the stronger god won. Here was a god who had +reconquered his territory, and had cast out usurpers. Prudence +dictated keeping on good terms with him. But it never occurred to any +of these peoples that their own gods were any less real than Judah's, +or that Judah's God could ever become theirs. + + + +AMASIAH + +'Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the +Lord.'--1 CHRON. xvii, 16. + + +This is a scrap from the catalogue of Jehoshaphat's 'mighty men of +valour'; and is Amasiah's sole record. We see him for a moment and +hear his eulogium and then oblivion swallows him up. We do not know +what it was that he did to earn it. But what a fate, to live to all +generations by that one sentence! + +I. Cheerful self-surrender the secret of all religion. + +The words of our text contain a metaphor naturally drawn from the +sacrificial system. It comes so easily to us that we scarcely +recognise the metaphorical element, but the clear recognition of it +gives great additional energy to the words. Amasiah was both +sacrificer and sacrifice. His offering was self-immolation. As in all +love, so in that noblest kind of it which clasps God, its perfect +expression is, 'I give Thee my living, loving self.' Nor is it only +sacrifice and sacrificer that are seen in deepest truth in the +experience of the Christian life, but the reality of the Temple is +also there, for 'Ye also ... are built up a spiritual house, to be a +holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.' Only when God +dwells in us, shall we have the nerve and the firmness of hand to take +the knife and 'slay before the Lord,' the awful Guest in the sanctuary +within, the most precious of the children of our spirits. + +The essence of the sacrifice of self is the sacrifice of will. In the +Christian experience 'willingly offered' is almost tautology, for +unwilling offerings are a contradiction and in fact there are no such +things. The quality of unwillingness destroys the character of the +offering and robs it of all sacredness. Reluctant Christianity is not +Christianity. That noun and that adjective can never be buckled +together. + +The submission of will and the consequent surrender of myself and my +powers, opportunities, and possessions, so that I do all, enjoy all, +use all, and when need is, endure all with glad thankful reference to +God is only possible to me in the measure in which my will is made +flexible by love, and such will-subduing love comes only when we 'know +and believe the love that God hath to us.' There is the point at which +not a few moral and religious teachers go wrong and bewilder +themselves and their disciples. There, too, is the point at which +Christ and the Gospel of salvation through faith in Him stand forth as +emancipating humanity from the dreary round of efforts and vain +attempts to work up the condition needful for achieving the height of +self-surrender, which is seen to be indispensable to all true +nobleness of living, but is felt to be beyond the reach of the +ordinary man. There, too, is the point at which many good people mar +their lives as Christians. They waste their strength in trying to +bring the jibbing horse up to the leap. They try to blow up a fire of +devotion and to make themselves priests to offer themselves, but all +the while the mutinous self recoils from the leap, and the fire burns +smokily, and their sacrifice is laid on the altar with little joy, +because they have not been careful and wise enough to begin at the +beginning and to follow God's way of melting their wills, by love, the +reflection of the Infinite love of God to them. God's priests offer +themselves because they offer their wills; they offer their wills +because they love God; they love God because they know that God loves +them. That is the divine order. It is vain to try to accomplish the +end by any other. + +II. This willing offering hallows all life. + +No syllable is left to tell us what Amasiah did to win this praise. +Probably the words enshrine some now forgotten memory of his cheerful +courage, some heroic feat on an unrecorded battlefield. Particulars +are not given nor needed. Specific actions are unimportant; the spirit +of a life can be told with very incomplete details, and it, not the +details, is the important thing. Sometimes, as in many modern +biographies, one 'cannot see the wood for the trees,' and misses the +main drift and aim of a life in the chaos of a bewildering mass of +nothings. How much more happy the lot of this man of whom we have only +the generalised expression of the text, unweighted and undisturbed by +petty incidents! It takes tons of rose leaves to make a tiny phial of +otto of roses, but the fragrance is far more pungent in a drop of the +distillation than in armfuls of leaves. Every life shrinks into very +small compass, and the centuries do not tolerate long biographies. +Shall we not seek to order our life so that Amasiah's epitaph may +serve for us? It will be blessed if this--and nothing else--is known +about us, that we 'willingly offered ourselves to the Lord.' My +friend: will that be a true epitome of your life? + +III. This willing offering is accepted by God. + +We may hear a mightier voice behind the chronicler's, and the judgment +of the Judge of all pronounced by His lips. It matters little what men +say of one another, but it matters everything what God says of us. We +are but too apt to forget that He is now saying something as to each +of us, and that we have not to wait for death to put a final period to +our activities, before our lives become fit subjects for God's +judgment, Moment by moment we are writing our own sentences. But while +it is good for us to remember the continuous judgment of God on each +deed, it is not good to let dark thoughts of the principles of that +judgment paralyse our activity or chill our confidence in His +forgiving and accepting mercy. There is often a dark suspicion, like +that of the one-talented servant, which blackens God's fair fame as +being 'an austere Man,' making demands rather than imparting power, +and the effect of such an ugly conception of Him is to cut the nerve +of service and bury the talent, carefully folded up, it may be, but +none the less earning nothing. 'If we call on Him as Father, who +without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,' let +us be sure that it will be a Fatherly judgment that He will pass upon +us and our offerings. There is a wonderful collection on His altar of +what many people would think rubbish, just as many a mother has laid +away among her treasures some worthless article which her child had +once given her--a weed plucked by the roadside in a long past summer +day, some trifle of rare preciousness in the child's eyes, and of none +in any others than her own. She opens her drawer and brings out the +poor little thing, and her eyes fill and her heart fills as she looks. +And does not God keep His children's gifts as lovingly, and set them +in places of honour in the day when He 'makes up His jewels'? There +are cups of cold water and widows' mites and much else that a +supercilious world would call 'trash' stored there. Thank God! He +accepts imperfect service, faltering faith, partial consecration, a +little love. Even our poor offering may be an 'odour of a sweet +smell,' ministering fragrance that is a delight to Him, if it is +offered with the much incense of the great Sacrifice and through the +mediation of the great High Priest. + +The world forgot Amasiah, or never knew him, an obscure soldier in an +obscure kingdom, but God did not forget, and here is his epitaph, and +this is his memorial to all generations. Men's chronicles have no room +for all the names that their wearers are eager to have inscribed on +their crumbling and crowded pages, 'but the Lamb's Book of Life' has +ample space on its radiant pages for all who desire to set their names +there, and if ours are there, we need not envy the proudest whose +titles and deeds fill the most conspicuous pages in the world's +records. 'Then shall every man have praise of Christ,' and he who wins +that guerdon needs nothing more, and can have nothing more to swell +his blessedness. + + + +'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES' + +'And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to +Jerusalem. 2. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet +him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, +and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from +before the Lord. 3. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, +in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast +prepared thine heart to seek God. 4. And Jehoshaphat dwelt at +Jerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beer-sheba to +mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord God of their +fathers. 5. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced +cities of Judah, city by city. 6. And said to the judges, Take heed +what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with +you in the judgment. 7. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon +you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our +God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. 8. Moreover in +Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and +of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord, +and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. 9. And he +charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, +faithfully, and with a perfect heart. 10. And what cause soever shall +come to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood +and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye +shall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord, and so +wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not +trespass. 11. And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all +matters of the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the +house of Judah, for all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be +officers before you. Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the +good.'--2 CHRON. XIX. 1-11. + + +Jehoshaphat is distinguished by two measures for his people's good: +one, his sending out travelling preachers through the land (2 Chron. +xvii. 7-9); another, this provision of local judges and a central +court in Jerusalem. The former was begun as early as the third year of +his reign, but was probably interrupted, like other good things, by +his ill-omened alliance with Ahab. The prophet Jehu's plain speaking +seems to have brought the king back to his better self, and its fruit +was his going 'among the people,' from south to north, as a +missionary, 'to bring them back to Jehovah.' The religious reformation +was accompanied by his setting judges throughout the land. Our modern +way of distinguishing between religious and civil concerns is foreign +to Eastern thought, and was especially out of the question in a +theocracy. Jehovah was the King of Judah; therefore the things that +are Caesar's and the things that are God's coalesced, and these two +objects of Jehoshaphat's journeyings were pursued simultaneously. We +have travelled far from his simple institutions, and our course has +not been all progress. His supreme concern was to deal out even-handed +justice between man and man; is not ours rather to give ample doses of +law? To him the judicial function was a copy of God's, and its +exercise a true act of worship, done in His fear, and modelled after +His pattern. The first impression made in one of our courts is +scarcely that judge and counsel are engaged in worship. + +There had been local judges before Jehoshaphat--elders in the +villages, the 'heads of the fathers' houses' in the tribes. We do not +know whether the great secession had flung the simple old machinery +somewhat out of gear, or whether Jehoshaphat's action was simply to +systematise and make universal the existing arrangements. But what +concerns us most is to note that all the charge which he gives to +these peasant magistrates bears on the religious aspect of their +duties. They are to think themselves as acting for Jehovah and with +Jehovah. If they recognise the former, they may be confident of the +latter. They are to 'let the fear of Jehovah be upon you,' for that +awe resting on a spirit will, like a burden or water-jar on a woman's +shoulder, make the carriage upright and the steps firm. They are not +only to act for and with Jehovah, but to do like Him, avoiding +injustice, favouritism, and corruption, the plague-spots of Eastern +law-courts. In such a state of society, the cases to be adjudicated +were mostly such as mother-wit, honesty and the fear of God could +solve; other times call for other qualifications. But still, let us +learn from this charge that even in our necessarily complicated legal +systems and political life, there is room and sore need for the +application of the same principles. What a different world it would be +if our judges and representatives carried some tincture of +Jehoshaphat's simple and devout wisdom into their duties! Civic and +political life ought to be as holy as that of cloister and cell. To +judge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray. A +politician may be 'a priest of the Most High God.' + +And for us all the spirit of Jehoshaphat's charge is binding, and +every trivial and secular task is to be discharged for God, with God, +in the fear of God. 'On the bells of the horses shall be Holiness unto +Jehovah.' If our religion does not drive the wheels of daily life, so +much the worse for our life and our religion. But, above all, this +charge reminds us that the secret of right living is to imitate God. +These peasants were to find direction, as well as inspiration, in +gazing on Jehovah's character, and trying to copy it. And we are to be +'imitators of God, as beloved children,' though our best efforts may +only produce poor results. A masterpiece may be copied in some +wretched little newspaper blotch, but the great artist will own it for +a copy, and correct it into complete likeness. + +The second step was to establish a 'supreme court' in Jerusalem, which +had two divisions, ecclesiastical and civil, as we should say, the +former presided over by the chief priest, and the latter by 'the ruler +of the house of Judah.' Murder cases and the graver questions +involving interpretation of the law were sent up thither, while the +village judges had probably to decide only points that shrewdness and +integrity could settle. But these superior judges, too, received +charges as to moral, rather than intellectual or learned +qualifications. Religiously, uprightly, 'with a perfect heart,' +courageously, they were to act, 'and Jehovah be with the good!' That +may be a prayer, like the old invocation with which heralds sent +knights to tilt at each other, and with which, in some legal +proceedings, the pleas are begun, 'God defend the right!' But more +probably it is an assurance that God will guide the judges to favour +the good cause, if they on their parts will bring the aforesaid +qualities to their decisions. And are not these qualities just such as +will, for the most part, give similar results to us, if in our various +activities we exercise them? And may we not see a sequence worth our +practically putting to the proof in these characteristics enjoined on +Jehoshaphat's supreme court? Begin with 'the fear of the Lord'; that +will help us to 'faithfulness and a perfect heart'; and these again by +taking away occasions of ignoble fear, and knitting together the else +tremulous and distracted nature, will make the fearful brave and the +weak strong. + +But another thought is suggested by Jehoshaphat's language. Note how +this court does not seem to have inflicted punishments, but to have +had only counsels and warnings to wield. It was a board of +conciliation rather than a penal tribunal. Two things it had to do--to +press upon the parties the weighty consideration that crimes against +men were sins against God, and that the criminal drew down wrath on +the community. This remarkable provision brings out strongly thoughts +that modern society will be the better for incorporating. The best way +to deal with men is to get at their hearts and consciences. The deeper +aspect of civil crimes or wrongs to men should be pressed on the doer; +namely, that they are sins against God. Again, all such acts are sins +against the mystical sacred bond of brotherhood. Again, the solidarity +of a nation makes it inevitable that 'one sinner destroyeth much +good,' and pulls down with him, when God smites him, a multitude of +innocents. So finely woven is the web of the national life that, if a +thread run in any part of it, a great rent gapes. If one member sins, +all the members suffer with it. And lastly, the cruellest thing that +we can do is to be dumb when we see sin being committed. It is not +public men, judges and the like, alone, who are called on thus to warn +evil-doers, but all of us in our degree. If we do not, we are guilty +along with a guilty nation; and it is only when, to the utmost of our +power, we have warned our brethren as to national sins, that we can +wash our hands in innocency, 'This do, and ye shall not be guilty.' + + + +A STRANGE BATTLE + +'We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; +neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.'--2 CHRON xx. +12. + + +A formidable combination of neighbouring nations, of which Moab and +Ammon, the ancestral enemies of Judah, were the chief, was threatening +Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king, was panic-stricken when he heard of the +heavy war-cloud that was rolling on, ready to burst in thunder on his +little kingdom. His first act was to muster the nation, not as a +military levy but as suppliants, 'to seek help of the Lord.' The enemy +was camping down by the banks of the Dead Sea, almost within striking +distance of Jerusalem. It seemed a time for fighting, not for praying, +but even at that critical moment, the king and the men, whom it might +have appeared that plain duty called to arms, were gathered in the +Temple, and, hampered by their wives and children, were praying. Would +they not have done better if they had been sturdily marching through +the wilderness of Judah to front their foes? Our text is the close and +the climax of Jehoshaphat's prayer, and, as the event proved, it was +the most powerful weapon that could have been employed, for the rest +of the chapter tells the strangest story of a campaign that was ever +written. No sword was drawn. The army was marshalled, but Levites with +their instruments of music, not fighters with their spears, led the +van, and as 'they began to sing and to praise,' sudden panic laid hold +on the invading force, who turned their arms against each other. So +when Judah came to some rising ground, on which stood a watch-tower +commanding a view over the savage grimness of 'the wilderness,' it saw +a field of corpses, stark and stiff and silent. Three days were spent +in securing the booty, and on the fourth, Jehoshaphat and his men +'assembled themselves in the Valley of Blessing,' and thence returned +a joyous multitude praising God for the victory which had been won for +them without their having struck a blow. The whole story may yield +large lessons, seasonable at all times. We deal with it, rather than +with the fragment of the narrative which we have taken as our text. + +I. We see here the confidence of despair. + +Jehoshaphat's prayer had stayed itself on God's self-revelation in +history, and on His gift of the land to their fathers. It had pleaded +that the enemy's hostility was a poor 'reward' for Israel's ancient +forbearance, and now, with a burst of agony, it casts down before God, +as it were, Judah's desperate plight as outnumbered by the swarm of +invaders and brought to their last shifts--'we have no might against +this great company ... neither know we what to do.' But the very depth +of despair sets them to climb to the height of trust. That is a mighty +'But,' which buckles into one sentence two such antitheses as confront +us here. 'We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee'--blessed +is the desperation which catches at God's hand; firm is the trust +which leaps from despair! + +The helplessness is always a fact, though most of us manage to get +along for the most part without discovering it. We are all outnumbered +and overborne by the claims, duties, hindrances, sorrows, and +entanglements of life. He is not the wisest of men who, facing all +that life may bring and take away, all that it must bring and take +away, knows no quiver of nameless fear, but jauntily professes himself +ready for all that life can inflict. But there come moments in every +life when the false security in which shallow souls wrap themselves +ignobly is broken up, and then often a paroxysm of terror or misery +grips a man, for which he has no anodyne, and his despair is as +unreasonable as his security. The meaning of all circumstances that +force our helplessness on us is to open to us Jehoshaphat's refuge in +his--'our eyes are upon Thee.' We need to be driven by the crowds of +foes and dangers around to look upwards. Our props are struck away +that we may cling to God. The tree has its lateral branches hewed off +that it may shoot up heavenward. When the valley is filled with mist +and swathed in evening gloom, it is the time to lift our gaze to the +peaks that glow in perpetual sunshine. Wise and happy shall we be if +the sense of helplessness begets in us the energy of a desperate +faith. For these two, distrust of self and glad confidence in God, are +not opposites, as naked distrust and trust are, but are complementary. +He does not turn his eyes to God who has not turned them on himself, +and seen there nothing to which to cling, nothing on which to lean. +Astronomers tell us that there are double stars revolving round one +axis and forming a unity, of which the one is black and the other +brilliant. Self-distrust and trust in God are thus knit together and +are really one. + +II. We see here the peaceful assurance of victory that attends on +faith. + +A flash of inspiration came to one of the Levitical singers who had, +no doubt, been deeply moved and had unconsciously fitted himself for +receiving it. Divinely breathed confidence illuminated his waiting +spirit, and a great message of encouragement poured from his lips. His +words heartened the host more than a hundred trumpets braying in their +ears. How much one man who has drunk in God's assurance of victory can +do to send a thrill of his own courage through more timorous hearts! +Courage is no less contagious than panic. This Levite becomes the +commander of the army, and Jehoshaphat and his captains 'bow their +heads' and accept his plan for to-morrow, hearing in his ringing +accents a message from Jehovah. The instructions given and at once +accepted are as unlike those of ordinary warfare as is the whole +incident; for there is to be no sword drawn nor blow struck, but they +are to 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.' They are told +where to find the enemy and are bid to go forth in order of battle +against them, and they are assured 'that the battle is not theirs, but +God's.' No wonder that the message was hailed as from heaven, and put +new heart into the host, or that, when the messenger's voice ceased, +his brother Levites broke into shrill praise as for a victory already +won. With what calm, triumphant hearts the camp would sleep that +night! + +May we not take that inspired Levite's message as one to ourselves in +the midst of our many conflicts both in the outward life and in the +inward? If we have truly grasped God's hands, and are fighting for +what is accordant with His will, we have a right to feel that 'the +battle is not ours but God's,' and to be sure that therefore we shall +conquer. Of course we are not to say to ourselves, 'God will fight for +us, and we need not strike a blow,' Jehoshaphat's example does not fit +our case in that respect, and we may thank God that it does not. We +have a better lot than to 'stand still and see the salvation of God,' +for we are honoured by being allowed to share the stress of conflict +and the glow of battle as well as in the shout of victory. But even in +the struggles of outward life, and much more in those of our spiritual +nature, every man who watches his own career will many a time have to +recognise God's hand, unaided by any act of his own, striking for him +and giving him victory; and in the spiritual life every Christian man +knows that his best moments have come from the initiation of the +Spirit who 'bloweth where He listeth.' How often we have been +surprised by God's help; how often we have been quickened by God's +inbreathed Spirit, and have been taught that the passivity of faith +draws to us greater blessings than the activity of effort! 'They also +serve who only stand and wait,' and they also conquer who in quietness +and confidence keep themselves still and let God work for them and in +them. The first great blessing of trust in God is that we may be at +peace on the eve of battle, and the second is that in every battle it +is, in truth, not we that fight, but God who fights for and in us. + +III. We learn here the best preparation for the conflict. + +When the morning dawned, the array was set in order and the march +begun, and a strange array it was. In the van marched the Temple +singers singing words that are music to us still: 'Give thanks unto +the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever,' and behind them came the +ranks of Judah, no doubt swelling the volume of melody, that startled +the wild creatures of the wilderness, and perhaps travelled through +the still morning as far as the camp of the enemy. The singers had no +armour nor weapons. They were clad in 'the beauty of holiness,' the +priestly dress, and for sword and spear they carried harps and +timbrels. Our best weapons are like their equipment. + +We are most likely to conquer if we lift up the voice of thanks for +victory in advance, and go into the battle expecting to triumph, +because we trust in God. The world's expectation of success is too +often a dream, a will-o'-the-wisp that tempts to bogs where the +beguiled victim is choked, though even in the world it is often true; +'screw your courage to the sticking point, and we'll not fail.' But +faith, that is the expectation of success based on God's help and +inspiring to struggles for things dear to His heart, is wont to fulfil +itself, and by bringing God into the fray, to secure the victory. A +thankful heart not seldom brings into existence that for which it is +thankful. + +IV. We see here the victory and the praise for it. + +The panic that laid hold on the enemy, and turned their swords against +each other, was more natural in an undisciplined horde such as these +irregular levies of ancient times, than it would be in a modern army. +Once started, the infection would spread, so we need not wonder that +by the time that Judah arrived on the field all was over. How often a +like experience attends us! We quiver with apprehension of troubles +that never attack us. We dread some impending battlefield, and when we +reach it, Jehoshaphat's surprise is repeated, 'and, behold they were +dead bodies, fallen to the earth.' Delivered from foes and fears, +Judah's first impulse was to secure the booty, for they were keen +after wealth, and their 'faith' was not very pure or elevating. But +their last act was worthier, and fitly ended the strange campaign. +They gathered in some wady among the grim cliffs of the wilderness of +Judah, which broke the dreariness of that savage stretch of country +with perhaps verdure and a brook, and there they 'blessed the Lord.' +The chronicler gives a piece of popular etymology, in deriving the +name, 'the valley of blessing,' from that morning's worship. Perhaps +the name was older than that, and was given from a feeling of the +contrast between the waste wilderness, which in its gaunt sterility +seemed an accursed land, and the glen which with its trees and stream +was indeed a 'valley of blessing.' If so, the name would be doubly +appropriate after that day's experience. Be that as it may, here we +have in vivid form the truth that all our struggles and fightings may +end in a valley of blessing, which will ring with the praise of the +God who fights for us. If we begin our warfare with an appeal to God, +and with prayerful acknowledgment of our own impotence, we shall end +it with thankful acknowledgment that we are 'more than conquerors +through Him that loved us' and fought for us, and our choral song of +praise will echo through the true Valley of Blessing, where no sound +of enemies shall ever break the settled stillness, and the host of the +redeemed, like that army of Judah, shall bear 'psalteries and harps +and trumpets,' and shall need spear and sword no more at all for ever. + + + +HOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST + +'As they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Believe in the Lord +your God, so shall ye be established.'--2 CHRON. xx. 20. + + +Certainly no stronger army ever went forth to victory than these Jews, +who poured out of Jerusalem that morning with no weapon in all their +ranks, and having for their van, not their picked men, but singers who +'praised the beauty of holiness,' and chanted the old hymn, 'Give +thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever.' That was all +that men had to do in the battle, for as the shrill song rose in the +morning air 'the Lord set liers in wait for the foe,' and they turned +their swords against one another, so that when Jehoshaphat and his +troops came in sight of the enemy the battle was over and the field +strewn with corpses--so great and swift is the power of devout +recognition of God's goodness and trust in His enduring mercy, even in +the hour of extremest peril. + +The exhortation in our text which is Jehoshaphat's final word to his +army, has, in the original, a beauty and emphasis that are incapable +of being preserved in translation. There is a play of words which +cannot be reproduced in another language, though the sentiment of it +may be explained. The two expressions for 'believing' and 'being +established' are two varying forms of the same root-word; and although +we can only imitate the original clumsily in our language, we might +translate in some such way as this: 'Hold fast by the Lord your God, +and you will be held fast,' or 'stay yourselves on Him and you will be +stable.' These attempts at reproducing the similarity of sound between +the two verbs in the two clauses of our text, rude as they are, +preserve what is lost, so far as regards form, in the English +translation, though that is correct as to the meaning of the command +and promise. If we note this connection of the two clauses we just +come to the general principle which lies here, that the true source of +steadfastness in character and conduct, of victory over temptation, +and of standing fast in slippery places, is simple reliance, or, to +use the New Testament word, 'faith,' 'Believe and ye shall be +established.' Put out your hand and clasp Him, and He puts out His +hand and steadies you. But all the steadfastness and strength come +from the mighty Hand that is outstretched, not from the tremulous one +that grasps it. + +So, then, keeping to the words of my text, let me suggest to you the +large lessons that this saying teaches us, in regard to three things, +which I may put as being the object, the nature, and the issues of +faith; or, in other words, to whom we are to cling, how we are to +cling, and what the consequence of the clinging is. + +I. To whom we must cling. + +'Stay yourselves on the Lord your God,' Well, then, faith is not +believing a number of theological articles, nor is it even accepting +the truth of the Gospel as it lies in Jesus Christ, but it is +accepting the Christ whom the truth of the Gospel reveals to us. And, +although we have to come to Him through the word that declares what He +is, and what He has done for us, the act of believing on Him is +something that lies beyond the mere understanding of, or giving +credence to, the message that tells us who He is and what He has done. +A man may have not the ghost of a doubt or hesitation about one tittle +of revealed truth, and if you were to cross-question him, could answer +satisfactorily all the questions of an orthodox inquisitor, and yet +there may not be one faintest flicker of faith in that man's whole +being, for all the correctness of his creed, and the comprehensiveness +of it, too. Trust is more than assent. If it is a Person on whom our +faith leans, then from that there follows clearly enough that the bond +which binds us to Him must be something far warmer, far deeper, and +far more under the control of our own will than the mere consent or +assent of our brains to a set of revealed truths. 'The Lord your God,' +and not even the Bible that tells you about Him; 'the Lord your God,' +and not even the revealed truths that manifest Him, but Him as +revealed by the truths--it is He that is the Object to which our faith +clings. + +Jehoshaphat, in the same breath in which he exhorted his people to +'believe in the Lord, that they might be established,' also said, +'Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.' The immediate reference, +of course, was to the man who the day before had assured them of +victory. But the wider truth suggested is, that the only way to get to +God is through the word that speaks of Him, and which has come from +the lips either of prophets or of the Son who has spoken more, and +more sweetly and clearly, than all the prophets put together. If we +are to believe God, we must believe the prophets that tell us of Him. + +And then there is another suggestion that may be made. The Object of +faith proposed to Judah is not only 'the Lord,' but 'the Lord +_your_ God.' I do not say that there can be no faith without the +'appropriating' action which takes the whole Godhead for mine, but I +doubt very much whether there is any. And it seems to me that to a +very large extent the difference between mere nominal, formal +Christians and men who really are living by the power of faith in God +as revealed in Jesus Christ, lies in that one little word, 'the Lord +your God.' That a man shall put out a grasping hand, and say, 'I take +for my own--for my very own--the universal blessing, I claim as my +possession that God of the spirits of all flesh, I believe that He +does stand in a real individualising relation to me, and I to Him,' is +surely of the very essence of faith. There is no presumption, but the +truest wisdom and lowliness in enclosing, if I may so say, a part of +this great common for ours, and putting a hedge about it, as it were, +and saying, 'That is mine.' We shall not have understood the sweetness +and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ until we have pointed and +condensed the general declaration, 'He so loved the world,' into the +individualising and appropriating one, 'He loved me, and gave Himself +for me.' Oh! if we could only apply that process thoroughly to all the +broad glorious words and promises of Scripture, and feel that the +whole incidence of them was meant to fall upon us, one by one, and +that just as the sun, up in the heavens there, sends all his beams +into the tiniest daisy on the grass, as if there was nothing else in +the whole world, but only its little petals to be smoothed out and +opened, I think our Christianity would be more real, and we should +have more blessings in our hands. God in Christ and I, the only two +beings in the universe, and all His fullness mine, and all my weakness +supported and supplemented by Him--that is the view that we should +sometimes take. We should set ourselves apart from all mankind, and +claim Him as our very own, and so be filled with the fullness of God. + +This, then, is the Object of faith, a Person who is all mine and all +yours too. The beam of light that falls on my eye falls on yours, and +no man makes a sunbeam the smaller because he sees by it; and in like +manner we may each possess the whole of God for our very own property. + +II. How we cling. + +The metaphor, I suppose, is more eloquent than all explanations of it. +'Believe in the Lord'; hold fast by Him with a tight grip, continually +renewed when it tends to slacken, as it surely will, and then you will +be established. + +We might run out into any number of figurative illustrations. Look at +that little child beginning to learn to walk, how it fastens its +little dimpled hands into its mother's apron, and so the tiny +tottering feet get a kind of steadfastness into them. Look at that man +lying at the door of the Temple, who never had walked since his +mother's womb, and had lain there for forty years, with his poor weak +ankles all atrophied by reason of their disuse. 'He _held_ Peter +and John.' Would not his grasp be tight? Would he not clasp their +hands as his only stay? He had not become accustomed to the astounding +miracle of walking, nor learned to balance himself and accomplish the +still more astounding feat of standing steady. So he clutched at the +two Apostles and was 'established.' Look at that man walking by a +slippery path which he does not know, holding by the hand the guide +who is able to direct and keep him up. See this other in some wild +storm, with an arm round a steadfast tree-stem, to keep him from being +blown over the precipice, how he clings like a limpet to a rock. And +that is how we are to hold on to God, with what would be despair if it +were not the perfection of confidence, with the clear sense that the +only thing between us and ruin is the strong Hand that we clasp. + +And what do we mean by clasping God? I mean making daily efforts to +rivet our love on Him, and not to let the world, with all its delusive +and cloying sweets, draw us away from Him. I mean continual and +strenuous efforts to fix our _thoughts_ upon Him, and not to +allow the trivialities of life, or the claims of culture, or the +necessities of our daily position so to absorb our minds as that +thoughts of God are comparative strangers there, except, perhaps, +sometimes on a Sunday, and now and then at the sleepy end, or the +half-awake beginning, of a day. I mean continually repeated and +strenuous efforts to cleave to Him by the submission of our +_will_, letting Him 'do what seemeth Him good,' and not lifting +ourselves up against Him, or perking our own inclinations, desires, +and fancies in His face, as if we would induce Him to take them for +His guides! And I mean that we should try to commit our _way_ +unto the Lord, 'to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' The +submissive will which cleaves to God's commandments, the waiting heart +that clings to His love, the regulated thoughts that embrace His +truth, and the childlike confidence that commits its path to +Him--these are the elements of that steadfast adherence to the Lord +which shall not be in vain. + +III. The blessed effects of this clinging to God. + +'So shall ye be established.' That follows, as a matter of course. The +only way to make light things stable is to fasten them to something +that is stable. And the only way to put any kind of calmness and +fixedness, and yet progress--stability in the midst of progress, and +progress in the midst of stability--into our lives, is by keeping firm +hold of God. If we grasp His hand, then a calm serenity will be ours. +In the midst of changes, sorrows, losses, disappointments, we shall +not be blown about here and there by furious winds of fortune, nor +will the heavy currents of the river of life sweep us away. We shall +have a holdfast and a mooring. And although, like some light-ship +anchored in the Channel, we may heave up and down with the waves, we +shall keep in the same place, and be steadfast in the midst of +mobility, and wholesomely mobile although anchored in the one spot +where there is safety. As the issue of faith, of this throwing the +responsibility for ourselves upon God, there will be quietness of +heart, and continuance and persistence in righteousness, and +steadfastness of purpose and continuity of advancement in the divine +life. 'The law of the Lord is in his heart,' says one of the Psalms, +'none of his steps shall slide.' The man who walks holding God's hand +can put down a firm foot, even when he is walking in slippery places. +There will be decision, and strength, and persistence of continuous +advance, in a life that derives its impulse and its motive power from +communion with God in Jesus Christ. + +There will be victory, not indeed after the fashion of that in this +story before us. In it, of course, men had to do nothing but 'stand +still and see the salvation of God.' That is the law for us, in regard +to the initial blessings of acceptance, and forgiveness, and the +communication of the divine life from above. We have to be simple +recipients, and we have no co-operating share in that part of the work +of our own salvation. But for the rest we have to help God. 'Work out +your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh +in you.' But none the less, 'This is the victory that over-cometh the +world, even our faith,' and if we give heed to Jehoshaphat's +commandment, and go out to battle as his people did, with the love and +trust of God in our hearts, then we shall come back as they did, laden +with spoil, and shall name the place which was the field of conflict +'the valley of blessing,' and return to Jerusalem 'with psalteries, +and harps, and trumpets,' and 'God will give us rest from all our +enemies round about us.' + + + +JOASH + +'And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the +days of Jehoiada the priest.... 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada +came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the +king hearkened unto them.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 2, 17. + + +Here we have the tragedy of a soul. Joash begins life well and for the +greater part of it remains faithful to his conscience and to his duty, +and then, when outward circumstances change, he casts all behind him, +forgets the past and commits moral suicide. It is the sad old story, a +bright commencement, an early promise all scattered to the winds. It +is a strange story, too. This seven-year-old king had been saved when +his father had been killed, and that true daughter of Jezebel, as well +by nature as by blood, Athaliah, had murdered all his brothers and +sisters, and made herself queen. He had been saved by the courage of a +woman who might worthily stand by the side of Deborah and other Jewish +heroines. By this woman, who was his aunt, he was hidden and brought +up in the Temple until, whilst yet a mere boy, he came to the throne, +the High Priest Jehoiada, the husband of his aunt, being his guardian +during his nonage. He reigns well till the lad of seven becomes a +mature man of thirty or thereabouts, and then Jehoiada dies, full of +years and honours, and they fitly lay him among the kings of Judah, a +worthy resting-place for one who had 'done good in Israel.' And now +the weakling on the throne is left alone without the strong arm to +guide him and keep him right, and we read that 'the princes of Judah +came and made obeisance to him.' They take him on his weak side, and I +dare say Jehoiada had been too true and too noble to do that, and +though we are not told what means they took to flatter and coax him, +we see very plainly what they were conspiring to do, for we read that +'they left the house of the Lord their God, the God of their fathers, +and served groves and idols,' the groves here mentioned being symbols +of Ashtaroth the goddess of the Sidonians. And so all the past is +wiped out and Joash takes his place amongst the apostates. The story +has solemn lessons. + +I. Note the change from loyal adhesion to apostasy. + +The strong man on whom Joash used to lean was away, and the poor, weak +king went just where the wicked princes led him. It was probably out +of sheer imbecility that he passed from the worship of God to the +acknowledgment and service of idols. + +The first point that I would insist upon is a well-worn and familiar +one, as I am well aware, but I urge it upon you, and especially upon +the younger portion of my audience. It is this, that there is no +telling the amount of mischief that pure weakness of character may +lead into. The worst men we come across in the Bible are not those who +begin with a deliberate intention of doing evil. They are weak +creatures, 'reeds shaken by the wind,' who have no power of resisting +the force of circumstances. It is a truth which every one's experience +confirms, that the mother of all possible badness is weakness, and +that, not only as Milton's Satan puts it, 'To be weak is to be +miserable,' but that weakness is wickedness sooner or later. The man +who does not bar the doors and windows of his senses and his soul +against temptation, is sure to make shipwreck of his life and in the +end to become 'a fool.' There is so much wickedness lying round us in +this world that any man who lets himself be shaped and coloured by +that with which he comes in contact, is sure to go to the bad in the +long run. Where a man lays himself open to the accidents of time and +circumstances, the majority of these influences will be contrary to +what is right and good. Therefore, he must gather himself together and +learn to say 'No!' There is no foretelling the profound abysses into +which a 'good, easy' nature, with plenty of high and pure impulses, +perhaps, but which are written in water, may fall. 'Thou, therefore, +young man! be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.' Learn to +say No! or else you will be sure to say Yes! in the wrong place, and +then down you will go, like this Joash whose goodness depended on +Jehoiada, and when he died, all the virtue that had characterised this +life hitherto was laid with him in the dust. + +Let us learn from this story in the next place, how little power of +continuance there is in a merely traditional religion. Many of you +call yourselves Christian people mainly because other people do the +same. It is customary to respect and regard Christianity. You have +been brought up in the midst of it. Our country is always considered a +Christian land, and so, naturally, you tacitly accept the truth of a +religion which is so influential. The lowest phase of this attitude is +that which seeks some advantage from a church connection, like the +foolish man in the Old Testament who thought he would do well because +he had a Levite for his priest. Religion is the most personal thing +about a man. To become a Christian is the most personal act one can +perform. It is a thing that a man has to do for himself, and however +friends and guides may help us in other matters, in trials and +perplexities and difficulties, by their sympathy and experience, they +are useless here. A man has here to act as if there were no other +beings in the universe but a solitary God and himself, and unless we +have ourselves done that act in the depths of our own personality, we +have not done it at all. If you young people are good, just because +you have pious parents who make you go to church or chapel on a +Sunday, and keep you out of mischief during the week, your goodness is +a sham. One great result of personal Christianity is to make a +minister, a teacher, a guide, superfluous, and when such an one +becomes so, his work has been successful and not till then. Unless you +put forth for yourself the hand of faith and for yourself yield up the +devotion and love of your own heart, your religion is nought. + +However much active effort about the outside of religion there may be, +it is of itself useless. It is without bottom and without reality. +Here we have Joash busy with the externals of worship and actually +deceiving himself thereby. It was a great deal easier to make that +chest for contributions to a Temple Repairing Fund, and to get it well +filled, and to patch up the house of the Lord, than for him to get +down on his knees and pray, and he may have thought that to be busy +about the house of God was to be devout. So it may be with many +Sunday-school teachers and Church workers. Their religion may be as +merely superficial and as little personal as this man's was. It is not +for me to say so about A, B, or C. It is for you to ask of yourselves +if it is so as to you. But I do say that there is nothing that masks +his own soul from a man more than setting him to do something for +Christianity and God's Church, while in his inmost self he has not yet +yielded himself to God. + +I look around and I see the devil slaying his thousands by setting +them to work in Christian associations and leaving them no time to +think about their own Christianity. My brother! if the cap fits, go +home and put it on. + +We see in Joash's life for how long a time a man may go on in this +self-delusion of external and barren service and never know it. Joash +came to the throne at the age of seven. Up till that age he had lived +in the Temple in concealment. Until he was one and thirty he went on +in a steady, upright course, never knowing that there was anything +hollow in his life. Apparently, Jehoiada's long life of one hundred +and thirty years extended over the greater part of Joash's reign, +during most of which he had Jehoiada to direct him and keep him right, +and all this tragedy comes at the tag end of it. + +So he went on apparently all right, like a tree that has become quite +hollow, till during some storm it is blown down and falls with a +crash, and it is seen that for years it has been only the skin of a +tree, bark outside, and inside--emptiness. + +II. We come now to the second stage in the later life of Joash: His +resistance to the divine pleading. + +'And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served +groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their +trespass, yet He sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the +Lord.' He sent with endless pity, with long-suffering patience. He +would not be put away, and as they increased the distance between Him +and them, He increased His energies to bring them back. But they +lifted themselves up, Joash and his princes, and with that strange, +awful power of resisting the attraction of the divine pleading, and +hardening their hearts against the divine patience--'they would not.' +And then comes the affecting episode of the death of the high priest +Zechariah, who had succeeded to his father's place and likewise to his +heroism, and who, with the Spirit of God upon him, stands up and +pointing out his wickedness, rebukes the fallen monarch for his +apostasy. Joash, doubtless stung to the quick by Zechariah's just +reproaches, allowed the truculent princes to slay him in the court of +the Temple, even between the very shrine and the altar. + +What a picture we have here of the divine love which follows every +wanderer with its pleadings and beseechings! It came to this man +through the lips of a prophet. It comes to us all in daily blessings, +sometimes in messages, like these poor words of mine. God will not let +us ruin ourselves without pleading with us and wooing us to love Him +and cling to Him. 'He rises up early' and daily sends us His messages, +sometimes rebukes and voices in our conscience, sometimes sunset glows +and starry heavens lifting our thoughts above this low earth, +sometimes sorrows that are meant to 'drive us to His breast,' and +above all, the 'Gospel of our salvation' in Christ, ever, in such a +land as ours, sounding in our ears. + +Still further, we see in Joash what a strange, awful strength of +obstinate resistance, a character weak as regards its resistance to +man, can put forth against God. He never attempted to say 'No!' to the +princes of Judah, but he could say it again and again to his Father in +heaven. He could not but yield to the temptations which were level +with his eyes, and this poor creature, easily swayed by human +allurements and influences, could gather himself together, standing, +as it were, on his little pin point, and say to God, 'Thou dost call +and I refuse.' What a paradox, and yet repetitions of it are sitting +in these pews, only half aware that it is about them that I am +speaking! + +The ever-deepening evil which began with forsaking the house of the +Lord and serving Ashtaroth, ends with Joash steeping his hands in +blood. The murder of Zechariah was beyond the common count of crimes, +for it was a foul desecration of the Temple, an act of the blackest +ingratitude to the man who had saved his infant life, and put him on +the throne, an outrage on the claims of family connections, for Joash +and Zechariah were probably blood relations. My brother! once get your +foot upon that steep incline of evil, once forsake the path of what is +good and right and true, and you are very much like a climber who +misses his footing up among the mountain peaks, and down he slides +till he reaches the edge of the precipice and then in an instant is +dashed to pieces at the bottom. Once put your foot on that slippery +slope and you know not where you may fall to. + +III. Last comes the final scene: The retribution. + +We have that picture of Zechariah, solemnly lifting up his eyes to +heaven and committing his cause to God. 'The Lord look upon it and +require it,' says the martyr priest in the spirit of the old Law. The +dying appeal was soon answered in the invasion of the Syrian army, a +comparatively small company, into whose hands the Lord delivered a +very great host of the Israelites. The defeat was complete, and +possibly Joash's 'great diseases,' of which the narrative speaks, +refer to wounds received in the fight. The end soon comes, for two of +his servants, neither of them Hebrews, one being the son of an +Ammonitess and the other the son of a Moabitess, who were truer to his +religion than he had been, and resolved to revenge Zechariah's death, +entered the room, of the wounded king in the fortress whither he had +retired to hide himself after the fight, and 'slew him on his bed.' +Imagine the grim scene--the two men stealing in, the sick man there on +the bed helpless, the short ghastly struggle and the swift end. What +an end for a life with such a beginning! + +Now I am not going to dwell on this retribution, inflicted on Joash, +or on that which comes to us if we are like him, through a loud-voiced +conscience, and a memory which, though it may be dulled and hushed to +sleep at present, is sure to wake some day here or yonder. But I +beseech you to ask yourselves what your outlook is. 'Be not deceived, +God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also +reap.' Is that all? Zechariah said, 'The Lord look upon it and require +it.' The great doctrine of retribution is true for ever. Yes; but our +Zechariah lifts up his eyes to heaven and he says, 'Father! forgive +them, for they know not what they do.' And so, dear brother! you and +I, trusting to that dear Lord, may have all our apostasy forgiven, and +be brought near by the blood of Christ. Let us say with the Apostle +Peter, 'Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of +eternal life.' + + + +GLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS + +'And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the +house of the Lord. 5. And he gathered together the priests and the +Levites, and said to them, go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather +of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, +and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it +not. 6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, +Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and +out of Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of Moses +the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the +tabernacle of witness' 7. For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, +had broken up the house of God: and also all the dedicated things of +the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. 8. And at the +king's commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate +of the house of the Lord. 9. And they made a proclamation through +Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses +the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. 10. And all the +princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the +chest, until they had made an end. 11. Now it came to pass, that at +what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of +the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's +scribe and the high priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and +took it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day, +and gathered money in abundance. 12. And the king and Jehoiada gave it +to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and +hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also +such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord. 13. So +the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set +the house of God in his state, and strengthened it. 11. And when they +had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king +and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the Lord, +even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels +of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of +the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 4-14. + + +Joash owed his life and his throne to the high-priest Jehoiada, who +was his uncle by marriage with the sister of Ahaziah, his father. +Rescued by his aunt when an infant, he 'was with them, hid in the +house of God six years,' and, when seven years old, was made king by +Jehoiada's daring revolt against 'that wicked woman,' Athaliah. +Jehoiada's influence was naturally paramount, and was as wholesome as +strong. It is remarkable, however, that this impulse to repair the +Temple seems to have originated with the king, not with the +high-priest, though no doubt the spirit which conceived the impulse +was largely moulded by the latter. The king, whose childhood had found +a safe asylum in the Temple, might well desire its restoration, even +apart from considerations of religion. + +I. The story first brings into strong contrast the eager king, full of +his purpose, and the sluggards to whom he had to entrust its +execution. We can only guess the point in his reign at which Joash +summoned the priests to his help. It was after his marriage (ver. 3), +and considerably before the twenty-third year of his reign, at which +time his patience was exhausted (2 Kings xii. 6). Some years were +apparently wasted by the dawdling sluggishness of the priests, who, +for some reason or other, did not go into the proposed restoration +heartily. Joash seems to have suspected that they would push the work +languidly; for there is a distinct tinge of suspicion and 'whipping +up' in his injunction to 'hasten the matter.' + +The first intention was to raise the funds by sending out the priests +and Levites to collect locally the statutory half-shekel, as well as +other contributions mentioned in 2 Kings xii. There we learn that each +collector was to go to 'his acquaintance.' The subscription was to be +spread over some years, and for a while Joash waited quietly; but in +the twenty-third year of his reign (see 2 Kings), he could stand delay +no longer. Whether the priests had been diligent in collecting or not, +they had done nothing towards repairing. Perhaps they found it +difficult to determine the proportion of the money which was needed +for the ordinary expenses of worship, and for the restoration fund; +and, as the former included their own dues and support, they would not +be likely to set it down too low. Perhaps they did not much care to +carry out a scheme which had not begun with themselves; for priests +are not usually eager to promote ecclesiastical renovations suggested +by laymen. Perhaps they did not care as much about the renovation as +the king did, and smiled at his earnestness as a pious imagining. +Possibly there was even deliberate embezzlement. But, at any rate, +there was half-heartedness, and that always means languid work, and +that always means failure. The earnest people are fretted continually +by the indifferent. Every good scheme is held back, like a ship with a +foul bottom, by the barnacles that stick to its keel and bring down +its speed. Professional ecclesiastics in all ages have succumbed to +the temptation of thinking that 'church property' was first of all to +be used for their advantage, and, secondarily, for behoof of God's +house. Eager zeal has in all ages to be yoked to torpid indifference, +and to drag its unwilling companion along, like two dogs in a leash. +Direct opposition is easier to bear than apparent assistance which +tries to slow down to half speed. + +Joash's command is imperative on all workers for God. 'See that ye +hasten the matter,' for time is short, the fruit great, the evening +shadows lengthening, the interests at stake all-important, and the +Lord of the harvest will soon come to count our sheaves. Whatever work +may be done without haste, God's cannot be, and a heavy curse falls on +him who 'does the work of the Lord negligently.' The runner who keeps +well on this side of fatigue, panting, and sweat, has little chance of +the crown. + +II. The next step is the withdrawal of the work from the sluggards. +They are relieved both of the collection and expenditure of the money. +Apparently (2 Kings xii. 9) the contributors handed their donations to +the doorkeepers, who put them into the chest with 'a hole in the lid +of it,' in the sight of the donors. The arrangement was not flattering +to the hierarchy, but as appearances were saved by Jehoiada's making +the chest (see 2 Kings) they had to submit with the best grace they +could. In our own times, we have seen the same thing often enough. +When clergy have maladministered church property, Parliament has +appointed ecclesiastical commissioners. Common sense prescribes taking +slovenly work out of lazy hands. The more rigidly that principle is +carried out in the church and the nation, at whatever cost of +individual humiliation, the better for both. 'The tools to the hands +that can use them' is the ideal for both. God's dealings follow the +same law, both in withdrawing opportunities of service and in giving +more of such. The reward for work is more work, and the punishment for +sloth is compulsory idleness. + +III. We are next shown the glad givers. Probably suspicion had been +excited in others than the king, and had checked liberality. People +will not give freely if the expenses of the collectors' support +swallow up the funds. It is hard to get help for a vague scheme, which +unites two objects, and only gives the balance, after the first is +provided for, to the second and more important. So the whole nation, +both high and low, was glad when the new arrangement brought a clear +issue, and secured the right appropriation of the money. + +No doubt, too, Joash's earnestness kindled others. Chronicles speaks +only of the 'tax,'--that is, the half-shekel,--but Kings mentions two +other sources, one of which is purely spontaneous gifts, and these are +implied by the tone of verse 10, which lays stress on the gladness of +the offerers. That is the incense which adds fragrance to our gifts. +Grudging service is no service, and money given for ever so religious +a purpose, without gladness because of the opportunity of giving, is +not, in the deepest sense, given at all. Love is a longing to give to +the beloved, and whoever truly loves God will know no keener delight +than surrender for His dear sake. Pecuniary contributions for +religious purposes afford a rough but real test of the depth of a +man's religion; but it is one available only for himself, since the +motive, and not the amount, is the determining element. We all need to +bring our hearts more under the Influence of God's love to us, that +our love to Him may be increased, and then to administer possessions, +under the impulse to glad giving which enkindled love will always +excite. Super-heated steam has most expansive power and driving force. +These glad givers may remind us not only of the one condition of +acceptable giving, but also of the need for clear and worthy objects, +and of obvious disinterestedness in those who seek for money to help +good causes. The smallest opening for suspicion that some of it sticks +to the collector's fingers is fatal, as it should be. + +IV. Joash was evidently a business-like king. We next hear of the +precautions he took to secure the public confidence. There was a rough +but sufficient audit. When the chest grew heavy, and sounded full, two +officials received it at the 'king's office.' The Levites carried it +there, but were not allowed to handle the contents. The two tellers +represented the king and the chief priest, and thus both the civil and +religious authorities were satisfied, and each officer was a check on +the other. Public money should never be handled by a man alone; and an +honest one will always wish, like Paul, to have a brother associated +with him, that no man may blame him in his administration of it. If we +take 'day by day' literally, we have a measure of the liberality which +filled the chest daily; but, more probably, the expression simply +means 'from time to time,' when occasion required. + +V. The application of the money is next narrated. In this Jehoiada is +associated with Joash, the king probably desiring to smooth over any +slight that might seem to have been put on the priests, as well as +being still under the influence of the high-priest's strong character +and early kindness. Together they passed over the results of the +contribution to the contractors, who in turn paid it in wages to the +workmen who repaired the fabric, such as masons and carpenters, and to +other artisans who restored other details, such as brass and iron +work. The Second Book of Kings tells us that Joash's cautious +provision against misappropriation seems to have deserted him at this +stage; for no account was required of the workmen, 'for they dealt +faithfully.' That is an indication of their goodwill. The humble +craftsmen were more reliable than the priests. They had, no doubt, +given their half-shekel like others, and now they gladly gave their +work, and were not hirelings, though they were hired. We, too, have to +give our money and our labour; and if our hearts are right, we shall +give both with the same conscientious cheerfulness, and, if we are +paid in coin for our work, will still do it for higher reasons and +looking for other wages. These Temple workmen may stand as patterns of +what religion should do for those of us whose lot is to work with our +hands,--and not less for others who have to toil with their brains, +and the sweat of whose brow is inside their heads. A Christian workman +should be a 'faithful' workman, and will be so if he is full of faith. + +Joash knew when to trust and when to keep a sharp eye on men. His +experience with the priests had not soured him into suspecting +everybody. Cynical disbelief in honesty is more foolish and hurtful to +ourselves than even excessive trust. These workmen wrought all the +more faithfully because they knew that they were trusted, and in nine +cases out of ten men will try to live up to our valuation of them. The +Rugby boys used to say, 'It's a shame to tell Arnold a lie, he always +believes us.' Better to be cheated once than to treat the nine as +rogues,--better for them and better for ourselves. + +'Faithful' work is prosperous work. As verse 13 picturesquely says, +'Healing went up upon the work'; and the Temple was restored to its +old fair proportions, and stood strong as before. Where there is +conscientious effort, God's blessing is not withheld. Labour 'in the +Lord' can never be empty labour, though even a prophet may often be +tempted, in a moment of weary despondency, to complain, 'I have +laboured in vain.' We may not see the results, nor have the workmen's +joy of beholding the building rise, course by course, under our hands, +but we shall see it one day, though now we have to work in the dark. + +There seems a discrepancy between the statements in Chronicles and +Kings as to the source from which the cost of the sacrificial vessels +was defrayed, since, according to the former, it was from the +restoration fund, which is expressly denied by the latter. The +explanation seems reasonable, that, as Chronicles says, it was from +the balance remaining after all restoration charges were liquidated, +that this other expenditure was met. First, the whole amount was +sacredly devoted to the purpose for which it had been asked, and then, +when the honest overseers repaid the uncounted surplus, which they +might have kept, it was found sufficient to meet the extra cost of +furnishing. God blesses the faithful steward of his gifts with more +than enough for the immediate service, and the best use of the surplus +is to do more with it for Him. 'God is able to make all grace abound +unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in every thing, may +abound unto every good work, ... being enriched in every thing unto +all liberality.' + + + +PRUDENCE AND FAITH + +'And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the +hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man +of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than +this.'--2 CHRON. xxv. 9. + + +The character of this Amaziah, one of the Kings of Judah, is summed up +by the chronicler in a damning epigram: 'He did that which was right +in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.' He was one of +your half-and-half people, or, as Hosea says, 'a cake not turned,' +burnt black on one side, and raw dough on the other. So when he came +to the throne, in the buoyancy and insolence of youth, he immediately +began to aim at conquests in the neighbouring little states; and in +order to strengthen himself he hired 'a hundred thousand mighty men of +valour' out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. To seek help +from Israel was, in a prophet's eyes, equivalent to flinging off help +from God. So a man of God comes to him, and warns him that the Lord is +not with Israel, and that the alliance is not permissible for him. +But, instead of yielding to the prophet's advice, he parries it with +this misplaced question, 'But what shall we do for the hundred talents +that I have given to the army of Israel?' He does not care to ask +whether the counsel that he is receiving is right or wrong, or whether +what he is intending to do is in conformity with, or in opposition to, +the will of God, but, passing by all such questions, at once he +fastens on the lower consideration of expediency--'What is to become +of me if I do as this prophet would have me do? What a heavy loss one +hundred talents will be! It is too much to sacrifice to a scruple of +that sort. It cannot be done.' + +A great many of us may take a lesson from this man. There are two +things in my text--a misplaced question and a triumphant answer: 'What +shall we do for the hundred talents?' 'The Lord is able to give thee +much more than this.' Now, remarkably enough, both question and answer +may be either very right or very wrong, according as they are taken, +and I purpose to look at those two aspects of each. + +I. A misplaced question. + +I call it misplaced because Amaziah's fault, and the fault of a great +many of us, was, not that he took consequences into account, but that +he took them into account at the wrong time. The question should have +come second, not first. Amaziah's first business should have been to +see clearly what was duty; and then, and not till then, the next +business should have been to consider consequences. + +Consider the right place and way of putting this question. Many of us +make shipwreck of our lives because, with our eyes shut, we determine +upon some grand design, and fall under the condemnation of the man +that 'began to build, and was not able to finish.' He drew a great +plan of a stately mansion; and then found that he had neither money in +the bank, nor stones in his quarry, to finish it, and so it stood--a +ruin. All through our Lord's life He was engaged rather in repressing +volunteers than in soliciting recruits, and He from time to time +poured a douche of cold water upon swiftly effervescing desires to go +after Him. When the multitudes followed Him, He turned and said to +them, 'If you are counting on being My disciples, understand what it +means: take up the cross and follow Me.' When an enthusiastic man, who +had not looked consequences in the face, came rushing to Him and said: +'Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,' His answer to him +was another pull at the string of the shower bath: 'The Son of Man +hath not where to lay His head.' When the two disciples came to him +and said: 'Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the +other on Thy left, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,' He said: 'Are +ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized with +the baptism that I am baptized withal?' Look the facts in the face +before you make your election. Jesus Christ will enlist no man under +false pretences. Recruiting-sergeants tell country bumpkins or city +louts wonderful stories of what they will get if they take the +shilling and put on the king's uniform; but Jesus Christ does not +recruit His soldiers in that fashion. If a man does not open his eyes +to a clear vision of the consequences of his actions, his life will go +to water in all directions. And there is no region in which such clear +insight into what is going to follow upon my determinations and the +part that I take is more necessary than in the Christian life. It is +just because in certain types of character, 'the word is received with +joy,' and springs up immediately, that when 'the sun is risen with a +burning heat'--that is, as Christ explains, when the pinch of +difficulty comes--'immediately they fall away,' and all their grand +resolutions go to nothing. 'Lightly come, lightly go.' Let us face the +facts of what is involved, in the way of sacrifice, surrender, loss, +if we determine to be on Christ's side; and then, when the anticipated +difficulties come, we shall neither be perplexed nor swept away, but +be able quietly to say, 'I discounted it all beforehand; I knew it was +coming.' The storm catches the ship that is carrying full sail and +expecting nothing but light and favourable breezes; while the captain +that looked into the weather quarter and saw the black cloud beginning +to rise above the horizon, and took in his sails and made his vessel +snug and tight, rides out the gale. It is wisdom that becomes a man, +to ask this question, if first of all he has asked, 'What ought I to +do?' + +But we have here an instance of a right thing in a wrong place. It was +right to ask the question, but wrong to ask it at that point. Amaziah +thought nothing about duty. There sprang up in his mind at once the +cowardly and ignoble thought: 'I cannot afford to do what is right, +because it will cost me a hundred talents,' and that was his sin. +Consequences may be, must be, faced in anticipation, or a man is a +fool. He that allows the clearest perception of disagreeable +consequences, such as pain, loss of ease, loss of reputation, loss of +money, or any other harmful results that may follow, to frighten him +out of the road that he knows he ought to take, is a worse fool still, +for he is a coward and recreant to his own conscience. + +We have to look into our own hearts for the most solemn and pressing +illustrations of this sin, and I daresay we all of us can remember +clear duties that we have neglected, because we did not like to face +what would come from them. A man in business will say, 'I cannot +afford to have such a high standard of morality; I shall be hopelessly +run over in the race with my competitors if I do not do as they do,' +or he will say, 'I durst not take a stand as an out-and-out Christian; +I shall lose connections, I shall lose position. People will laugh at +me. What am I to do for the hundred talents?' + +But we can find the same thing in Churches. I do not mean to enter +upon controversial questions, but as an instance, I may remind you +that one great argument that our friends who believe in an Established +Church are always bringing forward, is just a modern form of Amaziah's +question, 'What shall we do for the hundred talents? How could the +Church be maintained, how could its ministrations be continued, if its +State-provided revenues were withdrawn or given up?' But it is not +only Anglicans who put the consideration of the consequences of +obedience in the wrong place. All the Churches are but too apt to let +their eyes wander from reading the plain precepts of the New Testament +to looking for the damaging results to be expected from keeping them. +Do we not sometimes hear, as answer to would-be reformers, 'We cannot +afford to give up this, that, or the other practice? We should not be +able to hold our ground, unless we did so-and-so and so-and-so.' + +But not only individuals or Churches are guilty in this matter. The +nation takes a leaf out of Amaziah's book, and puts aside many plain +duties, for no better reason than that it would cost too much to do +them. 'What is the use of talking about suppressing the liquor traffic +or housing the poor? Think of the cost.' The 'hundred talents' block +the way and bribe the national conscience. For instance, the opium +traffic; how is it defended? Some attempt is made to prove either that +we did not force it upon China, or that the talk about the evils of +opium is missionary fanaticism, but the sheet-anchor is: 'How are we +ever to raise the Indian revenue if we give up the traffic?' That is +exactly Amaziah over again, come from the dead, and resurrected in a +very ugly shape. + +So national policy and Church action, and--what is of far more +importance to you and me than either the one or the other,--our own +personal relation to Jesus Christ and discipleship to Him, have been +hampered, and are being hampered, just by that persistent and unworthy +attitude of looking at the consequences of doing plain duties, and +permitting ourselves to be frightened from the duties because the +consequences are unwelcome to us. + +Prudence is all right, but when prudence takes command and presumes to +guide conscience, then it is all wrong. In some courts of law and in +certain cases, the judge has an assessor sitting beside him, an expert +about some of the questions that are involved. Conscience is the +judge, prudence the assessor. But if the assessor ventures up on the +judgment-seat, and begins to give the decisions which it is not his +business to give--for _his_ only business is to give advice--then +the only thing to do with the assessor is to tell him to hold his +tongue and let the judge speak. It is no answer to the prophet's +prohibition to say, 'But what shall I do for the hundred talents?' A +yet better answer than the prophet gave Amaziah would have been, +'Never mind about the hundred talents; do what is right, and leave the +rest to God.' However, that was not the answer. + +II. The triumphant answer. + +'The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.' Now, this answer, +like the question, may be right or wrong, according as it is taken. In +what aspect is it wrong? In what sense is it not true? I suppose this +prophet did not mean more than the undeniable truth that God was able +to give Amaziah more than a hundred talents. He was not thinking of +the loftier meanings which we necessarily, as Christian people, at a +later stage of Revelation, and with a clearer vision of many things, +attach to the words. He simply meant, 'You will very likely get more +than the hundred talents that you have lost, if you do what pleases +God.' He was speaking from the point of view of the Old Testament; +though even in the Old Testament we have instances enough that +prosperity did not always attend righteousness. In the Old Testament +we find the Book of Job, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, and many a +psalm, all of which were written in order to grapple with the +question, 'How is it that God does not give the good man more than the +hundred talents that he has lost for the sake of being good?' It is +not true, and it is a dangerous mistake to suggest that it is true, +that a man in this world never loses by being a good, honest, +consistent Christian. He often does lose a great deal, as far as this +world is concerned; and he has to make up his mind to lose it, and it +would be a very poor thing to say to him, 'Now, live like a Christian +man, and if you are flinging away money or anything else because of +your Christianity, you will get it back.' No; you will not, in a good +many cases. Sometimes you will, and sometimes you will not. It does +not matter whether you do or do not. + +But the sense in which the triumphant answer of the prophet is true is +a far higher one. 'The Lord is able to give thee much more than +this,'--what is 'more'? a thousand talents? No; the 'much more' that +Christianity has educated us to understand is meant in the depths of +such a promise as this is, first of all, character. Every man that +sacrifices anything to convictions of duty gains more than he loses +thereby, because he gains an inward nobleness and strength, to say +nothing of the genial warmth of an approving conscience. And whilst +that is true in all regions of life, it is most especially true in +regard to sacrifices made from Christian principle. No matter how +disastrous may be the results externally, the inward results of +faithfulness are so much greater and sweeter and nobler than all the +external evil consequences that may follow, that it is 'good policy' +for a man to beggar himself for Christ's sake, for the sake of the +durable riches--which our Lord Himself explains to be synonymous with +righteousness--which will come thereby. He that wins strength and +Christ-likeness of character by sacrificing for Christ has won far +more than he can ever lose. + +He wins not only character, but a fuller capacity for a fuller +possession of Jesus Christ Himself, and that is infinitely more than +anything that any man has ever sacrificed for the sake of that dear +Lord. Do you remember when it was that there was granted to the +Apostle John the vision of the throned Christ, and that he felt laid +upon him the touch of the vivifying Hand from Heaven? It was 'when I +was in Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.' He +lost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible Christ. Do you +remember who it was that said, 'I have suffered the loss of all +things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ'? It was a +good bargain, Paul! The balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your +credit. Debit, 'all things'; credit, 'Christ.' 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than this.' + +Remember the old prophecy: 'For brass I will bring gold; and for iron, +silver.' The brass and the iron may be worth something, but if we +barter them away and get instead gold and silver, we are gainers by +the transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon to +rise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get 'the more than +this.' And listen to the New Testament variation of this man of God's +promise, 'If thou wilt have treasure in heaven, go and sell all that +thou hast, and follow Me.' + + + +JOTHAM + +'So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord +his God.'--2 CHRON. xxvii 6. + + +This King Jotham is one of the obscurer of the Jewish monarchs, and we +know next to nothing about him. The most memorable event in his reign +is that 'in the year when King Uzziah,' his father, 'died,' and +consequently in Jotham's first year, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting in +the Temple on the empty throne, and had the lips which were to utter +so many immortal words touched with fire from the altar. Whether it +were the effect of the prophet's words, or from other causes, the +little that is told of him is good, and he is eulogised as having +imitated his father's God-pleasing acts, and not having stained +himself by repeating his father's sin. The rest that we hear of him in +Chronicles is a mere sketch of campaigns, buildings, and victories, +and then he and his reign are summed up in the words of our text, +which is the analysis of the man and the disclosure of the secret of +his prosperity: 'He became mighty, because he prepared his ways'--and, +more than that, 'he prepared them before the Lord his God.' + +So then, if we begin, as it were, at the bottom, as we ought to do, in +studying a character, taking the deepest thing first, and laying hold +upon the seminal and germinal principle of the whole, this text +reminds us that--The secret of true strength lies in the continual +recognition that life is lived 'Before the Lord our God.' + +Now to say, 'Walk thou _before_ Me,' the command given to +Abraham, suggests a somewhat different modification of the idea from +the apparently parallel phrase, 'to walk _with_ God' which is +declared to have been the life's habit of Enoch. The one expression +suggests simple companionship and communion; the other suggests rather +the vivid and continual realisation of the thought that we are 'ever +in the great Taskmaster's eye.' To walk before God is to feel +thrillingly and continually, and yet without being abased or crushed +or discomposed, but rather being encouraged and quickened and calmed +and ennobled and gladdened thereby: 'Thou God seest me.' It seems to +me that one of the plainest pieces of Christian duty, and, alas! one +of the most neglected of them, is the cultivation, definitely and +consciously, by effort and by self-discipline, of that consciousness +as a present factor in all our lives, and an influencing motive in +everything that we do. If once we could bring before the eye of our +minds that great, blazing, white throne, and Him that sits upon it, we +should want nothing else to burn up the commonplaces of life, and to +flash its insignificance into splendour and awfulness. We should want +nothing else to lift us to a 'solemn scorn of ills,' and to deliver us +from the false sweetnesses and fading delights that grow on the low +levels of a sense-bound life! Brethren! our whole life would be +transformed and glorified, and we should be different men and women if +we ordered our ways as '_before the Lord our God_.' What meanness +could live when we knew that it was seen by those pure Eyes? How we +should be ashamed of ourselves, of our complaints, of our murmurings, +of our reluctance to do our duty, of our puerile regrets for vanished +blessings, and of all the low cares and desires that beset and spoil +our lives, if once this thought, 'before God,' were habitual with us, +and we walked in it as in an atmosphere! + +Why is it not? and might it not be? and if it might not, ought it not +to be? And what are we to say to Him whom we profess to love as our +Supreme Good, if all the day long the thought of Him seldom comes into +our minds, and if any triviality, held near the eye, is large enough +and bright enough to shut Him out from our sight? With deep ethical +significance and accuracy was the command given to Abraham as the +sole, all-sufficient direction for both inward and outward life: 'Walk +before Me and (so) be thou perfect.' For indeed the full +realisation--adequate and constant and solid enough to be a motive--of +'Thou God seest me,' would be found to contain practical directions in +regard to all moral difficulties, and would unfailingly detect the +evil, howsoever wrapped up, and would carry in itself not only motive +but impulse, not only law but power to fulfil it. The Master's eye +makes diligent servants. How schoolboys bend themselves over their +slates and quicken their effort when the teacher is walking behind the +benches! And how a gang of idle labourers will buckle to the spade and +tax their muscles in an altogether different fashion when the overseer +appears upon the field! If we realised, as we should do, the presence +in all our little daily life of that great, sovereign Lord, there +would be less skulking, less superficially performed tasks, less jerry +work put into our building; more of our strength cast into all our +work, and less of ourselves in any of it. + +Remember, too, how connected with this is another piece of effort +needful in the religious life, and suggested by the last words of this +text, 'Before the Lord _his_ God.' Cultivate the habit of +narrowing down the general truths of religion to their relation to +yourselves. Do not be content with 'the Lord _our_ God,' or 'the +Lord the God of the whole earth,' but put a 'my' in, and realise not +only the presence of a divine Inspector, but the closeness of the +personal bond that unites to Him; and the individual responsibility, +in all its width and depth and unshiftableness--if I may use such a +word--which results therefrom. You cannot shake off or step out of the +tasks that 'the Lord _your_ God' lays upon you. You and He are as +if alone in the world. Make Him your God by choice, by your own +personal acceptance of His authority and dependence upon His power, +and try to translate into daily life the great truth, 'Thou God seest +_me_,' and bring it to bear upon the veriest trifles and smallest +details. + +Now the text follows the order of observation, so to speak, and +mentions the outward facts of Jotham's success before it goes deeper +and accounts for them. We have reversed the process and dealt first +with the cause. The spring of all lay in his conscious recognition of +his relation to God and God's to him. From that, of course, followed +that he 'prepared,' according to the Authorised Version, or 'ordered,' +according to the Revised Version, 'his ways.' There is an alternative +rendering of the word rendered 'prepared' or 'ordered' given in the +margin of the Authorised Version, which reads, 'established his ways.' +Both the ideas of ordering and establishing are contained in the word. + +Now that fact, that the same word means both these, conveys a piece of +practical wisdom, which it will do us all good to note clearly and +take to heart. For it teaches us that whatever is 'ordered' is firm, +and whatever is disorderly, haphazard, done without the exercise of +one's mind on the act, being chaotic, is necessarily short-lived. + +The ordered life is the established life. The life of impulse, chance, +passion, the life that is lived without choice and plan, without +reflection and consideration of consequences, the following of nature, +which some people tell us is the highest law, and which is woefully +likely to degenerate into following the _lower_ nature, which +ought not to be followed, but covered and kept under hatches--such a +life is sure to be a topsy-turvy life, which, being based upon the +narrowest point, must, by the laws of equilibrium, topple over sooner +or later. If you would have your lives established, they must be +ordered. You must bring your brains to bear upon them, and you must +bring more than brain, you must bring to bear on every part of them +the spiritual instincts that are quickened by contact with the thought +of the All-seeing God, and let these have the ordering of them. Such +lives, and only such, will endure 'when all that seems shall suffer +shock.' 'He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' + +But the lesson that is pressed upon us by this word, understood in the +other meanings of 'prepared' or 'ordered,' is that all our 'ways,' +that is, our practical life, our acts, direction of mind, habits, +should be regulated by continual consciousness of, and reference to, +the All-discerning Eye that looks down upon us, and 'the God in whose +hands our breath is, and whose are'--whether we make them so or +not--'all our ways.' To translate that into less picturesque, and less +forcible, but more modern words, it is just this: You Christian people +ought to make it a point of duty to cultivate the habit of referring +everything that you do to the will and judgment of God. Take Him into +account in everything great or small, and in nothing say, 'Thus I +will, thus I command. My will shall stand instead of all other +reasons'; but say, 'Lord! by Thee and for Thee I try to do this'; and +having done it, say, 'Lord! the seed is sown in Thy name; bless Thou +the springing thereof.' Works thus begun, continued and ended, will +never be put to confusion, and 'ways' thus ordered will be +established. A path of righteousness like that can no more fail to be +a way of peace than can God's throne ever totter or fall. An ordered +life in which He is consulted, and which is all shaped at His bidding, +and by His strength, and for His dear name, will 'stand four-square to +all the winds that blow,' and, being founded upon a rock, will never +fall. + +But we may also note that in the strength of that thought, that we are +before the Lord our God, we shall best establish our ways in the sense +that we shall keep on steadily and doggedly on the path. Well begun +may be half ended, but there is often a long dreary grind before it is +wholly ended, and the last half of the march is the wearisome half. +The Bible has a great deal to say about the need of obstinate +persistence on the right road. 'Ye did run well, what did hinder you?' +'Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of +reward.' 'We are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the +beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.' 'He that overcometh +and keepeth My words unto the end, to him will I give authority.' +Lives which derive their impulse from communion with God will not come +to a dead stop half-way on their road, like a motor the fuel of which +fails; and it will be impossible for any man to 'endure unto the end' +and so to be heir of the promise--'the same shall be saved,' unless he +draws his persistency from Him who 'fainteth not, neither is weary' +and who 'reneweth strength to them that have no might' so that in all +the monotonous levels they shall 'walk and not faint,' and in all the +crises, demanding brief spurts of energy, 'they shall run and not be +weary,' and at last 'shall mount up with wings as eagles.' A path +ordered and a path persisted in ought to be the path of every +Christian man. + +The text finally tells of the prosperity and growing power which +attends such a course. 'Jotham became mighty.' That was simple outward +blessing. His kingdom prospered, and, according to the theocratic +constitution of Judah, faithfulness to God and material well-being +went together. You cannot apply these words, of course, to the outward +lives of Christians. It is no doubt true that 'Godliness _is_ +profitable for all things,' but there are a great many other things +besides the godliness of the man that does them which determine +whether a man's undertakings shall prosper in the world's sense or +not. It would be a pitiable thing if the full revelation of God in +Christ did not teach us Christians more about the meaning and the +worth of outward success and inward prosperity than the Old Testament +could teach. I hope we have learned that lesson; at least, it is not +the fault of our lesson book if we have not. Although it is true that +religion does make the best of both worlds, it does not do so by +taking the world's estimate of what its best for to-day is, and giving +a religious man _that_. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it does +not, and whether it does or no depends on other considerations than +the reality of the man's devotion. Good men are often made better by +being made sad and unsuccessful. And if they are not bettered by +adversity, it is not the fault of the discipline but of the people who +undergo it. + +But though the husk of my text falls away--and we should thank God +that it has fallen away--the kernel of it is ever true. Whosoever will +thus root his life in the living thought of a loving, divine Eye being +perpetually upon him, and make that thought a motive for holiness and +loving obedience and effort after service, will find that the true +success, the only success and the only strength that are worth a man's +ambition to desire or his effort to secure, will assuredly be his. He +may be voted a failure as regards the world's prizes. But a man that +'orders his ways,' and perseveres in ways thus ordered, 'before the +Lord' will for reward get more power to order his ways, and a purer +and more thrilling, less interrupted and more childlike vision of the +Face that looks upon him. God's 'eyes behold the upright,' and the +upright behold His eyes, and in the interchange of glances there is +power; and in that power is the highest reward for ordered lives. We +shall get power to do, power to bear, power to think aright, power to +love, power to will, power to behold, power to deny ourselves, 'power +to become sons of God.' This is the success of life, when out of all +its changes, and by reason of all its efforts, we realise more fully +our filial possession of our Father, and our Father's changeless love +to us. We shall become mighty with the might that is born of obedience +and faith if we order our ways before the Lord our God. 'The path of +the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the +noontide of the day.' + + + +COSTLY AND FATAL HELP + +'He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he +said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will +I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of +him, and of all Israel.'--2 CHRON. xxviii. 23. + + +Ahaz came to the throne when a youth of twenty. From the beginning he +reversed the policy of his father, and threw himself into the arms of +the heathen party. In a comparatively short reign of sixteen years he +stamped out the worship of God, and nearly ruined the kingdom. + +He did not plunge into idolatry for want of good advice. The greatest +of the prophets stood beside him. Isaiah addressed to him +remonstrances which might have made the most reckless pause, and +promises which might have kindled hope and courage in the bosom of +despair. Hosea in the northern kingdom, Micah in Judah, and other less +brilliant names were amongst the stars which shone even in that dark +night. But their light was all in vain. The foolish lad had got the +bit between his teeth, and, like many another young man, thought to +show his 'breadth' and his 'spirit' by neglecting his father's +counsellors, and abandoning his father's faith. He was ready to +worship anything that called itself a god, always excepting Jehovah. +He welcomed Baal, Moloch, Rimmon, and many more with an indiscriminate +eagerness that would have been ludicrous if it had not been tragical. +The more he multiplied his gods the more he multiplied his sorrows, +and the more he multiplied his sorrows the more he multiplied his +gods. + +From all sides the invaders came. From north, northeast, east, +south-east, south, they swarmed in upon him. They tore away the +fringes of his kingdom; and hostile armies flaunted their banners +beneath the very walls of Jerusalem. + +And then, in his despair, like a scorpion in a circle of fire, he +inflicted a deadly wound on himself by calling in the fatal help of +Assyria. Nothing loth, that warlike power responded, scattered his +less formidable foes, and then swallowed the prey which it had dragged +from between the teeth of the Israelites and Syrians. The result of +Ahaz's frantic appeals to false gods and faithless men may still be +read on the cuneiform inscriptions, where, amidst a long list of +unknown tributary kings, stands, with a Philistine on one side of him +and an Ammonite on the other, the shameful record, 'Ahaz of Judah.' + +That was what came of forsaking the God of his fathers. It is a type +of what always has come, and always must come, of a godless life. That +is the point of view from which I wish to look at the story, and at +these words of my text which gather the whole spirit of it into one +sentence. + +I. First, then, let me ask you to notice how this narrative +illustrates for us the crowd of vain helpers to which a man has to +take when he turns his back upon God. + +If we compare the narrative in our chapter with the parallel in the +Second Book of Kings, we get a very vivid picture of the strange +medley of idolatries which they introduced. Amongst Ahaz's new gods +are, for instance, the golden calves of Israel and the ferocious +Moloch of Ammon, to whom he sacrificed, passing through the fire at +least one of his own children. The ancient sacred places of the +Canaanites, on every high hill and beneath every conspicuous tree, +again smoked with incense to half-forgotten local deities. In every +open space in Jerusalem he planted a brand-new altar with a brand-new +worship attendant upon it. In the Temple, he brushed aside the altar +that Solomon had made and put up a new one, copied from one which he +had seen at Damascus. The importation of the Damascene altar, I +suppose, meant, as our text tells us, the importation of the Damascene +gods along with it. + +Side by side with that multiplication of false deities went the almost +entire neglect of the worship of Jehovah, until at last, as his reign +advanced and he floundered deeper into his troubles, the Temple was +spoiled, everything in it that could be laid hands upon was sent to +the melting-pot, to pay the Assyrian tribute; and then the doors were +shut, the lamps extinguished, the fire quenched on the cold altars, +and the silent Temple left to the bats and--_the Shekinah_; for +God still abode in the deserted house. + +Further, side by side with this appealing all round the horizon to +whatsoever obscene and foul shape seemed to promise some help, there +went the foolish appeal to the northern invaders to come and aid him, +which they did, to his destruction. His whole career is that of a +godless and desperate man who will grasp at anything that offers +deliverance, and will worship any god or devil who will extricate him +from his troubles. + +Is the breed extinct, think you? Is there any one among us who, if he +cannot get what he wants by fair ways, will try to get it by foul? Do +none of you ever bow down to Satan for a slice of the kingdoms of this +world? Ahaz has still plenty of brothers and sisters in all our +churches and chapels. + +This story illustrates for us what, alas! is only too true, both on +the broad scale, as to the generation in which we live, and on the +narrower field of our own individual lives. Look at the so-called +cultured classes of Europe to-day; turning away, as so many of them +are, from the Lord God of their fathers; what sort of gods are they +worshipping instead? Scraps from Buddhism, the Vedas, any sacred books +but the Bible; quackeries, and charlatanism, arid dreams, and +fragmentary philosophies all pieced together, to try and make up a +whole, instead of the old-fashioned whole that they have left behind +them. There are men and women in many congregations who, in modern +fashion, are doing precisely the thing that Ahaz did--having abandoned +Christianity, they are trying to make up for it by hastily stitching +together shreds and patches that they have found in other systems. +'The garment is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it,' and +a creed patched together so will never make a seamless whole which can +be trusted not to rend. + +But look, further, how the same thing is true as to the individual +lives of godless men. + +Many of us are trying to make up for not having the One by seeking to +stay our hearts on the many. But no accumulation of insufficiencies +will ever make a sufficiency. You may fill the heaven all over with +stars, bright and thickly set as those in the whitest spot in the +galaxy, and it will be night still. Day needs the sun, and the sun is +one, and when it comes the twinkling lights are forgotten. You cannot +make up for God by any extended series of creatures, any more than a +row of figures that stretched from here to _Sirius_ and back +again would approximate to infinitude. + +The very fact of the multitude of helpers is a sign that none of them +is sufficient. There is no end of 'cures' for toothache, that is to +say there is none. There is no end of helps for men that have +abandoned God, that is to say, every one in turn when it is tried, and +the stress of the soul rests upon it, gives, and is found to be a +broken staff that pierces the hand that leans upon it. + +Consult your own experience. What is the meaning of the unrest and +distraction that mark the lives of most of the men in this generation? +Why is it that you hurry from business to pleasure, from pleasure to +business, until it is scarcely possible to get a quiet breathing time +for thought at all? Why is it but because one after another of your +gods have proved insufficient, and so fresh altars must be built for +fresh idolatries, and new experiments made, of which we can safely +prophesy the result will be the old one. We have not got beyond St. +Augustine's saying:--'Oh, God! my heart was made for Thee, and in Thee +only doth it find repose.' The many idols, though you multiply them +beyond count, all put together will never make the One God. You are +seeking what you will never find. The many pearls that you seek will +never be enough for you. The true wealth is One, 'One pearl of great +price.' + +II. So notice again how this story teaches the heavy cost of these +helpers' help. + +Ahaz had, as he thought, two strings to his bow. He had the gods of +Damascus and of other lands on one hand, he had the king of Assyria on +another. They both of them exacted onerous terms before they would +stir a foot to his aid. As for the northern conqueror, all the wealth +of the king and of the princes and of the Temple was sent to Assyria +as the price of his hurtful help. As for the gods, his helpers, one of +his sons at least went into the furnace to secure their favour; and +what other sacrifices he may have made besides the sacrifice of his +conscience and his soul, history does not tell us. These were +considerable subsidies to have to be paid down before any aid was +granted. + +Do _you_ buy this world's help any cheaper, my brother? You get +nothing for nothing in that market. It is a big price that you have to +pay before these mercenaries will come to fight on your side. Here is +a man that 'succeeds in life,' as we call it. What does it cost him? +Well! it has cost him the suppression, the atrophy by disuse, of many +capacities in his soul which were far higher and nobler than those +that have been exercised in his success. It has cost him all his days; +it has possibly cost him the dying out of generous sympathies and the +stimulating of unwholesome selfishness. Ah! he has bought his +prosperity very dear. Political economists have much to say about the +'appreciation of gold.' I think if people would estimate what they pay +for it, in an immense majority of cases, in treasure that cannot be +weighed and stamped, they would find it to be about the dearest thing +in God's universe; and that there are few men who make worse bargains +than the men who give _themselves_ for worldly success, even when +they receive what they give themselves for. + +There are some of you who know how much what you call enjoyment has +cost you. Some of us have bought pleasure at the price of innocence, +of moral dignity, of stained memories, of polluted imaginations, of an +incapacity to rise above the flesh: and some of us have bought it at +the price of health. The world has a way of getting more out of you +than it gives to you. + +At the best, if you are not Christian men and women, whether you are +men of business, votaries of pleasure, seekers after culture and +refinement or anything else, you have given Heaven to get earth. Is +that a good bargain? Is it much wiser than that of a horde of naked +savages that sell a great tract of fair country, with gold-bearing +reefs in it, for a bottle of rum, and a yard or two of calico? What is +the difference? You have been fooled out of the inheritance which God +meant for you; and you have got for it transient satisfaction, and +partial as it is transient. If you are not Christian people, you have +to buy this world's wealth and goods at the price of God and of your +own souls. And I ask you if that is an investment which recommends +itself to your common sense. Oh! my brother; 'what shall it profit a +man if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?' Answer the +question. + +III. Lastly, we may gather from this story an illustration of the +fatal falsehood of the world's help. + +Ahaz pauperised himself to buy the hireling swords of Assyria, and he +got them; but, as it says in the narrative, 'the king came unto him, +and distressed him, but strengthened him not.' He helped Ahaz at +first. He scattered the armies of which the king of Judah was afraid +like chaff, with his fierce and disciplined onset. And then, having +driven them off the bleeding prey, he put his own paw upon it, and +growled 'Mine!' And where he struck his claws there was little more +hope of life for the prostrate creature below him. + +Ay! and that is what this world always does. In the case before us +there was providential guidance of the politics of the Eastern nations +in order to bring about these results; and we do not look for anything +of that sort. No! But there are natural laws at work today which are +God's laws, and which ensure the worthlessness of the help bought so +dear. + +A godless life has at the best only partial satisfaction, and that +partial satisfaction soon diminishes. 'Even in laughter the heart is +sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' + +That is the experience of all men, and I need not dwell upon the +threadbare commonplaces which have survived from generation to +generation, because each generation in turn has found them so +piteously true, about the incompleteness and the fleetingness of all +the joys and treasures of this life. The awful power of habit, if +there were no other reason, takes the edge off all gratification +except in so far as God is in it. Nothing fully retains its power to +satisfy. Nothing has that power absolutely at any moment; but even +what measure of it any of our possessions or pursuits may have for a +time, soon, or at all events by degrees, passes away. The greater part +of life is but like drinking out of empty cups, and the cups drop from +our hands. What one of our purest and peacefullest poets said in his +haste about all his kind is true in spirit of all godless lives:-- + + 'We poets, in our youth, begin in gladness, + But thereof cometh, in the end, despondency and madness.' + +'Vanity of vanities! saith'--not the Preacher only, but the inmost +heart of every godless man and woman--'vanity of vanities! all is +vanity!' + +And do not forget that, partial and transient as these satisfactions +of which I have been speaking are, they derive what power of helping +and satisfying is in them only from the silence of our consciences, +and our success in being able to shut out realities. One word, they +say, spoken too loud, brings down the avalanche, and beneath its +white, cold death, the active form is motionless and the beating heart +lies still. One word from conscience, one touch of an awakened +reflectiveness, one glance at the end--the coffin and the shroud and +what comes after these--slay your worldly satisfactions as surely as +that falling snow would crush some light-winged, gauzy butterfly that +had been dancing at the cliff's foot. Your jewellery is all imitation. +It is well enough for candle-light. Would you like to try the testing +acid upon it? Here is a drop of it. 'Know thou that for all these +things God will bring thee into judgment.' Does it smoke? or does it +stand the test? Here is another drop. 'This night thy soul shall be +required of thee.' Does it stand that test? My brother! do not be +afraid to take in all the facts of your earthly life, and do not +pretend to satisfy yourselves with satisfactions which dare not face +realities, and shrivel up at their presence. + +These fatal helpers come as friends and allies, and they remain as +masters. Ahaz and a hundred other weak princes have tried the policy +of sending for a strong foreign power to scatter their enemies, and it +has always turned out one way. The foreigner has come and he has +stopped. The auxiliary has become the lord, and he that called him to +his aid becomes his tributary. Ay! and so it is with all the things of +this world. Here is some pleasant indulgence that I call to my help +lightly and thoughtlessly. It is very agreeable and does what I wanted +with it, and I try it again. Still it answers to my call. And then +after a while I say, 'I am going to give that up,' and I cannot, I +have brought in a master when I thought I was only bringing in an ally +that I could dismiss when I liked. The sides of the pit are very +slippery; it is gay travelling down them, but when the animal is +trapped at the bottom there is no possibility of getting up again. So +some of you, dear friends! have got masters in your delights, masters +in your pursuits, masters in your habits. These are your gods, these +are your tyrants, and you will find out that they are so, if ever, in +your own strength, you try to break away from them. + +So let me plead with you. With some of you, perhaps, my voice, as a +familiar voice, that in some measure, however undeservedly, you trust, +may have influence. Let me plead with you--do not run after these +will-o'-the-wisps that will only lure you into destruction, but follow +the light of life which is Jesus Christ Himself. Do not take these +tyrants for your helpers, who will master you under pretence of aiding +you; and work their will of you instead of lightening your burden. The +same unwise and hopeless mode of life, which we have been describing +this evening by one symbolic illustration, as calling vain helpers to +our aid, was presented by Ahaz's great contemporary Isaiah, in words +which Ahaz himself may have heard, as 'striking a covenant with death, +and making lies our refuge.' Some of us, alas! have been doing that +all our lives. Let such hearken to the solemn words which may have +rung in the ears of this unworthy king. 'Judgment also will I lay to +the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep +away the refuge of lies.' I come to you, dear friends! to press on +your acceptance the true Guide and Helper--even Jesus Christ your +Brother, in whose single Self you will find all that you have vainly +sought dispersed 'at sundry times and in divers manners'--among +creatures. Take Him for your Saviour by trusting your whole selves to +Him. He is the Sacrifice by whose blood all our sins are washed away, +and the Indweller, by whose Spirit all our spirits are ennobled and +gladdened. I ask you to take Him for your Helper, who will never +deceive you; to call whom to our aid is to be secure and victorious +for ever. 'Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried +stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth +shall not make haste.' + + + +A GODLY REFORMATION + +'Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he +reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was +Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2. And he did that which was right +in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had +done. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first mouth, opened +the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. 4. And he +brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together +into the east street, 5. And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; +Sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of +your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. 6. +For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the +eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away +their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs. +7. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the +lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered burnt-offerings in the +holy place unto the God of Israel. 8. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord +was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble, +to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. 9. For, lo, +our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons and our daughters +and our wives are in captivity for this. 10. Now it is in mine heart +to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath +may turn away from us. 11. My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord +hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should +minister unto Him, and burn incense.'--2 CHRON. xxix. 1-11. + + +Hezekiah, the best of the later kings, had the worst for his father, +and another almost as bad for his son. His own piety was probably +deepened by the mad extravagance of his father's boundless idolatry, +which brought the kingdom to the verge of ruin. Action and reaction +are equal and contrary. Saints grown amidst fashionable and deep +corruption are generally strong, and reformers usually arise from the +midst of the systems which they overthrow. Hezekiah came to a +tottering throne and an all but beggared nation, ringed around by +triumphant enemies. His brave young heart did not quail. He sought +'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,' and of the two +pressing needs for Judah, political peace and religious purity, he +began with the last. The Book of Kings tells at most length the civil +history; the Book of Chronicles, as usual, lays most stress on the +ecclesiastical. The two complete each other. The present passage gives +a beautiful picture of the vigorous, devout young king setting about +the work of reformation. + +We may note, first, his prompt action. Joash had to whip up the +reluctant priests with his 'See that ye hasten the matter!' Hezekiah +lets no grass grow under his feet, but begins his reforms with his +reign. 'The first month' (ver. 3) possibly, indeed, means the first +month of the calendar, not of Hezekiah, who may have come to the +throne in the later part of the Jewish year; but, in any case, no time +was lost. The statement in verse 3 may be taken as a general +_resume_ of what follows in detail, but this vigorous speech to +the priests was clearly among the new king's first acts. No doubt his +purpose had slowly grown while his father was affronting Heaven with +his mania for idols. Such decisive, swift action does not come without +protracted, previous brooding. The hidden fires gather slowly in the +silent crater, however rapidly they burst out at last. + +We can never begin good things too early, and when we come into new +positions, it is always prudence as well as bravery to show our +colours unmistakably from the first. Many a young man, launched among +fresh associations, has been ruined because of beginning with +temporising timidity. It is easier to take the right standing at first +than to shift to it afterwards. Hezekiah might have been excused if he +had thought that the wretched state of political affairs left by Ahaz +needed his first attention. Edomites on the east, Philistines on the +west and south, Syrians and Assyrians on the north, 'compassed him +about like bees,' and worldly prudence would have said, 'Look after +these enemies today, and the Temple tomorrow.' He was wiser than that, +knowing that these were effects of the religious corruption, and so he +went at that first. It is useless trying to mend a nation's fortunes +unless you mend its morals and religion. + +And there are some things which are best done quickly, both in +individual and national life. Leaving off bad habits by degrees is not +hopeful. The only thing to be done is to break with them utterly and +at once. One strong, swift blow, right through the heart, kills the +wild beast. Slighter cuts may make him bleed to death, but he may kill +you first. The existing state was undeniably sinful. There was no need +for deliberation as to that. Therefore there was no reason for delay. +Let us learn the lesson that, where conscience has no doubts, we +should have no dawdling. 'I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy +commandment.' + +Note, too, in Hezekiah's speech, the true order of religious +reformation. The priests and Levites were not foremost in it, as +indeed is only too often the case with ecclesiastics in all ages. +Probably many of them had been content to serve Ahaz as priests of his +multiform idolatry. At all events, they needed 'sanctifying,' though +no doubt the word is here used in reference to merely ceremonial +uncleanness. Still the requirement that they should cleanse themselves +before they cleansed the Temple has more than ceremonial significance. +Impure hands are not fit for the work of religious reformation, though +they have often been employed in it. What was the weakness of the +Reformation but that the passions of princes and nobles were so soon +and generally enlisted for it, and marred it? He that enters into the +holy place, especially if his errand be to cleanse it, must have +'clean hands, and a pure heart.' The hands that wielded the whip of +small cords, and drove out the money-changers, were stainless, and +therefore strong. Some of us are very fond of trying to set churches +to rights. Let us begin with ourselves, lest, like careless servants, +we leave dirty finger-marks where we have been 'cleaning.' + +The next point in the speech is the profound and painful sense of +existing corruption. Note the long-drawn-out enumeration of evils in +verses 6 and 7, starting with the general recognition of the fathers' +trespass, advancing to the more specific sin of forsaking Him and His +house, and dwelling, finally, as with fascinated horror, on all the +details of closed shrine and quenched lamps and cold altars. The +historical truth of the picture is confirmed by the close of the +previous chapter, and its vividness shows how deeply Hezekiah had felt +the shame and sin of Ahaz. It is not easy to keep clear of the +influence of prevailing corruptions of religion. Familiarity weakens +abhorrence, and the stained embodiments of the ideal hide its purity +from most eyes. But no man will be God's instrument to make society, +the church, or the home, better, unless he feels keenly the existing +evils. We do not need to cherish a censorious spirit, but we do need +to guard against an unthinking acquiescence in the present state of +things, and a self-complacent reluctance to admit their departure from +the divine purpose for the church. There is need to-day for a like +profound consciousness of evil, and like efforts after new purity. If +we individually lived nearer God, we should be less acclimatised to +the Church's imperfections. No doubt Hezekiah's clear sight of the +sinfulness of the idolatry so universal round him was largely owing to +Isaiah's influence. Eyes which have caught sight of the true King of +Israel, and of the pure light of His kingdom, will be purged to +discern the sore need for purifying the Lord's house. + +The clear insight into the national sin gives as clear understanding +of the national suffering. Hezekiah speaks, in verses 8 and 9, as the +Law and the Prophets had been speaking for centuries, and as God's +providence had been uttering in act all through the national history. +But so slow are men to learn familiar truths that Ahaz had grasped at +idol after idol to rescue him; 'but they were the ruin of him, and of +all Israel.' How difficult it is to hammer plain truths, even with the +mallet of troubles, into men's heads! How blind we all are to the +causal connection between sin and sorrow! Hezekiah saw the iron link +uniting them, and his whole policy was based upon that 'wherefore.' Of +course, if we accept the Biblical statements as to the divine dealing +with Israel and Judah, obedience and disobedience were there followed +by reward and suffering more certainly and directly than is now the +case in either national or individual life. But it still remains true +that it is a 'bitter' as well as an 'evil' thing to depart from the +living God. If we would find the cause of our own or of a nation's +sorrows, we had better begin our search among our or its sins. + +That phrase 'an astonishment, and an hissing' (ver. 8) is new. It +appears for the first time in Micah (Micah vi. 16), and he, we know, +exercised influence on Hezekiah (Jer. xxvi. 18, 19). Perhaps the king +is here quoting the prophet. + +The exposition of the sin and its fruit is followed by the king's +resolve for himself, and, so far as may be, for his people. The phrase +'it is in my heart' expresses fixed determination, not mere wish. It +is used by David and of him, in reference to his resolve to build the +Temple. 'To make a covenant' probably means to renew the covenant, +made long ago at Sinai, but broken by sin. The king has made up his +mind, and announces his determination. He does not consult priests or +people, but expects their acquiescence. So, in the early days of +Christianity, the 'conversion' of a king meant that of his people. Of +course, the power of the kings of Israel and Judah to change the +national religion at their pleasure shows how slightly any religion +had penetrated, and how much, at the best, it was a matter of mere +ceremonial worship with the masses. People who worshipped Ahaz's +rabble of gods and godlings to-day because he bade them, and +Hezekiah's God to-morrow, had little worship for either, and were much +the same through all changes. + +Hezekiah was in earnest, and his resolve was none the less right +because it was moved by a desire to turn away the fierce anger of the +Lord. Dread of sin's consequences and a desire to escape these is no +unworthy motive, however some superfine moralists nowadays may call it +so. It is becoming unfashionable to preach 'the terror of the Lord.' +The more is the pity, and the less is the likelihood of persuading +men. But, however kindled, the firm determination (which does not wait +for others to concur) that 'As for me, I will serve the Lord,' is the +grand thing for us all to imitate. That strong young heart showed +itself kingly in its resolve, as it had shown itself sensitive to evil +and tender in contemplating the widespread sorrow. If we would brace +our feeble wills, and screw them to the sticking-point of immovable +determination to make a covenant with God, let us meditate on our +departures from Him, the Lover and Benefactor of our souls, and on the +dreadfulness of His anger and the misery of those who forsake Him. + +Once more the king turns to the priests. He began and he finishes with +them, as if he were not sure of their reliableness. His tone is +kindly, 'My sons,' but yet monitory. They would not have been warned +against 'negligence' unless they had obviously needed it, nor would +they have been stimulated to their duties by reminding them of their +prerogatives, unless they had been apt to slight these. Officials, +whose business is concerned with the things of God, are often apt to +drop into an easy-going pace. Negligent work may suit unimportant +offices, but is hideously inconsistent with the tasks and aims of +God's servants. If there is any work which has to be done 'with both +hands, earnestly,' it is theirs. Unless we put all our strength into +it, we shall get no good for ourselves or others out of it. The utmost +tension of all powers, the utmost husbanding of every moment, is +absolutely demanded by the greatness of the task; and the voice of the +great Master says to all His servants, 'My sons, be not now +negligent.' Ungirt loins and unlit lamps are fatal. + +We should meditate, too, on the prerogatives and lofty offices to +which Christ calls those who love Him; not to minister to +self-complacency, as if we were so much better than other men, but to +deepen our sense of responsibility, and stir us to strenuous efforts +to be what we are called to be. If Christian people thought more +earnestly on what Jesus Christ means them to be to the world, they +would not so often counterwork His purpose and shirk their own duties. +Crowns are heavy to wear. Gifts are calls to service. If we are chosen +to be His ministers, we have solemn responsibilities. If we are to +burn incense before Him, our censers need to be bright and free from +strange fire. If we are the lights of the world, our business is to +shine. + + + +SACRIFICE RENEWED + +'Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed +all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt-offering, with all +the vessels thereof, and the shew-bread table, with all the vessels +thereof. 19. Moreover, all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign +did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, +and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. 20. Then Hezekiah +the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up +to the house of the Lord. 21. And they brought seven bullocks, and +seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin-offering +for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he +commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar +of the Lord. 22. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received +the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had +killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed +also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. 23. And +they brought forth the he goats for the sin-offering before the king +and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them. 24. And the +priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood +upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king +commanded that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be made +for all Israel. 25. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord +with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the +commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the +prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets. 26. +And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests +with the trumpets. 27. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the +burnt-offering upon the altar. And when the burnt-offering began, the +song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the +instruments ordained by David king of Israel. 28. And all the +congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters +sounded: and all this continued until the burnt-offering was finished. +29. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that +were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped. 30. Moreover, +Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing +praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. +And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and +worshipped. 31. Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have +consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near, and bring sacrifices +and thank-offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation +brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a +free heart burnt offerings.--2 CHRON. xxix. 18-31. + + +Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had wallowed in idolatry, worshipping any and +every god but Jehovah. He had shut up the Temple, defiled the sacred +vessels, and 'made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.' And the +result was that he brought the kingdom very near ruin, was not allowed +to be buried in the tombs of the kings, and left his son a heavy task +to patch up the mischief he had wrought. Hezekiah began at the right +end of his task. 'In the first year of his reign, in the first month,' +he set about restoring the worship of Jehovah. The relations with +Syria and Damascus would come right if the relations with Judah's God +were right. 'First things first' was his motto, and perhaps he +discerned the true sequence more accurately than some great political +pundits do nowadays. So neglected had the Temple been that a strong +force of priests and Levites took a fortnight to 'carry forth the +filthiness out of the holy place to the brook Kidron,' and to cleanse +and ceremonially sanctify the sacred vessels. Then followed at once +the re-establishment of the Temple worship, which is narrated in the +passage. + +The first thing to be noted is that the whole movement back to Jehovah +was a one-man movement. It was Hezekiah's doing and his only. No +priest is named as prominent in it, and the slowness of the whole +order is especially branded in verse 34. No prophet is named; was +there any one prompting the king? Perhaps Isaiah did, though his +chapter i. with its scathing repudiation of 'the burnt offerings of +rams and the fat of fed beasts,' suggests that he did not think the +restoration of sacrifice so important as that the nation should 'cease +to do evil and learn to do well.' The people acquiesced in the king's +worship of Jehovah, as they had acquiesced in other kings' worship of +Baal or Moloch or Hadad. When kings take to being religious reformers, +they make swift converts, but their work is as slight as it is speedy, +and as short-lived as it is rapid. Manasseh was Hezekiah's successor, +and swept away all his work after twenty-nine years, and apparently +the mass of his people followed him just as they had followed +Hezekiah. Religion must be a matter of personal conviction and +individual choice. Imposed from without, or adopted because other +people adopt it, it is worthless. + +Another point to notice is that Hezekiah's reformation was mainly +directed to ritual, and does not seem to have included either theology +or ethics. Was be quite right in his estimate of what was the first +thing? Isaiah, in the passage already referred to, does not seem to +think so. To him, as to all the prophets, foul hands could not bring +acceptable sacrifices, and worship was an abomination unless preceded +by obedience to the command: 'Put away the evil of your doings from +before Mine eyes.' The filth in the hearts of the men of Judah was +more 'rank, and smelt to heaven' more offensively, than that in the +Temple, which took sixteen days to shovel into Kidron. No doubt +ceremonial bulked more largely in the days of the Old Covenant than it +does in those of the New, and both the then stage of revelation and +the then spiritual stature of the recipients of revelation required +that it should do so. But the true religious reformers, the prophets, +were never weary of insisting that, even in those days, moral and +spiritual reformation should come first, and that unless it did, +ritual worship, though it were nominally offered to Jehovah, was as +abhorrent to Him as if it had been avowedly offered to Baal. Not a +little so-called Christian worship today, judged by the same test, is +as truly heathen superstition as if it had been paid to Mumbo-Jumbo. + +But when all deductions have been made, the scene depicted in the +passage is not only an affecting, but an instructive one. Strangely +unlike our notions of worship, and to us almost repulsive, must have +been the slaying of three hundred and seventy animals and the offering +of them as burnt offerings. Try to picture the rivers of blood, the +contortions of the dumb brutes, the priests bedaubed with gore, the +smell of the burnt flesh, the blare of the trumpets, the shouts of the +worshippers, the clashing cymbals, and realise what a world parts it +from 'They went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding ... +these all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the +women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren'! +Sacrifice has been the essential feature in all religions before +Christ. It has dropped out of worship wherever Christ has been +accepted. Why? Because it spoke of a deep, permanent, universal need, +and because Christ was recognised as having met the need. People who +deny the need, and people who deny that Jesus on the Cross has +satisfied it, may be invited to explain these two facts, written large +on the history of humanity. + +That brings us to the most important aspect of Hezekiah's great +sacrifice. It sets forth the stages by which men can approach to God. +It is symbolic of spiritual facts, and prophetic of Christ's work and +of our way of coming to God through Him. The first requisite for +Judah's return to Jehovah, whom they had forsaken, was the +presentation of a 'sin offering.' The king and the congregation laid +their hands on the heads of the goats, thereby, as it were, +transferring their own sinful personality to them. Thus laden with the +nation's sins, they were slain, and in their death the nation, as it +were, bore the penalty of its sin. Representation and substitution +were dramatised in the sacrifice. The blood sprinkled on the altar +(which had previously been 'sanctified' by sprinkling of blood, and so +made capable of presenting what touched it to Jehovah), made +'atonement for all Israel.' We note in passing the emphasis of +'Israel' here, extending the benefit of the sacrifice to the separated +tribes of the Northern Kingdom, in a gush of yearning love and desire +that they, too, might be reconciled to Jehovah. And is not this the +first step towards any man's reconciliation with God? Is not + + 'My faith would lay her hand + On that dear head of Thine,' + +the true expression of the first requisite for us all? Jesus is the +sin-offering for the world. In His death He bears the world's sin. His +blood is presented to God, and if we have associated ourselves with +Him by faith, that blood sprinkled on the altar covers all our sins. + +Then followed in this parabolic ceremonial the burnt offering. And +that is the second stage of our return to God, for it expresses the +consecration of our forgiven selves, as being consumed by the holy and +blessed fire of a self-devotion, kindled by the 'unspeakable gift,' +which fire, burning away all foulness, will make us tenfold ourselves. +That fire will burn up only our bonds, and we shall walk at liberty in +it. And that burnt-offering will always be accompanied with 'the song +of Jehovah,' and the joyful sound of the trumpets and 'the instruments +of David.' The treasures of Christian poetry have always been inspired +by the Cross, and the consequent rapture of self-surrender. Calvary is +the true fountain of song. + +The last stage in Hezekiah's great sacrifice was 'thank-offerings,' +brought by 'as many as were of a willing heart.' And will not the +self-devotion, kindled by the fire of love, speak in daily life by +practical service, and the whole activities of the redeemed man be a +long thank-offering for the Lamb who 'bears away the sins of the +world'? And if we do not thus offer our whole lives to God, how shall +we profess to have taken the priceless benefit of Christ's death? +Hezekiah followed the order laid down in the Law, and it is the only +order that leads to the goal. First, the atoning sacrifice of the +slain Lamb; next, our identification with Him and it by faith; then +the burnt-offering of a surrendered self, with the song of praise +sounding ever through it; and last, the life of service, offering all +our works to God, and so reaching the perfection of life on earth and +antedating the felicities of heaven. + + + +A LOVING CALL TO REUNION + +'And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to +Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord +at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. 2. For +the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation +in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. 3. For they +could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified +themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves +together to Jerusalem. 4. And the thing pleased the king and all the +congregation. 5. So they established a decree to make proclamation +throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should +come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: +for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was +written. 6. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his +princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the +commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again +unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to +the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of +Assyria. 7. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, +which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore +gave them up to desolation, as ye see. 8. Now, be ye not stiffnecked, +as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter +into His sanctuary, which He hath sanctified for ever: and serve the +Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from +you. 9. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your +children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so +that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is +gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if ye +return unto Him. 10. So the posts passed from city to city through the +country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they laughed +them to scorn, and mocked them. 11. Nevertheless divers of Asher and +Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. 12. +Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the +commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord. +13. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of +unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation.'--2 +CHRON. xxx. 1-13. + + +The date of Hezekiah's passover is uncertain, for, while the immediate +connection of this narrative with the preceding account of his +cleansing the Temple and restoring the sacrificial worship suggests +that the passover followed directly on those events, which took place +at the beginning of the reign, the language employed in the message to +the northern tribes (vers. 6,7, 9) seems to imply the previous fall of +the kingdom of Israel, If so, this passover did not occur till after +721 B.C., the date of the capture of Samaria, six years after +Hezekiah's accession. + +The sending of messengers from Jerusalem on such an errand would +scarcely have been possible if the northern kingdom had still been +independent. Perhaps its fall was thought by Hezekiah to open the door +to drawing 'the remnant that were escaped' back to the ancient unity +of worship, at all events, if not of polity. No doubt a large number +had been left in the northern territory, and Hezekiah may have hoped +that calamity had softened their enmity to his kingdom, and perhaps +touched them with longings for the old worship. At all events, like a +good man, he will stretch out a hand to the alienated brethren, now +that evil days have fallen on them. The hour of an enemy's calamity +should be our opportunity for seeking to help and proffering +reconciliation. We may find that trouble inclines wanderers to come +back to God. + +The alteration of the time of keeping the passover from the thirteenth +day of the first month to the same day of the second was in accordance +with the liberty granted in Numbers ix. 10, 11, to persons unclean by +contact with a dead body or 'in a journey afar off.' The decision to +have the passover was not taken in time to allow of the necessary +removal of uncleanness from the priests nor of the assembling of the +people, and therefore the permission to defer it for a month was taken +advantage of, in order to allow full time for the despatch of the +messengers and the journeys of the farthest northern tribes. It is to +be observed that Hezekiah took his subjects into counsel, since the +step intended was much too great for him to venture on of his own mere +motion. So the overtures went out clothed with the authority of the +whole kingdom of Judah. It was the voice of a nation that sought to +woo back the secessionists. + +The messengers were instructed to supplement the official letters of +invitation with earnest entreaties as from the king, of which the gist +is given in verses 6-9. With the skill born of intense desire to draw +the long-parted kingdoms together, the message touches on ancestral +memories, recent bitter experiences, yearnings for the captive +kinsfolk, the instinct of self-preservation, and rises at last into +the clear light of full faith in, and insight into, God's infinite +heart of pardoning pity. + +Note the very first words, 'Ye children of Israel,' and consider the +effect of this frank recognition of the northern kingdom as part of +the undivided Israel. Such recognition might have been misunderstood +or spurned when Samaria was gay and prosperous; but when its palaces +were desolate, the effect of the old name, recalling happier days, +must have been as if the elder brother had come out from the father's +house and entreated the prodigal to come back to his place at the +fireside. The battle would be more than half won if the appeal that +was couched in the very name of Israel was heeded. + +Note further how firmly and yet lovingly the sin of the northern +kingdom is touched on. The name of Jehovah as the God of Abraham, +Isaac, and Israel, recalls the ancient days when the undivided people +worshipped Him, and the still more ancient, and, to hearers and +speakers alike, more sacred, days when the patriarchs received +wondrous tokens that He was their God, and they were His people; while +the recurrence of 'Israel' as the name of Jacob adds force to its +previous use as the name of all His descendants. The possible +rejection of the invitation, on the ground which the men of the north, +like the Samaritan woman, might have taken, that they were true to +their fathers' worship, is cut away by the reminder that that worship +was an innovation, since the fathers of the present generation had +been apostate from the God of _their_ fathers. The appeal to +antiquity often lands men in a bog because it is not carried far +enough back. 'The fathers' may lead astray, but if the antiquity to +which we appeal is that of which the New Testament is the record, the +more conservative we are, the nearer the truth shall we be. + +Again, the message touched on a chord that might easily have given a +jarring note; namely, the misfortunes of the kingdom. But it was done +with so delicate a hand, and so entirely without a trace of rejoicing +in a neighbour's calamities, that no susceptibilities could be +ruffled, while yet the solemn lesson is unfalteringly pointed. 'He +gave them up to desolation, as ye see.' Behind Assyria was Jehovah, +and Israel's fall was not wholly explained by the disparity between +its strength and the conquerors'. Under and through the play of +criminal ambition, cruelty, and earthly politics, the unseen Hand +wrought; and the teaching of all the Old Testament history is +condensed into that one sad sentence, which points to facts as plain +as tragical. In deepest truth it applies to each of us; for, if we +trespass against God, we draw down evil on our heads with both hands, +and shall find that sin brings the worst desolation--that which sheds +gloom over a godless soul. + +We note further the deep true insight into God's character and ways +expressed in this message. There is a very striking variation in the +three designations of Jehovah as 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and +Israel' (ver. 6), 'the god of their [that is, the preceding +generation] fathers' (ver. 7), and 'your God' (ver. 8). The relation +which had subsisted from of old had not been broken by man's apostasy, +Jehovah still was, in a true sense, their God, even if His relation to +them only bound Him not to leave them unpunished. So their very +sufferings proved them His, for 'What son is he whom the father +chasteneth not?' But strong, sunny confidence in God shines from the +whole message, and reaches its climax in the closing assurance that He +is merciful and gracious. The evil results of rebellion are not +omitted, but they are not dwelt on. The true magnet to draw wanderers +back to God is the loving proclamation of His love. Unless we are sure +that He has a heart tender with all pity, and 'open as day to melting +charity,' we shall not turn to Him with our hearts. + +The message puts the response which it sought in a variety of ways; +namely, turning to Jehovah, not being stiff-necked, yielding selves to +Jehovah, entering into His sanctuary. More than outward participation +in the passover ceremonial is involved. Submission of will, +abandonment of former courses of action, docility of spirit ready to +be directed anywhere, the habit of abiding with God by communion--all +these, the standing characteristics of the religious life, are at +least suggested by the invitations here. We are all summoned thus to +yield ourselves to God, and especially to do so by surrendering our +wills to Him, and to 'enter into His sanctuary,' by keeping up such +communion with Him as that, however and wherever occupied, we shall +still 'dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.' + +And the summons to return unto God is addressed to us all even more +urgently than to Israel. God Himself invites us by the voice of His +providences, by His voice within, and by the voice of Jesus Himself, +who is ever saying to each of us, by His death and passion, by His +resurrection and ascension, 'Turn ye! turn ye! why will ye die?' and +who has more than endorsed Hezekiah's messengers' assurance that +'Jehovah will not turn away His face from' us by His own gracious +promise, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' + +The king's message met a mingled reception. Some mocked, some were +moved and accepted. So, alas! is it with the better message, which is +either 'a savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The same +fire melts wax and hardens clay. May it be with all of us as it was in +Judah--that we 'have one heart, to do the commandment' and to accept +the merciful summons to the great passover! + + + +A STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS + +'After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king +of Assyria, came.'--2 CHRON. XXXII. 1. + + +The Revised Version gives a much more accurate and significant +rendering of a part of these words. It reads: 'After these things and +_this faithfulness_, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came.' What +are 'these things' and 'this faithfulness'? The former are the whole +of the events connected with the religious reformation in Judah, which +King Hezekiah inaugurated and carried through so brilliantly and +successfully. This 'faithfulness' directly refers to a word in a +couple of verses before the text: 'Thus did Hezekiah throughout all +Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and +_faithfulness_ before the Lord his God.' And, after these things, +the re-establishment of religion and this 'faithfulness,' though +Hezekiah was perfect before God in all ritual observances and in +practical righteousness, and though he was seeking the Lord his God +with all his heart, here is what came of it:--'After this faithfulness +came' not blessings or prosperity, but 'Sennacherib, king of Assyria'! +The chronicler not only tells this as singular, but one can feel that +he is staggered by it. There is a tone of perplexity and wonder in his +voice as he records that _this_ was what followed the faithful +righteousness and heart-devotion of the best king that ever sat on the +throne of Judah. I think that this royal martyr's experience is really +a mirror of the experience of devout men in all ages and a revelation +of the great law and constant processes of the Divine Providence. And +from that point of view I wish to speak now, not only on the words I +have read, but on what follows them. + +I. We have here the statement of the mystery. + +It is the standing puzzle of the Old Testament, how good men come to +be troubled, and how bad men come to be prosperous. And although we +Christian men and women are a great deal too apt to suppose that we +have outlived that rudimentary puzzle of the religious mind, yet I do +not think by any means that we have. For we hear men, when the rod +falls upon themselves, saying, 'What have I done that I should be +smitten thus?' or when their friends suffer, saying, 'What a +marvellous thing it is that such a good man as A, B, or C should have +so much trouble!' or, when widespread calamities strike a community, +standing aghast at the broad and dark shadows that fall upon a nation +or a continent, and wondering what the meaning of all this heaped +misery is, and why the world is thus allowed to run along its course +surrounded by an atmosphere made up of the breath of sighs, and +swathed in clouds which are moist with tears. + +My text gives us an illustration in the sharpest form of the mystery. +'After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib came'--and he +always comes in one shape or another. For, to begin with, a good man's +goodness does not lift him out of the ordinary associations and +contingencies and laws of life. If he has inherited a diseased +constitution, his devotion will not make him a healthy man. If he has +little common sense, his godliness will not make him prosper in +worldly affairs. If he is tied to unfortunate connections, he will +have to suffer. If he happens to be in a decaying branch of business, +his prayers will not make him prosperous. If he falls in the way of +poisonous gas from a sewer, his godliness will not exempt him from an +attack of fever. So all round the horizon we see this: that the godly +man is involved like any other man in the ordinary contingencies and +possible evils of life. Then, have we to say that God has nothing to +do with these? + +Again, Hezekiah's story teaches us how second causes are God's +instruments, and He is at the back of everything. There are two +sources of our knowledge of the history of Judah in the time with +which we are concerned. One is the Bible, the other is the Assyrian +monuments; and it is a most curious contrast to read the two +narratives of the same events, agreeing about the facts, but +disagreeing utterly in the spirit. Why? Because the one tells the +story from the world's point of view, and the other tells it from +God's point of view. So when you take the one narrative, it is simply +this: 'There was a conspiracy down in the south against the political +supremacy of Assyria, and a lot of little confederate kinglets +gathered themselves; and Hezekiah, of Judah, was one, along with +So-and-So of such-and-such a petty land, and they leaned upon Egypt; +and I, Sennacherib, came down among them, and they tumbled to pieces, +and that is all.' Then the Bible comes in, and it says that God +ordered all those political complications, and that they were all the +working out of His purposes, and that 'the axe in His hand' as Isaiah +has it so picturesquely, was this proud king of Assyria, with his +boastful mouth and vainglorious words. + +Now, that is the principle by which we have to estimate all the events +that befall us. There are two ways of looking at them. You may look at +them from the under side or from the top side. You may see them as +they appear to men who cannot look beyond their noses and only have +concern with the visible cranks and shafting, or you may look at them +from the engine-room and take account of the invisible power that +drives them all. In the one case you will regard it as a mystery that +good men should have to suffer so; in the other case, you will say, +'It is the Lord, let Him do'--even when He does it through Sennacherib +and his like, 'let Him do what seemeth Him good.' + +Then there is another thing to be taken into account--that is, that +the better a man is, the more faithful he is and the more closely he +cleaves to God, and seeks, like this king, to do, with all his heart, +all his work in the service of the House of God and to seek his God, +the more sure is he to bring down upon himself certain forms of +trouble and trial. The rebellion which, from the Assyrian side of the +river, seemed to be a mere political revolt, from the Jordan side of +the river seemed to be closely connected with the religious +reformation. And it was just because Hezekiah and his people came back +to God that they rebelled against the King of Assyria and served him +not. If you provoke Sennacherib, Sennacherib will be down upon you +very quickly. That is to say, being translated, if you will live like +Christian men and women and fling down the gage of battle to the world +and to the evil that lies in every one of us, and say, 'No, I have +nothing to do with you. My law is not your law, and, God helping me, +my practice shall not be your practice,' then you will find out that +the power that you have defied has a very long arm and a very tight +grasp, and you will have to make up your minds that, in some shape or +other, the old law will be fulfilled about you. Through much +tribulation we must enter the Kingdom. + +II. Now, secondly, my text and its context solve the mystery which it +raises. + +The chronicler, as I said, wishes us to notice the sequence, strange +as it is, and to wonder at it for a moment, in order that we may be +prepared the better to take in the grand explanation that follows. And +the explanation lies in the facts that ensue. + +Did Sennacherib come to destroy? By no means! Here were the results: +first, a stirring to wholesome energy and activity. If annoyances and +troubles and sorrows, great or small, do nothing else for us, they +would be clear and simple gain if they woke us up, for the half of men +pass half of their lives half-asleep. And anybody that has ever come +through a great sorrow and can remember what deep fountains were +opened in his heart that he knew nothing about before, and how powers +that were all unsuspected by himself suddenly came to him, and how +life, instead of being a trivial succession of nothings, all at once +became significant and solemn--any man who can remember that, will +feel that if there were nothing else that his troubles did for him +than to shake him out of torpor and rouse him to a tension of +wholesome activity, so that he cried out: + + 'Call forth thy powers, my soul! and dare + The conflict of unequal war,' + +he would have occasion to bless God for the roughest handling. The +tropics are very pleasant for lazy people, but they sap the +constitution and make work impossible; and after a man has lived for a +while in their perpetual summer, he begins to long for damp and mist +and frost and east winds which bring bracing to the system and make +him fit to work. God takes us often into very ungenial climates, and +the vindication of it is that we may be set to active service. That +was the first good thing that Sennacherib's coming did. + +The next was that his invasion increased dependence upon God. You will +remember the story of the insolent taunts and vulgar vaunting by him +and his servants, and the one answer that was given: 'Hezekiah, the +king, and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, prayed and cried to +God.' Ah! dear brethren, any thing that drives us to His breast is +blessing. We may call it evil when we speak from the point of view of +the foolish senses and the quivering heart, but if it blows us into +His arms, any wind, the roughest and the fiercest, is to be welcomed +more than lazy calms or gentle zephyrs. If, realising our own weakness +and impotence, we are made to hang more completely upon Him, then let +us be thankful for whatever has been the means of such a blessed +issue. That was the second good thing that Sennacherib did. + +The third good thing that he--not exactly did--but that was done +through him, was that experience of God's delivering power was +enriched. You remember the miracle of the destruction of the army. I +need not dilate upon it. A man who can look back and say, 'Thou hast +been with me in six troubles,' need never be afraid of the seventh; +and he who has hung upon that strong rope when he has been swinging +away down in the darkness and asphyxiating atmosphere of the pit, and +has been drawn up into the sunshine again, will trust it for all +coming time. If there were no other explanation, the enlarged and +deepened experience of the realities of God's Gospel and of God's +grace, which are bought only by sorrow, would be a sufficient +explanation of any sorrow that any of us have ever had to carry. + + 'Well roars the storm to him who hears + A deeper voice across the storm.' + +There are large tracts of Scripture which have no meaning, no +blessedness to us until they have been interpreted to us by losses and +sorrows. We never know the worth of the lighthouse until the November +darkness and the howling winds come down upon us, and then we +appreciate its preciousness. + +So, dear friends! the upshot of the whole is just that old teaching, +that if we realised what life is for, we should wonder less at the +sorrows that are in it. For life is meant to make us partakers of His +holiness, not to make us happy. Our happiness is a secondary purpose, +not out of view of the Divine love, but it is not the primary one. And +the direct intention and mission of sorrow, like the direct intention +and mission of joy, are to further that great purpose, that we 'should +be partakers of His holiness.' 'Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, +He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' + +III. Lastly, my text suggests a warning against letting prosperity +undo adversity's work. + +Hezekiah came bravely through his trials. They did exactly what God +wanted them to do; they drove him to God, they forced him down upon +his knees. When Sennacherib's letter came, he took it to the Temple +and spread it before God, and said, 'O Lord! it is Thy business. It is +addressed to me, but it is meant for Thee; do Thou answer it.' And so +he received the help that he wanted. But he broke down after that. He +was 'exalted'; and the allies, his neighbours, that had not lifted a +finger to help him when he needed their help, sent him presents which +would have been a great deal more seasonable when he was struggling +for his life with Sennacherib. What 'came after (God's) faithfulness'? +This--'his heart was lifted up, and he rendered not according to the +benefit rendered to him.' Therefore the blow had to come down again. A +great many people take refuge in archways when it rains, and run out +as soon as it holds up, and a great many people take religion as an +umbrella, to put down when the sunshine comes. We cross the bridge and +forget it, and when the leprosy is out of us we do not care to go back +and give thanks. Sometimes too, we begin to think, 'After all, it was +we that killed Sennacherib's army, and not the angel.' And so, like +dull scholars, we need the lesson repeated once, twice, thrice, 'here +a little and there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line.' +There is none of us that has so laid to heart our past difficulties +and trials that it is safe for God to burn the rod as long as we are +in this life. + +Dear friends! do not let it be said of us, 'In vain have I smitten thy +children. They have received no correction'; but rather let us keep +close to Him, and seek to learn the sweet and loving meaning of His +sharpest strokes. Then the little book, 'written within and without +with lamentation and woe,' which we all in our turn have to absorb and +make our own, may be 'bitter in the mouth,' but will be 'sweet as +honey' thereafter. + + + +MANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE + +'So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and +to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the +children of Israel. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his +people: but they would not hearken. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought +upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took +Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him +to Babylon. 12. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord +his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, +13. And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his +supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. +Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God. 14. Now after this he +built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in +the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed +about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of +war in all the fenced cities of Judah. 15. And he took away the +strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the +altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in +Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16. And he repaired the +altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank +offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiii. 9-16. + + +The story of Manasseh's sin and repentance may stand as a typical +example. Its historical authenticity is denied on the ground that it +appears only in this Book of Chronicles. I must leave others to +discuss that matter; my purpose is to bring out the teaching contained +in the story. + +The first point in it is the stern indictment against Manasseh and his +people. The experience which has saddened many a humbler home was +repeated in the royal house, where a Hezekiah was followed by a +Manasseh, who scorned all that his father had worshipped, and +worshipped all that his father had loathed. Happily the father's eyes +were closed long before the idolatrous bias of his son could have +disclosed itself. Succeeding to the throne at twelve years of age, he +could not have begun his evil ways at once, and probably would have +been preserved from them if his father had lived long enough to mould +his character. A child of twelve, flung on to a throne, was likely to +catch the infection of any sin that was in the atmosphere. The +narrative specifies two points in which, as he matured in years, and +was confirmed in his course of conduct, he went wrong: first, in his +idolatry; and second, in his contempt of remonstrances and warnings. +As to the former, the preceding context gives a terrible picture. He +was smitten with a very delirium of idolatry, and wallowed in any and +every sort of false worship. No matter what strange god was presented, +there were hospitality, an altar, and an offering for him. Baal, +Moloch, 'the host of heaven,' wizards, enchanters, anybody who +pretended to have any sort of black art, all were welcome, and the +more the better. No doubt, this eager acceptance of a miscellaneous +multitude of deities was partly reaction from the monotheism of the +former reign, but also it was the natural result of being surrounded +by the worshippers of these various gods; and it was an unconscious +confession of the insufficiency of each and all of them to fill the +void in the heart, and satisfy the needs of the spirit. There are +'gods many, and lords many,' because they are insufficient; 'the Lord +our God is one Lord,' because He, in His single Self, is more than all +these, and is enough for any and every man. + +We may note, too, that at the beginning of the chapter Manasseh is +said to have done '_like_ unto the abominations of the heathen,' +while in verse 9 he is said to have done 'evil _more_ than did +the nations.' When a worshipper of Jehovah does _like_ the +heathen, he does _worse_ than they. An apostate Christian is more +guilty than one who has never 'tasted the good word of God,' and is +likely to push his sins to a more flagrant wickedness. 'The corruption +of the best is the worst.' We cannot do what the world does without +being more deeply guilty than they. + +The narrative lays stress on the fact that the king's inclination to +idolatry was agreeable to the people. The kings, who fought against +it, had to resist the popular current, but at the least encouragement +from those in high places the nation was ready to slide back. Rulers +who wish to lower the standard of morality or religion have an easy +task; but the people who follow their lead are not free from guilt, +though they can plead that they only followed. The second count in the +indictment is the refusal of king and people to listen to God's +remonstrances. 2 Kings, chap, xxi., gives the prophets' warnings at +greater length. 'They would not hearken'--can anything madder and +sadder be said of any of us than that? Is it not the very sin of sins, +and the climax of suicidal folly, that God should call and men stop +their ears? And yet how many of us pay no more regard to His voice, in +His providences, in our own consciences, in history, in Scripture, +and, most penetrating and beseeching of all, in Christ, than to idle +wind whistling through an archway! Our own evil deeds stop our ears, +and the stopped ears make further evil deeds more easy. + +The second step in this typical story is merciful chastisement, meant +to secure a hearing for God's voice. 2 Kings tells the threat, but not +the fulfilment; Chronicles tells the fulfilment, but not the threat. +We note how emphatically God's hand is recognised behind the political +complications which brought the Assyrians to Jerusalem, and how +particularly it is stated that the invasion was not headed by +Esarhaddon, but by his generals. The place of Manasseh's captivity +also is specified, not as Nineveh, as might have been expected, but as +Babylon. These details, especially the last, look like genuine +history. It is history which carries a lesson. Here is one conspicuous +instance of the divine method, which is working to-day as it did then. +God's hand is behind the secondary causes of events. Our sorrows and +'misfortunes' are sent to us by Him, not hurled at us by human hands +only, or occurring by the working of impersonal laws. They are meant +to make us bethink ourselves, and drop evil things from our hands and +hearts. It is best to be guided by His eye, and not need 'bit and +bridle'; but if we make ourselves stubborn as 'the mule, which has no +understanding,' it is second best that we should taste the whip, that +it may bring us to run in harness on the road which He wills. If we +habitually looked at calamities as His loving chastisement, intended +to draw us to Himself, we should not have to stand perplexed so often +at what we call the mysteries of His providence. + +The next step in the story is the yielding of the sinful heart when +smitten. The worst affliction is an affliction wasted, which does us +no good. And God has often to lament, 'In vain have I smitten your +children; they received no correction.' Sorrow has in itself no power +to effect the purpose for which it is sent; but all depends on how we +take it. It sometimes makes us hard, bitter, obstinate in clinging to +evil. A heart that has been disciplined by it, and still is +undisciplined, is like iron hammered on an anvil, and made the more +close-grained thereby. But this king took his chastisement wisely. An +accepted sorrow is an angel in disguise, and nothing which drives us +to God is a calamity. Manasseh praying was freer in his chains than +ever he had been in his prosperity. Manasseh humbling himself greatly +before God was higher than when, in the pride of his heart, he shut +God out from it. + +Affliction should clear our sight, that we may see ourselves as we +are; and, if we do, there will be an end of high looks, and we shall +'take the lowest room.' Thus humbled, we shall pray as the +self-confident and outwardly prosperous cannot do. Sorrow has done its +best on us when, like some strong hand on our shoulders, it has +brought us to our knees. No affliction has yielded its full blessing +to us unless it has thus set us by Manasseh's side. + +The next step in the story is the loving answer to the humbled heart, +and the restoration to the kingdom. 'He was entreated of him.' No +doubt, political circumstances brought about Manasseh's reinstatement, +as they had brought about his captivity, but it was God that 'brought +him again to his kingdom.' We may not receive again lost good things, +but we may be quite sure that God never fails to hear the cry of the +humble, and that, if there is one voice that more surely reaches His +ear and moves His heart than another, it is the voice of His chastened +children, who cry to Him out of the depths, and there have learned +their own sin and sore need. He will be entreated of them, and, +whether He gives back lost good or not, He will give Himself, in whom +all good is comprehended. Manasseh's experience may be repeated in us. + +And the best part of it was, not that he received back his kingdom, +but that 'then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.' The name had +been but a name to him, but now it had become a reality. Our +traditional, second-hand belief in God is superficial and largely +unreal till it is deepened and vivified by experience. If we have +cried to Him, and been lightened, then we have a ground of conviction +that cannot be shaken. Formerly we could at most say, 'I believe in +God,' or, 'I think there is a God,' but now we can say, 'I know,' and +no criticism nor contradiction can shake that. Such knowledge is not +the knowledge won by the understanding alone, but it is acquaintance +with a living Person, like the knowledge which loving souls have of +each other; and he who has that knowledge as the issue of his own +experience may smile at doubts and questionings, and say with the +Apostle of Love, 'We know that we are of God, ... and we know that the +Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may +know Him that is true.' Then, if we have that knowledge, we shall +listen to the same Apostle's commandment, 'Keep yourselves from +idols,' even as the issue of Manasseh's knowledge of God was that 'he +took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the +Lord.' + + + +JOSIAH + +'Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in +Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2. And he did that which was right in +the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and +declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 3. For in the +eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek +after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to +purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and +the carved images, and the molten images. 4. And they brake down the +altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high +above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and +the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and +strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5. +And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed +Judah and Jerusalem. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and +Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round +about. 7. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and +had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols +throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8. Now in +the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the +house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor +of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the +house of the Lord his God. 9. And when they came to Hilkiah the high +priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of +God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of +Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all +Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem. 10. And they put +it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of +the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of +the Lord, to repair and amend the house: 11. Even to the artificers +and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for +couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had +destroyed. 12. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers +of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; +and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it +forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments +of musick. 13. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were +overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and +of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiv. 1-13. + + +Another boy king, even younger than his grandfather Manasseh had been +at his accession, and another reversal of the father's religion! These +vibrations from idolatry to Jehovah-worship, at the pleasure of the +king, sadly tell how little the people cared whom they worshipped, and +how purely a matter of ceremonies and names both their idolatry and +their Jehovah-worship were. The religion of the court was the religion +of the nation, only idolatry was more congenial than the service of +God. How far the child monarch Josiah had a deeper sense of what that +service meant we cannot decide, but the little outline sketch of him +in verses 2 and 3 is at least suggestive of his having it, and may +well stand as a fair portrait of early godliness. + +A child eight years old, who had been lifted on to the throne of a +murdered father, must have had a strong will and a love of goodness to +have resisted the corrupting influences of royalty in a land full of +idols. Here again we see that, great as may be the power of +circumstances, they do not determine character; for it is always open +to us either to determine whether we yield to them or resist them. The +prevailing idolatry influenced the boy, but it influenced him to hate +it with all his heart. So out of the nettle danger we may pluck the +flower safety. The men who have smitten down some evil institution +have generally been brought up so as to feel its full force. + +'He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah'--that may mean +simply that he worshipped Jehovah by outward ceremonies, but it +probably means more; namely, that his life was pure and God-pleasing, +or, as we should say, clean and moral, free from the foul vices which +solicit a young prince. 'He walked in the ways of David his +father'--not being one of the 'emancipated' youths who think it manly +to throw off the restraints of their fathers' faith and morals. He +'turned not aside to the right hand or to the left'--but marched right +onwards on the road that conscience traced out for him, though +tempting voices called to him from many a side-alley that seemed to +lead to pleasant places. 'While he was yet young, he began to seek +after the God of David his father'--at the critical age of sixteen, +when Easterns are older than we, in the flush of early manhood, he +awoke to deeper experiences and felt the need for a closer touch of +God. A career thus begun will generally prelude a life pure, +strenuous, and blessed with a clearer and clearer vision of the God +who is always found of them that seek Him. Such a childhood, +blossoming into such a boyhood, and flowering in such a manhood, is +possible to every child among us. It will 'still bring forth fruit in +old age.' + +The two incidents which the passage narrates, the purging of the land +and the repair of the Temple, are told in inverted order in 2 Kings, +but the order here is probably the more accurate, as dates are given, +whereas in 2 Kings, though the purging is related after the Temple +restoration, it is not said to have occurred after. But the order is +of small consequence. What is important is the fiery energy of Josiah +in the work of destruction of the idols. Here, there, everywhere, he +flames and consumes. He darts a flash even into the desolate ruins of +the Israelitish kingdom, where the idols had survived their devotees +and still bewitched the scanty fragments of Israel that remained. The +altars of stone were thrown down, the wooden sun-pillars were cut to +pieces, the metal images were broken and ground to powder. A clean +sweep was made. + +A dash of ferocity mingled with contempt appears in Josiah's +scattering the 'dust' of the images on the graves of their +worshippers, as if he said: 'There you lie together, pounded idols and +dead worshippers, neither able to help the other!' The same feelings +prompted digging up the skeletons of priests and burning the bones on +the very altars that they had served, thus defiling the altars and +executing judgment on the priests. No doubt there were much violence +and a strong strain of the 'wrath of man' in all this. Iconoclasts are +wont to be 'violent'; and men without convictions, or who are +partisans of what the iconoclasts are rooting out, are horrified at +their want of 'moderation.' But though violence is always unchristian, +indifference to rampant evils is not conspicuously more Christian, +and, on the whole, you cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude +or without using some force to compress the sinuous neck. + +The restoration of the Temple comes after the cleansing of the land, +in Chronicles, and naturally in the order of events, for the casting +out of idols must always precede the building or repairing of the +Temple of God. Destructive work is very poor unless it is for the +purpose of clearing a space to build the Temple on. Happy the man or +the age which is able to do both! Josiah and Joash worked at restoring +the Temple in much the same fashion, but Josiah had a priesthood more +interested than Joash had. + +But we may note one or two points in his restoration. He had put his +personal effort into the preparatory extirpation of idols, but he did +not need to do so now. He could work this time by deputy. And it is +noteworthy that he chose 'laymen' to carry out the restoration. +Perhaps he knew how Joash had been balked by the knavery of the +priests who were diligent in collecting money, but slow in spending it +on the Temple. At all events, he delegated the work to three +highly-placed officials, the secretary of state, the governor of +Jerusalem, and the official historian. + +It appears that for some time a collection had been going on for +Temple repairs; probably it had been begun six years before, when the +'purging' of the land began. It had been carried on by the Levites, +and had been contributed to even by 'the remnant of Israel' in the +northern kingdom, who, in their forlorn weakness, had begun to feel +the drawings of ancient brotherhood and the tie of a common worship. +This fund was in the keeping of the high priest, and the three +commissioners were instructed to require it from him. Here 2 Kings is +clearer than our passage, and shows that what the three officials had +mainly to do was to get the money from Hilkiah, and to hand it over to +the superintendents of the works. + +There are two remarkable points in the narrative; one is the +observation that 'the men did the work faithfully,' which comes in +rather enigmatically here, but in 2 Kings is given as the reason why +no accounts were kept. Not an example to be imitated, and the sure way +to lead subordinates sooner or later to deal unfaithfully; but a +pleasant indication of the spirit animating all concerned. + +Surely these men worked 'as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That +is what makes us work faithfully, whether we have any earthly overseer +or audit or no. Another noteworthy matter is that not only were the +superintendents of the work--the 'contractors,' as we might +say--Levites, but so were also the inferior superintendents, or, as we +might say, 'foremen.' + +And not only so, but they were those that 'were skilful with +instruments of music.' What were musicians doing there? Did the +building rise + + 'with the sound + Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet?' + +May we not gather from this singular notice the great thought that for +all rearing of the true Temple, harps of praise are no less necessary +than swords or trowels, and that we shall do no right work for God or +man unless we do it as with melody in our hearts? Our lives must be +full of music if we are to lay even one stone in the Temple. + + + +JOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW + +'And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house +of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord +given by Moses. 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the +scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And +Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan carried the book +to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that +was committed to thy servants, they do it. 17. And they have gathered +together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have +delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the +workmen. 18. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah +the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. +19. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, +that he rent his clothes. 20. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and +Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the +scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying, 21. Go, enquire of +the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, +concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath +of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not +kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this +book. 22. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to +Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son +of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the +college;) and they spake to her to that effect. 23. And she answered +them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you +to me. 24. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this +place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are +written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: 25. +Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other +gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their +hands; therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and +shall not be quenched. 26. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you +to enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord +God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; 27. Because +thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when +thou heardest His words against this place, and against the +inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before Me, and did rendst +thy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith +the Lord. 28. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou +shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see +all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the +inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiv. 14-28. + + +About one hundred years separated Hezekiah's restoration from +Josiah's. Neither was more than a momentary arrest of the strong tide +running in the opposite direction; and Josiah's was too near the edge +of the cataract to last, or to avert the plunge. There is nothing more +tragical than the working of the law which often sets the children's +teeth on edge by reason of the fathers' eating of sour grapes. + +I. The first point in this passage is the discovery of the book of the +Law. + +The book had been lost before it was found. For how long we do not +know, but the fact that it had been so carelessly kept is eloquent of +the indifference of priests and kings, its appointed guardians. +Lawbreakers have a direct interest in getting rid of lawbooks, just as +shopkeepers who use short yardsticks and light weights are not anxious +the standards should be easily accessible. If we do not make God's law +our guide, we shall wish to put it out of sight, that it may not be +our accuser. What more sad or certain sign of evil can there be than +that we had rather not 'hear what God the Lord will speak'? + +The straightforward story of our passage gives a most natural +explanation of the find. Hilkiah was likely to have had dark corners +cleared out in preparation for repairs and in storing the +subscriptions, and many a mislaid thing would turn up. If it be +possible that the book of the Law should have been neglected (and the +religious corruption of the last hundred years makes that only too +certain), its discovery in some dusty recess is very intelligible, and +would not have been doubted but for the exigencies of a theory. +'Reading between the lines' is fascinating, but risky; for the reader +is very likely unconsciously to do what Hilkiah is said to have +done--namely, to invent what he thinks he finds. + +Accepting the narrative as it stands, we may see in it a striking +instance of the indestructibleness of God's Word. His law is +imperishable, and its written embodiment seems as if it, too, had a +charmed life. When we consider the perils attending the transmission +of ancient manuscripts, the necessary scarcity of copies before the +invention of printing, the scattering of the Jewish people, it does +appear as if a divine hand had guarded the venerable book. How came +this strange people, who never kept their Law, to swim through all +their troubles, like Caesar with his commentaries between his teeth, +bearing aloft and dry, the Word which they obeyed so badly? 'Write it +... in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.' +The permanence of the written Word, the providence that has watched +over it, the romantic history of its preservation through ages of +neglect, and the imperishable gift to the world of an objective +standard of duty, remaining the same from age to age, are all +suggested by this reappearance of the forgotten Law. + +It may suggest, too, that honest efforts after reformation are usually +rewarded by clearer knowledge of God's will. If Hilkiah had not been +busy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book +in its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the +discovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not +believe in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance +of His sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment. It is not +the first time nor the last that the attempt to keep God's law has led +to larger knowledge of the law. It is not the first time nor the last +that God has sent to His faithful servants an opportune gift. What the +world calls accidental coincidence deeper wisdom discerns to be the +touch of God's hand. + +Again, the discovery reminds us that the true basis of all religious +reform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but +he did not know till he heard the Law read how great the task was +which he had taken in hand. That recovered book gave impulse and +direction to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of +the Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as +a symbol of the whole, Luther's finding the dusty Latin Bible among +the neglected convent books. The only reformation for an effete or +secularised church is in its return to the Bible. Faded flowers will +lift up their heads when plunged in water. The old Bible, discovered +and applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or +moribund Christianity. + +II. The next point here is the effect of the rediscovered Law. Shaphan +was closely connected with Josiah, as his office made him a confidant. +It is ordinarily taken for granted that he and the other persons named +in this lesson formed a little knot of earnest Jehovah worshippers, +fully sympathising with the Reformation, and that among them lay the +authorship of the book. But we know nothing about them except what is +told here and in the parallel in Kings. One of them, Ahikam, was a +friend and protector of Jeremiah, and Shaphan the scribe was the +father of another of Jeremiah's friends. They may all have been in +accord with the king, or they may not. + +At all events, Shaphan took the book to Josiah. We can picture the +scene--the deepening awe of both men as the whole extent of the +nation's departure from God became clearer and clearer, the tremulous +tones of the reader, and the silent, fixed attention of the listener +as the solemn threatenings came from Shaphan's reluctant, pallid lips. +There was enough in them to touch a harder heart than Josiah's. We +cannot suppose that, knowing the history of the past, and being +sufficiently enlightened to 'seek after the God of David his father,' +he did not know in a general way that sin meant sorrow, and national +disobedience national death. But we all have the faculty of blunting +the cutting edge of truth, especially if it has been familiar, so that +some novelty in the manner of its presentation, or even its repetition +without novelty sometimes, may turn commonplace and impotent truth +into a mighty instrument to shake and melt. + +So it seems to have been with Josiah. Whether new or old, the Word +found him as it had never done before. The venerable copy from which +Shaphan read, the coincidence of its discovery just then, the +dishonour done to it for so long, may all have helped the impression. +However it arose, it was made. If a man will give God's Word a fair +hearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees. +No man rightly uses God's law who is not convinced by it of his sin, +and impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes +were the passionate expression. Josiah was wise when he did not turn +his thoughts to other people's sins, but began with his own, even +whilst he included others. The first function of the law is to arouse +the knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that +penitent knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely +external. Unless we 'abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes,' +Scripture has not done its work on us, and all our reading of it is in +vain. Nor is there any good reason why familiarity with it should +weaken its power. But, alas! it too often does. How many of us would +stand in awe of God's judgments if we heard them for the first time, +but listen to them unmoved, as to thunder without lightning, merely +because wo know them so well! That is a reason for attending to them, +not for neglecting. + +Josiah's sense of sin led him to long for a further word from God; and +so he called these attendants named in verse 20, and sent them to +'enquire of the Lord ... concerning the words of the book.' What more +did he wish to know? The words were plain enough, and their +application to Israel and him indubitable. Clearly, he could only wish +to know whether there was any possibility of averting the judgments, +and, if so, what was the means. The awakened conscience instinctively +feels that threatenings cannot be God's last words to it, but must +have been given that they might not need to be fulfilled. We do not +rightly sorrow for sin unless it quickens in us a desire for a word +from God to tell us how to escape. The Law prepares for the Gospel, +and is incomplete without it. 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die,' +cannot be all which a God of pity and love has to say. A faint promise +of life lies in the very fact of threatening death, faint indeed, but +sufficient to awaken earnest desire for yet another word from the +Lord. We rightly use the solemn revelations of God's law when we are +driven by them to cry, 'What must I do to be saved?' + +III. So we come to the last point, the double-edged message of the +prophetess. Josiah does not seem to have told his messengers where to +go; but they knew, and went straight to a very unlikely person, the +wife of an obscure man, only known as his father's son. Where was +Jeremiah of Anathoth? Perhaps not in the city at the time. There had +been prophetesses in Israel before. Miriam, Deborah, the wife of +Isaiah, are instances of 'your daughters' prophesying; and this +embassy to Huldah is in full accord with the high position which women +held in that state, of which the framework was shaped by God Himself. +In Christ Jesus 'there is neither male nor female,' and Judaism +approximated much more closely to that ideal than other lands did. + +Huldah's message has two parts: one the confirmation of the +threatenings of the Law; one the assurance to Josiah of acceptance of +his repentance and gracious promise of escape from the coming storm. +These two are precisely equivalent to the double aspect of the Gospel, +which completes the Law, endorsing its sentence and pointing the way +of escape. + +Note that the former part addresses Josiah as 'the man that sent you,' +but the latter names him. The embassy had probably not disclosed his +name, and Huldah at first keeps up the veil, since the personality of +the sender had nothing to do with her answer; but when she comes to +speak of pardon and God's favour, there must be no vagueness in the +destination of the message, and the penitent heart must be tenderly +bound up by a word from God straight to itself. The threatenings are +general, but each single soul that is sorry for sin may take as its +very own the promise of forgiveness. God's great 'Whosoever' is for me +as certainly as if my name stood on the page. + +The terrible message of the inevitableness of the destruction hanging +over Jerusalem is precisely parallel with the burden of all Jeremiah's +teaching. It was too late to avert the fall. The external judgments +must come now, for the emphasis of the prophecy is in its last words, +it 'shall not be quenched.' But that did not mean that repentance was +too late to alter the whole character of the punishment, which would +be fatherly chastisement if meekly accepted. So, too, Jeremiah taught, +when he exhorted submission to the 'Chaldees.' It is never too late to +seek mercy, though it may be too late to hope for averting the outward +consequences of sin. + +As for Josiah, his penitence was accepted, and he was assured that he +would be gathered to his fathers. That expression, as is clear from +the places where it occurs, is not a synonym for either death or +burial, from both of which it is distinguished, but is a dim promise +of being united, beyond the grave, with the fathers, who, in some one +condition, which we may call a place, are gathered into a restful +company, and wander no more as pilgrims and sojourners in this lonely +and changeful life. + +Josiah died in battle. Was that going to his grave in peace? Surely +yes! if, dying, he felt God's presence, and in the darkness saw a +great light. He who thus dies, though it be in the thick of battle, +and with his heart's blood pouring from an arrow-wound down on the +floor of the chariot, dies in peace, and into peace. + + + +THE FALL OF JUDAH + +'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and +reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12. And he did that which was evil +in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before +Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. 13. And he +also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by +God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning +unto the Lord God of Israel. 14. Moreover all the chief of the +priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the +abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which +he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15. And the Lord God of their fathers +sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; +because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place: +16. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and +misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His +people, till there was no remedy. 17. Therefore he brought upon them +the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in +the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or +maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into +his hand. 18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and +small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures +of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19. +And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, +and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the +goodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword +carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his +sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. To fulfil the word +of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her +sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil +threescore and ten years.'--2 CHRON. xxxvi 11-21. + + +Bigness is not greatness, nor littleness smallness. Nebuchadnezzar's +conquest of Judah was, in his eyes, one of the least important of his +many victories, but it is the only one of them which survives in the +world's memory and keeps his name as a household word. The Jews were a +mere handful, and their country a narrow strip of land between the +desert and the sea; but little Judaea, like little Greece, has taught +the world. The tragedy of its fall has importance quite +disproportioned to its apparent magnitude. Our passage brings together +Judah's sin and Judah's punishment, and we shall best gather the +lessons of its fall by following the order of the text. + +Consider the sin. There is nothing more remarkable than the tone in +which the chronicler, like all the Old Testament writers, deals with +the national sin. Patriotic historians make it a point of pride and +duty to gloss over their country's faults, but these singular +narrators paint them as strongly as they can. Their love of their +country impels them to 'make known to Israel its transgression and to +Judah its sin.' There are tears in their eyes, as who can doubt? But +there is no faltering in their voices as they speak. A higher feeling +than misguided 'patriotism' moves them. Loyalty to Israel's God forces +them to deal honestly with Israel's sin. That is the highest kind of +love of country, and might well be commended to loudmouthed 'patriots' +in modern lands. + +Look at the piled-up clauses of the long indictment of Judah in verses +12 to 16. Slow, passionless, unsparing, the catalogue enumerates the +whole black list. It is like the long-drawn blast of the angel of +judgment's trumpet. Any trace of heated emotion would have weakened +the impression. The nation's sin was so crimson as to need no +heightening of colour. With like judicial calmness, with like +completeness, omitting nothing, does 'the book,' which will one day be +opened, set down every man's deeds, and he will be 'judged according +to the things that are written in this book.' Some of us will find our +page sad reading. + +But the points brought out in this indictment are instructive. Judah's +idolatry and 'trespass after all the abominations of the heathen' is, +of course, prominent, but the spirit which led to their idolatry, +rather than the idolatry itself, is dwelt on. Zedekiah's doing 'evil +in the sight of the Lord' is regarded as aggravated by his not +humbling himself before Jeremiah, and the head and front of his +offending is that 'he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from +turning unto the Lord.' Similarly, the people's sin reaches its climax +in their 'mocking' and 'scoffing' at the prophets and 'despising' +God's words by them. So then, an evil life has its roots in an +alienated heart, and the source of all sin is an obstinate self-will. +That is the sulphur-spring from which nothing but unwholesome streams +can flow, and the greatest of all sins is refusing to hear God's voice +when He speaks to us. + +Further, this indictment brings out the patient love of God seeking, +in spite of all their deafness, to find a way to the sinners' ears and +hearts. In a bold transference to Him of men's ways, He is said to +have 'risen early' to send the prophets. Surely that means earnest +effort. The depths of God's heart are disclosed when we are bidden to +think of His compassion as the motive for the prophet's messages and +threatenings. What a wonderful and heart-melting revelation of God's +placableness, wistful hoping against hope, and reluctance to abandon +the most indurated sinner, is given in that centuries-long conflict of +the patient God with treacherous Israel! That divine charity suffered +long and was kind, endured all things and hoped all things. + +Consider the punishment. The tragic details of the punishment are +enumerated with the same completeness and suppression of emotion as +those of the sin. The fact that all these were divine judgments brings +the chronicler to the Psalmist's attitude. 'I was dumb, I opened not +my mouth because Thou didst it.' Sorrow and pity have their place, but +the awed recognition of God's hand outstretched in righteous +retribution must come first. Modern sentimentalists, who are so +tenderhearted as to be shocked at the Christian teachings of judgment, +might learn a lesson here. + +The first point to note is that a time arrives when even God can hope +for no amendment and is driven to change His methods. His patience is +not exhausted, but man's obstinacy makes another treatment inevitable. +God lavished benefits and pleadings for long years in vain, till He +saw that there was 'no remedy.' Only then did He, as if reluctantly +forced, do 'His work, His strange work.' Behold, therefore, the +'goodness and severity' of God, goodness in His long delay, severity +in the final blow, and learn that His purpose is the same though His +methods are opposite. + +To the chronicler God is the true Actor in human affairs. +Nebuchadnezzar thought of his conquest as won by his own arm. Secular +historians treat the fall of Zedekiah as simply the result of the +political conditions of the time, and sometimes seem to think that it +could not be a divine judgment because it was brought about by natural +causes. But this old chronicler sees deeper, and to him, as to us, if +we are wise, 'the history of the world is the judgment of the world.' +The Nebuchadnezzars are God's axes with which He hews down fruitless +trees. They are responsible for their acts, but they are His +instruments, and it is His hand that wields them. + +The iron band that binds sin and suffering is disclosed in Judah's +fall. We cannot allege that the same close connection between +godlessness and national disaster is exemplified now as it was in +Israel. Nor can we contend that for individuals suffering is always +the fruit of sin. But it is still true that 'righteousness exalteth a +nation,' and that 'by the soul only are the nations great,' in the +true sense of the word. To depart from God is always 'a bitter and an +evil thing' for communities and individuals, however sweet draughts of +outward prosperity may for a time mask the bitterness. Not armies nor +fleets, not ships, colonies and commerce, not millionaires and trusts, +not politicians and diplomatists, but the fear of the Lord and the +keeping of His commandments, are the true life of a nation. If +Christian men lived up to the ideal set them by Jesus, 'Ye are the +salt of the land,' and sought more earnestly and wisely to leaven +their nation, they would be doing more than any others to guarantee +its perpetual prosperity. + +The closing words of this chapter, not included in the passage, are +significant. They are the first words of the Book of Ezra. Whoever put +them here perhaps wished to show a far-off dawn following the stormy +sunset. He opens a 'door of hope' in 'the valley of trouble.' It is an +Old Testament version of 'God hath not cast away His people whom He +foreknew.' It throws a beam of light on the black last page of the +chronicle, and reveals that God's chastisement was in love, that it +was meant for discipline, not for destruction, that it was +educational, and that the rod was burned when the lesson had been +learned. It was learned, for the Captivity cured the nation of +hankering after idolatry, and whatever defects it brought back from +Babylon, it brought back a passionate abhorrence of all the gods of +the nations. + + + + +EZRA + + +THE EVE OF THE RESTORATION + +'Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the +Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up +the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation +throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2. +Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me +all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a +house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of +all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, +which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He +is the God), which is in Jerusalem. 4. And whosoever remaineth in any +place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with +silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the +freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. 5. Then +rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the +priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, +to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. 6. And +all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of +silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious +things, besides all that was willingly offered. 7. Also Cyrus the king +brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which +Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in +the house of his gods; 8. Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring +forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto +Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9. And this is the number of them: +thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and +twenty knives, 10. Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second +sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. 11. All the +vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All +these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were +brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.'--EZRA i. 1-11. + + +Cyrus captured Babylon 538 B.C., and the 'first year' here is the +first after that event. The predicted seventy years' captivity had +nearly run out, having in part done their work on the exiles. Colours +burned in on china are permanent; and the furnace of bondage had, at +least, effected this, that it fixed monotheism for ever in the inmost +substance of the Jewish people. But the bulk of them seem to have had +little of either religious or patriotic enthusiasm, and preferred +Babylonia to Judea. We are here told of the beginning of the return of +a portion of the exiles--forty-two thousand, in round numbers. + +'The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.' That unveils the deepest +cause of what fell into place, to the superficial observers, as one +among many political events of similar complexion. We find among the +inscriptions a cylinder written by order of Cyrus, which shows that he +reversed the Babylonian policy of deporting conquered nations. 'All +their peoples,' says he, in reference to a number of nations of whom +he found members in exile in Babylonia, 'I assembled and restored to +their lands and the gods ... whom Nabonidos ... had brought into +Babylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries' (Sayce, _Fresh +Light from the Ancient Monuments_, p. 148). It was, then, part of a +wider movement, which sent back Zerubbabel and his people to +Jerusalem, and began the rebuilding of the Temple. No doubt, Cyrus had +seen that the old plan simply brought an element of possible rebellion +into the midst of the country, and acted on grounds of political +prudence. + +But our passage digs deeper to find the true cause. Cyrus was God's +instrument, and the statesman's insight was the result of God's +illumination. The divine causality moves men, when they move +themselves. It was not only in the history of the chosen people that +God's purpose is wrought out by more or less conscious and willing +instruments. The principle laid down by the writer of this book is of +universal application, and the true 'philosophy of history' must +recognise as underlying all other so-called causes and forces the one +uncaused Cause, of whose purposes kings and politicians are the +executants, even while they freely act according to their own +judgments, and, it may be, in utter unconsciousness of Him. It +concerns our tranquillity and hopefulness, in the contemplation of the +bewildering maze and often heart-breaking tragedy of mundane affairs, +to hold fast by the conviction that God's unseen Hand moves the pieces +on the board, and presides over all the complications. The difference +between 'sacred' and 'profane' history is not that one is under His +direct control, and the other is not. What was true of Cyrus and his +policy is as true of England. Would that politicians and all men +recognised the fact as clearly as this historian did! + +I. Cyrus's proclamation sounds as if he were a Jehovah-worshipper, but +it is to be feared that his religion was of a very accommodating kind. +It used to be said that, as a Persian, he was a monotheist, and would +consequently be in sympathy with the Jews; but the same cylinder +already quoted shatters that idea, and shows him to have been a +polytheist, ready to worship the gods of Babylon. He there ascribes +his conquest to 'Merodach, the great lord,' and distinctly calls +himself that god's 'worshipper.' Like other polytheists, he had room +in his pantheon for the gods of other nations, and admitted into it +the deities of the conquered peoples. + +The use of the name 'Jehovah' would, no doubt, be most simply +accounted for by the supposition that Cyrus recognised the sole +divinity of the God of Israel; but that solution conflicts with all +that is known of him, and with his characterisation in Isaiah xlv. as +'not knowing' Jehovah. More probably, his confession of Jehovah as the +God of heaven was consistent in his mind with a similar confession as +to Bel-Merodach or the supreme god of any other of the conquered +nations. There is, however no improbability in the supposition that +the prophecies concerning him in Isaiah xlv, may have been brought to +his knowledge, and be referred to in the proclamation as the 'charge' +given to him to build Jehovah's Temple. But we must not exaggerate the +depth or exclusiveness of his belief in the God of the Jews. + +Cyrus's profession of faith, then, is an example of official and +skin-deep religion, of which public and individual life afford +plentiful instances in all ages and faiths. If we are to take their +own word for it, most great conquerors have been very religious men, +and have asked a blessing over many a bloody feast. All religions are +equally true to cynical politicians, who are ready to join in +worshipping 'Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,' as may suit their policy. Nor is +it only in high places that such loosely worn professions are found. +Perhaps there is no region of life in which insincerity, which is +often quite unconscious, is so rife as in regard to religious belief. +But unless my religion is everything, it is nothing. 'All in all, or +not at all,' is the requirement of the great Lover of souls. What a +winnowing of chaff from wheat there would be, if that test could +visibly separate the mass which is gathered on His threshing-floor, +the Church! + +Cyrus's belief in Jehovah illustrates the attitude which was natural +to a polytheist, and is so difficult for us to enter into. A vague +belief in One Supreme, above all other gods, and variously named by +different nations, is buried beneath mountains of myths about lesser +gods, but sometimes comes to light in many pagan minds. This blind +creed, if creed it can be called, is joined with the recognition of +deities belonging to each nation, whose worship is to be co-extensive +with the race of which they are patrons, and who may be absorbed into +the pantheon of a conqueror, just as a vanquished king may be allowed +an honourable captivity at the victor's capital. Thus Cyrus could in a +sense worship Jehovah, the God of Israel, without thereby being +rebellious to Merodach. + +There are people, even among so-called Christians, who try the same +immoral and impossible division of what must in its very nature be +wholly given to One Supreme. To 'serve God and mammon' is demonstrably +an absurd attempt. The love and trust and obedience which are worthy +of Him must be wholehearted, whole-souled, whole-willed. It is as +impossible to love God with part of one's self as it is for a husband +to love his wife with half his heart, and another woman with the rest. +To divide love is to slay it. Cyrus had some kind of belief in +Jehovah; but his own words, so wonderfully recovered in the +inscription already referred to, proved that he had not listened to +the command, 'Him only shalt thou serve.' That command grips us as +closely as it did the Jews, and is as truly broken by thousands +calling themselves Christians as by any idolaters. + +The substance of the proclamation is a permission to return to any one +who wished to do so, a sanction of the rebuilding of the Temple, and +an order to the native inhabitants to render help in money, goods, and +beasts. A further contribution towards the building was suggested as +'a free-will offering.' The return, then, was not to be at the expense +of the king, nor was any tax laid on for it; but neighbourly goodwill, +born of seventy years of association, was invoked, and, as we find, +not in vain. God had given the people favour in the eyes of those who +had carried them captive. + +II. The long years of residence in Babylonia had weakened the +homesickness which the first generation of captives had, no doubt, +painfully experienced, and but a small part of them cared to avail +themselves of the opportunity of return. One reason is frankly given +by Josephus: 'Many remained in Babylon, not wishing to leave their +possessions behind them.' 'The heads of the fathers' houses [who may +have exercised some sort of government among the captives], the +priests and Levites,' made the bulk of the emigrants; but in each +class it was only those 'whose spirit God had stirred up' (as he had +done Cyrus') that were devout or patriotic enough to face the wrench +of removal and the difficulties of repeopling a wasted land. There was +nothing to tempt any others, and the brave little band had need of all +their fortitude. But no heart in which the flame of devotion burned, +or in which were felt the drawings of that passionate love of the city +and soil where God dwelt (which in the best days of the nation was +inseparable from devotion), could remain behind. The departing +contingent, then, were the best part of the whole; and the lingerers +were held back by love of ease, faint-heartedness, love of wealth, and +the like ignoble motives. + +How many of us have had great opportunities offered for service, which +we have let slip in like manner! To have doors opened which we are too +lazy, too cowardly, too much afraid of self-denial, to enter, is the +tragedy and the crime of many a life. It is easier to live among the +low levels of the plain of Babylon, than to take to the dangers and +privations of the weary tramp across the desert. The ruins of +Jerusalem are a much less comfortable abode than the well-furnished +houses which have to be left. Prudence says, 'Be content where you +are, and let other people take the trouble of such mad schemes as +rebuilding the Temple.' A thousand excuses sing in our ears, and we +let the moment in which alone some noble resolve is possible slide +past us, and the rest of life is empty of another such. Neglected +opportunities, unobeyed calls to high deeds, we all have in our lives. +The saddest of all words is, 'It might have been.' How much wiser, +happier, nobler, were the daring souls that rose to the occasion, and +flung ease and wealth and companionship behind them, because they +heard the divine command couched in the royal permission, and humbly +answered, 'Here am I; send me'! + +III. The third point in the passage is singular--the inventory of the +Temple vessels returned by Cyrus. As to its particulars, we need only +note that Sheshbazzar is the same as Zerubbabel; that the exact +translation of some of the names of the vessels is doubtful; and that +the numbers given under each head do not correspond with the sum +total, the discrepancy indicating error somewhere in the numbers. + +But is not this dry enumeration a strange item to come in the +forefront of the narrative of such an event? We might have expected +some kind of production of the enthusiasm of the returning exiles, +some account of how they were sent on their journey, something which +we should have felt worthier of the occasion than a list of bowls and +nine-and-twenty knives. But it is of a piece with the whole of the +first part of this Book of Ezra, which is mostly taken up with a +similar catalogue of the members of the expedition. The list here +indicates the pride and joy with which the long hidden and often +desecrated vessels were received. We can see the priests and Levites +gazing at them as they were brought forth, their hearts, and perhaps +their eyes, filling with sacred memories. The Lord had 'turned again +the captivity of Zion,' and these sacred vessels lay there, glittering +before them, to assure them that they were not as 'them that dream.' +Small things become great when they are the witnesses of a great +thing. + +We must remember, too, how strong a hold the externals of worship had +on the devout Jew. His faith was much more tied to form than ours +ought to be, and the restoration of the sacrificial implements as a +pledge of the re-establishment of the Temple worship would seem the +beginning of a new epoch of closer relation to Jehovah. It is almost +within the lifetime of living men that all Scotland was thrilled with +emotion by the discovery, in a neglected chamber, of a chest in which +lay, forgotten, the crown and sceptre of the Stuarts. A like wave of +feeling passed over the exiles as they had given back to their custody +these Temple vessels. Sacreder ones are given into our hands, to carry +across a more dangerous desert. Let us hear the charge, 'Be ye clean, +that bear the vessels of the Lord,' and see that we carry them, +untarnished and unlost, to 'the house of the Lord which is in +Jerusalem.' + + + +ALTAR AND TEMPLE + +'And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were +in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to +Jerusalem. 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his +brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his +brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt +offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of +God. 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them +because of the people of those countries; and they offered burnt +offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and +evening. 4. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, +and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the +custom, as the duty of every day required; 5. And afterward offered +the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the +set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that +willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. 6. From the first +day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the +Lord. But the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was not yet laid. +7. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and +meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to +bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the +grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. 8. Now in the second year +of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second +month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of +Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the +Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto +Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and +upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. 9. Then +stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the +sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of +God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the +Levites. 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple +of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and +the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, +after the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11. And they sang +together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; +because He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And +all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, +because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12. But many +of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient +men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house +was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted +aloud for joy: 13. So that the people could not discern the noise of +the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the +people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar +off.'--EZRA iii. 1-13. + + +What an opportunity of 'picturesque' writing the author of this book +has missed by his silence about the incidents of the march across the +dreary levels from Babylon to the verge of Syria! But the very silence +is eloquent. It reveals the purpose of the book, which is to tell of +the re-establishment of the Temple and its worship. No doubt the tone +of the whole is somewhat prosaic, and indicative of an age in which +the externals of worship bulked largely; but still the central point +of the narrative was really the centre-point of the events. The +austere simplicity of biblical history shows the real points of +importance better than more artistic elaboration would do. + +This passage has two main incidents--the renewal of the sacrifices, +and the beginning of rebuilding the Temple. + +The date given in verse 1 is significant. The first day of the seventh +month was the commencement of the great festival of tabernacles, the +most joyous feast of the year, crowded with reminiscences from the +remote antiquity of the Exodus, and from the dedication of Solomon's +Temple. How long had passed since Cyrus' decree had been issued we do +not know, nor whether his 'first year' was reckoned by the same +chronology as the Jewish year, of which we here arrive at the seventh +month. But the journey across the desert must have taken some months, +and the previous preparations could not have been suddenly got +through, so that there can have been but a short time between the +arrival in Judea and the gathering together 'as one man to Jerusalem.' + +There was barely interval enough for the returning exiles to take +possession of their ancestral fields before they were called to leave +them unguarded and hasten to the desolate city. Surely their glad and +unanimous obedience to the summons, or, as it may even have been, +their spontaneous assemblage unsummoned, is no small token of their +ardour of devotion, even if they were somewhat slavishly tied to +externals. It would take a good deal to draw a band of new settlers in +our days to leave their lots and set to putting up a church before +they had built themselves houses. + +The leaders of the band of returned exiles demand a brief notice. They +are Jeshua, or Joshua, and Zerubbabel. In verse 2 the ecclesiastical +dignitary comes first, but in verse 8 the civil. Similarly in Ezra ii. +2, Zerubbabel precedes Jeshua. In Haggai, the priest is pre-eminent; +in Zechariah the prince. The truth seems to be that each was supreme +in his own department, and that they understood each other cordially, +or, Zechariah says, 'the counsel of peace' was 'between them both.' It +is sometimes bad for the people when priests and rulers lay their +heads together; but it is even worse when they pull different ways, +and subjects are torn in two by conflicting obligations. + +Jeshua was the grandson of Seraiah, the unfortunate high-priest whose +eyes Nebuchadnezzar put out after the fall of Jerusalem. His son +Jozadak succeeded to the dignity, though there could be no sacrifices +in Babylon, and after him his son Jeshua. He cannot have been a young +man at the date of the return; but age had not dimmed his enthusiasm, +and the high-priest was where he ought to have been, in the forefront +of the returning exiles. His name recalls the other Joshua, likewise a +leader from captivity and the desert; and, if we appreciate the +significance attached to names in Scripture, we shall scarcely suppose +it accidental that these two, who had similar work to do, bore the +same name as the solitary third, of whom they were pale shadows, the +greater Joshua, who brings His people from bondage into His own land +of peace, and builds the Temple. + +Zerubbabel ('Sown in Babylon') belonged to a collateral branch of the +royal family. The direct Davidic line through Solomon died with the +wretched Zedekiah and Jeconiah, but the descendants of another son of +David's, Nathan, still survived. Their representative was one +Salathiel, who, on the failure of the direct line, was regarded as the +'son of Jeconiah' (1 Chron. iii. 17). He seems to have had no son, and +Zerubbabel, who was really his nephew (1 Chron. iii. 19), was legally +adopted as his son. In this makeshift fashion, some shadow of the +ancient royalty still presided over the restored people. We see +Zerubbabel better in Haggai and Zechariah than in Ezra, and can +discern the outline of a strong, bold, prompt nature. He had a hard +task, and he did it like a man. Patient, yet vigorous, glowing with +enthusiasm, yet clear-eyed, self-forgetful, and brave, he has had +scant justice done him, and ought to be a very much more familiar and +honoured figure than he is. 'Who art thou, O great mountain? Before +Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.' Great mountains only become +plains before men of strong wills and fixed faith. + +There is something very pathetic in the picture of the assembled +people groping amid the ruins on the Temple hill, to find 'the bases,' +the half-obliterated outlines, of the foundations of the old altar of +burnt offerings. What memories of Araunah's threshing-floor, and of +the hovering angel of destruction, and of the glories of Solomon's +dedication, and of the long centuries during which the column of smoke +had gone up continually from that spot, and of the tragical day when +the fire was quenched, and of the fifty years of extinction, must have +filled their hearts! What a conflict of gladness and sorrow must have +troubled their spirits as the flame again shot upwards from the hearth +of God, cold for so long! + +But the reason for their so quickly rearing the altar is noteworthy. +It was because 'fear was upon them because of the people of the +countries.' The state of the Holy Land at the return must be clearly +comprehended. Samaria and the central district were in the hands of +bitter enemies. Across Jordan in the east, down on the Philistine +plain in the west, and in the south where Edom bore sway, eager +enemies sulkily watched the small beginnings of a movement which they +were interested in thwarting. There was only the territory of Judah +and Benjamin left free for the exiles, and they had reason for their +fears; for their neighbours knew that if restitution was to be the +order of the day, they would have to disgorge a good deal. What was +the defence against such foes which these frightened men thought most +impregnable? That altar! + +No doubt, much superstition mingled with their religion. Haggai leaves +us under no illusions as to their moral and spiritual condition. They +were no patterns of devoutness or of morality. But still, what they +did carries an eternal truth; and they were reverting to the original +terms of Israel's tenure of their land when they acted on the +conviction that their worship of Jehovah according to His commandment +was their surest way of finding shelter from all their enemies. There +are differences plain enough between their condition and ours; but it +is as true for us as ever it was for them, that our safety is in God, +and that, if we want to find shelter from impending dangers, we shall +be wiser to betake ourselves to the altar and sit suppliant there than +to make defences for ourselves. The ruined Jerusalem was better +guarded by that altar than if its fallen walls had been rebuilt. + +The whole ritual was restored, as the narrative tells with obvious +satisfaction in the enumeration. To us this punctilious attention to +the minutiae of sacrificial worship sounds trivial. But we equally err +if we try to bring such externalities into the worship of the +Christian Church, and if we are blind to their worth at an earlier +stage. + +There cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar +without a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though +there be no house for His name. The order of events here teaches us +what is essential for communion with God. It is the altar. Sacrifice +laid there is accepted, whether it stand on a bare hill-top, or have +round it the courts of the Lord's house. + +The second part of the passage narrates the laying of the foundations +of the Temple. There had been contracts entered into with masons and +carpenters, and arrangements made with the Phoenicians for timber, as +soon as the exiles had returned; but of course some time elapsed +before the stone and timber were sufficient to make a beginning with. +Note in verse 7 the reference to Cyrus' grant as enabling the people +to get these stores together. Whether the whole preparations, or only +the transport of cedar wood, is intended to be traced to the influence +of that decree, there seems to be a tacit contrast, in the writer's +mind, with the glorious days when no heathen king had to be consulted, +and Hiram and Solomon worked together like brothers. Now, so fallen +are we, that Tyre and Sidon will not look at us unless we bring Cyrus' +rescript in our hands! + +If the 'years' in verses 1 and 8 are calculated from the same +beginning, some seven months were spent in preparation, and then the +foundation was laid. Two things are noted--the humble attempt at +making some kind of a display on the occasion, and the conflict of +feeling in the onlookers. They had managed to get some copies of the +prescribed vestments; and the narrator emphasises the fact that the +priests were 'in their apparel,' and that the Levites had cymbals, so +that some approach to the pomp of Solomon's dedication was possible. +They did their best to adhere to the ancient prescriptions, and it was +no mere narrow love of ritual that influenced them. However we may +breathe a freer air of worship, we cannot but sympathise with that +earnest attempt to do everything 'according to the order of David king +of Israel.' Not only punctiliousness as to ritual, but the magnetism +of glorious memories, prescribed the reproduction of that past. Rites +long proscribed become very sacred, and the downtrodden successors of +mighty men will cling with firm grasp to what the greater fathers did. + +The ancient strain which still rings from Christian lips, and bids +fair to be as eternal as the mercies which it hymns, rose with strange +pathos from the lips of the crowd on the desolate Temple mountain, +ringed about by the waste solitudes of the city: 'For He is good, for +His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.' It needed some faith to +sing that song then, even with the glow of return upon them. What of +all the weary years? What of the empty homesteads, and the surrounding +enemies, and the brethren still in Babylon? No doubt some at least of +the rejoicing multitude had learned what the captivity was meant to +teach, and had come to bless God, both for the long years of exile, +which had burned away much dross, and for the incomplete work of +restoration, surrounded though they were with foes, and little as was +their strength to fight. The trustful heart finds occasion for +unmingled praise in the most mingled cup of joy and sorrow. + +There can have been very few in that crowd who had seen the former +Temple, and their memories of its splendour must have been very dim. +But partly remembrance and partly hearsay made the contrast of the +past glories and the present poverty painful. Hence that pathetic and +profoundly significant incident of the blended shouts of the young and +tears of the old. One can fancy that each sound jarred on the ears of +those who uttered the other. But each was wholly natural to the years +of the two classes. Sad memories gather, like evening mists, round +aged lives, and the temptation of the old is unduly to exalt the past, +and unduly to depreciate the present. Welcoming shouts for the new +befit young lips, and they care little about the ruins that have to be +carted off the ground for the foundations of the temple which they are +to have a hand in building. However imperfect, it is better to them +than the old house where the fathers worshipped. + +But each class should try to understand the other's feelings. The +friends of the old should not give a churlish welcome to the new, nor +those of the new forget the old. It is hard to blend the two, either +in individual life or in a wider sphere of thought or act. The seniors +think the juniors revolutionary and irreverent; the juniors think the +seniors fossils. It is possible to unite the shout of joy and the +weeping. Unless a spirit of reverent regard for the past presides over +the progressive movements of this or any day, they will not lay a +solid foundation for the temple of the future. We want the old and the +young to work side by side, if the work is to last and the sanctuary +is to be ample enough to embrace all shades of character and +tendencies of thought. If either the grey beards of Solomon's court or +the hot heads of Rehoboam's get the reins in their hands, they will +upset the chariot. That mingled sound of weeping and joy from the +Temple hill tells a more excellent way. + + + +BUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES + +'Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the +children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of +Israel; 2. Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the +fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your +God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of +Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3. But +Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of +Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an +house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord +God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. 4. +Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, +and troubled them in building, 5. And hired counsellors against them, +to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even +until the reign of Darius king of Persia.'--EZRA iv. 1-5. + + +Opposition began as soon as the foundations were laid, as is usually +the case with all great attempts to build God's house. It came from +the Samaritans, the mingled people who were partly descendants of the +ancient remnant of the northern kingdom, left behind after the removal +by deportation of the bulk of its population, and partly the +descendants of successive layers of immigrants, planted in the empty +territory by successive Assyrian and Babylonian kings. Esar-haddon was +the first who had sent colonists, about one hundred and thirty years +before the return. The writer calls the Samaritans 'the adversaries,' +though they began by offers of friendship and alliance. The name +implies that these offers were perfidious, and a move in the struggle. + +One can easily understand that the Samaritans looked with suspicion on +the new arrivals, the ancient possessors of the land, coming under the +auspices of the new dynasty, and likely to interfere with their +position if not reduced to inferiority or neutralised somehow. The +proposal to unite in building the Temple was a political move; for, in +old-world ideas, co-operation in Temple-building was incorporation in +national unity. The calculation, no doubt, was that if the returning +exiles could be united with the much more numerous Samaritans, they +would soon be absorbed in them. The only chance for the smaller body +was to keep itself apart, and to run the risk of its isolation. + +The insincere request was based on an untruth, for the Samaritans did +not worship Jehovah as the Jews, but along with their own gods (2 +Kings xvii. 25-41). To divide His dominion with others was to dethrone +Him altogether. It therefore became an act of faithfulness to Jehovah +to reject the entangling alliance. To have accepted it would have been +tantamount to frustrating the very purpose of the return, and +consenting to be muzzled about the sin of idolatry. But the chief +lesson which exile had burned in on the Jewish mind was a loathing of +idolatry, which is in remarkable contrast to the inclination to it +that had marked their previous history. So one answer only was +possible, and it was given with unwelcome plainness of speech, which +might have been more courteous, and not less firm. It flatly denied +any common ground; it claimed exclusive relation to 'our God,' which +meant, 'not yours'; it underscored the claim by reiterating that +Jehovah was the 'God of Israel'; it put forward the decree of Cyrus, +as leaving no option but to confine the builders to the people whom it +had empowered to build. + +Now, it is easy to represent this as a piece of impolitic narrowness, +and to say that its surly bigotry was rightly punished by the evils +that it brought down on the returning exiles. The temper of much +flaccid Christianity at present delights to expand in a lazy and +foolish 'liberality,' which will welcome anybody to come and take a +hand at the building, and accepts any profession of unity in worship. +But there is no surer way of taking the earnestness out of Christian +work and workers than drafting into it a mass of non-Christians, +whatever their motives may be. Cold water poured into a boiling pot +will soon stop its bubbling, and bring down its temperature. The +churches are clogged and impeded, and their whole tone lowered and +chilled, by a mass of worldly men and women. Nothing is gained, and +much is in danger of being lost, by obliterating the lines between the +church and the world. The Jew who thought little of the difference +between the Samaritan worship with its polytheism, and his own +monotheism, was in peril of dropping to the Samaritan level. The +Samaritan who was accepted as a true worshipper of Jehovah, though he +had a bevy of other gods in addition, would have been confirmed in his +belief that the differences were unimportant. So both would have been +harmed by what called itself 'liberality,' and was in reality +indifference. + +No doubt, Zerubbabel had counted the cost of faithfulness, and he soon +had to pay it. The would-be friends threw off the mask, and, as they +could not hinder by pretending to help, took a plainer way to stop +progress. All the weapons that Eastern subtlety and intrigue could use +were persistently employed to 'weaken the hands' of the builders, and +the most potent of all methods, bribery to Persian officials, was +freely used. The opponents triumphed, and the little community began +to taste the bitterness of high hopes disappointed and noble +enterprises frustrated. How differently things had turned out from the +expectations with which the company had set forth from Babylon! The +rough awakening to realities disillusions us all when we come to turn +dreams into facts. The beginning of laying the Temple foundations is +put in 536 B.C.; the first year of Darius was 522. How soon after the +commencement of the work the Samaritan tricks succeeded we do not +know, but it must have been some time before the death of Cyrus in +529. For weary years then the sanguine band had to wait idly, and no +doubt enthusiasm died out: they had enough to do in keeping themselves +alive, and in holding their own amidst enemies. They needed, as we all +do, patience, and a willingness to wait for God's own time to fulfil +His own promise. + + + +THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP + +'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the +prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and +they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God +of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and +Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the +third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign +of Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and +the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the +dedication of this house of God with joy, 17. And offered at the +dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, +four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve +he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18. And +they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their +courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is +written in the book of Moses. 19. And the children of the captivity +kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20. For +the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were +pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, +and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. 21. And the +children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all +such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the +heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat, 22. And +kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord +had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto +them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the +God of Israel.'--EZRA. vi. 14-22. + + +There are three events recorded in this passage,--the completion of +the Temple, its dedication, and the keeping of the passover some weeks +thereafter. Four years intervene between the resumption of building +and its successful finish, much of which time had been occupied by the +interference of the Persian governor, which compelled a reference to +Darius, and resulted in his confirmation of Cyrus' charter. The king's +stringent orders silenced opposition, and seem to have been loyally, +however unwillingly, obeyed. About twenty-three years passed between +the return of the exiles and the completion of the Temple. + +I. The prosperous close of the long task (vers. 14, 15). The narrative +enumerates three points in reference to the completion of the Temple +which are very significant, and, taken together, set forth the +stimulus and law and helps of work for God. + +It is expressive of deep truth that first in order is named, as the +cause of success, 'the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.' +'Practical men,' no doubt, then as always, set little store by the two +prophets' fiery words, and thought that a couple of masons would have +done more for the building than they did. The contempt for 'ideas' is +the mark of shallow and vulgar minds. Nothing is more practical than +principles and motives which underlie and inform work, and these two +prophets did more for building the Temple by their words than an army +of labourers with their hands. 'There are diversities of operations,' +and it is not given to every man to handle a trowel; but no good work +will be prosperously accomplished unless there be engaged in it +prophets who rouse and rebuke and hearten, and toilers who by their +words are encouraged and saved from forgetting the sacred motives and +great ends of their work in the monotony and multiplicity of details. + +Still more important is the next point mentioned. The work was done +'according to the commandment of the God of Israel.' There is peculiar +beauty and pathos in that name, which is common in Ezra. It speaks of +the sense of unity in the nation, though but a fragment of it had come +back. There was still an Israel, after all the dreary years, and in +spite of present separation. God was still its God, though He had +hidden His face for so long. An inextinguishable faith, wistful but +assured, in His unalterable promise, throbs in that name, so little +warranted by a superficial view of circumstances, but so amply +vindicated by a deeper insight. His 'commandment' is at once the +warrant and the standard for the work of building. In His service we +are to be sure that He bids, and then to carry out His will whoever +opposes. + +We are to make certain that our building is 'according to the pattern +showed in the mount,' and, if so, to stick to it in every point. There +is no room for more than one architect in rearing the temple. The +working drawings must come from Him. We are only His workmen. And +though we may know no more of the general plan of the structure than +the day-labourer who carries a hod does, we must be sure that we have +His orders for our little bit of work, and then we may be at rest even +while we toil. They who build according to His commandment build for +eternity, and their work shall stand the trial by fire. That motive +turns what without it were but 'wood, hay, stubble,' into 'gold and +silver and precious stones.' + +The last point is that the work was done according to the commandment +of the heathen kings. We need not discuss the chronological difficulty +arising from the mention of Artaxerxes here. The only king of that +name who can be meant reigned fifty years after the events here +narrated. The mention of him here has been explained by 'the +consideration that he contributed to the maintenance, though not to +the building, of the Temple.' Whatever is the solution, the intention +of the mention of the names of the friendly monarchs is plain. 'The +king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses; He +turneth it whithersoever He will.' The wonderful providence, +surpassing all hopes, which gave the people 'favour in the eyes of +them that carried them captive,' animates the writer's thankfulness, +while he recounts that miracle that the commandment of God was +re-echoed by such lips. The repetition of the word in both clauses +underscores, as it were, the remarkable concurrence. + +II. The dedication of the Temple (vers. 16-18). How long the +dedication was after the completion is not specified. The month Adar +was the last of the Jewish year, and corresponded nearly with our +March. Probably the ceremonial of dedication followed immediately on +the completion of the building. Probably few, if any, of the aged men, +who had wept at the founding, survived to see the completion of the +Temple. A new generation had no such sad contrasts of present +lowliness and former glory to shade their gladness. So many dangers +surmounted, so many long years of toil interrupted and hope deferred, +gave keener edge to joy in the fair result of them all. + +We may cherish the expectation that our long tasks, and often +disappointments, will have like ending if they have been met and done +in like spirit, having been stimulated by prophets and commanded by +God. It is not wholesome nor grateful to depreciate present blessings +by contrasting them with vanished good. Let us take what God gives +to-day, and not embitter it by remembering yesterday with vain regret. +There is a remembrance of the former more splendid Temple in the name +of the new one, which is thrice repeated in the passage,--'this +house.' But that phrase expresses gratitude quite as much as, or more +than, regret. The former house is gone, but there is still 'this +house,' and it is as truly God's as the other was. Let us grasp the +blessings we have, and be sure that in them is continued the substance +of those we have lost. + +The offerings were poor, if compared with Solomon's 'two and twenty +thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep' (1 Kings +viii. 63), and no doubt the despisers of the 'day of small things,' +whom Zechariah had rebuked, would be at their depreciating work again. +But 'if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to +that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.' The +thankfulness of the offerers, not the number of their bullocks and +rams, made the sacrifice well pleasing. But it would not have been so +if the exiles' resources had been equal to the great King's. How many +cattle had they in their stalls at home, not how many they brought to +the Temple, was the important question. The man who says, 'Oh! God +accepts small offerings,' and gives a mite while he keeps talents, +might as well keep his mite too; for certainly God will not have it. + +A significant part of the offerings was the 'twelve he-goats, +according to the number of the tribes of Israel.' These spoke of the +same confidence as we have already noticed as being expressed by the +designation of 'the God of Israel.' Possibly scattered members of all +the tribes had come back, and so there was a kind of skeleton +framework of the nation present at the dedication; but, whether that +be so or not, that handful of people was not Israel. Thousands of +their brethren still lingered in exile, and the hope of their return +must have been faint. Yet God's promise remained, and Israel was +immortal. The tribes were still twelve, and the sacrifices were still +theirs. A thrill of emotion must have touched many hearts as the +twelve goats were led up to the altar. So an Englishman feels as he +looks at the crosses on the Union Jack. + +But there was more than patriotism in that sacrifice. It witnessed to +unshaken faith. And there was still more expressed in it than the +offerers dreamed; for it prophesied of that transformation of the +national into the spiritual Israel, in virtue of which the promises +remain true, and are inherited by the Church of Christ in all lands. + +The re-establishment of the Temple worship with the appointment of +priests and Levites, according to the ancient ordinance, naturally +followed on the dedication. + +III. The celebration of the Passover (vers. 19-22). It took place on +the fourteenth day of the first month, and probably, therefore, very +soon after the dedication. They 'kept the feast, ... for the priests +and Levites were purified together.' The zeal of the sacerdotal class +in attending to the prescriptions for ceremonial purity made it +possible that the feast should be observed. How much of real devotion, +and how much of mere eagerness to secure their official position, +mingled with this zeal, cannot be determined. Probably there was a +touch of both. Scrupulous observance of ritual is easy religion, +especially if one's position is improved by it. But the connection +pointed out by the writer is capable of wide applications. The true +purity and earnestness of preachers and teachers of all degrees has +much to do with their hearers' and scholars' participation in the +blessings of the Gospel. If priests are not pure, they cannot kill the +passover. Earnest teachers make earnest scholars. Foul hands cannot +dispense the bread of life. + +There is a slight deviation from the law in the ritual as here stated, +since it was prescribed that each householder should kill the passover +lamb for his house. But from the time of Hezekiah the Levites seem to +have done it for the congregation (2 Chron. xxx. 17), and afterwards +for the priests also (2 Chron. xxxv. 11, 14). + +Verse 21 tells that not only the returned exiles, but also 'all such +as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the +heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel,' ate the +passover. It may be questioned whether these latter were Israelites, +the descendants of the residue who had not been deported, but who had +fallen into idolatry during the exile, or heathens of the mixed +populations who had been settled in the vacant country. The emphasis +put on their turning to Israel and Israel's God seems to favour the +latter supposition. But in any case, the fact presents us with an +illustration of the proper effect of the presence anywhere of a +company of God's true worshippers. If we purify ourselves, and keep +the feast of the true passover with joy as well as purity, we shall +not want for outsiders who will separate themselves from the more +subtle and not less dangerous idolatries of modern life, to seek the +Lord God of Israel. If His Israel is what it ought to be, it will +attract. A bit of scrap-iron in contact with a magnet is a magnet. +They who live in touch with Him who said, 'I will draw all men unto +Me' will share His attractive power in the measure of their union with +Him. + +The week after the passover feast was, according to the ritual, +observed as the feast of unleavened bread. The narrative touches +lightly on the ceremonial, and dwells in conclusion on the joy of the +worshippers and its cause. They do well to be glad whom God makes +glad. All other joy bears in it the seeds of death. It is, in one +aspect, the end of God's dealings, that we should be glad in Him. Wise +men will not regard that as a less noble end than making us pure; in +fact, the two are united. The 'blessed God' is glad in our gladness +when it is His gladness. + +Notice the exulting wonder with which God's miracle of mercy is +reported in its source and its glorious result. The heart of the king +was turned to them, and no power but God's could have done that. The +issue of that divine intervention was the completed Temple, in which +once more the God of that Israel which He had so marvellously restored +dwelt in the midst of His people. + + + +GOD THE JOY-BRINGER + +'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made +them joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22. + + +Twenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at +last, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by +the completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with +the magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them +'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies; +they were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to darken their +prospects and to sadden their hearts; and yet, when memories of the +ancient days came back, and once more they saw the sacrificial smoke +rising from the long cold and ruined altar, they rejoiced in God, and +they kept the passover amid the ruins, as my text tells us, for the +'seven days' of the statutory period 'with joy,' because, in spite of +all, 'the Lord had made them joyful.' + +I think if we take this simple saying we get two or three thoughts, +not altogether irrelevant to universal experience, about the true and +the counterfeit gladnesses possible to us all. + +I. Look at that great and wonderful thought--God the joy-maker. + +We do not often realise how glad God is when we are glad, and how +worthy an object of much that He does is simply the prosperity and the +blessedness of human hearts. The poorest creature that lives has a +right to ask from God the satisfaction of its instincts, and every man +has a claim on God--because he is God's creature--to make him glad. +God honours all cheques legitimately drawn on Him, and answers all +claims, and regards Himself as occupied in a manner entirely congruous +with His magnificence and His infinitude, when He stoops to put some +kind of vibrating gladness into the wings of a gnat that dances for an +hour in the sunshine, and into the heart of a man that lives his time +for only a very little longer. + +God is the Joy-maker. There are far more magnificent and sublime +thoughts about Him than that; but I do not know that there is any that +ought to come nearer to our hearts, and to silence more of our +grumblings and of our distrust, than the belief that the gladness of +His children is an end contemplated by Him in all that He does. +Whether we think it of small importance or no, He does not think it +so, that all mankind should rejoice in Himself. And this is a +marvellous revelation to break out of the very heart of that +comparatively hard system of ancient Judaism. 'The Lord hath made them +joyful.' + +Turning away from the immediate connection of these words, let me +remind you of the great outlines of the divine provision for +gladdening men's hearts. I was going to say that God had only one way +of making us glad; and perhaps that is in the deepest sense true. That +way is by putting Himself into us. He gives us Himself to make us +glad; for nothing else will do it--or, at least, though there may be +many subordinate sources of joy, if there be in the innermost shrine +of our spirits an empty place, where the Shekinah ought to shine, no +other joys will suffice to settle and to rejoice the soul. The secret +of all true human well-being is close communion with God; and when He +looks at the poorest of us, desiring to make us blessed, He can but +say, 'I will give Myself to that poor man; to that ignorant creature; +to that wayward and prodigal child; to that harlot in her corruption; +to that worldling in his narrow godlessness; I will give Myself, if +they will have Me.' And thus, and only thus, does He make us truly, +perfectly, and for ever glad. + +Besides that, or rather as a sequel and consequence of that, there +come such other God-given blessings as these to which my text refers. +What were the outward reasons for the restored exiles' gladness? 'The +Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king ... unto +them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the +God of Israel.' + +So, then, He pours into men's lives by His providences the secondary +and lower gifts which men, according to changing circumstances, need; +and He also satisfies the permanent physical necessities of all orders +of beings to whom He has given life. He gives Himself for the spirit; +He gives whatever is contributory to any kind of gladness; and if we +are wise we shall trace all to Him. He is the Joy-giver; and that man +has not yet understood either the sanctity of life or the full +sweetness of its sweetest things unless he sees, written over every +one of them, the name of God, their giver. Your common mercies are His +love tokens, and they all come to us, just as the gifts of parents to +their children do, with this on the fly-leaf, 'With a father's love.' +Whatever comes to God's child with that inscription, surely it ought +to kindle a thrill of gladness. That 'the king of Assyria's heart is +turned'; shall we thank the king of Assyria? Yes and No! For it was +God who 'turned' it. Oh! to carry the quiet confidence of that thought +into all our daily life, and see His name written upon everything that +contributes to make us blessed. God is the true Source and Maker of +every joy. + +And by the side of that we must put this other thought--there are +sources of joy with which He has nothing to do. There are people who +are joyful--and there are some of them listening now--not because God +made them joyful, but because 'the world, the devil, and the flesh' +have given them ghastly caricatures of the true gladness. And these +rival sources of blessedness, the existence of which my text suggests, +are the enemies of all that is good and noble in us and in our joys. +God made these men joyful, and so their gladness was wholesome. + +II. Note the consequent obligation and wisdom of taking our God-given +joys. + +'They kept the feast with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful.' +Then it is our obligation to accept and use what it is His blessedness +to give. Be sure you take Him. When He is waiting to pour all His love +into your heart, and all His sweetness into your sensitive spirit, to +calm your anxieties, to deepen your blessedness, to strengthen +everything that is good in you, to be to you a stay in the midst of +crumbling prosperity, and a Light in the midst of gathering darkness, +be sure that you take the joy that waits your acceptance. Do not let +it be said that, when the Lord Christ has come down from heaven, and +lived upon earth, and gone back to heaven, and sent His Spirit to +dwell in you, you lock the door against the entrance of the +joy-bringing Messenger, and are sad and restless and discontented +because you have shut out the God who desires to abide in your hearts. + +'They kept the feast with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful.' +Oh! how many Christian men and women there are, who in the midst of +the abundant and wonderful provision for continual cheerfulness and +buoyancy of spirit given to them in the promises of the Gospel, in the +gifts of Christ, in the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, do yet go +through life creeping and sad, burdened and anxious, perplexed and at +their wits' end, just because they will not have the God who yearns to +come to them, or at least will not have Him in anything like the +fullness and the completeness in which He desires to bestow Himself. +If God gives, surely we are bound to receive. It is an obligation upon +Christian men and women, which they do not sufficiently realise, to be +glad, and it is a commandment needing to be reiterated. 'Rejoice in +the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice.' Would that Christian +experience in this generation was more alive to the obligation and the +blessedness of perpetual joy arising from perpetual communion with +Him. + +Further, another obligation is to recognise Him in all common mercies, +because He is at the back of them all. Let them always proclaim Him to +us. Oh! if we did not go through the world blinded to the real Power +that underlies all its motions, we should feel that everything was +vocal to us of the loving-kindness of our Father in heaven. Link Him, +dear friend! with everything that makes your heart glad; with +everything pleasant that comes to you. There is nothing good or sweet +but it flows from Him. There is no common delight of flesh or sense, +of sight or taste or smell, no little enjoyment that makes the moment +pass more brightly, no drop of oil that eases the friction of the +wheels of life, but it may be elevated into greatness and nobleness, +and will then first be understood in its true significance, if it is +connected with Him. God does not desire to be put away high up on a +pedestal above our lives, as if He regulated the great things and the +trifles regulated themselves; but He seeks to come, as air into the +lungs, into every particle of the mass of life, and to fill it all +with His own purifying presence. + +Recognise Him in common joys. If, when we sit down to partake of them, +we would say to ourselves, 'The Lord has made us joyful,' all our home +delights, all our social pleasures, all our intellectual and all our +sensuous ones--rest and food and drink and all other goods for the +body--they would all be felt to be great, as they indeed are. Enjoyed +in Him, the smallest is great; without Him, the greatest is small. +'The Lord made them joyful'; and what is large enough for Him to give +ought not to be too small for us to receive with recognition of His +hand. + +Another piece of wholesome counsel in this matter is--Be sure that you +use the joys which God does give. Many good people seem to think that +it is somehow devout and becoming to pitch most of their songs in a +minor key, and to be habitually talking about trials and +disappointments, and 'a desert land,' and 'Brief life is here our +portion,' and so on, and so on. There are two ways in which you can +look at the world and at everything that befalls you. There is enough +in everybody's life to make him sad if he sulkily selects these things +to dwell upon. There is enough in everybody's life to make him +continually glad if he wisely picks out these to think about. It +depends altogether on the angle at which you look at your life what +you see in it. For instance, you know how children do when they get a +bit of a willow wand into their possession. They cut off rings of +bark, and get the switch alternately white and black, white and black, +and so on right away to the tip. Whether will you look at the white +rings or the black ones? They are both there. But if you rightly look +at the black you will find out that there is white below it, and it +only needs a very little stripping off of a film to make it into white +too. Or, to put it into simpler words, no Christian man has the right +to regard anything that God's Providence brings to him as such +unmingled evil that it ought to make him sad. We are bound to 'rejoice +in the Lord always.' + +I know how hard it is, but sure am I that it is possible for a man, if +he keeps near Jesus Christ, to reproduce Paul's paradox of being +'sorrowful yet always rejoicing,' and even in the midst of darkness +and losses and sorrows and blighted hopes and disappointed aims to +rejoice in the Lord, and to 'keep the feast with gladness, because the +Lord has made him joyful.' Nor do we discharge our duty, unless side +by side with the sorrow which is legitimate, which is blessed, +strengthening, purifying, calming, moderating, there is also 'joy +unspeakable and full of glory.' + +Again, be sure that you limit your delights to God-made joys. Too many +of us have what parts of our nature recognise as satisfaction, and are +glad to have, apart from Him. There is nothing sadder than the joys +that come into a life, and do not come from God. Oh! let us see to it +that we do not fill our cisterns with poisonous sewage when God is +waiting to fill them with the pure 'river of the water of life.' Do +not let us draw our blessedness from the world and its evils. Does my +joy help me to come near to God? Does it interfere with my communion +with Him? Does it aid me in the consecration of myself? Does my +conscience go with it when my conscience is most awake? Do I recognise +Him as the Giver of the thing that is so blessed? If we can say Yes! +to these questions, we can venture to believe that our blessedness +comes from God, and leads to God, however homely, however sensuous and +material may be its immediate occasion. But if not, then the less we +have to do with such sham gladness the better. 'Even in laughter the +heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' The +alternative presented for the choice of each of us is whether we will +have surface joy and a centre of dark discontent, or surface sorrow +and a centre of calm blessedness. The film of stagnant water on a pond +full of rottenness simulates the glories of the rainbow, in which pure +sunshine falls upon the pure drops, but it is only painted corruption +after all, a sign of rotting; and if a man puts his lips to it it will +kill him. Such is the joy which is apart from God. It is the +'crackling of thorns under a pot'--the more fiercely they burn the +sooner they are ashes. And, on the other hand, 'these things have I +spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full.' + +It is not 'for seven days' that we 'keep the feast' if God has 'made +us joyful,' but for all the rest of the days of time, and for the +endless years of the calm gladnesses of the heavens. + + + +HEROIC FAITH + +'I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen +to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto +the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon them all for good that +seek Him.... 23. So we fasted and besought our God for this.... 31. +The hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of +the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. 32. And we came to +Jerusalem.'--EZRA viii. 22, 23, 31, 32. + + +The memory of Ezra the scribe has scarcely had fairplay among +Bible-reading people. True, neither his character nor the incidents of +his life reach the height of interest or of grandeur belonging to the +earlier men and their times. He is no hero, or prophet; only a scribe; +and there is a certain narrowness as well as a prosaic turn about his +mind, and altogether one feels that he is a smaller man than the +Elijahs and Davids of the older days. But the homely garb of the +scribe covered a very brave devout heart, and the story of his life +deserves to be more familiar to us than it is. + +This scrap from the account of his preparations for the march from +Babylon to Jerusalem gives us a glimpse of a high-toned faith, and a +noble strain of feeling. He and his company had a long weary journey +of four months before them. They had had little experience of arms and +warfare, or of hardships and desert marches, in their Babylonian +homes. Their caravan was made unwieldy and feeble by the presence of a +large proportion of women and children. They had much valuable +property with them. The stony desert, which stretches unbroken from +the Euphrates to the uplands on the east of Jordan, was infested then +as now by wild bands of marauders, who might easily swoop down on the +encumbered march of Ezra and his men, and make a clean sweep of all +which they had. And he knew that he had but to ask and have an escort +from the king that would ensure their safety till they saw Jerusalem. +Artaxerxes' surname, 'the long-handed,' may have described a physical +peculiarity, but it also expressed the reach of his power; his arm +could reach these wandering plunderers, and if Ezra and his troop were +visibly under his protection, they could march secure. So it was not a +small exercise of trust in a higher Hand that is told us here so +simply. It took some strength of principle to abstain from asking what +it would have been so natural to ask, so easy to get, so comfortable +to have. But, as he says, he remembered how confidently he has spoken +of God's defence, and he feels that he must be true to his professed +creed, even if it deprives him of the king's guards. He halts his +followers for three days at the last station before the desert, and +there, with fasting and prayer, they put themselves in God's hand; and +then the band, with their wives and little ones, and their +substance,--a heavily-loaded and feeble caravan,--fling themselves +into the dangers of the long, dreary, robber-haunted march. Did not +the scribe's robe cover as brave a heart as ever beat beneath a +breastplate? + +That symbolic phrase, 'the hand of our God,' as expressive of the +divine protection, occurs with remarkable frequency in the books of +Ezra and Nehemiah, and though not peculiar to them, is yet strikingly +characteristic of them. It has a certain beauty and force of its own. +The hand is of course the seat of active power. It is on or over a man +like some great shield held aloft above him, below which there is safe +hiding. So that great Hand bends itself over us, and we are secure +beneath its hollow. As a child sometimes carries a tender-winged +butterfly in the globe of its two hands that the bloom on the wings +may not be ruffled by fluttering, so He carries our feeble, unarmoured +souls enclosed in the covert of His Almighty hand. 'Who hath measured +the waters in the hollow of His hand?' 'Who hath gathered the wind in +His fists?' In that curved palm where all the seas lie as a very +little thing, we are held; the grasp that keeps back the tempests from +their wild rush, keeps us, too, from being smitten by their blast. As +a father may lay his own large muscular hand on his child's tiny +fingers to help him, or as 'Elisha put his hands on the king's hands,' +that the contact might strengthen him to shoot the 'arrow of the +Lord's deliverance,' so the hand of our God is upon us to impart power +as well as protection; and our 'bow abides in strength,' when 'the +arms of our hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of +Jacob.' That was Ezra's faith, and that should be ours. + +Note Ezra's sensitive shrinking from anything like inconsistency +between his creed and his practice. It was easy to talk about God's +protection when he was safe behind the walls of Babylon; but now the +pinch had come. There was a real danger before him and his unwarlike +followers. No doubt, too, there were plenty of people who would have +been delighted to catch him tripping; and he felt that his cheeks +would have tingled with shame if they had been able to say, 'Ah! that +is what all his fine professions come to, is it? He wants a convoy, +does he? We thought as much. It is always so with these people who +talk in that style. They are just like the rest of us when the pinch +comes.' So, with a high and keen sense of what was required by his +avowed principles, he will have no guards for the road. _There_ +was a man whose religion was at any rate not a fair-weather religion. +It did not go off in fine speeches about trusting to the protection of +God, spoken from behind the skirts of the king, or from the middle of +a phalanx of his soldiers. He clearly meant what he said, and believed +every word of it as a prose fact, which was solid enough to build +conduct on. + +I am afraid a great many of us would rather have tried to reconcile +our asking for a band of horsemen with our professed trust in God's +hand; and there would have been plenty of excuses very ready about +using means as well as exercising faith, and not being called upon to +abandon advantages, and not pushing a good principle to Quixotic +lengths, and so on, and so on. But whatever truth there is in such +considerations, at any rate we may well learn the lesson of this +story--to be true to our professed principles; to beware of making our +religion a matter of words; to live, when the time for putting them +into practice comes, by the maxims which we have been forward to +proclaim when there was no risk in applying them; and to try sometimes +to look at our lives with the eyes of people who do not share our +faith, that we may bring our actions up to the mark of what they +expect of us. If 'the Church' would oftener think of what 'the world' +looks for from it, it would seldomer have cause to be ashamed of the +terrible gap between its words and its deeds. + +Especially in regard to this matter of trust in an unseen Hand, and +reliance on visible helps, we all need to be very rigid in our +self-inspection. Faith in the good hand of God upon us for good should +often lead to the abandonment, and always to the subordination, of +material aids. It is a question of detail, which each man must settle +for himself as each occasion arises, whether in any given case +abandonment or subordination is our duty. This is not the place to +enter on so large and difficult a question. But, at all events, let us +remember, and try to work into our own lives, that principle which the +easy-going Christianity of this day has honeycombed with so many +exceptions, that it scarcely has any whole surface left at all; that +the absolute surrender and forsaking of external helps and goods is +sometimes essential to the preservation and due expression of reliance +on God. + +There is very little fear of any of us pushing that principle to +Quixotic lengths. The danger is all the other way. So it is worth +while to notice that we have here an instance of a man's being carried +by a certain lofty enthusiasm further than the mere law of duty would +take him. There would have been no harm in Ezra's asking an escort, +seeing that his whole enterprise was made possible by the king's +support. He would not have been 'leaning on an arm of flesh' by +availing himself of the royal troops, any more than when he used the +royal firman. But a true man often feels that he cannot do the things +which he might without sin do. 'All things are lawful for me, but all +things are not expedient,' said Paul. The same Apostle eagerly +contended that he had a perfect right to money support from the +Gentile Churches; and then, in the next breath, flamed up into, 'I +have used none of these things, for it were better for me to die, than +that any man should make my glorying void.' A sensitive spirit, or one +profoundly stirred by religious emotion, will, like the apostle whose +feet were moved by love, far outrun the slower soul, whose steps are +only impelled by the thought of duty. Better that the cup should run +over than that it should not be full. Where we delight to do His will, +there will often be more than a scrupulously regulated enough; and +where there is not sometimes that 'more,' there will never be enough. + + 'Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less or more.' + +What shall we say of people who profess that God is their portion, and +are as eager in the scramble for money as anybody? What kind of a +commentary will sharp-sighted, sharp-tongued observers have a right to +make on us, whose creed is so unlike theirs, while our lives are +identical? Do you believe, friends! that 'the hand of our God is upon +all them for good that seek Him'? Then, do you not think that racing +after the prizes of this world, with flushed cheeks and labouring +breath, or longing, with a gnawing hunger of heart, for any earthly +good, or lamenting over the removal of creatural defences and joys, as +if heaven were empty because some one's place here is, or as if God +were dead because dear ones die, may well be a shame to us, and a +taunt on the lips of our enemies? Let us learn again the lesson from +this old story,--that if our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it +demands and will produce, the abandonment sometimes and the +subordination always, of external helps and material good. + +Notice, too, Ezra's preparation for receiving the divine help. There, +by the river Ahava, he halts his company like a prudent leader, to +repair omissions, and put the last touches to their organisation +before facing the wilderness. But he has another purpose also. 'I +proclaimed a fast there, to seek of God a right way for us.' There was +no foolhardiness in his courage; he was well aware of all the possible +dangers on the road; and whilst he is confident of the divine +protection, he knows that, in his own quiet, matter-of-fact words, it +is given 'to all them that _seek_ Him.' So his faith not only +impels him to the renunciation of the Babylonian guard, but to earnest +supplication for the defence in which he is so confident. He is sure +it will be given--so sure, that he will have no other shield; and yet +he fasts and prays that he and his company may receive it. He prays +because he is sure that he will receive it, and does receive it +because he prays and is sure. + +So for us, the condition and preparation on and by which we are +sheltered by that great Hand, is the faith that asks, and the asking +of faith. We must forsake the earthly props, but we must also +believingly desire to be upheld by the heavenly arms. We make God +responsible for our safety when we abandon other defence, and commit +ourselves to Him. With eyes open to our dangers, and full +consciousness of our own unarmed and unwarlike weakness, let us +solemnly commend ourselves to Him, rolling all our burden on His +strong arms, knowing that He is able to keep that which we have +committed to Him. He will accept the trust, and set His guards about +us. As the song of the returning exiles, which may have been sung by +the river Ahava, has it: 'My help cometh from the Lord. The Lord is +thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.' + +So our story ends with the triumphant vindication of this Quixotic +faith. A flash of joyful feeling breaks through the simple narrative, +as it tells how the words spoken before the king came true in the +experience of the weaponless pilgrims: 'The hand of our God _was_ +upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such +as lay in wait by the way; and we came to Jerusalem.' It was no rash +venture that we made. He was all that we hoped and asked. Through all +the weary march He led us. From the wild, desert-born robbers, that +watched us from afar, ready to come down on us, from ambushes and +hidden perils, He kept us, because we had none other help, and all our +hope was in Him. The ventures of faith are ever rewarded. We cannot +set our expectations from God too high. What we dare scarcely hope now +we shall one day remember. When we come to tell the completed story of +our lives, we shall have to record the fulfilment of all God's +promises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were built on +these. Here let us cry, 'Be Thy hand upon us.' Here let us trust, Thy +hand will be upon us. Then we shall have to say, 'The hand of our God +was upon us,' and as we look from the watch-towers of the city, on the +desert that stretches to its very walls, and remember all the way by +which He led us, we shall rejoice over His vindication of our poor +faith, and praise Him that 'not one thing hath failed of all the +things which the Lord our God spake concerning us.' + + + +THE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS + +'Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them ... at Jerusalem, in the +chambers of the house of the Lord.'--EZRA viii. 29. + + +The little band of Jews, seventeen hundred in number, returning from +Babylon, had just started on that long pilgrimage, and made a brief +halt in order to get everything in order for their transit across the +desert; when their leader Ezra, taking count of his men, discovers +that amongst them there are none of the priests or Levites. He then +takes measures to reinforce his little army with a contingent of +these, and entrusts to their special care a very valuable treasure in +gold, and silver, and sacred vessels, which had been given to them for +use in the house of the Lord. The words which I have taken as text are +a portion of the charge which he gave to those twelve priestly +guardians of the precious things, that were to be used in worship when +they got back to the Temple. 'Watch and keep them, until ye weigh them +in the chambers of the house of the Lord.' + +So I think I may venture, without being unduly fanciful, to take these +words as a type of the injunctions which are given to us Christian +people; and to see in them a striking and picturesque representation +of the duties that devolve upon us in the course of our journey across +the desert to the Temple-Home above. + +And to begin with, let me remind you, for a moment or two, what the +precious treasure is which is thus entrusted to our keeping and care. +We can scarcely, in such a connection and with such a metaphor, forget +the words of our Lord about a certain king that went to receive his +kingdom, and to return; who called together his servants, and gave to +each of them according to their several ability, with the injunction +to trade upon that until he came. The same metaphor which our Master +employed lies in this story before us--in the one case, sacrificial +vessels and sacred treasures; in the other case, the talents out of +the rich possessions of the departing king. + +Nor can we forget either the other phase of the same figure which the +Apostle employs when he says to his 'own son' and substitute, Timothy: +'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost +which dwelleth in us,' nor that other word to the same Timothy, which +says: 'O Timothy! keep that which was committed to thy trust, and +avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely +so called.' In these quotations, the treasure, and the rich deposit, +is the faith once delivered to the saints; the solemn message of love +and peace in Jesus Christ, which was entrusted, first of all to those +preachers, but as truly to every one of Christ's disciples. + +So, then, the metaphor is capable of two applications. The first is to +the rich treasure and solemn trust of our own nature, of our own +souls; the faculties and capacities, precious beyond all count, rich +beyond all else that a man has ever received. Nothing that you have is +half so much as that which you are. The possession of a soul that +knows and loves, and can obey; that trusts and desires; that can yearn +and reach out to Jesus Christ, and to God in Christ; of a conscience +that can yield to His command; and faculties of comprehending and +understanding what comes to them from Jesus Christ--that is more than +any other possession, treasure, or trust. That which you and I carry +with us--the infinite possibilities of these awful spirits of +ours--the tremendous faculties which are given to every human soul, +and which, like a candle plunged into oxygen, are meant to burn far +more brightly under the stimulus of Christian faith and the possession +of God's truth, are the rich deposit committed to our charge. You +priests of the living God, you men and women, you say that you are +Christ's, and therefore are consecrated to a nobler priesthood than +any other--to you is given this solemn charge: 'That good thing which +is committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in you.' +The precious treasure of your own natures, your own hearts, your own +understandings, wills, consciences, desires--keep these, until they +are weighed in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. + +And in like manner, taking the other aspect of the metaphor--we have +given to us, in order that we may do something with it, that great +deposit and treasure of truth, which is all embodied and incarnated in +Jesus Christ our Lord. It is bestowed upon us that we may use it for +ourselves, and in order that we may carry it triumphantly all through +the world. Possession involves responsibility always. The word of +salvation is given to us. If we go tampering with it, by erroneous +apprehension, by unfair usage, by failing to apply it to our own daily +life; then it will fade and disappear from our grasp. It is given to +us in order that we may keep it safe, and carry it high up across the +desert, as becomes the priests of the most high God. + +The treasure is first--our own selves--with all that we are and may +be, under the stimulating and quickening influence of His grace and +Spirit. The treasure is next--His great word of salvation, once +delivered unto the saints, and to be handed on, without diminution or +alteration in its fair perspective and manifold harmonies, to the +generations that are to come. So, think of yourselves as the priests +of God, journeying through the wilderness, with the treasures of the +Temple and the vessels of the sacrifice for your special deposit and +charge. + +Further, I touch on the command, the guardianship that is here set +forth. 'Watch ye, and keep them.' That is to say, I suppose, according +to the ordinary idiom of the Old Testament, 'Watch, in order that you +may keep.' Or to translate it into other words: The treasure which is +given into our hands requires, for its safe preservation, unceasing +vigilance. Take the picture of my text: These Jews were four months, +according to the narrative, in travelling from their first station +upon their journey to Jerusalem across the desert. There were enemies +lying in wait for them by the way. With noble self-restraint and grand +chivalry, the leader of the little band says: 'I was ashamed to +require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen, to help us +against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, +saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; +but His power and His wrath is against all that forsake Him.' And so +they would not go to him, cap in hand, and ask him to give them a +guard to take care of them; but 'We fasted and besought our God for +this; and He was intreated of us.' + +Thus the little company, without arms, without protection, with +nothing but a prayer and a trust to make them strong, flung themselves +into the pathless desert with all those precious things in their +possession; and all the precaution which Ezra took was to lay hold of +the priests in the little party, and to say: 'Here! all through the +march do you stick by these precious things. Whoever sleeps, do you +watch. Whoever is careless, be you vigilant. Take these for your +charge, and remember I weigh them here before we start, and they will +be all weighed again when we get there. So be alert.' + +And is not that exactly what Christ says to us? 'Watch; keep them; be +vigilant, that ye may keep; and keep them, because they will be +weighed and registered when you arrive there.' + +I cannot do more than touch upon two or three of the ways in which +this charge may be worked out, in its application for ourselves, +beginning with that first one which is implied in the words of the +text--_unslumbering vigilance_; then _trust_, like the trust +which is glorified in the context, depending only on 'the good hand of +our God upon us'; then _purity_, because, as Ezra said, 'Ye are +holy unto the Lord. The vessels are holy also'; and therefore ye are +the fit persons to guard them. And besides these, there is, in our +keeping our trust, a method which does not apply to the incident +before us; namely, _use_, in order to their preservation. + +That is to say, first of all, no slumber; not a moment's relaxation; +or some of those who lie in wait for us on the way will be down upon +us, and some of the precious things will go. While all the rest of the +wearied camp slept, the guardians of the treasure had to outwatch the +stars. While others might straggle on the march, lingering here or +there, or resting on some patch of green, they had to close up round +their precious charge; others might let their eyes wander from the +path, they had ever to look to their charge. For them the journey had +a double burden, and unslumbering vigilance was their constant duty. + +We likewise have unslumberingly and ceaselessly to watch over that +which is committed to our charge. For, depend upon it, if for an +instant we turn away our heads, the thievish birds that flutter over +us will be down upon the precious seed that is in our basket, or that +we have sown in the furrows, and it will be gone. Watch, that ye may +keep. + +And then, still further, see how in this story before us there are +brought out very picturesquely, and very simply, deeper lessons still. +It is not enough that a man shall be for ever keeping his eye upon his +own character and his own faculties, and seeking sedulously to +cultivate and improve them, as he that must give an account. There +must be another look than that. Ezra said, in effect, 'Not all the +cohorts of Babylon can help us; and we do not want them. We have one +strong hand that will keep us safe'; and so he, and his men, with all +this mass of wealth, so tempting to the wild robbers that haunted the +road, flung themselves into the desert, knowing that all along it +there were, as he says, 'such as lay in wait for them.' His confidence +was: 'God will bring us all safe out to the end there; and we shall +carry every glittering piece of the precious things that we brought +out of Babylon right into the Temple of Jerusalem.' Yet he says, +'Watch ye and keep them.' + +What does that come to in reference to our religious experience? Why +this: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is +God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His own good +pleasure.' You do not need these external helps. Fling yourself wholly +upon His keeping hand, and also watch and keep yourselves. 'I know in +whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have +committed unto Him against that day,' is the complement of the other +words, 'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the +Holy Ghost.' + +So guardianship is, first, unceasing vigilance; and then it is lowly +trust. And besides that, it is _punctilious purity_. 'I said unto +them, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy unto the Lord. +Watch ye, and keep them.' + +It was fitting that priests should carry the things that belonged to +the Temple. No other hands but consecrated hands had a right to touch +them. To none other guardianship but the guardianship of the +possessors of a symbolic and ceremonial purity, could the vessels of a +symbolic and ceremonial worship be entrusted; and to none others but +the possessors of real and spiritual holiness can the treasures of the +true Temple, of an inward and spiritual worship, be entrusted. 'Be ye +clean that bear the vessels of the Lord,' said Isaiah using a kindred +metaphor. The only way to keep our treasure undiminished and +untarnished, is to keep ourselves pure and clean. + +And, lastly, we have to exercise a guardianship which not only means +unslumbering vigilance, lowly trust, punctilious purity, but also +requires the constant use of the treasure. + +'Watch ye, and keep them.' Although the vessels which those priests +bore through the desert were used for no service during all the weary +march, they weighed just the same when they got to the end as at the +beginning; though, no doubt, even their fine gold had become dim and +tarnished through disuse. But if we do not use the vessels that are +entrusted to our care, _they_ will _not_ weigh the same. The +man that wrapped up his talent in the napkin, and said, 'Lo, there +thou hast that is thine,' was too sanguine. There was never an unused +talent rolled up in a handkerchief yet, but when it was taken out and +put into the scales it was lighter than when it was committed to the +keeping of the earth. Gifts that are used fructify. Capacities that +are strained to the uttermost increase. Service strengthens the power +for service; and just as the reward for work is more work, the way for +making ourselves fit for bigger things is to do the things that are +lying by us. The blacksmith's arm, the sailor's eye, the organs of any +piece of handicraft, as we all know, are strengthened by exercise; and +so it is in this higher region. + +And so, dear brethren, take these four words--vigilance, trust, +purity, exercise. 'Watch ye, and keep them, until they are weighed in +the chambers of the House of the Lord.' + +And, lastly, think of that weighing in the House of the Lord. Cannot +you see the picture of the little band when they finally reach the +goal of their pilgrimage; and three days after they arrived, as the +narrative tells us, went up into the Temple, and there, by number and +by weight, rendered up their charge, and were clear of their +responsibility? 'And the first came and said, Lord, thy pound hath +gained ten pounds. And he said, Well, thou good servant, because thou +hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten +cities.' + +Oh! how that thought of the day when they would empty out the rich +treasure upon the marble pavement, and clash the golden vessels into +the scales, must have filled their hearts with vigilance during all +the weary watches, when desert stars looked down upon the slumbering +encampment, and they paced wakeful all the night. And how the thought, +too, must have filled their hearts with joy, when they tried to +picture to themselves the sigh of satisfaction, and the sense of +relief with which, after all the perils, their 'feet would stand +within thy gates, O Jerusalem,' and they would be able to say, 'That +which thou hast given us, we have kept, and nothing of it is lost.' + +A lifetime would be a small expenditure to secure that; and though it +cannot be that you and I will meet the trial and the weighing of that +great day without many failures and much loss, yet we may say: 'I know +in whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep my +deposit--whether it be in the sense of that which I have committed +unto Him, or in the sense of that which He has committed unto +me--against that day.' We may hope that, by His gracious help and His +pitying acceptance, even such careless stewards and negligent watchers +as we are, may lay ourselves down in peace at the last, saying, 'I +have kept the faith,' and may be awakened by the word, 'Well done! +good and faithful servant.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH + + +A REFORMER'S SCHOOLING + +'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in +the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the +palace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men +of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which +were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said +unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the +province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem +also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. 4. +And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and +wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God +of heaven, 5. And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the +great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that +love Him and observe His commandments: 6. Let Thine ear now be +attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of +Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the +children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children +of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: both I and my father's +house have sinned. 7. We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and +have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, +which Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses. 8. Remember, I beseech Thee, +the word that Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye +transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9. But if ye +turn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were +of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I +gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I +have chosen to set My name there. 10. Now these are Thy servants and +Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power, and by Thy +strong hand. 11. O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be +attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy +servants, who desire to fear Thy name: and prosper, I pray Thee, Thy +servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I +was the king's cupbearer.'--NEH. i. 1-11. + + +The date of the completion of the Temple is 516 B.C.; that of +Nehemiah's arrival 445 B.C. The colony of returned exiles seems to +have made little progress during that long period. Its members settled +down, and much of their enthusiasm cooled, as we see from the reforms +which Ezra had to inaugurate fourteen years before Nehemiah. The +majority of men, even if touched by spiritual fervour, find it hard to +keep on the high levels for long. Breathing is easier lower down. As +is often the case, a brighter flame of zeal burned in the bosoms of +sympathisers at a distance than in those of the actual workers, whose +contact with hard realities and petty details disenchanted them. Thus +the impulse to nobler action came, not from one of the colony, but +from a Jew in the court of the Persian king. + +This passage tells us how God prepared a man for a great work, and how +the man prepared himself. + +I. Sad tidings and their effect on a devout servant of God (vs. 1-4). +The time and place are precisely given. 'The month Chislev' +corresponds to the end of November and beginning of December. 'The +twentieth year' is that of Artaxerxes (Neh. ii. 1). 'Shushan,' or +Susa, was the royal winter residence, and 'the palace' was 'a distinct +quarter of the city, occupying an artificial eminence.' Note the +absence of the name of the king. Nehemiah is so familiar with his +greatness that he takes for granted that every reader can fill the +gaps. But, though the omission shows how large a space the court +occupied in his thoughts, a true Jewish heart beat below the +courtier's robe. That flexibility which enabled them to stand as +trusted servants of the kings of many lands, and yet that inflexible +adherence to, and undying love of, Israel, has always been a national +characteristic. We can think of this youthful cup-bearer as yearning +for one glimpse of the 'mountains round about Jerusalem' while he +filled his post in Shushan. + +His longings were kindled into resolve by intercourse with a little +party of Jews from Judaea, among whom was his own brother. They had +been to see how things went there, and the fact that one of them was a +member of Nehemiah's family seems to imply that the same sentiments +belonged to the whole household. Eager questions brought out sorrowful +answers. The condition of the 'remnant' was one of 'great affliction +and reproach,' and the ground of the reproach was probably (Neh. ii. +17; iv. 2-4) the still ruined fortifications. + +It has been supposed that the breaking down of the walls and burning +of the gates, mentioned in verse 3, were recent, and subsequent to the +events recorded in Ezra; but it is more probable that the project for +rebuilding the defences, which had been stopped by superior orders +(Ezra iv. 12-16), had not been resumed, and that the melancholy ruins +were those which had met the eyes of Zerubbabel nearly a hundred years +before. Communication between Shushan and Jerusalem cannot have been +so infrequent that the facts now borne in on Nehemiah might not have +been known before. But the impression made by facts depends largely on +their narrator, and not a little on the mood of the hearer. It was one +thing to hear general statements, and another to sit with one's +brother, and see through his eyes the dismal failure of the 'remnant' +to carry out the purpose of their return. So the story, whether fresh +or repeated with fresh force, made a deep dint in the young +cupbearer's heart, and changed his life's outlook. God prepares His +servants for their work by laying on their souls a sorrowful +realisation of the miseries which other men regard, and they +themselves have often regarded, very lightly. The men who have been +raised up to do great work for God and men, have always to begin by +greatly and sadly feeling the weight of the sins and sorrows which +they are destined to remove. No man will do worthy work at rebuilding +the walls who has not wept over the ruins. + +So Nehemiah prepared himself for his work by brooding over the tidings +with tears, by fasting and by prayer. There is no other way of +preparation. Without the sad sense of men's sorrows, there will be no +earnestness in alleviating them, nor self-sacrificing devotion; and +without much prayer there will be little consciousness of weakness or +dependence on divine help. + +Note the grand and apparently immediate resolution to throw up +brilliant prospects and face a life of danger and suffering and toil. +Nehemiah was evidently a favourite with the king, and had the ball at +his foot. But the ruins on Zion were more attractive to him than the +splendours of Shushan, and he willingly flung away his chances of a +great career to take his share of 'affliction and reproach.' He has +never had justice done him in popular estimation. He is not one of the +well-known biblical examples of heroic self-abandonment; but he did +just what Moses did, and the eulogium of the Epistle to the Hebrews +fits him as well as the lawgiver; for he too chose 'rather to suffer +with the people of God than to enjoy pleasures for a season.' So must +we all, in our several ways, do, if we would have a share in building +the walls of the city of God. + +II. The prayer (vs. 5-11). The course of thought in this prayer is +very instructive. It begins with solemnly laying before God His own +great name, as the mightiest plea with Him, and the strongest +encouragement to the suppliant. That commencement is no mere proper +invocation, conventionally regarded as the right way of beginning, but +it expresses the petitioner's effort to lay hold on God's character as +the ground of his hope of answer. The terms employed remarkably blend +what Nehemiah had learned from Persian religion and what from a better +source. He calls upon Jehovah, the great name which was the special +possession of Israel. He also uses the characteristic Persian +designation of 'the God of heaven,' and identifies the bearer of that +name, not with the god to whom it was originally applied, but with +Israel's Jehovah. He takes the crown from the head of the false deity, +and lays it at the feet of the God of his fathers. Whatsoever names +for the Supreme Excellence any tongues have coined, they all belong to +our God, in so far as they are true and noble. The modern 'science of +comparative religion' yields many treasures which should be laid up in +Jehovah's Temple. + +But the rest of the designations are taken from the Old Testament, as +was fitting. The prayer throughout is full of allusions and +quotations, and shows how this cupbearer of Artaxerxes had fed his +young soul on God's word, and drawn thence the true nourishment of +high and holy thoughts and strenuous resolutions and self-sacrificing +deeds. Prayers which are cast in the mould of God's own revelation of +Himself will not fail of answer. True prayer catches up the promises +that flutter down to us, and flings them up again like arrows. + +The prayer here is all built, then, on that name of Jehovah, and on +what the name involves, chiefly on the thought of God as keeping +covenant and mercy. He has bound Himself in solemn, irrefragable +compact, to a certain line of action. Men 'know where to have Him,' if +we may venture on the familiar expression. He has given us a chart of +His course, and He will adhere to it. Therefore we can go to Him with +our prayers, so long as we keep these within the ample space of His +covenant, and ourselves within its terms, by loving obedience. + +The petition that God's ears might be sharpened and His eyes open to +the prayer is cast in a familiar mould. It boldly transfers to Him not +only the semblance of man's form, but also the likeness of His +processes of action. Hearing the cry for help precedes active +intervention in the case of men's help, and the strong imagery of the +prayer conceives of similar sequence in God. But the figure is +transparent, and the 'anthropomorphism' so plain that no mistakes can +arise in its interpretation. + +Note, too, the light touch with which the suppliant's relation to God +('Thy servant') and his long-continued cry ('day and night') are but +just brought in for a moment as pleas for a gracious hearing. The +prayer is 'for Thy servants the children of Israel,' in which +designation, as the next clauses show, the relation established by +God, and not the conduct of men, is pleaded as a reason for an answer. + +The mention of that relation brings at once to Nehemiah's mind the +terrible unfaithfulness to it which had marked, and still continued to +mark, the whole nation. So lowly confession follows (vs. 6, 7). +Unprofitable servants they had indeed been. The more loftily we think +of our privileges, the more clearly should we discern our sins. +Nothing leads a true heart to such self-ashamed penitence as +reflection on God's mercy. If a man thinks that God has taken him for +a servant, the thought should bow him with conscious unworthiness, not +lift him in self-satisfaction. Nehemiah's confession not only sprung +from the thought of Israel's vocation, so poorly fulfilled, but it +also laid the groundwork for further petitions. It is useless to ask +God to help us to repair the wastes if we do not cast out the sins +which have made them. The beginning of all true healing of sorrow is +confession of sins. Many promising schemes for the alleviation of +national and other distresses have come to nothing because, unlike +Nehemiah's, they did not begin with prayer, or prayed for help without +acknowledging sin. + +And the man who is to do work for God and to get God to bless his work +must not be content with acknowledging other people's sins, but must +always say, 'We have sinned,' and not seldom say, 'I have sinned.' +That penitent consciousness of evil is indispensible to all who would +make their fellows happier. God works with bruised reeds. The sense of +individual transgression gives wonderful tenderness, patience amid +gainsaying, submission in failure, dependence on God in difficulty, +and lowliness in success. Without it we shall do little for ourselves +or for anybody else. + +The prayer next reminds God of His own words (vs. 8,9), freely quoted +and combined from several passages (Lev. xxvi. 33-45; Deut. iv. 25-31, +etc.). The application of these passages to the then condition of +things is at first sight somewhat loose, since part of the people were +already restored; and the purport of the prayer is not the restoration +of the remainder, but the deliverance of those already in the land +from their distresses. Still, the promise gives encouragement to the +prayer and is powerful with God, inasmuch as it could not be said to +have been fulfilled by so incomplete a restoration as that as that at +present realised. What God does must be perfectly done; and His great +word is not exhausted so long as any fuller accomplishment of it can +be imagined. + +The reminder of the promise is clinched (v. 10) by the same appeal as +formerly to the relation to Himself into which God had been pleased to +bring the nation, with an added reference to former deeds, such as the +Exodus, in which His strong hand had delivered them. We are always +sure of an answer if we ask God not to contradict Himself. Since He +has begun He will make an end. It will never be said of Him that He +'began to build and was not able to finish.' His past is a mirror in +which we can read His future. The return from Babylon is implied in +the Exodus. + +A reiteration of earlier words follows, with the addition that +Nehemiah now binds, as it were, his single prayer in a bundle with +those of the like-minded in Israel. He gathers single ears into a +sheaf, which he brings as a 'wave-offering.' And then, in one humble +little sentence at the end, he puts his only personal request. The +modesty of the man is lovely. His prayer has been all for the people. +Remarkably enough, there is no definite petition in it. He never once +says right out what he so earnestly desires, and the absence of +specific requests might be laid hold of by sceptical critics as an +argument against the genuineness of the prayer. But it is rather a +subtle trait, on which no forger would have been likely to hit. +Sometimes silence is the very result of entire occupation of mind with +a thought. He says nothing about the particular nature of his request, +just because he is so full of it. But he does ask for favour in the +eyes of 'this man,' and that he may be prospered 'this day.' + +So this was his morning prayer on that eventful day, which was to +settle his life's work. The certain days of solitary meditation on his +nation's griefs had led to a resolution. He says nothing about his +long brooding, his slow decision, his conflicts with lower projects of +personal ambition. He 'burns his own smoke,' as we all should learn to +do. But he asks that the capricious and potent will of the king may be +inclined to grant his request. If our morning supplication is 'Prosper +Thy servant this day,' and our purposes are for God's glory, we need +not fear facing anybody. However powerful Artaxerxes was, he was but +'this man,' not God. The phrase does not indicate contempt or +undervaluing of the solid reality of his absolute power over Nehemiah, +but simply expresses the conviction that the king, too, was a subject +of God's, and that his heart was in the hand of Jehovah, to mould as +He would. The consciousness of dependence on God and the habit of +communion with Him give a man a clear sight of the limitations of +earthly dignities, and a modest boldness which is equally remote from +rudeness and servility. + +Thus prepared for whatever might be the issue of that eventful day, +the young cupbearer rose from his knees, drew a long breath, and went +to his work. Well for us if we go to ours, whether it be a day of +crisis or of commonplace, in like fashion! Then we shall have like +defence and like calmness of heart. + + + +THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS + +'It came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, +and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of +heaven.'--NEH. i. 4. + + +Ninety years had passed since the returning exiles had arrived at +Jerusalem. They had encountered many difficulties which had marred +their progress and cooled their enthusiasm. The Temple, indeed, was +rebuilt, but Jerusalem lay in ruins, and its walls remained as they +had been left, by Nebuchadnezzar's siege, some century and a half +before. A little party of pious pilgrims had gone from Persia to the +city, and had come back to Shushan with a sad story of weakness and +despondency, affliction and hostility. One of the travellers had a +brother, a youth named Nehemiah, who was a cup-bearer in the court of +the Persian king. Living in a palace, and surrounded with luxury, his +heart was with his brethren; and the ruins of Jerusalem were dearer to +him than the pomp of Shushan. + +My text tells how the young cupbearer was affected by the tidings, and +how he wept and prayed before God. The accurate dates given in this +book show that this period of brooding contemplation of the miseries +of his brethren lasted for four months. Then he took a great +resolution, flung up brilliant prospects, identified himself with the +afflicted colony, and asked for leave to go and share, and, if it +might be, to redress, the sorrows which had made so deep a dint upon +his heart. + +Now, I think that this vivid description, drawn by himself, of the +emotions excited in Nehemiah by his countrymen's sorrows, which +influenced his whole future, contains some very plain lessons for +Christian people, the observance of which is every day becoming more +imperative by reason of the drift of public opinion, and the new +prominence which is being given to so-called 'social questions.' I +wish to gather up one or two of these lessons for you now. + +I. First, then, note the plain Christian duty of sympathetic +contemplation of surrounding sorrows. Nehemiah might have made a great +many very good excuses for treating lightly the tidings that his +brother had brought him. He might have said: 'Jerusalem is a long way +off. I have my own work to do; it is no part of my business to rebuild +the walls of Jerusalem. I am the King's cupbearer. They went with +their eyes open, and experience has shown that the people who knew +when they were well off, and stayed where they were, were a great deal +wiser.' These were not his excuses. He let the tidings fill his heart, +and burn there. + +Now, the first condition of sympathy is knowledge; and the second is +attending to what we do know. Nehemiah had probably known, in a kind +of vague way, for many a day how things were going in Palestine. +Communications between it and Persia were not so difficult but that +there would come plenty of Government despatches; and a man at +headquarters who had the ear of the monarch, was not likely to be +ignorant of what was going on in that part of his dominions. But there +is all the difference between hearing vague general reports, and +sitting and hearing your own brother tell you what he had seen with +his own eyes. So the impression which had existed before was all +inoperative until it was kindled by attention to the facts which all +the time had been, in some degree, known. + +Now, how many of us are there that know--and don't know--what is going +on round about us in the slums and back courts of this city? How many +of us are there who are habitually ignorant of what we actually know, +because we never, as we say, 'give heed' to it. 'I did not think of +that,' is a very poor excuse about matters concerning which there is +knowledge, whether there is thought or not. And so I want to press +upon all you Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do +know, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark +staring facts around us. + +Why! loads of people at present seem to think that the miseries, and +hideous vices, and sodden immorality, and utter heathenism, which are +found down amongst the foundations of every civic community are as +indispensable to progress as the noise of the wheels of a train is to +its advancement, or as the bilge-water in a wooden ship is to keep its +seams tight. So we prate about 'civilisation,' which means turning men +into cities. If agglomerating people into these great communities, +which makes so awful a feature of modern life, be necessarily attended +by such abominations as we live amongst and never think about, then, +better that there had never been civilisation in such a sense at all. +Every consideration of communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ, +of loyalty to His words, of a true sense of brotherhood and of lower +things--such as self-interest--every consideration demands that +Christian people shall take to their hearts, in a fashion that the +churches have never done yet, 'the condition of England question,' and +shall ask, 'Lord! what wouldst Thou have me to do?' + +I do not care to enter upon controversy raised by recent utterances, +the motive of which may be worthy of admiration, though the expression +cannot be acquitted of the charge of exaggeration, to the effect that +the Christian churches as a whole have been careless of the condition +of the people. It is not true in its absolute sense. I suppose that, +taking the country over, the majority of the members of, at all events +the Nonconformist churches and congregations, are in receipt of weekly +wages or belong to the upper ranks of the working-classes, and that +the lever which has lifted them to these upper ranks has been God's +Gospel. I suppose it will be admitted that the past indifference with +which we are charged belonged to the whole community, and that the new +sense of responsibility which has marked, and blessedly marked, recent +years, is largely owing to political and other causes which have +lately come into operation. I suppose it will not be denied that, to a +very large extent, any efforts which have been made in the past for +the social, intellectual, and moral, and religious elevation of the +people have had their impulse, and to a large extent their support, +both pecuniary and active, from Christian churches and individuals. +All that is perfectly true and, I believe, undeniable. But it is also +true that there remains an enormous, shameful, dead mass of inertness +in our churches, and that, unless we can break up that, the omens are +bad, bad for society, worse for the church. If cholera is raging in +the slums, the suburbs will not escape. If the hovels are infected, +the mansions will have to pay their tribute to the disease. If we do +not recognise the brotherhood of the suffering and the sinful, in any +other fashion--'Then,' as a great teacher told us a generation ago +now, and nobody paid any attention to him, 'then they will begin and +show you that they are your brethren by killing some of you.' And so +self-preservation conjoins with loftier motives to make this +sympathetic observation of the surrounding sorrows the plainest of +Christian duties. + +II. Secondly, such a realisation of the dark facts is indispensable to +all true work for alleviating them. + +There is no way of helping men out by bearing what they bear. No man +will ever lighten a sorrow of which he has not himself felt the +pressure. Jesus Christ's Cross, to which we are ever appealing as the +ground of our redemption and the anchor of our hope, is these, thank +God! But it is more than these. It is the pattern for our lives, and +it lays down, with stringent accuracy and completeness, the enduring +conditions of helping the sinful and the sorrowful. The 'saviours of +society' have still, in lower fashion, to be crucified. Jesus Christ +would never have been 'the Lamb of God that bore away the sins of the +world' unless He Himself had 'taken our infirmities and borne our +sicknesses.' No work of any real use will be done except by those +whose hearts have bled with the feeling of the miseries which they set +themselves to cure. + +Oh! we all want a far fuller realisation of that sympathetic spirit of +the pitying Christ, if we are ever to be of any use in the world, or +to help the miseries of any of our brethren. Such a sorrowful and +participating contemplation of men's sorrows springing from men's sins +will give tenderness to our words, will give patience, will soften our +whole bearing. Help that is flung to people, as you might fling a bone +to a dog, hurts those whom it tries to help, and patronising help is +help that does little good, and lecturing help does little more. You +must take blind beggars by the hand if you are going to make them see; +and you must not be afraid to lay your white, clean fingers upon the +feculent masses of corruption in the leper's glistening whiteness if +you are going to make him whole. Go down in order to lift, and +remember that without sympathy there is no sufficient help, and +without communion with Christ there is no sufficient sympathy. + +III. Thirdly, such realisation of surrounding sorrows should drive to +communion with God. + +Nehemiah wept and mourned, and that was well. But between his weeping +and mourning and his practical work there had to be still another link +of connection. 'He wept and mourned,' and because he was sad he turned +to God, 'and I fasted and prayed certain days.' There he got at once +comfort for his sorrows, his sympathies, and deepening of his +sympathies, and thence he drew inspiration that made him a hero and a +martyr. So all true service for the world must begin with close +communion with God. + +There was a book published several years since which made a great +noise in its little day, and called itself _The Service of Man_, +which service it proposed to substitute for the effete conception of +worship as the service of God. The service of man is, then, best done +when it is the service of God. I suppose nowadays it is +'old-fashioned' and 'narrow,' which is the sin of sins at present, but +I for my part have very little faith in the persistence and wide +operation of any philanthropic motives except the highest--namely, +compassion caught from Jesus Christ. I do not believe that you will +get men, year in and year out, to devote themselves in any +considerable numbers to the service of man unless you appeal to this +highest of motives. You may enlist a little corps--and God forbid that +I should deny such a plain fact--of selecter spirits to do purely +secular alleviative work, with an entire ignoring of Christian +motives, but you will never get the army of workers that is needed to +grapple with the facts of our present condition, unless you touch the +very deepest springs of conduct, and these are to be found in +communion with God. All the rest is surface drainage. Get down to the +love of God, and the love of men therefrom, and you have got an +Artesian well which will bubble up unfailingly. + +And I have not much faith in remedies which ignore religion, and are +brought, without communion with God, as sufficient for the disease. I +do not want to say one word that might seem to depreciate what are +good and valid and noble efforts in their several spheres. There is no +need for antagonism--rather, Christian men are bound by every +consideration to help to the utmost of their power, even in the +incomplete attempts that are made to grapple with social problems. +There is room enough for us all. But sure I am that until grapes and +waterbeds cure smallpox, and a spoonful of cold water puts out +Vesuvius, you will not cure the evils of the body politic by any +lesser means than the application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. + +We hear a great deal to-day about a 'social gospel,' and I am glad of +the conception, and of the favour which it receives. Only let us +remember that the Gospel is social _second_, and individual +_first_. And that if you get the love of God and obedience to +Jesus Christ into a man's heart it will be like putting gas into a +balloon, it will go up, and the man will get out of the slums fast +enough; and he will not be a slave to the vices of the world much +longer, and you will have done more for him and for the wide circle +that he may influence than by any other means. I do not want to +depreciate any helpers, but I say it is the work of the Christian +church to carry to the world the only thing that will make men deeply +and abidingly happy, because it will make them good. + +IV. And so, lastly, such sympathy should be the parent of a noble, +self-sacrificing life. Look at the man in our text. He had the ball at +his feet. He had the _entree_ of a court, and the ear of a king. +Brilliant prospects were opening before him, but his brethren's +sufferings drew him, and with a noble resolution of self-sacrifice, he +shut himself out from the former and went into the wilderness. He is +one of the Scripture characters that never have had due honour--a +hero, a saint, a martyr, a reformer. He did, though in a smaller +sphere, the very same thing that the writer of the Epistle to the +Hebrews magnified with his splendid eloquence, in reference to the +great Lawgiver, 'And chose rather to suffer affliction with the people +of God,' and to turn his back upon the dazzlements of a court, than to +'enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,' whilst his brethren were +suffering. + +Now, dear friends! the letter of the example may be put aside; the +spirit of it must be observed. If Christians are to do the work that +they can do, and that Christ has put them into this world that they +may do, there must be self-sacrifice with it. There is no shirking +that obligation, and there is no discharging our duty without it. You +and I, in our several ways, are as much under the sway of that +absolute law, that 'if a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, +it brings forth fruit,' as ever was Jesus Christ or His Apostles. I +have nothing to say about the manner of the sacrifice. It is no part +of my business to prescribe to you details of duty. It is my business +to insist on the principles which must regulate these, and of these +principles in application to Christian service there is none more +stringent than--'I will not offer unto my God burnt-offering of that +which doth cost me nothing.' + +I am sure that, under God, the great remedy for social evils lies +mainly here, that the bulk of professing Christians shall recognise +and discharge their responsibilities. It is not ministers, city +missionaries, Bible-women, or any other paid people that can do the +work. It is by Christian men and by Christian women, and, if I might +use a very vulgar distinction which has a meaning in the present +connection, very specially by Christian ladies, taking their part in +the work amongst the degraded and the outcasts, that our sorest +difficulties and problems will be solved. If a church does not face +these, well, all I can say is, its light will go out; and the sooner +the better. 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are appointed to +death, and say, Behold! I knew it not, shall not He that weigheth the +hearts consider it, and shall He not render to every man according to +his work?' And, on the other hand, there are no blessings more rich, +select, sweet, and abiding, than are to be found in sharing the sorrow +of the Man of Sorrows, and carrying the message of His pity and His +redemption to an outcast world. 'If thou draw out thy soul to the +hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, the Lord shall satisfy thy +soul; and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and as a spring of water +whose waters fail not.' + + + +'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE' + +'The priests repaired every one over against his house.'--NEH. iii. +28. + + +The condition of our great cities has lately been forced upon public +attention, and all kinds of men have been offering their panaceas. I +am not about to enter upon that discussion, but I am glad to seize the +opportunity of saying one or two things which I think very much need +to be said to individual Christian people about their duty in the +matter. 'Every man over against his house' is the principle I desire +to commend to you as going a long way to solve the problem of how to +sweeten the foul life of our modern cities. + +The story from which my text is taken does not need to detain us long. +Nehemiah and his little band of exiles have come back to a ruined +Jerusalem. Their first care is to provide for their safety, and the +first step is to know the exact extent of their defencelessness. So we +have the account of Nehemiah's midnight ride amongst the ruins of the +broken walls. And then we read of the co-operation of all classes in +the work of reconstruction. 'Many hands made light work.' Men and +women, priests and nobles, goldsmiths, apothecaries, merchants, all +seized trowel or spade, and wheeled and piled. One man puts up a long +length of wall, another can only manage a little bit; another +undertakes the locks, bolts, and bars for the gates. Roughly and +hastily the work is done. The result, of course, is very unlike the +stately structures of Solomon's or of Herod's time, but it is enough +for shelter. We can imagine the sigh of relief with which the workers +looked upon the completed circle of their rude fortifications. + +The principle of division of labour in our text is repeated several +times in this list of the builders. It was a natural one; a man would +work all the better when he saw his own roof mutely appealing to be +defended, and thought of the dear ones that were there. But I take +these words mainly as suggesting some thoughts applicable to the +duties of Christian people in view of the spiritual wants of our great +cities. + +I. I need not do more than say a word or two about the ruins which +need repair. If I dwell rather upon the dark side than on the bright +side of city life I shall not be understood, as forgetting that the +very causes which intensify the evil of a great city quicken the +good--the friction of multitudes and the impetus thereby given to all +kinds of mental activity. Here amongst us there is much that is +admirable and noble--much public spirit, much wise and benevolent +expenditure of thought and toil for the general good, much conjoint +action by men of different parties, earnest antagonism and earnest +co-operation, and a free, bracing intellectual atmosphere, which +stimulates activity. All that is true, though, on the other hand, it +is not good to live always within hearing of the clatter of machinery +and the strife of tongues; and the wisdom that is born of solitary +meditation and quiet thought is less frequently met with in cities +than is the cleverness that is born of intercourse with men, and +newspaper reading. + +But there is a tragic other side to all that, which mostly we make up +our minds to say little about and to forget. The indifference which +has made that ignorance possible, and has in its turn been fed by the +ignorance, is in some respects a more shocking phenomenon than the +vicious life which it has allowed to rot and to reek unheeded. + +Most of us have got so familiarised with the evils that stare us in +the face every time we go out upon the pavements, that we have come to +think of them as being inseparable from our modern life, like the +noise of a carriage wheel from its rotation. And is it so then? Is it +indeed inevitable that within a stone's throw of our churches and +chapels there should be thousands of men and women that have never +been inside a place of worship since they were christened; and have no +more religion than a horse? Must it be that the shining structure of +our modern society, like an old Mexican temple, must be built upon a +layer of living men, flung in for a foundation? Can it not be helped +that there should be streets in our cities into which it is unfit for +a decent woman to go by day alone, and unsafe for a brave man to +venture after nightfall? Must men and women huddle together in dens +where decency is as impossible as it is for swine in a sty? Is it an +indispensable part of our material progress and wonderful civilisation +that vice and crime and utter irreligion and hopeless squalor should +go with it? Can all that bilge water really not be pumped out of the +ship? If it be so, then I venture to say that, to a very large extent, +progress is a delusion, and that the simple life of agricultural +communities is better than this unwholesome aggregation of men. + +The beginning of Nehemiah's work of repair was that sad midnight ride +round the ruined walls. So there is a solemn obligation laid on +Christian people to acquaint themselves with the awful facts, and then +to meditate on them, till sacred, Christ-like compassion, pressing +against the flood-gates of the heart, flings them open, and lets out a +stream of helpful pity and saving deeds. + +II. So much for my first point. My second is--the ruin is to be +repaired mainly by the old Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far be it from me +to pit remedies against each other. The causes are complicated, and +the cure must be as manifold as the causes. For my own part I believe +that, in regard to the condition of the lowest of our outcast +population, drink and lust have done it almost all, and that for all +but an infinitesimal portion of it, intemperance is directly or +indirectly the cause. That has to be fought by the distinct preaching +of abstinence, and by the invoking of legislative restrictions upon +the traffic. Wretched homes have to be dealt with by sanitary reform, +which may require municipal and parliamentary action. Domestic +discomfort has to be dealt with by teaching wives the principles of +domestic economy. The gracious influence of art and music, pictures +and window-gardening, and the like, will lend their aid to soften and +refine. Coffee taverns, baths and wash-houses, workmen's clubs, and +many other agencies are doing real and good work. I for one say, 'God +speed to them all,' and willingly help them so far as I can. + +But, as a Christian man, I believe that I know a thing that if lodged +in a man's heart will do pretty nearly all which they aspire to do; +and whilst I rejoice in the multiplied agencies for social elevation, +I believe that I shall best serve my generation, and I believe that +ninety-nine out of a hundred of you will do so too, by trying to get +men to love and fear Jesus Christ the Saviour. If you can get His love +into a man's heart, that will produce new tastes and new inclinations, +which will reform, and sweeten, and purify faster than anything else +does. + +They tell us that Nonconformist ministers are never seen in the slums; +well, that is a libel! But I should like to ask why it is that the +Roman Catholic priest is seen there more than the Nonconformist +minister? Because the one man's congregation is there, and the other +man's is not--which, being translated into other words, is this: the +religion of Jesus Christ mostly keeps people out of the slums, and +certainly it will take a man out of them if once it gets into his +heart, more certainly and quickly than anything else will. + +So, dear friends! if we have in our hearts and in our hands this great +message of God's love, we have in our possession the germ out of which +all things that are lovely and of good report will grow. It will +purify, elevate, and sweeten society, because it will make individuals +pure and strong, and homes holy and happy. We do not need to draw +comparisons between this and other means of reparation, and still less +to feel any antagonism to them or the benevolent men who work them; +but we should fix it in our minds that the principles of Christ's +Gospel adhered to by individuals, and therefore by communities, would +have rendered such a condition of things impossible, and that the true +repair of the ruin wrought by evil and ignorance, in the single soul, +in the family, the city, the nation, the world, is to be found in +building anew on the One Foundation which God has laid, even Jesus +Christ, the Living Stone, whose pure life passes into all that are +grounded and founded on Him. + +III. Lastly, this remedy is to be applied by the individual action of +Christian men and women on the people nearest them. + +'The priests repaired every one over against his house.' We are always +tempted, in the face of large disasters, to look for heroic and large +remedies, and to invoke corporate action of some sort, which is a +great deal easier for most of us than the personal effort that is +required. When a great scandal and danger like this of the condition +of the lower layers of our civic population is presented before men, +for one man that says, 'What can _I_ do?' there are twenty who +say, 'Somebody should do something. Government should do something. +The Corporation should do something. This, that, or the other +aggregate of men should do something.' And the individual calmly and +comfortably slips his neck out of the collar and leaves it on the +shoulders of these abstractions. + +As I have said, there are plenty of things that need to be done by +these somebodies. But what they do (they will be a long time in doing +it), when they do get to work will only touch the fringe of the +question, and the substance and the centre of it you can set to work +upon this very day if you like, and not wait for anybody either to set +you the example or to show you the way. + +If you want to do people good you can; but you must pay the price for +it. That price is personal sacrifice and effort. The example of Jesus +Christ is the all-instructive one in the case. People talk about Him +being their Pattern, but they often forget that whatever more there +was in Christ's Cross and Passion there was this in it:--the +exemplification for all time of the one law by which any reformation +can be wrought on men--that a sympathising man shall give himself to +do it, and that by personal influence alone men will be drawn and won +from out of the darkness and filth. A loving heart and a sympathetic +word, the exhibition of a Christian life and conduct, the fact of +going down into the midst of evil and trying to lift men out of it, +are the old-fashioned and only magnets by which men are drawn to purer +and higher life. That is God's way of saving the world--by the action +of single souls on single souls. Masses of men can neither save nor be +saved. Not in groups, but one by one, particle by particle, soul by +soul, Christ draws men to Himself, and He does His work in the world +through single souls on fire with His love, and tender with pity +learned of Him. + +So, dear friends! do not think that any organisation, any corporate +activity, any substitution of vicarious service, will solve the +problem. It will not. There is only one way of doing it, the old way +that we must tread if we are going to do anything for God and our +fellows: 'The priests repaired every one over against his house.' + +Let me briefly point out some very plain and obvious things which bear +upon this matter of individual action. Let me remind you that if you +are a Christian man you have in your possession the thing which will +cure the world's woe, and possession involves responsibility. What +would you think of a man that had a specific for some pestilence that +was raging in a city, and was contented to keep it for his own use, or +at most for his family's use, when his brethren were dying by the +thousand, and their corpses polluting the air? And what shall we say +of men and women who call themselves Christians, who have some faith +in that great Lord and His mighty sacrifice; who know that the men +they meet with every day of their lives are dying for want of it, and +who yet themselves do absolutely nothing to spread His name, and to +heal men's hurts? What shall we say? God forbid that we should say +they are not Christians! but God forbid that anybody should flatter +them with the notion that they are anything but most inconsistent +Christians! + +Still further, need I remind you that if we have found anything in +Jesus Christ which has been peace and rest for ourselves, Christ has +thereby called us to this work? He has found and saved us, not only +for our own personal good. That, of course, is the prime purpose of +our salvation, but not its exclusive purpose. He has saved us, too, in +order that the Word may be spread through us to those beyond. 'The +Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three +measures of meal until the whole was leavened,' and every little bit +of the dough, as it received into itself the leaven, and was +transformed, became a medium for transmitting the transformation to +the next particle beyond it and so the whole was at last permeated by +the power. We get the grace for ourselves that we may pass it on; and +as the Apostle says: 'God hath shined into our hearts that we might +give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of +Jesus Christ.' + +And you can do it, you Christian men and women, every one of you, and +preach Him to somebody. The possession of His love gives the +commission; ay! and it gives the power. There is nothing so mighty as +the confession of personal experience. Do not you think that when that +first of Christian converts, and first of Christian preachers went to +his brother, all full of what he had discovered, his simple saying, +'We have found the Messias,' was a better sermon than a far more +elaborate proclamation would have been? My brother! if you have found +Him, you can say so; and if you can say so, and your character and +your life confirm the words of your lips, you will have done more to +spread His name than much eloquence and many an orator. All can preach +who can say, 'We have found the Christ.' + +The last word I have to say is this: there is no other body that can +do it but you. They say:--'What an awful thing it is that there are no +churches or chapels in these outcast districts!' If there were they +would be what the churches and chapels are now--half empty. Bricks and +mortar built up into ecclesiastical forms are not the way to +evangelise this or any other country. It is a very easy thing to build +churches and chapels. It is not such an easy thing--I believe it is an +impossible thing (and that the sooner the Christian church gives up +the attempt the better)--to get the godless classes into any church or +chapel. Conducted on the principles upon which churches and chapels +must needs at present be conducted, they are for another class +altogether; and we had better recognise it, because then we shall feel +that no multiplication of buildings like this in which we now are, for +instance, is any direct contribution to the evangelisation of the +waste spots of the country, except in so far as from a centre like +this there ought to go out much influence which will originate direct +missionary action in places and fashions adapted to the outlying +community. + +Professional work is not what we want. Any man, be he minister, +clergyman, Bible-reader, city missionary, who goes among our godless +population with the suspicion of pay about him is the weaker for that. +What is needed besides is that ladies and gentlemen that are a little +higher up in the social scale than these poor creatures, should go to +them themselves; and excavate and work. Preach, if you like, in the +technical sense; have meetings, I suppose, necessarily; but the +personal contact is the thing, the familiar talk, the simple +exhibition of a loving Christian heart, and the unconventional +proclamation in free conversation of the broad message of the love of +God in Jesus Christ. Why, if all the people in this chapel who can do +that would do it, and keep on doing it, who can tell what an influence +would come from some hundreds of new workers for Christ? And why +should the existence of a church in which the workers are as numerous +as the Christians be an Utopian dream? It is simply the dream that +perhaps a church might be conceived to exist, all the members of which +had found out their plainest, most imperative duty, and were really +trying to do it. + +No carelessness, no indolence, no plea of timidity or business shift +the obligation from your shoulders if you are a Christian. It is your +business, and no paid agents can represent you. You cannot buy +yourselves substitutes in Christ's army, as they used to do in the +militia, by a guinea subscription. We are thankful for the money, +because there are kinds of work to be done that unpaid effort will not +do. But men ask for your money; Jesus Christ asks for yourself, for +your work, and will not let you off as having done your duty because +you have paid your subscription. No doubt there are some of you who, +from various circumstances, cannot yourselves do work amongst the +masses of the outcast population. Well, but you have got people by +your side whom you can help. The question which I wish to ask of my +Christian brethren and sisters now is this: Is there a man, woman, or +child living to whom you ever spoke a word about Jesus Christ? Is +there? If not, do not you think it is time that you began? + +There are people in your houses, people that sit by you in your +counting-house, on your college benches, who work by your side in mill +or factory or warehouse, who cross your path in a hundred ways, and +God has given them to you that you may bring them to Him. Do you set +yourself, dear brother, to work and try to bring them. Oh! if you +lived nearer Jesus Christ you would catch the sacred fire from Him; +and like a bit of cold iron lying beside a magnet, touching Him, you +would yourselves become magnetic and draw men out of their evil and up +to God. + +Let me commend to you the old pattern: 'The priests repaired every one +over against his house'; and beseech you to take the trowel and spade, +or anything that comes handiest, and build, in the bit nearest you, +some living stones on the true Foundation. + + + +DISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE + +'Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against +them day and night, because of them. 10. And Judah said, The strength +of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so +that we are not able to build the wall. 11. And our adversaries said, +They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among +them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 12. And it came to +pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us +ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be +upon you. 13. Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and +on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with +their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14. And I looked and rose +up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of +the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is +great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your +daughters, your wives, and your houses. 15. And it came to pass, when +our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their +counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one +unto his work. 16. And it came to pass from that time forth, that the +half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them +held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; +and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17. They which +builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that +laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with +the other hand held a weapon. 18. For the builders, every one had his +sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the +trumpet was by me. 19. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, +and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are +separated upon the wall, one far from another. 20. In what place +therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: +our God shall fight for us. 21. So we laboured in the work: and half +of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars +appeared.'--Neh. iv. 9-21. + + +Common hatred has a wonderful power of uniting former foes. +Samaritans, wild Arabs of the desert, Ammonites, and inhabitants of +Ashdod in the Philistine plain would have been brought together for no +noble work, but mischief and malice fused them for a time into one. +God's work is attacked from all sides. Herod and Pilate can shake +hands over their joint antagonism. + +This passage paints vividly the discouragements which are apt to dog +all good work, and the courage which refuses to be discouraged, and +conquers by bold persistence. The first verse (v. 9) may stand as a +summary of the whole, though it refers to the preceding, not to the +following, verses. The true way to meet opposition is twofold--prayer +and prudent watchfulness. 'Pray to God, and keep your powder dry,' is +not a bad compendium of the duty of a Christian soldier. The union of +appeal to God with the full use of common sense, watchfulness, and +prudence, would dissipate many hindrances to successful service. + +I. In verses 10-12 Nehemiah tells, in his simple way, of the +difficulties from three several quarters which threatened to stop his +work. He had trouble from the workmen, from the enemies, and from the +mass of Jews not resident in Jerusalem. The enthusiasm of the builders +had cooled, and the magnitude of their task began to frighten them. +Verse 6 tells us that the wall was completed 'unto the half of it'; +that is, to one-half the height, and half-way through is just the +critical time in all protracted work. The fervour of beginning has +passed; the animation from seeing the end at hand has not sprung up. +There is a dreary stretch in the centre, where it takes much faith and +self-command to plod on unfainting. Half-way to Australia from England +is the region of sickening calms. It is easier to work in the fresh +morning or in the cool evening than at midday. So in every great +movement there are short-winded people who sit down and pant very +soon, and their prudence croaks out undeniable facts. No doubt +strength does become exhausted; no doubt there is 'much rubbish' +(literally 'dust'). What then? The conclusion drawn is not so +unquestionable as the premises. 'We cannot build the wall' Why not? +Have you not built half of it? And was not the first half more +embarrassed by rubbish than the second will be? + +It is a great piece of Christian duty to recognise difficulties, and +not be cowed by them. The true inference from the facts would have +been, 'so that we must put all our strength into the work, and trust +in our God to help us.' We may not be responsible for discouragements +suggesting themselves, but we are responsible for letting them become +dissuasives. Our one question should be, Has God appointed the work? +If so, it has to be done, however little our strength, and however +mountainous the accumulations of rubbish. + +The second part in the trio was taken by the enemies--Sanballat and +Tobiah and the rest. They laid their plans for a sudden swoop down on +Jerusalem, and calculated that, if they could surprise the builders at +their work, they would have no weapons to show fight with, and so +would be easily despatched. Killing the builders was but a means; the +desired end is significantly put last (v. 11), as being the stopping +of the abhorred work. But killing the workmen does not cause the work +to cease when it is God's work, as the history of the Church in all +ages shows. Conspirators should hold their tongues. It was not a +hopeful way of beginning an attack, of which the essence was secrecy +and suddenness, to talk about it. 'A bird of the air carries the +matter.' + +The third voice is that of the Jews in other parts of the land, and +especially those living on the borders of Samaria, next door to +Sanballat. Verse 12 is probably best taken as in the Revised Version, +which makes 'Ye must return to us' the imperative and often-repeated +summons from these to the contingents from their respective places of +abode, who had gone up to Jerusalem to help in building. Alarms of +invasion made the scattered villagers wish to have all their men +capable of bearing arms back again to defend their own homes. It was a +most natural demand, but in this case, as so often, audacity is truest +prudence; and in all high causes there come times when men have to +trust their homes and dear ones to God's protection. The necessity is +heartrending, and we may well pray that we may not be exposed to it; +but if it clearly arises, a devout man can have no doubt of his duty. +How many American citizens had to face it in the great Civil War! And +how character is ennobled by even so severe a sacrifice! + +II. The calm heroism of Nehemiah and his wise action in the emergency +are told in verses 13-15. He made a demonstration in force, which at +once showed that the scheme of a surprise was blown to pieces. It is +difficult to make out the exact localities in which he planted his +men. 'The lower places behind the wall' probably means the points at +which the new fortifications were lowest, which would be the most +exposed to assault; and the 'higher places' (Auth. Ver.), or 'open +places' (Rev. Ver.), describes the same places from another point of +view. They afforded room for posting troops because they were without +buildings. At any rate, the walls were manned, and the enemy would +have to deal, not with unarmed labourers, but with prepared soldiers. +The work was stopped, and trowel and spade exchanged for sword and +spear. 'And I looked,' says Nehemiah. His careful eye travelled over +the lines, and, seeing all in order, he cheered the little army with +ringing words. He had prayed (Neh. i. 5) to 'the great and terrible +God,' and now he bids his men remember Him, and thence draw strength +and courage. The only real antagonist of fear is faith. If we can +grasp God, we shall not dread Sanballat and his crew. Unless we do, +the world is full of dangers which it is not folly to fear. + +Note, too, that the people are animated for the fight by reminding +them of the dear ones whose lives and honour hung on the issue. +Nothing is said about fighting for God and His Temple and city, but +the motives adduced are not less sacred. Family love is God's best of +earthly gifts, and, though it is sometimes duty to 'forget thine own +people, and thy father's house,' as we have just seen, nothing short +of these highest obligations can supersede the sweet one of straining +every nerve for the well-being of dear ones in the hallowed circle of +home. + +So the plan of a sudden rush came to nothing. It does not appear that +the enemy was in sight; but the news of the demonstration soon reached +them, and was effectual. Prompt preparation against possible dangers +is often the means of turning them aside. Watchfulness is +indispensable to vigour of Christian character and efficiency of work. +Suspicion is hateful and weakening; but a man who tries to serve God +in such a world as this had need to be like the living creatures in +the Revelation, having 'eyes all over.' 'Blessed is the man that [in +that sense] feareth always.' + +The upshot of the alarm is very beautifully told: 'We returned all of +us to the wall, every one unto his work.' No time was wasted in +jubilation. The work was the main thing, and the moment the +interruption was ended, back to it they all went. It is a fine +illustration of persistent discharge of duty, and of that most +valuable quality, the ability and inclination to keep up the main +purpose of a life continuous through interruptions, like a stream of +sweet water running through a bog. + +III. The remainder of the passage tells us of the standing +arrangements made in consequence of the alarm (vs. 16-21). First we +hear what Nehemiah did with his own special 'servants,' whether these +were slaves who had accompanied him from Shushan (as Stanley +supposes), or his body-guard as a Persian official. He divided them +into two parts--one to work, one to watch. But he did not carry out +this plan with the mass of the people, probably because it would have +too largely diminished the number of builders. So he armed them all. +The labourers who carried stones, mortar, and the like, could do their +work after a fashion with one hand, and so they had a weapon in the +other. If they worked in pairs, that would be all the easier. The +actual builders needed both hands, and so they had swords stuck in +their girdles. No doubt such arrangements hindered progress, but they +were necessary. The lesson often drawn from them is no doubt true, +that God's workers must be prepared for warfare as well as building. +There have been epochs in which that necessity was realised in a very +sad manner; and the Church on earth will always have to be the Church +militant. But it is well to remember that building is the end, and +fighting is but the means. The trowel, not the sword, is the natural +instrument. Controversy is second best--a necessity, no doubt, but an +unwelcome one, and only permissible as a subsidiary help to doing the +true work, rearing the walls of the city of God. + +'He that soundeth the trumpet was by me.' The gallant leader was +everywhere, animating by his presence. He meant to be in the thick of +the fight, if it should come. And so he kept the trumpeter by his +side, and gave orders that when he sounded all should hurry to the +place; for there the enemy would be, and Nehemiah would be where they +were. 'The work is great and large, and we are separated ... one far +from another.' How naturally the words lend themselves to the old +lesson so often drawn from them! God's servants are widely parted, by +distance, by time, and, alas! by less justifiable causes. Unless they +draw together they will be overwhelmed, taken in detail, and crushed. +They must rally to help each other against the common foe. + +Thank God! the longing for manifest Christian unity is deeper to-day +than ever it was. But much remains to be done before it is adequately +fulfilled in the recognition of the common bond of brotherhood, which +binds us all in one family, if we have one Father. English and +American Christians are bound to seek the tightening of the bonds +between them and to set themselves against politicians who may seek to +keep apart those who both in the flesh and in the spirit are brothers. +All Christians have one great Captain; and He will be in the forefront +of every battle. His clear trumpet-call should gather all His servants +to His side. + +The closing verse tells again how Nehemiah's immediate dependants +divided work and watching, and adds to the picture the continuousness +of their toil from the first grey of morning till darkness showed the +stars and ended another day of toil. Happy they who thus 'from morn +till noon, from noon till dewy eve,' labour in the work of the Lord! +For them, every new morning will dawn with new strength, and every +evening be calm with the consciousness of 'something attempted, +something done.' + + + +AN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST + +'... So did not I, because of the fear of God.'--Neh. v. 15. + + +I do not suppose that the ordinary Bible-reader knows very much about +Nehemiah. He is one of the neglected great men of Scripture. He was no +prophet, he had no glowing words, he had no lofty visions, he had no +special commission, he did not live in the heroic age. There was a +certain harshness and dryness; a tendency towards what, when it was +more fully developed, became Pharisaism, in the man, which somewhat +covers the essential nobleness of his character. But he was brave, +cautious, circumspect, disinterested; and he had Jerusalem in his +heart. + +The words that I have read are a little fragment of his autobiography +which deal with a prosaic enough matter, but carry in them large +principles. When he was appointed governor of the little colony of +returned exiles in Palestine, he found that his predecessors, like +Turkish pashas and Chinese mandarins to-day, had been in the habit of +'squeezing' the people of their Government, and that they had +requisitioned sufficient supplies of provisions to keep the governor's +table well spread. It was the custom. Nobody would have wondered if +Nehemiah had conformed to it; but he felt that he must have his hands +clean. Why did he not do what everybody else had done in like +circumstances? His answer is beautifully simple: 'Because of the fear +of God.' His religion went down into the little duties of common life, +and imposed upon him a standard far above the maxims that were +prevalent round about him. And so, if you will take these words, and +disengage them from the small matter concerning which they were +originally spoken, I think you will find in them thoughts as to the +attitude which we should take to prevalent practices, the motive which +should impel us to a sturdy non-compliance, and the power which will +enable us to walk on a solitary road. 'So did not I, because of the +fear of God.' Now, then, these are my three points:-- + +I. The attitude to prevalent practices. + +Nehemiah would not conform. And unless you can say 'No!' and do it +very often, your life will be shattered from the beginning. That +non-compliance with customary maxims and practices is the beginning, +or, at least, one of the foundation-stones, of all nobleness and +strength, of all blessedness and power. Of course it is utterly +impossible for a man to denude himself of the influences that are +brought to bear upon him by the circumstances in which he lives, and +the trend of opinion, and the maxims and practices of the world, in +the corner, and at the time, in which his lot is cast. But, on the +other hand, be sure of this, that unless you are in a very deep and +not at all a technical sense of the word, 'Nonconformists,' you will +come to no good. None! It is so easy to do as others do, partly +because of laziness, partly because of cowardice, partly because of +the instinctive imitation which is in us all. Men are gregarious. One +great teacher has drawn an illustration from a flock of sheep, and +says that if we hold up a stick, and the first of the flock jumps over +it, and then if we take away the stick, all the rest of the flock will +jump when they come to the point where the first did so. A great many +of us adopt our creeds and opinions, and shape our lives for no better +reason than because people round us are thinking in a certain +direction, and living in a certain way. It saves a great deal of +trouble, and it gratifies a certain strange instinct that is in us +all, and it avoids dangers and conflicts that we should, when we are +at Rome, do as the Romans do. 'So did not I, because of the fear of +God.' + +Now, brethren! I ask you to take this plain principle of the necessity +of non-compliance (which I suppose I do not need to do much to +establish, because, theoretically, we most of us admit it), and apply +it all round the circumference of your lives. Apply it to your +opinions. There is no tyranny like the tyranny of a majority in a +democratic country like ours. It is quite as harsh as the tyranny of +the old-fashioned despots. Unless you resolve steadfastly to see with +your own eyes, to use your own brains, to stand on your own feet, to +be a voice and not an echo, you will be helplessly enslaved by the +fashion of the hour, and the opinions that prevail. + +'What everybody says'--perhaps--'is true.' What most people say, at +any given time, is very likely to be false. Truth has always lived +with minorities, so do not let the current of widespread opinion sweep +you away, but try to have a mind of your own, and not to be +brow-beaten or overborne because the majority of the people round +about you are giving utterance, and it may be unmeasured utterance, to +any opinions. + +Now, there is one direction in which I wish to urge that +especially--and now I speak mainly to the young men in my +congregation--and that is, in regard to the attitude that so many +amongst us are taking to Christian truth. If you have honestly thought +out the subject to the best of your ability, and have come to +conclusions diverse from those which men like me hold dearer than +their lives, that is another matter. But I know that very widely there +is spread to-day the fashion of unbelief. So many influential men, +leaders of opinion, teachers and preachers, are giving up the +old-fashioned Evangelical faith, that it takes a strong man to say +that he sticks by it. It is a poor reason to give for your attitude, +that unbelief is in the air, and nobody believes those old doctrines +now. That may be. There are currents of opinion that are transitory, +and that is one of them, depend upon it. But at all events do not be +fooled out of your faith, as some of you are tending to be, for no +better reason than because other people have given it up. An iceberg +lowers the temperature all round it, and the iceberg of unbelief is +amongst us to-day, and it has chilled a great many people who could +not tell why they have lost the fervour of their faith. + +On the other hand, let me remind you that a mere traditional religion, +which is only orthodox because other people are so, and has not +verified its beliefs by personal experience, is quite as deleterious +as an imitative unbelief. Doubtless, I speak to some who plume +themselves on 'never having been affected by these currents of popular +opinion,' but whose unblemished and unquestioned orthodoxy has no more +vitality in it than the other people's heterodoxy. The one man has +said, 'What is everywhere always, and by all believed, I believe'; and +the other man has said, 'What the select spirits of this day +disbelieve, I disbelieve,' and the belief of one and the unbelief of +the other are equally worthless, and really identical. + +But it is not only, nor mainly, in reference to opinion that I would +urge upon you this nonconformity with prevalent practices as the +measure of most that is noble in us. I dare not talk to you as if I +knew much about the details of Manchester commercial life, but I can +say this much, that it is no excuse for shady practices in your trade +to say, 'It is the custom of the trade, and everybody does it.' +Nehemiah might have said: 'There never was a governor yet but took his +forty shekels a day's worth'--about L. 1,800 of our money--'of +provisions from these poor people, and I am not going to give it up +because of a scruple. It is the custom, and because it is the custom I +can do it.' I am not going into details. It is commonly understood +that preachers know nothing about business; that may be true, or it +may not. But this, I am sure, is a word in season for some of my +friends this evening--do not hide behind the trade. Come out into the +open, and deal with the questions of morality involved in your +commercial life, as you will have to deal with them hereafter, by +yourself. Never mind about other people. 'Oh,' but you say, 'that +involves loss.' Very likely! Nehemiah was a poorer man because he fed +all these one hundred and fifty Jews at his table, but he did not mind +that. It may involve loss, but you will keep God, and that is gain. + +Turn this searchlight in another direction. I see a number of young +people in my congregation at this moment, young men who are perhaps +just beginning their career in this city, and who possibly have been +startled when they heard the kind of talk that was going on at the +next desk, or from the man that sits beside them on the benches at +College. Do not be tempted to follow that multitude to do evil. Unless +you are prepared to say 'No!' to a great deal that will be pushed into +your face in this great city, as sure as you are living you will make +shipwreck of your lives. Do you think that in the forty years and more +that I have stood here I have not seen successive generations of young +men come into Manchester? I could people many of these pews with the +faces of such, who came here buoyant, full of hope, full of high +resolves, and with a mother's benediction hanging over their heads, +and who got into a bad set, and had not the strength to say 'No,' and +they went down and down and down, and then presently somebody asked, +'Where is so-and-so?' 'Oh! his health broke down, and he has gone home +to die.' 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth'--and he +made shipwreck of prospects and of life, because he did not pull +himself together when the temptation came, and say, 'So did not I, +because of the fear of God.' + +II. Now let me ask you to turn with me to the second thought that my +text suggests to me; that is, + +The motive that impels to this sturdy non-compliance. + +Nehemiah puts it in Old Testament phraseology, 'the fear of God'; the +New Testament equivalent is 'the love of Christ.' And if you want to +take the power and the life out of both phrases, in order to find a +modern conventional equivalent, you will say 'religion.' I prefer the +old-fashioned language. 'The love of Christ' impels to this +non-compliance. Now, my point is this, that Jesus Christ requires from +each of us that we shall abstain, restrict ourselves, refuse to do a +great many things that are being done round us. + +I need not remind you of how continually He spoke about taking up the +cross. I need not do more than just remind you of His parable of the +two ways, but ask you, whilst you think of it, to note that all the +characteristics of each of the ways which He sets forth are given by +Him as reasons for refusing the one and walking in the other. For +example, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate, for strait is the +gate'--that is a reason for going in; 'and narrow is the way'--that is +a reason for going in; 'and few there be that find it'--that is a +reason for going in. 'Wide is the gate'--that is a reason for stopping +out; 'and broad is the way'--that is a reason for stopping out; 'and +many there be that go in thereat'--that is a reason for stopping out. +Is not that what I said, that the minority is generally right and the +majority wrong? Just because there are so many people on the path, +suspect it, and expect that the path with fewer travellers is probably +the better and the higher. + +But to pass from that, what did Jesus Christ mean by His continual +contrast between His disciples and the world? What did He mean by 'the +world'? This fair universe, with all its possibilities of help and +blessing, and all its educational influences? By no means. He meant by +'the world' the aggregate of things and men considered as separate +from God. And when He applied the term to men only, He meant by it +very much what we mean when we talk about society. Society is not +organised on Christian principles; we all know that, and until it is, +if a man is going to be a Christian he must not conform to the world. +'Know ye not that whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of +God.' + +I would press upon you, dear friends! that our Christianity is nothing +unless it leads us to a standard, and a course of conduct in +conformity with that standard, which will be in diametrical opposition +to a great deal of what is patted on the back, and petted and praised +by society. Now, there is an easy-going kind of Christianity which +does not recognise that, and which is in great favour with many people +to-day, and is called 'liberality' and 'breadth,' and 'conciliating +and commending Christianity to outsiders,' and I know not what +besides. Well, Christ's words seem to me to come down like a hammer +upon that sort of thing. Depend upon it, 'the world'--I mean by that +the aggregate of godless men organised as they are in society--does +not think much of these trimmers. It may dislike an out-and-out +Christian, but it knows him when it sees him, and it has a kind of +hostile respect for him which the other people will never get. You +remember the story of the man that was seeking for a coachman, and +whose question to each applicant was, 'How near can you drive to the +edge of a precipice?' He took the man who said: 'I would keep away +from it as far as I could.' And the so-called Christian people that +seem to be bent on showing how much their lives can be made to +assimilate to the lives of men that have no sympathy with their +creeds, are like the rash Jehus that tried to go as near the edge as +they could. But the consistent Christian will keep as far away from it +as he can. There are some of us who seem as if we were most anxious to +show that we, whose creed is absolutely inconsistent with the world's +practices, can live lives which are all but identical with these +practices. Jesus Christ says, through the lips of His Apostle, what He +often said in other language by His own lips when He was here on +earth: 'Be ye not conformed to the world.' + +Surely such a command as that, just because it involves difficulty, +self-restraint, self-denial, and sometimes self-crucifixion, ought to +appeal, and does appeal, to all that is noble in humanity, in a +fashion that that smooth, easy-going gospel of living on the level of +the people round us never can do. For remember that Christ's +commandment not to be conformed to the world is the consequence of His +commandment to be conformed to Himself. 'Thus did not I' comes second; +'This one thing I do' comes first. You will misunderstand the whole +genius of the Gospel if you suppose that, as a law of life, it is +perpetually pulling men short up, and saying: Don't, don't, don't! +There is a Christianity of that sort which is mainly prohibition and +restriction, but it is not Christ's Christianity. He begins by +enjoining: 'This do in remembrance of Me,' and the man that has +accepted that commandment must necessarily say, as he looks out on the +world, and its practices: 'So did not I, because of the fear of God.' + +III. And now one last word--my text not only suggests the motive which +impels to this non-compliance, but also the power which enables us to +exercise it. + +'The fear of God,' or, taking the New Testament equivalent, 'the love +of Christ,' makes it possible for a man, with all his weakness and +dependence on surroundings, with all his instinctive desire to be like +the folk that are near him, to take that brave attitude, and to refuse +to be one of the crowd that runs after evil and lies. I have no time +to dwell upon this aspect of my subject, as I should be glad to have +done. Let me sum up in a sentence or two what I would have said. +Christ will enable you to take this necessary attitude because, in +Himself He gives you the Example which it is always safe to follow. +The instinct of imitation is planted in us for a good end, and because +it is in us, examples of nobility appeal to us. And because it is in +us Jesus Christ has lived the life that it is possible for, and +therefore incumbent on, us to live. It is safe to imitate Him, and it +is easy not to do as men do, if once our main idea is to do as Christ +did. + +He makes it possible for us, because He gives the strongest possible +motive for the life that He prescribes. As the Apostle puts it, 'Ye +are bought with a price, be not the servants of men.' There is nothing +that will so deliver us from the tyranny of majorities, and of what we +call general opinion and ordinary custom, as to feel that we belong to +Him because He died for us. Men become very insignificant when Christ +speaks, and the charter of our freedom from them lies in our +redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ. + +Jesus Christ being our Redeemer is our Judge, and moment by moment He +is estimating our conduct, and judging our actions as they are done. +'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you or of man's +judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.' Never mind what the people +round you say; you do not take your orders from them, and you do not +answer to them. Like some official abroad, appointed by the Crown, you +do not report to the local authorities; you report to headquarters, +and what He thinks about you is the only important thing. So 'the fear +of man which bringeth a snare' dwindles down into very minute +dimensions when we think of the Pattern, the Redeemer and the Judge to +whom we give account. + +And so, dear friends! if we will only open our hearts, by quiet humble +faith, for the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives, then we shall be +able to resist, to refuse compliance, to stand firm, though alone. The +servant of Christ is the master of all men. 'All things are yours, +whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas--all are yours, and ye are +Christ's.' + + + +READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY + +'And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the +street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the +scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had +commanded to Israel. 2. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the +congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with +understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3. And he read +therein before the street that was before the water gate, from the +morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that +could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto +the book of the law. 4. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of +wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood +Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and +Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand Pedaiah, and +Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and +Meshullam. 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; +(for he was above all the people); and when he opened it, all the +people stood up: 6. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all +the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they +bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the +ground. 7. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jemin, Akkub, +Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, +Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and +the people stood in their place. 8. So they read in the book in the +law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to +understand the reading. 9. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirashatha, and +Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, +said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; +mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the +words of the law. 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the +fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing +is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; +for the joy of the Lord is your strength. 11. So the Levites stilled +all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither +be ye grieved. 12. And all the people went their way to eat, and to +drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had +understood the words that were declared unto them.'--Neh. viii. 1-12. + + +The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, which +was the sixth month. The events recorded in this passage took place on +the first day of the seventh month. The year is not given, but the +natural inference is that it was the same as that of the finishing of +the wall; namely, the twentieth of Artaxerxes. If so, the completion +of the fortifications to which Nehemiah had set himself, was +immediately followed by this reading of the law, in which Ezra takes +the lead. The two men stand in a similar relative position to that of +Zerubbabel and Joshua, the one representing the civil and the other +the religious authority. + +According to Ezra vii. 9, Ezra had gone to Jerusalem about thirteen +years before Nehemiah, and had had a weary time of fighting against +the corruptions which had crept in among the returned captives. The +arrival of Nehemiah would be hailed as bringing fresh, young +enthusiasm, none the less welcome and powerful because it had the +king's authority entrusted to it. Evidently the two men thoroughly +understood one another, and pulled together heartily. We heard nothing +about Ezra while the wall was being built. But now he is the principal +figure, and Nehemiah is barely mentioned. The reasons for Ezra's +taking the prominent part in the reading of the law are given in the +two titles by which he is designated in two successive verses (vers. +1,2). He was 'the scribe' and also 'the priest,' and in both +capacities was the natural person for such a work. + +The seventh month was the festival month of the year, its first day +being that of the Feast of trumpets, and the great Feast of +tabernacles as well as the solemn day of atonement occurring in it. +Possibly, the prospect of the coming of the times for these +celebrations may have led to the people's wish to hear the law, that +they might duly observe the appointed ceremonial. At all events, the +first thing to note is that it was in consequence of the people's wish +that the law was read in their hearing. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah +originated the gathering together. They obeyed a popular impulse which +they had not created. We must not, indeed, give the multitude credit +for much more than the wish to have their ceremonial right. But there +was at least that wish, and possibly something deeper and more +spiritual. The walls were completed; but the true defence of Israel +was in God, and the condition of His defending was Israel's obedience +to His law. The people were, in some measure, beginning to realise +that condition with new clearness, in consequence of the new fervour +which Nehemiah had brought. + +It is singular that, during his thirteen years of residence, Ezra is +not recorded to have promulgated the law, though it lay at the basis +of the drastic reforms which he was able to carry through. Probably he +had not been silent, but the solemn public recitation of the law was +felt to be appropriate on occasion of completing the wall. Whether the +people had heard it before, or, as seems implied, it was strange to +them, their desire to hear it may stand as a pattern for us of that +earnest wish to know God's will which is never cherished in vain. He +who does not intend to obey does not wish to know the law. If we have +no longing to know what the will of the Lord is, we may be very sure +that we prefer our own to His. If we desire to know it, we shall +desire to understand the Book which contains so much of it. Any true +religion in the heart will make us eager to perceive, and willing to +be guided by, the will of God, revealed mainly in Scripture, in the +Person, works, and words of Jesus, and also in waiting hearts by the +Spirit, and in those things which the world calls 'circumstances' and +faith names 'providences.' + +II. Verses 2-8 appear to tell the same incidents twice over--first, +more generally in verses 2 and 8, and then more minutely. Such +expanded repetition is characteristic of the Old Testament historical +style. It is somewhat difficult to make sure of the real +circumstances. Clearly enough there was a solemn assembly of men, +women, and children in a great open space outside one of the gates, +and there, from dawn till noon, the law was read and explained. But +whether Ezra read it all, while the Levites named in verse 7 explained +or paraphrased or translated it, or whether they all read in turns, or +whether there were a number of groups, each of which had a teacher who +both read and expounded, is hard to determine. At all events, Ezra was +the principal figure, and began the reading. + +It was a picturesque scene. The sun, rising over the slopes of Olivet, +would fall on the gathered crowd, if the water-gate was, as is +probable, on the east or south-east side of the city. Beneath the +fresh fortifications probably, which would act as a sounding-board for +the reader, was set up a scaffold high above the crowd, large enough +to hold Ezra and thirteen supporters--principal men, no doubt--seven +on one side of him and six on the other. Probably a name has dropped +out, and the numbers were equal. There, in the morning light, with the +new walls for a background, stood Ezra on his rostrum, and amid +reverent silence, lifted high the sacred roll. A common impulse swayed +the crowd, and brought them all to their feet--token at once of +respect and obedient attention. Probably many of them had never seen a +sacred roll. To them all it was comparatively unfamiliar. No wonder +that, as Ezra's voice rose in prayer, the whole assembly fell on their +faces in adoration, and every lip responded 'Amen! amen!' + +Much superstition may have mingled with the reverence. No doubt, there +was then what we are often solemnly warned against now, bibliolatry. +But in this time of critical investigation it is not the divine +element in Scripture which is likely to be exaggerated; and few are +likely to go wrong in the direction of paying too much reverence to +the Book in which, as is still believed, God has revealed His will and +Himself. While welcoming all investigations which throw light on its +origin or its meaning, and perfectly recognising the human element in +it, we should learn the lesson taught by that waiting crowd prone on +their faces, and blessing God for His word. Such attitude must ever +precede reading it, if we are to read aright. + +Hour after hour the recitation went on. We must let the question of +the precise form of the events remain undetermined. It is somewhat +singular that thirteen names are enumerated as of the men who stood by +Ezra, and thirteen as those of the readers or expounders. It may be +the case that the former number is complete, though uneven, and that +there was some reason unknown for dividing the audience into just so +many sections. The second set of thirteen was not composed of the same +men as the first. They seem to have been Levites, whose office of +assisting at the menial parts of the sacrifices was now elevated into +that of setting forth the law. Probably the portions read were such as +bore especially on ritual, though the tears of the listeners are +sufficient proof that they had heard some things that went deeper than +that. + +The word rendered 'distinctly' in the Revised Version (margin, +_with_ an _interpretation_) is ambiguous, and may either +mean that the Levites explained or that they translated the words. The +former is the more probable, as there is no reason to suppose that the +audience, most of whom had been born in the land, were ignorant of +Hebrew. But if the ritual had been irregularly observed, and the +circle of ideas in the law become unfamiliar, many explanations would +be necessary. It strikes one as touching and strange that such an +assembly should be needed after so many centuries of national +existence. It sums up in one vivid picture the sin and suffering of +the nation. To observe that law had been the condition of their +prosperity. To bind it on their hearts should have been their delight +and would have been their life; and here, after all these generations, +the best of the nation are assembled, so ignorant of it that they +cannot even understand it when they hear it. Absorption with worldly +things has an awful power of dulling spiritual apprehension. Neglect +of God's law weakens the power of understanding it. + +This scene was in the truest sense a 'revival.' We may learn the true +way of bringing men back to God; namely, the faithful exposition and +enforcement of God's will and word. We may learn, too, what should be +the aim of public teachers of religion; namely, first and foremost, +the clear setting forth of God's truth. Their first business is to +'give the sense, so that they understand the reading'; and that, not +for merely intellectual purposes, but that, like the crowd outside the +water-gate on that hot noonday, men may be moved to penitence, and +then lifted to the joy of the Lord. + +The first day of the seventh month was the Feast of trumpets; and when +the reading was over, and its effects of tears and sorrow for +disobedience were seen, the preachers changed their tone, to bring +consolation and exhort to gladness. Nehemiah had taken no part in +reading the law, as Ezra the priest and his Levites were more +appropriately set to that. But he joins them in exhorting the people +to dry their tears, and go joyfully to the feast. These exhortations +contain many thoughts universally applicable. They teach that even +those who are most conscious of sin and breaches of God's law should +weep indeed, but should swiftly pass from tears to joy. They do not +teach how that passage is to be effected; and in so far they are +imperfect, and need to be supplemented by the New Testament teaching +of forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But in their +clear discernment that sorrow is not meant to be a permanent +characteristic of religion, and that gladness is a more acceptable +offering than tears, they teach a valuable lesson, needed always by +men who fancy that they must atone for their sins by their own +sadness, and that religion is gloomy, harsh, and crabbed. + +Further, these exhortations to festal gladness breathe the +characteristic Old Testament tone of wholesome enjoyment of material +good as a part of religion. The way of looking at eating and drinking +and the like, as capable of being made acts of worship, has been too +often forgotten by two kinds of men--saints who have sought sanctity +in asceticism; and sensualists who have taken deep draughts of such +pleasures without calling on the name of the Lord, and so have failed +to find His gifts a cup of salvation. It is possible to 'eat and drink +and see God' as the elders of Israel did on Sinai. + +Further, the plain duty of remembering the needy while we enjoy God's +gifts is beautifully enjoined here. The principle underlying the +commandment to 'send portions to them for whom nothing is +provided'--that is, for whom no feast has been dressed--is that all +gifts are held in trust, that nothing is bestowed on us for our own +good only, but that we are in all things stewards. The law extends to +the smallest and to the greatest possessions. We have no right to +feast on anything unless we share it, whether it be festal dainties or +the bread that came down from heaven. To divide our portion with +others is the way to make our portion greater as well as sweeter. + +Further, 'the joy of the Lord is your strength.' By _strength_ +here seems to be meant a _stronghold_. If we fix our desires on +God, and have trained our hearts to find sweeter delights in communion +with Him than in any earthly good, our religion will have lifted us +above mists and clouds into clear air above, where sorrows and changes +will have little power to affect us. If we are to rejoice in the Lord, +it will be possible for us to 'rejoice always,' and that joy will be +as a refuge from all the ills that flesh is heir to. Dwelling in God, +we shall dwell safely, and be far from the fear of evil. + + + +THE JOY OF THE LORD + +'The joy of the Lord is your strength.'--Neh. viii. 10. + + +Judaism, in its formal and ceremonial aspect, was a religion of +gladness. The feast was the great act of worship. It is not to be +wondered at, that Christianity, the perfecting of that ancient system, +has been less markedly felt to be a religion of joy; for it brings +with it far deeper and more solemn views about man in his nature, +condition, responsibilities, destinies, than ever prevailed before, +under any system of worship. And yet all deep religion ought to be +joyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be so. + +Here, in the incident before us, there has come a time in Nehemiah's +great enterprise, when the law, long forgotten, long broken by the +captives, is now to be established again as the rule of the +newly-founded commonwealth. Naturally enough there comes a remembrance +of many sins in the past history of the people; and tears not +unnaturally mingle with the thankfulness that again they are a nation, +having a divine worship and a divine law in their midst. The leader of +them, knowing for one thing that if the spirits of his people once +began to flag, they could not face nor conquer the difficulties of +their position, said to them, 'This day is holy unto the Lord: this +feast that we are keeping is a day of devout worship; therefore mourn +not, nor weep: go your way; eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send +portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; neither be ye sorry, +for the joy of the Lord is your strength.' You will make nothing of it +by indulgence in lamentation and in mourning. You will have no more +power for obedience, you will not be fit for your work, if you fall +into a desponding state. Be thankful and glad; and remember that the +purest worship is the worship of God-fixed joy, 'the joy of the Lord +is your strength.' And that is as true, brethren! with regard to us, +as it ever was in these old times; and we, I think, need the lesson +contained in this saying of Nehemiah's, because of some prevalent +tendencies amongst us, no less than these Jews did. Take some simple +thoughts suggested by this text which are both important in themselves +and needful to be made emphatic because so often forgotten in the +ordinary type of Christian character. They are these. Religious Joy is +the natural result of faith. It is a Christian duty. It is an +important element in Christian strength. + +I. Joy in the Lord is the natural result of Christian Faith. + +There is a natural adaptation or provision in the Gospel, both by what +it brings to us and by what it takes away from us, to make a calm, and +settled, and deep gladness, the prevalent temper of the Christian +spirit. In what it gives us, I say, and in what it takes away from us. +It gives us what we call well a sense of acceptance with God, it gives +us God for the rest of our spirits, it gives us the communion with Him +which in proportion as it is real, will be still, and in proportion as +it is still, will be all bright and joyful. It takes away from us the +fear that lies before us, the strifes that lie within us, the +desperate conflict that is waged between a man's conscience and his +inclinations, between his will and his passions, which tears the heart +asunder, and always makes sorrow and tumult wherever it comes. It +takes away the sense of sin. It gives us, instead of the torpid +conscience, or the angrily-stinging conscience--a conscience all calm +from its accusations, with all the sting drawn out of it:--for quiet +peace lies in the heart of the man that is trusting in the Lord. The +Gospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in God; joy, because +every function of the spiritual nature has found now its haven and its +object; joy, because health has come, and the healthy working of the +body or of the spirit is itself a gladness; joy, because the dim +future is painted (where it is painted at all) with shapes of light +and beauty, and because the very vagueness of these is an element in +the greatness of its revelation. The joy that is in Christ is deep and +abiding. Faith in Him naturally works gladness. + +I do not forget that, on the other side, it is equally true that the +Christian faith has as marked and almost as strong an adaptation to +produce a solemn _sorrow_--solemn, manly, noble, and strong. 'As +sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,' is the rule of the Christian life. +If we think of what our faith does; of the light that it casts upon +our condition, upon our nature, upon our responsibilities, upon our +sins, and upon our destinies, we can easily see how, if gladness be +one part of its operation, no less really and truly is sadness +another. Brethren! all great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them, +which not unfrequently merges into a still sorrow. There is nothing +more contemptible in itself, and there is no more sure mark of a +trivial nature and a trivial round of occupations, than unshaded +gladness, that rests on no deep foundations of quiet, patient grief; +grief, because I know what I am and what I ought to be; grief, because +I have learnt the 'exceeding sinfulness of sin'; grief, because, +looking out upon the world, I see, as other men do not see, hell-fire +burning at the back of the mirth and the laughter, and know what it is +that men are hurrying to! Do you remember who it was that stood by the +side of the one poor dumb man, whose tongue He was going to loose, and +looking up to heaven, _sighed_ before He could say, 'Be opened'? +Do you remember that of Him it is said, 'God hath anointed Thee with +the oil of gladness above Thy fellows'; and also, 'a Man of sorrows, +and acquainted with grief'? And do you not think that both these +characteristics are to be repeated in the operations of His Gospel +upon every heart that receives it? And if, by the hopes it breathes +into us, by the fears that it takes away from us, by the union with +God that it accomplishes for us, by the fellowship that it implants in +us, it indeed anoints us all 'with the oil of gladness'; yet, on the +other hand, by the sense of mine own sin that it teaches me; by the +conflict with weakness which it makes to be the law of my life; by the +clear vision which it gives me of 'the law of my members warring +against the law of my mind, and bringing me into subjection'; by the +intensity which it breathes into all my nature, and by the thoughts +that it presents of what sin leads to, and what the world at present +is, the Gospel, wheresoever it comes, will infuse a wise, valiant +sadness as the very foundation of character. Yes, joy, but sorrow too! +the joy of the Lord, but sorrow as we look on our own sin and the +world's woe! the head anointed with the oil of gladness, but also +crowned with thorns! + +These two are not contradictory. These two states of mind, both of +them the natural operations of any deep faith, may co-exist and blend +into one another, so as that the gladness is sobered, and chastened, +and made manly and noble; and that the sorrow is like some +thundercloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that pierce into its +deepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow +springs from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash +against each other, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, +but they blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep +down beneath the cold snow, with its white desolation and its barren +death, you will find the budding of the early spring flowers and the +fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; +just as, in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea, there may be +welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a +deeper depth than the great ocean around it, and pours its sweet +streams along the surface of the salt waste. Gladness, because I love, +for love _is_ gladness; gladness, because I trust, for trust +_is_ gladness; gladness, because I obey, for obedience is a meat +that others know not of, and light comes when we do His will! But +sorrow, because still I am wrestling with sin; sorrow, because still I +have not perfect fellowship; sorrow, because mine eye, purified by my +living with God, sees earth, and sin, and life, and death, and the +generations of men, and the darkness beyond, in some measure as God +sees them! And yet, the sorrow is surface, and the joy is central; the +sorrow springs from circumstance, and the gladness from the essence of +the thing;--and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the gladness +is perennial. For the Christian life is all like one of those sweet +spring showers in early April, when the rain-drops weave for us a mist +that hides the sunshine; and yet the hidden sun is in every sparkling +drop, and they are all saturated and steeped in its light. 'The joy of +the Lord' is the natural result and offspring of all Christian faith. + +II. And now, secondly, the 'joy of the Lord' or rejoicing in God, is a +matter of Christian duty. + +It is a commandment here, and it is a command in the New Testament as +well. 'Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.' +I need not quote to you the frequent repetitions of the same +injunction which the Apostle Paul gives us, 'Rejoice in the Lord +always, and again I say, Rejoice'; 'Rejoice evermore,' and the like. +The fact that this joy is enjoined us suggests to us a thought or two, +worth looking at. + +You may say with truth, 'My emotions of joy and sorrow are not under +my own control: I cannot help being glad and sad as circumstances +dictate.' But yet here it lies, a commandment. It is a duty, a thing +that the Apostle enjoins; in which, of course, is implied, that +somehow or other it is to a large extent within one's own power, and +that even the indulgence in this emotion, and the degree to which a +Christian life shall be a cheerful life, is dependent in a large +measure on our own volitions, and stands on the same footing as our +obedience to God's other commandments. + +We _can_ to a very great extent control even our own emotions; +but then, besides, we can do more than that. It may be quite true, +that you cannot help feeling sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful +thoughts, and glad in the presence of thoughts that naturally kindle +gladness. But I will tell you what you can do or refrain from +doing--you can either go and stand in the light, or you can go and +stand in the shadow. You can either fix your attention upon, and make +the predominant subject of your religious contemplations, a truth +which shall make you glad and strong, or a half-truth, which shall +make you sorrowful, and therefore weak. Your meditations may either +centre mainly upon your own selves, your faults and failings, and the +like; or they may centre mainly upon God and His love, Christ and His +grace, the Holy Spirit and His communion. You may either fill your +soul with joyful thoughts, or though a true Christian, a real, devout, +God-accepted believer, you may be so misapprehending the nature of the +Gospel, and your relation to it, its promises and precepts, its duties +and predictions, as that the prevalent tinge and cast of your religion +shall be solemn and almost gloomy, and not lighted up and irradiated +with the felt sense of God's presence--with the strong, healthy +consciousness that you are a forgiven and justified man, and that you +are going to be a glorified one. + +And thus far (and it is a long way) by the selection or the rejection +of the appropriate and proper subjects which shall make the main +portion of our religious contemplation, and shall be the food of our +devout thoughts, we can determine the complexion of our religious +life. Just as you inject colouring matter into the fibres of some +anatomical preparation; so a Christian may, as it were, inject into +all the veins of his religious character and life, either the bright +tints of gladness or the dark ones of self-despondency; and the result +will be according to the thing that he has put into them. If your +thoughts are chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is +for you, then you will have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they +are bent ever on yourself and your own unbelief, then you will always +be sad. You can make your choice. + +Christian men, the joy of the Lord is a duty. It is so because, as we +have seen, it is the natural effect of faith, because we can do much +to regulate our emotions directly, and much more to determine them by +determining what set of thoughts shall engage us. A wise and strong +faith is our duty. To keep our emotional nature well under control of +reason and will is our duty. To lose thoughts of ourselves in God's +truth about Himself is our duty. If we do these things, we cannot fail +to have Christ's joy remaining in us, and making ours full. If we have +not that blessed possession abiding with us, which He lived and died +to give us, there is something wrong in us somewhere. + +It seems to me that this is a truth which we have great need, my +friends, to lay to heart. It is of no great consequence that we should +practically confute the impotent old sneer about religion as being a +gloomy thing. One does not need to mind much what some people say on +that matter. The world would call 'the joy of the Lord' gloom, just as +much as it calls 'godly sorrow' gloom. But we are losing for ourselves +a power and an energy of which we have no conception, unless we feel +that joy is a duty, and unless we believe that not to be joyful in the +Lord is, therefore, more than a misfortune, it is a fault. + +I do not forget that the comparative absence of this happy, peaceful +sense of acceptance, harmony, oneness with God, springs sometimes from +temperament, and depends on our natural disposition. Of course the +natural character determines to a large extent the perspective of our +conceptions of Christian truth, and the colouring of our inner +religious life. I do not mean to say, for a moment, that there is one +uniform type to which all must be conformed, or they sin. There is +indeed one type, the perfect manhood of Jesus, but it is all +comprehensive, and each variety of our fragmentary manhood finds its +own perfecting, and not its transmutation to another fashion of man, +in being conformed to Him. Some of us are naturally fainthearted, +timid, sceptical of any success, grave, melancholy, or hard to stir to +any emotion. To such there will be an added difficulty in making quiet +confident joy any very familiar guest in their home or in their place +of prayer. But even such should remember that the 'powers of the world +to come,' the energies of the Gospel, are given to us for the very +express purpose of overcoming, as well as of hallowing, natural +dispositions. If it be our duty to rejoice in the Lord, it is no +sufficient excuse to urge for not responding to the reiterated call, +'I myself am disposed to sadness.' + +Whilst making all allowances for the diversities of character, which +will always operate to diversify the cast of the inner life in each +individual, we think that, in the great majority of instances, there +are two things, both faults, which have a great deal more to do with +the absence of joy from much Christian experience, than any +unfortunate natural tendency to the dark side of things. The one is, +an actual deficiency in the depth and reality of our faith; and the +other is, a misapprehension of the position which we have a right to +take and are bound to take. + +There is an actual deficiency in our faith. Oh, brethren! it is not to +be wondered at that Christians do not find that the Lord with them is +the Lord their strength and joy, as well as the Lord 'their +righteousness'; when the amount of their fellowship with Him is so +small, and the depth of it so shallow, as we usually find it. The +first true vision that a sinful soul has of God, the imperfect +beginnings of religion, usually are accompanied with intense +self-abhorrence, and sorrowing tears of penitence. A further closer +vision of the love of God in Jesus Christ brings with it 'joy and +peace in believing.' But the prolongation of these throughout life +requires the steadfast continuousness of gaze towards Him. It is only +where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. +Let us search our own hearts. If there is but little heat around the +bulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks a low +degree. If there is but small faith, there will not be much gladness. +The road into Giant Despair's castle is through doubt, which doubt +comes from an absence, a sinful absence, in our own experience, of the +felt presence of God, and the felt force of the verities of His +Gospel. + +But then, besides that, there is another fault: not a fault in the +sense of crime or sin, but a fault (and a great one) in the sense of +error and misapprehension. We as Christians do not take the position +which we have a right to take and that we are bound to take. Men +venture themselves upon God's word as they do on doubtful ice, timidly +putting a light foot out, to feel if it will bear them, and always +having the tacit fear, 'Now, it is going to crack!' You must cast +yourselves on God's Gospel with all your weight, without any hanging +back, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that +it will _give_--that the firm, pure floor will give, and let you +through into the water! A Christian shrink from saying what the +Apostle said, 'I _know_ in whom I have believed, and am persuaded +that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that +day'! A Christian fancy that salvation is a future thing, and forget +that it is a present thing! A Christian tremble to profess 'assurance +of hope,' forgetting that there is no hope strong enough to bear the +stress of a life's sorrows, which is not a conviction certain as one's +own existence! Brethren! understand that the Gospel is a Gospel which +brings a present salvation; and try to feel that it is not +presumption, but simply acting out the very fundamental principle of +it, when you are not afraid to say, 'I _know_ that my Redeemer is +yonder, and I _know_ that He loves me!' Try to feel, I say, that +by faith you have a right to take that position, 'Now, we _know_ +that we are the sons of God'; that you have a right to claim for +yourselves, and that you are falling beneath the loftiness of the gift +that is given to you unless you do claim for yourselves, the place of +sons, accepted, loved, sure to be glorified at God's right hand. Am I +teaching presumption? am I teaching carelessness, or a dispensing with +self-examination? No, but I am saying this: If a man have once felt, +and feel, in however small and feeble a degree, and depressed by +whatsoever sense of daily transgressions, if he feel, faint like the +first movement of an imprisoned bird in its egg, the feeble pulse of +an almost imperceptible and fluttering faith beat--then that man has a +right to say, 'God is mine!' + +As one of our great teachers, little remembered now said, 'Let me take +my personal salvation for granted'--and what? and 'be idle?' No; 'and +_work_ from it.' Ay, brethren! a Christian is not to be for ever +asking himself, 'Am I a Christian?' He is not to be for ever looking +into himself for marks and signs that he is. He _is_ to look into +himself to discover sins, that he may by God's help cast them out, to +discover sins that shall teach him to say with greater thankfulness, +'What a redemption this is which I possess!' but he is to base his +convictions that he is God's child upon something other than his own +characteristics and the feebleness of his own strength. He is to have +'joy in the Lord' whatever may be his sorrow from outward things. And +I believe that if Christian people would lay that thought to heart, +they would understand better how the natural operation of the Gospel +is to make them glad, and how rejoicing in the Lord is a Christian +duty. + +III. And now with regard to the other thought that still remains to be +considered, namely, that rejoicing in the Lord is a source of +strength,--I have already anticipated, fragmentarily, nearly all that +I could have said here in a more systematic form. All gladness has +something to do with our efficiency; for it is the prerogative of man +that his force comes from his mind, and not from his body. That old +song about a sad heart tiring in a mile, is as true in regard to the +Gospel, and the works of Christian people, as in any other case. If we +have hearts full of light, and souls at rest in Christ, and the wealth +and blessedness of a tranquil gladness lying there, and filling our +being; work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrow will be +bearable, trials will not be so very hard, and above all temptations +we shall be lifted, and set upon a rock. If the soul is full, and full +of joy, what side of it will be exposed to the assault of any +temptation? If the appeal be to fear, the gladness that is there is an +answer. If the appeal be to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any +sort, there is no need for any more-the heart is _full_. And so +the gladness which rests in Christ will be a gladness which will fit +us for all service and for all endurance, which will be unbroken by +any sorrow, and, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible, +impenetrable, in its crystalline purity will stand before the tempted +heart, and will repel all the 'fiery darts of the wicked.' + +'The joy of the Lord is your strength,' my brother! Nothing else is. +No vehement resolutions, no sense of his own sinfulness, nor even +contrite remembrance of past failures, ever yet made a man strong. It +made him weak that he might become strong, and when it had done that +it had done its work. For strength there must be hope, for strength +there must be joy. If the arm is to smite with vigour, it must smite +at the bidding of a calm and light heart. Christian work is of such a +sort as that the most dangerous opponent to it is simple despondency +and simple sorrow. 'The joy of the Lord is your strength.' + +Well, then! there are two questions: How comes it that so much of the +world's joy is weakness? and how comes it that so much of the world's +notion of religion is gloom and sadness? Answer them for yourselves, +and remember: you are weak unless you are glad; you are not glad and +strong unless your faith and hope are fixed in Christ, and unless you +are working from and not towards the sense of pardon, from and not +towards the conviction of acceptance with God! + + + +SABBATH OBSERVANCE + +'In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the +sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, +grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into +Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day +wherein they sold victuals. 16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, +which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath +unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17. Then I contended +with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this +that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18. Did not your fathers +thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this +city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath, +19. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be +dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, +and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and +some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be +brought in on the sabbath day. 20. So the merchants and sellers of all +kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 21. Then I +testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the +wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth +came they no more on the sabbath. 22. And I commanded the Levites that +they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the +gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning +this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy +mercy.'--NEH. xiii. 15-22. + + +Many religious and moral reformations depend for their vitality on one +man, and droop if his influence be withdrawn. It was so with +Nehemiah's work. He toiled for twelve years in Jerusalem, and then +returned for 'certain days' to the king at Babylon. The length of his +absence is not given; but it was long enough to let much of his work +be undone, and to give him much trouble to restore it to the condition +in which he had left it. This last chapter of his book is but a sad +close for a record which began with such high hope, and tells of such +strenuous, self-sacrificing effort. The last page of many a reformer's +history has been, like Nehemiah's, a sad account of efforts to stem +the ebbing tide of enthusiasm and the flowing tide of worldliness. The +heavy stone is rolled a little way up hill, and, as soon as one strong +hand is withdrawn, down it tumbles again to its old place. The +evanescence of great men's work makes much of the tragedy of history. + +Our passage is particularly concerned with Nehemiah's efforts to +enforce Sabbath observance. The rest of the chapter is occupied with +similar efforts to set right other irregularities of a ceremonial +character, such as the exclusion of Gentiles from the Temple, the +exaction of the 'portions of the Levites,' and the like. The passage +falls into three parts--the abuse (vs. 15, 16), the vigorous remedies +(vs. 17-22), and the prayer (v. 22). + +I. The abuse consisted in Sabbath work and trading. Nehemiah found, on +his return, that the people 'in Judaea'--that is, in the country +districts--carried on their farm labour and also brought their produce +to market to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. So he 'testified against them +in the day wherein they sold victuals'; that is, probably meaning that +he warned them either in person or by messengers before taking further +steps. Not only did Jews break the sacred day, but they let heathen do +so too. The narrative tells, with a kind of horror, the many +aggravations of this piece of wickedness. 'They'--Gentiles with whom +contact defiled--'sold on the Sabbath'--the day of rest--'to the +children of Judah'--God's people--'in Jerusalem'--the Holy City. It +was a many-barrelled crime. Tyre was far from Jerusalem, and one does +not see how fish could have been brought in good condition. Perhaps +their perishableness was the excuse for allowing their sale on the +Sabbath, as is sometimes the case in fishing-villages even in +Sabbath-keeping Scotland. Such was the abuse with which Nehemiah +struggled. + +It is easy to pooh-pooh his crusade against Sabbath labour as mere +scrupulousness about externals. But it is a blunder and an injustice +to a noble character if we forget that the stage of revelation at +which he stood necessarily made him more dependent on externals than +Christians are or should be. But his vindication does not need such +considerations. He had a truer insight into what active men needed for +vigorous working days, and what devout men needed for healthy +religion, than many moderns who smile at his eagerness about 'mere +externalisms.' + +It is easy to ridicule the Jewish Sabbath and 'the Puritan Sunday.' No +doubt there have been and are well-meant but mistaken efforts to +insist on too rigid observance. No doubt it has been often forgotten +by good people that the Christian Lord's Day is not the Jewish +Sabbath. Of course the religious observance of the day is not a fit +subject for legislation. But the need for a seventh day of rest is +impressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and devout hearts +will joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and service. +The vigour of religious life demands special seasons set apart for +worship. Unless there be such reservoirs along the road, there will be +but a thin trickle of a brook by the way. It is all very well to talk +about religion diffused through the life, but it will not be so +diffused unless it is concentrated at certain times. + +They are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and +relax the stringency of the prohibition of labour. If once the idea +that Sunday is a day of amusement take root, the amusement of some +will require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend +to extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule. There +never was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of +modern life demands Sunday rest more than ever. If a railway car is +run continually it will wear out sooner than if it were laid aside for +a day or two occasionally; and if it is run at express speed it will +need the rest more. We are all going at top speed; and there would be +more breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some +people think they are promoting the public good by destroying--a +seventh day of rest. + +Our great trading centres in England have the same foreign element to +complicate matters as Nehemiah had to deal with. The Tyrian +fishmongers knew and cared nothing for Israel's Jehovah or Sabbath, +and their presence would increase the tendency to disregard the day. +So with us, foreigners of many nationalities, but alike in their +disregard of our religious observances, leaven the society, and help +to mould the opinions and practices, of our great cities. That is a +very real source of danger in regard to Sabbath observance and many +other things; and Christian people should be on their guard against +it. + +II. The vigorous remedies applied by Nehemiah were administered first +to the rulers. He sent for the nobles, and laid the blame at their +doors. 'Ye profane the day,' said he. Men in authority are responsible +for crimes which they could check, but prefer to wink at. Nehemiah +seems to trace all the national calamities to the breach of the +Sabbath; but of course he is simply laying stress on the sin about +which he is speaking, as any man who sets himself earnestly to work to +fight any form of evil is apt to do. Then the men who are not in +earnest cry out about 'exaggeration.' Many other sins besides +Sabbath-breaking had a share in sending Israel into captivity; and if +Nehemiah had been fighting with idolatrous tendencies he would have +isolated idolatry as the cause of its calamities, just as, when +fighting against Sabbath-breaking, he emphasises that sin. + +Nehemiah was governor for the Persian king, and so had a right to rate +these nobles. In this day the people have the same right, and there +are many social sins for which they should arraign civic and other +authorities. Christian principles unflinchingly insisted on by +Christian people, and brought to bear, by ballot-boxes and other +persuasive ways, on what stands for conscience in some high places, +would make a wonderful difference on many of the abominations of our +cities. Go to the 'nobles' first, and lay the burden on the backs that +ought to carry it. + +Then Nehemiah took practical measures by shutting the city gates on +the eve of the Sabbath, and putting some of his own servants as a +watch. The thing seems to have been done without any notice; so when +the country folk came in, as usual, on the Sabbath, they could not get +into the city, and camped outside, making a visible temptation to the +citizens, to slip out and do a little business, if they could manage +to elude the guards. Once or twice this happened; and then Nehemiah +himself seems to have taken them in hand, with a very plain and +sufficiently emphatic warning: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on +you.' + +Of course, 'from that time they came no more on the Sabbath,' as was +natural after such a volley. A man with a good strong will is apt to +get his own way, even when he is not clothed with the authority of a +governor. Then Nehemiah strengthened the guard, or perhaps withdrew +his own servants and substituted for them Levites, whose official +position would put them in full sympathy with his efforts. That +priestly guard would be inflexible, and with its appointment the abuse +appears to have been crushed. + +The example of Nehemiah's enforcing Sabbath observance is not to be +taken as a pattern for Christian communities, without many +limitations. But it appears to the present writer that it is perfectly +legitimate for the civil power to insist upon, and if necessary to +enforce, the observance of Sunday as a day of rest; and that, since +legitimate, it is for the well-being of the community that it should +do so. Tyrians might believe anything they chose, and use the day of +rest as they thought proper, so long as they did not sell fish on it. +We do not interfere with religious convictions when we enjoin Sunday +observance. Nehemiah's argument has sometimes to be used, even about +such a matter: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you.' + +The methods adopted may yield suggestions for all who would aim at +reforming abuses or public immoralities. One most necessary step is to +cut off, as far as possible, opportunities for the sin. There will be +no trade if you shut the gates the night before. There will be little +drunkenness if there are no liquor shops. It is quite true that people +cannot be made virtuous by legislation, but it is also true that they +may be saved from temptations to become vicious by it. + +Another hint comes from Nehemiah's vigorous word to the country folk +outside the wall. There is need for very strong determination and much +sanctified obstinacy in fighting popular abuses. They die hard. It is +permissible to invoke the aid of the lawful authority. But a man with +strong convictions and earnest purpose will be able to impress his +convictions on a mass, even if he have no guards at his back. The one +thing needful for Christian reformers is, not the power to appeal to +force, but the force which they can carry within them. And it is +better when the traders love the Sabbath too well to wish to drive +bargains on it, than when they are hindered from doing as they wish by +Nehemiah's strong will or formidable threats. + +Once more, the guard of Levites may suggest that the execution of +measures for the reformation of manners or morals is best entrusted to +those who are in sympathy with them. Levites made faithful watchmen. +Many a promising measure for reformation has come to nothing because +committed to the hands of functionaries who did not care for its +success. The instruments are almost as important as the measures which +they carry out. + +III. Nehemiah's prayer occurs thrice in this chapter, at the close of +each section recounting his reforming acts. In the first instance (v. +14) it is most full, and puts very plainly the merit of good deeds as +a plea with God. The same thing is implied in its form in verse 22. +But while, no doubt, the tone of the prayer is startling to us, and is +not such as should be offered now by Christians, it but echoes the +principle of retribution which underlies the law. 'This do, and thou +shalt live,' was the very foundation of Nehemiah's form of God's +revelation. We do not plead our own merits, because we are not under +the law, but under grace, and the principle underlying the gospel is +life by impartation of unmerited mercy and divine life. But the law of +retribution still remains valid for Christians in so far as that God +will never forget any of their works, and will give them full +recompense for their work of faith and labour of love. Eternal life +here and hereafter is wholly the gift of God; but that fact does not +exclude the notion of 'the recompense of reward' from the Christian +conception of the future. It becomes not us to present our good deeds +before the Judge, since they are stained and imperfect, and the +goodness in them is His gift. But it becomes Him to crown them with +His gracious approbation, and to proportion the cities ruled in that +future world to the talents faithfully used here. We need not be +afraid of obscuring the truth that we are saved 'not of works, lest +any man should boast,' though we insist that a Christian man is +rewarded according to his works. + +Nehemiah had no false notion of his own goodness; for, while he asked +for recompense for these good deeds of his, he could not but add, +'Spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy.' He who asks to be +'spared' must know himself in peril of destruction; and he who invokes +'mercy' must think that, if he were dealt with according to justice, +he would be in evil case. So the consciousness of weakness and sin is +an integral part of this prayer, and that takes all the apparent +self-righteousness out of the previous petition. However worthy of and +sure of reward a Christian man's acts of love and efforts for the +spread of God's honour may be, the doer of them must still be 'looking +for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF ESTHER + + +THE NET SPREAD + +'After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of +Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all +the princes that were with him. 2. And all the king's servants, that +were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had +so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him +reverence. 3. Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate, +said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? 4. +Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened +not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters +would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5. And when Haman +saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman +full of wrath. 6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; +for they had showed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought +to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of +Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 7. In the first month, that +is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast +Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to +month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. 8. And Haman +said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad +and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; +and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the +king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. +9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be +destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands +of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the +king's treasuries. 10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and +gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. +11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the +people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.'--ESTHER iii. +1-11. + + +The stage of this passage is filled by three strongly marked and +strongly contrasted figures: Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus; a sturdy +nonconformist, an arrogant and vindictive minister of state, and a +despotic and careless king. These three are the visible persons, but +behind them is an unseen and unnamed Presence, the God of Israel, who +still protects His exiled people. + +We note, first, the sturdy nonconformist. 'The reverence' which the +king had commanded his servants to show to Haman was not simply a sign +of respect, but an act of worship. Eastern adulation regarded a +monarch as in some sense a god, and we know that divine honours were +in later times paid to Roman emperors, and many Christians martyred +for refusing to render them. The command indicates that Ahasuerus +desired Haman to be regarded as his representative, and possessing at +least some reflection of godhead from him. European ambassadors to +Eastern courts have often refused to prostrate themselves before the +monarch on the ground of its being degradation to their dignity; but +Mordecai stood erect while the crowd of servants lay flat on their +faces, as the great man passed through the gate, because he would have +no share in an act of worship to any but Jehovah. He might have +compromised with conscience, and found some plausible excuses if he +had wished. He could have put his own private interpretation on the +prostration, and said to himself, 'I have nothing to do with the +meaning that others attach to bowing before Haman. I mean by it only +due honour to the second man in the kingdom.' But the monotheism of +his race was too deeply ingrained in him, and so he kept 'a stiff +backbone' and 'bowed not down.' + +That his refusal was based on religious scruples is the natural +inference from his having told his fellow-porters that he was a Jew. +That fact would explain his attitude, but would also isolate him still +more. His obstinacy piqued them, and they reported his contumacy to +the great man, thus at once gratifying personal dislike, racial +hatred, and religious antagonism, and recommending themselves to Haman +as solicitous for his dignity. We too are sometimes placed in +circumstances where we are tempted to take part in what may be called +constructive idolatry. There arise, in our necessary co-operation with +those who do not share in our faith, occasions when we are expected to +unite in acts which we are thought very straitlaced for refusing to +do, but which, conscience tells us, cannot be done without practical +disloyalty to Jesus Christ. Whenever that inner voice says 'Don't,' we +must disregard the persistent solicitations of others, and be ready to +be singular, and run any risk rather than comply. 'So did not I, +because of the fear of God,' has to be our motto, whatever +fellow-servants may say. The gate of Ahasuerus's palace was not a +favourable soil for the growth of a devout soul, but flowers can bloom +on dunghills, and there have been 'saints' in 'Caesar's household.' + +Haman is a sharp contrast to Mordecai. He is the type of the unworthy +characters that climb or crawl to power in a despotic monarchy, +vindictive, arrogant, cunning, totally oblivious of the good of the +subjects, using his position for his own advantage, and ferociously +cruel. He had naturally not noticed the one erect figure among the +crowd of abject ones, but the insignificant Jew became important when +pointed out. If he had bowed, he would have been one more nobody, but +his not bowing made him somebody who had to be crushed. The childish +burst of passion is very characteristic, and not less true to life is +the extension of the anger and thirst for vengeance to 'all the Jews +that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.' They were 'the +people of Mordecai,' and that was enough. 'He thought scorn to lay +hands on Mordecai alone.' What a perverted notion of personal dignity +which thought the sacrifice of the one offender beneath it, and could +only be satisfied by a blood-bath into which a nation should be +plunged! Such an extreme of frantic lust for murder is only possible +in such a state as Ahasuerus's Persia, but the prostitution of public +position to personal ends, and the adoption of political measures at +the bidding of wounded vanity, and to gratify blind hatred of a race, +is possible still, and it becomes all Christian men to use their +influence that the public acts of their nation shall be clear of that +taint. + +Haman was as superstitious as cruel, and so he sought for auguries +from heaven for his hellish purpose, and cast the lot to find the +favourable day for bringing it about. He is not the only one who has +sought divine approval for wicked public acts. Religion has been used +to varnish many a crime, and _Te Deums_ sung for many a victory +which was little better than Haman's plot. + +The crafty denunciation of the Jews to the king is a good specimen of +the way in which a despot is hoodwinked by his favourites, and made +their tool. It was no doubt true that the Jews' laws were 'diverse +from those of every people,' but it was not true that they did not +'keep the king's laws,' except in so far as these required worship of +other gods. In all their long dispersion they have been remarkable for +two things,--their tenacious adherence to the Law, so far as possible +in exile, and their obedience to the law of the country of their +sojourn. No doubt, the exiles in Persian territory presented the same +characteristics. But Haman has had many followers in resenting the +distinctiveness of the Jew, and charging on them crimes of which they +were innocent. From Mordecai onwards it has been so, and Europe is +to-day disgraced by a crusade against them less excusable than +Haman's. Hatred still masks itself under the disguise of political +expediency, and says, 'It is not for the king's profit to suffer +them.' + +But the true half of the charge was a eulogium, for it implied that +the scattered exiles were faithful to God's laws, and were marked off +by their lives. That ought to be true of professing Christians. They +should obviously be living by other principles than the world adopts. +The enemy's charge 'shall turn unto you for a testimony.' Happy shall +we be if observers are prompted to say of us that 'our laws are +diverse' from those of ungodly men around us! + +The great bribe which Haman offered to the king is variously estimated +as equal to from three to four millions sterling. He, no doubt, +reckoned on making more than that out of the confiscation of Jewish +property. That such an offer should have been made by the chief +minister to the king, and that for such a purpose, reveals a depth of +corruption which would be incredible if similar horrors were not +recorded of other Eastern despots. But with Turkey still astonishing +the world, no one can call Haman's offer too atrocious to be true. + +Ahasuerus is the vain-glorious king known to us as Xerxes. His conduct +in the affair corresponds well enough with his known character. The +lives of thousands of law-abiding subjects are tossed to the favourite +without inquiry or hesitation. He does not even ask the name of the +'certain people,' much less require proof of the charge against them. +The insanity of weakening his empire by killing so many of its +inhabitants does not strike him, nor does he ever seem to think that +he has duties to those under his rule. Careless of the sanctity of +human life, too indolent to take trouble to see things with his own +eyes, apparently without the rudiments of the idea of justice, he +wallowed in a sty of self-indulgence, and, while greedy of adulation +and the semblance of power, let the reality slip from his hands into +those of the favourite, who played on his vices as on an instrument, +and pulled the strings that moved the puppet. We do not produce kings +of that sort nowadays, but King Demos has his own vices, and is as +easily blinded and swayed as Ahasuerus. In every form of government, +monarchy or republic, there will be would-be leaders, who seek to gain +influence and carry their objects by tickling vanity, operating on +vices, calumniating innocent men, and the other arts of the demagogue. +Where the power is in the hands of the people, the people is very apt +to take its responsibilities as lightly as Ahasuerus did his, and to +let itself be led blindfold by men with personal ends to serve, and +hiding them under the veil of eager desire for the public good. +Christians should 'play the citizen as it becomes the gospel of +Christ,' and take care that they are not beguiled into national +enmities and public injustice by the specious talk of modern Hamans. + + + +ESTHER'S VENTURE + +'Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto +Mordecai: 11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's +provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come +unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one +law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall +hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been +called to come in unto the king these thirty days. 12. And they told +to Mordecai Esther's words. 13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer +Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's +house, more than all the Jews. 14. For if thou altogether holdest thy +peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise +to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall +be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for +such a time as this? 15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this +answer, 16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in +Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, +night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I +go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I +perish, I perish. 17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to +all that Esther had commanded him. 'Now it came to pass on the third +day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner +court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king +sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of +the house. 2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen +standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the +king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So +Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. 3. Then said the +king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? +it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.'-ESTHER iv. +10-17; v. 1-3. + + +Patriotism is more evident than religion in the Book of Esther. To +turn to it after the fervours of prophets and the continual +recognition of God in history which marks the other historical books, +is like coming down from heaven to earth, as Ewald says. But that +difference in tone probably accurately represents the difference +between the saints and heroes of an earlier age and the Jews in +Persia, in whom national feeling was stronger than devotion. The +picture of their characteristics deducible from this Book shows many +of the traits which have marked them ever since,--accommodating +flexibility, strangely united with unbending tenacity; a capacity for +securing the favour of influential people, and willingness to stretch +conscience in securing it; reticence and diplomacy; and, beneath all, +unquenchable devotion to Israel, which burns alike in the politic +Mordecai and the lovely Esther. + +There is not much audible religion in either, but in this lesson +Mordecai impressively enforces his assurance that Israel cannot +perish, and his belief in Providence setting people in their places +for great unselfish ends; and Esther is ready to die, if need be, in +trying to save her people, and thinks that fasting and prayer will +help her in her daring attempt. These two cousins, unlike in so much, +were alike in their devotion to Israel; and though they said little +about their religion, they acted it, which is better. + +It is very like Jews that the relationship between Mordecai and Esther +should have been kept dark. Nobody but one or two trusted servants +knew that the porter was the queen's cousin, and probably her Jewish +birth was also unknown. Secrecy is, no doubt, the armour of oppressed +nations; but it is peculiarly agreeable to the descendants of Jacob, +who was a master of the art. There must have been wonderful +self-command on both sides to keep such a secret, and true affection, +to preserve intercourse through apparent indifference. + +Our passage begins in the middle of Esther's conversation with the +confidential go-between, who told her of the insane decree for the +destruction of the Jews, and of Mordecai's request that she should +appeal to the king. She reminds him of what he knew well enough, the +law that unsummoned intruders into the presence are liable to death; +and adds what, of course, he did not know, that she had not been +summoned for a month. We need not dwell on this ridiculously arrogant +law, but may remark that the substantial accuracy of the statement is +confirmed by classical and other authors, and may pause for a moment +to note the glimpse given here of the delirium of self-importance in +which these Persian kings lived, and to see in it no small cause of +their vices and disasters. What chance of knowing facts or of living a +wholesome life had a man shut off thus from all but lickspittles and +slaves? No wonder that the victims of such dignity beat the sea with +rods, when it was rude enough to wreck their ships! No wonder that +they wallowed in sensuality, and lost pith and manhood! No wonder that +Greece crushed their unwieldy armies and fleets! + +And what a glimpse into their heart-emptiness and degradation of +sacred ties is given in the fact that Esther the queen had not seen +Ahasuerus for a month, though living in the same palace, and his +favourite wife! No doubt, the experiences of exile had something to do +in later ages with the decided preference of the Jew for monogamy. + +But, passing from this, we need only observe how clearly Esther sees +and how calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following +his counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply +puts the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. 'This +is how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?' That is +poor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to +the mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers +and that which dares them are not often found together in due +proportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young +queen with her clear eyes saw, and with her brave heart was ready to +face, peril to her life. Unless we fully realise difficulties and +dangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at +our fingers' ends at the first rude assault of these. So let us count +the cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have +counted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good +guides. Either alone is a bad one. + +Mordecai's grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons +which always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others' good. His +words are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do +not name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a +psalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his +pagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to +the lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more +definitely use the sacred name. + +It is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimise +Esther's peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her +life in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he +would have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a +course which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and +quenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai's years of care over and pride +in his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would +perish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he +exercised in urging her to her course. + +His first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send +her to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the +common ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction; +and, on the other, there were possible success and escape. It may seem +unlikely that the general massacre should include the favourite queen, +and especially as her nationality was apparently a secret. But when a +mob has once tasted blood, its appetite is great and its scent keen, +and there are always informers at hand to point to hidden victims. The +argument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national +and social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to +riot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion, in some form or +other. How many good men's sons have been swept away by the +immoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which +there is not 'one dead,' the victim of drink and dissipation! How the +godliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around! +At the very lowest, self-preservation should enlist all good men in a +sacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. If +smallpox breaks out in the slums, it will come uptown into the grand +houses, and the outcasts will prove that they are the rich man's +brethren by infecting him, and perhaps killing him. + +Mordecai goes back to the same argument in the later part of his +answer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father's +house. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The +destruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common +tragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The +unfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will +have a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many +applications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does +always bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more +short-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of +beneficence from regard to self. + +But higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai +is sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come +it will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly +because he trusted God's ancient promises, and believed in the +indestructibility of the nation which a divine hand protected. How +does such a confidence agree with fear of 'destruction'? The two parts +of Mordecai's message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the +threatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster +Israel as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed. + +How did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther's +help? If he was certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her +or himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God's +purposes and absolute reliance on these stimulate, and do not +paralyse, devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure +that a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in +the line of God's purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to +carry it out. Since some men are to be honoured to be His instruments, +shall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble +ambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who +believe that their work helps forward what is dear to God's heart may +well do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful +to keep on the safe side in doing it. The honour is more than the +danger. 'Here am I; take me,' should be the Christian feeling about +all such work. + +The last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice +for others' good is the thought of God's purpose in giving Esther her +position. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of +all endowments of position, possessions, or capacities, is God. His +purpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver. +Dignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His +great designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that +she might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she +might serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by +capacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men +are stewards, and God gives His servants their 'talents,' not for +selfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the +profits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention +of all which we have, carries a solemn lesson for us all. + +The fair young heroine's soul rose to the occasion, and responded with +a swift determination to her older cousin's lofty words. Her pathetic +request for the prayers of the people for whose sake she was facing +death was surely more than superstition. Little as she says about her +faith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares +death in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid, +demonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many +professions. + +'If I perish, I perish!' Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter +that grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which +bound the young heart to life, so bright and desirable as was assured +to her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear +sight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher +strain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the +same stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah's daughter; and the same +fire burned in her,--utter devotion to Israel because entire +consecration to Israel's God. Religion and patriotism were to her +inseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people's +weal and her God's will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her +young radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises +its subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be +wrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may +illuminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the +lovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or +death at the will of a sensual tyrant. + +The scene there need not detain us. We can fancy Esther's beating +heart putting fire in her cheek, and her subdued excitement making her +beauty more splendid as she stood. What a contrast between her and the +arrogant king on his throne! He was a voluptuary, ruined morally by +unchecked licence,--a monster, as he could hardly help being, of lust, +self will, and caprice. She was at that moment an incarnation of +self-sacrifice and pure enthusiasm. The blind world thought that he +was the greater; but how ludicrous his condescension, how vulgar his +pomp, how coarse his kindness, how gross his prodigal promises by the +side of the heroine of faith, whose life he held in his capricious +hand! + +How amazed the king would have been if he had been told that one of +his chief titles to be remembered would be that moment's interview! +Ahasuerus is the type of swollen self-indulgence, which always +degrades and coarsens; Esther is the type of self-sacrifice which as +uniformly refines, elevates, and arrays with new beauty and power. If +we would reach the highest nobleness possible to us, we must stand +with Esther at the gate, and not envy or imitate Ahasuerus on his +gaudy throne. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that +loseth his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall find it.' + + + +MORDECAI AND ESTHER + +'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall +there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another +place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who +knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as +this?'--ESTHER iv. 14. + + +All Christians are agreed in holding the principles which underlie our +missionary operations. They all believe that the world is a fallen +world, that without Christ the fallen world is a lost world, that the +preaching of the Gospel is the way to bring Christ to those who need +Him, that to the Church is committed the ministry of reconciliation. + +These are the grand truths from which the grand missionary enterprise +has sprung. It is not my intention to enlarge on them now. But in this +and in all cases, there are secondary motives besides, and inferior to +those which are derived from the real fundamental principles. We are +stimulated to action not only because we hold certain great +principles, but because they are reinforced by certain subordinate +considerations. + +It is the duty of all Christians to promote the missionary cause on +the lofty grounds already referred to. Besides that, it may be in a +special way our duty for some additional reasons drawn from +peculiarities in our condition. Circumstances do not make duties, but +they may bring a special weight of obligation on us to do them. Times +again do not make duties, but they too make a thing a special duty +now. The consideration of consequences may not decide us in matters of +conscience, but it may allowably come in to deter us from what is on +higher grounds a sin to be avoided, or a good deed to be done. Success +or failure is an alternative that must not be thought of when we are +asking ourselves, 'Ought I to do this?' but when we have answered that +question, we may go to work with a lighter heart and a firmer hand if +we are sure that we are not going to fail. + +All these are inferior considerations which do not avail to determine +duty and do not go deep enough to constitute the real foundation of +our obligation. They are considerations which can scarcely be shut +out, and should be taken in determining the weight of our obligation, +in shaping the selection of our duties, in stimulating the zeal and +sedulousness with which we do what we know to be right. + +To a consideration of some of these secondary reasons for energy in +the work of missions I ask your attention. The verse which I have +selected for my text is spoken by Mordecai to Esther, when urging her +to her perilous patriotism. It singularly blends the statesman and the +believer. He sees that if she selfishly refuses to identify herself +with her people, in their calamity, the wave that sweeps them away +will not be stayed outside her royal dwelling; he knows too much of +courts to think that she can stand against that burst of popular fury +should it break out. But he looks on as a devout man believing God's +promises, and seeing past all instruments; he warns her that +'deliverance and enlargement shall arise.' He is no fatalist; he +believes in man's work, therefore he urges her to let herself be the +instrument by which God's work shall be done. He is no atheist; he +believes in God's sovereign power and unchangeable faithfulness, +therefore he looks without dismay to the possibility of her failure. +He knows that if she is idle, all the evil will come on her head, who +has been unfaithful, and that in spite of that God's faithfulness +shall not be made of none effect. He believes that she has been raised +to her position for God's sake, for her brethren's sake, not her own. + +'Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as +this?' There speaks the devout statesman, the court-experienced +believer. He has seen favourites tended and tossed aside, viziers +powerful and beheaded, kings half deified and deserted in their utmost +need. Sitting at the gate there, he has seen generations of Hamans go +out and in; he has seen the craft, the cruelty, the lusts which have +been the apparent causes of the puppets' rise and fall, and he has +looked beyond it all and believed in a Hand that pulled the wires, in +a King of Kings who raiseth up one and setteth down another. So he +believes that his Esther has come to the kingdom by God's appointment, +to do God's work at God's time. And these convictions keep him calm +and stir her. + +We may find here a series of considerations having a special bearing +on this missionary work. To them I ask your attention. + +I. God gives us our position that we may use it for His cause, for the +spread of the Gospel. + +In most general terms. + +(a) No man has anything for his own sake--no man liveth to himself. We +come to the kingdom for others. Here we touch the foundation of all +authority; we learn the awful burden of all talents, the dreadful +weight of every gift. + +(b) No man receives the Gospel for his own sake. We are not +non-conductors, but stand all linked hand in hand. We are members of +the body that the blood may flow freely through us. For no loftier +reason did God light the candle than that it might give light. We are +beacons kindled to transmit, till every sister light flashes back the +ray. + +(c) We especially have received a position in the world for the +conversion of the world. Our national character and position unite +that of the Jew in his two stages--we are set to be the 'light of the +world,' and we are 'tribes of the wandering foot.' Our history, all, +has tended to this function, our local position, our laws, our +commerce. We are citizens of a nation which 'as a nest has found the +riches' of the peoples. In every land our people dwell. + +Think of our colonies. Think that we are brought into contact with +heathen, whether we will or not. We cannot help influencing them. +'Through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles.' +Think of our sailors. Why this position? What is plainer than that all +this is in order that the Gospel might be spread? God has ever let the +Gospel follow in the tracks made for it by commercial law. + +This object does not exclude others. Our language, our literature, our +other rich spiritual treasures, we hold them all that we may impart. +But remember that all these other good things that England has will +spread themselves with little effort, people will be glad to get them. +But the Gospel will not be spread so. It must be taken to those who do +not want it. It must be held forth with outstretched hands to 'a +disobedient and gainsaying people.' It is found of them that seek it +not. + +Like the Lord we must go to the wanderers, we must find them as they +lie panting and thirsty in the wild wilderness. Therefore Christian +men must make special earnest efforts or the work will not be done. +They must be as the 'dew that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for +the sons of men.' + +And again, such action does not involve approval of the means by which +such a position has become ours. Mordecai knew what vile passions had +been at work to put Esther there, and did not forget poor Vashti, and +we have no need to hide conviction that England's place has often been +won by wrong, been kept by violence and fraud, that, as she has strode +to empire, her foot has trodden on many a venerable throne unjustly +thrown down, and her skirts have been dabbled with 'the blood of poor +innocents,' splashed there with her armed hoof. Be it so!--Still! +'Thou makest the wrath of man to praise Thee.' Still--'we are debtors +both to the Greek and barbarian,' and all the more debtors because of +ills inflicted. God has laid on us a solemn responsibility. Over all +the dust of base intrigues, and the smoke of bloody battles, and the +hubbub of busy commerce, His hand has been working, and though we have +been sinful, He has given us a place and a power, mighty and awful. We +have received these not for our own glory, not that we should boast of +our dominion, not that we should gather tribute of gain and glory from +subject peoples, not even that we should carry to them the great +though lesser blessings of language, united order, peaceful commerce, +sway over brute nature, but that we should give them what will make +them men--Christ. + +We have a work to do, an awful work. To us all as Christians, to us +especially as citizens of this land and members of this race, to us +and to our brethren across the Atlantic the message comes, by our +history, our manners, etc., as plainly as if it were written in every +wave that beats around our coast. 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the +Lord.' + +II. God lays upon us special missionary work by the special +characteristics of the times. + +'Such a time as this!' Was there ever such a time? + +Look at the condition of heathenism. It is everywhere tottering. 'The +idols are on the beasts, Bel boweth down.' The grim gods sit half +famished already. There is a crack in every temple wall. +Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Brahminism--they are none of them +progressive. They are none of them vital. Think how only the Gospel +outleaps space and time. How all these systems are of time and +devoured by it, as Saturn eats his own children. They are of the +things that can be shaken, and their being shaken makes more certain +the remaining of the things that cannot be shaken. + +Look at the fields open. India, China, Japan, Africa, in a word, 'The +field is the world' in a degree in which it never was before. 'Such a +time'--a time of seething, and we can determine the cosmos; a plastic +time, and we can mould it; it is a deluge, push the ark boldly out and +ransom some. + +III. If we neglect the voice of God's providence, harm comes on us. + +The gifts unimproved are apt to be lost. One knows not all the +conditions on which England holds her sway, nor do we fathom the +strange way in which spiritual characteristics are inwrought with +material interests. But we believe in a providential government of the +world, and of this we may be very sure, that all advantages not used +for God are held by a very precarious tenure. + +The fact is that selfishness is the ruin of any people. When you have +a 'Christian' nation not using their position for God's glory, they +are using it for their own sakes; and that indicates a state of mind +which will lead to numberless other evils in their relation to men, +many of which have a direct tendency to rob them of their advantages. +For instance, a selfish nation will never hold conquests with a firm +grasp. If we do not bind subject peoples to us by benefits, we shall +repel them by hatreds. Think of India and its lessons, or of South +Africa and its. We have seen the tide of material prosperity ebb away +from many a nation and land, and I for my part believe in the Hand of +God in history, and believe that the tide follows the motions of the +heavens. + +The history of the Jewish people is not an exception to the laws of +God's government of the world, but a specimen of it. They who were +made a hearth in which the embers of divine truth were kept in a dark +world, when they began to think that they had the truth in order that +they might be different from other people, and forgot that they were +different from others in order that they might first preserve and then +impart the truth to all, lost the light and heat of it, stiffened into +formal hypocrisy and malice and all uncharitableness, and then the +Roman sword smote their national life in twain. + +Whatever is not used for God becomes a snare first, then injures the +possessors, and tends to destroy the possessors. The march of +Providence goes on. Its purposes will be effected. Whatever stands in +the way will be mowed remorselessly down, if need be. Helps that have +become hindrances will go. The kingdoms of this world will have to +fall; and if we are not helping and hasting the coming of the Lord we +shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The chariot rolls +on. For men and for nations there is only the choice of yoking +themselves to the car, and finding themselves borne along rather than +bearing it, and partaking the triumph, or of being crushed beneath its +awful wheels as they bound along their certain road, bearing Him who +rides 'forth prosperously because of truth and meekness and +righteousness.' + +IV. Though we be unfaithful, God's purpose of mercy to the world shall +be accomplished. + +'Deliverance and enlargement shall arise from another place.' So it is +certain that God from eternity has willed that all flesh should see +His salvation. He loves the heathen better than we do. Christ has died +not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. God hath +made of one blood all nations of men. The race is one in its need. The +race is one in its goal. The Gospel is fit for all men. The Gospel is +preached to all men. The Gospel shall yet be received by a world, and +from every corner of a believing earth will rise one roll of praise to +one Father, and the race shall be one in its hopes, one in its Lord, +one in faith, one in baptism, one in one God and Father of us all. +That grand unity shall certainly come. That true unity and fraternity +shall be realised. The blissful wave of the knowledge of the Lord +shall cover and hide and flow rejoicingly over all national +distinctions. 'In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and +with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.' + +This is as certain as the efficacy of a Saviour's blood can make it, +as certain as the universal adaptation and design of a preached Gospel +can make it, as certain as the oneness of human nature can make it, as +certain as the power of a Comforter who shall convince the world of +sin, of righteousness, and judgment can make it, as certain as the +misery of man can make it, as certain as the promises of God who +cannot lie can make it, as certain as His faithfulness who hangs the +rainbow in the heavens and enters into an everlasting covenant with +all the earth can make it. + +And this accumulation of certainties does not depend on the +faithfulness of men. In the width of that mighty result the failure of +some single agent may be eliminated. Nay, more, though all men failed, +God hath instruments, and will use them Himself, if need were. + +Only we may share the triumph and partake of the blessed result. +Decide for yourself, what share you will have in that marvellous day. +Let your work be such as that it shall abide. Stonehenge, cathedrals, +temples stand when all else has passed away. Work for God abides and +outlasts everything beside, and the smallest service for Him is only +made to flash forth light by the glorifying and revealing fires of +that awful day which will burn up the wood, the hay, and the stubble, +and flow with beautifying brightness and be flashed back with double +splendour from 'the gold, the silver, and the precious stones,' the +abiding workmanship of devout hearts in that everlasting tabernacle +which shall not be taken down, the ransomed souls builded together, +ransomed by our preaching, and 'builded up together for a temple of +God by the Spirit.' + + + +THE NET BROKEN + +'And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his +feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman +the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 4. +Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther +arose, and stood before the king, 5. And said, If it please the king, +and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right +before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to +reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the +Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the +king's provinces: 6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall +come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my +kindred? 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to +Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and +him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon +the Jews. 8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the +king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which +is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no +man reverse. 15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king +in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, +and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan +rejoiced and was glad. 16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, +and honour. 17. And in every province, and in every city, +whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had +joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of +the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon +them.'--ESTHER viii. 3-8,15-17. + + +The spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the +three persons appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but +acts unseen through them all. + +I. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of +the sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl +who had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and +was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the 'fierce light +that beats upon a throne,' like some flower culled in a shady nook and +set in a king's bosom, was true to her childhood's protector and to +her people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the +rapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of +Hadassah ('myrtle') well befits her, for she is clothed with +unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides +twine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman's courage which +is always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding +of her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an +audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in +literature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger +without shrinking, and front it without heroics: 'If I perish, I +perish!' + +The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a +despot's love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage +to-day, and to-morrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life +dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she +ventured, uninvited, into the king's presence. The womanly courage +that risks life for love's sake is nobler than the soldier's that +feels the lust of battle maddening him. + +Esther's words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what +seems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is +used by her in her former requests (chap. v. 8; vii. 3). But she adds +a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the +king's feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to +his estimate of what was fitting. 'If the thing seem right before the +king,' appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the +monarch's arbitrary will; 'and I be pleasing in his eyes,' drew him by +the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for +the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. +It was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be +reversed without hurting the king's dignity. And then with fine tact, +as well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her +personal influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by +appeals to his justice or royal duty, but to his love for her, which +surely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say that it was a low +motive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to +keep one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahasuerus's fault +that such a reason had more weight with him than nobler ones. It was +not Esther's that she used her power over him to carry her point. She +used the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be efficacious. +The purpose for which she used them is her justification. + +Esther may well teach her sisters to-day to be brave and gentle, to +use their influence over men for high purposes of public good, to be +the inspirers of their husbands, lovers, brothers, for all noble +thinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own, to +be the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to +their early associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish +sympathy with their nation so deep that they cannot 'endure to see the +evil that shall come unto them' without using all their womanly +influence to avert it. + +II. Ahasuerus plays a sorry part beside Esther. He knows no law but +his own will, and that is moved, not by conscience or reason, but by +ignoble passions and sensual desires. He tosses his subjects' lives as +trivial gifts to any who ask for them. Haman's wife knew that he had +only to 'speak to the king,' and Mordecai would be hanged; Haman had +no difficulty in securing the royal mandate for the murder of all the +Jews. Sated with the indulgence of low desires, he let all power slip +from his idle hands, and his manhood was rotted away by wallowing in +the pigsty of voluptuousness. But he was tenacious of the semblance of +authority, and demanded the appearance of abject submission from the +'servants' who were his masters. He yielded to Esther's prayer as +lightly as to Haman's plot. Whether the Jews were wiped out or not +mattered nothing to him, so long as he had no trouble in the affair. + +To shift all responsibility off his own shoulders on to somebody +else's was his one aim. He was as untrue to his duty when he gave his +signet to Mordecai, and bade him and Esther do as they liked, as when +he had given it to Haman. And with all this slothful indifference to +his duty, he was sensitive to etiquette, and its cobwebs held him whom +the cords of his royal obligations could not hold. It mattered not to +him that the edict which he allowed Mordecai to promulgate practically +lit the flames of civil war. He had washed his hands of the whole +business. + +It is a hideous picture of an Eastern despot, and has been said to be +unhistorical and unbelievable. But the world has seen many examples of +rulers whom the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power has +corrupted in like fashion. And others than rulers may take the warning +that to live to self is the mother of all sins and crimes; that no man +can safely make his own will and his own passions his guides; that +there is no slavery so abject as that of the man who is tyrannised by +his lower nature; that there is a temptation besetting us all to take +the advantages and neglect the duties of our position, and that to +yield to it is sure to end in moral ruin. We are all kings, even if +our kingdom be only our own selves, and we shall rule wisely only if +we rule as God's viceroys, and think more of duty than of delight. + +III. Mordecai is a kind of duplicate of Joseph, and embodies valuable +lessons. Contented acceptance of obscurity and neglect of his +services, faithfulness to his people and his God in the foul +atmosphere of such a court, wise reticence, patient discharge of small +duties, undoubting hope when things looked blackest fed by stedfast +faith in God, unchangedness of character and purpose when lifted to +supreme dignity, the use of influence and place, not for himself, but +for his people,--all these are traits which may be imitated in any +life. We should be the same men, whether we sit unnoticed among the +lackeys at the gate, or are bearing the brunt of the hatred of +powerful foes, or are clothed 'in royal apparel of blue and white, and +with a great crown of gold.' These gauds were nothing to Mordecai, and +earthly honours should never turn our heads. He valued power because +it enabled him to save his brethren, and we should cultivate the same +spirit. The political world, with its fierce struggles for personal +ends, its often disregard of the public good, and its use of place and +power for 'making a pile' or helping relations up, would be much the +better for some infusion of the spirit of Mordecai. + +IV. But we must not look only at the visible persons and forces. This +book of Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods +over it all, and is the real spring that moves the movers that are +seen. It is all a lesson of how God works out His purposes through men +that seem to themselves to be working out theirs. The king's criminal +abandonment to lust and luxury, Haman's meanly personal pique, +Esther's beauty, the fall of the favourite, the long past services of +Mordecai, even the king's sleepless night, are all threads in the web, +and God is the weaver. The story raises the whole question of the +standing miracle of the co-existence and co-operation of the divine +and the human. Man is free and responsible, God is sovereign and +all-pervading. He 'makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the +remainder thereof He girdeth Himself.' To-day, as then, He is working +out His deep designs through men whom He has raised up, though they +have not known Him. Amid the clash of contending interests and worldly +passions His solemn purpose steadily advances to its end, like the +irresistible ocean current, which persists through all storms that +agitate the surface, and draws them into the drift of its silent +trend. Ahasuerus, Haman, Esther, Mordecai, are His instruments, and +yet each of them is the doer of his or her deed, and has to answer to +Him for it. + + + + +THE BOOK OF JOB + + +SORROW THAT WORSHIPS + +'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return +thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the +name of the Lord.'--JOB i. 21. + + +This book of Job wrestles with the problem of the meaning of the +mystery of sorrow. Whether history or a parable, its worth is the +same, as tortured hearts have felt for countless centuries, and will +feel to the end. Perhaps no picture that was ever painted is grander +and more touching than that of the man of Uz, in the antique wealth +and happiness of his brighter days, rich, joyful, with his children +round him, living in men's honour, and walking upright before God. +Then come the dramatic completeness and suddenness of his great +trials. One day strips him of all, and stripped of all he rises to a +loftier dignity, for there is a majesty as well as an isolation in his +sorrow. + +How many spirits tossed by afflictions have found peace in these +words! How many quivering lips have tried to utter their grave, calm +accents! To how many of us are they hallowed by memories of times when +they stood between us and despair! + +They seem to me to say everything that can be said about our trials +and losses, to set forth the whole truth of the facts, and to present +the whole series of feelings with which good men may and should be +exercised. + +I. The vindication of sorrow. + +He 'rent his clothes'--the signs and tokens of inward desolation and +loss. + +It is worth our while to stay for one moment with the thought that we +are meant to feel grief. God sends sorrows in order that they may +pain. Sorrow has its manifold uses in our lives and on our hearts. It +is natural. That is enough. God set the fountain of tears in our +souls. We are bidden not to 'despise the chastening of the Lord.' It +is they who are 'exercised' thereby to whom the chastisement is +blessed. + +It is sanctioned by Christ. He wept. He bade the women of Jerusalem +weep for themselves and for their children. + +Religion does not destroy the natural emotions--sorrow as little as +any other. It guides, controls, curbs, comforts, and brings blessings +out of it. So do not aim at an impossible stoicism, but permit nature +to have its way, and look at the picture of this manly sorrow of +Job's--calm, silent, unless when stung by the undeserved reproaches of +these three 'orthodox liars for God,' and going to God and +worshipping. + +II. The recognition of loss and sorrow as the law of life. + +'Naked came I out of my mother's womb.' + +We need not dwell on the figure 'mother,' suggesting the grave as the +kindly mother's bosom that gathers us all in, and the thought that +perhaps gleams forth that death, too, is a kind of birth. + +But the truth picturesquely set forth is just the old and simple +one--that all possessions are transient. + +The naked self gets clothed and lapped round with possessions, but +they are all outside of it, apart from its individuality. It has been +without them. It will be without them. Death at the end will rob us of +them all. + +The inevitable law of loss is fixed and certain. We are losing +something every moment--not only possessions, but all our dearest ties +are knit but for a time, and sure to be snapped. They go, and then +after a while we go. + +The independence of each soul of all its possessions and relations is +as certain as the loss of them. They may go and we are made naked, but +still we exist all the same. We have to learn the hard lesson which +sounds so unfeeling, that we can live on in spite of all losses. +Nothing, no one, is necessary to us. + +All this is very cold and miserable; it is the standing point of law +and necessity. An atheist could say it. It is the beginning of the +Christian contemplation of life, but only the beginning. + +III. The recognition of God in the law. + +'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' That is a step far +beyond the former. To bring in the thought of _the Lord_ makes a +world of difference. + +The tendency is to look only at the second cause. In Job's case there +were two classes of agencies, men, Chaldeans and Sabeans, and natural +causes, fire and wind, but he did not stop with these. + +The grand corrective of that tendency lies in the full theistic idea, +that God is the sole cause of all. The immanence of Deity in all +things and events is our refuge from the soul-crushing tyranny of the +reign of law. + +That devout recognition of God in law is eminently to be made in +regard to death, as Job does in the text: 'The number of his months is +with Thee.' Death is not any more nor any less under His control than +all other human incidents are. It has no special sanctity, nor +abnormally close connection with His will, but it no more is exempt +from such connection than all the other events of life. The connection +is real. He opens the gate of the grave and no man shuts. He shuts, +and no man opens. + +Job did not forget the Lord's gifts even while he was writhing under +the stroke of His withdrawings. Alas! that it should so often need +sorrow to bear into our hearts that we owe all to Him, but even then, +if not before, it is well to remember how much good we have received +of the Lord, and the remembrance should not be 'a sorrow's crown of +sorrow,' but a thankful one. + +IV. The thankful resignation to God's loving administration of the +law. + +The preceding words might be said with mere submission to an +irresistible power, but this last sentence climbs to the highest of +the true Christian idea. It recognises in loss and sorrow a reason for +praise. + +Why? + +Because we may be sure that all loss is for our good. + +Because we may be sure that all loss is from a loving God. In loss of +dear ones, _our_ gain is in drawing nearer to God, in being +taught more to long for heaven. In our relation to them, a loftier +love, a hallowing of all the past. _Their_ gain is in their +entrance to heaven, and all the glory that they have reached. + +This blessing of God for loss is not inconsistent with sorrow, but +anticipates the future when we shall know all and bless Him for all. + + + +THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE + +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18. For He maketh sore, and +bindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole. 19. He shall +deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch +thee. 20. In famine He shall redeem thee from death: and in war from +the power of the sword. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the +tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. +22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be +afraid of the beasts of the earth. 23. For thou shalt be in league +with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at +peace with thee. 24. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be +in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 25. +Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring +as the grass of the earth. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full +age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. 27. Lo this, we +have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy +good.'--JOB v. 17-27. + + +The close of the Book of Job shows that his friends' speeches were +defective, and in part erroneous. They all proceeded on the assumption +that suffering was the fruit of sin--a principle which, though true in +general, is not to be unconditionally applied to specific cases. They +all forgot that good men might be exposed to it, not as punishment, +nor even as correction, but as trial, to 'know what was in their +hearts.' + +Eliphaz is the best of the three friends, and his speeches embody much +permanent truth, and rise, as in this passage, to a high level of +literary and artistic beauty. There are few lovelier passages in +Scripture than this glowing description of the prosperity of the man +who accepts God's chastisements; and, on the whole, the picture is +true. But the underlying belief in the uniform coincidence of inward +goodness and outward good needs to be modified by the deeper teaching +of the New Testament before it can be regarded as covering all the +facts of life. + +Eliphaz is gathering up, in our passage, the threads of his speech. He +bases upon all that he has been saying the exhortation to Job to be +thankful for his sorrows. With a grand paradox, he declares the man +who is afflicted to be happy. And therein he strikes an eternally true +note. It is good to be made to drink a cup of sorrow. Flesh calls pain +evil, but spirit knows it to be good. The list of our blessings is not +only written in bright inks, but many are inscribed in black. And the +reason why the sad heart should be a happy heart is because, as +Eliphaz believed, sadness is God's fatherly correction, intended to +better the subject of it. 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' says +the Epistle to the Hebrews, in full accord with Eliphaz. + +But his well-meant and true words flew wide of their mark, for two +reasons. They were chillingly didactic, and it is vinegar upon nitre +to stand over an agonised soul and preach platitudes in an +unsympathetic voice. And they assumed unusual sin in Job as the +explanation of his unparalleled pains, while the prologue tells us +that his sufferings were not fruits of his sin, but trials of his +righteousness. He was horrified at Job's words, which seemed to him +full of rebellion and irreverence; and he made no allowance for the +wild cries of an agonised heart when he solemnly warned the sufferer +against 'despising' God's chastening. A more sympathetic ear would +have detected the accent of faith in the groans. + +The collocation, in verse 18, of making sore and binding up, does not +merely express sequence, but also purpose. The wounding is in order to +healing. The wounds are merciful surgery; and their intention is +health, like the cuts that lay open an ulcer, or the scratches for +vaccination. The view of suffering in these two verses is not +complete, but it goes far toward completeness in tracing it to God, in +asserting its disciplinary intention, in pointing to the divine +healing which is meant to follow, and in exhorting to submission. We +may recall the beautiful expansion of that exhortation in Hebrews, +where 'faint not' is added to 'despise not,' so including the two +opposite and yet closely connected forms of misuse of sorrow, +according as we stiffen our wills against it, and try to make light of +it, or yield so utterly to it as to collapse. Either extreme equally +misses the corrective purpose of the grief. + +On this general statement follows a charming picture of the +blessedness which attends the man who has taken his chastisement +rightly. After the thunderstorm come sunshine and blue, and the song +of birds. But, lovely as it is, and capable of application in many +points to the life of every man who trustfully yields to God's will, +it must not be taken as a literally and absolutely true statement of +God's dealings with His children. If so regarded, it would hopelessly +be shattered against facts; for the world is full of instances of +saintly men and women who have not experienced in their outward lives +such sunny calm and prosperity stretching to old age as are here +promised. Eliphaz is not meant to be the interpreter of the mysteries +of Providence, and his solution is decisively rejected at the close. +But still there is much in this picture which finds fulfilment in all +devout lives in a higher sense than his intended meaning. + +The first point is that the devout soul is exempt from calamities +which assail those around it. These are such as are ordinarily in +Scripture recognised as God's judgments upon a people. Famine and war +devastate, but the devout soul abides in peace, and is satisfied. Now +it is not true that faith and submission make a wall round a man, so +that he escapes from such calamities. In the supernatural system of +the Old Testament such exemptions were more usual than with us, though +this very Book of Job and many a psalm show that devout hearts had +even then to wrestle with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked +and the indiscriminate fall of widespread calamities on the good and +bad. + +But in its deepest sense (which, however, is not Eliphaz's sense) the +faithful man is saved from the evils which he, in common with his +faithless neighbour, experiences. Two men are smitten down by the same +disease, or lie dying on a battlefield, shattered by the same shell, +and the one receives the fulfilment of the promise, 'there shall no +evil touch thee,' and the other does not. For the evil in the evil is +all sucked out of it, and the poison is wiped off the arrow which +strikes him who is united to God by faith and submission. Two women +are grinding at the same millstone, and the same blow kills them both; +but the one is delivered, and the other is not. They who pass through +an evil, and are not drawn away from God by it, but brought nearer to +Him, are hid from its power. To die may be our deliverance from death. + +Eliphaz's promises rise still higher in verses 22 and 23, in which is +set forth a truth that in its deepest meaning is of universal +application. The wild beasts of the earth and the stones of the field +will be in league with the man who submits to God's will. Of course +the beasts come into view as destructive, and the stones as injuring +the fertility of the fields. There is, probably, allusion to the story +of Paradise and the Fall. Man's relation to nature was disturbed by +sin; it will be rectified by his return to God. Such a doctrine of the +effects of sin in perverting man's relation to creatures runs all +through Scripture, and is not to be put aside as mere symbolism. + +But the large truth underlying the words here is that, if we are +servants of God, we are masters of everything. 'All things work +together for good to them that love God.' All things serve the soul +that serves God; as, on the other hand, all are against him that does +not, and 'the stars in their courses fight against' those who fight +against Him. All things are ours, if we are Christ's. The many +mediaeval legends of saints attended by animals, from St. Jerome +and his lion downwards to St. Francis preaching to the birds, echo the +thoughts here. A gentle, pure soul, living in amity with dumb +creatures, has wonderful power to attract them. They who are at peace +with God can scarcely be at war with any of God's creatures. +Gentleness is stronger than iron bands. 'Cords of love' draw most +surely. + +Peace and prosperity in home and possessions are the next blessings +promised (ver. 24). 'Thou shalt visit [look over] thy household, and +shalt miss nothing.' No cattle have strayed or been devoured by evil +beasts, or stolen, as all Job's had been. Alas! Eliphaz knew nothing +about commercial crises, and the great system of credit by which one +scoundrel's fall may bring down hundreds of good men and patient +widows, who look over their possessions and find nothing but worthless +shares. Yet even for those who find all at once that the herd is cut +off from the stall, their tabernacle may still be in peace, and though +the fold be empty they may miss nothing, if in the empty place they +find God. That is what Christians may make out of the words; but it is +not what was originally meant by them. + +In like manner the next blessing, that of a numerous posterity, does +not depend on moral or religious condition, as Eliphaz would make out, +and in modern days is not always regarded as a blessing. But note the +singular heartlessness betrayed in telling Job, all whose flocks and +herds had been carried off, and his children laid dead in their +festival chamber, that abundant possessions and offspring were the +token of God's favour. The speaker seems serenely unconscious that he +was saying anything that could drive a knife into the tortured man. He +is so carried along on the waves of his own eloquence, and so absorbed +in stringing together the elements of an artistic whole, that he +forgets the very sorrows which he came to comfort. There are not a few +pious exhorters of bleeding hearts who are chargeable with the same +sin. The only hand that will bind up without hurting is a hand that is +sympathetic to the finger-tips. No eloquence or poetic beauty or +presentation of undeniable truths will do as substitutes for that. + +The last blessing promised is that which the Old Testament places so +high in the list of good things--long life. The lovely metaphor in +which that promise is couched has become familiar to us all. The ripe +corn gathered into a sheaf at harvest-time suggests festival rather +than sadness. It speaks of growth accomplished, of fruit matured, of +the ministries of sun and rain received and used, and of a joyful +gathering into the great storehouse. There is no reference in the +speech to the uses of the sheaf after it is harvested, but we can +scarcely avoid following its history a little farther than the 'grave' +which to Eliphaz seems the garner. Are all these matured powers to +have no field for action? Were all these miracles of vegetation set in +motion only in order to grow a crop which should be reaped, and there +an end? What is to be done with the precious fruit which has taken so +long time and so much cultivation to grow? Surely it is not the +intention of the Lord of the harvest to let it rot when it has been +gathered. Surely we are grown here and ripened and carried hence for +something. + +But that is not in our passage. This, however, may be drawn from +it--that maturity does not depend on length of days; and, however +Eliphaz meant to promise long life, the reality is that the devout +soul may reckon on complete life, whether it be long or short. God +will not call His children home till their schooling is done; and, +however green and young the corn may seem to our eyes, He knows which +heads in the great harvest-field are ready for removal, and gathers +only these. The child whose little coffin may be carried under a boy's +arm may be ripe for harvesting. Not length of days, but likeness to +God, makes maturity; and if we die according to the will of God, it +cannot but be that we shall come to our grave in a full age, whatever +be the number of years carved on our tombstones. + +The speech ends with a somewhat self-complacent exhortation to the +poor, tortured man: 'We have searched it, so it is.' We wise men +pledge our wisdom and our reputation that this is true. Great is +authority. An ounce of sympathy would have done more to commend the +doctrine than a ton of dogmatic self-confidence. 'Hear it, and know +thou it for thyself.' Take it into thy mind. Take it into thy mind and +heart, and take it for thy good. It was a frosty ending, exasperating +in its air of patronage, of superior wisdom, and in its lack of any +note of feeling. So, of course, it set Job's impatience alight, and +his next speech is more desperate than his former. When will +well-meaning comforters learn not to rub salt into wounds while they +seem to be dressing them? + + + +TWO KINDS OF HOPE + +'Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's +web.'--JOB viii. 14. + +'And hope maketh not ashamed.'--ROMANS v. 5. + + +These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of +Job's friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with +partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the +ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the +splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which +the well-worn platitude is draped. The spider's web stretched +glittering in the dewy morning on the plants, shaking its threaded +tears in the wind, the flag in the dry bed of a nullah withering while +yet green, the wall on which leaning a man will fall, are vivid +illustrations of hopes that collapse and fail. But my other text has +to do with hopes that do not fail. Paul thinks that he knows of hope +that maketh not ashamed, that is, which never disappoints. Bildad was +right if he was thinking, as he was, of hopes fixed on earth; the +Apostle was right, for he was thinking of hopes set on God. It is a +commonplace that 'hope springs immortal in the human breast'; it is +equally a commonplace that hopes are disappointed. What is the +conclusion from these two universal experiences? Is it the cynical one +that it is all illusion, or is it that somewhere there must be an +object on which hope may twine its tendrils without fear? God has +given the faculty, and we may be sure that it is not given to be for +ever balked. We must hope. Our hope may be our worst enemy; it may and +should be our purest joy. + +Let us then simply consider these two sorts of hope, the earthly and +the heavenly, in their working in the three great realms of life, +death, and eternity. + +I. In life. + +The faculty is inseparable from man's consciousness of immortality and +of an indefinitely expansible nature which ever makes him discontented +with the present. It has great purposes to perform in strengthening +him for work, in helping him over sorrows, in making him buoyant and +elastic, in painting for him the walls of the dungeon, and hiding for +him the weight of the fetters. + +But for what did he receive this great gift? Mainly that he might pass +beyond the temporal and hold converse with the skies. Its true sphere +is the unseen future which is at God's right hand. + +We may run a series of antitheses, _e.g._-- + +Earthly hope is so uncertain that its larger part is often fear. + +Heavenly hope is fixed and sure. It is as certain as history. + +Earthly hope realised is always less blessed than we expected. How +universal the experience that there is little to choose between a +gratified and a frustrated hope! The wonders inside the caravan are +never so wonderful as the canvas pictures outside. + +Heavenly hopes ever surpass the most rapturous anticipation. 'The half +hath not been told.' + +Earthly hopes are necessarily short-winged. They are settled one way +or another, and sink hull down below our horizon. + +Heavenly hope sets its object far off, and because a lifetime only +attains it in part, it blesses a lifetime and outlasts it. + +II. Hope in death. + +That last hour ends for us all alike our earthly joys and relations. +The slow years slip away, and each bears with it hopes that have been +outlived, whether fulfilled or disappointed. One by one the lights +that we kindle in our hall flicker out, and death quenches the last of +them. But there is one light that burns on clear through the article +of death, like the lamp in the magician's tomb. 'The righteous hath +hope in his death.' We can each settle for ourselves whether we shall +carry that radiant angel with her white wings into the great darkness, +or shall sadly part with her before we part with life. To the earthly +soul that last earthly hour is a black wall beyond which it cannot +look. To the God-trusting soul the darkness is peopled with +bright-faced hopes. + +III. Hope in eternity. + +It is not for our tongues to speak of what must, in the natural +working out of consequences, be the ultimate condition of a soul which +has not set its hopes on the God who alone is the right Object of the +blessed but yet awful capacity of hoping, when all the fleeting +objects which it sought as solace and mask of its own true poverty are +clean gone from its grasp. Dante's tremendous words are more than +enough to move wholesome horror in any thinking soul: 'Leave hope +behind, all ye who enter here.' They are said to be unfeeling, grim, +and mediaeval, incredible in this enlightened age; but is there any +way out of them, if we take into account what our nature is moulded to +need and cling to, and what 'godless' men have done with it? + +But let us turn to the brighter of these texts. 'Hope maketh not +ashamed.' There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power, +purity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out +after completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that +calm state where time will be no more, 'to-morrow shall be as this day +and much more abundant,' and the angel Hope, who kept us company +through all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only +having laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but +retaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders +which gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh. + + + +JOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER + +'If a man die, shall he live again?'--JOB xiv. 14. + +'... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, +though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26. And whosoever liveth and +believeth in Me shall never die.'--JOHN xi. 25, 26. + + +Job's question waited long for an answer. Weary centuries rolled away; +but at last the doubting, almost despairing, cry put into the mouth of +the man of sorrows of the Old Testament is answered by the Man of +Sorrows of the New. The answer in words is this second text which may +almost be supposed to allude to the ancient question. The answer, in +fact, is the resurrection of Christ. Apart from this answer there is +none. + +So we may take these two texts to help us to grasp more clearly and +feel more profoundly what the world owes to that great fact which we +are naturally led to think of to-day. + +I. The ancient and ever returning question. + +The Book of Job is probably a late part of the Old Testament. It deals +with problems which indicate some advance in religious thought. Solemn +and magnificent, and for the most part sad; it is like a Titan +struggling with large problems, and seldom attaining to positive +conclusions in which the heart or the head can rest in peace. Here all +Job's mind is clouded with a doubt. He has just given utterance to an +intense longing for a life beyond the grave. His abode in Sheol is +thought of as in some sense a breach in the continuity of his +consciousness, but even that would be tolerable, if only he could be +sure that, after many days, God would remember him. Then that longing +gives way before the torturing question of the text, which dashes +aside the tremulous hope with its insistent interrogation. It is not +denial, but it is a doubt which palsies hope. But though he has no +certainty, he cannot part with the possibility, and so goes on to +imagine how blessed it would be if his longing were fulfilled. He +thinks that such a renewed life would be like the 'release' of a +sentry who had long stood on guard; he thinks of it as his swift, +joyous 'answer' to God's summons, which would draw him out from the +sad crowd of pale shadows and bring him back to warmth and reality. +His hope takes a more daring flight still, and he thinks of God as +yearning for His creature, as His creature yearns for Him, and having +'a desire to the work of His hands,' as if His heaven would be +incomplete without His servant. But the rapture and the vision pass, +and the rest of the chapter is all clouded over, and the devout hope +loses its light. Once again it gathers brightness in the twenty-first +chapter, where the possibility flashes out starlike, that 'after my +skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God.' + +These fluctuations of hope and doubt reveal to us the attitude of +devout souls in Israel at a late era of the national life. And if they +show us their high-water mark, we need not suppose that similar souls +outside the Old Testament circle had solid certainty where these had +but a variable hope. We know how large a development the doctrine of a +future life had in Assyria and in Egypt, and I suppose we are entitled +to say that men have always had the idea of a future. They have always +had the thought, sometimes as a fear, sometimes as a hope, but never +as a certainty. It has lacked not only certainty but distinctness. It +has lacked solidity also, the power to hold its own and sustain itself +against the weighty pressure of intrusive things seen and temporal. + +But we need not go to the ends of the earth or to past generations for +examples of a doubting, superficial hold of the truth that man lives +through death and after it. We have only to look around us, and, alas! +we have only to look within us. This age is asking the question again, +and answering it in many tones, sometimes of indifferent disregard, +sometimes flaunting a stark negative without reasoned foundation, +sometimes with affirmatives with as little reason as these negatives. +The modern world is caught in the rush and whirl of life, has its own +sorrows to front, its own battles to fight, and large sections of it +have never come as near an answer to Job's question as Job did. + +II. Christ's all-sufficing answer. + +He gave it there, by the grave of Lazarus, to that weeping sister, but +He spoke these great words of calm assurance to all the world. One +cannot but note the difference between His attitude in the presence of +the great Mystery and that of all other teachers. How calmly, +certainly, and confidently He speaks! + +Mark that Jesus, even at that hour of agony, turns Martha's thoughts +to Himself. What He is is the all-important thing for her to know. If +she understands Him, life and death will have no insoluble problems +nor any hopelessness for her. 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.' +She had risen in her grief to a lofty height in believing that 'even +now'--at this moment when help is vain and hope is dead--'whatsoever +thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee,' but Jesus offers to her +a loftier conception of Him when He lays a sovereign hand on +resurrection and life, and discloses that both inhere in Him, and from +Him flow to all who shall possess them. He claims to have in Himself +the fountain of life, in all possible senses of the word, as well as +in the special sense relevant at that sad hour. Further, He tells +Martha that by faith in Him any and all may possess that life. And +then He majestically goes on to declare that the life which He gives +is immune from, and untouched by, death. The believer shall live +though he dies, the living believer shall never die. It is clear that, +in these two great statements, to die is used in two different +meanings, referring in the former case to the physical fact, and in +the latter carrying a heavier weight of significance, namely the +pregnant sense which it usually has in this Gospel, of separation from +God and consequently from the true life of the soul. Physical death is +not the termination of human life. The grim fact touches only the +surface life, and has nothing to do with the essential, personal +being. He that believes on Jesus, and he only, truly lives, and his +union with Jesus secures his possession of that eternal life, which +victoriously persists through the apparent, superficial change which +men call death. Nothing dies but the death which surrounds the +faithful soul. For it to die is to live more fully, more triumphantly, +more blessedly. So though the act of physical death remains, its whole +character is changed. Hence the New Testament euphemisms for death are +much more than euphemisms. Men christen it by names which drape its +ugliness, because they fear it so much, but Faith can play with +Leviathan, because it fears it not at all. Hence such names as +'sleep,' 'exodus,' are tokens of the victory won for all believers by +Jesus. He will show Martha the hope for all His followers which begins +to dawn even in the calling of her brother back from the grip of +death. And He shows us the great truth that His being the 'Life' +necessarily involved His being also the 'Resurrection,' for His +life-communicating work could not be accomplished till His +all-quickening vitality had flowed over into, and flooded with its own +conquering tides, not only the spirit which believes but its humble +companion, the soul, and its yet humbler, the body. A bodily life is +essential to perfect manhood, and Jesus will not stay His hand till +every believer is full-summed in all his powers, and is perfect in +body, soul, and spirit, after the image of Him who redeemed Him. + +III. The pledge for the truth of the answer. + +The words of Jesus are only words. These precious words, spoken to +that one weeping sister in a little Jewish village, and which have +brought hope to millions ever since, are as baseless as all the other +dreams and longings of the heart, unless Jesus confirms them by fact. +If He did not rise from the dead, they are but another of the noble, +exalted, but futile delusions of which the world has many others. If +Christ be not risen, His words of consolation are swelling words of +emptiness; His whole claims are ended, and the age-old question which +Job asked is unanswered still, and will always remain unanswered. If +Christ be not risen, the hopeless colloquy between Jehovah and the +prophet sums up all that can be said of the future life: 'Son of man, +can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, Thou knowest!' + +But Christ's resurrection is a fact which, taken in connection with +His words while on earth, endorses these and establishes His claims to +be the Declarer of the name of God, the Saviour of the world. It gives +us demonstration of the continuity of life through and after death. +Taken along with His ascension, which is but, so to speak, the +prolongation of the point into a line, it declares that a glorified +body and an abode in a heavenly home are waiting for all who by faith +become here partakers in Jesus and are quickened by sharing in His +life. + +So in despite of sense and doubt and fear, notwithstanding teachers +who, like the supercilious philosophers on Mars Hill, mock when they +hear of a resurrection from the dead, we should rejoice in the great +light which has shined into the region of the shadow of death, we +should clasp His divine and most faithful answer to that old, +despairing question, as the anchor of our souls, and lift up our +hearts in thanksgiving in the triumphant challenge, 'O death! where is +thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?' + + + +KNOWLEDGE AND PEACE + +'Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall +come unto thee.'--JOB xxii. 21. + + +In the sense in which the speaker meant them, these words are not +true. They mean little more than 'It pays to be religious.' What kind +of notion of acquaintance with God Eliphaz may have had, one scarcely +knows, but at any rate, the whole meaning of the text on his lips is +poor and selfish. + +The peace promised is evidently only outward tranquillity and freedom +from trouble, and the good that is to come to Job is plainly mere +worldly prosperity. This strain of thought is expressed even more +clearly in that extraordinary bit of bathos, which with solemn irony +the great dramatist who wrote this book makes this Eliphaz utter +immediately after the text, 'The Almighty shall be thy defence +and--thou shalt have plenty of silver!' It has not been left for +commercial Englishmen to recommend religion on the ground that it +produces successful merchants and makes the best of both worlds. + +These friends of Job's all err in believing that suffering is always +and only the measure of sin, and that you can tell a man's great guilt +by observing his great sorrows. And so they have two main subjects on +which they preach at their poor friend, pouring vitriol into his +wounds: first, how wicked he must be to be so haunted by sorrows; +second, how surely he will be delivered if he will only be religious +after their pattern, that is, speak platitudes of conventional +devotion and say, I submit. + +This is the meaning of our text as it stands. But we may surely find a +higher sense in which it is true and take that to heart. + +I. What is acquainting oneself with God? + +The first thing to note is that this acquaintance depends on us. So +then there must have been a previous objective manifestation on His +part. Of course there must be a God to know, and there must be a way +of knowing Him. For us Jesus Christ is the Revealer. What men know of +God apart from Him is dim, shadowy, indistinct; it lacks certainty, +and so is not knowledge. I venture to say that there is nothing +between cultivated men and the loss of certain knowledge of God and +conviction of His Being, but the historical revelation of Jesus +Christ. The Christ reveals the inmost character of God, and that not +in words but in deeds. Without Him no man knows God; 'No man knoweth +the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.' + +So then the objective revelation having been made, we must on our part +embrace that revelation as ours. The act of so accepting begins with +the familiar act of faith, which includes both an exercise of the +understanding, as it embraces the facts of Christ's revelation of the +Father, and of the will as it casts itself upon and submits to Him. +But that exercise of faith is but the point which has to be drawn out +into a golden line, woven into the whole length of a life. And it is +in the continuity of that line that the average Christian so sadly +fails, and because of that failure his acquaintance with God is so +distant. How little time or thought we give to the character of God as +revealed in Jesus Christ! We must be on intimate terms with Him. To +know God, as to know a man, we must 'live with' Him, must summer and +winter with Him, must bring Him into the pettinesses of daily life, +must let our love set to Him, must be in sympathy with Him, our wills +being tuned to make harmony with His, our whole nature being in accord +with His. That is work more than enough for a lifetime, enough to task +it, enough to bless it. + +II. The peace of acquaintance with God. + +Eliphaz meant nothing more than mere earthly tranquillity and +exemption from trouble, but his words are true in a far loftier +region. + +Knowledge of God as He really is brings peace, because His heart is +full of love. We do but need to know the actual state of the heart of +God towards us to be lapped and folded in peace that nothing outside +of God and ourselves can destroy. If we lived under the constant +benediction of the deepest truth in the universe, 'God is love,' our +peace would be full. That is enough, if we believe it to bring peace. +The thought of God which alarms and terrifies cannot be a true +thought. But, alas! in proportion as we know ourselves, it becomes +difficult to believe that God is love. The stings of conscience hiss +prophecies to us of that in God which cannot but be antagonistic to +that in us which conscience condemns. Only when our thought of God is +drawn from the revelation of Him in Jesus Christ, does it become +possible for any man to grasp in one act of his consciousness the +conviction, I am a sinner, and the conquering conviction, God is Love, +and only Love to me. So the old exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with +God and be at peace,' comes to be in Christian language: 'Behold God +in Jesus, and thou shalt possess the peace of God to keep thy heart +and mind.' + +Knowledge of God gives peace, because in it we find the satisfaction +of our whole nature. Thereby we are freed from the unrest of +tumultuous passions and storms of self-will. The internecine war +between the better and the worse selves within ceases to rage, and +when we have become God's friends, that in us which is meant to rule +rules, and that in us which is meant to serve serves, and the inner +kingdom is no longer torn asunder but is harmonised with itself. + +Knowledge of God brings peace amid all changes, for he who has God for +his continual Companion draws little of his supplies from without, and +can be tranquil when the seas roar and are troubled and the mountains +are cast into the midst of the sea. He bears all his treasures with +him, and need fear no loss of any real good. And at last the angel of +peace will lead us through the momentary darkness and guide us, after +a passing shadow on our path, into 'the land of peace wherein we +trusted,' while yet in the land of warfare. Jesus still whispers the +ancient salutation with which He greeted the company in the upper room +on the evening of the day of resurrection, as He comes to His servants +here, and it will be His welcome to them when He receives them above. + +III. The true good from acquaintance with God. + +As we have already said, Eliphaz was only thinking, on Old Testament +lines, that prosperity in material things was the theocratic reward of +allegiance to Jehovah. He was rubbing vitriol into Job's sores, and +avowedly regarding him as a fear-inspiring instance of the converse +principle. But we have a better meaning breathed into his words, since +Jesus has taught us what is the true good for a man all the days of +his life. Acquaintance with God is, not merely procures, good. To know +Him, to clasp Him to our hearts as our Friend, our Infinite Lover, our +Source of all peace and joy, to mould our wills to His and let Him +dominate our whole selves, to seek our wellbeing in Him alone--what +else or more can a soul need to be filled with all good? Acquaintance +with God brings Him in all His sufficiency to inhabit else empty +hearts. It changes the worst, according to the judgment of sense, into +the best, transforming sorrow into loving discipline, interpreting its +meaning, fitting us to 'bear it, and securing to us its blessings. To +him that is a friend of God, + + 'All is right that seems most wrong + If it be His sweet will.' + +To be acquainted with God is the quintessence of good. 'This is life +eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou +hast sent.' + + + +WHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE + +'For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift +up thy face unto God. 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He +shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. 28. Thou shalt also +decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light +shall shine upon thy ways. 29. When men are cast down, then thou shalt +say, ... lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.'--JOB xxii. +26-29. + + +These words are a fragment of one of the speeches of Job's friends, in +which the speaker has been harping on the old theme that affliction is +the consequence and evidence of sin. He has much ado to square his +theory with facts, and especially with the fact which brought him to +Job's dunghill. But he gets over the difficulty by the simple method +of assuming that, since his theory must be true, there must be unknown +facts which vindicate it in Job's case; and since affliction is a sign +of sin, Job's afflictions are proof that he has been a sinner. So he +charges him with grossest crimes, without a shadow of other reason; +and after having poured this oil of vitriol into his wounds by way of +consolation, he advises him to be good, on the decidedly low and +selfish ground that it will pay. + +His often-quoted exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with God, and be at +peace: thereby good shall come unto thee,' is, in his meaning of it, +an undisguised appeal to purely selfish considerations, and its +promise is not in accordance with facts. Whether that saying is noble +and true or ignoble and false, depends on the meanings attached to +'peace' and 'good.' A similar flaw mars the words of our text, as +understood by the speaker. But they can be raised to a higher level +than that on which he placed them, and regarded as describing the +sweet and wonderful prerogatives of the devout life. So understood, +they may rebuke and stimulate and encourage us to make our lives +conformed to the ideal here. + +I. I note, first, that life may be full of delight and confidence in +God. + +'Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty, and shalt lift up +thy face unto God.' Now when we 'delight' in a thing or a person, we +recognise that that thing, or person, fits into a cleft in our hearts, +and corresponds to some need in our natures. We not only recognise its +good, sweetness, and adaptation to ourselves, but we actually possess +in real fruition the sweetness that we recognise, and the good which +we apprehend in it. And so these things, the recognition of the +supreme sweetness and all-perfect adaptation and sufficiency of God to +all that I need; the suppression of tastes and desires which may +conflict with that sweetness, and the actual enjoyment and fruition of +the sweetness and preciousness which I apprehend--these things are the +very heart of a man's religion. Without delight in God, there is no +real religion. + +The bulk of men are so sunken and embruted in animal tastes and +sensuous desires and fleeting delights, that they have no care for the +pure and calm joys which come to those who live near God. But above +these stand the men, of whom there are a good many amongst us, whose +religion is a matter of fear or of duty or of effort. And above them +there stand the men who serve because they trust God, but whose +religion is seeking rather than finding, and either from deficient +consecration or from false conceptions of Him and of their relation to +Him, is overshadowed by an unnatural and unwholesome gloom. And all +these kinds of religion, the religion of fear, of duty, of effort, of +seeking, and of doubt fighting with faith, are at the best wofully +imperfect, and are, some of them, radically erroneous types of the +religious life. He is the truly devout man who not only knows God to +be great and holy, but feels Him to be sweet and sufficient; who not +only fears, but loves; who not only seeks and longs, but possesses; +or, in one word, true religion is delighting in God. + +So herein is supplied a very sharp test for us. Do our tastes and +inclinations set towards Him, and is He better to us than anything +beside? Is God to me my dearest faith, the very home of my heart, to +which I instinctively turn? Is the brightness of my day the light of +His face? Is He the gladness of my joy? Is my Christianity a +mill-horse round of service that I am not glad to render? Do I worship +because I think it is duty, and are my prayers compulsory and +mechanical; or do I worship because my heart goes out to Him? And is +my life calm and sweet because I 'delight in the Lord'? + +The next words of my text will help us to answer. 'Thou shalt lift up +thy face unto God.' That is a clear enough metaphor to express frank +confidence of approach to Him. The head hangs down in the +consciousness of demerit and sin. 'Mine iniquities have taken hold +upon me,' wailed the Psalmist, 'so that I am not able to look up.' But +it is possible for men to go into God's presence with a sense of +peace, and to hold up their heads before their Judge and look Him in +the eyes and not be afraid. And unless we have that confidence in Him, +not because of our merits, but because of His certain love, there will +be no 'delight in the Lord.' And there will be no such confidence in +Him unless we have 'access with confidence by faith' in that Christ +who has taken away our sins, and prepared the way for us into the +Father's presence, and by whose death and sacrifice, and by it alone, +we sinful men, with open face and uplifted foreheads, can stand to +receive upon our visage the full beams of His light, and expatiate and +be glad therein. There is no religion worth naming, of which the +inmost characteristic is not delight in God. There is no 'delighting +in God' possible for sinful men unless they can come to Him with frank +confidence, and there is no such confidence possible for us unless we +apprehend by faith, and thereby make our own, the great work of Jesus +Christ our Lord. + +II. So, secondly, note, such a life of delighting in God will be +blessed by the frankest intercourse with Him. + +'Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou +shalt pay thy vows.' These are three stages of this blessed communion +that is possible for men. And note, prayer is not regarded in this +aspect as duty, nor is it even dwelt upon as privilege, but as being +the natural outcome and issue of that delighting in God and confident +access to Him which have preceded. That is to say, if a man really has +set his heart on God, and knows that in Him is all that he needs, +then, of course, he will tell Him everything. As surely as the +sunshine draws out the odours from the opening petals of the flowers, +will the warmth of the felt divine light and love draw from our hearts +the sweet confidence, which it is impossible not to give to Him in +whom we delight. + +If you have to be driven to prayer by a sense of duty, and if there be +no impulse in your heart whispering ever to you, 'Tell your Love about +it!' you have much need to examine into the reality, and certainly +into the depth of your religion. For as surely as instinctive impulse, +which needs no spurring from conscience or will, leads us to breathe +our confidences to those that we love best, and makes us restless +whilst we have a secret hid from them, so surely will a true love to +God make it the most natural thing in the world to put all our +circumstances, wants, and feeling into the shape of prayers. They may +be in briefest words. They may scarcely be vocalised at all, but there +will be, if there be a true love to Him, an instinctive turning to Him +in every circumstance; and the single-worded cry, if it be no more, +for help is sufficient. The arrow may be shot towards Heaven, though +it be but slender and short, and it will reach its goal. + +For my text goes on to the second stage, 'He shall hear thee.' That +was not true as Eliphaz meant it. But it is true if we remember the +preceding conditions. The fundamental passage, which I suppose +underlies part, at least, of our text, is that great word in the +psalm, 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the +desires of thine heart.' Does that mean that if a man loves God he may +get everything he wants? Yes! and No! If it is supposed to mean that +our religion is a kind of key to God's storehouse, enabling us to go +in there and rifle it at our pleasure, then it is not true; if it +means that a man who delights himself in God will have his supreme +desire set upon God, and so will be sure to get it, then it is true. +Fulfil the conditions and you are sure of the promise. If our prayer +in its deepest essence be 'Not my will, but Thine,' it will be +answered. When the desires of our heart are for God, and for +conformity to His will, as they will be when we 'delight ourselves in +Him,' then we get our heart's desires. There is no promise of our +being able to impose our wills upon God, which would be a calamity, +and not a blessing, but a promise that they who make Him their joy and +their desire will never be defrauded of their desire nor robbed of +their joy. + +And so the third stage of this frank intercourse comes. 'Thou shalt +pay thy vows.' All life may become a thank-offering to God for the +benefits that have flowed unceasing from His hands. First a prayer, +then the answer, then the rendered thank-offering. Thus, in swift +alternation and reciprocity, is carried on the commerce between Heaven +and earth, between man and God. The desires rise to Heaven, but Heaven +comes down to earth first; and prayer is not the initial stage, but +the second, in the process. God first gives His promise, and the best +prayer is the catching up of God's promise and tossing it back again +whence it came. Then comes the second downward motion, which is the +answer to prayer, in blessing, and on it follows, finally, the +reflection upwards, in thankful surrender and service, of the love +that has descended on us, in answer to our desires. So like sunbeams +from a mirror, or heat from polished metal, backwards and forwards, in +continual alternation and reciprocation of influence and of love, +flash and travel bright gleams between the soul and God. 'Truth +springs out of the earth, and righteousness looks down from Heaven. +Our God shall give that which is good, and the earth shall yield her +increase.' Is there any other life of which such alternation is the +privilege and the joy? + +III. Then thirdly, such a life will neither know failure nor darkness. + +'Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto +thee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways.' Then is my will to be +omnipotent, and am I to be delivered from the experiences of +disappointments and failures and frustrated plans that are common to +all humanity, and an essential part of its discipline, because I am a +Christian man? Eliphaz may have meant that, but we know something far +nobler. Again, I say, remember the conditions precedent. First of all, +there must be the delight in God, and the desire towards Him, the +submission of the will to Him, and the waiting before Him for +guidance. I decree a thing--if I am a true Christian, and in the +measure in which I am--only when I am quite sure that God has decreed +it. And it is only His decrees, registered in the chancery of my will, +of which I may be certain that they shall be established. There will +be no failures to the man whose life's purpose is to serve God, and to +grow like Him; but if our purpose is anything less than that, or if we +go arbitrarily and self-willedly resolving and saying, 'Thus I will; +thus I command; let my will stand instead of all reason,' we shall +have our contemptuous 'decrees' disestablished many a time. If we run +our heads against stone walls in that fashion, the walls will stand, +and our heads will be broken. To serve Him and to fall into the line +of His purpose, and to determine nothing, nor obstinately want +anything until we are sure that it is His will--that is the secret of +never failing in what we undertake. + +We must understand a little more deeply than we are apt to do what is +meant by 'success,' before we predict unfailing success for any man. +But if we have obeyed the commandment from the psalm already quoted, +which may be again alluded to in the words of my text--'Commit thy way +unto the Lord; trust also in Him'--we shall inherit the ancient +promise, 'and He shall bring it to pass.' 'All things work together +for good to them that love God,' and in the measure of our love to Him +are our discernment and realisation of what is truly good. Religion +gives no screen to keep the weather off us, but it gives us an insight +into the truth that storms and rain are good for the only crop that is +worth growing here. If we understand what we are here for, we shall be +very slow to call sorrow evil, and to crown joy with the exclusive +title of blessing and good; and we shall have a deeper canon of +interpretation for the words of my text than he who is represented as +speaking them ever dreamed of. + +So with the promise of light to shine upon our paths. It is 'the light +which never was on sea or land,' and not the material light which +sense-bound eyes can see. That may all go. But if we have God in our +hearts, there will be a light upon our way 'which knows no +variableness, neither shadow of turning.' The Arctic winter, sunless +though it be, has a bright heaven radiant with myriad stars, and +flashing with strange lights born of no material or visible orb. And +so you and I, if we delight ourselves 'in the Lord,' will have an +unsetting sun to light our paths; 'and at eventide,' and in the +mirkest midnight, 'there will be light' in the darkness. + +IV. Lastly, such a life will be always hopeful, and finally crowned +with deliverance. + +'When they'--that is, the ways that he has been speaking about--'when +they are cast down, thou shalt say, Lifting up.' That is an +exclamation or a prayer, and we might simply render, 'thou shalt say, +Up!' Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come +when the path plunges downwards into some 'valley of the shadow of +death.' But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. He will +in his heart say 'Up!' even while sense says 'Down!' either as +expressing indomitable confidence and good cheer in the face of +depressing circumstances, or as pouring out a prayer to Him who 'has +showed him great and sore troubles' that He would 'bring him up again +from the depths of the earth.' The devout life is largely independent +of circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by a quiet certainty that +the general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge +hopefully down an occasional dip in the road. + +Such an obstinate hopefulness and cheery confidence are the natural +result of the experiences already described in the text. If we delight +in God, hold communion with Him and have known Him as answering +prayer, prospering our purposes and illuminating our paths, how shall +we not hope? Nothing need depress nor perturb those whose joys and +treasures are safe above the region of change and loss. If our riches +are there where neither moth, rust, nor thieves can reach, our hearts +will be there also, and an inward voice will keep singing, 'Lift up +your heart.' It is the prerogative of experience to light up the +future. It is the privilege of Christian experience to make hope +certainty. If we live the life outlined in these verses we shall be +able to bring June into December, and feel the future warmth whilst +our bones are chilled with the present cold. 'When the paths are made +low, thou shalt say, Up!' + +And the end will vindicate such confidence. For the issue of all will +be, 'He will save the humble person'; namely, the man who is of the +character described, and who is 'lowly of eyes' in conscious +unworthiness, even while he lifts up his face to God in confidence in +his Father's love. The 'saving' meant here is, of course, temporary +and temporal deliverance from passing outward peril. But we may +permissibly give it wider and deeper meaning. Continuous partial +deliverances lead on to and bring about final full salvation. + +We read that into the words, of course. But nothing less than a +complete and conclusive deliverance can be the legitimate end of the +experience of the Christian life here. Absurdity can no further go +than to suppose that a soul which has delighted itself in God, and +looked in His face with frank confidence, and poured out his desires +to Him, and been the recipient of numberless answers, and the seat of +numberless thank-offerings, has travelled along life's common way in +cheerful godliness, has had the light of heaven shining on the path, +and has found an immortal hope springing as the natural result of +present experience, shall at the last be frustrated of all, and lie +down in unconscious sleep, which is nothingness. If that were the end +of a Christian life, then 'the pillared firmament were rottenness, and +earth's base built on stubble.' No, no! A heaven of endless +blessedness and close communion with God is the only possible ending +to the facts of the devout life on earth. + +We have such a life offered to us all and made possible through faith +in Jesus Christ, in whom we may delight ourselves in the Lord, by whom +we have 'access with confidence,' who is Himself the light of our +hope, the answer of our prayers, the joy of our hearts, and who will +'deliver us from every evil work' as we travel along the road; 'and +save us' at last 'into His heavenly kingdom,' where we shall be joined +to the Delight of our souls, and drink for evermore of the fountain of +life. + + + +'THE END OF THE LORD' + +'Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 2. I know that Thou canst do +every thing, and that no thought can he withholden from Thee. 3. Who +is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered +that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. +4. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: I will demand of Thee, and +declare Thou unto me. 5. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the +ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. 6. Wherefore I abhor myself, and +repent in dust and ashes. 7. And it was so, that after the Lord had +spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My +wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye +have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. +8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go +to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and +My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal +with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of Me the thing +which is right, like My servant Job. 9. So Eliphaz the Temanite and +Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according +as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. 10. And the +Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also +the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.'--JOB xlii. 1-10. + + +The close of the Book of Job must be taken in connection with its +prologue, in order to get the full view of its solution of the mystery +of pain and suffering. Indeed the prologue is more completely the +solution than the ending is; for it shows the purpose of Job's trials +as being, not his punishment, but his testing. The whole theory that +individual sorrows were the result of individual sins, in the support +of which Job's friends poured out so many eloquent and heartless +commonplaces, is discredited from the beginning. The magnificent +prologue shows the source and purpose of sorrow. The epilogue in this +last chapter shows the effect of it in a good man's character, and +afterwards in his life. + +So we have the grim thing lighted up, as it were, at the two ends. +Suffering comes with the mission of trying what stuff a man is made +of, and it leads to closer knowledge of God, which is blessed; to +lowlier self-estimation, which is also blessed; and to renewed outward +blessings, which hide the old scars and gladden the tortured heart. + +Job's final word to God is in beautiful contrast with much of his +former unmeasured utterances. It breathes lowliness, submission, and +contented acquiescence in a providence partially understood. It does +not put into Job's mouth a solution of the problem, but shows how its +pressure is lightened by getting closer to God. Each verse presents a +distinct element of thought and feeling. + +First comes, remarkably enough, not what might have been expected, +namely, a recognition of God's righteousness, which had been the +attribute impugned by Job's hasty words, but of His omnipotence. God +'can do everything,' and none of His 'thoughts' or purposes can be +'restrained' (Rev. Ver.). There had been frequent recognitions of that +attribute in the earlier speeches, but these had lacked the element of +submission, and been complaint rather than adoration. Now, the same +conviction has different companions in Job's mind, and so has +different effects, and is really different in itself. The Titan on his +rock, with the vulture tearing at his liver, sullenly recognised +Jove's power, but was a rebel still. Such had been Job's earlier +attitude, but now that thought comes to him along with submission, and +so is blessed. Its recurrence here, as in a very real sense a new +conviction, teaches us how old beliefs may flash out into new +significance when seen from a fresh point of view, and how the very +same thought of God may be an argument for arraigning and for +vindicating His providence. + +The prominence given, both in the magnificent chapters in which God +answers Job out of the whirlwind and in this final confession, to +power instead of goodness, rests upon the unspoken principle that 'the +divine nature is not a segment, but a circle. Any one divine attribute +implies all others. Omnipotence cannot exist apart from righteousness' +(Davidson's _Job_, Cambridge Bible for Schools). A mere naked +omnipotence is not God. If we rightly understand His power, we can +rest upon it as a Hand sustaining, not crushing, us. 'He doeth all +things well' is a conviction as closely connected with 'I know that +Thou canst do all things' as light is with heat. + +The second step in Job's confession is the acknowledgment of the +incompleteness of his and all men's materials and capacities for +judging God's providence. Verse 3 begins with quoting God's rebuke +(Job xxxviii 2). It had cut deep, and now Job makes it his own +confession. We should thus appropriate as our own God's merciful +indictments, and when He asks, 'Who is it?' should answer with +lowliness, 'Lord, it is I.' Job had been a critic; he is a worshipper. +He had tried to fathom the bottomless, and been angry because his +short measuring-line had not reached the depths. But now he +acknowledges that he had been talking about what passed his +comprehension, and also that his words had been foolish in their +rashness. + +Is then the solution of the whole only that old commonplace of the +unsearchableness of the divine judgments? Not altogether; for the +prologue gives, if not a complete, yet a real, key to them. But still, +after all partial solutions, there remains the inscrutable element in +them. The mystery of pain and suffering is still a mystery; and while +general principles, taught us even more clearly in the New Testament +than in this book, do lighten the 'weight of all this unintelligible +world,' we have still to take Job's language as the last word on the +matter, and say, 'How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways +past finding out!' + +For individuals, and on the wider field of the world, God's way is in +the sea; but that does not bewilder those who also know that it is +also in the sanctuary. Job's confession as to his rash speeches is the +best estimate of many elaborate attempts to 'vindicate the ways of God +to man.' It is better to trust than to criticise, better to wait than +to seek prematurely to understand. + +Verse 4, like verse 3, quotes the words of God (Job xxxviii. 3; xl. +7). They yield a good meaning, if regarded as a repetition of God's +challenge, for the purpose of disclaiming any such presumptuous +contest. But they are perhaps better understood as expressing Job's +longing, in his new condition of humility, for fuller light, and his +new recognition of the way to pierce to a deeper understanding of the +mystery, by illumination from God granted in answer to his prayer. He +had tried to solve his problem by much, and sometimes barely reverent, +thinking. He had racked brain and heart in the effort, but he has +learned a more excellent way, as the Psalmist had, who said, 'When I +thought, in order to know this, it was too painful for me, until I +went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I.' Prayer will do +more for clearing mysteries than speculation, however acute, and it +will change the aspect of the mysteries which it does not clear from +being awful to being solemn--veils covering depths of love, not clouds +obscuring the sun. + +The centre of all Job's confession is in verse 5, which contrasts his +former and present knowledge of God, as being mere hearsay before, and +eyesight now. A clearer understanding, but still more, a sense of His +nearness, and an acquaintance at first hand, are implied in the bold +words, which must not be interpreted of any outward revelation to +sense, but of the direct, full, thrilling consciousness of God which +makes all men's words about Him seem poor. That change was the master +transformation in Job's case, as it is for us all. Get closer to God, +realise His presence, live beneath His eye and with your eyes fixed on +Him, and ancient puzzles will puzzle no longer, and wounds will cease +to smart, and instead of angry expostulation or bewildered attempts at +construing His dealings, there will come submission, and with +submission, peace. + +The cure for questionings of His providence is experience of His +nearness, and blessedness therein. Things that loomed large dwindle, +and dangers melt away. The landscape is the same in shadow and +sunshine; but when the sun comes out, even snow and ice sparkle, and +tender beauty starts into visibility in grim things. So, if we see +God, the black places of life are lighted; and we cease to feel the +pressure of many difficulties of speculation and practice, both as +regards His general providence and His revelation in law and gospel. + +The end of the whole matter is Job's retractation of his words and his +repentance. 'I abhor' has no object expressed, and is better taken as +referring to the previous speeches than to 'myself.' He means thereby +to withdraw them all. The next clause, 'I repent in dust and ashes,' +carries the confession a step farther. He recognises guilt in his rash +speeches, and bows before his God confessing his sin. Where are his +assertions of innocence gone? One sight of God has scattered them, as +it ever does. A man who has learned his own sinfulness will find few +difficulties and no occasions for complaint in God's dealings with +him. If we would see aright the meaning of our sorrows, we must look +at them on our knees. Get near to God in heart-knowledge of Him, and +that will teach our sinfulness, and the two knowledges will combine to +explain much of the meaning of sorrow, and to make the unexplained +residue not hard to endure. + +The epilogue in prose which follows Job's confession, tells of the +divine estimate of the three friends, of Job's sacrifice for them, and +of his renewed outward prosperity. The men who had tried to vindicate +God's righteousness are charged with not having spoken that which is +right; the man who has passionately impugned it is declared to have +thus spoken. No doubt, Eliphaz and his colleagues had said a great +many most excellent, pious things, and Job as many wild and untrue +ones. But their foundation principle was not a true representation of +God's providence, since it was the uniform connection of sin with +sorrow, and the accurate proportion which these bore to each other. + +Job, on the other hand, had spoken truth in his denials of these +principles, and in his longings to have the righteousness of God set +in clear relation to his own afflictions. We must remember, too, that +the friends were talking commonplaces learned by rote, while Job's +words came scalding hot from his heart. Most excellent truth may be so +spoken as to be wrong; and it is so, if spoken heartlessly, regardless +of sympathy, and flung at sufferers like a stone, rather than laid on +their hearts as a balm. God lets a true heart dare much in speech; for +He knows that the sputter and foam prove that 'the heart's deeps boil +in earnest.' + +Job is put in the place of intercessor for the three--a profound +humiliation for them and an honour for him. They obeyed at once, +showing that they have learned their lesson, as well as Job his. An +incidental lesson from that final picture of the sufferer become the +priest requiting accusations with intercession, is the duty of +cherishing kind feelings and doing kind acts to those who say hard +things of us. It would be harder for some of us to offer sacrifices +for our Eliphazes than to argue with them. And yet another is that +sorrow has for one of its purposes to make the heart more tender, both +for the sorrows and the faults of others. + +Note, too, that it was 'when Job prayed for his friends' that the Lord +turned his captivity. That is a proverbial expression, bearing +witness, probably, to the deep traces left by the Exodus, for +reversing calamity. The turning-point was not merely the confession, +but the act, of beneficence. So, in ministering to others, one's own +griefs may be soothed. + +The restoration of outward good in double measure is not meant as the +statement of a universal law of Providence, and still less as a +solution of the problem of the book. But it is putting the truth that +sorrows, rightly borne, yield peaceable fruit at the last, in the form +appropriate to the stage of revelation which the whole book +represents; that is, one in which the doctrine of immortality, though +it sometimes rises before Job's mind as an aspiration of faith, is not +set in full light. + +To us, living in the blaze of light which Jesus Christ has let into +the darkness of the future, the 'end of the Lord' is that heaven +should crown the sorrows of His children on earth. We can speak of +light, transitory affliction working out an eternal weight of glory. +The book of Job is expressing substantially the same expectation, when +it paints the calm after the storm and the restoration in double +portion of vanished blessings. Many desolate yet trusting sufferers +know how little such an issue is possible for their grief, but if they +have more of God in clearer sight of Him, they will find empty places +in their hearts and homes filled. + + + + +THE PROVERBS + + +A YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR + +'The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; 2. To know +wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; 3. To +receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; +4. To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and +discretion, 5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a +man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: 6. To understand +a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their +dark sayings. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: +but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8. My son, hear the +instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 9. +For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about +thy neck. 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 11. If +they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily +for the innocent without cause: 12. Let us swallow them up alive as +the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13. We shall +find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14. +Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: 15. My son, walk +not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: 16. +For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17. (Surely +in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird:) 18. And they lay +wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. 19. +So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away +the life of the owners thereof.'--PROV. i. 1-19. + + +This passage contains the general introduction to the book of +Proverbs. It falls into three parts--a statement of the purpose of the +book (vs. 1-6); a summary of its foundation principles, and of the +teachings to which men ought to listen (vs. 7-9); and an antithetic +statement of the voices to which they should be deaf (vs. 10-19). + +I. The aim of the book is stated to be twofold--to enable men, +especially the young, to 'know wisdom,' and to help them to 'discern +the words of understanding'; that is, to familiarise, by the study of +the book, with the characteristics of wise teachings, so that there +may be no mistaking seducing words of folly for these. These two aims +are expanded in the remaining verses, the latter of them being resumed +in verse 6, while the former occupies the other verses. + +We note how emphatically the field in which this wisdom is to be +exercised is declared to be the moral conduct of life. 'Righteousness +and judgment and equity' are 'wise dealing,' and the end of true +wisdom is to practise these. The wider horizon of modern science and +speculation includes much in the notion of wisdom which has no bearing +on conduct. But the intellectual progress (and conceit) of to-day will +be none the worse for the reminder that a man may take in knowledge +till he is ignorant, and that, however enriched with science and +philosophy, if he does not practise righteousness, he is a fool. + +We note also the special destination of the book--for the young. +Youth, by reason of hot blood and inexperience, needs such portable +medicines as are packed in these proverbs, many of them the +condensation into a vivid sentence of world-wide truths. There are few +better guides for a young man than this book of homely sagacity, which +is wisdom about the world without being tainted by the bad sort of +worldly wisdom. But unfortunately those who need it most relish it +least, and we have for the most part to rediscover its truths for +ourselves by our own, often bitter, experience. + +We note, further, the clear statement of the way by which incipient +'wisdom' will grow, and of the certainty of its growth if it is real. +It is the 'wise man' who will 'increase in learning,' the 'man of +understanding' who 'attains unto sound counsels.' The treasures are +thrown away on him who has no heart for them. You may lavish wisdom on +the 'fool,' and it will run off him like water off a rock, fertilising +nothing, and stopping outside him. + +The Bible would not have met all our needs, nor gone with us into all +regions of our experience, if it had not had this book of shrewd, +practical common-sense. Christianity is the perfection of common +sense. 'Godliness hath promise of the life which now is.' The wisdom +of the serpent, which Jesus enjoins, has none of the serpent's venom +in it. It is no sign of spirituality of mind to be above such mundane +considerations as this book urges. If we hold our heads too high to +look to our road and our feet, we are sure to fall into a pit. + +II. Verses 7-9 may be regarded as a summary statement of the principle +on which the whole book is based, and of the duty which it enjoins. +The principle is that true wisdom is based on religion, and the duty +is to listen to parental instruction. 'My son,' is the address of a +teacher to his disciples, rather than of a father to his child. The +characteristic Old Testament designation of religion as 'the fear of +Jehovah' corresponds to the Old Testament revelation of Him as the +Holy One,--that is, as Him who is infinitely separated from creatural +being and limitations. Therefore is He 'to be had in reverence of all' +who would be 'about Him'; that fear of reverential awe in which no +slavish dread mingles, and which is perfectly consistent with +aspiration, trust, and love. The Old Testament reveals Him as separate +from men; the New Testament reveals Him as united to men in the divine +man, Christ Jesus. Therefore its keynote is the designation of +religion as 'the love of God'; but that name is no contradiction of +the earlier, but the completion of it. + +That fear is the beginning or basis of wisdom, because wisdom is +conceived of as God's gift, and the surest way to get it is to 'ask of +God' (Jas. i. 5). Religion is, further, the foundation of wisdom, +inasmuch as irreligion is the supreme folly of creatures so dependent +on God, and so hungering after Him in the depths of their being, as we +are. In whatever directions a godless man may be wise, in the most +important matter of all, his relations to God, he is unwise, and the +epitaph for all such is 'Thou fool!' + +Further, religion is the fountain of wisdom, in the sense of the word +in which this book uses it, since it opens out into principles of +action, motives, and communicated powers, which lead to right +apprehension and willing discharge of the duties of life. Godless men +may be scientists, philosophers, encyclopaedias of knowledge, but for +want of religion, they blunder in the direction of their lives, and +lack wisdom enough to keep them from wrecking the ship on the rocks. + +The Israelitish parent was enjoined to teach his or her children the +law of the Lord. Here the children are enjoined to listen to the +instruction. Reverence for traditional wisdom was characteristic of +that state of society, and since a divine revelation stood at the +beginning of the nation's history, it was not unreasonable to look +back for light. Nowadays, a belief's being our fathers' is with many a +reason for not making it ours. But perhaps that is no more rational +than the blind adherence to the old with which this emancipated +generation reproaches its predecessors. Possibly there are some 'old +lamps' better than the new ones now hawked about the streets by so +many loud-voiced vendors. The youth of this day have much need of the +exhortation to listen to the 'instruction' (by which is meant, not +only teaching by word, but discipline by act) of their fathers, and to +the gentler voice of the mother telling of law in accents of love. +These precepts obeyed will be fairer ornaments than jewelled necklaces +and wreathed chaplets. + +III. On one side of the young man are those who would point him to the +fear of Jehovah; on the other are seducing whispers, tempting him to +sin. That is the position in which we all stand. It is not enough to +listen to the nobler voice. We have resolutely to stop our ears to the +baser, which is often the louder. Facile yielding to the cunning +inducements which strew every path, and especially that of the young, +is fatal. If we cannot say 'No' to the base, we shall not say 'Yes' to +the noble voice. To be weak is generally to be wicked; for in this +world the tempters are more numerous, and to sense and flesh, more +potent than those who invite to good. + +The example selected of such enticers is not of the kind that most of +us are in danger from. But the sort of inducements held out are in all +cases substantially the same. 'Precious substance' of one sort or +another is dangled before dazzled eyes; jovial companionship draws +young hearts. The right or wrong of the thing is not mentioned, and +even murder and robbery are presented as rather pleasant excitement, +and worth doing for the sake of what is got thereby. Are the desirable +consequences so sure? Is there no chance of being caught red-handed, +and stoned then and there, as a murderer? The tempters are discreetly +silent about that possibility, as all tempters are. Sin always +deceives, and its baits artfully hide the hook; but the cruel barb is +there, below the gay silk and coloured dressing, and it--not the false +appearance of food which lured the fish--is what sticks in the +bleeding mouth. + +The teacher goes on, in verses 15 to 19, to supply the truth which the +tempters tried to ignore. He does so in three weighty sentences, which +strip the tinsel off the temptation, and show its real ugliness. The +flowery way to which they coax is a way of 'evil'; that should be +enough to settle the question. The first thing to ask about any course +is not whether it is agreeable or disagreeable, but Is it right or +wrong? Verse 17 is ambiguous, but probably the 'net' means the +tempters' speech in verses 11 to 14, and the 'bird' is the young man +supposed to be addressed. The sense will then be, 'Surely you are not +foolish enough to fly right into the meshes, and to go with your eyes +open into so transparent sin!' + +Verse 18 points to the grim possibility already referred to, that the +would-be murderers will be caught and executed. But its lesson is +wider than that one case, and declares the great solemn truth that all +sin is suicide. Who ever breaks God's law slays himself. + +What is true about 'covetousness,' as verse 19 tells, is true about +all kinds of sin--that it takes away the life of those who yield to +it, even though it may also fill their purses, or in other ways may +gratify their desires. Surely it is folly to pursue a course which, +however it may succeed in its immediate aims, brings real death, by +separation from God, along with it. He is not a very wise man who ties +his gold round him when the ship founders. He is not parted from his +treasure certainly, but it helps to sink him. We may get what we want +by sinning, but we get also what we did not want or reckon on--that +is, eternal death. 'This their way is their folly.' Yet, strange to +tell, their posterity 'approve their sayings,' and follow their +doings. + + + +WISDOM'S CALL + +'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She +crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: +in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple +ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their +scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof: +behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words +unto you. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched +out my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my +counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your +calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh +as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when +distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon +me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall +not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the +fear of the Lord: 30. They would none of my counsel; they despised all +my reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own +way, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of +the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy +them. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall +be quiet from fear of evil.'--PROVERBS i. 20-33. + + +Our passage begins with a striking picture. A fair and queenly woman +stands in the crowded resorts of men, and lifts up a voice of sweet +entreaty--authoritative as well as sweet. Her name is Wisdom. The word +is in the plural in the Hebrew, as if to teach that in this serene and +lovely form all manifold wisdoms are gathered and made one. Who then +is she? It is easy to say 'a poetical personification,' but that does +not add much to our understanding. It is clear that this book means +much more by Wisdom than a human quality merely; for august and divine +attributes are given to her, and she is the co-eternal associate of +God Himself. Dwelling in His bosom, she thence comes forth to inspire +all human good deeds, to plead evermore with men, to enrich those who +listen to her with choicest gifts. Intellectual clearness, moral +goodness, religious devotion, are all combined in the idea of Wisdom +as belonging to men. + +The divine source of all, and the correspondence between the human and +the divine nature, are taught in the residence of this personified +Wisdom with God before she dwelt with men. The whole of the manifold +revelations, by which God makes known any part of His will to men, are +her voice. Especially the call contained in the Old Testament +revelation is the summons of Wisdom. But whether the writer of this +book had any inkling of deeper truth still, or not, we cannot but +connect the incomplete personification of divine Wisdom here with its +complete incarnation in a Person who is 'the power of God and the +wisdom of God,' and who embodies the lineaments of the grand picture +of a Wisdom crying in the streets, even while it is true of Him that +'He does not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the +streets'; for the crying, which is denied to be His, is ostentatious +and noisy, and the crying which is asserted to be hers is the plain, +clear, universal appeal of divine love as well as wisdom. The light of +Christ 'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' + +The call of Wisdom in this passage begins with remonstrance and plain +speech, giving their right names to men who neglect her voice. The +first step in delivering men from evil--that is, from foolish--courses +is to put very clearly before them the true character of their acts, +and still more of their inclinations. Gracious offers and rich +promises come after; but the initial message of Wisdom to such men as +we are must be the accusation of folly. 'When she is come, she will +convict the world of sin.' + +The three designations of men in verse 22 are probably arranged so as +to make a climax. First come 'the simple,' or, as the word means, +'open.' There is a _sancta simplicitas_, a holy ignorance of +evil, which is sister to the highest wisdom. It is well to be ignorant +as well as 'innocent of much transgression'; and there is no more +mistaken and usually insincere excuse for going into foul places than +the plea that it is best to know the evil and so choose the good. That +knowledge comes surely and soon enough without our seeking it. But +there is a fatal simplicity, open-eared, like Eve, to the Tempter's +whisper, which believes the false promises of sin, and as Bunyan has +taught us, is companion of sloth and presumption. + +Next come 'scorners,' who mock at good. A man must have gone a long +way down hill before he begins to gibe at virtue and godliness. But +the descent is steep, though the distance is long; and the 'simple' +who begins to do what is wrong will come to sneer at what is right. + +Then last comes the 'fool,' the name which, in Proverbs, is shorthand +for mental stupidity, moral obstinacy, and dogged godlessness,--a foul +compound, but one which is realised oftener than we think. A great +many very superior intellects, cultivated ladies and gentlemen, +university graduates, and the like, would be unceremoniously set down +by divine wisdom as fools; and surely if account is taken of the whole +compass and duration of our being, and of all our relations to things +and persons seen and unseen, nothing can be more stupid than +godlessness, however cultured. The word literally means coarse or +thick, and may suggest the idea of stolid insensibility as the last +stage in the downward progress. + +But note that the charge is directed, not against deeds, but +dispositions. Perverted love and perverted hatred underlie acts. The +simple love simplicity, preferring to be unwarned against evil; the +scorner finds delight in letting his rank tongue blossom into speech; +and the false direction given to love gives a fatal twist to its +corresponding hate, so that the fool detests 'knowledge' as a thief +the policeman's lantern. You cannot love what you should loathe, +without loathing what you should love. Inner longings and revulsions +settle character and acts. + +Verse 23 passes into entreaty; for it is vain to rouse conscience by +plain speech, unless something is offered to make better life +possible. The divine Wisdom comes with a rod, but also with gifts; but +if the rod is kissed, the rewards are possessed. The relation of +clauses in verse 23 is that the first is the condition of the +fulfilment of the second and third. If we turn at her reproof, two +great gifts will be bestowed. Her spirit within will make us quick to +hear and receive her words sounding without. Whatever other good +follows on yielding to the call of divine Wisdom (and the remaining +early chapters of Proverbs magnificently detail the many rich gifts +that do follow), chief of all are spirits swift to hear and docile to +obey her voice, and then actual communications to purged ears. Outward +revelation without prepared hearts is water spilt upon rock. Prepared +hearts without a message to them would be but multiplication of vain +longings; and God never stultifies Himself, or gives mouths without +sending meat to fill them. To the submissive spirit, there will not +lack either disposition to hear or clear utterance of His will. + +But now comes a pause. Wisdom has made her offers in the crowded +streets, and amid all the noise and bustle her voice has rung out. +What is the result? Nothing. Not a head has been turned, nor an eye +lifted. The bustle goes on as before. 'They bought, they sold,' as if +no voice had spoken. So, after the disappointed waiting of Wisdom, her +voice peals out again, but this time with severity in its tones. Note +how, in verses 24 and 25, the sin of sins against the pleading Wisdom +of God is represented as being simple indifference. 'Ye refused,' 'no +man regarded,' 'set at nought,' 'would none of'--these are the things +which bring down the heavy judgments. It does not need violent +opposition or black crime to wreck a soul. Simply doing nothing when +God speaks is enough to effect destruction. There is no need to lift +up angry arms in hostility. If we keep them hanging listless by our +sides, it is sufficient. The gift escapes us, if we simply keep our +hands shut or held behind our backs. Alas, for ears which have not +heard, for seeing eyes which have not seen because they loved evil +simplicity and hated knowledge! + +Then note the terrible retribution. That is an awful picture of the +mocking laughter of Wisdom, accompanying the rush of the whirlwind and +the groans of anguish and shrieks of terror. It is even more solemn +and dreadful than the parallel representations in Psalm ii., for there +the laughter indicates God's knowledge that the schemes of opponents +are vain, but here it figures pleasure in calamities. Of course it is +to be remembered that the Wisdom thus represented is not to be +identified with God; but still the imagery is startling, and needs to +be taken along with declarations that God has 'no pleasure in the +death of the sinner,' and to be interpreted as indicating, with daring +anthropomorphism, the inevitable character of the 'destruction,' and +the uselessness of appeals to the Wisdom once despised. But we +joyfully remember that the Incarnate Wisdom, fairer than the ancient +personification, wept over the city which He knew must perish. + +Verses 28-31 carry on the picture of too late repentance and +inevitable retribution. They who let Wisdom cry, and paid no heed, +shall cry to her in their turn, and be unnoticed. They whom she vainly +sought shall vainly seek for her. Actions have their consequences, +which are not annihilated because the doers do not like them. Thoughts +have theirs; for the foolish not only eat of the fruit of their ways +or doings, but are filled with their own devices or counsels. +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' That inexorable +law works, deaf to all cries, in the field of earthly life, both as +regards condition and character; and that field of its operation is +all that the writer of this book has in view. He is not denying the +possibility of forgiveness, nor the efficacy of repentance, nor is he +asserting that a penitent soul ever seeks God in vain; but he is +declaring that it is too late to cry out for deliverance from +consequences of folly when the consequences have us in their grip, and +that wishes for deliverance are vain, though sighs of repentance are +not. We cannot reap where we have not sowed. We must reap what we +have. If we are such sluggards that we will 'not plough in winter by +reason of the cold,' we shall 'beg in harvest and have nothing.' + +But though the writer had probably only this life in view, Jesus +Christ has extended the teaching to the next, when He has told of +those who will seek to enter in and not be able. The experience of the +fruits of their godlessness will make godless men wish to escape +eating the fruits--and that wish shall be vain. It is not for us to +enlarge on such words, but it is for us all to lay them to heart, and +to take heed that we listen now to the beseeching call of the heavenly +Wisdom in its tenderest and noblest form, as it appeared in Christ, +the Incarnate Word. + +Verses 32 and 33 generalise the preceding promises and warnings in a +great antithesis. 'The backsliding [or, turning away] of the simple +slays them.' There is allusion to Wisdom's call in verse 23. The +simple had turned, but in the wrong direction--away from and not +towards her. To turn away from heavenly Wisdom is to set one's face +toward destruction. It cannot be too earnestly reiterated that we must +make our choice of one of two directions for ourselves--either towards +God, to seek whom is life, to find whom is heaven; or away from Him, +to turn our backs on whom is to embrace unrest, and to be separate +from whom is death. 'The security of fools,' by which is meant, not +their safety, but their fancy that they are safe, 'destroys them.' No +man is in such danger as the careless man of the world who thinks that +he is all right. A traveller along the edge of a precipice in the +night, who goes on as if he walked a broad road and takes no heed to +his footing, will soon repent his rashness at the bottom, mangled and +bruised. A man who in this changing world fancies that he sits as a +king, and sees no sorrow, will have a rude wakening. A moment's heed +saves hours of pain. + +The alternative to this suicidal folly is in listening to Wisdom's +call. Whoever does that will 'dwell safely,' not in fancied but real +security; and in his quiet heart there need be no unrest from feared +evils, for he will have hold of a charm which turns evils into good, +and with such a guide he cannot go astray, nor with such a +defender be wounded to death, nor with such a companion ever be +solitary. If Christ be our Light, we shall not walk in darkness. If He +be our Wisdom, we shall not err. If He be our Life, we shall never see +death. If He is our Good, we shall fear no evil. + + + +THE SECRET OF WELL-BEING + +'My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. +2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to +thee. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy +neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4. So shalt thou find +favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 5. Trust in +the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own +understanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct +thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart +from evil. 8. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy +bones. 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits +of all thine increase: 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, +and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.'--PROVERBS iii. 1-10. + + +The first ten verses of this passage form a series of five couplets, +which enforce on the young various phases of goodness by their +tendency to secure happiness or blessedness of various sorts. The +underlying axiom is that, in a world ruled by a good Being, obedience +must lead to well-being; but while that is in the general true, +exceptions do occur, and good men do encounter evil times. Therefore +the glowing promises of these verses are followed by two verses which +deal with the explanation of good men's afflictions, as being results +and tokens of God's fatherly love. + +The first couplet is general in character. It inculcates obedience to +the precepts of the teacher, and gives as reason the assurance that +thereby long life and peace will be secured. True to the Old Testament +conception of revelation as a law, the teacher sets obedience in the +forefront. He is sure that his teaching contains the sufficient guide +for conduct, and coincides with the divine will. He calls, in the +first instance, for inward willing acceptance of His commandments; for +it is the heart, not primarily the hands, which he desires should +'keep' them. The mother of all graces of conduct is the bowing of the +will to divine authority. The will is the man, and where it ceases to +lift itself up in self-sacrificing and self-determining rebellion, and +dissolves into running waters of submission, these will flow through +the life and make it pure. To obey self is sin, to obey God is +righteousness. The issues of such obedience are 'length of days ... +and peace.' + +Even if we allow for the difference between the Old and the New +Testaments, it remains true that a life conformed to God's will tends +to longevity, and that many forms of sin do shorten men's days. +Passion and indulged appetites eat away the very flesh, and many a +man's 'bones are full of the sin of his youth.' The profligate has +usually 'a short life,' whether he succeeds in making it 'merry' or +not. + +'Peace' is a wide word, including all well-being. Ease-loving +Orientals, especially when living in warlike times, naturally used the +phrase as a shorthand expression for all good. Busy Westerns, torn by +the distractions and rapid movement of modern life, echo the sigh for +repose which breathes in the word. 'There is no joy but calm,' and the +sure way to deepest peace is to give up self-will and live in +obedience. + +The second couplet deals with our relations to one another, and puts +forward the two virtues of 'loving-kindness and truth'--that is truth, +or faithfulness--as all-inclusive. They are the two which are often +jointly ascribed to God, especially in the Psalms. Our attitude to one +another should be moulded in God's to us all. The tiniest crystal has +the same facets and angles as the largest. The giant hexagonal pillars +of basalt, like our Scottish Staffa, are identical in form with the +microscopic crystals of the same substance. God is our Pattern; +goodness is likeness to Him. + +These graces are to be bound about the neck, perhaps as an ornament, +but more probably as a yoke by which the harnessed ox draws its +burden. If we have them, they will fit us to bear one another's +burdens, and will lead to all human duties to our fellows. + +These graces are also to be written on the 'table of the heart'; that +is, are to be objects of habitual meditation with aspiration. If so, +they will come to sight in life. He who practises them will 'find +favour with God and man,' for God looks with complacency on those who +display the right attitude to men; and men for the most part treat us +as we treat them. There are surly natures which are not won by +kindness, like black tarns among the hills, that are gloomy even in +sunshine, and requite evil for good; but the most of men reflect our +feelings to them. + +'Good understanding' is another result. It is 'found' when it is +attributed to us, so that the expression substantially means that the +possessors of these graces will win the reputation of being really +wise, not only in the fallible judgment of men, but before the pure +eyes of the all-seeing God. Really wise policy coincides with +loving-kindness and truth. + +The remaining couplets refer to our relations to God. The New +Testament is significantly anticipated in the pre-eminence given to +trust; that is, faith. Nor less significant and profound is the +association of self-distrust with trust in the Lord. The two things +are inseparable. They are but the under and upper sides of one thing, +or like the two growths that come from a seed--one striking downwards +becomes the root; one piercing upwards becomes the stalk. The double +attitude of trust and distrust finds expression in acknowledging Him +in all our ways; that is, ordering our conduct under a constant +consciousness of His presence, in accordance with His will, and in +dependence on His help. + +Such a relation to God will certainly, and with no exceptions, issue +in His 'directing our paths,' by which is meant that He will be not +only our Guide, but also our Roadmaker, showing us the way and +clearing obstacles from it. Calm certitude follows on willingness to +accept God's will, and whoever seeks only to go where God sends him +will neither be left doubtful whither he should go, nor find his road +blocked. + +The fourth couplet is, in its first part, in inverted parallelism with +the third; for it begins with self-distrust, and proceeds thence to +'fear of the Lord,' which corresponds to, and is, in fact, but one +phase of, trust in Him. It is the reverent awe which has no torment, +and is then purest when faith is strongest. It necessarily leads to +departing from evil. Morality has its roots in religion. There is no +such magnet to draw men from sin as the happy fear of God, which is +likewise faith. Whoever separates devoutness from purity of life, this +teacher does not. He knows nothing of religion which permits +association with iniquity. Such conduct will tend to physical +well-being, and in a deeper sense will secure soundness of life. +Godlessness is the true sickness. He only is healthy who has a +healthy, because healed, soul. + +The fifth couplet appears at first as being a drop to a lower region. +A regulation of the Mosaic law may strike some as out of place here. +But it is to be remembered that our modern distinction of ceremonial +and moral law was non-existent for Israel, and that the command has a +wider application than to Jewish tithes. To 'honour God with our +substance' is not necessarily to give it away for religious purposes, +but to use it devoutly and as He approves. + +Christianity has more to say about the distribution, as well as the +acquisition, of wealth, than professing Christians, especially in +commercial communities, practically recognise. This precept grips us +tight, and is much more than a ceremonial regulation. Many causes +besides the devout use of property tend to wealth in our highly +artificial state of society. The world tries to get it by shrewdness, +unscrupulousness, and by many other vices which are elevated to the +rank of virtues; but he who honours the Lord in getting and spending +will generally have as much as his true needs and regulated desires +require. + + + +THE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM + +'My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of +His correction: 12. For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a +father the son in whom he delighteth. 13. Happy is the man that +findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. 14. For the +merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the +gain thereof than fine gold. 15. She is more precious than rubies: and +all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 16. +Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and +honour. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are +peace. 18. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and +happy is every one that retaineth her. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath +founded the earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens. +20. By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop +down the dew. 21. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep +sound wisdom and discretion: 22. So shall they be life unto thy soul, +and grace to thy neck. 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and +thy foot shall not stumble. 24. When thou liest down, thou shalt not +be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be +sweet.'--PROVERBS iii. 11-24. + + +The repetition of the words 'my son' at the beginning of this passage +marks a new section, which extends to verse 20, inclusively, another +section being similarly marked as commencing in verse 21. The fatherly +counsels of these early chapters are largely reiterations of the same +ideas, being line upon line. 'To write the same things to you, to me +indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.' Many strokes drive +the nail home. Exhortations to get Wisdom, based upon the blessings +she brings, are the staple of the whole. If we look carefully at the +section (vers. 11-20), we find in it a central core (vers. 13-18), +setting forth the blessings which Wisdom gives, preceded by two +verses, inculcating the right acceptance of God's chastisements which +are one chief means of attaining Wisdom, and followed by two verses +(vers. 19, 20), which exalt her as being divine as well as human. So +the portraiture of her working in humanity is framed by a prologue and +epilogue, setting forth two aspects of her relation to God; namely, +that she is imparted by Him through the discipline of trouble, and +that she dwells in His bosom and is the agent of His creative work. + +The prologue, then, points to sorrow and trouble, rightly accepted, as +one chief means by which we acquire heavenly Wisdom. Note the profound +insight into the meaning of sorrows. They are 'instruction' and +'reproof.' The thought of the Book of Job is here fully incorporated +and assimilated. Griefs and pains are not tokens of anger, nor +punishments of sin, but love-gifts meant to help to the acquisition of +wisdom. They do not come because the sufferers are wicked, but in +order to make them good or better. Tempests are meant to blow us into +port. The lights are lowered in the theatre that fairer scenes may +become visible on the thin screen between us and eternity. Other +supports are struck away that we may lean hard on God. The voice of +all experience of earthly loss and bitterness is, 'Wisdom is the +principal thing; therefore get Wisdom.' God himself becomes our +Schoolmaster, and through the voice of the human teacher we hear His +deeper tones saying, 'My son, despise not the chastening.' + +Note, too, the assurance that all discipline is the fruit of Fatherly +love. How many sad hearts in all ages these few words have calmed and +braced! How sharp a test of our childlike spirit our acceptance of +them, when our own hearts are sore, is! How deep the peace which they +bring when really believed! How far they go to solve the mystery of +pain, and turn darkness into a solemn light! + +Note, further, that the words 'despise' and 'be weary' both imply +rather rejection with loathing, and thus express unsubmissive +impatience which gets no good from discipline. The beautiful rendering +of the Septuagint, which has been made familiar by its adoption in +Hebrews, makes the two words express two opposite faults. They +'despise' who steel their wills against the rod, and make as if they +did not feel the pain; they 'faint' who collapse beneath the blows, +which they feel so much that they lose sight of their purpose. Dogged +insensibility and utter prostration are equally harmful. He who meets +life's teachings, which are a Father's correction, with either, has +little prospect of getting Wisdom. + +Then follows the main part of this section (vers. 13-18),--the praise +of Wisdom as in herself most precious, and as bestowing highest good. +'The man that findeth Wisdom' reminds us of the peasant in Christ's +parable, who found treasure hidden in a field, and the 'merchandise' +in verse 14, of the trader seeking goodly pearls. But the finding in +verse 13 is not like the rustic's in the parable, who was seeking +nothing when a chance stroke of his plough or kick of his heel laid +bare the glittering gold. It is the finding which rewards seeking. The +figure of acquiring by trading, like that of the pearl-merchant in the +companion parable, implies pains, effort, willingness to part with +something in order to attain. + +The nature of the price is not here in question. We know who has said, +'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.' We buy heavenly +Wisdom when we surrender ourselves. The price is desire to possess, +and willingness to accept as an undeserved, unearned gift. But that +does not come into view in our lesson. Only this is strongly put in +it--that this heavenly Wisdom outshines all jewels, outweighs all +wealth, and is indeed the only true riches. 'Rubies' is probably +rather to be taken as 'corals,' which seem to have been very highly +prized by the Jews, and, no doubt, found their way to them from the +Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. The word rendered 'things thou canst +desire' is better taken as meaning 'jewels.' + +This noble and conclusive depreciation of material wealth in +comparison with Wisdom, which is not merely intellectual, but rests on +the fear of the Lord, and is goodness as well as understanding, never +needed preaching with more emphasis than in our day, when more and +more the commercial spirit invades every region of life, and rich men +are the aristocrats and envied types of success. When will England and +America believe the religion which they profess, and adjust their +estimates of the best things accordingly? How many so-called Christian +parents would think their son mad if he said, 'I do not care about +getting rich; my goal is to be wise with God's Wisdom'? How few of us +order our lives on the footing of this old teacher's lesson, and act +out the belief that Wisdom is more than wealth! The man who heaps +millions together, and masses it, fails in life, however a vulgar +world and a nominal church may admire and glorify him. The man who +wins Wisdom succeeds, however bare may be his cupboard, and however +people may pity him for having failed in life, because he has not +drawn prizes in the Devil's lottery. His blank is a prize, and their +prizes are blanks. This decisive subordination of material to +spiritual good is too plainly duty and common sense to need being +dwelt upon; but, alas! like a great many other most obvious, accepted +truths, it is disregarded as universally as believed. + +The inseparable accompaniments of Wisdom are next eloquently +described. The picture is the poetical clothing of the idea that all +material good will come to him who despises it all and clasps Wisdom +to his heart. Some things flow from Wisdom possessed as usual +consequences; some are inseparable from her. The gift in her right +hand is length of days; that in her left, which, by its position, is +suggested as inferior to the former, is wealth and honour--two goods +which will attend the long life. No doubt such promises are to be +taken with limitations; but there need be no doubt that, on the whole, +loyal devotion to and real possession of heavenly Wisdom do tend in +the direction of lengthening lives, which are by it delivered from +vices and anxieties which cut many a career short, and of gathering +round silver hairs reverence and troops of friends. + +These are the usual consequences, and may be fairly brought into view +as secondary encouragements to seek Wisdom. But if she is sought for +the sake of getting these attendant blessings, she will not be found. +She must be loved for herself, not for her dowry, or she will not be +won. At the same time, the overstrained and fantastic morality, which +stigmatises regard to the blessed results of a religious life as +selfishness, finds no support in Scripture, as it has none in common +sense. Would there were more of such selfishness! + +Sometimes Wisdom's hands do not hold these outward gifts. But the +connection between her and the next blessings spoken of is +inseparable. Her ways are pleasantness and peace. 'In keeping'--not +_for_ keeping--'her commandments is great reward.' Inward delight +and deep tranquillity of heart attend every step taken in obedience to +Wisdom. The course of conduct so prescribed will often involve painful +crucifying of the lower nature, but its pleasure far outweighs its +pain. It will often be strewn with sharp flints, or may even have +red-hot ploughshares laid on it, as in old ordeal trials; but still it +will be pleasant to the true self. Sin is a blunder as well as a +crime, and enlightened self-interest would point out the same course +as the highest law of Wisdom. In reality, duty and delight are +co-extensive. They are two names for one thing--one taken from +consideration of its obligation; the other, from observation of its +issues. 'Calm pleasures there abide.' The only complete peace, which +fills and quiets the whole man, comes from obeying Wisdom, or what is +the same thing, from following Christ. There is no other way of +bringing all our nature into accord with itself, ending the war +between conscience and inclination, between flesh and spirit. There is +no other way of bringing us into amity with all circumstances, so that +fortunate or adverse shall be recognised as good, and nothing be able +to agitate us very much. Peace with ourselves, the world, and God, is +always the consequence of listening to Wisdom. + +The whole fair picture is summed up in verse 18: 'She is a tree of +life to them that lay hold upon her.' This is a distinct allusion to +the narrative of Genesis. The flaming sword of the cherub guard is +sheathed, and access to the tree, which gives immortal life to those +who eat, is open to us. Mark how that great word 'life' is here +gathering to itself at least the beginnings of higher conceptions than +those of simple existence. It is swelling like a bud, and preparing to +open and disclose the perfect flower, the life which stands in the +knowledge of God and the Christ whom He has sent. Jesus, the incarnate +Wisdom, is Himself 'the Tree of Life in the midst of the paradise of +God.' The condition of access to it is 'laying hold' by the +outstretched hand of faith, and keeping hold with holy obstinacy of +grip, in spite of all temptations to slack our grasp. That retaining +is the condition of true blessedness. + +Verses 19 and 20 invest the idea of Wisdom with still loftier +sublimity, since they declare that it is an attribute of God Himself +by which creation came into being. The meaning of the writer is +inadequately grasped if we take it to be only that creation shows +God's Wisdom. This personified Wisdom dwells with God, is the agent of +creation, comes with invitations to men, may be possessed by them, and +showers blessings on them. The planet Neptune was divined before it +was discovered, by reason of perturbations in the movements of the +exterior members of the system, unaccountable unless some great globe +of light, hitherto unseen, were swaying them in their orbits. Do we +not see here like influence streaming from the unrisen light of +Christ? Personification prepares for Incarnation. There is One who has +been with the Father from the beginning, by whom all things came into +being, whose voice sounds to all, who is the Tree of Life, whom we may +all possess, and with whose own peace we may be peaceful and blessed +for evermore. + +Verses 21-24 belong to the next section of the great discourse or +hymn. They add little to the preceding. But we may observe the earnest +exhortation to let wisdom and understanding be ever in sight. Eyes are +apt to stray and clouds to hide the sun. Effort is needed to +counteract the tendency to slide out of consciousness, which our +weakness imposes on the most certain and important truths. A Wisdom +which we do not think about is as good or as bad as non-existent for +us. One prime condition of healthy spiritual life is the habit of +meditation, thereby renewing our gaze upon the facts of God's +revelation and the bearing of these on our conduct. + +The blessings flowing from Wisdom are again dilated on, from a +somewhat different point of view. She is the giver of life. And then +she adorns the life she gives. One has seen homely faces so refined +and glorified by the fair soul that shone through them as to be, 'as +it were, the face of an angel.' Gracefulness should be the outward +token of inward grace. Some good people forget that they are bound to +'adorn the doctrine.' But they who have drunk most deeply of the +fountain of Wisdom will find that, like the fabled spring, its waters +confer strange loveliness. Lives spent in communion with Jesus will be +lovely, however homely their surroundings, and however vulgar eyes, +taught only to admire staring colours, may find them dull. The world +saw 'no beauty that they should desire Him,' in Him whom holy souls +and heavenly angels and the divine Father deemed 'fairer than the sons +of men'! + +Safety and firm footing in active life will be ours if we walk in +Wisdom's ways. He who follows Christ's footsteps will tread surely, +and not fear foes. Quiet repose in hours of rest will be his. A day +filled with happy service will be followed by a night full of calm +slumber, 'Whether we sleep or wake, we live' with Him; and, if we do +both, sleeping and waking will be blessed, and our lives will move on +gently to the time when days and nights shall melt into one, and there +will be no need for repose; for there will be no work that wearies and +no hands that droop. The last lying down in the grave will be attended +with no terrors. The last sleep there shall be sweet; for it will +really be awaking to the full possession of the personal Wisdom, who +is our Christ, our Life in death, our Heaven in heaven. + + + +THE TWO PATHS + +'Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life +shall be many. 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led +thee in right paths. 12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be +straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13. Take +fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy +life. 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way +of evil men. 15. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass +away. 16. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and +their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. 17. For +they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. 18. +But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more +and more unto the perfect day. 19. The way of the wicked is as +darkness; they know not at what they stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 10-19. + + +This passage includes much more than temperance or any other single +virtue. It is a perfectly general exhortation to that practical wisdom +which walks in the path of righteousness. The principles laid down +here are true in regard to drunkenness and abstinence, but they are +intended to receive a wider application, and to that wider application +we must first look. The theme is the old, familiar one of the two +paths, and the aim is to recommend the better way by setting forth the +contrasted effects of walking in it and in the other. + +The general call to listen in verse 10 is characteristically enforced +by the Old Testament assurance that obedience prolongs life. That is a +New Testament truth as well; for there is nothing more certain than +that a life in conformity with God's will, which is the same thing as +a life in conformity with physical laws, tends to longevity. The +experience of any doctor will show that. Here in England we have +statistics which prove that total abstainers are a long-lived people, +and some insurance offices construct their tables accordingly. + +After that general call to listen comes, in verse 11, the description +of the path in which long life is to be found. It is 'the way of +Wisdom'--that is, that which Wisdom prescribes, and in which therefore +it is wise to walk. It is always foolish to do wrong. The rough title +of an old play is _The Devil is an Ass_, and if that is not true +about him, it is absolutely true about those who listen to his lies. +Sin is the stupidest thing in the universe, for it ignores the +plainest facts, and never gets what it flings away so much to secure. + +Another aspect of the path is presented in the designation 'paths of +uprightness,' which seems to be equivalent to those which belong to, +or perhaps which consist of, uprightness. The idea of straightness or +evenness is the primary meaning of the word, and is, of course, +appropriate to the image of a path. In the moral view, it suggests how +much more simple and easy a course of rectitude is than one of sin. +The one goes straight and unswerving to its end; the other is crooked, +devious, intricate, and wanders from the true goal. A crooked road is +a long road, and an up-and-down road is a tiring road. Wisdom's way is +straight, level, and steadily approaches its aim. + +In verse 13 the image of the path is dropped for the moment, and the +picture of the way of uprightness and its travellers is translated +into the plain exhortation to keep fast hold of 'instruction,' which +is substantially equivalent to the queenly Wisdom of these early +chapters of Proverbs. The earnestness of the repeated exhortations +implies the strength of the forces that tend to sweep us, especially +those of us who are young, from our grasp of that Wisdom. Hands become +slack, and many a good gift drops from nerveless fingers; thieves +abound who will filch away 'instruction,' if we do not resolutely hold +tight by it. Who would walk through the slums of a city holding jewels +with a careless grasp, and never looking at them? How many would he +have left if he did? We do not need to do anything to lose +instruction. If we will only do nothing to keep it, the world and our +own hearts will make sure that we lose it. And if we lose it, we lose +ourselves; for 'she is thy life,' and the mere bodily life, that is +lived without her, is not worth calling the life of a man. + +Verses 14 to 17 give the picture of the other path, in terrible +contrast with the preceding. It is noteworthy that, while in the +former the designation was the 'path of uprightness' or of 'wisdom,' +and the description therefore was mainly of the characteristics of the +path, here the designation is 'the path of the _wicked_,' and the +description is mainly of the travellers on it. Righteousness was dealt +with, as it were, in the abstract; but wickedness is too awful and +dark to be painted thus, and is only set forth in the concrete, as +seen in its doers. Now, it is significant that the first exhortation +here is of a negative character. In contrast with the reiterated +exhortations to keep wisdom, here are reiterated counsels to steer +clear of evil. It is all about us, and we have to make a strong effort +to keep it at arm's-length. 'Whom resist' is imperative. True, +negative virtue is incomplete, but there will be no positive virtue +without it. We must be accustomed to say 'No,' or we shall come to +little good. An outer belt of firs is sometimes planted round a centre +of more tender and valuable wood to shelter the young trees; so we +have to make a fence of abstinences round our plantation of positive +virtues. The decalogue is mostly prohibitions. 'So did _not_ I, +because of the fear of God' must be our motto. In this light, entire +abstinence from intoxicants is seen to be part of the 'way of Wisdom.' +It is one, and, in the present state of England and America, perhaps +the most important, of the ways by which we can 'turn from' the path +of the wicked and 'pass on.' + +The picture of the wicked in verses 16 and 17 is that of very grossly +criminal sinners. They are only content when they have done harm, and +delight in making others as bad as themselves. But, diabolical as such +a disposition is, one sees it only too often in full operation. How +many a drunkard or impure man finds a fiendish pleasure in getting +hold of some innocent lad, and 'putting him up to a thing or two,' +which means teaching him the vices from which the teacher has ceased +to get much pleasure, and which he has to spice with the condiment of +seeing an unaccustomed sinner's eagerness! Such people infest our +streets, and there is only one way for a young man to be safe from +them,--'avoid, pass not by, turn from, and pass on.' The reference to +'bread' and 'wine' in verse 17 seems simply to mean that the wicked +men's living is won by their 'wickedness,' which procures bread, and +by their 'violence,' which brings them wine. It is the way by which +these are obtained that is culpable. We may contrast this foul source +of a degraded living with verse 13, where 'instruction' is set forth +as 'the life' of the upright. + +Verses 18 and 19 bring more closely together the two paths, and set +them in final, forcible contrast. The phrase 'the perfect day' might +be rendered, vividly though clumsily, 'the steady of the day'--that +is, noon, when the sun seems to stand still in the meridian. So the +image compares the path of the just to the growing brightness of +morning dawn, becoming more and more fervid and lustrous, till the +climax of an Eastern midday. No more sublime figure of the continuous +progress in goodness, brightness, and joy, which is the best reward of +walking in the paths of uprightness, can be imagined; and it is as +true as it is sublime. Blessed they who in the morning of their days +begin to walk in the way of wisdom; for, in most cases, years will +strengthen their uprightness, and to that progress there will be no +termination, nor will the midday sun have to decline westward to +diminishing splendour or dismal setting, but that noontide glory will +be enhanced, and made eternal in a new heaven. The brighter the light, +the darker the shadow. That blaze of growing glory, possible for us +all, makes the tragic gloom to which evil men condemn themselves the +thicker and more doleful, as some dungeon in an Eastern prison seems +pitch dark to one coming in from the blaze outside. 'How great is that +darkness!' It is the darkness of sin, of ignorance, of sorrow, and +what adds deeper gloom to it is that every soul that sits in that +shadow of death might have been shining, a sun, in the spacious heaven +of God's love. + + + +MONOTONY AND CRISES + +'When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou +runnest, thou shalt not stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 12. + + +The old metaphor likening life to a path has many felicities in it. It +suggests constant change, it suggests continuous progress in one +direction, and that all our days are linked together, and are not +isolated fragments; and it suggests an aim and an end. So we find it +perpetually in this Book of Proverbs. Here the 'way' has a specific +designation, 'the way of Wisdom'--that is to say, the way which Wisdom +teaches, and the way on which Wisdom accompanies us, and the way which +leads to Wisdom. Now, these two clauses of my text are not merely an +instance of the peculiar feature of Hebrew poetry called parallelism, +in which two clauses, substantially the same, occur, but with a little +pleasing difference. 'When thou goest'--that is, the monotonous tramp, +tramp, tramp of slow walking along the path of an uneventful daily +life, the humdrum 'one foot up and another foot down' which makes the +most of our days. 'When thou runnest'--that points to the crises, the +sudden spurts, the necessarily brief bursts of more than usual energy +and effort and difficulty. And about both of them, the humdrum and the +exciting, the monotonous and the startling, the promise comes that if +we walk in the path of Wisdom we shall not get disgusted with the one +and we shall not be overwhelmed by the other. 'When thou walkest, thy +steps shall not be straitened; when thou runnest, thou shalt not +stumble.' + +But before I deal with these two clauses specifically, let me recall +to you the condition, and the sole condition, upon which either of +them can be fulfilled in our daily lives. The book from which my text +is taken is probably one of the very latest in the Old Testament, and +you catch in it a very significant and marvellous development of the +Old Testament thought. For there rises up, out of these early chapters +of the Book of Proverbs, that august and serene figure of the queenly +Wisdom, which is more than a personification and is less than a person +and a prophecy. It means more than the wise man that spoke it saw; it +means for us Christ, 'the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.' And so +instead of keeping ourselves merely to the word of the Book of +Proverbs, we must grasp the thing that shines through the word, and +realise that the writer's visions can only become realities when the +serene and august Wisdom that he saw shimmering through the darkness +took to itself a human Form, and 'the Word became flesh, and dwelt +among us.' + +With that heightening of the meaning of the phrase, 'the path of +Wisdom' assumes a heightened meaning too, for it is the path of the +personal Wisdom, the Incarnate Wisdom, Christ Himself. And what does +it _then_ come to be to obey this command to walk in the way of +Wisdom? Put it into three sentences. Let the Christ who is not only +wise, but Wisdom, choose your path, and be sure that by the submission +of your will all your paths are His, and not only yours. Make His path +yours by following in His steps, and do in your place what you think +Christ would have done if He had been there. Keep company with Him on +the road. If we will do these three things--if we will say to Him, +'Lord, when Thou sayest go, I go; when Thou biddest me come, I come; I +am Thy slave, and I rejoice in the bondage more than in all licentious +liberty, and what Thou biddest me do, I do'--if you will further say, +'As Thou art, so am I in the world'--and if you will further say, +'Leave me not alone, and let me cling to Thee on the road, as a little +child holds on by her mother's skirt or her father's hand,' then, and +only then, will you walk in the path of Wisdom. + +Now, then, these three things--submission of will, conformity of +conduct, closeness of companionship--these three things being +understood, let us look for a moment at the blessings that this text +promises, and first at the promise for long uneventful stretches of +our daily life. That, of course, is mainly the largest proportion of +all our lives. Perhaps nine-tenths at least of all our days and years +fall under the terms of this first promise, 'When thou walkest.' For +many miles there comes nothing particular, nothing at all exciting, +nothing new, nothing to break the plod, plod, plod along the road. +Everything is as it was yesterday, and the day before that, and as it +will be to-morrow, and the day after that, in all probability. 'The +trivial round, the common task' make up by far the largest percentage +of our lives. It is as in wine, the immense proportion of it is +nothing but water, and only a small proportion of alcohol is diffused +through the great mass of the tamer liquid. + +Now, then, if Jesus Christ is not to help us in the monotony of our +daily lives, what, in the name of common sense, is His help good for? +If it is not true that He will be with us, not only in the moments of +crisis, but in the long commonplace hours, we may as well have no +Christ at all, for all that I can see. Unless the trivial is His +field, there is very little field for Him, in your life or mine. And +so it should come to all of us who have to take up this daily burden +of small, monotonous, constantly recurring, and therefore often +wearisome, duties, as even a more blessed promise than the other one, +that 'when thou walkest, thy steps shall not be straitened.' + +I remember hearing of a man that got so disgusted with having to dress +and undress himself every day that he committed suicide to escape from +the necessity. That is a very extreme form of the feeling that comes +over us all sometimes, when we wake in a morning and look before us +along the stretch of dead level, which is a great deal more wearisome +when it lasts long than are the cheerful vicissitudes of up hill and +down dale. We all know the deadening influence of a habit. We all know +the sense of disgust that comes over us at times, and of utter +weariness, just because we have been doing the same things day after +day for so long. I know only one infallible way of preventing the +common from becoming commonplace, of preventing the small from +becoming trivial, of preventing the familiar from becoming +contemptible, and it is to link it all to Jesus Christ, and to say, +'For Thy sake, and unto Thee, I do this'; then, not only will the +rough places become plain, and the crooked things straight, and not +only will the mountains be brought low, but the valleys of the +commonplace will be exalted. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened.' 'I +will make his feet as hind's feet,' says one of the old prophets. What +a picture of light, buoyant, graceful movement that is! And each of us +may have that, instead of the grind, grind, grind! tramp, tramp, +tramp! along the level and commonplace road of our daily lives, if we +will. Walk in the path of Christ, with Christ, towards Christ, and +'thy steps shall not be straitened.' + +Now, there is another aspect of this same promise--viz. if we thus are +in the path of Incarnate Wisdom, we shall not feel the restrictions of +the road to be restraints. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened'; +although there is a wall on either side, and the road is the narrow +way that leads to life, it is broad enough for the sober man, because +he goes in a straight line, and does not need half the road to roll +about in. The limits which love imposes, and the limits which love +accepts, are not narrowing. 'I will walk at liberty, for--I do as I +like.' No! that is slavery; but, 'I will walk at liberty, for I keep +Thy precepts'; and I do not want to go vagrantising at large, but +limit myself thankfully to the way which Thou dost mark out. 'Thy +steps shall not be straitened.' So much for the first of these +promises. + +Now what about the other one? 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not +stumble.' + +As I have said, the former promise applies to the hours and the years +of life. The latter applies to but a few moments of each man's life. +Cast your thoughts back over your own days, and however changeful, +eventful, perhaps adventurous, and as we people call it, romantic, +some parts of our lives may have been, yet for all that you can put +the turning-points, the crises that have called for great efforts, and +the gathering of yourselves up, and the calling forth of all your +powers to do and to dare, you can put them all inside of a week, in +most cases. 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.' The greater +the speed, the greater the risk of stumbling over some obstacle in the +way. We all know how many men there are that do very well in the +uneventful commonplaces of life, but bring them face to face with some +great difficulty or some great trial, and there is a dismal failure. +Jesus Christ is ready to make us fit for anything in the way of +difficulty, in the way of trial, that can come storming upon us from +out of the dark. And He will make us so fit if we follow the +injunctions to which I have already been referring. Without His help +it is almost certain that when we have to run, our ankles will give, +or there will be a stone in the road that we never thought of, and the +excitement will sweep us away from principle, and we shall lose our +hold on Him; and then it is all up with us. + +There is a wonderful saying in one of the prophets, which uses this +same metaphor of my text with a difference, where it speaks of the +divine guidance of Israel as being like that of a horse in the +wilderness. Fancy the poor, nervous, tremulous creature trying to keep +its footing upon the smooth granite slabs of Sinai. Travellers dare +not take their horses on mountain journeys, because they are highly +nervous and are not sure-footed enough. And, so says the old prophet, +that gracious Hand will be laid on the bridle, and hold the nervous +creature's head up as it goes sliding over the slippery rocks, and so +He will bring it down to rest in the valley. 'Now unto Him that is +able to keep us from stumbling,' as is the true rendering, 'and to +present us faultless ... be glory.' Trust Him, keep near Him, let Him +choose your way, and try to be like Him in it; and whatever great +occasions may arise in your lives, either of sorrow or of duty, you +will be equal to them. + +But remember the virtue that comes out victorious in the crisis must +have been nourished and cultivated in the humdrum moments. For it is +no time to make one's first acquaintance with Jesus Christ when the +eyeballs of some ravenous wild beast are staring into ours, and its +mouth is open to swallow us. Unless He has kept our feet from being +straitened in the quiet walk, He will not be able to keep us from +stumbling in the vehement run. + +One word more. This same distinction is drawn by one of the prophets, +who adds another clause to it. Isaiah, or the author of the second +portion of the book which goes by his name, puts in wonderful +connection the two thoughts of my text with analogous thoughts in +regard to God, when he says, 'Hast thou not known, hast thou not +heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of +the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?' and immediately goes on to +say, 'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They +shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' So it is +from God, the unfainting and the unwearied, that the strength comes +which makes our steps buoyant with energy amidst the commonplace, and +steadfast and established at the crises of our lives. But before these +two great promises is put another one: 'They shall mount up with wings +as eagles,' and therefore both the other become possible. That is to +say, fellowship with God in the heavens, which is made possible on +earth by communion with Christ, is the condition both of the unwearied +running and of unfainting walking. If we will keep in the path of +Christ, He will take care of the commonplace dreary tracts and of the +brief moments of strain and effort, and will bring us at last where He +has gone, if, looking unto Him, we 'run with patience the race,' and +walk with cheerfulness the road, 'that is set before us.' + + + +FROM DAWN TO NOON + +'The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and +more unto the perfect day.'--PROVERBS iv. 18. + +'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of +their father.--MATT. xiii. 43. + + +The metaphor common to both these texts is not infrequent throughout +Scripture. In one of the oldest parts of the Old Testament, Deborah's +triumphal song, we find, 'Let all them that love Thee be as the sun +when he goeth forth in his might.' In one of the latest parts of the +Old Testament, Daniel's prophecy, we read, 'They that be wise shall +shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to +righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' Then in the New +Testament we have Christ's comparison of His servants to light, and +the great promise which I have read as my second text. The upshot of +them all is this--the most radiant thing on earth is the character of +a good man. The world calls men of genius and intellectual force its +lights. The divine estimate, which is the true one, confers the name +on righteousness. + +But my first text follows out another analogy; not only brightness, +but progressive brightness, is the characteristic of the righteous +man. + +We are to think of the strong Eastern sun, whose blinding light +steadily increases till the noontide. 'The perfect day' is a somewhat +unfortunate translation. What is meant is the point of time at which +the day culminates, and for a moment, the sun seems to stand steady, +up in those southern lands, in the very zenith, raying down 'the +arrows that fly by noonday.' The text does not go any further, it does +not talk about the sad diminution of the afternoon. The parallel does +not hold; though, if we consult appearance and sense alone, it seems +to hold only too well. For, sadder than the setting of the suns, which +rise again to-morrow, is the sinking into darkness of death, from +which there seems to be no emerging. But my second text comes in to +tell us that death is but as the shadow of eclipse which passes, and +with it pass obscuring clouds and envious mists, and 'then shall the +righteous blaze forth like the sun in their Heavenly Father's +kingdom.' + +And so the two texts speak to us of the progressive brightness, and +the ultimate, which is also the progressive, radiance of the +righteous. + +I. In looking at them together, then, I would notice, first, what a +Christian life is meant to be. + +I must not linger on the lovely thoughts that are suggested by that +attractive metaphor of life. It must be enough, for our present +purpose, to say that the light of the Christian life, like its type in +the heavens, may be analysed into three beams--purity, knowledge, +blessedness. And these three, blended together, make the pure +whiteness of a Christian soul. + +But what I wish rather to dwell upon is the other thought, the +intention that every Christian life should be a life of increasing +lustre, uninterrupted, and the natural result of increasing communion +with, and conformity to, the very fountain itself of heavenly +radiance. + +Remember how emphatically, in all sorts of ways, progress is laid down +in Scripture as the mark of a religious life. There is the emblem of +my text. There is our Lord's beautiful one of vegetable growth: 'First +the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.' There is the +other metaphor of the stages of human life, 'babes in Christ,' young +men in Him, old men and fathers. There is the metaphor of the growth +of the body. There is the metaphor of the gradual building up of a +structure. We are to 'edify ourselves together,' and to 'build +ourselves up on our most holy faith.' There is the other emblem of a +race--continual advance as the result of continual exertion, and the +use of the powers bestowed upon us. + +And so in all these ways, and in many others that I need not now touch +upon, Scripture lays it down as a rule that life in the highest +region, like life in the lowest, is marked by continual growth. It is +so in regard to all other things. Continuity in any kind of practice +gives increasing power in the art. The artisan, the blacksmith with +his hammer, the skilled artificer at his trade, the student at his +subject, the good man in his course of life, and the bad man in his, +do equally show that use becomes second nature. And so, in passing, +let me say what incalculable importance there is in our getting habit, +with all its mystical power to mould life, on the side of +righteousness, and of becoming accustomed to do good, and so being +unfamiliar with evil. + +Let me remind you, too, how this intention of continuous growth is +marked by the gifts that are bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. He +gives us--and it is by no means the least of the gifts that He +bestows--an absolutely unattainable aim as the object of our efforts. +For He bids us not only be 'perfect, as our Father in Heaven is +perfect,' but He bids us be entirely conformed to His own Self. The +misery of men is that they pursue aims so narrow and so shabby that +they can be attained, and are therefore left behind, to sink hull down +on the backward horizon. But to have before us an aim which is +absolutely unreachable, instead of being, as ignorant people say, an +occasion of despair and of idleness, is, on the contrary, the very +salt of life. It keeps us young, it makes hope immortal, it +emancipates from lower pursuits, it diminishes the weight of sorrows, +it administers an anaesthetic to every pain. If you want to keep +life fresh, seek for that which you can never fully find. + +Christ gives us infinite powers to reach that unattainable aim, for He +gives us access to all His own fullness, and there is more in His +storehouses than we can ever take, not to say more than we can ever +hope to exhaust. And therefore, because of the aim that is set before +us, and because of the powers that are bestowed upon us to reach it, +there is stamped upon every Christian life unmistakably as God's +purpose and ideal concerning it, that it should for ever and for ever +be growing nearer and nearer, as some ascending spiral that ever +circles closer and closer, and yet never absolutely unites with the +great central Perfection which is Himself. + +So, brethren, for every one of us, if we are Christian people at all, +'this is the will of God, even your perfection.' + +II. Consider the sad contrast of too many Christian lives. + +I would not speak in terms that might seem to be reproach and +scolding. The matter is far too serious, the disease far too +widespread, to need or to warrant any exaggeration. But, dear +brethren, there are many so-called and, in a fashion, really Christian +people to whom Christ and His work are mainly, if not exclusively, the +means of escaping the consequences of sin--a kind of 'fire-escape.' +And to very many it comes as a new thought, in so far as their +practical lives are concerned, that these ought to be lives of +steadily increasing deliverance from the love and the power of sin, +and steadily increasing appropriation and manifestation of Christ's +granted righteousness. There are, I think, many of us from whom the +very notion of progress has faded away. I am sure there are some of us +who were a great deal farther on on the path of the Christian life +years ago, when we first felt that Christ was anything to us, than we +are to-day. 'When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need +that one teach you which be the first principles of the oracles of +God.' + +There is an old saying of one of the prophets that a child would die a +hundred years old, which in a very sad sense is true about very many +folk within the pale of the Christian Church who are seventy-year-old +babes still, and will die so. Suns 'growing brighter and brighter +until the noonday!' Ah! there are many of us who are a great deal more +like those strange variable stars that sometimes burst out in the +heavens into a great blaze, that brings them up to the brightness of +stars of the first magnitude, for a day or two; and then they dwindle +until they become little specks of light that the telescope can hardly +see. + +And there are hosts of us who are instances, if not of arrested, at +any rate of unsymmetrical, development. The head, perhaps, is +cultivated; the intellectual apprehension of Christianity increases, +while the emotional, and the moral, and the practical part of it are +all neglected. Or the converse may be the case; and we may be full of +gush and of good emotion, and of fervour when we come to worship or to +pray, and our lives may not be a hair the better for it all. Or there +may be a disproportion because of an exclusive attention to conduct +and the practical side of Christianity, while the rational side of it, +which should be the basis of all, and the emotional side of it, which +should be the driving power of all, are comparatively neglected. + +So, dear brethren! what with interruptions, what with growing by fits +and starts, and long, dreary winters like the Arctic winters, coming +in between the two or three days of rapid, and therefore brief and +unwholesome, development, we must all, I think, take to heart the +condemnation suggested by this text when we compare the reality of our +lives with the divine intention concerning them. Let us ask ourselves, +'Have I more command over myself than I had twenty years ago? Do I +live nearer Jesus Christ today than I did yesterday? Have I more of +His Spirit in me? Am I growing? Would the people that know me best say +that I am growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour?' +Astronomers tell us that there are dark suns, that have burnt +themselves out, and are wandering unseen through the skies. I wonder +if there are any extinguished suns of that sort listening to me at +this moment. + +III. How the divine purpose concerning us may be realised by us. + +Now the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_ of this, the one means which +includes all other, is laid down by Jesus Christ Himself in another +metaphor when He said, 'Abide in Me, and I in you; so shall ye bring +forth much fruit.' Our path will brighten, not because of any radiance +in ourselves, but in proportion as we draw nearer and nearer to the +Fountain of heavenly radiance. + +The planets that move round the sun, further away than we are on +earth, get less of its light and heat; and those that circle around it +within the limits of our orbit, get proportionately more. The nearer +we are to Him, the more we shall shine. The sun shines by its own +light, drawn indeed from the shrinkage of its mass, so that it gives +away its very life in warming and illuminating its subject-worlds. But +we shine only by reflected light, and therefore the nearer we keep to +Him the more shall we be radiant. + +That keeping in touch with Jesus Christ is mainly to be secured by the +direction of thought, and love, and trust to Him. If we follow close +upon Him we shall not walk in darkness. It is to be secured and +maintained very largely by what I am afraid is much neglected by +Christian people of all sorts nowadays, and that is the devotional use +of their Bibles. That is the food by which we grow. It is to be secured +and maintained still more largely by that which I, again, am afraid is +but very imperfectly attained to by Christian people now, and that is, +the habit of prayer. It is to be secured and maintained, again, by the +honest conforming of our lives, day by day, to the present amount of our +knowledge of Him and of His will. Whosoever will make all his life the +manifestation of his belief, and turn all his creed into principles of +action, will grow both in the comprehensiveness, and in the depths of +his Christian character. 'Ye are the light in the Lord.' Keep in Him, +and you will become brighter and brighter. So shall we 'go from strength +to strength, till we appear before God in Zion.' + +IV. Lastly, what brighter rising will follow the earthly setting? + +My second text comes in here. Beauty, intellect, power, goodness; all +go down into the dark. The sun sets, and there is left a sad and +fading glow in the darkening pensive sky, which may recall the +vanished light for a little while to a few faithful hearts, but +steadily passes into the ashen grey of forgetfulness. + +But 'then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun, in their +Heavenly Father's kingdom.' The momentary setting is but apparent. And +ere it is well accomplished, a new sun swims into the 'ampler ether, +the diviner air' of that future life, 'and with new spangled beams, +flames in the forehead of the morning sky.' + +The reason for that inherent brightness suggested in our second text +is that the soul of the righteous man passes from earth into a region +out of which we 'gather all things that offend, and them that do +iniquity.' There are other reasons for it, but that is the one which +our Lord dwells on. Or, to put it into modern scientific language, +environment corresponds to character. So, when the clouds have rolled +away, and no more mists from the undrained swamps of selfishness and +sin and animal nature rise up to hide the radiance, there shall be a +fuller flood of light poured from the re-created sun. + +That brightness thus promised has for its highest and most blessed +character that it is conformity to the Lord Himself. For, as you may +remember, the last use of this emblem that we find in Scripture refers +not to the servant but to the Master, whom His beloved disciple in +Apocalyptic vision saw, with His 'countenance as the sun shining in +his strength.' Thus 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.' And therefore that radiance of the sainted dead is progressive, +too. For it has an infinite fulness to draw upon, and the soul that is +joined to Jesus Christ, and derives its lustre from Him, cannot die +until it has outgrown Jesus and emptied God. The sun will one day be a +dark, cold ball. We shall outlast it. + +But, brethren, remember that it is only those who here on earth have +progressively appropriated the brightness that Christ bestows who have +a right to reckon on that better rising. It is contrary to all +probability to believe that the passage from life can change the +ingrained direction and set of a man's nature. We know nothing that +warrants us in affirming that death can revolutionise character. Do +not trust your future to such a dim peradventure. Here is a plain +truth. They who on earth are as 'the shining light that shineth more +and more unto the perfect day,' shall, beyond the shadow of eclipse, +shine on as the sun does, behind the opaque, intervening body, all +unconscious of what looks to mortal eyes on earth an eclipse, and +'shall blaze out like the sun in their Heavenly Father's kingdom.' For +all that we know and are taught by experience, religious and moral +distinctions are eternal. 'He that is righteous, let him be righteous +still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.' + + + +KEEPING AND KEPT + +'Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of +life.'--PROVERBS iv. 23. + +'Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'--1 PETER 1. +5. + + +The former of these texts imposes a stringent duty, the latter +promises divine help to perform it. The relation between them is that +between the Law and the Gospel. The Law commands, the Gospel gives +power to obey. The Law pays no attention to man's weakness, and points +no finger to the source of strength. Its office is to set clearly +forth what we ought to be, not to aid us in becoming so. 'Here is your +duty, do it' is, doubtless, a needful message, but it is a chilly one, +and it may well be doubted if it ever rouses a soul to right action. +Moralists have hammered away at preaching self-restraint and a close +watch over the fountain of actions within from the beginning, but +their exhortations have little effect unless they can add to their icy +injunctions the warmth of the promise of our second text, and point to +a divine Keeper who will make duty possible. We must be kept by God, +if we are ever to succeed in keeping our wayward hearts. + +I. Without our guarding our hearts, no noble life is possible. + +The Old Testament psychology differs from our popular allocation of +certain faculties to bodily organs. We use head and heart, roughly +speaking, as being respectively the seats of thought and of emotion. +But the Old Testament locates in the heart the centre of personal +being. It is not merely the home of the affections, but the seat of +will, moral purpose. As this text says, 'the issues of life' flow from +it in all the multitudinous variety of their forms. The stream parts +into many heads, but it has one fountain. To the Hebrew thinkers the +heart was the indivisible, central unity which manifested itself in +the whole of the outward life. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is +he.' The heart is the man. And that personal centre has a moral +character which comes to light in, and gives unity and character to, +all his deeds. + +That solemn thought that every one of us has a definite moral +character, and that our deeds are not an accidental set of outward +actions but flow from an inner fountain, needs to be driven home to +our consciences, for most of the actions of most men are done so +mechanically, and reflected on so little by the doers, that the +conviction of their having any moral character at all, or of our +incurring any responsibility for them, is almost extinct in us, unless +when something startles conscience into protest. + +It is this shrouded inner self to which supreme care is to be +directed. All noble ethical teaching concurs in this--that a man who +seeks to be right must keep, in the sense both of watching and of +guarding, his inner self. Conduct is more easily regulated than +character--and less worth regulating. It avails little to plant +watchers on the stream half way to the sea. Control must be exercised +at the source, if it is to be effectual. The counsel of our first text +is a commonplace of all wholesome moral teaching since the beginning +of the world. The phrase 'with all diligence' is literally 'above all +guarding,' and energetically expresses the supremacy of this keeping. +It should be the foremost, all-pervading aim of every wise man who +would not let his life run to waste. It may be turned into more modern +language, meaning just what this ancient sage meant, if we put it as, +'Guard thy character with more carefulness than thou dost thy most +precious possessions, for it needs continual watchfulness, and, +untended, will go to rack and ruin.' The exhortation finds a response +in every heart, and may seem too familiar and trite to bear dwelling +on, but we may be allowed to touch lightly on one or two of the plain +reasons which enforce it on every man who is not what Proverbs very +unpolitely calls 'a fool.' + +That guarding is plainly imposed as necessary, by the very +constitution of our manhood. Our nature is evidently not a republic, +but a monarchy. It is full of blind impulses, and hungry desires, +which take no heed of any law but their own satisfaction. If the reins +are thrown on the necks of these untamed horses, they will drag the +man to destruction. They are only safe when they are curbed and +bitted, and held well in. Then there are tastes and inclinations which +need guidance and are plainly meant to be subordinate. The will is to +govern all the lower self, and conscience is to govern the will. +Unmistakably there are parts of every man's nature which are meant to +serve, and parts which are appointed to rule, and to let the servants +usurp the place of the rulers is to bring about as wild a confusion +within as the Ecclesiast lamented that he had seen in the anarchic +times when he wrote--princes walking and beggars on horseback. As +George Herbert has it-- + + 'Give not thy humours way; + God gave them to thee under lock and key.' + +Then, further, that guarding is plainly imperative, because there is +an outer world which appeals to our needs and desires, irrespective +altogether of right and wrong and of the moral consequences of +gratifying these. Put a loaf before a starving man and his impulse +will be to clutch and devour it, without regard to whether it is his +or no. Show any of our animal propensities its appropriate food, and +it asks no questions as to right or wrong, but is stirred to grasp its +natural food. And even the higher and nobler parts of our nature are +but too apt to seek their gratification without having the license of +conscience for doing so, and sometimes in defiance of its plain +prohibitions. It is never safe to trust the guidance of life to +tastes, inclinations, or to anything but clear reason, set in motion +by calm will, and acting under the approbation of 'the Lord Chief +Justice, Conscience.' + +But again, seeing that the world has more evil than good in it, the +keeping of the heart will always consist rather in repelling +solicitations to yielding to evil. In short, the power and the habit +of sternly saying 'No' to the whole crowd of tempters is always the +main secret of a noble life. 'He that hath no rule over his own spirit +is like a city broken down and without walls.' + +II. There is no effectual guarding unless God guards. + +The counsel in Proverbs is not mere toothless moral commonplace, but +is associated, in the preceding chapter, with fatherly advice to 'let +thine heart keep my commandments' and to 'trust in the Lord with all +thine heart.' The heart that so trusts will be safely guarded, and +only such a heart will be. The inherent weakness of all attempts at +self-keeping is that keeper and kept being one and the same +personality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to +effect it. If in the very garrison are traitors, how shall the +fortress be defended? If, then, we are to exercise an effectual guard +over our characters and control over our natures, we must have an +outward standard of right and wrong which shall not be deflected by +variations in our temperature. We need a fixed light to steer towards, +which is stable on the stable shore, and is not tossing up and down on +our decks. We shall cleanse our way only when we 'take heed thereto, +according to Thy word.' For even God's viceroy within, the sovereign +conscience, can be warped, perverted, silenced, and is not immune from +the spreading infection of evil. When it turns to God, as a mirror to +the sun, it is irradiated and flashes bright illumination into dark +corners, but its power depends on its being thus lit by radiations +from the very Light of Life. And if we are ever to have a coercive +power over the rebellious powers within, we must have God's power +breathed into us, giving grip and energy to all the good within, +quickening every lofty desire, satisfying every aspiration that feels +after Him, cowing all our evil and being the very self of ourselves. + +We need an outward motive which will stimulate and stir to effort. Our +wills are lamed for good, and the world has strong charms that appeal +to us. And if we are not to yield to these, there must be somewhere a +stronger motive than any that the sorceress world has in its stores, +that shall constrainingly draw us to ways that, because they tend +upward, and yield no pabulum for the lower self, are difficult for +sluggish feet. To the writer of this Book of Proverbs the name of God +bore in it such a motive. To us the name of Jesus, which is Love, +bears a yet mightier appeal, and the motive which lies in His death +for us is strong enough, and it alone is strong enough, to fire our +whole selves with enthusiastic, grateful love, which will burn up our +sloth, and sweep our evil out of our hearts, and make us swift and +glad to do all that may please Him. If there must be fresh +reinforcements thrown into the town of Mansoul, as there must be if it +is not to be captured, there is one sure way of securing these. Our +second text tells us whence the relieving force must come. If we are +to keep our hearts with all diligence, we must be 'kept by the power +of God,' and that power is not merely to make diversion outside the +beleaguered fortress which may force the besiegers to retreat and give +up their effort, but is to enter in and possess the soul which it +wills to defend. It is when the enemy sees that new succours have, in +some mysterious way, been introduced, that he gives up his siege. It +is God in us that is our security. + +III. There is no keeping by God without faith. + +Peter was an expert in such matters, for he had had a bitter +experience to teach him how soon and surely self-confidence became +self-despair. 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,' was +said but a few hours before he denied Jesus. His faith failed, and +then the divine guard that was keeping his soul passed thence, and, +left alone, he fell. + +That divine Power is exerted for our keeping on condition of our +trusting ourselves to Him and trusting Him for ourselves. And that +condition is no arbitrary one, but is prescribed by the very nature of +divine help and of human faith. If God could keep our souls without +our trust in Him He would. He does so keep them as far as is possible, +but for all the choicer blessings of His giving, and especially for +that of keeping us free from the domination of our lower selves, there +must be in us faith if there is to be in God help. The hand that lays +hold on God in Christ must be stretched out and must grasp His warm, +gentle, and strong hand, if the tingling touch of it is to infuse +strength. If the relieving force is victoriously to enter our hearts, +we must throw open the gates and welcome it. Faith is but the open +door for God's entrance. It has no efficacy in itself any more than a +door has, but all its blessedness depends on what it admits into the +hidden chambers of the heart. + +I reiterate what I have tried to show in these poor words. There is no +noble life without our guarding our hearts; there is no effectual +guarding unless God guards; there is no divine guarding unless through +our faith. It is vain to preach self-governing and self-keeping. +Unless we can tell the beleaguered heart, 'The Lord is thy Keeper; He +will keep thee from all evil; He will keep thy soul,' we only add one +more impossible command to a man's burden. And we do not apprehend nor +experience the divine keeping in its most blessed and fullest reality, +unless we find it in Jesus, who is 'able to keep us from falling, and +to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with +exceeding joy.' + + + +THE CORDS OF SIN + +'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be +holden with the cords of his sins.'--PROVERBS v. 22. + + +In Hosea's tender picture of the divine training of Israel which, +alas! failed of its effect, we read, 'I drew them with cords of a +man,' which is further explained as being 'with bands of love.' The +metaphor in the prophet's mind is probably that of a child being +'taught to go' and upheld in its first tottering steps by +leading-strings. God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield to the +drawing. But if these gentle, attractive influences, which ever are +raying out from Him, are resisted, another set of cords, not now +sustaining and attracting, but hampering and fettering, twine +themselves round the rebellious life, and the man is like a wild +creature snared in the hunter's toils, enmeshed in a net, and with its +once free limbs restrained. The choice is open to us all, whether we +will let God draw us to Himself with the sweet manlike cords of His +educative and forbearing love, or, flinging off these, which only +foolish self-will construes into limitations, shall condemn ourselves +to be prisoned within the narrow room of our own sins. We may choose +which condition shall be ours, but one or other of them must be ours. +We may either be drawn by the silken cord of God's love or we may be +'holden by the cords' of our sins. + +In both clauses of our text evil deeds done are regarded as having a +strange, solemn life apart from the doer of them, by which they become +influential factors in his subsequent life. Their issues on others may +be important, but their issues on him are the most important of all. +The recoil of the gun on the shoulder of him who fired it is certain, +whether the cartridge that flew from its muzzle wounded anything or +not. 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked'--they ring him round, +a grim company to whom he has given an independent being, and who have +now 'taken' him prisoner and laid violent hands on him. A long since +forgotten novel told of the fate of 'a modern Prometheus,' who made +and put life into a dreadful creature in man's shape, that became the +curse of its creator's life. That tragedy is repeated over and over +again. We have not done with our evil deeds when we have done them, +but they, in a very terrible sense, begin to be when they are done. We +sow the seeds broadcast, and the seed springs up dragon's teeth. + +The view of human experience set forth, especially in the second +clause of this text, directs our gaze into dark places, into which it +is not pleasant to look, and many of you will accuse me of preaching +gloomily if I try to turn a reflective eye inwards upon them, but no +one will be able to accuse me of not preaching truly. It is impossible +to enumerate all the cords that make up the net in which our own evil +doings hold us meshed, but let me point out some of these. + +I. Our evil deeds become evil habits. + +We all know that anything once done becomes easier to do again. That +is true about both good and bad actions, but 'ill weeds grow apace,' +and it is infinitely easier to form a bad habit than a good one. The +young shoot is green and flexible at first, but it soon becomes woody +and grows high and strikes deep. We can all verify the statement of +our text by recalling the tremors of conscience, the self-disgust, the +dread of discovery which accompanied the first commission of some evil +deed, and the silence of undisturbed, almost unconscious facility, +that accompanied later repetitions of it. Sins of sense and animal +passion afford the most conspicuous instances of this, but it is by no +means confined to these. We have but to look steadily at our own lives +to be aware of the working of this solemn law in them, however clear +we may be of the grosser forms of evil deeds. For us all it is true +that custom presses on us 'with a weight, heavy as frost and deep +almost as life,' and that it is as hard for the Ethiopian to change +his skin or the leopard his spots as for those who 'are accustomed to +do evil' to 'do good.' + +But experience teaches not only that evil deeds quickly consolidate +into evil habits, but that as the habit grips us faster, the poor +pleasure for the sake of which the acts are done diminishes. The zest +which partially concealed the bitter taste of the once eagerly +swallowed morsel is all but gone, but the morsel is still sought and +swallowed. Impulses wax as motives wane, the victim is like an ox +tempted on the road to the slaughter-house at first by succulent +fodder held before it, and at last driven into it by pricking goads +and heavy blows. Many a man is so completely wrapped in the net which +his own evil deeds have made for him, that he commits the sin once +more, not because he finds any pleasure in it, but for no better +reason than that he has already committed it often, and the habit is +his master. + +There are many forms of evil which compel us to repeat them for other +reasons than the force of habit. For instance, a fraudulent +book-keeper has to go on making false entries in his employer's books +in order to hide his peculations. Whoever steps on to the steeply +sloping road to which self-pleasing invites us, soon finds that he is +on an inclined plane well greased, and that compulsion is on him to go +on, though he may recoil from the descent, and be shudderingly aware +of what the end must be. Let no man say, 'I will do this doubtful +thing once only, and never again.' Sin is like an octopus, and if the +loathly thing gets the tip of one slender filament round a man, it +will envelop him altogether and drag him down to the cruel beak. + +Let us then remember how swiftly deeds become habits, and how the +fetters, which were silken at first, rapidly are exchanged for iron +chains, and how the craving increases as fast as the pleasure from +gratifying it diminishes. Let us remember that there are many kinds of +evil which seem to force their own repetition, in order to escape +their consequences and to hide the sin. Let us remember that no man +can venture to say, 'This once only will I do this thing.' Let us +remember that acts become habits with dreadful swiftness, and let us +beware that we do not forge chains of darkness for ourselves out of +our own godless deeds. + +II. Our evil deeds imprison us for good. + +The tragedy of human life is that we weave for ourselves manacles that +fetter us from following and securing the one good for which we are +made. Our evil past holds us in a firm grip. The cords which confine +our limbs are of our own spinning. What but ourselves is the reason +why so many of us do not yield to God's merciful drawings of us to +Himself? We have riveted the chains and twined the net that holds us +captive, by our own acts. It is we ourselves who have paralysed our +wills, so that we see the light of God but as a faint gleam far away, +and dare not move to follow the gleam. It is we who have smothered or +silenced our conscience and perverted our tastes, and done violence to +all in us that 'thirsteth for God, even the living God.' Alas! how +many of us have let some strong evil habit gain such a grip of us that +it has overborne our higher impulses, and silenced the voice within us +that cries out for the living God! We are kept back from Him by our +worse selves, and whoever lets that which is lowest in him keep him +from following after God, who is his 'being's end and aim,' is caught +and prisoned by the cords woven and knitted out of his sins. Are there +none of us who know, when they are honest with themselves, that they +would have been true Christians long since, had it not been for one +darling evil that they cannot make up their minds to cast off? Wills +disabled from strongly willing the good, consciences silenced as when +the tongue is taken out of a bell-buoy on a shoal, tastes perverted +and set seeking amid the transitory treasures of earth for what God +only can give them, these are the 'cords' out of which are knotted the +nets that hold so many of us captive, and hinder our feet from +following after God, even the living God, in following and possessing +whom is the only liberty of soul, the one real joy of life. + +III. Our evil deeds work their own punishment. + +I do not venture to speak of the issues beyond the grave. It is not +for a man to press these on his brethren. But even from the standpoint +of this Book of Proverbs, it is certain that 'the righteous shall be +recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.' +Probably it was the earthly consequences of wrongdoing that were in +the mind of the proverb-maker. And we are not to let our Christian +enlightenment as to the future rob us of the certainty, written large +on human life here and now, that with whatever apparent exceptions in +regard to prosperous sin and tried righteousness, it is yet true that +'every transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of +reward.' Life is full of consequences of evil-doing. Even here and now +we reap as we have sown. Every sin is a mistake, even if we confine +our view to the consequences sought for in this life by it, and the +consequences actually encountered. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' +True, we believe that there is a future reaping so complete that it +makes the partial harvests gathered here seem of small account. But +the framer of this proverb, who had little knowledge of that future, +had seen enough in the meditative survey of this present to make him +sure that the consequences of evil-doing were certain, and in a very +true sense, penal. And leaving out of sight all that lies in the dark +beyond, surely if we sum up the lamed aspirations, the perverted +tastes, the ossifying of noble emotions, the destruction of the +balance of the nature, the blinding of the eye of the soul, the +lowering and narrowing of the whole nature, and many another wound to +the best in man that come as the sure issue of evil deeds, we do not +need to doubt that every sinful man is miserably 'holden with the +cords of his sin.' Life is the time for sowing, but it is a time for +reaping too, and we do not need to wait for death to experience the +truth of the solemn warning that 'he who soweth to the flesh shall of +the flesh reap corruption.' Let us, then, do no deeds without asking +ourselves, What will the harvest be? and if from any deeds that we +have done we have to reap sorrow or inward darkness, let us be +thankful that by experience our Father is teaching us how bitter as +well as evil a thing it is to forsake Him, and cast off His fear from +our wayward spirits. + +IV. The cords can be loosened. + +Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly +to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net +and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression +which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast +off himself. The desperate problem that fronts every effort at +self-emendation has two bristling impossibilities in it: one, how to +annihilate the past; one, how to extirpate the evil that is part of my +very self, and yet to keep the self entire. The very terms of the +problem show it to be insoluble, and the climax of all honest efforts +at making a clean thing of an unclean by means within reach of the +unclean thing itself, is the despairing cry, 'O wretched man that I +am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?' + +But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralysed beyond +writhing, and indifferent, because hopeless, or because they have come +to like their captivity, comes one whose name is 'the Breaker,' whose +mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid +on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the +limbs and sets the bondsman free. Many tongues praise Jesus for many +great gifts, but His proper work, and that peculiar to Himself alone, +is His work on the sin and the sins of the world. He deals with that +which no man can deal with for himself or by his own power. He can +cancel our past, so that it shall not govern our future. He can give +new power to fight the old habits. He can give a new life which owes +nothing to the former self, and is free from taint from it. He can +break the entail of sin, the 'law of the spirit of life in Christ +Jesus' can make any of us, even him who is most tied and bound by the +chain of his sins, 'free from the law of sin and death.' We cannot +break the chains that fetter us, and our own struggles, like the +plungings of a wild beast caught in the toils, but draw the bonds +tighter. But the chains that cannot be broken can be melted, and it +may befall each of us as it befell the three Hebrews in the furnace, +when the king 'was astonished' and asked, 'Did not we cast three men +bound into the midst of the fire?' and wonderingly declared, 'Lo, I +see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and the aspect of +the fourth is like a son of the gods.' + + + +WISDOM'S GIFT + +'That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance.'--PROVERBS +viii. 21. + + +The word here rendered 'substance' is peculiar. Indeed, it is used in +a unique construction in this passage. It means 'being' or +'existence,' and seems to have been laid hold of by the Hebrew +thinkers, from whom the books commonly called 'the Wisdom Books' come, +as one of their almost technical expressions. 'Substance' may be used +in our translation in its philosophical meaning as the supposed +reality underlying appearances, but if we observe that in the parallel +following clause we find 'treasures,' it seems more likely that in the +text, it is to be taken in its secondary, and much debased meaning of +wealth, material possessions. But the prize held out here to the +lovers of heavenly wisdom is much more than worldly good. In deepest +truth, the being which is theirs is God Himself. They who love and +seek the wisdom of this book possess Him, and in possessing Him become +possessed of their own true being. They are owners and lords of +themselves, and have in their hearts a fountain of life, because they +have God dwelling with and in them. + +I. The quest which always finds. + +'Those who love wisdom' might be a Hebrew translation of +'philosopher,' and possibly the Jewish teachers of wisdom were +influenced by Greece, but their conception of wisdom has a deeper +source than the Greek had, and what they meant by loving it was a +widely different attitude of mind and heart from that of the Greek +philosopher. It could never be said of the disciples of a Plato that +their quest was sure to end in finding what they sought. Many a man +then, and many a man since, and many a man to-day, has 'followed +knowledge, like a sinking star,' and has only caught a glimmer of a +far-off and dubious light. There is only one search which is certain +always to find what it seeks, and that is the search which knows where +the object of it is, and seeks not as for something the locality of +which is unknown, but as for that which the place of which is certain. +The manifold voices of human aims cry, 'Who will show us any good?' +The seeker who is sure to find is he who prays, 'Lord, lift Thou up +the light of Thy countenance upon us.' The heart that truly and +supremely affects God is never condemned to seek in vain. The Wisdom +of this book herself is presented as proclaiming, 'They that seek me +earnestly shall find me,' and humble souls in every age since then +have set to their seal that the word is true to their experience. For +there are two seekers in every such case, God and man. 'The Father +seeketh such to worship Him,' and His love goes through the world, +yearning and searching for hearts that will turn to Him. The shepherd +seeks for the lost sheep, and lays it on his shoulders to bear it back +to the fold. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the seeking love of +God. And the human seeker finds God, or rather is found by God, for no +aspiration after Him is vain, no longing unresponded to, no effort to +find Him unresponded to. We have as much of God as we wish, as much as +our desires have fitted us to receive. The all-penetrating atmosphere +enters every chink open to it, and no seeking soul has ever had to +say, 'I sought Him but found Him not.' + +Is there any other quest of which the same can be said? Are not all +paths of human effort strewed with the skeletons of men who have +fretted and toiled away their lives in vain attempts to grasp aims +that have eluded their grip? Do we not all know the sickness of +disappointed effort, or the sadder sickness of successful effort, +which has secured the apparent good and found it not so good after +all? The Christian life is, amid all the failures of human effort, the +only life in which the seeking after good is but a little less blessed +than the finding of it is, and in which it is always true that 'he +that seeketh findeth.' Nor does such finding deaden the spirit of +seeking, for in every finding there is a fresh discovery of new depths +in God, and a consequent quickening of desire to press further into +the abyss of His Being, so that aspiration and fruition ever beget +each other, and the upward, Godward progress of the soul is eternal. + +II. The finding that is always blessed. + +We have seen that being is the gift promised to the lovers of wisdom, +and that the promise may either be referred to the possession of God, +who is the fountain of all being, or to the true possession of +ourselves, which is a consequence of our possession of Him. In either +aspect, that possession is blessedness. If we have God, we have real +life. We truly own ourselves when we have God. We really live when God +lives in us, the life of our lives. We are ourselves, when we have +ceased to be ourselves, and have taken God to be the Self of +ourselves. + +Such a life, God-possessing, brings the one good which corresponds to +our whole nature. All other good is fragmentary, and being fragmentary +is inadequate, as men's restless search after various forms of good +but too sadly proves. Why does the merchantman wander over sea and +land seeking for many goodly pearls? Because he has not found one of +great price, but tries to make up by their number for the +insufficiency of each. But the soul is made, not to find its wealth in +the manifold but in the one, and no aggregation of incompletenesses +will make up completeness, nor any number of partial satisfactions of +this and the other appetite or desire make a man feel that he has +enough and more than enough. We must have all good in one Person, if +we are ever to know the rest of full satisfaction. It will be fatal to +our blessedness if we have to resort to a hundred different sources +for different supplies. The true blessedness is simple and yet +infinitely complex, for it comes from possessing the one Person in +whom dwell for us all forms of good, whether good be understood as +intellectual or moral or emotional. That which cannot be everything to +the soul that seeks is scarcely worth the seeking, and certainly is +not wisely proposed as the object of a life's search, for such a life +will be a failure if it fails to find its object, and scarcely less +tragically, though perhaps less conspicuously, a failure if it finds +it. All other good is but apparent; God is the one real object that +meets all man's desires and needs, and makes him blessed with real +blessedness, and fills the cup of life with the draught that slakes +thirst and satisfies the thirstiest. + +III. The blessedness that always lasts. + +He who finds God, as every one of us may find Him, in Christ, has +found a Good that cannot change, pass, or grow stale. His blessedness +will always last, as long as he keeps fast hold of that which he has, +and lets no man take his crown. + +For the Christian's good is the only one that does not intend to grow +old and pall. We can never exhaust God. We need never grow weary of +Him. Possession robs other wealth of its glamour, and other pleasures +of their poignant sweetness. We grow weary of most good things, and +those which we have long had, we generally find get somewhat faded and +stale. Habit is a fatal enemy to enjoyment. But it only adds to the +joy which springs from the possession of God in Christ. Swedenborg +said that the oldest angels look the youngest, and they who have +longest experience of the joy of fellowship with God are they who +enjoy each instance of it most. We can never drink the chalice of His +love to the dregs, and it will be fresh and sparkling as long as we +have lips that can absorb it. He keeps the good wine till the last. + +The Christian's good is the only good which cannot be taken away. Loss +and change beggars the millionaire sometimes, and the possibility of +loss shadows all earthly good with pale foreboding. Everything that is +outside the substance of the soul can be withdrawn, but the possession +of God in Christ is so intimate and inward, so interwoven with the +very deepest roots of the Christian's personal being, that it cannot +be taken out from these by any shocks of time or change. There is but +one hand that can end that possession and that is his own. He can +withdraw himself from God, by giving himself over to sin and the +world. He can empty the shrine and compel the indwelling deity to say, +as the legend told was heard in the Temple the night before Roman +soldiers desecrated the Holy of Holies: Let us depart. But besides +himself, 'neither things present, nor things to come, nor height nor +depth, nor any other creature' has power to take away that faithful +God to whom a poor soul clings, and in whom whoso thus clings finds +its unchangeable good. + +The Christian's good is the only one from which we cannot be taken. A +grim psalm paints for us the life and end of men 'who trust in the +multitude of their possessions,' and whose 'inward thought is that +they have founded families that will last.' It tells how 'this their +way is folly,' and yet is approved with acclamations by the crowd. It +lets us see the founder of a family, the possessor of broad acres, +going down to the grave, carrying nothing away, stripped of his glory +and with Death for his shepherd, who has driven his flock from +pleasant pastures here into the dreariness of Sheol. But that shepherd +has a double office. Some he separates from all their possessions, +hopes, and joys. Some he, stern though his aspect and harsh though his +guidance, leads up to the green pastures of God, and as the last +messenger of the love of God in Christ, unites the souls that found +God amid the distractions of earth with the God whom they will know +better and possess more fully and blessedly, amid the unending +felicities and progressive blessednesses of Heaven. + + + +WISDOM AND CHRIST + +'Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his +delight, rejoicing always before him; 31. Rejoicing in the habitable +part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of +men.'--PROVERBS viii. 30, 31. + + +There is a singular difference between the two portions of this Book +of Proverbs. The bulk of it, beginning with chapter x., contains a +collection of isolated maxims which may be described as the product of +sanctified common sense. They are shrewd and homely, but not +remarkably spiritual or elevated. To these is prefixed this +introductory portion, continuous, lofty in style, and in its +personification of divine wisdom, rising to great sublimity both of +thought and of expression. It seems as if the main body of the book +had been fitted with an introduction by another hand than that of the +compilers of the various sets of proverbial sayings. It is apparently +due to an intellectual movement, perhaps not uninfluenced by Greek +thought, and chronologically the latest of the elements composing the +Old Testament scriptures. In place of the lyric fervour of prophets, +and the devout intuition of psalmists, we have the praise of Wisdom. +But that noble portrait is no copy of the Greek conception, but +contains features peculiar to itself. She stands opposed to blatant, +meretricious Folly, and seeks to draw men to herself by lofty motives +and offering pure delights. She is not a person, but she is a +personification of an aspect of the divine nature, and seeing that she +is held forth as willing to bestow herself on men, that queenly figure +shadows the great truth of God's self-communication as being the end +and climax of all His revelation. + +We are on the wrong tack when we look for more or less complete +resemblances between the 'Wisdom' of Proverbs and the 'Sophia' of +Greek thinkers. It is much rather an anticipation, imperfect but real, +of Jesus than a pale reflection of Greek thought. The way for the +perfect revelation of God in the incarnation was prepared by prophet +and psalmist. Was it not also prepared by this vision of a Wisdom +which was always with God, and yet had its delights with the sons of +men, and whilst 'rejoicing always before Him,' yet rejoiced in the +habitable parts of the earth? + +Let us then look, however imperfect our gaze may be, at the +self-revelation in Proverbs of the personified divine Wisdom, and +compare it with the revelation of the incarnate divine Word. + +I. The Self-revelation of Wisdom. + +The words translated in Authorised Version, 'As one brought up with +him,' are rendered in Revised Version, 'as a master workman,' and seem +intended to represent Wisdom--that is, of course, the divine +Wisdom--as having been God's agent in the creative act. In the +preceding context, she triumphantly proclaims her existence before His +'works of old,' and that she was with God, 'or ever the earth was.' +Before the everlasting mountains she was, before fountains flashed in +the light and refreshed the earth, her waters flowed. But that +presence is not all, Wisdom was the divine agent in creation. That +thought goes beyond the ancient one: 'He spake and it was done.' +Genesis regards the divine command as the cause of creatural being. +God said, 'Let there be--and there was': the forthputting of His will +was the impulse to which creatures sprang into existence at response. +That is a great thought, but the meditative thinker in our text has +pondered over the facts of creation, and notwithstanding all their +apparent incompletenesses and errors, has risen to the conclusion that +they can all be vindicated as 'very good.' To him, this wonderful +universe is not only the product of a sovereign will, but of one +guided in its operations by all-seeing Wisdom. + +Then the relation of this divine Wisdom to God is represented as being +a continual delight and a childlike rejoicing in Him, or as the word +literally means, a 'sporting' in Him. Whatever energy of creative +action is suggested by the preceding figure of a 'master workman,' +that energy had no effort. To the divine Wisdom creation was an easy +task. She was not so occupied with it as to interrupt her delight in +contemplating God, and her task gave her infinite satisfaction, for +she 'rejoiced always' before Him, and she rejoiced in His habitable +earth. The writer does not shrink from ascribing to the agent of +creation something like the glow of satisfaction that we feel over a +piece of well-done work, the poet's or the painter's rapture as he +sees his thoughts bodied forth in melody or glowing on canvas. + +But there is a greater thought than these here, for the writer adds, +'and my delight was with the sons of men.' It is noteworthy that the +same word is used in the preceding verse. The 'delight of the heavenly +Wisdom in God' is not unlike that directed to man. 'The sons of men' +are the last, noblest work of Creation, and on them, as the shining +apex, her delight settles. The words describe not only what was true +when man came into being, as the utmost possible climax of creatural +excellence, but are the revelation of what still remains true. + +One cannot but feel how in all this most striking disclosure of the +depths of God, a deeper mystery is on the verge of revelation. There +is here, as we have said, a personification, but there seems to be a +Person shining through, or dimly discerned moving behind, the curtain. +Wisdom is the agent of creation. She creates with ease, and in +creating delights in God as well as in her work, which calls for no +effort in doing, and done, is all very good. She delights most of all +in the sons of men, and that delight is permanent. Does not this +unknown Jewish thinker, too, belong, as well as prophet and psalmist, +to those who went before crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh in the +name of the Lord? Let us turn to the New Testament and find an answer +to the question. + +II. The higher revelation of the divine Word. + +There can be no doubt that the New Testament is committed to the +teaching that the Eternal Word of God, who was incarnate in Jesus, was +the agent of creation. John, in his profound prologue to the Gospel, +utters the deepest truths in brief sentences of monosyllables, and +utters them without a trace of feeling that they needed proof. To him +they are axiomatic and self evident. 'All things were made by Him.' +The words are the words of a child; the thought takes a flight beyond +the furthest reach of the mind of men. Paul, too, adds his Amen when +he proclaims that 'All things have been created through Him and unto +Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold +together.' The writer of Hebrews declares a Son 'through whom also He +made the worlds, and who upholds all things by the word of His power' +and does not scruple at transferring to Jesus the grand poetry of the +Psalmist who hymned 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the +foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.' +We speak of things too deep for us when we speak of persons in the +Godhead, but yet we know that the Eternal Word, which was from the +beginning, was made flesh and dwelt among us. The personified Wisdom +of Proverbs is the personal Word of John's prologue. John almost +quotes the former when he says 'the same was in the beginning with +God.' for his word recalls the grand declaration, 'The Lord possessed +me in the beginning of His way ... I was set up in the beginning or +ever the earth was.' Then there are two beginnings, one lost in the +depths of timeless being, one, the commencement of creative activity, +and that Word was with God in the remotest, as in the nearer, +beginning. + +But the ancient vision of the Jewish thinker anticipated the perfect +revelation of the New Testament still further, in its thought of an +unbroken communion between the personified Wisdom and God. That dim +thought of perfect communion and interchange of delights flashes into +wondrous clearness when we think of Him who spake of 'the glory which +I had with Thee before the foundation of the world,' and calmly +declared: 'Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' Into +that depth of mutual love we cannot look, and our eyes are too +dim-sighted to bear the blaze of that flashing interchange of glory, +but we shall rob the earthly life of Jesus of its pathos and saving +power, if we do not recognise that in Him the personification of +Proverbs has become a person, and that when He became flesh, He not +only took on Him the garment of mortality, but laid aside 'the visible +robes of His imperial majesty,' and that His being found in fashion as +a man was humbling Himself beyond all humiliation that afterwards was +His. + +But still further, the Gospel reality fills out and completes the +personification of Proverbs in that it shows us a divine person who so +turned to 'the sons of men' that He took on Him their nature and +Himself bore their sicknesses. The Jewish writer had great thoughts of +the divine condescension, and was sure that God's love still rested on +men, sinful as they were, but not even he could foresee the miracle of +long-suffering love in the Incarnate Jesus, and he had no power of +insight into the depths of the heart of God, that enabled him to +foresee the sufferings and death of Jesus. Till that supreme +self-sacrifice was a fact, it was inconceivable. Alas, now that it is +a fact, to how many hearts that need it most is it still incredible. +But passing all anticipation as it is, it is the root of all joy, the +ground of all hope, and to millions of sinful souls it is their only +refuge, and their sovereign example and pattern of life. + +The Jewish thinker had a glimpse of a divine wisdom which delighted in +man, but he did not dream of the divine stooping to share in man's +sorrows, or of its so loving humanity as to take on itself its +limitations, not only to pity these as God's images, but to take part +of the same and to die. That man should minister to the divine delight +is wonderful, but that God should participate in man's grief passes +wonder. Thereby a new tenderness is given to the ancient +personification, and the august form of the divine Wisdom softens and +melts into the yet more august and tender likeness of the divine Love. +Nor is there only an adumbration of the redeeming love of Jesus as He +dwells among us here, but we have to remember that Jesus delights in +the sons of men when they love Him back again. All the sweet mysteries +of our loving communion with Him, and of His joy in our faith, love, +and obedience, all the secret treasures of His self-impartation to, +and abiding in, souls that open themselves to His entrance, are +suggested in that thought. We can minister to the joy of Jesus, and +when He is welcomed into any heart, and any man's love answers His, He +sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. + +III. The call of the personal Word to each of us. + +The Wisdom of Proverbs is portrayed in her queenly dignity, as calling +men to herself, and promising them the satisfaction of all their +needs. She describes herself that the description may draw men to her. +The self-revelation of God is His mightiest means of attracting men to +Him. We but need to know Him as He really is, in order to love Him and +cling to Him. A fairer form than hers has drawn near to us, and calls +us with tenderer invitations and better promises. The divine Wisdom +has become Man with 'sweet human hands and lips and eyes.' Such was +His delight in the sons of men that He emptied Himself of His glory, +and finished a greater work than that over which he presided when the +mountains were settled and the hills brought forth. Now He calls us, +and His summons is tenderer, and gives promise of loftier blessings +than the call of Wisdom was and did. She called to the simple, 'Come +eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.' He +invites us: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,' and +He furnishes a table for us, and calls us to eat of the bread which is +His body broken for us, and to drink of the wine which is His blood +shed for many for the remission of sins. She promises 'riches and +honour, yea, durable riches and righteousness.' His voice vibrates +with sympathy, and calls the weary and heavy laden, of whom she +scarcely thinks, and offers to them a gift, which may seem humble +enough beside her more dazzling offers of fruit, better than gold and +revenues, better than choice silver, but which come closer to +universal wants, the gift of rest, which is really what all men long +for, and none but they who take His yoke upon them possess. 'See that +ye refuse not Him that speaketh,' for if they escaped not when they +refused her that spake through the Jewish thinker's lips of old, 'much +more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that beseecheth us +from heaven.' Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and it +is in Him crucified that our weakness and our folly are made strong +and wise, and Wisdom's ancient promise is fulfilled: 'Whoso findeth me +findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.' + + + +THE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING + +'The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall +be to the workers of iniquity.'--PROVERBS x. 29. + + +You observe that the words 'shall be,' in the last clause, are a +supplement. They are quite unnecessary, and in fact they rather hinder +the sense. They destroy the completeness of the antithesis between the +two halves of the verse. If you leave them out, and suppose that the +'way of the Lord' is what is spoken of in both clauses, you get a far +deeper and fuller meaning. 'The way of the Lord is strength to the +upright; but destruction to the workers of iniquity.' It is the same +way which is strength to one man and ruin to another, and the moral +nature of the man determines which it shall be to him. That is a +penetrating word, which goes deep down. The unknown thinkers, to whose +keen insight into the facts of human life we are indebted for this +Book of Proverbs, had pondered for many an hour over the perplexed and +complicated fates of men, and they crystallised their reflections at +last in this thought. They have in it struck upon a principle which +explains a great many things, and teaches us a great many solemn +lessons. Let us try to get a hold of what is meant, and then to look +at some applications and illustrations of the principle. + +I. First, then, let me just try to put clearly the meaning and bearing +of these words. 'The way of the Lord' means, sometimes in the Old +Testament and sometimes in the New, religion, considered as the way in +which God desires a man to walk. So we read in the New Testament of +'the way' as the designation of the profession and practice of +Christianity; and 'the way of the Lord' is often used in the Psalms +for the path which He traces for man by His sovereign will. + +But that, of course, is not the meaning here. Here it means, not the +road in which God prescribes that we should walk, but that road in +which He Himself walks; or, in other words, the sum of the divine +action, the solemn footsteps of God through creation, providence, and +history. 'His goings forth are from everlasting.' 'His way is in the +sea.' 'His way is in the sanctuary.' Modern language has a whole set +of phrases which mean the same thing as the Jew meant by 'the way of +the Lord,' only that God is left out. They talk about the 'current of +events,' 'the general tendency of things,' 'the laws of human +affairs,' and so on. I, for my part, prefer the old-fashioned +'Hebraism.' To many modern thinkers the whole drift and tendency of +human affairs affords no sign of a person directing these. They hear +the clashing and grinding of opposing forces, the thunder as of +falling avalanches, and the moaning as of a homeless wind, but they +hear the sounds of no footfalls echoing down the ages. This ancient +teacher had keener ears. Well for us if we share his faith, and see in +all the else distracting mysteries of life and history, 'the way of +the Lord!' + +But not only does the expression point to the operation of a personal +divine Will in human affairs, but it conceives of that operation as +one, a uniform and consistent whole. However complicated, and +sometimes apparently contradictory, the individual events were, there +was a unity in them, and they all converged on one result. The writer +does not speak of 'ways,' but of 'the way,' as a grand unity. It is +all one continuous, connected, consistent mode of operation from +beginning to end. + +The author of this proverb believed something more about the way of +the Lord. He believed that although it is higher than our way, still, +a man can know something about it; and that whatever may be +enigmatical, and sometimes almost heart-breaking, in it, one thing is +sure--that as we have been taught of late years in another dialect, it +'makes for righteousness.' 'Clouds and darkness are round about Him,' +but the Old Testament writers never falter in the conviction, which +was the soul of all their heroism and the life blood of their +religion, that in the hearts of the clouds and darkness, 'Justice and +judgment are the foundations of His throne.' The way of the Lord, says +this old thinker, _is_ hard to understand, very complicated, full +of all manner of perplexities and difficulties, and yet on the whole +the clear drift and tendency of the whole thing is discernible, and it +is this: it is all on the side of good. Everything that is good, and +everything that does good, is an ally of God's, and may be sure of the +divine favour and of the divine blessing resting upon it. + +And just because that is so clear, the other side is as true; the same +way, the same set of facts, the same continuous stream of tendency, +which is all with and for every form of good, is all against every +form of evil. Or, as one of the Psalmists puts the same idea, 'The +eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto +their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.' The +same eye that beams in lambent love on 'the righteous' burns terribly +to the evil doer. 'The face of the Lord' means the side of the divine +nature which is turned to us, and is manifested by His self-revealing +activity, so that the expression comes near in meaning to 'the way of +the Lord,' and the thought in both cases is the same, that by the +eternal law of His being, God's actions must all be for the good and +against the evil. + +_They_ do not change, but a man's character determines which +aspect of them he sees and has to experience. God's way has a bright +side and a dark. You may take which you like. You can lay hold of the +thing by whichever handle you choose. On the one side it is convex, on +the other concave. You can approach it from either side, as you +please. 'The way of the Lord' must touch _your_ 'way.' Your cannot +alter that necessity. Your path must either run parallel in the same +direction with His, and then all His power will be an impulse to bear +you onward; or it must run in the opposite direction, and then all His +power will be for your ruin, and the collision with it will crush you +as a ship is crushed like an egg-shell, when it strikes an iceberg. +You can choose which of these shall befall you. + +And there is a still more striking beauty about the saying, if we give +the full literal meaning to the word 'strength.' It is used by our +translators, I suppose, in a somewhat archaic and peculiar +signification, namely, that of a stronghold. At all events the Hebrew +means a fortress, a place where men may live safe and secure; and if +we take that meaning, the passage gains greatly in force and beauty. +This 'way of the Lord' is like a castle for the shelter of the +shelterless good man, and behind those strong bulwarks he dwells +impregnable and safe. Just as a fortress is a security to the +garrison, and a frowning menace to the besiegers or enemies, so the +'name of the Lord is a strong tower,' and the 'way of the Lord' is a +fortress. If you choose to take shelter within it, its massive walls +are your security and your joy. If you do not, they frown down grimly +upon you, a menace and a terror. How differently, eight hundred years +ago, Normans and Saxons looked at the square towers that were built +all over England to bridle the inhabitants! To the one they were the +sign of the security of their dominion; to the other they were the +sign of their slavery and submission. Torture and prison-houses they +might become; frowning portents they necessarily were. 'The way of the +Lord' is a castle fortress to the man that does good, and to the man +that does evil it is a threatening prison, which may become a hell of +torture. It is 'ruin to the workers of iniquity.' I pray you, settle +for yourself which of these it is to be to you. + +II. And now let me say a word or two by way of application, or +illustration, of these principles that are here. + +First, let me remind you how the order of the universe is such that +righteousness is life and sin is death. This universe and the fortunes +of men are complicated and strange. It is hard to trace any laws, +except purely physical ones, at work. Still, on the whole, things do +work so that goodness is blessedness, and badness is ruin. That is, of +course, not always true in regard of outward things, but even about +them it is more often and obviously true than we sometimes recognise. +Hence all nations have their proverbs, embodying the generalised +experience of centuries, and asserting that, on the whole, 'honesty is +the best policy,' and that it is always a blunder to do wrong. What +modern phraseology calls 'laws of nature,' the Bible calls 'the way of +the Lord'; and the manner in which these help a man who conforms to +them, and hurt or kill him if he does not, is an illustration on a +lower level of the principle of our text. This tremendous congeries of +powers in the midst of which we live does not care whether we go with +it or against it, only if we do the one we shall prosper, and if we do +the other we shall very likely be made an end of. Try to stop a train, +and it will run over you and murder you; get into it, and it will +carry you smoothly along. Our lives are surrounded with powers, which +will carry our messages and be our slaves if we know how to command +nature by obeying it, or will impassively strike us dead if we do not. + +Again, in our physical life, as a rule, virtue makes strength, sin +brings punishment. 'Riotous living' makes diseased bodies. Sins in the +flesh are avenged in the flesh, and there is no need for a miracle to +bring it about that he who sows to the flesh shall 'of the flesh reap +corruption.' God entrusts the punishment of the breach of the laws of +temperance and morality in the body to the 'natural' operation of such +breach. The inevitable connection between sins against the body and +disease in the body, is an instance of the way of the Lord--the same +set of principles and facts--being strength to one man and destruction +to another. Hundreds of young men in Manchester--some of whom are +listening to me now, no doubt--are killing themselves, or at least are +ruining their health, by flying in the face of the plain laws of +purity and self-control. They think that they must 'have their fling,' +and 'obey their instincts,' and so on. Well, if they must, then +another 'must' will insist upon coming into play--and they must reap +as they have sown, and drink as they have brewed, and the grim saying +of this book about profligate young men will be fulfilled in many of +them. 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth, which shall +lie down with him in the grave.' Be not deceived, God is not mocked, +and His way avenges bodily transgressions by bodily sufferings. + +And then, in higher regions, on the whole, goodness makes blessedness, +and evil brings ruin. All the powers of God's universe, and all the +tenderness of God's heart are on the side of the man that does right. +The stars in their courses fight against the man that fights against +Him; and on the other side, in yielding thyself to the will of God and +following the dictates of His commandments, 'Thou shalt make a league +with the beasts of the field, and the stones of the field shall be at +peace with thee.' All things serve the soul that serves God, and all +war against him who wars against his Maker. The way of the Lord cannot +but further and help all who love and serve Him. For them all things +must work together for good. By the very laws of God's own being, +which necessarily shape all His actions, the whole 'stream of tendency +without us makes for righteousness.' In the one course of life we go +with the stream of divine activity which pours from the throne of God. +In the other we are like men trying to row a boat _up_ Niagara. +All the rush of the mighty torrent will batter us back. Our work will +be doomed to destruction, and ourselves to shame. For ever and ever to +be good is to be well. An eternal truth lies in the facts that the +same word 'good' means pleasant and right, and that sin and sorrow are +both called 'evil.' All sin is self-inflicted sorrow, and every 'rogue +is a roundabout fool.' So ask yourselves the question: 'Is my life in +harmony with, or opposed to, these omnipotent laws which rule the +whole field of life?' + +Still further, this same fact of the two-fold aspect and operation of +the one way of the Lord will be made yet more evident in the future. +It becomes us to speak very reverently and reticently about the +matter, but I can conceive it possible that the one manifestation of +God in a future life may be in substance the same, and yet that it may +produce opposite effects upon oppositely disposed souls. According to +the old mystical illustration, the same heat that melts wax hardens +clay, and the same apocalypse of the divine nature in another world +may to one man be life and joy, and to another man may be terror and +despair. I do not dwell upon that; it is far too awful a thing for us +to speak about to one another, but it is worth your taking to heart +when you are indulging in easy anticipations that of course God is +merciful and will bless and save everybody after he dies. Perhaps--I +do not go any further than a perhaps--perhaps God cannot, and perhaps +if a man has got himself into such a condition as it is possible for a +man to get into, perhaps, like light upon a diseased eye, the purest +beam may be the most exquisite pain, and the natural instinct may be +to 'call upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them' and cover +them up in a more genial darkness from that Face, to see which should +be life and blessedness. + +People speak of future rewards and punishments as if they were given +and inflicted by simple and divine volition, and did not stand in any +necessary connection with holiness on the one hand or with sin on the +other. I do not deny that some portion of both bliss and sorrow may be +of such a character. But there is a very important and wide region in +which our actions here must automatically bring consequences hereafter +of joy or sorrow, without any special retributive action of God's. + +We have only to keep in view one or two things about the future which +we know to be true, and we shall see this. Suppose a man with his +memory of all his past life perfect, and his conscience stimulated to +greater sensitiveness and clearer judgment, and all opportunities +ended of gratifying tastes and appetites, whose food is in this world, +while yet the soul has become dependent on them for ease and comfort, +What more is needed to make a hell? And the supposition is but the +statement of a fact. We seem to forget much; but when the waters are +drained off all the lost things will be found at the bottom. +Conscience gets dulled and sophisticated here. But the icy cold of +death will wake it up, and the new position will give new insight into +the true character of our actions. You see how often a man at the end +of life has his eyes cleared to see his faults. But how much more will +that be the case hereafter! When the rush of passion is past, and you +are far enough from your life to view it as a whole, holding it at +arm's length, you will see better what it looks like. There is nothing +improbable in supposing that inclinations and tastes which have been +nourished for a lifetime may survive the possibility of indulging them +in another life, as they often do in this; and what can be worse than +such a thirst for one drop of water, which never can be tasted more? +These things are certain, and no more is needed to make sin produce, +by necessary consequence, misery, and ruin; while similarly, goodness +brings joy, peace, and blessing. + +But again, the self-revelation of God has this same double aspect. + +'The way of the Lord' may mean His process by which He reveals His +character. Every truth concerning Him may be either a joy or a terror +to men. All His 'attributes' are builded into 'a strong tower, into +which the righteous runneth, and is safe,' or else they are builded +into a prison and torture-house. So the thought of God may either be a +happy and strengthening one, or an unwelcome one. 'I remembered God, +and was troubled' says one Psalmist. What an awful confession--that +the thought of God disturbed him! The thought of God to some of us is +a very unwelcome one, as unwelcome as the thought of a detective to a +company of thieves. Is not that dreadful? Music is a torture to some +ears: and there are people who have so alienated their hearts and +wills from God that the Name which should be 'their dearest faith' is +not only their 'ghastliest doubt,' but their greatest pain. O +brethren, the thought of God and all that wonderful complex of mighty +attributes and beauties which make His Name should be our delight, the +key to all treasures, the end of all sorrows, our light in darkness, +our life in death, our all in all. It is either that to us, or it is +something that we would fain forget. Which is it to you? + +Especially the Gospel has this double aspect. Our text speaks of the +distinction between the righteous and evil doers; but how to pass from +the one class to the other, it does not tell us. The Gospel is the +answer to that question. It tells us that though we are all 'workers +of iniquity,' and must, therefore, if such a text as this were the +last word to be spoken on the matter, share in the ruin which smites +the opponent of the divine will, we may pass from that class; and by +simple faith in Him who died on the Cross for all workers of iniquity, +may become of those righteous on whose side God works in all His way, +who have all His attributes drawn up like an embattled army in their +defence, and have His mighty name for their refuge. + +As the very crown of the ways of God, the work of Christ and the +record of it in the Gospel have most eminently this double aspect. God +meant nothing but the salvation of the whole world when He sent us +this Gospel. His 'way' therein was pure, unmingled, universal love. We +can make that great message untroubled blessing by simply accepting +it. Nothing more is needed but to take God at His word, and to close +with His sincere and earnest invitation. Then Christ's work becomes +the fortress in which we are guarded from sin and guilt, from the +arrows of conscience, and the fiery darts of temptation. But if not +accepted, then it is not passive, it is not nothing. If rejected, it +does more harm to a man than anything else can, just because, if +accepted, it would have done him more good. The brighter the light, +the darker the shadow. The pillar which symbolised the presence of God +sent down influences on either side; to the trembling crowd of the +Israelites on the one hand, to the pursuing ranks of the Egyptians on +the other; and though the pillar was one, opposite effects streamed +from it, and it was 'a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light +by night to these.' Everything depends on which side of the pillar you +choose to see. The ark of God, which brought dismay and death among +false gods and their worshippers, brought blessing into the humble +house of Obed Edom, the man of Gath, with whom it rested for three +months before it was set in its place in the city of David. That which +is meant to be the savour of life unto life must either be that or the +savour of death unto death. + +Jesus Christ is _something_ to each of us. For you who have heard +His name ever since you were children, your relation to Him settles +your condition and your prospects, and moulds your character. Either +He is for you the tried corner-stone, the sure foundation, on which +whosoever builds will not be confounded, or He is the stone of +stumbling, against which whosoever stumbles will be broken, and which +will crush to powder whomsoever it falls upon, 'This Child is set for +the rise' or for the fall of all who hear His name. He leaves no man +at the level at which He found him, but either lifts him up nearer to +God, and purity and joy, or sinks him into an ever-descending pit of +darkening separation from all these. Which is He to you? Something He +must be--your strength or your ruin. If you commit your souls to Him +in humble faith, He will be your peace, your life, your Heaven. If you +turn from His offered grace, He will be your pain, your death, your +torture. 'What maketh Heaven, that maketh hell.' Which do you choose +Him to be? + + + +THE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY + +'Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof +is brutish. 2. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord: but a man of +wicked devices will he condemn. 3. A man shall not be established by +wickedness; but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. 4. A +virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed +is as rottenness in his bones. 5. The thoughts of the righteous are +right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. 6. The words of the +wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright +shall deliver them. 7. The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the +house of the righteous shall stand. 8. A man shall be commended +according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be +despised. 9. He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than +he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread. 10. A righteous man +regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked +are cruel. 11. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: +but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. 12. The +wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous +yieldeth fruit. 13. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his +lips: but the just shall come out of trouble. 14. A man shall be +satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth; and the recompence of a +man's hands shall be rendered unto him. 15. The way of a fool is right +in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is +wise.'--PROVERBS xii. 1-15. + + +The verses of the present passage are a specimen of the main body of +the Book of Proverbs. They are not a building, but a heap. The stones +seldom have any mortar between them, and connection or progress is for +the most part sought in vain. But one great antithesis runs through +the whole--the contrast of wisdom or righteousness with folly or +wickedness. The compiler or author is never weary of setting out that +opposition in all possible lights. It is, in his view, the one +difference worth noting between men, and it determines their whole +character and fortunes. The book traverses with keen observation all +the realm of life, and everywhere finds confirmation of its great +principle that goodness is wisdom and sin folly. + +There is something extremely impressive in this continual reiteration +of that contrast. As we read, we feel as if, after all, there were +nothing in the world but it and its results. That profound sense of +the existence and far-reaching scope of the division of men into two +classes is not the least of the benefits which a thoughtful study of +Proverbs brings to us. In this lesson it is useless to attempt to +classify the verses. Slight traces of grouping appear here and there; +but, on the whole, we have a set of miscellaneous aphorisms turning on +the great contrast, and setting in various lights the characters and +fates of the righteous and the wicked. + +The first mark of difference is the opposite feeling about discipline. +If a man is wise, he will love 'knowledge'; and if he loves knowledge, +he will love the means to it, and therefore will not kick against +correction. That is another view of trials from the one which +inculcates devout submission to a Father. It regards only the benefits +to ourselves. If we want to be taught anything, we shall not flinch +from the rod. There must be pains undergone in order to win knowledge +of any sort, and the man who rebels against these shows that he had +rather be comfortable and ignorant than wise. A pupil who will not +stand having his exercises corrected will not learn his faults. On the +other hand, hating reproof is 'brutish' in the most literal sense; for +it is the characteristic of animals that they do not understand the +purpose of pain, and never advance because they do not. Men can grow +because they can submit to discipline; beasts cannot improve because, +except partially and in a few cases, they cannot accept correction. + +The first proverb deals with wisdom or goodness in its inner source; +namely, a docile disposition. The two next deal with its consequences. +It secures God's favour, while its opposite is condemned; and then, as +a consequence of this, the good man is established and the wicked +swept away. The manifestations of God's favour and its opposite are +not to be thrown forward to a future life. Continuously the sunshine +of divine love falls on the one man, and already the other is +condemned. It needs some strength of faith to look through the shows +of prosperity often attending plain wickedness, and believe that it is +always a blunder to do wrong. + +But a moderate experience of life will supply many instances of +prosperous villainy in trade and politics which melted away like mist. +The shore is strewn with wrecks, dashed to pieces because +righteousness did not steer. Every exchange gives examples in plenty. +How many seemingly solid structures built on wrong every man has seen +in his lifetime crumble like the cloud masses which the wind piles in +the sky and then dissipates! The root of the righteous is in God, and +therefore he is firm. The contrast is like that of Psalm i.--between +the tree with strong roots and waving greenery, and the chaff, +rootless, and therefore whirled out of the threshing-floor. + +The universal contrast is next applied to women; and in accordance +with the subordinate position they held in old days, the bearing of +her goodness is principally regarded as affecting her husband. That +does not cover the whole ground, of course. But wherever there is a +true marriage, the wife will not think that woman's rights are +infringed because one chief issue of her beauty of virtue is the +honour and joy it reflects upon him who has her heart. 'A virtuous +woman' is not only one who possesses the one virtue to which the +phrase has been so miserably confined, but who is 'a woman of +strength'--no doll or plaything, but + + 'A perfect woman, nobly planned + To warn, to comfort, and command.' + +The gnawing misery of being fastened like two dogs in a leash to one +who 'causes shame' is vividly portrayed by that strong figure, that +she is like 'rottenness in his bones,' eating away strength, and +inflicting disfigurement and torture. + +Then come a pair of verses describing the inward and outward work of +the two kinds of men as these affect others. The former verses dealt +with their effects on the actors; the present, with their bearing on +others. Inwardly, the good man has thoughts which scrupulously keep +the balance true and are just to his fellows, while the wicked plans +to deceive for his own profit. When thoughts are translated into +speech, deceit bears fruit in words which are like ambushes of +murderers, laying traps to destroy, while the righteous man's words +are like angels of deliverance to the unsuspecting who are ready to +fall into the snare. Selfishness, which is the root of wickedness, +will be cruelty and injustice when necessary for its ends. The man who +is wise because God is his centre and aim will be merciful and +helpful. The basis of philanthropy is religion. The solemn importance +attached to speech is observable. Words can slay as truly as swords. +Now that the press has multiplied the power of speech, and the world +is buzzing with the clatter of tongues, we all need to lay to heart +the responsibilities and magic power of spoken and printed words, and +'to set a watch on the door of our lips.' + +Then follow a couple of verses dealing with the consequences to men +themselves of their contrasted characters. The first of these (verse +7) recurs to the thought of verse 3, but with a difference. Not only +the righteous himself, but his house, shall be established. The +solidarity of the family and the entail of goodness are strongly +insisted on in the Old Testament, though limitations are fully +recognised. If a good man's son continues his father's character, he +will prolong his father's blessings; and in normal conditions, a +parent's wisdom passes on to his children. Something is wrong when, as +is so often the case, it does not; and it is not always the children's +fault. + +The overthrow of the wicked is set in striking contrast with their +plots to overthrow others. Their mischief comes back, like an +Australian boomerang, to the hand that flings it; and contrariwise, +delivering others is a sure way of establishing one's self. Exceptions +there are, for the world-scheme is too complicated to be condensed +into a formula; but all proverbs speak of the average usual results of +virtue and vice, and those of this book do the same. Verse 8 asserts +that, on the whole, honour attends goodness, and contempt wickedness. +Of course, companions in dissipation extol each other's vices, and +launch the old threadbare sneers at goodness. But if wisdom were not +set uppermost in men's secret judgment, there would be no hypocrites, +and their existence proves the truth of the proverb. + +Verse 9 seems suggested by 'despised' in verse 8. There are two kinds +of contempt--one which brands sin deservedly, one which vulgarly +despises everybody who is not rich. A man need not mind, though his +modest household is treated with contempt, if quiet righteousness +reigns in it. It is better to be contented with little, and humble in +a lowly place, than to be proud and hungry, as many were in the +writer's time and since. A foolish world set on wealth may despise, +but its contempt breaks no bones. Self-conceit is poor diet. + +This seems to be the first of a little cluster of proverbs bearing on +domestic life. It prefers modest mediocrity of station, such as Agur +desired. Its successor shows how the contrasted qualities come out in +the two men's relation to their domestic animals. Goodness sweeps a +wide circle touching the throne of God and the stall of the cattle. It +was not Coleridge who found out that 'He prayeth best who loveth best' +but this old proverb-maker; and he could speak the thought without the +poet's exaggeration, which robs his expression of it of half its +value. The original says 'knoweth the soul' which may indeed mean, +'regardeth the life' but rather seems to suggest sympathetic interest +in leading to an understanding of the dumb creature, which must +precede all wise care for its well-being. It is a part of religion to +try to enter into the mysterious feelings of our humble dependants in +farmyard and stable. On the other hand, for want of such sympathetic +interest, even when the 'wicked' means to be kind, he does harm; or +the word rendered 'tender mercies' may here mean the feelings +(literally, 'bowels') which, in their intense selfishness, are cruel +even to animals. + +Verse 11 has no connection with the preceding, unless the link is +common reference to home life and business. It contrasts the sure +results of honest industry with the folly of speculation. The Revised +Version margin 'vain things' is better than the text 'vain persons,' +which would give no antithesis to the patient tilling of the first +clause. That verse would make an admirable motto to be stretched +across the Stock Exchange, and like places on both sides of the +Atlantic. How many ruined homes and heart-broken wives witness in +America and England to its truth! The vulgar English proverb, 'What +comes over the Devil's back goes under his belly,' says the same +thing. The only way to get honest wealth is to work for it. Gambling +in all its forms is rank folly. + +So the next proverb (verse 12) continues the same thought, and puts it +in a somewhat difficult phrase. It goes a little deeper than the +former, showing that the covetousness which follows after vain things, +is really wicked lusting for unrighteous gain. 'The net of evildoers' +is better taken as in the margin (Rev. Ver.) 'prey' or 'spoil,' and +the meaning seems to be as just stated. Such hankering for riches, no +matter how obtained, or such envying of the booty which admittedly has +been won by roguery, is a mark of the wicked. How many professing +church members have known that feeling in thinking of the millions of +some railway king! Would they like the proverb to be applied to them? + +The contrast to this is 'the root of the righteous yields fruit,' or +'shoots forth,' We have heard (verse 3) that it shall never be moved, +being fixed in God; now we are told that it will produce all that is +needful. A life rooted in God will unfold into all necessary good, +which will be better than the spoil of the wicked. There are two ways +of getting on--to struggle and fight and trample down rivals; one, to +keep near God and wait for him. 'Ye fight and war; ye have not, +because ye ask not.' + +The next two proverbs have in common a reference to the effect of +speech upon the speaker. 'In the transgression of the lips is an evil +snare'; that is, sinful words ensnare their utterer, and whoever else +he harms, he himself is harmed most. The reflex influence on character +of our utterances is not present to us, as it should be. They leave +stains on lips and heart. Thoughts expressed are more definite and +permanent thereby. A vicious thought clothed in speech has new power +over the speaker. If we would escape from that danger, we must +_be_ righteous, and _speak_ righteousness; and then the same +cause will deepen our convictions of 'whatsoever things are lovely and +of good report.' + +Verse 14 insists on this opposite side of the truth. Good words will +bring forth fruit, which will satisfy the speaker, because, whatever +effects his words may have on others, they will leave strengthened +goodness and love of it in himself. 'If the house be worthy, your +peace shall rest upon it; if not, it shall return to you again.' That +reaction of words on oneself is but one case of the universal law of +consequences coming back on us. We are the architects of our own +destinies. Every deed has an immortal life, and returns, either like a +raven or a dove, to the man who sent it out on its flight. It comes +back either croaking with blood on its beak, or cooing with an olive +branch in its mouth. All life is at once sowing and reaping. A harvest +comes in which retribution will be even more entire and accurate. + +The last proverb of the passage gives a familiar antithesis, and +partially returns to the thought of verse 1. The fool has no standard +of conduct but his own notions, and is absurdly complacent as to all +his doings. The wise seeks better guidance than his own, and is +docile, because he is not so ridiculously sure of his infallibility. +No type of weak wickedness is more abominable to the proverbialist +than that of pert self-conceit, which knows so little that it thinks +it knows everything, and is 'as untameable as a fly.' But in the +wisest sense, it is true that a mark of folly is +self-opinionativeness; that a man who has himself for teacher has a +fool for scholar; that the test of wisdom is willingness to be taught; +and, especially, that to bring a docile, humble spirit to the Source +of all wisdom, and to ask counsel of God, is the beginning of true +insight, and that the self-sufficiency which is the essence of sin, is +never more fatal than when it is ignorant of guilt, and therefore +spurns a Saviour. + + + +THE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR + +'There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is that +maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.'--PROVERBS xiii. 7. + + +Two singularly-contrasted characters are set in opposition here. One, +that of a man who lives like a millionaire and is a pauper; another, +that of a man who lives like a pauper and is rich. The latter +character, that of a man who hides and hoards his wealth, was, +perhaps, more common in the days when this collection of Proverbs was +put together, because in all ill-governed countries, to show wealth is +a short way to get rid of it. But they have their modern +representatives. We who live in a commercial community have seen many +a blown-out bubble soaring and glittering, and then collapsing into a +drop of soapsuds, and on the other hand, we are always hearing of +notes and bank-books being found stowed away in some wretched hovel +where a miser has died. + +Now, I do not suppose that the author of this proverb attached any +kind of moral to it in his own mind. It is simply a jotting of an +observation drawn from a wide experience; and if he meant to teach any +lesson by it, I suppose it was nothing more than that in regard to +money, as to other things, we should avoid extremes, and should try to +show what we are, and to be what we seem. But whilst thus I do not +take it that there is any kind of moral or religious lesson in the +writer's mind, I may venture, perhaps, to take this saying as being a +picturesque illustration, putting in vivid fashion certain great +truths which apply in all regions of life, and which find their +highest application in regard to Christianity, and our relation to +Jesus Christ. There, too, 'there is that maketh himself rich, and yet +hath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet'--or one +might, perhaps, say _therefore_--'hath great riches.' It is from +that point of view that I wish to look at the words at this time. I +must begin with recalling to your mind, + +I. Our universal poverty. + +Whatever a man may think about himself, however he may estimate +himself and conceit himself, there stand out two salient facts, the +fact of universal dependence, and the fact of universal sinfulness, +which ought to bear into every heart the consciousness of this +poverty. A word or two about each of these two facts. + +First, the fact of universal dependence. Now, wise men and deep +thinkers have found a very hard problem in the question of how it is +possible that there should be an infinite God and a finite universe +standing, as it were, over against Him. I am not going to trouble you +with the all-but-just-succeeding answers to that great problem which +the various systems of thinking have given. These lie apart from my +present purpose. But what I would point out is that, whatever else may +be dark and difficult about the co-existence of these two, the +infinite God and the finite universe, this at least is sun-clear, that +the creature depends absolutely for everything on that infinite +Creator. People talk sometimes, and we are all too apt to think, as if +God had made the world and left it. And we are all too apt to think +that, however we may owe the origination of our own personal existence +to a divine act, the act was done when we began to be, and the life +was given as a gift that could be separated from the Bestower. But +that is not the state of the case at all. The real fact is that life +is only continued because of the continued operation on every living +thing, just as being is only continued by reason of the continued +operation on every existing thing, of the Divine Power. 'In Him we +live,' and the life is the result of the perpetual impartation from +Himself 'in whom all things consist,' according to the profound word +of the Apostle. Their being depends on their union with Him. If it +were possible to cut a sunbeam in two, so that the further half of it +should be separated from its vital union with the great central fire +from which it rushed long, long ago, that further half would pale into +darkness. And if you cut the connection between God and the creature, +the creature shrivels into nothing. By Him the spring buds around us +unfold themselves; by Him all things are. So, at the very foundation +of our being there lies absolute dependence. + +In like manner, all that we call faculties, capacities, and the like, +are, in a far deeper sense than the conventional use of the word +'gift' implies, bestowments from Him. The Old Testament goes to the +root of the matter when, speaking of the artistic and aesthetic skill +of the workers in the fine arts in the Tabernacle, it says, 'the +Spirit of the Lord' taught Bezaleel; and when, even in regard to the +brute strength of Samson--surely the strangest hero of faith that ever +existed--it says that when 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,' +into his giant hands there was infused the strength by which he tore +the lion's jaws asunder. In like manner, all the faculties that men +possess they have simply because He has given them. 'What hast thou +that thou hast not received? If thou hast received, why dost thou +boast thyself?' So there is a great psalm that gathers everything that +makes up human life, and traces it all to God, when it says, 'They +shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house,' for from +God comes all that sustains us; 'Thou shalt make them drink of the +river of Thy pleasures,' for from God comes all that gladdens us; +'with Thee is the fountain of life,' for from Him flow all the tiny +streams that make the life of all that live; 'in Thy light shall we +see light,' for every power of perceiving, and all grace and lustre of +purity, owe their source to Him. As well, then, might the pitcher +boast itself of the sparkling water that it only holds, as well might +the earthen jar plume itself on the treasure that has been deposited +in it, as we make ourselves rich because of the riches that we have +received. 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the +mighty man glory in his strength. Let not the rich man glory in his +riches; but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.' + +Then, turn for a moment to the second of the facts on which this +universal poverty depends, and that is the fact of universal +sinfulness. Ah! there is one thing that is our own-- + + 'If any power we have, it is to will.' + +We have that strange faculty, which nobody has ever thoroughly +explained yet, but which we all know to exist, of wrenching ourselves +so far away from God, 'in whom we live and move and have our being,' +that we can make our thoughts and ways, not merely lower than, but +contradictory of, and antagonistic to, His thoughts, and His ways. +Conscience tells us, and we all know it, that we are the causes of our +own actions, though from Him come the powers by which we do them. The +electricity comes from the central powerstation, but it depends on us +what sort of wheels we make it drive, and what kind of work we set it +to do. Make all allowances you like for circumstances--what they call +nowadays 'environment,' by which formidable word some people seem to +think that they have explained away a great many difficulties--make +all allowances you like for inheritance--what they now call +'heredity,' by which other magic word people seem to think that they +may largely obliterate the sense of responsibility and sin--allow as +much as you like, in reason, for these, and there remains the +indestructible consciousness in every man, 'I did it, and it was my +fault that I did it; and the moral guilt remains.' + +So, then, there are these two things, universal dependence and +universal sinfulness, and on them is built the declaration of +universal poverty. Duty is debt. Everybody knows that the two words +come from the same root. What we ought is what we owe. We all owe an +obedience which none of us has rendered. Ten thousand talents is the +debt and--'they had nothing to pay.' We are like bankrupts that begin +business with a borrowed capital, by reason of our absolute +dependence; and so manage their concerns as to find themselves +inextricably entangled in a labyrinth of obligations which they cannot +discharge. We are all paupers. And so I come to the second point, and +that is-- + +II. The poor rich man. + +'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing.' That +describes accurately the type of man of whom there are thousands; of +whom there are dozens listening to me at this moment; who ignores +dependence and is not conscious of sin, and so struts about in +self-complacent satisfaction with himself, and knows nothing of his +true condition. There is nothing more tragic--and so it would be seen +to be if it were not so common--than that a man, laden, as we each of +us are, with a burden of evil that we cannot get rid of, should yet +conceit himself to possess merits, virtues, graces, that ought to +secure for him the admiration of his fellows, or, at least, to exempt +him from their censure, and which he thinks, when he thinks about it +at all, may perhaps secure for him the approbation of God. 'The +deceitfulness of sin' is one of its mightiest powers. There is nothing +that so blinds a man to the real moral character of actions as that +obstinate self-complacency which approves of a thing because it is +mine. You condemn in other people the very things you do yourself. You +see all their ugliness in them; you do not recognise it when it is +your deed. Many of you have never ventured upon a careful examination +and appraisement of your own moral and religious character. You durst +not, for you are afraid that it would turn out badly. So, like some +insolvent who has not the courage to face the facts, you take refuge +in defective bookkeeping, and think that that is as good as being +solvent. Then you have far too low a standard, and one of the main +reasons why you have so low a standard is just because the sins that +you do have dulled your consciences, and like the Styrian peasants +that eat arsenic, the poison does not poison you, and you do not feel +yourself any the worse for it. Dear brethren! these are very rude +things for me to say to you. I am saying them to myself as much as to +you, and I would to God that you would listen to them, not because I +say them, but because they are true. The great bulk of us know our own +moral characters just as little as we know the sound of our own +voices. I suppose if you could hear yourself speak you would say, 'I +never knew that my voice sounded like that.' And I am quite sure that +many of you, if the curtain could be drawn aside which is largely +woven out of the black yarn of your own evil thoughts, and you could +see yourselves as in a mirror, you would say, 'I had no notion that I +looked like that.' 'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath +nothing.' + +Ay! and more than that. The making of yourself rich is the sure way to +prevent yourself from ever being so. We see that in all other regions +of life. If a student says to himself, 'Oh! I know all that subject,' +the chances are that he will not get it up any more; and the further +chance is that he will be 'ploughed' when the examination-day comes. +If the artist stands before the picture, and says to himself, 'Well +done, that is the realisation of my ideal!' he will paint no more +anything worth looking at. And in any department, when a man says 'Lo! +I have attained,' then he ceases to advance. + +Now, bring all that to bear upon religion, upon Christ and His +salvation, upon our own spiritual and religious and moral condition. +The sense of imperfection is the salt of approximation to perfection. +And the man that says 'I am rich' is condemning himself to poverty and +pauperism. If you do not know your need, you will not go to look for +the supply of it. If you fancy yourselves to be quite well, though a +mortal disease has gripped you, you will take no medicine, nor have +recourse to any physician. If you think that you have enough good to +show for man's judgment and for God's, and have not been convinced of +your dependence and your sinfulness, then Jesus Christ will be very +little to you, and His great work as the Redeemer and Saviour of His +people from their sins will be nothing to you. And so you will condemn +yourselves to have nothing unto the very end. + +I believe that this generation needs few things more than it needs a +deepened consciousness of the reality of sin and of the depth and +damnable nature of it. It is because people feel so little of the +burden of their transgression that they care so little for that gentle +Hand that lifts away their burden. It is because from much of popular +religion--and, alas! that I should have to say it, from much of +popular preaching--there has vanished the deep wholesome sense of +poverty, that, from so much of popular religion, and preaching too, +there has faded away the central light of the Gospel, the proclamation +of the Cross by which is taken away the sin of the whole world. + +So, lastly, my text brings before us-- + +III. The rich poor man. + +'There is that maketh himself poor and yet'--or, as varied, the +expression is, 'therefore hath great riches.' Jesus Christ has lifted +the thoughts in my text into the very region into which I am trying to +bring them, when in the first of all the Beatitudes, as they are +called, 'He opened His mouth and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, +for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Poor, and therefore an owner of +a kingdom! Now I need not, at this stage of my sermon, insist upon the +fact that that consciousness of poverty is the only fitting attitude +for any of us to take up in view of the two facts with which I +started, the fact of our dependence and the fact of our sinfulness. +What absurdity it seems for a man about whom these two things are +true, that, as I said, he began with a borrowed capital, and has only +incurred greater debts in his transactions, there should be any +foothold left in his own estimation on which he can stand and claim to +be anything but the pauper that he is. Oh! brethren, of all the +hallucinations that we put upon ourselves in trying to believe that +things are as we wish, there is none more subtle, more obstinate, more +deeply dangerous than this, that a man full of evil should be so +ignorant of his evil as to say, like that Pharisee in our Lord's +parable, 'I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I give tithes +... I pray ... I am this, that, and the other thing; not like that +wretched publican over there.' Yes, this is the fit attitude for +us,--'He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven.' + +Then let me remind you that this wholesome recognition of facts about +ourselves as they are is the sure way to possess the wealth. Of +course, it is possible for a man by some mighty influence or other +brought to bear upon him, to see himself as God sees him, and then, if +there is nothing more than that, he is tortured with 'the sorrow that +worketh death.' Judas 'went out and hanged himself'; Peter 'went out +and wept bitterly.' The one was sent 'to his own place,' wherever that +was; the other was sent foremost of the Twelve. If you see your +poverty, let self-distrust be the nadir, the lowest point, and let +faith be the complementary high point, the zenith. The rebound from +self-distrust to trust in Christ is that which makes the consciousness +of poverty the condition of receiving wealth. + +And what wealth it is!--the wealth of a peaceful conscience, of a +quiet heart, of lofty aims, of a pure mind, of strength according to +our need, of an immortal hope, of a treasure in the heavens that +faileth not, 'where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt; where thieves +do not break through nor steal.' Blessed be God! the more we have the +riches of glory in Christ Jesus, the more shall we feel that we have +nothing, and that all is His, and none of it ours. And so, as the +rivers run in the valleys, and the high mountain-tops are dry and +barren, the grace which makes us rich will run in the low ground of +our conscious humiliation and nothingness. + +Dear brother! do you estimate yourself as you are? Have you taken +stock of yourself? Have you got away from the hallucination of +possessing wealth? Has your sense of need led you to cease from trust +in yourself, and to put all your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you taken +the wealth which He freely gives to all who sue _in forma +pauperis_? He does not ask you to bring anything but debts and +sins, emptiness and weakness, and penitent faith. He will strengthen +the weakness, fill the emptiness, forgive the sins, cancel the debts, +and make you 'rich toward God.' I beseech you to listen to Him, +speaking from heaven, and taking up the strain of this text: 'Because +thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of +nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and +poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in +the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' And then you will be of those +blessed poor ones who are 'rich through faith, and heirs of the +Kingdom.' + + + +THE TILLAGE OF THE POOR + +'Much food is in the tillage of the poor.'--PROVERBS xiii. 23. + + +Palestine was a land of small peasant proprietors, and the institution +of the Jubilee was intended to prevent the acquisition of large +estates by any Israelite. The consequence, as intended, was a level of +modest prosperity. It was 'the tillage of the poor,' the careful, +diligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to +look after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the +proverb of our text arose. It preserves the picture of the economical +conditions in which it originated, and it is capable of, and is +intended to have, an application to all forms and fields of work. In +all it is true that the bulk of the harvested results are due, not to +the large labours of the few, but to the minute, unnoticed toils of +the many. Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such +produces large crops. Spade husbandry gets most out of the ground. The +labourer's allotment of half an acre is generally more prolific than +the average of the squire's estate. Much may be made of slender gifts, +small resources, and limited opportunities if carefully cultivated, as +they should be, and as their very slenderness should stimulate their +being. + +One of the psalms accuses 'the children of Ephraim' because, 'being +armed and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle.' That +saying deduces obligation from equipment, and preaches a stringent +code of duty to those who are in any direction largely gifted. Power +to its last particle is duty, and not small is the crime of those who, +with great capacities, have small desire to use them, and leave the +brunt of the battle to half-trained soldiers, badly armed. + +But the imagery of the fight is not sufficient to include all aspects +of Christian effort. The peaceful toil of the 'husbandman that +labours' stands, in one of Paul's letters, side by side with the +heroism of the 'man that warreth.' Our text gives us the former image, +and so supplements that other. + +It completes the lesson of the psalm in another respect, as insisting +on the importance, not of the well endowed, but of the slenderly +furnished, who are immensely in the majority. This text is a message +to ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence. + +I. It teaches, first, the responsibility of small gifts. + +It is no mere accident that in our Lord's great parable He represents +the man with the _one_ talent as the hider of his gift. There is +a certain pleasure in doing what we can do, or fancy we can do, well. +There is a certain pleasure in the exercise of any kind of gift, be it +of body or mind; but when we know that we are but very slightly gifted +by Him, there is a temptation to say, 'Oh! it does not matter much +whether I contribute my share to this, that, or the other work or no. +I am but a poor man. My half-crown will make but a small difference in +the total. I am possessed of very little leisure. The few minutes that +I can spare for individual cultivation, or for benevolent work, will +not matter at all. I am only an insignificant unit; nobody pays any +attention to my opinion. It does not in the least signify whether I +make my influence felt in regard of social, religious, or political +questions, and the like. I can leave all that to the more influential +men. My littleness at least has the prerogative of immunity. My little +finger would produce such a slight impact on the scale that it is +indifferent whether I apply it or not. It is a good deal easier for me +to wrap up my talent--which, after all, is only a threepenny bit, and +not a talent--and put it away and do nothing.' + +Yes, but then you forget, dear friend! that responsibility does not +diminish with the size of the gifts, but that there is as great +responsibility for the use of the smallest as for the use of the +largest, and that although it does not matter very much to anybody but +yourself what you do, it matters all the world to you. + +But then, besides that, my text tells us that it does matter whether +the poor man sets himself to make the most of his little patch of +ground or not. 'There is much food in the tillage of the poor.' The +slenderly endowed are the immense majority. There is a genius or two +here and there, dotted along the line of the world's and the Church's +history. The great men and wise men and mighty men and wealthy men may +be counted by units, but the men that are not very much of anything +are to be counted by millions. And unless we can find some stringent +law of responsibility that applies to them, the bulk of the human race +will be under no obligation to do anything either for God or for their +fellows, or for themselves. If I am absolved from the task of bringing +my weight to bear on the side of right because my weight is +infinitesimal, and I am only one in a million, suppose all the million +were to plead the same excuse; what then? Then there would not be any +weight on the side of the right at all. The barns in Palestine were +not filled by farming on a great scale like that pursued away out on +the western prairies, where one man will own, and his servants will +plough a furrow for miles long, but they were filled by the small +industries of the owners of tiny patches. + +The 'tillage of the poor,' meaning thereby not the mendicant, but the +peasant owner of a little plot, yielded the bulk of the 'food.' The +wholesome old proverb, 'many littles make a mickle,' is as true about +the influence brought to bear in the world to arrest evil and to +sweeten corruption as it is about anything besides. Christ has a great +deal more need of the cultivation of the small patches that He gives +to the most of us than He has even of the cultivation of the large +estates that He bestows on a few. Responsibility is not to be measured +by amount of gift, but is equally stringent, entire, and absolute +whatsoever be the magnitude of the endowments from which it arises. + +Let me remind you, too, how the same virtues and excellences can be +practised in the administering of the smallest as in that of the +greatest gifts. Men say--I dare say some of you have said--'Oh! if I +were eloquent like So-and-so; rich like somebody else; a man of weight +and importance like some other, how I would consecrate my powers to +the Master! But I am slow of speech, or nobody minds me, or I have but +very little that I can give.' Yes! 'He that is faithful in that which +is least is faithful also in much.' If you do not utilise the capacity +possessed, to increase the estate would only be to increase the crop +of weeds from its uncultivated clods. We never palm off a greater +deception on ourselves than when we try to hoodwink conscience by +pleading bounded gifts as an excuse for boundless indolence, and to +persuade ourselves that if we could do more we should be less inclined +to do nothing. The most largely endowed has no more obligation and no +fairer field than the most slenderly gifted lies under and possesses. + +All service coming from the same motive and tending to the same end is +the same with God. Not the magnitude of the act, but the motive +thereof, determines the whole character of the life of which it is a +part. The same graces of obedience, consecration, quick sympathy, +self-denying effort may be cultivated and manifested in the spending +of a halfpenny as in the administration of millions. The smallest +rainbow in the tiniest drop that hangs from some sooty eave and +catches the sunlight has precisely the same lines, in the same order, +as the great arch that strides across half the sky. If you go to the +Giant's Causeway, or to the other end of it amongst the Scotch +Hebrides, you will find the hexagonal basaltic pillars all of +identically the same pattern and shape, whether their height be +measured by feet or by tenths of an inch. Big or little, they obey +exactly the same law. There is 'much food in the tillage of the poor.' + +II. But now, note, again, how there must be a diligent cultivation of +the small gifts. + +The inventor of this proverb had looked carefully and sympathetically +at the way in which the little peasant proprietors worked; and he saw +in that a pattern for all life. It is not always the case, of course, +that a little holding means good husbandry, but it is generally so; +and you will find few waste corners and few unweeded patches on the +ground of a man whose whole ground is measured by rods instead of by +miles. There will usually be little waste time, and few neglected +opportunities of working in the case of the peasant whose subsistence, +with that of his family, depends on the diligent and wise cropping of +the little patch that does belong to him. + +And so, dear brethren! if you and I have to take our place in the +ranks of the one-talented men, the commonplace run of ordinary people, +the more reason for us to enlarge our gifts by a sedulous diligence, +by an unwearied perseverance, by a keen look-out for all opportunities +of service, and above all by a prayerful dependence upon Him from whom +alone comes the power to toil, and who alone gives the increase. The +less we are conscious of large gifts the more we should be bowed in +dependence on Him from whom cometh 'every good and perfect gift'; and +who gives according to His wisdom; and the more earnestly should we +use that slender possession which God may have given us. Industry +applied to small natural capacity will do far more than larger power +rusted away by sloth. You all know that it is so in regard of daily +life, and common business, and the acquisition of mundane sciences and +arts. It is just as true in regard to the Christian race, and to the +Christian Church's work of witness. + +Who are they who have done the most in this world for God and for men? +The largely endowed men? 'Not many wise, not many mighty, not many +noble are called.' The coral insect is microscopic, but it will build +up from the profoundest depth of the ocean a reef against which the +whole Pacific may dash in vain. It is the small gifts that, after all, +are the important ones. So let us cultivate them the more earnestly +the more humbly we think of our own capacity. 'Play well thy part; +there all the honour lies.' God, who has builded up some of the +towering Alps out of mica-flakes, builds up His Church out of +infinitesimally small particles--slenderly endowed men touched by the +consecration of His love. + +III. Lastly, let me remind you of the harvest reaped from these +slender gifts when sedulously tilled. + +Two great results of such conscientious cultivation and use of small +resources and opportunities may be suggested as included in that +abundant 'food' of which the text speaks. + +The faithfully used faculty increases. 'To him that hath shall be +given.' 'Oh! if I had a wider sphere how I would flame in it, and fill +it!' Then twinkle your best in your little sphere, and that will bring +a wider one some time or other. For, as a rule, and in the general, +though with exceptions, opportunities come to the man that can use +them; and roughly, but yet substantially, men are set in this world +where they can shine to the most advantage to God. Fill your place; +and if you, like Paul, have borne witness for the Master in little +Jerusalem, He will not keep you there, but carry you to bear witness +for Him in imperial Rome itself. + +The old fable of the man who told his children to dig all over the +field and they would find treasure, has its true application in regard +to Christian effort and faithful stewardship of the gifts bestowed +upon us. The sons found no gold, but they improved the field, and +secured its bearing golden harvests, and they strengthened their own +muscles, which was better than gold. So if we want larger endowments +let us honestly use what we possess, and use will make growth. + +The other issue, about which I need not say more than a word, is that +the final reward of all faithful service--'Enter thou into the joy of +thy Lord' is said, not to the brilliant, but to the 'faithful' +servant. In that great parable, which is the very text-book of this +whole subject of gifts and responsibilities and recompense, the men +who were entrusted with unequal sums used these unequal sums with +equal diligence, as is manifest by the fact that they realised an +equal rate of increase. He that got two talents made two more out of +them, and he that had five did no more; for he, too, but doubled his +capital. So, because the poorer servant with his two, and the richer +with his ten, had equally cultivated their diversely-measured estates, +they were identical in reward; and to each of them the same thing is +said: 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' It matters little whether +we copy some great picture upon a canvas as big as the side of a +house, or upon a thumbnail; the main thing is that we copy it. If we +truly employ whatsoever gifts God has given to us, then we shall be +accepted according to that we have, and not according to that we have +not. + + + +SIN THE MOCKER + +'Fools make a mock at sin; but among the righteous there is +favour.'--Proverbs xiv, 9. + + +The wisdom of this Book of Proverbs is not simply intellectual, but it +has its roots in reverence and obedience to God, and for its +accompaniment, righteousness. The wise man is the good man, and the +good man is the godly man. And as is wisdom, so its opposite, folly, +is not only intellectual feebleness--the bad man is a fool, and the +godless is a bad man. The greatest amount of brain-power cultivated to +the highest degree does not make a man wise, and about many a student +and thinker God pronounces the sentence 'Thou fool!' + +That does not mean that all sin is ignorance, as we sometimes hear it +said with a great show of tolerant profundity. There is some ignorance +in all sin, but the essence of sin is the aversion of the will from a +law and from a Person, not the defect of the understanding. So far +from all sin being but ignorance, and therefore blameless, there is no +sin without knowledge, and the measure of ignorance is the measure of +blamelessness; unless the ignorance be itself, as it often is, +criminal. Ignorance is one thing, folly is another. + +One more remark by way of introduction must be made on the language of +our text. The margin of the Revised Version correctly turns it +completely round, and for 'the foolish make a mock at guilt,' would +read, 'guilt mocketh at the foolish.' In the original the verb in our +text is in the singular, and the only singular noun to go with it is +'guilt.' The thought then here is, that sin tempts men into its +clutches, and then gibes and taunts them. It is a solemn and painful +subject, but perhaps this text rightly pondered may help to save some +of us from hearing the mocking laugh which echoes through the empty +chambers of many an empty soul. + +I. Sin mocks us by its broken promises. + +The object immediately sought by any wrong act may be attained. In +sins of sense, the appetite is gratified; in other sins, the desire +that urged to them attains its end. But what then? The temptation lay +in the imagination that, the wrong thing being done, an inward good +would result, and it does not; for even if the immediate object be +secured, other results, all unforeseen, force themselves on us which +spoil the hoped for good. The sickle cuts down tares as well as wheat, +and the reaper's hands are filled with poisonous growths as well as +with corn. There is a revulsion of feeling from the thing that before +the sin was done attracted. The hideous story of the sin of David's +son, Amnon, puts in ugliest shape the universal experience of men who +are tempted to sin and are victims of the revulsion that follows--He +'hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was +greater than the love wherewith he had loved her.' Conscience, which +was overpowered and unheard amid the loud cries of desire, speaks. We +find out the narrow limits of satisfaction. The satisfied appetite has +no further driving power, but lies down to sleep off its debauch, and +ceases to be a factor for the time. Inward discord, the schism between +duty and inclination, sets up strife in the very sanctuary of the +soul. We are dimly conscious of the evil done as robbing us of power +to do right. We cannot pray, and would be glad to forget God. And a +self thus racked, impoverished, and weakened, is what a man gains by +the sin that promised him so much and hid so much from him. + +Or if these consequences are in any measure silenced and stifled, a +still more melancholy mockery betrays him, in the continuance of the +illusion that he is happy and all is well, when all the while he is +driving headlong to destruction. Many a man orders his life so that it +is like a ship that sails with huzzas and bedizened with flags while a +favouring breeze fills its sails, but comes back to port battered and +all but waterlogged, with its canvas 'lean, rent, and beggared by the +strumpet wind.' It is always a mistake to try to buy happiness by +doing wrong. The price is rigorously demanded, but the _quid pro +quo_ is not given, or if it seems to be so, there is something else +given too, which takes all the savour out of the composite whole. The +'Folly' of the earlier half of this book woos men by her sweet +invitations, and promises the sweetness of stolen waters and the +pleasantness of bread eaten in secret, but she hides the fact, which +the listener to her seducing voice has to find out for himself after +he has drunk of the stolen waters and tasted the maddening +pleasantness of her bread eaten in secret, that 'her guests are in the +depths of Sheol.' The temptations that seek to win us to do wrong and +dazzle us by fair visions are but 'juggling fiends that keep the word +of promise to the ear, and break it to the hope.' + +II. Sin mocks fools by making them its slaves. + +There is not only a revulsion of feeling from the evil thing done that +was so tempting before, but there is a dreadful change in the voice of +the temptress. Before her victim had done the sin, she whispered hints +of how little a thing it was. 'Don't make such a mountain of a +molehill. It is a very small matter. You can easily give it up when +you like.' But when the deed is done, then her mocking laugh rings +out, 'I have got you now and you cannot get away.' The prey is seduced +into the trap by a carefully prepared bait, and as soon as its +hesitating foot steps on to the slippery floor, down falls the door +and escape is impossible, We are tempted to sin by the delusion that +we are shaking off restraints that fetter our manhood, and that it is +spirited to do as we like, and as soon as we have sinned we discover +that we were pleasing not ourselves but a taskmaster, and that while +the voice said, 'Show yourself a man, beyond these petty, +old-fashioned maxims'; the meaning of it was, 'Become my slave.' + +Sin grows in accordance with an awful necessity, so that it is never +in a sinner's power to promise himself 'It is only this one time that +I will do the wrong thing. Let me have one lapse and I will abjure the +evil for ever after.' We have to reckon with the tremendous power of +habit, and to bethink ourselves that a man may never commit a given +sin, but that if he has committed it once, it is all but impossible +that he will stop there. The incline is too slippery and the ice too +smooth to risk a foot on it. Habit dominates, outward circumstances +press, there springs up a need for repeating the draught, and for its +being more highly spiced. Sin begets sin as fast as the green flies +which infest rose-bushes. One has heard of slavers on the African +coast speaking negroes fair, and tempting them on board by wonderful +promises, but once the poor creatures are in the ship, then on with +the hatches and, if need be, the chains. + +III. Sin mocks fools by unforeseen consequences. + +These are carefully concealed or madly disregarded, while we are in +the stage of merely being tempted, but when we have done the evil, +they are unmasked, like a battery against a detachment that has been +trapped. The previous denial that anything will come of the sin, and +the subsequent proclamation that this ugly issue has come of it, are +both parts of sin's mockery, and one knows not which is the more +fiendish, the laugh with which she promises impunity or that with +which she tells of the certainty of retribution. We may be mocked, but +'God is not mocked. Whatever a man soweth, that'--and not some other +growth--'shall he also reap.' We dwell in an all-related order of +things, in which no act but has its appropriate consequences, and in +which it is only fools who say to themselves, 'I did not think it +would matter much.' Each act of ours is at once sowing and reaping; a +sowing, inasmuch as it sets in motion a train the issues of which may +not be realised by us till the act has long been forgotten; a reaping, +inasmuch as what we are and do to-day is the product of what we were +and did in a forgotten past. We are what we are, because we were long +ago what we were. As in these composite photographs, which are +produced by laying one individual likeness on another, our present +selves have our past selves preserved in them. We do not need to bring +in a divine Judge into human life in order to be sure that, by the +play of the natural laws of cause and effect, 'every transgression and +disobedience receives its just recompense of reward.' Given the world +as it is, and the continuous identity of a man, and you have all that +is needed for an Iliad of woes flowing from every life that makes +terms with sin. If we gather into one dismal pile the weakening of +power for good, the strengthening of impulses to evil, the inward +poverty, the unrest, the gnawings of conscience or its silence, the +slavery under evil often loathed even while it is being obeyed, the +dreary sense of inability to mend oneself, and often the wreck of +outward life which dog our sins like sleuth-hounds, surely we shall +not need to imagine a future tribunal in order to be sure that sin is +a murderess, or to hear her laugh as she mocks her helpless victims. + +But as surely as there are in this present world experiences which +must be regarded as consequences of sin, so surely do they all assume +a more dreadful character and take on the office of prophets of a +future. If man lives beyond the grave, there is nothing to suggest +that he will there put off character as he puts off the bodily life. +He will be there what he has made himself here. Only he will be so +more intensely, more completely. The judgments of earth foretell and +foreshadow a judgment beyond earth. + +There is but one more word that I would say, and it is this. Jesus has +come to set the captives of sin free from its mockery, its tyranny, +its worst consequences. He breaks the power of past evil to domineer +over us. He gives us a new life within, which has no heritage of evil +to pervert it, no memories of evil to discourage it, no bias towards +evil to lead it astray. As for the sins that we have done, He is ready +to forgive, to seal to us God's forgiveness, and to take from our own +self-condemnation all its bitterness and much of its hopelessness. For +the past, His blood has taken away its guilt and power. For the future +it sets us free from the mockery of our sin, and assures us of a +future which will not be weakened or pained by remembrances of a +sinful past. Sin mocks at fools, but they who have Christ for their +Redeemer, their Righteousness, and their Life can smile at her +impotent rage, and mock at her and her impotent attempts to terrify +them and assert her lost power with vain threats. + + + +HOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY + +'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is +heaviness.'--PROVERBS xiv. 13. + +'These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and +that your joy may be fulfilled.'--JOHN xv. 11 (R.V.). + + +A poet, who used to be more fashionable than he is now, pronounces +'happiness' to be our being's end and aim. That is not true, except +under great limitations and with many explanations. It may be regarded +as God's end, but it is ruinous to make it man's aim. It is by no +means the highest conception of the Gospel to say that it makes men +happy, however true it may be. The highest is that it makes them good. +I put these two texts together, not only because they bring out the +contrast between the laughter which is hollow and fleeting and the joy +which is perfect and perpetual, but also because they suggest to us +the difference in kind and object between earthly and heavenly joys; +which difference underlies the other between the boisterous laughter +in which is no mirth and no continuance and the joy which is deep and +abiding. + +In the comparison which I desire to make between these two texts we +must begin with that which is deepest, and consider-- + +I. The respective objects of earthly and heavenly joy. + +Our Lord's wonderful words suggest that they who accept His sayings, +that they who have His word abiding in them, have in a very deep sense +His joy implanted in their hearts, to brighten and elevate their joys +as the sunshine flashes into silver the ripples of the lake. What then +were the sources of the calm joys of 'the Man of Sorrows'? Surely His +was the perfect instance of 'rejoicing in the Lord always'--an +unbroken communion with the Father. The consciousness that the divine +pleasure ever rested on Him, and that all His thoughts, emotions, +purposes, and acts were in perfect harmony with the perfect will of +the perfect God, filled His humanity up to the very brim with gladness +which the world could not take away, and which remains for us for ever +as a type to which all our gladness must be conformed if it is to be +worthy of Him and of us. As one of the Psalmists says, God is to be +'the gladness of our joy.' It is in Him, gazed upon by the faith and +love of an obedient spirit, sought after by aspiration and possessed +inwardly in peaceful communion, confirmed by union with Him in the +acts of daily obedience, that the true joy of every human life is to +be realised. They who have drunk of this deep fountain of gladness +will not express their joy in boisterous laughter, which is the +hollower the louder it is, and the less lasting the more noisy, but +will manifest itself 'in the depth and not the tumult of the soul.' + +Nor must we forget that 'My joy' co-existed with a profound experience +of sorrow to which no human sorrow was ever like. Let us not forget +that, while His joy filled His soul to the brim, He was 'acquainted +with grief'; and let us not wonder if the strange surface +contradiction is repeated in ourselves. It is more Christlike to have +inexpressibly deep joy with surface sorrow, than to have a shallow +laughter masking a hurtful sorrow. + +We have to set the sources of earthly gladness side by side with those +of Christ's joy to be aware of a contrast. His sprang from within, the +world's is drawn from without. His came from union with the Father, +the world's largely depends on ignoring God. His needed no supplies +from the gratifications ministered by sense, and so independent of the +presence or absence of such; the world's need the constant +contributions of outward good, and when these are cut off they droop +and die. He who depends on outward circumstances for his joy is the +slave of externals and the sport of time and chance. + +II. The Christian's joy is full, the world's partial. + +All human joys touch but part of our nature, the divine fills and +satisfies all. In the former there is always some portion of us +unsatisfied, like the deep pits on the moon's surface into which no +light shines, and which show black on the silver face. No human joys +wait to still conscience, which sits at the banquet like the skeleton +that Egyptian feasters set at their tables. The old story told of a +magician's palace blazing with lighted windows, but there was always +one dark;--what shrouded figure sat behind it? Is there not always a +surly 'elder brother' who will not come in however the musicians may +pipe and the servants dance? Appetite may be satisfied, but what of +conscience, and reason, and the higher aspirations of the soul? The +laughter that echoes through the soul is the hollower the louder it +is, and reverberates most through empty spaces. + +But when Christ's joy remains in us our joy will be full. Its flowing +tide will rush into and placidly occupy all the else oozy shallows of +our hearts, even into the narrowest crannies its penetrating waters +will pass, and everywhere will bring a flashing surface that will +reflect in our hearts the calm blue above. We need nothing else if we +have Christ and His joy within us. If we have everything else, we need +His joy within us, else ours will never be full. + +III. The heavenly joys are perpetual, the earthly joys transient. + +Many of our earthly joys die in the very act of being enjoyed. Those +which depend on the gratification of some appetite expire in fruition, +and at each recurrence are less and less complete. The influence of +habit works in two ways to rob all such joys of their power to +minister to us--it increases the appetite and decreases the power of +the object to satisfy. Some are followed by swift revulsion and +remorse; all soon become stale; some are followed by quick remorse; +some are necessarily left behind as we go on in life. To the old man +the pleasures of youth are but like children's toys long since +outgrown and left behind. All are at the mercy of externals. Those +which we have not left we have to leave. The saddest lives are those +of pleasure-seekers, and the saddest deaths are those of the men who +sought for joy where it was not to be found, and sought for their +gratification in a world which leaves them, and which they have to +leave. + +There is a realm where abide 'fullness of joy and pleasures for ever +more.' Surely they order their lives most wisely who look for their +joys to nothing that earth holds, and have taken for their own the +ancient vow: 'Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall +fruit be in the vine.... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in +the God of my salvation.' If 'My joy' abides in us in its calm and +changeless depth, our joy will be 'full' whatever our circumstances +may be; and we shall hear at last the welcome: 'Enter thou into the +joy of thy Lord.' + + + +SATISFIED FROM SELF + +'... A good man shall be satisfied from himself.'--PROVERBS xiv. 14. + + +At first sight this saying strikes one as somewhat unlike the ordinary +Scripture tone, and savouring rather of a Stoical self-complacency; +but we recall parallel sayings, such as Christ's words, 'The water +that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water'; and the +Apostle's, 'Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone.' We further +note that the text has an antithetic parallel in the preceding clause, +where the picture is drawn of 'a backslider in heart,' as 'filled with +his own ways'; so that both clauses set forth the familiar but solemn +thought that a man's deeds react upon the doer, and apart from all +thoughts of divine judgment, themselves bring certain retribution. To +grasp the inwardness of this saying we must note that-- + +I. Goodness comes from godliness. + +There is no more striking proof that most men are bad than the notion +which they have of what is good. The word has been degraded to mean in +common speech little more than amiability, and is applied with little +discrimination to characters of which little more can be said than +that they are facile and indulgent of evil. 'A good fellow' may be a +very bad man. At the highest the epithet connotes merely more or less +admirable motives and more or less admirable deeds as their results, +whilst often its use is no more than a piece of unmeaning politeness. +That was what the young ruler meant by addressing Christ as 'Good +Master'; and Christ's answer to him set him, and should set us, on +asking ourselves why we call very ordinary men and very ordinary +actions 'good.' The scriptural notion is immensely deeper, and the +scriptural employment of the word is immensely more restricted. It is +more inward: it means that motives should be right before it calls any +action good; it means that our central and all-influencing motive +should be love to God and regard to His will. That is the Old +Testament point of view as well as the New. Or to put it in other +words, the 'good man' of the Bible is a man in whom outward +righteousness flows from inward devotion and love to God. These two +elements make up the character: godliness is an inseparable part of +goodness, is the inseparable foundation of goodness, and the sole +condition on which it is possible. But from this conception follows, +that a man may be truly called good, although not perfect. He may be +so and yet have many failures. The direction of his aspirations, not +the degree to which these are fulfilled, determines his character, and +his right to be reckoned a good man. Why was David called 'a man after +God's own heart,' notwithstanding his frightful fall? Was it not +because that sin was contrary to the main direction of his life, and +because he had struggled to his feet again, and with tears and +self-abasement, yet with unconquerable desire and hope, 'pressed +toward the mark for the prize of his high calling'? David in the Old +Testament and Peter in the New bid us be of good cheer, and warn us +against the too common error of thinking that goodness means +perfection. 'The new moon with a ragged edge' is even in its +imperfections beautiful, and in its thinnest circlet prophesies the +perfect round. + +Remembering this inseparable connection between godliness and goodness +we further note that-- + +II. Godliness brings satisfaction. + +There is a grim contrast between the two halves of this verse. The +former shows us the backslider in heart as filled 'with his own ways.' +He gets weary with satiety; with his doings he 'will be sick of them'; +and the things which at first delighted will finally disgust and be +done without zest. There is nothing sadder than the gloomy faces often +seen in the world's festivals. But, on the other hand, the godly man +will be satisfied from within. This is no Stoical proclamation of +self-sufficingness. Self by itself satisfies no man, but self, become +the abiding-place of God, does satisfy. A man alone is like 'the chaff +which the wind driveth away'; but, rooted in God, he is 'like a tree +planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf does not wither.' He has +found all that he needs. God is no longer without him but within; and +he who can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' has +within him the secret of peace and the source of satisfaction which +can never say 'I thirst.' Such an inward self, in which God dwells and +through which His sweet presence manifests itself in the renewed +nature, sets man free from all dependence for blessedness on +externals. We hang on them and are in despair if we lose them, because +we have not the life of God within us. He who has such an indwelling, +and he only, can truly say, 'All my possessions I carry with me.' Take +him and strip from him, film after film, possessions, reputation, +friends; hack him limb from limb, and as long as there is body enough +left to keep life in him, he can say, 'I have all and abound.' 'Ye +took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have +your own selves for a better possession.' + +III. Godly goodness brings inward satisfaction. + +No man is satisfied with himself until he has subjugated himself. What +makes men restless and discontented is their tossing, anarchical +desires. To live by impulse, or passion, or by anything but love to +God, is to make ourselves our own tormentors. It is always true that +he 'who loveth his life shall lose it,' and loses it by the very act +of loving it. Most men's lives are like the troubled sea, 'which +cannot rest,' and whose tossing surges, alas! 'cast up mire and dirt,' +for their restless lives bring to the surface much that was meant to +lie undisturbed in the depths. + +But he who has subdued himself is like some still lake which 'heareth +not the loud winds when they call,' and mirrors the silent heavens on +its calm surface. But further, goodness brings satisfaction, because, +as the Psalmist says, 'in keeping Thy commandments there is great +reward.' There is a glow accompanying even partial obedience which +diffuses itself with grateful warmth through the whole being of a man. +And such goodness tends to the preservation of health of soul as +natural, simple living to the health of the body. And that general +sense of well-being brings with it a satisfaction compared with which +all the feverish bliss of the voluptuary is poor indeed. + +But we must not forget that satisfaction from one's self is not +satisfaction _with_ one's self. There will always be the +imperfection which will always prevent self-righteousness. The good +man after the Bible pattern most deeply knows his faults, and in that +very consciousness is there a deep joy. To be ever aspiring onwards, +and to know that our aspiration is no vain dream, this is joy. Still +to press 'toward the mark,' still to have 'the yet untroubled world +which gleams before us as we move,' and to know that we shall attain +if we follow on, this is the highest bliss. Not the accomplishment of +our ideal, but the cherishing of it, is the true delight of life. + +Such self-satisfying goodness comes only through Christ. He makes it +possible for us to love God and to trust Him. Only when we know 'the +love wherewith He has loved us,' shall we love with a love which will +be the motive power of our lives. He makes it possible to live outward +lives of obedience, which, imperfect as it is, has 'great reward.' He +makes it possible for us to attain the yet unattained, and to be sure +that we 'shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' He has +said, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water +springing up unto everlasting life.' Only when we can say, 'I live, +yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' will it be true of us in its +fullest sense, 'A good man shall be satisfied from himself.' + + + +WHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF ME + +'All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord +weigheth the spirits.'--PROVERBS xvi. 2. + + +'All the ways of a man'--then there is no such thing as being +conscious of having gone wrong, and having got into miry and foul +ways? Of course there is; and equally of course a broad statement such +as this of my text is not to be pressed into literal accuracy, but is +a simple, general assertion of what we all know to be true, that we +have a strange power of blinding ourselves as to what is wrong in +ourselves and in our actions. Part of the cure for that lies in the +thought in the second clause of the text--'But the Lord weigheth the +spirits.' He weighs them in a balance, or as a man might take up +something and poise it on his palm, moving his hand up and down till +his muscles by their resistance gave him some inkling of its weight. +But what is it that God weighs? 'The spirits.' We too often content +ourselves with looking at our ways; God looks at ourselves. He takes +the inner man into account, estimates actions by motives, and so very +often differs from our judgment of ourselves and of one another. + +Now so far the verse of my text carries me, and as a rule we have to +keep ourselves within the limits of each verse in reading this Book of +Proverbs, for two adjoining verses have very seldom anything to do +with each other. But in the present case they have, for here is what +follows: 'Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts' (about +thyself and everything else) 'shall be established.' That is to say, +since we make such terrible blunders about the moral character of our +own works, and since side by side with these erroneous estimates there +is God's absolutely correct and all-penetrating one, common sense +says: 'Put yourself into His hands, and then it will be all right.' So +we consider now these very well-worn and familiar thoughts as to our +strange blunders about ourselves, as to the contemporaneous divine +estimate, which is absolutely correct, and as to the practical issues +that come from two facts. + +I. Our strange power of blinding ourselves. + +It is difficult to make so threadbare a commonplace at all impressive. +But yet if we would only take this thought, 'All the ways of a +man'--that is me--'are right in his own eyes'--that is, my eyes--and +apply it directly to our own personal experience and thoughts of +ourselves, we should find that, like every other commonplace of +morality and religion, the apparently toothless generality has sharp +enough teeth, and that the trite truth flashes up into strange beauty, +and has power to purify and guide our lives. Some one says that +'recognised truths lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by +side with exploded errors.' And I am afraid that that is true of this +thought, that we cannot truly estimate ourselves. + +'All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.' For to begin with, +we all know that there is nothing that we so habitually neglect as the +bringing of conscience to bear right through all our lives. Sometimes +it is because there is a temptation that appeals very strongly, +perhaps to sense, perhaps to some strong inclination which has been +strengthened by indulgence. And when the craving arises, that is no +time to begin asking, 'Is it right, or is it wrong to yield?' That +question stands small chance of being wisely considered at a moment +when, under the goading of roused desire, a man is like a mad bull +when it charges. It drops its head and shuts its eyes, and goes right +forward, and no matter whether it smashes its horns against an iron +gate, and damages them and itself, or not, on it will go. So when +great temptations rise--and we all know such times in our lives--we +are in no condition to discuss that question with ourselves. Sometimes +the craving is so vehement that if we could not get this thing that we +want without putting our hands through the sulphurous smoke of the +bottomless pit, we should thrust them out to grasp it. But in regard +to the smaller commonplace matters of daily life, too, we all know +that there are whole regions of our lives which seem to us to be so +small that it is hardly worth while summoning the august thought of +'right or wrong?' to decide them. Yes, and a thousand smugglers that +go across a frontier, each with a little package of contraband goods +that does not pay any duty, make a large aggregate at the year's end. +It is the trifles of life that shape life, and it is to them that we +so frequently fail in applying, honestly and rigidly, the test, 'Is +this right or wrong?' 'He that is faithful in that which is least,' +and conscientious down to the smallest things, 'is faithful also in +much.' The legal maxim has it, 'The law does not care about the very +smallest matters.' What that precisely means, as a legal maxim, I do +not profess to know, but it is rank heresy in regard to conduct and +morality. Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after +themselves. Get the habit of bringing conscience to bear on little +things, or you will never be able to bring it to bear when great +temptations come and the crises emerge in your lives. Thus, by reason +of that deficiency in the habitual application of conscience to bur +lives, we slide through, and take for granted that all our ways are +right in our eyes. + +Then there is another thing: we not only neglect the rigid application +of conscience to all our lives, but we have a double standard, and the +notion of right and wrong which we apply to our neighbours is very +different from that which we apply to ourselves. No wonder that the +criminal is acquitted, and goes away from the tribunal 'without a +stain on his character,' when he is his own judge and jury. 'All the +ways of a man are right in his own eyes,' but the very same 'ways' +that you allow to pass muster and condone in yourselves, you visit +with sharp and unfailing censure in others. That strange +self-complacency which we have, which is perfectly undisturbed by the +most general confessions of sinfulness, and only shies when it is +brought up to particular details of faults, we all know is very deep +in ourselves. + +Then there is another thing to be remembered, and that is--the +enormous and the tragical influence of habit in dulling the mirror of +our souls, on which our deeds are reflected in their true image. There +are places in Europe where the peasantry have become so accustomed to +minute and constantly repeated doses of arsenic that it is actually a +minister of health to them, and what would poison you is food for +them. We all know that we may sit in a hall like this, packed full and +steaming, while the condensed breath is running down the windows, and +never be aware of the foulness of the odours and the air. But when we +go out and feel the sweet, pure breath of the unpolluted atmosphere, +then we know how habit has dulled the lungs. And so habit dulls the +conscience. According to the old saying, the man that began by +carrying a calf can carry an ox at the end, and feel no burden. What +we are accustomed to do we scarcely ever recognise to be wrong, and it +is these things which pass because they are habitual that do more to +wreck lives than occasional outbursts of far worse evils, according to +the world's estimate of them. Habit dulls the eye. + +Yes; and more than that, the conscience needs educating just as much +as any other faculty. A man says, 'My conscience acquits me'; then the +question is, 'And what sort of a conscience have you got, if it +acquits you?' All that your conscience says is, 'It is right to do +what is right, it is wrong to do what is wrong.' But for the +explanation of what is wrong and what is right you have to go +somewhere else than to your consciences. You have to go to your +reason, and your judgment, and your common sense, and a hundred other +sources. And then, when you have found out what is right and what is +wrong, you will hear the voice saying, 'Do that, and do not do this.' +Every one of us has faults that we know nothing about, and that we +bring up to the tribunal of our consciences, and wipe our mouths and +say, 'We have done no harm.' 'I thought within myself that I verily +ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.' +'They think that they do God service.' Many things that seem to us +virtues are vices. + +And as for the individual so for the community. The perception of what +is right and what is wrong needs long educating. When I was a boy the +whole Christian Church of America, with one voice, declared that +'slavery was a patriarchal institution appointed by God.' The +Christian Church of to-day has not awakened either to the sin of war +or of drink. And I have not the smallest doubt that there are hosts of +things which public opinion, and Christian public opinion, regards +to-day as perfectly allowable and innocent, and, perhaps, even +praiseworthy, and over which it will ask God's blessing, at which, in +a hundred years our descendants will hold up their hands in wonder, +and say, 'How did good people--and good people they no doubt +were--tolerate such a condition of things for a moment?' 'All a man's +ways are right in his own eyes,' and he needs a great deal of teaching +before he comes to understand what, according to God's will, really, +is right and what is wrong. + +Now let me turn for a moment to the contrasted picture, with which I +can only deal in a sentence or two. + +II. The divine estimate. + +I have already pointed out the two emphatic thoughts that lie in that +clause, 'God weigheth,' and 'weigheth the spirits.' I need not repeat +what I said, in the introduction to these remarks, upon this subject. +Just let us take with us these two thoughts, that the same actions +which we sometimes test, in our very defective and loaded balances, +have also to go into the infallible scales, and that the actions go +with their interpretation in their motive. 'God weighs the spirits.' +He reads what we do by His knowledge of what we are. We reveal to one +another what we are by what we do, and, as is a commonplace, none of +us can penetrate, except very superficially and often inaccurately, to +the motives that actuate. But the motive is three-fourths of the +action. God does not go from without, as it were, inwards; from our +actions to estimate our characters; but He starts with the character +and the motive--the habitual character and the occasional motive--and +by these He reads the deed. He weighs, ponders, penetrates to the +heart of the thing, and He weighs the spirits. + +So on the one hand, 'I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in +unbelief,' and many a deed which the world would condemn, and in which +we onlookers would see evil, God does not wholly condemn, because He, +being the Inlooker as well as the Onlooker, sees the albeit mistaken +yet pure motives that underlay it. So it is conceivable that the +inquisitor, and the heretic that he sent to the stake, may stand side +by side in God's estimate; the one if he were actuated by pure zeal +for the truth, the other because he was actuated by self-sacrifice in +loyalty to his Lord. And, on the other hand, many a deed that goes +flaunting through the world in 'purple and fine linen' will be +stripped of its gauds, and stand naked and ugly before the eyes of +'Him with whom we have to do.' He 'weighs the spirits.' + +Lastly, a word about-- + +III. The practical issues of these thoughts. + +'Commit thy works unto the Lord'--that is to say, do not be too sure +that you are right because you do not think you are wrong. We should +be very distrustful of our own judgments of ourselves, especially when +that judgment permits us to do certain things. 'I know nothing against +myself,' said the Apostle, 'yet am I not hereby justified.' And again, +still more emphatically, he lays down the principle that I would have +liked to have enlarged upon if I had had time. 'Happy is he that +condemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth.' You may have +made the glove too easy by stretching. It is possible that you may +think that something is permissible and right which a wiser and more +rigid and Christlike judgment of yourself would have taught you was +wrong. Look under the stones for the reptiles, and remember the +prayer, 'Cleanse thou me from secret faults,' and distrust a +permitting and easy conscience. + +Then, again, let us seek the divine strengthening and illumination. We +have to seek that in some very plain ways. Seek it by prayer. There is +nothing so powerful in stripping off from our besetting sins their +disguises and masks as to go to God with the honest petition: 'Search +me ... and try me ... and see if there be any wicked way in me, and +lead me in the way everlasting.' Brethren! if we will do that, we +shall get answers that will startle us, that will humble us, but that +will be blessed beyond all other blessedness, and will bring to light +the 'hidden things of darkness.' Then, after they are brought to light +and cast out, 'then shall every man have praise of God.' + +We ought to keep ourselves in very close union with Jesus Christ, +because if we cling to Him in simple faith, He will come into our +hearts, and we shall be saved from walking in darkness, and have the +light of life shining down upon our deeds. Christ is the conscience of +the Christian man's conscience, who, by His voice in the hearts that +wait upon Him, says, 'Do this,' and they do it. It is when He is in +our spirits that our estimate of ourselves is set right, and that we +hear the voice saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it'; and not +merely do we hear the voice, but we get help to our feet in running in +the way of His commandments, with enlarged and confirmed hearts. +Brethren! for the discovery of our faults, which we ought all to long +for, and for the conquest of these discovered faults, which, if we are +Christians, we do long for, our confidence is in Him. And if you trust +Him, 'the blood of Christ will cleanse'--because it comes into our +life's blood--'from all sin.' + +And the last thing that I would say is this. We must punctiliously +obey every dictate that speaks in our own consciences, especially when +it urges us to unwelcome duties or restrains us from too welcome sins. +'To him that hath shall be given'--and the sure way to condemn +ourselves to utter blindness as to our true selves is to pay no +attention to the glimmers of light that we have, whilst, on the other +hand, the sure way to be led into fuller illumination is to follow +faithfully whatsoever sparkles of light may shine upon our hearts. 'Do +the duty that lies nearest thee.' Put thy trust in Jesus Christ. +Distrust thine own approbation or condonation of thine actions, and +ever turn to Him and say, 'Show me what to do, and make me willing and +fit to do it.' Then there will be little contrariety between your +estimate of your ways and God's judgments of your spirits. + + + +A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS + +'Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the +instruction of fools is folly. 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his +mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. 24. Pleasant words are as an +honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 25. There is a +way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of +death. 26. He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth +craveth it of him. 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips +there is as a burning fire. 28. A froward man soweth strife: and a +whisperer separateth chief friends. 29. A violent man enticeth his +neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. 30. He +shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he +bringeth evil to pass. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it +be found in the way of righteousness. 32. He that is slow to anger is +better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that +taketh a city. 33. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole +disposing thereof is of the Lord.'--PROVERBS xvi. 22-33. + + +A slight thread of connection may be traced in some of the proverbs in +this passage. Verse 22, with its praise of 'Wisdom,' introduces one +instance of Wisdom's excellence in verse 23, and that again, with its +reference to speech, leads on to verse 24 and its commendation of +'pleasant words.' Similarly, verses 27-30 give four pictures of vice, +three of them beginning with 'a man.' We may note, too, that, starting +with verse 26, every verse till verse 30 refers to some work of 'the +mouth' or 'lips.' + +The passage begins with one phase of the contrast between Wisdom and +Folly, which this book is never weary of emphasising and underscoring. +We shall miss the force of its most characteristic teaching unless we +keep well in mind that the two opposites of Wisdom and Folly do not +refer only or chiefly to intellectual distinctions. The very basis of +'Wisdom,' as this book conceives it, is the 'fear of the Lord,' +without which the man of biggest, clearest brain, and most richly +stored mind, is, in its judgment, 'a fool.' Such 'understanding,' +which apprehends and rightly deals with the deepest fact of life, our +relation to God and to His law, is a 'well-spring of life.' The figure +speaks still more eloquently to Easterns than to us. In those hot +lands the cool spring, bursting through the baked rocks or burning +sand, makes the difference between barrenness and fertility, the death +of all green things and life. So where true Wisdom is deep in a heart, +it will come flashing up into sunshine, and will quicken the seeds of +all good as it flows through the deeds. 'Everything liveth +whithersoever the river cometh.' Productiveness, refreshment, the +beauty of the sparkling wavelets, the music of their ripples against +the stones, and all the other blessings and delights of a perpetual +fountain, have better things corresponding to them in the life of the +man who is wise with the true Wisdom which begins with the fear of +God. Just as _it_ is active in the life, so is Folly. But its +activity is not blessing and gladdening, but punitive. For all sin +automatically works its own chastisement, and the curse of Folly is +that, while it corrects, it prevents the 'fool' from profiting by the +correction. Since it punishes itself, one might expect that it would +cure itself, but experience shows that, while it wields a rod, its +subjects 'receive no correction.' That insensibility is the paradox +and the Nemesis of 'Folly.' + +The Old Testament ethics are remarkable for their solemn sense of the +importance of words, and Proverbs shares in that sense to the full. In +some aspects, speech is a more perfect self-revelation than act. So +the outflow of the fountain in words comes next. Wise heart makes wise +speech. That may be looked at in two ways. It may point to the +utterance by word as the most precious, and incumbent on its +possessor, of all the ways of manifesting Wisdom; or it may point to +the only source of real 'learning,'--namely, a wise heart. In the +former view, it teaches us our solemn obligation not to hide our light +under a bushel, but to speak boldly and lovingly all the truth which +God has taught us. A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are bound to +give voice to our 'Wisdom.' In the other aspect, it reminds us that +there is a better way of getting Wisdom than by many books,--namely, +by filling our hearts, through communion with God, with His own will. +Then, whether we have worldly 'learning' or no, we shall be able to +instruct many, and lead them to the light which has shone on us. + +There are many kinds of pleasant words, some of which are not like +'honey,' but like poison hid in jam. Insincere compliments, flatteries +when rebukes would be fitting, and all the brood of civil +conventionalities, are not the words meant here. Truly pleasant ones +are those which come from true Wisdom, and may often have a surface of +bitterness like the prophet's roll, but have a core of sweetness. It +is a great thing to be able to speak necessary and unwelcome truths +with lips into which grace is poured. A spoonful of honey catches more +flies than a hogshead of vinegar. + +Verse 25 has no connection with its context. It teaches two solemn +truths, according to the possible double meaning of 'right.' If that +word means ethically right, then the saying sets forth the terrible +possibility of conscience being wrongly instructed, and sanctioning +gross sin. If it means only _straight_, or level--that is, +successful and easy--the saying enforces the not less solemn truth +that sin deceives as to its results, and that the path of wrong-doing, +which is flowery and smooth at first, grows rapidly thorny, and goes +fast downhill, and ends at last in a _cul-de-sac,_ of which death +is the only outlet. We are not to trust our own consciences, except as +enlightened by God's Word. We are not to listen to sin's lies, but to +fix it well in our minds that there is only one way which leads to +life and peace, the narrow way of faith and obedience. + +The Revised Version's rendering of verse 26 gives the right idea. 'The +appetite,' or hunger, 'of the labourer labours for him' (that is, the +need of food is the mainspring of work), and it lightens the work to +which it impels. So hunger is a blessing. That is true in regard to +the body. The manifold material industries of men are, at bottom, +prompted by the need to earn something to eat. The craving which +drives to such results is a thing to be thankful for. It is better to +live where toil is needful to sustain life than in lazy lands where an +hour's work will provide food for a week. But the saying reaches to +spiritual desires, and anticipates the beatitude on those who 'hunger +and thirst after righteousness.' Happy they who feel that craving, and +are driven by it to the labour for the bread which comes down from +heaven! 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath +sent.' + +The next three proverbs (vs. 27-29) give three pictures of different +types of bad men. First, we have 'the worthless man' (Rev. Ver.), +literally 'a man of Belial,' which last word probably means +worthlessness. His work is 'digging evil'; his words are like +scorching fire. To dig evil seems to have a wider sense than has +digging a pit for others (Ps. vii. 15), which is usually taken as a +parallel. The man is not merely malicious toward others, but his whole +activity goes to further evil. It is the material in which he delights +to work. What mistaken spade husbandry it is to spend labour on such a +soil! What can it grow but thistles and poisonous plants? His words +are as bad as his deeds. No honey drops from _his_ lips, but +scorching fire, which burns up not only reputations but tries to +consume all that is good. As James says, such a tongue is 'set on fire +of hell.' The picture is that of a man bad through and through. But +there may be indefinitely close approximations to it, and no man can +say, 'Thus far will I go in evil ways, and no further.' + +The second picture is of a more specific kind. The 'froward man' here +seems to be the same as the slanderer in the next clause. He utters +perverse things, and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are +people whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower's +basket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them +broadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be, +but often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and +alienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm +as a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people's faults is not +innocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief he was +setting agoing. + +In verse 29 another type of evil-doer is outlined--the opposite, in +some respects, of the preceding. The slanderer works secretly; this +mischief-maker goes the plain way to work. He uses physical force or +'violence.' But how does that fit in with 'enticeth'? It may be that +the enticement of his victim into a place suitable for robbing or +murder is meant, but more probably there is here the same combination +of force and craft as in chapter i. 10-14. Criminals have a wicked +delight in tempting innocent people to join their gangs. A lawless +desperado is a hotbed of infection. + +Verse 30 draws a portrait of a bad man. It is a bit of homely +physiognomical observation. A man with a trick of closing his eyes has +something working in his head; and, if he is one of these types of +men, one may be sure that he is brewing mischief. Compressed lips mean +concentrated effort, or fixed resolve, or suppressed feeling, and in +any of these cases are as a danger signal, warning that the man is at +work on some evil deed. + +Two sayings follow, which contrast goodness with the evils just +described. The 'if' in verse 31 weakens the strong assertion of the +proverb. 'The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way +of righteousness.' That is but putting into picturesque form the Old +Testament promise of long life to the righteous--a promise which is +not repeated in the new dispensation, but which is still often +realised. 'Whom the gods love, die young,' is a heathen proverb; but +there is a natural tendency in the manner of life which Christianity +produces to prolong a man's days. A heart at peace, because stayed on +God, passions held well in hand, an avoidance of excesses which eat +away strength, do tend to length of life, and the opposites of these +do tend to shorten it. How many young men go home from our great +cities every year, with their 'bones full of the iniquities of their +youth,' to die! + +If we are to tread the way of righteousness, and so come to 'reverence +and the silver hair,' we must govern ourselves. So the next proverb +extols the ruler of his own spirit as 'more than conquerors,' whose +triumphs are won in such vulgar fields as battles and sieges, Our +sorest fights and our noblest victories are within. + + 'Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!' + +Verse 31 takes the casting of the lot as one instance of the +limitation of all human effort, in all which we can but use the +appropriate means, while the whole issue must be left in God's hands. +The Jewish law did not enjoin the lot, but its use seems to have been +frequent. The proverb presents in the sharpest relief a principle +which is true of all our activity. The old proverb-maker knew nothing +of chance. To him there were but two real moving forces in the +world--man and God. To the one belonged sowing the seed, doing his +part, whether casting the lot or toiling at his task. His force was +real, but derived and limited. Efforts and attempts are ours; results +are God's. We sow; He 'gives it a body as it pleases Him.' Nothing +happens by accident. Man's little province is bounded on all sides by +God's, and the two touch. There is no neutral territory between, where +godless chance rules. + + + +TWO FORTRESSES + +'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into +it, and is safe. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as +an high wall in his own conceit'--PROVERBS xviii. 10,11. + + +The mere reading of these two verses shows that, contrary to the usual +rule in the Book of Proverbs, they have a bearing on each other. They +are intended to suggest a very strong contrast, and that contrast is +even more emphatic in the original than in our translation; because, +as the margin of your Bibles will tell you, the last word of the +former verse might be more correctly rendered, 'the righteous runneth +into it, and is _set on high._' It is the same word which is +employed in the next verse--'a high wall.' + +So we have 'the strong tower' and 'the strong city'; the man lifted up +above danger on the battlements of the one, and the man fancying +himself to be high above it (and only fancying himself) in the +imaginary safety of the other. + +I. Consider then, first, the two fortresses. + +One need only name them side by side to feel the full force of the +intended contrast. On the one hand, the name of the Lord with all its +depths and glories, with its blaze of lustrous purity, and infinitudes +of inexhaustible power; and on the other, 'the rich man's wealth.' +What contempt is expressed in putting the two side by side! It is as +if the author had said, 'Look on this picture and on that!' Two +fortresses! Yes! The one is like Gibraltar, inexpugnable on its rock, +and the other is like a painted castle on the stage; flimsy canvas +that you could put your foot through--solidity by the side of +nothingness. For even the poor appearance of solidity is an illusion, +as our text says with bitter emphasis--'a high wall _in his own +conceit_.' + +'The name of the Lord,' of course, is the Biblical expression for the +whole character of God, as He has made it known to us, or in other +words, for God Himself, as He has been pleased to reveal Himself to +mankind. The syllables of that name are all the deeds by which He has +taught us what He is; every act of power, of wisdom, of tenderness, of +grace that has manifested these qualities and led us to believe that +they are all infinite. In the name, in its narrower sense, the name of +Jehovah, there is much of 'the name' in its wider sense. For that name +'Jehovah,' both by its signification and by the circumstances under +which it was originally employed, tells us a great deal about God. It +tells us, for instance, by virtue of its signification, that He is +self-existent, depending upon no other creature. 'I AM THAT I AM!' No +other being can say that. All the rest of us have to say, 'I am that +which God made me.' Circumstances and a hundred other things have made +me; God finds the law of His being and the fountain of His being +within Himself. + + 'He sits on no precarious throne, + Nor borrows leave to be.' + +His name proclaims Him to be self-existent, and as self-existent, +eternal; and as eternal, changeless; and as self-existent, eternal, +changeless, infinite in all the qualities by which He makes Himself +known. This boundless Being, all full of wisdom, power, and +tenderness, with whom we can enter into relations of amity and +concord, surely He is 'a strong tower into which we may run and be +safe.' + +But far beyond even the sweep of that great name, Jehovah, is the +knowledge of God's deepest heart and character which we learn in Him +who said, 'I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and will declare +it.' Christ in His life and death, in His meekness, sweetness, +gentleness, calm wisdom, infinite patience, attractiveness; yearning +over sinful hearts, weeping over rebels, in the graciousness of His +life, in the sacredness and the power of His Cross, is the Revealer to +our hearts of the heart of God. If I may so say, He has builded 'the +strong tower' broader, has expanded its area and widened its gate, and +lifted its summit yet nearer the heavens, and made the name of God a +wider name and a mightier name, and a name of surer defence and +blessing than ever it was before. + +And so, dear brethren! it all comes to this, the name that is 'the +strong tower' is the name 'My Father!' a Father of infinite tenderness +and wisdom and power. Oh! where can the child rest more quietly than +on the mother's breast, where can the child be safer than in the +circle of the father's arms? 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower.' + +Now turn to the other for a moment: 'The rich man's wealth is' (with +great emphasis on the next little word) '_his_ strong city, and +as a high wall in his own conceit.' Of course we have not to deal here +only with wealth in the shape of money, but all external and material +goods, the whole mass of the 'things seen and temporal,' are gathered +together here in this phrase. + +Men use their imaginations in very strange fashion, and make, or fancy +they make, for themselves out of the things of the present life a +defence and a strength. Like some poor lunatic, out upon a moor, that +fancies himself ensconced in a castle; like some barbarous tribes +behind their stockades or crowding at the back of a little turf wall, +or in some old tumble-down fort that the first shot will bring +rattling down about their ears, fancying themselves perfectly secure +and defended--so do men deal with these outward things that are given +them for another purpose altogether: they make of them defences and +fortresses. + +It is difficult for a man to have them and not to trust them. So Jesus +said to His disciples once: 'How hardly shall they that have riches +enter into the Kingdom'; and when they were astonished at His words, +He repeated them with the significant variation, 'How hard is it for +them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God.' So He +would teach that the misuse and not the possession of wealth is the +barrier, but so, too, He would warn us that, nine times out of ten, +the possession of them in more than a very modest measure, tempts a +man into confidence in them. + +The illusion is one that besets us all. We are all tempted to make a +defence of the things that we can see and handle. Is it not strange, +and is it not sad, that most of us just turn the truth round about and +suppose that the real defence is the imaginary, and that the imaginary +one is the real? How many men are there in this chapel who, if they +spoke out of their deepest convictions, would say: 'Oh yes! the +promises of God are all very well, but I would rather have the cash +down. I suppose that I may trust that He will provide bread and water, +and all the things that I need, but I would rather have a good solid +balance at the banker's.' How many of you would rather honestly, and +at the bottom of your hearts, have that than God's word for your +defence? How many of you think that to trust in a living God is but +grasping at a very airy and unsubstantial kind of support; and that +the real solid defence is the defence made of the things that you can +see? + +My brother! it is exactly the opposite way. Turn it clean round, and +you get the truth. The unsubstantial shadows are the material things +that you can see and handle; illusory as a dream, and as little able +to ward off the blows of fate as a soap bubble. The real is the unseen +beyond--'the things that _are_,' and He who alone really is, and +in His boundless and absolute Being is our only defence. + +In one aspect or another, that false imagination with which my last +text deals is the besetting sin of Manchester. Not the rich man only, +but the poor man just as much, is in danger of it. The poor man who +thinks that everything would be right if only he were rich, and the +rich man who thinks that everything is right because he _is_ +rich, are exactly the same man. The circumstances differ, but the one +man is but the other turned inside out. And all round about us we see +the fierce fight to get more and more of these things, the tight grip +of them when we have got them, the overestimate of the value of them, +the contempt for the people who have less of them than ourselves. Our +aristocracy is an aristocracy of wealth; in some respects, one by no +means to be despised, because there often go a great many good +qualities to the making and the stewardship of wealth; but still it is +an evil that men should be so largely estimated by their money as they +are here. It is not a sound state of opinion which has made 'what is +he _worth_?' mean 'how much of _it_ has he?' We are taught +here to look upon the prizes of life as being mainly wealth. To win +that is 'success'--'prosperity'--and it is very hard for us all not to +be influenced by the prevailing tone. + +I would urge you, young men, especially to lay this to heart--that of +all delusions that can beset you in your course, none will work more +disastrously than the notion that the _summum bonum_, the shield +and stay of a man, is the 'abundance of the things that he possesses.' +I fancy I see more listless, discontented, unhappy faces looking out +of carriages than I see upon the pavement. And I am sure of this, at +any rate, that all which is noble and sweet and good in life can be +wrought out and possessed upon as much bread and water as will keep +body and soul together, and as much furniture as will enable a man to +sit at his meal and lie down at night. And as for the rest, it has +many advantages and blessings, but oh! it is all illusory as a defence +against the evils that will come, sooner or later, to every life. + +II. Consider next how to get into the true Refuge. + +'The righteous runneth into it and is safe,' says my text. You may get +into the illusory one very easily. Imagination will take you there. +There is no difficulty at all about that. And yet the way by which a +man makes this world his defence may teach you a lesson as to how you +can make God your defence. How _does_ a man make this world his +defence? By trusting to it. He that says to the fine gold, 'Thou art +my confidence,' has made it his fortress--and that is how you will +make God your fortress--by trusting to _Him_. The very same +emotion, the very same act of mind, heart, and will, may be turned +either upwards or downwards, as you can turn the beam from a lantern +which way you please. Direct it earthwards, and you 'trust in the +uncertainty of riches.' Flash it heavenwards, and you 'trust in the +living God.' + +And that same lesson is taught by the words of our text, 'The +righteous runneth into it.' I do not dwell upon the word 'righteous.' +That is the Old Testament point of view, which could not conceive it +possible that any man could have deep and close communion with God, +except on condition of a pure character. I will not speak of that at +present, but point to the picturesque metaphor, which will tell us a +great deal more about what faith is than many a philosophical +dissertation. Many a man who would be perplexed by a theologian's talk +will understand this: 'The righteous runneth into the name of the +Lord.' + +The metaphor brings out the idea of eager haste in betaking oneself to +the shelter, as when an invading army comes into a country, and the +unarmed peasants take their portable belongings and their cattle, and +catch up their children in their arms, and set their wives upon their +mules, and make all haste to some fortified place; or as when the +manslayer in Israel fled to the city of refuge, or as when Lot hurried +for his life out of Sodom. There would be no dawdling then; but with +every muscle strained, men would run into the stronghold, counting +every minute a year till they were inside its walls, and heard the +heavy door close between them and the pursuer. No matter how rough the +road, or how overpowering the heat--no time to stop to gather flowers, +or even diamonds on the road, when a moment's delay might mean the +enemy's sword in your heart! + +Now that metaphor is frequently used to express the resolved and swift +act by which, recognising in Jesus Christ, who declares the name of +the Lord, our hiding-place, we shelter ourselves in Him, and rest +secure. One of the picturesque words by which the Old Testament +expresses 'trust' means literally 'to flee to a refuge.' The Old +Testament _trust_ is the New Testament _faith_, even as the +Old Testament '_Name of the Lord_' answers to the New Testament +'_Name of Jesus_.' And so we run into this sure hiding-place and +strong fortress of the name of the Lord, when we betake ourselves to +Jesus and put our trust in Him as our defence. + +Such a faith--the trust of mind, heart, and will--laying hold of the +name of the Lord, makes us 'righteous,' and so capable of 'dwelling +with the devouring fire' of God's perfect purity. The Old Testament +point of view was righteousness, in order to abiding in God. The New +Testament begins, as it were, at an earlier stage in the religious +life, and tells us how to get the righteousness, without which, it +holds as strongly as the Old Testament, 'no man shall see the Lord.' +It shows us that our faith, by which we run into that fortress, fits +us to enter the fortress, because it makes us partakers of Christ's +purity. + +So my earnest question to you all is--Have you 'fled for refuge to lay +hold' on that Saviour in whom God has set His name? Like Lot out of +Sodom, like the manslayer to the city of refuge, like the unwarlike +peasants to the baron's tower, before the border thieves, have you +gone thither for shelter from all the sorrows and guilt and dangers +that are marching terrible against you? Can you take up as yours the +old grand words of exuberant trust in which the Psalmist heaps +together the names of the Lord, as if walking about the city of his +defence, and telling the towers thereof, 'The Lord is my rock, and my +fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; +my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower'? If you +have, then 'because you have made the Lord your refuge, there shall no +evil befall you.' + +III. So we have, lastly, what comes of sheltering in these two +refuges. + +As to the former of them, I said at the beginning of these remarks +that the words 'is safe' were more accurately as well as picturesquely +rendered by 'is set aloft.' They remind us of the psalm which has many +points of resemblance with this text, and which gives the very same +thought when it says, 'I will set him on high, because he hath known +My name.' The fugitive is taken within the safe walls of the strong +tower, and is set up high on the battlements, looking down upon the +baffled pursuers, and far beyond the reach of their arrows. To stand +upon that tower lifts a man above the region where temptations fly, +above the region where sorrow strikes; lifts him above sin and guilt +and condemnation and fear, and calumny and slander, and sickness, and +separation and loneliness and death; 'and all the ills that flesh is +heir to.' + +Or, as one of the old Puritan commentators has it: 'The tower is so +deep that no pioneer can undermine it, so thick that no cannon can +breach it, so high that no ladder can scale it.' 'The righteous +runneth into it,' and is perched up there; and can look down like Lear +from his cliff, and all the troubles that afflict the lower levels +shall 'show scarce so gross as beetles' from the height where he +stands, safe and high, hidden in the name of the Lord. + +I say little about the other side. Brethren! the world in any of its +forms, the good things of this life in any shape, whether that of +money or any other, can do a great deal for us. They can keep a great +many inconveniences from us, they can keep a great many cares and +pains and sorrows from us. I was going to say, to carry out the +metaphor, they can keep the rifle-bullets from us. But, ah! when the +big siege-guns get into position and begin to play; when the great +trials that every life must have, sooner or later, come to open fire +at us, then the defence that anything in this outer world can give +comes rattling about our ears very quickly. It is like the pasteboard +helmet which looked as good as if it had been steel, and did admirably +as long as no sword struck it. + +There is only one thing that will keep us peaceful and unharmed, and +that is to trust our poor shelterless lives and sinful souls to the +Saviour who has died for us. In Him we find the hiding-place, in which +secure, as beneath the shadow of a great rock, dreaded evils will pass +us by, as impotent to hurt as savages before a castle fortified by +modern skill. All the bitterness of outward calamities will be taken +from them before they reach us. Their arrows will still wound, but He +will have wiped the poison off before He lets them be shot at us. The +force of temptation will be weakened, for if we live near Him we shall +have other tastes and desires. The bony fingers of the skeleton Death, +who drags men from all other homes, will not dislodge us from our +fortress-dwelling. Hid in Him we shall neither fear going down to the +grave, nor coming up from it, nor judgment, nor eternity. Then, I +beseech you, make no delay. Escape! flee for your life! A growing host +of evil marches swift against you. Take Christ for your defence and +cry to Him, + + 'Lo! from sin and grief and shame, + Hide me, Jesus! in Thy name.' + + + +A STRING OF PEARLS + +'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived +thereby is not wise. 2. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a +lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. 3. It +is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be +meddling. 4. The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold; +therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5. Counsel in the +heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw +it out. 6. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a +faithful man who can find? 7. The just man walketh in his integrity: +his children are blessed after him.'--PROVERBS xx. 1-7. + + +The connection between the verses of this passage is only in their +common purpose to set forth some details of a righteous life, and to +brand the opposite vices. A slight affinity may be doubtfully traced +in one or two adjacent proverbs, but that is all. + +First comes temperance, enforced by the picture of a drunkard. Wine +and strong drink are, as it were, personified, and their effects on +men are painted as their own characters. And an ugly picture it is, +which should hang in the gallery of every young man and woman. 'Wine +is a mocker.' Intemperance delights in scoffing at all pure, lofty, +sacred things. It is the ally of wild profanity, which sends up its +tipsy and clumsy ridicule against Heaven itself. If a man wants to +lose his sense of reverence, his susceptibility for what is noble, let +him take to drink, and the thing is done. If he would fain keep these +fresh and quick, let him eschew what is sure to deaden them. Of course +there are other roads to the same end, but there is no other end to +this road. Nobody ever knew a drunkard who did not scoff at things +that should be reverenced, and that because he knew that he was acting +in defiance of them. + +'A brawler,' or, as Delitzsch renders it, 'boisterous'--look into a +liquor-store if you want to verify that, or listen to a drunken party +coming back from an excursion and making night hideous with their +bellowings, or go to any police court on a Monday morning. We in +England are familiar with the combination on police charge-sheets, +'drunk and disorderly.' So does the old proverb-maker seem to have +been. Drink takes off the brake, and every impulse has its own way, +and makes as much noise as it can. + +The word rendered in Authorised Version 'is deceived,' and in Revised +Version 'erreth,' is literally 'staggers' or 'reels,' and it is more +graphic to keep that meaning. There is a world of quiet irony in the +unexpectedly gentle close of the sentence, 'is not wise.' How much +stronger the assertion might have been! Look at the drunkard as he +staggers along, scoffing at everything purer and higher than himself, +and ready to fight with his own shadow, and incapable of self-control. +He has made himself the ugly spectacle you see. Will anybody call +_him_ wise? + +The next proverb applies directly to a state of things which most +nations have outgrown. Kings who can give full scope to their anger, +and who inspire mainly terror, are anomalies in civilised countries +now. The proverb warns that it is no trifle to rouse the lion from his +lair, and that when he begins to growl there is danger. The man who +stirs him 'forfeits his own life,' or, at all events, imperils it. + +The word rendered 'sins' has for its original meaning 'misses,' and +seems to be so used here, as also in Proverbs viii. 36. 'Against' is a +supplement. The maxim inculcates the wisdom of avoiding conduct which +might rouse an anger so sure to destroy its object. And that is a good +maxim for ordinary times in all lands, monarchies or republics. For +there is in constitutional kingdoms and in republics an uncrowned +monarch, to the full as irresponsible, as easily provoked, and as +relentless in hunting its opponents to destruction, as any old-world +tyrant. Its name is Public Opinion. It is not well to provoke it. If a +man does, let him well understand that he takes his life, or what is +sometimes dearer than life, in his hand. Not only self-preservation, +which the proverb and Scripture recognise as a legitimate motive, but +higher considerations, dictate compliance with the ruling forces of +our times, as far as may be. Conscience only has the right to limit +this precept, and to say, 'Let the brute roar, and never mind if you +_do_ forfeit your life. It is your duty to say "No," though all +the world should be saying "Yes."' + +A slight thread of connection may be established between the second +and third proverbs. The latter, like the former, commends peacefulness +and condemns pugnacity. Men talk of 'glory' as the warrior's meed, and +the so-called Christian world has not got beyond the semi-barbarous +stage which regards 'honour' as mainly secured by fighting. But this +ancient proverb-maker had learned a better conception of what 'honour' +or 'glory' was, and where it grew. + + 'Peace hath her victories + No less renowned than war,' + +said Milton. But our proverb goes farther than 'no less,' and gives +_greater_ glory to the man who never takes up arms, or who lays +them down. The saying is true, not only about warfare, but in all +regions of life. Fighting is generally wasted time. Controversialists +of all sorts, porcupine-like people, who go through the world all +sharp quills sticking out to pierce, are less to be admired than +peace-loving souls. Any fool can 'show his teeth,' as the word for +'quarrelling' means. But it takes a wise man, and a man whose spirit +has been made meek by dwelling near God in Christ, to withhold the +angry word, the quick retort. It is generally best to let the glove +flung down lie where it is. There are better things to do than to +squabble. + +Verse 4 is a parable as well as a proverb. If a man sits by the +fireside because the north wind is blowing, when he ought to be out in +the field holding the plough with frost-nipped fingers, he will beg +(or, perhaps, _seek for a crop_) in harvest, and will find +nothing, when others are rejoicing in the slow result of winter +showers and of their toilsome hours. So, in all life, if the fitting +moments for preparation are neglected, late repentance avails nothing. +The student who dawdles when he should be working, will be sure to +fail when the examination comes on. It is useless to begin ploughing +when your neighbours are driving their reaping machines into the +fields. 'There is a time to sow, and a time to reap.' The law is +inexorable for this life, and not less certainly so for the life to +come. The virgins who cried in vain, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' and +were answered, 'Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now!' are sisters +of the man who was hindered from ploughing because it was cold, and +asked in vain for bread when harvest time had come. 'To-day, if ye +will to hear His voice, harden not your hearts.' + +The next proverb is a piece of shrewd common sense. It sets before us +two men, one reticent, and the other skilful in worming out designs +which he wishes to penetrate. The former is like a deep draw-well; the +latter is like a man who lets down a bucket into it, and winds it up +full. 'Still waters are deep.' The faculty of reading men may be +abused to bad ends, but is worth cultivating, and may be allied to +high aims, and serve to help in accomplishing these. It may aid good +men in detecting evil, in knowing how to present God's truth to hearts +that need it, in pouring comfort into closely shut spirits. Not only +astute business men or politicians need it, but all who would help +their fellows to love God and serve Him--preachers, teachers, and the +like. And there would be more happy homes if parents and children +tried to understand one another. We seldom dislike a man when we come +to know him thoroughly. We cannot help him till we do. + +The proverb in verse 6 is susceptible of different renderings in the +first clause. Delitzsch and others would translate, 'Almost every man +meets a man who is gracious to him.' The contrast will then be between +partial 'grace' or kindness, and thoroughgoing reliableness or +trustworthiness. The rendering of the Authorised and Revised Versions, +on the other hand, makes the contrast between talk and reality, +professions of goodwill and acts which come up to these. In either +case, the saying is the bitter fruit of experience. Even charity, +which 'believeth all things,' cannot but admit that soft words are +more abundant than deeds which verify them. It is no breach of the law +of love to open one's eyes to facts, and so to save oneself from +taking paper money for gold, except at a heavy discount. Perhaps the +reticence, noted in the previous proverb, led to the thought of a +loose-tongued profession of kindliness as a contrast. Neither the one +nor the other is admirable. The practical conclusion from the facts in +this proverb is double--do not take much heed of men's eulogiums on +their own benevolence; do not trumpet your own praises. Caution and +modesty are parts of Christian perfection. + +The last saying points to the hereditary goodness which sometimes, for +our comfort, we do see, as well as to the halo from a saintly parent +which often surrounds his children. Note that there may be more than +mere succession in time conveyed by the expression 'after him.' It may +mean following in his footsteps. Such children are blessed, both in +men's benedictions and in their own peaceful hearts. Weighty +responsibilities lie upon the children of parents who have transmitted +to them a revered name. A Christian's children are doubly bound to +continue the parental tradition, and are doubly criminal if they +depart from it. There is no sadder sight than that of a godly father +wailing over an ungodly son, unless it be that of the ungodly son who +makes him wail. Absalom hanging by his curls in the oak-tree, and +David groaning, 'My son, my son!' touch all hearts. Alas that the +tragedy should be so often repeated in our homes to-day! + + + +THE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST + +'The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he +beg in harvest, and have nothing.'--PROVERBS xx. 4. + + +Like all the sayings of this book, this is simply a piece of plain, +practical common sense, intended to inculcate the lesson that men +should diligently seize the opportunity whilst it is theirs. The +sluggard is one of the pet aversions of the Book of Proverbs, which, +unlike most other manuals of Eastern wisdom, has a profound reverence +for honest work. + +He is a great drone, for he prefers the chimney-corner to the field, +even although it cannot have been very cold if the weather was open +enough to admit of ploughing. And he is a great fool, too, for he buys +his comfort at a very dear price, as do all men who live for to-day, +and let to-morrow look out for itself. + +But like most of the other sayings of this book, my text contains +principles which are true in the highest regions of human life, for +the laws which rule up there are not different from those which +regulate the motions of its lower phases. Religion recognises the same +practical common-sense principles that daily business does. I venture +to take this as my text now, in addressing young people, because they +have special need of, and special facilities for, the wisdom which it +enjoins; and because the words only want to be turned with their faces +heavenwards in order to enforce the great appeal, the only one which +it is worth my while to make, and worth your while to come here to +listen to; the appeal to each of you, 'I beseech you, by the mercies +of God, that ye yield yourselves to God' _now_. + +My object, then, will be perhaps best accomplished if I simply ask you +to look, first, at the principles involved in this quaint proverb; +and, secondly, to apply them in one or two directions. + +I. First, then, let us try to bring out the principles which are +crystallised in this picturesque saying. + +The first thought evidently is: present conduct determines future +conditions. Life is a series of epochs, each of which has its destined +work, and that being done, all is well; and that being left undone, +all is ill. + +Now, of course, in regard to many of the accidents of a man's +condition, his conduct is only one, and by no means the most powerful, +of the factors which settle them. The position which a man fills, the +tasks which he has to perform, and the whole host of things which make +up the externals of his life, depend upon far other conditions than +any that he brings to them. But yet on the whole it is true that what +a man does, and is, settles how he fares. And this is the mystical +importance and awful solemnity of the most undistinguished moments and +most trivial acts of this awful life of ours, that each of them has an +influence on all that comes after, and may deflect our whole course +into altogether different paths. It is not only the moments that we +vulgarly and blindly call great which settle our condition, but it is +the accumulation of the tiny ones; the small deeds, the unnoticed +acts, which make up so large a portion of every man's life. It is +these, after all, that are the most powerful in settling what we shall +be. There come to each of us supreme moments in our lives. Yes! and if +in all the subordinate and insignificant moments we have not been +getting ready for them, but have been nurturing dispositions and +acquiring habits, and cultivating ways of acting and thinking which +condemn us to fail beneath the requirements of the supreme moment, +then it passes us by, and we gain nothing from it. Tiny mica flakes +have built up the Matterhorn, and the minute acts of life after all, +by their multiplicity, make up life to be what it is. 'Sand is heavy,' +says this wise book of Proverbs. The aggregation of the minutest +grains, singly so light that they would not affect the most delicate +balance, weighs upon us with a weight 'heavy as frost, and deep almost +as life.' The mystic significance of the trivialities of life is that +in them we largely make destiny, and that in them we wholly make +character. + +And now, whilst this is true about all life, it is especially true +about youth. You have facilities for moulding your being which some of +us older men would give a great deal to have again for a moment, with +our present knowledge and bitter experience. The lava that has +solidified into hard rock with us is yet molten and plastic with you. +You can, I was going to say, be anything you make up your minds to; +and, within reasonable limits, the bold saying is true. 'Ask what thou +wilt and it shall be given to thee' is what nature and Providence, +almost as really as grace and Christ, say to every young man and +woman, because you are the arbiters, not wholly, indeed, of your +destiny, and are the architects, altogether, of your character, which +is more. + +And so I desire to lay upon your hearts this threadbare old truth, +because you are living in the ploughing time, and the harvest is +months ahead. Whilst it is true that every day is the child of all the +yesterdays, and the parent of all the to-morrows, it is also true that +life has its predominant colouring, varying at different epochs, and +that for you, though you are largely inheriting, even now, the results +of your past, brief as it is, still more largely is the future, the +plastic future, in your hands, to be shaped into such forms as you +will. 'The child is father of the man,' and the youth has the blessed +prerogative of standing before the mouldable to-morrow, and possessing +a nature still capable of being cast into an almost infinite variety +of form. + +But then, not only do you stand with special advantages for making +yourselves what you will, but you specially need to be reminded of the +terrible importance and significance of each moment. For this is the +very irony of human life, that we seldom awake to the sense of its +importance till it is nearly ended, and that the period when +reflection would avail the most is precisely the period when it is the +least strong and habitual. What is the use of an old man like me +thinking about what he could make of life if he had it to do over +again, as compared with the advantage of your doing it? Yet I dare say +that for once that you think thus, my contemporaries do it fifty +times. So, not to abate one jot of your buoyancy, not to cast any +shadow over joys and hopes, but to lift you to a sense of the blessed +possibilities of your position, I want to lay this principle of my +text upon your consciences, and to beseech you to try to keep it +operatively in mind--you are making yourselves, and settling your +destiny, by every day of your plastic youth. + +There is another principle as clear in my text--viz., the easy road is +generally the wrong one. The sluggard was warmer at the fireside than +he would be in the field with his plough in the north wind, and so he +stopped there. There are always obstacles in the way of noble life. It +is always easier, as flesh judges, to live ignobly than to live as +Jesus Christ would have us live. 'Endure hardness' is the commandment +to all who would be soldiers of any great cause, and would not fling +away their lives in low self-indulgence. If a man is going to be +anything worth being, or to do anything worth doing, he must start +with, and adhere to this, 'to scorn delights and live laborious days.' +And only then has he a chance of rising above the fat dull weed that +rots in Lethe's stream, and of living anything like the life that it +becomes him to live. + +Be sure of this, dear young friends, that self-denial and rigid +self-control, in its two forms, of stopping your ears to the +attractions of lower pleasures, and of cheerily encountering +difficulties, is an indispensable condition of any life which shall at +the last yield a harvest worth the gathering, and not destined to be + + 'Cast as rubbish to the void, + When God hath made the pile complete.' + +Never allow yourselves to be turned away from the plain path of duty +by any difficulties. Never allow yourselves to be guided in your +choice of a road by the consideration that the turf is smooth, and the +flowers by the side of it sweet. Remember, the sluggard would have +been warmer, with a wholesome warmth, at the ploughtail than cowering +in the chimney corner. And the things that seem to be difficulties and +hardships only need to be fronted to yield, like the east wind in its +season, good results in bracing and hardening. Fix it in your minds +that nothing worth doing is done but at the cost of difficulty and +toil. + +That is a lesson that this generation wants, even more than some that +have lived. I suppose it is one of the temptations of older men to +look askance upon the amusements of younger ones, but I cannot help +lifting up here one word of earnest appeal to the young men and women +of this congregation, and beseeching them, as they value the nobleness +of their own lives, and their power of doing any real good, to beware +of what seems to me the altogether extravagant and excessive love, and +following after, of mere amusement which characterises this day to so +large an extent. Better toil than such devotion to mere relaxation. + +The last principle here is that the season let slip is gone for ever. +Whether my text, in its second picture, intends us to think of the +sluggard when the harvest came as 'begging' from his neighbours; or +whether, as is possibly the construction of the Hebrew, it simply +means to describe him as going out into his field, and looking at it, +and asking for the harvest and seeing nothing there but weeds, the +lesson it conveys is the same--the old, old lesson, so threadbare that +I should be almost ashamed of taking up your time with it unless I +believed that you did not lay it to heart as you should. Opportunity +is bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. Life is full of +tragic _might-have-beens_. No regret, no remorse, no +self-accusation, no clear recognition that I was a fool will avail one +jot. The time for ploughing is past; you cannot stick the share into +the ground when you should be wielding the sickle. 'Too late' is the +saddest of human words. And, my brother, as the stages of our lives +roll on, unless each is filled as it passes with the discharge of the +duties, and the appropriation of the benefits which it brings, then, +to all eternity, that moment will never return, and the sluggard may +beg in harvest, that he may have the chance to plough once more, and +have none. The student that has spent the term in indolence, perhaps +dissipation, has no time to get up his subject when he is in the +examination-room, with the paper before him. And life, and nature, and +God's law, which is the Christian expression for the heathen one of +_nature_, are stern taskmasters, and demand that the duty shall +be done in its season or left undone for ever. + +II. In the second place, let me, just in a few words, carry the lamp +of these principles of my text and flash its rays upon one or two +subjects. + +Let me say a word, first, about the lowest sphere to which my text +applies. I referred at the beginning of this discourse to this proverb +as simply an inculcation of the duty of honest work, and of the +necessity of being wide awake to opportunities in our daily work. Now, +the most of you young men, and many of you young women, are destined +for ordinary trades, professions, walks in commerce; and I do not +suppose it to be beneath the dignity of the pulpit to say this: Do not +trust to any way of getting on by dodges or speculation, or favour, or +anything but downright hard work. Don't shirk difficulties, don't try +to put the weight of the work upon some colleague or other, that you +may have an easier life of it. Set your backs to your tasks, and +remember that 'in all labour there is profit'; and whether the profit +comes to you in the shape of advancement, position, promotion in your +offices, partnerships perhaps, wealth, and the like, or no, the profit +lies in the work. Honest toil is the key to pleasure. + +Then, let me apply the text in a somewhat higher direction. Carry +these principles with you in the cultivation of that important part of +yourself--your intellects. What would some of us old students give if +we had the flexibility, the power of assimilating new truth, the +retentive memories, that you young people have? Some of you, perhaps, +are students by profession; I should like all of you to make a +conscience of making the best of your brains, as God has given them to +you, a trust. 'The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold.' +The dawdler will read no books that tax his intellect, therefore shall +he beg in harvest and have nothing. Amidst all the flood of feeble, +foolish, flaccid literature with which we are afflicted at this day, I +wonder how many of you young men and women ever set yourselves to some +great book or subject that you cannot understand without effort. +Unless you do you are not faithful stewards of the supreme gift of God +to you of that great faculty which apprehends and lives upon truth. So +remember the sluggard by his fireside; and do you get out with your +plough. + +Again I say, apply these principles to a higher work still--that of +the formation of character. Nothing will come to you noble, great, +elevating, in that direction, unless it is sought, and sought with +toil. + + 'In woods, in waves, in wars, she wont to dwell, + And will be found with peril and with pain; + Before her gate high Heaven did sweat ordain, + And wakeful watches ever to abide.' + +Wisdom and truth, and all their elevating effects upon human +character, require absolutely for their acquirement effort and toil. +You have the opportunity still. As I said a moment ago--you may mould +yourselves into noble forms. But in the making of character we have to +work as a painter in fresco does, with a swift brush on the plaster +while it is wet. It sets and hardens in an hour. And men drift into +habits which become tyrannies and dominant before they know where they +are. Don't let yourselves be shaped by accident, by circumstance. +Remember that you can build yourselves up into forms of beauty by the +help of the grace of God, and that for such building there must be the +diligent labour and the wise clutching at opportunity and +understanding of the times which my text suggests. + +And, lastly, let these principles applied to religion teach us the +wisdom and necessity of beginning the Christian life at the earliest +moment. I am by no means prepared to say that the extreme tragedy of +my text can ever be wrought out in regard to the religious experience +of any man here on earth, for I believe that at any moment in his +career, however faultful and stained his past has been, and however +long and obstinate has been his continuance in evil, a man may turn +himself to Jesus Christ, and beg, and not in vain, nor ever find +'nothing' there. + +But whilst all that is quite true, I want you, dear young friends, to +lay this to heart, that if you do not yield yourselves to Jesus Christ +now, in your early days, and take Him for your Saviour, and rest your +souls upon Him, and then take Him for your Captain and Commander, for +your Pattern and Example, for your Companion and your Aim, you will +lose what you can never make up by any future course. You lose years +of blessedness, of peaceful society with Him, of illumination and +inspiration. You lose all the sweetness of the days which you spend +away from Him. And if at the end you did come to Him, you would have +one regret, deep and permanent, that you had not gone to Him before. +If you put off, as some of you are putting off, what you know you +ought to do--namely, give your hearts to Jesus Christ and become +His--think of what you are laying up for yourselves thereby. You get +much that it would be gain to lose--bitter memories, defiled +imaginations, stings of conscience, habits that it will be very hard +to break, and the sense of having wasted the best part of your lives, +and having but the fag end to bring to Him. And if you put off, as +some of you are disposed to do, think of the risk you run. It is very +unlikely that susceptibilities will remain if they are trifled with. +You remember that Felix trembled once, and sent for Paul often; but we +never hear that he trembled any more. And it is quite possible, and +quite likely, more likely than not, that you will never be as near +being a Christian again as you are now, if you turn away from the +impressions that are made upon you at this moment, and stifle the +half-formed resolution. + +But there is a more solemn thought still. This life as a whole is to +the future life as the ploughing time is to the harvest, and there are +awful words in Scripture which seem to point in the same direction in +reference to the irrevocable and irreversible issue of neglected +opportunities on earth, as this proverb does in regard to the +ploughing and harvests of this life. + +I dare not conceal what seems to me the New Testament confirmation and +deepening of the solemn words of our text, 'He shall beg in harvest +and have nothing,' by the Master's words, 'Many shall say to me in +that day, Lord! Lord I and I will say, I never knew you.' The five +virgins who rubbed their sleepy eyes and asked for oil when the master +was at hand got none, and when they besought, 'Lord! Lord! open to +us,' all the answer was, 'Too late! too late! ye cannot enter now.' +Now, while it is called day, harden not your hearts. + + + +BREAD AND GRAVEL + +'"Bread of deceit" is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall +be filled with gravel.'--PROVERBS xx. 17. + + +'Bread of deceit' is a somewhat ambiguous phrase, which may mean +either of two things, and perhaps means both. It may either mean any +good obtained by deceit, or good which deceives in its possession. In +the former signification it would appear to have reference primarily +to unjustly gotten gain, while in the latter it has a wider meaning +and applies to all the worthless treasures and lying delights of life. +The metaphor is full of homely vigour, and the contrast between the +sweet bread and the gravel that fills the mouth and breaks the teeth, +carries a solemn lesson which is perpetually insisted upon in this +book of Proverbs, and confirmed in every man's experience. + +I. The first lesson here taught is the perpetuity of the most +transient actions. + +We are tempted to think that a deed done is done with, and to grasp at +momentary pleasure, and ignore its abiding consequences. But of all +the delusions by which men are blinded to the true solemnity of life +none is more fatal than that which ignores the solemn 'afterwards' +that has to be taken into account. For, whatever issues in outward +life our actions may have, they have all a very real influence on +their doers; each of them tends to modify character, to form habits, +to drag after itself a whole trail of consequences. Each strikes +inwards and works outwards. The whole of a life may be set forth in +the pregnant figure, 'A sower went forth to sow,' and 'Whatsoever a +man soweth, that shall he also reap.' The seed may lie long dormant, +but the green shoots will appear in due time, and pass through all the +stages of 'first the blade, and then the ear, and after that the full +corn in the ear.' The sower has to become the reaper, and the reaper +has to eat of the bread made from the product of the long past sowing. +Shall _we_ have to reap a harvest of poisonous tares, or of +wholesome wheat? 'If 'twere done when 'tis done, 'twere well it were +done quickly'; but since it begins to do when 'tis done, it were often +better that it were not done at all. A momentary pause to ask +ourselves when tempted to evil, 'And what then?' would burst not a few +of the painted bubbles after which we often chase. + +Is there any reason to suppose that these permanent consequences of +our transient actions are confined in their operation to this life? +Does not such a present, which is mainly the continuous result of the +whole past, seem at least to prophesy and guarantee a similar future? +Most of us, I suppose, believe in the life continuous through and +after death retributive in a greater degree than life here. Whatever +changes may be involved in the laying aside of the 'earthly house of +this tabernacle,' it seems folly to suppose that in it we lay aside +the consequences of our past inwrought into our very selves. Surely +wisdom suggests that we try to take into view the whole scope of our +actions, and to carry our vision as far as the consequences reach. We +should all be wiser and better if we thought more of the 'afterwards,' +whether in its partial form in the present, or in its solemn +completion in the future beyond. + +II. The bitterness of what is sweet and wrong. + +There is no need to deny that 'bread of deceit is sweet to a man.' +There is a certain pleasure in a lie, and the taste of the bread +purchased by it is not embittered because it has been bought by +deceit. If we succeed in getting the good which any strong desire +hungers after, the gratification of the desire ministers pleasure. If +a man is hungry, it matters not to his hunger how he has procured the +bread which he devours. And so with all forms of good which appeal to +sense. The sweetness of the thing desired and obtained is more subtle, +but not less real, if it nourishes some inclination or taste of a +higher nature. But such sweetness in its very essence is momentary, +and even, whilst being masticated, 'bread of deceit' turns into +gravel; and a mouthful of it breaks the teeth, excoriates the gums, +interferes with breathing, and ministers no nourishment. The metaphor +has but too familiar illustrations in the experience of us all. How +often have we flattered ourselves with the thought, 'If I could but +get this or that, how happy I should be'? How often when we got it +have we been as happy as we expected? We had forgotten the voice of +conscience, which may be overborne for a moment, but begins to speak +more threateningly when its prohibitions have been neglected; we had +forgotten that there is no satisfying our hungry desires with 'bread +of deceit,' but that they grow much faster than it can be presented to +them; we had forgotten the evil that was strengthened in us when it +has been fed; we had forgotten that the remembrance of past delights +often becomes a present sorrow and shame; we had forgotten avenging +consequences of many sorts which follow surely in the train of sweet +satisfactions which are wrong. + +So, even in this life nothing keeps its sweetness which is wrong, and +nothing which is sweet and wrong avoids a _tang_ of intensest +bitterness 'afterwards.' And all that bitterness will be increased in +another world, if there is another, when God gives us to read the book +of our lives which we ourselves have written. Many a page that records +past sweetness will then be felt to be written, 'within and without,' +with lamentation and woe. + +All bitterness of what is sweet and wrong makes it certain that sin is +the stupidest, as well as the wickedest, thing that a man can do. + +III. The abiding sweetness of true bread. + +In a subordinate sense, the true bread may be taken as meaning our own +deeds inspired by love of God and approved by conscience. They may +often be painful to do, but the pain merges into calm pleasure, and +conscience whispers a foretaste of heaven's 'Well done! good and +faithful servant.' The roll may be bitter to the lips, but, eaten, +becomes sweet as honey; whereas the world's bread is sweet at first +but bitter at last. The highest wisdom and the most exacting +conscience absolutely coincide in that which they prescribe, and +Scripture has the warrant of universal experience in proclaiming that +sin in its subtler and more refined forms, as well as in its grosser, +is a gigantic mistake, and the true wisdom and reasonable regard for +one's own interest alike point in the same direction,--to a life based +on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as being the life which +yields the happiest results today and perpetual bliss hereafter. But +let us not forget that in the highest sense Christ Himself is the +'true bread that cometh down from heaven.' He may be bitter at first, +being eaten with tears of penitence and painful efforts at conquering +sin, but even in the first bitterness there is sweetness beyond all +the earth can give. He 'spreads a table before us in the presence of +our enemies,' and the bread which He gives tastes as the manna of old +did, like wafers made of honey. Only perverted appetites loathe this +light bread and prefer the strong-favoured leeks and garlics of Egypt. +They who sit at the table in the wilderness will finally sit at the +table prepared in the kingdom of the heavens. + + + +A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE + +'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. +16. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17. +Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord +all the day long. 18. For surely there is an end; and thine +expectation shall not be cut off. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, +and guide thine heart in the way. 20. Be not among winebibbers; among +riotous eaters of flesh: 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall +come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22. +Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother +when she is old. 23. Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and +instruction, and understanding.'--PROVERBS xxiii. 15-23. + + +The precepts of this passage may be said to sum up the teaching of the +whole Book of Proverbs. The essentials of moral character are +substantially the same in all ages, and these ancient advices fit very +close to the young lives of this generation. The gospel has, no doubt, +raised the standard of morals, and, in many respects, altered the +conception and perspective of virtues; but its great distinction lies, +not so much in the novelty of its commandments as in the new motives +and powers to obey them. Reverence for parents and teachers, the +habitual 'fear of the Lord,' temperance, eager efforts to win and +retain 'the truth,' have always been recognised as duties; but there +is a long weary distance between recognition and practice, and he who +draws inspiration from Jesus Christ will have strength to traverse it, +and to do and be what he knows that he should. + +The passage may be broken up into four parts, which, taken together, +are a young life's directory of conduct which is certain to lead to +peace. + +I. There is, first, an appeal to filial affection, and an unveiling of +paternal sympathy (verses 15, 16). The paternal tone characteristic of +the Book of Proverbs is most probably regarded as that of a teacher +addressing his disciples as his children. But the glimpse of the +teacher's heart here given may well apply to parents too, and ought to +be true of all who can influence other and especially young hearts. +Little power attends advices which are not sweetened by manifest love. +Many a son has been kept back from evil by thinking, 'What would my +mother say?' and many a sound admonition has been nothing but sound, +because the tone of it betrayed that the giver did not much care +whether it was taken or not. + +A true teacher must have his heart engaged in his lessons, and must +impress his scholars with the conviction that their failure drives a +knife into it, and their acceptance of them brings him purest joy. On +the other hand, the disciple, and still more the child, must have a +singularly cold nature who does not respond to loving solicitude and +does not care whether he wounds or gladdens the heart which pours out +its love and solicitude over him. May we not see shining through this +loving appeal a truth in reference to the heart of the great Father +and Teacher, who, in the depths of His divine blessedness, has no +greater joy than that His children should walk in the truth? God's +heart is glad when man's is wise. + +Note, also, the wide general expression for goodness--a wise heart, +lips speaking right things. The former is source, the latter stream. +Only a pure fountain will send forth sweet waters. 'If thy heart +become wise' is the more correct rendering, implying that there is no +inborn wisdom, but that it must be made ours by effort. We _are_ +foolish; we _become_ wise. + +What the writer means by wisdom he will tell us presently. Here he +lets us see that it is a good to be attained by appropriate means. It +is the foundation of 'right' speech. Nothing is more remarkable than +the solemn importance which Scripture attaches to words, even more, we +might almost say than to deeds, therein reversing the usual estimate +of their relative value. Putting aside the cases of insincerity, +falsehood, and the like, a man's speech is a truer transcript of +himself than his deeds, because less hindered and limited by +externals. The most precious wine drips from the grapes by their own +weight in the vat, without a turn of the screw. 'By thy words thou +shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.' 'God's +great gift of speech abused' is one of the commonest, least +considered, and most deadly sins. + +II. We have next the one broad precept with its sure reward, which +underlies all goodness (verses 17, 18). The supplement 'be thou,' in +the second clause of verse 17, obscures the close connection of +clauses. It is better to regard the verb of the first clause as +continued in the second. Thus the one precept is set forth negatively +and positively: 'Strive not after [that is, seek not to imitate or be +associated with] sinners, but after the fear of the Lord.' The heart +so striving becomes wise. So, then, wisdom is not the result of +cultivating the intellect, but of educating the desires and +aspirations. It is moral and religious, rather than simply +intellectual. The magnificent personification of Wisdom at the +beginning of the book influences the subsequent parts, and the key to +understanding that great conception is, 'The fear of the Lord is the +beginning of Wisdom.' The Greek goddess of Wisdom, noble as she is, is +of the earth earthy when contrasted with that sovereign figure. Pallas +Athene, with her clear eyes and shining armour, is poor beside the +Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, who dwelt with God 'or ever the earth +was,' and comes to men with loving voice and hands laden with the +gifts of 'durable riches and righteousness.' + +He is the wise man who fears God with the fear which has no torment +and is compact of love and reverence. He is on the way to become wise +whose seeking heart turns away from evil and evil men, and feels after +God, as the vine tendrils after a stay, or as the sunflower turns to +the light. For such wholehearted desire after the one supreme good +there must be resolute averting of desire from 'sinners.' In this +world full of evil there will be no vigorous longing for good and God, +unless there be determined abstention from the opposite. We have but a +limited quantity of energy, and if it is frittered away on +multifarious creatures, none will be left to consecrate to God. There +are lakes which discharge their waters at both ends, sending one +stream east to the Atlantic and one west to the Pacific; but the heart +cannot direct its issues of life in that fashion. They must be banked +up if they are to run deep and strong. 'All the current of my being' +must 'set to thee' if my tiny trickle is to reach the great ocean, to +be lost in which is blessedness. + +And such energy of desire and direction is not to be occasional, but +'all the day long.' It is possible to make life an unbroken seeking +after and communion with God, even while plunged in common tasks and +small cares. It is possible to approximate indefinitely to that ideal +of continually 'dwelling in the house of the Lord'; and without some +such approximation there will be little realising of the Lord, sought +by fits and starts, and then forgotten in the hurry of business or +pleasure. A photographic plate exposed for hours will receive the +picture of far-off stars which would never show on one exposed for a +few minutes. + +The writer is sure that such desires will be satisfied, and in verse +18 says so. The 'reward' (Rev. Ver.) of which he is sure is the +outcome of the life of such seekers after God. It does not necessarily +refer to the future after death, though that may be included in it. +But what is meant is that no seeking after the fear of the Lord shall +be in vain. There is a tacit emphasis on 'thy,' contrasting the sure +fulfilment of hopes set on God with the as sure 'cutting of' of those +mistakenly fixed upon creatures and vanities. Psalm xxxvii. 38, has +the same word here rendered 'reward' and declares that 'the future [or +reward] of the wicked shall be cut off.' The great fulfilment of this +assurance is reserved for the life beyond; but even here among all +disappointments and hopes of which fulfilment is so often +disappointment also, it remains true that the one striving which +cannot be fruitless is striving for more of God, and the one hope +which is sure to be realised, and is better when realised than +expected, is the hope set on Him. Surely, then, the certainty that if +we delight ourselves in God He will give us the desires of our hearts, +is a good argument, and should be with us an operative motive for +directing desire and effort away from earth and towards Him. + +III. Special precepts as to the control of the animal nature follow in +verses 19-21. First, note that general one of verse 19, 'Guide thine +heart in the way.' In most general terms, the necessity of +self-government is laid down. There is a 'way' in which we should be +content to travel. It is a definite path, and feet have to be kept +from straying aside to wide wastes on either hand. Limitation, the +firm suppression of appetites, the coercing of these if they seek to +draw aside, are implied in the very conception of 'the way.' And a man +must take the upper hand of himself, and, after all other guidance, +must be his own guide; for God guides us by enabling us to guide +ourselves. + +Temperance in the wider sense of the word is prominent among the +virtues flowing from fear of the Lord, and is the most elementary +instance of 'guiding the heart.' Other forms of self-restraint in +regard to animal appetites are spoken of in the context, but here the +two of drunkenness and gluttony are bracketed together. They are +similarly coupled in Deuteronomy xxi. 20, in the formula of accusation +which parents are to bring against a degenerate son. Allusion to that +passage is probable here, especially as the other crime mentioned in +it--namely, refusal to 'hear' parental reproof--is warned against in +verse 22. The picture, then, here is that of a prodigal son, and we +have echoes of it in the great parable which paints first riotous +living, and then poverty and misery. + +Drunkenness had obviously not reached the dimensions of a national +curse in the date when this lesson was written. We should not put +over-eating side by side with it. But its ruinous consequences were +plain then, and the bitter experience of England and America repeats +on a larger scale the old lesson that the most productive source of +poverty, wretchedness, rags, and vice, is drink. Judges and social +reformers of all sorts concur in that now, though it has taken fifty +years to hammer it into the public conscience. Perhaps in another +fifty or so society may have succeeded in drawing the not very obscure +inference that total abstinence and prohibition are wise. At any rate, +they who seek after the fear of the Lord should draw it, and act on +it. + +IV. The last part is in verses 22 and 23. The appeal to filial duty +cannot here refer to disciple and teacher, but to child and parents. +It does not stand as an isolated precept, but as underscoring the +important one which follows. But a word must be spared for it. The +habits of ancient days gave a place to the father and mother which +modern family life woefully lacks, and suffers in many ways for want +of. Many a parent in these days of slack control and precocious +independence might say, 'If I be a father, where is mine honour?' +There was perhaps not enough of confidence between parent and child in +former days, and authority on the one hand and submission on the other +too much took the place of love; but nowadays the danger is all the +other way--and it is a very real danger. + +But the main point here is the earnest exhortation of verse 23, which, +like that to the fear of the Lord, sums up all duty in one. The +'truth' is, like 'wisdom,' moral and religious, and not merely +intellectual. 'Wisdom' is subjective, the quality or characteristic of +the devout soul; 'truth' is objective, and may also be defined as the +declared will of God. The possession of truth is wisdom. 'The entrance +of Thy words giveth light.' It makes wise the simple. There is, then, +such a thing as 'the truth' accessible to us. We can know it, and are +not to be for ever groping amid more or less likely guesses, but may +rest in the certitude that we have hold of foundation facts. For us, +the truth is incarnate in Jesus, as He has solemnly asserted. That +truth we shall, if we are wise, 'buy,' by shunning no effort, +sacrifice, or trouble needed to secure it. + +In the lower meanings of the word, our passage should fire us all, and +especially the young, to strain every muscle of the soul in order to +make truth for the intellect our own. The exhortation is needed in +this day of adoration of money and material good. Nobler and wiser far +the young man who lays himself out to know than he who is engrossed +with the hungry desire to have! But in the highest region of truth, +the buying is 'without money and without price,' and all that we can +give in exchange is ourselves. We buy the truth when we know that we +cannot earn it, and forsaking self-trust and self-pleasing, consent to +receive it as a free gift. 'Sell it not,'--let no material good or +advantage, no ease, slothfulness, or worldly success, tempt you to +cast it away; for its 'fruit is better than gold,' and its 'revenue +than choice silver.' We shall make a bad bargain if we sell it for +anything beneath the stars; for 'wisdom is better than rubies,' and he +has been cheated in the transaction who has given up 'the truth' and +got instead 'the whole world.' + + + +THE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE + +'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely +there is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off.'--PROVERBS +xxiii. 17, 18. + + +The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, +but now and then the mists lift and a wider horizon is disclosed. Our +text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not +only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a +very striking way. 'Surely there is an end,' says our Authorised +Version, substituting in the margin, for end, 'reward.' The latter +word is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither 'end' +nor 'reward' conveys the precise idea. The word so translated +literally means 'something that comes after.' So it is the very +opposite of 'end', it is really that which lies beyond the end--the +'sequel,' or the 'future'--as the margin of the Revised Version gives +alternatively, or, more simply still, the afterwards. Surely there is +an afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify +one aspect of that afterwards: 'Thine expectation'--or, better, +because more simply, thy hope--shall not be cut off. And then, upon +these two convictions that there is, if I might so say, an afterclap, +and that it is the time and the sphere in which the fairest hopes that +a man can paint to himself shall be surpassed by the reality, it +builds the plain partial exhortation: 'Be thou in the fear of the Lord +all the day long.' + +So then, we have three things here, the certainty of the afterwards, +the immortality of hope consequent thereon, and the bearing of these +facts on the present. + +I. The certainty of the hereafter. + +Now, this Book of Proverbs, as I have said in the great collection of +popular sayings which makes the bulk of it, has no enthusiasm, no +poetry, no mysticism. It has religion, and it has a very pure and +lofty morality, but, for the most part, it deals with maxims of +worldly prudence, and sometimes with cynical ones, and represents, on +the whole, the wisdom of the market-place, and the 'man in the +street.' But now and then, as I have said, we hear strains of a higher +mood. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to +point only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it +would be teaching us simply the very much needed lessons that even in +this life, 'Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' But it +seems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other +places in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life +beyond the grave. I need not trouble you with quoting parallel +passages which are sown thinly up and down the book, but I venture to +take the words in the wider sense to which I have referred. + +Now, the question comes to be, where did the coiners of Proverbs, +whose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential +morality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty +experience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third +Psalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard +to a future life, where the Psalmist finds himself so completely +blessed and well in present fellowship with God, that he must needs +postulate its eternal continuance, and just because he has made God +the portion of his heart, and is holding fellowship with Him, is sure +that nothing can intervene to break that sweet communion. They did not +get it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the +resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has made that future life far more +than an inference for us, but they got it from thinking over the facts +of this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from the +standpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they +represent to us the impression that is made upon a man's mind, if he +has the 'eye that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality,' that is made +by the facts of this earthly life--viz. that it is so full of +onward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and +yet wonderfully and hopefully. Incomplete and fragmentary in itself, +that there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to +vindicate, the life that now is. And that aspect of fragmentary +incompleteness is what I would insist upon for a moment now. + +You sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of them has, in its +outer gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for +chimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that +external wall says that the row is half built, and there are some more +tenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live +here, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it, +too, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the +bookseller's catalogue, a book put down 'volume one; all that is +published.' That is our present life--volume one, all that is +published. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. Volume +two is due, and will come, and it will be the continuation of volume +one. + +What is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face +of the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find +in our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the +fact that, whilst 'foxes have holes' where they curl themselves up, +and they are at rest, 'and the birds of the air have roosting-places,' +where they tuck their heads beneath their wings and sleep, the 'son of +man' hath not where to lay his head, but looks round upon the earth +and says, 'The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy. I am a stranger on +the earth.' What is the meaning of it? Here is the meaning of it: +'Surely there is a hereafter.' + +What is the meaning of the fact that lodged in men's natures there +lies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not +as though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through +Eternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath +the stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this: +Surely there is a hereafter. The man that wrote the book of +Ecclesiastes, in his sceptical moment ere he had attained to his last +conclusion, says, in a verse that is mistranslated in our rendering, +'He hath set Eternity in their hearts, therefore the misery of man is +great upon him.' That is true, because the root of all our unrest and +dissatisfaction is that we need God, and God in Eternity, in order +that we may be at rest. But whilst on the one hand 'therefore the +misery of man is great upon him,' on the other hand, because Eternity +is in our hearts, therefore there is the answer to the longings, the +adequate sphere for the capacities in that great future, and in the +God that fills it. You go into the quarries left by reason of some +great convulsion or disaster, by forgotten races, and you will find +there half excavated and rounded pillars still adhering to the matrix +of the rock from which they were being hewn. Such unfinished abortions +are all human lives if, when Death drops its curtain, there is an end. + +But, brethren, God does not so clumsily disproportion His creatures +and their place. God does not so cruelly put into men longings that +have no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that +there should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter. +Every human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity +for progress. Every human life, up to the very end, has been educated +and trained, and that, surely, for something. There may be masters in +workshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the +years that are needed, and then turn round and say, 'I have no work +for you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else.' That is not +how God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work +to do. Surely there is a hereafter, + +But that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not +only a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent +on the present, and the outcome of it. The analogy of our earthly life +avails here. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the +yesterdays and to-day are the parent of tomorrow. The past, our past, +has made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present +is making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of +this life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we +were. There may be much on the surface changed, there will be much +taken away, thank God! dropped, necessarily, by the cessation of the +corporeal frame, and the connection into which it brings us with +things of sense. There will be much added, God only knows how much, +but the core of the man will remain untouched. 'We all are changed by +still degrees,' and suddenly at last 'All but the basis of the evil.' +And so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and, 'what a +man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Oh that they were wise, that +they understood this, that they would consider their afterward! + +II. Now, secondly, my text suggests the immortality of hope. 'Thine +expectation'--or rather, as I said, 'thy hope'--'shall not be cut +off.' This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful +saying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, 'The +righteous hath hope in his death.' Ah! we all know how swiftly, as +years increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we +approach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the +possibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if +there is no afterwards, the dying man's hopes must necessarily die +before he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a +cave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you +may write over it Dante's grim word: 'All hope abandon, ye who enter +here.' But let in that thought, 'surely there is an afterwards,' and +the enclosed cave becomes a rock-passage, in which one can see the +arch of light at the far end of the tunnel; and as one passes through +the gloom, the eye can travel on to the pale radiance beyond, and +anticipate the ampler ether, the diviner air, 'the brighter +constellations burning, mellow moons and happy stars,' that await us +there. 'The righteous hath hope in his death.' 'Thine expectation +shall not be cut off.' + +But, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a +condition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality. +Here, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a +fulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal +larger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted +out and scaled. And I suppose that, on the whole, perhaps as much pain +as pleasure comes from the hopes which are illusions far more often +than they are realities. They serve their purpose in whirling us along +the path of life and in stimulating effort, but they do not do much +more. + +But there does come a time, if you believe that there is an +afterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible +good for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of +the reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and +we shall have to say 'the half was not told to us.' + +And, further, if that afterwards is of the sort that we, through Jesus +Christ and His resurrection and glory, know to be, then all through +the timeless eternity hope will be our guide. For after each fresh +influx of blessedness and knowledge we shall have to say 'it doth not +yet appear what we shall be.' 'Thus now abideth'--and not only now, +but then and eternally--'these three--faith, hope, and charity,' and +hope will never be cut off through all the stretch of that great +afterwards. + +III. And now, finally, notice the bearing of all this on the daily +present. + +'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.' The conviction of +the hereafter, and the blessed vision of hopes fulfilled, are not the +only reasons for that exhortation. A great deal of harm has been done, +I am afraid, by well-meaning preachers who have drawn the bulk of +their strongest arguments to persuade men to Christian faith from the +thought of a future life. Why, if there were no future, it would be +just as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to 'be in the +fear of the Lord all the day long.' But seeing that there is that +future, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet +subsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to 'be in +the fear of the Lord all the day long,' which being turned into +Christian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with, +and love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + +Surely, surely the very climax and bad eminence of folly is shutting +the eyes to that future that we all have to face; and to live here, as +some of you are doing, ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining, +and confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things +present and visible. For to live so, as our text enjoins, is the sure +way, and the only way, to make these great hopes realities for +ourselves. + +Brethren, that afterwards has two sides to it. The prophet Malachi, in +almost his last words, has a magnificent apocalypse of what he calls +'the day of the Lord,' which he sets forth as having a double aspect. +On the one hand, it is lurid as a furnace, and burns up the wicked +root and branch. I saw a forest fire this last autumn, and the great +pine-trees stood there for a moment pyramids of flame, and then came +down with a crash. So that hereafter will be to godless men. And on +the other side, that 'day of the Lord' in the prophet's vision was +radiant with the freshness and dew and beauty of morning, and the Sun +of Righteousness arose with healing in his wings. Which of the two is +it going to be to us? We have all to face it. We cannot alter that +fact, but we can settle how we shall face it. It will be to either the +fulfilment of blessed hope, the 'appearance of the glory of the great +God and our Saviour,' or else, as is said in this same Book of +Proverbs: 'The hope of the godless' shall be like one of those water +plants, the papyrus or the flag, which, when the water is taken away, +'withereth up before any other herb.' It is for us to determine +whether the afterwards that we must enter upon shall be the land in +which our hopes shall blossom and fruit, and blossom again immortally, +or whether we shall leave behind us, with all the rest that we would +fain keep, the possibility of anticipating any good. 'Surely there is +an afterwards,' and if thou wilt 'be in the fear of the Lord all the +day long,' then for evermore 'thy hope shall not be cut off.' + + + +THE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKYARD + +'Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath +babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30. +They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31. +Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour +in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32. At the last it biteth +like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33. Thine eyes shall +behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34. +Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or +as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35. They have stricken me, +shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it +not: when shall I awake! I will seek it yet again.'--PROVERBS xxiii. +29-35. + + +This vivid picture of the effects of drunkenness leaves its sinfulness +and its wider consequences out of sight, and fixes attention on the +sorry spectacle which a man makes of himself in body and mind when he +'puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains.' Disgust and +ridicule are both expressed. The writer would warn his 'son' by +impressing the ugliness and ludicrousness of drunkenness. The argument +is legitimate, though not the highest. + +The vehement questions poured out on each other's heels in verse 29 +are hot with both loathing and grim laughter. The two words rendered +'woe' and 'sorrow' are unmeaning exclamations, very like each other in +sound, and imitating the senseless noises of the drunkard. They +express discomfort as a dog might express it. They are howls rather +than words. That is one of the prerogatives won by drunkenness,--to +come down to the beasts' level, and to lose the power of articulate +speech. The quarrelsomeness which goes along with certain stages of +intoxication, and the unmeaning maudlin misery and whimpering into +which it generally passes, are next coupled together. + +Then come a pair of effects on the body. The tipsy man cannot take +care of himself, and reeling against obstacles, or falling over them, +wounds himself, and does not know where the scratches and blood came +from. 'Redness of eyes' is, perhaps, rather 'darkness,' meaning +thereby dim sight, or possibly 'black eyes,' as we say,--a frequent +accompaniment of drunkenness, and corresponding to the wounds in the +previous clause. It is a hideous picture, and one that should be +burned in on the imagination of every young man and woman. The +liquor-sodden, miserable wrecks that are found in thousands in our +great cities, of whom this is a picture, were, most of them, in +Sunday-schools in their day. The next generation of such poor +creatures are, many of them, in Sunday-schools now, and may be reading +this passage to-day. + +The answer to these questions has a touch of irony in it. The people +who win as their possessions these six precious things have to sit up +late to earn them. What a noble cause in which to sacrifice sleep, and +turn night into day! And they pride themselves on being connoisseurs +in the several vintages; they 'know a good glass of wine when they see +it.' What a noble field for investigation! What a worthy use of the +faculties of comparison and judgment! And how desirable the prizes won +by such trained taste and delicate discrimination! + +In verses 31 and 32 weighty warning and dehortation follow, based in +part on the preceding picture. The writer thinks that the only way of +sure escape from the danger is to turn away even the eyes from the +temptation. He is not contented with saying 'taste not,' but he goes +the whole length of 'look not'; and that because the very sparkle and +colour may attract. 'When it is red' might perhaps better be rendered +'when it reddens itself,' suggesting the play of colour, as if put +forth by the wine itself. The word rendered in the Authorised Version +and Revised Version 'colour' is literally 'eye,' and probably means +the beaded bubbles winking on the surface. 'Moveth itself aright' +(Authorised Version) is not so near the meaning as 'goeth down +smoothly' (Revised Version). The whole paints the attractiveness to +sense of the wine-cup in colour, effervescence, and taste. + +And then comes in, with startling abruptness, the end of all this +fascination,--a serpent's bite and a basilisk's sting. The kind of +poisonous snake meant in the last clause of verse 32 is doubtful, but +certainly is one much more formidable than an adder. The serpent's +lithe gracefulness and painted skin hide a fatal poison; and so the +attractive wine-cup is sure to ruin those who look on it. The evil +consequences are pursued in more detail in what follows. + +But here we must note two points. The advice given is to keep entirely +away from the temptation. 'Look not' is safe policy in regard of many +of the snares for young lives that abound in our modern society. It is +not at all needful to 'see life,' or to know the secrets of +wickedness, in order to be wise and good. 'Simple concerning evil' is +a happier state than to have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. +Many a young man has been ruined, body and soul, by a prurient +curiosity to know what sort of life dissipated men and women led, or +what sort of books they were against which he was warned, or what kind +of a place a theatre was, and so on. Eyes are greedy, and there is a +very quick telephone from them to the desires. 'The lust of the eye' +soon fans the 'lust of the flesh' into a glow. There are plenty of +depths of Satan gaping for young feet; and on the whole, it is safer +and happier not to know them, and so not to have defiling memories, +nor run the risk of falling into fatal sins. Whether the writer of +this stern picture of a drunkard was a total abstainer or not, the +spirit of his counsel not to 'look on the wine' is in full accord with +that practice. It is very clear that if a man is a total abstainer, he +can never be a drunkard. As much cannot be said of the moderate man. + +Note too, how in all regions of life, the ultimate results of any +conduct are the important ones. Consequences are hard to calculate, +and they do not afford a good guidance for action. But there are many +lines of conduct of which the consequences are not hard to calculate, +but absolutely certain. It is childish to take a course because of a +moment's gratification at the beginning, to be followed by protracted +discomfort afterwards. To live for present satisfaction of desires, +and to shut one's eyes tight against known and assured results of an +opposite sort, cannot be the part of a sensible man, to say nothing of +a religious one. So moralists have been preaching ever since there was +such a thing as temptation in the world; and men have assented to the +common sense of the teaching, and then have gone straight away and +done the exact opposite. + +'What shall the end be?' ought to be the question at every beginning. +If we would cultivate the habit of holding present satisfactions in +suspense, and of giving no weight to present advantages until we saw +right along the road to the end of the journey, there would be fewer +failures, and fewer weary, disenchanted old men and women, to lament +that the harvest they had to reap and feed on was so bitter. There are +other and higher reasons against any kind of fleshly indulgence than +that at the last it bites like a serpent, and with a worse poison than +serpent's sting ever darted; but that is a reason, and young hearts, +which are by their very youth blessedly unused to look forward, will +be all the happier to-day, and all the surer of to-morrow's good, if +they will learn to say, 'And afterwards--what?' + +The passage passes to a renewed description of the effects of +intoxication, in which the disgusting and the ludicrous aspects of it +are both made prominent. Verse 33 seems to describe the excited +imagination of the drunkard, whose senses are no longer under his +control, but play him tricks that make him a laughingstock to sober +people. One might almost take the verse to be a description of +delirium tremens. 'Strange things' are seen, and perverse things (that +is, unreal, or ridiculous) are stammered out. The writer has a keen +sense of the humiliation to a man of being thus the fool of his own +bewildered senses, and as keen a one of the absurd spectacle he +presents; and he warns his 'son' against coming down to such a depth +of degradation. + +It may be questioned whether the boasted quickening and brightening +effects of alcohol are not always, in a less degree, that same +beguiling of sense and exciting of imagination which, in their extreme +form, make a man such a pitiable and ridiculous sight. It is better to +be dull and see things as they are, than to be brilliant and see +things larger, brighter, or any way other than they are, because we +see them through a mist. Imagination set agoing by such stimulus, will +not work to as much purpose as if aroused by truth. God's world, seen +by sober eyes, is better than rosy dreams of it. If we need to draw +our inspiration from alcohol, we had better remain uninspired. If we +desire to know the naked truth of things, the less we have to do with +strong drink the better. Clear eyesight and self-command are in some +degree impaired by it always. The earlier stages are supposed to be +exhilaration, increased brilliancy of fancy and imagination, expanded +good-fellowship, and so on. The latter stages are these in our +passage, when strange things dance before cheated eyes, and strange +words speak themselves out of lips which their owner no longer +controls. Is that a condition to be sought after? If not, do not get +on to the road that leads to it. + +Verse 34 adds another disgusting and ridiculous trait. A man who +should try to lie down and go to sleep in the heart of the sea or on +the masthead of a ship would be a manifest fool, and would not keep +life in him for long. One has seen drunken men laying themselves down +to sleep in places as exposed and as ridiculous as these; and one +knows the look of the heavy lump of insensibility lying helpless on +public roads, or on railway tracks, or anywhere where the fancy took +him. The point of the verse seems to be the drunken man's utter loss +of sense of fitness, and complete incapacity to take care of himself. +He cannot estimate dangers. The very instinct of self-preservation has +forsaken him. There he lies, though as sure to be drowned as if he +were in the depth of the sea, though on as uncomfortable a bed as if +he were rocking on a masthead, where he could not balance himself. + +The torpor of verse 34 follows on the unnatural excitement of verse +33, as, in fact, the bursts of uncontrolled energy in which the man +sees and says strange things, are succeeded by a collapse. One moment +raging in excitement caused by imaginary sights, the next huddled +together in sleep like death,--what a sight the man is! The teacher +here would have his 'son' consider that he may come to that, if he +looks on the wine-cup. '_Thou_ shalt be' so and so. It is very +impolite, but very necessary, to press home the individual application +of pictures like this, and to bid bright young men and women look at +the wretched creatures they may see hanging about liquor shops, and +remember that they may come to be such as these. + +Verse 35 finishes the picture. The tipsy man's soliloquy puts the +copestone on his degradation. He has been beaten, and never felt it. +Apparently he is beginning to stir in his sleep, though not fully +awake; and the first thing he discovers when he begins to feel himself +over is that he has been beaten and wounded, and remembers nothing +about it. A degrading anaesthetic is drink. Better to bear all ills +than to drown them by drowning consciousness. There is no blow which a +man cannot bear better if he holds fast by God's hand and keeps +himself fully exposed to the stroke, than if he sought a cowardly +alleviation of it, softer the drunkard's fashion. + +But the pains of his beating and the discomforts of his waking do not +deter the drunkard. 'When shall I awake?' He is not fully awake yet, +so as to be able to get up and go for another drink. He is in the +stage of feeling sorry for himself, and examining his bruises, but he +wishes he were able to shake off the remaining drowsiness, that he +might 'seek yet again' for his curse. The tyranny of desire, which +wakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the +enfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields +at once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard's +life. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the +craving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether. +Doctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical +disease. Yes; but it is a disease manufactured by the patient, and he +is responsible for getting himself into such a state. + +This tragic picture proves that there were many originals of it in the +days when it was painted. Probably there are far more, in proportion +to population, in our times. The warning it peals out was never more +needed than now. Would that all preachers, parents, and children laid +it to heart and took the advice not even to 'look upon the wine'! + + +THE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE + +'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those +that are ready to be slain; 12. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it +not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that +keepeth thy soul, doth not he render to every man according to his +works?'--PROVERBS xxiv. 11, 12. + + +What is called the missionary spirit is nothing else than the +Christian church working in a particular direction. If a man has a +conviction, the health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he +has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a +duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak +what he believes. On these common grounds rests the whole obligation +of Christ's followers to speak the Gospel which they have received; +only the obligation presses on them with greater force because of the +higher worth of the word and the deeper misery of men without it. The +text contains nothing specially bearing on Christian missions, but it +deals with the fault which besets us all in our relations and in life: +and the wholesome truths which it utters apply to our duties in regard +to Christian missions because they apply to our duties in regard to +every misery within our reach. They speak of the murderous cruelty and +black sin of negligence to save any whom we can help from any sort of +misery which threatens them. They appear to me to suggest four +thoughts which I would now deal with:-- + +I. The crime of negligence. + +Not to use any power is a sin; to omit to do anything that we can do +is a crime: to withhold a help that we can render is to participate in +the authorship of all the misery that we have failed to relieve. He +who neglects to save a life, kills. There are more murderers than +those who lift violent hands with malice aforethought against a hated +life. Rulers or communities who leave people uncared for to die, who +suffer swarming millions to live where the air is poison and the light +is murky, and first the soul and then the body, are dwarfed and die; +the incompetent men in high places, and the indolent ones in low, +whose selfishness brings, and whose blundering blindness allows to +continue, the conditions that are fatal to life--on these the guilt of +blood lies. Violence slays its thousands, but supine negligence slays +its tens of thousands. + +And when we pass from these merely physical conditions to think of the +world and of the Church in the world, where shall we find words +weighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the +unthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ's +professed followers? There is nothing which the ordinary type of +Christian, so called, more needs than to be aroused to a living sense +of personal responsibility for all the unalleviated misery of the +world. For every one who has laid the sorrows of humanity on his +heart, and has felt them in any measure as his own, there are a +hundred to whom these make no appeal and give no pang. Within ear-shot +of our churches and chapels there are squalid aggregations of stunted +and festering manhood, of whom it is only too true that they are +'drawn unto death' and 'ready to be slain,' and yet it would be an +exaggeration to say that the bulk of our congregations cast even a +languid eye of compassion upon those, to say nothing of stretching out +a hand to help. It needs to be dinned, far more than it is at present, +into every professing Christian that each of us has an obligation +which cannot be ignored or shuffled off, to acquaint ourselves with +the glaring facts that force themselves upon all thoughtful men, and +that the measure of our power is the measure of our obligation. The +question, Has the church done its best to deliver these? needs to be +sharpened to the point of 'Have I done my best?' And the vision of +multitudes perishing in the slums of a great city needs to be expanded +into the vision of dim millions perishing in the wide world. + +II. The excuse of negligence. + +The shuffling plea, 'Behold we knew it not,' is a cowardly lie. It +admits the responsibility to knowledge and pretends an ignorance which +it knows to be partly a false excuse, and in so far as it is true, to +be our own fault. We are bound to know, and the most ignorant of us +does know, and cannot help knowing, enough to condemn our negligence. +How many of us have ever tried to find out how the pariahs of +civilisation live who live beside us? Our ignorance so far as it is +real is the result of a sinful indolence. And there is a sadder form +of it in an ignorance which is the result of familiarity. We all know +how custom dulls our impressions. It is well that it should be so, for +a surgeon would be fit for little if he trembled and was shaken at the +sight of the tumour he had to work to remove, as we should be; but his +familiarity with misery does not harden him, because he seeks to +remove the suffering with which he has become familiar. But that same +familiarity does harden and injure the whole nature of the onlooker +who does nothing to alleviate it. Then there is an ignorance of other +suffering which is the result of selfish absorption in one's own +concerns. The man who is caring for himself only, and whose thoughts +and feelings all flow in the direction of his own success, may see +spread before him the most poignant sorrows without feeling one throb +of brotherly compassion and without even being aware of what his eyes +see. So, in so far as the excuse 'we knew it not' is true, it is no +excuse, but an indictment. It lays bare the true reason of the +criminal negligence as being a yet more criminal callousness as to the +woe and loss in which such crowds of men whom we ought to recognise as +brethren are sunken. + +III. The condemnation of negligence. + +The great example of God is put forward in the text as the contrast to +all this selfish negligence. Note the twofold description of Him given +here, 'He that pondereth the heart,' and 'He that keepeth thy soul.' +The former of these presents to us God's sedulous watching of the +hearts of men, in contrast to our indolent and superficial looks; and +in this divine attitude we find the awful condemnation of our +disregard of our fellows. God 'takes pain,' so to speak, to see after +His children. Are they not bound to look lovingly on each other? God +seeks to know them. Are they not bound to know one another? Lofty +disregard of human suffering is not _God's_ way. Is it ours? He +'looks down from the height of His sanctuary to hear the crying of the +prisoner.' Should not we stoop from our mole-hill to see it? God has +not too many concerns on His hands to mark the obscurest sorrow and be +ready to help it. And shall we plead that we are too busy with petty +personal concerns to take interest in helping the sorrows and fighting +against the sins of the world? + +No less eloquently does the other name which is here applied to God +rebuke our negligence. 'He preserveth thy soul.' By His divine care +and communication of life, we live; and surely the soul thus preserved +is thereby bound to be a minister of preservation to all that are +'ready to be slain.' The strongest motive for seeking to save others +is that God has saved us. Thus this name for God touches closely upon +the great Christian thought, 'Christ has given Himself for me.' And in +that thought we find the true condemnation of a Christianity which has +not caught from Him the enthusiasm for self-surrender, and the passion +for saving the outcast and forlorn. If to be a Christian is to imitate +Christ, then the name has little application to those who see 'them +that are drawn to death,' and turn from them unconcerned and +unconscious of responsibility. + +IV. The judgment of negligence. + +'Doth not He render to every man according to his works?' There is +such a judgment both in the present and in the future for Christian +men as for others. And not only what they do, but what they +inconsistently fail to do, comes into the category of their works, and +influences their position. It does so in the present, for no man can +cherish such a maimed Christian life as makes such negligence possible +without robbing himself of much that would tend to his own growth in +grace and likeness to Jesus Christ. The unfaithful servant is poorer +by the pound hidden in the napkin which might all the while have been +laid out at interest with the money-changers, which would have +increased the income whilst the lord was absent. We rob ourselves of +blessed sympathies and of the still more blessed joy of service, and +of the yet more blessed joy of successful effort, by our indolence and +our negligence. Let us not forget that our works do follow us in this +life as in the life to come, and that it is here as well as hereafter, +that he that goeth forth with a full basket and scatters the precious +seed with weeping, and yet with joy, shall doubtless come again +bringing his sheaves with him. And if we stretch our view to take in +the life beyond, what gladness can match that of the man who shall +enter there with some who will be his joy and crown of rejoicing in +that day, and of whom he shall be able to say, 'Behold I and the +children whom Thou hast given me!' + +I venture earnestly to appeal to all my hearers for more faithful +discharge of this duty. I pray you to open your ears to hear, and your +eyes to see, and your hearts to feel, and last of all, your hands to +help, the miseries of the world. Solemn duties wait upon great +privileges. It is an awful trust to have Christ and His gospel +committed to our care. We get it because from One who lived no life of +luxurious ease, but felt all the woes of humanity which He redeemed, +and forbore not to deliver us from death, though at the cost of His +own. We get it for no life of silken indolence or selfish disregard of +the sorrows of our brethren. If there is one tear we could have dried +and didn't, or one wound we could have healed and didn't, that is a +sin; if we could have lightened the great heap of sorrow by one grain +and didn't, that is a sin; and if there be one soul that perishes +which we might have saved and didn't, the negligence is not merely the +omission of a duty, but the doing of a deed which will be 'rendered to +us according to our works.' + + + +THE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN + +'I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man +void of understanding; 31. And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, +and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof +was broken down.'--PROVERBS xxiv. 30, 31. + + +This picture of the sluggard's garden seems to be intended as a +parable. No doubt its direct simple meaning is full of homely wisdom +in full accord with the whole tone of the Book of Proverbs; but we +shall scarcely do justice to this saying of the wise if we do not see +in 'the ground grown over with thorns,' and 'the stone wall thereof +broken down,' an apologue of the condition of a soul whose owner has +neglected to cultivate and tend it. + +I. Note first who the slothful man is. + +The first plain meaning of the word is to be kept in view. The whole +Book of Proverbs brands laziness as the most prolific source of +poverty. Honest toil is to it the law of life. It is never weary of +reiterating 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; and it +condemns all swift modes of getting riches without labour. No doubt +the primitive simplicity of life as set forth in this book seems far +behind the many ingenuities by which in our days the law is evaded. +How much of Stock Exchange speculation and 'Company promoters' +gambling would survive the application of the homely old law? + +But it is truer in the inward life than in the outward that 'the hand +of the diligent maketh rich.' After all, the differences between men +who truly 'succeed' and the human failures, which are so frequent, are +more moral than intellectual. It has been said that genius is, after +all, 'the capacity for taking infinite pains'; and although that is an +exaggerated statement, and an incomplete analysis, there is a great +truth in it, and it is the homely virtue of hard work which tells in +the long run, and without which the most brilliant talents effect but +little. However gifted a man may be, he will be a failure if he has +not learned the great secret of dogged persistence in often unwelcomed +toil. No character worth building up is built without continuous +effort. If a man does not labour to be good, he will surely become +bad. It is an old axiom that no man attains superlative wickedness all +at once, and most certainly no man leaps to the height of the goodness +possible to his nature by one spring. He has laboriously, and step by +step, to climb the hill. Progress in moral character is secured by +long-continued walking upwards, not by a jump. + +We note that in our text 'the slothful' is paralleled by 'the man void +of understanding'; and the parallel suggests the stupidity in such a +world as this of letting ourselves develop according to whims, or +inclinations, or passions; and also teaches that 'understanding' is +meant to be rigidly and continuously brought to bear on actions as +director and restrainer. If the ship is not to be wrecked on the rocks +or to founder at sea, Wisdom's hand must hold the helm. Diligence +alone is not enough unless directed by 'understanding.' + +II. What comes of sloth. + +The description of the sluggard's garden brings into view two things, +the abundant, because unchecked, growth of profitless weeds, and the +broken down stone wall. Both of these results are but too sadly and +evidently true in regard to every life where rigid and continuous +control has not been exercised. It is a familiar experience known, +alas! to too many of us, that evil things, of which the seeds are in +us all, grow up unchecked if there be not constant supervision and +self-command. If we do not carefully cultivate our little plot of +garden ground, it will soon be overgrown by weeds. 'Ill weeds grow +apace' as the homely wisdom of common experience crystallises into a +significant proverb. And Jesus has taught the sadder truth that +'thorns spring up and choke the word and it becometh unfruitful.' In +the slothful man's soul evil will drive out good as surely as in the +struggle for existence the thorns and nettles will cover the face of +the slothful man's garden. In country places we sometimes come across +a ruined house with what was a garden round it, and here and there +still springs up a flower seeking for air and light in the midst of a +smothering mass of weeds. _They_ needed no kindly gardener's hand +to make them grow luxuriantly; can barely put out a pale petal unless +cared for and guarded. + +But not only is there this unchecked growth, but 'the stone wall +thereof was broken down.' The soul was unfenced. The solemn imperative +of duty ceases to restrain or to impel in proportion as a man yields +slothfully to the baser impulses of his nature. Nothing is hindered +from going out of, nor for coming into, an unfenced soul, and he that +'hath no rule over his own spirit,' but is like a 'city broken down +without walls,' is certain sooner or later to let much go forth from +that spirit that should have bean rigidly shut up, and to let many an +enemy come in that will capture the city. It is not yet safe to let +any of the fortifications fall into disrepair, and they can only be +kept in their massive strength by continuous vigilance. + +III. How sloth excuses itself. + +Our text is followed at the distance of one verse with what seemed to +be the words of the sluggard in answer to the attempt to awake him: +'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands +to sleep.' They are a quotation from an earlier chapter (ch. vi.) +where 'His Laziness' is sent to 'consider the ways of the ant and be +wise.' They are a drowsy petition which does not dispute the wisdom of +the call to awake, but simply craves for a little more luxurious +laziness from which he has unwillingly been aroused. And is it not +true that we admit too late the force of the summons and yet shrink +from answering it? Do we not cheat ourselves and try to deceive God +with the promise that we will set about amendment soon? This indolent +sleeper asks only for a _little_: 'A little sleep, a little +slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.' Do we not all know +that mood of mind which confesses our slothfulness and promises to be +wide awake tomorrow but would fain bargain to be left undisturbed +today? The call 'Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead!' +rings from Christ's lips in the ears of every man, and he who answers, +'I will presently, but must sleep a little longer,' may seem to +himself to have complied with the call, but has really refused it. The +'little more' generally becomes _much_ more; and the answer +'presently' alas! too often becomes the answer 'never.' When a man is +roused so as to be half awake, the only safety for him is +_immediately_ to rise and clothe himself; the head that drowsily +droops back on the pillow after he has heard the morning's call, is +likely to lie there long. Now, not 'by-and-by' is the time to shake +off the bonds of sloth to cultivate our garden. + +IV. How sloth ends. + +The sleeper's slumber is dramatically represented as being awakened by +armed robbers who bring a grim awakening. 'Poverty' and 'want' break +in on his 'folding hands to sleep.' That is true as regards the +outward life, where indulgence in literal slothfulness brings want, +and the whole drift of things executes on the sluggard the sentence +that if 'any man will not work, neither shall he eat.' + +But the picture is more sadly and fatally true concerning the man who +has made his earthly life 'a little sleep' as concerns heavenly +things, and in spite of his beseechings, is roused to life and +consciousness of himself and of God by death. That man's 'poverty' in +his lack of all that is counted as wealth in the world of realities to +which he goes will indeed come as a robber. I would press upon you all +the plain question, Is this fatal slothfulness characteristic of me? +It may co-exist with, and indeed is often the consequence of vehement +energy and continuous work to secure wealth, or wisdom, or material +good; and the contrast between a man who is all eagerness in regard to +the things that don't matter, and all carelessness in regard to the +things that do, is the tragedy of life amongst us. My friend! if +_your_ garden has been suffered by you to be overgrown with +weeds, be sure of this, that one day you will be awakened from the +slumber that you would fain continue, and will find yourself in a life +where your 'poverty' will come as a robber and your want of all which +_there_ is counted treasure 'as an armed man.' + +One word more. Christ's parable of the sower may be brought into +relationship with this parable. He sows the true seed in our hearts, +but when sown, it, too, has to be cared for and tended. If it is sown +in the sluggard's garden, it will bring forth few ears, and the tares +will choke the wheat. + + + +AN UNWALLED CITY + +'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is +broken down, and without walls.'--PROVERBS xxv. 28. + + +The text gives us a picture of a state of society when an unwalled +city is no place for men to dwell in. In the Europe of today there are +still fortified places, but for the most part, battlements are turned +into promenades; the gateways are gateless; the sweet flowers blooming +where armed feet used to tread; and men live securely without bolts +and bars. But their spirits cannot yet afford to raise their defences +and fling themselves open to all comers. + +We may see here three points: the city defenceless, or human nature as +it is; the city defended, human nature as it may be in Christ; the +city needing no defence, human nature as it will be in heaven. + +I. The city defenceless, or human nature as it is. + +Here we are in a state of warfare which calls for constant shutting +out of enemies. Temptations are everywhere; our foes compass us like +bees; evils of many sorts seduce. We can picture to ourselves some +little garrison holding a lonely outpost against lurking savages ready +to attack if ever the defenders slacken their vigilance for a moment. +And that is the truer picture of human nature as it is than the one by +which most men are deluded. Life is not a playground, but an arena of +grim, earnest fighting. No man does right in his sleep; no man does +right without a struggle. + +The need for continual vigilance and self-control comes from the very +make of our souls, for our nature is not a democracy, but a kingdom. +In us all there are passions, desires, affections, all of which may +lead to vice or to virtue: and all of which evidently call out for +direction, for cultivation, and often for repression. Then there are +peculiarities of individual character which need watching lest they +become excessive and sinful. Further, there are qualities which need +careful cultivation and stimulus to bring them into due proportion. We +each of us receive, as it were, an undeveloped self, and have +entrusted to us potential germs which come to nothing, or shoot up +with a luxuriance that stifles unless we exercise a controlling power. +Besides all this, we all carry in us tendencies which are positively, +and only, sinful. There would be no temptation if there were no such. + +But the slightest inspection of our own selves clearly points out, not +only what in us needs to be controlled, but that in us which is +_meant_ to control. The will is regal; conscience is meant to +govern the will, and its voice is but the echo of God's law. + +But, while all this is true, it is too sadly true that the +accomplishment of this ideal is impossible in our own strength. Our +own sad experience tells us that we cannot govern ourselves; and our +observations of our brethren but too surely indicate that they too are +the prey of rebellious, anarchical powers within, and of temptations, +against the rush of which they and we are as powerless as a voyager in +a bark-canoe, caught in the fatal drift of Niagara. Conscience has a +voice, but no hands; it can speak, but if its voice fails, it cannot +hold us back. From its chair it can bid the waves breaking at our feet +roll back, as the Saxon king did, but their tossing surges are deaf. +As helpless as the mud walls of some Indian hill-fort against modern +artillery, is the defence, in one's own strength, of one's own self +against the world. We would gladly admit that the feeblest may do much +to 'keep himself unspotted from the world'; but we must, if we +recognise facts, confess that the strongest cannot do all. No man can +alone completely control his own nature; no man, unenlightened by God, +has a clear, full view of duty, nor a clear view of himself. Always +there is some unguarded place: + + 'Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!' + +but no man can so lift himself so as that self will not drag him down. +The walls are broken down and the troops of the spoilers sack the +city. + +II. The defended city, or human nature as it may be in Christ. + +If our previous remarks are true, they give us material for judging +how far the counsels of some very popular moral teachers should be +followed. It is a very old advice, 'know thyself; and it is a very +modern one that + + 'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control + Lead life to sovereign power.' + +But if these counsels are taken absolutely and without reference to +Christ and His work, they are 'counsels of despair,' demanding what we +cannot give, and promising what they cannot bestow. When we know +Christ, we shall know ourselves; when He is the self of ourselves, +then, and only then, shall we reverence and can we control the inner +man. The city of Mansoul will then be defended when 'the peace of God +keeps our hearts and minds in Jesus.' + +He who submits himself to Christ is lord of himself as none else are. +He has a light within which teaches him what is sin. He has a love +within which puts out the flame of temptation, as the sun does a coal +fire. He has a motive to resist; he has power for resistance; he has +hope in resisting. Only thus are the walls broken down rebuilded. And +as Christ builds our city on firmer foundations, He will appear in His +glory, and will 'lay the windows in agates, and all thy borders in +precious stones.' The sure way to bring our ruined earth, 'without +form and void,' into a cosmos of light and beauty, is to open our +spirit for the Spirit of God to 'brood upon the face of the waters.' +Otherwise the attempts to rule over our own spirit will surely fail; +but if we let Christ rule over our spirit, then it will rule itself. + +But let us ever remember that he who thus submits to Christ, and can +truly say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in _me_,' still +needs defence. The strife does not thereby cease; the enemies still +swarm; sin is not removed. There will be war to the end, and war for +ever; but He will 'keep our heads in the day of battle'; and though +often we may be driven from the walls, and outposts may be lost, and +gaping breaches made, yet the citadel shall be safe. If only we see to +it that '_He_ is the glory in the midst of us,' He will be 'a +wall of fire round about us.' Our nature as it may be in Christ is a +walled city as needing defence, and as possessing the defence which it +needs. + +III. The city defenceless, and needing no defence; that is, human +nature as it will be hereafter. + +'The gates shall not be shut day nor night,' for 'every thing that +defileth' is without. We know but little of that future, what we know +will, surely, be theirs who here have been 'guarded by the power of +God, through faith, unto salvation.' That salvation will bring with it +the end for the need of guardianship; though it leaves untouched the +blessed dependence, we shall stand secure when it is impossible to +fall. And that impossibility will be realised, partly, as we know, +from change in surroundings, partly from the dropping away of flesh, +partly from the entire harmony of our souls with the will of God. Our +ignorance of that future is great, but our knowledge of it is greater, +and our certainty of it is greatest of all. + +This is what we may become. Dear friends! toil no longer at the +endless, hopeless task of ruling those turbulent souls of yours; you +can never rebuild the walls already fallen. Give up toiling to attain +calmness, peace, self-command. Let Christ do all for you, and let Him +in to dwell in you and be all to you. Builded on the true Rock, we +shall stand stately and safe amid the din of war. He will watch over +us and dwell in us, and we shall be as 'a city set on a hill,' +impregnable, a virgin city. So may it be with each of us while strife +shall last, and hereafter we may quietly hope to be as a city without +walls, and needing none; for they that hated us shall be far away, for +between us and them is 'a great gulf fixed,' so that they cannot cross +it to disturb us any more; and we shall dwell in the city of God, of +which the name is Salem, the city of peace, whose King is Himself, its +Defender and its Rock, its Fortress and its high Tower. + + + +THE WEIGHT OF SAND + +'The sand is weighty.'--PROVERBS, xxvii. 3. + + +This Book of Proverbs has a very wholesome horror of the character +which it calls 'a fool'; meaning thereby, not so much intellectual +feebleness as moral and religious obliquity, which are the stupidest +things that a man can be guilty of. My text comes from a very +picturesque and vivid description, by way of comparison, of the fatal +effects of such a man's passion. The proverb-maker compares two heavy +things, stones and sand, and says that they are feathers in comparison +with the immense lead-like weight of such a man's wrath. + +Now I have nothing more to do with the immediate application of my +text. I want to make a parable out of it. What is lighter than a grain +of sand? What is heavier than a bagful of it? As the grains fall one +by one, how easily they can be blown away! Let them gather, and they +bury temples, and crush the solid masonry of pyramids. 'Sand is +weighty.' The accumulation of light things is overwhelmingly +ponderous. Are there any such things in our lives? If there are, what +ought we to do? So you get the point of view from which I want to look +at the words of our text. + +I. The first suggestion that I make is that they remind us of the +supreme importance of trifles. + +If trivial acts are unimportant, what signifies the life of man? For +ninety-nine and a half per cent. of every man's life is made up of +these light nothings; and unless there is potential greatness in them, +and they are of importance, then life is all 'a tale told by an idiot, +full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Small things make life; +and if are small, then _it_ is so too. + +But remember, too, that the supreme importance of so-called trivial +actions is seen in this, that there may be every bit as much of the +noblest things that belong to humanity condensed in, and brought to +bear upon, the veriest trifle that a man can do, as on the greatest +things that he can perform. We are very poor judges of what is great +and what is little. We have a very vulgar estimate that noise and +notoriety and the securing of, not _great_ but 'big,' results of +a material kind make the deeds by which they are secured, great ones. +And we think that it is the quiet things, those that do not tell +outside at all, that are the small ones. + +Well! here is a picture for you. Half-a-dozen shabby, travel-stained +Jews, sitting by a river-side upon the grass, talking to a handful of +women outside the gates of a great city. Years before that, there had +been what the world calls a great event, almost on the same ground--a +sanguinary fight, that had settled the emperorship of the then +civilised world, for a time. I want to know whether the first +preaching of the Gospel in Europe by the Apostle Paul, or the battle +of Philippi, was the great event, and which of the two was the little +one. I vote for the Jews on the grass, and let all the noise of the +fight, though it reverberated through the world for a bit, die away, +as 'a little dust that rises up, and is lightly laid again.' Not the +noisy events are the great ones; and as much true greatness may be +manifested in a poor woman stitching in her garret as in some of the +things that have rung through the world and excited all manner of +vulgar applause. Trifles may be, and often are, the great things in +life. + +And then remember, too, how the most trivial actions have a strange +knack of all at once leading on to large results, beyond what could +have been expected. A man shifts his seat in a railway carriage, from +some passing whim, and five minutes afterwards there comes a +collision, and the bench where he had been sitting is splintered up, +and the place where he is sitting is untouched, and the accidental +move has saved his life. According to the old story a boy, failing in +applying for a situation, stoops down in the courtyard and picks up a +pin, and the millionaire sees him through the window, and it makes his +fortune. We cannot tell what may come of anything; and since we do not +know the far end of our deeds, let us be quite sure that we have got +the near end of them right. Whatever may be the issue, let us look +after the motive, and then all will be right. Small seeds grow to be +great trees, and in this strange and inexplicable network of things +which men call circumstances, and Christians call Providence, the only +thing certain is that 'great' and 'small' all but cease to be a +tenable, and certainly altogether cease to be an important +distinction. + +Then another thing which I would have you remember is, that it is +these trivial actions which, in their accumulated force, make +character. Men are not made by crises. The crises reveal what we have +made ourselves by the trifles. The way in which we do the little +things forms the character according to which we shall act when the +great things come. If the crew of a man-of-war were not exercised at +boat and fire drill during many a calm day, when all was safe, what +would become of them when tempests were raging, or flames breaking +through the bulk-heads? It is no time to learn drill then. And we must +make our characters by the way in which, day out and day in, we do +little things, and find in them fields for the great virtues which +will enable us to front the crises of our fate unblenching, and to +master whatsoever difficulties come in our path. Geologists nowadays +distrust, for the most part, theories which have to invoke great +forces in order to mould the face of a country. They tell us that the +valley, with its deep sides and wide opening to the sky, may have been +made by the slow operation of a tiny brooklet that trickles now down +at its base, and by erosion of the atmosphere. So we shape +ourselves--and that is a great thing--by the way we do small things. + +Therefore, I say to you, dear friends! think solemnly and reverently +of this awful life of ours. Clear your minds of the notion that +anything is small which offers to you the alternative of being done in +a right way or in a wrong; and recognise this as a fact--'sand is +weighty,' trifles are of supreme importance. + +II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to take this saying as suggesting +the overwhelming weight of small sins. + +That is only an application in one direction of the general principle +that I have been trying to lay down; but it is one of such great +importance that I wish to deal with it separately. And my point is +this, that the accumulated pressure upon a man of a multitude of +perfectly trivial faults and transgressions makes up a tremendous +aggregate that weighs upon him with awful ponderousness. + +Let me remind you, to begin with, that, properly speaking, the words +'great' and 'small' should not be applied in reference to things about +which 'right' or 'wrong' are the proper words to employ. Or, to put it +into plainer language, it is as absurd to talk about the 'size' of a +sin, as it is to take the superficial area of a picture as a test of +its greatness. The magnitude of a transgression does not depend on the +greatness of the act which transgresses--according to human +standards--but on the intensity with which the sinful element is +working in it. For acts make crimes, but motives make sins. If you +take a bit of prussic acid, and bruise it down, every little +microscopic fragment will have the poisonous principle in it; and it +is very irrelevant to ask whether it is as big as a mountain or small +as a grain of dust, it is poison all the same. So to talk about +magnitude in regard to sins, is rather to introduce a foreign +consideration. But still, recognising that there is a reality in the +distinction that people make between great sins and small ones, though +it is a superficial distinction, and does not go down to the bottom of +things, let us deal with it now. + +I say, then, that small sins, by reason of their numerousness, have a +terrible accumulative power. They are like the green flies on our +rose-bushes, or the microbes that our medical friends talk so much +about nowadays. Like them, their power of mischief does not in the +least degree depend on their magnitude, and like them, they have a +tremendous capacity of reproduction. It would be easier to find a man +that had not done any one sin than to find out a man that had only +done it once. And it would be easier to find a man that had done no +evil than a man who had not been obliged to make the second edition of +his sin an enlarged one. For this is the present Nemesis of all evil, +that it requires repetition, partly to still conscience, partly to +satisfy excited tastes and desires; so that animal indulgence in drink +and the like is a type of what goes on in the inner life of every man, +in so far as the second dose has to be stronger than the first in +order to produce an equivalent effect; and so on _ad infinitum_. + +And then remember that all our evil doings, however insignificant they +may be, have a strange affinity with one another, so that you will +find that to go wrong in one direction almost inevitably leads to a +whole series of consequential transgressions of one sort or another. +You remember the old story about the soldier that was smuggled into a +fortress concealed in a hay cart, and opened the gates of a virgin +citadel to his allies outside. Every evil thing, great or small, that +we admit into our lives, still more into our hearts, is charged with +the same errand as he had:--' Set wide the door when you are inside, +and let us all come in after you.' 'He taketh with him seven other +spirits worse than himself, and they dwell there.' 'None of them,' +says one of the prophets, describing the doleful creatures that haunt +the ruins of a deserted city, 'shall by any means want its mate,' and +the satyrs of the islands and of the woods join together! and hold +high carnival in the city. And so, brethren! our little transgressions +open the door for great ones, and every sin makes us more accessible +to the assaults of every other. + +So let me remind you how here, in these little unnumbered acts of +trivial transgression which scarcely produce any effect on conscience +or on memory, but make up so large a portion of so many of our lives, +lies one of the most powerful instruments for making us what we are. +If we indulge in slight acts of transgression be sure of this, that we +shall pass from them to far greater ones. For one man that leaps or +falls all at once into sin which the world calls gross, there are a +thousand that slide into it. The storm only blows down the trees whose +hearts have been eaten out and their roots loosened. And when you see +a man having a reputation for wisdom and honour all at once coming +crash down and disclosing his baseness, be sure that he began with +small deflections from the path of right. The evil works underground; +and if we yield to little temptations, when great ones come we shall +fall their victims. + +Let me remind you, too, that there is another sense in which 'sand is +weighty.' You may as well be crushed under a sandhill as under a +mountain of marble. It matters not which. The accumulated weight of +the one is as great as that of the other. And I wish to lay upon the +consciences of all that are listening to me now this thought, that an +overwhelming weight of guilt results from the accumulation of little +sins. Dear friends! I do not desire to preach a gospel of fear, but I +cannot help feeling that, very largely, in this day, the ministration +of the Christian Church is defective in that it does not give +sufficient, though sad and sympathetic, prominence to the plain +teaching of Christ and of the New Testament as to future retribution +for present sin. We shall 'every one of us give account of himself to +God'; and if the account is long enough it will foot up to an enormous +sum, though each item may be only halfpence. The weight of a lifetime +of little sins will be enough to crush a man down with guilt and +responsibility when he stands before that Judge. That is all true, and +you know it, and I beseech you, take it to your hearts, 'Sand is +weighty.' Little sins have to be accounted for, and may crush. + +III. And now, lastly, let me ask you to consider one or two of the +plain, practical issues of such thoughts as these. + +And, first, I would say that these considerations set in a very clear +light the absolute necessity for all-round and ever-wakeful +watchfulness over ourselves. A man in the tropics does not say, +'Mosquitoes are so small that it does not matter if two or three of +them get inside my bed-curtains.' He takes care that not one is there +before he lays himself down to sleep. There seems to be nothing more +sad than the complacent, easy-going way in which men allow themselves +to keep their higher moral principles and their more rigid +self-examination for the 'great' things, as they suppose, and let the +little things often take care of themselves. What would you think of +the captain of a steamer who in calm weather sailed by rule of thumb, +only getting out his sextant when storms began to blow? And what about +a man that lets the myriad trivialities that make up a day pass in and +out of his heart as they will, and never arrests any of them at the +gate with a 'How camest thou in hither?' 'Look after the pence, and +the pounds will look after themselves.' Look after your trivial acts, +and, take my word for it, the great ones will be as they ought to be. + +Again, may not this thought somehow take down our easy-going and +self-complacent estimate of ourselves? I have no doubt that there are +a number of people in my audience just now who have been more or less +consciously saying to themselves whilst I have been going on, 'What +have _I_ to do with all this talk about sin, sin, sin? I am a +decent kind of a man. I do all the duties of my daily life, and nobody +can say that the white of my eyes is black. I have done no great +transgressions. What is it all about? It has nothing to do with me.' + +Well, my friend! it has this to do with you--that in your life there +are a whole host of things which only a very superficial estimate +hinders you from recognising to be what they are--small deeds, but +great sins. Is it a small thing to go, as some of you do go on from +year to year, with your conduct and your thoughts and your loves and +your desires utterly unaffected by the fact that there is a God in +heaven, and that Jesus Christ died for you? Is that a small thing? It +manifests itself in a great many insignificant actions. That I grant +you; and you are a most respectable man, and you keep the commandments +as well as you can. But 'the God in whose hand thy breath is, and +whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.' I say that that is +not a small sin. + +So, dear brethren! I beseech you judge yourselves by this standard. I +charge none of you with gross iniquities. I know nothing about that. +But I do appeal to you all, as I do to myself, whether we must not +recognise the fact that an accumulated multitude of transgressions +which are only superficially small, in their aggregate weigh upon us +with 'a weight heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.' + +Last of all, this being the case, should we not all turn ourselves +with lowly hearts, with recognition of our transgressions, +acknowledging that whether it be five hundred or fifty pence that we +owe, we have nothing to pay, and betake ourselves to Him who alone can +deliver us from the habit and power of these small accumulated faults, +and who alone can lift the burden of guilt and responsibility from off +our shoulders? If you irrigate the sand it becomes fruitful soil. +Christ brings to us the river of the water of life; the inspiring, the +quickening, the fructifying power of the new life that He bestows, and +the sand may become soil, and the wilderness blossom as the rose. A +heavy burden lies on our shoulders. Ah! yes! but 'Behold the Lamb of +God that beareth away the sins of the world!' What was it that crushed +Him down beneath the olives of Gethsemane? What was it that made Him +cry, 'My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?' I know no answer but one, +for which the world's gratitude is all too small. 'The Lord hath laid +on Him the iniquity of us all.' + +'Sand is weighty,' but Christ has borne the burden, 'Cast thy burden +upon the Lord,' and it will drop from your emancipated shoulders, and +they will henceforth bear only the light burden of His love. + + + +PORTRAIT OF A MATRON + +'Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11. +The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall +have no need of spoil. 12. She will do him good, and not evil, all the +days of her life. 13. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh +willingly with her hands. 14. She is like the merchants' ships; she +bringeth her food from afar. 15. She riseth also while it is yet +night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. +16. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her +hands she planteth a vineyard. 17. She girdeth her loins with +strength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18. She perceiveth that her +merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19. She layeth +her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20. She +stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands +to the needy. 21. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for +all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22. She maketh herself +coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23. Her +husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the +land. 24. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth +girdles unto the merchant. 25. Strength and honour are her clothing; +and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26. She openeth her mouth with +wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27. She looketh well +to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. +28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and +he praiseth her. 29. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou +excellest them all. 30. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a +woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the +fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the +gates.'-PROVERBS xxxi 10-31. + + +This description of a good 'house-mother' attests the honourable +position of woman in Israel. It would have been impossible in Eastern +countries, where she was regarded only as a plaything and a better +sort of slave. The picture is about equally far removed from old-world +and from modern ideas of her place. This 'virtuous woman' is neither a +doll nor a graduate nor a public character. Her kingdom is the home. +Her works 'praise her in the gates'; but it is her husband, and not +she, that 'sits' there among the elders. There is no sentiment or +light of wedded love in the picture. It is neither the ideal woman nor +wife that is painted, but the ideal head of a household, on whose +management, as much as on her husband's work, its well-being depends. + +There is plenty of room for modern ideals by the side of this old one, +but they are very incomplete without it. If we take the 'oracle which +his mother taught' King Lemuel to include this picture, the artist is +a woman, and her motive may be to sketch the sort of wife her son +should choose. In any case, it is significant that the book which +began with the magnificent picture of Wisdom as a fair woman, and hung +beside it the ugly likeness of Folly, should end with this charming +portrait. It is an acrostic, and the fetters of alphabetic sequence +are not favourable to progress or continuity of thought. + +But I venture to suggest a certain advance in the representation which +removes the apparent disjointed character and needless repetition. +There are, first, three verses forming a kind of prologue or +introduction (vers. 10-12). Then follows the picture proper, which is +brought into unity if we suppose that it describes the growing +material success of the diligent housekeeper, beginning with her own +willing work, and gradually extending till she and her family are well +to do and among the magnates of her town (vers. 13-29), Then follow +two verses of epilogue or conclusion (vers. 30, 31). + +The rendering 'virtuous' is unsatisfactory; for what is meant is not +moral excellence, either in the wider sense or in the narrower to +which, in reference to woman, that great word has been unfortunately +narrowed. Our colloquialism 'a woman of faculty' would fairly convey +the idea, which is that of ability and general capacity. We have said +that there was no light of wedded love in the picture. That is true of +the main body of it; but no deeper, terser expression of the inmost +blessedness of happy marriage was ever spoken than in the quiet words, +'The heart of her husband trusteth in her,' with the repose of +satisfaction, with the tranquillity of perfect assurance. The bond +uniting husband and wife in a true marriage is not unlike that uniting +us with God. Happy are they who by their trust in one another and the +peaceful joys which it brings are led to united trust in a yet deeper +love, mirrored to them in their own! True, the picture here is mainly +that of confidence that the wife is no squanderer of her husband's +goods, but the sweet thought goes far beyond the immediate +application. So with the other general feature in verse 12. A true +wife is a fountain of good, and good only, all the days of her +life--ay, and beyond them too, when her remembrance shines like the +calm west after a cloudless sunset. This being, as it were, the +overture, next follows the main body of the piece. + +It starts with a description of diligence in a comparatively humble +sphere. Note that in verse 13 the woman is working alone. She toils +'willingly,' or, as the literal rendering is, 'with the pleasure of +her hands.' There is no profit in unwilling work. Love makes toil +delightful, and delighted toil is successful. Throughout its pages the +Bible reverences diligence. It is the condition of prosperity in +material and spiritual things. Vainly do men and women try to dodge +the law which makes the 'sweat of the brow' the indispensable +requisite for 'eating bread.' When commerce becomes speculation, which +is the polite name for gambling, which, again, is a synonym for +stealing, it may yield much more dainty fare than bread to some for a +time, but is sure to bring want sooner or later to individuals and +communities. The foundation of this good woman's fortune was that she +worked with a will. There is no other foundation, either for fortune +or any other good, or for self-respect, or for progress in knowledge +or goodness or religion. + +Then her horizon widened, and she saw a way of increasing her store. +'She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.' +She looks afield, and sees opportunities for profitable exchange. +Promptly she avails herself of these, and is at work while it is yet +dark. She has a household now, and does not neglect their comfort, any +more than she does their employment. Their food and their tasks are +both set them in the early morning, and their mistress is up as soon +as they. Her toil brings in wealth, and so verse 16 shows another step +in advance. 'She considereth a field, and buyeth it,' and has made +money enough to stock it with vines, and so add a new source of +revenue, and acquire a new position as owning land. + +But prosperity does not make her relax her efforts so we are told +again in verses 17-19 of her abridging the hours of sleep, and toiling +with wool and flax, which would be useless tautology if there were not +some new circumstances to account for the repetition. Encouraged by +success, she 'girdeth her loins with strength,' and, since she sees +that 'her merchandise is profitable,' she is the more induced to +labour. She still works with her own hands (ver. 19). But the hands +that are busy with distaff and spindle are also stretched out with +alms in the open palm, and are extended in readiness to help the +needy. A woman made unfeeling by wealth is a monster. Prosperity often +leads men to niggardliness in charitable gifts; but if it does the +same for a woman, it is doubly cursed. Pity and charity have their +home in women's hearts. If they are so busy holding the distaff or the +pen that they become hard and insensible to the cry of misery, they +have lost their glory. + +Then follow a series of verses describing how increased wealth brings +good to her household and herself. The advantages are of a purely +material sort, Her children are 'clothed with scarlet,' which was not +only the name of the dye, but of the stuff. Evidently thick material +only was dyed of that hue, and so was fit for winter clothing, even if +the weather was so severe for Palestine that snow fell. Her house was +furnished with 'carpets,' or rather 'cushions' or 'pillows,' which are +more important pieces of furniture where people recline on divans than +where they sit on chairs. Her own costume is that of a rich woman. +'Purple and fine linen' are tokens of wealth, and she is woman enough +to like to wear these. There is nothing unbecoming in assuming the +style of living appropriate to one's position. Her children and +herself thus share in the advantages of her industry; and the husband, +who does not appear to have much business of his own, gets his share +in that he sits among the wealthy and honoured inhabitants of the +town, 'in the gates,' the chief place of meeting for business and +gossip. + +Verse 24 recurs to the subject of the woman's diligence. She has got +into a 'shipping business,' making for the export trade with the +'merchants'--literally, 'Canaanites' or Phoenicians, the great traders +of the East, from whom, no doubt, she got the 'purple' of her clothing +in exchange for her manufacture. But she had a better dress than any +woven in looms or bought with goods. 'Strength and dignity' clothe +her. 'She laugheth at the time to come'; that is, she is able to look +forward without dread of poverty, because she has realised a competent +sum. Such looking forward may be like that of the rich man in the +parable, a piece of presumption, but it may also be compatible with +devout recognition of God's providence. As in verse 20, beneficence +was coupled with diligence, so in verse 26 gentler qualities are +blended with strength and dignity, and calm anticipation of the +future. + +A glimpse into 'the very pulse' of the woman's nature is given. A true +woman's strength is always gentle, and her dignity attractive and +gracious. Prosperity has not turned her head. 'Wisdom,' the +heaven-descended virgin, the deep music of whose call we heard +sounding in the earlier chapters of Proverbs, dwells with this very +practical woman. The collocation points the lesson that heavenly +Wisdom has a field for its display in the common duties of a busy +life, does not dwell in hermitages, or cloisters, or studies, but may +guide and inspire a careful housekeeper in her task of wisely keeping +her husband's goods together. The old legend of the descending deity +who took service as a goat-herd, is true of the heavenly Wisdom, which +will come and live in kitchens and shops. + +But the ideal woman has not only wisdom in act and word, but 'the law +of kindness is on her tongue.' Prosperity should not rob her of her +gracious demeanour. Her words should be glowing with the calm flame of +love which stoops to lowly and undeserving objects. If wealth leads to +presumptuous reckoning on the future, and because we have 'much goods +laid up for many years,' we see no other use of leisure than to eat +and drink and be merry, we fatally mistake our happiness and our duty. +But if gentle compassion and helpfulness are on our lips and in our +hearts and deeds, prosperity will be blessed. + +Nor does this ideal woman relax in her diligence, though she has +prospered. Verse 27 seems very needless repetition of what has been +abundantly said already, unless we suppose, as before, new +circumstances to account for the reintroduction of a former +characteristic. These are, as it seems to me, the increased wealth of +the heroine, which might have led her to relax her watchfulness. Some +slacking off might have been expected and excused; but at the end, as +at the beginning, she looks after her household and is herself +diligent. The picture refers only to outward things. But we may +remember that the same law applies to all, and that any good, either +of worldly wealth or of intellectual, moral, or religious kind, is +only preserved by the continuous exercise of the same energies which +won it at first. + +Verses 28 and 29 give the eulogium pronounced by children and husband. +The former 'rise up' as in reverence; the latter declares her +superiority to all women, with the hyperbolical language natural to +love. Happy the man who, after long years of wedded life, can repeat +the estimate of his early love with the calm certitude born of +experience! + +The epilogue in verses 30 and 31 is not the continuation of the +husband's speech. It at once points the lesson from the whole picture +for King Lemuel, and unveils the root of the excellences described. +Beauty is skin deep. Let young men look deeper than a fair face. Let +young women seek for that beauty which does not fade. The fear of the +Lord lies at the bottom of all goodness that will last through the +tear and wear of wedded life, and of all domestic diligence which is +not mere sordid selfishness or slavish toil. The narrow arena of +domestic life affords a fit theatre for the exercise of the highest +gifts and graces; and the woman who has made a home bright, and has +won and kept a husband's love and children's reverence, may let who +will grasp at the more conspicuous prizes which women are so eager +after nowadays. She has chosen the better part, which shall not be +taken from her. She shall receive 'of the fruit of her hands' both now +and hereafter, if the fear of the Lord has been the root from which +that fruit has grown; and 'her works shall praise her in the gate,' +though she sits quietly in her home. It is well when our deeds are the +trumpeters of our fame, and when to tell them is to praise us. + +The whole passage is the hallowing of domestic life, a directory for +wives and mothers, a beautiful ideal of how noble a thing a busy +mother's life may be, an exhibition to young men of what they should +seek, and of young women of what they should aim at. It were well for +the next generation if the young women of this one were as solicitous +to make cages as nets, to cultivate qualities which would keep love in +the home as to cultivate attractions which lure him to their feet. + + + + +ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER + + +WHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES + +'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the +earth abideth for ever.'--ECCLES. i. 4. + +'And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth +the will of God abideth for ever.'--1 JOHN ii. 17. + + +A great river may run through more than one kingdom, and bear more +than one name, but its flow is unbroken. The river of time runs +continuously, taking no heed of dates and calendars. The importance +that we attach to the beginnings or endings of years and centuries is +a sentimental illusion, but even an illusion that rouses us to a +consciousness of the stealthy gliding of the river may do us good, and +we need all the helps we can find to wise retrospect and sober +anticipation. So we must let the season colour our thoughts, even +whilst we feel that in yielding to that impulse we are imagining what +has no reality in the passing from the last day of one century to the +first day of another. + +I do not mean to discuss in this sermon either the old century or the +new in their wider social and other aspects. That has been done +abundantly. We shall best do our parts in making the days, and the +years, and the century what they should be, if we let the truths that +come from these combined texts sink into and influence our individual +lives. I have put them together, because they are so strikingly +antithetical, both true, and yet looking at the same facts from +opposite points of view, But the antithesis is not really so complete +as it sounds at first hearing, because what the Preacher means by 'the +earth' that 'abideth for ever' is not quite the same as what the +Apostle means by the 'world' that 'passes' and the 'generations' that +come and go are not exactly the same as the men that 'abide for ever.' +But still the antithesis is real and impressive. The bitter melancholy +of the Preacher saw but the surface; the joyous faith of the Apostle +went a great deal deeper, and putting the two sets of thoughts and +ways of looking at man and his dwelling-place together, we get lessons +that may well shape our individual lives. + +So let me ask you to look, in the first place, at-- + +I. The sad and superficial teaching of the Preacher. + +Now in reading this Book of Ecclesiastes--which I am afraid a great +many people do not read at all--we have always to remember that the +wild things and the bitter things which the Preacher is saying so +abundantly through its course do not represent his ultimate +convictions, but thoughts that he took up in his progress from error +to truth. His first word is: 'All is vanity!' That conviction had been +set vibrating in his heart, as it is set vibrating in the heart of +every man who does as he did, viz., seeks for solid good away from +God. That is his starting-point. It is not true. All is not vanity, +except to some _blase_ cynic, made cynical by the failure of +his voluptuousness, and to whom 'all things here are out of joint,' +and everything looks yellow because his own biliary system is out of +order. That is the beginning of the book, and there are hosts of other +things in the course of it as one-sided, as cynically bitter, and +therefore superficial. But the end of it is: 'Let us hear the +conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep His commandments: +for this is the whole duty of man.' In his journey from the one point +to the other my text is the first step, 'One generation goeth, and +another cometh: the earth abideth for ever.' + +He looks out upon humanity, and sees that in one aspect the world is +full of births, and in another full of deaths. Coffins and cradles +seem the main furniture, and he hears the tramp, tramp, tramp of the +generations passing over a soil honeycombed with tombs, and therefore +ringing hollow to their tread. All depends on the point of view. The +strange history of humanity is like a piece of shot silk; hold it at +one angle, and you see dark purple, hold at another, and you see +bright golden tints. Look from one point of view, and it seems a long +history of vanishing generations. Look to the rear of the procession, +and it seems a buoyant spectacle of eager, young faces pressing +forwards on the march, and of strong feet treading the new road. But +yet the total effect of that endless procession is to impress on the +observer the transiency of humanity. And that wholesome thought is +made more poignant still by the comparison which the writer here draws +between the fleeting generations and the abiding earth. Man is the +lord of earth, and can mould it to his purpose, but it remains and he +passes. He is but a lodger in an old house that has had generations of +tenants, each of whom has said for a while, 'It is mine'; and they all +have drifted away, and the house stands. The Alps, over which Hannibal +stormed, over which the Goths poured down on the fertile plains of +Lombardy, through whose passes mediaeval emperors led their forces, +over whose summits Napoleon brought his men, through whose bowels this +generation has burrowed its tunnels, stand the same, and smile the +same amid their snows, at the transient creatures that have crawled +across them. The primrose on the rock blooms in the same place year +after year, and nature and it are faithful to their covenant, but the +poet's eyes that fell upon them are sealed with dust. Generations have +gone, the transient flower remains. 'One generation cometh and another +goeth,' and the tragedy is made more tragical because the stage stands +unaltered, and 'the earth abides for ever.' That is what sense has to +say--'the foolish senses'--and that is all that sense has to say. Is +it all that can be said? If it is, then the Preacher's bitter +conclusion is true, and 'all is vanity and chasing after wind.' + +He immediately proceeds to draw from this undeniable, but, as I +maintain, partial fact, the broad conclusion which cannot be rebutted, +if you accept what he has said in my text as being the sufficient and +complete account of man and his dwelling-place. If, says he, it is +true that one generation comes and another goes, and the earth abides +for ever, and if that is all that has to be said, then all things are +full of labour. There is immense activity, and there is no progress; +it is all rotary motion round and round and round, and the same +objects reappear duly and punctually as the wheel revolves, and life +is futile. Yes; so it is unless there is something more to be said, +and the life that is thus futile is also, as it seems to me, +inexplicable if you believe in God at all. If man, being what he is, +is wholly subject to that law of mutation and decay, then not only is +he made 'a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,' +but he is also inferior to that persistent, old mother-earth from +whose bosom he has come. If all that you have to say of him is, 'Dust +thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' then life is futile, and +God is not vindicated for having produced it. + +And there is another consequence that follows, if this is all that we +have got to say. If the cynical wisdom of Ecclesiastes is the ultimate +word, then I do not assert that morality is destroyed, because right +and wrong are not dependent either upon the belief in a God, or on the +belief in immortality. But I do say that to declare that the fleeting, +transient life of earth is all does strike a staggering blow at all +noble ethics and paralyses a great deal of the highest forms of human +activity, and that, as has historically been the case, so on the large +scale, and, speaking generally, it will be the case, that the man +whose creed is only 'To-morrow we die' will very speedily draw the +conclusion, 'Let us eat and drink,' and sensuous delights and the +lower side of his nature will become dominant. + +So, then, the Preacher had not got at the bottom of all things, either +in his initial conviction that all was vanity, or in that which he +laid down as the first step towards establishing that, that man passes +and the earth abides. There is more to be said; the sad, superficial +teaching of the Preacher needs to be supplemented. + +Now turn for a moment to what does supplement it. + +II. The joyous and profounder teaching of the Apostle. + +The cynic never sees the depths; that is reserved for the mystical eye +of the lover. So John says: 'No, no; that is not all. Here is the true +state of affairs: "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but +he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."' The doctrine of the +passing generations and the abiding earth is fronted squarely in my +second text by the not contradictory, but complementary doctrine of +the passing world and the abiding men. I do not suppose that John had +this verse of Ecclesiastes in his mind, for the word 'abide' is one of +his favourite expressions, and is always cropping up. But even though +he had not, we find in his utterance the necessary correction to the +first text. As I have said, and now need not do more than repeat in a +sentence, the antithesis is not so complete as it seems. John's +'world' is not the Preacher's 'earth,' but he means thereby, as we all +know, the aggregate of created things, including men, considered apart +from God, and in so far as it includes voluntary agents set in +opposition to God and the will of God. He means the earth rent away +from God, and turned to be what it was not meant to be, a minister of +evil, and he means men, in so far as they have parted themselves from +God and make up an alien, if not a positively antagonistic company. + +Perhaps he was referring, in the words of our text, to the break-up of +the existing order of things which he discerned as impending and +already begun to take effect in consequence of the coming of Jesus +Christ, the shining of the true Light. For you may remember that in a +previous part of the epistle he uses precisely the same expression, +with a significant variation. Here, in our text, he says, 'The world +passeth away'; there he says, 'The darkness has passed and the true +light now shineth.' He sees a process installed and going on, in which +the whole solid-seeming fabric of a godless society is being dissolved +and melted away. And says he, in the midst of all this change there is +one who stands unchanged, the man that does God's will. + +But just for a moment we may take the lower point of view, and see +here a flat contradiction of the Preacher. He said, 'Men go, and the +world abides.' 'No,' says John; 'your own psalmists might have taught +you better: "As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be +changed."' The world, the earth, which seems so solid and permanent, +is all the while in perpetual flux, as our later science has taught +us, in a sense of which neither Preacher nor Apostle could dream. For +just as from the beginning forces were at work which out of the +fire-mist shaped sun and planets, so the same forces, continuing in +operation, are tending towards the end of the system which they began; +and a contracting sun and a diminished light and a lowered temperature +and the narrower orbits in which the planets shall revolve, prophesy +that 'the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' and that all things +which have been made must one day cease to be. Nature is the true +Penelope's web, ever being woven and ever being unravelled, and in the +most purely physical and scientific sense the world is passing away. +But then, because you and I belong, in a segment of our being, to that +which thus is passing away, we come under the same laws, and all that +has been born must die. So the generations come, and in their very +coming bear the prophecy of their going. But, on the other hand, there +is an inner nucleus of our being, of which the material is but the +transient envelope and periphery, which holds nought of the material, +but of the spiritual, and that 'abides for ever.' + +But let us lift the thought rather into the region of the true +antithesis which John was contemplating, which is not so much the +crumbling away of the material, and the endurance of the spiritual, as +the essential transiency of everything that is antagonism to the will +of God, and the essential eternity of everything which is in +conformity with that will. And so, says he, 'The world is passing, and +the lust thereof.' The desires that grasp it perish with it, or +perhaps, more truly still, the object of the desire perishes, and with +it the possibility of their gratification ceases, but the desire +itself remains. But what of the man whose life has been devoted to the +things seen and temporal, when he finds himself in a condition of +being where none of these have accompanied him? Nothing to slake his +lusts, if he be a sensualist. No money-bags, ledgers, or cheque-books +if he be a plutocrat or a capitalist or a miser. No books or +dictionaries if he be a mere student. Nothing of his vocations if he +lived for 'the world.' But yet the appetite is abiding. Will that not +be a thirst that cannot be slaked? + +'The world is passing and the lust thereof,' and all that is +antagonistic to God, or separated from Him, is essentially as 'a +vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away,' +whereas the man who does the will of God abideth for ever, in that he +is steadfast in the midst of change. + + 'His hand the good man fastens on the skies, + And lets earth roll, nor heeds its idle whirl.' + +He shall 'abide for ever,' in the sense that his work is perpetual. In +one very deep and solemn sense, nothing human ever dies, but in +another all that is not running in the same direction as, and borne +along by the impulse of, the will of God, is destined to be +neutralised and brought to nothing at last. There may be a row of +figures as long as to reach from here to the fixed stars, but if there +is not in front of them the significant digit, which comes from +obedience to the will of God, all is but a string of ciphers, and +their net result is nothing. And he 'abideth for ever,' in the most +blessed and profound sense, in that through his faith, which has +kindled his love, and his love which has set in motion his practical +obedience, he becomes participant of the very eternity of the living +God. 'This is eternal life,' not merely to know, but 'to do the will' +of our Father. Nothing else will last, and nothing else will prosper, +any more than a bit of driftwood can stem Niagara. Unite yourself with +the will of God, and you abide. + +And now let me, as briefly as I can, throw together-- + +III. The plain, practical lessons that come from both these texts. + +May I say, without seeming to be morbid or unpractical, one lesson is +that we should cultivate a sense of the transiency of this outward +life? One of our old authors says somewhere, that it is wholesome to +smell at a piece of turf from a churchyard. I know that much harm has +been done by representing Christianity as mainly a scheme which is to +secure man a peaceful death, and that many morbid forms of piety have +given far too large a place to the contemplation of skulls and +cross-bones. But for all that, the remembrance of death present in our +lives will often lay a cool hand upon a throbbing brow; and, like a +bit of ice used by a skilful physician, will bring down the +temperature, and stay the too tumultuous beating of the heart. 'So +teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.' +It will minister energy, and lead us to say, like our Lord, 'We must +work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh.' + +Let me say again--a very plain, practical lesson is to dig deep down +for our foundations below the rubbish that has accumulated. If a man +wishes to build a house in Rome or in Jerusalem he has to go fifty or +sixty feet down, through potsherds and broken tiles and triturated +marbles, and the dust of ancient palaces and temples. We have to drive +a shaft clear down through all the superficial strata, and to lay the +first stones on the Rock of Ages. Do not build on that which quivers +and shakes beneath you. Do not try to make your life's path across the +weeds, or as they call it in Egypt, the 'sudd,' that floats on the +surface of the Nile, compacted for many a mile, and yet only a film on +the surface of the river, to be swept away some day. Build on God. + +And the last lesson is, let us see to it that our wills are in harmony +with His, and the work of our hands His work. We can do that will in +all the secularities of our daily life. The difference between the +work that shrivels up and disappears and the work that abides is not +so much in its external character, or in the materials on which it is +expended, as in the motive from which it comes. So that, if I might so +say, if two women are sitting at the same millstone face to face, and +turning round the same handle, one of them for one half the +circumference, and the other for the other, and grinding out the same +corn, the one's work may be 'gold, silver, precious stones,' which +shall abide the trying fire; and the other's may be 'wood, hay, +stubble,' which shall be burnt up. 'He that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' + +So let us set ourselves, dear friends! to our several tasks for this +coming year. Never mind about the century, it will take care of +itself. Do your little work in your little corner, and be sure of +this, that amidst changes you will stand unchanged, amidst tumults you +may stand calm, in death you will be entering on a fuller life, and +that what to others is the end will be to you the beginning. 'If any +man's work abide, he shall receive a reward,' and he himself shall +abide with the abiding God. + +The bitter cynic said half the truth when he said, 'One generation +goeth, and another cometh; but the earth abides.' The mystic Apostle +saw the truth steadily, and saw it whole when he said, 'Lo! the world +passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' + + + +THE PAST AND THE FUTURE + +'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall he; and that which +is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under +the sun.'--ECCLES. i. 9. + +'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to +the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 3. For the time past of our +life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.'--l +PETER iv. 2, 3. + + +If you will look at these two passages carefully you will, I think, +see that they imply two different, and in some respects contradictory, +thoughts about the future in its relation to the past. The first of +them is the somewhat exaggerated utterance of a dreary and depressing +philosophy, which tells us that, as in the outer world, so in regard +to man's life, there is an enormous activity and no advance, that it +is all moving round like the scenes in some circular panorama, that +after it has gone the round back it comes again, that it is the same +thing over and over again, that life is a treadmill, so to speak, with +an immense deal of working of muscles; but it all comes to nothing +over again. 'The rivers run into the sea and the sea is not full, and +where the rivers come from they go back to; and the wind goes to the +south, turns to the north, and whirls about continually. Everything is +full of labour, and it has all been done before, and there is nothing +fresh; everything is flat, stale, and unprofitable.' + +Well that is not true altogether, but though it be not true +altogether--though it be an exaggeration, and though the inference +that is built upon it is not altogether satisfactory and profound--yet +the thought itself is one that has a great deal in it that is true and +important, and may be very helpful and profitable to us now; for there +is a religious way, as well as an irreligious way, of saying there is +nothing new under the sun. It may be the utterance of a material, +_blase_, unprofitable, spurious philosophy, or it may be the +utterance of the profoundest, and the happiest, and the most peaceful +religious trust and confidence. + +The other passage implies the opposite notion of man's life, that +however much in my future may be just the same as what my past has +been, there is a region in which it is quite possible to make +to-morrow unlike to-day, and so to resolve and so to work as that 'the +time past of our lives' may be different from 'the rest of our time in +the flesh'; that a great revolution may come upon a man, and that +whilst the outward life is continuous and the same, and the tasks to +be done are the same, and the joys the same, there may be such a +profound and radical difference in the spirit and motive in which they +are done as that the thing that has been is _not_ that which +shall be, and for us there _may_ be a new thing under the sun. + +And so just now I think we may take these two passages in their +connection--their opposition, and in their parallelism--as suggesting +to us two very helpful, mutually completing thoughts about the unknown +future that stretches before us--first, the substantial identity of +the future with the past; second, the possible total unlikeness of the +future and the past. + +First then, let us try to get the impress from the first phrase of +that conviction, so far as it is true, as to the sameness of the +things that are going to be with the things that have been. The +immediate connection in which the words are spoken is in regard, +mainly, to the outer world, the physical universe, and only +secondarily and subordinately in regard to man's life. And I need not +remind you how that thought of the absolute sameness and continuous +repetition of the past and the future has gained by the advance of +physical science in modern times. It seems to be contradicted no doubt +by the continual emergence of new things here and there, but they tell +us that the novelty is only a matter of arrangement, that the atoms +have never had an addition to them since the beginning of things, that +all stand just as they were from the very commencement and foundation +of all things, and that all that seems new is only a new arrangement, +so that the thing which has been is that which shall be. And then +there comes up the other thought, upon which I need not dwell for a +moment, that the present condition of things round about us is the +result of the uniform forces that have been working straight on from +the very beginning. And yet, whilst all that is quite true, we come to +our own human lives, and we find there the true application of such +words as these: to-morrow is to be like yesterday. There is one very +important sense in which the opposite of that is true, and no +to-morrow can ever be like any yesterday for however much the events +may be the same, we are so different that, in regard even to the most +well trodden and beaten of our paths of daily life, we may all say, +'We have not passed this way before!' We cannot bring back that which +is gone--that which is gone is gone for good or evil, irrevocable as +the snow or the perfume of last year's flowers. I dare say there are +many here before me who are saying to themselves, 'No! life can never +again be what life has been for me, and the only thing that I am quite +sure about in regard to to-morrow is that it is utterly impossible +that it should ever be as yesterday was!' Notwithstanding, the word of +my text is a true word, the thing that hath been is that which shall +be. I need not dwell on the grounds upon which the certainty rests, +such, for instance, as that the powers which shape to-morrow are the +same as the powers which shaped yesterday; that you and I, in our +nature, are the same, and that the mighty Hand up there that is +moulding it is the same; that every to-morrow is the child of all the +yesterdays; that the same general impression will pervade the future +as has pervaded the past. Though events may be different the general +stamp and characteristics of them will be the same, and when we pass +into a new region of human life we shall find that we are not walking +in a place where no footprints have been before us, but that all about +us the ground is trodden down smooth. + +'That which hath been is that which shall be.' Thus, while this is +proximately true in regard to the future, let me just for a moment or +two give you one or two of the plain, simple pieces of well-worn +wisdom which are built upon such a thought. And first of all let me +give you this, 'Well, then, let us learn to tone down our expectations +of what may be coming to us.' Especially I speak now to the younger +portion of my congregation, to whom life is beginning, and to whom it +is naturally tinted with roseate hue, and who have a great deal +stretching before them which is new to them, new duties, new +relationships, new joys. But whilst that is especially true for them +it is true for all. It is a strange illusion under which we all live +to the very end of our lives, unless by reflection and effort we +become masters of it and see things in the plain daylight of common +sense, that the future is going somehow or other to be brighter, +better, fuller of resources, fuller of blessings, freer from sorrow +than the past has been. We turn over each new leaf that marks a new +year, and we cannot help thinking: 'Well! perhaps hidden away in its +storehouses there may be something brighter and better in store for +me.' It is well, perhaps, that we should have that thought, for if we +were not so drawn on, even though it be by an illusion, I do not know +that we should be able to live on as we do. But don't let us forget in +the hours of quiet that there is no reason at all to expect that any +of these arbitrary, and conventional, and unreal distinctions of +calendars and dates make any difference in that uniform strand of our +life which just runs the same, which is reeled off the great drum of +the future and on to the great drum of the past, and that is all spun +out of one fibre and is one gauge, and one sort of stuff from the +beginning to the end. And so let us be contented where we are, and not +fancy that when I get that thing that I am looking forward to, when I +get into that position I am waiting for, things will be much different +from what they are to-day. Life is all one piece, the future and the +past, the pattern runs right through from the beginning to the end, +and the stuff is the same stuff. So don't you be too enthusiastic, you +people who have an eager ambition for social and political +advancement. Things will be very much as they are used to be, with +perhaps some slow, gradual, infinitesimal approximation to a higher +ideal and a nobler standard; but there will be no jump, no breaks, no +spasmodic advance. We must be contented to accept the law, that there +is no new thing under the sun. As you would lay a piece of healing ice +upon the heated forehead, lay that law upon the feverish anticipations +some of you have in regard to the future, and let the heart beat more +quietly, and with the more contentment for the recognition of that +law. + +And then I may say, at the same time, though I won't dwell upon it for +more than a moment, let us take the same thought to teach us to +moderate our fears. Don't be afraid that anything whatever may come +that will destroy the substantial likeness between the past and the +future; and so leave all those jarring and terrifying thoughts that +mingle with all our anticipations of the time to come, leave them very +quietly on one side and say, 'Thou hast been my Help leave me not, +neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.' + +And then there are one or two other points I mean to touch upon, and +let me just name them. Do not let us so exaggerate that thought of the +substantial sameness of the future and the past as to flatten life and +make it dreary and profitless and insignificant. Let us rather feel, +as I shall have to say presently, that whilst the framework remains +the same, whilst the general characteristics will not be much +different, there is room within that uniformity for all possible play +of variety and interest, and earnestness and enthusiasm, and hope. +They make the worst possible use of this fixity and steadfastness of +things who say, as the dreary man at the beginning of the Book of +Ecclesiastes is represented as saying, that because things are the +same as they will and have been, all is vanity. It is not true. Don't +let the uniformity of life flatten your interest in the great miracle +of every fresh day, with its fresh continuation of ancient blessings +and the steadfast mercies of our Lord. + +And let us hold firmly to the far deeper truth that the future will be +the same as the past, because God is the same. God's yesterday is +God's to-morrow--the same love, the same resources, the same wisdom, +the same power, the same sustaining Hand, the same encompassing +Presence. 'A thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand +years'; and when we say there is no new thing under the sun let us +feel that the deepest way of expressing that thought is, 'Thou art the +same, and Thy steadfast purposes know no alteration.' + +Turn to the other side of the thought suggested by the second passage +of the text. It speaks to us, as I have said, of the possible entire +unlikeness between the future and the past. To-morrow is the child of +yesterday--granted; 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he +reap'--certainly; there is a persistent uniformity of nature, and the +same causes working make the future much of the same general structure +as all the past has been--be it so; and yet within the limits of that +identity there may be breathed into the self-sameness of to-morrow +such an entire difference of disposition, temper, motive, direction of +life, that my whole life may be revolutionised, my whole being, I was +going to say, cleft in twain, my old life buried and forgotten, and a +new life may emerge from chaos and from the dead. Of course, the +question, Is such an alteration possible? rises up very solemnly to +men, to most of them, for I suppose we all of us know what it is to +have been beaten time after time in the attempt to shake off the +dominion of some habit or evil, and to alter the bearing and the +direction of the whole life, and we have to say, 'It is no good trying +any longer my life must run on in the channel which I have carved for +it; I have made my bed and I must lie on it; I cannot get rid of these +things.' And, no doubt, in certain aspects, change is impossible. +There are certain limitations of natural disposition which I never can +overcome. For instance, if I have no musical ear I cannot turn myself +into a musician. If I have no mathematical faculty it is no good +poring over Euclid, for, with the best intentions in the world, I +shall make nothing of it. We must work within the limits of our +natural disposition, and cut our coat according to our cloth. In that +respect to-morrow will be as yesterday, and there cannot be any +change. And it is quite true that character, which is the great +precipitate from the waters of conduct, gets rocky, that habits become +persistent, and man's will gets feeble by long indulgence in any +course of life. But for all that, admitting to the full all that, I am +here now to say to every man and woman in this place, 'Friend, you may +make your life from this moment so unlike the blotted, stained, +faultful, imperfect, sinful past that no words other than the words of +the New Testament will be large enough to express the fact. "If any +man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away."' +For we all know how into any life the coming of some large conviction +not believed in or perceived before, may alter the whole bias, +current, and direction of it; how into any life the coming of a new +love not cherished and entertained before, may ennoble and transfigure +the whole of its nature; how into any life the coming of new motives, +not yielded to and recognised before, may make all things new and +different. These three plain principles, the power of conviction, the +power of affection, the power of motive, are broad enough to admit of +building upon them this great and helpful and hopeful promise to us +all--'The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the +will of the Gentiles,' that 'henceforth we may live the rest of our +time in the flesh according to the will of God.' + +To you who have been living in the past with little regard to the +supreme powers and principles of Christ's love and God's Gospel in +Him, I bring the offer of a radical revolution; and I tell you that if +you like you may this day begin a life which, though it shall be like +yesterday in outward things, in the continuity of some habits, in the +continuance of character, shall be all under the influence of an +entirely new, and innovating, and renovating power. I ask you whether +you don't think that you have had enough, to use the language of my +text, in the part of obeying the will of the flesh; and I beseech you +that you will let these great principles, these grand convictions +which cluster round and explain the cross of Jesus Christ, influence +your mind, character, habits, desires, thoughts, actions; that you +will yield yourself to the new power of the Spirit of life in Christ, +which is granted to us if only we submit ourselves to it and humbly +desire it. And to you who have in some measure lived by this mighty +influence I come with the message for you and for myself that the time +to come may, if we will, be filled very much fuller than it is; +'To-morrow may be as this day, and much more abundant.' I believe in a +patient, reflecting, abundant examination of the past. The old proverb +says that 'Every man by the time he is forty is either a fool or a +physician'; and any man or woman by the time they get ten years short +of that age, ought to know where they are weakest, and ought to be +able to guard against the weak places in their character. I do not +believe in self-examination for the purpose of finding in a man's own +character reasons for answering the question, 'Am I a Christian?' But +I do believe that no people will avail themselves fully of the power +God has given them for making the future brighter and better than the +past who have not a very clear, accurate, comprehensive, and +penetrating knowledge of their faults and their failures in the past. +I suppose if the Tay Bridge is to be built again, it won't be built of +the same pattern as that which was blown into the water last week; and +you and I ought to learn by experience the places in our souls that +give in the tempests, where there is most need for strengthening the +bulwarks and defending our natures. And so I say, begin with the +abundant recognition of the past, and then a brave confidence in the +possibilities of the future. Let us put ourselves under that great +renovating Power which is conviction and affection and motive all in +one. 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' And so while we front the +future we can feel that, God being in us, and Christ being in us, we +shall make it a far brighter and fairer thing than the blurred and +blotted past which to-day is buried, and life may go on with grand +blessedness and power until we shall hear the great voice from the +Throne say, 'There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more +crying, no more pain, for the former things are passed away, 'Behold! +I make all things new.' + + + +TWO VIEWS OF LIFE + +'This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man, to be exercised +therewith.--ECCLES. i. 13. + +'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His +holiness.'--HEBREWS xii. 10. + + +These two texts set before us human life as it looks to two observers. +The former admits that God shapes it; but to him it seems sore +travail, the expenditure of much trouble and efforts; the results of +which seem to be nothing beyond profitless exercise. There is an +immense activity and nothing to show for it at the end but wearied +limbs. The other observer sees, at least, as much of sorrow and +trouble as the former, but he believes in the 'Father of spirits,' and +in a hereafter; and these, of course, bring a meaning and a wider +purpose into the 'sore travail,' and make it, not futile but, +profitable to our highest good. + +I. Note first the Preacher's gloomy half-truth. + +The word rendered in our text 'travail' is a favourite one with the +writer. It means occupation which costs effort and causes trouble. The +phrase 'to be exercised therewith,' rather means to _fatigue +themselves_, so that life as looked upon by the Preacher consists +of effort without result but weariness. + +If he knew it at all, it was very imperfectly and dimly; and whatever +may be thought of teaching on that subject which appears in the formal +conclusion of the book, the belief in a future state certainly +exercises no influence on its earlier portions. These represent phases +through which the writer passes on his way to his conclusion. He does +believe in 'God,' but, very significantly, he never uses the sacred +name 'Lord.' He has shaken himself free, or he wishes to represent a +character who has shaken himself free from Revelation, and is fighting +the problem of life, its meaning and worth, without any help from Law, +or Prophet, or Psalm. He does retain belief in what he calls 'God,' +but his pure Theism, with little, if any, faith in a future life, is a +creed which has no power of unravelling the perplexed mysteries of +life, and of answering the question, 'What does it all mean?' With +keen and cynical vision he looks out not only over men, as in this +first chapter, but over nature; and what mainly strikes him is the +enormous amount of work that is being done, and the tragical poverty +of its results. The question with which he begins his book is, 'What +profit hath a man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the +sun?' And for answer he looks at the sun rising and going down, and +being in the same place after its journey through the heavens; and he +hears the wind continually howling and yet returning again to its +circuits; and the waters now running as rivers into the sea and again +drawn up in vapours, and once more falling in rain and running as +waters. This wearisome monotony of intense activity in nature is +paralleled by all that is done by man under heaven, and the net result +of all is 'Vanity and a strife after wind.' + +The writer proceeds to confirm his dreary conclusion by a piece of +autobiography put into the mouth of Solomon. He is represented as +flinging himself into mirth and pleasure, into luxury and debauchery, +and as satisfying every hunger for any joy, and as being pulled up +short in the midst of his rioting by the conviction, like a funeral +bell, tolling in his mind that all was vanity. 'He gave himself to +wisdom, and madness, and folly'; and in all he found but one +result--enormous effort and no profit. There seemed to be a time for +everything, and a kind of demonic power in men compelling them to toil +as with equal energy, now at building up, and now at destroying. But +to every purpose he saw that there was 'time and judgment,' and +therefore, 'the misery of man was great upon him.' To his jaundiced +eye the effort of life appeared like the play of the wind in the +desert, always busy, but sometime busy in heaping the sands in +hillocks, and sometimes as busy in levelling them to a plain. + +We may regard such a view of humanity as grotesquely pessimistic; but +there is no doubt that many of us do make of life little more than +what the Preacher thought it. It is not only the victims of +civilisation who are forced to wearisome monotony of toil which barely +yields daily bread; but we see all around us men and women wearing out +their lives in the race after a false happiness, gaining nothing by +the race but weariness. What shall we say of the man who, in the +desire to win wealth, or reputation, lives laborious days of cramping +effort in one direction, and allows all the better part of his nature +to be atrophied, and die, and passes, untasted, brooks by the way, the +modest joys and delights that run through the dustiest lives. What is +the difference between a squirrel in the cage who only makes his +prison go round the faster by his swift race, and the man who lives +toilsome days for transitory objects which he may never attain? In the +old days every prison was furnished with a tread-mill, on which the +prisoner being set was bound to step up on each tread of the revolving +wheel, not in order to rise, but in order to prevent him from breaking +his legs. How many men around us are on such a mill, and how many of +them have fastened themselves on it, and by their own misreading and +misuse of life have turned it into a dreary monotony of resultless +toil. The Preacher may be more ingenious than sound in his pessimism, +but let us not forget that every godless man does make of life 'Vanity +and strife after wind.' + +II. The higher truth which completes the Preacher's. + +Of course the fragmentary sentence in our second text needs to be +completed from the context, and so completed will stand, 'God chastens +us for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.' Now +let us consider for a moment the thought that the true meaning of life +is _discipline_. I say discipline rather than 'chastening,' for +chastening simply implies the fact of pain, whereas discipline +includes the wholesome _purpose_ of pain. The true meaning of +life is not to be found by estimating its sorrows or its joys, but by +trying to estimate the effects of either upon us. The true value of +life, and the meaning of all its tears and of all its joys, is what it +makes us. If the enormous effort which struck the Preacher issues in +strengthened muscles and braced limbs, it is not 'vanity.' He who +carries away with him out of life a character moulded as God would +have it, does not go in all points 'naked as he came.' He bears a +developed self, and that is the greatest treasure that a man can carry +out of multitudinous toils of the busiest life. If we would think less +of our hard work and of our heavy sorrows, and more of the loving +purpose which appoints them all, we should find life less difficult, +less toilsome, less mysterious. That one thought taken to our hearts, +and honestly applied to everything that befalls us, would untie many a +riddle, would wipe away many a tear, would bring peace and patience +into many a heart, and would make still brighter many a gladness. +Without it our lives are a chaos; with it they would become an ordered +world. + +But the recognition of the hand that ministers the discipline is +needed to complete the peacefulness of faith. It would be a dreary +world if we could only think of some inscrutable or impersonal power +that inflicted the discipline; but if in its sharpest pangs we give +'reverence to the Father of spirits,' we shall 'live.' Of course, a +loving father sees to his children's education, and a loving child +cannot but believe that the father's single purpose in all his +discipline is his good. The good that is sought to be attained by the +sharpest chastisement is better than the good that is given by weak +indulgence. When the father's hand wields the rod, and a loving child +receives the strokes, they may sting, but they do not wound. The +'fathers of our flesh chasten us after their own pleasure,' and there +may be error and arbitrariness in their action; and the child may +sometimes nourish a right sense of injustice, but 'the Father of +spirits' makes no mistakes, and never strikes too hard. 'He for our +profit' carries with it the declaration that the deep heart of God +doth not willingly afflict, and seeks in afflicting for nothing but +His children's good. + +Nor are these all the truths by which the New Testament completes and +supersedes the Preacher's pessimism, for our text closes by unveiling +the highest profit which discipline is meant to secure to us as being +that we should be 'partakers of His holiness.' The Biblical conception +of holiness in God is that of separation from and elevation above the +creature. Man's holiness is separation from the world and dedication +to God. He is separated from the world by moral perfection yet more +than by His other attributes, and men who have yielded themselves to +Him will share in that characteristic. This assimilation to His nature +is the highest 'profit' to which we can attain, and all the purpose of +His chastening is to make us more completely like Himself. 'The +fathers of our flesh' chasten with a view to the brief earthly life, +but His chastening looks onwards beyond the days of 'strife and +vanity' to a calm eternity. + +Thus, then, the immortality which glimmered doubtfully in the end of +his book before the eyes of the Preacher is the natural inference for +the Christian thought of moral discipline as the great purpose of +life. No doubt it might be possible for a man to believe in the +supreme importance of character, and in all the discipline of life as +subsidiary to its development, and yet not believe in another world, +where all that was tendency, often thwarted, should be accomplished +result, and the schooling ended the rod should be broken. But such a +position will be very rare and very absurd. To recognise moral +discipline as the greatest purpose of life, gives quite overwhelming +probability to a future. Surely God does not take such pains with us +in order to make no more of us than He makes of us in this world. +Surely human life becomes 'confusion worse confounded' if it is +carefully, sedulously, continuously tended, checked, inspired, +developed by all the various experiences of sorrow and joy, and then, +at death, broken short off, as a man might break a stick across his +knee, and the fragments tossed aside and forgotten. If we can say, 'He +for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness,' we have +the right to say 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.' + + + +'A TIME TO PLANT' + +'A time to plant.'--Eccles. iii. 2. + + +The writer enumerates in this context a number of opposite courses of +conduct arranged in pairs, each of which is right at the right time. +The view thus presented seems to him to be depressing, and to make +life difficult to understand, and aimless. We always appear to be +building up with one hand and pulling down with the other. The ship +never heads for two miles together in the same direction. The history +of human affairs appears to be as purposeless as the play of the wind +on the desert sands, which it sometimes piles into huge mounds and +then scatters. + +So he concludes that only God, who appoints the seasons that demand +opposite courses of conduct, can understand what it all means. The +engine-driver knows why he reverses his engine, and not the wheels +that are running in opposite directions in consecutive moments +according to his will. + +Now that is a one-sided view, of course, for it is to be remembered +that the Book of Ecclesiastes is the logbook of a voyager after truth, +and tells us all the wanderings and errors of his thinking until he +has arrived at the haven of the conclusion that he announces in the +final word: 'Hear the sum of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His +commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.' + +I have nothing to do just now with the conclusion which he arrives at, +but the facts from which he starts are significant and important. +There are things in life, God has so arranged it, which can only be +done fittingly, and for the most part of all, at certain seasons; and +the secret of success is the discernment of present duty, and the +prompt performance of it. + +And this is especially true about your time of life, my young friends. +There are things, very important things, which, unless you do them +now, the overwhelming probability is that you will never do at all; +and the certainty is that you will not do them half as well. And so I +want to ask you to look at these words, which, by a legitimate +extension of the writer's meaning, and taking them in a kind of +parabolic way, may sum up for us the whole of the special duties of +youth. 'A time to plant.' + +I. Now, my first remark is this: that you are now in the planting time +of your lives. + +No wise forester will try to shift shrubs or to put them into his +gardens or woods, except in late autumn or early spring. And our lives +are as really under the dominion of the law of seasons as the green +world of the forest and the fields. Speaking generally, and admitting +the existence of many exceptions, the years between childhood and, +say, two or three-and-twenty, for a young man or woman, for the most +part settle the main outline of their character, and thereby determine +their history, which, after all, is mainly the outcome of their +character. + +You have wide possibilities before you, of moulding your characters +into beauty, and purity, holiness, and strength. + +For one thing, you have got no past, or next to none written all over, +which it is hard to erase. You have substantially a clean sheet on +which to write what you like. Your stage of life predisposes you in +favour of novelty. New things are glad things to you, whereas to us +older people a new thought coming into some of our brains is like a +new bit of furniture coming into a crowded room. All the other pieces +need to be arranged, and it is more of a trouble than anything else. +You are flexible and plastic as yet, like the iron running out of the +blast furnace in a molten stream, which in half an hour's time will be +a rigid bar that no man can bend. + +You have all these things in your favour, and so, dear young friends, +whether you think of it or not, whether voluntarily or not, I want you +to remember that this awful process is going on inevitably and +constantly in every one of you. You are planting, whether you +recognise the fact or no. What are you planting? + +Well, for one thing, you are making _habits_, which are but +actions hardened, like the juice that exudes from the pine-tree, +liquid, or all but liquid, when it comes out, and when exposed to the +air, is solidified and tenacious. The old legend of the man in the +tower who got a slim thread up to his window, to which was attached +one thicker and then thicker, and so on ever increasing until he +hauled in a cable, is a true parable of what goes on in every human +life. Some one deed, a thin film like a spider's thread, draws after +it a thicker, by that inevitable law that a thing done once tends to +be done twice, and that the second time it is easier than the first +time. A man makes a track with great difficulty across the snow in a +morning, but every time that he travels it, it is a little harder, and +the track is a little broader, and it is easier walking. You play with +the tiger's whelp of some pleasant, questionable enjoyment, and you +think that it will always keep so innocent, with its budding claws not +able to draw blood, but it grows--_it grows_. And it grows +according to its kind, and what was a plaything one day is a +full-grown and ravening wild beast in a while. You are making habits, +whatever else you are making, and you are planting in your hearts +seeds that will spring and bear fruit according to their kind. + +Then remember, you are planting _belief_.--Most of us, I am +afraid, get our opinions by haphazard; like the child in the +well-known story, whose only account of herself was that 'she expected +she growed.' That is the way by which most of you come to what you +dignify by the name of your opinions. They come in upon you, you do +not know how. Youth is receptive of anything new. You can learn a vast +deal more easily than many of us older people can. Set down a man who +has never learned the alphabet, to learn his letters, and see what a +task it is for him. Or if he takes a pen in his hand for the first +time, look how difficult the stiff wrist and thick knuckles find it to +bend. Yours is the time for forming your opinions, for forming some +rational and intelligent account of yourself and the world about you. +See to it, that you plant truth in your hearts, under which you may +live sheltered for many days. + +Then again, you are planting character, which is not only habit, but +something more. You are making _yourselves_, whatever else you +are making. You begin with almost boundless possibilities, and these +narrow and narrow and narrow, according to your actions, until you +have laid the rails on which you travel--one narrow line that you +cannot get off. A man's character is, if I may use a chemical term, a +'precipitate' from his actions. Why, it takes acres of roses to make a +flask of perfume; and all the long life of a man is represented in his +ultimate character. Character is formed like those chalk cliffs in the +south, built up eight hundred feet, beetling above the stormy sea; and +all made up of the relics of microscopic animals. So you build up a +great solid structure--yourself--out of all your deeds. You are making +your character, your habits, your opinions.--And you are making your +reputation too. And you will not be able to get rid of that. This is +the time for you to make a good record or a bad one, in other people's +opinions. + +And so, young men and women, boys and girls, I want you to remember +the permanent effects of your most fleeting acts. Nothing ever dies +that a man does. Nothing! You go into a museum, and you will see +standing there a slab of red sandstone, and little dints and dimples +upon it. What are they? Marks made by a flying shower that lasted for +five minutes, nobody knows how many millenniums ago. And there they +are, and there they will be until the world is burned up. So our +fleeting deeds are all recorded here, in our permanent character. +Everything that we have done is laid up there in the testimony of the +rocks:-- + + 'Through our soul the echoes roll, + And grow for ever and for ever.' + +You are now living in 'a time to plant.' + +II. Notice, in the next place, that as surely as _now_ is the +time to plant, _then_ will be a time to reap. + +I do not know whether the writer of my text meant the harvest, when he +put in antithesis to my text the other clause, 'and a time to pluck up +that which is planted.' Probably, as most of the other pairs are +opposites, here, too, we are to see an opposite rather than a result; +the destructive action of plucking up, and not the preservative action +of gathering a harvest. But, however that may be, let me remind you +that there stands, irrefragable, for every human soul and every human +deed, this great solemn law of retribution. + +Now what lies in that law? Two things--that the results are similar in +kind, and more in number. The law of likeness, and the law of +increase, both of them belong to the working of the law of +retribution. And so, be sure that you will find out that all your past +lives on into your present; and that the present, in fact, is very +little more than the outcome of the past. What you plant as a youth +you will reap as a man. This mysterious life of ours is all sowing and +reaping intermingled, right away on to the very end. Each action is in +turn the child of all the preceding and the parent of all that +follows. But still, though that be true, your time of life is +predominantly the time of sowing; and my time of life, for instance, +is predominantly the time of reaping. There are a great many things +that I could not do now if I wished. There are a great many things in +our past that I, and men of my age, would fain alter; but there they +stand, and nothing can do away the marks of that which once has been. +We have to reap, and so will you some day. + +And I will tell you what you will have to reap, as sure as you are +sitting in those pews. You will have the enlarged growth of your +present characteristics. A man takes a photograph upon a sensitive +plate, half the size of the palm of my hand; and then he enlarges it +to any size he pleases. And that is what life does for all of us. The +pictures, drawn small on the young man's imagination, on the young +woman's dreaming heart, be they of angels or of beasts, are permanent; +and they will get bigger and bigger and bigger, as get older. You do +not reap only as much as you sowed, but 'some sixty fold, and some an +hundred fold.' + +And you will reap the increased dominion of your early habits. There +is a grim verse in the Book of Proverbs that speaks about a man being +tied and bound by the chains of his sins. And that is just saying that +the things which you chose to do when you were a boy, many of them you +will have to do when you are a man; because you have lost the power, +though sometimes not the will, of doing anything else. There be men +that sow the wind, and they do not reap the wind, but the law of +increase comes in and they reap the whirlwind. There be men who, +according to the old Greek legend, sow dragon's teeth and they reap +armed soldiers. There are some of you that are sowing to the flesh, +and as sure as God lives, you will 'of the flesh reap corruption.' +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that,' even here, 'shall he also reap.' + +And let me remind you that that law of inheriting the fruit of our +doings is by no means exhausted by the experience of life. Whenever +conscience is awakened it at once testifies not only of a broken law, +but of a living Law-giver; and not only of retribution here, but of +retribution hereafter. And I for my part believe that the modern form +of Christianity and the tendencies of the modern pulpit, influenced by +some theological discussions, about details in the notion of +retribution that have been going on of late years, have operated to +make ministers of the Gospel too chary of preaching, and hearers +indisposed to accept, the message of 'the terror of the Lord.' My dear +friends! retribution cannot stop on this side of the grave, and if you +are going yonder you are carrying with you the necessity in yourself +for inheriting the results of your life here. I beseech you, do not +put away such thoughts as this, with the notion that I am brandishing +before you some antiquated doctrine, fit only to frighten old women +and children. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes was no +weak-minded, superstitious fanatic. He was far more disposed to +scepticism than to fanaticism. But for all that, with all his sympathy +for young men's breadth and liberality, with his tolerance for all +sorts and ways of living, with all his doubts and questionings, he +came to this, and this was his teaching to the young men whom in idea +he had gathered round his chair,--'Rejoice, oh young man, in thy +youth. And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk +in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.' By all +means, God has put you into a fair world, and meant you to get all the +good out of it. 'But,' and that not as a kill-joy, 'know thou, that +for all these things God will bring thee into judgment,' and shape +your characters accordingly. + +III. Still further, let me say, these things being so, you especially +need to ponder them. + +That is so, because you especially are in danger of forgetting them. +It is meant that young people should live by impulse much more than by +reflection. + + 'If nature put not forth her power + About the opening of the flower, + Who is there that could live an hour?' + +The days of calculation will come soon enough; and I do not want to +hurry them. I do not want to put old heads upon young shoulders. I +would rather see the young ones, a great deal. But I want you not to +go down to the level of the beast, living only by instinct and by +impulse. You have got brains, you are meant to use them. You have the +great divine gift of reason, that looks before and after, and though +you have not much experience yet, you can, if you will, reflect upon +such things as I have just been saying to you, and take them into your +hearts, and live accordingly. My dear young friend! enjoy yourself, +live buoyantly, yield to your impulses, be glad for the beautiful life +that is unfolding around you, and the strong nature that is blossoming +within you. And then take this other lesson, 'Ponder the path of thy +feet,' and remember that all the while you dance along the flowery +path, you are planting what you will have to reap. + +Then, still further, it is especially needful for you that you should +ponder these things, because unless you do you will certainly go +wrong. If you do not plant good, somebody else will plant evil. An +untilled field is not a field that nothing grows in, but it is a field +full of weeds; and the world and the flesh and the devil, the +temptations round about you and the evil tendencies in you, unless +they are well kept down and kept off, are sure to fill your souls full +of all manner of seeds that will spring up to bitterness, and poison, +and death. Oh! think, think! for it is the only chance of keeping your +hearts from being full of wickedness--think what you are sowing, and +think what will the harvest be. There are some of you, as I said, +sowing to the flesh, young men living impure and wicked lives, and +'their bones are full of the sins of their youth.' There are some of +you letting every wind bring the thistledown of vanities, and scatter +them all across your hearts, that they may spring up prickly, and +gifted with a fatal power of self-multiplication. There are some of +you, young men, and young women too, whose lives are divided between +Manchester business and that ignoble thirst for mere amusement which +is eating all the dignity and the earnestness out of the young men of +this city. I beseech you, do not slide into habits of frivolity, +licentiousness, and sin, for want of looking after yourselves. +Remember, if you do not ponder the path of your feet, you are sure to +take the turn to the left. + +Again, it is needful for you to ponder these things, for if you waste +this time, it will never come back to you any more. It is useless to +sow corn in August. There are things in this world that a man can only +get when he is young, such as sound education, for instance; business +habits, habits of industry, of application, of concentration, of +self-control, a reputation which may avail in the future. If you do +not begin to get these before you are five-and-twenty, you will never +get them. + +And although the certainty is not so absolute in regard to spiritual +and religious things, the dice are frightfully weighted, and the +chances are terribly small that a young man who, like some of you, has +passed his early years in church or chapel, in weekly contact with +earnest preaching, and has not accepted the Saviour, will do it when +he grows old. He may; he may. But it is a great deal more likely that +he will not. + +IV. The conclusion of the whole matter is, Begin on the spot, to trust +and to serve Jesus Christ. + +These are the best things to plant--simple reliance upon His death for +your forgiveness, upon His power to make you pure and clean; simple +submission to His commandment. Oh! dear young friend; if you have +these in your hearts everything will come right. You will get habit on +your side, and that is much; and you will be saved from a great deal +of misery which would be yours if you went wrong first, and then came +right. + +If you will plant a cutting of the tree of life in your heart it will +yield everything to you when it grows. The people in the South Seas, +if they have a palm-tree, can get out of it bread and drink, food, +clothing, shelter, light, materials for books, cordage for their +boats, needles to sew with, and everything. If you will take Jesus +Christ, and plant Him in your hearts, everything will come out of +that. That Tree 'bears twelve manners of fruits, and yields His fruit +every month.' With Christ in your heart all other fair things will be +planted there; and with Him in your heart, all evil things which you +may already have planted there, will be rooted out. Just as when some +strong exotic is carried to some distant land and there takes root, it +exterminates the feebler vegetation of the place to which it comes; so +with Christ in my heart the sins, the evil habits, the passions, the +lusts, and all other foul spawn and offspring, will die and disappear. +Take Him, then, dear friend! by simple faith, for your Saviour. He +will plant the good seed in your spirit, and 'instead of the briar +shall come up the myrtle.' Your lives will become fruitful of goodness +and of joy, according to that ancient promise: 'The righteous shall +flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. +Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the +courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.' + + + +ETERNITY IN THE HEART + +'He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the +world in their heart.'--ECCLES. iii. 11. + + +There is considerable difficulty in understanding what precise meaning +is to be attached to these words, and what precise bearing they have +on the general course of the writer's thoughts; but one or two things +are, at any rate, quite clear. + +The Preacher has been enumerating all the various vicissitudes of +prosperity and adversity, of construction and destruction, of society +and solitude, of love and hate, for which there is scope and verge +enough in one short human life; and his conclusion is, as it always is +in the earlier part of this book, that because there is such an +endless diversity of possible occupation, and each of them lasts but +for a little time, and its opposite has as good a right of existence +as itself; therefore, perhaps, it might be as well that a man should +do nothing as do all these opposite things which neutralise each +other, and the net result of which is nothing. If there be a time to +be born and a time to die, nonentity would be the same when all is +over. If there be a time to plant and a time to pluck, what is the +good of planting? If there be a time for love and a time for hate, why +cherish affections which are transient and may be succeeded by their +opposites? + +And then another current of thought passes through his mind, and he +gets another glimpse somewhat different, and says in effect, 'No! that +is not all true--God has made all these different changes, and +although each of them seems contradictory of the other, in its own +place and at its own time each is beautiful and has a right to exist.' +The contexture of life, and even the perplexities and darknesses of +human society, and the varieties of earthly condition--if they be +confined within their own proper limits, and regarded as parts of a +whole--they are all co-operant to an end. As from wheels turning +different ways in some great complicated machine, and yet fitting by +their cogs into one another, there may be a resultant direct motion +produced even by these apparently antagonistic forces. + +But the second clause of our text adds a thought which is in some +sense contrasted with this. + +The word rendered 'world' is a very frequent one in the Old Testament, +and has never but one meaning, and that meaning is _eternity_. +'He hath set _eternity_ in their heart.' + +Here, then, are two antagonistic facts. They are transient things, a +vicissitude which moves within natural limits, temporary events which +are beautiful in their season. But there is also the contrasted fact, +that the man who is thus tossed about, as by some great battledore +wielded by giant powers in mockery, from one changing thing to +another, has relations to something more lasting than the transient. +He lives in a world of fleeting change, but he has 'eternity' in 'his +heart.' So between him and his dwelling-place, between him and his +occupations, there is a gulf of disproportion. He is subjected to +these alternations, and yet bears within him a repressed but immortal +consciousness that he belongs to another order of things, which knows +no vicissitude and fears no decay. He possesses stifled and +misinterpreted longings which, however starved, do yet survive, after +unchanging Being and eternal Rest, And thus endowed, and by contrast +thus situated, his soul is full of the 'blank misgiving of a creature +moving about in worlds not realised.' Out of these two facts--says our +text--man's _where_ and man's _what_, his nature and his +position, there rises a mist of perplexity and darkness that wraps the +whole course of the divine actions--unless, indeed, we have reached +that central height of vision above the mists, which this Book of +Ecclesiastes puts forth at last as the conclusion of the whole +matter--'Fear God, and keep His commandments.' If transitory things +with their multitudinous and successive waves toss us to solid safety +on the Rock of Ages, then all is well, and many mysteries will be +clear. But if not, if we have not found, or rather followed, the one +God-given way of harmonising these two sets of experiences--life in +the transient, and longings for the eternal--then their antagonism +darkens our thoughts of a wise and loving Providence, and we have lost +the key to the confused riddle which the world then presents. 'He hath +made everything beautiful in his time: also He hath set Eternity in +their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from +the beginning to the end.' + +Such, then, being a partial but, perhaps, not entirely inadequate view +of the course of thought in the words before us, I may now proceed to +expand the considerations thus brought under our notice in them. These +may be gathered up in three principal ones: the consciousness of +Eternity in every heart; the disproportion thence resulting between +this nature of ours and the order of things in which we dwell; and +finally, the possible satisfying of that longing in men's hearts--a +possibility not indeed referred to in our text, but unveiled as the +final word of this Book of Ecclesiastes, and made clear to us in Jesus +Christ. + +I. Consider that eternity is set in every human heart. + +The expression is, of course, somewhat difficult, even if we accept +generally the explanation which I have given. It may be either a +declaration of the actual immortality of the soul, or it may mean, as +I rather suppose it to do, the consciousness of eternity which is part +of human nature. + +The former idea is no doubt closely connected with the latter, and +would here yield an appropriate sense. We should then have the +contrast between man's undying existence and the transient trifles on +which he is tempted to fix his love and hopes. We belong to one set of +existences by our bodies, and to another by our souls. Though we are +parts of the passing material world, yet in that outward frame is +lodged a personality that has nothing in common with decay and death. +A spark of eternity dwells in these fleeting frames. The laws of +physical growth and accretion and maturity and decay, which rule over +all things material, do not apply to my true self. 'In our embers is +something that doth live.' Whatsoever befalls the hairs that get grey +and thin, and the hands that become wrinkled and palsied, and the +heart that is worn out by much beating, and the blood that clogs and +clots at last, and the filmy eye, and all the corruptible frame; yet, +as the heathen said, 'I shall not _all_ die,' but deep within +this transient clay house, that must crack and fall and be resolved +into the elements out of which it was built up, there dwells an +immortal guest, an undying personal self. In the heart, the inmost +spiritual being of every man, eternity, in this sense of the word, +does dwell. + +'Commonplaces,' you say. Yes; commonplaces, which word means two +things--truths that affect us all, and also truths which, because they +are so universal and so entirely believed, are all but powerless. +Surely it is not time to stop preaching such truths as long as they +are forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the people who +acknowledge them. Thank God! the staple of the work of us preachers is +the reiteration of commonplaces, which His goodness has made familiar, +and our indolence and sin have made stale and powerless. + +My brother! you would be a wiser man if, instead of turning the edge +of statements which you know to be true, and which, if true, are +infinitely solemn and important, by commonplace sarcasm about pulpit +commonplaces, you would honestly try to drive the familiar neglected +truth home to your mind and heart. Strip it of its generality and +think, 'It is true about _me. I_ live for ever. My outward life +will cease, and _my_ dust will return to dust--but _I_ shall +last undying.' And ask yourselves--What then? 'Am I making "provision +for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof," in more or less refined +fashion, and forgetting to provide for that which lives for evermore? +Eternity is in _my_ heart. What a madness it is to go on, as if +either I were to continue for ever among the shows of time, or when I +leave them all, to die wholly and be done with altogether!' + +But, probably, the other interpretation of these words is the truer. +The doctrine of immortality does not seem to be stated in this Book of +Ecclesiastes, except in one or two very doubtful expressions. And it +is more in accordance with its whole tone to suppose the Preacher here +to be asserting, not that the heart or spirit is immortal, but that, +whether it is or no, in the heart is planted the _thought_, the +_consciousness_ of eternity--and the longing after it. + +Let me put that into other words. We, brethren, are the only beings on +this earth who can think the thought and speak the word--Eternity. +Other creatures are happy while immersed in time; we have another +nature, and are disturbed by a thought which shines high above the +roaring sea of circumstance in which we float. + +I do not care at present about the metaphysical puzzles that have been +gathered round that conception, nor care to ask whether it is positive +or negative, adequate or inadequate. Enough that the word has a +meaning, that it corresponds to a thought which dwells in men's minds. +It is of no consequence at all for our purpose, whether it is a +positive conception, or simply the thinking away of all limitations. +'I know what God is, when you do not ask me.' I know what eternity is, +though I cannot define the word to satisfy a metaphysician. The little +child taught by some grandmother Lois, in a cottage, knows what she +means when she tells him 'you will live for ever,' though both scholar +and teacher would be puzzled to put it into other words. When we say +eternity flows round this bank and shoal of time, men know what we +mean. Heart answers to heart; and in each heart lies that solemn +thought--for ever! + +Like all other of the primal thoughts of men's souls, it may be +increased in force and clearness, or it may be neglected and opposed, +and all but crushed. The thought of God is natural to man, the thought +of right and wrong is natural to man--and yet there may be atheists +who have blinded their eyes, and there may be degraded and almost +animal natures who have seared their consciences and called sweet +bitter and evil good. Thus men may so plunge themselves into the +present as to lose the consciousness of the eternal--as a man swept +over Niagara, blinded by the spray and deafened by the rush, would see +or hear nothing outside the green walls of the death that encompassed +him. And yet the blue sky with its peaceful spaces stretches above the +hell of waters. + +So the thought is in us all--a presentiment and a consciousness; and +that universal presentiment itself goes far to establish the reality +of the unseen order of things to which it is directed. The great +planet that moves on the outmost circle of our system was discovered +because that next it wavered in its course in a fashion which was +inexplicable, unless some unknown mass was attracting it from across +millions of miles of darkling space. And there are 'perturbations' in +our spirits which cannot be understood, unless from them we may divine +that far-off and unseen world, that has power from afar to sway in +their orbits the little lives of mortal men. It draws us to +itself--but, alas! the attraction may be resisted and thwarted. The +dead mass of the planet bends to the drawing, but we can repel the +constraint which the eternal world would exercise upon us--and so that +consciousness which ought to be our nobleness, as it is our +prerogative, may become our shame, our misery, and our sin. + +That Eternity which is set in our hearts is not merely the thought of +ever-during Being, or of an everlasting order of things to which we +are in some way related. But there are connected with it other ideas +besides those of mere duration. Men know what perfection means. They +understand the meaning of perfect goodness; they have the notion of +infinite Wisdom and boundless Love. These thoughts are the material of +all poetry, the thread from which the imagination creates all her +wondrous tapestries. This 'capacity for the Infinite,' as people call +it--which is only a fine way of putting the same thought as that in +our text--which is the prerogative of human spirits, is likewise the +curse of many spirits. By their misuse of it they make it a fatal +gift, and turn it into an unsatisfied desire which gnaws their souls, +a famished yearning which 'roars, and suffers hunger.' Knowing what +perfection is, they turn to limited natures and created hearts for +their rest. Having the haunting thought of an absolute Goodness, a +perfect Wisdom, an endless Love, an eternal Life--they try to find the +being that corresponds to their thought here on earth, and so they are +plagued with endless disappointment. + +My brother! God has put eternity in _your_ heart. Not only will +you live for ever, but also in your present life you have a +consciousness of that eternal and infinite and all-sufficient Being +that lives above. You have need of Him, and whether you know it or +not, the tendrils of your spirits, like some climbing plant not +fostered by a careful hand but growing wild, are feeling out into the +vacancy in order to grasp the stay which they need for their fruitage +and their strength. + +By the make of our spirits, by the possibilities that dawn dim before +us, by the thoughts 'whose very sweetness yieldeth proof that they +were born for immortality,'--by all these and a thousand other signs +and facts in every human life we say, 'God has set eternity in their +hearts!' + +II. And then turn to the second idea that is here. The disproportion +between this our nature, and the world in which we dwell. + +The writer of this book (whether Solomon or no we need not stay to +discuss) looks out upon the world; and in accordance with the +prevailing tone of all the earlier parts of his contemplations, finds +in this prerogative of man but another reason for saying, 'All is +vanity and vexation of spirit.' + +Two facts meet him antagonistic to one another: the place that man +occupies, and the nature that man bears. This creature with eternity +in his heart, where is he set? what has he got to work upon? what has +he to love and hold by, to trust to, and anchor his life on? A crowd +of things, each well enough, but each having a _time_--and though +they be beautiful in their time, yet fading and vanishing when it has +elapsed. No multiplication of _times_ will make _eternity_. +And so with that thought in his heart, man is driven out among objects +perfectly insufficient to meet it. + +Christ said, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but +the Son of man hath not where to lay His head'--and while the words +have their proper and most pathetic meaning in the history of His own +earthly life of travail and toil for our sakes, we may also venture to +give them the further application, that all the lower creatures are at +rest here, and that the more truly a man is man, the less can he find, +among all the shadows of the present, a pillow for his head, a place +of repose for his heart. The animal nature is at home in the material +world, the human nature is not. + +Every other creature presents the most accurate correspondence between +nature and circumstances, powers and occupations. Man alone is like +some poor land-bird blown out to sea, and floating half-drowned with +clinging plumage on an ocean where the dove 'finds no rest for the +sole of her foot,' or like some creature that loves to glance in the +sunlight, but is plunged into the deepest recesses of a dark mine. In +the midst of a universe marked by the nicest adaptations of creatures +to their habitation, man alone, the head of them all, presents the +unheard-of anomaly that he is surrounded by conditions which do +_not_ fit his whole nature, which are not adequate for all his +powers, on which he cannot feed and nurture his whole being. 'To what +purpose is this waste?' 'Hast thou made all men in vain?' + +Everything is 'beautiful in its time.' Yes, and for that very reason, +as this Book of Ecclesiastes says in another verse, 'Because to every +purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is +great upon him.' It was happy when we loved; but the day of +indifference and alienation and separation comes. Our spirits were +glad when we were planting; but the time for plucking up that which +was planted is sure to draw near. It was blessed to pour out our souls +in the effluence of love, or in the fullness of thought, and the time +to speak was joyous; but the dark day of silence comes on. When we +twined hearts and clasped hands together it was glad, and the time +when we embraced was blessed; but the time to refrain from embracing +is as sure to draw near. It is good for the eyes to behold the sun, +but so certainly as it rolls to its bed in the west, and 'leaves the +world to darkness' and to us, do all earthly occupations wane and +fade, and all possessions shrivel and dwindle, and all associations +snap and drop and end, and the whirligig of time works round and takes +away everything which it once brought us. + +And so man, with eternity in his heart, with the hunger in his spirit +after an unchanging whole, an absolute good, an ideal perfectness, an +immortal being--is condemned to the treadmill of transitory +revolution. Nothing continueth in one stay, 'For all that _is_ in +the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the +pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the +world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' It is limited, it is +changeful, it slips from under us as we stand upon it, and therefore, +mystery and perplexity stoop down upon the providence of God, and +misery and loneliness enter into the heart of man. These changeful +things, they do not meet our ideal, they do not satisfy our wants, +they do not last even our duration. + +'The misery of man is great upon him,' said the text quoted a moment +ago. And is it not? Is this present life enough for you? Sometimes you +fancy it is. Many of us habitually act on the understanding that it +is, and treat all that I have been saying about the disproportion +between our nature and our circumstances as not true about them. 'This +world not enough for me!' you say--'Yes! it is; only let me get a +little more of it, and keep what I get, and I shall be all right.' So +then--'a little more' is wanted, is it? And that 'little more' will +always be wanted, and besides it, the guarantee of permanence will +always be wanted, and failing these, there will be a hunger that +nothing can fill which belongs to earth. Do you remember the bitter +experience of the poor prodigal, 'he would fain have filled his belly +with the husks'? He tried his best to live upon the horny, +innutritious pods, but he could not; and after them he still was +'perishing with hunger.' So it is with us all when we try to fill the +soul and satisfy the spirit with earth or aught that holds of it. It +is as impossible to still the hunger of the heart with that, as to +stay the hunger of the body with wise sayings or noble sentiments. + +I appeal to your real selves, to your own past experience. Is it not +true that, deep below the surface contentment with the world and the +things of the world, a dormant but slightly slumbering sense of want +and unsatisfied need lies in your souls? Is it not true that it wakes +sometimes at a touch; that the tender, dying light of sunset, or the +calm abysses of the mighty heavens, or some strain of music, or a line +in a book, or a sorrow in your heart, or the solemnity of a great joy, +or close contact with sickness and death, or the more direct appeals +of Scripture and of Christ, stir a wistful yearning and a painful +sense of emptiness in your hearts, and of insufficiency in all the +ordinary pursuits of your lives? It cannot but be so; for though it be +true that our natures are in some measure subdued to what we work in, +and although it is possible to atrophy the deepest parts of our being +by long neglect or starvation, yet you will never do that so +thoroughly but that the deep-seated longing will break forth at +intervals, and the cry of its hunger echo through the soul. Many of us +do our best to silence it. But I, for my part, believe that, however +you have crushed and hardened your souls by indifference, by ambition, +by worldly cares, by frivolous or coarse pleasures, or by any of the +thousand other ways in which you can do it--yet there is some response +in your truest self to my poor words when I declare that a soul +without God is an empty and an aching soul! + +These things which, even in their time of beauty, are not enough for a +man's soul--have all but a time to be beautiful in, and then they fade +and die. A great botanist made what he called 'a floral clock' to mark +the hours of the day by the opening and closing of flowers. It was a +graceful and yet a pathetic thought. One after another they spread +their petals, and their varying colours glow in the light. But one +after another they wearily shut their cups, and the night falls, and +the latest of them folds itself together, and all are hidden away in +the dark. So our joys and treasures, were they sufficient did they +last, cannot last. After a summer's day comes a summer's night, and +after a brief space of them comes winter, when all are killed and the +leafless trees stand silent. + + 'Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.' + +We cleave to these temporal possessions and joys, and the natural law +of change sweeps them away from us one by one. Most of them do not +last so long as we do, and they pain us when _they_ pass away +from us. Some of them last longer than we do, and _they_ pain us +when we pass away from them. Either way our hold of them is a +transient hold, and one knows not whether is the sadder--the bare +garden beds where all have done blowing, and nothing remains but a +tangle of decay, or the blooming beauty from which a man is summoned +away, leaving others to reap what he has sown. Tragic enough are both +at the best--and certain to befall us all. We live and they fade; we +die and they remain. We live again and they are far away. The facts +are _so_. We may make them a joy or a sorrow as we will. +Transiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and +delights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of +eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our +inmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed +even by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will +be the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do you mean that they +shall be for you? + +III. These thoughts lead us to consider the possible satisfying of our +souls. + +This Book of Ecclesiastes is rather meant to enforce the truth of the +weariness and emptiness of a godless life, than of the blessedness of +a godly one. It is the record of the struggles of a soul--'the +confessions of an inquiring spirit'--feeling and fighting its way +through many errors, and many partial and unsatisfactory solutions of +the great problem of life, till he reaches the one in which he can +rest. When he has touched that goal his work is done. And so the +devious way is told in the book at full length, while a sentence sets +forth the conclusion to which he was working, even when he was most +bewildered. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is 'Fear God and keep +His commandments.' That is all that a man needs. It is 'the whole of +man.' 'All is' _not_ 'vanity and vexation of spirit' +_then_--but 'all things work together for good to them that love +God.' + +The Preacher in his day learned that it was possible to satisfy the +hunger for eternity, which had once seemed to him a questionable +blessing. He learned that it was a loving Providence which had made +man's home so little fit for him, that he might seek the 'city which +hath foundations.' He learned that all the pain of passing beauty, and +the fading flowers of man's goodliness, were capable of being turned +into a solemn joy. Standing at the centre, he saw order instead of +chaos, and when he had come back, after all his search, to the old +simple faith of peasants and children in Judah, to fear God and keep +His commandments, he understood why God had set eternity in man's +heart, and then flung him out, as if in mockery, amidst the stormy +waves of the changeful ocean of time. + +And we, who have a further word from God, may have a fuller and yet +more blessed conviction, built upon our own happy experience, if we +choose, that it _is_ possible for us to have that deep thirst +slaked, that longing appeased. We have Christ to trust to and to love. +He has given Himself for us that all our many sins against the eternal +love and our guilty squandering of our hearts upon transitory +treasures may be forgiven. He has come amongst us, the Word in human +flesh, that our poor eyes may see the Eternal walking amidst the +things of time and sense, and may discern a beauty in Him beyond +'whatsoever things are lovely.' He has come that we through Him may +lay hold on God, even as in Him God lays hold on us. As in mysterious +and transcendent union the divine takes into itself the human in that +person of Jesus, and Eternity is blended with Time; we, trusting Him +and yielding our hearts to Him, receive into our poor lives an +incorruptible seed, and for us the soul-satisfying realities that +abide for ever mingle with and are reached through the shadows that +pass away. + +Brethren, yield yourselves to Him! In conscious unworthiness, in lowly +penitence, let us cast ourselves on Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice, for +pardon and peace! Trust Him and love Him! Live by Him and for Him! And +then, the loftiest thoughts of our hearts, as they seek after absolute +perfection and changeless love, shall be more than fulfilled in Him +who is more than all that man ever dreamed, because He is the +perfection of man, and the Son of God. + +Love Christ and live in Him, taking Him for the motive, the spring, +and the very atmosphere of your lives, and then no capacities will +languish for lack of either stimulus or field, and no weariness will +come over you, as if you were a stranger from your home. For if Christ +be near us, all things go well with us. If we live for Him, the power +of that motive will make all our nature blossom like the vernal woods, +and dry branches break into leafage. If we dwell in Him, we shall be +at home wherever we are, like the patriarch who pitched his tent in +many lands, but always had the same tent wherever he went. So we shall +have the one abode, though its place in the desert may vary--and we +shall not need to care whether the encampment be beneath the +palm-trees and beside the wells of Elim, or amidst the drought of +Marah, so long as the same covering protects us, and the same pillar +of fire burns above us. + +Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great +aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ +gives, and is. The vicissitude will really become the source of +freshness and progress which God meant it to be. Everything which, +when made our all-sufficient portion, becomes stale and unprofitable, +even in its time, will be apparelled in celestial light. It shall all +be lovely and pleasant while it lasts, and its beauty will not be +saddened by the certainty of its decay, nor its empty place a pain +when it has passed away. + +Take Christ for Saviour and Friend, your Guide and Support through +time, and Himself, your Eternity and Joy, then all discords are +reconciled--and 'all things are yours--whether the world, or life, or +death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are +Christ's, and Christ is God's.' + + + +LESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK + +'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready +to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not +that they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine +heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and +thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh +through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by +multitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to +pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast +vowed. 5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou +shouldest vow and not pay. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh +to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: +wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of +thine hands? 7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words there +are also divers vanities: but fear thou God. 8. If thou seest the +oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice +in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than +the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. 9. Moreover, the +profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the +field. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; +nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. 11. +When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good +is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with +their eyes? 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat +little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to +sleep.'--ECCLES. v. 1-12. + + +This passage is composed of two or perhaps three apparently +disconnected sections. The faults in worship referred to in verses 1-7 +have nothing to do with the legalised robbery of verse 8, nor has the +demonstration of the folly of covetousness in verses 10-12 any +connection with either of the preceding subjects. But they are brought +into unity, if they are taken as applications in different directions +of the bitter truth which the writer sets himself to prove runs +through all life. 'All is vanity.' That principle may even be +exemplified in worship, and the obscure verse 7 which closes the +section about the faults of worship seems to be equivalent to the more +familiar close which rings the knell of so many of men's pursuits in +this book, 'This also is vanity.' It stands in the usual form in verse +10. + +We have in verses 1-7 a warning against the faults in worship which +make even it to be 'vanity,' unreal and empty and fruitless. These are +of three sorts, arranged, as it were, chronologically. The worshipper +is first regarded as going to the house of God, then as presenting his +prayers in it, and then as having left it and returned to his ordinary +life. The writer has cautions to give concerning conduct before, +during, and after public worship. + +Note that, in all three parts of his warnings, his favourite word of +condemnation appears as describing the vain worship to which he +opposes the right manner. They who fall into the faults condemned are +'fools.' If that class includes all who mar their worship by such +errors, the church which holds them had need to be of huge dimensions; +for the faults held up in these ancient words flourish in full +luxuriance to-day, and seem to haunt long-established Christianity +quite as mischievously as they did long-established Judaism. If we +could banish them from our religious assemblies, there would be fewer +complaints of the poor results of so much apparently Christian prayer +and preaching. + +Fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins. So our +passage commences with the demeanour of the worshipper on his way to +the house of God. He is to keep his foot; that is, to go deliberately, +thoughtfully, with realisation of what he is about to do. He is to +'draw near to hear' and to bethink himself, while drawing near, of +what his purpose should be. Our forefathers Sunday began on Saturday +night, and partly for that reason the hallowing influence of it ran +over into Monday, at all events. What likelihood is there that much +good will come of worship to people who talk politics or scandal right +up to the church door? Is reading newspapers in the pews, which they +tell us in England is not unknown in America, a good preparation for +worshipping God? The heaviest rain runs off parched ground, unless it +has been first softened by a gentle fall of moisture. Hearts that have +no dew of previous meditation to make them receptive are not likely to +drink in much of the showers of blessing which may be falling round +them. The formal worshipper who goes to the house of God because it is +the hour when he has always gone; the curious worshipper (?) who draws +near to hear indeed, but to hear a man, not God; and all the other +sorts of mere outward worshippers who make so large a proportion of +every Christian congregation--get the lesson they need, to begin with, +in this precept. + +Note, that right preparation for worship is better than worship +itself, if it is that of 'fools.' Drawing near with the true purpose +is better than being near with the wrong one. Note, too, the reason +for the vanity of the 'sacrifice of fools' is that 'they know not'; +and why do they not know, but because they did not draw near with the +purpose of hearing? Therefore, as the last clause of the verse says, +rightly rendered, 'they do evil.' All hangs together. No matter how +much we frequent the house of God, if we go with unprepared minds and +hearts we shall remain ignorant, and because we are so, our sacrifices +will be 'evil.' If the winnowing fan of this principle were applied to +our decorous congregations, who dress their bodies for church much +more carefully than they do their souls, what a cloud of chaff would +fly off! + +Then comes the direction for conduct in the act of worship. The same +thoughtfulness which kept the foot in coming to, should keep the heart +when in, the house of God. His exaltation and our lowliness should +check hasty words, blurting out uppermost wishes, or in any way +outrunning the sentiments and emotions of prepared hearts. Not that +the lesson would check the fervid flow of real desire. There is a type +of calm worship which keeps itself calm because it is cold. Propriety +and sobriety are its watchwords--both admirable things, and both dear +to tepid Christians. Other people besides the crowds on Pentecost +think that men whose lips are fired by the Spirit of God are +'drunken,' if not with wine, at all events with unwholesome +enthusiasm. But the outpourings of a soul filled, not only with the +sense that God is in heaven and we on earth, but also with the +assurance that He is near to it, and it to Him, are not rash and +hasty, however fervid. What is condemned is words which travel faster +than thoughts or feelings, or which proceed from hearts that have not +been brought into patient submission, or from such as lack reverent +realisation of God's majesty; and such faults may attach to the most +calm worship, and need not infect the most fervent. Those prayers are +not hasty which keep step with the suppliant's desires, when these +take the time from God's promises. That mouth is not rash which waits +to speak until the ear has heard. + +'Let thy words be few.' The heathen 'think that they shall be heard +for much speaking.' It needs not to tell our wants in many words to +One who knows them altogether, any more than a child needs many when +speaking to a father or mother. But 'few' must be measured by the +number of needs and desires. The shortest prayer, which is not +animated by a consciousness of need and a throb of desire, is too +long; the longest, which is vitalised by these, is short enough. What +becomes of the enormous percentage of public and private prayers, +which are mere repetitions, said because they are the right thing to +say, because everybody always has said them, and not because the man +praying really wants the things he asks for, or expects to get them +any the more for asking? + +Verse 3 gives a reason for the exhortation, 'A dream comes through a +multitude of business'--when a man is much occupied with any matter, +it is apt to haunt his sleeping as well as his waking thoughts. 'A +fool's voice comes through a multitude of words.' The dream is the +consequence of the pressure of business, but the fool's voice is the +cause, not the consequence, of the gush of words. What, then, is the +meaning? Probably that such a gush of words turns, as it were, the +voice of the utterer, for the time being, into that of a fool. Voluble +prayers, more abundant than devout sentiments or emotions, make the +offerer as a 'fool' and his prayer unacceptable. + +The third direction refers to conduct after worship. It lays down the +general principle that vows should be paid, and that swiftly. A keen +insight into human nature suggests the importance of prompt fulfilment +of the vows; for in carrying out resolutions formed under the impulse +of the sanctuary, even more than in other departments, delays are +dangerous. Many a young heart touched by the truth has resolved to +live a Christian life, and has gone out from the house of God and put +off and put off till days have thickened into months and years, and +the intention has remained unfulfilled for ever. Nothing hardens +hearts, stiffens wills, and sears consciences so much as to be brought +to the point of melting, and then to cool down into the old shape. All +good resolutions and spiritual convictions may be included under the +name of vows; and of all it is true that it is better not to have +formed them, than to have formed and not performed them. + +Verses 6 and 7 are obscure. The former seems to refer to the case of a +man who vows and then asks that he may be absolved from his vow by the +priest or other ecclesiastical authority. His mouth--that is, his +spoken promise--leads him into sin, if he does not fulfil it (comp. +Deut. xxiii, 21, 22). He asks release from his promise on the ground +that it is a sin of weakness. The 'angel' is best understood as the +priest (messenger), as in Malachi ii.7. Such a wriggling out of a vow +will bring God's anger; for the 'voice' which promised what the hand +will not perform, sins. + +Verse 7 is variously rendered. The Revised Version supplies at the +beginning, 'This comes to pass,' and goes on 'through the multitude of +dreams and vanities and many words.' But this scarcely bears upon the +context, which requires here a reason against rash speech and vows. +The meaning seems better given, either by the rearranged text which +Delitzsch suggests, 'In many dreams and many words there are also many +vanities' (so, substantially, the Auth. Ver.), or as Wright, following +Hitzig, etc., has it, 'In the multitude of dreams are also vanities, +and [in] many words [as well].' The simile of verse 3 is recurred to, +and the whirling visions of unsubstantial dreams are likened to the +rash words of voluble prayers in that both are vanity. Thus the writer +reaches his favourite thought, and shows how vanity infects even +devotion. The closing injunction to 'fear God' sets in sharp contrast +with faulty outward worship the inner surrender and devotion, which +will protect against such empty hypocrisy. If the heart is right, the +lips will not be far wrong. + +Verses 8 and 9 have no direct connection with the preceding, and their +connection with the following (vs. 10-12) is slight. Their meaning is +dubious. According to the prevailing view now, the abuses of +government in verse 8 are those of the period of the writer; and the +last clauses do not, as might appear at first reading, console +sufferers by the thought that God is above rapacious dignitaries, but +bids the readers not be surprised if small officials plunder, since +the same corruption goes upwards through all grades of functionaries. +With such rotten condition of things is contrasted, in verse 9, the +happy state of a people living under a patriarchal government, where +the king draws his revenues, not from oppression, but from +agriculture. The Revised Version gives in its margin this rendering. +The connection of these verses with the following may be that they +teach the vanity of riches under such a state of society as they +describe. What is the use of scraping wealth together when hungry +officials are 'watching' to pounce on it? How much better to be +contented with the modest prosperity of a quiet country life! If the +translation of verse 9 in the Authorised Version and the Revised +Version is retained, there is a striking contrast between the rapine +of the city, where men live by preying on each other (as they do still +to a large extent, for 'commerce' is often nothing better), and the +wholesome natural life of the country, where the kindly earth yields +fruit, and one man's gain is not another's loss. + +Thus the verses may be connected with the wise depreciation of money +which follows. That low estimate is based on three grounds, which +great trading nations like England and the United States need to have +dinned into their ears. First, no man ever gets enough of worldly +wealth. The appetite grows faster than the balance at the banker's. +That is so because the desire that is turned to outward wealth really +needs something else, and has mistaken its object. God, not money or +money's worth, is the satisfying possession. It is so because all +appetites, fed on earthly things, increase by gratification, and +demand ever larger draughts. The jaded palate needs stronger +stimulants. The seasoned opium-eater has to increase his doses to +produce the same effects. Second, the race after riches is a race +after a phantom, because the more one has of them the more people +there spring up to share them. The poor man does with one servant; the +rich man has fifty; and his own portion of his wealth is a very small +item. His own meal is but a small slice off the immense provisions for +which he has the trouble of paying. It is so, thirdly, because in the +chase he deranges his physical nature; and when he has got his wealth, +it only keeps him awake at night thinking how he shall guard it and +keep it safe. + +That which costs so much to get, which has so little power to satisfy, +which must always be less than the wish of the covetous man, which +costs so much to keep, which stuffs pillows with thorns, is surely +vanity. Honest work is rewarded by sweet sleep. The old legend told of +unslumbering guards who kept the treasure of the golden fruit. The +millionaire has to live in a barred house, and to be always on the +lookout lest some combination of speculators should pull down his +stocks, or some change in the current of population should make his +city lots worthless. Black care rides behind the successful man of +business. Better to have done a day's work which has earned a night's +repose than to be the slave of one's wealth, as all men are who make +it their aim and their supreme good. Would that these lessons were +printed deep on the hearts of young Englishmen and Americans! + + + +NAKED OR CLOTHED? + +'As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as +he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away +in his hand.'--ECCLES. v. 15. + +'... Their works do follow them.'--REV. xiv. 13. + + +It is to be observed that these two sharply contrasted texts do not +refer to the same persons. The former is spoken of a rich worldling, +the latter of 'the dead who die in the Lord.' The unrelieved gloom of +the one is as a dark background against which the triumphant assurance +of the other shines out the more brightly, and deepens the gloom which +heightens it. The end of the man who has to go away from earth naked +and empty-handed acquires new tragic force when set against the lot of +those 'whose works do follow them.' Well-worn and commonplace as both +sets of thought may be, they may perhaps be flashed up into new +vividness by juxtaposition; and if in this sermon we have nothing new +to say, old truth is not out of place till it has been wrought into +and influenced our daily practice. We shall best gather the lessons of +our text if we consider what we must leave, what we must take, and +what we may take. + +I. What we must leave. + +The Preacher in the context presses home a formidable array of the +limitations and insufficiencies of wealth. Possessed, it cannot +satisfy, for the appetite grows with indulgence. Its increase barely +keeps pace with the increase of its consumers. It contributes nothing +to the advantage of its so-called owner except 'the beholding of it +with his eyes,' and the need of watching it keeps them open when he +would fain sleep. It is often kept to the owner's hurt, it often +disappears in unfortunate speculation, and the possessor's heirs are +paupers. But, even if all these possibilities are safely weathered, +the man has to die and leave it all behind. 'He shall take nothing of +his labour which he can carry away in his hand'; that is to say, death +separates from all with whom the life of the body brings us into +connection. The things which are no parts of our true selves are ours +in a very modified sense even whilst we seem to possess them, and the +term of possession has a definite close. 'Shrouds have no pockets,' as +the stern old proverb says. How many men have lived in the houses +which we call ours, sat on our seats, walked over our lands, carried +in their purses the money that is in ours! Is 'the game worth the +candle' when we give our labour for so imperfect and brief a +possession as at the fullest and the longest we enjoy of all earthly +good? Surely a wise man will set little store by possessions of all +which a cold, irresistible hand will come to strip him. Surely the +life is wasted which spends its energy in robing itself in garments +which will all be stripped from it when the naked self 'returns to go +as he came.' + +But there are other things than these earthly possessions from which +death separates us. It carries us far away from the sound of human +voices and isolates us from living men. Honour and reputation cease to +be audible. When a prominent man dies, what a clatter of conflicting +judgments contends over his grave! and how utterly he is beyond them +all! Praise or blame, blessing or banning are equally powerless to +reach the unhearing ear or to agitate the unbeating heart. And when +one of our small selves passes out of life, we hear no more the voice +of censure or of praise, of love or of hate. Is it worth while to toil +for the 'hollow wraith of dying fame,' or even for the clasp of loving +hands which have to be loosened so surely and so soon? + +Then again, there are other things which must be left behind as +belonging only to the present order, and connected with bodily life. +There will be no scope for material work, and much of all our +knowledge will be antiquated when the light beyond shines in. As we +shall have occasion to see presently, there is a permanent element in +the most material work, and if in handling the transient we have been +living for the eternal, such work will abide; but if we think of the +spirit in which a sad majority do their daily tasks, whether of a more +material or of a more intellectual sort, we must recognise that a very +large proportion of all the business of life must come to an end here. +There is nothing in it that will stand the voyage across the great +deep, or that can survive in the order of things to which we go. What +is a man to do in another world, supposing there is another world, +where ledgers and mills are out of date? Or what has a scholar or +scientist to do in a state of things where there is no place for +dictionaries and grammars, for acute criticism, or for a careful +scientific research? + +Physical science, linguistic knowledge, political wisdom, will be +antiquated. The poetry which glorifies afresh and interprets the +present will have lost its meaning. Half the problems that torture us +here will cease to have existence, and most of the other half will +have been solved by simple change of position. 'Whether there be +tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish +away'; and it becomes us all to bethink ourselves whether there is +anything in our lives that we can carry away when all that is 'of the +earth earthy' has sunk into nothingness. + +II. What we must take. + +We must take _ourselves_. It is the same 'he' who goes 'naked as +he came'; it is the same 'he' who 'came from his mother's womb,' and +is 'born again' as it were into a new life, only 'he' has by his +earthly life been developed and revealed. The plant has flowered and +fruited. What was mere potentiality has become fact. There is now +fixed character. The transient possessions, relationships, and +occupations of the earthly life are gone, but the man that they have +made is there. And in the character there are predominant habits which +insist upon having their sway, and a memory of which, as we may +believe, there is written indelibly all the past. Whatever death may +strip from us, there is no reason to suppose that it touches the +consciousness and personal identity, or the prevailing set and +inclination of our characters. And if we do indeed pass into another +life 'not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness,' but +carrying a perfected memory and clothed in a garment woven of all our +past actions, there needs no more to bring about a solemn and +continuous act of judgment. + +III. What we may take. + +'Their works do follow them.' These are the words of the Spirit +concerning 'the dead who die in the Lord.' We need not fear marring +the great truth that 'not by works of righteousness but by His mercy +He saved us,' if we firmly grasp the large assurance which this text +blessedly contains. A Christian man's works are perpetual in the +measure in which they harmonise with the divine will, in the measure +they have eternal consequences in himself whatever they may have on +others. If we live opening our minds and hearts to the influx of the +divine power 'that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good +pleasure,' then we may be humbly sure that these 'works' are eternal; +and though they will never constitute the ground of our acceptance, +they will never fail to secure 'a great recompence of reward.' To many +a humble saint there will be a moment of wondering thankfulness when +he sees these his 'children whom God hath given him' clustered round +him, and has to say, 'Lord, when saw I Thee naked, or in prison, and +visited Thee?' There will be many an apocalypse of grateful surprise +in the revelations of the heavens. We remember Milton's noble +explanation of these great words which may well silence our feeble +attempts to enforce them-- + + 'Thy works and alms and all thy good endeavour + Stood not behind, nor in the grave were trod, + But as faith pointed with her golden rod, + Followed them up to joy and bliss for ever.' + +So then, life here and yonder will for the Christian soul be one +continuous whole, only that there, while 'their works do follow them,' +'they rest from their labours.' + + + +FINIS CORONAT OPUS + +'Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.'--ECCLES. vii. 8. + + +This Book of Ecclesiastes is the record of a quest after the chief +good. The Preacher tries one thing after another, and tells his +experiences. Amongst these are many blunders. It is the final lesson +which he would have us learn, not the errors through which he reached +it. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is what he would commend to +us, and to it he cleaves his way through a number of bitter +exaggerations and of partial truths and of unmingled errors. The text +is one of a string of paradoxical sayings, some of them very true and +beautiful, some of them doubtful, but all of them the kind of things +which used-up men are wont to say--the salt which is left in the pool +when the tide is gone down. The text is the utterance of a wearied man +who has had so many disappointments, and seen so many fair beginnings +overclouded, and so many ships going out of port with flying flags and +foundering at sea, that he thinks nothing good till it is ended; +little worth beginning--rest and freedom from all external cares and +duties best; and, best of all, to be dead, and have done with the +whole coil. Obviously, 'the end of a thing' here is the parallel to +'the day of death' in verse 1, which is there preferred to 'the day of +one's birth.' That is the godless, worn-out worlding's view of the +matter, which is infinitely sad, and absolutely untrue. + +But from another point of view there is a truth in these words. The +life which is lived for God, which is rooted in Christ, a life of +self-denial, of love, of purity, of strenuous 'pressing towards the +mark,' is better in its 'end' than in its 'beginning.' To such a life +we are all called, and it is possible for each. May my poor words help +some of us to make it ours. + +I. Then our life has an end. + +It is hard for any of us to realise this in the midst of the rush and +pressure of daily duty; and it is not altogether wholesome to think +much about it; but it is still more harmful to put it out of our +sight, as so many of us do, and to go on habitually as if there would +never come a time when we shall cease to be where we have been so +long, and when there will no more arise the daily calls to transitory +occupations. The thought of the certainty and nearness of that end has +often become a stimulus to wild, sensuous living, as the history of +the relaxation of morality in pestilences, and in times when war +stalked through the land, has abundantly shown. 'Let us eat and drink, +for tomorrow we die,' is plainly a way of reasoning that appeals to +the average man. But the entire forgetfulness that there is an end is +no less harmful, and is apt to lead to over-indulgence in sensuous +desires as the other extreme. Perhaps the young need more especially +to be recalled to the thought of the 'end' because they are more +especially likely to forget it, and because it is specially worth +their while to remember it. They have still the long stretch before +the 'end' before them, to make of it what they will. Whereas for us +who are further on in the course, there is less time and opportunity +to shape our path with a view to its close, and to those of us in old +age, there is but little need to preach remembrance of what has come +so close to us. It is to the young man that the Preacher proffers his +final advice, to 'rejoice in his health, and to walk in the ways of +his heart, and in the sight of his eyes,' but withal to know that 'for +these God will bring him into judgment.' + +And in that counsel is involved the thought that 'the end which is +better than the beginning' is neither old age, with its limitations +and compulsory abstinences, nor death, which is, as the dreary creed +of the book in its central portions believes it to be, the close of +all things, but, beyond these, the state in which men will reap as +they have sown, and inherit what they have earned. It is that +condition which gives all its importance to death--the porter who +opens the door into a future life of recompence. + +II. The end will, in many respects, not be better than the beginning. + +Put side by side the infant and the old man. Think of the undeveloped +strength, the smooth cheek, the ruddy complexion, the rejoicing in +physical well-being, of the one, with the failing senses, the +tottering limbs, the lowered vitality, the many pains and aches, of +the other. In these respects the end is worse than the beginning. Or +go a step further onwards in life, and think of youth, with its unworn +energy, and the wearied longing for rest which comes at the end; of +youth, with its quick, open receptiveness for all impressions, and the +horny surface of callousness which has overgrown the mind of the old; +of youth, with its undeveloped powers and endless possibilities, which +in the old have become rigid and fixed; of youth, with the rich gift +before it of a continent of time, which in the old has been washed +away by the ocean, till there is but a crumbling bank still to stand +on; of youth, with its wealth of hopes, and of the hopes of the old, +which are solemn ventures, few and scanty--and then say if the end is +not worse than the beginning. + +And if we go further, and think of death as the end, is it not in a +very real and terrible sense, loss, loss? It is loss to be taken out +of the world, to 'leave the warm precincts and the cheerful day,' to +lose friends and lovers, and to be banned into a dreary land. Yet, +further, the thought of the end as being a state of retribution +strikes upon all hearts as being solemn and terrible. + +III. Yet the end may be better. + +The sensuous indulgence which Ecclesiastes preaches in its earlier +portions will never lead to such an end. It breeds disgust of life, as +the examples of in all ages, and today, abundantly shows. Epicurean +selfishness leads to weariness of all effort and work. If we are +unwise enough to make either of these our guides in life, the only +desirable end will be the utter cessation of being and consciousness. + +But there is a better sense in which this paradoxical saying is simple +truth, and that sense is one which it is possible for us all to +realise. What sort of end would that be, the brightness of which would +far outshine the joy when a man-child is born into the world? Would it +not be a birth into a better life than that which fills and often +disturbs the 'threescore years and ten' here? Would it not be an end +to a course in which all our nature would be fully developed and all +opportunities of growth and activity had been used to the full? which +had secured all that we could possess? which had happy memories and +calm hopes? Would it not be an end which brought with it communion +with the Highest--joys that could never fade, activities that could +never weary? Surely the Christian heaven is better than earth; and +that heaven may be ours. + +That supreme and perfect end will be reached by us through faith in +Christ, and through union by faith with Him. If we are joined to the +Lord and are one with Him, our end in glory will be as much better +than this our beginning on earth as the full glory of a summer's day +transcends the fogs and frosts of dreary winter. 'The path of the just +is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect +day.' + +If the end is not better than the beginning, it will be infinitely +worse. Golden opportunities will be gone; wasted years will be +irrevocable. Bright lights will be burnt out; sin will be graven on +the memory; remorse will be bitter; evil habits which cannot be +gratified will torment; a wearied soul, a darkened understanding, a +rebellious heart, will make the end awfully, infinitely, always worse +than the beginning. From all these Jesus Christ can save us; and, full +as He fills the cup of life as we travel along the road, He keeps the +best wine till the last, and makes 'the end of a thing better than the +beginning.' + + + +MISUSED RESPITE + +'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, +therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do +evil'--ECCLES. viii. 11. + + +When the Pharaoh of the Exodus saw there was respite, he hardened his +heart. Abject in his fear before Moses, he was ready to promise +anything; insolent in his pride, he swallows down his promises as soon +as fear is eased, his repentance and his retractation of it combined +to add new weights about his neck. He was but a conspicuous example of +a universal fault. Every nation, I suppose, has its proverb scoffing +at the contrast between the sick man's vow and the recovered man's +sins. The bitter moralist of the Old Testament was sure not to let +such an instance of man's inconceivable levity pass unnoticed. His +settled habit of dragging to light the seamy side of human nature was +sure to fall on this illustration of it as congenial food. He has +wrapped up here in these curt, bitter words a whole theory of man's +condition, of God's providence, of its abuse, and of the end to which +it all tends. + +I. Note the delay in executing sentence. + +Every 'evil work' is already sentenced. 'He that believeth not,' said +Christ, 'is condemned already'; and that is one case of a general +truth. The text writes the sentence as passed, though the execution is +for a time suspended. What is the underlying fact expressed by this +metaphor? God's thorough knowledge of, and displeasure at, every evil. +When one sees vile things done on earth, and no bolt coming out of the +clear sky, it is not easy to believe that all the foulness is known to +God; but His eye reaches further than He wills to stretch His arm. He +sits a silent Onlooker and beholds; the silence does not argue +indifference. The sentence is pronounced, but the execution is +delayed. It is not wholly delayed, for there are consequences which +immediately dog our evil deeds, and are, as it were, premonitions of a +yet more complete penalty. But in the present order of things the +connection between a man's evil-doing and suffering is, on the whole, +slight, obscure, and partial. Evil triumphs; goodness not seldom +suffers. If one thinks for a moment of the manifold evils of the +world, which swathe it, as it were, in an atmosphere of woe--the wars, +the slavery, the oppressions, the private sorrows--and then thinks +that there is a God who lets all these go on from generation to +generation, we seem to be in the presence of a mystery of mysteries. +The Psalmist of old exclaimed in adoring wonder, 'Thy judgments are a +great deep'; but the absence of His judgments seems to open a +profounder abyss into which even the great mountains of His +righteousness appear in danger of falling. + +II. The reasons for this delay. + +It is not only a mystery, but it is a 'mystery of love.' We can see +but a little way into it, but we can see so far as to be sure that the +apparent passivity of God, which looks like leaving evil to work its +unhindered will, is the silence of a God who 'doth not willingly +afflict,' and is 'slow to anger,' because He is perfect love. + +The ground of necessity for the delay in executing the sentence lies, +partly, in the probationary character of this present life. If +evil-doing was always followed by swift retribution, obedience would +be only the obedience of fear, and God does not desire such obedience. +It would be impossible that testing could go on at all if at every +instant the whole of the consequences of our actions were being +realised. Such a condition of things is unthinkable, and would be as +confusing, in the moral sphere, as if harvest weather and spring +weather were going on together. Again, the great reason why sentence +against an evil work is not executed speedily lies in God's own heart, +and His desire to win us to Himself by benefits. He does not seek +enforced obedience; He neither desires our being wedded to evil, nor +our being weighed upon by the consequences of our sin, and so He holds +back His hand. It is to be remembered that He not merely does thus +restrain the forthcoming of His hand of judgment, but, instead of it, +puts forth a hand of blessing. He moves around us wooing us to +Himself, and, in patience possessing His spirit, marks all our sins, +but loves and blesses still. He gives us the vineyard, though we do +not give Him the fruit. Still He is not angry, but sends His +messengers, and we stone them. Still He waits: we go on heaping year +upon year of rebellious forgetfulness, and no lightning flashes from +His eye, no exclamation of wearied-out patience, comes from His lips, +no rush of the sudden arrow from His long-stretched bow. The endless +patience of God has no explanation but only this, that He loves us too +well to leave any means untried to bring us to Him, and that He +lingers round us to win our hearts. O rare and unspeakable love, the +patient love of the patient God! + +III. The abuse of this delay. + +We have the knack of turning God's pure gifts into poison, and +practise a devilish chemistry by which we distil venom from the +flowers of Eden and the roses of the garden of God. I don't suppose +that to many men the respite which marks God's dealing with them +actually tends to doubts of His righteousness, or of His power, or of +His being. We have evidence enough of these; and the apparently +counter evidence, arising from the impunity of evil-doers, is fairly +enough laid aside by our moral instincts and consciousness, and by the +consideration that the mighty sweep of God's providence is too great +for us to decide on the whole circle by the small portion of the +circumference which we have seen. But what most men do is simply that +they permit impunity to deaden their sense of right and wrong, and go +on in their course without any serious thought of God's blessings, to +jostle Him out of their mind; they _'despise the riches of His +long-suffering goodness,'_ and never suffer it to _'lead them to +repentance.'_ To the unthinking minds of most of us, the long +continuance of impunity lulls us into a dream of its perpetuity. Man's +godless ingratitude is as deep a mystery as is God's loving patience. +It is strange that, with such constant failure of His love to win, God +should still persevere in it. For more than seventy times seven He +persists in forgiving the rebellious child who sins against Him, and +for more than seventy times seven the child persists in the abuse of +the Father's love, which still remains-an abuse of sin above all sins. + +IV. The end of the delay. + +The sentence is passed. It is impossible that it should not be +executed. When God has done all, and sees that the point of +hopelessness is reached, or when the time has for other reasons come, +then He lets the sentence take effect. He kept back the destroying +angels from Sodom, but He sent them forth at last. There is a point in +the history of nations and of men when iniquity is 'full,' and when +God sees that it is best, on world-wide grounds or personal ones, to +end it. So there come for nations and for individuals crises; and the +law for the divine working is, 'A short work will the Lord make on the +earth.' For long years Noah was building the ark, and exposed to the +scoffs of a generation whose sentence had been pronounced and not yet +executed; but the day came when he entered into its covert, and 'the +flood came and destroyed them all.' For generations He would fain have +gathered the people of Jerusalem to His bosom 'as a hen gathereth her +chickens under her wings, and they would not'; but the day came when +the Roman soldiers cast their torches into the beautiful house where +their fathers had praised Him, and sinned against Him, and it was left +unto them desolate. Let us not be high-minded nor victims of our +levity and inconsiderateness, but fear. + +Let us remember too that the intensity of the execution is aggravated +by all the sins committed during the delay. By them we 'treasure wrath +against the day of wrath.' He says to His angels at last 'Now,' and +the sword falls, and justice is done. 'The mills of God grind slowly, +but they grind exceeding small.' The sum of the whole matter is, every +evil of ours is sentenced already; the punishment is delayed for our +sins, and because Christ has died. God is wooing our hearts, and +trying to win us to love Him by the holding back of the sentence which +we are daily abusing. Shall we not accept His forbearance and take His +gifts as tokens of the patient tenderness of His heart? Or are we to +be like 'the brutes that perish,' knowing neither the hand that feeds +them, nor the hand that kills them. The delay in rendering 'the just +recompence of reward' only aggravates its weight when it falls. As in +some levers, the slower the motion, the greater the force of the lift. + + + +FENCES AND SERPENTS + +'... Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.'--ECCLES. x. +8. + + +What is meant here is, probably, not such a hedge as we are accustomed +to see, but a dry-stone wall, or, perhaps, an earthen embankment, in +the crevices of which might lurk a snake to sting the careless hand. +The connection and purpose of the text are somewhat obscure. It is one +of a string of proverb-like sayings which all seem to be illustrations +of the one thought that every kind of work has its own appropriate and +peculiar peril. So, says the Preacher, if a man is digging a pit, the +sides of it may cave in and he may go down. If he is pulling down a +wall he may get stung. If he is working in a quarry there may be a +fall of rock. If he is a woodman the tree he is felling may crush him. +What then? Is the inference to be, Sit still and do nothing, because +you may get hurt whatever you do? By no means. The writer of this book +hates idleness very nearly as much as he does what he calls 'folly,' +and his inference is stated in the next verse--'Wisdom is profitable +to direct.' That is to say, since all work has its own dangers, work +warily, and with your brains as well as your muscles, and do not put +your hand into the hollow in the wall, until you have looked to see +whether there are any snakes in it. Is that very wholesome maxim of +prudence all that is meant to be learned? I think not. The previous +clause, at all events, embodies a well-known metaphor of the Old +Testament. 'He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it,' often occurs as +expressing the retribution in kind that comes down on the cunning +plotter against other men's prosperity, and the conclusion that wisdom +suggests in that application of the sentence is, 'Dig judiciously,' +but 'Do not dig at all.' And so in my text the 'wall' may stand for +the limitations and boundary-lines of our lives, and the inference +that wisdom suggests in that application of the saying is not 'Pull +down judiciously,' but 'Keep the fence up, and be sure you keep on the +right side of it.' For any attempt to pull it down--which being +interpreted is, to transgress the laws of life which God has +enjoined--is sure to bring out the hissing snake with its poison. + +Now it is in that aspect that I want to look at the words before us. + +I. First of all, let us take that thought which underlies my +text--that all life is given us rigidly walled up. + +The first thing that the child learns is, that it must not do what it +likes. The last lesson that the old man has to learn is, you must do +what you ought. And between these two extremes of life we are always +making attempts to treat the world as an open common, on which we may +wander at our will. And before we have gone many steps, some sort of +keeper or other meets us and says to us, 'Trespassers, back again to +the road!' Life is rigidly hedged in and limited. To live as you like +is the prerogative of a brute. To live as you ought, and to recognise +and command by obeying the laws and limitations stamped upon our very +nature and enjoined by our circumstances, is the freedom and the glory +of a man. There are limitations, I say--fences on all sides. Men put +up their fences; and they are often like the wretched wooden hoardings +that you sometimes see limiting the breadth of a road. But in regard +to these conventional limitations and regulations, which own no higher +authority or lawgiver than society and custom, you must make up your +mind even more certainly than in regard of loftier laws, that if you +meddle with them, there will be plenty of serpents coming out to hiss +and bite. No man that defies the narrow maxims and petty restrictions +of conventional ways, and sets at nought the opinions of the people +round about him, but must make up his mind for backbiting and slander +and opposition of all sorts. It is the price that we pay for obeying +at first hand the laws of God and caring nothing for the +conventionalities of men. + +But apart from that altogether, let me just remind you, in half a +dozen sentences, of the various limitations or fences which hedge up +our lives on every side. There are the obligations which we owe, and +the relations in which we stand, to the outer world, the laws of +physical life, and all that touches the external and the material. +There are the relations in which we stand, and the obligations which +we owe, to ourselves. And God has so made us as that obviously large +tracts of every man's nature are given to him on purpose to be +restrained, curbed, coerced, and sometimes utterly crushed and +extirpated. God gives us our impulses under lock and key. All our +animal desires, all our natural tendencies, are held on condition that +we exercise control over them, and keep them well within the rigidly +marked limits which He has laid down, and which we can easily find +out. There are, further, the relations in which we stand, and the +obligations and limitations, therefore, under which we come, to the +people round about us. High above them all, and in some sense +including them all, but loftier than these, there is the +all-comprehending relation in which we stand to God, who is the +fountain of all obligations, the source and aim of all duty, who +encompasses us on every side, and whose will makes the boundary walls +within which alone it is safe for a man to live. + +We sometimes foolishly feel that a life thus hedged up, limited by +these high boundaries on either side, must be uninteresting, +monotonous, or unfree. It is not so. The walls are blessings, like the +parapet on a mountain road, that keeps the travellers from toppling +over the face of the cliff. They are training-walls, as our +hydro-graphical engineers talk about, which, built in the bed of a +river, wholesomely confine its waters and make a good scour which +gives life, instead of letting them vaguely wander and stagnate across +great fields of mud. Freedom consists in keeping willingly within the +limits which God has traced, and anything else is not freedom but +licence and rebellion, and at bottom servitude of the most abject +type. + +II. So, secondly, note that every attempt to break down the +limitations brings poison into the life. + +We live in a great automatic system which, by its own operation, +largely avenges every breach of law. I need not remind you, except in +a word, of the way in which the transgression of the plain physical +laws stamped upon our constitutions avenges itself; but the certainty +with which disease dogs all breaches of the laws of health is but a +type in the lower and material universe of the far higher and more +solemn certainty with which 'the soul that sinneth, it shall die.' +Wherever a man sets himself against any of the laws of this material +universe, they make short work of him. We command them, as I said, by +obeying them; and the difference between the obedience and the breach +of them is the difference between the engineer standing on his engine +and the wretch that is caught by it as it rushes over the rails. But +that is but a parable of the higher thing which I want to speak to you +about. + +The grosser forms of transgression of the plain laws of temperance, +abstinence, purity, bring with them, in like manner, a visible and +palpable punishment in the majority of cases. Whoso pulls down the +wall of temperance, a serpent will bite him. Trembling hands, broken +constitutions, ruined reputations, vanished ambitions, wasted lives, +poverty, shame, and enfeebled will, death--these are the serpents that +bite, in many cases, the transgressor. I have a man in my eye at this +moment that used to sit in one of these pews, who came into Manchester +a promising young man, a child of many prayers, with the ball at his +foot, in one of your great warehouses, the only hope of his house, +professedly a Christian. He began to tamper with the wall. First a +tiny little bit of stone taken out that did not show the daylight +through; then a little bigger, and a bigger. And the serpent struck +its fangs into him, and if you saw him now, he is a shambling wreck, +outside of society, and, as we sometimes tremblingly think, beyond +hope. Young men! 'whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.' + +In like manner there are other forms of 'sins of the flesh avenged in +kind,' which I dare not speak about more plainly here. I see many +young men in my congregation, many strangers in this great city, +living, I suppose, in lodgings, and therefore without many restraints. +If you were to take a pair of compasses and place one leg of them down +at the Free Trade Hall, and take a circle of half a mile round there, +you would get a cavern of rattlesnakes. You know what I mean. Low +theatres, low music-halls, casinos, haunts of yet viler sorts--there +the snakes are, hissing and writhing and ready to bite. Do not 'put +your hand on the hole of the asp.' Take care of books, pictures, +songs, companions that would lead you astray. Oh for a voice to stand +at some doors that I know in Manchester, and peal this text into the +ears of the fools, men and women, that go in there! + +I heard only this week of one once in a good position in this city, +and in early days, I believe, a member of my own congregation, begging +in rags from door to door. And the reason was, simply, the wall had +been pulled down and the serpent had struck. It always does; not with +such fatal external effects always, but be ye sure of this, 'God is +not mocked; "whatsoever a man," or a woman either, "soweth, that shall +he also reap."' For remember that there are other ways of pulling down +walls than these gross and palpable transgressions with the body; and +there are other sorts of retributions which come with unerring +certainty besides those that can be taken notice of by others. I do +not want to dwell upon these at any length, but let me just remind you +of one or two of them. + +Some serpents' bites inflame, some paralyse; and one or other of these +two things--either an inflamed conscience or a palsied conscience--is +the result of all wrongdoing. I do not know which is the worst. There +are men and women now in this chapel, sitting listening to me, perhaps +half interested, without the smallest suspicion that I am talking +about them. The serpent's bite has led to the torpor of their +consciences. Which is the worse--to loathe my sin and yet to find its +slimy coils round about me, so that I cannot break it, or to have got +to like it and to be perfectly comfortable in it, and to have no +remonstrance within when I do it? Be sure of this, that every +transgression and disobedience acts immediately upon the conscience of +the doer, sometimes to stir that conscience into agonies of gnawing +remorse, more often to lull it into a fatal slumber. + +I do not speak of the retributions which we heap upon ourselves in +loading our memories with errors and faults, in polluting them often +with vile imaginations, or in laying up there a lifelong series of +actions, none of which have ever had a trace of reference to God in +them. I do not speak, except in a sentence, of the retribution which +comes from the habit of evil which weighs upon men, and makes it all +but impossible for them ever to shake off their sin. I do not speak, +except in a sentence, of the perverted relations to God, the +incapacity of knowing Him, the disregard, and even sometimes the +dislike, of the thought of Him which steal across the heart of the man +that lives in evil and sin; but I put all into two words--every sin +that I do tells upon myself, inasmuch as its virus passes into my +blood as _guilt_ and as _habit_. And then I remind you of +what you say you believe, that beyond this world there lies the solemn +judgment-seat of God, where you and I have to give account of our +deeds. O brother, be sure of this, 'whoso breaketh an hedge'--here and +now, and yonder also--'a serpent shall bite him'! + +That is as far as my text carries me. It has nothing more to say. Am I +to shut the book and have done? There is only one system that has +anything more to say, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. + +III. And so, passing from my text, I have to say, lastly, All the +poison may be got out of your veins if you like. + +Our Lord used this very same metaphor under a different aspect, and +with a different historical application, when He said, 'As Moses +lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be +lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have +eternal life.' + +There is Christ's idea of the condition of this world of ours--a camp +of men lying bitten by serpents and drawing near to death. What I have +been speaking about, in perhaps too abstract terms, is the condition +of each one of us. It is hard to get people, when they are gathered by +the hundred to listen to a sermon flung out in generalities, to +realise it. If I could get you one by one, and 'buttonhole' you; and +instead of the plural 'you' use the singular 'thou,' perhaps I could +reach you. But let me ask you to try and realise each for himself that +this serpent bite, as the issue of pulling down the wall, is true +about each soul in this place, and that Christ endorsed the +representation. How are we to get this poison out of the blood? Reform +your ways? Yes; I say that too; but reforming the life will deliver +from the poison in the character, when you cure hydrophobia by washing +the patient's skin, and not till then. It is all very well to repaper +your dining-rooms, but it is very little good doing that if the +drainage is wrong. It _is_ the drainage that is wrong with us +all. A man cannot reform himself down to the bottom of his sinful +being. If he could, it does not touch the past. That remains the same. +If he could, it does not affect his relation to God. Repentance--if it +were possible apart from the softening influence of faith in Jesus +Christ--repentance alone would not solve the problem. So far as men +can see, and so far as all human systems have declared, 'What I have +written I have written.' There is no erasing it. The irrevocable past +stands stereotyped for ever. Then comes in this message of forgiveness +and cleansing, which is the very heart of all that we preachers have +to say, and has been spoken to most of you so often that it is almost +impossible to invest it with any kind of freshness or power. But once +more I have to preach to you that Christ has received into His own +inmost life and self the whole gathered consequences of a world's sin; +and by the mystery of His sympathy, and the reality of His mysterious +union with us men, He, the sinless Son of God, has been made sin for +us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The brazen +serpent lifted on the pole was in the likeness of the serpent whose +poison slew, but there was no poison in it. Christ has come, the +sinless Son of God, for you and me. He has died on the Cross, the +Sacrifice for every man's sin, that every man's wound might be healed, +and the poison cast out of his veins. He has bruised the malignant, +black head of the snake with His wounded heel; and because He has been +wounded, we are healed of our wounds. For sin and death launched their +last dart at Him, and, like some venomous insect that can sting once +and then must die, they left their sting in His wounded heart, and +have none for them that put their trust in Him. + +So, dear brother, here is the simple condition--namely, faith. One +look of the languid eye of the poisoned man, howsoever bloodshot and +dim it might be, and howsoever nearly veiled with the film of death, +was enough to make him whole. The look of our consciously sinful souls +to that dear Christ that has died for us will take away the guilt, the +power, the habit, the love of evil; and, instead of blood saturated +with the venom of sin, there will be in our veins the Spirit of life +in Christ, which will 'make us free from the law of sin and death.' +'Look unto Him and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth!' + + + +THE WAY TO THE CITY + +'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he +knoweth not how to go to the city.'--ECCLES. x. 15. + + +On the surface this seems to be merely a piece of homely, practical +sagacity, conjoined with one of the bitter things which Ecclesiastes +is fond of saying about those whom he calls 'fools.' It seems to +repeat, under another metaphor, the same idea which has been presented +in a previous verse, where we read: 'If the iron be blunt, and he do +not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is +profitable to direct.' That is to say, skill is better than strength; +brain saves muscle; better sharpen your axe than put yourself into a +perspiration, hitting fierce blows with a blunt one. The prerogative +of wisdom is to guide brute force. And so in my text the same general +idea comes under another figure. Immense effort may end in nothing but +tired feet if the traveller does not know his road. A man lost in the +woods may run till he drops, and find himself at night in the place +from which he started in the morning. The path must be known, and the +aim clear, if any good is to come of effort. + +That phrase, 'how to go to the city,' seems to be a kind of proverbial +comparison for anything that is very plain and conspicuous, just as +our forefathers used to say about any obvious truth, that it was 'as +plain as the road to London town.' The road to the capital is sure to +be a well-marked one, and he must be a fool indeed who cannot see +that. So our text, though on the surface, as I say, is simply a +sarcasm and a piece of homely, practical sagacity, yet, like almost +all the sayings in this Book of Ecclesiastes, it has a deeper meaning +than appears on the surface; and may be applied in higher and more +important directions. It carries with it large truths, and enshrines +in a vivid metaphor bitter experiences which, I suppose, we can all +confirm. + +I. We consider, first, the toil that tires. + +'The labour wearies every one of them.' The word translated 'labour' +seems to carry with it both the idea of effort and of trouble. Or to +recur to a familiar distinction in modern English, the word really +covers both the ground of work and of worry. And it is a sad and +solemn thought that a word with that double element in it should be +the one which is most truly applicable to the efforts of a large +majority of men. I suppose there never was a time in the world's +history when life went so fast as it does in these great centres of +civilisation and commerce in which you and I live. And it is awful to +have to think that the great mass of it all ends in nothing else but +tired limbs and exhaustion. That is a truth to be verified by +experience, and I am bold to believe that every man and woman in this +chapel now can say more or less distinctly 'Amen!' to the assertion +that every life, except a distinctly and supremely religious one, is +worry and work without adequate satisfying result, and with no lasting +issue but exhaustion. + +Let us begin at the bottom. For instance, take a man who has avowedly +flung aside the restraints of right and wrong and conscience, and does +things habitually that he knows to be wrong. Every sin is a blunder as +well as a crime. No man who aims at an end through the smoke of hell +gets the end that he aims at. Or if he does, he gets something that +takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of +the success. They put a very evil-tasting ingredient into spirits of +wine to prevent its being drunk. The cup that sin reaches to a man, +though the wine moveth itself aright and is very pleasant to look at +before being tasted, cheats with _methylated_ spirits. Men and +women take more pains and trouble to damn themselves than ever they do +to have their souls saved. The end of all work, which begins with +tossing conscience on one side, is simply this--'The labour of the +foolish wearieth every one of them.' + +Take a step higher--a respectable, well-to-do Manchester man, +successful in business. He has made it his aim to build up a large +concern, and has succeeded. He has a fine house, carriages, +greenhouses; he has 'J.P.' to his name; he stands high in credit and +on Change. His name is one that gives respectability to anything that +it is connected with. Has he 'come to the city'? Has he got what he +thought he would get when he began his career? He has succeeded in his +immediate and smaller purpose; has that immediate and smaller purpose +succeeded in bringing him what he thought it would bring him? Or has +he fallen a victim to those-- + + 'juggling fiends ... + That palter with us in a double sense; + That keep the word of promise to the ear, + And break it to the hope?' + +They tell us that if you put down in one column the value of the ore +that has been extracted from all the Australian gold-mines, and in +another the amount that it has cost to get it, the latter sum will +exceed the former. There are plenty of people in Manchester who have +put more down into the pit from which they dig their wealth than ever +they will get out of it. And their labour, too, leaves a very dark and +empty aching centre in their lives, 'and wearieth every one of them.' +And so I might go the whole round. We students, so long as our pursuit +of knowledge has not in it as supreme, directing motive, and ultimate +aim and issue, the glory and the service of God, come under the lash +of the same condemnation as those grosser and lower forms of life of +which I have been speaking. But wherever we look, if there be not in +the heart and in the life a supreme regard to God and a communion with +Him, then this characteristic is common to all the courses, that, +whilst they may each meet some immediate and partial necessity of our +natures, none of them is adequate for the whole circumference of a +man's being, nor any of them able, during the whole duration of that +being, to be his satisfaction and his rest. Therefore, I say, all +toil, however successful to the view of a shorter range of vision, and +however noble--excluding the noblest of all--all toil that ends only +in securing that which perishes with the using, or that which we leave +behind us here when we pass hence, is condemned for folly and labour +that wearies the men who are fools enough to surrender themselves to +it. + +I need not remind you of the wonderful variety of metaphor under which +that threadbare thought, which yet it is so hard for us to believe and +make operative in our lives, is represented to us in Scripture. Just +let me recall one or two of them in the briefest way. 'Why do ye spend +your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which +profiteth not?' 'They have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken +cisterns that can hold no water.' 'Their webs shall not become +garments.' That may want a word of explanation. The metaphor is this. +You are all like spiders spinning carefully and diligently your web. +There is not substance enough in it to make a coat out of. You will +never cover yourselves with the product of your own brains or your own +efforts. There is no clothing in the spider's webs of a godless life. + +Ah! brother, all these earthly aims which some of my friends listening +to me now have for the _sole_ aims of their lives, are as foolish +and as inadequate to accomplish that which is sought for by them, as +it would be to seek to quench raging thirst by lifting to the lips a +golden cup that is empty. Some of us have a whole sideboard full of +such, and vary our pursuits according to inclination and task. Some of +us have only one such, but they are all empty, and the lip is parched +after the cup has been lifted to it as it was before. + +II. And so, consider now, secondly, the foolish ignorance that makes +the toil tiresome. + +The metaphor of my text says that the reason why the 'fool' is so +wearied after the day's march is that he does not in the morning +settle where he is going, and how he is to get there; and so, having +started to go nowhither, he has got where he started for. He 'does not +know how to go to the city'--which, being translated into plain and +unmetaphorical English, is just this, that many men wreck their lives +for want of a clear sight of their true aim, and of the way to secure +it. + +There is nothing more tragical than the absence, in the great bulk of +men, of anything like deliberate, definite views as to their aim in +life, and the course to be taken to secure it. There are two things +obviously necessary for success in any enterprise. One is, that there +shall be the most definite and clear conception of what is aimed at; +and the other, that there shall be a wisely considered plan to get at +it. Unless there be these, if you go at random, running a little way +for a moment in this direction, and then heading about and going in +the other, you cannot expect to get to the goal. + +Now, what I want to ask some of my friends here is, Did you ever give +ten deliberate minutes to try to face for yourselves, and put into +plain words, what you are living for, and how you mean to secure it? +Of course I know that you have given thought and planning in plenty to +the nearer aims, without which material life cannot be lived at all. I +do not suppose that anybody here is chargeable with not having thought +enough about how to get on in business, or in their chosen walk of +life. It is not that kind of aim which I mean at all; but it is a +point beyond it that I want to press upon you. You are like men who +would carefully victual a ship and take the best information for their +guide as to what course to lie, and had never thought what they were +going to do when they got to the port. So you say, 'I am going to be +such-and-such a thing.' Well, what then? 'Well, I am going to lay +myself out for success.' Be it commercial, be it intellectual, be it +social, be it in the sphere of the affections, or whatever it may be. +Well, what then? 'Well, then I am going to advance in material +prosperity, I hope, or in wisdom, or to be surrounded by loving faces +of children and those that are dear to me.' What then? 'Then I am +going to die.' What then? + +It is not till you get to that last question, and have faced it and +answered it, that you can be said to have taken the whole sweep of the +circumstances into view, and regulated your course according to the +dictates of common sense and right reason. And a terribly large number +of us live with careful adaptation of means to ends in regard of all +the smaller and more immediately to be realised aims of life, but have +never faced the larger question which reduces all these smaller aims +to insignificance. The simple child's interrogation which in the +well-known ballad ripped the tinsel off the skeleton, and showed war +in its hideousness, strips many of your lives of all pretence to be +reasonable. 'What good came of it at the last?' Can you answer the +question that the infant lips asked, and say, 'This good will come of +it at last. That I shall have God for my own, and Jesus Christ in my +heart'? + +Brother! if I could only get you to this point, that you would take +half an hour now to think over what you ought to be, and to ask +yourself whether your aims in life correspond to what your aims should +be, I should have done more than I am afraid I shall do with some of +you. The naturalist can tell when he picks up a skeleton something of +the habits and the element of the creature to which it belonged. If it +has a hollow _sternum_ he knows it is meant to fly. On your +nature is impressed unmistakably that your destiny is not to creep, +but to soar. Not in vain does the Westminster Catechism lay the +foundation of everything in this, the prime question for all men, +'What is the chief end of man?' Ask that, and do not rest till you +have answered it. + +Then there is another idea connected with this ignorance of my +text--viz. that it is the result of folly. Now the words 'folly' and +'foolish' and 'foolishness,' and their opposites, 'wisdom' and 'wise,' +in this Book of Ecclesiastes, as in the Book of Proverbs, do not mean +merely dull stupidity intellectually, which is a thing for which a man +is to be pitied rather than to be blamed, but they always carry +besides the idea of intellectual defect, also the idea of moral +obliquity. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'; and, +conversely, the absence of that fear is the foundation of that which +this writer stigmatises as 'folly' He is not merely sneering at men +with small brains and little judgments. There may be plenty of us who +are so, and yet are wise unto salvation and possessed of a far higher +wisdom than that of this world. But he tells us that so strangely +intertwined are the intellectual and moral parts of our nature, that +wheresoever there is the obscuration of the latter there is sure to be +the perversion of the former, and the man knows not 'how to go to the +city' because he is 'foolish.' + +That is to say, you go wrong in your judgment about your conduct +because you have gone wrong morally. And your blunders about life, and +your ignorance of its true end and aim, and your mistakes as to how to +secure happiness and blessedness, are your own faults, and are owing +to the aversion of your nature from that which is highest and noblest, +even God and His service. Therefore you are not only to be pitied +because you are out of the road, but to be blamed because you have +darkened the eyes of your mind by loving the darkness rather than the +light. And you 'do not know how to go to the city,' because you do not +want to go to the city, and would rather huddle here in the +wilderness, and live upon its poor supplies, than pass within the +golden gates. My brethren! the folly which blinds a man to his true +aim and mission in life is a folly which has in it the darker aspect +of sin, and is punishable as such. + +III. Lastly, note the plain path which the foolish miss. + +He 'does not know how to go to the city.' What on earth will he be +able to see if he cannot see that broad highway, beaten and white, +stretching straight before him, over hill and dale, and going right to +the gates? A man must be a fool who cannot find the way to London. + +The principles of moral conduct are trite and obvious. It is plain +that it is better to be good than bad. It is better to be unselfish +than selfish. It is better not to live for things that perish, seeing +that we are going to last for ever. It is better not to make the flesh +our master here, seeing that the spirit will have to live without the +flesh some day. It is better to get into training for the world to +coma, seeing that we are all drifting thither. All these things are +plain and obvious. + +Man's destiny for God is unmistakable. 'Whose image and superscription +hath it?' said Christ about the coin. 'Caesar's!' 'Then give it to +Caesar.' Whose image and superscription hath my heart, this restless +heart of mine, this spirit that wanders on through space and time, +homeless and comfortless, until it can grasp the Eternal? Who are you +meant for? God! And every fibre of your nature has a voice to say so +to you if you listen to it. So, then, a godless life such as some of +you, my hearers, are contentedly living, ignores facts that are most +patent to every man's experience. And while before you, huge 'as a +mountain, open, palpable,' are the commonplaces and undeniable +verities which declare that every man who is not a God-fearing man is +a fool, you admit them all, and, bowing your heads in reverence, let +them all go over you and produce no effect. + +The road is clearer than ever since Jesus Christ came. He has shown us +the city, for He has brought life and immortality to light by the +Gospel. He has shown us the road, for His life is the pattern of all +that men ought to aim at and to be. The motto of the eternal Son of +God, if I may venture upon such a metaphor, is like the motto of the +heir-apparent of the English throne, 'I serve.' Lo! 'I come to do Thy +will'--and that is the only word which will make a human life peaceful +and strong and beautiful. In the presence of His radiant and solitary +perfection, men no longer need to wonder, What is the ideal to which +conduct and character should be conformed? And Jesus Christ has come +to make it possible to go to the city, by that cross on which He bore +the burden of all sin, and takes away the sin of the world, and by +that Spirit of life which He will impart to our weakness, and which +makes our sluggish feet run in the way of His commandments, and not be +weary, and walk and not faint. + +Take that dear Lord for your revelation of duty, for your Pattern of +conduct, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the Inspirer with power +to do His will, and then you will see stretching before you, high up +above the surrounding desert, so that no lion nor ravenous beast shall +go up there, the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord shall walk, +'and the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.' +'Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may enter in +through the gates into the City.' + + + +A NEW YEARS SERMON TO THE YOUNG + +'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in +the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the +sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will +bring thee into judgment.... Remember now thy Creator in the days of +thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when +thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.'--ECCLES. xi. 9; xii. 1. + + +This strange, and in some places perplexing Book of Ecclesiastes, is +intended to be the picture of a man fighting his way through +perplexities and half-truths to a clear conviction in which he can +rest. What he says in his process of coming to that conviction is not +always to be taken as true. Much that is spoken in the earlier portion +of the Book is spoken in order to be confuted, and its insufficiency, +its exaggerations, its onesidedness, and its half-truths, to be +manifest in the light of the ultimate conclusion to which he comes. +Through all these perplexities he goes on 'sounding his dim and +perilous way,' with pitfalls on this side of him and bogs on that, +till he comes out at last upon the open way, with firm ground under +foot and a clear sky overhead. These phrases which I have taken are +the opening sentences and the final conclusion on which he rests. How +then are they meant to be understood? Is that saying, 'Rejoice, O +young man! in the days of thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in +the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the +sight of thine eyes,' to be taken as a bit of fierce irony? Is this a +man taking the maxims of the foolish world about him and seeming to +approve of them in order that he may face round at the end with a +quick turn and a cynical face and hand them back their maxims along +with that which will shatter them to pieces--as if he said, 'Oh, yes! +go on, talk your fill about making the best of this world, and +rejoicing and doing as you like, dancing on the edge of a precipice, +and fiddling, like Nero, whilst a worse fire than that of Rome is +burning'? Well, I do not think that is the meaning of it. Though there +is irony to be found in the Bible, I do not think that fierce irony +like that which might do for the like of Dean Swift, is the intention +of the Preacher. So I take these words to be said in good faith, as a +frank recognition of the fact that, after all we have been hearing +about vanity and vexation of spirit, life is worth living for, and +that God means young people to be glad and to make the best of the +fleeting years that will never come back with the same buoyancy and +elasticity all their lives long. And then I take it that the words +added are not meant to destroy or neutralise the concession of the +first sentence, but only to purify and ennoble a gladness which, +without them, would be apt to be stained by many a corruption, and to +make permanent a joy which, without them, would be sure to die down +into the miserable, peevish, and feeble old age of which the grim +picture follows, and to be quenched at last in death. So there are +three words that I take out of this text of mine, and that I want to +bring before my young friends as exhortations which it is wise to +follow. These are Rejoice, Reflect, Remember. Rejoice--the fitting +gladness of youth; reflect--the solemn thought that will guard the +gladness from stain; remember--the religion which will make these +things ever last. + +First of all 'Rejoice.' Do as you like, for that is the English +translation of the words, 'Walk in the ways of thine heart and in the +sight of thine eyes.' Buoyantly and cheerfully follow the inclinations +and the desires which are stamped upon your nature and belong to your +time of life. All young things are joyful, from the lamb in the +pastures upwards, and are meant to be so. The mere bounding sense of +physical strength which leads so many of you young men astray is a +good thing and a blessed thing--a blessing to be thankful for and to +cherish. Your smooth cheeks, so unlike those of old age, are only an +emblem of the comparative freedom from care which belongs to your +happy condition. Your memories are not yet like some--a book written +within and without with the records of mourning and disappointment and +crosses. There are in all probability long years stretching before +you, instead of a narrow strip of barren sand, before you come to the +great salt sea that is going to swallow you up, as is the case with +some of us. Christianity looks with complacency on your gladness, and +does not mean to clip the wing of one white-winged pleasure, or to +breathe one glimmer of blackness on your atmosphere. You are meant to +be glad, but it is gladness in a far higher sense that I want to +secure for you, or rather to make you secure for yourselves. God +delights in the prosperity and light-hearted buoyancy of His children, +especially of His young children. Ah! but I know there are young lives +over which poverty or ill-health or sorrows of one kind or another +have cast a gloom as incongruous to your time of life as snow in the +garden in the spring, that pinches the crocuses and weighs down young +green beech-leaves, would be. And if I am speaking to any young man or +young woman at this time who by reason of painful outward +circumstances has had but a chilling spring and youth, I would say to +them, 'don't lose heart'; a cloudy morning often breaks into a perfect +day. It is good for a man to have to 'bear the yoke in his youth,' and +if you miss joy, you may get grace and strength and patience, which +will be a blessing to you all your days. For all that, the ordinary +course of things is that the young should be glad, and that the young +life should be as the rippling brook in the sunshine. I want to leave +upon your minds this impression, that it is all right and all in the +order of God's providence, who means every one of you to rejoice in +the days of your youth. The text says further, 'Walk in the ways of +thine heart.' That sounds very like the unwholesome teaching, 'Follow +nature; do as you like; let passions and tastes and inclinations be +your guides.' + +Well, that needs to be set round with a good many guards to prevent it +becoming a doctrine of devils. But for all that, I wish you to notice +that that has a great and a religious side to it. You have come into +possession of this mystical life of yours, a possession which requires +that you must choose what kind of life you will follow. Every one has +this awful prerogative of being able to walk in the way of their +heart. You have to answer for the kind of way that is, and the kind of +heart out of which it has come. But I want to go to more important +things, and so with a clear understanding that the joy of youth is all +right and legitimate, that you are intended to be glad, and to feel +the physical and intellectual spring and buoyancy of early days, let +us go on to the next thing. 'Rejoice,' says my text, and it adds, +'Reflect.' It is one of the blessings of your time of life, my young +friends, that you do not do much of that. It is one of your happy +immunities that you are not yet in the habit of looking at life as a +whole, and considering actions and consequences. Keep that spontaneity +as long as you can; it is a good thing to keep. But for all that, do +not forget this awful thing, that it may turn to exaggeration and +excess, and that it needs, like all other good things, to be guarded +and rightly used. And so, 'Rejoice,' and 'walk in the sight of thine +eyes'; _but_--'know that for all these things God will bring thee +to judgment.' Well, now, is that thought to come in (I was going to +say, like a mourning-coach driven through a wedding procession) to +kill the joys we have been seeming to receive from the former words? +Are we taking back all that we have been giving, and giving out +instead something that will make them all cower and be quiet, like the +singing birds that stop their singing and hide in the leaves when they +see the kite in the sky? No, there is no need for anything of the +sort. 'For all these things God will bring thee to judgment': that is +not the thought that kills, but that purifies and ennobles. Regard +being had to the opinions expressed at various points in the earlier +portion of this Book, we may be allowed to think of this testimony as +having reference to the perpetual judgment that is going on in this +world always over every man's life. A great German thinker has it, in +reference to the history of nations, that the history of the world is +the judgment of the world, and although that is not true if it is a +denial of a physical day of judgment, it is true in a very profound +and solemn sense with regard to the daily life of every man, that +whether there be a judgment-seat beyond the grave or not, and whether +this Preacher knew anything about that or no, there is going on +through the whole of a man's life, and evolving itself, this solemn +conviction, that we are to pass away from this present life. All our +days are knit together as one whole. Yesterday is the parent of today, +and today is the parent of all the tomorrows. The meaning and the +deepest consequence of man's life is that no feeling, no thought that +flits across the mirror of his life and heart dies utterly, leaving +nothing behind it. But rather the metaphor of the Apostle is the true +one, 'That which thou sowest, that shalt thou also reap.' All your +life a seed-time, all your life a harvest-time too, for the seed which +I sow today is the seed which I have reaped from all my former +sowings, and so cause and consequence go rolling on in life in +extricable entanglement, issuing out in this, that whatever a man does +lives on in him, and that each moment inherits the whole consequence +of his former life. And now, you young men and women, you boys and +girls, mind! this seed-time is the one that will be most powerful in +your lives, and there is a judgment you do not need to die to meet. If +you are idle at school, you will never learn Latin when you go to +business. If you are frivolous in your youth, if you stain your souls +and soil your lives by outward coarse sin here in Manchester in your +young days, there will be a taint about you all your lives. You cannot +get rid of that brave law that 'Whatever a man sows, that, thirtyfold, +sixtyfold, an hundredfold, that shall he also reap'--the same kind, +but infinitely multiplied in quantity. Let me therefore name some of +the ways in which your joys or pleasures, as lads, as boys and girls, +as growing young men and women, will bring you to judgment. Health, +that is one; position, that is two; reputation, that is three; +character, that is four. Did you ever see them build one of those +houses they make in some parts of the country, with concrete instead +of stones? Take a spadeful of the mud, and put it into a frame on the +wall. When it is dry, take away the frame and the supports, and it +hardens into rock. You take your single deeds--the mud sometimes, +young men!--pop them on the wall, and think no more about it. Ay, but +they stop there and harden there, and lo! a character--a house for +your soul to live in--health, position, memory, capacity, and all +that. If you have not done certain things which you ought to have +done, you will never be able to do them, and there are the materials +for a judgment. That is going on every moment, and especially is it +going on in the region of your pleasures. If they are unworthy, you +are unworthy; if they are gross, and coarse, and low, and animal, they +are dragging you down; if they are frivolous and foolish, they are +making you a poor butterfly of a creature that is worth nothing and +will be of no good to anybody; if they are pure, and chaste, and +lofty, and virginal and white, they will make your souls good and +gracious and tender with the tenderness and beauty of God. + +But that is not all. I am not going to travel beyond the limits of +this present life with any words of mine, but as I read this final +conclusion in this Book of Ecclesiastes, I think I can perceive that +the doubts and the scepticisms about a future life, and the difference +between a man and a beast which are spoken of in the earlier chapters, +have all been overcome, and the clear conviction of the writer is +expressed in these twofold great sayings: 'The spirit shall return +unto God who gave it, and the words with which He stamps all His +message upon our hearts, the final words of His book'; 'God shall +bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.' And I come to +you and say, 'I suppose you believe in a state of retribution beyond?' +I suppose that most of the young folk I am speaking to now at all +events believe that 'Thou wilt come to be our judge,' as the _Te +Deum_ has it; and that it is this same personal self of mine that +is to stand there who is sitting here? God shall bring _thee_ +into judgment. Never mind what is to come of the body, the quivering, +palpitating, personal centre. The very same self that I know myself to +be will be carried there. Now, take that with you and lay it to heart, +and let it have a bearing on your pleasure. It will kill nothing that +deserves to live, it will take no real joy out of a man's life. It +will only strain out the poison that would kill you. You turn that +thought upon your heart, my friends. Is it like a policeman's +bull's-eye turned upon a lot of bad characters hiding under a railway +arch in the corner there? If so, the sooner you get rid of the +pleasures and inclinations that slink away when that beam of light +strikes their ugly faces, the better for yourselves and for your +lives. 'Rejoice in the way of thine heart and, that thy joy may be +pure, know that for all this God will bring thee into judgment.' + +And now my last word, 'Remember God,' says my text. The former two +sayings, if taken by themselves, would make a very imperfect guide to +life. Self-indulgence regulated by the thought of retribution is a +very low kind of life after all. There is something better in this +world, and that is work; something higher, and that is duty; something +nobler than self-indulgence, and that is self-sacrifice. And so no +religion worthy the name contents itself by saying to a man, 'Be good +and you will be glad'; but, 'Never mind whether you are glad; be good +at any rate, and such gladness as is good for you will come to you, +and you can want the rest.' 'Remember thy Creator in the days of thy +youth.' Recall God to your thoughts, and keep Him in your mind all the +day long. That is wonderfully unlike your life, is it not? Remember +thy Creator; shift the centre of your life. What I have been saying +might be true of a man, the centre of whose life was himself, and such +a man is next door to a devil, for, I suppose, the definition of devil +is 'self-engrossed still,' and whosoever lives for himself is dead. +Don't let the earth be the centre of your system, but the sun. Do not +live to yourselves, or your pleasures will all be ignoble and +creeping, but live to God. 'Remember.' Well, then, you and I know a +good deal more about God than the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes +did--both about what He is and how to remember Him. I am not going to +content myself by taking his point of view, but I must take a far +higher and a far better one. If he had been here he would have said +'Remember God.' He would have said, 'Look at God in Jesus Christ, and +trust Him and love Him; go to Him as your Saviour, and take all the +burden of your past sin and lay it upon His merciful shoulders, and +for His dear sake look for forgiveness and cleansing; and then for His +dear sake live to serve and bless Him. Never mind about yourself, and +do not think much about your gladness. Follow in the footsteps of Him +who has shown us that the highest joy is to give oneself utterly away. +Love Jesus Christ and trust Him and serve Him, and that will make all +your gladness permanent.' There is one thing I want to teach you. Look +at that description, or rather read when you go home the description +which follows my text, of that wretched old man who has got no hope in +God and no joy, feeble in body, going down to the grave, and dying out +at last. That is what rejoicing in the days of thy youth, and walking +in the ways of thine own heart, come to when you do not remember God. +There is nothing more miserable on the face of this earth than an +ill-conditioned old man, who is ill-conditioned because he has lost +his early joys and early strength, and has got nothing to make up for +them. How many of your joys, my dear young friends, will last when old +age comes to you? How many of them will survive when your eye is no +longer bright, and your hand no longer strong, and your foot no longer +fleet? How many of them, young woman! when the light is out of your +eye, and the beauty and freshness out of your face and figure, when +you are no longer able for parties, when it is no longer a pastime to +read novels, and when the ballroom is not exactly the place for +you,--how many of your pleasures will survive? Young man! how many of +yours will last when you can no longer go into dissipation, and +stomach and system will no longer stand fast living, nor athletics, +and the like? Oh! let me beseech thee, go to the ant and consider her +ways, who in the summer layeth up for the winter; and do ye likewise +in the days of your youth, store up for yourselves that which knows no +change and laughs at the decay of flesh and sense. A thousand motives +coincide and press on my memory if I had words and time to speak them. +Let me beseech you--especially you young men and women of this +congregation, of some of whom I may venture to speak as a father to +his children, whom I have seen growing up, as it were, from your +mothers' arms, and the rest of you whom I do not know so well--Oh! +carry away with you this beseeching entreaty of mine at the end. Love +Jesus Christ and trust to Him as your Saviour; serve Him as your +Captain and your King in the days of your youth. Do not offer Him the +fag end of a life--the last inch of the candle that is burning down +into the socket. Do it now, for the moments are flying, and you may +never have Him offered to you any more. If there is any softening, any +touch of conscience in your heart, yield to the impulse and do not +stifle it. Take Christ for your Saviour, take Him now--'Now is the +accepted time, now is the day of salvation.' + + + +THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER + +'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil +days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no +pleasure in them; 2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the +stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; 3. In +the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong +men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, +and those that look out of the windows be darkened, 4. And the doors +shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, +and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters +of musick shall be brought low; 5. Also when they shall be afraid of +that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree +shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire +shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go +about the streets: 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden +bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel +broken at the cistern. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as +it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.... 13. Let +us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His +commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14. For God shall +bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be +good, or whether it be evil.'--ECCLES. xii. 1-7,13,14. + + +The Preacher has passed in review 'all the works that are done under +the sun,' and has now reached the end of his long investigation. It +has been a devious path. He has announced many provisional +conclusions, which are not intended for ultimate truths, but rather +represent the progress of the soul towards the final, sufficient +ground and object of belief and aim of all life, even God Himself. +'Vanity of vanities' is a cheerless creed and a half-truth. Its +completion lies in being driven, by recognising vanity as stamped on +all creatures, to clasp the one reality. 'All is vanity' apart from +God, but He is fullness, and possessed and enjoyed and endured in Him, +life is not 'a striving after wind.' Leave out this last section, and +this book of so-called 'Wisdom' is one-sided and therefore error, as +is modern pessimism, which only says more feebly what the Preacher had +said long ago. Take the rest of the book as the autobiography of a +seeker after reality, and this last section as his declaration of +where he had found it, and all the previous parts fall into their +right places. + +Our passage omits the first portion of the closing section, which is +needed in order to set the counsel to remember the Creator in its +right relation. Observe that, properly rendered, the advice in verse 1 +is 'remember also,' and that takes us back to the end of the preceding +chapter. There the young are exhorted to enjoy the bright, brief +blossom-time of their youth, withal keeping the consciousness of +responsibility for its employment. In earlier parts of the book +similar advice had been given, but based on different grounds. Here +religion and full enjoyment of youthful buoyancy and delight in fresh, +unhackneyed, homely pleasures are proclaimed to be perfectly +compatible. The Preacher had no idea that a devout young man or woman +was to avoid pleasures natural to their age. Only he wished their joy +to be pure, and the stern law that 'whatsoever a man soweth that shall +he also reap' to be kept in mind. Subject to that limitation, or +rather that guiding principle, it is not only allowable, but +commanded, to 'put away sorrow and evil.' Young people are often +liable to despondent moods, which come over them like morning mists, +and these have to be fought against. The duty of joy is the more +imperative on the young because youth flies so fast, or, as the +Preacher says,' is vanity.' + +Now these advices sound very like the base incitements to sensual and +unworthy delight which poets of the meaner sort, and some, alas! of +the nobler in their meaner moments, have presented. But this writer is +no teacher of 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,' and wicked trash of +that sort. Therefore he brings side by side with these advices the +other of our passage. That 'also' saves the former from being misused, +just as the thought of judgment did. + +That possible combination of hearty, youthful glee and true religion +is the all-important lesson of this passage. The word for Creator is +in the plural number, according to the Hebrew idiom, which thereby +expresses supremacy or excellence. The name of 'Creator' carries us +back to Genesis, and suggests one great reason for the injunction. It +is folly to forget Him on whom we depend for being; it is ingratitude +to forget, in the midst of the enjoyments of our bright, early days, +Him to whom we owe them all. The advice is specially needed; for youth +has so much, that is delightful in its novelty, to think about, and +the world, on both its innocent and its sinful side, appeals to it so +strongly, that the Creator is only too apt to be crowded out of view +by His works. The temptation of the young is to live in the present. +Reflection belongs to older heads; spontaneous action is more +characteristic of youth. Therefore, they specially need to make +efforts to bring clearly to their thoughts both the unseen future and +Him who is invisible. The advice is specially suitable for them; for +what is begun early is likely to last and be strong. + +It is hard for older men, stiffened into habits, and with less power +and love of taking to new courses, to turn to God, if they have +forgotten Him in early days. Conversion is possible at any age, but it +is less likely as life goes on. The most of men who are Christians +have become so in the formative period between boyhood and thirty. +After that age, the probabilities of radical change diminish rapidly. +So, 'Remember ... in the days of thy youth,' or the likelihood is that +you will never remember. To say, 'I mean to have my fling, and I shall +turn over a new leaf when I am older,' is to run dreadful risk. +Perhaps you will never be older. Probably, if you are, you will not +want to turn the leaf. If you do, what a shame it is to plan to give +God only the dregs of life! You need Him, quite as much, if not more, +now in the flush of youth as in old age. Why should you rob yourself +of years of blessing, and lay up bitter memories of wasted and +polluted moments? If ever you turn to God in your older days, nothing +will be so painful as the remembrance that you forgot Him so long. + +The advice is further important, because it presents the only means of +delivering life from the 'vanity' which the Preacher found in it all. +Therefore he sets it at the close of his meditations. This is the +practical outcome of them all. Forget God, and life is a desert. +Remember Him, and 'the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.' + +The verses from the middle of verse 1 to the end of verse 7 enforce +the exhortation by the consideration of what will certainly follow +youth, and advise remembrance of the Creator before that future comes. +So much is clear, but the question of the precise meaning of these +verses is much too large for discussion here. The older explanation +takes them for an allegory representing the decay of bodily and mental +powers in old age, whilst others think that in them the advance of +death is presented under the image of an approaching storm. Wright, in +his valuable commentary, regards the description of the gradual waning +away of life in old age, in the first verses, as being set forth under +images drawn from the closing days of the Palestinian winter, which +are dreaded as peculiarly unhealthy, while verse 4_b_ and verse 5 +present the advent of spring, and contrast the new life in animals and +plants with the feebleness of the man dying in his chamber and unable +to eat. Still another explanation is that the whole is part of a +dirge, to be taken literally, and describing the mourners in house and +garden. I venture, though with some hesitation, to prefer, on the +whole, the old allegorical theory, for reasons which it would be +impossible to condense here. It is by no means free from difficulty, +but is, as I think, less difficult than any of its rivals. + +Interpreters who adopt it differ somewhat in the explanation of +particular details, but, on the whole, one can see in most of the +similes sufficient correspondence for a poet, however foreign to +modern taste such a long-drawn and minute allegory may be. 'The +keepers of the house' are naturally the arms; the 'strong men,' the +legs; the 'grinding women,' the teeth; the 'women who look out at the +windows,' the eyes; 'the doors shut towards the street,' either the +lips or, more probably, the ears. 'The sound of the grinding,' which +is 'low,' is by some taken to mean the feeble mastication of toothless +gums, in which case the 'doors' are the lips, and the figure of the +mill is continued. 'Arising at the voice of the bird' may describe the +light sleep or insomnia of old age; but, according to some, with an +alteration of rendering ('The voice riseth into a sparrow's'), it is +the 'childish treble' of Shakespeare. The former is the more probable +rendering and reference. The allegory is dropped in verse _5a_, +which describes the timid walk of the old, but is resumed in 'the +almond trees shall flourish'; that is, the hair is blanched, as the +almond blossom, which is at first delicate pink, but fades into white. +The next clause has an appropriate meaning in the common translation, +as vividly expressing the loss of strength, but it is doubtful whether +the verb here used ever means 'to be a burden.' The other explanations +of the clause are all strained. The next clause is best taken, as in +the Revised Version, as describing the failure of appetite, which the +stimulating caper-berry is unable to rouse. All this slow decay is +accounted for, 'because the man is going to his long home,' and +already the poet sees the mourners gathering for the funeral +procession. + +The connection of the long-drawn-out picture of senile decay with the +advice to remember the Creator needs no elucidation. That period of +failing powers is no time to begin remembering God. How dreary, too, +it will be, if God is not the 'strength of the heart,' when 'heart and +flesh fail'! Therefore it is plain common sense, in view of the +future, not to put off to old age what will bless youth, and keep the +advent of old age from being wretched. + +Verses 6 and 7 still more stringently enforce the precept by pointing, +not to the slow approach, but to the actual arrival of death. If a +future of possible weakness and gradual creeping in on us of death is +reason for the exhortation, much more is the certainty that the crash +of dissolution will come. The allegory is partially resumed in these +verses. The 'golden bowl' is possibly the head, and, according to +some, the 'silver cord' is the spinal marrow, while others think +rather of the bowl or lamp as meaning the body, and the cord the soul +which, as it were, holds it up. The 'pitcher' is the heart, and the +'wheel' the organs of respiration. Be this as it may, the general +thought is that death comes, shivering the precious reservoir of +light, and putting an end to drawing of life from the Fountain of +bodily life. Surely these are weighty reasons for the Preacher's +advice. Surely it is well for young hearts sometimes to remember the +end, and to ask, 'What will ye do in the end?' and to do before the +end what is so hard to begin doing at the end, and so needful to have +done if the end is not to be worse than 'vanity.' + +The collapse of the body is not the end of the man, else the whole +force of the argument in the preceding verses would disappear. If +death is annihilation, what reason is there for seeking God before it +comes? Therefore verse 7 is no interpolation to bring a sceptical book +into harmony with orthodox Jewish belief, as some commentators affirm. +The 'contradiction' between it and Ecclesiastes iii. 21 is alleged as +proof of its having been thus added. But there is no contradiction. +The former passage is interrogative, and, like all the earlier part of +the book, sets forth, not the Preacher's ultimate convictions, but a +phase through which he passed on his way to these. It is because man +is twofold, and at death the spirit returns to its divine Giver, that +the exhortation of verse 1 is pressed home with such earnestness. + +The closing verses are confidently asserted to be, like verse 7, +additions in the interests of Jewish 'orthodoxy.' But Ecclesiastes is +made out to be a 'sceptical book' by expelling these from the text, +and then the character thus established is taken to prove that they +are not genuine. It is a remarkably easy but not very logical process. + +'The end of the matter' when all is heard, is, to 'fear God and keep +His commandments.' The inward feeling of reverent awe which does not +exclude love, and the outward life of conformity to His will, is 'the +whole duty of man,' or 'the duty of every man.' And that plain summary +of all that men need to know for practical guidance is enforced by the +consideration of future judgment, which, by its universal sweep and +all-revealing light, must mean the judgment in another life. + +Happy they who, through devious mazes of thought and act, have +wandered seeking for the vision of any good, and having found all to +be vanity, have been led at last to rest, like the dove in the ark, in +the broad simplicity of the truth that all which any man needs for +blessedness in the buoyancy of fresh youthful strength and in the +feebleness of decaying age, in the stress of life, in the darkness of +death, and in the day of judgment, is to 'fear God and keep His +commandments'! + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture, by +Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 7883.txt or 7883.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/8/8/7883/ + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, David King and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +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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Esther, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7883] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 30, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, David King +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +SECOND KINGS FROM CHAP. VIII, AND CHRONICLES, EZRA, AND NEHEMIAH + +ESTHER, JOB, PROVERBS +AND ECCLESIASTES + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS + + +THE STORY OF HAZAEL (2 Kings viii. 9-15) + +IMPURE ZEAL (2 Kings x. 18-31) + +JEHOIADA AND JOASH (2 Kings xi. 1-16) + +METHODICAL LIBERALITY (2 Kings xii. 4-15) + +THE SPIRIT OF POWER (2 Kings xiii. 16) + +A KINGDOM'S EPITAPH (2 Kings xvii. 6-18) + +DIVIDED WORSHIP (2 Kings xvii. 33) + +HEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE (2 Kings xviii. 5, 6) + +'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED' (2 Kings xix. 20-22; 28-37) + +THE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS (2 Kings xxii. 8-20) + +THE END (2 Kings xxv. 1-12) + +THE KING'S POTTERS (1 Chron. iv. 23) + +DAVID'S CHORISTERS (1 Chron. vi. 32, R.V. margin) + +DRILL AND ENTHUSIASM (1 Chron. xii. 33) + +DAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE (1 Chron. xxii. 6-16) + +DAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON (1 Chron. xxviii. 1-10) + +THE WAVES OF TIME (1 Chron. xxix. 30) + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE DUTY OF EVERY DAY (2 Chron. viii. 12-13, R.V.) + +CONTRASTED SERVICES (2 Chron. xii. 8) + +THE SECRET OF VICTORY (2 Chron. xiii. 18) + +ASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY (2 Chron. xiv. +2-8) + +ASA'S PRAYER (2 Chron. xiv. 11) + +THE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS (2 Chron. xv. 15) + +JEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM (2 Chron. xvii. 1-10) + +AMASIAH (2 Chron. xvii. 16) + +'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES' (2 Chron. xix. 1-11) + +A STRANGE BATTLE (2 Chron. xx. 12) + +HOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST (2 Chron. xx. 20) + +JOASH (2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 17) + +GLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS (2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14) + +PRUDENCE AND FAITH (2 Chron. xxv. 9) + +JOTHAM (2 Chron. xxvii. 6) + +COSTLY AND FATAL HELP (2 Chron. xxviii. 23) + +A GODLY REFORMATION (2 Chron. xxix. 1-11) + +SACRIFICE RENEWED (2 Chron. xxix. 18-31) + +A LOVING CALL TO REUNION (2 Chron. xxx. 1-13) + +A STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS (2 Chron. xxxii. 1) + +MANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE (2 Chron. xxxiii. 9-16) + +JOSIAH (2 Chron. xxxiv. 1-13) + +JOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW (2 Chron. xxxiv. 11-28) + +THE FALL OF JUDAH (2 Chron. xxxvi. 11-21) + + +EZRA + + +THE EVE OF THE RESTORATION (Ezra i. 1-11) + +ALTAR AND TEMPLE (Ezra iii. 1-13) + +BUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES (Ezra iv. 1-5) + +THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP (Ezra vi. 14-22) + +GOD THE JOY-BRINGER (Ezra vi. 22) + +HEROIC FAITH (Ezra viii. 22, 23, 31, 32) + +THE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS (Ezra viii. 29) + + +THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH + + +A REFORMER'S SCHOOLING (Neh. i. 1-11) + +THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS (Neh. i. 4) + +'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE' (Neh. iii. 28) + +DISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE (Neh. iv. 9-21) + +AN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST (Neh. v. 15) + +READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY (Neh. viii. 1-12) + +THE JOY OF THE LORD (Neh. viii. 10) + +SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Neh. xiii. l5-22) + + +THE BOOK OF ESTHER + + +THE NET SPREAD (Esther iii. 1-11) + +ESTHER'S VENTURE (Esther iv. 10-17; v. 1-3) + +MORDECAI AND ESTHER (Esther iv. 14) + +THE NET BROKEN (Esther viii.3-8,15-17) + + +THE BOOK OF JOB + + +SORROW THAT WORSHIPS (Job i. 21) + +THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE +(Job v. 17-27) + +TWO KINDS OF HOPE (Job viii. 14; Romans v. 5) + +JOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER (Job xiv. 14; John xi. 25,26) + +KNOWLEDGE AND PEACE (Job xxii. 21) + +WHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE (Job xxii. 26-29) + +'THE END OF THE LORD' (Job xlii. 1-10) + + +THE PROVERBS + + +A YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR (Proverbs i. 1-19) + +WISDOM'S CALL (Proverbs i. 20-33) + +THE SECRET OF WELL-BEING (Proverbs iii. 1-10) + +THE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM (Proverbs iii. 11-24) + +THE TWO PATHS (Proverbs iv. 10-19) + +MONOTONY AND CRISES (Proverbs iv. 12) + +FROM DAWN TO NOON (Proverbs iv. 18; Matt. xiii. 43) + +KEEPING AND KEPT (Proverbs iv. 23; I Peter i. 5) + +THE CORDS OF SIN (Proverbs v. 22) + +WISDOM'S GIFT (Proverbs viii. 21) + +WISDOM AND CHRIST (Proverbs viii. 30, 31) + +THE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING (Proverbs +x. 29) + +THE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY (Proverbs +xii. 1-15) + +THE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR (Proverbs xiii. 7) + +THE TILLAGE OF THE POOR (Proverbs xiii. 23) + +SIN THE MOCKER (Proverbs xiv. 9) + +HOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY (Prov. xiv. 13; John xv. 11) + +SATISFIED FROM SELF (Proverbs xiv. 14) + +WHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF +ME (Proverbs xvi. 2) + +A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS (Proverbs xvi. 22-33) + +TWO FORTRESSES (Proverbs xviii. 10, 11) + +A STRING OF PEARLS (Proverbs xx. 1-7) + +THE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST (Proverbs xx. 4) + +BREAD AND GRAVEL (Proverbs xx. 17) + +A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE (Proverbs xxiii. 15-23) + +THE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE (Proverbs xxiii. 17, 18) + +THE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKARD (Proverbs xxiii, 29-35) + +THE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE (Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12) + +THE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN (Proverbs xxiv. 30, 31) + +AN UNWALLED CITY (Proverbs xxv. 28) + +THE WEIGHT OF SAND (Proverbs xxvii. 3) + +PORTRAIT OF A MATRON (Proverbs xxxi. 10-31) + + +ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER + + +WHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES (Eccles. i. 4; I John +ii. 17) + +THE PAST AND THE FUTURE (Eccles. i. 9; I Peter iv. 2, 3) + +TWO VIEWS OF LIFE (Eccles. i. 13; Hebrews xii. 10) + +'A TIME TO PLANT' (Eccles. iii. 2) + +ETERNITY IN THE HEART (Eccles. iii. 11) + +LESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK (Eccles. v. 1-12) + +NAKED OR CLOTHED? (Eccles. v. 15; Rev. xiv. 13) + +FINIS CORONAT OPUS (Eccles. vii. 8) + +MISUSED RESPITE (Eccles. viii. 11) + +FENCES AND SERPENTS (Eccles. x. 8) + +THE WAY TO THE CITY (Eccles. x. 15) + +A NEW YEAR'S SERMON TO THE YOUNG (Eccles. xi. 9; xii. 1) + +THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER (Eccles. xii. 1-7, 13-14) + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS + + +THE STORY OF HAZAEL + +'So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of +every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood +before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to +thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10. And Elisha said +unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the +Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 11. And he settled his +countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. +12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I +know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their +strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay +with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women +with child. 13. And Hazael said. But what, is thy servant a dog, that +he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath +shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 14. So he departed from +Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to +thee? and he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. +15. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and +dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and +Hazael reigned in his stead.'--2 KINGS viii. 9-15. + + +This is a strange, wild story. That Damascene monarchy burst into +sudden power, warlike and commercial--for the two things went together +in those days. As is usually the case, Hazael the successful soldier +becomes ambitious. His sword seems to be the real sceptre, and he will +have the dominion. Many years before this Elijah had anointed him to +be king over Syria. That had wrought upon him and stirred ambition in +him. Elijah's other appointments, coeval with his own, had already +taken effect, Jehu was king of Israel, Elisha was prophet, and he only +had not attained the dignity to which he had been designated. + +He comes now with his message from the king of Damascus to Elisha. No +doubt he had been often contrasting his own vigour with the decrepit, +nominal king, and many a time had thought of the anointing, and had +nursed ambitious hopes, which gradually turned to dark resolves. + +He hoped, no doubt, that Ben-hadad was mortally sick, and it must have +been a cruel, crushing disappointment when he heard that there was +nothing deadly in the illness. Another hope was gone from him. The +throne seemed further off than ever. I suppose that, at that instant, +there sprang in his heart the resolve that he would kill Ben-hadad. +The recoil of disappointment spurred Hazael to the resolution which he +then and there took. It had been gathering form, no doubt, through +some years, but now it became definite and settled. While his face +glowed with the new determination, and his lips clenched themselves in +the firmness of his purpose, the even voice of the prophet went on, +'howbeit he shall certainly die,' and the eye of the man of God +searched him till he turned away ashamed because aware that his inmost +heart was read. + +Then there followed the prophet's weeping, and the solemn announcement +of what Hazael would do when he had climbed to the throne. He shrank +in real horror from the thought of such enormity of sin. 'Is thy +servant a dog that he should do such a thing?' Elisha sternly answers: +'The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' The +certainty is that in his character occasion will develop evil. The +certainty is that a course begun by such crime will be of a piece, and +consistent with itself. + +This conversation with Elisha seems to have accelerated Hazael's +purpose, as if the prediction were to his mind a justification of his +means of fulfilling it. + +How like Macbeth he is!--the successful soldier, stirred by +supernatural monitions of a greatness which he should achieve, and at +last a murderer. + +This narrative opens to us some of the solemn, dark places of human +life, of men's hearts, of God's ways. Let us look at some of the +lessons which lie here. + +I. Man's responsibility for the sin which God foresees. + +It seems as if the prophet's words had much to do in exciting the +ambitious desires which led to the crime. Hazael's purpose of +executing the deed is clearly known to the prophet. His ascending the +throne is part of the divine purpose. He could find excuses for his +guilt, and fling the responsibility for firing his ambition on the +divine messenger. It may be asked--What sort of God is this who works +on the mind of a man by exciting promises, and having done so, and +having it fixed in His purposes that the man is to do the crime, yet +treats it when done as guilt? + +But now, whatever you may say, or whatever excuses Hazael might have +found for himself, here is just in its most naked form that which is +true about all sin. God foresees it all. God puts men into +circumstances where they will fall, God presents to them things which +they will make temptations. God takes the consequences of their +wrongdoing and works them into His great scheme. That is undeniable on +one side, and on the other it is as undeniable that God's foreseeing +leaves men free. God's putting men into circumstances where they fall +is not His tempting them. God's non-prevention of sin is not +permission to sin. God's overruling the consequences of sin is not His +condoning of sin as part of the scheme of His providence. + +Man is free. Man is responsible. God hates sin. God foresees and +permits sin. + +It is all a terrible mystery, but the facts are as undeniable as the +mystery of their co-existence is inscrutable. + +II. The slumbering possibilities of sin. + +Hazael indignantly protests against the thought that he should do such +a thing. There is conscience left in him yet. His example suggests how +little any of us know what it is in us to be or to do. We are all of +us a mystery to ourselves. Slumbering powers lie in us. We are like +quiescent volcanoes. + +So much in us lies dormant, needing occasion for its development, like +seeds that may sleep for centuries. That is true in regard to both the +good and the bad in us. Life reveals us to ourselves. We learn to know +ourselves by our actions, better than by mental self-inspection. + +All sin is one in essence, and may pass into diverse forms according +to circumstances. Of course characters differ, but the root of sin is +in us all. We are largely good because not tempted, as a house may +well stand firm when there are no floods. By the nature of the case, +thorough self-knowledge is impossible. + +Sin has the power of blinding us to its presence. It comes in a cloud +as the old gods were fabled to do. The lungs get accustomed to a +vitiated atmosphere, and scarcely are conscious of oppression till +they cease to play. + +All this should teach us-- + +Lessons of wary walking and humility. We are good because we have not +been tried. + +Lessons of charity and brotherly kindness. Every thief in the hulks, +every prostitute on the streets, is our brother and sister, and they +prove their fraternity by their sin. 'Whatever man has done man may +do.' '_Nihil humanum alienum a me puto_.' 'Let him that is +without sin cast the first stone.' + +III. The fatal necessity by which sin repeats itself in aggravated +forms. + +See how Hazael is drifted into his worst crimes. His first one leads +on by fell necessity to others. A man who has done no sin is +conceivable, but a man who has done only one is impossible. Did you +ever see a dam bursting or breaking down? Through a little crack comes +one drop: will it stop there--the gap or the trickle? No! The drop has +widened the crack, it has softened the earth around, it has cleared +away some impediments. So another and another follow ever more +rapidly, until the water pours out in a flood and the retaining +embankment is swept away. + +No sin 'is dead, being alone.' The demon brings seven other devils +worse than himself. The reason for that aggravation is plain. + +There is, first, habit. + +There is, second, growing inclination. + +There is, third, weakened restraint. + +There is, fourth, a craving for excitement to still conscience. + +There is, fifth, the necessity of the man's position. + +There is, sixth, the strange love of consistency which tones all life +down or up to one tint, as near as may be. There comes at last +despair. + +But not merely does every sin tend to repeat itself and to draw others +after it. It tends to repeat itself in aggravated forms. There is +growth, the law of increase as well as of perpetuity. The seed +produces 'some sixty and some an hundredfold.' + +And so the slaughtered soldiers and desolated homesteads of Israel +were the sequel of the cloth on Ben-hadad's face. The secret of much +enormous crime is the kind of relief from conscience which is found in +committing a yet greater sin. The Furies drive with whips of +scorpions, and the poor wretch goes plunging and kicking deeper and +deeper in the mire, further and farther from the path. So you can +never say: 'I will only do this one wrong thing.' + +We see here how powerless against sin are all restraints. The prophecy +did not prevent Hazael from his sins. The clear sense that they were +sins did not prevent him. The horror-struck shudder of conscience did +not prevent him. It was soon gagged. + +Hear, then, the conclusion of the whole matter. Christ reveals us to +ourselves. Christ breaks the chain of sin, makes a new beginning, cuts +off the entail, reverses the irreversible, erases the indelible, +cancels the irrevocable, forgives all the faultful past, and by the +power of His love in the soul, works a mightier miracle than changing +the Ethiopian's skin; teaches them that are accustomed to evil to do +well, and though sins be as scarlet, makes them white as snow. He +gives us a cleansed past and a bright future, and out of all our sins +and wasted years makes pardoned sinners and glorified, perfected +saints. + + + +IMPURE ZEAL + +'And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab +served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. 19. Now therefore +call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his +priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to +Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it +in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of +Baal. 20. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they +proclaimed it. 21. And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the +worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came +not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was +full from one end to another. 22. And he said unto him that was over +the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And +he brought them forth vestments. 23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the +son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers +of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the +servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only. 24. And when +they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed +fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought +into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for +the life of him. 25. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an +end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to +the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they +smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains +cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. 26. And they +brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. +27. And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of +Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 28. Thus Jehu +destroyed Baal out of Israel. 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam +the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after +them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in +Dan. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in +executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the +house of Ahab according to all that was in Mine heart, thy children of +the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 31. But Jehu +took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his +heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made +Israel to sin.'--2 KINGS x. 18-31. + + +The details of this story of bloodshed need little elucidation. Jehu +had 'driven furiously' to some purpose. Secrecy and swiftness joined +to unhesitating severity had crushed the dynasty of Ahab, which fell +unlamented and unsupported, as if lightning-struck. The nobler +elements had gathered to Jehu, as represented by the Rechabite, +Jehonadab, evidently a Jehovah worshipper, and closely associated with +the fierce soldier in this chapter. Jehu first secured his position, +and then smote the Baal worship as heavily and conclusively as he had +done the royal family. He struck once, and struck no more; for the +single blow pulverised. + +The audacious pretext of an intention to outdo the fallen dynasty in +Baal worship must have sounded strange to those who knew how his +massacre of Ahab's house had been represented by him as fulfilling +Jehovah's purpose, but it was not too gross to be believed. So we can +fancy the joyous revival of hope with which from every corner of the +land the Baal priests, prophets, and worshippers, recovered from their +fright, came flocking to the great temple in Samaria, till it was like +a cup filled with wine from brim to brim. The worship cannot have +numbered many adherents if one temple could hold the bulk of them. +Probably it had never been more than a court fashion, and, now that +Jezebel was dead, had lost ground. A token of royal favour was given +to each of the crowd, in the gift of a vestment from the royal +wardrobe. Then Jehu himself, accompanied by the ascetic Jehonadab, +entered the court of the temple, a strangely assorted pair, and a +couple of very 'distinguished' converts. The Baal priests would thrill +with gratified pride when these two came to worship. The usual +precautions against the intrusion of non-worshippers were taken at +Jehu's command, but with a sinister meaning, undreamed of by the eager +searchers. That was a sifting for destruction, not for preservation. +So they all passed into the inner court to offer sacrifice. + +The story gives a double picture in verse 24. Within are the jubilant +worshippers; without, the grim company of their executioners, waiting +the signal to draw their swords and burst in on the unarmed mob. Jehu +carried his deception so far that he himself offered the burnt +offering, with Jehonadab standing by, and then withdrew, followed, no +doubt, by grateful acclamations. A step or two brought him to the +'eighty men without.' Two stern words, 'Go, smite them,' are enough. +They storm in, and 'the songs of the temple' are turned to 'howlings +in that day.' The defenceless, surprised crowd, huddled together in +the dimly lighted shrine, were massacred to a man. The innermost +sanctuary was then wrecked, corpses and statues thrown pell-mell into +the outer courts or beyond the precincts, fires lit to burn the +abominations, and busy hands, always more ready for pillage and +destruction than for good work, pulled down the temple, the ruins of +which were turned to base uses. The writer, picturing the wild scene, +sums up with a touch of exultation: 'Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of +Israel'--where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the +king, the god, and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible +deed. + +Now the main interest of this passage lies in its disclosure of the +strangely mingled character of Jehu, and in the fact that his bloody +severity was approved by God, and rewarded by the continuance of his +dynasty for a longer time than any other on the throne of Israel. + +Jehu was influenced by 'zeal for the Lord,' however much smoke mingled +with the flame. He acted under the conviction that he was God's +instrument, and at each new deed of blood asserted his fulfilment of +prophecy. His profession to Jehonadab (ver. 16) was not hypocrisy nor +ostentation. The Rechabite sheikh was evidently a man of mark, and +apparently one of the leaders of those who had not 'bowed the knee to +Baal'; and Jehu's disclosure of his animating motive was meant to +secure the alliance of that party through one of its chiefs. No doubt +many elements of selfishness and many stains mingled with Jehu's zeal. +It was much on the same level as the fanaticism of the immediate +successors of Mohammed; but, low as it was, look at its power. Jehu +swept like a whirlwind, or like leaping fire among stubble, from +Ramoth to Jezreel, from Jezreel to Samaria, and nothing stood before +his fierce onset. Promptitude, decision, secrecy,--the qualities which +carry enterprises to success--marked his character; partly, no doubt, +from natural temperament, for God chooses right instruments, but from +temperament heightened and invigorated by the conviction of being the +instrument whom God had chosen. We may learn how even a very imperfect +form of this conviction gives irresistible force to a man, annihilates +fear, draws the teeth of danger, and gathers up all one's faculties to +a point which can pierce any opposition. We may all recognise that God +has sent us on His errands; and if we cherish that conviction, we +shall put away from us slothfulness and fear, and out of weakness +shall be made strong. + +But Jehu sets forth the possible imperfections of 'zeal for the Lord.' +We may defer for a moment the consideration of the morality of his +slaughter of the royal house and the Baal worshippers, and point to +the taint of selfishness and to the leaven of deceit in his +enthusiasm. We have not to analyse it. That is God's work. But clearly +the object which he had in view was not merely fulfilment of prophecy, +but securing the throne; and there was more passion, as well as +selfish policy, in his massacres, than befitted a minister of the +divine justice, who should let no anger disturb the solemnity of his +terrible task. Such dangers ever attend the path of the great men who +feel themselves to be sent by God. In our humbler lives they dog our +steps, and religious fervour needs ever to keep careful watch on +itself, lest it should degenerate unconsciously into self-will, and +should allow the muddy stream of earth-born passion to darken its +crystal waters. + +Many a great name in the annals of the Church has fallen before that +temptation. We all need to remember that 'the wrath of man worketh not +the righteousness of God,' and to take heed lest we should be guided +by our own stormy impatience of contradiction, and by a determination +to have our own way, while we think ourselves the humble instruments +of a divine purpose. There was a 'Zelotes' in the Apostolate; but the +coarse, sanguinary 'zeal' of his party must have needed much purifying +before it learned what manner of spirit the zeal of a true disciple +was of. + +Another point of interest is the divine emphatic approval of Jehu's +bloody acts (ver. 30). The massacre of the Baal worshippers is not +included in the acts which God declares to have been 'according to all +that was in Mine heart,' and it may be argued that it was not part of +Jehu's commission. Certainly the accompanying deceit was not 'right in +God's eyes,' but the slaughter in Baal's temple was the natural sequel +of the civil revolution, and is most probably included in the deeds +approved. + +Perhaps Elisha brought Jehu the message in verse 30. If so, what a +contrast between the two instruments of God's purposes! At all events, +Jehovah's approval was distinctly given. What then? There need be no +hesitation in recognising the progressive character of Scripture +morality, as well as the growth of the revelation of the divine +character, of which the morality of each epoch is the reflection. The +full revelation of the God of love had to be preceded by the clear +revelation of the God of righteousness; and whilst the Old Testament +does make known the love of God in many a gracious act and word, it +especially teaches His righteous condemnation of sin, without which +His love were mere facile indulgence and impunity. The slaughter of +that wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of +divine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was +entitled to slay them. To that question believers in a divine +providence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship +and the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab's family were +sufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in +Jehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God's was +the hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life +and death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers. +Granted that the 'long-suffering' which is 'not willing that any +should perish' speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice +which smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is +possible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a +loose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at +the thought of the 'wrath of God,' and recoils from the contemplation +of His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness +of His love. + +From the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are +not made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation's +history, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful +system is to be crushed, there will be violence, at which easy-going +people, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their +hands in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law +than Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love +in the place of what was 'said to them of old time.' But let us, while +we obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men +of old 'according to that which they had, and not according to that +which they had not.' Jehu's bloody deeds are not held up for +admiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us +if we obey our better law as faithfully! + +The last point in the story is the imperfection of the obedience of +Jehu. He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves. +That shows the impurity of his 'zeal,' which flamed only against what +it was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and +older idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be 'all in all, or not at +all.' We may not 'compound for sins we are inclined to, by' zeal +against those 'we have no mind to.' Our consciences are apt to have +insensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough +to remove the grosser evils, and leave the less, but white ants will +eat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little +use if we keep the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Nothing but walking in +the law of the Lord 'with all the heart' will secure our walking +safely. 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' needs to be our daily +prayer. 'One foot on sea and one on shore' is not the attitude in +which steadfastness or progress is possible. + + + +JEHOIADA AND JOASH + +'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, +she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the +daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of +Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; +and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from +Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the +house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4. +And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over +hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him +into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an +oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king's son. +5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; +A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers +of the watch of the king's house; 6. And a third part shall be at the +gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall +ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 7. And two +parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep +the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8. And ye shall +compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: +and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with +the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 9. And the captains over +the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest +commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the +sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to +Jehoiada the priest. 10, And to the captains over hundreds did the +priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple +of the Lord. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in +his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to +the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 12. +And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and +gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and +they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 13. And when +Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to +the people into the temple of the Lord. 14. And when she looked, +behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes +and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land +rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and +cried, Treason, Treason. 15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded the +captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto +them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her +kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in +the house of the Lord. 16. And they laid hands on her; and she went by +the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there +was she slain.'--2 KINGS xi. 1-16. + + +The king of Judah has been killed, his alliance with the king of +Israel having involved him in the latter's fate. Jehu had also +murdered 'the brethren of Ahaziah,' forty-two in number. Next, +Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah and a daughter of Ahab, killed all the +males of the royal family, and planted herself on the throne. She had +Jezebel's force of character, unscrupulousness and disregard of human +life. She was a tigress of a woman, and, no doubt, her six years' +usurpation was stained with blood and with the nameless abominations +of Baal worship. Never had the kingdom of Judah been at a lower ebb. +One infant was all that was left of David's descendants. The whole +promises of God seemed to depend for fulfilment on one little, feeble +life. The tree had been cut down, and there was but this one sucker +pushing forth a tiny shoot from 'the root of Jesse.' + +We have in the passage, first, the six years of hiding in the temple. +It is a pathetic picture, that of the infant rescued by his brave aunt +from the blood-bath, and stowed away in the storeroom where the mats +and cushions which served for beds were kept when not in use, watched +over by two loving and courageous women, and taught infantile lessons +by the husband of his aunt, Jehoiada the high priest. Many must have +been aware of his existence, and there must have been loyal guarding +of the secret, or Athaliah's sword would have been reddened with the +baby's blood. Like the child Samuel, he had the Temple for his home, +and his first impressions would be of daily sacrifices and white-robed +priests. It was a better school for him than if he had been in the +palace close by. The opening flower would have been soon besmirched +there, but in the holy calm of the Temple courts it unfolded +unstained. A Christian home should breathe the same atmosphere as +surrounded Joash, and it, too, should be a temple, where holy peace +rules, and where the first impressions printed on plastic little minds +are of God and His service. + +We have next the disclosure and coronation of the boy king. The +narrative here has to be supplemented from that in 2 Chron. xxiii., +which does not contradict that in this passage, as is often said, but +completes it. It informs us that before the final scene in the Temple, +Jehoiada had in Jerusalem assembled a large force of Levites and of +the 'heads of the fathers' houses' from all the kingdom. That +statement implies that the revolution was mainly religious in its +motive, and was national in its extent. Obviously Jehoiada would have +been courting destruction for Joash and himself unless he had made +sure of a strong backing before he hoisted the standard of the house +of David. There must, therefore, have been long preparation and much +stir; and all the while the foreign woman was sitting in the palace, +close by the Temple, and not a whisper reached her. Evidently she had +no party in Judah, and held her own only by her indomitable will and +by the help of foreign troops. Anybody who remembers how the Austrians +in Italy were shunned, will understand how Athaliah heard nothing of +the plot that was rapidly developing a stone's throw from her isolated +throne. Strange delusion, to covet such a seat, yet no stranger than +many another mistaking of serpents for fish, into which we fall! + +Jehoiada's caution was as great as his daring. He does not appear to +have given the Levites and elders any inkling of his purpose till he +had them safe in the Temple, and then he opened his mind, swore them +to stand by him, and 'showed them the king's son.' What a scene that +would be--the seven-year-old child there among all these strange men, +the joyful surprise flashing in their eyes, the exultation of the +faithful women that had watched him so lovingly, the stern facing of +the dangers ahead. Most of the assembly must have thought that none of +David's house remained, and that thought would have had much to do +with their submitting to Athaliah's usurpation. Now that they saw the +true heir, they could not hesitate to risk their lives to set him on +his throne. Show a man his true king, and many a tyranny submitted to +before becomes at once intolerable. The boy Joash makes Athaliah look +very ugly. + +Jehoiada's plans are somewhat difficult to understand, owing to our +ignorance of the details as to the usual arrangements of the guards of +the palace, but the general drift of them is plain enough. The main +thing was to secure the person of the king, and, for that purpose, the +two companies of priests who were relieved on the Sabbath were for +once kept on duty, and their numbers augmented by the company that +would, in the ordinary course, have relieved them. This augmented +force was so disposed as, first, to secure the Temple from attack; +and, second, to 'compass the king'--in his chamber, that is. We learn +from 2 Chronicles that it consisted of priests and Levites, and some +would see in that statement a tampering with the account in this +passage, in the interests of a later conception of the sanctity of the +Temple and of the priestly order. Our narrative is said to make the +foreign mercenaries of the palace guard the persons referred to; but +surely that cannot be maintained in the face of the plain statement of +verse 7, that they kept the watch of the Temple, for that was the +office of the priests. Besides, how should foreign soldiers have +needed to be armed from the Temple armoury? And is it probable on the +face of it that the palace guard, who were Athaliah's men, and +therefore antagonistic to Joash, and Baal worshippers, should have +been gained over to his side, or should have been the guards of the +house of Jehovah? If, however, we understand that these guards were +Levites, all is plain, and the arming of them with 'the spears and +shields that had been king David's' becomes intelligible, and would +rouse them to enthusiasm and daring. + +Not till all these dispositions for the boy king's safety, and for +preventing an assault on the Temple, had been carried out, did the +prudent Jehoiada venture to bring Joash out from his place of +concealment. Note that in verse 12 he is not called 'the king,' as in +the previous verses, but, as in verse 4, 'the king's son.' He was king +by right, but not technically, till he had been presented to, and +accepted by, the representatives of the people, had had 'the +testimony' placed in his hands, and been anointed by the high-priest. +So 'they _made_ him king.' The three parts of the ceremony were +all significant. The delivering of 'the testimony' (the Book of the +Law--Deut. xvii 18, 19) taught him that he was no despot to rule by +his own pleasure and for his own glory, but the viceroy of the true +King of Judah, and himself subject to law. The people's making him +king taught him and them that a true royalty rules over willing +subjects, and both guarded the rights of the nation and set limits to +the power of the ruler. The priest's anointing witnessed to the divine +appointment of the monarch and the divine endowment with fitness for +his office. Would that these truths were more recognised and felt by +all rulers! What a different thing the page of history would be! + +The vigilance of the tigress had been eluded, and Athaliah had a rude +awakening. But she had her mother's courage, and as soon as she heard +in the palace the shouts, she dashed to the Temple, alone as she was, +and fronted the crowd. The sight might have made the boldest quail. +Who was that child standing in the royal place? Where had he come +from? How had he been hidden all these years? What was all this frenzy +of rejoicing, this blare of trumpets, these ranks of grim men with +weapons in their hands? The stunning truth fell on her; but, though +she felt that all was lost, not a whit did she blench, but fronted +them all as proudly as ever. One cannot but admire the dauntless +woman, 'magnificent in sin.' But her cry of 'Treason! treason!' +brought none to her side. As she stood solitary there, she must have +felt that her day was over, and that nothing remained but to die like +a queen. Proudly as ever, she passed down the ranks and not a face +looked pity on her, nor a voice blessed her. She was reaping what she +had sown, and she who had killed without compunction the innocents who +stood between her and her ambitions, was pitilessly slain, and all the +land rejoiced at her death. + +So ended the all but bloodless revolution which crushed Baal worship +in Judah. It had been begun by Elijah and Elisha, but it was completed +by a high priest. It was religious even more than political. It was a +national movement, though Jehoiada's courage and wisdom engineered it +to its triumph. It teaches us how God watches over His purposes and +their instruments when they seem nearest to failure, for one poor +infant was all that was left of the seed of David; and how, therefore, +we are never to despair, even in the darkest hour, of the fulfilment +of His promises. It teaches us how much one brave, good man and woman +can do to change the whole face of things, and how often there needs +but one man to direct and voice the thoughts and acts of the silent +multitude, and to light a fire that consumes evil. + + + +METHODICAL LIBERALITY + +'4. And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated +things that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of +every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set +at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into +the house of the Lord, 5. Let the priests take it to them, every man +of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, +wheresoever any breach shall be found. 6. But it was so, that in the +three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired +the breaches of the house. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada +the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye +not the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of +your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. 8. +And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, +neither to repair the breaches of the house. 9. But Jehoiada the +priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it +beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of +the Lord: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money +that was brought into the house of the Lord. 10. And it was so, when +they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's +scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told +the money that was found in the house of the Lord. 11. And they gave +the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that +had the oversight of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to +the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of the Lord, +12. And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed +stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all +that wast laid out for the house to repair it. 13. Howbeit there were +not made for the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, +trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that +was brought into the house of the Lord: 14. But they gave that to the +workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord. 15. Moreover +they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the +money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.'--2 KINGS +xii. 4-15. + + +'The sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of +God,' says Chronicles. The dilapidation had not been complete, but had +been extensive, as may be gathered from the large expenditure recorded +in this passage for repairs, and the enumeration of the artisans +employed. No doubt Joash was guided by Jehoiada in setting about the +restoration, but the fact that he gives the orders, while the high +priest is not mentioned, throws light on the relative position of the +two authorities, and on the king's office as guardian of the Temple +and official 'head of the church.' The story comes in refreshingly and +strangely among the bloody pages in which it is embedded, and it +suggests some lessons as to the virtue of plain common sense and +business principles applied to religious affairs. If 'the outward +business of the house of God' were always guided with as much +practical reasonableness as Joash brought to bear on it, there would +be fewer failures or sarcastic critics. + +We note, first, the true source of money for religious purposes. There +was a fixed amount for which 'each man is rated,' and that made the +minimum, but there was also that which 'cometh into any man's heart to +bring,' and that was infinitely more precious than the exacted tax. +The former was appropriate to the Old Testament, of which the +animating principle was law and the voice: 'Thou shalt' or 'Thou shalt +not.' The latter alone fits the New Testament, of which the animating +principle is love and the voice: 'Though I have all boldness in Christ +to enjoin thee ... yet for love's sake I rather beseech.' What +disasters and what stifling of the spirit of Christian liberality have +marred the Church for many centuries, and in many lands, because the +great anachronism has prevailed of binding its growing limbs in Jewish +swaddling bands, and degrading Christian giving into an assessment! +And how shrunken the stream that is squeezed out by such a process, +compared with the abundant gush of the fountain of love opened in a +grateful, trusting heart! + +Next, we have the negligent, if not dishonest, officials. We do not +know how long Joash tried the experiment of letting the priests +receive the money and superintend the repairs; but probably the +restoration project was begun early in his reign, and if so, he gave +the experiment of trusting all to the officials, a fair, patient +trial, till the twenty-third year of his reign. Years gone and nothing +done, or at least nothing completed! We do not need to accuse them of +intentional embezzlement, but certainly they were guilty of carelessly +letting the money slip through their fingers, and a good deal of it +stick to their hands. It is always the temptation of the clergy to +think of their own support as a first charge on the church, nor is it +quite unheard of that the ministry should be less enthusiastic in +religious objects than the 'laity,' and should work the enthusiasm of +the latter for their own advantage. Human nature is the same in +Jerusalem in Joash's time, and to-day in Manchester, or New York, or +Philadelphia, and all men who live by the gifts of Christian people +have need to watch themselves, lest they, like Ezekiel's false +shepherds, feed themselves and not the flock, and seek the wool and +the fat and not the good of the sheep. + +Next we have the application of businesslike methods to religious +work. It was clearly time to take the whole matter out of the priests' +hands, and Joash is not afraid to assume a high tone with the +culprits, and even with Jehoiada as their official head. He was in +some sense responsible for his subordinates, and probably, though his +own hands were clean, he may have been too lax in looking after the +disposal of the funds. Note that while Joash rebuked the priests, and +determined the new arrangements, it was Jehoiada who carried them out +and provided the chest for receiving the contributions. The king +wills, the high priest executes, the rank and file of the priests, +however against the grain, consent. The arrangement for collecting the +contributions 'saved the faces' of the priests to some extent, for the +gifts were handed to them, and by them put into the chest. But, of +course, that was done at once, in the donor's presence. If changes +involving loss of position are to work smoothly, it is wise to let the +deposed officials down as easily as may be. + +Similar common sense is shown in the second step, the arrangement for +ascertaining the amounts given. The king's secretary and the +high-priest (or a representative) jointly opened the chest, counted +and bagged up the money. They checked each other, and prevented +suspicion on either side. No man who regards his own reputation will +consent to handle public money without some one to stand over him and +see what he does with it. One would be wise always to suspect people +who appeal for help 'for the Lord's work' and are too 'spiritual' to +have such worldly things as committees or auditors of their books. +Accurate accounts are as essential to Christian work as spirituality +or enthusiasm. The next stage was to hand over the money to the +'contractors,' as we should call them; and there similar precautions +were taken against possible peculation on the part of the two +officials who had received the money, for it was apparently 'weighed +out into the hands' of the overseers, who would thus be able to check +what they received by what the secretary and the high-priest had taken +from the chest, and would be responsible for the expenditure of the +amount which the two officials knew that they had received. + +But all this system of checks seems to break down at the very point +where it should have worked most searchingly, for 'they reckoned not +with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money' to pay the +workmen, 'for they dealt faithfully.' That last clause looks like a +hit at the priests who had not dealt so, and contrasts the methods of +plain business men of no pretensions, with those of men whose very +calling should have guaranteed their trustworthiness. The contrast has +been repeated in times and places nearer home. But another suggestion +may also be made about this singular lapse into what looks like unwise +confidence. These overseers had proved their faithfulness and earned +the right to be trusted entirely, and the way to get the best out of a +man, if he has any reliableness in him, is to trust him utterly, and +to show him that you do. 'It is a shame to tell Arnold a lie; he +always believes us,' said the Rugby boys about their great +head-master. There is a time for using all precautions, and a time for +using none. Businesslike methods do not consist in spying at the heels +of one's agents, but in picking the right men, and, having proved +them, giving them a free hand. And is not that what the great Lord and +Employer does with His servants, and is it not part of the reason why +Jesus gets more out of us than any one else can do, that He trusts us +more? + +One more point may be noticed; namely, the order of precedence in +which the necessary works were done. Not a coin went to provide the +utensils for sacrifice till the Temple was completely repaired. After +they had 'set up the house of God in its state,' as Chronicles tells +us, they took the balance of the funds to the king and Jehoiada, and +spent that on 'vessels for the house.' A clear insight to discern what +most needs to be done, and a firm resolve to 'do the duty that lies +nearest thee,' and to let everything else, however necessary, wait +till it is done, is a great part of Christian prudence, and goes far +to make works or lives truly prosperous. 'First things first'!--it is +a maxim that carries us far and as right as far. + + + +THE SPIRIT OF POWER + +'And Elisha said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. +And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's +hands.'--2 KINGS xiii. 16. + + +This is part of one of the strangest narratives in the Old Testament. +Elisha is on his deathbed, 'sick of the sickness' wherewith he 'should +die.' A very different scene, that close sick-chamber, from the open +plain beyond Jordan from which Elijah had gone up; a very different +way of passing from life by wasting sickness than by fiery chariot! +But God is as near His servant in the one place as in the other, and +the slow wasting away is as much His messenger as the sudden +apocalypse of the horsemen of fire. The king of Israel comes to the +old prophet, and very significantly repeats over him his own +exclamation over Elijah, 'My father! My father! the chariot of Israel +and the horsemen thereof.' Elisha takes no notice of the grief and +reverence expressed by the exclamation, but goes straight to his work, +and what follows is remarkable indeed. + +Here is a prophet dying; and his last words are not edifying moral and +religious reflections, nor does he seem to be much concerned to leave +with the king his final protest against Israel's sin, but his thoughts +are all of warfare, and his last effort is to stir up the sluggish +young monarch to some of his own enthusiasm in the conflict with the +enemy. It does not sound like an edifying deathbed. People might have +said, 'Ah! secular and political affairs should be all out of a man's +mind when he comes to his last moments.' But Elisha thought that to +stick to his life's work till the last breath was out of him, and to +devote the last breath to stimulating successors who might catch up +the torch that dropped from his failing hands, was no unworthy end of +a prophet's life. + +So there followed what perhaps is not very familiar to some of us, +that strange scene in which the dying man is far fuller of energy and +vigour than the young king, and takes the upper hand of him, giving +him a series of curt, authoritative commands, each of which he +punctiliously obeys. 'Take bow and arrow,' and he took them. Then the +prophet lays his wasted hand for a moment on the strong, young hand, +and having thus either in symbol or reality--never mind +which--communicated power, he says to him, 'Fling open the casement +towards the quarter where the enemy's territory lies,' and he flings +it open. 'Now, shoot,' and he shoots. Then the old man gathers himself +up on his bed, and with a triumphant shout exclaims, 'The Lord's arrow +of victory!... Thou shalt smite the Syrians till they be consumed.' + +That is not all. There is a second stage. The promise is given; the +possibility is opened before the king, and now all depends on the +question whether he will rise to the height of the occasion. So the +prophet says to him, 'Take the sheaf of arrows in your hand'; and he +takes them. And then he says, 'Now smite upon the ground.' It is a +test. If he had been roused and stirred by what had gone before; if he +had any earnestness of belief in the power that was communicated, and +any eagerness of desire to realise the promises that had been given of +complete victory, what would he have done? What would Elisha have done +if he had had the quiver in his hand? This king smites three +perfunctory taps on the floor, and having done what will satisfy the +old man's whim, and what in decency he had to do, he stops, as if +weary of the whole performance. So the prophet bursts out in +indignation on his dying bed--'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six +times; then hadst thou conquered utterly. Now thou shalt conquer but +thrice.' A strange story; very far away from our atmosphere and +latitude! Yet are there not obviously in it great principles which may +be disentangled from their singular setting, and fully applied to us? +I think so. Let us try and draw them from it. + +I. Here we have the power communicated. + +Now the story seems to indicate that it was only for a moment that the +prophet's hands were laid on the king's hands, because, after they had +been so laid, he is bidden to go to the window and fling it open, and +the bedridden man could not go there with him; then he is bidden to +draw the bow, and another hand upon his would have been a hindrance +rather than a help. So it was but a momentary touch, a communication +of power in reality or in symbol that the muscular young hand needed, +and the wasted old one could give. And is that not a parable for us? +We, too, if we are Christian men and women, have a gospel of which the +very kernel is that there is to us a communication of power, and the +very name of that divine Spirit whom it is Christ's greatest work to +send flashing and flaming through the world, is the 'Spirit of Power.' +And so the old promise that ye shall be clothed with strength from on +high is the standing prerogative of the Christian Church. There is not +merely some partial communication, as when hand touched hand, but +every organ is vitalised and quickened; as in the case of the other +miracle of this prophet, when he stretched himself on the dead child +eye to eye, and mouth to mouth, and hand to hand; and each part +received the vitalising influence. We have, if we are Christian +people, a Spirit given to us, and are 'strengthened with might by the +Spirit in the inner man.' + +That gift, that strength comes to us by contact, not with Elisha, but +with Elisha's Lord and Master. Christ's touch, when He was on earth, +brought sight to the blind, healing to the sick, vigour to the limbs +of the lame, life to the dead. And you and I can have that touch, far +more truly, and far more mightily operative upon us than they had, who +only felt the contact of His finger, and only derived corporeal +blessing. For we can draw near to Him, and in union with Him by faith +and love and obedience, can have His Spirit in close contact with our +spirits, and strengthening us for all service, and for every task. +Brethren! that touch which gives strength is a real thing. It is no +mere piece of mystical exaggeration when we speak of our spirits being +in actual contact with Christ's Spirit. Many of us have no clear +conception, and still less a firm realisation, of that closer than +corporeal contact, more real than bodily presence, and more intimate +than any possible physical union, which is the great gift of God in +Jesus Christ, and brings to us, if we will, life and strength +according to our need. I would that the popular Christianity of this +day had a far larger infusion of the sound, mystical element that lies +in the New Testament Christianity, and did not talk so exclusively +about a Christ that is for us as to have all but lost sight of the +second stage of our relation to Christ, and lost a faith in a Christ +that is in us Brethren! He can lay His hand upon your spirit's hand. +He can flash light into your spirit's eye from His eye. He can put +breath and eloquence into your spirit's lips from His lips, and His +heart beating against yours can transfuse--if I may so say--into you +His own life-blood, which cleanses from all sin, and fits for all +conflict. + +Then, further, let me remind you that this power, which is bestowed on +condition of contact, is given before duties are commanded. This king, +in our acted parable, first had the touch of Elisha's fingers, and +then received the command from Elisha's lips, 'Shoot!' So Jesus Christ +gives before He commands, and commands nothing which He has not fitted +us to perform. He is not 'an austere man, reaping where He did not +sow, and gathering where He did not straw'; but He comes first to us +saying, 'I give thee Myself,' and then He looks us in the eyes and +says, 'Wilt thou not give Me thyself?' He bestows the strength first, +and He commands the consequent duty afterwards. + +Further, this strength communicated is realised in the effort to obey +Christ's great commands. Joash felt nothing when the prophet's hand +was laid upon his but, perhaps, some tingling. But when he got the bow +in his hand and drew the arrow to its head, the infused power +stiffened his muscles and strengthened him to pull; and though he +could not distinguish between his own natural corporeal ability and +that which had been thus imparted to him, the two co-operated in the +one act, and it was when he drew his bow that he felt his strength. +'Stretch forth thine hand,' said Christ to the lame man. But the very +infirmity to be dealt with was his inability to stretch it forth. At +the command he tried, and, to his wonder, the stiffened sinews +relaxed, and the joint that had been immovable had free play, and he +stretched out his hand, and it was restored whole as the other. So He +gives what He commands, and in obeying the command we realise and are +conscious of the power. Elisha and Joash but act an illustration of +the great word of Paul: 'Work out your own salvation ... for it is God +that worketh in you.' + +II. And now, secondly, look at the perfected victory that is possible. + +When the arrows, by God's strength operating through Joash's arm, had +been shot, the prophet says, 'The arrow of the Lord's victory! ... +thou shalt smite ... till thou have consumed.' Yes, of course; if the +arrow is the Lord's arrow, and the strength is His strength, then the +only issue corresponding to the power is perfect victory. I would that +Christian people realised more than they do practically in their lives +that while men's ideals and aims may be all unaccomplished, or but +partially approximated to, since God is God, His nature is perfection, +and nothing that He does can fall beneath His ideal and purpose in +doing it. All that comes from Him must correspond to Him from whom it +comes. He never leaves off till He has completed, nor can any one say +about any of His work, 'He began to build, and was not able to +finish.' So, Christian people! I would that we should rise to the +height of our prerogatives, and realise the fact that perfect victory +is possible, regard being had to the power which 'teaches our hands to +war and our fingers to fight.' A great deal of not altogether +profitable jangling goes on at present in reference to the question of +whether absolute sinlessness is possible for a Christian man on earth. +Whatever view we take upon that question, it ought not to hide from us +the fact which should loom very much more largely in our daily +operative belief than it does with most of us, that in so far as the +power which is given to us is concerned, perfect victory is within our +grasp, and is the only worthy and correspondent result to the perfect +power which worketh in us. So there is no reason, as from any defect +of the divine gift to the weakest of us, why our Christian lives +should have ups and downs, why there should be interruptions in our +devotion, fallings short in our consecration, contradictions in our +conduct, slidings backward in our progress. There is no reason why, in +our Christian year, there should be summer and winter; but according +to the symbolical saying of one of the old prophets, 'The ploughman +may overtake the reaper, and he that treadeth out the grapes him that +soweth the seed.' In so far as our Christian life is concerned, the +perfection of the power that is granted to us involves the possibility +of perfection in the recipient. + +And the same thing is true in reference to a Christian man's work in +the world. God's Church has ample resources to overcome the evil of +the world. The fire is tremendous, but the Christian Church has +possession of the floods that can extinguish the fire. If we utilised +all that we have, we might 'smite till we had consumed,' and turned +the world into the Church of God. That is the ideal, the possibility, +when we look at the Christian man as possessor of the communicated +power of God. And then we turn to the reality, to our own consciences, +to the state of our religious communities everywhere, and we see what +seems to be blank contradiction of the possibility. Where is the +explanation? + +III. That brings me to my last point, the partial victory that is +actually won. + +'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten +the Syrians till they were consumed. But now thou shalt conquer but +thrice.' All God's promises and prophecies are conditional. There is +no such thing as an unconditional promise of victory or of defeat; +there is always an 'if.' There is always man's freedom as a factor. It +is strange. I suppose no thinking, metaphysical or theological, ever +has solved or ever will, that great paradox of the power of a finite +will to lift itself up in the face of, and antagonism to, an Infinite +Will backed by infinite power, and to thwart its purposes. 'How often +_would I_ have gathered ... and ye _would not.'_ Here is all +the power for a perfect victory, and yet the man that has it has to be +contented with a very partial one. + +It is a solemn thought that the Church's unbelief can limit and hinder +Christ's work in the world, and we have here another illustration of +that truth. You will find now and then in the newspapers, +stories--they may be true or false--about caterpillars stopping a +train. There is an old legend of that fabulous creature the remora, a +tiny thing that fastened itself to the keel of a ship, and arrested it +in mid-ocean. That is what we do with God and His purposes, and with +His power granted to us. + +A low expectation limits the power. This king did not believe, did not +expect, that he would conquer utterly, and so he did not. You believe +that you can do a thing, and in nine cases out of ten that goes +nine-tenths of the way towards doing it. If we cast ourselves into our +fight expecting victory, the expectation will realise itself in nine +cases out of ten. And the man who in faith refuses to say 'that beast +of a word--impossible!' will find that 'all things are possible to him +that believeth.' 'Expect great things of God,' and you will feel His +power tingling to your very fingertips, and will be able to draw the +arrow to its head, and send it whizzing home to its mark. + +Small desires block the power. Where there is an iron-bound coast +running in one straight line, the whole ocean may dash itself on the +cliffs at the base, but it enters not into the land; but where the +shore opens itself out into some deep gulf far inland, and broad +across at the entrance, then the glad water rushes in and fills it +all. Make room for God in your lives by your desires and you will get +Him in the fullness of His power. + +The use of our power increases our power. Joash had an unused quiver +full of arrows, and he only smote thrice. 'To him that hath shall be +given, and from him that hath not shall be taken.' The reason why many +of us professing Christians have so little of the strength of God in +our lives is because we have made so little use of the strength that +we have. Stow away your seed-corn in a granary and do not let the air +into it, and weevils and rats will consume it. Sow it broadcast on the +fields with liberal hand, and it will spring up, 'some thirty, some +sixty, some an hundredfold.' Use increases strength in all regions, +and unused organs atrophy and wither. + +So, dear friends! if we will keep ourselves in contact with Christ, +and tremulously sensitive to His touch, if we will expect power +according to our tasks and our needs, if we will desire more of His +grace, and if we will honestly and manfully use the strength that we +have, then He will 'teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight,' +and will give us strength, 'so that a bow of brass is bent by' our +arms, and we shall be 'more than conquerors through Him that loved +us.' + + + +A KINGDOM'S EPITAPH + +'In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and +carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in +Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7. For so +it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their +God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under +the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And +walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from +before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they +had made. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that +were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high +places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the +fenced city. 10. And they set them up images and groves in every high +hill, and under every green tree: 11. And there they burnt incense in +all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away +before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: +12. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye +shall not do this thing. 13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel, +and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, +Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, +according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I +sent to you by My servants the prophets. 14. Notwithstanding they +would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their +fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. 15. And they +rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their +fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they +followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were +round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they +should not do like them. 16. And they left all the commandments of the +Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made +a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17. +And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the +fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do +evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18. Therefore +the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His +sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.'--2 KINGS +xvii. 6-18. + + +The brevity of the account of the fall of Samaria in verse 6 contrasts +with the long enumeration of the sins which caused it, in the rest of +this passage. Modern critics assume that verses 7-23 are 'an +interpolation by the Deuteronomic writer,' apparently for no reason +but because they trace Israel's fall to its cause in idolatry. But +surely the bare notice in verse 6, immediately followed by verse 24, +cannot have been all that the original historian had to say about so +tragic an end of so large a part of the people of God. The whole +purpose of the Old Testament history is not to chronicle events, but +to declare God's dealings, and the fall of a kingdom was of little +moment, except as revealing the righteousness of God. + +The main part of this passage, then, is the exposition of the causes +of the national ruin. It is a _post mortem_ inquiry into the +diseases that killed a kingdom. At first sight, these verses seem a +mere heaping together, not without some repetition, of one or two +charges; but, more closely looked at, they disclose a very striking +progress of thought. In the centre stands verse 13, telling of the +mission of the prophets. Before it, verses 7-12, narrate Israel's sin, +which culminates in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 11). After it, +the sins are reiterated with noticeable increase of emphasis, and +again culminate in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 17). So we have +two degrees of guilt--one before and one after the prophets' messages; +and two kindlings of God's anger--one which led to the sending of the +prophets, and one which led to the destruction of Israel. The lessons +that flow from this obvious progress of thought are plain. + +I. The less culpable apostasy before the prophets' warnings. The first +words of verse 7, rendered as in the Revised Version, give the purpose +of all that follows; namely, to declare the causes of the calamity +just told. Note that the first characteristic of Israel's sin was +ungrateful departure from God. There is a world of pathos and meaning +in that 'their God,' which is enhanced by the allusion to the Egyptian +deliverance. All sins are attempts to break the chain which binds us +to God--a chain woven of a thousand linked benefits. All practically +deny His possession of us, and ours of Him, and display the short +memory which ingratitude has. All have that other feature hinted at +here--the contrast, so absurd if it were not so sad, between the worth +and power of the God who is left and the other gods who are preferred. +The essential meanness and folly of Israel are repeated by every heart +departing from the living God. + +The double origin of the idolatry is next set forth. It was in part +imported and in part home-made. We have little conception of the +strength of faith and courage which were needed to keep the Jews from +becoming idolaters, surrounded as they were by such. But the same are +needed to-day to keep us from learning the ways of the world and +getting a snare to our souls. Now, as ever, walking with God means +walking in the opposite direction from the crowd, and that requires +some firm nerve. The home-made idolatry is gibbeted as being according +to 'the statutes of the kings.' What right had they to prescribe their +subjects' religion? The influence of influential people, especially if +exerted against the service of God, is hard to resist; but it is no +excuse for sin that it is fashionable. + +The blindness of Israel to the consequences of their sin is hinted in +the reference to the fate of the nations whom they imitated. They had +been cast out; would not their copyists learn the lesson? We, too, +have examples enough of what godless lives come to, if we had the +sense to profit by them. The God who cast out the vile Canaanites and +all the rest of the wicked crew before the sons of the desert has not +changed, and will treat Israel as He did them, if Israel come down to +their level. Outward privileges make idolatry or any sin more sinful, +and its punishment more severe. + +Another characteristic of Israel's sin is its being done 'secretly.' +Of the various meanings proposed for that word (ver. 9) the best seems +to be that it refers to the attempt to combine the worship of God and +of idols, of which the calf worship is an instance. Elijah had long +ago taunted the people with trying 'to hobble on both knees,' or on +'two opinions' at once; and here the charge is of covering idolatry +with a cloak of Jehovah worship. A varnish of religion is convenient +and cheap, and often effectual in deceiving ourselves as well as +others; but 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,' whatever his +cloak may be; and the thing which we count most precious and long most +for is our god, whatever our professions of orthodox religion. + +The idolatry is then described, in rapid touches, as universal. +Wherever there was a solitary watchman's tower among the pastures +there was a high place, and they were reared in every city. Images and +Asherim deformed every hill-top and stood under every spreading tree. +Everywhere incense loaded the heavy air with its foul fragrance. The +old scenes of unnamable abomination, which had been so terribly +avenged, seemed to have come back, and to cry aloud for another +purging by fire and sword. + +The terrible upshot of all was 'to provoke the Lord to anger.' The New +Testament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting that there is the +capacity of anger in the God whose name is love, and that sin calls it +forth. The special characteristic of sin, by which it thus attracts +that lightning, is that it is disobedience. As in the first sin, so in +all others, God has said, 'Ye shall not do this thing'; and we say, +'Do it we will.' What can the end of that be but the anger of the +Lord? 'Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the +children of disobedience.' + +II. Verse 13 gives the pleading of Jehovah. The mission of the +prophets was God's reply to Israel's rebellion, and was equally the +sign of His anger and of His love. The more sin abounds, the more does +God multiply means to draw back to Himself. The deafer the ears, the +louder the beseeching voice of His grieved and yet pitying love. His +anger clothes itself in more stringent appeals and clearer revelations +of Himself before it takes its slaughtering weapons in hand. The +darker the background of sin, the brighter the beams of His light show +against it. Man's sin is made the occasion for a more glorious display +of God's character and heart. It is on the storm-cloud that the sun +paints the rainbow. Each successive stage in man's departure from God +evoked a corresponding increase in the divine effort to attract him +back, till 'last of all He sent unto them His Son.' In nature, +attraction diminishes as distance increases; in the realms of grace, +it grows with distance. The one desire of God's heart is that sinners +would return from their evil ways, and He presses on them the solemn +thought of the abundant intimations of His will which have been given +from of old, and are pealed again into all ears by living voices. His +law for us is not merely an old story spoken centuries ago, but is +vocal in our consciences to-day, and fresh as when Sinai flamed and +thundered above the camp, and the trumpet thrilled each heart. + +III. The heavier sin that followed the divine pleading. That divine +voice leaves no man as it finds him. If it does not sway him to +obedience, it deepens his guilt, and makes him more obstinate. Like +some perverse ox in the yoke, he stiffens his neck, and stands the +very picture of brute obduracy. There is an awful alternative involved +in our hearing of God's message, which never returns to Him void, but +ever does something to the hearer, either softening or hardening, +either scaling the eyes or adding another film on them, either being +the 'savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The mission of +the prophets changed forgetfulness of God's 'statutes' into +'rejection' of them, and made idolatry self-conscious rebellion. Alas, +that men should make what is meant to be a bond to unite them to God +into a wedge to part them farther from Him! But how constantly that is +the effect of the gospel, and for the same reason as in Israel--that +they 'did not believe in the Lord their God'! + +The miserable result on the sinners' own natures is described with +pregnant brevity in verse 15. 'They followed vanity, and became vain.' +The worshipper became like the thing worshipped, as is always the +case. The idol is vanity, utter emptiness and nonentity; and whoever +worships nothingness will become in his own inmost life as empty and +vain as it is. That is the retribution attendant on all trust in, and +longing after, the trifles of earth, that we come down to the level of +what we set our hearts upon. We see the effects of that principle in +the moral degradation of idolaters. Gods lustful, cruel, capricious, +make men like themselves. We see it working upwards in Christianity, +in which God becomes man that men may become like God, and of which +the whole law is put into one precept, which is sure to be kept, in +the measure of the reality of a man's religion. 'Be ye therefore +imitators of God, as beloved children.' + +In verses 16 and 17 the details of the idolatry follow the general +statement, as in verses 9 to 12, but with additions and with increased +severity of tone. We hear now of calves and star worship, and Baal, +and burning children to Moloch, and divination and enchantment. The +catalogue is enlarged, and there is added to it the terrible +declaration that Israel had 'sold themselves to do evil in the sight +of the Lord.' The same thing was said by Elijah to Ahab--a noble +instance of courage. The sinner who steels himself against the divine +remonstrance, does not merely go on in his old sins, but adds new +ones. Begin with the calves, and fancy that you are worshipping +Jehovah, and you will end with Baal and Moloch. Refuse to hear God's +pleadings, and you will sell your freedom, and become the lowest and +only real kind of slave--the bondsman of evil. When that point of +entire abandonment to sin, which Paul calls being 'sold under sin,' is +reached, as it may be reached, at all events by a nation, and +corruption has struck too deep to be cast out, once again the anger of +the Lord is provoked; but this time it comes in a different guise. The +armies of the Assyrians, not the prophets, are its messengers now. +Israel had made itself like the nations whom God had used it to +destroy, and now it shall be destroyed as they were. + +To be swept out of His sight is the fate of obstinate rejection of His +commandments and pleadings. Israel made itself the slave of evil, and +was made the captive of Assyria. Self-willed freedom, which does as it +likes, and heeds not God, ends in bondage, and is itself bondage. +God's anger against sin speaks pleadingly to us all, saying, 'Do not +this abominable thing that I hate.' Well for us if we hearken to His +voice when 'His anger is kindled but a little.' If we do not yield to +Him, and cast away our idols, we shall become vain as they. Our evil +will be more fatal, and our obstinacy more criminal, because He +called, and we refused. 'Who may abide the day of His coming? and who +shall stand when He appeareth?' These captives, dragging their weary +limbs, with despair in their hearts, across the desert to a land of +bondage, were but shadows, in the visible region of things, of the far +more doleful and dreary fate that sooner or later must fall on those +who would none of God's counsel, and despised all His reproof, but +cling to their idol till they and it are destroyed together. + + + +DIVIDED WORSHIP + +'These nations feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'--2 KINGS +xvii. 33. + + +The kingdom of Israel had come to its fated end. Its king and people +had been carried away captives in accordance with the cruel policy of +the great Eastern despotisms, which had so much to do with weakening +them by their very conquests. The land had lain desolate and +uncultivated for many years, savage beasts had increased in the +untilled solitudes, even as weeds and nettles grew in the gardens and +vineyards of Samaria. At last the king of Assyria resolved to people +the country; and for this purpose he sent a mixed multitude from the +different nationalities of his empire to the land of Israel. They were +men of five nationalities, most of them recently conquered. Israel had +been deported to different parts of the Assyrian empire; men from +different parts of the empire were deported to the land of Israel. +Such cruel uprootings seemed to be wisdom, but were really a policy +that kept alive disaffection. It was the same mistake (and bore the +same fruits) as Austria pursued in sending Hungarian regiments to keep +down Venice, and Venetian-born soldiers to overawe Hungary. + +These new settlers brought with them their national peculiarities, and +among the rest, their gods. They knew nothing about the Jehovah whom +they supposed to be the local deity of Israel; and when they were +troubled by the wild beasts which had, of course, rapidly increased in +the land, they attributed it to their neglect of His worship, and sent +an embassy to the king of Assyria telling that as they 'know not the +manners of the God of the land,' He has sent lions among them. + +This is an instructive example of the heathen way of thinking. They +have their local deities. Each land, each valley, each mountain top, +has its own. They are ready to worship them all, for they have no real +worship for any. Their reason for worship is to escape from harm, to +pay the tribute to which the god has a right on his own territory, +lest he should make it the worse for them if they neglect it. 'The +mild tolerance of heathendom' simply means the utter absence of +religion and an altogether inadequate notion of deity. + +So the settlers have sent to them one of these schismatic priests who +had belonged to the extinct sanctuary at Beth-el, and he, apparently, +not having any truer notions of God or of worship than they had, +nothing loth, teaches them the rites of the Israelite worship, which +was not like that of Judah, as is distinctly stated in the context. +This worship of Jehovah was, however, blended by them with their own +national idolatry. How contemptuously the historian enumerates the +hard names of their gods and the rabble rout of them which each nation +made! 'The men of Babylon _made_ Succoth-benoth' (probably a +deity, though the name may mean booths for purposes of prostitution) +and the others '_made_ Nergal and Ashima and Nibhaz and Tartak.' +What names, and what a pantheon! 'They feared the Lord and served +their own gods.' + +This was the beginning of the Samaritan people, whom we find through +the rest of Scripture even down to the Acts of the Apostles, retaining +some trace of their heathen origin. Simon Magus bewitched them in his +sorceries. They began as heathen, though in lapse of years they came +to be pure monotheists, even more rigid than the Jews themselves, and +today, if you went to Nablus, you would find the small remnant of +their descendants adhering to Moses and the law, guarding their sacred +copy of the Pentateuch with unintelligent awe, and eating the Paschal +Lamb with wild rites. They have changed the object of their worship, +but one fears that it is little more real and deep than in old days, +2500 years ago, when their forefathers 'feared the Lord and served +their own gods.' + +Now I venture to take this verse as indicative of a tendency which +belongs to a great many more people than the confused mass of settlers +that were shot down on the hills of Israel by the king of Assyria. It +is really a description of a great deal of what goes by the name of +religion amongst us. + +I. The Religion of Fear. + +These people would never have thought about God if it had not been for +the lions. When they did think of Him it was only to tremble before +Him. The reason for their trembling was that they did not know the +etiquette of His worship; that they thought of Him as having rights +over them because they had come into His territory, which He would +exact, or punish them for omitting. In a word, their notion of God was +that of a jealous, capricious tyrant, whose ways were inscrutable to +them, in whose territory they found themselves without their will, and +who needed to be propitiated if they would live in peace. + +And this is the thought which is most operative in many minds, though +it is veiled in more seemly phrases, and which darkens and injures all +those on whom it lays hold. Need I spend time in showing you how, +point by point, this picture is a picture of many among us? How many +of you think of God when you are ill, and forget Him when you are +well? How many of you pour out a prayer when you are in trouble, and +forget all about Him and it when you are prosperous? How many of you +see God in your calamities and not in your joys? Why do people call +sudden deaths and the like the 'visitation of God'? How many of us are +like Italian sailors who burn candles and shriek out to the Madonna +when the storm catches them, and get drunk in the first wine-shop +which they come to when they land! Is not many a man's thought of God, +'I knew Thee that Thou wert an austere Man, and I was afraid'? + +The popular religion is largely a religion of fear. + +There is a fear which is right and noble. That is reverend, humble +adoration at the sight or thought of God's great perfections. Angels +veil their faces with their wings. Such awe has no thought of personal +consequences--is inseparable from all true knowledge of God; for all +greatness of character is perfected by love. Of such fear we are not +now speaking. + +Terror of God is deep in men's hearts. + +Fear is the apprehension of personal evil from some person or thing. +Now I believe that terror has its place in the human economy, and in +religion, as the sense of pain has. There is something in man's +relations to God to cause it. + +The Bible sets forth 'the terror of the Lord,' that men may tremble +before Him. Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake.' But that +terror is only right when it proceeds from a sense of God's holiness +and a consciousness of my own sinfulness. It is not right when it is a +mere dread of a hard tyrant. That terror is only right when it leads +to a joyful acceptance of God's revelation of His love in Christ. + +Fear was never meant to be permanent, it is only the alarum-bell which +rings to wake up the soul that sleeps on when in mortal peril. And it +should pass into penitence, faith, joy in Jesus. 'We have access with +confidence by the faith of Him.' The brightness is great and awful, +but go nearer, as you can in Jesus, and lo! there is love in the +brightness. You see it all tender and sweet. A heart and a hand are +there, and from the midst of it the Father's voice speaks, and says, +'My son, give Me thine heart.' + +The religion of fear is worthless. It produces no holiness, it does +nothing for a man, it does not bind him to God. He is none the +stronger for it. It paralyses so far as it does anything. + +It is spasmodic and intermittent. It is impossible to keep it up, so +it comes in fits and starts. When the morning comes men laugh at their +terrors. It leads to wild endeavours to forget God--atheism--to +insensibility. He who begins by fearing when there was no need, ends +by not fearing when he ought. + +II. The Religion of Form. + +The Samaritans' whole worship was outward worship. They did the things +which the Beth-el priest taught them to do, and that was all. + +And this again is a type, very common in our day. Religion must have +forms. The forms often help to bring us the spirit. But we are always +in danger of trusting to them too much. + +How many of us have our Christianity only in outward seeming? The only +thing that unites men to God is love. + +So your external connection with God's worship is of no use at all +unless you have that. + +Church and chapel-goers are alike exposed to the danger of erecting +the forms of worship to a place in which they cannot be put without +marring the spirit of worship. Whether our worship be more or less +symbolic, whether we have a more or less elaborate ritual, whether we +think more or less of sacraments, whether we put hearing a sermon as +more or less prominent, or even if we follow the formless forms of the +Friends, we are all tempted to substitute our forms for the spirit +which alone is worship. + +III. The Religion of Compromise or Worldliness. + +They had God and they had gods. They liked the latter best. They gave +God formal worship, but they gave the others more active service. + +Such a kind of religion is a type of much that we see around us; the +attempt to be Christians and worldlings, the indecision under which +many men labour all their lives, being drawn one way by their +consciences, another by their inclinations. + +You cannot unite the two. God requires all. He fills the heart, and +claims supreme control over all the nature. There cannot be two +supreme in the soul. It cannot be God and self. It must be God or +self. You may look now one way and now another, but the way the heart +goes is the thing. Mr. Facing-both-ways does not really face both +ways. He only turns quickly round from one to the other. + +Such divided religion is impossible in the nature of God--of the +soul--of religion. + +To attempt it, then, is really to decide against God. + +It is weak and unmanly to be thus vague and decided by circumstances. +You would have been a Mohammedan if you had been born in Turkey. + +You ought to decide for God. + +He claims, He deserves, He will reward and bless, your whole soul. + +'Choose you this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord be God, follow +Him' If Baal or Succoth-benoth, then follow him. 'You cannot serve God +and Mammon.' 'He that is not for us is against us.' Be one thing or +the other. + + + +HEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE + +'Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel.... 6. He clave to the +Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His +commandments.'--2 KINGS xviii. 5,6. + + +Devout people in all ages and stations are very much like each other. +The elements of godliness are always the same. This king of Israel, +something like two thousand six hundred years ago, and the humblest +Christian to-day have the family likeness on their faces. These words, +which are an outline sketch of the king's character, are really a +sketch of the religious life at all times and in all places. He +realised it; why may not we? He achieved it amid much ignorance; why +should not we amid our blaze of knowledge? He accomplished it amid the +temptations of a monarchy; why should not we in our humbler spheres? + +There are four things set forth here as constituting a religious life. +We begin at the bottom with the foundation of everything. 'He trusted +in the Lord God of Israel.' The Old Testament is just as emphatic in +declaring that there is no religion without trust, and that trust is +the very nerve and life-blood of religion, as is the New. Only that in +the one half of the book our translators have chosen to use the word +'trust,' and in the other half of the book they have chosen to use, +for the very same act, the word 'faith.' They have thus somewhat +obscured the absolute identity which exists in the teaching of the Old +and of the New Testament as regards the bond which unites men to God. +That union always was, and always will be, begun in the simple +attitude and exercise of trust, and everything else will come out of +that, and without that nothing else will come. + +So this king had a certain measure of knowledge about the character of +God, and that measure of knowledge led him to lean all his weight upon +the Lord. You and I know a great deal more about God and His ways and +purposes than Hezekiah did, but we can make no better use of it than +he did--translate our knowledge into faith, and rely with simple, +absolute confidence on Him whose name we know in Christ more fully and +blessedly than was possible to Hezekiah. + +And need I remind you of how, in this life of which the outline is +here given and the inmost secret is here disclosed, there were +significant and magnificent instances of the power of humble trust to +bring to an else helpless man all the blessings that he needs, and to +put a crystal wall round about him that will preserve him from every +evil, howsoever threatening it may seem? + +'It has come addressed to me, but it is meant for Thee. Vindicate +Thine own cause by delivering Thine own servant.' And so, 'when the +morning dawned, they were all dead men,' and faith rejoiced in a +perfect deliverance. And you and I may get the same answer, in the +midst of all our trials, difficulties, toils, and conflicts, if only +we will go the same way to get it, and let our faith work, as +Hezekiah's worked, and take everything that troubles us to our Father +in the heavens, and be quite sure that He is the God 'who daily bears +our burdens.' Let us begin with the simple act of confidence in Him. +That is the foundation, and on that we may build everything besides. + +Let us see what this man further built upon it. The second story, if I +may so say, of the temple-fortress of his life, upon the foundation of +faith, was, 'He clave to the Lord.' + +That is to say, the act of confidence must be followed and perfected +by tenacious adherence with all the tendrils of a man's nature to the +God in whom he says that he trusts. The metaphor is a very forcible +one, so familiar in Scripture as that we are apt to overlook its +emphasis. Let me recall one or two of the instances in which it is +employed about other matters which throw light on its force here. + +First of all, remember that sweet picture of the widow woman from Moab +and the two daughters-in-law, one sent back, not reluctantly, to her +home; and the other persisting in keeping by Naomi's side, in spite of +difficulties and remonstrances. With kisses of real love Orpah went +back, but she did go back, to her people and her gods, but 'Ruth clave +unto her.' So should we cling to God, as Ruth flung her arms round +Naomi, and twined her else lonely and desolate heart about her dear +and only friend, for whose sweet sake she became a willing exile from +kindred and country. Is that how we cleave to the Lord? + +More sacred still are the lessons that are suggested by the fact that +this is the word employed to describe the blessed and holy union of +man and woman in pure wedded life, and I suppose some allusion to that +use of the expression underlies its constant application to the +relation of the believing soul to Jehovah. For by trust the soul is +wedded to Him, and so 'joined to the Lord' as to be 'one spirit.' + +Or if we do not care to go so deep as that, let us take the metaphor +that lies in the word itself, without reference to its Scriptural +applications. As the limpet holds on to its rock, as the ivy clings to +the wall, as a shipwrecked sailor grasps the spar which keeps his head +above water, so a Christian man ought to hold on to God, with all his +energy, and with all parts of his nature. The metaphor implies +tenacity; closeness of adhesion, in heart and will, in thought, in +desire, and in all the parts of our receptive humanity, all of which +can touch God and be touched by Him, and all of which are blessed only +in the measure in which, yielding to Him, they are filled and steadied +and glorified. + +And there is implied, too, not only tenacity of adherence, but +tenacity in the face of obstacles. There must be resistance to all the +forces which would detach, if there is to be union with God in the +midst of life in the world. Or, to recur for a moment to the figure +that I employed a moment ago, as the sailor clings to a spar, though +the waves dash round him, and his fingers get stiffened with cold and +cramped with keeping the one position, and can scarcely hold on, but +he knows that it is life to cling and death to loosen, and so tightens +his grasp; thus have we to lay hold of God, and in spite of all +obstacles, to keep hold of Him. Our grasp tends to slacken, and is +feeble at the best, even if there were nothing outside of us to make +it difficult for us to get a good grip. But there are howling winds +and battering waves blowing and beating on us, and making it hard to +keep our hold. + +Do not let us yield to these, but in spite of them all let our hearts +tighten round Him, for it is only in His sweet, eternal, perfect love +that they can be at rest. And let our thoughts keep close to Him in +spite of all distractions, for it is only in the measure in which His +light fills our minds and His truth occupies our thoughts that our +thinking spirits will be at rest. And let our desires, as the +tentacles of some shell-fish fasten upon the rock, and feel out +towards the ocean that is coming to it, let our desires go all out +towards Him until they touch that after which they feel, and curl +round it in repose and in blessedness. + +The whole secret of a joyful, strong, noble Christian life lies +here--that on the foundation of faith we should rear tenacious +adherence to Him in spite of all obstacles. So it was a most +encyclopaedic, though laconic, exhortation that that 'good man' sent +down from Jerusalem to encourage the first heathen converts gave, when +instead of all other instruction or advice, or inculcation of less +important, and yet real, Christian duties, Barnabas exhorted them all +'that with purpose of heart'--the full devotion of their inmost +natures--'they should cleave to the Lord.' + +Then the third stage, or the third story, in this building is that, +cleaving to the Lord, 'he departed not from following Him.' The +metaphor of cleaving implies proximity and union; the metaphor of +following implies distance which is being diminished. These two are +incongruous, and the very incongruity helps to give point to the +representation. The same two ideas of union and yet of pursuit are +brought still more closely together in other parts of Scripture. For +instance, there is a remarkable saying in one of the Psalms, +translated in our Bible--'My soul followeth hard after Thee. Thy right +hand upholdeth me,' where the expression 'followeth hard after' is a +lame attempt at translating the perhaps impossible-to-be-translated +fullness of the original, which reads 'My soul cleaveth after Thee.' +It is an incongruous combination of ideas, by its very incongruity and +paradoxical form suggesting a profound truth--viz. that in all the +conscious union and tenacious adherence to God which makes the +Christian life, there is ever, also, a sense of distance which kindles +aspiration and leads to the effort after continual progress. However +close we may be to God, it is always possible to press closer. However +full may be the union, it may always be made fuller; and the cleaving +spirit will always be longing for a closer contact and a more blessed +sense of being in touch with God. + +So, as we climb, new heights reveal themselves, and the further we +advance in the Christian life the more are we conscious of the +infinite depths that yet remain to be traversed. Hence arises one +great element of the blessedness of being a Christian--namely, that we +need not fear ever coming to the end of the growth in holiness and the +increase of joy and power that are possible to us. So that weariness, +and the sense of having reached the limits that are possible on a +given path, which sooner or later fall upon men that live for anything +but God, can never be ours if we live for Him. But the oldest and most +experienced will have the same forward-looking glances of hope and +forward-directed steps of strenuous effort as the youngest beginner on +the path; and a Paul will be able to say when he is 'Paul the aged,' +and 'the time of his departure is at hand,' that he 'forgets the +things that are behind, and reaches forth unto the things that are +before, while he presses towards the mark.' Let us be thankful for the +endless progress which is possible to the Christian, and let us see to +it that we are never paralysed into supposing that 'to-morrow must be +_as_ this day,' but trust the infinite resources of our God, and +be sure that we growingly make our own the growing gifts which He +bestows. + +And so, lastly, the fourth element in this analysis of a devout life +is 'He kept the commandments of the Lord.' That is the outcome of them +all. Faith, adhesion, aspiration, and progress, all vindicate their +value and reality in the simple, homely way of practical obedience. + +Let us learn two things. One as to the worthlessness of all these +others, if they do not issue in this. Not that these inward emotions +are ever to be despised, but that, if they are genuine in our hearts, +they cannot but manifest themselves in our lives. And so, dear +Christian friends! do you not build upon your faith, on your adherence +to God, on your aspirations after Him, unless you can bring into +court, as witnesses for these, daily and hourly, your efforts after +the conformity of your will to His, in the great things and in the +small. Then, and only then, may we be sure that our confidence is not +a delusion, and that it is to Him that we cleave when our feet tread +in the paths of goodness. + +And on the other hand, let us learn that all attempts to be obedient +to a divine will which do not begin with trust and cleaving to Him are +vain. There is no other way to get that conformity of will except by +that union of spirit. All other attempts are beginning at the wrong +end. You do not begin building your houses with the chimney-pots, but +many a man who seeks to obey without trusting does precisely commit +that fault. Let us be sure that the foundations are in, and then let +us be sure that we do not stop half-way up, lest all that pass by +should mock and say, 'This man began to build and was not able to +finish.' + +How many professing Christians' lives are half-finished and unroofed +houses, because they have not 'added to their faith'--that is, to +their 'cleaving to the Lord'--endless aspiration and continual +progress, and to their aspiration and their progress the peaceable +fruit of practical righteousness! If these things be in us and abound, +they mark us as devout men after God's pattern. And if we want to be +devout men after God's pattern, we must follow God's sequence, which +begins with trust and ends with obedience. + + + +'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED' + +'Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the +Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me against +Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21. This is the word that +the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, +hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of +Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22. Whom hast thou reproached +and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and +lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.... +28. Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine +ears, therefore I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy +lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. 29. +And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things +as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of +the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, +and eat the fruits thereof. 30. And the remnant that is escaped of the +house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit +upward. 31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they +that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do +this. 32. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of +Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, +nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33. By the +way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into +this city, saith the Lord. 34. For I will defend this city, to save +it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake. 35. And it +came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and +smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five +thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were +all dead corpses. 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and +went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37. And it came to pass, as +he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech +and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into +the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.'--2 +KINGS xix. 20-22; 28-37. + + +At an earlier stage of the Assyrian invasion Hezekiah had sent to +Isaiah, asking him to pray to his God for deliverance, and had +received an explicit assurance that the invasion would be foiled. When +the second stage was reached, and Hezekiah was personally summoned to +surrender, by a letter which scoffed at Isaiah's promise, he himself +prayed before the Lord. Isaiah does not seem to have been present, and +may not have known of the prayer. At all events, the answer was given +to him to give to the king; and it is noteworthy that, as in the +former case, he does not himself come, but sends to Hezekiah. He did +come when he had to bring a message of death, and again when he had to +rebuke (chap. xx.), but now he only sends. As the chosen speaker of +Jehovah's will, he was mightier than kings, and must not imperil the +dignity of the message by the behaviour of the messenger. In a +sentence, Hezekiah's prayer is answered, and then the prophet, in +Jehovah's name, bursts into a wonderful song of triumph over the +defeated invader. 'I have heard.' That is enough. Hezekiah's prayer +has, as it were, fired the fuse or pulled the trigger, and the +explosion follows, and the shot is sped. 'Whereas thou hast prayed, +... I have heard,' is ever true, and God's hearing is God's acting in +answer. The methods of His response vary, the fact that He responds to +the cry of despair driven to faith by extremity of need does not vary. + +But it is noteworthy that, with that brief, sufficient assurance, +Hezekiah, as it were, is put aside, and instead of three fighters in +the field, the king, with God to back him, and on the other side +Sennacherib, two only, appear. It is a duel between Jehovah and the +arrogant heathen who had despised Him. Jerusalem appears for a moment, +in a magnificent piece of poetical scorn, as despising and making +gestures of contempt at the baffled would-be conqueror, as Miriam and +her maidens did by the Red Sea. The city is 'virgin,' as many a +fortress in other lands has been named, because uncaptured. But she, +too, passes out of sight, and Jehovah and Sennacherib stand opposed on +the field. God speaks now not 'concerning,' but to, him, and indicts +him for insane pride, which was really a denial of dependence on God, +and passionate antagonism to Him, as manifested not only in his war +against Jehovah's people, but also in the tone of his insolent +defiances of Hezekiah, in which he scoffed at the vain trust which the +latter was placing in his God, and paralleled Jehovah with the gods of +the nations whom he had already conquered (Isaiah xix. 12). + +The designation of God, characteristic of Isaiah, as 'the Holy One of +Israel,' expresses at once His elevation above, and separation from, +all mundane, creatural limitations, and His special relation to His +people, and both thoughts intensify Sennacherib's sin. The Highest, +before whose transcendent height all human elevations sink to a +uniform level, has so joined Israel to Himself that to touch it is to +strike at Him, and to vaunt one's self against it is to be arrogant +towards God. That mighty name has received wider extension now, but +the wider sweep does not bring diminished depth, and lowly souls who +take that name for their strong tower can still run into it and be +safe from 'the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,' and the +strongest foes. + +There is tremendous scorn in the threat with which the divine address to +Sennacherib ends. The dreaded world-conqueror is no more in God's eyes +than a wild beast, which He can ring and lead as He will, and not even +as formidable as that, but like a horse or a mule, that can easily be +bridled and directed. What majestic assertion lies in these figures and +in '_My_ hook' and '_My_ bridle!' How many conquerors and mighty men +since then have been so mastered, and their schemes balked! Sennacherib +had to return by 'the way that he came,' and to tramp back, foiled and +disappointed, over all the weary miles which he had trodden before with +such insolent confidence of victory. A modern parallel is Napoleon's +retreat from Moscow. But the same experience really befalls all who +order life regardless of God. Their schemes may seem to succeed, but in +deepest truth they fail, and the schemers never reach their goal. + +In verse 29 the prophet turns away abruptly and almost contemptuously +from Sennacherib to speak comfortably to Jerusalem, addressing +Hezekiah first, but turning immediately to the people. The substance +of his words to them is, first, the assurance that the Assyrian +invasion had limits of time set to it by God; and, second, that beyond +it lay prosperous times, when the prophetic visions of a flourishing +Israel should be realised in fact. For two seed-times only field work +was to be impossible on account of the Assyrian occupation, but it was +to foam itself away, like a winter torrent, before a third season for +sowing came round. + +But how could this sequence of events, which required time for its +unfolding, be 'a sign'? We must somewhat modify our notions of a sign +to understand the prophet. The Scripture usage does not only designate +by that name a present event or thing which guarantees the truth of a +prophecy, but it sometimes means an event, or sequence of events, in +the future, which, when they have come to pass in accordance with the +divine prediction of them, will shed back light on other divine words +or acts, and demonstrate that they were of God. Thus Moses was given +as a sign of his mission the worshipping in Mount Sinai, which was to +take place only after the Exodus. So with Isaiah's sign here. When the +harvest of the third year was gathered in, then Israel would know that +the prophet had spoken from God when he had sung Sennacherib's defeat. +For the present, Hezekiah and Judah had to live by faith; but when the +deliverance was complete, and they were enjoying the fruits of their +labours and of God's salvation, then they could look back on the weary +years, and recognise more clearly than while these were slowly passing +how God had been in all the trouble, and had been carrying on His +purposes of mercy through it all. And there will be a 'sign' for us in +like manner when we look back from eternity on the transitory +conflicts of earthly life, and are satisfied with the harvest which He +has caused to spring from our poor sowings to the Spirit. + +The definite promise of deliverance in verses 32-34 is addressed to +Judah, and emphasises the completeness of the frustration of the +invader's efforts. There is a climax in the enumeration of the things +that he will not be allowed to do--he will not make his entry into the +city, nor even shoot an arrow there, nor even make preparation for a +siege. His whole design will be overturned, and as had already been +said (ver. 28), he will retrace his steps a baffled man. + +Note the strong antithesis: 'He shall not come into this city, ... for +I will defend this city.' Zion is impregnable because Jehovah defends +it. Sennacherib can do nothing, for he is fighting against God. And if +we 'are come unto the city of the living God,' we can take the same +promise for the strength of our lives. God saves Zion 'for His own +sake,' for His name is concerned in its security, both because He has +taken it for His own and because He has pledged His word to guard it. +It would be a blot on His faithfulness, a slur on His power, if it +should be conquered while it remains true to Him, its King. His honour +is involved in protecting us if we enter into the strong city of which +the builder and maker is God. And 'for David's sake,' too, He defends +Zion, because He had sworn to David to dwell there. But Zion's +security becomes an illusion if Zion breaks away from God. If it +becomes as Sodom, it shares Sodom's fate. + +It is remarkable that neither in the song of triumph nor in the +prophecy of deliverance is there allusion to the destruction of the +Assyrian army. How the exultant taunts of the one and the definite +promises of the other were to be fulfilled was not declared till the +event declared it. But faithful expectation had not long to wait, for +'that night' the blow fell, and no second was needed. We are not told +where the Assyrian army was, but clearly it was not before Jerusalem. +Nor do we learn what was the instrument of destruction wielded by the +'angel of the Lord,' if there was any. The catastrophe may have been +brought about by a pestilence, but however effected, it was 'the act +of God,' the fulfilment of His promise, the making bare of His arm. +'By terrible things in righteousness' did He answer the prayer of +Hezekiah, and give to all humble souls who are oppressed and cry to +Him a pledge that 'as they have heard, so' will they 'see, in the city +of' their 'God.' How much more impressive is the stern, naked brevity +of the Scriptural account than a more emotional expansion of it, like, +for instance, Byron's well-known, and in their way powerful lines, +would have been! To the writer of this book it seemed the most natural +thing in the world that the foes of Zion should be annihilated by one +blow of the divine hand. His business is to tell the facts; he leaves +commentary and wonder and triumph or terror to others. + +There is but one touch of patriotic exultation apparent in the +half-sarcastic and half-rejoicing accumulation of synonyms descriptive +of Sennacherib's retreat. He 'departed, and went and returned.' It is +like the picture in Psalm xlviii., which probably refers to the same +events: 'They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and +hasted away.' + +About twenty years elapsed between Sennacherib's retreat and his +assassination. During all that time he 'dwelt at Nineveh,' so far as +Judah was concerned. He had had enough of attacking it and its God. +But the notice of his death is introduced here, not only to complete +the narrative, but to point a lesson, which is suggested by the fact +that he was murdered 'as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch +his god.' Hezekiah had gone into the house of _his_ God with +Sennacherib's letter, and the dead corpses of an army showed what +Jehovah could do for His servant; Sennacherib was praying in the +temple of _his_ god, and his corpse lay stretched before his +idol, an object lesson of the impotence of Nisroch and all his like to +hear or help their worshippers. + + + +THE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS + +'And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have +found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Hilkiah gave +the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9. And Shaphan the scribe came to +the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have +gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it +into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the +house of the Lord. 10. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, +Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book: and Shaphan read it +before the king. 11. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the +words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 12. And the +king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and +Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a +servant of the king's, saying, 13. Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, +and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this +book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled +against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of +this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning +us. 14. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, +and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the +son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she +dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her. 15. +And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the +man that sent you to me, 16. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring +evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the +words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: 17. Because they +have forsaken Me, and have burnt incense unto other gods, that they +might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore +My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be +quenched. 18. But to the king of Judah, which sent you to enquire of +the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, +As touching the words which thou hast heard; 19. Because thine heart +was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou +heardest what I speak against this place, and against the inhabitants +thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast +rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith +the Lord. 20. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, +and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes +shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And +they brought the king word again.'--2 KINGS xxii. 8-20. + + +We get but a glimpse into a wild time of revolution and +counter-revolution in the brief notice that the 'servants of Amon,' +Josiah's father, conspired and murdered him in his palace, but were +themselves killed by a popular rising, in which the 'people of the +land made Josiah his son king in his stead,' and so no doubt balked +the conspirators' plans. Poor boy! he was only eight years old when he +made his first acquaintance with rebellion and bloodshed. There must +have been some wise heads and strong arms and loyal hearts round him, +but their names have perished. The name of David was still a spell in +Judah, and guarded his childish descendant's royal rights. In the +eighteenth year of his reign, the twenty-sixth of his age, he felt +himself firm enough in the saddle to begin a work of religious +reformation, and the first reward of his zeal was the finding of the +book of the law. Josiah, like the rest of us, gained fuller knowledge +of God's will in the act of trying to do it so far as he knew it. +'Light is sown for the upright.' + +I. We have, first, the discovery of the law. The important and +complicated critical questions raised by the narrative cannot be +discussed here, nor do they affect the broad lines of teaching in the +incident. Nothing is more truthful-like than the statement that, in +course of the repairs of the Temple, the book should be +found,--probably in the holiest place, to which the high priest would +have exclusive access. How it came to have been lost is a more +puzzling question; but if we recall that seventy-five years had passed +since Hezekiah, and that these were almost entirely years of apostasy +and of tumult, we shall not wonder that it was so. Unvalued things +easily slip out of sight, and if the preservation of Scripture +depended on the estimation which some of us have of it, it would have +been lost long ago. But the fact of the loss suggests the wonder of +the preservation. It would appear that this copy was the only one +existing,--at all events, the only one known. It alone transmitted the +law to later days, like some slender thread of water that finds its +way through the sand and brings the river down to broad plains beyond. +Think of the millions of copies now, and the one dusty, forgotten roll +tossing unregarded in the dilapidated Temple, and be thankful for the +Providence that has watched over the transmission. Let us take care, +too, that the whole Scripture is not as much lost to us, though we +have half a dozen Bibles each, as the roll was to Josiah and his men. + +Hilkiah's announcement to Shaphan has a ring of wonder and of awe in +it. It sounds as if he had not known that such a book was anywhere in +the Temple. And it is noteworthy that not he, but Shaphan, is said to +have read it. Perhaps he could not,--though, if he did not, how did he +know what the book was? At all events, he and Shaphan seem to have +felt the importance of the find, and to have consulted what was to be +done. Observe how the latter goes cautiously to work, and at first +only says that he has received 'a book.' He gives it no name, but +leaves it to tell its own story,--which it was then, and is still, +well able to do. Scripture is its own best credentials and witnesses +whence it comes. Again Shaphan is the reader, as it was natural that a +'scribe' should be, and again the possibility is that Josiah could not +read. + +II. One can easily picture the scene while the reader's voice went +steadily through the commandments, threatenings, and promises,--the +deepening eagerness of the king, the gradual shaping out before his +conscience of God's ideal for him and his people, and the gradual +waking of the sense of sin in him, like a dormant serpent beginning to +stir in the first spring sunshine. + +The effect of God's law on the sinful heart is vividly pictured in +Josiah's emotion. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin.' To many of us +that law, in spite of our outward knowledge of it, is as completely +absent from our consciousness as it had been from the most ignorant of +Josiah's subjects; and if for once its searchlight were thrown into +the hidden corners of our hearts and lives, it would show up in +dreadful clearness the skulking foes that are stealing to assail us, +and the foul things that have made good their lodgment in our hearts +and lives. It always makes an epoch in a life when it is really +brought to the standard of God's law; and it is well for us if, like +Josiah, we rend our clothes, or rather 'our heart, and not our +garments,' and take home the conviction, 'I have sinned against the +Lord.' + +The dread of punishment sprang up in the young king's heart, and +though that emotion is not the highest motive for seeking the Lord, it +is not an unworthy one, and is meant to lead on to nobler ones than +itself. There is too much unwillingness, in many modern conceptions of +Christ's gospel, to recognise the place which the apprehension of +personal evil consequences from sin has in the initial stages of the +process by which we are 'translated from the kingdom of darkness into +that of God's dear Son.' + +III. The message to Huldah is remarkable. The persons sent with it +show its importance. The high priest, the royal secretary, and one of +the king's personal attendants, who was, no doubt, in his confidence, +and two other influential men, one of whom, Ahikam, is known as +Jeremiah's staunch friend, would make some stir in 'the second +quarter,' on their way to the modest house of the keeper of the +wardrobe. The weight and number of the deputation did honour to the +prophetess, as well as showed the king's anxiety as to the matter in +hand. Jeremiah and Zephaniah were both living at this time, and we do +not know why Huldah was preferred. Perhaps she was more accessible. +But conjecture is idle. Enough that she was recognised as having, and +declared herself to have, direct authoritative communications from +God. + +For what did Josiah need to inquire of the Lord 'concerning the words +of this book'? They were plain enough. Did he hope to have their +sternness somewhat mollified by the words of a prophetess who might be +more amenable to entreaties or personal considerations than the +unalterable page was? Evidently he recognised Huldah as speaking with +divine authority, and he might have known that two depositories of +God's voice could not contradict each other. But possibly his embassy +simply reflected his extreme perturbation and alarm, and like many +another man when God's law startles him into consciousness of sin, he +betook himself to one who was supposed to be in God's counsels, half +hoping for a mitigated sentence, and half uncertain of what he really +wished. He confusedly groped for some support or guide. But, confused +as he was, his message to the prophetess implied repentance, eager +desire to know what to do, and humble docility. If dread of evil +consequences leads us to such a temper, we shall hear, as Josiah did, +answers of peace as authoritative and divine as were the threatenings +that brought us to our senses and our knees. + +IV. The answer which Josiah received falls into two parts, the former +of which confirms the threatenings of evil to Jerusalem, while the +latter casts a gleam athwart the thundercloud, and promises Josiah +escape from the national calamities. Observe the difference in the +designation given him in the two parts. When the threatenings are +confirmed, his individuality is, as it were, sunk; for that part of +the message applies to any and every member of the nation, and +therefore he is simply called 'the man that sent you.' Any other man +would have received the same answer. But when his own fate is to be +disclosed, then he is 'the king of Judah, who sent you,' and is +described by the official position which set him apart from his +subjects. + +Huldah has but to confirm the dread predictions of evil which the roll +had contained. What else can a faithful messenger of God do than +reiterate its threatenings? Vainly do men seek to induce the living +prophet to soften down God's own warnings. Foolishly do they think +that the messenger or the messenger's Sender has any 'pleasure in the +death of the wicked'; and as foolishly do they take the message to be +unkind, for surely to warn that destruction waits the evildoer is +gracious. The signal-man who waves the red flag to stop the train +rushing to ruin is a friend. Huldah was serving Judah best by plain +reiteration of the 'words of the book.' + +But the second half of her message told that in wrath God remembered +mercy. And that is for ever true. His thunderbolts do not strike +indiscriminately, even when they smite a nation. Judah's corruption +had gone too far for recovery, and the carcase called for the +gathering together of the vultures, but Josiah's penitence was not in +vain. 'I have heard thee' is always said to the true penitent, and +even if he is involved in widespread retribution, its strokes become +different to him. Josiah was assured that the evil should not come in +his days. But Huldah's promise seems contradicted by the circumstances +of his death. It was a strange kind of being gathered to his grave in +peace when he fell on the fatal field of Megiddo, and 'his servants +carried him in a chariot dead, ... and buried him in his own +sepulchre' (2 Kings xxiii. 30). But the promise is fulfilled in its +real meaning by the fact that the threatenings which he was inquiring +about did not fall on Judah in his time, and so far as these were +concerned, he _did_ come to his grave in peace. + + + +THE END + +'1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth +month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of +Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched +against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2. And the +city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3. And on +the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, +and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4. And the city was +broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the +gate, between two walls, which is by the king's garden; (now the +Chaldees were against the city round about;) and the king went the way +toward the plain. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the +king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were +scattered from him. 6. So they took the king, and brought him up to +the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7. And +they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes +of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to +Babylon. 8. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, +which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, +came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of +Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and +the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great +man's house burnt he with fire. 10. And all the army of the Chaldees, +that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of +Jerusalem round about. 11. Now the rest of the people that were left +in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, +with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan, the captain of +the guard, carry away. 12. But the captain of the guard left of the +poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.'--2 KINGS xxv. +1-12. + + +Eighteen months of long-drawn-out misery and daily increasing famine +preceded the fall of the doomed city. The siege was a blockade. No +assaults by the enemy, nor sorties by the inhabitants, are narrated, +but the former grimly and watchfully drew their net closer, and the +latter sat still in their despair. The passionless tone of the +narrative here is very remarkable. Not a word escapes the writer to +show his feelings, though he is telling his country's fall. We must +turn to Lamentations for sighs and groans. There we have the emotions +of devout hearts; here we have the calm record of God's judgment. It +is all one long sentence, for in the Hebrew each verse begins with +'and,' clause heaped on clause, as if each were a footstep of the +destroying angel in his slow, irresistible march. + +The narrative falls into two principal parts--the fate of the king and +that of the city. It is unnecessary to dwell on the details. The +confusion of counsels, the party strife, the fierce hatred of God's +prophet, the agony of famine, are all suppressed here, but painted +with terrible vividness in the Book of Jeremiah. At last the fatal day +came. On the north side a breach was made in the wall, and through it +the fierce besiegers poured--the 'princes of the king of Babylon,' +with their idolatrous and barbarous names, 'came in, and sat in the +middle gate.' It was night. The sudden appearance of the conquerors in +the heart of the city shot panic into the feeble king and his 'men of +war' who had never struck one blow for deliverance; and they hurried +under cover of darkness, and hidden between two walls, down the ravine +to the king's garden, once the scene of pleasure, but waste now, and +thence, as best they could, round or over Olivet to the road to +Jericho. The king's flight by night had been foretold by Ezekiel far +away in captivity (Ezek. xii. 12); and the same prophet received on +that very day a divine message announcing the fall of the city, and +bidding him 'write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame +day,' as that on which the king of Babylon 'drew close unto Jerusalem' +(Ezek. xxiv. 1 _et seq._). + +Down the rocky road went the flying host, with 'their shaftless, +broken bows' closely followed by the avenging foe with 'red pursuing +spear.' Where Israel had first set foot on its inheritance, the last +king of David's line was captured and his monarchy shattered. The +scene of the first victory, when Jericho fell before unarmed men +trusting in God, was the scene of the last defeat. The spot where the +covenant was renewed, and the reproach of Israel rolled away, was the +spot where the broken covenant was finally avenged and abrogated. The +end came back to the beginning, and the cradle was the coffin. + +Away up to Riblah, in the far north, under the shadow of Lebanon, the +captive was dragged to meet the conqueror. The name of each is a +profession of belief. The one means 'Jehovah is righteousness'; the +other, 'Nebo, protect the crown.' The idol seemed to have overcome, +but the defeat of the unbelieving confessor of the true God at the +hands of the idolater is really the victory of the righteousness which +the name celebrated and the bearer of the name insulted. His murdered +sons were the last sight which he saw before he was blinded, according +to the ferocious practice of the East. It was ingenuity of cruelty to +let him see for so long, and then to give him that as the last thing +seen, and therefore often remembered. Note how the enigma of Ezekiel's +prophecy (Ezek. xii. 13) and its apparent contradiction of Jeremiah's +(Jer. xxxii. 4; xxxiv. 3) are reconciled, and learn how easily the +fact, when it comes, clears the riddles of prophecy, and how easily, +probably, the whole facts, if we knew them, would clear the +difficulties of Scripture history. The blinded king was harmless, but +according to Jewish tradition, was set to work in a mill (though that +is probably only an application of Samson's story), and according to +Jeremiah (Jer. lii. 11), was kept in prison till his death. So ended +the monarchy of Judah. + +The fate of the city was not settled for a month, during which, no +doubt, there was much consultation at Riblah whether to garrison or +destroy it. The king of Babylon did not go in person, but despatched a +force commanded by a high officer, to burn palace, Temple, the more +important houses (the poorer people would probably be lodged in huts +not worth burning), and to raze the fortifications. In accordance with +the practice of the great Eastern despotisms, deportation followed +victory--a clever though cruel device for securing conquests. But some +were left behind; for the land, if deserted, would have fallen out of +cultivation, and been profitless to Babylon. The bulk of the people of +Jerusalem, the fugitives who had joined the invaders during the siege, +and the mass of the general population, were carried off, in such a +long string of misery as we may still see on the monuments, and a +handful left behind, too poor to plot, and stirred to diligence by +necessity. So ended the possession by Israel of its promised +inheritance. + +Now this fall of Jerusalem is like an object-lesson to teach +everlasting truth as to the retributive providence of God. What does +it say? + +It declares plainly what brings down God's judgments. The terms on +which Israel prospered and held its land were obedience to God's law. +We cannot directly apply the principles of God's government of it to +modern nations. The present analogue of Israel is the Church, not the +nation. But when all deductions have been made, it is still true that +a nation's religious attitude is a most potent factor in its +prosperous development. It is not accidental that, on the whole, +stagnant Europe and America are Roman Catholic, and the progressive +parts Protestant. Nor was it causes independent of religion that +scattered a decaying Christianity in the lands of the Eastern Church +before the onslaught of wild Arabs, who, at all events, did believe in +Allah. So there are abundant lessons for politics and sociology in the +story of Jerusalem's fall. + +But these lessons have direct application to the individual and to the +Christian Church. All departure from God is ruin. We slay ourselves by +forsaking Him, and every sinner is a suicide. We live under a moral +government, and in a system of things so knit together as that even +here every transgression receives its just recompense--if not visibly +and palpably in outward circumstances, yet really and punctually in +effects on mind and heart, which are more solemn and awful. 'Behold +the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked +and the sinner.' Sin and sorrow are root and fruit. + +Especially does that crash of Jerusalem's fall thunder the lesson to +all churches that their life and prosperity are inseparably connected +with faithful obedience and turning away from all worldliness, which +is idolatry. They stand in the place that was made empty by Israel's +later fall. Our very privileges call us to beware. 'Because of +unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.' That great +seven-branched candlestick was removed out of its place, and all that +is left of it is its sculptured image among the spoils on the +triumphal arch to its captor. Other lesser candlesticks have been +removed from their places, and Turkish oppression brings night where +Sardis and Laodicea once gave a feeble light. The warning is needed +to-day; for worldliness is rampant in the Church. 'If God spared not +the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' The fall +of Jerusalem is not merely a tragic story from the past. It is a +revelation, for the present, of the everlasting truth, that the +professing people of God deserve and receive the sorest chastisement, +if they turn again to folly. + +Further, we learn the method of present retribution. Nebuchadnezzar +knew nothing of the purposes which he fulfilled. 'He meaneth not so, +neither doth his heart think so.' He was but the 'axe' with which God +hewed. Therefore, though he was God's tool, he was also responsible, +and would be punished even for performing God's 'whole work upon +Jerusalem,' because of 'the glory of his high looks.' The retribution +of disobedience, so far as that retribution is outward, needs no +'miracle.' The ordinary operations of Providence amply suffice to +bring it. If God wills to sting, He will 'hiss for the fly,' and it +will come. The ferocity and ambition of a grim and bloody despot, +impelled by vainglory and lust of cruel conquest, do God's work, and +yet the doing is sin. The world is full of God's instruments, and He +sends punishments by the ordinary play of motives and circumstances, +which we best understand when we see behind all His mighty hand and +sovereign will. The short-sighted view of history says 'Nebuchadnezzar +captured Jerusalem B.C. so and so,' and then discourses about the +tendencies of which Babylonia was exponent and creature. The deeper +view says, God smote the disobedient city, as He had said, and +Nebuchadnezzar was 'the rod of His anger.' + +Again, we learn the Divine reluctance to smite. More than four hundred +years had passed since Solomon began idolatry, and steadily, through +all that time, a stream of prophecy of varying force and width had +flowed, while smaller disasters had confirmed the prophets' voices. +'Rising up early and sending' his servants, God had been in earnest in +seeking to save Israel from itself. Men said then, 'Where is the +promise of His coming?' and mocked His warnings and would none of His +reproof; but at last the hour struck and the crash came. 'As a dream +when one awaketh; so, O Lord! when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise +their image.' His judgment seems to slumber, but its eyes are open, +and it remains inactive, that His long-suffering may have free scope. +As long as His gaze can discern the possibility of repentance, He will +not strike; and when that is hopeless, He will not delay. The +explanation of the marvellous tolerance of evil which sometimes tries +faith and always evokes wonder, lies in the great words, which might +well be written over the chair of every teacher of history: 'The Lord +is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but +is long-suffering to us-ward.' Alas, that that divine patience should +ever be twisted into the ground of indurated disobedience! 'Because +sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the +heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' + +God's reluctance to punish is no reason for doubting that He will. +Judgment is His 'strange work,' less congenial, if we may so +paraphrase that strong word of the prophet's, than pure mercy, but it +will be done nevertheless. The tears over Jerusalem that witnessed +Christ's sorrow did not blind the eyes like a flame of fire, nor stay +the outstretched hand of the Judge, when the time of her final fall +came. The longer the delay, the worse the ruin. The more protracted +the respite and the fuller it has been of entreaties to return, the +more terrible the punishment. 'Behold, therefore, the goodness and +severity of God: towards them which fell, severity; but toward thee, +goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt +be cut off.' + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE KING'S POTTERS + +'There they dwelt with the king for his work.'--l CHRON. iv. 23. + + +In these dry lists of names which abound in Chronicles, we now and +then come across points of interest, oases in the desert, which need +but to be pondered sympathetically to yield interesting suggestions. +Here for example, buried in a dreary genealogical table, is a little +touch which repays meditating on. Among the members of the tribe of +Judah were a hereditary caste of potters who lived in 'Netaim and +Gederah,' if we adhere to the Revised Version's text, or 'among +plantations and hedges' if we prefer the margin. But they are also +described as dwelling 'with the king.' That can only mean on the royal +estates, for the king himself resided in Jerusalem. He, however, held +large domains in the territory of Judah, on some of which these +ceramic artists were settled down and followed their calling. They +were kept on the royal estates and kept in comfort, not needing to +till, but fed and cared for, that they might be free to mould, out of +common clay, forms of beauty and 'vessels meet for the master's use.' +Surely we may read into the brief statement of the text a meaning of +which the writer of it never dreamt, and see in the description of +these forgotten artisans, a symbol of our Christian relations to our +Lord and of our life's work. + +I. We, too, dwell with the King. + +The Davidic king was in Jerusalem, and the potters were 'among +plantations and hedges,' yet in a real sense they 'dwelt with the +king,' though some of them might never have seen his face or trod the +streets of the sacred city. Perhaps now and then he came to visit them +on his outlying domains, but they were always parts of his household. +And have we, Christ's servants, not His gracious parting word: 'I am +with you always'? True, we are not beside Him in the great city, but +He is beside us in His outlying domains, and we may be with Him in His +glory, if while we still outwardly live among the 'plantations and +hedges' of this life, we dwell in spirit, by faith and aspiration, +with our risen and ascended Lord. If we so 'dwell with the King,' He +will dwell with us, and fill our humble abode with the radiance of His +presence, 'making that place of His feet glorious.' That He should be +with us is supreme condescension, that we should be with Him is the +perfection of exaltation. How low He stoops, how high we can rise! The +vigour of our Christian life largely depends on our keeping vivid the +consciousness of our communion with Jesus and the sense of His real +presence with us. How life's burdens would be lightened if we faced +them all in the strength of the felt nearness of our Lord! How +impossible it would be that we should ever feel the dreary sense of +solitude, if we felt that unseen, but most real, Presence wrapping us +round! It is only when our faith in it has fallen asleep that any +earthly good allures, or any earthly evil frightens us. To be sure, in +our thrilling consciousness, that we dwell with Jesus is an +impenetrable cuirass that blunts the points of all arrows and keeps +the breast that wears it unwounded in the fray. The world has no +voices which can make themselves heard above that low sovereign +whisper: 'I am with you always, even to the end of the world'--and +after the end has come, then we shall be with Him. + +But we find in this notice a hint that leads us in yet another +direction. They 'dwelt with the king' in the sense that they were +housed and cared for on his lands. And in like manner, the true +conception of the Christian life is that each of us is 'a sojourner +with Thee,' set down on Christ's domains, and looked after by Him in +regard to provision for outward wants. We have nothing in property, +but all is His and held by His gift and to be used for Him. The slave +owns nothing. The patch of ground which he cultivates for his food and +what grows on it, are his master's. These workmen were not slaves, but +they were not owners either. And we hold nothing as our own, if we are +true to the terms on which it is given us to hold. + +So if we rightly appreciate our position as dwelling on the King's +lands, our delusion of possession will vanish, and we shall feel more +keenly the pressure of responsibility while we feel less keenly the +grip of anxiety. We are for the time being entrusted with a tiny piece +of the royal estates. Let us not strut about as if we were owners, nor +be for ever afraid that we shall not have enough for our needs. One +sometimes comes on a model village close to the gates of some ducal +palace, and notes how the lordly owner's honour prompts its being kept +up to a high standard of comfort and beauty. We may be sure that the +potters were well lodged and looked after, and that care for their +personal wants was shifted from their shoulders to the king's. So +should ours be. He will not leave His servants to starve. They should +not dishonour Him and disturb themselves by worries and cares that +would be reasonable only if they had no Provider. He has said, 'All +things are given to Me of My Father,' and He gives us all that God has +given Him. + +II. We dwell with the King for His work. + +The king's potters had not to till the land nor do any work but to +mould clay into vessels for use and beauty. For that purpose they had +their huts and bits of ground assigned them. So with us, Christ has a +purpose in His provision for us. We are set down on His domains, and +we enjoy His presence and providing in order that, set free from +carking cares and low ends, we may, with free and joyous hearts, yield +ourselves to His joyful service. The law of our life should be that we +please not ourselves, nor consult our own will in choosing our tasks, +nor seek our own profit or gratification in doing them, but ever ask +of Him: 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' and when the answer +comes, as come it will to all who ask with real desire to learn and +with real inclination to do His will, that we 'make haste and delay +not, but make haste to keep His commandments.' The spirit which should +animate our active lives is plainly enough taught us in that little +word, they 'dwelt with the king for his work.' + +Nor are we to forget that, in a very profound sense, dwelling with the +King must go before doing His work. Unless we are living continually +under the operation of the stimulus of communion with Jesus, we shall +have neither quickness of ear to know what He wishes us to do, nor any +resolute concentration of ourselves on our Christ-appointed tasks. The +spring of all noble living is communion with noble ideals, and +fellowship with Jesus sets men agoing, as nothing else will, in +practical lives of obedience to Jesus. Time given to silent, retired +meditation on that sweet, sacred bond that knits the believing soul to +the redeeming Lord is not lost with reference to active work for +Jesus. The meditative and the practical life are not antagonistic, but +complementary, Mary and Martha are sisters, though sometimes they +differ, and foolish people try to set them against each other. + +But we must beware of a common misconception of what the King's work +is. The royal potters did not make only things of beauty, but very +common vessels designed for common and ignoble uses. There were +vessels of dishonour dried in their kilns as well as vessels 'meet for +the master's use.' There is a usual and lamentable narrowing of the +term 'Christian work,' to certain conventional forms of service, which +has done and is doing an immense amount of harm. The King's work is +far wider in scope than teaching in Sunday-schools, or visiting the +sick, or any similar acts that are usually labelled with the name. It +covers all the common duties of life. A shallow religion tickets some +selected items with the name; a robuster, truer conception extends the +designation to everything. It is not only when we are definitely +trying to bring others into touch with Jesus that we are doing Him +service, but we may be equally serving Him in everything. The +difference between the king's work and the poor potters' own lay not +so much in the nature as in the motive of it, and whatever we do for +Christ's sake and with a view to His will is work that He owns, while +a regard to self in our motive or in our end decisively strikes any +service tainted by it out of the category. + +We are to hallow all our deeds by drawing the motive for them from the +King and by laying the fruits of them at His feet. Thus, and only +thus, will the most 'secular' actions be sanctified and the narrowest +life be widened to contain a present Christ. + +There are subsidiary motives which may legitimately blend with the +supreme one. The potters would be stimulated to work hard and with +their utmost skill when they thought of how well they were paid in +house and store for their work. We have ample reasons for dedicating +our whole selves to Jesus when we think of His gift of Himself to us, +of His wages beforehand, of His joyful presence with His eye ever on +us, marking our purity of motive and our diligence. + +There is a final thought that may well stimulate us to put all our +skill and effort into our work. The potters' work went to Jerusalem. +It was for the king. What can be too good for him? He will see it, +therefore let us put our best into it. And we shall see it too, when +we too enter 'the city of the great King.' Jars that perhaps were +wrought by these very workmen of whom we have been speaking turn up +to-day in the excavations in Palestine. So much has perished and they +remain, speaking symbols of the solemn truth that nothing human ever +dies. Our 'works do follow us.' Let us so live that these may be +'found unto praise and honour and glory' at the appearing of 'the +King.' + + + +DAVID'S CHORISTERS + +'They stood in their office, according to their order.'--1 CHRON. vi. +32 (R.V. margin). + + +This brief note is buried in the catalogue of the singers appointed by +David for 'the service of song in the house of the Lord.' The waves of +their choral praise have long ages since ceased to eddy round the +'tabernacle of the tent of meeting,' and all that is left of their +melodious companies is a dry list of names, in spite of which the dead +owners of them are nameless. But the chronicler's description of them +may carry some lessons for us, for is not the Church of Christ a +choir, chosen to 'shew forth the praises of Him who has called us out +of darkness into His marvellous light'? We take a permissible liberty +with this fragment, when we use it to point lessons that may help that +great band of choristers who are charged with the office of making the +name of Jesus ring through the world. Now, in making such a use of the +text, we may linger on each important word in it and find each +fruitful in suggestions which we shall be the better for expanding in +our own meditations. + +We pause on the first word, which is rendered in the Authorised and +Revised Versions 'waited,' and in the margin of the latter 'stood.' +The former rendering brings into prominence the mental attitude with +which the singers held themselves ready to take their turns in the +service, the latter points rather to their bodily attitude as they +fulfilled their office. We get a picture of the ranked files gathered +round their three leaders, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan. These three names +are familiar to us from the Psalter, but how all the ranks behind them +have fallen dim to us, and how their song has floated into inaudible +distance! They 'stood,' a melodious multitude, girt and attent on +their song, or waiting their turn to fill the else silent air with the +high praises of Jehovah, and glad when it came to their turn to open +their lips in full-throated melody. + +Now may we not catch the spirit of that long vanished chorus, and find +in the two possible renderings of this word a twofold example, the +faithful following of which would put new vigour into our service? We +are called to a loftier office, and have heavenly harmonies entrusted +to us to be made vocal by our lips, compared with which theirs were +poor. 'They waited on' their office, and shall not we, in a higher +fashion, wait on our ministry, and suffer no inferior claims to block +our way or hamper our preparedness to discharge it? To let ourselves +be entangled with 'the affairs of this life,' or to 'drowse in idle +cell,' sleepily letting summonses that should wake us to work sound +unheeded and almost unheard, is flagrant despite done to our high +vocation as Christians. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' but +not if in their waiting their eyes are straying everywhere but to +their Master's pointing hand or directing eye. The world is full of +voices calling Christ's folk to help; but what a host of so-called +Christians fail to hear these piteous and despairing cries, because +the noise of their own whims, fancies, and self-centred desires keeps +buzzing in their ears. A constant accompaniment of deafness is +constant noises in the head; and the Christians who are hardest of +hearing when Christ calls are generally afflicted with noises which +are probably the cause, and not merely an accompaniment, of their +deafness. For indeed it demands no little detachment of spirit from +self and sense, from the world and its clamant suitors, if a Christian +soul is to be ready to mark the first signal of the great Conductor's +baton, and to answer the lightest whisper, intrusting it with a task +for Him, with its self-consecrating 'Here am I. Send me.' + +It used to be said that they who watched for providences never wanted +providences to watch for; it is equally true that they who are on the +watch for opportunities for service never fail to find them, and that +ears pricked to 'hear what God the Lord shall speak,' summoning to +work for Him, will not listen in vain. Paul saw in a vision 'a +_man_ of Macedonia' begging for his help, and 'straightway' he +concluded that '_God_ had called' him to preach in Europe. Happy +are these Christian workers who hear God's voice speaking through +men's needs, and recognise a divine imperative in human cries! + +May we not see in the attitude of David's choristers as they sang, +hints for our own discharge of the tasks of our Christian service? +There was a curse of old on him who did the work of the Lord +'negligently,' and its weight falls still on workers and work. For who +can measure the harm done to the Christian life of the negligent +worker, and who can expect any blessing to come either to him or to +others from such half-hearted seeming service? The devil's kingdom is +not to be cast down nor Christ's to be builded up by workers who put +less than their whole selves, the entire weight of their bodies, into +their toil. A pavior on the street brings down his rammer at every +stroke with an accompanying exclamation expressing effort, and there +is no place in Christ's service for dainty people who will not sweat +at their task, and are in mortal fear of over-work. Strenuousness, the +gathering together of all our powers, are implied in the attitude of +Heman and his band as they 'stood' in their office. Idle revellers +might loll on their rose-strewn couches as they 'sing idle songs to +the sound of the viol and devise for themselves instruments of music, +like David,' but the austerer choir of the Temple despised ease, and +stood ready for service and in the best bodily posture for song. + +The second important word of the text brings other thoughts no less +valuable and rich in practical counsel. The singers in the Temple +stood in their 'office,' which was song. Their special work was +praise. And that is the highest task of the Church. As a matter of +fact, every period of quickened earnestness in the Church's life has +been a period marked by a great outburst of Christian song. All +intense emotion seeks expression in poetry, and music is the natural +speech of a vivid faith. Luther chanted the Marseillaise of the +Reformation, 'A safe stronghold our God is still,' and many another +sweet strain blended strangely with the fiery and sometimes savage +words from his lips. The Scottish Reformation, grim in some of its +features as it was, had yet its 'Gude and Godly Ballads.' At the birth +of Methodism, as round the cradle at Bethlehem, hovered as it were +angel voices singing, 'Glory to God in the highest.' A flock of +singing birds let loose attends every revival of Christian life. + +The Church's praise is the noblest expression of the Church's life. +Its hymns go deeper than its creeds, touch hearts more to the quick, +minister to the faith which they enshrine, and often draw others to +see the preciousness of the Christ whom they celebrate. How little we +should have known of Old Testament religion, notwithstanding law and +prophets, if the Psalter had perished! + +And it is true, in a very deep sense, that we shall do more for Christ +and men by voicing our own deep thankfulness for His great gifts and +speaking simply our valuation of, and our thankfulness for, what we +draw from Him than by any other form of so-called Christian work. We +can offend none by saying: 'We have found the Messias,' and are +adoringly glad that we have. The most effectual way of moving other +souls to participate in our joy is to let our joy speak. 'If you wish +me to weep,' your own tears must not be held back, and if you wish +others to know the preciousness of Christ, you must ring out His name +with fervour of emotion and the triumphant confidence. We are the +'secretaries of God's praise,' as George Herbert has it, for we have +possession of His greatest gift, and have learned to know Him in +loftier fashion than Heman's choristers dreamed of, having seen 'the +glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' and tasted the sweetness of +redeeming love. The Apocalyptic seer sets forth a great truth when he +tells us that he first heard a new song from the lips of the +representatives of the Church, who could sing, 'Thou wast slain and +didst redeem us to God with Thy blood,' and then heard their adoration +echoed from 'many angels round about the throne,' and finally heard +the song reverberated from every created thing in heaven and earth, in +the sea and all deep places. A praising Church has experiences of its +own which angels cannot share, and it sets in motion the great sea of +praise whose surges break in music and roll from every side of the +universe in melodious thunder to the great white throne. Without our +song even angel voices would lack somewhat. + + 'God said, "A praise is in Mine ear; + There is no doubt in it, no fear: + Clearer loves sound other ways: + I miss My little human praise."' + +The song of the redeemed has in it a minor strain that gives a +sweetness far more poignant than belongs to those who cannot say: 'Out +of the depths I cried unto Thee.' 'The sweetest songs are those which +tell of saddest thought,' and recount experiences of conquered sin and +life springing from death. + +But it is also true that no kind of Christian service will be +effectual, if it lacks the element of grateful praise as its motive +and mainspring. Perhaps there would be fewer complaints of toiling all +night and wearily hauling in empty nets, if the nets were oftener let +down not only 'at Thy word' but with glad remembrance of the +fishermen's debt to Jesus, and in the spirit of praise. When all our +work is a sacrifice of praise, it is pleasing to God and profitable to +ourselves and to others. If we would oftener bethink ourselves, and +herald every deed with a silent dedication of it and of ourselves to +Him who died for us, we should less often have to complain that we +have sowed much and brought back little. A pinch of incense cast into +the common domestic fire makes its flame sacrificial and fragrant. + +The last important word of the text is also fertile in hints for us. +The singers stood in their office 'according to their order.' That +last expression may either refer to rotation of service or to +distribution of parts in the chorus. They did not sing in unison, +grand as the effect of such a song from a multitude sometimes is, but +they had their several parts. The harmonious complexity of a great +chorus is the ideal for the Church. Paul puts the same thought in a +sterner metaphor when he tells the Colossian Christians that he joys +'beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ,' +where he is evidently thinking of the Roman legion with its rigid +discipline and its solid, irresistible, ranked weight. Division of +function and consequent concordant action of different parts is the +lesson taught by both metaphors, and by the many modern examples of +the immense results gained in machinery that almost simulates vital +action, and by organisations for great purposes in which men combine. +The Church should be the highest example of such combination, for it +is the shrine of the noblest life, even the life of its indwelling +Lord. Every member of it should have and know his place. Every +Christian should know his part in the great chorus, for he has a part, +even if it is only that of tinkling the triangle in the orchestra or +beating a drum. That division of function and concordance of action +apply to all forms of the Church's action, and are enforced most +chiefly by the great Apostolic metaphor of the body and its members. +Paul did not delight in 'uniformity.' Inferiors calling themselves his +successors have often aimed at enforcing it, but nature has been too +strong for them, and the hedge will grow its own way in spite of +pedants' shears. 'If the whole body were an eye, where the hearing?' +The monotony of a church in which uniformity was the ideal would be +intolerable. The chorus has its parts, and the soprano cannot say to +the bass, 'I have no need of you,' nor the bass to the tenor, 'I have +no need of thee.' + +So let us see that we find our own place, and see that we fill it, +singing our own part lustily, and not being either confused or made +dumb because another has other notes to sing than are written on our +score. Let us recognise unity made more melodious by diversity, the +importance of the humblest, and 'having gifts differing according to +the grace given unto us let us wait on our ministry,' and stand in our +office according to our order. + + + +DRILL AND ENTHUSIASM + +'[Men that] could keep rank, they were not of double heart.'--1 CHRON. +xii. 33. + + +These words come from the muster-roll of the hastily raised army that +brought David up to Hebron and made him King. The catalogue abounds in +brief characterisations of the qualities of each tribe's contingent. +For example, Issachar had 'understanding of the times.' Our text is +spoken of the warriors of Zebulon, who had left their hills and their +flocks in the far north, and poured down from their seats by the blue +waters of Tiberias to gather round their king. They were not only like +their brethren expert in war and fully equipped, but they had some +measure of discipline too, a rare thing in the days when there were no +standing armies. They 'could keep rank,' could march together, had +been drilled to some unanimity of step and action, could work and +fight together, were an army, not a crowd, and not only so, but also +'they were not of double heart.' Each man, and the whole body, had a +brave single resolve; they had one spirit animating the whole, and +that was to make David king, an enthusiastic loyalty which made them +brave, and a discipline which kept the courage from running to waste. + +I take, then, this text as bringing before us two very important +characteristics which ought to be found in every Christian church, and +without which no real prosperity and growth is possible. These two may +be put very briefly: organisation and enthusiastic devotion. These are +both important, but in very different degrees. Organisation without +valour is in a worse plight than valour without organisation. The one +is fundamental, the other secondary. The one is the true cause, so far +as men are concerned, of victory, the other is but the instrument by +which the cause works. There have been many victories won by +undisciplined valour, but disciplined cowardice and apathy come to no +good. + +These two have been separated and made antagonistic, and churches are +to be found which glory in the one, and others in the other. Some have +gone in for order, and are like butterflies in a cabinet all ticketed +and displayed in place, but a pin is run through their bodies and they +are dead; and others have prided themselves on unfettered freedom, and +been not an army, but a mob. The true relation, of course, is that +life should shape and inform organisation, and organisation should +preserve, manifest and obey life. There must be body to hold spirit, +there must be spirit to keep body from rotting. + +I. Organisation. + +This is not the strong point of Nonconformist churches. We pride +ourselves on our individualism, and that is all very well. We believe +in direct access of each soul to Christ, that men must come to Him one +by one, that religion is purely a personal matter, and the firmness +with which we hold this tends to make us weak in combined action. It +cannot be truthfully denied that both in the relations of our churches +to one another, and in the internal organisation of these, we are and +have been too loosely compacted, and have forgotten that two is more +than one _plus_ one, so that we are only helping to redress the +balance a little when we insist upon the importance of organisation in +our churches. + +And first of all--remember the principles in subordination to which +our organisation must be framed. + +What are we united by? Common love and faith to Christ, or rather +Christ Himself. 'One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are +brethren.' So there must be nothing in our organisation which is +inconsistent with Christ's supreme place among us, and with our +individual obedience to Him. There are to be no 'lords over God's +heritage' in the Church of Christ. There are churches in which the +temptation to be such affects the official chiefly, and there are +others, with a different polity, in which it is chiefly a Diotrephes, +who loves to have pre-eminence. Character, zeal, social station, even +wealth will always confer a certain influence, and their possessors +will be tempted to set up their own will or opinions as dominant in +the Church. Such men are sinning against the very bond of Christian +union. Organisation which is bought by investing one man with +authority, is too dearly purchased at the cost of individual +development on the individual's own lines. A row of clipped yew-trees +is not an inspiring sight. + +And yet again what are we organised for? Not merely for our own growth +or spiritual advantage, but also, and more especially, for spreading +faith in Christ and advancing His glory. All our organisation, then, +is but an arrangement for doing our work, and if it hinders that, it +is cumbrous and must be cut away or modified, at all hazards. +Ecclesiastical martinets are still to be found, to whom drill is +all-important, and who see no use in irregular valour, but they are a +diminishing number, and they may be recommended to ponder the old wise +saying: 'Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by +the strength of the ox.' If the one aim is a 'clean crib' the best way +to secure that is to keep it empty; but if a harvest is the aim, there +must be cultivation, and one must accept the consequences of having a +strong team to plough. The end of drill is fighting. The parade-ground +and its exercising is in order that a corps may be hurled against the +enemy, or may stand unmoved, like a solid breakwater against a charge +which it flings off in idle spray, and the end of the Church's +organisation is that it may move _en masse_, without waste, +against the enemy. + +But a further guiding principle to shape Christian organisation is +that of the Church as the body of Christ. That requires that there +shall be work for every member. Christ has endowed His members with +varying gifts, powers, opportunities, and has set them in diverse +circumstances, that each may give his own contribution to the general +stock of work. Our theory is that each man has his own proper gift +from God, 'one after this manner, and another after that.' But what is +our practice? Take any congregation of Christian people in any of our +churches, and especially in the Free Churches of which I know most, +and is there anything like this wide diversity of forms of service, to +which each contributes? A handful of people do all the work, and the +remainder are idlers. The same small section are in evidence always, +and the rest are nowhere. There are but a few bits of coloured glass +in a kaleidoscope, they take different patterns when the tube is +turned, but they are always the same bits of glass. + +There needs to be a far greater variety of forms of work for our +people and more workers in the field. There are too few wheels for the +quantity of water in the river, and, partly for that reason, the +amount of water that runs waste over the sluice is deplorable. There +is a danger in having too many spindles for the power available, but +the danger in modern church organisation is exactly the other way. + +Every one should have his own work. In all living creatures, +differentiation of organs increases as the creature rises in the scale +of being, from the simple sac which does everything up to the human +body with a distinct function for every finger. It should not be +possible for a lazy Christian to plead truly as his vindication that +'no man had hired' him. It should be the Church's business to find +work for the unemployed. + +The example in our text should enforce the necessity of united work. +David's levies could keep rank. They did not let each man go at his +own rate and by his own road, but kept together, shoulder to shoulder, +with equal stride. They were content to co-operate and be each a part +of a greater whole. That keeping rank is a difficult problem in all +societies, where individual judgments, weaknesses, wills, and +crotchets are at work, but it is apt to be especially difficult in +Christian communities, where one may expect to find individual +characteristics intensified, a luxuriant growth of personal +peculiarities, an intense grip of partial aspects of the great truths +and a corresponding dislike of other aspects of these, and of those +whose favourite truths they are. One would do nothing to clip that +growth, but still Christians who have not learned to subordinate +themselves in and for united work are of little use to God or man. +What does such united work require? Mainly the bridling of self, the +curbing of one's own will, not insisting on forcing one's opinions on +one's brother, not being careful of having one's place secured and +one's honour asserted. Without such virtues no association of man +could survive for a year. If the world managed its societies as the +Church manages its unity, they would collapse quickly. Indeed it is a +strong presumption in favour of Christianity that the Churches have +not killed it long ago. Vanity, pride, self-importance, masterfulness, +pettishness get full play among us. Diotrephes has many descendants +to-day. A cotton mill, even if it were a co-operative one, could not +work long without going into bankruptcy, if there were no more power +of working together than some Christian congregations have. A watch +would be a poor timekeeper, where every wheel tried to set the pace +and be a mainspring, or sulked because the hands moved on the face in +sight of all men, while it had to move round and fit into its brother +wheel in the dark. + +Subordination is required as well as co-operation. For if there be +harmonious co-operation in varying offices, there must be degrees and +ranks. The differences of power and gift make degrees, and in every +society there will be leaders. Of course there is no commanding +authority in the Churches. Its leaders are brethren, whose most +imperative highest word is, 'We beseech you.' + +Of course, too, these varieties and degrees do not mean real +superiority or inferiority in the eye of God. From the highest point +of view nothing is great or small, there is no higher or lower. The +only measure is quality, the only gauge is motive. 'Small service is +true service while it lasts.' He that receiveth a prophet in the name +of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward. But yet there are, so +far as our work here is concerned, degrees and orders, and we need a +hearty and ungrudging recognition of superiority wherever we find it. +If the 'brother of high degree' needs to be exhorted to beware of +arrogance and imposing his own will on his fellows, the 'brother of +low degree' needs not less to be exhorted to beware of letting envy +and self-will hiss and snarl in his heart at those who are in higher +positions than himself. If the chief of all needs to be reminded that +in Christ's household preeminence means service, the lower no less +needs to be reminded that in Christ's household service means +pre-eminence. + +So much, then, for organisation. It is perfectly reconcilable with +democracy that is not mob-ocracy. In fact, democracy needs it most. If +I may venture to speak to the members of the Free Churches, with which +I am best acquainted, I would take upon myself to say that there is +nothing which they need more than that they should show their polity +to be capable of reconciling the freest development of the individual +with the most efficient organisation of the community. The object is +work for Christ, the bond of their fellowship is brotherly union with +Christ. Many eyes are on them to-day, and the task is in their hands +of showing that they can keep rank. The most perfect discipline in war +in old times was found, not amongst the subjects of Eastern despots +who were not free enough to learn to submit, but amongst the republics +of Greece, where men were all on a level in the city, and fell into +their places in the camp, because they loved liberty enough to know +the worth of discipline, and so the slaves of Xerxes were scattered +before the resistless onset of the phalanx of the free. The terrible +legion which moved 'altogether when it moved at all,' and could be +launched at the foe like one javelin of steel, had for its units free +men and equals. There needs freedom for organisation. There needs +organisation for freedom. Let us learn the lesson. 'God is not the +author of confusion, but of order, in all churches of saints.' + +II. Enthusiastic devotion. + +These men came to bring David up to Hebron with one single purpose in +their hearts. They had no sidelong glances to their own self-interest, +they had no wavering loyalty, they had no trembling fears, so we may +take their spirit as expressing generally the deepest requirements for +prosperity in a church. + +The foundation of all prosperity is a passion of personal attachment +to Christ our King. + +Christ is Christianity objective. Love to Christ is Christianity +subjective. The whole stress of Christian character is laid on this. +It is the mother of all grace and goodness, and in regard to the work +of the Church, it is the ardour of a soul full of love to Jesus that +conquers. The one thing in which all who have done much for Him have +been alike in that single-hearted devotion. + +But such love is the child of faith. It rests upon belief of truth, +and is the response of man to God. Dwelling in the truth is the means +of it. How our modern Christianity fails in this strong personal bond +of familiar love! + +Consider its effect on the individual. + +It will give tenacity of purpose, will brace to strenuous effort, will +subdue self, self-regard, self-importance, will subdue fear. It is the +true anaesthetic. The soldier is unconscious of his wounds, while the +glow of devotion is in his heart and the shout of the battle in his +ears. It will give fertility of resource and patience. + +Consider its effect on the community. + +It will remove all difficulties in the way of discipline arising from +vanity and self which can be subdued by no other means. That flame +fuses all into one glowing mass like a stream that pours from the +blast furnace. What a power a church would be which had this! It is +itself victory. The men that go into battle with that one firm +resolve, and care for nothing else, are sure to win. Think what one +man can do who has resolved to sell his life dear! + +Consider the worthlessness of discipline without this. + +It is a poor mechanical accuracy. How easy to have too much machinery! +How the French Revolution men swept the Austrian martinets before +them! David was half-smothered in Saul's armour. On the other hand, +this fervid flame needs control to make it last and work. Spirit and +law are not incompatible. Valour may be disciplined, and the +combination is irresistible. + +And so here, till we exchange the close array of the battlefield for +the open ranks of the festal procession on the Coronation day, and lay +aside the helmet for the crown, the sword for the palm, the +breastplate for the robe of peace, and stand for ever before the +throne, in the peaceful ranks of 'the solemn troops and sweet +societies' of the unwavering armies of the heavens who serve Him with +a perfect heart, and burn unconsumed with the ardours of an immortal +and ever brightening love, let us see to it that we too are 'men that +can keep rank and are not of double heart.' + + + +DAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE + +'Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house +for the Lord God of Israel. 7. And David said to Solomon, My son, as +for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord +my God: 8. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed +blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an +house unto My name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth +in My sight. 9. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a +man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round +about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and +quietness unto Israel in his days. 10. He shall build an house for My +name; and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will +establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. 11. Now, my +son, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of +the Lord thy God as He hath said of thee. 12. Only the Lord give thee +wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that +thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God, 13. Then shalt thou +prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments +which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of +good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed. 14. Now, behold, in my +trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand +talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of +brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and +stone have I prepared and thou mayest add thereto. 15. Moreover, there +are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and +timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. 16. Of +the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. +Arise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.'--1 CHRON. +xxii. 6-16. + + +This passage falls into three parts. In verses 6-10 the old king tells +of the divine prohibition which checked his longing to build the +Temple; in verses 11-13 he encourages his more fortunate successor, +and points him to the only source of strength for his happy task; in +verses 14-16 he enumerates the preparations which he had made, the +possession of which laid stringent obligations on Solomon. + +I. There is a tone of wistfulness in David's voice as he tells how his +heart's desire had been prohibited. The account is substantially the +same as we have in 2 Samuel vii. 4-16, but it adds as the reason for +the prohibition David's warlike career. We may note the earnestness +and the motive of the king's desire to build the Temple. 'It was in my +heart'; that implies earnest longing and fixed purpose. He had brooded +over the wish till it filled his mind, and was consolidated into a +settled resolve. Many a musing, solitary moment had fed the fire +before it burned its way out in the words addressed to Nathan. So +should our whole souls be occupied with our parts in God's service, +and so should our desires be strongly set towards carrying out what in +solitary meditation we have felt borne in on us as our duty. + +The moving spring of David's design is beautifully suggested in the +simple words 'unto the name of the Lord my God.' David's religion was +eminently a personal bond between him and God. We may almost say that +he was the first to give utterance to that cry of the devout heart, +'My God,' and to translate the generalities of the name 'the God of +Israel' into the individual appropriation expressed by the former +designation. It occurs in many of the psalms attributed to him, and +may fairly be regarded as a characteristic of his ardent and +individualising devotion. The sense of a close, personal relation to +God naturally prompted the impulse to build His house. We must claim +our own portion in the universal blessings shrined in His name before +we are moved to deeds of loving sacrifice. We must feel that Christ +'loved me, and gave Himself for me,' before we are melted into +answering surrender. + +The reason for the frustrating of David's desire, as here given, is +his career as a warrior king. Not only was it incongruous that hands +which had been reddened with blood should rear the Temple, but the +fact that his reign had been largely occupied with fighting for the +existence of the kingdom showed that the time for engaging in such a +work, which would task the national resources, had not yet come. We +may draw two valuable lessons from the prohibition. One is that it +indicates the true character of the kingdom of God as a kingdom of +peace, which is to be furthered, not by force, but in peace and +gentleness. The other is that various epochs and men have different +kinds of duties in relation to Christ's cause, some being called on to +fight, and others to build, and that the one set of tasks may be as +sacred and as necessary for the rearing of the Temple as the other. +Militant epochs are not usually times for building. The men who have +to do destructive work are not usually blessed with the opportunity or +the power to carry out constructive work. Controversy has its sphere, +but it is mostly preliminary to true 'edification.' In the broadest +view all the activity of the Church on earth is militant, and we have +to wait for the coming of the true 'Prince of peace' to build up the +true Temple in the land of peace, whence all foes have been cast out +for ever. To serve God in God's way, and to give up our cherished +plans, is not easy; but David sets us an example of simple-hearted, +cheerful acquiescence in a Providence that thwarted darling designs. +There is often much self-will in what looks like enthusiastic +perseverance in some form of service. + +II. The charge to Solomon breathes no envy of his privilege, but +earnest desire that he may be worthy of the honour which falls to him. +Petitions and exhortations are closely blended in it, and, though the +work which Solomon is called to do is of an external sort, the +qualifications laid down for it are spiritual and moral. However +'secular' our work in connection with God's service may be, it will +not be rightly done unless the highest motives are brought to bear on +it, and it is performed as worship. The basis of all successful work +is God's presence with us, so David prays for that to be granted to +Solomon as the beginning of all his fitness for his task. + +Next, David recalls to his son God's promise concerning him, that it +may hearten him to undertake and to carry on the great work. A +conviction that our service is appointed for us by God is essential +for vigorous and successful Christian work. We must have, in some way +or other, heard Him 'speak concerning us,' if we are to fling +ourselves with energy into it. + +The petitions in verse 12 seem to stretch beyond the necessities of +the case, in so far as building the Temple is concerned. Wisdom and +understanding, and a clear consciousness of the duty enjoined on him +by God in reference to Israel, were surely more than that work +required. But the qualifications for God's service, however the manner +of service may be concerned with 'the outward business of the house of +God,' are always these which David asked for Solomon. The highest +result of true 'wisdom and understanding' given by God is keeping +God's law; and keeping it is the one condition on which we shall +obtain and retain that presence of God with us which David prayed for +Solomon, and without which they labour in vain that build. A life +conformed to God's will is the absolutely indispensable condition of +all prosperity in direct Christian effort. The noblest exercise of our +wisdom and understanding is to obey every word that we hear proceeding +out of the mouth of God. + +III. There is something very pathetic in the old king's enumeration of +the treasures which, by the economies of a lifetime, he had amassed. +The amount stated is enormous, and probably there is some clerical +error in the numbers specified. Be that as it may, the sum was very +large. It represented many an act of self-denial, many a resolute +shearing off of superfluities and what might seem necessaries. It was +the visible token of long years of fixed attention to one object. And +that devotion was all the more noble because the result of it was +never to be seen by the man who exercised it. + +Therein David is but a very conspicuous example of a law which runs +through all our work for God. None of us are privileged to perform +completed tasks. 'One soweth and another reapeth.' We have to be +content to do partial work, and to leave its completion to our +successors. There is but one Builder of whom it can be said that His +hands 'have laid the foundation of this house; His hands shall also +finish it.' He who is the 'Alpha and Omega,' and He alone, begins and +completes the work in which He has neither sharers nor predecessors +nor successors. The rest of us do our little bit of the great work +which lasts on through the ages, and, having inherited unfinished +tasks, transmit them to those who come after us. It is privilege +enough for any Christian to lay foundations on which coming days may +build. We are like the workers on some great cathedral, which was +begun long before the present generation of masons were born, and will +not be finished until long after they have dropped trowel and mallet +from their dead hands. Enough for us if we can lay one course of +stones in that great structure. The greater our aims, the less share +has each man in their attainment. But the division of labour is the +multiplication of joy, and all who have shared in the toil will be +united in the final triumph. It would be poor work that was capable of +being begun and perfected in a lifetime. The labourer that dug and +levelled the track and the engineer that drives the locomotive over it +are partners. Solomon could not have built the Temple unless, through +long, apparently idle, years, David had been patiently gathering +together the wealth which he bequeathed. So, if our work is but +preparatory for that of those who come after, let us not think it of +slight importance, and let us be sure that all who have had any +portion in the toil shall share in the victory, that 'he that soweth +and he that reapeth may rejoice together.' + + + +DAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON + +'And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the +tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king +by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the +hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of +the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, +and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem. 2. Then David the king +stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: +As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark +of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had +made ready for the building: 3. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not +build an house for My name, because thou hast been a man of war, and +hast shed blood. 4. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all +the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for He hath +chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of +my father; and among the sons of my father He liked me to make me king +over all Israel: 5. And of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me +many sons), he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of +the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6. And He said unto me, Solomon +thy son, he shall build My house and My courts: for I have chosen him +to be My son, and I will be his father. 7. Moreover I will establish +his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do My commandments and My +judgments, as at this day. 8. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel +the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and +seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may +possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your +children after you for ever. 9. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou +the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a +willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all +the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found +of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever. 10. +Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the +sanctuary: be strong, and do it.'--1 CHRON. xxviii. 1-10. + + +David had established an elaborate organisation of royal officials, +details of which occupy the preceding chapters and interrupt the +course of the narrative. The passage picks up again the thread dropped +at chapter xxiii. 1. The list of the members of the assembly called in +verse 1 is interesting as showing how he tried to amalgamate the old +with the new. The princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, +represented the primitive tribal organisation, and they receive +precedence in virtue of the antiquity of their office. Then come +successively David's immediate attendants, the military officials, the +stewards of the royal estates, the 'officers' or eunuchs attached to +the palace, and the faithful 'mighty men' who had fought by the king's +side in the old days. It was an assembly of officials and soldiers +whose adherence to Solomon it was all-important to secure, especially +in regard to the project for building the Temple, which could not be +carried through without their active support. The passage comprises +only the beginning of the proceedings of this assembly of notables. +The end is told in the next chapter; namely, that the Temple-building +scheme was unanimously and enthusiastically adopted, and large +donations given for it, and that Solomon's succession was accepted, +and loyal submission offered by the assembly to him. + +David's address to this gathering is directed to secure these two +points. He begins by recalling his own intention to build the Temple +and God's prohibition of it. The reason for that prohibition differs +from that alleged by Nathan, but there is no contradiction between the +two narratives, and the chronicler has already reported Nathan's words +(chap. xvii. 3, etc.), so that the motive which is ascribed to many of +the variations in this book, a priestly desire to exalt Temple and +ritual, cannot have been at work here. Why should there not have been +a divine communication to David as well as Nathan's message? That +hands reddened with blood, even though it had been shed in justifiable +war, were not fitted to build the Temple, was a thought so far in +advance of David's time, and flowing from so spiritual a conception of +God, that it may well have been breathed into David's spirit by a +divine voice. Sword in one hand and trowel in the other are +incongruous, notwithstanding Nehemiah's example. The Temple of the God +of peace cannot be built except by men of peace. That is true in the +widest and highest application. Jesus builds the true Temple. +Controversy and strife do not. And, on a lower level, the prohibition +is for ever valid. Men do not atone for a doubtful past by building +churches, founding colleges, endowing religious or charitable +institutions. + +The speech next declares emphatically that the throne belongs to David +and his descendants by real 'divine right,' and that God's choice is +Solomon, who is to inherit both the promises and obligations of the +office, and, among the latter, that of building the Temple. The +unspoken inference is that loyalty to Solomon would be obedience to +Jehovah. The connection between the true heavenly King and His earthly +representative is strongly expressed in the remarkable phrase: 'He +hath chosen Solomon ... to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of +Jehovah,' which both consecrates and limits the rule of Solomon, +making him but the viceroy of the true king of Israel. When Israel's +kings remembered that, they flourished; when they forgot it, they +destroyed their kingdom and themselves. The principle is as true +to-day, and it applies to all forms of influence, authority, and +gifts. They are God's, and we are but stewards. + +The address to the assembly ends with the exhortation to these leaders +to 'observe,' and not merely to observe, but also to 'seek out' God's +commandments, and so to secure to the nation, whom they could guide, +peaceful and prosperous days. It is not enough to do God's will as far +as we know it; we must ever be endeavouring after clearer, deeper +insight into it. Would that these words were written over the doors of +all Senate and Parliament houses! What a different England we should +see! + +But Solomon was present as well as the notables, and it was well that, +in their hearing, he should be reminded of his duties. David had +previously in private taught him these, but this public 'charge' +before the chief men of the kingdom bound them more solemnly upon him, +and summoned a cloud of witnesses against him if he fell below the +high ideal. It is pitched on a lofty key of spiritual religion, for it +lays 'Know thou the God of thy fathers' as the foundation of +everything. That knowledge is no mere intellectual apprehension, but, +as always in Scripture, personal acquaintanceship with a Person, which +involves communion with Him and love towards Him. For us, too, it is +the seed of all strenuous discharge of our life's tasks, whether we +are rulers or nobodies, and it means a much deeper experience than +understanding or giving assent to a set of truths about God. We know +one another when we summer and winter with each other, and not unless +we love one another, and we know God on no other terms. + +After such knowledge comes an outward life of service. Active +obedience is the expression of inward communion, love, and trust. The +spring that moves the hands on the dial is love, and, if the hands do +not move, there is something wrong with the spring. Morality is the +garment of religion; religion is the animating principle of morality. +Faith without works is dead, and works without faith are dead too. + +But even when we 'know God' we have to make efforts to have our +service correspond with our knowledge, for we have wayward hearts and +obstinate wills, which need to be stimulated, sometimes to be coerced +and forcibly diverted from unworthy objects. Therefore the exhortation +to serve God 'with a perfect heart and with a willing mind' is always +needful and often hard. Entire surrender and glad obedience are the +Christian ideal, and continual effort to approximate to it will be +ours in the degree in which we 'know God.' There is no worse slavery +than that of the half-hearted Christian whose yoke is not padded with +love. Reluctant obedience is disobedience in God's sight. + +David solemnly reminds Solomon of those 'pure eyes and perfect +judgment,' not to frighten, but to enforce the thought of the need for +whole-hearted and glad service, and of the worthlessness of external +acts of apparent worship which have not such behind them. What a deal +of seeming wheat would turn out to be chaff if that winnowing fan +which is in Christ's hand were applied to it! How small our biggest +heaps would become! + +The solemn conditions of the continuance of God's favour and of the +fulfilment of His promises are next plainly stated. God responds to +our state of heart and mind. We determine His bearing to us. The +seeker finds. If we move away from Him, He moves away from us. That is +not, thank God! all the truth, or what would become of any of us? But +it is true, and in a very solemn sense God is to us what we make Him. +'With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou +wilt show Thyself froward.' + +The charge ends with recalling the high honour and office to which +Jehovah had designated Solomon, and with exhortations to 'take heed' +and to 'be strong, and do it.' It is well for a young man to begin +life with a high ideal of what he is called to be and do. But many of +us have that, and miserably fail to realise it, for want of these two +characteristics, which the sight of such an ideal ought to stamp on +us. If we are to fulfil God's purposes with us, and to be such tools +as He can use for building His true Temple, we must exercise +self-control and 'take heed to our ways,' and we must brace ourselves +against opposition and crush down our own timidity. It seems to be +commanding an impossibility to say to a weak creature like any one of +us, 'Be strong,' but the impossible becomes a possibility when the +exhortation takes the full Christian form: 'Be strong in the Lord, and +in the power of His might.' + + + +THE WAVES OF TIME + +'The times that went over him.'--1 CHRON. xxix. 30. + + +This is a fragment from the chronicler's close of his life of King +David. He is referring in it to other written authorities in which +there are fuller particulars concerning his hero; and he says, 'the +acts of David the King, first and last, behold they are written in the +book of Samuel the seer ... with all his reign and his might, and the +times that went over him, and over all Israel, and over all the +kingdoms of the countries.' + +Now I have ventured to isolate these words, because they seem to me to +suggest some very solemn and stimulating thoughts about the true +nature of life. They refer, originally, to the strange vicissitudes +and extremes of fortune and condition which characterised, so +dramatically and remarkably, the life of King David. Shepherd-boy, +soldier, court favourite, outlaw, freebooter and all but brigand; +rebel, king, fugitive, saint, sinner, psalmist, penitent--he lived a +life full of strongly marked alternations, and 'the times that went +over him' were singularly separate and different from each other. +There are very few of us who have such chequered lives as his. But the +principle which dictated the selection by the chronicler of this +somewhat strange phrase is true about the life of every man. + +I. Note, first, 'the times' which make up each life. + +Now, by the phrase here the writer does not merely mean the succession +of moments, but he wishes to emphasise the view that these are epochs, +sections of 'time,' each with its definite characteristics and its +special opportunities, unlike the rest that lie on either side of it. +The great broad field of time is portioned out, like the strips of +peasant allotments, which show a little bit here, with one kind of +crop upon it, bordered by another little morsel of ground bearing +another kind of crop. So the whole is patchy, and yet all harmonises +in effect if we look at it from high enough up. Thus each life is made +up of a series, not merely of successive moments, but of well-marked +epochs, each of which has its own character, its own responsibilities, +its own opportunities, in each of which there is some special work to +be done, some grace to be cultivated, some lesson to be learned, some +sacrifice to be made; and if it is let slip it never comes back any +more. 'It might have been once, and we missed it, and lost it for +ever.' The times pass over us, and every single portion has its own +errand to us. Unless we are wide awake we let it slip, and are the +poorer to all eternity for not having had in our heads the eyes of the +wise man which 'discern both time and judgment.' It is the same +thought which is suggested by the well-known words of the cynical book +of Ecclesiastes--'To every thing there is a season and a time'--an +opportunity, and a definite period--'for every purpose that is under +the sun.' It is the same thought which is suggested by Paul's words, +'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men. In due +season we shall reap if we faint not.' There is 'a time for weeping +and a time for laughing, a time for building up and a time for casting +down.' It is the same thought of life, and its successive epochs of +opportunity never returning, which finds expression in the threadbare +lines about 'a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, +leads on to fortune,' and neglected, condemns the rest of a career to +be hemmed in among creeks and shallows. + +Through all the variety of human occupations, each moment comes to us +with its own special mission, and yet, alas! to far too many of us the +alternations do not suggest the question, what is it that I am hereby +called upon to be or to do? what is the lesson that present +circumstances are meant to teach, and the grace that my present +condition is meant to force me to cultivate or exhibit? There is one +point, as it were, upon the road where we may catch a view far away +into the distance, and, if we are not on the lookout when we come +there, we shall never get that glimpse at any other point along the +path. The old alchemists used to believe that there was what they +called the 'moment of projection,' when, into the heaving molten mass +in their crucible, if they dropped the magic powder, the whole would +turn into gold; an instant later and there would be explosion and +death; an instant earlier and there would be no effect. And so God's +moments come to us; every one of them--if we had eyes to see and hands +to grasp--a crisis, affording opportunity for something for which all +eternity will not afford a second opportunity, if the moment be let +pass. 'The times went over him,' and your life and mine is parcelled +out into seasons which have their special vocation for and message to +us. + +How solemn that makes our life! How it destroys the monotony that we +sometimes complain of! How it heightens the low things and magnifies +the apparently small ones! And how it calls upon us for a sharpened +attention, that we miss not any of the blessings and gifts which God +is meaning to bestow upon us through the ministry of each moment! How +it calls upon us for not only sharpened attention, but for a desire to +know the meaning of each of the hours and of every one of His +providences! And how it bids us, as the only condition of +understanding the times, so as to know what we ought to do, to keep +our hearts in close union with Him, and ourselves ever standing, as +becomes servants, girded and ready for work; and with the question on +our lips and in our hearts, 'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do? +and what wouldst Thou have me to do _now_?' The lesson of the day +has to be learned in a day, and at the moment when it is put in +practice. + +II. Another thought suggested by this text is, the Power that moves +the times. + +As far as my text represents--and it is not intended to go to the +bottom of everything--these times flow on over a man, as a river +might. But is there any power that moves the stream? Unthinking and +sense-bound men--and we are all such, in the measure in which we are +unspiritual--are contented simply to accept the mechanical flow of the +stream of time. We are all tempted not to look behind the moving +screen to see the force that turns the wheel on which the painted +scene Is stretched. But, Oh! how dreary a thing it is if all that we +have to say about life is, 'The times pass over us,' like the blind +rush of a stream, or the movement of the sea around our coasts, eating +away here and depositing its spoils there, sometimes taking and +sometimes giving, but all the work of mere eyeless and purposeless +chance or of natural causes. + +Oh, brethren! there is nothing more dismal or paralysing than the +contemplation of the flow of the times over our heads, unless we see +in their flow something far more than that. + +It is very beautiful to notice that this same phrase, or at least the +essential part of it, is employed in one of the Psalms ascribed to +David, with a very significant addition. He says, 'My times are _in +Thy hand_.' So, then, the passage of our epochs over us is not +merely the aimless flow of a stream, but the movement of a current +which God directs. Therefore, if at any time it goes over our heads +and seems to overwhelm us, we can look up through the transparent +water and say, '_Thy_ waves and _Thy_ billows have gone over +me,' and so I die not of suffocation beneath them. God orders the +times, and therefore, though, as the bitter ingenuity of Ecclesiastes, +on the lookout for proofs of the vanity of life, complained, in a +one-sided view, as an aggravation of man's lot, that there is a time +for everything, yet that aspect of change is not its deepest or +truest. True it is that sometimes birth and sometimes death, sometimes +joy and sometimes sorrow, sometimes building up and sometimes casting +down, follow each other with monotonous uniformity of variety, and +seem to reduce life to a perpetual heaping up of what is as painfully +to be cast down the next moment, like the pitiless sport of the wind +amongst the sandhills of the desert. But the futility is only +apparent, and the changes are not meant to occasion 'man's misery' to +be 'great upon him,' as Ecclesiastes says they do. The diversity of +the 'times' comes from a unity of purpose; and all the various methods +of the divine Providence exercised upon us have one unchanging +intention. The meaning of all the 'times' is that they should bring us +nearer to God, and fill us more full of His power and grace. The web +is one, however various may be the pattern wrought upon the tapestry. +The resulting motion of the great machine is one, though there may be +a wheel turning from left to right here, and another one that fits +into it, turning from right to left there. The end of all the opposite +motions is straight progress. So the varying times do all tend to the +one great issue. Therefore let us seek to pursue, in all varying +circumstances, the one purpose which God has in them all, which the +Apostle states to be 'even your sanctification,' and let us understand +how summer and winter, springtime and harvest, tempest and fair +weather, do all together make up the year, and ensure the springing of +the seed and the fruitfulness of the stalk. + +III. Lastly, let me remind you, too, how eloquently the words of my +text suggest the transiency of all the 'times.' + +They 'passed over him' as the wind through an archway, that whistles +and comes not again. The old, old thought, so threadbare and yet +always so solemnising and pathetic, which we know so well that we +forget it, and are so sure of that it has little effect on life, the +old, old thought, 'this too will pass away,' underlies the phrase of +my text, + +How blessed it is, brethren! to cherish that wholesome sense of the +transiency of things here below, only those who live under its +habitual power can fairly estimate. It is thought to be melancholy. We +are told that it spoils joys and kills interest, and I know not what +beside. It spoils no joys that ought to be joys. It kills no interests +that are not on other grounds unworthy to be cherished. Contrariwise, +the more fully we are penetrated with the persistent conviction of the +transiency of the things seen and temporal, the greater they become, +by a strange paradox. For then only are they seen in their true +magnitude and nobility, in their true solemnity and importance as +having a bearing on the things that are eternal. Time is the +'ceaseless lackey of eternity,' and the things that pass over us may +become, like the waves of the sea, the means of bearing us to the +unmoving shore. Oh! if only in the midst of joys and sorrows, of heavy +tasks and corroding cares, of weary work and wounded spirits, we could +feel, 'but for a moment,' all would be different, and joy would come, +and strength would come, and patience would come, and every grace +would come, in the train of the wholesome conviction that 'here we +have no continuing city.' + +Cherish the thought. It will spoil nothing the spoiling of which will +be a loss. It will heighten everything the possession of which is a +gain. It will teach us to trust in the darkness, and to believe in the +light. And when the times are dreariest, and frost binds the ground, +we shall say, 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?' The times +roll over us, like the seas that break upon some isolated rock, and +when the tide has fallen and the vain flood has subsided, the rock is +there. If the world helps us to God, we need not mind though it +passes, and the fashion thereof. + +But do not let us forget that this text in its connection may teach us +another thought. The transitory 'times that went over' Israel's king +are all recorded imperishably on the pages here, and so, though +condensed into narrow space, the record of the fleeting moments lives +for ever, and 'the books shall be opened, and men shall be judged +according to their works.' We are writing an imperishable record by +our fleeting deeds. Half a dozen pages carry all the story of that +stormy life of Israel's king. It takes a thousand rose-trees to make a +vial full of essence of roses. The record and issues of life will be +condensed into small compass, but the essence of it is eternal. We +shall find it again, and have to drink as we have brewed when we get +yonder. 'Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man +soweth that shall he also reap.' 'There is a time to sow,' and that is +the present life; 'and there is a time to gather the fruits' of our +sowing, and that is the time when times have ended and eternity is +here. + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES + + +THE DUTY OF EVERY DAY + +'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord ... Even after a +certain rate every day.'--(A.V.) + +'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord, even as the duty +of every day required it.'--2 Chron. viii. 12-13 (R. V.). + + +This is a description of the elaborate provision, in accordance with +the commandment of Moses, which Solomon made for the worship in his +new Temple. The writer is enlarging on the precise accordance of the +ritual with the regulations laid down in the law. He expresses, by the +phrase which we have taken as our text, not only the accordance of the +worship with the commandment, but its unbroken continuity, and also +the variety in it, according to the regulations for different days. +For the verse runs on, 'on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on +the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the Feast of +unleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and in the Feast of +Tabernacles.' There were, then, these characteristics in the ritual of +Solomon's Temple, precise compliance with the Divine commandment, +unbroken continuity, and beautiful flexibility and variety of method. + +But passing altogether from the original application of the words, I +venture to do now what I very seldom do, and that is, to take this +verse as a kind of motto. 'Even according as the duty of every day +required'; the phrase may suggest three thoughts: that each day has +its own work, its own worship, and its own supplies, 'even as the duty +of every day required.' + +Each day has its own work. + +Of course there is a great uniformity in our lives, and many of us who +are set down to one continuous occupation can tell twelve months +before what, in all probability, we shall be doing at each hour of +each day in the week. But for all that, there is a certain individual +physiognomy about each new day as it comes to us; and the oldest, most +habitual, and therefore in some degree easiest and least stimulating, +work has its own special characteristics as it comes again to us day +by day for the hundredth time. + +So there are three pieces of practical wisdom that I would suggest, +and one is--be content to take your work in little bits as it comes. +There is a great deal of practical wisdom in taking short views of +things, for although we have often to look ahead, yet it is better on +the whole that a man should, as far as he can, confine his +anticipations to the day that is passing, and leave the day that is +coming to look after itself. Take short views and be content to let +each day prescribe its tasks, and you have gone a long way to make all +your days quiet and peaceful. For it is far more the anticipation of +difficulties than the realisation of them that wears and wearies us. +If a man says to himself, 'This sorrow that I am carrying, or this +work that I have to do, is going to last for many days to come,' his +heart will fail. If he said to himself, 'It will be no worse to-morrow +than it is at this moment, and I can live through it, for am I not +living through it at this moment, and getting power to endure or do at +this moment? and to-morrow will probably be like today,' things would +not be so difficult. + +You remember the homely old parable of the clock on the stair that +gave up ticking altogether because it began to calculate how many +thousands of seconds there are in the year, and that twice that number +of times it would have to wag backwards and forwards. The lesson that +it learned was--tick one tick and never mind the next. You will be +able to do it when the time to do it comes. Let us act 'as the duty of +every day requireth.' 'Sufficient for the day is the work thereof.' + +Then there is another piece of advice from this thought of each day +having its own work, and that is--keep your ears open, and your eyes +too, to learn the lesson of what the day's work is. There is generally +abundance of direction for us if only we are content with the +one-step-at-a-time direction, which we get, and if another condition +is fulfilled, if we try to suppress our own wishes and the noisy +babble of our own yelping inclinations, and take the whip to them +until they cease their barking, that we may hear what God says. It is +not because He does not speak, but because we are too anxious to have +our own way to listen quietly to His voice, that we make most of our +blunders as to what the duty of every day requires. If we will be +still and listen, and stand in the attitude of the boy-prophet before +the glimmering lamp in the sacred place, saying, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy +servant heareth,' we shall get sufficient instruction for our next +step. + +Another piece of practical wisdom that I would suggest is that if +every day has its own work, we should buckle ourselves to do the day's +work before night falls and not leave any over for to-morrow, which +will be quite full enough. 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' was +the preaching of one of our sages, and it is wholesome advice. For +when we do that duty, the doing of it has a wonderful power of opening +up further steps, and showing us more clearly what is the next duty. +Only let us be sure of this, that no moment comes from God which has +not in it boundless possibilities; and that no moment comes from God +which has not in it stringent obligations. We neither avail ourselves +of the one, nor discharge the other, unless we come, morning by +morning, to the new day that is dawning upon us, with some fresh +consciousness of the large issues that may be wrapped in its unseen +hours, and the great things for Him that we may do ere its evening +falls. + +Each day has its tasks, and if we do not do the tasks of each day in +its day, we shall fling away life. If a man had L. 100,000 for a +fortune, and turned it all into halfpence, and tossed them out of the +window, he could soon get rid of his whole fortune. And if you fling +away your moments or live without the consciousness of their solemn +possibilities and mystic awfulness, you will find at the last that you +have made 'ducks and drakes' of your years, and have flung them away +in moments without knowing what you were doing, and without +possibility of recovery. 'Take care of the pence, the pounds will take +care of themselves.' Take care of the days, and the years will show a +fair record. + +Secondly, we have here the suggestion that every day has its own +worship. + +As I remarked at the beginning of my observations, the chronicler +dwells, with a certain kind of satisfaction, in accordance with the +tone of his whole writings, upon the external ritual of the Temple; +and points out its entire conformity with the divine precept, and the +unbroken continuity of worship day after day, year in year out, and +the variation of the characteristics of that worship according as the +day was more or less ritually important. From his words we may deduce +a very needful though obvious and commonplace lesson. What we want is +every-day religion, and that every-day religion is the only thing that +will enable us to do what the duty of every day requires. But that +every-day religion which will be our best ally, and power for the +discharge of the obligations that each moment brings with it, must +have its points of support, as it were, in special moments and methods +of worship. + +So, then, take that first thought: What we want is a religion that +will go all through our lives. A great many of you keep your religion +where you keep your best clothes: putting it on on Sunday and locking +it away on the Sunday night in a wardrobe because it is not the dress +that you go to work in. And some of you keep your religion in your +pew, and lock it up in the little box where you put your hymn-books +and your Bibles, which you read only once a week, devoting yourselves +to ledgers or novels and newspapers for the rest of your time. We want +a religion that will go all through our life; and if there is anything +in our life that will not stand its presence, the sooner we get rid of +that element the better. A mountain road has generally a living +brooklet leaping and flashing by the side of it. So our lives will be +dusty and dead and cold and poor and prosaic unless that river runs +along by the roadside and makes music for us as it flows. Take your +religion wherever you go. If you cannot take it in to any scenes or +company, stop you outside. + +There is nothing that will help a man to do his day's work so much as +the realisation of Christ's Presence. And that realisation, along with +its certain results, devotion of heart to Him and submission of will +to His commandment, and desire to shape our lives to be like His, will +make us masters of all circumstances and strong enough for the hardest +work that God can lay upon us. + +There is nothing so sure to make life beautiful, and noble, and pure, +and peaceful, and strong as this--the application to its monotonous +trifles of religious principles. If you do not do little things as +Christian men and women, and under the influence of Christian +principle, pray _what_ are you going to do under the influence of +Christian principle? If you are keeping your religion to influence the +crises of your lives, and are content to let the trifles be ruled by +the devil or the world and yourselves, you will find out, when you +come to the end, that there were perhaps three or four crises in your +experience, and that all the rest of life was made of trifles, and +that when the crises came you could not lay your hand on the religious +principle that would have enabled you to deal with them. The sword had +got so rusty in its scabbard because it had never been drawn for long +years, that it could not be readily drawn in the moment of sudden +peril; and if you could have drawn it, you would have found its edge +blunted. Use your religion on the trifles, or you will not be able to +make much of it in the crises. 'He that is faithful in that which is +least is faithful also in much.' The worship of every day is the +preparation for the work of that day. + +Further, that worship, that religion, wearing its common, modest suit +of workaday clothes, must also, if there is to be any power in it, +have a certain variety in its methods. 'Solomon offered burnt +offerings ... on the Sabbaths, on the new moons,' which had a little +more ceremonial than the Sabbaths, 'and on the solemn feasts three +times in a year,' which had still more ceremonial than the new moons, +'even in the Feast of unleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and +in the Feast of tabernacles.' These were spring-tides when the sea of +worship rose beyond its usual level, and they kept it from stagnating. +We, too, if we wish to have this every-day religion running with any +strength of scour and current through our lives, will need to have +moments when it touches high-water mark, else it will not flush the +foulness out of our hearts and our lives. + +Lastly, take the other suggestion, that every day has its own +supplies. + +That does not lie in the text properly, but for the sake of +completeness I add it. Every day has its own supplies. The manna fell +every day, and was gathered and consumed on the day on which it fell. +God gives us strength measured accurately by the needs of the day. You +will get as much as you require, and if ever you do not get as much as +you require, which is very often the case with Christian people, that +is not because God did not send enough manna, but because their +_omer_ was not ready to catch it as it fell. The day's supply is +measured by the day's need. Suppose an Israelite had sat in his tent +and said, 'I am not going out to gather,' would he have had any in his +empty vessel? Certainly not. The manna lay all around the tent, but +each man had to go out and gather it. God makes no mistakes in His +weights and measures. He gives us each sufficient strength to do His +will and to walk in His ways; and if we do not do His will or walk in +His ways, or if we find our burden too heavy, our sorrows too sharp, +our loneliness too dreary, our difficulties too great, it is not +because 'the Lord's hand is shortened that it cannot' supply, but +because our hands are so slack that they will not take the sufficiency +which He gives. In the midst of abundance we are starving. We let the +water run idly through the open sluice instead of driving the wheels +of life. + +My friend! God's measure of supply is correct. If we were more +faithful and humble, and if we understood better and felt more how +deep is our need and how little is our strength, we should more +continually be able to rejoice that He has given, and we have +received, 'even as the duty of every day required.' + + + +CONTRASTED SERVICES + +'They shall be his servants: that they may know My service, and the +service of the kingdoms of the countries.'--2 Chron. xii. 8. + + +Rehoboam was a self-willed, godless king who, like some other kings, +learned nothing by experience. His kingdom was nearly wrecked at the +very beginning of his reign, and was saved much more by the folly of +his rival than by his own wisdom. Jeroboam's religious revolution +drove all the worshippers of God among the northern kingdom into +flight. They might have endured the separate monarchy, but they could +not endure the separate Temple. So all priests and Levites in Israel, +and all the adherents of the ancestral worship in the Temple at +Jerusalem, withdrew to the southern kingdom and added much to its +strength. + +Rehoboam's narrow escape taught him neither moderation nor devotion, +his new strength turned his head. He forsook the law of the Lord. The +dreary series, so often illustrated in the history of Israel, came +into operation. Prosperity produced irreligion; irreligion brought +chastisement; chastisement brought repentance; repentance brought the +removal of the invader--and then, like a spring released, back went +king and nation to their old sin. + +So here--Rehoboam's sins take visible form in Sheshak's army. He has +sown the dragon's teeth and they spring up armed men. Shemaiah the +prophet, the first of the long series of noble men who curbed the +violence of Jewish monarchs, points the lesson of invasion in plain, +blunt words: 'Ye have forsaken Me.' Then follow penitence and +confession--and the promise that Jerusalem shall not be destroyed, but +at the same time they are to be left as vassals and tributaries of +Egypt--an anomalous position for them--and the reason is given in +these words of our text. + +I. The contrasted Masters. + +Judah was too small to be independent of the powerful warlike states +to its north and south, unless miraculously guarded and preserved. So +it must either keep near God, and therefore free and safe from +invasion, or else, departing from God and following its own ways, fall +under alien dominion. Its experience was a type of that of universal +humanity. Man is not independent. His mass is not enough for him to do +without a central orb round which he may revolve. He has a choice of +the form of service and the master that he will choose, but one or +other must dominate his life and sway his motions. 'Ye cannot serve +God and Mammon'; ye must serve God _or_ Mammon. The solemn choice +is presented to every man, but the misery of many lives is that they +drift along, making their election unawares, and infallibly choosing +the worse by the very act of lazily or weakly allowing accident to +determine their lives. Not consciously and strongly to will the right, +not resolutely and with coercion of the vagrant self to will to take +God for our aim, is to choose the low, the wrong. Perhaps none, or +very few of us, would deliberately say 'I choose Mammon, having +carefully compared the claims of the opposite systems of life that +solicit me, and with open-eyed scrutiny measured their courses, their +goods and their ends.' But how many of us there are who have in effect +made that choice, and never have given one moment's clear, patient +examination of the grounds of our choice! The policy of drift is +unworthy of a man and is sure to end in ruin. + +It is not for me to attempt here to draw out the contrast between man's +chief end and all other rival claimants of our lives. Each man must do +that for himself, and I venture to assert that the more thoroughly the +process of comparison is carried out, and the more complete the analysis +not only of the rival claims and gifts, but of our capacities and needs, +the more sun-clear will be the truth of the old, well-worn answer: +'Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' The old +woman by her solitary fireside who has learned that and practises it, +has chosen the better part which will last when many shining careers +have sunk into darkness, and many will-o'-the-wisps, which have been +pursued with immense acclamations, have danced away into the bog, and +many a man who has been envied and admired has had to sum up his +successful career in the sad words, 'I have played the fool and erred +exceedingly.' I cannot pretend to conduct the investigation for you, but +I can press on every one who does not wish to let accidents mould him, +at least to recognise that there is a choice to be made, and to make it +deliberately and with eyes open to the facts of the case. It is a shabby +way of ruining yourself to do it for want of thought. The rabble of +competitors of God catch more souls by accident than of set purpose. +Most men are godless because they have never fairly faced the question: +what does my soul require in order to reach its highest blessedness and +its noblest energy? + +II. The contrasted experience of the servants. + +Judah learned that the yoke of obedience to God's law was a world +lighter than the grinding oppression of the Egyptian invader. + +God's service is freedom; the world's is slavery. + +Liberty is unrestrained power to do what we ought. Man must be subject +to law. The solemn imperative of duty is omnipresent and sovereign. To +do as we like is not freedom, but bondage to self, and that usually +our worst self, which means crushing or coercing the better self. The +choice is to chain the beast in us or to clip the wings of the angel +in us, and he is a fool who conceits himself free because he lets his +inferior self have its full swing, and hustles his better self into +bondage to clear the course for the other. There is but one +deliverance from the sway of self, and it is realised in the liberty +wherewith Christ has made us free. To make self our master inevitably +leads to setting beggars on horseback and princes walking. Passion, +the 'flesh' is terribly apt to usurp the throne within when once God +is dethroned. Then indulgence feeds passion, and deeper draughts +become necessary in order to produce the same effects, and cravings, +once allowed free play, grow in ravenousness, while their pabulum +steadily loses its power to satisfy. The experience of the undevout +sensualist is but too faithful a type of that of all undevout livers, +in the failure of delights to delight and of acquisitions to enrich, +and in the bondage, often to nothing more worthy to be obeyed than +mere habit, and in the hopeless incapacity to shake off the adamantine +chains which they have themselves rivetted on their limbs. There are +endless varieties in the forms which the service of self assumes, +ranging from gross animalism, naked and unashamed, up to refined and +cultured godlessness, but they are one in their inmost character, one +in their disabling the spirit from a free choice of its course, one in +the limitations which they impose on its aspirations and +possibilities, one in the heavy yoke which they lay on their vassals. +The true liberty is realised only when for love's dear sake we +joyously serve God, and from the highest motive enrol ourselves in the +household of the highest Person, and by the act become 'no more +servants but sons.' Well may we all pray-- + + 'Lord! bind me up, and let me lie + A prisoner to my liberty, + If such a state at all can be + As an imprisonment, serving Thee.' + +God's service brings solid good, the world's is vain and empty. + +God's service brings an approving conscience, a calm heart, strength +and gladness. It is in full accord with our best selves. Tranquil joys +attend on it. 'In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward,' and +that not merely bestowed after keeping, but realised and inherent in +the very act. On the other side, think of the stings of conscience, +the illusions on which those feed who will not eat of the heavenly +food, the husks of the swine-trough, the ashes for bread, that self +and the world, in all their forms set before men. A pathetic character +in modern fiction says, 'If you make believe very much it is nice.' It +takes a tremendous amount of make-believe to keep up an appetite for +the world's dainties or to find its meats palatable, after a little +while. No sin ever yields the fruit it was expected to produce, or if +it does it brings something which was not expected, and the bitter +tang of the addition spoils the whole. It may be wisely adapted to +secure a given end, but that end is only a means to secure the real +end, our substantial blessedness, and that is never attained but by +one course of life, the life of service of God. We may indeed win a +goodly garment, but the plague is in the stuff and, worn, it will burn +into the bones like fire. I read somewhere lately of thieves who had +stolen a cask of wine, and had their debauch, but they sickened and +died. The cask was examined and a huge snake was found dead in it. Its +poison had passed into the wine and killed the drinkers. That is how +the world serves those who swill its cup. 'What fruit had ye then in +those things whereof ye are _now_ ashamed?' The threatening +pronounced against Israel's disobedience enshrines an eternal truth: +'Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with +gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore +shalt thou serve thine enemies ... in hunger and in thirst, and in +nakedness and in want of all things.' + +God's service has final issues and the world's service has final +issues. + +Only fools try to blink the fact that all our doings have +consequences. And it augurs no less levity and insensibility to blink +the other fact that these consequences show no indications of being +broken short off at the end of our earthly life. Men die into another +life, as they have ever, dimly and with many foolish accompaniments, +believed; and dead, they are the men that they have made themselves +while living. Character is eternal, memory is eternal, death puts the +stamp of perpetuity on what life has evolved. Nothing human ever dies. +The thought is too solemn to be vulgarised by pulpit rhetoric. Enough +to say here that these two tremendous alternatives, Life and Death, +express some little part of the eternal issues of our fleeting days. +Looking fixedly into these two great symbols of the ultimate issues of +these contrasted services, we can dimly see, as in the one, a wonder +of resplendent glories moving in a sphere 'as calm as it is bright,' +so, in the other, whirling clouds and jets of vapour as in the crater +of a volcano. One shuddering glance over the rim of it should suffice +to warn from lingering near, lest the unsteady soil should crumble +beneath our feet. + +But the true Lord of our lives loves us too well to let us experience +all the bitter issues of our foolish rebellion against His authority, +and yet He loves us too well not to let us taste something of them +that we may 'know and see that it is an evil thing _and a +bitter_, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.' The experiences +of the consequences of godless living are in some measure allowed to +fall on us by God's love, lest we should persist in the evil and so +bring down on ourselves still more fatal issues. It is mercy that here +chastises the evildoer with whips, in hope of not having to chastise +him with scorpions. God desires to teach us, by the pains and +heartaches of an undevout life, by disappointments, foiled plans, +wrecked hopes, inner poverty, the difference between His service and +that of 'the kingdoms of the countries,' if haply He may not be forced +to let the full flood of fatal results overwhelm us. It is best to be +drawn to serve Him by the cords of love, but it is possible to have +the beginnings of the desire so to serve roused by the far lower +motives of weariness and disgust at the world's wages, and by dread of +what these may prove when they are paid in full. Self-interest may +sicken a man of serving Mammon, and may be transformed into the +self-surrender which makes God's service possible and blessed. The +flight into the city of refuge may be quickened by the fear of the +pursuer, whose horse's hoofs are heard thundering on the road behind +the fugitive, and whose spear is all but felt a yard from his back, +but once within the shelter of the city wall, gratitude for +deliverance will fill his heart and 'perfect love will cast out fear.' + +The king concerning whom our text was spoken had to suffer humiliation +by the Egyptian invasion. His sufferings were meant to be educational, +and when they in some measure effected their purpose, God curbed the +invader and granted some measure of deliverance. So is it with us, if, +moved by whatever impulse, we betake ourselves to Jesus to save us +from the bitter fruits of our evil lives. The extreme severity of the +results of our sins does not fall on penitent, believing spirits, but +some do fall. As the Psalmist says: 'Thou wast a God that forgavest +them though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.' A profligate +course of life may be forgiven, but health or fortune is ruined all +the same. In brief, the so-called 'natural' consequences are not +removed, though the sin which caused them is pardoned. Polluted +memories, indulged habits, defiled imaginations, are not got rid of, +though the sins that inflicted them are forgiven. + +Is it not, then, the part of wise men to lay to heart the lessons of +experience, and to let what we have learned of the bitter fruit of +godless living turn us away from such service, and draw us by merciful +chastisement to yield ourselves to God, whom to serve accords with our +deepest needs and brings first fruits and pre-libations of blessedness +and peace here, and fullness of joy with pleasures for evermore +hereafter? + + + +THE SECRET OF VICTORY + +'The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord +God of their fathers.'--2 CHRON. xiii. 18. + + +These words are the summing-up of the story of a strange old-world +battle between Jeroboam, the adventurer who rent the kingdom, and +Abijah, the son of the foolish Rehoboam, whose unseasonable blustering +had played into the usurper's hands. The son was a wiser and better +man than his father. It is characteristic of the ancient world, that +before battle was joined Abijah made a long speech to the enemy, +recounting the ritual deficiencies of the Northern kingdom, and +proudly contrasting the punctilious correctness of the Temple service +with the irregular cult set up by Jeroboam. He confidently pointed to +the priests 'with their trumpets' in his army as the visible sign that +'God is with us at our head,' and while charging Israel with having +'forsaken the Lord our God,' to whom he and his people had kept true, +besought them not to carry their rebellion to the extreme of fighting +against their fathers' God, and assured them that no success could +attend their weapons in such a strife. The passionate appeal had no +effect, but while Abijah was orating, Jeroboam was carrying out a +ruse, and planting part of his troops behind Judah, so as to put them +between two fires and draw a net round the outnumbered and +outmanoeuvred enemy. + +Abijah and his men suddenly detected their desperate position, and did +the only wise thing. When, with a shock of surprise, they saw that +'behold! the battle was before and behind them,' they 'cried unto the +Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.' The sharp, short cry +from thousands of agitated men ringed round by foes, and the blare of +the trumpets were both prayers, and heartened the suppliants for their +whirlwind charge, before which the men of Israel, double in number as +they were, broke and fled. The defeat was thorough, and, for a while, +Rehoboam and his kingdom were 'brought under,' and a comparatively +long peace followed. Our text gathers up the lesson taught, not to +Judah or Israel alone, by victory and defeat, when it declares that to +rely upon the Lord is to prevail. It opens for us the secret of +victory, in that old far-off struggle and in to-day's conflicts. + +I. We note the faith of the fighters. + +'They relied,' says the chronicler, 'upon the Lord.' Now the word +rendered 'relied' is one of several picturesque words by which the Old +Testament, which we are sometimes told, with a great flourish of +learning, has no mention of 'faith,' expresses 'trust,' by metaphors +drawn from bodily actions which symbolise the spiritual act. The word +here literally signifies to lean on, as a feeble hand might on a +staff, or a tremulous arm on a strong one. And does not that picture +carry with it much insight into what the essence of Old Testament +'trust' or New Testament 'faith' is? If we think of faith as leaning, +we shall not fall into that starved misconception of it which takes it +to be nothing more than intellectual assent. We shall see there is a +far fuller pulse of feeling than that beating in it. A man who leans +on some support, does so because he knows that his own strength is +insufficient for his need. The consciousness of weakness is the +beginning of faith. He who has never despaired of himself has scarcely +trusted in God. Abijah's enemies were two to one of his own men. No +wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair +shake their courage. And who of us can face life with its heavy +duties, its thick-clustering dangers and temptations, its certain +struggles, its possible failures, and not feel the cold touch of dread +gripping our hearts, though strong and brave? Surely he has had little +experience, or has learned little wisdom from the experience he has +had, who has yet to discover his own weakness. But the consciousness +of weakness is by itself debilitating, and but increases the weakness +of which it is painfully aware. There is no surer way to sap what +strength we have than to tell ourselves what poor creatures we are. +The purpose and end of self-contemplation which becomes aware of our +own feebleness is to lead us to the contemplation of God, our immortal +strength. Abijah's assurance that 'God is with us at our head' rang +out triumphantly. Faith has an upper and an under side: the under side +is self-distrust; the upper, trust in God. He will never lean all his +weight on a prop, who fancies that he can stand alone, or has other +stays to hold him up. + +But Abijah's example teaches us another lesson--that for a vigorous +faith, there must be obedience to all God's known will. True, thank +God! faith often springs in its power in a soul that is conscious but +of sin, but a continuance in disobedience will inevitably kill faith. +It was because Abijah and his people had kept 'the charge of the Lord +our God,' that they were sure that God was with them. We can only be +sure of God to lean on when we are doing His will, and we shall do His +will only as we are sure that we lean on Him. Our trust in Him will be +strong and operative in the measure in which our lives are conformed +to His commandments. Much elaborate dissertation has been devoted to +expounding what faith is, and the strong, vivid Scriptural conception +of it has been woefully darkened and overlaid with cobwebs of +theology, but surely this eloquent metaphor of our text tells us more +than do many learned volumes. It bids us lean on God, rest the whole +weight of our needs, our weaknesses, and our sins on Him. Like any +human friend or helper, He is better pleased when we lean hard on Him +than when we gingerly put a finger on His arm, and lay no pressure on +it, as we do when in ceremonial fashion we seem to accept another's +support, and hold ourselves back from putting a weight on the offered +arm. We cannot rely too utterly on Him. We honour Him most when we +repose our whole selves on His strong arm. + +II. The increase of faith by sudden fear. + +'When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind +them.' The shock of seeing the flashing spears in the rear would make +the bravest hold their breath for one overwhelming moment, but the +next moment their faith in God surged back with tenfold force, +increased by the sudden new peril. The sharp collision of flint and +steel struck out a spark of faith. 'What time I am afraid, I will +trust in Thee,' said an expert in the genesis and growth of trust. +Peril kills a feeble trust, but vivifies it, if strong. The +recognition of danger is meant to drive us to God. If each fresh +difficulty or danger makes us tighten our clasp of Him, and lean the +harder on Him, it has done its highest service to us, and we have +conquered it, and are the stronger because of it. The storm that makes +the traveller, fighting with the wind and the rain in his face, clasp +his cloak tighter round him, does him no harm. The purpose of our +trials is to drive us to God, and a fair-weather faith which had all +but fallen asleep is often roused to energy that works wonders, by the +sudden dash of danger flung into and disturbing a life. It is wise +seamanship to make a run to get snugly behind the breakwater when a +sudden gale springs up. + +III. The expression of faith in appeal to God. + +When the ambush was unmasked, the surrounded men of Judah 'cried unto +the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets,' before they +flung themselves on the enemy. We may be sure that their cry was short +and sharp, and poignant with appeal to God. There would be no waste +words, nor perfunctory petitions without wings of desire, in that cry. +Should we not look for the essential elements of prayer rather to such +cries, pressed from burdened hearts by a keen sense of absolute +helplessness, and very careless of proprieties so long as they were +shrill enough to pierce God's ear and touch His heart, than to the +formal petitions of well-ordered worship? A single ejaculation flung +heavenward in a moment of despair or agony is more precious in God's +sight than a whole litany of half-hearted devotions. + +The text puts in a striking form another lesson well worth learning, +that, in the greatest crises, no time is better spent than time used +for prayer. A rush on the enemy would not have served Abijah's purpose +nearly so well as that moment's pause for crying to the Lord, before +his charge. Hands lifted to heaven are nerved to clutch the sword and +strike manfully. It is not only that Christ's soldiers are to fight +and pray, but that they fight by praying. That is true in the small +conflicts and antagonisms of the lives of each of us, and it is true +in regard to the agelong battle against ignorance and sin. Christian's +sword was named 'All-prayer.' + +The priests, too, blew a prayer through their trumpets, for the +ordinance had appointed that 'when ye go to war ... then shall ye +sound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before +the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.' The +clear, strident blare was not intended to hearten warriors, or to sing +defiance, but to remind God of His promises, and to bring Him on to +the battlefield, as He had said that He would be. The truest prayer is +that which but picks up the arrows of promise shot from heaven to +earth, and casts them back from earth to heaven. He prays best who +fills his mouth with God's words, turning every 'I will' of His into +'Do Thou!' + +IV. The strength that comes through faith. + +'As the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam +and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.' There is no such quickener of +all a man's natural force as even the lowest forms of faith. He who +throws himself into any enterprise sure of success will often succeed +just because he was sure he would. The world's history is full of +instances where men, with every odds against them, have plucked the +flower safety out of the nettle danger, just because they trusted in +their star, or their luck, or their destiny. We all know how a very +crude faith turned a horde of wild Arabs into a conquering army, that +in a century dominated the world from Damascus to Seville. The truth +that is in 'Christian Science' is that many forms of disease yield to +the patient's firm persuasion of recovery. And from these and many +other facts the natural power of faith is beginning to dawn on the +most matter-of-fact and unspiritual people. They are beginning to +think that perhaps Christ was right after all in saying 'All things +are possible to him that believeth,' and that it is not such a blunder +after all to make faith the first step to all holiness and purity, and +the secret of victory in life's tussle. Leaving out of view for the +moment the supernatural effects of faith, which Christianity alleges +are its constant consequences, it is clear that its natural effects +are all in the direction of increasing the force of the trusting man. +It calms, it heartens for all work, effort, and struggle. It imparts +patience, it brightens hope, it forbids discouragement, it rebukes and +cures despondency. And besides all this, there is the supernatural +communication of a strength not our own, which is the constant result +of Christian faith. Christian faith knits the soul and the Saviour in +so close a union, that all that is Christ's becomes the Christian's, +and every believer may hear His Lover's voice whispering to him what +one of His servants once heard in an hour of despondency, 'My grace is +sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Faith +joins us to the Lord, and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit'; and that Lord has said to all His disciples, 'I give thee +Myself, and in Myself all that is Mine.' We do not go to warfare at +our own charges, but there will pass into and abide in our hearts the +warlike might of the true King and Captain of the Lord's host, and we +shall hear the ring of His encouraging voice saying, 'Be of good +cheer! I have overcome the world.' + + + +ASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY + +'And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his +God; 3. For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high +places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 4. And +commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the +law and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of +Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before +him. 6. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, +and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest. +7. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make +about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet +before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought +Him, and He hath given us rest on every side. So they built and +prospered. 8. And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, +out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare +shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these +were mighty men of valour.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 2-8. + + +Asa was Rehoboam's grandson, and came to the throne when a young man. +The two preceding reigns had favoured idolatry, but the young king had +a will of his own, and inaugurated a religious revolution, with which +and its happy results this passage deals. + +I. It first recounts the thorough clearance of idolatrous emblems and +images which Asa made. 'Strange altars,'--that is, those dedicated to +other gods; 'high places,'--that is, where illegal sacrifice to +Jehovah was offered; 'pillars,'--that is, stone columns; and +'Asherim,'--that is, trees or wooden poles, survivals of ancient +stone- or tree-worship; 'sun-images,'--that is, probably, pillars +consecrated to Baal as sun-god, were all swept away. The enumeration +vividly suggests the incongruous rabble of gods which had taken the +place of the one Lord. How vainly we try to make up for His absence +from our hearts by a multitude of finite delights and helpers! Their +multiplicity proves the insufficiency of each and of all. + +1 Kings xv. 13 adds a detail which brings out still more clearly Asa's +reforming zeal; for it tells us that he had to fight against the +influence of his mother, who had been prominent in supporting +disgusting and immoral forms of worship, and who retained some +authority, of which her son was strong enough to take the extreme step +of depriving her. Remembering the Eastern reverence for a mother, we +can estimate the effort which that required, and the resolution which +it implied. But 1 Kings differs from our narrative in stating that the +'high places' were not taken away--the explanation of the variation +probably being that the one account tells what Asa attempted and +commanded, and the other records the imperfect way in which his orders +were carried out. They would be obeyed in Jerusalem and its +neighbourhood, but in many a secluded corner the old rites would be +observed. + +It is vain to force religious revolutions. Laws which are not +supported by the national conscience will only be obeyed where +disobedience will involve penalties. If men's hearts cleave to Baal, +they will not be turned into Jehovah-worshippers by a king's commands. +Asa could command Judah to 'seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to +do the law,' but he could not make them do it. + +II. The chronicler brings out strongly the truth which runs through +his whole book,--namely, the connection between honouring Jehovah and +national prosperity. He did not import that thought into his +narrative, but he insisted on it as moulding the history of Judah. +Modern critics charge him with writing with a bias, but he learned the +'bias' from God's own declarations, and had it confirmed by +observation, reflection, and experience. The whole history of Israel +and Judah was one long illustration of the truth which he is +constantly repeating. No doubt, the divine dealings with Israel +brought obedience and well-being into closer connection than exists +now; but in deepest truth the sure defence of our national prosperity +is the same as theirs, and it is still the case that 'righteousness +exalteth a nation.' 'The kingdom was quiet,' says the chronicler, 'and +he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.' 1 +Kings makes more of the standing enmity with the northern kingdom, and +records scarcely anything of Asa's reign except the war which, as it +says, was between him and Baasha of Israel 'all their days.' But, +according to 2 Chronicles xvi. 1, Baasha did not proceed to war till +Asa's thirty-sixth year, and the halcyon time of peace evidently +followed immediately on the religious reformation at its very +beginning. + +Asa's experience embodies a truth which is substantially fulfilled in +nations and in individuals; for obedience brings rest, often outward +tranquillity, always inward calm. Note the heightened earnestness +expressed in the repetition of the expression 'We have sought the +Lord' in verse 7, and the grand assurance of His favour as the source +of well-being in the clause which follows, 'and He hath given us rest +on every side.' That is always so, and will be so with us. If we seek +Him with our whole hearts, keeping Him ever before us amid the +distractions of life, taking Him as our aim and desire, and ever +stretching out the tendrils of our hearts to feel after Him and clasp +Him, all around and within will be tranquil, and even in warfare we +shall preserve unbroken peace. + +Asa teaches us, too, the right use of tranquillity. He clearly and +gratefully recognised God's hand in it, and traced it not to his own +warlike skill or his people's prowess, but to Him. And he used the +time of repose to strengthen his defences, and exercise his soldiers +against possible assaults. We do not yet dwell in the land of peace, +where it is safe to be without bolts and bars, but have ever to be on +the watch for sudden attacks. Rest from war should give leisure for +building not only fortresses, but temples, as was the case with +Solomon. The time comes when, as in many an ancient fortified city of +Europe, the ramparts may be levelled, and flowers bloom where sentries +walked; but to-day we have to be on perpetual guard, and look to our +fortifications, if we would not be overcome. + + + +ASA'S PRAYER + +'And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing +with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: +help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go +against this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail +against Thee.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 11. + + +This King Asa, Rehoboam's grandson, had had a long reign of peace, +which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he +had rooted out idolatry from Judah, 'The land had rest, and he no war +... because the Lord had given him rest.' + +But there came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly +over the land, and a great army--the numbers of which, from their +immense magnitude, seem to be erroneously given--came up against him. +Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed +next. He set his troops in order, and then he fell down on his knees, +and spoke to God. + +Now, it seems to me that this prayer contains the very essence of what +ought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions +and threatening dangers and conflicts of life; and so I wish to run +over it, and bring out the salient points of it, as typical of what +ought to be our disposition. + +I. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence. + +It did not take much to convince Asa that he had 'no power.' His army, +according to the numbers given of the two hosts, was outnumbered two +to one; and so it did not require much reflection to say, 'We have no +might.' But although perhaps not so sufficiently obvious to us, as +truly as in the case in our text, if we look fairly in the face our +duties, our tasks, our dangers, the possibilities of life and its +certainties, the more humbly we think of our own capacity, the more +wisely we shall think about God, and the more truly we shall estimate +ourselves. The world says, 'Self-reliance is the conquering virtue'; +Jesus says to us, 'Self-distrust is the condition of all victory.' And +that does not mean any mere shuffling off of responsibility from our +own shoulders, but it means looking the facts of our lives, and of our +own characters, in the face. And if we will do that, however +apparently easy may be our course, and however richly endowed in mind, +body, or estate we may be, if we all do that honestly, we shall find +that we each are like 'the man with ten thousand' that has to meet +'the King that comes against him with twenty thousand'; and we shall +not 'desire conditions of peace' with our enemy, for that is not what +in this case we have to do, but we shall look about us, and not keep +our eyes on the horizon, and on the levels of earth, but look up to +see if there is not there an Ally that we can bring into the field to +redress the balance, and to make our ten as strong as the opposing +twenty. Zerah the Ethiopian, who was coming down on Asa, is said to +have had a million fighting-men at his back, but that is probably an +erroneous figure, because Old Testament numbers are necessarily often +unreliable. Asa had only half the number; so he said, 'What can I do?' +And what _could_ he do? He did the only thing possible, he +'grasped at God's skirts, and prayed,' and that made all the +difference. + +Now all that is true about the disproportion between the foes we have +to face and fight and our own strength. It is eminently true about us +Christian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You hear +people say, 'Look at the small number of professing Christians in this +country, as compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the +use of their trying to convert the world?' Well, think of the +assembled Christian people, for instance, of Manchester, on the most +charitable supposition, and the shallowest interpretation of that word +'Christian.' What are they among so many? A mere handful. If the +Christian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world +by its own strength, we might well despair of success and stop +altogether. 'We have no might.' The disproportion both numerically and +in all things that the world estimates as strength (which are many of +them good things), is so great that we are in a worse case than Asa +was. It is not two to one; it is twenty to one, or an even greater +disproportion. But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of +non-effectives, mere camp followers, loosely attached, nominal +Christians, have to be deducted from the muster-roll, and the few who +are left are so feeble as well as few that they have more than enough +to do in holding their own, to say nothing of dreaming of charging the +wide-stretching lines of the enemy. So a profound self-distrust is our +wisdom. But that should not paralyse us, but lead to something better, +as it led Asa. + +II. Summoning God into the field should follow wholesome +self-distrust. + +Asa uses a remarkable expression, which is, perhaps, scarcely +reproduced adequately in our Authorised Version: 'It is nothing with +Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.' It +is a strange phrase, but it seems most probable that the suggested +rendering in the Revised Version is nearer the writer's meaning, which +says, 'Lord! there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and +them that have no power,' which to our ears is a somewhat cumbrous way +of saying that God, and God only, can adjust the difference between +the mighty and the weak; can redress the balance, and by the laying of +His hand upon the feeble hand can make it strong as the mailed fist to +which it is opposed. If we know ourselves to be hopelessly +outnumbered, and send to God for reinforcements, He will clash His +sword into the scale, and make it go down. Asa turns to God and says, +'Thou only canst trim the scales and make the lighter of the two the +heavier one by casting Thy might into it. So help us, O Lord our God!' + +One man with God at his back is always in the majority; and, however +many there may be on the other side, 'there are more that be with us +than they that be with them.' _There_ is encouragement for people +who have to fight unpopular causes in the world, who have been +accustomed to be in minorities all their days, in the midst of a +wicked and perverse generation. Never mind about the numbers; bring +God into the field, and the little band, which is compared in another +place in these historical Books to 'two flocks of kids' fronting the +enemy, that had flowed all over the land, is in the majority. 'God +with us'; then we are strong. + +The consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why +people in the world are always patting each other on the back and +saying 'Be of good cheer, and rely upon yourself.' But the +self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more +reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness +of need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always +find the lakes in the hollows, so you will always find the grace of +God coming into men's hearts to strengthen them and make them +victorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered +estimate of one's self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and +God will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength bestowed. +The more I feel myself weak, the more I am meant not to fold my hands +and say, 'I never can do that thing; it is of no use my trying to +attempt it, I may as well give it up'; but to say, 'Lord I there is +none beside Thee that can set the balance right between the mighty and +him that hath no strength.' 'Help me, O Lord my God!' Just as those +little hermit-crabs that you see upon the seashore, with soft bodies +unprotected, make for the first empty shell they can find, and house +in that and make it their fortress, our exposed natures, our +unarmoured characters, our sense of weakness, ought to drive us to +Him. As the unarmed population of a land invaded by the enemy pack +their goods and hurry to the nearest fortified place, so when I say to +myself I have no strength, let me say, 'Thou art my Rock, my Strength, +my Fortress, and my Deliverer. My God, in whom I trust, my Buckler, +and the Horn of my Salvation, and my high Tower.' + +Now, there is one more word about this matter, and that is, the way by +which we summon God into the field. Asa prays, 'Help us, O Lord our +God! for we rest on Thee'; and the word that he employs for 'rest' is +not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. +Let me illustrate it by a reference to another case where it is +employed. It is used in that tragical story of the death of Saul, when +the man that saw the last of him came to David and drew in a sentence +the pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted, +discrowned, desperate monarch, _leaning on_ his spear. You can +understand how hard he leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how +heavily his whole languid, powerless weight pressed upon it. And that +is the word that is used here. 'We lean on Thee' as the wounded Saul +leaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith, my friend? Do +you lean upon God like that, laying your hand upon Him till every vein +on your hand stands out with the force and tension of the grasp? Or do +you lean lightly, as a man that does not feel much the need of a +support? Lean hard if you wish God to come quickly. 'We rest on Thee; +help us, O Lord!' + +III. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning God +by faith. + +It is well when self-distrust leads to confidence, when, as Charles +Wesley has it in his great hymn: + + '... I am weak, + But confident in self-despair.' + +But that is not enough. It is better when self-distrust and confidence +in God lead to courage, and as Asa goes on, 'Help us, for we rely on +Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.' Never mind though +it is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are +well enough, but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want +of faith in Christian people, both in regard to their own lives and in +regard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading under +much too respectable a name, and calls itself 'judicious caution' and +'prudence.' There is little ever done by that, especially in the +Christian course; and the old motto of one of the French republicans +holds good; 'Dare! dare! always dare!' You have more on your side than +you have against you, and creeping prudence of calculation is not the +temper in which the battle is won. 'Dash' is not always precipitate +and presumptuous. If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting +the dangers and difficulties that beset us, and be sure that He will +help us. + +IV. And now the last point that I would notice is this--the +all-powerful plea which God will answer. + +'Thou art my God, let not man prevail against Thee.' That prayer +covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your God you +will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made +God's cause yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not +be beaten. + +'Thou art our God.' 'It takes two to make a bargain,' and God and we +have both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but +there is an act of ours required too, and you must take the God that +is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His. +And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, +to all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. When I can say, +'Thou art my God, and it is impossible that Thou wilt deny Thyself,' +then nothing can snap that bond; and 'neither life nor death, nor +angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things +to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any _other_ creature' can do +it. But there is a creature that can, and that is I. For I can +separate _myself_ from the love and the guardianship of God, and +He can say to a man, 'I am thy God,' and the man _not_ answer, +'Thou art my God.' + +And then there is another plea here. 'Let not man prevail against +Thee.' What business had Asa to identify his little kingdom and his +victory with God's cause and God's conquest? Only this, that he had +flung himself into God's arms, and because he had, and was trying to +do what God would have him do, he was quite sure that it was not Asa +but Jehovah that the million of Ethiopians were fighting against. +People warn us against the fanaticism of taking for granted that our +cause is God's cause. Well, we need the warning sometimes, but we may +be quite sure of this, that if we have made God's cause ours, He will +make our cause His, down to the minutest point in our daily lives. + +And then, if thus we say in the depths of our hearts, and live +accordingly, 'There is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, +O God!' it will be with us as it was with Asa in the story before us, +'the enemy fled, and could not recover themselves, for they were +destroyed before the Lord and before His hosts.' + + + +THE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS + +'They ... sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of +them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.'--2 CHRON. xv. 15. + + +These words occur in one of the least familiar passages of the Old +Testament. They describe an incident in the reign of Asa, who was the +grandson of Solomon's foolish son Rehoboam, and was consequently the +third king of Judah after the secession of the North. He had just won +a great victory, and was returning with his triumphant army to +Jerusalem, when there met him a prophet, unknown otherwise, who poured +out fiery words, exhorting Asa and his people to cleave to God and to +cast away their idols. Asa, encouraged by the prophetic words of this +bold speaker for God, screwed himself up, and was able to induce also +his people, to effect a great religious reformation. He made a clean +sweep of the idols, and gathered the sadly-dwindled nation together in +Jerusalem, where they renewed the covenant with the Lord God of their +fathers. The text sums up their work and its result. 'They sought Him +with their whole heart, and He was found of them; and the Lord gave +them rest round about.' The words express in simplest form what should +be the chief desire of our hearts and occupation of our lives, and +what will then be our peaceful experience. We shall best bring out +these points if we take the words just as they lie, and consider the +seeking, the finding which certainly crowns that seeking, and the rest +which ensues on finding God. + +I. The seeking. + +Now, of course, there is no doubt that what the chronicler meant to +describe by the phrase, 'seeking the Lord,' was largely the mere +external acts of ritual worship, the superficial turning from idols to +a purely external recognition of God as the God of Israel. But while +there may have been nothing deeper than a change in the nominal object +of nominal worship, so far as many were concerned, no doubt a very +real turning of heart to God underlay the external change in many +other cases, of which the destruction of idols and the renewed +observance of the form of Jehovah's worship were the consequence and +sign. That turning of mind, will, and affection towards God must be +ours if we are to be among those wise and happy seekers who are sure +to find that which--or rather Him whom--they seek and to rest in Him +whom they find. That search is not after a lost treasure, nor does it +imply ignorance of where its object is to be found. We seek that which +we know, and which we may be assured of finding. Therefore there need +be no tremors of uncertainty in our quest, and the blessedness of the +search is as real as, though different from, the blessedness of the +possession which ends it. The famous saying which prefers the search +after, to the possession of truth, is more proud than wise; but the +comparison which it institutes is so far true that there is a joy in +the aspiration after and the efforts towards truth only less joyous +than that which attends its attainment. But truth divorced from God is +finite and may pall, become familiar and lose its radiance, like a +gathered flower; and hence the preference for the search is +intelligible though one-sided. But God does not pall, and the more we +find Him the more we delight in Him; the highest bliss is to find Him, +the next highest is to seek Him; and, since seeking and finding Him +are never wholly separate, these kindred joys blend their lights in +the experience of all His children. + +But our text lays emphasis on the whole-heartedness of the people's +seeking of God. The search must be earnest and engaged in with the +whole energy of our whole being, if any blessing is to come from it. +Why! one reason why the great mass of professing Christians make so +little of their religion is because they are only half-hearted in it. +If you divide a river into two streams the force of each is less than +half the power of the original current; and the chances are that you +will make a stagnant marsh where there used to be a flowing stream. +'All in all, or not at all,' is the rule for life, in all departments. +It is the rule in daily business. A man that puts only half himself in +his profession or trade, while the other half of his wits is gone +woolgathering and dreaming, is predestined from all eternity to fail. +The same is true about our religion. If you and I attend to it as a +kind of by-occupation; if we give the balance of our time and the +superfluity of our energy, after we have done a hard day's work--say, +an hour upon a Sunday--to seeking God, and devote all the rest of the +week to seeking worldly prosperity, it is no wonder if our religion +languishes, and is mainly a matter of forms, as it is with such hosts +of people that call themselves Christians. + +Oh! dear brethren, I do believe there is more unconscious unreality in +the average Christian man's endeavour to be a better Christian than +there is in almost anything else in the world:-- + + 'One foot on sea, and one on shore, + To one thing constant never.' + +That is why so many of us know nothing of a progressive strengthening +of our faith, and an increasing conquest of ourselves, and a firmer +grasp of God, and a fuller realisation of the blessedness of walking +in His ways. + +'They sought Him with all their heart.' That does not mean, remember, +that there are to be no other desires, for it is a great mistake to +pit religion against other things which are meant to be its +instruments and its helps. We are not required to seek nothing else in +order to seek God wholly. He demands no impossible and fantastic +detachment of ourselves from the ordinary and legitimate occupations, +affections, and duties of human life, but He does ask that the +dominant desire after Him should be powerful enough to express itself +through all our actions, and that we should seek for God in them, and +for them in God. + +Whilst thus we are to give the right interpretation to that +whole-heartedness in our seeking God, on which the text lays stress, +do not let us forget that the one token of it which the text specifies +is, casting out our idols. There must be detachment if there is to be +attachment. If some climbing plant, for instance, has twisted itself +round the unprofitable thorns in the hedge, the gardener, before he +can get it to go up the support that it is meant to encircle, has +carefully to detach it from the stays to which it has wantonly clung, +taking care that in the process he does not break its tendrils and +destroy its power of growth. So, to train our souls to cleave to God, +and to grow up round the great Stay that is provided for us, there is +needed, as an essential part of the process, the voluntary, conscious, +conscientious, and constant guarding of ourselves from the vagrancies +of our desires, which send out their shoots away from Him; and when +the objects of these become idols, then there is nothing for it but +that, like Asa and his people, we should hew them to pieces and make a +bonfire of them; and then renew our covenant before God. I desire to +press that upon you and upon myself. The heart must be emptied of +baser liquors, if the new wine of the Kingdom is to be poured into it. + +True it is, of course--and thank God for it!--that the most powerful +agent in effecting that detachment of ourselves from lower things is +our fruition of higher. It is when God comes into the temple that +Dagon falls on the threshold. It is when a new affection begins to +spring in the heart that old loves are thrust out of it. But whilst +that is true, it is also true that the two processes run on +simultaneously; and that whilst, on the one hand, if we are ever to +overcome our love of the world it must be through the love of God, on +the other hand, if we are ever to be confirmed in a whole-hearted love +of God, it must be through our conquest of our love of the world. +'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' was the profound prayer of the old +Psalmist; and the 'heart,' according to Old Testament usage, is the +central fountain from which flow all the streams of conscious life. To +seek Him with the whole heart is to engage the whole self in the +quest, and that is the only kind of seeking which has the certainty of +success. + +II. The finding which crowns such seeking. + +'He was found of them.' Yes; anything is possible rather than that a +whole-hearted search after God should be a vain search. For there are, +in that case, two seekers--God is seeking for us more truly than we +are seeking for Him. And if the mother is seeking her child, and the +child its mother, it will be a very wide desert where they will not +meet. 'The Father seeketh such to worship Him,' that is--the divine +activity is going about the world, searching for the heart that turns +to Him, and it cannot but be that they that seek Him shall find Him, +or 'shall be found of Him.' Open the windows, and you cannot keep out +the sunshine; open your lungs and you cannot keep out the air. 'In Him +we live and move and have our being,' and if our desires turn, however +blindly, to Him, and are accompanied with the appropriate action, +heaven and earth are more likely to rush to ruin than such a searching +to be frustrated of its aim. + +Brethren! is there anything else in the world of which you can say, +'Seek, and ye shall find'? You, with white hairs on your heads, have +you found anything else in which the chase was sure to result in the +capture; in which capture was sure to yield all that the hunter had +wished? There is only one direction for a man's desires and aims, in +which disappointment is an impossibility. In all other regions the +most that can be promised is 'Seek, and _perhaps_ you will find'; +and, when you have found, perhaps you will feel that the prize was not +worth the finding. Or it is, 'Seek, and _possibly_ you will find; +and after you have found and kept for a little while, you will lose.' +Though it may be + + 'Better to have loved and lost, + Than never to have loved at all,' + +a treasure that slips out of our fingers is not the best treasure that +we can search for. But here the assurance is, 'Seek, and ye +_shall_ find; and shall never lose. Find, and you shall always +possess.' + +What would you think of a company of gold-seekers, hunting about in +some exhausted claim, for hypothetical grains, ragged, starving--and +all the while in the next gully were lying lumps of gold for the +picking up? And that figure fairly represents what people do and +suffer who seek for good and do not seek for God. + +III. The rest which ensues on finding God. + +'The Lord gave them rest round about.' We believe that the Jewish +nation was under special supernatural guidance, so that national +adherence to the Law was always followed by external prosperity. That +is not, of course, the case with us. But which is the better thing, +'rest round about' or rest within? We have no immunity from toil or +conflict. Seeking God does not cover our heads from the storm of +external calamities, nor arm our hearts against the darts and daggers +of many a pain, anxiety, and care, but disturbance around is a very +small matter if there be a better thing, rest within. + +Do you remember who it was that said, 'In the world ye shall have +tribulation ... but in Me ye shall have peace'? Then we have, as it +were, two abodes--one, as far as regards the life of sense, in the +world of sense--another, as far as regards the inmost self, which may, +if we will, be in Christ. A vessel with an outer casing and a layer of +air between it and the inner will keep its contents hot. So we may +have round us the very opposite of repose, and, if God so wills, let +us not kick against His will; we may have conflict and stir and +strife, and yet a better rest than that of my text may be ours. 'Rest +round about' is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is often bad, for +it is the people that 'have no changes' who most usually 'do not fear +God.' But rest within, that is sure to come when a man has sought with +all his desire for God, whom he has found in all His fullness, is only +good and best of all. + +We all know, thank God! in worldly matters and in inferior degree, how +blessed and restful it is when some strong affection is gratified, +some cherished desire fulfilled. Though these satisfactions are not +perpetual, nor perfect, they may teach us what a depth of blessed and +calm repose, incapable of being broken by any storms or by any tasks, +will come to and abide with the man whose deepest love is satisfied in +God, and whose most ardent desires have found more than they sought +for in Him. Be sure of this, dear friends! that if we do thus seek, +and thus find, it is not in the power of anything 'that is at enmity +with joy' utterly to 'abolish or destroy' the quietness of our hearts. +'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' They who thus repose +will have peace in their hearts, even whilst tasks and temptations, +changes and sorrows, disturb their outward lives. 'In the world ye +shall have tribulation.' Be it so; it may be borne with submission and +thankfulness if in Christ we have peace. + +Thus we may have the peace of God, rest in and from Him, entering into +us, and in due time, by His gracious guidance and help, we shall enter +into eternal rest. Whilst to seek is to find Him, in a very deep and +blessed sense, even in this life; in another aspect all our earthly +life may be regarded as seeking after Him, and the future as the true +finding of Him. That future will bring to those whose hearts have +turned from the shows and vanities of time to God a possession of Him +so much fuller than was experienced here that the lesser discoveries +and enjoyments of Him which are experienced here, scarcely deserve in +comparison to be called by the same name. So my text may be taken, as +in its first part, a description of the blessed life here--'They +sought Him with all their heart'--and in its second, as a shadowy +vision of the yet more blessed life hereafter, 'He was found of them, +and the Lord gave them rest round about,' as well as within, in the +land of peace, where sorrow and sighing, and toil and care, shall pass +from memory; and they that warred against us shall be far away. + + + +JEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM + +'And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened +himself against Israel. 2. And he placed forces in all the fenced +cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the +cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3. And the Lord was +with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father +David, and sought not unto Baalim; 4. But sought to the Lord God of +his father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings +of Israel. 5. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand; +and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and +honour in abundance. 6. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the +Lord: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah. +7. Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to +Ben-hail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to +Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. 8. And with them he sent +Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asabel, and +Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and +Tobadonijah, Levites: and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests. 9. +And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with +them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught +the people. 10. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of +the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war +against Jehoshaphat.'--2 CHRON. xvii. 1-10. + + +The first point to be noted in this passage is that Jehoshaphat +followed in the steps of Asa his father. Stress is laid on his +adherence to the ancestral faith, 'the first ways of his father +David,'--before his great fall,--and the paternal example, 'he sought +to the God of his father.' Such carrying on of a predecessor's work is +rare in the line of kings of Judah, where father and son were seldom +of the same mind in religion. The principle of hereditary monarchy +secures peaceful succession, but not continuity of policy. Many a king +of Judah had to say in his heart what Ecclesiastes puts into Solomon's +mouth, 'I hated all my labour, ... seeing that I must leave it unto +the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a +wise man or a fool?' + +But it is not only in kings' houses that that experience is realised. +Many a home is saddened to-day because the children do not seek the +God of their fathers. 'Instead of the fathers' should 'come up thy +children'; but, alas! grandmother Lois and mother Eunice do not always +see the boy who has known the Scriptures from a child grow up into a +Timothy, in whom their unfeigned faith lives again. The neglect of +religious instruction in professedly Christian families, the +inconsistent lives of parents or their too rigid restraints, or, +sometimes, their too lax discipline, are to be blamed for many such +cases. But there are many instances in which not the parents, but the +children, are to be blamed. An earnest Sunday-school teacher may do +much to lead the children of godly parents to their father's God. +Blessed is the home where the golden chain of common faith binds +hearts together, and family love is elevated and hallowed by common +love of God! + +Jehoshaphat's religion was, further, resolutely held in the face of +prevailing opposition. 'The Baalim' were popular; it was fashionable +to worship them. They were numerous, and all varieties of taste could +find a Baal to please them. But this young king turned from the +tempting ways that opened flower-strewn before him, and chose the +narrow road that led upwards. 'So did not I, because of the fear of +God,' might have been his motto. A similar determined setting of our +faces God-ward, in spite of the crowd of tempting false deities around +us, must mark us, if we are to have any religion worth calling by the +name. This king recoiled from the example of the neighbouring +monarchy, and walked 'not after the doings of Israel.' His seeking to +God was very practical, for it was not shown simply by professed +beliefs or by sentiment, but by ordering his life in obedience to +God's will. The test of real religion is, after all, a life unlike the +lives of the men who do not share our faith, and moulded in accordance +with God's known will. It is vain to allege that we are seeking the +Lord unless we are walking in His commandments. + +Prosperity followed godliness, in accordance with the divinely +appointed connection between them which characterised the Old +Dispensation. 'Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; +adversity is the blessing of the New,' says Bacon. But the epigram is +too neat to be entirely true, for the Book of Job and many a psalm +show that the eternal problem of suffering innocence was raised by +facts even in the old days, and in our days there are forms of +well-being which are the natural fruits of well-doing. Still, the +connection was closer in Judah than with us, and, in the case before +us, the establishment of Jehoshaphat in the kingdom, his subjects' +love, which showed itself in voluntary gifts over and above the taxes +imposed, and his wealth and honour, were the direct results of his +true religion. + +A really devout man must be a propagandist. True faith cannot be hid +nor be dumb. As certainly as light must radiate must faith strive to +communicate itself. So the account of Jehoshaphat's efforts to spread +the worship of Jehovah follows the account of his personal godliness. +'His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord.' There are two kinds +of lifted-up hearts; one when pride, self-sufficiency, and +forgetfulness of God, raise a man to a giddy height, from which God's +judgments are sure to cast him down and break him in the fall; one +when a lowly heart is raised to high courage and devotion, and 'set on +high,' because it fears God's name. Such elevation is consistent with +humility. It fears no fall; it is an elevation above earthly desires +and terrors, neither of which can reach it, so as to hinder the man +from walking in 'the ways of the Lord.' This king was lifted to it by +his happy experience of the blessed effects of obedience. These +encouraged him to vigorous efforts to spread the religion which had +thus gladdened and brightened his own life. Is that the use we make of +the ease which God gives us? + +Jehoshaphat had to destroy first, in order to build up. The 'high +places and Asherim' had to be taken out of Judah before the true +worship could be established there. So it is still. The Christian has +to carry a sword in the one hand, and a trowel in the other. Many a +rotten old building, the stones of which have been cemented in blood, +has to be swept away before the fair temple can be reared. The Devil +is in possession of much of the world, and the lawful owner has to +dispossess the 'squatter.' No one can suppose that society is +organised on Christian principles even in so-called 'Christian +countries'; and there is much overturning work to be done before He +whose right it is to reign is really king over the whole earth. We, +too, have our 'high places and Asherim' to root out. + +But that destructive work is not to be done by force. Institutions can +only be swept away when public opinion has grown to see their evils. +Forcible reformations of manners, and, still more, of religion, never +last, but are sure to be followed by violent rebounds to the old +order. So, side by side with the removal of idolatry, this king took +care to diffuse the knowledge of the true worship, by sending out a +body of influential commissioners to teach in Judah. That was a new +departure of great importance. It presents several interesting +features. The composition of the staff of instructors is remarkable. +The principal men in it are five court officers, next to whom, and +subordinate, as is shown not only by the order of enumeration, but by +the phrase 'with them,' were nine Levites, and, last and lowest of +all, two priests. We might have expected that priests should be the +most numerous and important members of such a body, and we are led to +suspect that the priesthood was so corrupted as to be careless about +religious reformation. A clerical order is not always the most ardent +in religious revival. The commissioners were probably chosen, without +regard to their being priests, Levites, or 'laymen,' because of their +zeal in the worship of Jehovah; and the five 'princes' head the list +in order to show the royal authority of the commission. + +Another point is the emphasis with which their function of teaching is +thrice mentioned in three verses. Apparently the bulk of the nation +knew little or nothing of 'the law of the Lord,' either on its +spiritual and moral or its ceremonial side; and Jehoshaphat's object +was to effect an enlightened, not a forcible and superficial, change. +God's way of influencing actions is to reveal Himself to the +understanding and the heart, that these may move the will, and that +may shape the deeds. Wise men will imitate God's way. Jehoshaphat did +not issue royal commands, but sent out teachers. In chapter xix. we +find him despatching 'judges' in similar fashion throughout Judah. +They had the power to punish, but these teachers had only authority to +explain and to exhort. + +The present writer accepts the chronicler's statement that the +teachers had 'the Book of the Law' with them, though he recognises it +as possible that that 'Book' was not identical with the complete +collection of documents which now bears the name. But, be that as it +may, the incident of our text is remarkable as being the only recorded +systematic and complete attempt to diffuse the remedy against idolatry +throughout the kingdom, as putting religious reformation on its only +sure ground, and as hinting at deep and widespread ignorance among the +masses. + +'When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be +at peace with him.' So Judah found. 'A terror of the Lord fell upon +all the kingdoms' around. No doubt, the news filtered to them of how +Jehovah was exerting His might on the nation, and a certain +indefinable awe of this so potent god, who was defeating the Baalim, +made them think that peace was the best policy. Each nation was +supposed to have its own god, and the national god was supposed to +fight for his worshippers; so that war was a struggle of deities as +well as of men, and the stronger god won. Here was a god who had +reconquered his territory, and had cast out usurpers. Prudence +dictated keeping on good terms with him. But it never occurred to any +of these peoples that their own gods were any less real than Judah's, +or that Judah's God could ever become theirs. + + + +AMASIAH + +'Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the +Lord.'--1 CHRON. xvii, 16. + + +This is a scrap from the catalogue of Jehoshaphat's 'mighty men of +valour'; and is Amasiah's sole record. We see him for a moment and +hear his eulogium and then oblivion swallows him up. We do not know +what it was that he did to earn it. But what a fate, to live to all +generations by that one sentence! + +I. Cheerful self-surrender the secret of all religion. + +The words of our text contain a metaphor naturally drawn from the +sacrificial system. It comes so easily to us that we scarcely +recognise the metaphorical element, but the clear recognition of it +gives great additional energy to the words. Amasiah was both +sacrificer and sacrifice. His offering was self-immolation. As in all +love, so in that noblest kind of it which clasps God, its perfect +expression is, 'I give Thee my living, loving self.' Nor is it only +sacrifice and sacrificer that are seen in deepest truth in the +experience of the Christian life, but the reality of the Temple is +also there, for 'Ye also ... are built up a spiritual house, to be a +holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.' Only when God +dwells in us, shall we have the nerve and the firmness of hand to take +the knife and 'slay before the Lord,' the awful Guest in the sanctuary +within, the most precious of the children of our spirits. + +The essence of the sacrifice of self is the sacrifice of will. In the +Christian experience 'willingly offered' is almost tautology, for +unwilling offerings are a contradiction and in fact there are no such +things. The quality of unwillingness destroys the character of the +offering and robs it of all sacredness. Reluctant Christianity is not +Christianity. That noun and that adjective can never be buckled +together. + +The submission of will and the consequent surrender of myself and my +powers, opportunities, and possessions, so that I do all, enjoy all, +use all, and when need is, endure all with glad thankful reference to +God is only possible to me in the measure in which my will is made +flexible by love, and such will-subduing love comes only when we 'know +and believe the love that God hath to us.' There is the point at which +not a few moral and religious teachers go wrong and bewilder +themselves and their disciples. There, too, is the point at which +Christ and the Gospel of salvation through faith in Him stand forth as +emancipating humanity from the dreary round of efforts and vain +attempts to work up the condition needful for achieving the height of +self-surrender, which is seen to be indispensable to all true +nobleness of living, but is felt to be beyond the reach of the +ordinary man. There, too, is the point at which many good people mar +their lives as Christians. They waste their strength in trying to +bring the jibbing horse up to the leap. They try to blow up a fire of +devotion and to make themselves priests to offer themselves, but all +the while the mutinous self recoils from the leap, and the fire burns +smokily, and their sacrifice is laid on the altar with little joy, +because they have not been careful and wise enough to begin at the +beginning and to follow God's way of melting their wills, by love, the +reflection of the Infinite love of God to them. God's priests offer +themselves because they offer their wills; they offer their wills +because they love God; they love God because they know that God loves +them. That is the divine order. It is vain to try to accomplish the +end by any other. + +II. This willing offering hallows all life. + +No syllable is left to tell us what Amasiah did to win this praise. +Probably the words enshrine some now forgotten memory of his cheerful +courage, some heroic feat on an unrecorded battlefield. Particulars +are not given nor needed. Specific actions are unimportant; the spirit +of a life can be told with very incomplete details, and it, not the +details, is the important thing. Sometimes, as in many modern +biographies, one 'cannot see the wood for the trees,' and misses the +main drift and aim of a life in the chaos of a bewildering mass of +nothings. How much more happy the lot of this man of whom we have only +the generalised expression of the text, unweighted and undisturbed by +petty incidents! It takes tons of rose leaves to make a tiny phial of +otto of roses, but the fragrance is far more pungent in a drop of the +distillation than in armfuls of leaves. Every life shrinks into very +small compass, and the centuries do not tolerate long biographies. +Shall we not seek to order our life so that Amasiah's epitaph may +serve for us? It will be blessed if this--and nothing else--is known +about us, that we 'willingly offered ourselves to the Lord.' My +friend: will that be a true epitome of your life? + +III. This willing offering is accepted by God. + +We may hear a mightier voice behind the chronicler's, and the judgment +of the Judge of all pronounced by His lips. It matters little what men +say of one another, but it matters everything what God says of us. We +are but too apt to forget that He is now saying something as to each +of us, and that we have not to wait for death to put a final period to +our activities, before our lives become fit subjects for God's +judgment, Moment by moment we are writing our own sentences. But while +it is good for us to remember the continuous judgment of God on each +deed, it is not good to let dark thoughts of the principles of that +judgment paralyse our activity or chill our confidence in His +forgiving and accepting mercy. There is often a dark suspicion, like +that of the one-talented servant, which blackens God's fair fame as +being 'an austere Man,' making demands rather than imparting power, +and the effect of such an ugly conception of Him is to cut the nerve +of service and bury the talent, carefully folded up, it may be, but +none the less earning nothing. 'If we call on Him as Father, who +without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,' let +us be sure that it will be a Fatherly judgment that He will pass upon +us and our offerings. There is a wonderful collection on His altar of +what many people would think rubbish, just as many a mother has laid +away among her treasures some worthless article which her child had +once given her--a weed plucked by the roadside in a long past summer +day, some trifle of rare preciousness in the child's eyes, and of none +in any others than her own. She opens her drawer and brings out the +poor little thing, and her eyes fill and her heart fills as she looks. +And does not God keep His children's gifts as lovingly, and set them +in places of honour in the day when He 'makes up His jewels'? There +are cups of cold water and widows' mites and much else that a +supercilious world would call 'trash' stored there. Thank God! He +accepts imperfect service, faltering faith, partial consecration, a +little love. Even our poor offering may be an 'odour of a sweet +smell,' ministering fragrance that is a delight to Him, if it is +offered with the much incense of the great Sacrifice and through the +mediation of the great High Priest. + +The world forgot Amasiah, or never knew him, an obscure soldier in an +obscure kingdom, but God did not forget, and here is his epitaph, and +this is his memorial to all generations. Men's chronicles have no room +for all the names that their wearers are eager to have inscribed on +their crumbling and crowded pages, 'but the Lamb's Book of Life' has +ample space on its radiant pages for all who desire to set their names +there, and if ours are there, we need not envy the proudest whose +titles and deeds fill the most conspicuous pages in the world's +records. 'Then shall every man have praise of Christ,' and he who wins +that guerdon needs nothing more, and can have nothing more to swell +his blessedness. + + + +'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES' + +'And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to +Jerusalem. 2. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet +him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, +and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from +before the Lord. 3. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, +in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast +prepared thine heart to seek God. 4. And Jehoshaphat dwelt at +Jerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beer-sheba to +mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord God of their +fathers. 5. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced +cities of Judah, city by city. 6. And said to the judges, Take heed +what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with +you in the judgment. 7. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon +you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our +God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. 8. Moreover in +Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and +of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord, +and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. 9. And he +charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, +faithfully, and with a perfect heart. 10. And what cause soever shall +come to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood +and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye +shall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord, and so +wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not +trespass. 11. And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all +matters of the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the +house of Judah, for all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be +officers before you. Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the +good.'--2 CHRON. XIX. 1-11. + + +Jehoshaphat is distinguished by two measures for his people's good: +one, his sending out travelling preachers through the land (2 Chron. +xvii. 7-9); another, this provision of local judges and a central +court in Jerusalem. The former was begun as early as the third year of +his reign, but was probably interrupted, like other good things, by +his ill-omened alliance with Ahab. The prophet Jehu's plain speaking +seems to have brought the king back to his better self, and its fruit +was his going 'among the people,' from south to north, as a +missionary, 'to bring them back to Jehovah.' The religious reformation +was accompanied by his setting judges throughout the land. Our modern +way of distinguishing between religious and civil concerns is foreign +to Eastern thought, and was especially out of the question in a +theocracy. Jehovah was the King of Judah; therefore the things that +are Caesar's and the things that are God's coalesced, and these two +objects of Jehoshaphat's journeyings were pursued simultaneously. We +have travelled far from his simple institutions, and our course has +not been all progress. His supreme concern was to deal out even-handed +justice between man and man; is not ours rather to give ample doses of +law? To him the judicial function was a copy of God's, and its +exercise a true act of worship, done in His fear, and modelled after +His pattern. The first impression made in one of our courts is +scarcely that judge and counsel are engaged in worship. + +There had been local judges before Jehoshaphat--elders in the +villages, the 'heads of the fathers' houses' in the tribes. We do not +know whether the great secession had flung the simple old machinery +somewhat out of gear, or whether Jehoshaphat's action was simply to +systematise and make universal the existing arrangements. But what +concerns us most is to note that all the charge which he gives to +these peasant magistrates bears on the religious aspect of their +duties. They are to think themselves as acting for Jehovah and with +Jehovah. If they recognise the former, they may be confident of the +latter. They are to 'let the fear of Jehovah be upon you,' for that +awe resting on a spirit will, like a burden or water-jar on a woman's +shoulder, make the carriage upright and the steps firm. They are not +only to act for and with Jehovah, but to do like Him, avoiding +injustice, favouritism, and corruption, the plague-spots of Eastern +law-courts. In such a state of society, the cases to be adjudicated +were mostly such as mother-wit, honesty and the fear of God could +solve; other times call for other qualifications. But still, let us +learn from this charge that even in our necessarily complicated legal +systems and political life, there is room and sore need for the +application of the same principles. What a different world it would be +if our judges and representatives carried some tincture of +Jehoshaphat's simple and devout wisdom into their duties! Civic and +political life ought to be as holy as that of cloister and cell. To +judge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray. A +politician may be 'a priest of the Most High God.' + +And for us all the spirit of Jehoshaphat's charge is binding, and +every trivial and secular task is to be discharged for God, with God, +in the fear of God. 'On the bells of the horses shall be Holiness unto +Jehovah.' If our religion does not drive the wheels of daily life, so +much the worse for our life and our religion. But, above all, this +charge reminds us that the secret of right living is to imitate God. +These peasants were to find direction, as well as inspiration, in +gazing on Jehovah's character, and trying to copy it. And we are to be +'imitators of God, as beloved children,' though our best efforts may +only produce poor results. A masterpiece may be copied in some +wretched little newspaper blotch, but the great artist will own it for +a copy, and correct it into complete likeness. + +The second step was to establish a 'supreme court' in Jerusalem, which +had two divisions, ecclesiastical and civil, as we should say, the +former presided over by the chief priest, and the latter by 'the ruler +of the house of Judah.' Murder cases and the graver questions +involving interpretation of the law were sent up thither, while the +village judges had probably to decide only points that shrewdness and +integrity could settle. But these superior judges, too, received +charges as to moral, rather than intellectual or learned +qualifications. Religiously, uprightly, 'with a perfect heart,' +courageously, they were to act, 'and Jehovah be with the good!' That +may be a prayer, like the old invocation with which heralds sent +knights to tilt at each other, and with which, in some legal +proceedings, the pleas are begun, 'God defend the right!' But more +probably it is an assurance that God will guide the judges to favour +the good cause, if they on their parts will bring the aforesaid +qualities to their decisions. And are not these qualities just such as +will, for the most part, give similar results to us, if in our various +activities we exercise them? And may we not see a sequence worth our +practically putting to the proof in these characteristics enjoined on +Jehoshaphat's supreme court? Begin with 'the fear of the Lord'; that +will help us to 'faithfulness and a perfect heart'; and these again by +taking away occasions of ignoble fear, and knitting together the else +tremulous and distracted nature, will make the fearful brave and the +weak strong. + +But another thought is suggested by Jehoshaphat's language. Note how +this court does not seem to have inflicted punishments, but to have +had only counsels and warnings to wield. It was a board of +conciliation rather than a penal tribunal. Two things it had to do--to +press upon the parties the weighty consideration that crimes against +men were sins against God, and that the criminal drew down wrath on +the community. This remarkable provision brings out strongly thoughts +that modern society will be the better for incorporating. The best way +to deal with men is to get at their hearts and consciences. The deeper +aspect of civil crimes or wrongs to men should be pressed on the doer; +namely, that they are sins against God. Again, all such acts are sins +against the mystical sacred bond of brotherhood. Again, the solidarity +of a nation makes it inevitable that 'one sinner destroyeth much +good,' and pulls down with him, when God smites him, a multitude of +innocents. So finely woven is the web of the national life that, if a +thread run in any part of it, a great rent gapes. If one member sins, +all the members suffer with it. And lastly, the cruellest thing that +we can do is to be dumb when we see sin being committed. It is not +public men, judges and the like, alone, who are called on thus to warn +evil-doers, but all of us in our degree. If we do not, we are guilty +along with a guilty nation; and it is only when, to the utmost of our +power, we have warned our brethren as to national sins, that we can +wash our hands in innocency, 'This do, and ye shall not be guilty.' + + + +A STRANGE BATTLE + +'We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; +neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.'--2 CHRON xx. +12. + + +A formidable combination of neighbouring nations, of which Moab and +Ammon, the ancestral enemies of Judah, were the chief, was threatening +Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king, was panic-stricken when he heard of the +heavy war-cloud that was rolling on, ready to burst in thunder on his +little kingdom. His first act was to muster the nation, not as a +military levy but as suppliants, 'to seek help of the Lord.' The enemy +was camping down by the banks of the Dead Sea, almost within striking +distance of Jerusalem. It seemed a time for fighting, not for praying, +but even at that critical moment, the king and the men, whom it might +have appeared that plain duty called to arms, were gathered in the +Temple, and, hampered by their wives and children, were praying. Would +they not have done better if they had been sturdily marching through +the wilderness of Judah to front their foes? Our text is the close and +the climax of Jehoshaphat's prayer, and, as the event proved, it was +the most powerful weapon that could have been employed, for the rest +of the chapter tells the strangest story of a campaign that was ever +written. No sword was drawn. The army was marshalled, but Levites with +their instruments of music, not fighters with their spears, led the +van, and as 'they began to sing and to praise,' sudden panic laid hold +on the invading force, who turned their arms against each other. So +when Judah came to some rising ground, on which stood a watch-tower +commanding a view over the savage grimness of 'the wilderness,' it saw +a field of corpses, stark and stiff and silent. Three days were spent +in securing the booty, and on the fourth, Jehoshaphat and his men +'assembled themselves in the Valley of Blessing,' and thence returned +a joyous multitude praising God for the victory which had been won for +them without their having struck a blow. The whole story may yield +large lessons, seasonable at all times. We deal with it, rather than +with the fragment of the narrative which we have taken as our text. + +I. We see here the confidence of despair. + +Jehoshaphat's prayer had stayed itself on God's self-revelation in +history, and on His gift of the land to their fathers. It had pleaded +that the enemy's hostility was a poor 'reward' for Israel's ancient +forbearance, and now, with a burst of agony, it casts down before God, +as it were, Judah's desperate plight as outnumbered by the swarm of +invaders and brought to their last shifts--'we have no might against +this great company ... neither know we what to do.' But the very depth +of despair sets them to climb to the height of trust. That is a mighty +'But,' which buckles into one sentence two such antitheses as confront +us here. 'We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee'--blessed +is the desperation which catches at God's hand; firm is the trust +which leaps from despair! + +The helplessness is always a fact, though most of us manage to get +along for the most part without discovering it. We are all outnumbered +and overborne by the claims, duties, hindrances, sorrows, and +entanglements of life. He is not the wisest of men who, facing all +that life may bring and take away, all that it must bring and take +away, knows no quiver of nameless fear, but jauntily professes himself +ready for all that life can inflict. But there come moments in every +life when the false security in which shallow souls wrap themselves +ignobly is broken up, and then often a paroxysm of terror or misery +grips a man, for which he has no anodyne, and his despair is as +unreasonable as his security. The meaning of all circumstances that +force our helplessness on us is to open to us Jehoshaphat's refuge in +his--'our eyes are upon Thee.' We need to be driven by the crowds of +foes and dangers around to look upwards. Our props are struck away +that we may cling to God. The tree has its lateral branches hewed off +that it may shoot up heavenward. When the valley is filled with mist +and swathed in evening gloom, it is the time to lift our gaze to the +peaks that glow in perpetual sunshine. Wise and happy shall we be if +the sense of helplessness begets in us the energy of a desperate +faith. For these two, distrust of self and glad confidence in God, are +not opposites, as naked distrust and trust are, but are complementary. +He does not turn his eyes to God who has not turned them on himself, +and seen there nothing to which to cling, nothing on which to lean. +Astronomers tell us that there are double stars revolving round one +axis and forming a unity, of which the one is black and the other +brilliant. Self-distrust and trust in God are thus knit together and +are really one. + +II. We see here the peaceful assurance of victory that attends on +faith. + +A flash of inspiration came to one of the Levitical singers who had, +no doubt, been deeply moved and had unconsciously fitted himself for +receiving it. Divinely breathed confidence illuminated his waiting +spirit, and a great message of encouragement poured from his lips. His +words heartened the host more than a hundred trumpets braying in their +ears. How much one man who has drunk in God's assurance of victory can +do to send a thrill of his own courage through more timorous hearts! +Courage is no less contagious than panic. This Levite becomes the +commander of the army, and Jehoshaphat and his captains 'bow their +heads' and accept his plan for to-morrow, hearing in his ringing +accents a message from Jehovah. The instructions given and at once +accepted are as unlike those of ordinary warfare as is the whole +incident; for there is to be no sword drawn nor blow struck, but they +are to 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.' They are told +where to find the enemy and are bid to go forth in order of battle +against them, and they are assured 'that the battle is not theirs, but +God's.' No wonder that the message was hailed as from heaven, and put +new heart into the host, or that, when the messenger's voice ceased, +his brother Levites broke into shrill praise as for a victory already +won. With what calm, triumphant hearts the camp would sleep that +night! + +May we not take that inspired Levite's message as one to ourselves in +the midst of our many conflicts both in the outward life and in the +inward? If we have truly grasped God's hands, and are fighting for +what is accordant with His will, we have a right to feel that 'the +battle is not ours but God's,' and to be sure that therefore we shall +conquer. Of course we are not to say to ourselves, 'God will fight for +us, and we need not strike a blow,' Jehoshaphat's example does not fit +our case in that respect, and we may thank God that it does not. We +have a better lot than to 'stand still and see the salvation of God,' +for we are honoured by being allowed to share the stress of conflict +and the glow of battle as well as in the shout of victory. But even in +the struggles of outward life, and much more in those of our spiritual +nature, every man who watches his own career will many a time have to +recognise God's hand, unaided by any act of his own, striking for him +and giving him victory; and in the spiritual life every Christian man +knows that his best moments have come from the initiation of the +Spirit who 'bloweth where He listeth.' How often we have been +surprised by God's help; how often we have been quickened by God's +inbreathed Spirit, and have been taught that the passivity of faith +draws to us greater blessings than the activity of effort! 'They also +serve who only stand and wait,' and they also conquer who in quietness +and confidence keep themselves still and let God work for them and in +them. The first great blessing of trust in God is that we may be at +peace on the eve of battle, and the second is that in every battle it +is, in truth, not we that fight, but God who fights for and in us. + +III. We learn here the best preparation for the conflict. + +When the morning dawned, the array was set in order and the march +begun, and a strange array it was. In the van marched the Temple +singers singing words that are music to us still: 'Give thanks unto +the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever,' and behind them came the +ranks of Judah, no doubt swelling the volume of melody, that startled +the wild creatures of the wilderness, and perhaps travelled through +the still morning as far as the camp of the enemy. The singers had no +armour nor weapons. They were clad in 'the beauty of holiness,' the +priestly dress, and for sword and spear they carried harps and +timbrels. Our best weapons are like their equipment. + +We are most likely to conquer if we lift up the voice of thanks for +victory in advance, and go into the battle expecting to triumph, +because we trust in God. The world's expectation of success is too +often a dream, a will-o'-the-wisp that tempts to bogs where the +beguiled victim is choked, though even in the world it is often true; +'screw your courage to the sticking point, and we'll not fail.' But +faith, that is the expectation of success based on God's help and +inspiring to struggles for things dear to His heart, is wont to fulfil +itself, and by bringing God into the fray, to secure the victory. A +thankful heart not seldom brings into existence that for which it is +thankful. + +IV. We see here the victory and the praise for it. + +The panic that laid hold on the enemy, and turned their swords against +each other, was more natural in an undisciplined horde such as these +irregular levies of ancient times, than it would be in a modern army. +Once started, the infection would spread, so we need not wonder that +by the time that Judah arrived on the field all was over. How often a +like experience attends us! We quiver with apprehension of troubles +that never attack us. We dread some impending battlefield, and when we +reach it, Jehoshaphat's surprise is repeated, 'and, behold they were +dead bodies, fallen to the earth.' Delivered from foes and fears, +Judah's first impulse was to secure the booty, for they were keen +after wealth, and their 'faith' was not very pure or elevating. But +their last act was worthier, and fitly ended the strange campaign. +They gathered in some wady among the grim cliffs of the wilderness of +Judah, which broke the dreariness of that savage stretch of country +with perhaps verdure and a brook, and there they 'blessed the Lord.' +The chronicler gives a piece of popular etymology, in deriving the +name, 'the valley of blessing,' from that morning's worship. Perhaps +the name was older than that, and was given from a feeling of the +contrast between the waste wilderness, which in its gaunt sterility +seemed an accursed land, and the glen which with its trees and stream +was indeed a 'valley of blessing.' If so, the name would be doubly +appropriate after that day's experience. Be that as it may, here we +have in vivid form the truth that all our struggles and fightings may +end in a valley of blessing, which will ring with the praise of the +God who fights for us. If we begin our warfare with an appeal to God, +and with prayerful acknowledgment of our own impotence, we shall end +it with thankful acknowledgment that we are 'more than conquerors +through Him that loved us' and fought for us, and our choral song of +praise will echo through the true Valley of Blessing, where no sound +of enemies shall ever break the settled stillness, and the host of the +redeemed, like that army of Judah, shall bear 'psalteries and harps +and trumpets,' and shall need spear and sword no more at all for ever. + + + +HOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST + +'As they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Believe in the Lord +your God, so shall ye be established.'--2 CHRON. xx. 20. + + +Certainly no stronger army ever went forth to victory than these Jews, +who poured out of Jerusalem that morning with no weapon in all their +ranks, and having for their van, not their picked men, but singers who +'praised the beauty of holiness,' and chanted the old hymn, 'Give +thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever.' That was all +that men had to do in the battle, for as the shrill song rose in the +morning air 'the Lord set liers in wait for the foe,' and they turned +their swords against one another, so that when Jehoshaphat and his +troops came in sight of the enemy the battle was over and the field +strewn with corpses--so great and swift is the power of devout +recognition of God's goodness and trust in His enduring mercy, even in +the hour of extremest peril. + +The exhortation in our text which is Jehoshaphat's final word to his +army, has, in the original, a beauty and emphasis that are incapable +of being preserved in translation. There is a play of words which +cannot be reproduced in another language, though the sentiment of it +may be explained. The two expressions for 'believing' and 'being +established' are two varying forms of the same root-word; and although +we can only imitate the original clumsily in our language, we might +translate in some such way as this: 'Hold fast by the Lord your God, +and you will be held fast,' or 'stay yourselves on Him and you will be +stable.' These attempts at reproducing the similarity of sound between +the two verbs in the two clauses of our text, rude as they are, +preserve what is lost, so far as regards form, in the English +translation, though that is correct as to the meaning of the command +and promise. If we note this connection of the two clauses we just +come to the general principle which lies here, that the true source of +steadfastness in character and conduct, of victory over temptation, +and of standing fast in slippery places, is simple reliance, or, to +use the New Testament word, 'faith,' 'Believe and ye shall be +established.' Put out your hand and clasp Him, and He puts out His +hand and steadies you. But all the steadfastness and strength come +from the mighty Hand that is outstretched, not from the tremulous one +that grasps it. + +So, then, keeping to the words of my text, let me suggest to you the +large lessons that this saying teaches us, in regard to three things, +which I may put as being the object, the nature, and the issues of +faith; or, in other words, to whom we are to cling, how we are to +cling, and what the consequence of the clinging is. + +I. To whom we must cling. + +'Stay yourselves on the Lord your God,' Well, then, faith is not +believing a number of theological articles, nor is it even accepting +the truth of the Gospel as it lies in Jesus Christ, but it is +accepting the Christ whom the truth of the Gospel reveals to us. And, +although we have to come to Him through the word that declares what He +is, and what He has done for us, the act of believing on Him is +something that lies beyond the mere understanding of, or giving +credence to, the message that tells us who He is and what He has done. +A man may have not the ghost of a doubt or hesitation about one tittle +of revealed truth, and if you were to cross-question him, could answer +satisfactorily all the questions of an orthodox inquisitor, and yet +there may not be one faintest flicker of faith in that man's whole +being, for all the correctness of his creed, and the comprehensiveness +of it, too. Trust is more than assent. If it is a Person on whom our +faith leans, then from that there follows clearly enough that the bond +which binds us to Him must be something far warmer, far deeper, and +far more under the control of our own will than the mere consent or +assent of our brains to a set of revealed truths. 'The Lord your God,' +and not even the Bible that tells you about Him; 'the Lord your God,' +and not even the revealed truths that manifest Him, but Him as +revealed by the truths--it is He that is the Object to which our faith +clings. + +Jehoshaphat, in the same breath in which he exhorted his people to +'believe in the Lord, that they might be established,' also said, +'Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.' The immediate reference, +of course, was to the man who the day before had assured them of +victory. But the wider truth suggested is, that the only way to get to +God is through the word that speaks of Him, and which has come from +the lips either of prophets or of the Son who has spoken more, and +more sweetly and clearly, than all the prophets put together. If we +are to believe God, we must believe the prophets that tell us of Him. + +And then there is another suggestion that may be made. The Object of +faith proposed to Judah is not only 'the Lord,' but 'the Lord +_your_ God.' I do not say that there can be no faith without the +'appropriating' action which takes the whole Godhead for mine, but I +doubt very much whether there is any. And it seems to me that to a +very large extent the difference between mere nominal, formal +Christians and men who really are living by the power of faith in God +as revealed in Jesus Christ, lies in that one little word, 'the Lord +your God.' That a man shall put out a grasping hand, and say, 'I take +for my own--for my very own--the universal blessing, I claim as my +possession that God of the spirits of all flesh, I believe that He +does stand in a real individualising relation to me, and I to Him,' is +surely of the very essence of faith. There is no presumption, but the +truest wisdom and lowliness in enclosing, if I may so say, a part of +this great common for ours, and putting a hedge about it, as it were, +and saying, 'That is mine.' We shall not have understood the sweetness +and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ until we have pointed and +condensed the general declaration, 'He so loved the world,' into the +individualising and appropriating one, 'He loved me, and gave Himself +for me.' Oh! if we could only apply that process thoroughly to all the +broad glorious words and promises of Scripture, and feel that the +whole incidence of them was meant to fall upon us, one by one, and +that just as the sun, up in the heavens there, sends all his beams +into the tiniest daisy on the grass, as if there was nothing else in +the whole world, but only its little petals to be smoothed out and +opened, I think our Christianity would be more real, and we should +have more blessings in our hands. God in Christ and I, the only two +beings in the universe, and all His fullness mine, and all my weakness +supported and supplemented by Him--that is the view that we should +sometimes take. We should set ourselves apart from all mankind, and +claim Him as our very own, and so be filled with the fullness of God. + +This, then, is the Object of faith, a Person who is all mine and all +yours too. The beam of light that falls on my eye falls on yours, and +no man makes a sunbeam the smaller because he sees by it; and in like +manner we may each possess the whole of God for our very own property. + +II. How we cling. + +The metaphor, I suppose, is more eloquent than all explanations of it. +'Believe in the Lord'; hold fast by Him with a tight grip, continually +renewed when it tends to slacken, as it surely will, and then you will +be established. + +We might run out into any number of figurative illustrations. Look at +that little child beginning to learn to walk, how it fastens its +little dimpled hands into its mother's apron, and so the tiny +tottering feet get a kind of steadfastness into them. Look at that man +lying at the door of the Temple, who never had walked since his +mother's womb, and had lain there for forty years, with his poor weak +ankles all atrophied by reason of their disuse. 'He _held_ Peter +and John.' Would not his grasp be tight? Would he not clasp their +hands as his only stay? He had not become accustomed to the astounding +miracle of walking, nor learned to balance himself and accomplish the +still more astounding feat of standing steady. So he clutched at the +two Apostles and was 'established.' Look at that man walking by a +slippery path which he does not know, holding by the hand the guide +who is able to direct and keep him up. See this other in some wild +storm, with an arm round a steadfast tree-stem, to keep him from being +blown over the precipice, how he clings like a limpet to a rock. And +that is how we are to hold on to God, with what would be despair if it +were not the perfection of confidence, with the clear sense that the +only thing between us and ruin is the strong Hand that we clasp. + +And what do we mean by clasping God? I mean making daily efforts to +rivet our love on Him, and not to let the world, with all its delusive +and cloying sweets, draw us away from Him. I mean continual and +strenuous efforts to fix our _thoughts_ upon Him, and not to +allow the trivialities of life, or the claims of culture, or the +necessities of our daily position so to absorb our minds as that +thoughts of God are comparative strangers there, except, perhaps, +sometimes on a Sunday, and now and then at the sleepy end, or the +half-awake beginning, of a day. I mean continually repeated and +strenuous efforts to cleave to Him by the submission of our +_will_, letting Him 'do what seemeth Him good,' and not lifting +ourselves up against Him, or perking our own inclinations, desires, +and fancies in His face, as if we would induce Him to take them for +His guides! And I mean that we should try to commit our _way_ +unto the Lord, 'to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' The +submissive will which cleaves to God's commandments, the waiting heart +that clings to His love, the regulated thoughts that embrace His +truth, and the childlike confidence that commits its path to +Him--these are the elements of that steadfast adherence to the Lord +which shall not be in vain. + +III. The blessed effects of this clinging to God. + +'So shall ye be established.' That follows, as a matter of course. The +only way to make light things stable is to fasten them to something +that is stable. And the only way to put any kind of calmness and +fixedness, and yet progress--stability in the midst of progress, and +progress in the midst of stability--into our lives, is by keeping firm +hold of God. If we grasp His hand, then a calm serenity will be ours. +In the midst of changes, sorrows, losses, disappointments, we shall +not be blown about here and there by furious winds of fortune, nor +will the heavy currents of the river of life sweep us away. We shall +have a holdfast and a mooring. And although, like some light-ship +anchored in the Channel, we may heave up and down with the waves, we +shall keep in the same place, and be steadfast in the midst of +mobility, and wholesomely mobile although anchored in the one spot +where there is safety. As the issue of faith, of this throwing the +responsibility for ourselves upon God, there will be quietness of +heart, and continuance and persistence in righteousness, and +steadfastness of purpose and continuity of advancement in the divine +life. 'The law of the Lord is in his heart,' says one of the Psalms, +'none of his steps shall slide.' The man who walks holding God's hand +can put down a firm foot, even when he is walking in slippery places. +There will be decision, and strength, and persistence of continuous +advance, in a life that derives its impulse and its motive power from +communion with God in Jesus Christ. + +There will be victory, not indeed after the fashion of that in this +story before us. In it, of course, men had to do nothing but 'stand +still and see the salvation of God.' That is the law for us, in regard +to the initial blessings of acceptance, and forgiveness, and the +communication of the divine life from above. We have to be simple +recipients, and we have no co-operating share in that part of the work +of our own salvation. But for the rest we have to help God. 'Work out +your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh +in you.' But none the less, 'This is the victory that over-cometh the +world, even our faith,' and if we give heed to Jehoshaphat's +commandment, and go out to battle as his people did, with the love and +trust of God in our hearts, then we shall come back as they did, laden +with spoil, and shall name the place which was the field of conflict +'the valley of blessing,' and return to Jerusalem 'with psalteries, +and harps, and trumpets,' and 'God will give us rest from all our +enemies round about us.' + + + +JOASH + +'And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the +days of Jehoiada the priest.... 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada +came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the +king hearkened unto them.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 2, 17. + + +Here we have the tragedy of a soul. Joash begins life well and for the +greater part of it remains faithful to his conscience and to his duty, +and then, when outward circumstances change, he casts all behind him, +forgets the past and commits moral suicide. It is the sad old story, a +bright commencement, an early promise all scattered to the winds. It +is a strange story, too. This seven-year-old king had been saved when +his father had been killed, and that true daughter of Jezebel, as well +by nature as by blood, Athaliah, had murdered all his brothers and +sisters, and made herself queen. He had been saved by the courage of a +woman who might worthily stand by the side of Deborah and other Jewish +heroines. By this woman, who was his aunt, he was hidden and brought +up in the Temple until, whilst yet a mere boy, he came to the throne, +the High Priest Jehoiada, the husband of his aunt, being his guardian +during his nonage. He reigns well till the lad of seven becomes a +mature man of thirty or thereabouts, and then Jehoiada dies, full of +years and honours, and they fitly lay him among the kings of Judah, a +worthy resting-place for one who had 'done good in Israel.' And now +the weakling on the throne is left alone without the strong arm to +guide him and keep him right, and we read that 'the princes of Judah +came and made obeisance to him.' They take him on his weak side, and I +dare say Jehoiada had been too true and too noble to do that, and +though we are not told what means they took to flatter and coax him, +we see very plainly what they were conspiring to do, for we read that +'they left the house of the Lord their God, the God of their fathers, +and served groves and idols,' the groves here mentioned being symbols +of Ashtaroth the goddess of the Sidonians. And so all the past is +wiped out and Joash takes his place amongst the apostates. The story +has solemn lessons. + +I. Note the change from loyal adhesion to apostasy. + +The strong man on whom Joash used to lean was away, and the poor, weak +king went just where the wicked princes led him. It was probably out +of sheer imbecility that he passed from the worship of God to the +acknowledgment and service of idols. + +The first point that I would insist upon is a well-worn and familiar +one, as I am well aware, but I urge it upon you, and especially upon +the younger portion of my audience. It is this, that there is no +telling the amount of mischief that pure weakness of character may +lead into. The worst men we come across in the Bible are not those who +begin with a deliberate intention of doing evil. They are weak +creatures, 'reeds shaken by the wind,' who have no power of resisting +the force of circumstances. It is a truth which every one's experience +confirms, that the mother of all possible badness is weakness, and +that, not only as Milton's Satan puts it, 'To be weak is to be +miserable,' but that weakness is wickedness sooner or later. The man +who does not bar the doors and windows of his senses and his soul +against temptation, is sure to make shipwreck of his life and in the +end to become 'a fool.' There is so much wickedness lying round us in +this world that any man who lets himself be shaped and coloured by +that with which he comes in contact, is sure to go to the bad in the +long run. Where a man lays himself open to the accidents of time and +circumstances, the majority of these influences will be contrary to +what is right and good. Therefore, he must gather himself together and +learn to say 'No!' There is no foretelling the profound abysses into +which a 'good, easy' nature, with plenty of high and pure impulses, +perhaps, but which are written in water, may fall. 'Thou, therefore, +young man! be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.' Learn to +say No! or else you will be sure to say Yes! in the wrong place, and +then down you will go, like this Joash whose goodness depended on +Jehoiada, and when he died, all the virtue that had characterised this +life hitherto was laid with him in the dust. + +Let us learn from this story in the next place, how little power of +continuance there is in a merely traditional religion. Many of you +call yourselves Christian people mainly because other people do the +same. It is customary to respect and regard Christianity. You have +been brought up in the midst of it. Our country is always considered a +Christian land, and so, naturally, you tacitly accept the truth of a +religion which is so influential. The lowest phase of this attitude is +that which seeks some advantage from a church connection, like the +foolish man in the Old Testament who thought he would do well because +he had a Levite for his priest. Religion is the most personal thing +about a man. To become a Christian is the most personal act one can +perform. It is a thing that a man has to do for himself, and however +friends and guides may help us in other matters, in trials and +perplexities and difficulties, by their sympathy and experience, they +are useless here. A man has here to act as if there were no other +beings in the universe but a solitary God and himself, and unless we +have ourselves done that act in the depths of our own personality, we +have not done it at all. If you young people are good, just because +you have pious parents who make you go to church or chapel on a +Sunday, and keep you out of mischief during the week, your goodness is +a sham. One great result of personal Christianity is to make a +minister, a teacher, a guide, superfluous, and when such an one +becomes so, his work has been successful and not till then. Unless you +put forth for yourself the hand of faith and for yourself yield up the +devotion and love of your own heart, your religion is nought. + +However much active effort about the outside of religion there may be, +it is of itself useless. It is without bottom and without reality. +Here we have Joash busy with the externals of worship and actually +deceiving himself thereby. It was a great deal easier to make that +chest for contributions to a Temple Repairing Fund, and to get it well +filled, and to patch up the house of the Lord, than for him to get +down on his knees and pray, and he may have thought that to be busy +about the house of God was to be devout. So it may be with many +Sunday-school teachers and Church workers. Their religion may be as +merely superficial and as little personal as this man's was. It is not +for me to say so about A, B, or C. It is for you to ask of yourselves +if it is so as to you. But I do say that there is nothing that masks +his own soul from a man more than setting him to do something for +Christianity and God's Church, while in his inmost self he has not yet +yielded himself to God. + +I look around and I see the devil slaying his thousands by setting +them to work in Christian associations and leaving them no time to +think about their own Christianity. My brother! if the cap fits, go +home and put it on. + +We see in Joash's life for how long a time a man may go on in this +self-delusion of external and barren service and never know it. Joash +came to the throne at the age of seven. Up till that age he had lived +in the Temple in concealment. Until he was one and thirty he went on +in a steady, upright course, never knowing that there was anything +hollow in his life. Apparently, Jehoiada's long life of one hundred +and thirty years extended over the greater part of Joash's reign, +during most of which he had Jehoiada to direct him and keep him right, +and all this tragedy comes at the tag end of it. + +So he went on apparently all right, like a tree that has become quite +hollow, till during some storm it is blown down and falls with a +crash, and it is seen that for years it has been only the skin of a +tree, bark outside, and inside--emptiness. + +II. We come now to the second stage in the later life of Joash: His +resistance to the divine pleading. + +'And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served +groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their +trespass, yet He sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the +Lord.' He sent with endless pity, with long-suffering patience. He +would not be put away, and as they increased the distance between Him +and them, He increased His energies to bring them back. But they +lifted themselves up, Joash and his princes, and with that strange, +awful power of resisting the attraction of the divine pleading, and +hardening their hearts against the divine patience--'they would not.' +And then comes the affecting episode of the death of the high priest +Zechariah, who had succeeded to his father's place and likewise to his +heroism, and who, with the Spirit of God upon him, stands up and +pointing out his wickedness, rebukes the fallen monarch for his +apostasy. Joash, doubtless stung to the quick by Zechariah's just +reproaches, allowed the truculent princes to slay him in the court of +the Temple, even between the very shrine and the altar. + +What a picture we have here of the divine love which follows every +wanderer with its pleadings and beseechings! It came to this man +through the lips of a prophet. It comes to us all in daily blessings, +sometimes in messages, like these poor words of mine. God will not let +us ruin ourselves without pleading with us and wooing us to love Him +and cling to Him. 'He rises up early' and daily sends us His messages, +sometimes rebukes and voices in our conscience, sometimes sunset glows +and starry heavens lifting our thoughts above this low earth, +sometimes sorrows that are meant to 'drive us to His breast,' and +above all, the 'Gospel of our salvation' in Christ, ever, in such a +land as ours, sounding in our ears. + +Still further, we see in Joash what a strange, awful strength of +obstinate resistance, a character weak as regards its resistance to +man, can put forth against God. He never attempted to say 'No!' to the +princes of Judah, but he could say it again and again to his Father in +heaven. He could not but yield to the temptations which were level +with his eyes, and this poor creature, easily swayed by human +allurements and influences, could gather himself together, standing, +as it were, on his little pin point, and say to God, 'Thou dost call +and I refuse.' What a paradox, and yet repetitions of it are sitting +in these pews, only half aware that it is about them that I am +speaking! + +The ever-deepening evil which began with forsaking the house of the +Lord and serving Ashtaroth, ends with Joash steeping his hands in +blood. The murder of Zechariah was beyond the common count of crimes, +for it was a foul desecration of the Temple, an act of the blackest +ingratitude to the man who had saved his infant life, and put him on +the throne, an outrage on the claims of family connections, for Joash +and Zechariah were probably blood relations. My brother! once get your +foot upon that steep incline of evil, once forsake the path of what is +good and right and true, and you are very much like a climber who +misses his footing up among the mountain peaks, and down he slides +till he reaches the edge of the precipice and then in an instant is +dashed to pieces at the bottom. Once put your foot on that slippery +slope and you know not where you may fall to. + +III. Last comes the final scene: The retribution. + +We have that picture of Zechariah, solemnly lifting up his eyes to +heaven and committing his cause to God. 'The Lord look upon it and +require it,' says the martyr priest in the spirit of the old Law. The +dying appeal was soon answered in the invasion of the Syrian army, a +comparatively small company, into whose hands the Lord delivered a +very great host of the Israelites. The defeat was complete, and +possibly Joash's 'great diseases,' of which the narrative speaks, +refer to wounds received in the fight. The end soon comes, for two of +his servants, neither of them Hebrews, one being the son of an +Ammonitess and the other the son of a Moabitess, who were truer to his +religion than he had been, and resolved to revenge Zechariah's death, +entered the room, of the wounded king in the fortress whither he had +retired to hide himself after the fight, and 'slew him on his bed.' +Imagine the grim scene--the two men stealing in, the sick man there on +the bed helpless, the short ghastly struggle and the swift end. What +an end for a life with such a beginning! + +Now I am not going to dwell on this retribution, inflicted on Joash, +or on that which comes to us if we are like him, through a loud-voiced +conscience, and a memory which, though it may be dulled and hushed to +sleep at present, is sure to wake some day here or yonder. But I +beseech you to ask yourselves what your outlook is. 'Be not deceived, +God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also +reap.' Is that all? Zechariah said, 'The Lord look upon it and require +it.' The great doctrine of retribution is true for ever. Yes; but our +Zechariah lifts up his eyes to heaven and he says, 'Father! forgive +them, for they know not what they do.' And so, dear brother! you and +I, trusting to that dear Lord, may have all our apostasy forgiven, and +be brought near by the blood of Christ. Let us say with the Apostle +Peter, 'Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of +eternal life.' + + + +GLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS + +'And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the +house of the Lord. 5. And he gathered together the priests and the +Levites, and said to them, go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather +of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, +and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it +not. 6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, +Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and +out of Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of Moses +the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the +tabernacle of witness' 7. For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, +had broken up the house of God: and also all the dedicated things of +the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. 8. And at the +king's commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate +of the house of the Lord. 9. And they made a proclamation through +Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses +the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. 10. And all the +princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the +chest, until they had made an end. 11. Now it came to pass, that at +what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of +the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's +scribe and the high priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and +took it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day, +and gathered money in abundance. 12. And the king and Jehoiada gave it +to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and +hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also +such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord. 13. So +the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set +the house of God in his state, and strengthened it. 11. And when they +had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king +and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the Lord, +even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels +of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of +the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 4-14. + + +Joash owed his life and his throne to the high-priest Jehoiada, who +was his uncle by marriage with the sister of Ahaziah, his father. +Rescued by his aunt when an infant, he 'was with them, hid in the +house of God six years,' and, when seven years old, was made king by +Jehoiada's daring revolt against 'that wicked woman,' Athaliah. +Jehoiada's influence was naturally paramount, and was as wholesome as +strong. It is remarkable, however, that this impulse to repair the +Temple seems to have originated with the king, not with the +high-priest, though no doubt the spirit which conceived the impulse +was largely moulded by the latter. The king, whose childhood had found +a safe asylum in the Temple, might well desire its restoration, even +apart from considerations of religion. + +I. The story first brings into strong contrast the eager king, full of +his purpose, and the sluggards to whom he had to entrust its +execution. We can only guess the point in his reign at which Joash +summoned the priests to his help. It was after his marriage (ver. 3), +and considerably before the twenty-third year of his reign, at which +time his patience was exhausted (2 Kings xii. 6). Some years were +apparently wasted by the dawdling sluggishness of the priests, who, +for some reason or other, did not go into the proposed restoration +heartily. Joash seems to have suspected that they would push the work +languidly; for there is a distinct tinge of suspicion and 'whipping +up' in his injunction to 'hasten the matter.' + +The first intention was to raise the funds by sending out the priests +and Levites to collect locally the statutory half-shekel, as well as +other contributions mentioned in 2 Kings xii. There we learn that each +collector was to go to 'his acquaintance.' The subscription was to be +spread over some years, and for a while Joash waited quietly; but in +the twenty-third year of his reign (see 2 Kings), he could stand delay +no longer. Whether the priests had been diligent in collecting or not, +they had done nothing towards repairing. Perhaps they found it +difficult to determine the proportion of the money which was needed +for the ordinary expenses of worship, and for the restoration fund; +and, as the former included their own dues and support, they would not +be likely to set it down too low. Perhaps they did not much care to +carry out a scheme which had not begun with themselves; for priests +are not usually eager to promote ecclesiastical renovations suggested +by laymen. Perhaps they did not care as much about the renovation as +the king did, and smiled at his earnestness as a pious imagining. +Possibly there was even deliberate embezzlement. But, at any rate, +there was half-heartedness, and that always means languid work, and +that always means failure. The earnest people are fretted continually +by the indifferent. Every good scheme is held back, like a ship with a +foul bottom, by the barnacles that stick to its keel and bring down +its speed. Professional ecclesiastics in all ages have succumbed to +the temptation of thinking that 'church property' was first of all to +be used for their advantage, and, secondarily, for behoof of God's +house. Eager zeal has in all ages to be yoked to torpid indifference, +and to drag its unwilling companion along, like two dogs in a leash. +Direct opposition is easier to bear than apparent assistance which +tries to slow down to half speed. + +Joash's command is imperative on all workers for God. 'See that ye +hasten the matter,' for time is short, the fruit great, the evening +shadows lengthening, the interests at stake all-important, and the +Lord of the harvest will soon come to count our sheaves. Whatever work +may be done without haste, God's cannot be, and a heavy curse falls on +him who 'does the work of the Lord negligently.' The runner who keeps +well on this side of fatigue, panting, and sweat, has little chance of +the crown. + +II. The next step is the withdrawal of the work from the sluggards. +They are relieved both of the collection and expenditure of the money. +Apparently (2 Kings xii. 9) the contributors handed their donations to +the doorkeepers, who put them into the chest with 'a hole in the lid +of it,' in the sight of the donors. The arrangement was not flattering +to the hierarchy, but as appearances were saved by Jehoiada's making +the chest (see 2 Kings) they had to submit with the best grace they +could. In our own times, we have seen the same thing often enough. +When clergy have maladministered church property, Parliament has +appointed ecclesiastical commissioners. Common sense prescribes taking +slovenly work out of lazy hands. The more rigidly that principle is +carried out in the church and the nation, at whatever cost of +individual humiliation, the better for both. 'The tools to the hands +that can use them' is the ideal for both. God's dealings follow the +same law, both in withdrawing opportunities of service and in giving +more of such. The reward for work is more work, and the punishment for +sloth is compulsory idleness. + +III. We are next shown the glad givers. Probably suspicion had been +excited in others than the king, and had checked liberality. People +will not give freely if the expenses of the collectors' support +swallow up the funds. It is hard to get help for a vague scheme, which +unites two objects, and only gives the balance, after the first is +provided for, to the second and more important. So the whole nation, +both high and low, was glad when the new arrangement brought a clear +issue, and secured the right appropriation of the money. + +No doubt, too, Joash's earnestness kindled others. Chronicles speaks +only of the 'tax,'--that is, the half-shekel,--but Kings mentions two +other sources, one of which is purely spontaneous gifts, and these are +implied by the tone of verse 10, which lays stress on the gladness of +the offerers. That is the incense which adds fragrance to our gifts. +Grudging service is no service, and money given for ever so religious +a purpose, without gladness because of the opportunity of giving, is +not, in the deepest sense, given at all. Love is a longing to give to +the beloved, and whoever truly loves God will know no keener delight +than surrender for His dear sake. Pecuniary contributions for +religious purposes afford a rough but real test of the depth of a +man's religion; but it is one available only for himself, since the +motive, and not the amount, is the determining element. We all need to +bring our hearts more under the Influence of God's love to us, that +our love to Him may be increased, and then to administer possessions, +under the impulse to glad giving which enkindled love will always +excite. Super-heated steam has most expansive power and driving force. +These glad givers may remind us not only of the one condition of +acceptable giving, but also of the need for clear and worthy objects, +and of obvious disinterestedness in those who seek for money to help +good causes. The smallest opening for suspicion that some of it sticks +to the collector's fingers is fatal, as it should be. + +IV. Joash was evidently a business-like king. We next hear of the +precautions he took to secure the public confidence. There was a rough +but sufficient audit. When the chest grew heavy, and sounded full, two +officials received it at the 'king's office.' The Levites carried it +there, but were not allowed to handle the contents. The two tellers +represented the king and the chief priest, and thus both the civil and +religious authorities were satisfied, and each officer was a check on +the other. Public money should never be handled by a man alone; and an +honest one will always wish, like Paul, to have a brother associated +with him, that no man may blame him in his administration of it. If we +take 'day by day' literally, we have a measure of the liberality which +filled the chest daily; but, more probably, the expression simply +means 'from time to time,' when occasion required. + +V. The application of the money is next narrated. In this Jehoiada is +associated with Joash, the king probably desiring to smooth over any +slight that might seem to have been put on the priests, as well as +being still under the influence of the high-priest's strong character +and early kindness. Together they passed over the results of the +contribution to the contractors, who in turn paid it in wages to the +workmen who repaired the fabric, such as masons and carpenters, and to +other artisans who restored other details, such as brass and iron +work. The Second Book of Kings tells us that Joash's cautious +provision against misappropriation seems to have deserted him at this +stage; for no account was required of the workmen, 'for they dealt +faithfully.' That is an indication of their goodwill. The humble +craftsmen were more reliable than the priests. They had, no doubt, +given their half-shekel like others, and now they gladly gave their +work, and were not hirelings, though they were hired. We, too, have to +give our money and our labour; and if our hearts are right, we shall +give both with the same conscientious cheerfulness, and, if we are +paid in coin for our work, will still do it for higher reasons and +looking for other wages. These Temple workmen may stand as patterns of +what religion should do for those of us whose lot is to work with our +hands,--and not less for others who have to toil with their brains, +and the sweat of whose brow is inside their heads. A Christian workman +should be a 'faithful' workman, and will be so if he is full of faith. + +Joash knew when to trust and when to keep a sharp eye on men. His +experience with the priests had not soured him into suspecting +everybody. Cynical disbelief in honesty is more foolish and hurtful to +ourselves than even excessive trust. These workmen wrought all the +more faithfully because they knew that they were trusted, and in nine +cases out of ten men will try to live up to our valuation of them. The +Rugby boys used to say, 'It's a shame to tell Arnold a lie, he always +believes us.' Better to be cheated once than to treat the nine as +rogues,--better for them and better for ourselves. + +'Faithful' work is prosperous work. As verse 13 picturesquely says, +'Healing went up upon the work'; and the Temple was restored to its +old fair proportions, and stood strong as before. Where there is +conscientious effort, God's blessing is not withheld. Labour 'in the +Lord' can never be empty labour, though even a prophet may often be +tempted, in a moment of weary despondency, to complain, 'I have +laboured in vain.' We may not see the results, nor have the workmen's +joy of beholding the building rise, course by course, under our hands, +but we shall see it one day, though now we have to work in the dark. + +There seems a discrepancy between the statements in Chronicles and +Kings as to the source from which the cost of the sacrificial vessels +was defrayed, since, according to the former, it was from the +restoration fund, which is expressly denied by the latter. The +explanation seems reasonable, that, as Chronicles says, it was from +the balance remaining after all restoration charges were liquidated, +that this other expenditure was met. First, the whole amount was +sacredly devoted to the purpose for which it had been asked, and then, +when the honest overseers repaid the uncounted surplus, which they +might have kept, it was found sufficient to meet the extra cost of +furnishing. God blesses the faithful steward of his gifts with more +than enough for the immediate service, and the best use of the surplus +is to do more with it for Him. 'God is able to make all grace abound +unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in every thing, may +abound unto every good work, ... being enriched in every thing unto +all liberality.' + + + +PRUDENCE AND FAITH + +'And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the +hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man +of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than +this.'--2 CHRON. xxv. 9. + + +The character of this Amaziah, one of the Kings of Judah, is summed up +by the chronicler in a damning epigram: 'He did that which was right +in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.' He was one of +your half-and-half people, or, as Hosea says, 'a cake not turned,' +burnt black on one side, and raw dough on the other. So when he came +to the throne, in the buoyancy and insolence of youth, he immediately +began to aim at conquests in the neighbouring little states; and in +order to strengthen himself he hired 'a hundred thousand mighty men of +valour' out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. To seek help +from Israel was, in a prophet's eyes, equivalent to flinging off help +from God. So a man of God comes to him, and warns him that the Lord is +not with Israel, and that the alliance is not permissible for him. +But, instead of yielding to the prophet's advice, he parries it with +this misplaced question, 'But what shall we do for the hundred talents +that I have given to the army of Israel?' He does not care to ask +whether the counsel that he is receiving is right or wrong, or whether +what he is intending to do is in conformity with, or in opposition to, +the will of God, but, passing by all such questions, at once he +fastens on the lower consideration of expediency--'What is to become +of me if I do as this prophet would have me do? What a heavy loss one +hundred talents will be! It is too much to sacrifice to a scruple of +that sort. It cannot be done.' + +A great many of us may take a lesson from this man. There are two +things in my text--a misplaced question and a triumphant answer: 'What +shall we do for the hundred talents?' 'The Lord is able to give thee +much more than this.' Now, remarkably enough, both question and answer +may be either very right or very wrong, according as they are taken, +and I purpose to look at those two aspects of each. + +I. A misplaced question. + +I call it misplaced because Amaziah's fault, and the fault of a great +many of us, was, not that he took consequences into account, but that +he took them into account at the wrong time. The question should have +come second, not first. Amaziah's first business should have been to +see clearly what was duty; and then, and not till then, the next +business should have been to consider consequences. + +Consider the right place and way of putting this question. Many of us +make shipwreck of our lives because, with our eyes shut, we determine +upon some grand design, and fall under the condemnation of the man +that 'began to build, and was not able to finish.' He drew a great +plan of a stately mansion; and then found that he had neither money in +the bank, nor stones in his quarry, to finish it, and so it stood--a +ruin. All through our Lord's life He was engaged rather in repressing +volunteers than in soliciting recruits, and He from time to time +poured a douche of cold water upon swiftly effervescing desires to go +after Him. When the multitudes followed Him, He turned and said to +them, 'If you are counting on being My disciples, understand what it +means: take up the cross and follow Me.' When an enthusiastic man, who +had not looked consequences in the face, came rushing to Him and said: +'Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,' His answer to him +was another pull at the string of the shower bath: 'The Son of Man +hath not where to lay His head.' When the two disciples came to him +and said: 'Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the +other on Thy left, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,' He said: 'Are +ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized with +the baptism that I am baptized withal?' Look the facts in the face +before you make your election. Jesus Christ will enlist no man under +false pretences. Recruiting-sergeants tell country bumpkins or city +louts wonderful stories of what they will get if they take the +shilling and put on the king's uniform; but Jesus Christ does not +recruit His soldiers in that fashion. If a man does not open his eyes +to a clear vision of the consequences of his actions, his life will go +to water in all directions. And there is no region in which such clear +insight into what is going to follow upon my determinations and the +part that I take is more necessary than in the Christian life. It is +just because in certain types of character, 'the word is received with +joy,' and springs up immediately, that when 'the sun is risen with a +burning heat'--that is, as Christ explains, when the pinch of +difficulty comes--'immediately they fall away,' and all their grand +resolutions go to nothing. 'Lightly come, lightly go.' Let us face the +facts of what is involved, in the way of sacrifice, surrender, loss, +if we determine to be on Christ's side; and then, when the anticipated +difficulties come, we shall neither be perplexed nor swept away, but +be able quietly to say, 'I discounted it all beforehand; I knew it was +coming.' The storm catches the ship that is carrying full sail and +expecting nothing but light and favourable breezes; while the captain +that looked into the weather quarter and saw the black cloud beginning +to rise above the horizon, and took in his sails and made his vessel +snug and tight, rides out the gale. It is wisdom that becomes a man, +to ask this question, if first of all he has asked, 'What ought I to +do?' + +But we have here an instance of a right thing in a wrong place. It was +right to ask the question, but wrong to ask it at that point. Amaziah +thought nothing about duty. There sprang up in his mind at once the +cowardly and ignoble thought: 'I cannot afford to do what is right, +because it will cost me a hundred talents,' and that was his sin. +Consequences may be, must be, faced in anticipation, or a man is a +fool. He that allows the clearest perception of disagreeable +consequences, such as pain, loss of ease, loss of reputation, loss of +money, or any other harmful results that may follow, to frighten him +out of the road that he knows he ought to take, is a worse fool still, +for he is a coward and recreant to his own conscience. + +We have to look into our own hearts for the most solemn and pressing +illustrations of this sin, and I daresay we all of us can remember +clear duties that we have neglected, because we did not like to face +what would come from them. A man in business will say, 'I cannot +afford to have such a high standard of morality; I shall be hopelessly +run over in the race with my competitors if I do not do as they do,' +or he will say, 'I durst not take a stand as an out-and-out Christian; +I shall lose connections, I shall lose position. People will laugh at +me. What am I to do for the hundred talents?' + +But we can find the same thing in Churches. I do not mean to enter +upon controversial questions, but as an instance, I may remind you +that one great argument that our friends who believe in an Established +Church are always bringing forward, is just a modern form of Amaziah's +question, 'What shall we do for the hundred talents? How could the +Church be maintained, how could its ministrations be continued, if its +State-provided revenues were withdrawn or given up?' But it is not +only Anglicans who put the consideration of the consequences of +obedience in the wrong place. All the Churches are but too apt to let +their eyes wander from reading the plain precepts of the New Testament +to looking for the damaging results to be expected from keeping them. +Do we not sometimes hear, as answer to would-be reformers, 'We cannot +afford to give up this, that, or the other practice? We should not be +able to hold our ground, unless we did so-and-so and so-and-so.' + +But not only individuals or Churches are guilty in this matter. The +nation takes a leaf out of Amaziah's book, and puts aside many plain +duties, for no better reason than that it would cost too much to do +them. 'What is the use of talking about suppressing the liquor traffic +or housing the poor? Think of the cost.' The 'hundred talents' block +the way and bribe the national conscience. For instance, the opium +traffic; how is it defended? Some attempt is made to prove either that +we did not force it upon China, or that the talk about the evils of +opium is missionary fanaticism, but the sheet-anchor is: 'How are we +ever to raise the Indian revenue if we give up the traffic?' That is +exactly Amaziah over again, come from the dead, and resurrected in a +very ugly shape. + +So national policy and Church action, and--what is of far more +importance to you and me than either the one or the other,--our own +personal relation to Jesus Christ and discipleship to Him, have been +hampered, and are being hampered, just by that persistent and unworthy +attitude of looking at the consequences of doing plain duties, and +permitting ourselves to be frightened from the duties because the +consequences are unwelcome to us. + +Prudence is all right, but when prudence takes command and presumes to +guide conscience, then it is all wrong. In some courts of law and in +certain cases, the judge has an assessor sitting beside him, an expert +about some of the questions that are involved. Conscience is the +judge, prudence the assessor. But if the assessor ventures up on the +judgment-seat, and begins to give the decisions which it is not his +business to give--for _his_ only business is to give advice--then +the only thing to do with the assessor is to tell him to hold his +tongue and let the judge speak. It is no answer to the prophet's +prohibition to say, 'But what shall I do for the hundred talents?' A +yet better answer than the prophet gave Amaziah would have been, +'Never mind about the hundred talents; do what is right, and leave the +rest to God.' However, that was not the answer. + +II. The triumphant answer. + +'The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.' Now, this answer, +like the question, may be right or wrong, according as it is taken. In +what aspect is it wrong? In what sense is it not true? I suppose this +prophet did not mean more than the undeniable truth that God was able +to give Amaziah more than a hundred talents. He was not thinking of +the loftier meanings which we necessarily, as Christian people, at a +later stage of Revelation, and with a clearer vision of many things, +attach to the words. He simply meant, 'You will very likely get more +than the hundred talents that you have lost, if you do what pleases +God.' He was speaking from the point of view of the Old Testament; +though even in the Old Testament we have instances enough that +prosperity did not always attend righteousness. In the Old Testament +we find the Book of Job, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, and many a +psalm, all of which were written in order to grapple with the +question, 'How is it that God does not give the good man more than the +hundred talents that he has lost for the sake of being good?' It is +not true, and it is a dangerous mistake to suggest that it is true, +that a man in this world never loses by being a good, honest, +consistent Christian. He often does lose a great deal, as far as this +world is concerned; and he has to make up his mind to lose it, and it +would be a very poor thing to say to him, 'Now, live like a Christian +man, and if you are flinging away money or anything else because of +your Christianity, you will get it back.' No; you will not, in a good +many cases. Sometimes you will, and sometimes you will not. It does +not matter whether you do or do not. + +But the sense in which the triumphant answer of the prophet is true is +a far higher one. 'The Lord is able to give thee much more than +this,'--what is 'more'? a thousand talents? No; the 'much more' that +Christianity has educated us to understand is meant in the depths of +such a promise as this is, first of all, character. Every man that +sacrifices anything to convictions of duty gains more than he loses +thereby, because he gains an inward nobleness and strength, to say +nothing of the genial warmth of an approving conscience. And whilst +that is true in all regions of life, it is most especially true in +regard to sacrifices made from Christian principle. No matter how +disastrous may be the results externally, the inward results of +faithfulness are so much greater and sweeter and nobler than all the +external evil consequences that may follow, that it is 'good policy' +for a man to beggar himself for Christ's sake, for the sake of the +durable riches--which our Lord Himself explains to be synonymous with +righteousness--which will come thereby. He that wins strength and +Christ-likeness of character by sacrificing for Christ has won far +more than he can ever lose. + +He wins not only character, but a fuller capacity for a fuller +possession of Jesus Christ Himself, and that is infinitely more than +anything that any man has ever sacrificed for the sake of that dear +Lord. Do you remember when it was that there was granted to the +Apostle John the vision of the throned Christ, and that he felt laid +upon him the touch of the vivifying Hand from Heaven? It was 'when I +was in Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.' He +lost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible Christ. Do you +remember who it was that said, 'I have suffered the loss of all +things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ'? It was a +good bargain, Paul! The balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your +credit. Debit, 'all things'; credit, 'Christ.' 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than this.' + +Remember the old prophecy: 'For brass I will bring gold; and for iron, +silver.' The brass and the iron may be worth something, but if we +barter them away and get instead gold and silver, we are gainers by +the transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon to +rise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get 'the more than +this.' And listen to the New Testament variation of this man of God's +promise, 'If thou wilt have treasure in heaven, go and sell all that +thou hast, and follow Me.' + + + +JOTHAM + +'So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord +his God.'--2 CHRON. xxvii 6. + + +This King Jotham is one of the obscurer of the Jewish monarchs, and we +know next to nothing about him. The most memorable event in his reign +is that 'in the year when King Uzziah,' his father, 'died,' and +consequently in Jotham's first year, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting in +the Temple on the empty throne, and had the lips which were to utter +so many immortal words touched with fire from the altar. Whether it +were the effect of the prophet's words, or from other causes, the +little that is told of him is good, and he is eulogised as having +imitated his father's God-pleasing acts, and not having stained +himself by repeating his father's sin. The rest that we hear of him in +Chronicles is a mere sketch of campaigns, buildings, and victories, +and then he and his reign are summed up in the words of our text, +which is the analysis of the man and the disclosure of the secret of +his prosperity: 'He became mighty, because he prepared his ways'--and, +more than that, 'he prepared them before the Lord his God.' + +So then, if we begin, as it were, at the bottom, as we ought to do, in +studying a character, taking the deepest thing first, and laying hold +upon the seminal and germinal principle of the whole, this text +reminds us that--The secret of true strength lies in the continual +recognition that life is lived 'Before the Lord our God.' + +Now to say, 'Walk thou _before_ Me,' the command given to +Abraham, suggests a somewhat different modification of the idea from +the apparently parallel phrase, 'to walk _with_ God' which is +declared to have been the life's habit of Enoch. The one expression +suggests simple companionship and communion; the other suggests rather +the vivid and continual realisation of the thought that we are 'ever +in the great Taskmaster's eye.' To walk before God is to feel +thrillingly and continually, and yet without being abased or crushed +or discomposed, but rather being encouraged and quickened and calmed +and ennobled and gladdened thereby: 'Thou God seest me.' It seems to +me that one of the plainest pieces of Christian duty, and, alas! one +of the most neglected of them, is the cultivation, definitely and +consciously, by effort and by self-discipline, of that consciousness +as a present factor in all our lives, and an influencing motive in +everything that we do. If once we could bring before the eye of our +minds that great, blazing, white throne, and Him that sits upon it, we +should want nothing else to burn up the commonplaces of life, and to +flash its insignificance into splendour and awfulness. We should want +nothing else to lift us to a 'solemn scorn of ills,' and to deliver us +from the false sweetnesses and fading delights that grow on the low +levels of a sense-bound life! Brethren! our whole life would be +transformed and glorified, and we should be different men and women if +we ordered our ways as '_before the Lord our God_.' What meanness +could live when we knew that it was seen by those pure Eyes? How we +should be ashamed of ourselves, of our complaints, of our murmurings, +of our reluctance to do our duty, of our puerile regrets for vanished +blessings, and of all the low cares and desires that beset and spoil +our lives, if once this thought, 'before God,' were habitual with us, +and we walked in it as in an atmosphere! + +Why is it not? and might it not be? and if it might not, ought it not +to be? And what are we to say to Him whom we profess to love as our +Supreme Good, if all the day long the thought of Him seldom comes into +our minds, and if any triviality, held near the eye, is large enough +and bright enough to shut Him out from our sight? With deep ethical +significance and accuracy was the command given to Abraham as the +sole, all-sufficient direction for both inward and outward life: 'Walk +before Me and (so) be thou perfect.' For indeed the full +realisation--adequate and constant and solid enough to be a motive--of +'Thou God seest me,' would be found to contain practical directions in +regard to all moral difficulties, and would unfailingly detect the +evil, howsoever wrapped up, and would carry in itself not only motive +but impulse, not only law but power to fulfil it. The Master's eye +makes diligent servants. How schoolboys bend themselves over their +slates and quicken their effort when the teacher is walking behind the +benches! And how a gang of idle labourers will buckle to the spade and +tax their muscles in an altogether different fashion when the overseer +appears upon the field! If we realised, as we should do, the presence +in all our little daily life of that great, sovereign Lord, there +would be less skulking, less superficially performed tasks, less jerry +work put into our building; more of our strength cast into all our +work, and less of ourselves in any of it. + +Remember, too, how connected with this is another piece of effort +needful in the religious life, and suggested by the last words of this +text, 'Before the Lord _his_ God.' Cultivate the habit of +narrowing down the general truths of religion to their relation to +yourselves. Do not be content with 'the Lord _our_ God,' or 'the +Lord the God of the whole earth,' but put a 'my' in, and realise not +only the presence of a divine Inspector, but the closeness of the +personal bond that unites to Him; and the individual responsibility, +in all its width and depth and unshiftableness--if I may use such a +word--which results therefrom. You cannot shake off or step out of the +tasks that 'the Lord _your_ God' lays upon you. You and He are as +if alone in the world. Make Him your God by choice, by your own +personal acceptance of His authority and dependence upon His power, +and try to translate into daily life the great truth, 'Thou God seest +_me_,' and bring it to bear upon the veriest trifles and smallest +details. + +Now the text follows the order of observation, so to speak, and +mentions the outward facts of Jotham's success before it goes deeper +and accounts for them. We have reversed the process and dealt first +with the cause. The spring of all lay in his conscious recognition of +his relation to God and God's to him. From that, of course, followed +that he 'prepared,' according to the Authorised Version, or 'ordered,' +according to the Revised Version, 'his ways.' There is an alternative +rendering of the word rendered 'prepared' or 'ordered' given in the +margin of the Authorised Version, which reads, 'established his ways.' +Both the ideas of ordering and establishing are contained in the word. + +Now that fact, that the same word means both these, conveys a piece of +practical wisdom, which it will do us all good to note clearly and +take to heart. For it teaches us that whatever is 'ordered' is firm, +and whatever is disorderly, haphazard, done without the exercise of +one's mind on the act, being chaotic, is necessarily short-lived. + +The ordered life is the established life. The life of impulse, chance, +passion, the life that is lived without choice and plan, without +reflection and consideration of consequences, the following of nature, +which some people tell us is the highest law, and which is woefully +likely to degenerate into following the _lower_ nature, which +ought not to be followed, but covered and kept under hatches--such a +life is sure to be a topsy-turvy life, which, being based upon the +narrowest point, must, by the laws of equilibrium, topple over sooner +or later. If you would have your lives established, they must be +ordered. You must bring your brains to bear upon them, and you must +bring more than brain, you must bring to bear on every part of them +the spiritual instincts that are quickened by contact with the thought +of the All-seeing God, and let these have the ordering of them. Such +lives, and only such, will endure 'when all that seems shall suffer +shock.' 'He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' + +But the lesson that is pressed upon us by this word, understood in the +other meanings of 'prepared' or 'ordered,' is that all our 'ways,' +that is, our practical life, our acts, direction of mind, habits, +should be regulated by continual consciousness of, and reference to, +the All-discerning Eye that looks down upon us, and 'the God in whose +hands our breath is, and whose are'--whether we make them so or +not--'all our ways.' To translate that into less picturesque, and less +forcible, but more modern words, it is just this: You Christian people +ought to make it a point of duty to cultivate the habit of referring +everything that you do to the will and judgment of God. Take Him into +account in everything great or small, and in nothing say, 'Thus I +will, thus I command. My will shall stand instead of all other +reasons'; but say, 'Lord! by Thee and for Thee I try to do this'; and +having done it, say, 'Lord! the seed is sown in Thy name; bless Thou +the springing thereof.' Works thus begun, continued and ended, will +never be put to confusion, and 'ways' thus ordered will be +established. A path of righteousness like that can no more fail to be +a way of peace than can God's throne ever totter or fall. An ordered +life in which He is consulted, and which is all shaped at His bidding, +and by His strength, and for His dear name, will 'stand four-square to +all the winds that blow,' and, being founded upon a rock, will never +fall. + +But we may also note that in the strength of that thought, that we are +before the Lord our God, we shall best establish our ways in the sense +that we shall keep on steadily and doggedly on the path. Well begun +may be half ended, but there is often a long dreary grind before it is +wholly ended, and the last half of the march is the wearisome half. +The Bible has a great deal to say about the need of obstinate +persistence on the right road. 'Ye did run well, what did hinder you?' +'Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of +reward.' 'We are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the +beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.' 'He that overcometh +and keepeth My words unto the end, to him will I give authority.' +Lives which derive their impulse from communion with God will not come +to a dead stop half-way on their road, like a motor the fuel of which +fails; and it will be impossible for any man to 'endure unto the end' +and so to be heir of the promise--'the same shall be saved,' unless he +draws his persistency from Him who 'fainteth not, neither is weary' +and who 'reneweth strength to them that have no might' so that in all +the monotonous levels they shall 'walk and not faint,' and in all the +crises, demanding brief spurts of energy, 'they shall run and not be +weary,' and at last 'shall mount up with wings as eagles.' A path +ordered and a path persisted in ought to be the path of every +Christian man. + +The text finally tells of the prosperity and growing power which +attends such a course. 'Jotham became mighty.' That was simple outward +blessing. His kingdom prospered, and, according to the theocratic +constitution of Judah, faithfulness to God and material well-being +went together. You cannot apply these words, of course, to the outward +lives of Christians. It is no doubt true that 'Godliness _is_ +profitable for all things,' but there are a great many other things +besides the godliness of the man that does them which determine +whether a man's undertakings shall prosper in the world's sense or +not. It would be a pitiable thing if the full revelation of God in +Christ did not teach us Christians more about the meaning and the +worth of outward success and inward prosperity than the Old Testament +could teach. I hope we have learned that lesson; at least, it is not +the fault of our lesson book if we have not. Although it is true that +religion does make the best of both worlds, it does not do so by +taking the world's estimate of what its best for to-day is, and giving +a religious man _that_. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it does +not, and whether it does or no depends on other considerations than +the reality of the man's devotion. Good men are often made better by +being made sad and unsuccessful. And if they are not bettered by +adversity, it is not the fault of the discipline but of the people who +undergo it. + +But though the husk of my text falls away--and we should thank God +that it has fallen away--the kernel of it is ever true. Whosoever will +thus root his life in the living thought of a loving, divine Eye being +perpetually upon him, and make that thought a motive for holiness and +loving obedience and effort after service, will find that the true +success, the only success and the only strength that are worth a man's +ambition to desire or his effort to secure, will assuredly be his. He +may be voted a failure as regards the world's prizes. But a man that +'orders his ways,' and perseveres in ways thus ordered, 'before the +Lord' will for reward get more power to order his ways, and a purer +and more thrilling, less interrupted and more childlike vision of the +Face that looks upon him. God's 'eyes behold the upright,' and the +upright behold His eyes, and in the interchange of glances there is +power; and in that power is the highest reward for ordered lives. We +shall get power to do, power to bear, power to think aright, power to +love, power to will, power to behold, power to deny ourselves, 'power +to become sons of God.' This is the success of life, when out of all +its changes, and by reason of all its efforts, we realise more fully +our filial possession of our Father, and our Father's changeless love +to us. We shall become mighty with the might that is born of obedience +and faith if we order our ways before the Lord our God. 'The path of +the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the +noontide of the day.' + + + +COSTLY AND FATAL HELP + +'He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he +said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will +I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of +him, and of all Israel.'--2 CHRON. xxviii. 23. + + +Ahaz came to the throne when a youth of twenty. From the beginning he +reversed the policy of his father, and threw himself into the arms of +the heathen party. In a comparatively short reign of sixteen years he +stamped out the worship of God, and nearly ruined the kingdom. + +He did not plunge into idolatry for want of good advice. The greatest +of the prophets stood beside him. Isaiah addressed to him +remonstrances which might have made the most reckless pause, and +promises which might have kindled hope and courage in the bosom of +despair. Hosea in the northern kingdom, Micah in Judah, and other less +brilliant names were amongst the stars which shone even in that dark +night. But their light was all in vain. The foolish lad had got the +bit between his teeth, and, like many another young man, thought to +show his 'breadth' and his 'spirit' by neglecting his father's +counsellors, and abandoning his father's faith. He was ready to +worship anything that called itself a god, always excepting Jehovah. +He welcomed Baal, Moloch, Rimmon, and many more with an indiscriminate +eagerness that would have been ludicrous if it had not been tragical. +The more he multiplied his gods the more he multiplied his sorrows, +and the more he multiplied his sorrows the more he multiplied his +gods. + +From all sides the invaders came. From north, northeast, east, +south-east, south, they swarmed in upon him. They tore away the +fringes of his kingdom; and hostile armies flaunted their banners +beneath the very walls of Jerusalem. + +And then, in his despair, like a scorpion in a circle of fire, he +inflicted a deadly wound on himself by calling in the fatal help of +Assyria. Nothing loth, that warlike power responded, scattered his +less formidable foes, and then swallowed the prey which it had dragged +from between the teeth of the Israelites and Syrians. The result of +Ahaz's frantic appeals to false gods and faithless men may still be +read on the cuneiform inscriptions, where, amidst a long list of +unknown tributary kings, stands, with a Philistine on one side of him +and an Ammonite on the other, the shameful record, 'Ahaz of Judah.' + +That was what came of forsaking the God of his fathers. It is a type +of what always has come, and always must come, of a godless life. That +is the point of view from which I wish to look at the story, and at +these words of my text which gather the whole spirit of it into one +sentence. + +I. First, then, let me ask you to notice how this narrative +illustrates for us the crowd of vain helpers to which a man has to +take when he turns his back upon God. + +If we compare the narrative in our chapter with the parallel in the +Second Book of Kings, we get a very vivid picture of the strange +medley of idolatries which they introduced. Amongst Ahaz's new gods +are, for instance, the golden calves of Israel and the ferocious +Moloch of Ammon, to whom he sacrificed, passing through the fire at +least one of his own children. The ancient sacred places of the +Canaanites, on every high hill and beneath every conspicuous tree, +again smoked with incense to half-forgotten local deities. In every +open space in Jerusalem he planted a brand-new altar with a brand-new +worship attendant upon it. In the Temple, he brushed aside the altar +that Solomon had made and put up a new one, copied from one which he +had seen at Damascus. The importation of the Damascene altar, I +suppose, meant, as our text tells us, the importation of the Damascene +gods along with it. + +Side by side with that multiplication of false deities went the almost +entire neglect of the worship of Jehovah, until at last, as his reign +advanced and he floundered deeper into his troubles, the Temple was +spoiled, everything in it that could be laid hands upon was sent to +the melting-pot, to pay the Assyrian tribute; and then the doors were +shut, the lamps extinguished, the fire quenched on the cold altars, +and the silent Temple left to the bats and--_the Shekinah_; for +God still abode in the deserted house. + +Further, side by side with this appealing all round the horizon to +whatsoever obscene and foul shape seemed to promise some help, there +went the foolish appeal to the northern invaders to come and aid him, +which they did, to his destruction. His whole career is that of a +godless and desperate man who will grasp at anything that offers +deliverance, and will worship any god or devil who will extricate him +from his troubles. + +Is the breed extinct, think you? Is there any one among us who, if he +cannot get what he wants by fair ways, will try to get it by foul? Do +none of you ever bow down to Satan for a slice of the kingdoms of this +world? Ahaz has still plenty of brothers and sisters in all our +churches and chapels. + +This story illustrates for us what, alas! is only too true, both on +the broad scale, as to the generation in which we live, and on the +narrower field of our own individual lives. Look at the so-called +cultured classes of Europe to-day; turning away, as so many of them +are, from the Lord God of their fathers; what sort of gods are they +worshipping instead? Scraps from Buddhism, the Vedas, any sacred books +but the Bible; quackeries, and charlatanism, arid dreams, and +fragmentary philosophies all pieced together, to try and make up a +whole, instead of the old-fashioned whole that they have left behind +them. There are men and women in many congregations who, in modern +fashion, are doing precisely the thing that Ahaz did--having abandoned +Christianity, they are trying to make up for it by hastily stitching +together shreds and patches that they have found in other systems. +'The garment is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it,' and +a creed patched together so will never make a seamless whole which can +be trusted not to rend. + +But look, further, how the same thing is true as to the individual +lives of godless men. + +Many of us are trying to make up for not having the One by seeking to +stay our hearts on the many. But no accumulation of insufficiencies +will ever make a sufficiency. You may fill the heaven all over with +stars, bright and thickly set as those in the whitest spot in the +galaxy, and it will be night still. Day needs the sun, and the sun is +one, and when it comes the twinkling lights are forgotten. You cannot +make up for God by any extended series of creatures, any more than a +row of figures that stretched from here to _Sirius_ and back +again would approximate to infinitude. + +The very fact of the multitude of helpers is a sign that none of them +is sufficient. There is no end of 'cures' for toothache, that is to +say there is none. There is no end of helps for men that have +abandoned God, that is to say, every one in turn when it is tried, and +the stress of the soul rests upon it, gives, and is found to be a +broken staff that pierces the hand that leans upon it. + +Consult your own experience. What is the meaning of the unrest and +distraction that mark the lives of most of the men in this generation? +Why is it that you hurry from business to pleasure, from pleasure to +business, until it is scarcely possible to get a quiet breathing time +for thought at all? Why is it but because one after another of your +gods have proved insufficient, and so fresh altars must be built for +fresh idolatries, and new experiments made, of which we can safely +prophesy the result will be the old one. We have not got beyond St. +Augustine's saying:--'Oh, God! my heart was made for Thee, and in Thee +only doth it find repose.' The many idols, though you multiply them +beyond count, all put together will never make the One God. You are +seeking what you will never find. The many pearls that you seek will +never be enough for you. The true wealth is One, 'One pearl of great +price.' + +II. So notice again how this story teaches the heavy cost of these +helpers' help. + +Ahaz had, as he thought, two strings to his bow. He had the gods of +Damascus and of other lands on one hand, he had the king of Assyria on +another. They both of them exacted onerous terms before they would +stir a foot to his aid. As for the northern conqueror, all the wealth +of the king and of the princes and of the Temple was sent to Assyria +as the price of his hurtful help. As for the gods, his helpers, one of +his sons at least went into the furnace to secure their favour; and +what other sacrifices he may have made besides the sacrifice of his +conscience and his soul, history does not tell us. These were +considerable subsidies to have to be paid down before any aid was +granted. + +Do _you_ buy this world's help any cheaper, my brother? You get +nothing for nothing in that market. It is a big price that you have to +pay before these mercenaries will come to fight on your side. Here is +a man that 'succeeds in life,' as we call it. What does it cost him? +Well! it has cost him the suppression, the atrophy by disuse, of many +capacities in his soul which were far higher and nobler than those +that have been exercised in his success. It has cost him all his days; +it has possibly cost him the dying out of generous sympathies and the +stimulating of unwholesome selfishness. Ah! he has bought his +prosperity very dear. Political economists have much to say about the +'appreciation of gold.' I think if people would estimate what they pay +for it, in an immense majority of cases, in treasure that cannot be +weighed and stamped, they would find it to be about the dearest thing +in God's universe; and that there are few men who make worse bargains +than the men who give _themselves_ for worldly success, even when +they receive what they give themselves for. + +There are some of you who know how much what you call enjoyment has +cost you. Some of us have bought pleasure at the price of innocence, +of moral dignity, of stained memories, of polluted imaginations, of an +incapacity to rise above the flesh: and some of us have bought it at +the price of health. The world has a way of getting more out of you +than it gives to you. + +At the best, if you are not Christian men and women, whether you are +men of business, votaries of pleasure, seekers after culture and +refinement or anything else, you have given Heaven to get earth. Is +that a good bargain? Is it much wiser than that of a horde of naked +savages that sell a great tract of fair country, with gold-bearing +reefs in it, for a bottle of rum, and a yard or two of calico? What is +the difference? You have been fooled out of the inheritance which God +meant for you; and you have got for it transient satisfaction, and +partial as it is transient. If you are not Christian people, you have +to buy this world's wealth and goods at the price of God and of your +own souls. And I ask you if that is an investment which recommends +itself to your common sense. Oh! my brother; 'what shall it profit a +man if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?' Answer the +question. + +III. Lastly, we may gather from this story an illustration of the +fatal falsehood of the world's help. + +Ahaz pauperised himself to buy the hireling swords of Assyria, and he +got them; but, as it says in the narrative, 'the king came unto him, +and distressed him, but strengthened him not.' He helped Ahaz at +first. He scattered the armies of which the king of Judah was afraid +like chaff, with his fierce and disciplined onset. And then, having +driven them off the bleeding prey, he put his own paw upon it, and +growled 'Mine!' And where he struck his claws there was little more +hope of life for the prostrate creature below him. + +Ay! and that is what this world always does. In the case before us +there was providential guidance of the politics of the Eastern nations +in order to bring about these results; and we do not look for anything +of that sort. No! But there are natural laws at work today which are +God's laws, and which ensure the worthlessness of the help bought so +dear. + +A godless life has at the best only partial satisfaction, and that +partial satisfaction soon diminishes. 'Even in laughter the heart is +sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' + +That is the experience of all men, and I need not dwell upon the +threadbare commonplaces which have survived from generation to +generation, because each generation in turn has found them so +piteously true, about the incompleteness and the fleetingness of all +the joys and treasures of this life. The awful power of habit, if +there were no other reason, takes the edge off all gratification +except in so far as God is in it. Nothing fully retains its power to +satisfy. Nothing has that power absolutely at any moment; but even +what measure of it any of our possessions or pursuits may have for a +time, soon, or at all events by degrees, passes away. The greater part +of life is but like drinking out of empty cups, and the cups drop from +our hands. What one of our purest and peacefullest poets said in his +haste about all his kind is true in spirit of all godless lives:-- + + 'We poets, in our youth, begin in gladness, + But thereof cometh, in the end, despondency and madness.' + +'Vanity of vanities! saith'--not the Preacher only, but the inmost +heart of every godless man and woman--'vanity of vanities! all is +vanity!' + +And do not forget that, partial and transient as these satisfactions +of which I have been speaking are, they derive what power of helping +and satisfying is in them only from the silence of our consciences, +and our success in being able to shut out realities. One word, they +say, spoken too loud, brings down the avalanche, and beneath its +white, cold death, the active form is motionless and the beating heart +lies still. One word from conscience, one touch of an awakened +reflectiveness, one glance at the end--the coffin and the shroud and +what comes after these--slay your worldly satisfactions as surely as +that falling snow would crush some light-winged, gauzy butterfly that +had been dancing at the cliff's foot. Your jewellery is all imitation. +It is well enough for candle-light. Would you like to try the testing +acid upon it? Here is a drop of it. 'Know thou that for all these +things God will bring thee into judgment.' Does it smoke? or does it +stand the test? Here is another drop. 'This night thy soul shall be +required of thee.' Does it stand that test? My brother! do not be +afraid to take in all the facts of your earthly life, and do not +pretend to satisfy yourselves with satisfactions which dare not face +realities, and shrivel up at their presence. + +These fatal helpers come as friends and allies, and they remain as +masters. Ahaz and a hundred other weak princes have tried the policy +of sending for a strong foreign power to scatter their enemies, and it +has always turned out one way. The foreigner has come and he has +stopped. The auxiliary has become the lord, and he that called him to +his aid becomes his tributary. Ay! and so it is with all the things of +this world. Here is some pleasant indulgence that I call to my help +lightly and thoughtlessly. It is very agreeable and does what I wanted +with it, and I try it again. Still it answers to my call. And then +after a while I say, 'I am going to give that up,' and I cannot, I +have brought in a master when I thought I was only bringing in an ally +that I could dismiss when I liked. The sides of the pit are very +slippery; it is gay travelling down them, but when the animal is +trapped at the bottom there is no possibility of getting up again. So +some of you, dear friends! have got masters in your delights, masters +in your pursuits, masters in your habits. These are your gods, these +are your tyrants, and you will find out that they are so, if ever, in +your own strength, you try to break away from them. + +So let me plead with you. With some of you, perhaps, my voice, as a +familiar voice, that in some measure, however undeservedly, you trust, +may have influence. Let me plead with you--do not run after these +will-o'-the-wisps that will only lure you into destruction, but follow +the light of life which is Jesus Christ Himself. Do not take these +tyrants for your helpers, who will master you under pretence of aiding +you; and work their will of you instead of lightening your burden. The +same unwise and hopeless mode of life, which we have been describing +this evening by one symbolic illustration, as calling vain helpers to +our aid, was presented by Ahaz's great contemporary Isaiah, in words +which Ahaz himself may have heard, as 'striking a covenant with death, +and making lies our refuge.' Some of us, alas! have been doing that +all our lives. Let such hearken to the solemn words which may have +rung in the ears of this unworthy king. 'Judgment also will I lay to +the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep +away the refuge of lies.' I come to you, dear friends! to press on +your acceptance the true Guide and Helper--even Jesus Christ your +Brother, in whose single Self you will find all that you have vainly +sought dispersed 'at sundry times and in divers manners'--among +creatures. Take Him for your Saviour by trusting your whole selves to +Him. He is the Sacrifice by whose blood all our sins are washed away, +and the Indweller, by whose Spirit all our spirits are ennobled and +gladdened. I ask you to take Him for your Helper, who will never +deceive you; to call whom to our aid is to be secure and victorious +for ever. 'Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried +stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth +shall not make haste.' + + + +A GODLY REFORMATION + +'Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he +reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was +Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2. And he did that which was right +in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had +done. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first mouth, opened +the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. 4. And he +brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together +into the east street, 5. And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; +Sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of +your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. 6. +For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the +eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away +their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs. +7. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the +lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered burnt-offerings in the +holy place unto the God of Israel. 8. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord +was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble, +to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. 9. For, lo, +our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons and our daughters +and our wives are in captivity for this. 10. Now it is in mine heart +to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath +may turn away from us. 11. My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord +hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should +minister unto Him, and burn incense.'--2 CHRON. xxix. 1-11. + + +Hezekiah, the best of the later kings, had the worst for his father, +and another almost as bad for his son. His own piety was probably +deepened by the mad extravagance of his father's boundless idolatry, +which brought the kingdom to the verge of ruin. Action and reaction +are equal and contrary. Saints grown amidst fashionable and deep +corruption are generally strong, and reformers usually arise from the +midst of the systems which they overthrow. Hezekiah came to a +tottering throne and an all but beggared nation, ringed around by +triumphant enemies. His brave young heart did not quail. He sought +'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,' and of the two +pressing needs for Judah, political peace and religious purity, he +began with the last. The Book of Kings tells at most length the civil +history; the Book of Chronicles, as usual, lays most stress on the +ecclesiastical. The two complete each other. The present passage gives +a beautiful picture of the vigorous, devout young king setting about +the work of reformation. + +We may note, first, his prompt action. Joash had to whip up the +reluctant priests with his 'See that ye hasten the matter!' Hezekiah +lets no grass grow under his feet, but begins his reforms with his +reign. 'The first month' (ver. 3) possibly, indeed, means the first +month of the calendar, not of Hezekiah, who may have come to the +throne in the later part of the Jewish year; but, in any case, no time +was lost. The statement in verse 3 may be taken as a general +_resume_ of what follows in detail, but this vigorous speech to +the priests was clearly among the new king's first acts. No doubt his +purpose had slowly grown while his father was affronting Heaven with +his mania for idols. Such decisive, swift action does not come without +protracted, previous brooding. The hidden fires gather slowly in the +silent crater, however rapidly they burst out at last. + +We can never begin good things too early, and when we come into new +positions, it is always prudence as well as bravery to show our +colours unmistakably from the first. Many a young man, launched among +fresh associations, has been ruined because of beginning with +temporising timidity. It is easier to take the right standing at first +than to shift to it afterwards. Hezekiah might have been excused if he +had thought that the wretched state of political affairs left by Ahaz +needed his first attention. Edomites on the east, Philistines on the +west and south, Syrians and Assyrians on the north, 'compassed him +about like bees,' and worldly prudence would have said, 'Look after +these enemies today, and the Temple tomorrow.' He was wiser than that, +knowing that these were effects of the religious corruption, and so he +went at that first. It is useless trying to mend a nation's fortunes +unless you mend its morals and religion. + +And there are some things which are best done quickly, both in +individual and national life. Leaving off bad habits by degrees is not +hopeful. The only thing to be done is to break with them utterly and +at once. One strong, swift blow, right through the heart, kills the +wild beast. Slighter cuts may make him bleed to death, but he may kill +you first. The existing state was undeniably sinful. There was no need +for deliberation as to that. Therefore there was no reason for delay. +Let us learn the lesson that, where conscience has no doubts, we +should have no dawdling. 'I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy +commandment.' + +Note, too, in Hezekiah's speech, the true order of religious +reformation. The priests and Levites were not foremost in it, as +indeed is only too often the case with ecclesiastics in all ages. +Probably many of them had been content to serve Ahaz as priests of his +multiform idolatry. At all events, they needed 'sanctifying,' though +no doubt the word is here used in reference to merely ceremonial +uncleanness. Still the requirement that they should cleanse themselves +before they cleansed the Temple has more than ceremonial significance. +Impure hands are not fit for the work of religious reformation, though +they have often been employed in it. What was the weakness of the +Reformation but that the passions of princes and nobles were so soon +and generally enlisted for it, and marred it? He that enters into the +holy place, especially if his errand be to cleanse it, must have +'clean hands, and a pure heart.' The hands that wielded the whip of +small cords, and drove out the money-changers, were stainless, and +therefore strong. Some of us are very fond of trying to set churches +to rights. Let us begin with ourselves, lest, like careless servants, +we leave dirty finger-marks where we have been 'cleaning.' + +The next point in the speech is the profound and painful sense of +existing corruption. Note the long-drawn-out enumeration of evils in +verses 6 and 7, starting with the general recognition of the fathers' +trespass, advancing to the more specific sin of forsaking Him and His +house, and dwelling, finally, as with fascinated horror, on all the +details of closed shrine and quenched lamps and cold altars. The +historical truth of the picture is confirmed by the close of the +previous chapter, and its vividness shows how deeply Hezekiah had felt +the shame and sin of Ahaz. It is not easy to keep clear of the +influence of prevailing corruptions of religion. Familiarity weakens +abhorrence, and the stained embodiments of the ideal hide its purity +from most eyes. But no man will be God's instrument to make society, +the church, or the home, better, unless he feels keenly the existing +evils. We do not need to cherish a censorious spirit, but we do need +to guard against an unthinking acquiescence in the present state of +things, and a self-complacent reluctance to admit their departure from +the divine purpose for the church. There is need to-day for a like +profound consciousness of evil, and like efforts after new purity. If +we individually lived nearer God, we should be less acclimatised to +the Church's imperfections. No doubt Hezekiah's clear sight of the +sinfulness of the idolatry so universal round him was largely owing to +Isaiah's influence. Eyes which have caught sight of the true King of +Israel, and of the pure light of His kingdom, will be purged to +discern the sore need for purifying the Lord's house. + +The clear insight into the national sin gives as clear understanding +of the national suffering. Hezekiah speaks, in verses 8 and 9, as the +Law and the Prophets had been speaking for centuries, and as God's +providence had been uttering in act all through the national history. +But so slow are men to learn familiar truths that Ahaz had grasped at +idol after idol to rescue him; 'but they were the ruin of him, and of +all Israel.' How difficult it is to hammer plain truths, even with the +mallet of troubles, into men's heads! How blind we all are to the +causal connection between sin and sorrow! Hezekiah saw the iron link +uniting them, and his whole policy was based upon that 'wherefore.' Of +course, if we accept the Biblical statements as to the divine dealing +with Israel and Judah, obedience and disobedience were there followed +by reward and suffering more certainly and directly than is now the +case in either national or individual life. But it still remains true +that it is a 'bitter' as well as an 'evil' thing to depart from the +living God. If we would find the cause of our own or of a nation's +sorrows, we had better begin our search among our or its sins. + +That phrase 'an astonishment, and an hissing' (ver. 8) is new. It +appears for the first time in Micah (Micah vi. l6), and he, we know, +exercised influence on Hezekiah (Jer. xxvi. 18, 19). Perhaps the king +is here quoting the prophet. + +The exposition of the sin and its fruit is followed by the king's +resolve for himself, and, so far as may be, for his people. The phrase +'it is in my heart' expresses fixed determination, not mere wish. It +is used by David and of him, in reference to his resolve to build the +Temple. 'To make a covenant' probably means to renew the covenant, +made long ago at Sinai, but broken by sin. The king has made up his +mind, and announces his determination. He does not consult priests or +people, but expects their acquiescence. So, in the early days of +Christianity, the 'conversion' of a king meant that of his people. Of +course, the power of the kings of Israel and Judah to change the +national religion at their pleasure shows how slightly any religion +had penetrated, and how much, at the best, it was a matter of mere +ceremonial worship with the masses. People who worshipped Ahaz's +rabble of gods and godlings to-day because he bade them, and +Hezekiah's God to-morrow, had little worship for either, and were much +the same through all changes. + +Hezekiah was in earnest, and his resolve was none the less right +because it was moved by a desire to turn away the fierce anger of the +Lord. Dread of sin's consequences and a desire to escape these is no +unworthy motive, however some superfine moralists nowadays may call it +so. It is becoming unfashionable to preach 'the terror of the Lord.' +The more is the pity, and the less is the likelihood of persuading +men. But, however kindled, the firm determination (which does not wait +for others to concur) that 'As for me, I will serve the Lord,' is the +grand thing for us all to imitate. That strong young heart showed +itself kingly in its resolve, as it had shown itself sensitive to evil +and tender in contemplating the widespread sorrow. If we would brace +our feeble wills, and screw them to the sticking-point of immovable +determination to make a covenant with God, let us meditate on our +departures from Him, the Lover and Benefactor of our souls, and on the +dreadfulness of His anger and the misery of those who forsake Him. + +Once more the king turns to the priests. He began and he finishes with +them, as if he were not sure of their reliableness. His tone is +kindly, 'My sons,' but yet monitory. They would not have been warned +against 'negligence' unless they had obviously needed it, nor would +they have been stimulated to their duties by reminding them of their +prerogatives, unless they had been apt to slight these. Officials, +whose business is concerned with the things of God, are often apt to +drop into an easy-going pace. Negligent work may suit unimportant +offices, but is hideously inconsistent with the tasks and aims of +God's servants. If there is any work which has to be done 'with both +hands, earnestly,' it is theirs. Unless we put all our strength into +it, we shall get no good for ourselves or others out of it. The utmost +tension of all powers, the utmost husbanding of every moment, is +absolutely demanded by the greatness of the task; and the voice of the +great Master says to all His servants, 'My sons, be not now +negligent.' Ungirt loins and unlit lamps are fatal. + +We should meditate, too, on the prerogatives and lofty offices to +which Christ calls those who love Him; not to minister to +self-complacency, as if we were so much better than other men, but to +deepen our sense of responsibility, and stir us to strenuous efforts +to be what we are called to be. If Christian people thought more +earnestly on what Jesus Christ means them to be to the world, they +would not so often counterwork His purpose and shirk their own duties. +Crowns are heavy to wear. Gifts are calls to service. If we are chosen +to be His ministers, we have solemn responsibilities. If we are to +burn incense before Him, our censers need to be bright and free from +strange fire. If we are the lights of the world, our business is to +shine. + + + +SACRIFICE RENEWED + +'Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed +all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt-offering, with all +the vessels thereof, and the shew-bread table, with all the vessels +thereof. 19. Moreover, all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign +did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, +and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. 20. Then Hezekiah +the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up +to the house of the Lord. 21. And they brought seven bullocks, and +seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin-offering +for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he +commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar +of the Lord. 22. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received +the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had +killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed +also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. 23. And +they brought forth the he goats for the sin-offering before the king +and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them. 24. And the +priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood +upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king +commanded that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be made +for all Israel. 25. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord +with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the +commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the +prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets. 26. +And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests +with the trumpets. 27. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the +burnt-offering upon the altar. And when the burnt-offering began, the +song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the +instruments ordained by David king of Israel. 28. And all the +congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters +sounded: and all this continued until the burnt-offering was finished. +29. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that +were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped. 30. Moreover, +Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing +praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. +And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and +worshipped. 31. Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have +consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near, and bring sacrifices +and thank-offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation +brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a +free heart burnt offerings.--2 CHRON. xxix. 18-31. + + +Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had wallowed in idolatry, worshipping any and +every god but Jehovah. He had shut up the Temple, defiled the sacred +vessels, and 'made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.' And the +result was that he brought the kingdom very near ruin, was not allowed +to be buried in the tombs of the kings, and left his son a heavy task +to patch up the mischief he had wrought. Hezekiah began at the right +end of his task. 'In the first year of his reign, in the first month,' +he set about restoring the worship of Jehovah. The relations with +Syria and Damascus would come right if the relations with Judah's God +were right. 'First things first' was his motto, and perhaps he +discerned the true sequence more accurately than some great political +pundits do nowadays. So neglected had the Temple been that a strong +force of priests and Levites took a fortnight to 'carry forth the +filthiness out of the holy place to the brook Kidron,' and to cleanse +and ceremonially sanctify the sacred vessels. Then followed at once +the re-establishment of the Temple worship, which is narrated in the +passage. + +The first thing to be noted is that the whole movement back to Jehovah +was a one-man movement. It was Hezekiah's doing and his only. No +priest is named as prominent in it, and the slowness of the whole +order is especially branded in verse 34. No prophet is named; was +there any one prompting the king? Perhaps Isaiah did, though his +chapter i. with its scathing repudiation of 'the burnt offerings of +rams and the fat of fed beasts,' suggests that he did not think the +restoration of sacrifice so important as that the nation should 'cease +to do evil and learn to do well.' The people acquiesced in the king's +worship of Jehovah, as they had acquiesced in other kings' worship of +Baal or Moloch or Hadad. When kings take to being religious reformers, +they make swift converts, but their work is as slight as it is speedy, +and as short-lived as it is rapid. Manasseh was Hezekiah's successor, +and swept away all his work after twenty-nine years, and apparently +the mass of his people followed him just as they had followed +Hezekiah. Religion must be a matter of personal conviction and +individual choice. Imposed from without, or adopted because other +people adopt it, it is worthless. + +Another point to notice is that Hezekiah's reformation was mainly +directed to ritual, and does not seem to have included either theology +or ethics. Was be quite right in his estimate of what was the first +thing? Isaiah, in the passage already referred to, does not seem to +think so. To him, as to all the prophets, foul hands could not bring +acceptable sacrifices, and worship was an abomination unless preceded +by obedience to the command: 'Put away the evil of your doings from +before Mine eyes.' The filth in the hearts of the men of Judah was +more 'rank, and smelt to heaven' more offensively, than that in the +Temple, which took sixteen days to shovel into Kidron. No doubt +ceremonial bulked more largely in the days of the Old Covenant than it +does in those of the New, and both the then stage of revelation and +the then spiritual stature of the recipients of revelation required +that it should do so. But the true religious reformers, the prophets, +were never weary of insisting that, even in those days, moral and +spiritual reformation should come first, and that unless it did, +ritual worship, though it were nominally offered to Jehovah, was as +abhorrent to Him as if it had been avowedly offered to Baal. Not a +little so-called Christian worship today, judged by the same test, is +as truly heathen superstition as if it had been paid to Mumbo-Jumbo. + +But when all deductions have been made, the scene depicted in the +passage is not only an affecting, but an instructive one. Strangely +unlike our notions of worship, and to us almost repulsive, must have +been the slaying of three hundred and seventy animals and the offering +of them as burnt offerings. Try to picture the rivers of blood, the +contortions of the dumb brutes, the priests bedaubed with gore, the +smell of the burnt flesh, the blare of the trumpets, the shouts of the +worshippers, the clashing cymbals, and realise what a world parts it +from 'They went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding ... +these all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the +women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren'! +Sacrifice has been the essential feature in all religions before +Christ. It has dropped out of worship wherever Christ has been +accepted. Why? Because it spoke of a deep, permanent, universal need, +and because Christ was recognised as having met the need. People who +deny the need, and people who deny that Jesus on the Cross has +satisfied it, may be invited to explain these two facts, written large +on the history of humanity. + +That brings us to the most important aspect of Hezekiah's great +sacrifice. It sets forth the stages by which men can approach to God. +It is symbolic of spiritual facts, and prophetic of Christ's work and +of our way of coming to God through Him. The first requisite for +Judah's return to Jehovah, whom they had forsaken, was the +presentation of a 'sin offering.' The king and the congregation laid +their hands on the heads of the goats, thereby, as it were, +transferring their own sinful personality to them. Thus laden with the +nation's sins, they were slain, and in their death the nation, as it +were, bore the penalty of its sin. Representation and substitution +were dramatised in the sacrifice. The blood sprinkled on the altar +(which had previously been 'sanctified' by sprinkling of blood, and so +made capable of presenting what touched it to Jehovah), made +'atonement for all Israel.' We note in passing the emphasis of +'Israel' here, extending the benefit of the sacrifice to the separated +tribes of the Northern Kingdom, in a gush of yearning love and desire +that they, too, might be reconciled to Jehovah. And is not this the +first step towards any man's reconciliation with God? Is not + + 'My faith would lay her hand + On that dear head of Thine,' + +the true expression of the first requisite for us all? Jesus is the +sin-offering for the world. In His death He bears the world's sin. His +blood is presented to God, and if we have associated ourselves with +Him by faith, that blood sprinkled on the altar covers all our sins. + +Then followed in this parabolic ceremonial the burnt offering. And +that is the second stage of our return to God, for it expresses the +consecration of our forgiven selves, as being consumed by the holy and +blessed fire of a self-devotion, kindled by the 'unspeakable gift,' +which fire, burning away all foulness, will make us tenfold ourselves. +That fire will burn up only our bonds, and we shall walk at liberty in +it. And that burnt-offering will always be accompanied with 'the song +of Jehovah,' and the joyful sound of the trumpets and 'the instruments +of David.' The treasures of Christian poetry have always been inspired +by the Cross, and the consequent rapture of self-surrender. Calvary is +the true fountain of song. + +The last stage in Hezekiah's great sacrifice was 'thank-offerings,' +brought by 'as many as were of a willing heart.' And will not the +self-devotion, kindled by the fire of love, speak in daily life by +practical service, and the whole activities of the redeemed man be a +long thank-offering for the Lamb who 'bears away the sins of the +world'? And if we do not thus offer our whole lives to God, how shall +we profess to have taken the priceless benefit of Christ's death? +Hezekiah followed the order laid down in the Law, and it is the only +order that leads to the goal. First, the atoning sacrifice of the +slain Lamb; next, our identification with Him and it by faith; then +the burnt-offering of a surrendered self, with the song of praise +sounding ever through it; and last, the life of service, offering all +our works to God, and so reaching the perfection of life on earth and +antedating the felicities of heaven. + + + +A LOVING CALL TO REUNION + +'And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to +Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord +at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. 2. For +the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation +in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. 3. For they +could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified +themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves +together to Jerusalem. 4. And the thing pleased the king and all the +congregation. 5. So they established a decree to make proclamation +throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should +come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: +for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was +written. 6. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his +princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the +commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again +unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to +the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of +Assyria. 7. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, +which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore +gave them up to desolation, as ye see. 8. Now, be ye not stiffnecked, +as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter +into His sanctuary, which He hath sanctified for ever: and serve the +Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from +you. 9. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your +children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so +that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is +gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if ye +return unto Him. 10. So the posts passed from city to city through the +country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they laughed +them to scorn, and mocked them. 11. Nevertheless divers of Asher and +Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. 12. +Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the +commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord. +13. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of +unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation.'--2 +CHRON. xxx. 1-13. + + +The date of Hezekiah's passover is uncertain, for, while the immediate +connection of this narrative with the preceding account of his +cleansing the Temple and restoring the sacrificial worship suggests +that the passover followed directly on those events, which took place +at the beginning of the reign, the language employed in the message to +the northern tribes (vers. 6,7, 9) seems to imply the previous fall of +the kingdom of Israel, If so, this passover did not occur till after +721 B.C., the date of the capture of Samaria, six years after +Hezekiah's accession. + +The sending of messengers from Jerusalem on such an errand would +scarcely have been possible if the northern kingdom had still been +independent. Perhaps its fall was thought by Hezekiah to open the door +to drawing 'the remnant that were escaped' back to the ancient unity +of worship, at all events, if not of polity. No doubt a large number +had been left in the northern territory, and Hezekiah may have hoped +that calamity had softened their enmity to his kingdom, and perhaps +touched them with longings for the old worship. At all events, like a +good man, he will stretch out a hand to the alienated brethren, now +that evil days have fallen on them. The hour of an enemy's calamity +should be our opportunity for seeking to help and proffering +reconciliation. We may find that trouble inclines wanderers to come +back to God. + +The alteration of the time of keeping the passover from the thirteenth +day of the first month to the same day of the second was in accordance +with the liberty granted in Numbers ix. 10, 11, to persons unclean by +contact with a dead body or 'in a journey afar off.' The decision to +have the passover was not taken in time to allow of the necessary +removal of uncleanness from the priests nor of the assembling of the +people, and therefore the permission to defer it for a month was taken +advantage of, in order to allow full time for the despatch of the +messengers and the journeys of the farthest northern tribes. It is to +be observed that Hezekiah took his subjects into counsel, since the +step intended was much too great for him to venture on of his own mere +motion. So the overtures went out clothed with the authority of the +whole kingdom of Judah. It was the voice of a nation that sought to +woo back the secessionists. + +The messengers were instructed to supplement the official letters of +invitation with earnest entreaties as from the king, of which the gist +is given in verses 6-9. With the skill born of intense desire to draw +the long-parted kingdoms together, the message touches on ancestral +memories, recent bitter experiences, yearnings for the captive +kinsfolk, the instinct of self-preservation, and rises at last into +the clear light of full faith in, and insight into, God's infinite +heart of pardoning pity. + +Note the very first words, 'Ye children of Israel,' and consider the +effect of this frank recognition of the northern kingdom as part of +the undivided Israel. Such recognition might have been misunderstood +or spurned when Samaria was gay and prosperous; but when its palaces +were desolate, the effect of the old name, recalling happier days, +must have been as if the elder brother had come out from the father's +house and entreated the prodigal to come back to his place at the +fireside. The battle would be more than half won if the appeal that +was couched in the very name of Israel was heeded. + +Note further how firmly and yet lovingly the sin of the northern +kingdom is touched on. The name of Jehovah as the God of Abraham, +Isaac, and Israel, recalls the ancient days when the undivided people +worshipped Him, and the still more ancient, and, to hearers and +speakers alike, more sacred, days when the patriarchs received +wondrous tokens that He was their God, and they were His people; while +the recurrence of 'Israel' as the name of Jacob adds force to its +previous use as the name of all His descendants. The possible +rejection of the invitation, on the ground which the men of the north, +like the Samaritan woman, might have taken, that they were true to +their fathers' worship, is cut away by the reminder that that worship +was an innovation, since the fathers of the present generation had +been apostate from the God of _their_ fathers. The appeal to +antiquity often lands men in a bog because it is not carried far +enough back. 'The fathers' may lead astray, but if the antiquity to +which we appeal is that of which the New Testament is the record, the +more conservative we are, the nearer the truth shall we be. + +Again, the message touched on a chord that might easily have given a +jarring note; namely, the misfortunes of the kingdom. But it was done +with so delicate a hand, and so entirely without a trace of rejoicing +in a neighbour's calamities, that no susceptibilities could be +ruffled, while yet the solemn lesson is unfalteringly pointed. 'He +gave them up to desolation, as ye see.' Behind Assyria was Jehovah, +and Israel's fall was not wholly explained by the disparity between +its strength and the conquerors'. Under and through the play of +criminal ambition, cruelty, and earthly politics, the unseen Hand +wrought; and the teaching of all the Old Testament history is +condensed into that one sad sentence, which points to facts as plain +as tragical. In deepest truth it applies to each of us; for, if we +trespass against God, we draw down evil on our heads with both hands, +and shall find that sin brings the worst desolation--that which sheds +gloom over a godless soul. + +We note further the deep true insight into God's character and ways +expressed in this message. There is a very striking variation in the +three designations of Jehovah as 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and +Israel' (ver. 6), 'the god of their [that is, the preceding +generation] fathers' (ver. 7), and 'your God' (ver. 8). The relation +which had subsisted from of old had not been broken by man's apostasy, +Jehovah still was, in a true sense, their God, even if His relation to +them only bound Him not to leave them unpunished. So their very +sufferings proved them His, for 'What son is he whom the father +chasteneth not?' But strong, sunny confidence in God shines from the +whole message, and reaches its climax in the closing assurance that He +is merciful and gracious. The evil results of rebellion are not +omitted, but they are not dwelt on. The true magnet to draw wanderers +back to God is the loving proclamation of His love. Unless we are sure +that He has a heart tender with all pity, and 'open as day to melting +charity,' we shall not turn to Him with our hearts. + +The message puts the response which it sought in a variety of ways; +namely, turning to Jehovah, not being stiff-necked, yielding selves to +Jehovah, entering into His sanctuary. More than outward participation +in the passover ceremonial is involved. Submission of will, +abandonment of former courses of action, docility of spirit ready to +be directed anywhere, the habit of abiding with God by communion--all +these, the standing characteristics of the religious life, are at +least suggested by the invitations here. We are all summoned thus to +yield ourselves to God, and especially to do so by surrendering our +wills to Him, and to 'enter into His sanctuary,' by keeping up such +communion with Him as that, however and wherever occupied, we shall +still 'dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.' + +And the summons to return unto God is addressed to us all even more +urgently than to Israel. God Himself invites us by the voice of His +providences, by His voice within, and by the voice of Jesus Himself, +who is ever saying to each of us, by His death and passion, by His +resurrection and ascension, 'Turn ye! turn ye! why will ye die?' and +who has more than endorsed Hezekiah's messengers' assurance that +'Jehovah will not turn away His face from' us by His own gracious +promise, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' + +The king's message met a mingled reception. Some mocked, some were +moved and accepted. So, alas! is it with the better message, which is +either 'a savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The same +fire melts wax and hardens clay. May it be with all of us as it was in +Judah--that we 'have one heart, to do the commandment' and to accept +the merciful summons to the great passover! + + + +A STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS + +'After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king +of Assyria, came.'--2 CHRON. XXXII. 1. + + +The Revised Version gives a much more accurate and significant +rendering of a part of these words. It reads: 'After these things and +_this faithfulness_, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came.' What +are 'these things' and 'this faithfulness'? The former are the whole +of the events connected with the religious reformation in Judah, which +King Hezekiah inaugurated and carried through so brilliantly and +successfully. This 'faithfulness' directly refers to a word in a +couple of verses before the text: 'Thus did Hezekiah throughout all +Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and +_faithfulness_ before the Lord his God.' And, after these things, +the re-establishment of religion and this 'faithfulness,' though +Hezekiah was perfect before God in all ritual observances and in +practical righteousness, and though he was seeking the Lord his God +with all his heart, here is what came of it:--'After this faithfulness +came' not blessings or prosperity, but 'Sennacherib, king of Assyria'! +The chronicler not only tells this as singular, but one can feel that +he is staggered by it. There is a tone of perplexity and wonder in his +voice as he records that _this_ was what followed the faithful +righteousness and heart-devotion of the best king that ever sat on the +throne of Judah. I think that this royal martyr's experience is really +a mirror of the experience of devout men in all ages and a revelation +of the great law and constant processes of the Divine Providence. And +from that point of view I wish to speak now, not only on the words I +have read, but on what follows them. + +I. We have here the statement of the mystery. + +It is the standing puzzle of the Old Testament, how good men come to +be troubled, and how bad men come to be prosperous. And although we +Christian men and women are a great deal too apt to suppose that we +have outlived that rudimentary puzzle of the religious mind, yet I do +not think by any means that we have. For we hear men, when the rod +falls upon themselves, saying, 'What have I done that I should be +smitten thus?' or when their friends suffer, saying, 'What a +marvellous thing it is that such a good man as A, B, or C should have +so much trouble!' or, when widespread calamities strike a community, +standing aghast at the broad and dark shadows that fall upon a nation +or a continent, and wondering what the meaning of all this heaped +misery is, and why the world is thus allowed to run along its course +surrounded by an atmosphere made up of the breath of sighs, and +swathed in clouds which are moist with tears. + +My text gives us an illustration in the sharpest form of the mystery. +'After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib came'--and he +always comes in one shape or another. For, to begin with, a good man's +goodness does not lift him out of the ordinary associations and +contingencies and laws of life. If he has inherited a diseased +constitution, his devotion will not make him a healthy man. If he has +little common sense, his godliness will not make him prosper in +worldly affairs. If he is tied to unfortunate connections, he will +have to suffer. If he happens to be in a decaying branch of business, +his prayers will not make him prosperous. If he falls in the way of +poisonous gas from a sewer, his godliness will not exempt him from an +attack of fever. So all round the horizon we see this: that the godly +man is involved like any other man in the ordinary contingencies and +possible evils of life. Then, have we to say that God has nothing to +do with these? + +Again, Hezekiah's story teaches us how second causes are God's +instruments, and He is at the back of everything. There are two +sources of our knowledge of the history of Judah in the time with +which we are concerned. One is the Bible, the other is the Assyrian +monuments; and it is a most curious contrast to read the two +narratives of the same events, agreeing about the facts, but +disagreeing utterly in the spirit. Why? Because the one tells the +story from the world's point of view, and the other tells it from +God's point of view. So when you take the one narrative, it is simply +this: 'There was a conspiracy down in the south against the political +supremacy of Assyria, and a lot of little confederate kinglets +gathered themselves; and Hezekiah, of Judah, was one, along with +So-and-So of such-and-such a petty land, and they leaned upon Egypt; +and I, Sennacherib, came down among them, and they tumbled to pieces, +and that is all.' Then the Bible comes in, and it says that God +ordered all those political complications, and that they were all the +working out of His purposes, and that 'the axe in His hand' as Isaiah +has it so picturesquely, was this proud king of Assyria, with his +boastful mouth and vainglorious words. + +Now, that is the principle by which we have to estimate all the events +that befall us. There are two ways of looking at them. You may look at +them from the under side or from the top side. You may see them as +they appear to men who cannot look beyond their noses and only have +concern with the visible cranks and shafting, or you may look at them +from the engine-room and take account of the invisible power that +drives them all. In the one case you will regard it as a mystery that +good men should have to suffer so; in the other case, you will say, +'It is the Lord, let Him do'--even when He does it through Sennacherib +and his like, 'let Him do what seemeth Him good.' + +Then there is another thing to be taken into account--that is, that +the better a man is, the more faithful he is and the more closely he +cleaves to God, and seeks, like this king, to do, with all his heart, +all his work in the service of the House of God and to seek his God, +the more sure is he to bring down upon himself certain forms of +trouble and trial. The rebellion which, from the Assyrian side of the +river, seemed to be a mere political revolt, from the Jordan side of +the river seemed to be closely connected with the religious +reformation. And it was just because Hezekiah and his people came back +to God that they rebelled against the King of Assyria and served him +not. If you provoke Sennacherib, Sennacherib will be down upon you +very quickly. That is to say, being translated, if you will live like +Christian men and women and fling down the gage of battle to the world +and to the evil that lies in every one of us, and say, 'No, I have +nothing to do with you. My law is not your law, and, God helping me, +my practice shall not be your practice,' then you will find out that +the power that you have defied has a very long arm and a very tight +grasp, and you will have to make up your minds that, in some shape or +other, the old law will be fulfilled about you. Through much +tribulation we must enter the Kingdom. + +II. Now, secondly, my text and its context solve the mystery which it +raises. + +The chronicler, as I said, wishes us to notice the sequence, strange +as it is, and to wonder at it for a moment, in order that we may be +prepared the better to take in the grand explanation that follows. And +the explanation lies in the facts that ensue. + +Did Sennacherib come to destroy? By no means! Here were the results: +first, a stirring to wholesome energy and activity. If annoyances and +troubles and sorrows, great or small, do nothing else for us, they +would be clear and simple gain if they woke us up, for the half of men +pass half of their lives half-asleep. And anybody that has ever come +through a great sorrow and can remember what deep fountains were +opened in his heart that he knew nothing about before, and how powers +that were all unsuspected by himself suddenly came to him, and how +life, instead of being a trivial succession of nothings, all at once +became significant and solemn--any man who can remember that, will +feel that if there were nothing else that his troubles did for him +than to shake him out of torpor and rouse him to a tension of +wholesome activity, so that he cried out: + + 'Call forth thy powers, my soul! and dare + The conflict of unequal war,' + +he would have occasion to bless God for the roughest handling. The +tropics are very pleasant for lazy people, but they sap the +constitution and make work impossible; and after a man has lived for a +while in their perpetual summer, he begins to long for damp and mist +and frost and east winds which bring bracing to the system and make +him fit to work. God takes us often into very ungenial climates, and +the vindication of it is that we may be set to active service. That +was the first good thing that Sennacherib's coming did. + +The next was that his invasion increased dependence upon God. You will +remember the story of the insolent taunts and vulgar vaunting by him +and his servants, and the one answer that was given: 'Hezekiah, the +king, and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, prayed and cried to +God.' Ah! dear brethren, any thing that drives us to His breast is +blessing. We may call it evil when we speak from the point of view of +the foolish senses and the quivering heart, but if it blows us into +His arms, any wind, the roughest and the fiercest, is to be welcomed +more than lazy calms or gentle zephyrs. If, realising our own weakness +and impotence, we are made to hang more completely upon Him, then let +us be thankful for whatever has been the means of such a blessed +issue. That was the second good thing that Sennacherib did. + +The third good thing that he--not exactly did--but that was done +through him, was that experience of God's delivering power was +enriched. You remember the miracle of the destruction of the army. I +need not dilate upon it. A man who can look back and say, 'Thou hast +been with me in six troubles,' need never be afraid of the seventh; +and he who has hung upon that strong rope when he has been swinging +away down in the darkness and asphyxiating atmosphere of the pit, and +has been drawn up into the sunshine again, will trust it for all +coming time. If there were no other explanation, the enlarged and +deepened experience of the realities of God's Gospel and of God's +grace, which are bought only by sorrow, would be a sufficient +explanation of any sorrow that any of us have ever had to carry. + + 'Well roars the storm to him who hears + A deeper voice across the storm.' + +There are large tracts of Scripture which have no meaning, no +blessedness to us until they have been interpreted to us by losses and +sorrows. We never know the worth of the lighthouse until the November +darkness and the howling winds come down upon us, and then we +appreciate its preciousness. + +So, dear friends! the upshot of the whole is just that old teaching, +that if we realised what life is for, we should wonder less at the +sorrows that are in it. For life is meant to make us partakers of His +holiness, not to make us happy. Our happiness is a secondary purpose, +not out of view of the Divine love, but it is not the primary one. And +the direct intention and mission of sorrow, like the direct intention +and mission of joy, are to further that great purpose, that we 'should +be partakers of His holiness.' 'Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, +He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' + +III. Lastly, my text suggests a warning against letting prosperity +undo adversity's work. + +Hezekiah came bravely through his trials. They did exactly what God +wanted them to do; they drove him to God, they forced him down upon +his knees. When Sennacherib's letter came, he took it to the Temple +and spread it before God, and said, 'O Lord! it is Thy business. It is +addressed to me, but it is meant for Thee; do Thou answer it.' And so +he received the help that he wanted. But he broke down after that. He +was 'exalted'; and the allies, his neighbours, that had not lifted a +finger to help him when he needed their help, sent him presents which +would have been a great deal more seasonable when he was struggling +for his life with Sennacherib. What 'came after (God's) faithfulness'? +This--'his heart was lifted up, and he rendered not according to the +benefit rendered to him.' Therefore the blow had to come down again. A +great many people take refuge in archways when it rains, and run out +as soon as it holds up, and a great many people take religion as an +umbrella, to put down when the sunshine comes. We cross the bridge and +forget it, and when the leprosy is out of us we do not care to go back +and give thanks. Sometimes too, we begin to think, 'After all, it was +we that killed Sennacherib's army, and not the angel.' And so, like +dull scholars, we need the lesson repeated once, twice, thrice, 'here +a little and there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line.' +There is none of us that has so laid to heart our past difficulties +and trials that it is safe for God to burn the rod as long as we are +in this life. + +Dear friends! do not let it be said of us, 'In vain have I smitten thy +children. They have received no correction'; but rather let us keep +close to Him, and seek to learn the sweet and loving meaning of His +sharpest strokes. Then the little book, 'written within and without +with lamentation and woe,' which we all in our turn have to absorb and +make our own, may be 'bitter in the mouth,' but will be 'sweet as +honey' thereafter. + + + +MANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE + +'So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and +to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the +children of Israel. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his +people: but they would not hearken. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought +upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took +Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him +to Babylon. 12. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord +his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, +13. And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his +supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. +Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God. 14. Now after this he +built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in +the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed +about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of +war in all the fenced cities of Judah. 15. And he took away the +strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the +altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in +Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16. And he repaired the +altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank +offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiii. 9-16. + + +The story of Manasseh's sin and repentance may stand as a typical +example. Its historical authenticity is denied on the ground that it +appears only in this Book of Chronicles. I must leave others to +discuss that matter; my purpose is to bring out the teaching contained +in the story. + +The first point in it is the stern indictment against Manasseh and his +people. The experience which has saddened many a humbler home was +repeated in the royal house, where a Hezekiah was followed by a +Manasseh, who scorned all that his father had worshipped, and +worshipped all that his father had loathed. Happily the father's eyes +were closed long before the idolatrous bias of his son could have +disclosed itself. Succeeding to the throne at twelve years of age, he +could not have begun his evil ways at once, and probably would have +been preserved from them if his father had lived long enough to mould +his character. A child of twelve, flung on to a throne, was likely to +catch the infection of any sin that was in the atmosphere. The +narrative specifies two points in which, as he matured in years, and +was confirmed in his course of conduct, he went wrong: first, in his +idolatry; and second, in his contempt of remonstrances and warnings. +As to the former, the preceding context gives a terrible picture. He +was smitten with a very delirium of idolatry, and wallowed in any and +every sort of false worship. No matter what strange god was presented, +there were hospitality, an altar, and an offering for him. Baal, +Moloch, 'the host of heaven,' wizards, enchanters, anybody who +pretended to have any sort of black art, all were welcome, and the +more the better. No doubt, this eager acceptance of a miscellaneous +multitude of deities was partly reaction from the monotheism of the +former reign, but also it was the natural result of being surrounded +by the worshippers of these various gods; and it was an unconscious +confession of the insufficiency of each and all of them to fill the +void in the heart, and satisfy the needs of the spirit. There are +'gods many, and lords many,' because they are insufficient; 'the Lord +our God is one Lord,' because He, in His single Self, is more than all +these, and is enough for any and every man. + +We may note, too, that at the beginning of the chapter Manasseh is +said to have done '_like_ unto the abominations of the heathen,' +while in verse 9 he is said to have done 'evil _more_ than did +the nations.' When a worshipper of Jehovah does _like_ the +heathen, he does _worse_ than they. An apostate Christian is more +guilty than one who has never 'tasted the good word of God,' and is +likely to push his sins to a more flagrant wickedness. 'The corruption +of the best is the worst.' We cannot do what the world does without +being more deeply guilty than they. + +The narrative lays stress on the fact that the king's inclination to +idolatry was agreeable to the people. The kings, who fought against +it, had to resist the popular current, but at the least encouragement +from those in high places the nation was ready to slide back. Rulers +who wish to lower the standard of morality or religion have an easy +task; but the people who follow their lead are not free from guilt, +though they can plead that they only followed. The second count in the +indictment is the refusal of king and people to listen to God's +remonstrances. 2 Kings, chap, xxi., gives the prophets' warnings at +greater length. 'They would not hearken'--can anything madder and +sadder be said of any of us than that? Is it not the very sin of sins, +and the climax of suicidal folly, that God should call and men stop +their ears? And yet how many of us pay no more regard to His voice, in +His providences, in our own consciences, in history, in Scripture, +and, most penetrating and beseeching of all, in Christ, than to idle +wind whistling through an archway! Our own evil deeds stop our ears, +and the stopped ears make further evil deeds more easy. + +The second step in this typical story is merciful chastisement, meant +to secure a hearing for God's voice. 2 Kings tells the threat, but not +the fulfilment; Chronicles tells the fulfilment, but not the threat. +We note how emphatically God's hand is recognised behind the political +complications which brought the Assyrians to Jerusalem, and how +particularly it is stated that the invasion was not headed by +Esarhaddon, but by his generals. The place of Manasseh's captivity +also is specified, not as Nineveh, as might have been expected, but as +Babylon. These details, especially the last, look like genuine +history. It is history which carries a lesson. Here is one conspicuous +instance of the divine method, which is working to-day as it did then. +God's hand is behind the secondary causes of events. Our sorrows and +'misfortunes' are sent to us by Him, not hurled at us by human hands +only, or occurring by the working of impersonal laws. They are meant +to make us bethink ourselves, and drop evil things from our hands and +hearts. It is best to be guided by His eye, and not need 'bit and +bridle'; but if we make ourselves stubborn as 'the mule, which has no +understanding,' it is second best that we should taste the whip, that +it may bring us to run in harness on the road which He wills. If we +habitually looked at calamities as His loving chastisement, intended +to draw us to Himself, we should not have to stand perplexed so often +at what we call the mysteries of His providence. + +The next step in the story is the yielding of the sinful heart when +smitten. The worst affliction is an affliction wasted, which does us +no good. And God has often to lament, 'In vain have I smitten your +children; they received no correction.' Sorrow has in itself no power +to effect the purpose for which it is sent; but all depends on how we +take it. It sometimes makes us hard, bitter, obstinate in clinging to +evil. A heart that has been disciplined by it, and still is +undisciplined, is like iron hammered on an anvil, and made the more +close-grained thereby. But this king took his chastisement wisely. An +accepted sorrow is an angel in disguise, and nothing which drives us +to God is a calamity. Manasseh praying was freer in his chains than +ever he had been in his prosperity. Manasseh humbling himself greatly +before God was higher than when, in the pride of his heart, he shut +God out from it. + +Affliction should clear our sight, that we may see ourselves as we +are; and, if we do, there will be an end of high looks, and we shall +'take the lowest room.' Thus humbled, we shall pray as the +self-confident and outwardly prosperous cannot do. Sorrow has done its +best on us when, like some strong hand on our shoulders, it has +brought us to our knees. No affliction has yielded its full blessing +to us unless it has thus set us by Manasseh's side. + +The next step in the story is the loving answer to the humbled heart, +and the restoration to the kingdom. 'He was entreated of him.' No +doubt, political circumstances brought about Manasseh's reinstatement, +as they had brought about his captivity, but it was God that 'brought +him again to his kingdom.' We may not receive again lost good things, +but we may be quite sure that God never fails to hear the cry of the +humble, and that, if there is one voice that more surely reaches His +ear and moves His heart than another, it is the voice of His chastened +children, who cry to Him out of the depths, and there have learned +their own sin and sore need. He will be entreated of them, and, +whether He gives back lost good or not, He will give Himself, in whom +all good is comprehended. Manasseh's experience may be repeated in us. + +And the best part of it was, not that he received back his kingdom, +but that 'then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.' The name had +been but a name to him, but now it had become a reality. Our +traditional, second-hand belief in God is superficial and largely +unreal till it is deepened and vivified by experience. If we have +cried to Him, and been lightened, then we have a ground of conviction +that cannot be shaken. Formerly we could at most say, 'I believe in +God,' or, 'I think there is a God,' but now we can say, 'I know,' and +no criticism nor contradiction can shake that. Such knowledge is not +the knowledge won by the understanding alone, but it is acquaintance +with a living Person, like the knowledge which loving souls have of +each other; and he who has that knowledge as the issue of his own +experience may smile at doubts and questionings, and say with the +Apostle of Love, 'We know that we are of God, ... and we know that the +Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may +know Him that is true.' Then, if we have that knowledge, we shall +listen to the same Apostle's commandment, 'Keep yourselves from +idols,' even as the issue of Manasseh's knowledge of God was that 'he +took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the +Lord.' + + + +JOSIAH + +'Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in +Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2. And he did that which was right in +the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and +declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 3. For in the +eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek +after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to +purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and +the carved images, and the molten images. 4. And they brake down the +altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high +above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and +the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and +strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5. +And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed +Judah and Jerusalem. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and +Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round +about. 7. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and +had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols +throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8. Now in +the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the +house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor +of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the +house of the Lord his God. 9. And when they came to Hilkiah the high +priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of +God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of +Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all +Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem. 10. And they put +it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of +the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of +the Lord, to repair and amend the house: 11. Even to the artificers +and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for +couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had +destroyed. 12. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers +of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; +and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it +forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments +of musick. 13. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were +overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and +of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiv. 1-13. + + +Another boy king, even younger than his grandfather Manasseh had been +at his accession, and another reversal of the father's religion! These +vibrations from idolatry to Jehovah-worship, at the pleasure of the +king, sadly tell how little the people cared whom they worshipped, and +how purely a matter of ceremonies and names both their idolatry and +their Jehovah-worship were. The religion of the court was the religion +of the nation, only idolatry was more congenial than the service of +God. How far the child monarch Josiah had a deeper sense of what that +service meant we cannot decide, but the little outline sketch of him +in verses 2 and 3 is at least suggestive of his having it, and may +well stand as a fair portrait of early godliness. + +A child eight years old, who had been lifted on to the throne of a +murdered father, must have had a strong will and a love of goodness to +have resisted the corrupting influences of royalty in a land full of +idols. Here again we see that, great as may be the power of +circumstances, they do not determine character; for it is always open +to us either to determine whether we yield to them or resist them. The +prevailing idolatry influenced the boy, but it influenced him to hate +it with all his heart. So out of the nettle danger we may pluck the +flower safety. The men who have smitten down some evil institution +have generally been brought up so as to feel its full force. + +'He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah'--that may mean +simply that he worshipped Jehovah by outward ceremonies, but it +probably means more; namely, that his life was pure and God-pleasing, +or, as we should say, clean and moral, free from the foul vices which +solicit a young prince. 'He walked in the ways of David his +father'--not being one of the 'emancipated' youths who think it manly +to throw off the restraints of their fathers' faith and morals. He +'turned not aside to the right hand or to the left'--but marched right +onwards on the road that conscience traced out for him, though +tempting voices called to him from many a side-alley that seemed to +lead to pleasant places. 'While he was yet young, he began to seek +after the God of David his father'--at the critical age of sixteen, +when Easterns are older than we, in the flush of early manhood, he +awoke to deeper experiences and felt the need for a closer touch of +God. A career thus begun will generally prelude a life pure, +strenuous, and blessed with a clearer and clearer vision of the God +who is always found of them that seek Him. Such a childhood, +blossoming into such a boyhood, and flowering in such a manhood, is +possible to every child among us. It will 'still bring forth fruit in +old age.' + +The two incidents which the passage narrates, the purging of the land +and the repair of the Temple, are told in inverted order in 2 Kings, +but the order here is probably the more accurate, as dates are given, +whereas in 2 Kings, though the purging is related after the Temple +restoration, it is not said to have occurred after. But the order is +of small consequence. What is important is the fiery energy of Josiah +in the work of destruction of the idols. Here, there, everywhere, he +flames and consumes. He darts a flash even into the desolate ruins of +the Israelitish kingdom, where the idols had survived their devotees +and still bewitched the scanty fragments of Israel that remained. The +altars of stone were thrown down, the wooden sun-pillars were cut to +pieces, the metal images were broken and ground to powder. A clean +sweep was made. + +A dash of ferocity mingled with contempt appears in Josiah's +scattering the 'dust' of the images on the graves of their +worshippers, as if he said: 'There you lie together, pounded idols and +dead worshippers, neither able to help the other!' The same feelings +prompted digging up the skeletons of priests and burning the bones on +the very altars that they had served, thus defiling the altars and +executing judgment on the priests. No doubt there were much violence +and a strong strain of the 'wrath of man' in all this. Iconoclasts are +wont to be 'violent'; and men without convictions, or who are +partisans of what the iconoclasts are rooting out, are horrified at +their want of 'moderation.' But though violence is always unchristian, +indifference to rampant evils is not conspicuously more Christian, +and, on the whole, you cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude +or without using some force to compress the sinuous neck. + +The restoration of the Temple comes after the cleansing of the land, +in Chronicles, and naturally in the order of events, for the casting +out of idols must always precede the building or repairing of the +Temple of God. Destructive work is very poor unless it is for the +purpose of clearing a space to build the Temple on. Happy the man or +the age which is able to do both! Josiah and Joash worked at restoring +the Temple in much the same fashion, but Josiah had a priesthood more +interested than Joash had. + +But we may note one or two points in his restoration. He had put his +personal effort into the preparatory extirpation of idols, but he did +not need to do so now. He could work this time by deputy. And it is +noteworthy that he chose 'laymen' to carry out the restoration. +Perhaps he knew how Joash had been balked by the knavery of the +priests who were diligent in collecting money, but slow in spending it +on the Temple. At all events, he delegated the work to three +highly-placed officials, the secretary of state, the governor of +Jerusalem, and the official historian. + +It appears that for some time a collection had been going on for +Temple repairs; probably it had been begun six years before, when the +'purging' of the land began. It had been carried on by the Levites, +and had been contributed to even by 'the remnant of Israel' in the +northern kingdom, who, in their forlorn weakness, had begun to feel +the drawings of ancient brotherhood and the tie of a common worship. +This fund was in the keeping of the high priest, and the three +commissioners were instructed to require it from him. Here 2 Kings is +clearer than our passage, and shows that what the three officials had +mainly to do was to get the money from Hilkiah, and to hand it over to +the superintendents of the works. + +There are two remarkable points in the narrative; one is the +observation that 'the men did the work faithfully,' which comes in +rather enigmatically here, but in 2 Kings is given as the reason why +no accounts were kept. Not an example to be imitated, and the sure way +to lead subordinates sooner or later to deal unfaithfully; but a +pleasant indication of the spirit animating all concerned. + +Surely these men worked 'as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That +is what makes us work faithfully, whether we have any earthly overseer +or audit or no. Another noteworthy matter is that not only were the +superintendents of the work--the 'contractors,' as we might +say--Levites, but so were also the inferior superintendents, or, as we +might say, 'foremen.' + +And not only so, but they were those that 'were skilful with +instruments of music.' What were musicians doing there? Did the +building rise + + 'with the sound + Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet?' + +May we not gather from this singular notice the great thought that for +all rearing of the true Temple, harps of praise are no less necessary +than swords or trowels, and that we shall do no right work for God or +man unless we do it as with melody in our hearts? Our lives must be +full of music if we are to lay even one stone in the Temple. + + + +JOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW + +'And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house +of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord +given by Moses. 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the +scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And +Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan carried the book +to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that +was committed to thy servants, they do it. 17. And they have gathered +together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have +delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the +workmen. 18. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah +the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. +19. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, +that he rent his clothes. 20. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and +Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the +scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying, 21. Go, enquire of +the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, +concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath +of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not +kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this +book. 22. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to +Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son +of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the +college;) and they spake to her to that effect. 23. And she answered +them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you +to me. 24. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this +place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are +written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: 25. +Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other +gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their +hands; therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and +shall not be quenched. 26. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you +to enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord +God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; 27. Because +thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when +thou heardest His words against this place, and against the +inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before Me, and did rendst +thy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith +the Lord. 28. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou +shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see +all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the +inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.'--2 +CHRON. xxxiv. 14-28. + + +About one hundred years separated Hezekiah's restoration from +Josiah's. Neither was more than a momentary arrest of the strong tide +running in the opposite direction; and Josiah's was too near the edge +of the cataract to last, or to avert the plunge. There is nothing more +tragical than the working of the law which often sets the children's +teeth on edge by reason of the fathers' eating of sour grapes. + +I. The first point in this passage is the discovery of the book of the +Law. + +The book had been lost before it was found. For how long we do not +know, but the fact that it had been so carelessly kept is eloquent of +the indifference of priests and kings, its appointed guardians. +Lawbreakers have a direct interest in getting rid of lawbooks, just as +shopkeepers who use short yardsticks and light weights are not anxious +the standards should be easily accessible. If we do not make God's law +our guide, we shall wish to put it out of sight, that it may not be +our accuser. What more sad or certain sign of evil can there be than +that we had rather not 'hear what God the Lord will speak'? + +The straightforward story of our passage gives a most natural +explanation of the find. Hilkiah was likely to have had dark corners +cleared out in preparation for repairs and in storing the +subscriptions, and many a mislaid thing would turn up. If it be +possible that the book of the Law should have been neglected (and the +religious corruption of the last hundred years makes that only too +certain), its discovery in some dusty recess is very intelligible, and +would not have been doubted but for the exigencies of a theory. +'Reading between the lines' is fascinating, but risky; for the reader +is very likely unconsciously to do what Hilkiah is said to have +done--namely, to invent what he thinks he finds. + +Accepting the narrative as it stands, we may see in it a striking +instance of the indestructibleness of God's Word. His law is +imperishable, and its written embodiment seems as if it, too, had a +charmed life. When we consider the perils attending the transmission +of ancient manuscripts, the necessary scarcity of copies before the +invention of printing, the scattering of the Jewish people, it does +appear as if a divine hand had guarded the venerable book. How came +this strange people, who never kept their Law, to swim through all +their troubles, like Caesar with his commentaries between his teeth, +bearing aloft and dry, the Word which they obeyed so badly? 'Write it +... in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.' +The permanence of the written Word, the providence that has watched +over it, the romantic history of its preservation through ages of +neglect, and the imperishable gift to the world of an objective +standard of duty, remaining the same from age to age, are all +suggested by this reappearance of the forgotten Law. + +It may suggest, too, that honest efforts after reformation are usually +rewarded by clearer knowledge of God's will. If Hilkiah had not been +busy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book +in its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the +discovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not +believe in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance +of His sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment. It is not +the first time nor the last that the attempt to keep God's law has led +to larger knowledge of the law. It is not the first time nor the last +that God has sent to His faithful servants an opportune gift. What the +world calls accidental coincidence deeper wisdom discerns to be the +touch of God's hand. + +Again, the discovery reminds us that the true basis of all religious +reform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but +he did not know till he heard the Law read how great the task was +which he had taken in hand. That recovered book gave impulse and +direction to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of +the Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as +a symbol of the whole, Luther's finding the dusty Latin Bible among +the neglected convent books. The only reformation for an effete or +secularised church is in its return to the Bible. Faded flowers will +lift up their heads when plunged in water. The old Bible, discovered +and applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or +moribund Christianity. + +II. The next point here is the effect of the rediscovered Law. Shaphan +was closely connected with Josiah, as his office made him a confidant. +It is ordinarily taken for granted that he and the other persons named +in this lesson formed a little knot of earnest Jehovah worshippers, +fully sympathising with the Reformation, and that among them lay the +authorship of the book. But we know nothing about them except what is +told here and in the parallel in Kings. One of them, Ahikam, was a +friend and protector of Jeremiah, and Shaphan the scribe was the +father of another of Jeremiah's friends. They may all have been in +accord with the king, or they may not. + +At all events, Shaphan took the book to Josiah. We can picture the +scene--the deepening awe of both men as the whole extent of the +nation's departure from God became clearer and clearer, the tremulous +tones of the reader, and the silent, fixed attention of the listener +as the solemn threatenings came from Shaphan's reluctant, pallid lips. +There was enough in them to touch a harder heart than Josiah's. We +cannot suppose that, knowing the history of the past, and being +sufficiently enlightened to 'seek after the God of David his father,' +he did not know in a general way that sin meant sorrow, and national +disobedience national death. But we all have the faculty of blunting +the cutting edge of truth, especially if it has been familiar, so that +some novelty in the manner of its presentation, or even its repetition +without novelty sometimes, may turn commonplace and impotent truth +into a mighty instrument to shake and melt. + +So it seems to have been with Josiah. Whether new or old, the Word +found him as it had never done before. The venerable copy from which +Shaphan read, the coincidence of its discovery just then, the +dishonour done to it for so long, may all have helped the impression. +However it arose, it was made. If a man will give God's Word a fair +hearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees. +No man rightly uses God's law who is not convinced by it of his sin, +and impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes +were the passionate expression. Josiah was wise when he did not turn +his thoughts to other people's sins, but began with his own, even +whilst he included others. The first function of the law is to arouse +the knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that +penitent knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely +external. Unless we 'abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes,' +Scripture has not done its work on us, and all our reading of it is in +vain. Nor is there any good reason why familiarity with it should +weaken its power. But, alas! it too often does. How many of us would +stand in awe of God's judgments if we heard them for the first time, +but listen to them unmoved, as to thunder without lightning, merely +because wo know them so well! That is a reason for attending to them, +not for neglecting. + +Josiah's sense of sin led him to long for a further word from God; and +so he called these attendants named in verse 20, and sent them to +'enquire of the Lord ... concerning the words of the book.' What more +did he wish to know? The words were plain enough, and their +application to Israel and him indubitable. Clearly, he could only wish +to know whether there was any possibility of averting the judgments, +and, if so, what was the means. The awakened conscience instinctively +feels that threatenings cannot be God's last words to it, but must +have been given that they might not need to be fulfilled. We do not +rightly sorrow for sin unless it quickens in us a desire for a word +from God to tell us how to escape. The Law prepares for the Gospel, +and is incomplete without it. 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die,' +cannot be all which a God of pity and love has to say. A faint promise +of life lies in the very fact of threatening death, faint indeed, but +sufficient to awaken earnest desire for yet another word from the +Lord. We rightly use the solemn revelations of God's law when we are +driven by them to cry, 'What must I do to be saved?' + +III. So we come to the last point, the double-edged message of the +prophetess. Josiah does not seem to have told his messengers where to +go; but they knew, and went straight to a very unlikely person, the +wife of an obscure man, only known as his father's son. Where was +Jeremiah of Anathoth? Perhaps not in the city at the time. There had +been prophetesses in Israel before. Miriam, Deborah, the wife of +Isaiah, are instances of 'your daughters' prophesying; and this +embassy to Huldah is in full accord with the high position which women +held in that state, of which the framework was shaped by God Himself. +In Christ Jesus 'there is neither male nor female,' and Judaism +approximated much more closely to that ideal than other lands did. + +Huldah's message has two parts: one the confirmation of the +threatenings of the Law; one the assurance to Josiah of acceptance of +his repentance and gracious promise of escape from the coming storm. +These two are precisely equivalent to the double aspect of the Gospel, +which completes the Law, endorsing its sentence and pointing the way +of escape. + +Note that the former part addresses Josiah as 'the man that sent you,' +but the latter names him. The embassy had probably not disclosed his +name, and Huldah at first keeps up the veil, since the personality of +the sender had nothing to do with her answer; but when she comes to +speak of pardon and God's favour, there must be no vagueness in the +destination of the message, and the penitent heart must be tenderly +bound up by a word from God straight to itself. The threatenings are +general, but each single soul that is sorry for sin may take as its +very own the promise of forgiveness. God's great 'Whosoever' is for me +as certainly as if my name stood on the page. + +The terrible message of the inevitableness of the destruction hanging +over Jerusalem is precisely parallel with the burden of all Jeremiah's +teaching. It was too late to avert the fall. The external judgments +must come now, for the emphasis of the prophecy is in its last words, +it 'shall not be quenched.' But that did not mean that repentance was +too late to alter the whole character of the punishment, which would +be fatherly chastisement if meekly accepted. So, too, Jeremiah taught, +when he exhorted submission to the 'Chaldees.' It is never too late to +seek mercy, though it may be too late to hope for averting the outward +consequences of sin. + +As for Josiah, his penitence was accepted, and he was assured that he +would be gathered to his fathers. That expression, as is clear from +the places where it occurs, is not a synonym for either death or +burial, from both of which it is distinguished, but is a dim promise +of being united, beyond the grave, with the fathers, who, in some one +condition, which we may call a place, are gathered into a restful +company, and wander no more as pilgrims and sojourners in this lonely +and changeful life. + +Josiah died in battle. Was that going to his grave in peace? Surely +yes! if, dying, he felt God's presence, and in the darkness saw a +great light. He who thus dies, though it be in the thick of battle, +and with his heart's blood pouring from an arrow-wound down on the +floor of the chariot, dies in peace, and into peace. + + + +THE FALL OF JUDAH + +'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and +reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12. And he did that which was evil +in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before +Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. 13. And he +also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by +God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning +unto the Lord God of Israel. 14. Moreover all the chief of the +priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the +abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which +he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15. And the Lord God of their fathers +sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; +because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place: +16. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and +misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His +people, till there was no remedy. 17. Therefore he brought upon them +the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in +the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or +maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into +his hand. 18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and +small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures +of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19. +And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, +and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the +goodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword +carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his +sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. To fulfil the word +of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her +sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil +threescore and ten years.'--2 CHRON. xxxvi 11-21. + + +Bigness is not greatness, nor littleness smallness. Nebuchadnezzar's +conquest of Judah was, in his eyes, one of the least important of his +many victories, but it is the only one of them which survives in the +world's memory and keeps his name as a household word. The Jews were a +mere handful, and their country a narrow strip of land between the +desert and the sea; but little Judaea, like little Greece, has taught +the world. The tragedy of its fall has importance quite +disproportioned to its apparent magnitude. Our passage brings together +Judah's sin and Judah's punishment, and we shall best gather the +lessons of its fall by following the order of the text. + +Consider the sin. There is nothing more remarkable than the tone in +which the chronicler, like all the Old Testament writers, deals with +the national sin. Patriotic historians make it a point of pride and +duty to gloss over their country's faults, but these singular +narrators paint them as strongly as they can. Their love of their +country impels them to 'make known to Israel its transgression and to +Judah its sin.' There are tears in their eyes, as who can doubt? But +there is no faltering in their voices as they speak. A higher feeling +than misguided 'patriotism' moves them. Loyalty to Israel's God forces +them to deal honestly with Israel's sin. That is the highest kind of +love of country, and might well be commended to loudmouthed 'patriots' +in modern lands. + +Look at the piled-up clauses of the long indictment of Judah in verses +12 to 16. Slow, passionless, unsparing, the catalogue enumerates the +whole black list. It is like the long-drawn blast of the angel of +judgment's trumpet. Any trace of heated emotion would have weakened +the impression. The nation's sin was so crimson as to need no +heightening of colour. With like judicial calmness, with like +completeness, omitting nothing, does 'the book,' which will one day be +opened, set down every man's deeds, and he will be 'judged according +to the things that are written in this book.' Some of us will find our +page sad reading. + +But the points brought out in this indictment are instructive. Judah's +idolatry and 'trespass after all the abominations of the heathen' is, +of course, prominent, but the spirit which led to their idolatry, +rather than the idolatry itself, is dwelt on. Zedekiah's doing 'evil +in the sight of the Lord' is regarded as aggravated by his not +humbling himself before Jeremiah, and the head and front of his +offending is that 'he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from +turning unto the Lord.' Similarly, the people's sin reaches its climax +in their 'mocking' and 'scoffing' at the prophets and 'despising' +God's words by them. So then, an evil life has its roots in an +alienated heart, and the source of all sin is an obstinate self-will. +That is the sulphur-spring from which nothing but unwholesome streams +can flow, and the greatest of all sins is refusing to hear God's voice +when He speaks to us. + +Further, this indictment brings out the patient love of God seeking, +in spite of all their deafness, to find a way to the sinners' ears and +hearts. In a bold transference to Him of men's ways, He is said to +have 'risen early' to send the prophets. Surely that means earnest +effort. The depths of God's heart are disclosed when we are bidden to +think of His compassion as the motive for the prophet's messages and +threatenings. What a wonderful and heart-melting revelation of God's +placableness, wistful hoping against hope, and reluctance to abandon +the most indurated sinner, is given in that centuries-long conflict of +the patient God with treacherous Israel! That divine charity suffered +long and was kind, endured all things and hoped all things. + +Consider the punishment. The tragic details of the punishment are +enumerated with the same completeness and suppression of emotion as +those of the sin. The fact that all these were divine judgments brings +the chronicler to the Psalmist's attitude. 'I was dumb, I opened not +my mouth because Thou didst it.' Sorrow and pity have their place, but +the awed recognition of God's hand outstretched in righteous +retribution must come first. Modern sentimentalists, who are so +tenderhearted as to be shocked at the Christian teachings of judgment, +might learn a lesson here. + +The first point to note is that a time arrives when even God can hope +for no amendment and is driven to change His methods. His patience is +not exhausted, but man's obstinacy makes another treatment inevitable. +God lavished benefits and pleadings for long years in vain, till He +saw that there was 'no remedy.' Only then did He, as if reluctantly +forced, do 'His work, His strange work.' Behold, therefore, the +'goodness and severity' of God, goodness in His long delay, severity +in the final blow, and learn that His purpose is the same though His +methods are opposite. + +To the chronicler God is the true Actor in human affairs. +Nebuchadnezzar thought of his conquest as won by his own arm. Secular +historians treat the fall of Zedekiah as simply the result of the +political conditions of the time, and sometimes seem to think that it +could not be a divine judgment because it was brought about by natural +causes. But this old chronicler sees deeper, and to him, as to us, if +we are wise, 'the history of the world is the judgment of the world.' +The Nebuchadnezzars are God's axes with which He hews down fruitless +trees. They are responsible for their acts, but they are His +instruments, and it is His hand that wields them. + +The iron band that binds sin and suffering is disclosed in Judah's +fall. We cannot allege that the same close connection between +godlessness and national disaster is exemplified now as it was in +Israel. Nor can we contend that for individuals suffering is always +the fruit of sin. But it is still true that 'righteousness exalteth a +nation,' and that 'by the soul only are the nations great,' in the +true sense of the word. To depart from God is always 'a bitter and an +evil thing' for communities and individuals, however sweet draughts of +outward prosperity may for a time mask the bitterness. Not armies nor +fleets, not ships, colonies and commerce, not millionaires and trusts, +not politicians and diplomatists, but the fear of the Lord and the +keeping of His commandments, are the true life of a nation. If +Christian men lived up to the ideal set them by Jesus, 'Ye are the +salt of the land,' and sought more earnestly and wisely to leaven +their nation, they would be doing more than any others to guarantee +its perpetual prosperity. + +The closing words of this chapter, not included in the passage, are +significant. They are the first words of the Book of Ezra. Whoever put +them here perhaps wished to show a far-off dawn following the stormy +sunset. He opens a 'door of hope' in 'the valley of trouble.' It is an +Old Testament version of 'God hath not cast away His people whom He +foreknew.' It throws a beam of light on the black last page of the +chronicle, and reveals that God's chastisement was in love, that it +was meant for discipline, not for destruction, that it was +educational, and that the rod was burned when the lesson had been +learned. It was learned, for the Captivity cured the nation of +hankering after idolatry, and whatever defects it brought back from +Babylon, it brought back a passionate abhorrence of all the gods of +the nations. + + + + +EZRA + + +THE EVE OF THE RESTORATION + +'Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the +Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up +the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation +throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2. +Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me +all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a +house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of +all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, +which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He +is the God), which is in Jerusalem. 4. And whosoever remaineth in any +place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with +silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the +freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. 5. Then +rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the +priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, +to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. 6. And +all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of +silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious +things, besides all that was willingly offered. 7. Also Cyrus the king +brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which +Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in +the house of his gods; 8. Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring +forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto +Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9. And this is the number of them: +thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and +twenty knives, 10. Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second +sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. 11. All the +vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All +these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were +brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.'--EZRA i. 1-11. + + +Cyrus captured Babylon 538 B.C., and the 'first year' here is the +first after that event. The predicted seventy years' captivity had +nearly run out, having in part done their work on the exiles. Colours +burned in on china are permanent; and the furnace of bondage had, at +least, effected this, that it fixed monotheism for ever in the inmost +substance of the Jewish people. But the bulk of them seem to have had +little of either religious or patriotic enthusiasm, and preferred +Babylonia to Judea. We are here told of the beginning of the return of +a portion of the exiles--forty-two thousand, in round numbers. + +'The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.' That unveils the deepest +cause of what fell into place, to the superficial observers, as one +among many political events of similar complexion. We find among the +inscriptions a cylinder written by order of Cyrus, which shows that he +reversed the Babylonian policy of deporting conquered nations. 'All +their peoples,' says he, in reference to a number of nations of whom +he found members in exile in Babylonia, 'I assembled and restored to +their lands and the gods ... whom Nabonidos ... had brought into +Babylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries' (Sayce, _Fresh +Light from the Ancient Monuments_, p. 148). It was, then, part of a +wider movement, which sent back Zerubbabel and his people to +Jerusalem, and began the rebuilding of the Temple. No doubt, Cyrus had +seen that the old plan simply brought an element of possible rebellion +into the midst of the country, and acted on grounds of political +prudence. + +But our passage digs deeper to find the true cause. Cyrus was God's +instrument, and the statesman's insight was the result of God's +illumination. The divine causality moves men, when they move +themselves. It was not only in the history of the chosen people that +God's purpose is wrought out by more or less conscious and willing +instruments. The principle laid down by the writer of this book is of +universal application, and the true 'philosophy of history' must +recognise as underlying all other so-called causes and forces the one +uncaused Cause, of whose purposes kings and politicians are the +executants, even while they freely act according to their own +judgments, and, it may be, in utter unconsciousness of Him. It +concerns our tranquillity and hopefulness, in the contemplation of the +bewildering maze and often heart-breaking tragedy of mundane affairs, +to hold fast by the conviction that God's unseen Hand moves the pieces +on the board, and presides over all the complications. The difference +between 'sacred' and 'profane' history is not that one is under His +direct control, and the other is not. What was true of Cyrus and his +policy is as true of England. Would that politicians and all men +recognised the fact as clearly as this historian did! + +I. Cyrus's proclamation sounds as if he were a Jehovah-worshipper, but +it is to be feared that his religion was of a very accommodating kind. +It used to be said that, as a Persian, he was a monotheist, and would +consequently be in sympathy with the Jews; but the same cylinder +already quoted shatters that idea, and shows him to have been a +polytheist, ready to worship the gods of Babylon. He there ascribes +his conquest to 'Merodach, the great lord,' and distinctly calls +himself that god's 'worshipper.' Like other polytheists, he had room +in his pantheon for the gods of other nations, and admitted into it +the deities of the conquered peoples. + +The use of the name 'Jehovah' would, no doubt, be most simply +accounted for by the supposition that Cyrus recognised the sole +divinity of the God of Israel; but that solution conflicts with all +that is known of him, and with his characterisation in Isaiah xlv. as +'not knowing' Jehovah. More probably, his confession of Jehovah as the +God of heaven was consistent in his mind with a similar confession as +to Bel-Merodach or the supreme god of any other of the conquered +nations. There is, however no improbability in the supposition that +the prophecies concerning him in Isaiah xlv, may have been brought to +his knowledge, and be referred to in the proclamation as the 'charge' +given to him to build Jehovah's Temple. But we must not exaggerate the +depth or exclusiveness of his belief in the God of the Jews. + +Cyrus's profession of faith, then, is an example of official and +skin-deep religion, of which public and individual life afford +plentiful instances in all ages and faiths. If we are to take their +own word for it, most great conquerors have been very religious men, +and have asked a blessing over many a bloody feast. All religions are +equally true to cynical politicians, who are ready to join in +worshipping 'Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,' as may suit their policy. Nor is +it only in high places that such loosely worn professions are found. +Perhaps there is no region of life in which insincerity, which is +often quite unconscious, is so rife as in regard to religious belief. +But unless my religion is everything, it is nothing. 'All in all, or +not at all,' is the requirement of the great Lover of souls. What a +winnowing of chaff from wheat there would be, if that test could +visibly separate the mass which is gathered on His threshing-floor, +the Church! + +Cyrus's belief in Jehovah illustrates the attitude which was natural +to a polytheist, and is so difficult for us to enter into. A vague +belief in One Supreme, above all other gods, and variously named by +different nations, is buried beneath mountains of myths about lesser +gods, but sometimes comes to light in many pagan minds. This blind +creed, if creed it can be called, is joined with the recognition of +deities belonging to each nation, whose worship is to be co-extensive +with the race of which they are patrons, and who may be absorbed into +the pantheon of a conqueror, just as a vanquished king may be allowed +an honourable captivity at the victor's capital. Thus Cyrus could in a +sense worship Jehovah, the God of Israel, without thereby being +rebellious to Merodach. + +There are people, even among so-called Christians, who try the same +immoral and impossible division of what must in its very nature be +wholly given to One Supreme. To 'serve God and mammon' is demonstrably +an absurd attempt. The love and trust and obedience which are worthy +of Him must be wholehearted, whole-souled, whole-willed. It is as +impossible to love God with part of one's self as it is for a husband +to love his wife with half his heart, and another woman with the rest. +To divide love is to slay it. Cyrus had some kind of belief in +Jehovah; but his own words, so wonderfully recovered in the +inscription already referred to, proved that he had not listened to +the command, 'Him only shalt thou serve.' That command grips us as +closely as it did the Jews, and is as truly broken by thousands +calling themselves Christians as by any idolaters. + +The substance of the proclamation is a permission to return to any one +who wished to do so, a sanction of the rebuilding of the Temple, and +an order to the native inhabitants to render help in money, goods, and +beasts. A further contribution towards the building was suggested as +'a free-will offering.' The return, then, was not to be at the expense +of the king, nor was any tax laid on for it; but neighbourly goodwill, +born of seventy years of association, was invoked, and, as we find, +not in vain. God had given the people favour in the eyes of those who +had carried them captive. + +II. The long years of residence in Babylonia had weakened the +homesickness which the first generation of captives had, no doubt, +painfully experienced, and but a small part of them cared to avail +themselves of the opportunity of return. One reason is frankly given +by Josephus: 'Many remained in Babylon, not wishing to leave their +possessions behind them.' 'The heads of the fathers' houses [who may +have exercised some sort of government among the captives], the +priests and Levites,' made the bulk of the emigrants; but in each +class it was only those 'whose spirit God had stirred up' (as he had +done Cyrus') that were devout or patriotic enough to face the wrench +of removal and the difficulties of repeopling a wasted land. There was +nothing to tempt any others, and the brave little band had need of all +their fortitude. But no heart in which the flame of devotion burned, +or in which were felt the drawings of that passionate love of the city +and soil where God dwelt (which in the best days of the nation was +inseparable from devotion), could remain behind. The departing +contingent, then, were the best part of the whole; and the lingerers +were held back by love of ease, faint-heartedness, love of wealth, and +the like ignoble motives. + +How many of us have had great opportunities offered for service, which +we have let slip in like manner! To have doors opened which we are too +lazy, too cowardly, too much afraid of self-denial, to enter, is the +tragedy and the crime of many a life. It is easier to live among the +low levels of the plain of Babylon, than to take to the dangers and +privations of the weary tramp across the desert. The ruins of +Jerusalem are a much less comfortable abode than the well-furnished +houses which have to be left. Prudence says, 'Be content where you +are, and let other people take the trouble of such mad schemes as +rebuilding the Temple.' A thousand excuses sing in our ears, and we +let the moment in which alone some noble resolve is possible slide +past us, and the rest of life is empty of another such. Neglected +opportunities, unobeyed calls to high deeds, we all have in our lives. +The saddest of all words is, 'It might have been.' How much wiser, +happier, nobler, were the daring souls that rose to the occasion, and +flung ease and wealth and companionship behind them, because they +heard the divine command couched in the royal permission, and humbly +answered, 'Here am I; send me'! + +III. The third point in the passage is singular--the inventory of the +Temple vessels returned by Cyrus. As to its particulars, we need only +note that Sheshbazzar is the same as Zerubbabel; that the exact +translation of some of the names of the vessels is doubtful; and that +the numbers given under each head do not correspond with the sum +total, the discrepancy indicating error somewhere in the numbers. + +But is not this dry enumeration a strange item to come in the +forefront of the narrative of such an event? We might have expected +some kind of production of the enthusiasm of the returning exiles, +some account of how they were sent on their journey, something which +we should have felt worthier of the occasion than a list of bowls and +nine-and-twenty knives. But it is of a piece with the whole of the +first part of this Book of Ezra, which is mostly taken up with a +similar catalogue of the members of the expedition. The list here +indicates the pride and joy with which the long hidden and often +desecrated vessels were received. We can see the priests and Levites +gazing at them as they were brought forth, their hearts, and perhaps +their eyes, filling with sacred memories. The Lord had 'turned again +the captivity of Zion,' and these sacred vessels lay there, glittering +before them, to assure them that they were not as 'them that dream.' +Small things become great when they are the witnesses of a great +thing. + +We must remember, too, how strong a hold the externals of worship had +on the devout Jew. His faith was much more tied to form than ours +ought to be, and the restoration of the sacrificial implements as a +pledge of the re-establishment of the Temple worship would seem the +beginning of a new epoch of closer relation to Jehovah. It is almost +within the lifetime of living men that all Scotland was thrilled with +emotion by the discovery, in a neglected chamber, of a chest in which +lay, forgotten, the crown and sceptre of the Stuarts. A like wave of +feeling passed over the exiles as they had given back to their custody +these Temple vessels. Sacreder ones are given into our hands, to carry +across a more dangerous desert. Let us hear the charge, 'Be ye clean, +that bear the vessels of the Lord,' and see that we carry them, +untarnished and unlost, to 'the house of the Lord which is in +Jerusalem.' + + + +ALTAR AND TEMPLE + +'And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were +in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to +Jerusalem. 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his +brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his +brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt +offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of +God. 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them +because of the people of those countries; and they offered burnt +offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and +evening. 4. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, +and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the +custom, as the duty of every day required; 5. And afterward offered +the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the +set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that +willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. 6. From the first +day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the +Lord. But the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was not yet laid. +7. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and +meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to +bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the +grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. 8. Now in the second year +of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second +month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of +Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the +Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto +Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and +upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. 9. Then +stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the +sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of +God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the +Levites. 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple +of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and +the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, +after the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11. And they sang +together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; +because He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And +all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, +because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12. But many +of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient +men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house +was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted +aloud for joy: 13. So that the people could not discern the noise of +the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the +people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar +off.'--EZRA iii. 1-13. + + +What an opportunity of 'picturesque' writing the author of this book +has missed by his silence about the incidents of the march across the +dreary levels from Babylon to the verge of Syria! But the very silence +is eloquent. It reveals the purpose of the book, which is to tell of +the re-establishment of the Temple and its worship. No doubt the tone +of the whole is somewhat prosaic, and indicative of an age in which +the externals of worship bulked largely; but still the central point +of the narrative was really the centre-point of the events. The +austere simplicity of biblical history shows the real points of +importance better than more artistic elaboration would do. + +This passage has two main incidents--the renewal of the sacrifices, +and the beginning of rebuilding the Temple. + +The date given in verse 1 is significant. The first day of the seventh +month was the commencement of the great festival of tabernacles, the +most joyous feast of the year, crowded with reminiscences from the +remote antiquity of the Exodus, and from the dedication of Solomon's +Temple. How long had passed since Cyrus' decree had been issued we do +not know, nor whether his 'first year' was reckoned by the same +chronology as the Jewish year, of which we here arrive at the seventh +month. But the journey across the desert must have taken some months, +and the previous preparations could not have been suddenly got +through, so that there can have been but a short time between the +arrival in Judea and the gathering together 'as one man to Jerusalem.' + +There was barely interval enough for the returning exiles to take +possession of their ancestral fields before they were called to leave +them unguarded and hasten to the desolate city. Surely their glad and +unanimous obedience to the summons, or, as it may even have been, +their spontaneous assemblage unsummoned, is no small token of their +ardour of devotion, even if they were somewhat slavishly tied to +externals. It would take a good deal to draw a band of new settlers in +our days to leave their lots and set to putting up a church before +they had built themselves houses. + +The leaders of the band of returned exiles demand a brief notice. They +are Jeshua, or Joshua, and Zerubbabel. In verse 2 the ecclesiastical +dignitary comes first, but in verse 8 the civil. Similarly in Ezra ii. +2, Zerubbabel precedes Jeshua. In Haggai, the priest is pre-eminent; +in Zechariah the prince. The truth seems to be that each was supreme +in his own department, and that they understood each other cordially, +or, Zechariah says, 'the counsel of peace' was 'between them both.' It +is sometimes bad for the people when priests and rulers lay their +heads together; but it is even worse when they pull different ways, +and subjects are torn in two by conflicting obligations. + +Jeshua was the grandson of Seraiah, the unfortunate high-priest whose +eyes Nebuchadnezzar put out after the fall of Jerusalem. His son +Jozadak succeeded to the dignity, though there could be no sacrifices +in Babylon, and after him his son Jeshua. He cannot have been a young +man at the date of the return; but age had not dimmed his enthusiasm, +and the high-priest was where he ought to have been, in the forefront +of the returning exiles. His name recalls the other Joshua, likewise a +leader from captivity and the desert; and, if we appreciate the +significance attached to names in Scripture, we shall scarcely suppose +it accidental that these two, who had similar work to do, bore the +same name as the solitary third, of whom they were pale shadows, the +greater Joshua, who brings His people from bondage into His own land +of peace, and builds the Temple. + +Zerubbabel ('Sown in Babylon') belonged to a collateral branch of the +royal family. The direct Davidic line through Solomon died with the +wretched Zedekiah and Jeconiah, but the descendants of another son of +David's, Nathan, still survived. Their representative was one +Salathiel, who, on the failure of the direct line, was regarded as the +'son of Jeconiah' (1 Chron. iii. 17). He seems to have had no son, and +Zerubbabel, who was really his nephew (1 Chron. iii. 19), was legally +adopted as his son. In this makeshift fashion, some shadow of the +ancient royalty still presided over the restored people. We see +Zerubbabel better in Haggai and Zechariah than in Ezra, and can +discern the outline of a strong, bold, prompt nature. He had a hard +task, and he did it like a man. Patient, yet vigorous, glowing with +enthusiasm, yet clear-eyed, self-forgetful, and brave, he has had +scant justice done him, and ought to be a very much more familiar and +honoured figure than he is. 'Who art thou, O great mountain? Before +Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.' Great mountains only become +plains before men of strong wills and fixed faith. + +There is something very pathetic in the picture of the assembled +people groping amid the ruins on the Temple hill, to find 'the bases,' +the half-obliterated outlines, of the foundations of the old altar of +burnt offerings. What memories of Araunah's threshing-floor, and of +the hovering angel of destruction, and of the glories of Solomon's +dedication, and of the long centuries during which the column of smoke +had gone up continually from that spot, and of the tragical day when +the fire was quenched, and of the fifty years of extinction, must have +filled their hearts! What a conflict of gladness and sorrow must have +troubled their spirits as the flame again shot upwards from the hearth +of God, cold for so long! + +But the reason for their so quickly rearing the altar is noteworthy. +It was because 'fear was upon them because of the people of the +countries.' The state of the Holy Land at the return must be clearly +comprehended. Samaria and the central district were in the hands of +bitter enemies. Across Jordan in the east, down on the Philistine +plain in the west, and in the south where Edom bore sway, eager +enemies sulkily watched the small beginnings of a movement which they +were interested in thwarting. There was only the territory of Judah +and Benjamin left free for the exiles, and they had reason for their +fears; for their neighbours knew that if restitution was to be the +order of the day, they would have to disgorge a good deal. What was +the defence against such foes which these frightened men thought most +impregnable? That altar! + +No doubt, much superstition mingled with their religion. Haggai leaves +us under no illusions as to their moral and spiritual condition. They +were no patterns of devoutness or of morality. But still, what they +did carries an eternal truth; and they were reverting to the original +terms of Israel's tenure of their land when they acted on the +conviction that their worship of Jehovah according to His commandment +was their surest way of finding shelter from all their enemies. There +are differences plain enough between their condition and ours; but it +is as true for us as ever it was for them, that our safety is in God, +and that, if we want to find shelter from impending dangers, we shall +be wiser to betake ourselves to the altar and sit suppliant there than +to make defences for ourselves. The ruined Jerusalem was better +guarded by that altar than if its fallen walls had been rebuilt. + +The whole ritual was restored, as the narrative tells with obvious +satisfaction in the enumeration. To us this punctilious attention to +the minutiae of sacrificial worship sounds trivial. But we equally err +if we try to bring such externalities into the worship of the +Christian Church, and if we are blind to their worth at an earlier +stage. + +There cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar +without a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though +there be no house for His name. The order of events here teaches us +what is essential for communion with God. It is the altar. Sacrifice +laid there is accepted, whether it stand on a bare hill-top, or have +round it the courts of the Lord's house. + +The second part of the passage narrates the laying of the foundations +of the Temple. There had been contracts entered into with masons and +carpenters, and arrangements made with the Phoenicians for timber, as +soon as the exiles had returned; but of course some time elapsed +before the stone and timber were sufficient to make a beginning with. +Note in verse 7 the reference to Cyrus' grant as enabling the people +to get these stores together. Whether the whole preparations, or only +the transport of cedar wood, is intended to be traced to the influence +of that decree, there seems to be a tacit contrast, in the writer's +mind, with the glorious days when no heathen king had to be consulted, +and Hiram and Solomon worked together like brothers. Now, so fallen +are we, that Tyre and Sidon will not look at us unless we bring Cyrus' +rescript in our hands! + +If the 'years' in verses 1 and 8 are calculated from the same +beginning, some seven months were spent in preparation, and then the +foundation was laid. Two things are noted--the humble attempt at +making some kind of a display on the occasion, and the conflict of +feeling in the onlookers. They had managed to get some copies of the +prescribed vestments; and the narrator emphasises the fact that the +priests were 'in their apparel,' and that the Levites had cymbals, so +that some approach to the pomp of Solomon's dedication was possible. +They did their best to adhere to the ancient prescriptions, and it was +no mere narrow love of ritual that influenced them. However we may +breathe a freer air of worship, we cannot but sympathise with that +earnest attempt to do everything 'according to the order of David king +of Israel.' Not only punctiliousness as to ritual, but the magnetism +of glorious memories, prescribed the reproduction of that past. Rites +long proscribed become very sacred, and the downtrodden successors of +mighty men will cling with firm grasp to what the greater fathers did. + +The ancient strain which still rings from Christian lips, and bids +fair to be as eternal as the mercies which it hymns, rose with strange +pathos from the lips of the crowd on the desolate Temple mountain, +ringed about by the waste solitudes of the city: 'For He is good, for +His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.' It needed some faith to +sing that song then, even with the glow of return upon them. What of +all the weary years? What of the empty homesteads, and the surrounding +enemies, and the brethren still in Babylon? No doubt some at least of +the rejoicing multitude had learned what the captivity was meant to +teach, and had come to bless God, both for the long years of exile, +which had burned away much dross, and for the incomplete work of +restoration, surrounded though they were with foes, and little as was +their strength to fight. The trustful heart finds occasion for +unmingled praise in the most mingled cup of joy and sorrow. + +There can have been very few in that crowd who had seen the former +Temple, and their memories of its splendour must have been very dim. +But partly remembrance and partly hearsay made the contrast of the +past glories and the present poverty painful. Hence that pathetic and +profoundly significant incident of the blended shouts of the young and +tears of the old. One can fancy that each sound jarred on the ears of +those who uttered the other. But each was wholly natural to the years +of the two classes. Sad memories gather, like evening mists, round +aged lives, and the temptation of the old is unduly to exalt the past, +and unduly to depreciate the present. Welcoming shouts for the new +befit young lips, and they care little about the ruins that have to be +carted off the ground for the foundations of the temple which they are +to have a hand in building. However imperfect, it is better to them +than the old house where the fathers worshipped. + +But each class should try to understand the other's feelings. The +friends of the old should not give a churlish welcome to the new, nor +those of the new forget the old. It is hard to blend the two, either +in individual life or in a wider sphere of thought or act. The seniors +think the juniors revolutionary and irreverent; the juniors think the +seniors fossils. It is possible to unite the shout of joy and the +weeping. Unless a spirit of reverent regard for the past presides over +the progressive movements of this or any day, they will not lay a +solid foundation for the temple of the future. We want the old and the +young to work side by side, if the work is to last and the sanctuary +is to be ample enough to embrace all shades of character and +tendencies of thought. If either the grey beards of Solomon's court or +the hot heads of Rehoboam's get the reins in their hands, they will +upset the chariot. That mingled sound of weeping and joy from the +Temple hill tells a more excellent way. + + + +BUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES + +'Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the +children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of +Israel; 2. Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the +fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your +God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of +Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3. But +Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of +Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an +house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord +God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. 4. +Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, +and troubled them in building, 5. And hired counsellors against them, +to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even +until the reign of Darius king of Persia.'--EZRA iv. 1-5. + + +Opposition began as soon as the foundations were laid, as is usually +the case with all great attempts to build God's house. It came from +the Samaritans, the mingled people who were partly descendants of the +ancient remnant of the northern kingdom, left behind after the removal +by deportation of the bulk of its population, and partly the +descendants of successive layers of immigrants, planted in the empty +territory by successive Assyrian and Babylonian kings. Esar-haddon was +the first who had sent colonists, about one hundred and thirty years +before the return. The writer calls the Samaritans 'the adversaries,' +though they began by offers of friendship and alliance. The name +implies that these offers were perfidious, and a move in the struggle. + +One can easily understand that the Samaritans looked with suspicion on +the new arrivals, the ancient possessors of the land, coming under the +auspices of the new dynasty, and likely to interfere with their +position if not reduced to inferiority or neutralised somehow. The +proposal to unite in building the Temple was a political move; for, in +old-world ideas, co-operation in Temple-building was incorporation in +national unity. The calculation, no doubt, was that if the returning +exiles could be united with the much more numerous Samaritans, they +would soon be absorbed in them. The only chance for the smaller body +was to keep itself apart, and to run the risk of its isolation. + +The insincere request was based on an untruth, for the Samaritans did +not worship Jehovah as the Jews, but along with their own gods (2 +Kings xvii. 25-41). To divide His dominion with others was to dethrone +Him altogether. It therefore became an act of faithfulness to Jehovah +to reject the entangling alliance. To have accepted it would have been +tantamount to frustrating the very purpose of the return, and +consenting to be muzzled about the sin of idolatry. But the chief +lesson which exile had burned in on the Jewish mind was a loathing of +idolatry, which is in remarkable contrast to the inclination to it +that had marked their previous history. So one answer only was +possible, and it was given with unwelcome plainness of speech, which +might have been more courteous, and not less firm. It flatly denied +any common ground; it claimed exclusive relation to 'our God,' which +meant, 'not yours'; it underscored the claim by reiterating that +Jehovah was the 'God of Israel'; it put forward the decree of Cyrus, +as leaving no option but to confine the builders to the people whom it +had empowered to build. + +Now, it is easy to represent this as a piece of impolitic narrowness, +and to say that its surly bigotry was rightly punished by the evils +that it brought down on the returning exiles. The temper of much +flaccid Christianity at present delights to expand in a lazy and +foolish 'liberality,' which will welcome anybody to come and take a +hand at the building, and accepts any profession of unity in worship. +But there is no surer way of taking the earnestness out of Christian +work and workers than drafting into it a mass of non-Christians, +whatever their motives may be. Cold water poured into a boiling pot +will soon stop its bubbling, and bring down its temperature. The +churches are clogged and impeded, and their whole tone lowered and +chilled, by a mass of worldly men and women. Nothing is gained, and +much is in danger of being lost, by obliterating the lines between the +church and the world. The Jew who thought little of the difference +between the Samaritan worship with its polytheism, and his own +monotheism, was in peril of dropping to the Samaritan level. The +Samaritan who was accepted as a true worshipper of Jehovah, though he +had a bevy of other gods in addition, would have been confirmed in his +belief that the differences were unimportant. So both would have been +harmed by what called itself 'liberality,' and was in reality +indifference. + +No doubt, Zerubbabel had counted the cost of faithfulness, and he soon +had to pay it. The would-be friends threw off the mask, and, as they +could not hinder by pretending to help, took a plainer way to stop +progress. All the weapons that Eastern subtlety and intrigue could use +were persistently employed to 'weaken the hands' of the builders, and +the most potent of all methods, bribery to Persian officials, was +freely used. The opponents triumphed, and the little community began +to taste the bitterness of high hopes disappointed and noble +enterprises frustrated. How differently things had turned out from the +expectations with which the company had set forth from Babylon! The +rough awakening to realities disillusions us all when we come to turn +dreams into facts. The beginning of laying the Temple foundations is +put in 536 B.C.; the first year of Darius was 522. How soon after the +commencement of the work the Samaritan tricks succeeded we do not +know, but it must have been some time before the death of Cyrus in +529. For weary years then the sanguine band had to wait idly, and no +doubt enthusiasm died out: they had enough to do in keeping themselves +alive, and in holding their own amidst enemies. They needed, as we all +do, patience, and a willingness to wait for God's own time to fulfil +His own promise. + + + +THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP + +'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the +prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and +they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God +of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and +Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the +third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign +of Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and +the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the +dedication of this house of God with joy, 17. And offered at the +dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, +four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve +he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18. And +they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their +courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is +written in the book of Moses. 19. And the children of the captivity +kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20. For +the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were +pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, +and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. 21. And the +children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all +such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the +heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat, 22. And +kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord +had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto +them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the +God of Israel.'--EZRA. vi. 14-22. + + +There are three events recorded in this passage,--the completion of +the Temple, its dedication, and the keeping of the passover some weeks +thereafter. Four years intervene between the resumption of building +and its successful finish, much of which time had been occupied by the +interference of the Persian governor, which compelled a reference to +Darius, and resulted in his confirmation of Cyrus' charter. The king's +stringent orders silenced opposition, and seem to have been loyally, +however unwillingly, obeyed. About twenty-three years passed between +the return of the exiles and the completion of the Temple. + +I. The prosperous close of the long task (vers. 14, 15). The narrative +enumerates three points in reference to the completion of the Temple +which are very significant, and, taken together, set forth the +stimulus and law and helps of work for God. + +It is expressive of deep truth that first in order is named, as the +cause of success, 'the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.' +'Practical men,' no doubt, then as always, set little store by the two +prophets' fiery words, and thought that a couple of masons would have +done more for the building than they did. The contempt for 'ideas' is +the mark of shallow and vulgar minds. Nothing is more practical than +principles and motives which underlie and inform work, and these two +prophets did more for building the Temple by their words than an army +of labourers with their hands. 'There are diversities of operations,' +and it is not given to every man to handle a trowel; but no good work +will be prosperously accomplished unless there be engaged in it +prophets who rouse and rebuke and hearten, and toilers who by their +words are encouraged and saved from forgetting the sacred motives and +great ends of their work in the monotony and multiplicity of details. + +Still more important is the next point mentioned. The work was done +'according to the commandment of the God of Israel.' There is peculiar +beauty and pathos in that name, which is common in Ezra. It speaks of +the sense of unity in the nation, though but a fragment of it had come +back. There was still an Israel, after all the dreary years, and in +spite of present separation. God was still its God, though He had +hidden His face for so long. An inextinguishable faith, wistful but +assured, in His unalterable promise, throbs in that name, so little +warranted by a superficial view of circumstances, but so amply +vindicated by a deeper insight. His 'commandment' is at once the +warrant and the standard for the work of building. In His service we +are to be sure that He bids, and then to carry out His will whoever +opposes. + +We are to make certain that our building is 'according to the pattern +showed in the mount,' and, if so, to stick to it in every point. There +is no room for more than one architect in rearing the temple. The +working drawings must come from Him. We are only His workmen. And +though we may know no more of the general plan of the structure than +the day-labourer who carries a hod does, we must be sure that we have +His orders for our little bit of work, and then we may be at rest even +while we toil. They who build according to His commandment build for +eternity, and their work shall stand the trial by fire. That motive +turns what without it were but 'wood, hay, stubble,' into 'gold and +silver and precious stones.' + +The last point is that the work was done according to the commandment +of the heathen kings. We need not discuss the chronological difficulty +arising from the mention of Artaxerxes here. The only king of that +name who can be meant reigned fifty years after the events here +narrated. The mention of him here has been explained by 'the +consideration that he contributed to the maintenance, though not to +the building, of the Temple.' Whatever is the solution, the intention +of the mention of the names of the friendly monarchs is plain. 'The +king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses; He +turneth it whithersoever He will.' The wonderful providence, +surpassing all hopes, which gave the people 'favour in the eyes of +them that carried them captive,' animates the writer's thankfulness, +while he recounts that miracle that the commandment of God was +re-echoed by such lips. The repetition of the word in both clauses +underscores, as it were, the remarkable concurrence. + +II. The dedication of the Temple (vers. 16-18). How long the +dedication was after the completion is not specified. The month Adar +was the last of the Jewish year, and corresponded nearly with our +March. Probably the ceremonial of dedication followed immediately on +the completion of the building. Probably few, if any, of the aged men, +who had wept at the founding, survived to see the completion of the +Temple. A new generation had no such sad contrasts of present +lowliness and former glory to shade their gladness. So many dangers +surmounted, so many long years of toil interrupted and hope deferred, +gave keener edge to joy in the fair result of them all. + +We may cherish the expectation that our long tasks, and often +disappointments, will have like ending if they have been met and done +in like spirit, having been stimulated by prophets and commanded by +God. It is not wholesome nor grateful to depreciate present blessings +by contrasting them with vanished good. Let us take what God gives +to-day, and not embitter it by remembering yesterday with vain regret. +There is a remembrance of the former more splendid Temple in the name +of the new one, which is thrice repeated in the passage,--'this +house.' But that phrase expresses gratitude quite as much as, or more +than, regret. The former house is gone, but there is still 'this +house,' and it is as truly God's as the other was. Let us grasp the +blessings we have, and be sure that in them is continued the substance +of those we have lost. + +The offerings were poor, if compared with Solomon's 'two and twenty +thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep' (1 Kings +viii. 63), and no doubt the despisers of the 'day of small things,' +whom Zechariah had rebuked, would be at their depreciating work again. +But 'if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to +that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.' The +thankfulness of the offerers, not the number of their bullocks and +rams, made the sacrifice well pleasing. But it would not have been so +if the exiles' resources had been equal to the great King's. How many +cattle had they in their stalls at home, not how many they brought to +the Temple, was the important question. The man who says, 'Oh! God +accepts small offerings,' and gives a mite while he keeps talents, +might as well keep his mite too; for certainly God will not have it. + +A significant part of the offerings was the 'twelve he-goats, +according to the number of the tribes of Israel.' These spoke of the +same confidence as we have already noticed as being expressed by the +designation of 'the God of Israel.' Possibly scattered members of all +the tribes had come back, and so there was a kind of skeleton +framework of the nation present at the dedication; but, whether that +be so or not, that handful of people was not Israel. Thousands of +their brethren still lingered in exile, and the hope of their return +must have been faint. Yet God's promise remained, and Israel was +immortal. The tribes were still twelve, and the sacrifices were still +theirs. A thrill of emotion must have touched many hearts as the +twelve goats were led up to the altar. So an Englishman feels as he +looks at the crosses on the Union Jack. + +But there was more than patriotism in that sacrifice. It witnessed to +unshaken faith. And there was still more expressed in it than the +offerers dreamed; for it prophesied of that transformation of the +national into the spiritual Israel, in virtue of which the promises +remain true, and are inherited by the Church of Christ in all lands. + +The re-establishment of the Temple worship with the appointment of +priests and Levites, according to the ancient ordinance, naturally +followed on the dedication. + +III. The celebration of the Passover (vers. 19-22). It took place on +the fourteenth day of the first month, and probably, therefore, very +soon after the dedication. They 'kept the feast, ... for the priests +and Levites were purified together.' The zeal of the sacerdotal class +in attending to the prescriptions for ceremonial purity made it +possible that the feast should be observed. How much of real devotion, +and how much of mere eagerness to secure their official position, +mingled with this zeal, cannot be determined. Probably there was a +touch of both. Scrupulous observance of ritual is easy religion, +especially if one's position is improved by it. But the connection +pointed out by the writer is capable of wide applications. The true +purity and earnestness of preachers and teachers of all degrees has +much to do with their hearers' and scholars' participation in the +blessings of the Gospel. If priests are not pure, they cannot kill the +passover. Earnest teachers make earnest scholars. Foul hands cannot +dispense the bread of life. + +There is a slight deviation from the law in the ritual as here stated, +since it was prescribed that each householder should kill the passover +lamb for his house. But from the time of Hezekiah the Levites seem to +have done it for the congregation (2 Chron. xxx. 17), and afterwards +for the priests also (2 Chron. xxxv. 11, 14). + +Verse 21 tells that not only the returned exiles, but also 'all such +as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the +heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel,' ate the +passover. It may be questioned whether these latter were Israelites, +the descendants of the residue who had not been deported, but who had +fallen into idolatry during the exile, or heathens of the mixed +populations who had been settled in the vacant country. The emphasis +put on their turning to Israel and Israel's God seems to favour the +latter supposition. But in any case, the fact presents us with an +illustration of the proper effect of the presence anywhere of a +company of God's true worshippers. If we purify ourselves, and keep +the feast of the true passover with joy as well as purity, we shall +not want for outsiders who will separate themselves from the more +subtle and not less dangerous idolatries of modern life, to seek the +Lord God of Israel. If His Israel is what it ought to be, it will +attract. A bit of scrap-iron in contact with a magnet is a magnet. +They who live in touch with Him who said, 'I will draw all men unto +Me' will share His attractive power in the measure of their union with +Him. + +The week after the passover feast was, according to the ritual, +observed as the feast of unleavened bread. The narrative touches +lightly on the ceremonial, and dwells in conclusion on the joy of the +worshippers and its cause. They do well to be glad whom God makes +glad. All other joy bears in it the seeds of death. It is, in one +aspect, the end of God's dealings, that we should be glad in Him. Wise +men will not regard that as a less noble end than making us pure; in +fact, the two are united. The 'blessed God' is glad in our gladness +when it is His gladness. + +Notice the exulting wonder with which God's miracle of mercy is +reported in its source and its glorious result. The heart of the king +was turned to them, and no power but God's could have done that. The +issue of that divine intervention was the completed Temple, in which +once more the God of that Israel which He had so marvellously restored +dwelt in the midst of His people. + + + +GOD THE JOY-BRINGER + +'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made +them joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22. + + +Twenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at +last, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by +the completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with +the magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them +'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies; +they were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to darken their +prospects and to sadden their hearts; and yet, when memories of the +ancient days came back, and once more they saw the sacrificial smoke +rising from the long cold and ruined altar, they rejoiced in God, and +they kept the passover amid the ruins, as my text tells us, for the +'seven days' of the statutory period 'with joy,' because, in spite of +all, 'the Lord had made them joyful.' + +I think if we take this simple saying we get two or three thoughts, +not altogether irrelevant to universal experience, about the true and +the counterfeit gladnesses possible to us all. + +I. Look at that great and wonderful thought--God the joy-maker. + +We do not often realise how glad God is when we are glad, and how +worthy an object of much that He does is simply the prosperity and the +blessedness of human hearts. The poorest creature that lives has a +right to ask from God the satisfaction of its instincts, and every man +has a claim on God--because he is God's creature--to make him glad. +God honours all cheques legitimately drawn on Him, and answers all +claims, and regards Himself as occupied in a manner entirely congruous +with His magnificence and His infinitude, when He stoops to put some +kind of vibrating gladness into the wings of a gnat that dances for an +hour in the sunshine, and into the heart of a man that lives his time +for only a very little longer. + +God is the Joy-maker. There are far more magnificent and sublime +thoughts about Him than that; but I do not know that there is any that +ought to come nearer to our hearts, and to silence more of our +grumblings and of our distrust, than the belief that the gladness of +His children is an end contemplated by Him in all that He does. +Whether we think it of small importance or no, He does not think it +so, that all mankind should rejoice in Himself. And this is a +marvellous revelation to break out of the very heart of that +comparatively hard system of ancient Judaism. 'The Lord hath made them +joyful.' + +Turning away from the immediate connection of these words, let me +remind you of the great outlines of the divine provision for +gladdening men's hearts. I was going to say that God had only one way +of making us glad; and perhaps that is in the deepest sense true. That +way is by putting Himself into us. He gives us Himself to make us +glad; for nothing else will do it--or, at least, though there may be +many subordinate sources of joy, if there be in the innermost shrine +of our spirits an empty place, where the Shekinah ought to shine, no +other joys will suffice to settle and to rejoice the soul. The secret +of all true human well-being is close communion with God; and when He +looks at the poorest of us, desiring to make us blessed, He can but +say, 'I will give Myself to that poor man; to that ignorant creature; +to that wayward and prodigal child; to that harlot in her corruption; +to that worldling in his narrow godlessness; I will give Myself, if +they will have Me.' And thus, and only thus, does He make us truly, +perfectly, and for ever glad. + +Besides that, or rather as a sequel and consequence of that, there +come such other God-given blessings as these to which my text refers. +What were the outward reasons for the restored exiles' gladness? 'The +Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king ... unto +them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the +God of Israel.' + +So, then, He pours into men's lives by His providences the secondary +and lower gifts which men, according to changing circumstances, need; +and He also satisfies the permanent physical necessities of all orders +of beings to whom He has given life. He gives Himself for the spirit; +He gives whatever is contributory to any kind of gladness; and if we +are wise we shall trace all to Him. He is the Joy-giver; and that man +has not yet understood either the sanctity of life or the full +sweetness of its sweetest things unless he sees, written over every +one of them, the name of God, their giver. Your common mercies are His +love tokens, and they all come to us, just as the gifts of parents to +their children do, with this on the fly-leaf, 'With a father's love.' +Whatever comes to God's child with that inscription, surely it ought +to kindle a thrill of gladness. That 'the king of Assyria's heart is +turned'; shall we thank the king of Assyria? Yes and No! For it was +God who 'turned' it. Oh! to carry the quiet confidence of that thought +into all our daily life, and see His name written upon everything that +contributes to make us blessed. God is the true Source and Maker of +every joy. + +And by the side of that we must put this other thought--there are +sources of joy with which He has nothing to do. There are people who +are joyful--and there are some of them listening now--not because God +made them joyful, but because 'the world, the devil, and the flesh' +have given them ghastly caricatures of the true gladness. And these +rival sources of blessedness, the existence of which my text suggests, +are the enemies of all that is good and noble in us and in our joys. +God made these men joyful, and so their gladness was wholesome. + +II. Note the consequent obligation and wisdom of taking our God-given +joys. + +'They kept the feast with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful.' +Then it is our obligation to accept and use what it is His blessedness +to give. Be sure you take Him. When He is waiting to pour all His love +into your heart, and all His sweetness into your sensitive spirit, to +calm your anxieties, to deepen your blessedness, to strengthen +everything that is good in you, to be to you a stay in the midst of +crumbling prosperity, and a Light in the midst of gathering darkness, +be sure that you take the joy that waits your acceptance. Do not let +it be said that, when the Lord Christ has come down from heaven, and +lived upon earth, and gone back to heaven, and sent His Spirit to +dwell in you, you lock the door against the entrance of the +joy-bringing Messenger, and are sad and restless and discontented +because you have shut out the God who desires to abide in your hearts. + +'They kept the feast with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful.' +Oh! how many Christian men and women there are, who in the midst of +the abundant and wonderful provision for continual cheerfulness and +buoyancy of spirit given to them in the promises of the Gospel, in the +gifts of Christ, in the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, do yet go +through life creeping and sad, burdened and anxious, perplexed and at +their wits' end, just because they will not have the God who yearns to +come to them, or at least will not have Him in anything like the +fullness and the completeness in which He desires to bestow Himself. +If God gives, surely we are bound to receive. It is an obligation upon +Christian men and women, which they do not sufficiently realise, to be +glad, and it is a commandment needing to be reiterated. 'Rejoice in +the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice.' Would that Christian +experience in this generation was more alive to the obligation and the +blessedness of perpetual joy arising from perpetual communion with +Him. + +Further, another obligation is to recognise Him in all common mercies, +because He is at the back of them all. Let them always proclaim Him to +us. Oh! if we did not go through the world blinded to the real Power +that underlies all its motions, we should feel that everything was +vocal to us of the loving-kindness of our Father in heaven. Link Him, +dear friend! with everything that makes your heart glad; with +everything pleasant that comes to you. There is nothing good or sweet +but it flows from Him. There is no common delight of flesh or sense, +of sight or taste or smell, no little enjoyment that makes the moment +pass more brightly, no drop of oil that eases the friction of the +wheels of life, but it may be elevated into greatness and nobleness, +and will then first be understood in its true significance, if it is +connected with Him. God does not desire to be put away high up on a +pedestal above our lives, as if He regulated the great things and the +trifles regulated themselves; but He seeks to come, as air into the +lungs, into every particle of the mass of life, and to fill it all +with His own purifying presence. + +Recognise Him in common joys. If, when we sit down to partake of them, +we would say to ourselves, 'The Lord has made us joyful,' all our home +delights, all our social pleasures, all our intellectual and all our +sensuous ones--rest and food and drink and all other goods for the +body--they would all be felt to be great, as they indeed are. Enjoyed +in Him, the smallest is great; without Him, the greatest is small. +'The Lord made them joyful'; and what is large enough for Him to give +ought not to be too small for us to receive with recognition of His +hand. + +Another piece of wholesome counsel in this matter is--Be sure that you +use the joys which God does give. Many good people seem to think that +it is somehow devout and becoming to pitch most of their songs in a +minor key, and to be habitually talking about trials and +disappointments, and 'a desert land,' and 'Brief life is here our +portion,' and so on, and so on. There are two ways in which you can +look at the world and at everything that befalls you. There is enough +in everybody's life to make him sad if he sulkily selects these things +to dwell upon. There is enough in everybody's life to make him +continually glad if he wisely picks out these to think about. It +depends altogether on the angle at which you look at your life what +you see in it. For instance, you know how children do when they get a +bit of a willow wand into their possession. They cut off rings of +bark, and get the switch alternately white and black, white and black, +and so on right away to the tip. Whether will you look at the white +rings or the black ones? They are both there. But if you rightly look +at the black you will find out that there is white below it, and it +only needs a very little stripping off of a film to make it into white +too. Or, to put it into simpler words, no Christian man has the right +to regard anything that God's Providence brings to him as such +unmingled evil that it ought to make him sad. We are bound to 'rejoice +in the Lord always.' + +I know how hard it is, but sure am I that it is possible for a man, if +he keeps near Jesus Christ, to reproduce Paul's paradox of being +'sorrowful yet always rejoicing,' and even in the midst of darkness +and losses and sorrows and blighted hopes and disappointed aims to +rejoice in the Lord, and to 'keep the feast with gladness, because the +Lord has made him joyful.' Nor do we discharge our duty, unless side +by side with the sorrow which is legitimate, which is blessed, +strengthening, purifying, calming, moderating, there is also 'joy +unspeakable and full of glory.' + +Again, be sure that you limit your delights to God-made joys. Too many +of us have what parts of our nature recognise as satisfaction, and are +glad to have, apart from Him. There is nothing sadder than the joys +that come into a life, and do not come from God. Oh! let us see to it +that we do not fill our cisterns with poisonous sewage when God is +waiting to fill them with the pure 'river of the water of life.' Do +not let us draw our blessedness from the world and its evils. Does my +joy help me to come near to God? Does it interfere with my communion +with Him? Does it aid me in the consecration of myself? Does my +conscience go with it when my conscience is most awake? Do I recognise +Him as the Giver of the thing that is so blessed? If we can say Yes! +to these questions, we can venture to believe that our blessedness +comes from God, and leads to God, however homely, however sensuous and +material may be its immediate occasion. But if not, then the less we +have to do with such sham gladness the better. 'Even in laughter the +heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' The +alternative presented for the choice of each of us is whether we will +have surface joy and a centre of dark discontent, or surface sorrow +and a centre of calm blessedness. The film of stagnant water on a pond +full of rottenness simulates the glories of the rainbow, in which pure +sunshine falls upon the pure drops, but it is only painted corruption +after all, a sign of rotting; and if a man puts his lips to it it will +kill him. Such is the joy which is apart from God. It is the +'crackling of thorns under a pot'--the more fiercely they burn the +sooner they are ashes. And, on the other hand, 'these things have I +spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full.' + +It is not 'for seven days' that we 'keep the feast' if God has 'made +us joyful,' but for all the rest of the days of time, and for the +endless years of the calm gladnesses of the heavens. + + + +HEROIC FAITH + +'I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen +to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto +the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon them all for good that +seek Him.... 23. So we fasted and besought our God for this.... 31. +The hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of +the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. 32. And we came to +Jerusalem.'--EZRA viii. 22, 23, 31, 32. + + +The memory of Ezra the scribe has scarcely had fairplay among +Bible-reading people. True, neither his character nor the incidents of +his life reach the height of interest or of grandeur belonging to the +earlier men and their times. He is no hero, or prophet; only a scribe; +and there is a certain narrowness as well as a prosaic turn about his +mind, and altogether one feels that he is a smaller man than the +Elijahs and Davids of the older days. But the homely garb of the +scribe covered a very brave devout heart, and the story of his life +deserves to be more familiar to us than it is. + +This scrap from the account of his preparations for the march from +Babylon to Jerusalem gives us a glimpse of a high-toned faith, and a +noble strain of feeling. He and his company had a long weary journey +of four months before them. They had had little experience of arms and +warfare, or of hardships and desert marches, in their Babylonian +homes. Their caravan was made unwieldy and feeble by the presence of a +large proportion of women and children. They had much valuable +property with them. The stony desert, which stretches unbroken from +the Euphrates to the uplands on the east of Jordan, was infested then +as now by wild bands of marauders, who might easily swoop down on the +encumbered march of Ezra and his men, and make a clean sweep of all +which they had. And he knew that he had but to ask and have an escort +from the king that would ensure their safety till they saw Jerusalem. +Artaxerxes' surname, 'the long-handed,' may have described a physical +peculiarity, but it also expressed the reach of his power; his arm +could reach these wandering plunderers, and if Ezra and his troop were +visibly under his protection, they could march secure. So it was not a +small exercise of trust in a higher Hand that is told us here so +simply. It took some strength of principle to abstain from asking what +it would have been so natural to ask, so easy to get, so comfortable +to have. But, as he says, he remembered how confidently he has spoken +of God's defence, and he feels that he must be true to his professed +creed, even if it deprives him of the king's guards. He halts his +followers for three days at the last station before the desert, and +there, with fasting and prayer, they put themselves in God's hand; and +then the band, with their wives and little ones, and their +substance,--a heavily-loaded and feeble caravan,--fling themselves +into the dangers of the long, dreary, robber-haunted march. Did not +the scribe's robe cover as brave a heart as ever beat beneath a +breastplate? + +That symbolic phrase, 'the hand of our God,' as expressive of the +divine protection, occurs with remarkable frequency in the books of +Ezra and Nehemiah, and though not peculiar to them, is yet strikingly +characteristic of them. It has a certain beauty and force of its own. +The hand is of course the seat of active power. It is on or over a man +like some great shield held aloft above him, below which there is safe +hiding. So that great Hand bends itself over us, and we are secure +beneath its hollow. As a child sometimes carries a tender-winged +butterfly in the globe of its two hands that the bloom on the wings +may not be ruffled by fluttering, so He carries our feeble, unarmoured +souls enclosed in the covert of His Almighty hand. 'Who hath measured +the waters in the hollow of His hand?' 'Who hath gathered the wind in +His fists?' In that curved palm where all the seas lie as a very +little thing, we are held; the grasp that keeps back the tempests from +their wild rush, keeps us, too, from being smitten by their blast. As +a father may lay his own large muscular hand on his child's tiny +fingers to help him, or as 'Elisha put his hands on the king's hands,' +that the contact might strengthen him to shoot the 'arrow of the +Lord's deliverance,' so the hand of our God is upon us to impart power +as well as protection; and our 'bow abides in strength,' when 'the +arms of our hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of +Jacob.' That was Ezra's faith, and that should be ours. + +Note Ezra's sensitive shrinking from anything like inconsistency +between his creed and his practice. It was easy to talk about God's +protection when he was safe behind the walls of Babylon; but now the +pinch had come. There was a real danger before him and his unwarlike +followers. No doubt, too, there were plenty of people who would have +been delighted to catch him tripping; and he felt that his cheeks +would have tingled with shame if they had been able to say, 'Ah! that +is what all his fine professions come to, is it? He wants a convoy, +does he? We thought as much. It is always so with these people who +talk in that style. They are just like the rest of us when the pinch +comes.' So, with a high and keen sense of what was required by his +avowed principles, he will have no guards for the road. _There_ +was a man whose religion was at any rate not a fair-weather religion. +It did not go off in fine speeches about trusting to the protection of +God, spoken from behind the skirts of the king, or from the middle of +a phalanx of his soldiers. He clearly meant what he said, and believed +every word of it as a prose fact, which was solid enough to build +conduct on. + +I am afraid a great many of us would rather have tried to reconcile +our asking for a band of horsemen with our professed trust in God's +hand; and there would have been plenty of excuses very ready about +using means as well as exercising faith, and not being called upon to +abandon advantages, and not pushing a good principle to Quixotic +lengths, and so on, and so on. But whatever truth there is in such +considerations, at any rate we may well learn the lesson of this +story--to be true to our professed principles; to beware of making our +religion a matter of words; to live, when the time for putting them +into practice comes, by the maxims which we have been forward to +proclaim when there was no risk in applying them; and to try sometimes +to look at our lives with the eyes of people who do not share our +faith, that we may bring our actions up to the mark of what they +expect of us. If 'the Church' would oftener think of what 'the world' +looks for from it, it would seldomer have cause to be ashamed of the +terrible gap between its words and its deeds. + +Especially in regard to this matter of trust in an unseen Hand, and +reliance on visible helps, we all need to be very rigid in our +self-inspection. Faith in the good hand of God upon us for good should +often lead to the abandonment, and always to the subordination, of +material aids. It is a question of detail, which each man must settle +for himself as each occasion arises, whether in any given case +abandonment or subordination is our duty. This is not the place to +enter on so large and difficult a question. But, at all events, let us +remember, and try to work into our own lives, that principle which the +easy-going Christianity of this day has honeycombed with so many +exceptions, that it scarcely has any whole surface left at all; that +the absolute surrender and forsaking of external helps and goods is +sometimes essential to the preservation and due expression of reliance +on God. + +There is very little fear of any of us pushing that principle to +Quixotic lengths. The danger is all the other way. So it is worth +while to notice that we have here an instance of a man's being carried +by a certain lofty enthusiasm further than the mere law of duty would +take him. There would have been no harm in Ezra's asking an escort, +seeing that his whole enterprise was made possible by the king's +support. He would not have been 'leaning on an arm of flesh' by +availing himself of the royal troops, any more than when he used the +royal firman. But a true man often feels that he cannot do the things +which he might without sin do. 'All things are lawful for me, but all +things are not expedient,' said Paul. The same Apostle eagerly +contended that he had a perfect right to money support from the +Gentile Churches; and then, in the next breath, flamed up into, 'I +have used none of these things, for it were better for me to die, than +that any man should make my glorying void.' A sensitive spirit, or one +profoundly stirred by religious emotion, will, like the apostle whose +feet were moved by love, far outrun the slower soul, whose steps are +only impelled by the thought of duty. Better that the cup should run +over than that it should not be full. Where we delight to do His will, +there will often be more than a scrupulously regulated enough; and +where there is not sometimes that 'more,' there will never be enough. + + 'Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less or more.' + +What shall we say of people who profess that God is their portion, and +are as eager in the scramble for money as anybody? What kind of a +commentary will sharp-sighted, sharp-tongued observers have a right to +make on us, whose creed is so unlike theirs, while our lives are +identical? Do you believe, friends! that 'the hand of our God is upon +all them for good that seek Him'? Then, do you not think that racing +after the prizes of this world, with flushed cheeks and labouring +breath, or longing, with a gnawing hunger of heart, for any earthly +good, or lamenting over the removal of creatural defences and joys, as +if heaven were empty because some one's place here is, or as if God +were dead because dear ones die, may well be a shame to us, and a +taunt on the lips of our enemies? Let us learn again the lesson from +this old story,--that if our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it +demands and will produce, the abandonment sometimes and the +subordination always, of external helps and material good. + +Notice, too, Ezra's preparation for receiving the divine help. There, +by the river Ahava, he halts his company like a prudent leader, to +repair omissions, and put the last touches to their organisation +before facing the wilderness. But he has another purpose also. 'I +proclaimed a fast there, to seek of God a right way for us.' There was +no foolhardiness in his courage; he was well aware of all the possible +dangers on the road; and whilst he is confident of the divine +protection, he knows that, in his own quiet, matter-of-fact words, it +is given 'to all them that _seek_ Him.' So his faith not only +impels him to the renunciation of the Babylonian guard, but to earnest +supplication for the defence in which he is so confident. He is sure +it will be given--so sure, that he will have no other shield; and yet +he fasts and prays that he and his company may receive it. He prays +because he is sure that he will receive it, and does receive it +because he prays and is sure. + +So for us, the condition and preparation on and by which we are +sheltered by that great Hand, is the faith that asks, and the asking +of faith. We must forsake the earthly props, but we must also +believingly desire to be upheld by the heavenly arms. We make God +responsible for our safety when we abandon other defence, and commit +ourselves to Him. With eyes open to our dangers, and full +consciousness of our own unarmed and unwarlike weakness, let us +solemnly commend ourselves to Him, rolling all our burden on His +strong arms, knowing that He is able to keep that which we have +committed to Him. He will accept the trust, and set His guards about +us. As the song of the returning exiles, which may have been sung by +the river Ahava, has it: 'My help cometh from the Lord. The Lord is +thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.' + +So our story ends with the triumphant vindication of this Quixotic +faith. A flash of joyful feeling breaks through the simple narrative, +as it tells how the words spoken before the king came true in the +experience of the weaponless pilgrims: 'The hand of our God _was_ +upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such +as lay in wait by the way; and we came to Jerusalem.' It was no rash +venture that we made. He was all that we hoped and asked. Through all +the weary march He led us. From the wild, desert-born robbers, that +watched us from afar, ready to come down on us, from ambushes and +hidden perils, He kept us, because we had none other help, and all our +hope was in Him. The ventures of faith are ever rewarded. We cannot +set our expectations from God too high. What we dare scarcely hope now +we shall one day remember. When we come to tell the completed story of +our lives, we shall have to record the fulfilment of all God's +promises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were built on +these. Here let us cry, 'Be Thy hand upon us.' Here let us trust, Thy +hand will be upon us. Then we shall have to say, 'The hand of our God +was upon us,' and as we look from the watch-towers of the city, on the +desert that stretches to its very walls, and remember all the way by +which He led us, we shall rejoice over His vindication of our poor +faith, and praise Him that 'not one thing hath failed of all the +things which the Lord our God spake concerning us.' + + + +THE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS + +'Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them ... at Jerusalem, in the +chambers of the house of the Lord.'--EZRA viii. 29. + + +The little band of Jews, seventeen hundred in number, returning from +Babylon, had just started on that long pilgrimage, and made a brief +halt in order to get everything in order for their transit across the +desert; when their leader Ezra, taking count of his men, discovers +that amongst them there are none of the priests or Levites. He then +takes measures to reinforce his little army with a contingent of +these, and entrusts to their special care a very valuable treasure in +gold, and silver, and sacred vessels, which had been given to them for +use in the house of the Lord. The words which I have taken as text are +a portion of the charge which he gave to those twelve priestly +guardians of the precious things, that were to be used in worship when +they got back to the Temple. 'Watch and keep them, until ye weigh them +in the chambers of the house of the Lord.' + +So I think I may venture, without being unduly fanciful, to take these +words as a type of the injunctions which are given to us Christian +people; and to see in them a striking and picturesque representation +of the duties that devolve upon us in the course of our journey across +the desert to the Temple-Home above. + +And to begin with, let me remind you, for a moment or two, what the +precious treasure is which is thus entrusted to our keeping and care. +We can scarcely, in such a connection and with such a metaphor, forget +the words of our Lord about a certain king that went to receive his +kingdom, and to return; who called together his servants, and gave to +each of them according to their several ability, with the injunction +to trade upon that until he came. The same metaphor which our Master +employed lies in this story before us--in the one case, sacrificial +vessels and sacred treasures; in the other case, the talents out of +the rich possessions of the departing king. + +Nor can we forget either the other phase of the same figure which the +Apostle employs when he says to his 'own son' and substitute, Timothy: +'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost +which dwelleth in us,' nor that other word to the same Timothy, which +says: 'O Timothy! keep that which was committed to thy trust, and +avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely +so called.' In these quotations, the treasure, and the rich deposit, +is the faith once delivered to the saints; the solemn message of love +and peace in Jesus Christ, which was entrusted, first of all to those +preachers, but as truly to every one of Christ's disciples. + +So, then, the metaphor is capable of two applications. The first is to +the rich treasure and solemn trust of our own nature, of our own +souls; the faculties and capacities, precious beyond all count, rich +beyond all else that a man has ever received. Nothing that you have is +half so much as that which you are. The possession of a soul that +knows and loves, and can obey; that trusts and desires; that can yearn +and reach out to Jesus Christ, and to God in Christ; of a conscience +that can yield to His command; and faculties of comprehending and +understanding what comes to them from Jesus Christ--that is more than +any other possession, treasure, or trust. That which you and I carry +with us--the infinite possibilities of these awful spirits of +ours--the tremendous faculties which are given to every human soul, +and which, like a candle plunged into oxygen, are meant to burn far +more brightly under the stimulus of Christian faith and the possession +of God's truth, are the rich deposit committed to our charge. You +priests of the living God, you men and women, you say that you are +Christ's, and therefore are consecrated to a nobler priesthood than +any other--to you is given this solemn charge: 'That good thing which +is committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in you.' +The precious treasure of your own natures, your own hearts, your own +understandings, wills, consciences, desires--keep these, until they +are weighed in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. + +And in like manner, taking the other aspect of the metaphor--we have +given to us, in order that we may do something with it, that great +deposit and treasure of truth, which is all embodied and incarnated in +Jesus Christ our Lord. It is bestowed upon us that we may use it for +ourselves, and in order that we may carry it triumphantly all through +the world. Possession involves responsibility always. The word of +salvation is given to us. If we go tampering with it, by erroneous +apprehension, by unfair usage, by failing to apply it to our own daily +life; then it will fade and disappear from our grasp. It is given to +us in order that we may keep it safe, and carry it high up across the +desert, as becomes the priests of the most high God. + +The treasure is first--our own selves--with all that we are and may +be, under the stimulating and quickening influence of His grace and +Spirit. The treasure is next--His great word of salvation, once +delivered unto the saints, and to be handed on, without diminution or +alteration in its fair perspective and manifold harmonies, to the +generations that are to come. So, think of yourselves as the priests +of God, journeying through the wilderness, with the treasures of the +Temple and the vessels of the sacrifice for your special deposit and +charge. + +Further, I touch on the command, the guardianship that is here set +forth. 'Watch ye, and keep them.' That is to say, I suppose, according +to the ordinary idiom of the Old Testament, 'Watch, in order that you +may keep.' Or to translate it into other words: The treasure which is +given into our hands requires, for its safe preservation, unceasing +vigilance. Take the picture of my text: These Jews were four months, +according to the narrative, in travelling from their first station +upon their journey to Jerusalem across the desert. There were enemies +lying in wait for them by the way. With noble self-restraint and grand +chivalry, the leader of the little band says: 'I was ashamed to +require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen, to help us +against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, +saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; +but His power and His wrath is against all that forsake Him.' And so +they would not go to him, cap in hand, and ask him to give them a +guard to take care of them; but 'We fasted and besought our God for +this; and He was intreated of us.' + +Thus the little company, without arms, without protection, with +nothing but a prayer and a trust to make them strong, flung themselves +into the pathless desert with all those precious things in their +possession; and all the precaution which Ezra took was to lay hold of +the priests in the little party, and to say: 'Here! all through the +march do you stick by these precious things. Whoever sleeps, do you +watch. Whoever is careless, be you vigilant. Take these for your +charge, and remember I weigh them here before we start, and they will +be all weighed again when we get there. So be alert.' + +And is not that exactly what Christ says to us? 'Watch; keep them; be +vigilant, that ye may keep; and keep them, because they will be +weighed and registered when you arrive there.' + +I cannot do more than touch upon two or three of the ways in which +this charge may be worked out, in its application for ourselves, +beginning with that first one which is implied in the words of the +text--_unslumbering vigilance_; then _trust_, like the trust +which is glorified in the context, depending only on 'the good hand of +our God upon us'; then _purity_, because, as Ezra said, 'Ye are +holy unto the Lord. The vessels are holy also'; and therefore ye are +the fit persons to guard them. And besides these, there is, in our +keeping our trust, a method which does not apply to the incident +before us; namely, _use_, in order to their preservation. + +That is to say, first of all, no slumber; not a moment's relaxation; +or some of those who lie in wait for us on the way will be down upon +us, and some of the precious things will go. While all the rest of the +wearied camp slept, the guardians of the treasure had to outwatch the +stars. While others might straggle on the march, lingering here or +there, or resting on some patch of green, they had to close up round +their precious charge; others might let their eyes wander from the +path, they had ever to look to their charge. For them the journey had +a double burden, and unslumbering vigilance was their constant duty. + +We likewise have unslumberingly and ceaselessly to watch over that +which is committed to our charge. For, depend upon it, if for an +instant we turn away our heads, the thievish birds that flutter over +us will be down upon the precious seed that is in our basket, or that +we have sown in the furrows, and it will be gone. Watch, that ye may +keep. + +And then, still further, see how in this story before us there are +brought out very picturesquely, and very simply, deeper lessons still. +It is not enough that a man shall be for ever keeping his eye upon his +own character and his own faculties, and seeking sedulously to +cultivate and improve them, as he that must give an account. There +must be another look than that. Ezra said, in effect, 'Not all the +cohorts of Babylon can help us; and we do not want them. We have one +strong hand that will keep us safe'; and so he, and his men, with all +this mass of wealth, so tempting to the wild robbers that haunted the +road, flung themselves into the desert, knowing that all along it +there were, as he says, 'such as lay in wait for them.' His confidence +was: 'God will bring us all safe out to the end there; and we shall +carry every glittering piece of the precious things that we brought +out of Babylon right into the Temple of Jerusalem.' Yet he says, +'Watch ye and keep them.' + +What does that come to in reference to our religious experience? Why +this: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is +God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His own good +pleasure.' You do not need these external helps. Fling yourself wholly +upon His keeping hand, and also watch and keep yourselves. 'I know in +whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have +committed unto Him against that day,' is the complement of the other +words, 'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the +Holy Ghost.' + +So guardianship is, first, unceasing vigilance; and then it is lowly +trust. And besides that, it is _punctilious purity_. 'I said unto +them, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy unto the Lord. +Watch ye, and keep them.' + +It was fitting that priests should carry the things that belonged to +the Temple. No other hands but consecrated hands had a right to touch +them. To none other guardianship but the guardianship of the +possessors of a symbolic and ceremonial purity, could the vessels of a +symbolic and ceremonial worship be entrusted; and to none others but +the possessors of real and spiritual holiness can the treasures of the +true Temple, of an inward and spiritual worship, be entrusted. 'Be ye +clean that bear the vessels of the Lord,' said Isaiah using a kindred +metaphor. The only way to keep our treasure undiminished and +untarnished, is to keep ourselves pure and clean. + +And, lastly, we have to exercise a guardianship which not only means +unslumbering vigilance, lowly trust, punctilious purity, but also +requires the constant use of the treasure. + +'Watch ye, and keep them.' Although the vessels which those priests +bore through the desert were used for no service during all the weary +march, they weighed just the same when they got to the end as at the +beginning; though, no doubt, even their fine gold had become dim and +tarnished through disuse. But if we do not use the vessels that are +entrusted to our care, _they_ will _not_ weigh the same. The +man that wrapped up his talent in the napkin, and said, 'Lo, there +thou hast that is thine,' was too sanguine. There was never an unused +talent rolled up in a handkerchief yet, but when it was taken out and +put into the scales it was lighter than when it was committed to the +keeping of the earth. Gifts that are used fructify. Capacities that +are strained to the uttermost increase. Service strengthens the power +for service; and just as the reward for work is more work, the way for +making ourselves fit for bigger things is to do the things that are +lying by us. The blacksmith's arm, the sailor's eye, the organs of any +piece of handicraft, as we all know, are strengthened by exercise; and +so it is in this higher region. + +And so, dear brethren, take these four words--vigilance, trust, +purity, exercise. 'Watch ye, and keep them, until they are weighed in +the chambers of the House of the Lord.' + +And, lastly, think of that weighing in the House of the Lord. Cannot +you see the picture of the little band when they finally reach the +goal of their pilgrimage; and three days after they arrived, as the +narrative tells us, went up into the Temple, and there, by number and +by weight, rendered up their charge, and were clear of their +responsibility? 'And the first came and said, Lord, thy pound hath +gained ten pounds. And he said, Well, thou good servant, because thou +hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten +cities.' + +Oh! how that thought of the day when they would empty out the rich +treasure upon the marble pavement, and clash the golden vessels into +the scales, must have filled their hearts with vigilance during all +the weary watches, when desert stars looked down upon the slumbering +encampment, and they paced wakeful all the night. And how the thought, +too, must have filled their hearts with joy, when they tried to +picture to themselves the sigh of satisfaction, and the sense of +relief with which, after all the perils, their 'feet would stand +within thy gates, O Jerusalem,' and they would be able to say, 'That +which thou hast given us, we have kept, and nothing of it is lost.' + +A lifetime would be a small expenditure to secure that; and though it +cannot be that you and I will meet the trial and the weighing of that +great day without many failures and much loss, yet we may say: 'I know +in whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep my +deposit--whether it be in the sense of that which I have committed +unto Him, or in the sense of that which He has committed unto +me--against that day.' We may hope that, by His gracious help and His +pitying acceptance, even such careless stewards and negligent watchers +as we are, may lay ourselves down in peace at the last, saying, 'I +have kept the faith,' and may be awakened by the word, 'Well done! +good and faithful servant.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH + + +A REFORMER'S SCHOOLING + +'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in +the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the +palace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men +of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which +were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said +unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the +province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem +also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. 4. +And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and +wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God +of heaven, 5. And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the +great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that +love Him and observe His commandments: 6. Let Thine ear now be +attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of +Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the +children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children +of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: both I and my father's +house have sinned. 7. We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and +have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, +which Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses. 8. Remember, I beseech Thee, +the word that Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye +transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9. But if ye +turn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were +of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I +gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I +have chosen to set My name there. 10. Now these are Thy servants and +Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power, and by Thy +strong hand. 11. O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be +attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy +servants, who desire to fear Thy name: and prosper, I pray Thee, Thy +servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I +was the king's cupbearer.'--NEH. i. 1-11. + + +The date of the completion of the Temple is 516 B.C.; that of +Nehemiah's arrival 445 B.C. The colony of returned exiles seems to +have made little progress during that long period. Its members settled +down, and much of their enthusiasm cooled, as we see from the reforms +which Ezra had to inaugurate fourteen years before Nehemiah. The +majority of men, even if touched by spiritual fervour, find it hard to +keep on the high levels for long. Breathing is easier lower down. As +is often the case, a brighter flame of zeal burned in the bosoms of +sympathisers at a distance than in those of the actual workers, whose +contact with hard realities and petty details disenchanted them. Thus +the impulse to nobler action came, not from one of the colony, but +from a Jew in the court of the Persian king. + +This passage tells us how God prepared a man for a great work, and how +the man prepared himself. + +I. Sad tidings and their effect on a devout servant of God (vs. 1-4). +The time and place are precisely given. 'The month Chislev' +corresponds to the end of November and beginning of December. 'The +twentieth year' is that of Artaxerxes (Neh. ii. 1). 'Shushan,' or +Susa, was the royal winter residence, and 'the palace' was 'a distinct +quarter of the city, occupying an artificial eminence.' Note the +absence of the name of the king. Nehemiah is so familiar with his +greatness that he takes for granted that every reader can fill the +gaps. But, though the omission shows how large a space the court +occupied in his thoughts, a true Jewish heart beat below the +courtier's robe. That flexibility which enabled them to stand as +trusted servants of the kings of many lands, and yet that inflexible +adherence to, and undying love of, Israel, has always been a national +characteristic. We can think of this youthful cup-bearer as yearning +for one glimpse of the 'mountains round about Jerusalem' while he +filled his post in Shushan. + +His longings were kindled into resolve by intercourse with a little +party of Jews from Judaea, among whom was his own brother. They had +been to see how things went there, and the fact that one of them was a +member of Nehemiah's family seems to imply that the same sentiments +belonged to the whole household. Eager questions brought out sorrowful +answers. The condition of the 'remnant' was one of 'great affliction +and reproach,' and the ground of the reproach was probably (Neh. ii. +17; iv. 2-4) the still ruined fortifications. + +It has been supposed that the breaking down of the walls and burning +of the gates, mentioned in verse 3, were recent, and subsequent to the +events recorded in Ezra; but it is more probable that the project for +rebuilding the defences, which had been stopped by superior orders +(Ezra iv. 12-16), had not been resumed, and that the melancholy ruins +were those which had met the eyes of Zerubbabel nearly a hundred years +before. Communication between Shushan and Jerusalem cannot have been +so infrequent that the facts now borne in on Nehemiah might not have +been known before. But the impression made by facts depends largely on +their narrator, and not a little on the mood of the hearer. It was one +thing to hear general statements, and another to sit with one's +brother, and see through his eyes the dismal failure of the 'remnant' +to carry out the purpose of their return. So the story, whether fresh +or repeated with fresh force, made a deep dint in the young +cupbearer's heart, and changed his life's outlook. God prepares His +servants for their work by laying on their souls a sorrowful +realisation of the miseries which other men regard, and they +themselves have often regarded, very lightly. The men who have been +raised up to do great work for God and men, have always to begin by +greatly and sadly feeling the weight of the sins and sorrows which +they are destined to remove. No man will do worthy work at rebuilding +the walls who has not wept over the ruins. + +So Nehemiah prepared himself for his work by brooding over the tidings +with tears, by fasting and by prayer. There is no other way of +preparation. Without the sad sense of men's sorrows, there will be no +earnestness in alleviating them, nor self-sacrificing devotion; and +without much prayer there will be little consciousness of weakness or +dependence on divine help. + +Note the grand and apparently immediate resolution to throw up +brilliant prospects and face a life of danger and suffering and toil. +Nehemiah was evidently a favourite with the king, and had the ball at +his foot. But the ruins on Zion were more attractive to him than the +splendours of Shushan, and he willingly flung away his chances of a +great career to take his share of 'affliction and reproach.' He has +never had justice done him in popular estimation. He is not one of the +well-known biblical examples of heroic self-abandonment; but he did +just what Moses did, and the eulogium of the Epistle to the Hebrews +fits him as well as the lawgiver; for he too chose 'rather to suffer +with the people of God than to enjoy pleasures for a season.' So must +we all, in our several ways, do, if we would have a share in building +the walls of the city of God. + +II. The prayer (vs. 5-11). The course of thought in this prayer is +very instructive. It begins with solemnly laying before God His own +great name, as the mightiest plea with Him, and the strongest +encouragement to the suppliant. That commencement is no mere proper +invocation, conventionally regarded as the right way of beginning, but +it expresses the petitioner's effort to lay hold on God's character as +the ground of his hope of answer. The terms employed remarkably blend +what Nehemiah had learned from Persian religion and what from a better +source. He calls upon Jehovah, the great name which was the special +possession of Israel. He also uses the characteristic Persian +designation of 'the God of heaven,' and identifies the bearer of that +name, not with the god to whom it was originally applied, but with +Israel's Jehovah. He takes the crown from the head of the false deity, +and lays it at the feet of the God of his fathers. Whatsoever names +for the Supreme Excellence any tongues have coined, they all belong to +our God, in so far as they are true and noble. The modern 'science of +comparative religion' yields many treasures which should be laid up in +Jehovah's Temple. + +But the rest of the designations are taken from the Old Testament, as +was fitting. The prayer throughout is full of allusions and +quotations, and shows how this cupbearer of Artaxerxes had fed his +young soul on God's word, and drawn thence the true nourishment of +high and holy thoughts and strenuous resolutions and self-sacrificing +deeds. Prayers which are cast in the mould of God's own revelation of +Himself will not fail of answer. True prayer catches up the promises +that flutter down to us, and flings them up again like arrows. + +The prayer here is all built, then, on that name of Jehovah, and on +what the name involves, chiefly on the thought of God as keeping +covenant and mercy. He has bound Himself in solemn, irrefragable +compact, to a certain line of action. Men 'know where to have Him,' if +we may venture on the familiar expression. He has given us a chart of +His course, and He will adhere to it. Therefore we can go to Him with +our prayers, so long as we keep these within the ample space of His +covenant, and ourselves within its terms, by loving obedience. + +The petition that God's ears might be sharpened and His eyes open to +the prayer is cast in a familiar mould. It boldly transfers to Him not +only the semblance of man's form, but also the likeness of His +processes of action. Hearing the cry for help precedes active +intervention in the case of men's help, and the strong imagery of the +prayer conceives of similar sequence in God. But the figure is +transparent, and the 'anthropomorphism' so plain that no mistakes can +arise in its interpretation. + +Note, too, the light touch with which the suppliant's relation to God +('Thy servant') and his long-continued cry ('day and night') are but +just brought in for a moment as pleas for a gracious hearing. The +prayer is 'for Thy servants the children of Israel,' in which +designation, as the next clauses show, the relation established by +God, and not the conduct of men, is pleaded as a reason for an answer. + +The mention of that relation brings at once to Nehemiah's mind the +terrible unfaithfulness to it which had marked, and still continued to +mark, the whole nation. So lowly confession follows (vs. 6, 7). +Unprofitable servants they had indeed been. The more loftily we think +of our privileges, the more clearly should we discern our sins. +Nothing leads a true heart to such self-ashamed penitence as +reflection on God's mercy. If a man thinks that God has taken him for +a servant, the thought should bow him with conscious unworthiness, not +lift him in self-satisfaction. Nehemiah's confession not only sprung +from the thought of Israel's vocation, so poorly fulfilled, but it +also laid the groundwork for further petitions. It is useless to ask +God to help us to repair the wastes if we do not cast out the sins +which have made them. The beginning of all true healing of sorrow is +confession of sins. Many promising schemes for the alleviation of +national and other distresses have come to nothing because, unlike +Nehemiah's, they did not begin with prayer, or prayed for help without +acknowledging sin. + +And the man who is to do work for God and to get God to bless his work +must not be content with acknowledging other people's sins, but must +always say, 'We have sinned,' and not seldom say, 'I have sinned.' +That penitent consciousness of evil is indispensible to all who would +make their fellows happier. God works with bruised reeds. The sense of +individual transgression gives wonderful tenderness, patience amid +gainsaying, submission in failure, dependence on God in difficulty, +and lowliness in success. Without it we shall do little for ourselves +or for anybody else. + +The prayer next reminds God of His own words (vs. 8,9), freely quoted +and combined from several passages (Lev. xxvi. 33-45; Deut. iv. 25-31, +etc.). The application of these passages to the then condition of +things is at first sight somewhat loose, since part of the people were +already restored; and the purport of the prayer is not the restoration +of the remainder, but the deliverance of those already in the land +from their distresses. Still, the promise gives encouragement to the +prayer and is powerful with God, inasmuch as it could not be said to +have been fulfilled by so incomplete a restoration as that as that at +present realised. What God does must be perfectly done; and His great +word is not exhausted so long as any fuller accomplishment of it can +be imagined. + +The reminder of the promise is clinched (v. 10) by the same appeal as +formerly to the relation to Himself into which God had been pleased to +bring the nation, with an added reference to former deeds, such as the +Exodus, in which His strong hand had delivered them. We are always +sure of an answer if we ask God not to contradict Himself. Since He +has begun He will make an end. It will never be said of Him that He +'began to build and was not able to finish.' His past is a mirror in +which we can read His future. The return from Babylon is implied in +the Exodus. + +A reiteration of earlier words follows, with the addition that +Nehemiah now binds, as it were, his single prayer in a bundle with +those of the like-minded in Israel. He gathers single ears into a +sheaf, which he brings as a 'wave-offering.' And then, in one humble +little sentence at the end, he puts his only personal request. The +modesty of the man is lovely. His prayer has been all for the people. +Remarkably enough, there is no definite petition in it. He never once +says right out what he so earnestly desires, and the absence of +specific requests might be laid hold of by sceptical critics as an +argument against the genuineness of the prayer. But it is rather a +subtle trait, on which no forger would have been likely to hit. +Sometimes silence is the very result of entire occupation of mind with +a thought. He says nothing about the particular nature of his request, +just because he is so full of it. But he does ask for favour in the +eyes of 'this man,' and that he may be prospered 'this day.' + +So this was his morning prayer on that eventful day, which was to +settle his life's work. The certain days of solitary meditation on his +nation's griefs had led to a resolution. He says nothing about his +long brooding, his slow decision, his conflicts with lower projects of +personal ambition. He 'burns his own smoke,' as we all should learn to +do. But he asks that the capricious and potent will of the king may be +inclined to grant his request. If our morning supplication is 'Prosper +Thy servant this day,' and our purposes are for God's glory, we need +not fear facing anybody. However powerful Artaxerxes was, he was but +'this man,' not God. The phrase does not indicate contempt or +undervaluing of the solid reality of his absolute power over Nehemiah, +but simply expresses the conviction that the king, too, was a subject +of God's, and that his heart was in the hand of Jehovah, to mould as +He would. The consciousness of dependence on God and the habit of +communion with Him give a man a clear sight of the limitations of +earthly dignities, and a modest boldness which is equally remote from +rudeness and servility. + +Thus prepared for whatever might be the issue of that eventful day, +the young cupbearer rose from his knees, drew a long breath, and went +to his work. Well for us if we go to ours, whether it be a day of +crisis or of commonplace, in like fashion! Then we shall have like +defence and like calmness of heart. + + + +THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS + +'It came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, +and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of +heaven.'--NEH. i. 4. + + +Ninety years had passed since the returning exiles had arrived at +Jerusalem. They had encountered many difficulties which had marred +their progress and cooled their enthusiasm. The Temple, indeed, was +rebuilt, but Jerusalem lay in ruins, and its walls remained as they +had been left, by Nebuchadnezzar's siege, some century and a half +before. A little party of pious pilgrims had gone from Persia to the +city, and had come back to Shushan with a sad story of weakness and +despondency, affliction and hostility. One of the travellers had a +brother, a youth named Nehemiah, who was a cup-bearer in the court of +the Persian king. Living in a palace, and surrounded with luxury, his +heart was with his brethren; and the ruins of Jerusalem were dearer to +him than the pomp of Shushan. + +My text tells how the young cupbearer was affected by the tidings, and +how he wept and prayed before God. The accurate dates given in this +book show that this period of brooding contemplation of the miseries +of his brethren lasted for four months. Then he took a great +resolution, flung up brilliant prospects, identified himself with the +afflicted colony, and asked for leave to go and share, and, if it +might be, to redress, the sorrows which had made so deep a dint upon +his heart. + +Now, I think that this vivid description, drawn by himself, of the +emotions excited in Nehemiah by his countrymen's sorrows, which +influenced his whole future, contains some very plain lessons for +Christian people, the observance of which is every day becoming more +imperative by reason of the drift of public opinion, and the new +prominence which is being given to so-called 'social questions.' I +wish to gather up one or two of these lessons for you now. + +I. First, then, note the plain Christian duty of sympathetic +contemplation of surrounding sorrows. Nehemiah might have made a great +many very good excuses for treating lightly the tidings that his +brother had brought him. He might have said: 'Jerusalem is a long way +off. I have my own work to do; it is no part of my business to rebuild +the walls of Jerusalem. I am the King's cupbearer. They went with +their eyes open, and experience has shown that the people who knew +when they were well off, and stayed where they were, were a great deal +wiser.' These were not his excuses. He let the tidings fill his heart, +and burn there. + +Now, the first condition of sympathy is knowledge; and the second is +attending to what we do know. Nehemiah had probably known, in a kind +of vague way, for many a day how things were going in Palestine. +Communications between it and Persia were not so difficult but that +there would come plenty of Government despatches; and a man at +headquarters who had the ear of the monarch, was not likely to be +ignorant of what was going on in that part of his dominions. But there +is all the difference between hearing vague general reports, and +sitting and hearing your own brother tell you what he had seen with +his own eyes. So the impression which had existed before was all +inoperative until it was kindled by attention to the facts which all +the time had been, in some degree, known. + +Now, how many of us are there that know--and don't know--what is going +on round about us in the slums and back courts of this city? How many +of us are there who are habitually ignorant of what we actually know, +because we never, as we say, 'give heed' to it. 'I did not think of +that,' is a very poor excuse about matters concerning which there is +knowledge, whether there is thought or not. And so I want to press +upon all you Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do +know, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark +staring facts around us. + +Why! loads of people at present seem to think that the miseries, and +hideous vices, and sodden immorality, and utter heathenism, which are +found down amongst the foundations of every civic community are as +indispensable to progress as the noise of the wheels of a train is to +its advancement, or as the bilge-water in a wooden ship is to keep its +seams tight. So we prate about 'civilisation,' which means turning men +into cities. If agglomerating people into these great communities, +which makes so awful a feature of modern life, be necessarily attended +by such abominations as we live amongst and never think about, then, +better that there had never been civilisation in such a sense at all. +Every consideration of communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ, +of loyalty to His words, of a true sense of brotherhood and of lower +things--such as self-interest--every consideration demands that +Christian people shall take to their hearts, in a fashion that the +churches have never done yet, 'the condition of England question,' and +shall ask, 'Lord! what wouldst Thou have me to do?' + +I do not care to enter upon controversy raised by recent utterances, +the motive of which may be worthy of admiration, though the expression +cannot be acquitted of the charge of exaggeration, to the effect that +the Christian churches as a whole have been careless of the condition +of the people. It is not true in its absolute sense. I suppose that, +taking the country over, the majority of the members of, at all events +the Nonconformist churches and congregations, are in receipt of weekly +wages or belong to the upper ranks of the working-classes, and that +the lever which has lifted them to these upper ranks has been God's +Gospel. I suppose it will be admitted that the past indifference with +which we are charged belonged to the whole community, and that the new +sense of responsibility which has marked, and blessedly marked, recent +years, is largely owing to political and other causes which have +lately come into operation. I suppose it will not be denied that, to a +very large extent, any efforts which have been made in the past for +the social, intellectual, and moral, and religious elevation of the +people have had their impulse, and to a large extent their support, +both pecuniary and active, from Christian churches and individuals. +All that is perfectly true and, I believe, undeniable. But it is also +true that there remains an enormous, shameful, dead mass of inertness +in our churches, and that, unless we can break up that, the omens are +bad, bad for society, worse for the church. If cholera is raging in +the slums, the suburbs will not escape. If the hovels are infected, +the mansions will have to pay their tribute to the disease. If we do +not recognise the brotherhood of the suffering and the sinful, in any +other fashion--'Then,' as a great teacher told us a generation ago +now, and nobody paid any attention to him, 'then they will begin and +show you that they are your brethren by killing some of you.' And so +self-preservation conjoins with loftier motives to make this +sympathetic observation of the surrounding sorrows the plainest of +Christian duties. + +II. Secondly, such a realisation of the dark facts is indispensable to +all true work for alleviating them. + +There is no way of helping men out by bearing what they bear. No man +will ever lighten a sorrow of which he has not himself felt the +pressure. Jesus Christ's Cross, to which we are ever appealing as the +ground of our redemption and the anchor of our hope, is these, thank +God! But it is more than these. It is the pattern for our lives, and +it lays down, with stringent accuracy and completeness, the enduring +conditions of helping the sinful and the sorrowful. The 'saviours of +society' have still, in lower fashion, to be crucified. Jesus Christ +would never have been 'the Lamb of God that bore away the sins of the +world' unless He Himself had 'taken our infirmities and borne our +sicknesses.' No work of any real use will be done except by those +whose hearts have bled with the feeling of the miseries which they set +themselves to cure. + +Oh! we all want a far fuller realisation of that sympathetic spirit of +the pitying Christ, if we are ever to be of any use in the world, or +to help the miseries of any of our brethren. Such a sorrowful and +participating contemplation of men's sorrows springing from men's sins +will give tenderness to our words, will give patience, will soften our +whole bearing. Help that is flung to people, as you might fling a bone +to a dog, hurts those whom it tries to help, and patronising help is +help that does little good, and lecturing help does little more. You +must take blind beggars by the hand if you are going to make them see; +and you must not be afraid to lay your white, clean fingers upon the +feculent masses of corruption in the leper's glistening whiteness if +you are going to make him whole. Go down in order to lift, and +remember that without sympathy there is no sufficient help, and +without communion with Christ there is no sufficient sympathy. + +III. Thirdly, such realisation of surrounding sorrows should drive to +communion with God. + +Nehemiah wept and mourned, and that was well. But between his weeping +and mourning and his practical work there had to be still another link +of connection. 'He wept and mourned,' and because he was sad he turned +to God, 'and I fasted and prayed certain days.' There he got at once +comfort for his sorrows, his sympathies, and deepening of his +sympathies, and thence he drew inspiration that made him a hero and a +martyr. So all true service for the world must begin with close +communion with God. + +There was a book published several years since which made a great +noise in its little day, and called itself _The Service of Man_, +which service it proposed to substitute for the effete conception of +worship as the service of God. The service of man is, then, best done +when it is the service of God. I suppose nowadays it is +'old-fashioned' and 'narrow,' which is the sin of sins at present, but +I for my part have very little faith in the persistence and wide +operation of any philanthropic motives except the highest--namely, +compassion caught from Jesus Christ. I do not believe that you will +get men, year in and year out, to devote themselves in any +considerable numbers to the service of man unless you appeal to this +highest of motives. You may enlist a little corps--and God forbid that +I should deny such a plain fact--of selecter spirits to do purely +secular alleviative work, with an entire ignoring of Christian +motives, but you will never get the army of workers that is needed to +grapple with the facts of our present condition, unless you touch the +very deepest springs of conduct, and these are to be found in +communion with God. All the rest is surface drainage. Get down to the +love of God, and the love of men therefrom, and you have got an +Artesian well which will bubble up unfailingly. + +And I have not much faith in remedies which ignore religion, and are +brought, without communion with God, as sufficient for the disease. I +do not want to say one word that might seem to depreciate what are +good and valid and noble efforts in their several spheres. There is no +need for antagonism--rather, Christian men are bound by every +consideration to help to the utmost of their power, even in the +incomplete attempts that are made to grapple with social problems. +There is room enough for us all. But sure I am that until grapes and +waterbeds cure smallpox, and a spoonful of cold water puts out +Vesuvius, you will not cure the evils of the body politic by any +lesser means than the application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. + +We hear a great deal to-day about a 'social gospel,' and I am glad of +the conception, and of the favour which it receives. Only let us +remember that the Gospel is social _second_, and individual +_first_. And that if you get the love of God and obedience to +Jesus Christ into a man's heart it will be like putting gas into a +balloon, it will go up, and the man will get out of the slums fast +enough; and he will not be a slave to the vices of the world much +longer, and you will have done more for him and for the wide circle +that he may influence than by any other means. I do not want to +depreciate any helpers, but I say it is the work of the Christian +church to carry to the world the only thing that will make men deeply +and abidingly happy, because it will make them good. + +IV. And so, lastly, such sympathy should be the parent of a noble, +self-sacrificing life. Look at the man in our text. He had the ball at +his feet. He had the _entree_ of a court, and the ear of a king. +Brilliant prospects were opening before him, but his brethren's +sufferings drew him, and with a noble resolution of self-sacrifice, he +shut himself out from the former and went into the wilderness. He is +one of the Scripture characters that never have had due honour--a +hero, a saint, a martyr, a reformer. He did, though in a smaller +sphere, the very same thing that the writer of the Epistle to the +Hebrews magnified with his splendid eloquence, in reference to the +great Lawgiver, 'And chose rather to suffer affliction with the people +of God,' and to turn his back upon the dazzlements of a court, than to +'enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,' whilst his brethren were +suffering. + +Now, dear friends! the letter of the example may be put aside; the +spirit of it must be observed. If Christians are to do the work that +they can do, and that Christ has put them into this world that they +may do, there must be self-sacrifice with it. There is no shirking +that obligation, and there is no discharging our duty without it. You +and I, in our several ways, are as much under the sway of that +absolute law, that 'if a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, +it brings forth fruit,' as ever was Jesus Christ or His Apostles. I +have nothing to say about the manner of the sacrifice. It is no part +of my business to prescribe to you details of duty. It is my business +to insist on the principles which must regulate these, and of these +principles in application to Christian service there is none more +stringent than--'I will not offer unto my God burnt-offering of that +which doth cost me nothing.' + +I am sure that, under God, the great remedy for social evils lies +mainly here, that the bulk of professing Christians shall recognise +and discharge their responsibilities. It is not ministers, city +missionaries, Bible-women, or any other paid people that can do the +work. It is by Christian men and by Christian women, and, if I might +use a very vulgar distinction which has a meaning in the present +connection, very specially by Christian ladies, taking their part in +the work amongst the degraded and the outcasts, that our sorest +difficulties and problems will be solved. If a church does not face +these, well, all I can say is, its light will go out; and the sooner +the better. 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are appointed to +death, and say, Behold! I knew it not, shall not He that weigheth the +hearts consider it, and shall He not render to every man according to +his work?' And, on the other hand, there are no blessings more rich, +select, sweet, and abiding, than are to be found in sharing the sorrow +of the Man of Sorrows, and carrying the message of His pity and His +redemption to an outcast world. 'If thou draw out thy soul to the +hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, the Lord shall satisfy thy +soul; and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and as a spring of water +whose waters fail not.' + + + +'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE' + +'The priests repaired every one over against his house.'--NEH. iii. +28. + + +The condition of our great cities has lately been forced upon public +attention, and all kinds of men have been offering their panaceas. I +am not about to enter upon that discussion, but I am glad to seize the +opportunity of saying one or two things which I think very much need +to be said to individual Christian people about their duty in the +matter. 'Every man over against his house' is the principle I desire +to commend to you as going a long way to solve the problem of how to +sweeten the foul life of our modern cities. + +The story from which my text is taken does not need to detain us long. +Nehemiah and his little band of exiles have come back to a ruined +Jerusalem. Their first care is to provide for their safety, and the +first step is to know the exact extent of their defencelessness. So we +have the account of Nehemiah's midnight ride amongst the ruins of the +broken walls. And then we read of the co-operation of all classes in +the work of reconstruction. 'Many hands made light work.' Men and +women, priests and nobles, goldsmiths, apothecaries, merchants, all +seized trowel or spade, and wheeled and piled. One man puts up a long +length of wall, another can only manage a little bit; another +undertakes the locks, bolts, and bars for the gates. Roughly and +hastily the work is done. The result, of course, is very unlike the +stately structures of Solomon's or of Herod's time, but it is enough +for shelter. We can imagine the sigh of relief with which the workers +looked upon the completed circle of their rude fortifications. + +The principle of division of labour in our text is repeated several +times in this list of the builders. It was a natural one; a man would +work all the better when he saw his own roof mutely appealing to be +defended, and thought of the dear ones that were there. But I take +these words mainly as suggesting some thoughts applicable to the +duties of Christian people in view of the spiritual wants of our great +cities. + +I. I need not do more than say a word or two about the ruins which +need repair. If I dwell rather upon the dark side than on the bright +side of city life I shall not be understood, as forgetting that the +very causes which intensify the evil of a great city quicken the +good--the friction of multitudes and the impetus thereby given to all +kinds of mental activity. Here amongst us there is much that is +admirable and noble--much public spirit, much wise and benevolent +expenditure of thought and toil for the general good, much conjoint +action by men of different parties, earnest antagonism and earnest +co-operation, and a free, bracing intellectual atmosphere, which +stimulates activity. All that is true, though, on the other hand, it +is not good to live always within hearing of the clatter of machinery +and the strife of tongues; and the wisdom that is born of solitary +meditation and quiet thought is less frequently met with in cities +than is the cleverness that is born of intercourse with men, and +newspaper reading. + +But there is a tragic other side to all that, which mostly we make up +our minds to say little about and to forget. The indifference which +has made that ignorance possible, and has in its turn been fed by the +ignorance, is in some respects a more shocking phenomenon than the +vicious life which it has allowed to rot and to reek unheeded. + +Most of us have got so familiarised with the evils that stare us in +the face every time we go out upon the pavements, that we have come to +think of them as being inseparable from our modern life, like the +noise of a carriage wheel from its rotation. And is it so then? Is it +indeed inevitable that within a stone's throw of our churches and +chapels there should be thousands of men and women that have never +been inside a place of worship since they were christened; and have no +more religion than a horse? Must it be that the shining structure of +our modern society, like an old Mexican temple, must be built upon a +layer of living men, flung in for a foundation? Can it not be helped +that there should be streets in our cities into which it is unfit for +a decent woman to go by day alone, and unsafe for a brave man to +venture after nightfall? Must men and women huddle together in dens +where decency is as impossible as it is for swine in a sty? Is it an +indispensable part of our material progress and wonderful civilisation +that vice and crime and utter irreligion and hopeless squalor should +go with it? Can all that bilge water really not be pumped out of the +ship? If it be so, then I venture to say that, to a very large extent, +progress is a delusion, and that the simple life of agricultural +communities is better than this unwholesome aggregation of men. + +The beginning of Nehemiah's work of repair was that sad midnight ride +round the ruined walls. So there is a solemn obligation laid on +Christian people to acquaint themselves with the awful facts, and then +to meditate on them, till sacred, Christ-like compassion, pressing +against the flood-gates of the heart, flings them open, and lets out a +stream of helpful pity and saving deeds. + +II. So much for my first point. My second is--the ruin is to be +repaired mainly by the old Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far be it from me +to pit remedies against each other. The causes are complicated, and +the cure must be as manifold as the causes. For my own part I believe +that, in regard to the condition of the lowest of our outcast +population, drink and lust have done it almost all, and that for all +but an infinitesimal portion of it, intemperance is directly or +indirectly the cause. That has to be fought by the distinct preaching +of abstinence, and by the invoking of legislative restrictions upon +the traffic. Wretched homes have to be dealt with by sanitary reform, +which may require municipal and parliamentary action. Domestic +discomfort has to be dealt with by teaching wives the principles of +domestic economy. The gracious influence of art and music, pictures +and window-gardening, and the like, will lend their aid to soften and +refine. Coffee taverns, baths and wash-houses, workmen's clubs, and +many other agencies are doing real and good work. I for one say, 'God +speed to them all,' and willingly help them so far as I can. + +But, as a Christian man, I believe that I know a thing that if lodged +in a man's heart will do pretty nearly all which they aspire to do; +and whilst I rejoice in the multiplied agencies for social elevation, +I believe that I shall best serve my generation, and I believe that +ninety-nine out of a hundred of you will do so too, by trying to get +men to love and fear Jesus Christ the Saviour. If you can get His love +into a man's heart, that will produce new tastes and new inclinations, +which will reform, and sweeten, and purify faster than anything else +does. + +They tell us that Nonconformist ministers are never seen in the slums; +well, that is a libel! But I should like to ask why it is that the +Roman Catholic priest is seen there more than the Nonconformist +minister? Because the one man's congregation is there, and the other +man's is not--which, being translated into other words, is this: the +religion of Jesus Christ mostly keeps people out of the slums, and +certainly it will take a man out of them if once it gets into his +heart, more certainly and quickly than anything else will. + +So, dear friends! if we have in our hearts and in our hands this great +message of God's love, we have in our possession the germ out of which +all things that are lovely and of good report will grow. It will +purify, elevate, and sweeten society, because it will make individuals +pure and strong, and homes holy and happy. We do not need to draw +comparisons between this and other means of reparation, and still less +to feel any antagonism to them or the benevolent men who work them; +but we should fix it in our minds that the principles of Christ's +Gospel adhered to by individuals, and therefore by communities, would +have rendered such a condition of things impossible, and that the true +repair of the ruin wrought by evil and ignorance, in the single soul, +in the family, the city, the nation, the world, is to be found in +building anew on the One Foundation which God has laid, even Jesus +Christ, the Living Stone, whose pure life passes into all that are +grounded and founded on Him. + +III. Lastly, this remedy is to be applied by the individual action of +Christian men and women on the people nearest them. + +'The priests repaired every one over against his house.' We are always +tempted, in the face of large disasters, to look for heroic and large +remedies, and to invoke corporate action of some sort, which is a +great deal easier for most of us than the personal effort that is +required. When a great scandal and danger like this of the condition +of the lower layers of our civic population is presented before men, +for one man that says, 'What can _I_ do?' there are twenty who +say, 'Somebody should do something. Government should do something. +The Corporation should do something. This, that, or the other +aggregate of men should do something.' And the individual calmly and +comfortably slips his neck out of the collar and leaves it on the +shoulders of these abstractions. + +As I have said, there are plenty of things that need to be done by +these somebodies. But what they do (they will be a long time in doing +it), when they do get to work will only touch the fringe of the +question, and the substance and the centre of it you can set to work +upon this very day if you like, and not wait for anybody either to set +you the example or to show you the way. + +If you want to do people good you can; but you must pay the price for +it. That price is personal sacrifice and effort. The example of Jesus +Christ is the all-instructive one in the case. People talk about Him +being their Pattern, but they often forget that whatever more there +was in Christ's Cross and Passion there was this in it:--the +exemplification for all time of the one law by which any reformation +can be wrought on men--that a sympathising man shall give himself to +do it, and that by personal influence alone men will be drawn and won +from out of the darkness and filth. A loving heart and a sympathetic +word, the exhibition of a Christian life and conduct, the fact of +going down into the midst of evil and trying to lift men out of it, +are the old-fashioned and only magnets by which men are drawn to purer +and higher life. That is God's way of saving the world--by the action +of single souls on single souls. Masses of men can neither save nor be +saved. Not in groups, but one by one, particle by particle, soul by +soul, Christ draws men to Himself, and He does His work in the world +through single souls on fire with His love, and tender with pity +learned of Him. + +So, dear friends! do not think that any organisation, any corporate +activity, any substitution of vicarious service, will solve the +problem. It will not. There is only one way of doing it, the old way +that we must tread if we are going to do anything for God and our +fellows: 'The priests repaired every one over against his house.' + +Let me briefly point out some very plain and obvious things which bear +upon this matter of individual action. Let me remind you that if you +are a Christian man you have in your possession the thing which will +cure the world's woe, and possession involves responsibility. What +would you think of a man that had a specific for some pestilence that +was raging in a city, and was contented to keep it for his own use, or +at most for his family's use, when his brethren were dying by the +thousand, and their corpses polluting the air? And what shall we say +of men and women who call themselves Christians, who have some faith +in that great Lord and His mighty sacrifice; who know that the men +they meet with every day of their lives are dying for want of it, and +who yet themselves do absolutely nothing to spread His name, and to +heal men's hurts? What shall we say? God forbid that we should say +they are not Christians! but God forbid that anybody should flatter +them with the notion that they are anything but most inconsistent +Christians! + +Still further, need I remind you that if we have found anything in +Jesus Christ which has been peace and rest for ourselves, Christ has +thereby called us to this work? He has found and saved us, not only +for our own personal good. That, of course, is the prime purpose of +our salvation, but not its exclusive purpose. He has saved us, too, in +order that the Word may be spread through us to those beyond. 'The +Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three +measures of meal until the whole was leavened,' and every little bit +of the dough, as it received into itself the leaven, and was +transformed, became a medium for transmitting the transformation to +the next particle beyond it and so the whole was at last permeated by +the power. We get the grace for ourselves that we may pass it on; and +as the Apostle says: 'God hath shined into our hearts that we might +give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of +Jesus Christ.' + +And you can do it, you Christian men and women, every one of you, and +preach Him to somebody. The possession of His love gives the +commission; ay! and it gives the power. There is nothing so mighty as +the confession of personal experience. Do not you think that when that +first of Christian converts, and first of Christian preachers went to +his brother, all full of what he had discovered, his simple saying, +'We have found the Messias,' was a better sermon than a far more +elaborate proclamation would have been? My brother! if you have found +Him, you can say so; and if you can say so, and your character and +your life confirm the words of your lips, you will have done more to +spread His name than much eloquence and many an orator. All can preach +who can say, 'We have found the Christ.' + +The last word I have to say is this: there is no other body that can +do it but you. They say:--'What an awful thing it is that there are no +churches or chapels in these outcast districts!' If there were they +would be what the churches and chapels are now--half empty. Bricks and +mortar built up into ecclesiastical forms are not the way to +evangelise this or any other country. It is a very easy thing to build +churches and chapels. It is not such an easy thing--I believe it is an +impossible thing (and that the sooner the Christian church gives up +the attempt the better)--to get the godless classes into any church or +chapel. Conducted on the principles upon which churches and chapels +must needs at present be conducted, they are for another class +altogether; and we had better recognise it, because then we shall feel +that no multiplication of buildings like this in which we now are, for +instance, is any direct contribution to the evangelisation of the +waste spots of the country, except in so far as from a centre like +this there ought to go out much influence which will originate direct +missionary action in places and fashions adapted to the outlying +community. + +Professional work is not what we want. Any man, be he minister, +clergyman, Bible-reader, city missionary, who goes among our godless +population with the suspicion of pay about him is the weaker for that. +What is needed besides is that ladies and gentlemen that are a little +higher up in the social scale than these poor creatures, should go to +them themselves; and excavate and work. Preach, if you like, in the +technical sense; have meetings, I suppose, necessarily; but the +personal contact is the thing, the familiar talk, the simple +exhibition of a loving Christian heart, and the unconventional +proclamation in free conversation of the broad message of the love of +God in Jesus Christ. Why, if all the people in this chapel who can do +that would do it, and keep on doing it, who can tell what an influence +would come from some hundreds of new workers for Christ? And why +should the existence of a church in which the workers are as numerous +as the Christians be an Utopian dream? It is simply the dream that +perhaps a church might be conceived to exist, all the members of which +had found out their plainest, most imperative duty, and were really +trying to do it. + +No carelessness, no indolence, no plea of timidity or business shift +the obligation from your shoulders if you are a Christian. It is your +business, and no paid agents can represent you. You cannot buy +yourselves substitutes in Christ's army, as they used to do in the +militia, by a guinea subscription. We are thankful for the money, +because there are kinds of work to be done that unpaid effort will not +do. But men ask for your money; Jesus Christ asks for yourself, for +your work, and will not let you off as having done your duty because +you have paid your subscription. No doubt there are some of you who, +from various circumstances, cannot yourselves do work amongst the +masses of the outcast population. Well, but you have got people by +your side whom you can help. The question which I wish to ask of my +Christian brethren and sisters now is this: Is there a man, woman, or +child living to whom you ever spoke a word about Jesus Christ? Is +there? If not, do not you think it is time that you began? + +There are people in your houses, people that sit by you in your +counting-house, on your college benches, who work by your side in mill +or factory or warehouse, who cross your path in a hundred ways, and +God has given them to you that you may bring them to Him. Do you set +yourself, dear brother, to work and try to bring them. Oh! if you +lived nearer Jesus Christ you would catch the sacred fire from Him; +and like a bit of cold iron lying beside a magnet, touching Him, you +would yourselves become magnetic and draw men out of their evil and up +to God. + +Let me commend to you the old pattern: 'The priests repaired every one +over against his house'; and beseech you to take the trowel and spade, +or anything that comes handiest, and build, in the bit nearest you, +some living stones on the true Foundation. + + + +DISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE + +'Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against +them day and night, because of them. 10. And Judah said, The strength +of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so +that we are not able to build the wall. 11. And our adversaries said, +They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among +them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 12. And it came to +pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us +ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be +upon you. 13. Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and +on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with +their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14. And I looked and rose +up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of +the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is +great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your +daughters, your wives, and your houses. 15. And it came to pass, when +our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their +counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one +unto his work. 16. And it came to pass from that time forth, that the +half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them +held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; +and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17. They which +builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that +laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with +the other hand held a weapon. 18. For the builders, every one had his +sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the +trumpet was by me. 19. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, +and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are +separated upon the wall, one far from another. 20. In what place +therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: +our God shall fight for us. 21. So we laboured in the work: and half +of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars +appeared.'--Neh. iv. 9-21. + + +Common hatred has a wonderful power of uniting former foes. +Samaritans, wild Arabs of the desert, Ammonites, and inhabitants of +Ashdod in the Philistine plain would have been brought together for no +noble work, but mischief and malice fused them for a time into one. +God's work is attacked from all sides. Herod and Pilate can shake +hands over their joint antagonism. + +This passage paints vividly the discouragements which are apt to dog +all good work, and the courage which refuses to be discouraged, and +conquers by bold persistence. The first verse (v. 9) may stand as a +summary of the whole, though it refers to the preceding, not to the +following, verses. The true way to meet opposition is twofold--prayer +and prudent watchfulness. 'Pray to God, and keep your powder dry,' is +not a bad compendium of the duty of a Christian soldier. The union of +appeal to God with the full use of common sense, watchfulness, and +prudence, would dissipate many hindrances to successful service. + +I. In verses 10-12 Nehemiah tells, in his simple way, of the +difficulties from three several quarters which threatened to stop his +work. He had trouble from the workmen, from the enemies, and from the +mass of Jews not resident in Jerusalem. The enthusiasm of the builders +had cooled, and the magnitude of their task began to frighten them. +Verse 6 tells us that the wall was completed 'unto the half of it'; +that is, to one-half the height, and half-way through is just the +critical time in all protracted work. The fervour of beginning has +passed; the animation from seeing the end at hand has not sprung up. +There is a dreary stretch in the centre, where it takes much faith and +self-command to plod on unfainting. Half-way to Australia from England +is the region of sickening calms. It is easier to work in the fresh +morning or in the cool evening than at midday. So in every great +movement there are short-winded people who sit down and pant very +soon, and their prudence croaks out undeniable facts. No doubt +strength does become exhausted; no doubt there is 'much rubbish' +(literally 'dust'). What then? The conclusion drawn is not so +unquestionable as the premises. 'We cannot build the wall' Why not? +Have you not built half of it? And was not the first half more +embarrassed by rubbish than the second will be? + +It is a great piece of Christian duty to recognise difficulties, and +not be cowed by them. The true inference from the facts would have +been, 'so that we must put all our strength into the work, and trust +in our God to help us.' We may not be responsible for discouragements +suggesting themselves, but we are responsible for letting them become +dissuasives. Our one question should be, Has God appointed the work? +If so, it has to be done, however little our strength, and however +mountainous the accumulations of rubbish. + +The second part in the trio was taken by the enemies--Sanballat and +Tobiah and the rest. They laid their plans for a sudden swoop down on +Jerusalem, and calculated that, if they could surprise the builders at +their work, they would have no weapons to show fight with, and so +would be easily despatched. Killing the builders was but a means; the +desired end is significantly put last (v. 11), as being the stopping +of the abhorred work. But killing the workmen does not cause the work +to cease when it is God's work, as the history of the Church in all +ages shows. Conspirators should hold their tongues. It was not a +hopeful way of beginning an attack, of which the essence was secrecy +and suddenness, to talk about it. 'A bird of the air carries the +matter.' + +The third voice is that of the Jews in other parts of the land, and +especially those living on the borders of Samaria, next door to +Sanballat. Verse 12 is probably best taken as in the Revised Version, +which makes 'Ye must return to us' the imperative and often-repeated +summons from these to the contingents from their respective places of +abode, who had gone up to Jerusalem to help in building. Alarms of +invasion made the scattered villagers wish to have all their men +capable of bearing arms back again to defend their own homes. It was a +most natural demand, but in this case, as so often, audacity is truest +prudence; and in all high causes there come times when men have to +trust their homes and dear ones to God's protection. The necessity is +heartrending, and we may well pray that we may not be exposed to it; +but if it clearly arises, a devout man can have no doubt of his duty. +How many American citizens had to face it in the great Civil War! And +how character is ennobled by even so severe a sacrifice! + +II. The calm heroism of Nehemiah and his wise action in the emergency +are told in verses 13-15. He made a demonstration in force, which at +once showed that the scheme of a surprise was blown to pieces. It is +difficult to make out the exact localities in which he planted his +men. 'The lower places behind the wall' probably means the points at +which the new fortifications were lowest, which would be the most +exposed to assault; and the 'higher places' (Auth. Ver.), or 'open +places' (Rev. Ver.), describes the same places from another point of +view. They afforded room for posting troops because they were without +buildings. At any rate, the walls were manned, and the enemy would +have to deal, not with unarmed labourers, but with prepared soldiers. +The work was stopped, and trowel and spade exchanged for sword and +spear. 'And I looked,' says Nehemiah. His careful eye travelled over +the lines, and, seeing all in order, he cheered the little army with +ringing words. He had prayed (Neh. i. 5) to 'the great and terrible +God,' and now he bids his men remember Him, and thence draw strength +and courage. The only real antagonist of fear is faith. If we can +grasp God, we shall not dread Sanballat and his crew. Unless we do, +the world is full of dangers which it is not folly to fear. + +Note, too, that the people are animated for the fight by reminding +them of the dear ones whose lives and honour hung on the issue. +Nothing is said about fighting for God and His Temple and city, but +the motives adduced are not less sacred. Family love is God's best of +earthly gifts, and, though it is sometimes duty to 'forget thine own +people, and thy father's house,' as we have just seen, nothing short +of these highest obligations can supersede the sweet one of straining +every nerve for the well-being of dear ones in the hallowed circle of +home. + +So the plan of a sudden rush came to nothing. It does not appear that +the enemy was in sight; but the news of the demonstration soon reached +them, and was effectual. Prompt preparation against possible dangers +is often the means of turning them aside. Watchfulness is +indispensable to vigour of Christian character and efficiency of work. +Suspicion is hateful and weakening; but a man who tries to serve God +in such a world as this had need to be like the living creatures in +the Revelation, having 'eyes all over.' 'Blessed is the man that [in +that sense] feareth always.' + +The upshot of the alarm is very beautifully told: 'We returned all of +us to the wall, every one unto his work.' No time was wasted in +jubilation. The work was the main thing, and the moment the +interruption was ended, back to it they all went. It is a fine +illustration of persistent discharge of duty, and of that most +valuable quality, the ability and inclination to keep up the main +purpose of a life continuous through interruptions, like a stream of +sweet water running through a bog. + +III. The remainder of the passage tells us of the standing +arrangements made in consequence of the alarm (vs. 16-21). First we +hear what Nehemiah did with his own special 'servants,' whether these +were slaves who had accompanied him from Shushan (as Stanley +supposes), or his body-guard as a Persian official. He divided them +into two parts--one to work, one to watch. But he did not carry out +this plan with the mass of the people, probably because it would have +too largely diminished the number of builders. So he armed them all. +The labourers who carried stones, mortar, and the like, could do their +work after a fashion with one hand, and so they had a weapon in the +other. If they worked in pairs, that would be all the easier. The +actual builders needed both hands, and so they had swords stuck in +their girdles. No doubt such arrangements hindered progress, but they +were necessary. The lesson often drawn from them is no doubt true, +that God's workers must be prepared for warfare as well as building. +There have been epochs in which that necessity was realised in a very +sad manner; and the Church on earth will always have to be the Church +militant. But it is well to remember that building is the end, and +fighting is but the means. The trowel, not the sword, is the natural +instrument. Controversy is second best--a necessity, no doubt, but an +unwelcome one, and only permissible as a subsidiary help to doing the +true work, rearing the walls of the city of God. + +'He that soundeth the trumpet was by me.' The gallant leader was +everywhere, animating by his presence. He meant to be in the thick of +the fight, if it should come. And so he kept the trumpeter by his +side, and gave orders that when he sounded all should hurry to the +place; for there the enemy would be, and Nehemiah would be where they +were. 'The work is great and large, and we are separated ... one far +from another.' How naturally the words lend themselves to the old +lesson so often drawn from them! God's servants are widely parted, by +distance, by time, and, alas! by less justifiable causes. Unless they +draw together they will be overwhelmed, taken in detail, and crushed. +They must rally to help each other against the common foe. + +Thank God! the longing for manifest Christian unity is deeper to-day +than ever it was. But much remains to be done before it is adequately +fulfilled in the recognition of the common bond of brotherhood, which +binds us all in one family, if we have one Father. English and +American Christians are bound to seek the tightening of the bonds +between them and to set themselves against politicians who may seek to +keep apart those who both in the flesh and in the spirit are brothers. +All Christians have one great Captain; and He will be in the forefront +of every battle. His clear trumpet-call should gather all His servants +to His side. + +The closing verse tells again how Nehemiah's immediate dependants +divided work and watching, and adds to the picture the continuousness +of their toil from the first grey of morning till darkness showed the +stars and ended another day of toil. Happy they who thus 'from morn +till noon, from noon till dewy eve,' labour in the work of the Lord! +For them, every new morning will dawn with new strength, and every +evening be calm with the consciousness of 'something attempted, +something done.' + + + +AN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST + +'... So did not I, because of the fear of God.'--Neh. v. 15. + + +I do not suppose that the ordinary Bible-reader knows very much about +Nehemiah. He is one of the neglected great men of Scripture. He was no +prophet, he had no glowing words, he had no lofty visions, he had no +special commission, he did not live in the heroic age. There was a +certain harshness and dryness; a tendency towards what, when it was +more fully developed, became Pharisaism, in the man, which somewhat +covers the essential nobleness of his character. But he was brave, +cautious, circumspect, disinterested; and he had Jerusalem in his +heart. + +The words that I have read are a little fragment of his autobiography +which deal with a prosaic enough matter, but carry in them large +principles. When he was appointed governor of the little colony of +returned exiles in Palestine, he found that his predecessors, like +Turkish pashas and Chinese mandarins to-day, had been in the habit of +'squeezing' the people of their Government, and that they had +requisitioned sufficient supplies of provisions to keep the governor's +table well spread. It was the custom. Nobody would have wondered if +Nehemiah had conformed to it; but he felt that he must have his hands +clean. Why did he not do what everybody else had done in like +circumstances? His answer is beautifully simple: 'Because of the fear +of God.' His religion went down into the little duties of common life, +and imposed upon him a standard far above the maxims that were +prevalent round about him. And so, if you will take these words, and +disengage them from the small matter concerning which they were +originally spoken, I think you will find in them thoughts as to the +attitude which we should take to prevalent practices, the motive which +should impel us to a sturdy non-compliance, and the power which will +enable us to walk on a solitary road. 'So did not I, because of the +fear of God.' Now, then, these are my three points:-- + +I. The attitude to prevalent practices. + +Nehemiah would not conform. And unless you can say 'No!' and do it +very often, your life will be shattered from the beginning. That +non-compliance with customary maxims and practices is the beginning, +or, at least, one of the foundation-stones, of all nobleness and +strength, of all blessedness and power. Of course it is utterly +impossible for a man to denude himself of the influences that are +brought to bear upon him by the circumstances in which he lives, and +the trend of opinion, and the maxims and practices of the world, in +the corner, and at the time, in which his lot is cast. But, on the +other hand, be sure of this, that unless you are in a very deep and +not at all a technical sense of the word, 'Nonconformists,' you will +come to no good. None! It is so easy to do as others do, partly +because of laziness, partly because of cowardice, partly because of +the instinctive imitation which is in us all. Men are gregarious. One +great teacher has drawn an illustration from a flock of sheep, and +says that if we hold up a stick, and the first of the flock jumps over +it, and then if we take away the stick, all the rest of the flock will +jump when they come to the point where the first did so. A great many +of us adopt our creeds and opinions, and shape our lives for no better +reason than because people round us are thinking in a certain +direction, and living in a certain way. It saves a great deal of +trouble, and it gratifies a certain strange instinct that is in us +all, and it avoids dangers and conflicts that we should, when we are +at Rome, do as the Romans do. 'So did not I, because of the fear of +God.' + +Now, brethren! I ask you to take this plain principle of the necessity +of non-compliance (which I suppose I do not need to do much to +establish, because, theoretically, we most of us admit it), and apply +it all round the circumference of your lives. Apply it to your +opinions. There is no tyranny like the tyranny of a majority in a +democratic country like ours. It is quite as harsh as the tyranny of +the old-fashioned despots. Unless you resolve steadfastly to see with +your own eyes, to use your own brains, to stand on your own feet, to +be a voice and not an echo, you will be helplessly enslaved by the +fashion of the hour, and the opinions that prevail. + +'What everybody says'--perhaps--'is true.' What most people say, at +any given time, is very likely to be false. Truth has always lived +with minorities, so do not let the current of widespread opinion sweep +you away, but try to have a mind of your own, and not to be +brow-beaten or overborne because the majority of the people round +about you are giving utterance, and it may be unmeasured utterance, to +any opinions. + +Now, there is one direction in which I wish to urge that +especially--and now I speak mainly to the young men in my +congregation--and that is, in regard to the attitude that so many +amongst us are taking to Christian truth. If you have honestly thought +out the subject to the best of your ability, and have come to +conclusions diverse from those which men like me hold dearer than +their lives, that is another matter. But I know that very widely there +is spread to-day the fashion of unbelief. So many influential men, +leaders of opinion, teachers and preachers, are giving up the +old-fashioned Evangelical faith, that it takes a strong man to say +that he sticks by it. It is a poor reason to give for your attitude, +that unbelief is in the air, and nobody believes those old doctrines +now. That may be. There are currents of opinion that are transitory, +and that is one of them, depend upon it. But at all events do not be +fooled out of your faith, as some of you are tending to be, for no +better reason than because other people have given it up. An iceberg +lowers the temperature all round it, and the iceberg of unbelief is +amongst us to-day, and it has chilled a great many people who could +not tell why they have lost the fervour of their faith. + +On the other hand, let me remind you that a mere traditional religion, +which is only orthodox because other people are so, and has not +verified its beliefs by personal experience, is quite as deleterious +as an imitative unbelief. Doubtless, I speak to some who plume +themselves on 'never having been affected by these currents of popular +opinion,' but whose unblemished and unquestioned orthodoxy has no more +vitality in it than the other people's heterodoxy. The one man has +said, 'What is everywhere always, and by all believed, I believe'; and +the other man has said, 'What the select spirits of this day +disbelieve, I disbelieve,' and the belief of one and the unbelief of +the other are equally worthless, and really identical. + +But it is not only, nor mainly, in reference to opinion that I would +urge upon you this nonconformity with prevalent practices as the +measure of most that is noble in us. I dare not talk to you as if I +knew much about the details of Manchester commercial life, but I can +say this much, that it is no excuse for shady practices in your trade +to say, 'It is the custom of the trade, and everybody does it.' +Nehemiah might have said: 'There never was a governor yet but took his +forty shekels a day's worth'--about L. 1,800 of our money--'of +provisions from these poor people, and I am not going to give it up +because of a scruple. It is the custom, and because it is the custom I +can do it.' I am not going into details. It is commonly understood +that preachers know nothing about business; that may be true, or it +may not. But this, I am sure, is a word in season for some of my +friends this evening--do not hide behind the trade. Come out into the +open, and deal with the questions of morality involved in your +commercial life, as you will have to deal with them hereafter, by +yourself. Never mind about other people. 'Oh,' but you say, 'that +involves loss.' Very likely! Nehemiah was a poorer man because he fed +all these one hundred and fifty Jews at his table, but he did not mind +that. It may involve loss, but you will keep God, and that is gain. + +Turn this searchlight in another direction. I see a number of young +people in my congregation at this moment, young men who are perhaps +just beginning their career in this city, and who possibly have been +startled when they heard the kind of talk that was going on at the +next desk, or from the man that sits beside them on the benches at +College. Do not be tempted to follow that multitude to do evil. Unless +you are prepared to say 'No!' to a great deal that will be pushed into +your face in this great city, as sure as you are living you will make +shipwreck of your lives. Do you think that in the forty years and more +that I have stood here I have not seen successive generations of young +men come into Manchester? I could people many of these pews with the +faces of such, who came here buoyant, full of hope, full of high +resolves, and with a mother's benediction hanging over their heads, +and who got into a bad set, and had not the strength to say 'No,' and +they went down and down and down, and then presently somebody asked, +'Where is so-and-so?' 'Oh! his health broke down, and he has gone home +to die.' 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth'--and he +made shipwreck of prospects and of life, because he did not pull +himself together when the temptation came, and say, 'So did not I, +because of the fear of God.' + +II. Now let me ask you to turn with me to the second thought that my +text suggests to me; that is, + +The motive that impels to this sturdy non-compliance. + +Nehemiah puts it in Old Testament phraseology, 'the fear of God'; the +New Testament equivalent is 'the love of Christ.' And if you want to +take the power and the life out of both phrases, in order to find a +modern conventional equivalent, you will say 'religion.' I prefer the +old-fashioned language. 'The love of Christ' impels to this +non-compliance. Now, my point is this, that Jesus Christ requires from +each of us that we shall abstain, restrict ourselves, refuse to do a +great many things that are being done round us. + +I need not remind you of how continually He spoke about taking up the +cross. I need not do more than just remind you of His parable of the +two ways, but ask you, whilst you think of it, to note that all the +characteristics of each of the ways which He sets forth are given by +Him as reasons for refusing the one and walking in the other. For +example, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate, for strait is the +gate'--that is a reason for going in; 'and narrow is the way'--that is +a reason for going in; 'and few there be that find it'--that is a +reason for going in. 'Wide is the gate'--that is a reason for stopping +out; 'and broad is the way'--that is a reason for stopping out; 'and +many there be that go in thereat'--that is a reason for stopping out. +Is not that what I said, that the minority is generally right and the +majority wrong? Just because there are so many people on the path, +suspect it, and expect that the path with fewer travellers is probably +the better and the higher. + +But to pass from that, what did Jesus Christ mean by His continual +contrast between His disciples and the world? What did He mean by 'the +world'? This fair universe, with all its possibilities of help and +blessing, and all its educational influences? By no means. He meant by +'the world' the aggregate of things and men considered as separate +from God. And when He applied the term to men only, He meant by it +very much what we mean when we talk about society. Society is not +organised on Christian principles; we all know that, and until it is, +if a man is going to be a Christian he must not conform to the world. +'Know ye not that whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of +God.' + +I would press upon you, dear friends! that our Christianity is nothing +unless it leads us to a standard, and a course of conduct in +conformity with that standard, which will be in diametrical opposition +to a great deal of what is patted on the back, and petted and praised +by society. Now, there is an easy-going kind of Christianity which +does not recognise that, and which is in great favour with many people +to-day, and is called 'liberality' and 'breadth,' and 'conciliating +and commending Christianity to outsiders,' and I know not what +besides. Well, Christ's words seem to me to come down like a hammer +upon that sort of thing. Depend upon it, 'the world'--I mean by that +the aggregate of godless men organised as they are in society--does +not think much of these trimmers. It may dislike an out-and-out +Christian, but it knows him when it sees him, and it has a kind of +hostile respect for him which the other people will never get. You +remember the story of the man that was seeking for a coachman, and +whose question to each applicant was, 'How near can you drive to the +edge of a precipice?' He took the man who said: 'I would keep away +from it as far as I could.' And the so-called Christian people that +seem to be bent on showing how much their lives can be made to +assimilate to the lives of men that have no sympathy with their +creeds, are like the rash Jehus that tried to go as near the edge as +they could. But the consistent Christian will keep as far away from it +as he can. There are some of us who seem as if we were most anxious to +show that we, whose creed is absolutely inconsistent with the world's +practices, can live lives which are all but identical with these +practices. Jesus Christ says, through the lips of His Apostle, what He +often said in other language by His own lips when He was here on +earth: 'Be ye not conformed to the world.' + +Surely such a command as that, just because it involves difficulty, +self-restraint, self-denial, and sometimes self-crucifixion, ought to +appeal, and does appeal, to all that is noble in humanity, in a +fashion that that smooth, easy-going gospel of living on the level of +the people round us never can do. For remember that Christ's +commandment not to be conformed to the world is the consequence of His +commandment to be conformed to Himself. 'Thus did not I' comes second; +'This one thing I do' comes first. You will misunderstand the whole +genius of the Gospel if you suppose that, as a law of life, it is +perpetually pulling men short up, and saying: Don't, don't, don't! +There is a Christianity of that sort which is mainly prohibition and +restriction, but it is not Christ's Christianity. He begins by +enjoining: 'This do in remembrance of Me,' and the man that has +accepted that commandment must necessarily say, as he looks out on the +world, and its practices: 'So did not I, because of the fear of God.' + +III. And now one last word--my text not only suggests the motive which +impels to this non-compliance, but also the power which enables us to +exercise it. + +'The fear of God,' or, taking the New Testament equivalent, 'the love +of Christ,' makes it possible for a man, with all his weakness and +dependence on surroundings, with all his instinctive desire to be like +the folk that are near him, to take that brave attitude, and to refuse +to be one of the crowd that runs after evil and lies. I have no time +to dwell upon this aspect of my subject, as I should be glad to have +done. Let me sum up in a sentence or two what I would have said. +Christ will enable you to take this necessary attitude because, in +Himself He gives you the Example which it is always safe to follow. +The instinct of imitation is planted in us for a good end, and because +it is in us, examples of nobility appeal to us. And because it is in +us Jesus Christ has lived the life that it is possible for, and +therefore incumbent on, us to live. It is safe to imitate Him, and it +is easy not to do as men do, if once our main idea is to do as Christ +did. + +He makes it possible for us, because He gives the strongest possible +motive for the life that He prescribes. As the Apostle puts it, 'Ye +are bought with a price, be not the servants of men.' There is nothing +that will so deliver us from the tyranny of majorities, and of what we +call general opinion and ordinary custom, as to feel that we belong to +Him because He died for us. Men become very insignificant when Christ +speaks, and the charter of our freedom from them lies in our +redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ. + +Jesus Christ being our Redeemer is our Judge, and moment by moment He +is estimating our conduct, and judging our actions as they are done. +'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you or of man's +judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.' Never mind what the people +round you say; you do not take your orders from them, and you do not +answer to them. Like some official abroad, appointed by the Crown, you +do not report to the local authorities; you report to headquarters, +and what He thinks about you is the only important thing. So 'the fear +of man which bringeth a snare' dwindles down into very minute +dimensions when we think of the Pattern, the Redeemer and the Judge to +whom we give account. + +And so, dear friends! if we will only open our hearts, by quiet humble +faith, for the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives, then we shall be +able to resist, to refuse compliance, to stand firm, though alone. The +servant of Christ is the master of all men. 'All things are yours, +whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas--all are yours, and ye are +Christ's.' + + + +READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY + +'And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the +street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the +scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had +commanded to Israel. 2. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the +congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with +understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3. And he read +therein before the street that was before the water gate, from the +morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that +could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto +the book of the law. 4. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of +wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood +Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and +Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand Pedaiah, and +Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and +Meshullam. 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; +(for he was above all the people); and when he opened it, all the +people stood up: 6. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all +the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they +bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the +ground. 7. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jemin, Akkub, +Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, +Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and +the people stood in their place. 8. So they read in the book in the +law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to +understand the reading. 9. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirashatha, and +Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, +said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; +mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the +words of the law. 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the +fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing +is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; +for the joy of the Lord is your strength. 11. So the Levites stilled +all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither +be ye grieved. 12. And all the people went their way to eat, and to +drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had +understood the words that were declared unto them.'--Neh. viii. 1-12. + + +The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, which +was the sixth month. The events recorded in this passage took place on +the first day of the seventh month. The year is not given, but the +natural inference is that it was the same as that of the finishing of +the wall; namely, the twentieth of Artaxerxes. If so, the completion +of the fortifications to which Nehemiah had set himself, was +immediately followed by this reading of the law, in which Ezra takes +the lead. The two men stand in a similar relative position to that of +Zerubbabel and Joshua, the one representing the civil and the other +the religious authority. + +According to Ezra vii. 9, Ezra had gone to Jerusalem about thirteen +years before Nehemiah, and had had a weary time of fighting against +the corruptions which had crept in among the returned captives. The +arrival of Nehemiah would be hailed as bringing fresh, young +enthusiasm, none the less welcome and powerful because it had the +king's authority entrusted to it. Evidently the two men thoroughly +understood one another, and pulled together heartily. We heard nothing +about Ezra while the wall was being built. But now he is the principal +figure, and Nehemiah is barely mentioned. The reasons for Ezra's +taking the prominent part in the reading of the law are given in the +two titles by which he is designated in two successive verses (vers. +1,2). He was 'the scribe' and also 'the priest,' and in both +capacities was the natural person for such a work. + +The seventh month was the festival month of the year, its first day +being that of the Feast of trumpets, and the great Feast of +tabernacles as well as the solemn day of atonement occurring in it. +Possibly, the prospect of the coming of the times for these +celebrations may have led to the people's wish to hear the law, that +they might duly observe the appointed ceremonial. At all events, the +first thing to note is that it was in consequence of the people's wish +that the law was read in their hearing. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah +originated the gathering together. They obeyed a popular impulse which +they had not created. We must not, indeed, give the multitude credit +for much more than the wish to have their ceremonial right. But there +was at least that wish, and possibly something deeper and more +spiritual. The walls were completed; but the true defence of Israel +was in God, and the condition of His defending was Israel's obedience +to His law. The people were, in some measure, beginning to realise +that condition with new clearness, in consequence of the new fervour +which Nehemiah had brought. + +It is singular that, during his thirteen years of residence, Ezra is +not recorded to have promulgated the law, though it lay at the basis +of the drastic reforms which he was able to carry through. Probably he +had not been silent, but the solemn public recitation of the law was +felt to be appropriate on occasion of completing the wall. Whether the +people had heard it before, or, as seems implied, it was strange to +them, their desire to hear it may stand as a pattern for us of that +earnest wish to know God's will which is never cherished in vain. He +who does not intend to obey does not wish to know the law. If we have +no longing to know what the will of the Lord is, we may be very sure +that we prefer our own to His. If we desire to know it, we shall +desire to understand the Book which contains so much of it. Any true +religion in the heart will make us eager to perceive, and willing to +be guided by, the will of God, revealed mainly in Scripture, in the +Person, works, and words of Jesus, and also in waiting hearts by the +Spirit, and in those things which the world calls 'circumstances' and +faith names 'providences.' + +II. Verses 2-8 appear to tell the same incidents twice over--first, +more generally in verses 2 and 8, and then more minutely. Such +expanded repetition is characteristic of the Old Testament historical +style. It is somewhat difficult to make sure of the real +circumstances. Clearly enough there was a solemn assembly of men, +women, and children in a great open space outside one of the gates, +and there, from dawn till noon, the law was read and explained. But +whether Ezra read it all, while the Levites named in verse 7 explained +or paraphrased or translated it, or whether they all read in turns, or +whether there were a number of groups, each of which had a teacher who +both read and expounded, is hard to determine. At all events, Ezra was +the principal figure, and began the reading. + +It was a picturesque scene. The sun, rising over the slopes of Olivet, +would fall on the gathered crowd, if the water-gate was, as is +probable, on the east or south-east side of the city. Beneath the +fresh fortifications probably, which would act as a sounding-board for +the reader, was set up a scaffold high above the crowd, large enough +to hold Ezra and thirteen supporters--principal men, no doubt--seven +on one side of him and six on the other. Probably a name has dropped +out, and the numbers were equal. There, in the morning light, with the +new walls for a background, stood Ezra on his rostrum, and amid +reverent silence, lifted high the sacred roll. A common impulse swayed +the crowd, and brought them all to their feet--token at once of +respect and obedient attention. Probably many of them had never seen a +sacred roll. To them all it was comparatively unfamiliar. No wonder +that, as Ezra's voice rose in prayer, the whole assembly fell on their +faces in adoration, and every lip responded 'Amen! amen!' + +Much superstition may have mingled with the reverence. No doubt, there +was then what we are often solemnly warned against now, bibliolatry. +But in this time of critical investigation it is not the divine +element in Scripture which is likely to be exaggerated; and few are +likely to go wrong in the direction of paying too much reverence to +the Book in which, as is still believed, God has revealed His will and +Himself. While welcoming all investigations which throw light on its +origin or its meaning, and perfectly recognising the human element in +it, we should learn the lesson taught by that waiting crowd prone on +their faces, and blessing God for His word. Such attitude must ever +precede reading it, if we are to read aright. + +Hour after hour the recitation went on. We must let the question of +the precise form of the events remain undetermined. It is somewhat +singular that thirteen names are enumerated as of the men who stood by +Ezra, and thirteen as those of the readers or expounders. It may be +the case that the former number is complete, though uneven, and that +there was some reason unknown for dividing the audience into just so +many sections. The second set of thirteen was not composed of the same +men as the first. They seem to have been Levites, whose office of +assisting at the menial parts of the sacrifices was now elevated into +that of setting forth the law. Probably the portions read were such as +bore especially on ritual, though the tears of the listeners are +sufficient proof that they had heard some things that went deeper than +that. + +The word rendered 'distinctly' in the Revised Version (margin, +_with_ an _interpretation_) is ambiguous, and may either +mean that the Levites explained or that they translated the words. The +former is the more probable, as there is no reason to suppose that the +audience, most of whom had been born in the land, were ignorant of +Hebrew. But if the ritual had been irregularly observed, and the +circle of ideas in the law become unfamiliar, many explanations would +be necessary. It strikes one as touching and strange that such an +assembly should be needed after so many centuries of national +existence. It sums up in one vivid picture the sin and suffering of +the nation. To observe that law had been the condition of their +prosperity. To bind it on their hearts should have been their delight +and would have been their life; and here, after all these generations, +the best of the nation are assembled, so ignorant of it that they +cannot even understand it when they hear it. Absorption with worldly +things has an awful power of dulling spiritual apprehension. Neglect +of God's law weakens the power of understanding it. + +This scene was in the truest sense a 'revival.' We may learn the true +way of bringing men back to God; namely, the faithful exposition and +enforcement of God's will and word. We may learn, too, what should be +the aim of public teachers of religion; namely, first and foremost, +the clear setting forth of God's truth. Their first business is to +'give the sense, so that they understand the reading'; and that, not +for merely intellectual purposes, but that, like the crowd outside the +water-gate on that hot noonday, men may be moved to penitence, and +then lifted to the joy of the Lord. + +The first day of the seventh month was the Feast of trumpets; and when +the reading was over, and its effects of tears and sorrow for +disobedience were seen, the preachers changed their tone, to bring +consolation and exhort to gladness. Nehemiah had taken no part in +reading the law, as Ezra the priest and his Levites were more +appropriately set to that. But he joins them in exhorting the people +to dry their tears, and go joyfully to the feast. These exhortations +contain many thoughts universally applicable. They teach that even +those who are most conscious of sin and breaches of God's law should +weep indeed, but should swiftly pass from tears to joy. They do not +teach how that passage is to be effected; and in so far they are +imperfect, and need to be supplemented by the New Testament teaching +of forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But in their +clear discernment that sorrow is not meant to be a permanent +characteristic of religion, and that gladness is a more acceptable +offering than tears, they teach a valuable lesson, needed always by +men who fancy that they must atone for their sins by their own +sadness, and that religion is gloomy, harsh, and crabbed. + +Further, these exhortations to festal gladness breathe the +characteristic Old Testament tone of wholesome enjoyment of material +good as a part of religion. The way of looking at eating and drinking +and the like, as capable of being made acts of worship, has been too +often forgotten by two kinds of men--saints who have sought sanctity +in asceticism; and sensualists who have taken deep draughts of such +pleasures without calling on the name of the Lord, and so have failed +to find His gifts a cup of salvation. It is possible to 'eat and drink +and see God' as the elders of Israel did on Sinai. + +Further, the plain duty of remembering the needy while we enjoy God's +gifts is beautifully enjoined here. The principle underlying the +commandment to 'send portions to them for whom nothing is +provided'--that is, for whom no feast has been dressed--is that all +gifts are held in trust, that nothing is bestowed on us for our own +good only, but that we are in all things stewards. The law extends to +the smallest and to the greatest possessions. We have no right to +feast on anything unless we share it, whether it be festal dainties or +the bread that came down from heaven. To divide our portion with +others is the way to make our portion greater as well as sweeter. + +Further, 'the joy of the Lord is your strength.' By _strength_ +here seems to be meant a _stronghold_. If we fix our desires on +God, and have trained our hearts to find sweeter delights in communion +with Him than in any earthly good, our religion will have lifted us +above mists and clouds into clear air above, where sorrows and changes +will have little power to affect us. If we are to rejoice in the Lord, +it will be possible for us to 'rejoice always,' and that joy will be +as a refuge from all the ills that flesh is heir to. Dwelling in God, +we shall dwell safely, and be far from the fear of evil. + + + +THE JOY OF THE LORD + +'The joy of the Lord is your strength.'--Neh. viii. 10. + + +Judaism, in its formal and ceremonial aspect, was a religion of +gladness. The feast was the great act of worship. It is not to be +wondered at, that Christianity, the perfecting of that ancient system, +has been less markedly felt to be a religion of joy; for it brings +with it far deeper and more solemn views about man in his nature, +condition, responsibilities, destinies, than ever prevailed before, +under any system of worship. And yet all deep religion ought to be +joyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be so. + +Here, in the incident before us, there has come a time in Nehemiah's +great enterprise, when the law, long forgotten, long broken by the +captives, is now to be established again as the rule of the +newly-founded commonwealth. Naturally enough there comes a remembrance +of many sins in the past history of the people; and tears not +unnaturally mingle with the thankfulness that again they are a nation, +having a divine worship and a divine law in their midst. The leader of +them, knowing for one thing that if the spirits of his people once +began to flag, they could not face nor conquer the difficulties of +their position, said to them, 'This day is holy unto the Lord: this +feast that we are keeping is a day of devout worship; therefore mourn +not, nor weep: go your way; eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send +portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; neither be ye sorry, +for the joy of the Lord is your strength.' You will make nothing of it +by indulgence in lamentation and in mourning. You will have no more +power for obedience, you will not be fit for your work, if you fall +into a desponding state. Be thankful and glad; and remember that the +purest worship is the worship of God-fixed joy, 'the joy of the Lord +is your strength.' And that is as true, brethren! with regard to us, +as it ever was in these old times; and we, I think, need the lesson +contained in this saying of Nehemiah's, because of some prevalent +tendencies amongst us, no less than these Jews did. Take some simple +thoughts suggested by this text which are both important in themselves +and needful to be made emphatic because so often forgotten in the +ordinary type of Christian character. They are these. Religious Joy is +the natural result of faith. It is a Christian duty. It is an +important element in Christian strength. + +I. Joy in the Lord is the natural result of Christian Faith. + +There is a natural adaptation or provision in the Gospel, both by what +it brings to us and by what it takes away from us, to make a calm, and +settled, and deep gladness, the prevalent temper of the Christian +spirit. In what it gives us, I say, and in what it takes away from us. +It gives us what we call well a sense of acceptance with God, it gives +us God for the rest of our spirits, it gives us the communion with Him +which in proportion as it is real, will be still, and in proportion as +it is still, will be all bright and joyful. It takes away from us the +fear that lies before us, the strifes that lie within us, the +desperate conflict that is waged between a man's conscience and his +inclinations, between his will and his passions, which tears the heart +asunder, and always makes sorrow and tumult wherever it comes. It +takes away the sense of sin. It gives us, instead of the torpid +conscience, or the angrily-stinging conscience--a conscience all calm +from its accusations, with all the sting drawn out of it:--for quiet +peace lies in the heart of the man that is trusting in the Lord. The +Gospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in God; joy, because +every function of the spiritual nature has found now its haven and its +object; joy, because health has come, and the healthy working of the +body or of the spirit is itself a gladness; joy, because the dim +future is painted (where it is painted at all) with shapes of light +and beauty, and because the very vagueness of these is an element in +the greatness of its revelation. The joy that is in Christ is deep and +abiding. Faith in Him naturally works gladness. + +I do not forget that, on the other side, it is equally true that the +Christian faith has as marked and almost as strong an adaptation to +produce a solemn _sorrow_--solemn, manly, noble, and strong. 'As +sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,' is the rule of the Christian life. +If we think of what our faith does; of the light that it casts upon +our condition, upon our nature, upon our responsibilities, upon our +sins, and upon our destinies, we can easily see how, if gladness be +one part of its operation, no less really and truly is sadness +another. Brethren! all great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them, +which not unfrequently merges into a still sorrow. There is nothing +more contemptible in itself, and there is no more sure mark of a +trivial nature and a trivial round of occupations, than unshaded +gladness, that rests on no deep foundations of quiet, patient grief; +grief, because I know what I am and what I ought to be; grief, because +I have learnt the 'exceeding sinfulness of sin'; grief, because, +looking out upon the world, I see, as other men do not see, hell-fire +burning at the back of the mirth and the laughter, and know what it is +that men are hurrying to! Do you remember who it was that stood by the +side of the one poor dumb man, whose tongue He was going to loose, and +looking up to heaven, _sighed_ before He could say, 'Be opened'? +Do you remember that of Him it is said, 'God hath anointed Thee with +the oil of gladness above Thy fellows'; and also, 'a Man of sorrows, +and acquainted with grief'? And do you not think that both these +characteristics are to be repeated in the operations of His Gospel +upon every heart that receives it? And if, by the hopes it breathes +into us, by the fears that it takes away from us, by the union with +God that it accomplishes for us, by the fellowship that it implants in +us, it indeed anoints us all 'with the oil of gladness'; yet, on the +other hand, by the sense of mine own sin that it teaches me; by the +conflict with weakness which it makes to be the law of my life; by the +clear vision which it gives me of 'the law of my members warring +against the law of my mind, and bringing me into subjection'; by the +intensity which it breathes into all my nature, and by the thoughts +that it presents of what sin leads to, and what the world at present +is, the Gospel, wheresoever it comes, will infuse a wise, valiant +sadness as the very foundation of character. Yes, joy, but sorrow too! +the joy of the Lord, but sorrow as we look on our own sin and the +world's woe! the head anointed with the oil of gladness, but also +crowned with thorns! + +These two are not contradictory. These two states of mind, both of +them the natural operations of any deep faith, may co-exist and blend +into one another, so as that the gladness is sobered, and chastened, +and made manly and noble; and that the sorrow is like some +thundercloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that pierce into its +deepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow +springs from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash +against each other, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, +but they blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep +down beneath the cold snow, with its white desolation and its barren +death, you will find the budding of the early spring flowers and the +fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; +just as, in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea, there may be +welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a +deeper depth than the great ocean around it, and pours its sweet +streams along the surface of the salt waste. Gladness, because I love, +for love _is_ gladness; gladness, because I trust, for trust +_is_ gladness; gladness, because I obey, for obedience is a meat +that others know not of, and light comes when we do His will! But +sorrow, because still I am wrestling with sin; sorrow, because still I +have not perfect fellowship; sorrow, because mine eye, purified by my +living with God, sees earth, and sin, and life, and death, and the +generations of men, and the darkness beyond, in some measure as God +sees them! And yet, the sorrow is surface, and the joy is central; the +sorrow springs from circumstance, and the gladness from the essence of +the thing;--and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the gladness +is perennial. For the Christian life is all like one of those sweet +spring showers in early April, when the rain-drops weave for us a mist +that hides the sunshine; and yet the hidden sun is in every sparkling +drop, and they are all saturated and steeped in its light. 'The joy of +the Lord' is the natural result and offspring of all Christian faith. + +II. And now, secondly, the 'joy of the Lord' or rejoicing in God, is a +matter of Christian duty. + +It is a commandment here, and it is a command in the New Testament as +well. 'Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.' +I need not quote to you the frequent repetitions of the same +injunction which the Apostle Paul gives us, 'Rejoice in the Lord +always, and again I say, Rejoice'; 'Rejoice evermore,' and the like. +The fact that this joy is enjoined us suggests to us a thought or two, +worth looking at. + +You may say with truth, 'My emotions of joy and sorrow are not under +my own control: I cannot help being glad and sad as circumstances +dictate.' But yet here it lies, a commandment. It is a duty, a thing +that the Apostle enjoins; in which, of course, is implied, that +somehow or other it is to a large extent within one's own power, and +that even the indulgence in this emotion, and the degree to which a +Christian life shall be a cheerful life, is dependent in a large +measure on our own volitions, and stands on the same footing as our +obedience to God's other commandments. + +We _can_ to a very great extent control even our own emotions; +but then, besides, we can do more than that. It may be quite true, +that you cannot help feeling sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful +thoughts, and glad in the presence of thoughts that naturally kindle +gladness. But I will tell you what you can do or refrain from +doing--you can either go and stand in the light, or you can go and +stand in the shadow. You can either fix your attention upon, and make +the predominant subject of your religious contemplations, a truth +which shall make you glad and strong, or a half-truth, which shall +make you sorrowful, and therefore weak. Your meditations may either +centre mainly upon your own selves, your faults and failings, and the +like; or they may centre mainly upon God and His love, Christ and His +grace, the Holy Spirit and His communion. You may either fill your +soul with joyful thoughts, or though a true Christian, a real, devout, +God-accepted believer, you may be so misapprehending the nature of the +Gospel, and your relation to it, its promises and precepts, its duties +and predictions, as that the prevalent tinge and cast of your religion +shall be solemn and almost gloomy, and not lighted up and irradiated +with the felt sense of God's presence--with the strong, healthy +consciousness that you are a forgiven and justified man, and that you +are going to be a glorified one. + +And thus far (and it is a long way) by the selection or the rejection +of the appropriate and proper subjects which shall make the main +portion of our religious contemplation, and shall be the food of our +devout thoughts, we can determine the complexion of our religious +life. Just as you inject colouring matter into the fibres of some +anatomical preparation; so a Christian may, as it were, inject into +all the veins of his religious character and life, either the bright +tints of gladness or the dark ones of self-despondency; and the result +will be according to the thing that he has put into them. If your +thoughts are chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is +for you, then you will have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they +are bent ever on yourself and your own unbelief, then you will always +be sad. You can make your choice. + +Christian men, the joy of the Lord is a duty. It is so because, as we +have seen, it is the natural effect of faith, because we can do much +to regulate our emotions directly, and much more to determine them by +determining what set of thoughts shall engage us. A wise and strong +faith is our duty. To keep our emotional nature well under control of +reason and will is our duty. To lose thoughts of ourselves in God's +truth about Himself is our duty. If we do these things, we cannot fail +to have Christ's joy remaining in us, and making ours full. If we have +not that blessed possession abiding with us, which He lived and died +to give us, there is something wrong in us somewhere. + +It seems to me that this is a truth which we have great need, my +friends, to lay to heart. It is of no great consequence that we should +practically confute the impotent old sneer about religion as being a +gloomy thing. One does not need to mind much what some people say on +that matter. The world would call 'the joy of the Lord' gloom, just as +much as it calls 'godly sorrow' gloom. But we are losing for ourselves +a power and an energy of which we have no conception, unless we feel +that joy is a duty, and unless we believe that not to be joyful in the +Lord is, therefore, more than a misfortune, it is a fault. + +I do not forget that the comparative absence of this happy, peaceful +sense of acceptance, harmony, oneness with God, springs sometimes from +temperament, and depends on our natural disposition. Of course the +natural character determines to a large extent the perspective of our +conceptions of Christian truth, and the colouring of our inner +religious life. I do not mean to say, for a moment, that there is one +uniform type to which all must be conformed, or they sin. There is +indeed one type, the perfect manhood of Jesus, but it is all +comprehensive, and each variety of our fragmentary manhood finds its +own perfecting, and not its transmutation to another fashion of man, +in being conformed to Him. Some of us are naturally fainthearted, +timid, sceptical of any success, grave, melancholy, or hard to stir to +any emotion. To such there will be an added difficulty in making quiet +confident joy any very familiar guest in their home or in their place +of prayer. But even such should remember that the 'powers of the world +to come,' the energies of the Gospel, are given to us for the very +express purpose of overcoming, as well as of hallowing, natural +dispositions. If it be our duty to rejoice in the Lord, it is no +sufficient excuse to urge for not responding to the reiterated call, +'I myself am disposed to sadness.' + +Whilst making all allowances for the diversities of character, which +will always operate to diversify the cast of the inner life in each +individual, we think that, in the great majority of instances, there +are two things, both faults, which have a great deal more to do with +the absence of joy from much Christian experience, than any +unfortunate natural tendency to the dark side of things. The one is, +an actual deficiency in the depth and reality of our faith; and the +other is, a misapprehension of the position which we have a right to +take and are bound to take. + +There is an actual deficiency in our faith. Oh, brethren! it is not to +be wondered at that Christians do not find that the Lord with them is +the Lord their strength and joy, as well as the Lord 'their +righteousness'; when the amount of their fellowship with Him is so +small, and the depth of it so shallow, as we usually find it. The +first true vision that a sinful soul has of God, the imperfect +beginnings of religion, usually are accompanied with intense +self-abhorrence, and sorrowing tears of penitence. A further closer +vision of the love of God in Jesus Christ brings with it 'joy and +peace in believing.' But the prolongation of these throughout life +requires the steadfast continuousness of gaze towards Him. It is only +where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. +Let us search our own hearts. If there is but little heat around the +bulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks a low +degree. If there is but small faith, there will not be much gladness. +The road into Giant Despair's castle is through doubt, which doubt +comes from an absence, a sinful absence, in our own experience, of the +felt presence of God, and the felt force of the verities of His +Gospel. + +But then, besides that, there is another fault: not a fault in the +sense of crime or sin, but a fault (and a great one) in the sense of +error and misapprehension. We as Christians do not take the position +which we have a right to take and that we are bound to take. Men +venture themselves upon God's word as they do on doubtful ice, timidly +putting a light foot out, to feel if it will bear them, and always +having the tacit fear, 'Now, it is going to crack!' You must cast +yourselves on God's Gospel with all your weight, without any hanging +back, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that +it will _give_--that the firm, pure floor will give, and let you +through into the water! A Christian shrink from saying what the +Apostle said, 'I _know_ in whom I have believed, and am persuaded +that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that +day'! A Christian fancy that salvation is a future thing, and forget +that it is a present thing! A Christian tremble to profess 'assurance +of hope,' forgetting that there is no hope strong enough to bear the +stress of a life's sorrows, which is not a conviction certain as one's +own existence! Brethren! understand that the Gospel is a Gospel which +brings a present salvation; and try to feel that it is not +presumption, but simply acting out the very fundamental principle of +it, when you are not afraid to say, 'I _know_ that my Redeemer is +yonder, and I _know_ that He loves me!' Try to feel, I say, that +by faith you have a right to take that position, 'Now, we _know_ +that we are the sons of God'; that you have a right to claim for +yourselves, and that you are falling beneath the loftiness of the gift +that is given to you unless you do claim for yourselves, the place of +sons, accepted, loved, sure to be glorified at God's right hand. Am I +teaching presumption? am I teaching carelessness, or a dispensing with +self-examination? No, but I am saying this: If a man have once felt, +and feel, in however small and feeble a degree, and depressed by +whatsoever sense of daily transgressions, if he feel, faint like the +first movement of an imprisoned bird in its egg, the feeble pulse of +an almost imperceptible and fluttering faith beat--then that man has a +right to say, 'God is mine!' + +As one of our great teachers, little remembered now said, 'Let me take +my personal salvation for granted'--and what? and 'be idle?' No; 'and +_work_ from it.' Ay, brethren! a Christian is not to be for ever +asking himself, 'Am I a Christian?' He is not to be for ever looking +into himself for marks and signs that he is. He _is_ to look into +himself to discover sins, that he may by God's help cast them out, to +discover sins that shall teach him to say with greater thankfulness, +'What a redemption this is which I possess!' but he is to base his +convictions that he is God's child upon something other than his own +characteristics and the feebleness of his own strength. He is to have +'joy in the Lord' whatever may be his sorrow from outward things. And +I believe that if Christian people would lay that thought to heart, +they would understand better how the natural operation of the Gospel +is to make them glad, and how rejoicing in the Lord is a Christian +duty. + +III. And now with regard to the other thought that still remains to be +considered, namely, that rejoicing in the Lord is a source of +strength,--I have already anticipated, fragmentarily, nearly all that +I could have said here in a more systematic form. All gladness has +something to do with our efficiency; for it is the prerogative of man +that his force comes from his mind, and not from his body. That old +song about a sad heart tiring in a mile, is as true in regard to the +Gospel, and the works of Christian people, as in any other case. If we +have hearts full of light, and souls at rest in Christ, and the wealth +and blessedness of a tranquil gladness lying there, and filling our +being; work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrow will be +bearable, trials will not be so very hard, and above all temptations +we shall be lifted, and set upon a rock. If the soul is full, and full +of joy, what side of it will be exposed to the assault of any +temptation? If the appeal be to fear, the gladness that is there is an +answer. If the appeal be to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any +sort, there is no need for any more-the heart is _full_. And so +the gladness which rests in Christ will be a gladness which will fit +us for all service and for all endurance, which will be unbroken by +any sorrow, and, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible, +impenetrable, in its crystalline purity will stand before the tempted +heart, and will repel all the 'fiery darts of the wicked.' + +'The joy of the Lord is your strength,' my brother! Nothing else is. +No vehement resolutions, no sense of his own sinfulness, nor even +contrite remembrance of past failures, ever yet made a man strong. It +made him weak that he might become strong, and when it had done that +it had done its work. For strength there must be hope, for strength +there must be joy. If the arm is to smite with vigour, it must smite +at the bidding of a calm and light heart. Christian work is of such a +sort as that the most dangerous opponent to it is simple despondency +and simple sorrow. 'The joy of the Lord is your strength.' + +Well, then! there are two questions: How comes it that so much of the +world's joy is weakness? and how comes it that so much of the world's +notion of religion is gloom and sadness? Answer them for yourselves, +and remember: you are weak unless you are glad; you are not glad and +strong unless your faith and hope are fixed in Christ, and unless you +are working from and not towards the sense of pardon, from and not +towards the conviction of acceptance with God! + + + +SABBATH OBSERVANCE + +'In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the +sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, +grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into +Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day +wherein they sold victuals. 16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, +which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath +unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17. Then I contended +with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this +that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18. Did not your fathers +thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this +city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath, +19. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be +dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, +and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and +some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be +brought in on the sabbath day. 20. So the merchants and sellers of all +kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 21. Then I +testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the +wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth +came they no more on the sabbath. 22. And I commanded the Levites that +they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the +gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning +this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy.'-- +NEH. xiii. 15-22. + + +Many religious and moral reformations depend for their vitality on one +man, and droop if his influence be withdrawn. It was so with +Nehemiah's work. He toiled for twelve years in Jerusalem, and then +returned for 'certain days' to the king at Babylon. The length of his +absence is not given; but it was long enough to let much of his work +be undone, and to give him much trouble to restore it to the condition +in which he had left it. This last chapter of his book is but a sad +close for a record which began with such high hope, and tells of such +strenuous, self-sacrificing effort. The last page of many a reformer's +history has been, like Nehemiah's, a sad account of efforts to stem +the ebbing tide of enthusiasm and the flowing tide of worldliness. The +heavy stone is rolled a little way up hill, and, as soon as one strong +hand is withdrawn, down it tumbles again to its old place. The +evanescence of great men's work makes much of the tragedy of history. + +Our passage is particularly concerned with Nehemiah's efforts to +enforce Sabbath observance. The rest of the chapter is occupied with +similar efforts to set right other irregularities of a ceremonial +character, such as the exclusion of Gentiles from the Temple, the +exaction of the 'portions of the Levites,' and the like. The passage +falls into three parts--the abuse (vs. 15, 16), the vigorous remedies +(vs. 17-22), and the prayer (v. 22). + +I. The abuse consisted in Sabbath work and trading. Nehemiah found, on +his return, that the people 'in Judaea'--that is, in the country +districts--carried on their farm labour and also brought their produce +to market to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. So he 'testified against them +in the day wherein they sold victuals'; that is, probably meaning that +he warned them either in person or by messengers before taking further +steps. Not only did Jews break the sacred day, but they let heathen do +so too. The narrative tells, with a kind of horror, the many +aggravations of this piece of wickedness. 'They'--Gentiles with whom +contact defiled--'sold on the Sabbath'--the day of rest--'to the +children of Judah'--God's people--'in Jerusalem'--the Holy City. It +was a many-barrelled crime. Tyre was far from Jerusalem, and one does +not see how fish could have been brought in good condition. Perhaps +their perishableness was the excuse for allowing their sale on the +Sabbath, as is sometimes the case in fishing-villages even in +Sabbath-keeping Scotland. Such was the abuse with which Nehemiah +struggled. + +It is easy to pooh-pooh his crusade against Sabbath labour as mere +scrupulousness about externals. But it is a blunder and an injustice +to a noble character if we forget that the stage of revelation at +which he stood necessarily made him more dependent on externals than +Christians are or should be. But his vindication does not need such +considerations. He had a truer insight into what active men needed for +vigorous working days, and what devout men needed for healthy +religion, than many moderns who smile at his eagerness about 'mere +externalisms.' + +It is easy to ridicule the Jewish Sabbath and 'the Puritan Sunday.' No +doubt there have been and are well-meant but mistaken efforts to +insist on too rigid observance. No doubt it has been often forgotten +by good people that the Christian Lord's Day is not the Jewish +Sabbath. Of course the religious observance of the day is not a fit +subject for legislation. But the need for a seventh day of rest is +impressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and devout hearts +will joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and service. +The vigour of religious life demands special seasons set apart for +worship. Unless there be such reservoirs along the road, there will be +but a thin trickle of a brook by the way. It is all very well to talk +about religion diffused through the life, but it will not be so +diffused unless it is concentrated at certain times. + +They are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and +relax the stringency of the prohibition of labour. If once the idea +that Sunday is a day of amusement take root, the amusement of some +will require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend +to extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule. There +never was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of +modern life demands Sunday rest more than ever. If a railway car is +run continually it will wear out sooner than if it were laid aside for +a day or two occasionally; and if it is run at express speed it will +need the rest more. We are all going at top speed; and there would be +more breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some +people think they are promoting the public good by destroying--a +seventh day of rest. + +Our great trading centres in England have the same foreign element to +complicate matters as Nehemiah had to deal with. The Tyrian +fishmongers knew and cared nothing for Israel's Jehovah or Sabbath, +and their presence would increase the tendency to disregard the day. +So with us, foreigners of many nationalities, but alike in their +disregard of our religious observances, leaven the society, and help +to mould the opinions and practices, of our great cities. That is a +very real source of danger in regard to Sabbath observance and many +other things; and Christian people should be on their guard against +it. + +II. The vigorous remedies applied by Nehemiah were administered first +to the rulers. He sent for the nobles, and laid the blame at their +doors. 'Ye profane the day,' said he. Men in authority are responsible +for crimes which they could check, but prefer to wink at. Nehemiah +seems to trace all the national calamities to the breach of the +Sabbath; but of course he is simply laying stress on the sin about +which he is speaking, as any man who sets himself earnestly to work to +fight any form of evil is apt to do. Then the men who are not in +earnest cry out about 'exaggeration.' Many other sins besides +Sabbath-breaking had a share in sending Israel into captivity; and if +Nehemiah had been fighting with idolatrous tendencies he would have +isolated idolatry as the cause of its calamities, just as, when +fighting against Sabbath-breaking, he emphasises that sin. + +Nehemiah was governor for the Persian king, and so had a right to rate +these nobles. In this day the people have the same right, and there +are many social sins for which they should arraign civic and other +authorities. Christian principles unflinchingly insisted on by +Christian people, and brought to bear, by ballot-boxes and other +persuasive ways, on what stands for conscience in some high places, +would make a wonderful difference on many of the abominations of our +cities. Go to the 'nobles' first, and lay the burden on the backs that +ought to carry it. + +Then Nehemiah took practical measures by shutting the city gates on +the eve of the Sabbath, and putting some of his own servants as a +watch. The thing seems to have been done without any notice; so when +the country folk came in, as usual, on the Sabbath, they could not get +into the city, and camped outside, making a visible temptation to the +citizens, to slip out and do a little business, if they could manage +to elude the guards. Once or twice this happened; and then Nehemiah +himself seems to have taken them in hand, with a very plain and +sufficiently emphatic warning: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on +you.' + +Of course, 'from that time they came no more on the Sabbath,' as was +natural after such a volley. A man with a good strong will is apt to +get his own way, even when he is not clothed with the authority of a +governor. Then Nehemiah strengthened the guard, or perhaps withdrew +his own servants and substituted for them Levites, whose official +position would put them in full sympathy with his efforts. That +priestly guard would be inflexible, and with its appointment the abuse +appears to have been crushed. + +The example of Nehemiah's enforcing Sabbath observance is not to be +taken as a pattern for Christian communities, without many +limitations. But it appears to the present writer that it is perfectly +legitimate for the civil power to insist upon, and if necessary to +enforce, the observance of Sunday as a day of rest; and that, since +legitimate, it is for the well-being of the community that it should +do so. Tyrians might believe anything they chose, and use the day of +rest as they thought proper, so long as they did not sell fish on it. +We do not interfere with religious convictions when we enjoin Sunday +observance. Nehemiah's argument has sometimes to be used, even about +such a matter: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you.' + +The methods adopted may yield suggestions for all who would aim at +reforming abuses or public immoralities. One most necessary step is to +cut off, as far as possible, opportunities for the sin. There will be +no trade if you shut the gates the night before. There will be little +drunkenness if there are no liquor shops. It is quite true that people +cannot be made virtuous by legislation, but it is also true that they +may be saved from temptations to become vicious by it. + +Another hint comes from Nehemiah's vigorous word to the country folk +outside the wall. There is need for very strong determination and much +sanctified obstinacy in fighting popular abuses. They die hard. It is +permissible to invoke the aid of the lawful authority. But a man with +strong convictions and earnest purpose will be able to impress his +convictions on a mass, even if he have no guards at his back. The one +thing needful for Christian reformers is, not the power to appeal to +force, but the force which they can carry within them. And it is +better when the traders love the Sabbath too well to wish to drive +bargains on it, than when they are hindered from doing as they wish by +Nehemiah's strong will or formidable threats. + +Once more, the guard of Levites may suggest that the execution of +measures for the reformation of manners or morals is best entrusted to +those who are in sympathy with them. Levites made faithful watchmen. +Many a promising measure for reformation has come to nothing because +committed to the hands of functionaries who did not care for its +success. The instruments are almost as important as the measures which +they carry out. + +III. Nehemiah's prayer occurs thrice in this chapter, at the close of +each section recounting his reforming acts. In the first instance (v. +14) it is most full, and puts very plainly the merit of good deeds as +a plea with God. The same thing is implied in its form in verse 22. +But while, no doubt, the tone of the prayer is startling to us, and is +not such as should be offered now by Christians, it but echoes the +principle of retribution which underlies the law. 'This do, and thou +shalt live,' was the very foundation of Nehemiah's form of God's +revelation. We do not plead our own merits, because we are not under +the law, but under grace, and the principle underlying the gospel is +life by impartation of unmerited mercy and divine life. But the law of +retribution still remains valid for Christians in so far as that God +will never forget any of their works, and will give them full +recompense for their work of faith and labour of love. Eternal life +here and hereafter is wholly the gift of God; but that fact does not +exclude the notion of 'the recompense of reward' from the Christian +conception of the future. It becomes not us to present our good deeds +before the Judge, since they are stained and imperfect, and the +goodness in them is His gift. But it becomes Him to crown them with +His gracious approbation, and to proportion the cities ruled in that +future world to the talents faithfully used here. We need not be +afraid of obscuring the truth that we are saved 'not of works, lest +any man should boast,' though we insist that a Christian man is +rewarded according to his works. + +Nehemiah had no false notion of his own goodness; for, while he asked +for recompense for these good deeds of his, he could not but add, +'Spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy.' He who asks to be +'spared' must know himself in peril of destruction; and he who invokes +'mercy' must think that, if he were dealt with according to justice, +he would be in evil case. So the consciousness of weakness and sin is +an integral part of this prayer, and that takes all the apparent +self-righteousness out of the previous petition. However worthy of and +sure of reward a Christian man's acts of love and efforts for the +spread of God's honour may be, the doer of them must still be 'looking +for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF ESTHER + + +THE NET SPREAD + +'After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of +Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all +the princes that were with him. 2. And all the king's servants, that +were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had +so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him +reverence. 3. Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate, +said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? 4. +Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened +not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters +would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5. And when Haman +saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman +full of wrath. 6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; +for they had showed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought +to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of +Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 7. In the first month, that +is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast +Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to +month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. 8. And Haman +said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad +and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; +and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the +king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. +9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be +destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands +of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the +king's treasuries. 10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and +gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. +11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the +people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.'--ESTHER iii. +1-11. + + +The stage of this passage is filled by three strongly marked and +strongly contrasted figures: Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus; a sturdy +nonconformist, an arrogant and vindictive minister of state, and a +despotic and careless king. These three are the visible persons, but +behind them is an unseen and unnamed Presence, the God of Israel, who +still protects His exiled people. + +We note, first, the sturdy nonconformist. 'The reverence' which the +king had commanded his servants to show to Haman was not simply a sign +of respect, but an act of worship. Eastern adulation regarded a +monarch as in some sense a god, and we know that divine honours were +in later times paid to Roman emperors, and many Christians martyred +for refusing to render them. The command indicates that Ahasuerus +desired Haman to be regarded as his representative, and possessing at +least some reflection of godhead from him. European ambassadors to +Eastern courts have often refused to prostrate themselves before the +monarch on the ground of its being degradation to their dignity; but +Mordecai stood erect while the crowd of servants lay flat on their +faces, as the great man passed through the gate, because he would have +no share in an act of worship to any but Jehovah. He might have +compromised with conscience, and found some plausible excuses if he +had wished. He could have put his own private interpretation on the +prostration, and said to himself, 'I have nothing to do with the +meaning that others attach to bowing before Haman. I mean by it only +due honour to the second man in the kingdom.' But the monotheism of +his race was too deeply ingrained in him, and so he kept 'a stiff +backbone' and 'bowed not down.' + +That his refusal was based on religious scruples is the natural +inference from his having told his fellow-porters that he was a Jew. +That fact would explain his attitude, but would also isolate him still +more. His obstinacy piqued them, and they reported his contumacy to +the great man, thus at once gratifying personal dislike, racial +hatred, and religious antagonism, and recommending themselves to Haman +as solicitous for his dignity. We too are sometimes placed in +circumstances where we are tempted to take part in what may be called +constructive idolatry. There arise, in our necessary co-operation with +those who do not share in our faith, occasions when we are expected to +unite in acts which we are thought very straitlaced for refusing to +do, but which, conscience tells us, cannot be done without practical +disloyalty to Jesus Christ. Whenever that inner voice says 'Don't,' we +must disregard the persistent solicitations of others, and be ready to +be singular, and run any risk rather than comply. 'So did not I, +because of the fear of God,' has to be our motto, whatever +fellow-servants may say. The gate of Ahasuerus's palace was not a +favourable soil for the growth of a devout soul, but flowers can bloom +on dunghills, and there have been 'saints' in 'Caesar's household.' + +Haman is a sharp contrast to Mordecai. He is the type of the unworthy +characters that climb or crawl to power in a despotic monarchy, +vindictive, arrogant, cunning, totally oblivious of the good of the +subjects, using his position for his own advantage, and ferociously +cruel. He had naturally not noticed the one erect figure among the +crowd of abject ones, but the insignificant Jew became important when +pointed out. If he had bowed, he would have been one more nobody, but +his not bowing made him somebody who had to be crushed. The childish +burst of passion is very characteristic, and not less true to life is +the extension of the anger and thirst for vengeance to 'all the Jews +that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.' They were 'the +people of Mordecai,' and that was enough. 'He thought scorn to lay +hands on Mordecai alone.' What a perverted notion of personal dignity +which thought the sacrifice of the one offender beneath it, and could +only be satisfied by a blood-bath into which a nation should be +plunged! Such an extreme of frantic lust for murder is only possible +in such a state as Ahasuerus's Persia, but the prostitution of public +position to personal ends, and the adoption of political measures at +the bidding of wounded vanity, and to gratify blind hatred of a race, +is possible still, and it becomes all Christian men to use their +influence that the public acts of their nation shall be clear of that +taint. + +Haman was as superstitious as cruel, and so he sought for auguries +from heaven for his hellish purpose, and cast the lot to find the +favourable day for bringing it about. He is not the only one who has +sought divine approval for wicked public acts. Religion has been used +to varnish many a crime, and _Te Deums_ sung for many a victory +which was little better than Haman's plot. + +The crafty denunciation of the Jews to the king is a good specimen of +the way in which a despot is hoodwinked by his favourites, and made +their tool. It was no doubt true that the Jews' laws were 'diverse +from those of every people,' but it was not true that they did not +'keep the king's laws,' except in so far as these required worship of +other gods. In all their long dispersion they have been remarkable for +two things,--their tenacious adherence to the Law, so far as possible +in exile, and their obedience to the law of the country of their +sojourn. No doubt, the exiles in Persian territory presented the same +characteristics. But Haman has had many followers in resenting the +distinctiveness of the Jew, and charging on them crimes of which they +were innocent. From Mordecai onwards it has been so, and Europe is +to-day disgraced by a crusade against them less excusable than +Haman's. Hatred still masks itself under the disguise of political +expediency, and says, 'It is not for the king's profit to suffer +them.' + +But the true half of the charge was a eulogium, for it implied that +the scattered exiles were faithful to God's laws, and were marked off +by their lives. That ought to be true of professing Christians. They +should obviously be living by other principles than the world adopts. +The enemy's charge 'shall turn unto you for a testimony.' Happy shall +we be if observers are prompted to say of us that 'our laws are +diverse' from those of ungodly men around us! + +The great bribe which Haman offered to the king is variously estimated +as equal to from three to four millions sterling. He, no doubt, +reckoned on making more than that out of the confiscation of Jewish +property. That such an offer should have been made by the chief +minister to the king, and that for such a purpose, reveals a depth of +corruption which would be incredible if similar horrors were not +recorded of other Eastern despots. But with Turkey still astonishing +the world, no one can call Haman's offer too atrocious to be true. + +Ahasuerus is the vain-glorious king known to us as Xerxes. His conduct +in the affair corresponds well enough with his known character. The +lives of thousands of law-abiding subjects are tossed to the favourite +without inquiry or hesitation. He does not even ask the name of the +'certain people,' much less require proof of the charge against them. +The insanity of weakening his empire by killing so many of its +inhabitants does not strike him, nor does he ever seem to think that +he has duties to those under his rule. Careless of the sanctity of +human life, too indolent to take trouble to see things with his own +eyes, apparently without the rudiments of the idea of justice, he +wallowed in a sty of self-indulgence, and, while greedy of adulation +and the semblance of power, let the reality slip from his hands into +those of the favourite, who played on his vices as on an instrument, +and pulled the strings that moved the puppet. We do not produce kings +of that sort nowadays, but King Demos has his own vices, and is as +easily blinded and swayed as Ahasuerus. In every form of government, +monarchy or republic, there will be would-be leaders, who seek to gain +influence and carry their objects by tickling vanity, operating on +vices, calumniating innocent men, and the other arts of the demagogue. +Where the power is in the hands of the people, the people is very apt +to take its responsibilities as lightly as Ahasuerus did his, and to +let itself be led blindfold by men with personal ends to serve, and +hiding them under the veil of eager desire for the public good. +Christians should 'play the citizen as it becomes the gospel of +Christ,' and take care that they are not beguiled into national +enmities and public injustice by the specious talk of modern Hamans. + + + +ESTHER'S VENTURE + +'Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto +Mordecai: 11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's +provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come +unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one +law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall +hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been +called to come in unto the king these thirty days. 12. And they told +to Mordecai Esther's words. 13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer +Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's +house, more than all the Jews. 14. For if thou altogether holdest thy +peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise +to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall +be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for +such a time as this? 15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this +answer, 16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in +Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, +night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I +go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I +perish, I perish. 17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to +all that Esther had commanded him. 'Now it came to pass on the third +day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner +court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king +sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of +the house. 2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen +standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the +king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So +Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. 3. Then said the +king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? +it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.'-ESTHER iv. +10-17; v. 1-3. + + +Patriotism is more evident than religion in the Book of Esther. To +turn to it after the fervours of prophets and the continual +recognition of God in history which marks the other historical books, +is like coming down from heaven to earth, as Ewald says. But that +difference in tone probably accurately represents the difference +between the saints and heroes of an earlier age and the Jews in +Persia, in whom national feeling was stronger than devotion. The +picture of their characteristics deducible from this Book shows many +of the traits which have marked them ever since,--accommodating +flexibility, strangely united with unbending tenacity; a capacity for +securing the favour of influential people, and willingness to stretch +conscience in securing it; reticence and diplomacy; and, beneath all, +unquenchable devotion to Israel, which burns alike in the politic +Mordecai and the lovely Esther. + +There is not much audible religion in either, but in this lesson +Mordecai impressively enforces his assurance that Israel cannot +perish, and his belief in Providence setting people in their places +for great unselfish ends; and Esther is ready to die, if need be, in +trying to save her people, and thinks that fasting and prayer will +help her in her daring attempt. These two cousins, unlike in so much, +were alike in their devotion to Israel; and though they said little +about their religion, they acted it, which is better. + +It is very like Jews that the relationship between Mordecai and Esther +should have been kept dark. Nobody but one or two trusted servants +knew that the porter was the queen's cousin, and probably her Jewish +birth was also unknown. Secrecy is, no doubt, the armour of oppressed +nations; but it is peculiarly agreeable to the descendants of Jacob, +who was a master of the art. There must have been wonderful +self-command on both sides to keep such a secret, and true affection, +to preserve intercourse through apparent indifference. + +Our passage begins in the middle of Esther's conversation with the +confidential go-between, who told her of the insane decree for the +destruction of the Jews, and of Mordecai's request that she should +appeal to the king. She reminds him of what he knew well enough, the +law that unsummoned intruders into the presence are liable to death; +and adds what, of course, he did not know, that she had not been +summoned for a month. We need not dwell on this ridiculously arrogant +law, but may remark that the substantial accuracy of the statement is +confirmed by classical and other authors, and may pause for a moment +to note the glimpse given here of the delirium of self-importance in +which these Persian kings lived, and to see in it no small cause of +their vices and disasters. What chance of knowing facts or of living a +wholesome life had a man shut off thus from all but lickspittles and +slaves? No wonder that the victims of such dignity beat the sea with +rods, when it was rude enough to wreck their ships! No wonder that +they wallowed in sensuality, and lost pith and manhood! No wonder that +Greece crushed their unwieldy armies and fleets! + +And what a glimpse into their heart-emptiness and degradation of +sacred ties is given in the fact that Esther the queen had not seen +Ahasuerus for a month, though living in the same palace, and his +favourite wife! No doubt, the experiences of exile had something to do +in later ages with the decided preference of the Jew for monogamy. + +But, passing from this, we need only observe how clearly Esther sees +and how calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following +his counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply +puts the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. 'This +is how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?' That is +poor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to +the mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers +and that which dares them are not often found together in due +proportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young +queen with her clear eyes saw, and with her brave heart was ready to +face, peril to her life. Unless we fully realise difficulties and +dangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at +our fingers' ends at the first rude assault of these. So let us count +the cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have +counted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good +guides. Either alone is a bad one. + +Mordecai's grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons +which always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others' good. His +words are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do +not name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a +psalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his +pagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to +the lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more +definitely use the sacred name. + +It is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimise +Esther's peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her +life in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he +would have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a +course which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and +quenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai's years of care over and pride +in his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would +perish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he +exercised in urging her to her course. + +His first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send +her to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the +common ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction; +and, on the other, there were possible success and escape. It may seem +unlikely that the general massacre should include the favourite queen, +and especially as her nationality was apparently a secret. But when a +mob has once tasted blood, its appetite is great and its scent keen, +and there are always informers at hand to point to hidden victims. The +argument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national +and social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to +riot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion, in some form or +other. How many good men's sons have been swept away by the +immoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which +there is not 'one dead,' the victim of drink and dissipation! How the +godliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around! +At the very lowest, self-preservation should enlist all good men in a +sacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. If +smallpox breaks out in the slums, it will come uptown into the grand +houses, and the outcasts will prove that they are the rich man's +brethren by infecting him, and perhaps killing him. + +Mordecai goes back to the same argument in the later part of his +answer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father's +house. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The +destruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common +tragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The +unfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will +have a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many +applications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does +always bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more +short-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of +beneficence from regard to self. + +But higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai +is sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come +it will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly +because he trusted God's ancient promises, and believed in the +indestructibility of the nation which a divine hand protected. How +does such a confidence agree with fear of 'destruction'? The two parts +of Mordecai's message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the +threatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster +Israel as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed. + +How did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther's +help? If he was certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her +or himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God's +purposes and absolute reliance on these stimulate, and do not +paralyse, devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure +that a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in +the line of God's purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to +carry it out. Since some men are to be honoured to be His instruments, +shall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble +ambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who +believe that their work helps forward what is dear to God's heart may +well do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful +to keep on the safe side in doing it. The honour is more than the +danger. 'Here am I; take me,' should be the Christian feeling about +all such work. + +The last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice +for others' good is the thought of God's purpose in giving Esther her +position. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of +all endowments of position, possessions, or capacities, is God. His +purpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver. +Dignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His +great designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that +she might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she +might serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by +capacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men +are stewards, and God gives His servants their 'talents,' not for +selfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the +profits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention +of all which we have, carries a solemn lesson for us all. + +The fair young heroine's soul rose to the occasion, and responded with +a swift determination to her older cousin's lofty words. Her pathetic +request for the prayers of the people for whose sake she was facing +death was surely more than superstition. Little as she says about her +faith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares +death in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid, +demonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many +professions. + +'If I perish, I perish!' Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter +that grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which +bound the young heart to life, so bright and desirable as was assured +to her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear +sight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher +strain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the +same stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah's daughter; and the same +fire burned in her,--utter devotion to Israel because entire +consecration to Israel's God. Religion and patriotism were to her +inseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people's +weal and her God's will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her +young radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises +its subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be +wrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may +illuminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the +lovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or +death at the will of a sensual tyrant. + +The scene there need not detain us. We can fancy Esther's beating +heart putting fire in her cheek, and her subdued excitement making her +beauty more splendid as she stood. What a contrast between her and the +arrogant king on his throne! He was a voluptuary, ruined morally by +unchecked licence,--a monster, as he could hardly help being, of lust, +self will, and caprice. She was at that moment an incarnation of +self-sacrifice and pure enthusiasm. The blind world thought that he +was the greater; but how ludicrous his condescension, how vulgar his +pomp, how coarse his kindness, how gross his prodigal promises by the +side of the heroine of faith, whose life he held in his capricious +hand! + +How amazed the king would have been if he had been told that one of +his chief titles to be remembered would be that moment's interview! +Ahasuerus is the type of swollen self-indulgence, which always +degrades and coarsens; Esther is the type of self-sacrifice which as +uniformly refines, elevates, and arrays with new beauty and power. If +we would reach the highest nobleness possible to us, we must stand +with Esther at the gate, and not envy or imitate Ahasuerus on his +gaudy throne. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that +loseth his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall find it.' + + + +MORDECAI AND ESTHER + +'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall +there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another +place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who +knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as +this?'--ESTHER iv. 14. + + +All Christians are agreed in holding the principles which underlie our +missionary operations. They all believe that the world is a fallen +world, that without Christ the fallen world is a lost world, that the +preaching of the Gospel is the way to bring Christ to those who need +Him, that to the Church is committed the ministry of reconciliation. + +These are the grand truths from which the grand missionary enterprise +has sprung. It is not my intention to enlarge on them now. But in this +and in all cases, there are secondary motives besides, and inferior to +those which are derived from the real fundamental principles. We are +stimulated to action not only because we hold certain great +principles, but because they are reinforced by certain subordinate +considerations. + +It is the duty of all Christians to promote the missionary cause on +the lofty grounds already referred to. Besides that, it may be in a +special way our duty for some additional reasons drawn from +peculiarities in our condition. Circumstances do not make duties, but +they may bring a special weight of obligation on us to do them. Times +again do not make duties, but they too make a thing a special duty +now. The consideration of consequences may not decide us in matters of +conscience, but it may allowably come in to deter us from what is on +higher grounds a sin to be avoided, or a good deed to be done. Success +or failure is an alternative that must not be thought of when we are +asking ourselves, 'Ought I to do this?' but when we have answered that +question, we may go to work with a lighter heart and a firmer hand if +we are sure that we are not going to fail. + +All these are inferior considerations which do not avail to determine +duty and do not go deep enough to constitute the real foundation of +our obligation. They are considerations which can scarcely be shut +out, and should be taken in determining the weight of our obligation, +in shaping the selection of our duties, in stimulating the zeal and +sedulousness with which we do what we know to be right. + +To a consideration of some of these secondary reasons for energy in +the work of missions I ask your attention. The verse which I have +selected for my text is spoken by Mordecai to Esther, when urging her +to her perilous patriotism. It singularly blends the statesman and the +believer. He sees that if she selfishly refuses to identify herself +with her people, in their calamity, the wave that sweeps them away +will not be stayed outside her royal dwelling; he knows too much of +courts to think that she can stand against that burst of popular fury +should it break out. But he looks on as a devout man believing God's +promises, and seeing past all instruments; he warns her that +'deliverance and enlargement shall arise.' He is no fatalist; he +believes in man's work, therefore he urges her to let herself be the +instrument by which God's work shall be done. He is no atheist; he +believes in God's sovereign power and unchangeable faithfulness, +therefore he looks without dismay to the possibility of her failure. +He knows that if she is idle, all the evil will come on her head, who +has been unfaithful, and that in spite of that God's faithfulness +shall not be made of none effect. He believes that she has been raised +to her position for God's sake, for her brethren's sake, not her own. + +'Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as +this?' There speaks the devout statesman, the court-experienced +believer. He has seen favourites tended and tossed aside, viziers +powerful and beheaded, kings half deified and deserted in their utmost +need. Sitting at the gate there, he has seen generations of Hamans go +out and in; he has seen the craft, the cruelty, the lusts which have +been the apparent causes of the puppets' rise and fall, and he has +looked beyond it all and believed in a Hand that pulled the wires, in +a King of Kings who raiseth up one and setteth down another. So he +believes that his Esther has come to the kingdom by God's appointment, +to do God's work at God's time. And these convictions keep him calm +and stir her. + +We may find here a series of considerations having a special bearing +on this missionary work. To them I ask your attention. + +I. God gives us our position that we may use it for His cause, for the +spread of the Gospel. + +In most general terms. + +(a) No man has anything for his own sake--no man liveth to himself. We +come to the kingdom for others. Here we touch the foundation of all +authority; we learn the awful burden of all talents, the dreadful +weight of every gift. + +(b) No man receives the Gospel for his own sake. We are not +non-conductors, but stand all linked hand in hand. We are members of +the body that the blood may flow freely through us. For no loftier +reason did God light the candle than that it might give light. We are +beacons kindled to transmit, till every sister light flashes back the +ray. + +(c) We especially have received a position in the world for the +conversion of the world. Our national character and position unite +that of the Jew in his two stages--we are set to be the 'light of the +world,' and we are 'tribes of the wandering foot.' Our history, all, +has tended to this function, our local position, our laws, our +commerce. We are citizens of a nation which 'as a nest has found the +riches' of the peoples. In every land our people dwell. + +Think of our colonies. Think that we are brought into contact with +heathen, whether we will or not. We cannot help influencing them. +'Through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles.' +Think of our sailors. Why this position? What is plainer than that all +this is in order that the Gospel might be spread? God has ever let the +Gospel follow in the tracks made for it by commercial law. + +This object does not exclude others. Our language, our literature, our +other rich spiritual treasures, we hold them all that we may impart. +But remember that all these other good things that England has will +spread themselves with little effort, people will be glad to get them. +But the Gospel will not be spread so. It must be taken to those who do +not want it. It must be held forth with outstretched hands to 'a +disobedient and gainsaying people.' It is found of them that seek it +not. + +Like the Lord we must go to the wanderers, we must find them as they +lie panting and thirsty in the wild wilderness. Therefore Christian +men must make special earnest efforts or the work will not be done. +They must be as the 'dew that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for +the sons of men.' + +And again, such action does not involve approval of the means by which +such a position has become ours. Mordecai knew what vile passions had +been at work to put Esther there, and did not forget poor Vashti, and +we have no need to hide conviction that England's place has often been +won by wrong, been kept by violence and fraud, that, as she has strode +to empire, her foot has trodden on many a venerable throne unjustly +thrown down, and her skirts have been dabbled with 'the blood of poor +innocents,' splashed there with her armed hoof. Be it so!--Still! +'Thou makest the wrath of man to praise Thee.' Still--'we are debtors +both to the Greek and barbarian,' and all the more debtors because of +ills inflicted. God has laid on us a solemn responsibility. Over all +the dust of base intrigues, and the smoke of bloody battles, and the +hubbub of busy commerce, His hand has been working, and though we have +been sinful, He has given us a place and a power, mighty and awful. We +have received these not for our own glory, not that we should boast of +our dominion, not that we should gather tribute of gain and glory from +subject peoples, not even that we should carry to them the great +though lesser blessings of language, united order, peaceful commerce, +sway over brute nature, but that we should give them what will make +them men--Christ. + +We have a work to do, an awful work. To us all as Christians, to us +especially as citizens of this land and members of this race, to us +and to our brethren across the Atlantic the message comes, by our +history, our manners, etc., as plainly as if it were written in every +wave that beats around our coast. 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the +Lord.' + +II. God lays upon us special missionary work by the special +characteristics of the times. + +'Such a time as this!' Was there ever such a time? + +Look at the condition of heathenism. It is everywhere tottering. 'The +idols are on the beasts, Bel boweth down.' The grim gods sit half +famished already. There is a crack in every temple wall. +Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Brahminism--they are none of them +progressive. They are none of them vital. Think how only the Gospel +outleaps space and time. How all these systems are of time and +devoured by it, as Saturn eats his own children. They are of the +things that can be shaken, and their being shaken makes more certain +the remaining of the things that cannot be shaken. + +Look at the fields open. India, China, Japan, Africa, in a word, 'The +field is the world' in a degree in which it never was before. 'Such a +time'--a time of seething, and we can determine the cosmos; a plastic +time, and we can mould it; it is a deluge, push the ark boldly out and +ransom some. + +III. If we neglect the voice of God's providence, harm comes on us. + +The gifts unimproved are apt to be lost. One knows not all the +conditions on which England holds her sway, nor do we fathom the +strange way in which spiritual characteristics are inwrought with +material interests. But we believe in a providential government of the +world, and of this we may be very sure, that all advantages not used +for God are held by a very precarious tenure. + +The fact is that selfishness is the ruin of any people. When you have +a 'Christian' nation not using their position for God's glory, they +are using it for their own sakes; and that indicates a state of mind +which will lead to numberless other evils in their relation to men, +many of which have a direct tendency to rob them of their advantages. +For instance, a selfish nation will never hold conquests with a firm +grasp. If we do not bind subject peoples to us by benefits, we shall +repel them by hatreds. Think of India and its lessons, or of South +Africa and its. We have seen the tide of material prosperity ebb away +from many a nation and land, and I for my part believe in the Hand of +God in history, and believe that the tide follows the motions of the +heavens. + +The history of the Jewish people is not an exception to the laws of +God's government of the world, but a specimen of it. They who were +made a hearth in which the embers of divine truth were kept in a dark +world, when they began to think that they had the truth in order that +they might be different from other people, and forgot that they were +different from others in order that they might first preserve and then +impart the truth to all, lost the light and heat of it, stiffened into +formal hypocrisy and malice and all uncharitableness, and then the +Roman sword smote their national life in twain. + +Whatever is not used for God becomes a snare first, then injures the +possessors, and tends to destroy the possessors. The march of +Providence goes on. Its purposes will be effected. Whatever stands in +the way will be mowed remorselessly down, if need be. Helps that have +become hindrances will go. The kingdoms of this world will have to +fall; and if we are not helping and hasting the coming of the Lord we +shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The chariot rolls +on. For men and for nations there is only the choice of yoking +themselves to the car, and finding themselves borne along rather than +bearing it, and partaking the triumph, or of being crushed beneath its +awful wheels as they bound along their certain road, bearing Him who +rides 'forth prosperously because of truth and meekness and +righteousness.' + +IV. Though we be unfaithful, God's purpose of mercy to the world shall +be accomplished. + +'Deliverance and enlargement shall arise from another place.' So it is +certain that God from eternity has willed that all flesh should see +His salvation. He loves the heathen better than we do. Christ has died +not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. God hath +made of one blood all nations of men. The race is one in its need. The +race is one in its goal. The Gospel is fit for all men. The Gospel is +preached to all men. The Gospel shall yet be received by a world, and +from every corner of a believing earth will rise one roll of praise to +one Father, and the race shall be one in its hopes, one in its Lord, +one in faith, one in baptism, one in one God and Father of us all. +That grand unity shall certainly come. That true unity and fraternity +shall be realised. The blissful wave of the knowledge of the Lord +shall cover and hide and flow rejoicingly over all national +distinctions. 'In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and +with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.' + +This is as certain as the efficacy of a Saviour's blood can make it, +as certain as the universal adaptation and design of a preached Gospel +can make it, as certain as the oneness of human nature can make it, as +certain as the power of a Comforter who shall convince the world of +sin, of righteousness, and judgment can make it, as certain as the +misery of man can make it, as certain as the promises of God who +cannot lie can make it, as certain as His faithfulness who hangs the +rainbow in the heavens and enters into an everlasting covenant with +all the earth can make it. + +And this accumulation of certainties does not depend on the +faithfulness of men. In the width of that mighty result the failure of +some single agent may be eliminated. Nay, more, though all men failed, +God hath instruments, and will use them Himself, if need were. + +Only we may share the triumph and partake of the blessed result. +Decide for yourself, what share you will have in that marvellous day. +Let your work be such as that it shall abide. Stonehenge, cathedrals, +temples stand when all else has passed away. Work for God abides and +outlasts everything beside, and the smallest service for Him is only +made to flash forth light by the glorifying and revealing fires of +that awful day which will burn up the wood, the hay, and the stubble, +and flow with beautifying brightness and be flashed back with double +splendour from 'the gold, the silver, and the precious stones,' the +abiding workmanship of devout hearts in that everlasting tabernacle +which shall not be taken down, the ransomed souls builded together, +ransomed by our preaching, and 'builded up together for a temple of +God by the Spirit.' + + + +THE NET BROKEN + +'And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his +feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman +the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 4. +Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther +arose, and stood before the king, 5. And said, If it please the king, +and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right +before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to +reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the +Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the +king's provinces: 6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall +come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my +kindred? 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to +Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and +him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon +the Jews. 8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the +king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which +is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no +man reverse. 15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king +in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, +and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan +rejoiced and was glad. 16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, +and honour. 17. And in every province, and in every city, +whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had +joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of +the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon +them.'--ESTHER viii. 3-8,15-17. + + +The spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the +three persons appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but +acts unseen through them all. + +I. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of +the sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl +who had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and +was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the 'fierce light +that beats upon a throne,' like some flower culled in a shady nook and +set in a king's bosom, was true to her childhood's protector and to +her people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the +rapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of +Hadassah ('myrtle') well befits her, for she is clothed with +unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides +twine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman's courage which +is always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding +of her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an +audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in +literature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger +without shrinking, and front it without heroics: 'If I perish, I +perish!' + +The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a +despot's love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage +to-day, and to-morrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life +dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she +ventured, uninvited, into the king's presence. The womanly courage +that risks life for love's sake is nobler than the soldier's that +feels the lust of battle maddening him. + +Esther's words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what +seems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is +used by her in her former requests (chap. v. 8; vii. 3). But she adds +a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the +king's feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to +his estimate of what was fitting. 'If the thing seem right before the +king,' appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the +monarch's arbitrary will; 'and I be pleasing in his eyes,' drew him by +the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for +the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. +It was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be +reversed without hurting the king's dignity. And then with fine tact, +as well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her +personal influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by +appeals to his justice or royal duty, but to his love for her, which +surely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say that it was a low +motive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to +keep one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahasuerus's fault +that such a reason had more weight with him than nobler ones. It was +not Esther's that she used her power over him to carry her point. She +used the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be efficacious. +The purpose for which she used them is her justification. + +Esther may well teach her sisters to-day to be brave and gentle, to +use their influence over men for high purposes of public good, to be +the inspirers of their husbands, lovers, brothers, for all noble +thinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own, to +be the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to +their early associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish +sympathy with their nation so deep that they cannot 'endure to see the +evil that shall come unto them' without using all their womanly +influence to avert it. + +II. Ahasuerus plays a sorry part beside Esther. He knows no law but +his own will, and that is moved, not by conscience or reason, but by +ignoble passions and sensual desires. He tosses his subjects' lives as +trivial gifts to any who ask for them. Haman's wife knew that he had +only to 'speak to the king,' and Mordecai would be hanged; Haman had +no difficulty in securing the royal mandate for the murder of all the +Jews. Sated with the indulgence of low desires, he let all power slip +from his idle hands, and his manhood was rotted away by wallowing in +the pigsty of voluptuousness. But he was tenacious of the semblance of +authority, and demanded the appearance of abject submission from the +'servants' who were his masters. He yielded to Esther's prayer as +lightly as to Haman's plot. Whether the Jews were wiped out or not +mattered nothing to him, so long as he had no trouble in the affair. + +To shift all responsibility off his own shoulders on to somebody +else's was his one aim. He was as untrue to his duty when he gave his +signet to Mordecai, and bade him and Esther do as they liked, as when +he had given it to Haman. And with all this slothful indifference to +his duty, he was sensitive to etiquette, and its cobwebs held him whom +the cords of his royal obligations could not hold. It mattered not to +him that the edict which he allowed Mordecai to promulgate practically +lit the flames of civil war. He had washed his hands of the whole +business. + +It is a hideous picture of an Eastern despot, and has been said to be +unhistorical and unbelievable. But the world has seen many examples of +rulers whom the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power has +corrupted in like fashion. And others than rulers may take the warning +that to live to self is the mother of all sins and crimes; that no man +can safely make his own will and his own passions his guides; that +there is no slavery so abject as that of the man who is tyrannised by +his lower nature; that there is a temptation besetting us all to take +the advantages and neglect the duties of our position, and that to +yield to it is sure to end in moral ruin. We are all kings, even if +our kingdom be only our own selves, and we shall rule wisely only if +we rule as God's viceroys, and think more of duty than of delight. + +III. Mordecai is a kind of duplicate of Joseph, and embodies valuable +lessons. Contented acceptance of obscurity and neglect of his +services, faithfulness to his people and his God in the foul +atmosphere of such a court, wise reticence, patient discharge of small +duties, undoubting hope when things looked blackest fed by stedfast +faith in God, unchangedness of character and purpose when lifted to +supreme dignity, the use of influence and place, not for himself, but +for his people,--all these are traits which may be imitated in any +life. We should be the same men, whether we sit unnoticed among the +lackeys at the gate, or are bearing the brunt of the hatred of +powerful foes, or are clothed 'in royal apparel of blue and white, and +with a great crown of gold.' These gauds were nothing to Mordecai, and +earthly honours should never turn our heads. He valued power because +it enabled him to save his brethren, and we should cultivate the same +spirit. The political world, with its fierce struggles for personal +ends, its often disregard of the public good, and its use of place and +power for 'making a pile' or helping relations up, would be much the +better for some infusion of the spirit of Mordecai. + +IV. But we must not look only at the visible persons and forces. This +book of Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods +over it all, and is the real spring that moves the movers that are +seen. It is all a lesson of how God works out His purposes through men +that seem to themselves to be working out theirs. The king's criminal +abandonment to lust and luxury, Haman's meanly personal pique, +Esther's beauty, the fall of the favourite, the long past services of +Mordecai, even the king's sleepless night, are all threads in the web, +and God is the weaver. The story raises the whole question of the +standing miracle of the co-existence and co-operation of the divine +and the human. Man is free and responsible, God is sovereign and +all-pervading. He 'makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the +remainder thereof He girdeth Himself.' To-day, as then, He is working +out His deep designs through men whom He has raised up, though they +have not known Him. Amid the clash of contending interests and worldly +passions His solemn purpose steadily advances to its end, like the +irresistible ocean current, which persists through all storms that +agitate the surface, and draws them into the drift of its silent +trend. Ahasuerus, Haman, Esther, Mordecai, are His instruments, and +yet each of them is the doer of his or her deed, and has to answer to +Him for it. + + + + +THE BOOK OF JOB + + +SORROW THAT WORSHIPS + +'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return +thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the +name of the Lord.'--JOB i. 21. + + +This book of Job wrestles with the problem of the meaning of the +mystery of sorrow. Whether history or a parable, its worth is the +same, as tortured hearts have felt for countless centuries, and will +feel to the end. Perhaps no picture that was ever painted is grander +and more touching than that of the man of Uz, in the antique wealth +and happiness of his brighter days, rich, joyful, with his children +round him, living in men's honour, and walking upright before God. +Then come the dramatic completeness and suddenness of his great +trials. One day strips him of all, and stripped of all he rises to a +loftier dignity, for there is a majesty as well as an isolation in his +sorrow. + +How many spirits tossed by afflictions have found peace in these +words! How many quivering lips have tried to utter their grave, calm +accents! To how many of us are they hallowed by memories of times when +they stood between us and despair! + +They seem to me to say everything that can be said about our trials +and losses, to set forth the whole truth of the facts, and to present +the whole series of feelings with which good men may and should be +exercised. + +I. The vindication of sorrow. + +He 'rent his clothes'--the signs and tokens of inward desolation and +loss. + +It is worth our while to stay for one moment with the thought that we +are meant to feel grief. God sends sorrows in order that they may +pain. Sorrow has its manifold uses in our lives and on our hearts. It +is natural. That is enough. God set the fountain of tears in our +souls. We are bidden not to 'despise the chastening of the Lord.' It +is they who are 'exercised' thereby to whom the chastisement is +blessed. + +It is sanctioned by Christ. He wept. He bade the women of Jerusalem +weep for themselves and for their children. + +Religion does not destroy the natural emotions--sorrow as little as +any other. It guides, controls, curbs, comforts, and brings blessings +out of it. So do not aim at an impossible stoicism, but permit nature +to have its way, and look at the picture of this manly sorrow of +Job's--calm, silent, unless when stung by the undeserved reproaches of +these three 'orthodox liars for God,' and going to God and +worshipping. + +II. The recognition of loss and sorrow as the law of life. + +'Naked came I out of my mother's womb.' + +We need not dwell on the figure 'mother,' suggesting the grave as the +kindly mother's bosom that gathers us all in, and the thought that +perhaps gleams forth that death, too, is a kind of birth. + +But the truth picturesquely set forth is just the old and simple +one--that all possessions are transient. + +The naked self gets clothed and lapped round with possessions, but +they are all outside of it, apart from its individuality. It has been +without them. It will be without them. Death at the end will rob us of +them all. + +The inevitable law of loss is fixed and certain. We are losing +something every moment--not only possessions, but all our dearest ties +are knit but for a time, and sure to be snapped. They go, and then +after a while we go. + +The independence of each soul of all its possessions and relations is +as certain as the loss of them. They may go and we are made naked, but +still we exist all the same. We have to learn the hard lesson which +sounds so unfeeling, that we can live on in spite of all losses. +Nothing, no one, is necessary to us. + +All this is very cold and miserable; it is the standing point of law +and necessity. An atheist could say it. It is the beginning of the +Christian contemplation of life, but only the beginning. + +III. The recognition of God in the law. + +'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' That is a step far +beyond the former. To bring in the thought of _the Lord_ makes a +world of difference. + +The tendency is to look only at the second cause. In Job's case there +were two classes of agencies, men, Chaldeans and Sabeans, and natural +causes, fire and wind, but he did not stop with these. + +The grand corrective of that tendency lies in the full theistic idea, +that God is the sole cause of all. The immanence of Deity in all +things and events is our refuge from the soul-crushing tyranny of the +reign of law. + +That devout recognition of God in law is eminently to be made in +regard to death, as Job does in the text: 'The number of his months is +with Thee.' Death is not any more nor any less under His control than +all other human incidents are. It has no special sanctity, nor +abnormally close connection with His will, but it no more is exempt +from such connection than all the other events of life. The connection +is real. He opens the gate of the grave and no man shuts. He shuts, +and no man opens. + +Job did not forget the Lord's gifts even while he was writhing under +the stroke of His withdrawings. Alas! that it should so often need +sorrow to bear into our hearts that we owe all to Him, but even then, +if not before, it is well to remember how much good we have received +of the Lord, and the remembrance should not be 'a sorrow's crown of +sorrow,' but a thankful one. + +IV. The thankful resignation to God's loving administration of the +law. + +The preceding words might be said with mere submission to an +irresistible power, but this last sentence climbs to the highest of +the true Christian idea. It recognises in loss and sorrow a reason for +praise. + +Why? + +Because we may be sure that all loss is for our good. + +Because we may be sure that all loss is from a loving God. In loss of +dear ones, _our_ gain is in drawing nearer to God, in being +taught more to long for heaven. In our relation to them, a loftier +love, a hallowing of all the past. _Their_ gain is in their +entrance to heaven, and all the glory that they have reached. + +This blessing of God for loss is not inconsistent with sorrow, but +anticipates the future when we shall know all and bless Him for all. + + + +THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE + +'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not +thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18. For He maketh sore, and +bindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole. 19. He shall +deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch +thee. 20. In famine He shall redeem thee from death: and in war from +the power of the sword. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the +tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. +22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be +afraid of the beasts of the earth. 23. For thou shalt be in league +with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at +peace with thee. 24. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be +in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 25. +Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring +as the grass of the earth. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full +age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. 27. Lo this, we +have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy +good.'--JOB v. 17-27. + + +The close of the Book of Job shows that his friends' speeches were +defective, and in part erroneous. They all proceeded on the assumption +that suffering was the fruit of sin--a principle which, though true in +general, is not to be unconditionally applied to specific cases. They +all forgot that good men might be exposed to it, not as punishment, +nor even as correction, but as trial, to 'know what was in their +hearts.' + +Eliphaz is the best of the three friends, and his speeches embody much +permanent truth, and rise, as in this passage, to a high level of +literary and artistic beauty. There are few lovelier passages in +Scripture than this glowing description of the prosperity of the man +who accepts God's chastisements; and, on the whole, the picture is +true. But the underlying belief in the uniform coincidence of inward +goodness and outward good needs to be modified by the deeper teaching +of the New Testament before it can be regarded as covering all the +facts of life. + +Eliphaz is gathering up, in our passage, the threads of his speech. He +bases upon all that he has been saying the exhortation to Job to be +thankful for his sorrows. With a grand paradox, he declares the man +who is afflicted to be happy. And therein he strikes an eternally true +note. It is good to be made to drink a cup of sorrow. Flesh calls pain +evil, but spirit knows it to be good. The list of our blessings is not +only written in bright inks, but many are inscribed in black. And the +reason why the sad heart should be a happy heart is because, as +Eliphaz believed, sadness is God's fatherly correction, intended to +better the subject of it. 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' says +the Epistle to the Hebrews, in full accord with Eliphaz. + +But his well-meant and true words flew wide of their mark, for two +reasons. They were chillingly didactic, and it is vinegar upon nitre +to stand over an agonised soul and preach platitudes in an +unsympathetic voice. And they assumed unusual sin in Job as the +explanation of his unparalleled pains, while the prologue tells us +that his sufferings were not fruits of his sin, but trials of his +righteousness. He was horrified at Job's words, which seemed to him +full of rebellion and irreverence; and he made no allowance for the +wild cries of an agonised heart when he solemnly warned the sufferer +against 'despising' God's chastening. A more sympathetic ear would +have detected the accent of faith in the groans. + +The collocation, in verse 18, of making sore and binding up, does not +merely express sequence, but also purpose. The wounding is in order to +healing. The wounds are merciful surgery; and their intention is +health, like the cuts that lay open an ulcer, or the scratches for +vaccination. The view of suffering in these two verses is not +complete, but it goes far toward completeness in tracing it to God, in +asserting its disciplinary intention, in pointing to the divine +healing which is meant to follow, and in exhorting to submission. We +may recall the beautiful expansion of that exhortation in Hebrews, +where 'faint not' is added to 'despise not,' so including the two +opposite and yet closely connected forms of misuse of sorrow, +according as we stiffen our wills against it, and try to make light of +it, or yield so utterly to it as to collapse. Either extreme equally +misses the corrective purpose of the grief. + +On this general statement follows a charming picture of the +blessedness which attends the man who has taken his chastisement +rightly. After the thunderstorm come sunshine and blue, and the song +of birds. But, lovely as it is, and capable of application in many +points to the life of every man who trustfully yields to God's will, +it must not be taken as a literally and absolutely true statement of +God's dealings with His children. If so regarded, it would hopelessly +be shattered against facts; for the world is full of instances of +saintly men and women who have not experienced in their outward lives +such sunny calm and prosperity stretching to old age as are here +promised. Eliphaz is not meant to be the interpreter of the mysteries +of Providence, and his solution is decisively rejected at the close. +But still there is much in this picture which finds fulfilment in all +devout lives in a higher sense than his intended meaning. + +The first point is that the devout soul is exempt from calamities +which assail those around it. These are such as are ordinarily in +Scripture recognised as God's judgments upon a people. Famine and war +devastate, but the devout soul abides in peace, and is satisfied. Now +it is not true that faith and submission make a wall round a man, so +that he escapes from such calamities. In the supernatural system of +the Old Testament such exemptions were more usual than with us, though +this very Book of Job and many a psalm show that devout hearts had +even then to wrestle with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked +and the indiscriminate fall of widespread calamities on the good and +bad. + +But in its deepest sense (which, however, is not Eliphaz's sense) the +faithful man is saved from the evils which he, in common with his +faithless neighbour, experiences. Two men are smitten down by the same +disease, or lie dying on a battlefield, shattered by the same shell, +and the one receives the fulfilment of the promise, 'there shall no +evil touch thee,' and the other does not. For the evil in the evil is +all sucked out of it, and the poison is wiped off the arrow which +strikes him who is united to God by faith and submission. Two women +are grinding at the same millstone, and the same blow kills them both; +but the one is delivered, and the other is not. They who pass through +an evil, and are not drawn away from God by it, but brought nearer to +Him, are hid from its power. To die may be our deliverance from death. + +Eliphaz's promises rise still higher in verses 22 and 23, in which is +set forth a truth that in its deepest meaning is of universal +application. The wild beasts of the earth and the stones of the field +will be in league with the man who submits to God's will. Of course +the beasts come into view as destructive, and the stones as injuring +the fertility of the fields. There is, probably, allusion to the story +of Paradise and the Fall. Man's relation to nature was disturbed by +sin; it will be rectified by his return to God. Such a doctrine of the +effects of sin in perverting man's relation to creatures runs all +through Scripture, and is not to be put aside as mere symbolism. + +But the large truth underlying the words here is that, if we are +servants of God, we are masters of everything. 'All things work +together for good to them that love God.' All things serve the soul +that serves God; as, on the other hand, all are against him that does +not, and 'the stars in their courses fight against' those who fight +against Him. All things are ours, if we are Christ's. The many +mediaeval legends of saints attended by animals, from St. Jerome +and his lion downwards to St. Francis preaching to the birds, echo the +thoughts here. A gentle, pure soul, living in amity with dumb +creatures, has wonderful power to attract them. They who are at peace +with God can scarcely be at war with any of God's creatures. +Gentleness is stronger than iron bands. 'Cords of love' draw most +surely. + +Peace and prosperity in home and possessions are the next blessings +promised (ver. 24). 'Thou shalt visit [look over] thy household, and +shalt miss nothing.' No cattle have strayed or been devoured by evil +beasts, or stolen, as all Job's had been. Alas! Eliphaz knew nothing +about commercial crises, and the great system of credit by which one +scoundrel's fall may bring down hundreds of good men and patient +widows, who look over their possessions and find nothing but worthless +shares. Yet even for those who find all at once that the herd is cut +off from the stall, their tabernacle may still be in peace, and though +the fold be empty they may miss nothing, if in the empty place they +find God. That is what Christians may make out of the words; but it is +not what was originally meant by them. + +In like manner the next blessing, that of a numerous posterity, does +not depend on moral or religious condition, as Eliphaz would make out, +and in modern days is not always regarded as a blessing. But note the +singular heartlessness betrayed in telling Job, all whose flocks and +herds had been carried off, and his children laid dead in their +festival chamber, that abundant possessions and offspring were the +token of God's favour. The speaker seems serenely unconscious that he +was saying anything that could drive a knife into the tortured man. He +is so carried along on the waves of his own eloquence, and so absorbed +in stringing together the elements of an artistic whole, that he +forgets the very sorrows which he came to comfort. There are not a few +pious exhorters of bleeding hearts who are chargeable with the same +sin. The only hand that will bind up without hurting is a hand that is +sympathetic to the finger-tips. No eloquence or poetic beauty or +presentation of undeniable truths will do as substitutes for that. + +The last blessing promised is that which the Old Testament places so +high in the list of good things--long life. The lovely metaphor in +which that promise is couched has become familiar to us all. The ripe +corn gathered into a sheaf at harvest-time suggests festival rather +than sadness. It speaks of growth accomplished, of fruit matured, of +the ministries of sun and rain received and used, and of a joyful +gathering into the great storehouse. There is no reference in the +speech to the uses of the sheaf after it is harvested, but we can +scarcely avoid following its history a little farther than the 'grave' +which to Eliphaz seems the garner. Are all these matured powers to +have no field for action? Were all these miracles of vegetation set in +motion only in order to grow a crop which should be reaped, and there +an end? What is to be done with the precious fruit which has taken so +long time and so much cultivation to grow? Surely it is not the +intention of the Lord of the harvest to let it rot when it has been +gathered. Surely we are grown here and ripened and carried hence for +something. + +But that is not in our passage. This, however, may be drawn from +it--that maturity does not depend on length of days; and, however +Eliphaz meant to promise long life, the reality is that the devout +soul may reckon on complete life, whether it be long or short. God +will not call His children home till their schooling is done; and, +however green and young the corn may seem to our eyes, He knows which +heads in the great harvest-field are ready for removal, and gathers +only these. The child whose little coffin may be carried under a boy's +arm may be ripe for harvesting. Not length of days, but likeness to +God, makes maturity; and if we die according to the will of God, it +cannot but be that we shall come to our grave in a full age, whatever +be the number of years carved on our tombstones. + +The speech ends with a somewhat self-complacent exhortation to the +poor, tortured man: 'We have searched it, so it is.' We wise men +pledge our wisdom and our reputation that this is true. Great is +authority. An ounce of sympathy would have done more to commend the +doctrine than a ton of dogmatic self-confidence. 'Hear it, and know +thou it for thyself.' Take it into thy mind. Take it into thy mind and +heart, and take it for thy good. It was a frosty ending, exasperating +in its air of patronage, of superior wisdom, and in its lack of any +note of feeling. So, of course, it set Job's impatience alight, and +his next speech is more desperate than his former. When will +well-meaning comforters learn not to rub salt into wounds while they +seem to be dressing them? + + + +TWO KINDS OF HOPE + +'Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's +web.'--JOB viii. 14. + +'And hope maketh not ashamed.'--ROMANS v. 5. + + +These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of +Job's friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with +partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the +ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the +splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which +the well-worn platitude is draped. The spider's web stretched +glittering in the dewy morning on the plants, shaking its threaded +tears in the wind, the flag in the dry bed of a nullah withering while +yet green, the wall on which leaning a man will fall, are vivid +illustrations of hopes that collapse and fail. But my other text has +to do with hopes that do not fail. Paul thinks that he knows of hope +that maketh not ashamed, that is, which never disappoints. Bildad was +right if he was thinking, as he was, of hopes fixed on earth; the +Apostle was right, for he was thinking of hopes set on God. It is a +commonplace that 'hope springs immortal in the human breast'; it is +equally a commonplace that hopes are disappointed. What is the +conclusion from these two universal experiences? Is it the cynical one +that it is all illusion, or is it that somewhere there must be an +object on which hope may twine its tendrils without fear? God has +given the faculty, and we may be sure that it is not given to be for +ever balked. We must hope. Our hope may be our worst enemy; it may and +should be our purest joy. + +Let us then simply consider these two sorts of hope, the earthly and +the heavenly, in their working in the three great realms of life, +death, and eternity. + +I. In life. + +The faculty is inseparable from man's consciousness of immortality and +of an indefinitely expansible nature which ever makes him discontented +with the present. It has great purposes to perform in strengthening +him for work, in helping him over sorrows, in making him buoyant and +elastic, in painting for him the walls of the dungeon, and hiding for +him the weight of the fetters. + +But for what did he receive this great gift? Mainly that he might pass +beyond the temporal and hold converse with the skies. Its true sphere +is the unseen future which is at God's right hand. + +We may run a series of antitheses, _e.g._-- + +Earthly hope is so uncertain that its larger part is often fear. + +Heavenly hope is fixed and sure. It is as certain as history. + +Earthly hope realised is always less blessed than we expected. How +universal the experience that there is little to choose between a +gratified and a frustrated hope! The wonders inside the caravan are +never so wonderful as the canvas pictures outside. + +Heavenly hopes ever surpass the most rapturous anticipation. 'The half +hath not been told.' + +Earthly hopes are necessarily short-winged. They are settled one way +or another, and sink hull down below our horizon. + +Heavenly hope sets its object far off, and because a lifetime only +attains it in part, it blesses a lifetime and outlasts it. + +II. Hope in death. + +That last hour ends for us all alike our earthly joys and relations. +The slow years slip away, and each bears with it hopes that have been +outlived, whether fulfilled or disappointed. One by one the lights +that we kindle in our hall flicker out, and death quenches the last of +them. But there is one light that burns on clear through the article +of death, like the lamp in the magician's tomb. 'The righteous hath +hope in his death.' We can each settle for ourselves whether we shall +carry that radiant angel with her white wings into the great darkness, +or shall sadly part with her before we part with life. To the earthly +soul that last earthly hour is a black wall beyond which it cannot +look. To the God-trusting soul the darkness is peopled with +bright-faced hopes. + +III. Hope in eternity. + +It is not for our tongues to speak of what must, in the natural +working out of consequences, be the ultimate condition of a soul which +has not set its hopes on the God who alone is the right Object of the +blessed but yet awful capacity of hoping, when all the fleeting +objects which it sought as solace and mask of its own true poverty are +clean gone from its grasp. Dante's tremendous words are more than +enough to move wholesome horror in any thinking soul: 'Leave hope +behind, all ye who enter here.' They are said to be unfeeling, grim, +and mediaeval, incredible in this enlightened age; but is there any +way out of them, if we take into account what our nature is moulded to +need and cling to, and what 'godless' men have done with it? + +But let us turn to the brighter of these texts. 'Hope maketh not +ashamed.' There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power, +purity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out +after completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that +calm state where time will be no more, 'to-morrow shall be as this day +and much more abundant,' and the angel Hope, who kept us company +through all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only +having laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but +retaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders +which gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh. + + + +JOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER + +'If a man die, shall he live again?'--JOB xiv. 14. + +'... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, +though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26. And whosoever liveth and +believeth in Me shall never die.'--JOHN xi. 25, 26. + + +Job's question waited long for an answer. Weary centuries rolled away; +but at last the doubting, almost despairing, cry put into the mouth of +the man of sorrows of the Old Testament is answered by the Man of +Sorrows of the New. The answer in words is this second text which may +almost be supposed to allude to the ancient question. The answer, in +fact, is the resurrection of Christ. Apart from this answer there is +none. + +So we may take these two texts to help us to grasp more clearly and +feel more profoundly what the world owes to that great fact which we +are naturally led to think of to-day. + +I. The ancient and ever returning question. + +The Book of Job is probably a late part of the Old Testament. It deals +with problems which indicate some advance in religious thought. Solemn +and magnificent, and for the most part sad; it is like a Titan +struggling with large problems, and seldom attaining to positive +conclusions in which the heart or the head can rest in peace. Here all +Job's mind is clouded with a doubt. He has just given utterance to an +intense longing for a life beyond the grave. His abode in Sheol is +thought of as in some sense a breach in the continuity of his +consciousness, but even that would be tolerable, if only he could be +sure that, after many days, God would remember him. Then that longing +gives way before the torturing question of the text, which dashes +aside the tremulous hope with its insistent interrogation. It is not +denial, but it is a doubt which palsies hope. But though he has no +certainty, he cannot part with the possibility, and so goes on to +imagine how blessed it would be if his longing were fulfilled. He +thinks that such a renewed life would be like the 'release' of a +sentry who had long stood on guard; he thinks of it as his swift, +joyous 'answer' to God's summons, which would draw him out from the +sad crowd of pale shadows and bring him back to warmth and reality. +His hope takes a more daring flight still, and he thinks of God as +yearning for His creature, as His creature yearns for Him, and having +'a desire to the work of His hands,' as if His heaven would be +incomplete without His servant. But the rapture and the vision pass, +and the rest of the chapter is all clouded over, and the devout hope +loses its light. Once again it gathers brightness in the twenty-first +chapter, where the possibility flashes out starlike, that 'after my +skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God.' + +These fluctuations of hope and doubt reveal to us the attitude of +devout souls in Israel at a late era of the national life. And if they +show us their high-water mark, we need not suppose that similar souls +outside the Old Testament circle had solid certainty where these had +but a variable hope. We know how large a development the doctrine of a +future life had in Assyria and in Egypt, and I suppose we are entitled +to say that men have always had the idea of a future. They have always +had the thought, sometimes as a fear, sometimes as a hope, but never +as a certainty. It has lacked not only certainty but distinctness. It +has lacked solidity also, the power to hold its own and sustain itself +against the weighty pressure of intrusive things seen and temporal. + +But we need not go to the ends of the earth or to past generations for +examples of a doubting, superficial hold of the truth that man lives +through death and after it. We have only to look around us, and, alas! +we have only to look within us. This age is asking the question again, +and answering it in many tones, sometimes of indifferent disregard, +sometimes flaunting a stark negative without reasoned foundation, +sometimes with affirmatives with as little reason as these negatives. +The modern world is caught in the rush and whirl of life, has its own +sorrows to front, its own battles to fight, and large sections of it +have never come as near an answer to Job's question as Job did. + +II. Christ's all-sufficing answer. + +He gave it there, by the grave of Lazarus, to that weeping sister, but +He spoke these great words of calm assurance to all the world. One +cannot but note the difference between His attitude in the presence of +the great Mystery and that of all other teachers. How calmly, +certainly, and confidently He speaks! + +Mark that Jesus, even at that hour of agony, turns Martha's thoughts +to Himself. What He is is the all-important thing for her to know. If +she understands Him, life and death will have no insoluble problems +nor any hopelessness for her. 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.' +She had risen in her grief to a lofty height in believing that 'even +now'--at this moment when help is vain and hope is dead--'whatsoever +thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee,' but Jesus offers to her +a loftier conception of Him when He lays a sovereign hand on +resurrection and life, and discloses that both inhere in Him, and from +Him flow to all who shall possess them. He claims to have in Himself +the fountain of life, in all possible senses of the word, as well as +in the special sense relevant at that sad hour. Further, He tells +Martha that by faith in Him any and all may possess that life. And +then He majestically goes on to declare that the life which He gives +is immune from, and untouched by, death. The believer shall live +though he dies, the living believer shall never die. It is clear that, +in these two great statements, to die is used in two different +meanings, referring in the former case to the physical fact, and in +the latter carrying a heavier weight of significance, namely the +pregnant sense which it usually has in this Gospel, of separation from +God and consequently from the true life of the soul. Physical death is +not the termination of human life. The grim fact touches only the +surface life, and has nothing to do with the essential, personal +being. He that believes on Jesus, and he only, truly lives, and his +union with Jesus secures his possession of that eternal life, which +victoriously persists through the apparent, superficial change which +men call death. Nothing dies but the death which surrounds the +faithful soul. For it to die is to live more fully, more triumphantly, +more blessedly. So though the act of physical death remains, its whole +character is changed. Hence the New Testament euphemisms for death are +much more than euphemisms. Men christen it by names which drape its +ugliness, because they fear it so much, but Faith can play with +Leviathan, because it fears it not at all. Hence such names as +'sleep,' 'exodus,' are tokens of the victory won for all believers by +Jesus. He will show Martha the hope for all His followers which begins +to dawn even in the calling of her brother back from the grip of +death. And He shows us the great truth that His being the 'Life' +necessarily involved His being also the 'Resurrection,' for His +life-communicating work could not be accomplished till His +all-quickening vitality had flowed over into, and flooded with its own +conquering tides, not only the spirit which believes but its humble +companion, the soul, and its yet humbler, the body. A bodily life is +essential to perfect manhood, and Jesus will not stay His hand till +every believer is full-summed in all his powers, and is perfect in +body, soul, and spirit, after the image of Him who redeemed Him. + +III. The pledge for the truth of the answer. + +The words of Jesus are only words. These precious words, spoken to +that one weeping sister in a little Jewish village, and which have +brought hope to millions ever since, are as baseless as all the other +dreams and longings of the heart, unless Jesus confirms them by fact. +If He did not rise from the dead, they are but another of the noble, +exalted, but futile delusions of which the world has many others. If +Christ be not risen, His words of consolation are swelling words of +emptiness; His whole claims are ended, and the age-old question which +Job asked is unanswered still, and will always remain unanswered. If +Christ be not risen, the hopeless colloquy between Jehovah and the +prophet sums up all that can be said of the future life: 'Son of man, +can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, Thou knowest!' + +But Christ's resurrection is a fact which, taken in connection with +His words while on earth, endorses these and establishes His claims to +be the Declarer of the name of God, the Saviour of the world. It gives +us demonstration of the continuity of life through and after death. +Taken along with His ascension, which is but, so to speak, the +prolongation of the point into a line, it declares that a glorified +body and an abode in a heavenly home are waiting for all who by faith +become here partakers in Jesus and are quickened by sharing in His +life. + +So in despite of sense and doubt and fear, notwithstanding teachers +who, like the supercilious philosophers on Mars Hill, mock when they +hear of a resurrection from the dead, we should rejoice in the great +light which has shined into the region of the shadow of death, we +should clasp His divine and most faithful answer to that old, +despairing question, as the anchor of our souls, and lift up our +hearts in thanksgiving in the triumphant challenge, 'O death! where is +thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?' + + + +KNOWLEDGE AND PEACE + +'Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall +come unto thee.'--JOB xxii. 21. + + +In the sense in which the speaker meant them, these words are not +true. They mean little more than 'It pays to be religious.' What kind +of notion of acquaintance with God Eliphaz may have had, one scarcely +knows, but at any rate, the whole meaning of the text on his lips is +poor and selfish. + +The peace promised is evidently only outward tranquillity and freedom +from trouble, and the good that is to come to Job is plainly mere +worldly prosperity. This strain of thought is expressed even more +clearly in that extraordinary bit of bathos, which with solemn irony +the great dramatist who wrote this book makes this Eliphaz utter +immediately after the text, 'The Almighty shall be thy defence +and--thou shalt have plenty of silver!' It has not been left for +commercial Englishmen to recommend religion on the ground that it +produces successful merchants and makes the best of both worlds. + +These friends of Job's all err in believing that suffering is always +and only the measure of sin, and that you can tell a man's great guilt +by observing his great sorrows. And so they have two main subjects on +which they preach at their poor friend, pouring vitriol into his +wounds: first, how wicked he must be to be so haunted by sorrows; +second, how surely he will be delivered if he will only be religious +after their pattern, that is, speak platitudes of conventional +devotion and say, I submit. + +This is the meaning of our text as it stands. But we may surely find a +higher sense in which it is true and take that to heart. + +I. What is acquainting oneself with God? + +The first thing to note is that this acquaintance depends on us. So +then there must have been a previous objective manifestation on His +part. Of course there must be a God to know, and there must be a way +of knowing Him. For us Jesus Christ is the Revealer. What men know of +God apart from Him is dim, shadowy, indistinct; it lacks certainty, +and so is not knowledge. I venture to say that there is nothing +between cultivated men and the loss of certain knowledge of God and +conviction of His Being, but the historical revelation of Jesus +Christ. The Christ reveals the inmost character of God, and that not +in words but in deeds. Without Him no man knows God; 'No man knoweth +the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.' + +So then the objective revelation having been made, we must on our part +embrace that revelation as ours. The act of so accepting begins with +the familiar act of faith, which includes both an exercise of the +understanding, as it embraces the facts of Christ's revelation of the +Father, and of the will as it casts itself upon and submits to Him. +But that exercise of faith is but the point which has to be drawn out +into a golden line, woven into the whole length of a life. And it is +in the continuity of that line that the average Christian so sadly +fails, and because of that failure his acquaintance with God is so +distant. How little time or thought we give to the character of God as +revealed in Jesus Christ! We must be on intimate terms with Him. To +know God, as to know a man, we must 'live with' Him, must summer and +winter with Him, must bring Him into the pettinesses of daily life, +must let our love set to Him, must be in sympathy with Him, our wills +being tuned to make harmony with His, our whole nature being in accord +with His. That is work more than enough for a lifetime, enough to task +it, enough to bless it. + +II. The peace of acquaintance with God. + +Eliphaz meant nothing more than mere earthly tranquillity and +exemption from trouble, but his words are true in a far loftier +region. + +Knowledge of God as He really is brings peace, because His heart is +full of love. We do but need to know the actual state of the heart of +God towards us to be lapped and folded in peace that nothing outside +of God and ourselves can destroy. If we lived under the constant +benediction of the deepest truth in the universe, 'God is love,' our +peace would be full. That is enough, if we believe it to bring peace. +The thought of God which alarms and terrifies cannot be a true +thought. But, alas! in proportion as we know ourselves, it becomes +difficult to believe that God is love. The stings of conscience hiss +prophecies to us of that in God which cannot but be antagonistic to +that in us which conscience condemns. Only when our thought of God is +drawn from the revelation of Him in Jesus Christ, does it become +possible for any man to grasp in one act of his consciousness the +conviction, I am a sinner, and the conquering conviction, God is Love, +and only Love to me. So the old exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with +God and be at peace,' comes to be in Christian language: 'Behold God +in Jesus, and thou shalt possess the peace of God to keep thy heart +and mind.' + +Knowledge of God gives peace, because in it we find the satisfaction +of our whole nature. Thereby we are freed from the unrest of +tumultuous passions and storms of self-will. The internecine war +between the better and the worse selves within ceases to rage, and +when we have become God's friends, that in us which is meant to rule +rules, and that in us which is meant to serve serves, and the inner +kingdom is no longer torn asunder but is harmonised with itself. + +Knowledge of God brings peace amid all changes, for he who has God for +his continual Companion draws little of his supplies from without, and +can be tranquil when the seas roar and are troubled and the mountains +are cast into the midst of the sea. He bears all his treasures with +him, and need fear no loss of any real good. And at last the angel of +peace will lead us through the momentary darkness and guide us, after +a passing shadow on our path, into 'the land of peace wherein we +trusted,' while yet in the land of warfare. Jesus still whispers the +ancient salutation with which He greeted the company in the upper room +on the evening of the day of resurrection, as He comes to His servants +here, and it will be His welcome to them when He receives them above. + +III. The true good from acquaintance with God. + +As we have already said, Eliphaz was only thinking, on Old Testament +lines, that prosperity in material things was the theocratic reward of +allegiance to Jehovah. He was rubbing vitriol into Job's sores, and +avowedly regarding him as a fear-inspiring instance of the converse +principle. But we have a better meaning breathed into his words, since +Jesus has taught us what is the true good for a man all the days of +his life. Acquaintance with God is, not merely procures, good. To know +Him, to clasp Him to our hearts as our Friend, our Infinite Lover, our +Source of all peace and joy, to mould our wills to His and let Him +dominate our whole selves, to seek our wellbeing in Him alone--what +else or more can a soul need to be filled with all good? Acquaintance +with God brings Him in all His sufficiency to inhabit else empty +hearts. It changes the worst, according to the judgment of sense, into +the best, transforming sorrow into loving discipline, interpreting its +meaning, fitting us to 'bear it, and securing to us its blessings. To +him that is a friend of God, + + 'All is right that seems most wrong + If it be His sweet will.' + +To be acquainted with God is the quintessence of good. 'This is life +eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou +hast sent.' + + + +WHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE + +'For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift +up thy face unto God. 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He +shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. 28. Thou shalt also +decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light +shall shine upon thy ways. 29. When men are cast down, then thou shalt +say, ... lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.'--JOB xxii. +26-29. + + +These words are a fragment of one of the speeches of Job's friends, in +which the speaker has been harping on the old theme that affliction is +the consequence and evidence of sin. He has much ado to square his +theory with facts, and especially with the fact which brought him to +Job's dunghill. But he gets over the difficulty by the simple method +of assuming that, since his theory must be true, there must be unknown +facts which vindicate it in Job's case; and since affliction is a sign +of sin, Job's afflictions are proof that he has been a sinner. So he +charges him with grossest crimes, without a shadow of other reason; +and after having poured this oil of vitriol into his wounds by way of +consolation, he advises him to be good, on the decidedly low and +selfish ground that it will pay. + +His often-quoted exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with God, and be at +peace: thereby good shall come unto thee,' is, in his meaning of it, +an undisguised appeal to purely selfish considerations, and its +promise is not in accordance with facts. Whether that saying is noble +and true or ignoble and false, depends on the meanings attached to +'peace' and 'good.' A similar flaw mars the words of our text, as +understood by the speaker. But they can be raised to a higher level +than that on which he placed them, and regarded as describing the +sweet and wonderful prerogatives of the devout life. So understood, +they may rebuke and stimulate and encourage us to make our lives +conformed to the ideal here. + +I. I note, first, that life may be full of delight and confidence in +God. + +'Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty, and shalt lift up +thy face unto God.' Now when we 'delight' in a thing or a person, we +recognise that that thing, or person, fits into a cleft in our hearts, +and corresponds to some need in our natures. We not only recognise its +good, sweetness, and adaptation to ourselves, but we actually possess +in real fruition the sweetness that we recognise, and the good which +we apprehend in it. And so these things, the recognition of the +supreme sweetness and all-perfect adaptation and sufficiency of God to +all that I need; the suppression of tastes and desires which may +conflict with that sweetness, and the actual enjoyment and fruition of +the sweetness and preciousness which I apprehend--these things are the +very heart of a man's religion. Without delight in God, there is no +real religion. + +The bulk of men are so sunken and embruted in animal tastes and +sensuous desires and fleeting delights, that they have no care for the +pure and calm joys which come to those who live near God. But above +these stand the men, of whom there are a good many amongst us, whose +religion is a matter of fear or of duty or of effort. And above them +there stand the men who serve because they trust God, but whose +religion is seeking rather than finding, and either from deficient +consecration or from false conceptions of Him and of their relation to +Him, is overshadowed by an unnatural and unwholesome gloom. And all +these kinds of religion, the religion of fear, of duty, of effort, of +seeking, and of doubt fighting with faith, are at the best wofully +imperfect, and are, some of them, radically erroneous types of the +religious life. He is the truly devout man who not only knows God to +be great and holy, but feels Him to be sweet and sufficient; who not +only fears, but loves; who not only seeks and longs, but possesses; +or, in one word, true religion is delighting in God. + +So herein is supplied a very sharp test for us. Do our tastes and +inclinations set towards Him, and is He better to us than anything +beside? Is God to me my dearest faith, the very home of my heart, to +which I instinctively turn? Is the brightness of my day the light of +His face? Is He the gladness of my joy? Is my Christianity a +mill-horse round of service that I am not glad to render? Do I worship +because I think it is duty, and are my prayers compulsory and +mechanical; or do I worship because my heart goes out to Him? And is +my life calm and sweet because I 'delight in the Lord'? + +The next words of my text will help us to answer. 'Thou shalt lift up +thy face unto God.' That is a clear enough metaphor to express frank +confidence of approach to Him. The head hangs down in the +consciousness of demerit and sin. 'Mine iniquities have taken hold +upon me,' wailed the Psalmist, 'so that I am not able to look up.' But +it is possible for men to go into God's presence with a sense of +peace, and to hold up their heads before their Judge and look Him in +the eyes and not be afraid. And unless we have that confidence in Him, +not because of our merits, but because of His certain love, there will +be no 'delight in the Lord.' And there will be no such confidence in +Him unless we have 'access with confidence by faith' in that Christ +who has taken away our sins, and prepared the way for us into the +Father's presence, and by whose death and sacrifice, and by it alone, +we sinful men, with open face and uplifted foreheads, can stand to +receive upon our visage the full beams of His light, and expatiate and +be glad therein. There is no religion worth naming, of which the +inmost characteristic is not delight in God. There is no 'delighting +in God' possible for sinful men unless they can come to Him with frank +confidence, and there is no such confidence possible for us unless we +apprehend by faith, and thereby make our own, the great work of Jesus +Christ our Lord. + +II. So, secondly, note, such a life of delighting in God will be +blessed by the frankest intercourse with Him. + +'Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou +shalt pay thy vows.' These are three stages of this blessed communion +that is possible for men. And note, prayer is not regarded in this +aspect as duty, nor is it even dwelt upon as privilege, but as being +the natural outcome and issue of that delighting in God and confident +access to Him which have preceded. That is to say, if a man really has +set his heart on God, and knows that in Him is all that he needs, +then, of course, he will tell Him everything. As surely as the +sunshine draws out the odours from the opening petals of the flowers, +will the warmth of the felt divine light and love draw from our hearts +the sweet confidence, which it is impossible not to give to Him in +whom we delight. + +If you have to be driven to prayer by a sense of duty, and if there be +no impulse in your heart whispering ever to you, 'Tell your Love about +it!' you have much need to examine into the reality, and certainly +into the depth of your religion. For as surely as instinctive impulse, +which needs no spurring from conscience or will, leads us to breathe +our confidences to those that we love best, and makes us restless +whilst we have a secret hid from them, so surely will a true love to +God make it the most natural thing in the world to put all our +circumstances, wants, and feeling into the shape of prayers. They may +be in briefest words. They may scarcely be vocalised at all, but there +will be, if there be a true love to Him, an instinctive turning to Him +in every circumstance; and the single-worded cry, if it be no more, +for help is sufficient. The arrow may be shot towards Heaven, though +it be but slender and short, and it will reach its goal. + +For my text goes on to the second stage, 'He shall hear thee.' That +was not true as Eliphaz meant it. But it is true if we remember the +preceding conditions. The fundamental passage, which I suppose +underlies part, at least, of our text, is that great word in the +psalm, 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the +desires of thine heart.' Does that mean that if a man loves God he may +get everything he wants? Yes! and No! If it is supposed to mean that +our religion is a kind of key to God's storehouse, enabling us to go +in there and rifle it at our pleasure, then it is not true; if it +means that a man who delights himself in God will have his supreme +desire set upon God, and so will be sure to get it, then it is true. +Fulfil the conditions and you are sure of the promise. If our prayer +in its deepest essence be 'Not my will, but Thine,' it will be +answered. When the desires of our heart are for God, and for +conformity to His will, as they will be when we 'delight ourselves in +Him,' then we get our heart's desires. There is no promise of our +being able to impose our wills upon God, which would be a calamity, +and not a blessing, but a promise that they who make Him their joy and +their desire will never be defrauded of their desire nor robbed of +their joy. + +And so the third stage of this frank intercourse comes. 'Thou shalt +pay thy vows.' All life may become a thank-offering to God for the +benefits that have flowed unceasing from His hands. First a prayer, +then the answer, then the rendered thank-offering. Thus, in swift +alternation and reciprocity, is carried on the commerce between Heaven +and earth, between man and God. The desires rise to Heaven, but Heaven +comes down to earth first; and prayer is not the initial stage, but +the second, in the process. God first gives His promise, and the best +prayer is the catching up of God's promise and tossing it back again +whence it came. Then comes the second downward motion, which is the +answer to prayer, in blessing, and on it follows, finally, the +reflection upwards, in thankful surrender and service, of the love +that has descended on us, in answer to our desires. So like sunbeams +from a mirror, or heat from polished metal, backwards and forwards, in +continual alternation and reciprocation of influence and of love, +flash and travel bright gleams between the soul and God. 'Truth +springs out of the earth, and righteousness looks down from Heaven. +Our God shall give that which is good, and the earth shall yield her +increase.' Is there any other life of which such alternation is the +privilege and the joy? + +III. Then thirdly, such a life will neither know failure nor darkness. + +'Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto +thee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways.' Then is my will to be +omnipotent, and am I to be delivered from the experiences of +disappointments and failures and frustrated plans that are common to +all humanity, and an essential part of its discipline, because I am a +Christian man? Eliphaz may have meant that, but we know something far +nobler. Again, I say, remember the conditions precedent. First of all, +there must be the delight in God, and the desire towards Him, the +submission of the will to Him, and the waiting before Him for +guidance. I decree a thing--if I am a true Christian, and in the +measure in which I am--only when I am quite sure that God has decreed +it. And it is only His decrees, registered in the chancery of my will, +of which I may be certain that they shall be established. There will +be no failures to the man whose life's purpose is to serve God, and to +grow like Him; but if our purpose is anything less than that, or if we +go arbitrarily and self-willedly resolving and saying, 'Thus I will; +thus I command; let my will stand instead of all reason,' we shall +have our contemptuous 'decrees' disestablished many a time. If we run +our heads against stone walls in that fashion, the walls will stand, +and our heads will be broken. To serve Him and to fall into the line +of His purpose, and to determine nothing, nor obstinately want +anything until we are sure that it is His will--that is the secret of +never failing in what we undertake. + +We must understand a little more deeply than we are apt to do what is +meant by 'success,' before we predict unfailing success for any man. +But if we have obeyed the commandment from the psalm already quoted, +which may be again alluded to in the words of my text--'Commit thy way +unto the Lord; trust also in Him'--we shall inherit the ancient +promise, 'and He shall bring it to pass.' 'All things work together +for good to them that love God,' and in the measure of our love to Him +are our discernment and realisation of what is truly good. Religion +gives no screen to keep the weather off us, but it gives us an insight +into the truth that storms and rain are good for the only crop that is +worth growing here. If we understand what we are here for, we shall be +very slow to call sorrow evil, and to crown joy with the exclusive +title of blessing and good; and we shall have a deeper canon of +interpretation for the words of my text than he who is represented as +speaking them ever dreamed of. + +So with the promise of light to shine upon our paths. It is 'the light +which never was on sea or land,' and not the material light which +sense-bound eyes can see. That may all go. But if we have God in our +hearts, there will be a light upon our way 'which knows no +variableness, neither shadow of turning.' The Arctic winter, sunless +though it be, has a bright heaven radiant with myriad stars, and +flashing with strange lights born of no material or visible orb. And +so you and I, if we delight ourselves 'in the Lord,' will have an +unsetting sun to light our paths; 'and at eventide,' and in the +mirkest midnight, 'there will be light' in the darkness. + +IV. Lastly, such a life will be always hopeful, and finally crowned +with deliverance. + +'When they'--that is, the ways that he has been speaking about--'when +they are cast down, thou shalt say, Lifting up.' That is an +exclamation or a prayer, and we might simply render, 'thou shalt say, +Up!' Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come +when the path plunges downwards into some 'valley of the shadow of +death.' But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. He will +in his heart say 'Up!' even while sense says 'Down!' either as +expressing indomitable confidence and good cheer in the face of +depressing circumstances, or as pouring out a prayer to Him who 'has +showed him great and sore troubles' that He would 'bring him up again +from the depths of the earth.' The devout life is largely independent +of circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by a quiet certainty that +the general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge +hopefully down an occasional dip in the road. + +Such an obstinate hopefulness and cheery confidence are the natural +result of the experiences already described in the text. If we delight +in God, hold communion with Him and have known Him as answering +prayer, prospering our purposes and illuminating our paths, how shall +we not hope? Nothing need depress nor perturb those whose joys and +treasures are safe above the region of change and loss. If our riches +are there where neither moth, rust, nor thieves can reach, our hearts +will be there also, and an inward voice will keep singing, 'Lift up +your heart.' It is the prerogative of experience to light up the +future. It is the privilege of Christian experience to make hope +certainty. If we live the life outlined in these verses we shall be +able to bring June into December, and feel the future warmth whilst +our bones are chilled with the present cold. 'When the paths are made +low, thou shalt say, Up!' + +And the end will vindicate such confidence. For the issue of all will +be, 'He will save the humble person'; namely, the man who is of the +character described, and who is 'lowly of eyes' in conscious +unworthiness, even while he lifts up his face to God in confidence in +his Father's love. The 'saving' meant here is, of course, temporary +and temporal deliverance from passing outward peril. But we may +permissibly give it wider and deeper meaning. Continuous partial +deliverances lead on to and bring about final full salvation. + +We read that into the words, of course. But nothing less than a +complete and conclusive deliverance can be the legitimate end of the +experience of the Christian life here. Absurdity can no further go +than to suppose that a soul which has delighted itself in God, and +looked in His face with frank confidence, and poured out his desires +to Him, and been the recipient of numberless answers, and the seat of +numberless thank-offerings, has travelled along life's common way in +cheerful godliness, has had the light of heaven shining on the path, +and has found an immortal hope springing as the natural result of +present experience, shall at the last be frustrated of all, and lie +down in unconscious sleep, which is nothingness. If that were the end +of a Christian life, then 'the pillared firmament were rottenness, and +earth's base built on stubble.' No, no! A heaven of endless +blessedness and close communion with God is the only possible ending +to the facts of the devout life on earth. + +We have such a life offered to us all and made possible through faith +in Jesus Christ, in whom we may delight ourselves in the Lord, by whom +we have 'access with confidence,' who is Himself the light of our +hope, the answer of our prayers, the joy of our hearts, and who will +'deliver us from every evil work' as we travel along the road; 'and +save us' at last 'into His heavenly kingdom,' where we shall be joined +to the Delight of our souls, and drink for evermore of the fountain of +life. + + + +'THE END OF THE LORD' + +'Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 2. I know that Thou canst do +every thing, and that no thought can he withholden from Thee. 3. Who +is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered +that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. +4. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: I will demand of Thee, and +declare Thou unto me. 5. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the +ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. 6. Wherefore I abhor myself, and +repent in dust and ashes. 7. And it was so, that after the Lord had +spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My +wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye +have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. +8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go +to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and +My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal +with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of Me the thing +which is right, like My servant Job. 9. So Eliphaz the Temanite and +Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according +as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. 10. And the +Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also +the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.'--JOB xlii. 1-10. + + +The close of the Book of Job must be taken in connection with its +prologue, in order to get the full view of its solution of the mystery +of pain and suffering. Indeed the prologue is more completely the +solution than the ending is; for it shows the purpose of Job's trials +as being, not his punishment, but his testing. The whole theory that +individual sorrows were the result of individual sins, in the support +of which Job's friends poured out so many eloquent and heartless +commonplaces, is discredited from the beginning. The magnificent +prologue shows the source and purpose of sorrow. The epilogue in this +last chapter shows the effect of it in a good man's character, and +afterwards in his life. + +So we have the grim thing lighted up, as it were, at the two ends. +Suffering comes with the mission of trying what stuff a man is made +of, and it leads to closer knowledge of God, which is blessed; to +lowlier self-estimation, which is also blessed; and to renewed outward +blessings, which hide the old scars and gladden the tortured heart. + +Job's final word to God is in beautiful contrast with much of his +former unmeasured utterances. It breathes lowliness, submission, and +contented acquiescence in a providence partially understood. It does +not put into Job's mouth a solution of the problem, but shows how its +pressure is lightened by getting closer to God. Each verse presents a +distinct element of thought and feeling. + +First comes, remarkably enough, not what might have been expected, +namely, a recognition of God's righteousness, which had been the +attribute impugned by Job's hasty words, but of His omnipotence. God +'can do everything,' and none of His 'thoughts' or purposes can be +'restrained' (Rev. Ver.). There had been frequent recognitions of that +attribute in the earlier speeches, but these had lacked the element of +submission, and been complaint rather than adoration. Now, the same +conviction has different companions in Job's mind, and so has +different effects, and is really different in itself. The Titan on his +rock, with the vulture tearing at his liver, sullenly recognised +Jove's power, but was a rebel still. Such had been Job's earlier +attitude, but now that thought comes to him along with submission, and +so is blessed. Its recurrence here, as in a very real sense a new +conviction, teaches us how old beliefs may flash out into new +significance when seen from a fresh point of view, and how the very +same thought of God may be an argument for arraigning and for +vindicating His providence. + +The prominence given, both in the magnificent chapters in which God +answers Job out of the whirlwind and in this final confession, to +power instead of goodness, rests upon the unspoken principle that 'the +divine nature is not a segment, but a circle. Any one divine attribute +implies all others. Omnipotence cannot exist apart from righteousness' +(Davidson's _Job_, Cambridge Bible for Schools). A mere naked +omnipotence is not God. If we rightly understand His power, we can +rest upon it as a Hand sustaining, not crushing, us. 'He doeth all +things well' is a conviction as closely connected with 'I know that +Thou canst do all things' as light is with heat. + +The second step in Job's confession is the acknowledgment of the +incompleteness of his and all men's materials and capacities for +judging God's providence. Verse 3 begins with quoting God's rebuke +(Job xxxviii 2). It had cut deep, and now Job makes it his own +confession. We should thus appropriate as our own God's merciful +indictments, and when He asks, 'Who is it?' should answer with +lowliness, 'Lord, it is I.' Job had been a critic; he is a worshipper. +He had tried to fathom the bottomless, and been angry because his +short measuring-line had not reached the depths. But now he +acknowledges that he had been talking about what passed his +comprehension, and also that his words had been foolish in their +rashness. + +Is then the solution of the whole only that old commonplace of the +unsearchableness of the divine judgments? Not altogether; for the +prologue gives, if not a complete, yet a real, key to them. But still, +after all partial solutions, there remains the inscrutable element in +them. The mystery of pain and suffering is still a mystery; and while +general principles, taught us even more clearly in the New Testament +than in this book, do lighten the 'weight of all this unintelligible +world,' we have still to take Job's language as the last word on the +matter, and say, 'How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways +past finding out!' + +For individuals, and on the wider field of the world, God's way is in +the sea; but that does not bewilder those who also know that it is +also in the sanctuary. Job's confession as to his rash speeches is the +best estimate of many elaborate attempts to 'vindicate the ways of God +to man.' It is better to trust than to criticise, better to wait than +to seek prematurely to understand. + +Verse 4, like verse 3, quotes the words of God (Job xxxviii. 3; xl. +7). They yield a good meaning, if regarded as a repetition of God's +challenge, for the purpose of disclaiming any such presumptuous +contest. But they are perhaps better understood as expressing Job's +longing, in his new condition of humility, for fuller light, and his +new recognition of the way to pierce to a deeper understanding of the +mystery, by illumination from God granted in answer to his prayer. He +had tried to solve his problem by much, and sometimes barely reverent, +thinking. He had racked brain and heart in the effort, but he has +learned a more excellent way, as the Psalmist had, who said, 'When I +thought, in order to know this, it was too painful for me, until I +went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I.' Prayer will do +more for clearing mysteries than speculation, however acute, and it +will change the aspect of the mysteries which it does not clear from +being awful to being solemn--veils covering depths of love, not clouds +obscuring the sun. + +The centre of all Job's confession is in verse 5, which contrasts his +former and present knowledge of God, as being mere hearsay before, and +eyesight now. A clearer understanding, but still more, a sense of His +nearness, and an acquaintance at first hand, are implied in the bold +words, which must not be interpreted of any outward revelation to +sense, but of the direct, full, thrilling consciousness of God which +makes all men's words about Him seem poor. That change was the master +transformation in Job's case, as it is for us all. Get closer to God, +realise His presence, live beneath His eye and with your eyes fixed on +Him, and ancient puzzles will puzzle no longer, and wounds will cease +to smart, and instead of angry expostulation or bewildered attempts at +construing His dealings, there will come submission, and with +submission, peace. + +The cure for questionings of His providence is experience of His +nearness, and blessedness therein. Things that loomed large dwindle, +and dangers melt away. The landscape is the same in shadow and +sunshine; but when the sun comes out, even snow and ice sparkle, and +tender beauty starts into visibility in grim things. So, if we see +God, the black places of life are lighted; and we cease to feel the +pressure of many difficulties of speculation and practice, both as +regards His general providence and His revelation in law and gospel. + +The end of the whole matter is Job's retractation of his words and his +repentance. 'I abhor' has no object expressed, and is better taken as +referring to the previous speeches than to 'myself.' He means thereby +to withdraw them all. The next clause, 'I repent in dust and ashes,' +carries the confession a step farther. He recognises guilt in his rash +speeches, and bows before his God confessing his sin. Where are his +assertions of innocence gone? One sight of God has scattered them, as +it ever does. A man who has learned his own sinfulness will find few +difficulties and no occasions for complaint in God's dealings with +him. If we would see aright the meaning of our sorrows, we must look +at them on our knees. Get near to God in heart-knowledge of Him, and +that will teach our sinfulness, and the two knowledges will combine to +explain much of the meaning of sorrow, and to make the unexplained +residue not hard to endure. + +The epilogue in prose which follows Job's confession, tells of the +divine estimate of the three friends, of Job's sacrifice for them, and +of his renewed outward prosperity. The men who had tried to vindicate +God's righteousness are charged with not having spoken that which is +right; the man who has passionately impugned it is declared to have +thus spoken. No doubt, Eliphaz and his colleagues had said a great +many most excellent, pious things, and Job as many wild and untrue +ones. But their foundation principle was not a true representation of +God's providence, since it was the uniform connection of sin with +sorrow, and the accurate proportion which these bore to each other. + +Job, on the other hand, had spoken truth in his denials of these +principles, and in his longings to have the righteousness of God set +in clear relation to his own afflictions. We must remember, too, that +the friends were talking commonplaces learned by rote, while Job's +words came scalding hot from his heart. Most excellent truth may be so +spoken as to be wrong; and it is so, if spoken heartlessly, regardless +of sympathy, and flung at sufferers like a stone, rather than laid on +their hearts as a balm. God lets a true heart dare much in speech; for +He knows that the sputter and foam prove that 'the heart's deeps boil +in earnest.' + +Job is put in the place of intercessor for the three--a profound +humiliation for them and an honour for him. They obeyed at once, +showing that they have learned their lesson, as well as Job his. An +incidental lesson from that final picture of the sufferer become the +priest requiting accusations with intercession, is the duty of +cherishing kind feelings and doing kind acts to those who say hard +things of us. It would be harder for some of us to offer sacrifices +for our Eliphazes than to argue with them. And yet another is that +sorrow has for one of its purposes to make the heart more tender, both +for the sorrows and the faults of others. + +Note, too, that it was 'when Job prayed for his friends' that the Lord +turned his captivity. That is a proverbial expression, bearing +witness, probably, to the deep traces left by the Exodus, for +reversing calamity. The turning-point was not merely the confession, +but the act, of beneficence. So, in ministering to others, one's own +griefs may be soothed. + +The restoration of outward good in double measure is not meant as the +statement of a universal law of Providence, and still less as a +solution of the problem of the book. But it is putting the truth that +sorrows, rightly borne, yield peaceable fruit at the last, in the form +appropriate to the stage of revelation which the whole book +represents; that is, one in which the doctrine of immortality, though +it sometimes rises before Job's mind as an aspiration of faith, is not +set in full light. + +To us, living in the blaze of light which Jesus Christ has let into +the darkness of the future, the 'end of the Lord' is that heaven +should crown the sorrows of His children on earth. We can speak of +light, transitory affliction working out an eternal weight of glory. +The book of Job is expressing substantially the same expectation, when +it paints the calm after the storm and the restoration in double +portion of vanished blessings. Many desolate yet trusting sufferers +know how little such an issue is possible for their grief, but if they +have more of God in clearer sight of Him, they will find empty places +in their hearts and homes filled. + + + + +THE PROVERBS + + +A YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR + +'The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; 2. To know +wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; 3. To +receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; +4. To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and +discretion, 5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a +man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: 6. To understand +a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their +dark sayings. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: +but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8. My son, hear the +instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 9. +For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about +thy neck. 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 11. If +they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily +for the innocent without cause: 12. Let us swallow them up alive as +the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13. We shall +find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14. +Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: 15. My son, walk +not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: 16. +For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17. (Surely +in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird:) 18. And they lay +wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. 19. +So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away +the life of the owners thereof.'--PROV. i. 1-19. + + +This passage contains the general introduction to the book of +Proverbs. It falls into three parts--a statement of the purpose of the +book (vs. 1-6); a summary of its foundation principles, and of the +teachings to which men ought to listen (vs. 7-9); and an antithetic +statement of the voices to which they should be deaf (vs. 10-19). + +I. The aim of the book is stated to be twofold--to enable men, +especially the young, to 'know wisdom,' and to help them to 'discern +the words of understanding'; that is, to familiarise, by the study of +the book, with the characteristics of wise teachings, so that there +may be no mistaking seducing words of folly for these. These two aims +are expanded in the remaining verses, the latter of them being resumed +in verse 6, while the former occupies the other verses. + +We note how emphatically the field in which this wisdom is to be +exercised is declared to be the moral conduct of life. 'Righteousness +and judgment and equity' are 'wise dealing,' and the end of true +wisdom is to practise these. The wider horizon of modern science and +speculation includes much in the notion of wisdom which has no bearing +on conduct. But the intellectual progress (and conceit) of to-day will +be none the worse for the reminder that a man may take in knowledge +till he is ignorant, and that, however enriched with science and +philosophy, if he does not practise righteousness, he is a fool. + +We note also the special destination of the book--for the young. +Youth, by reason of hot blood and inexperience, needs such portable +medicines as are packed in these proverbs, many of them the +condensation into a vivid sentence of world-wide truths. There are few +better guides for a young man than this book of homely sagacity, which +is wisdom about the world without being tainted by the bad sort of +worldly wisdom. But unfortunately those who need it most relish it +least, and we have for the most part to rediscover its truths for +ourselves by our own, often bitter, experience. + +We note, further, the clear statement of the way by which incipient +'wisdom' will grow, and of the certainty of its growth if it is real. +It is the 'wise man' who will 'increase in learning,' the 'man of +understanding' who 'attains unto sound counsels.' The treasures are +thrown away on him who has no heart for them. You may lavish wisdom on +the 'fool,' and it will run off him like water off a rock, fertilising +nothing, and stopping outside him. + +The Bible would not have met all our needs, nor gone with us into all +regions of our experience, if it had not had this book of shrewd, +practical common-sense. Christianity is the perfection of common +sense. 'Godliness hath promise of the life which now is.' The wisdom +of the serpent, which Jesus enjoins, has none of the serpent's venom +in it. It is no sign of spirituality of mind to be above such mundane +considerations as this book urges. If we hold our heads too high to +look to our road and our feet, we are sure to fall into a pit. + +II. Verses 7-9 may be regarded as a summary statement of the principle +on which the whole book is based, and of the duty which it enjoins. +The principle is that true wisdom is based on religion, and the duty +is to listen to parental instruction. 'My son,' is the address of a +teacher to his disciples, rather than of a father to his child. The +characteristic Old Testament designation of religion as 'the fear of +Jehovah' corresponds to the Old Testament revelation of Him as the +Holy One,--that is, as Him who is infinitely separated from creatural +being and limitations. Therefore is He 'to be had in reverence of all' +who would be 'about Him'; that fear of reverential awe in which no +slavish dread mingles, and which is perfectly consistent with +aspiration, trust, and love. The Old Testament reveals Him as separate +from men; the New Testament reveals Him as united to men in the divine +man, Christ Jesus. Therefore its keynote is the designation of +religion as 'the love of God'; but that name is no contradiction of +the earlier, but the completion of it. + +That fear is the beginning or basis of wisdom, because wisdom is +conceived of as God's gift, and the surest way to get it is to 'ask of +God' (Jas. i. 5). Religion is, further, the foundation of wisdom, +inasmuch as irreligion is the supreme folly of creatures so dependent +on God, and so hungering after Him in the depths of their being, as we +are. In whatever directions a godless man may be wise, in the most +important matter of all, his relations to God, he is unwise, and the +epitaph for all such is 'Thou fool!' + +Further, religion is the fountain of wisdom, in the sense of the word +in which this book uses it, since it opens out into principles of +action, motives, and communicated powers, which lead to right +apprehension and willing discharge of the duties of life. Godless men +may be scientists, philosophers, encyclopaedias of knowledge, but for +want of religion, they blunder in the direction of their lives, and +lack wisdom enough to keep them from wrecking the ship on the rocks. + +The Israelitish parent was enjoined to teach his or her children the +law of the Lord. Here the children are enjoined to listen to the +instruction. Reverence for traditional wisdom was characteristic of +that state of society, and since a divine revelation stood at the +beginning of the nation's history, it was not unreasonable to look +back for light. Nowadays, a belief's being our fathers' is with many a +reason for not making it ours. But perhaps that is no more rational +than the blind adherence to the old with which this emancipated +generation reproaches its predecessors. Possibly there are some 'old +lamps' better than the new ones now hawked about the streets by so +many loud-voiced vendors. The youth of this day have much need of the +exhortation to listen to the 'instruction' (by which is meant, not +only teaching by word, but discipline by act) of their fathers, and to +the gentler voice of the mother telling of law in accents of love. +These precepts obeyed will be fairer ornaments than jewelled necklaces +and wreathed chaplets. + +III. On one side of the young man are those who would point him to the +fear of Jehovah; on the other are seducing whispers, tempting him to +sin. That is the position in which we all stand. It is not enough to +listen to the nobler voice. We have resolutely to stop our ears to the +baser, which is often the louder. Facile yielding to the cunning +inducements which strew every path, and especially that of the young, +is fatal. If we cannot say 'No' to the base, we shall not say 'Yes' to +the noble voice. To be weak is generally to be wicked; for in this +world the tempters are more numerous, and to sense and flesh, more +potent than those who invite to good. + +The example selected of such enticers is not of the kind that most of +us are in danger from. But the sort of inducements held out are in all +cases substantially the same. 'Precious substance' of one sort or +another is dangled before dazzled eyes; jovial companionship draws +young hearts. The right or wrong of the thing is not mentioned, and +even murder and robbery are presented as rather pleasant excitement, +and worth doing for the sake of what is got thereby. Are the desirable +consequences so sure? Is there no chance of being caught red-handed, +and stoned then and there, as a murderer? The tempters are discreetly +silent about that possibility, as all tempters are. Sin always +deceives, and its baits artfully hide the hook; but the cruel barb is +there, below the gay silk and coloured dressing, and it--not the false +appearance of food which lured the fish--is what sticks in the +bleeding mouth. + +The teacher goes on, in verses 15 to 19, to supply the truth which the +tempters tried to ignore. He does so in three weighty sentences, which +strip the tinsel off the temptation, and show its real ugliness. The +flowery way to which they coax is a way of 'evil'; that should be +enough to settle the question. The first thing to ask about any course +is not whether it is agreeable or disagreeable, but Is it right or +wrong? Verse 17 is ambiguous, but probably the 'net' means the +tempters' speech in verses 11 to 14, and the 'bird' is the young man +supposed to be addressed. The sense will then be, 'Surely you are not +foolish enough to fly right into the meshes, and to go with your eyes +open into so transparent sin!' + +Verse 18 points to the grim possibility already referred to, that the +would-be murderers will be caught and executed. But its lesson is +wider than that one case, and declares the great solemn truth that all +sin is suicide. Who ever breaks God's law slays himself. + +What is true about 'covetousness,' as verse 19 tells, is true about +all kinds of sin--that it takes away the life of those who yield to +it, even though it may also fill their purses, or in other ways may +gratify their desires. Surely it is folly to pursue a course which, +however it may succeed in its immediate aims, brings real death, by +separation from God, along with it. He is not a very wise man who ties +his gold round him when the ship founders. He is not parted from his +treasure certainly, but it helps to sink him. We may get what we want +by sinning, but we get also what we did not want or reckon on--that +is, eternal death. 'This their way is their folly.' Yet, strange to +tell, their posterity 'approve their sayings,' and follow their +doings. + + + +WISDOM'S CALL + +'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She +crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: +in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple +ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their +scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof: +behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words +unto you. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched +out my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my +counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your +calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh +as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when +distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon +me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall +not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the +fear of the Lord: 30. They would none of my counsel; they despised all +my reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own +way, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of +the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy +them. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall +be quiet from fear of evil.'--PROVERBS i. 20-33. + + +Our passage begins with a striking picture. A fair and queenly woman +stands in the crowded resorts of men, and lifts up a voice of sweet +entreaty--authoritative as well as sweet. Her name is Wisdom. The word +is in the plural in the Hebrew, as if to teach that in this serene and +lovely form all manifold wisdoms are gathered and made one. Who then +is she? It is easy to say 'a poetical personification,' but that does +not add much to our understanding. It is clear that this book means +much more by Wisdom than a human quality merely; for august and divine +attributes are given to her, and she is the co-eternal associate of +God Himself. Dwelling in His bosom, she thence comes forth to inspire +all human good deeds, to plead evermore with men, to enrich those who +listen to her with choicest gifts. Intellectual clearness, moral +goodness, religious devotion, are all combined in the idea of Wisdom +as belonging to men. + +The divine source of all, and the correspondence between the human and +the divine nature, are taught in the residence of this personified +Wisdom with God before she dwelt with men. The whole of the manifold +revelations, by which God makes known any part of His will to men, are +her voice. Especially the call contained in the Old Testament +revelation is the summons of Wisdom. But whether the writer of this +book had any inkling of deeper truth still, or not, we cannot but +connect the incomplete personification of divine Wisdom here with its +complete incarnation in a Person who is 'the power of God and the +wisdom of God,' and who embodies the lineaments of the grand picture +of a Wisdom crying in the streets, even while it is true of Him that +'He does not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the +streets'; for the crying, which is denied to be His, is ostentatious +and noisy, and the crying which is asserted to be hers is the plain, +clear, universal appeal of divine love as well as wisdom. The light of +Christ 'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' + +The call of Wisdom in this passage begins with remonstrance and plain +speech, giving their right names to men who neglect her voice. The +first step in delivering men from evil--that is, from foolish--courses +is to put very clearly before them the true character of their acts, +and still more of their inclinations. Gracious offers and rich +promises come after; but the initial message of Wisdom to such men as +we are must be the accusation of folly. 'When she is come, she will +convict the world of sin.' + +The three designations of men in verse 22 are probably arranged so as +to make a climax. First come 'the simple,' or, as the word means, +'open.' There is a _sancta simplicitas_, a holy ignorance of +evil, which is sister to the highest wisdom. It is well to be ignorant +as well as 'innocent of much transgression'; and there is no more +mistaken and usually insincere excuse for going into foul places than +the plea that it is best to know the evil and so choose the good. That +knowledge comes surely and soon enough without our seeking it. But +there is a fatal simplicity, open-eared, like Eve, to the Tempter's +whisper, which believes the false promises of sin, and as Bunyan has +taught us, is companion of sloth and presumption. + +Next come 'scorners,' who mock at good. A man must have gone a long +way down hill before he begins to gibe at virtue and godliness. But +the descent is steep, though the distance is long; and the 'simple' +who begins to do what is wrong will come to sneer at what is right. + +Then last comes the 'fool,' the name which, in Proverbs, is shorthand +for mental stupidity, moral obstinacy, and dogged godlessness,--a foul +compound, but one which is realised oftener than we think. A great +many very superior intellects, cultivated ladies and gentlemen, +university graduates, and the like, would be unceremoniously set down +by divine wisdom as fools; and surely if account is taken of the whole +compass and duration of our being, and of all our relations to things +and persons seen and unseen, nothing can be more stupid than +godlessness, however cultured. The word literally means coarse or +thick, and may suggest the idea of stolid insensibility as the last +stage in the downward progress. + +But note that the charge is directed, not against deeds, but +dispositions. Perverted love and perverted hatred underlie acts. The +simple love simplicity, preferring to be unwarned against evil; the +scorner finds delight in letting his rank tongue blossom into speech; +and the false direction given to love gives a fatal twist to its +corresponding hate, so that the fool detests 'knowledge' as a thief +the policeman's lantern. You cannot love what you should loathe, +without loathing what you should love. Inner longings and revulsions +settle character and acts. + +Verse 23 passes into entreaty; for it is vain to rouse conscience by +plain speech, unless something is offered to make better life +possible. The divine Wisdom comes with a rod, but also with gifts; but +if the rod is kissed, the rewards are possessed. The relation of +clauses in verse 23 is that the first is the condition of the +fulfilment of the second and third. If we turn at her reproof, two +great gifts will be bestowed. Her spirit within will make us quick to +hear and receive her words sounding without. Whatever other good +follows on yielding to the call of divine Wisdom (and the remaining +early chapters of Proverbs magnificently detail the many rich gifts +that do follow), chief of all are spirits swift to hear and docile to +obey her voice, and then actual communications to purged ears. Outward +revelation without prepared hearts is water spilt upon rock. Prepared +hearts without a message to them would be but multiplication of vain +longings; and God never stultifies Himself, or gives mouths without +sending meat to fill them. To the submissive spirit, there will not +lack either disposition to hear or clear utterance of His will. + +But now comes a pause. Wisdom has made her offers in the crowded +streets, and amid all the noise and bustle her voice has rung out. +What is the result? Nothing. Not a head has been turned, nor an eye +lifted. The bustle goes on as before. 'They bought, they sold,' as if +no voice had spoken. So, after the disappointed waiting of Wisdom, her +voice peals out again, but this time with severity in its tones. Note +how, in verses 24 and 25, the sin of sins against the pleading Wisdom +of God is represented as being simple indifference. 'Ye refused,' 'no +man regarded,' 'set at nought,' 'would none of'--these are the things +which bring down the heavy judgments. It does not need violent +opposition or black crime to wreck a soul. Simply doing nothing when +God speaks is enough to effect destruction. There is no need to lift +up angry arms in hostility. If we keep them hanging listless by our +sides, it is sufficient. The gift escapes us, if we simply keep our +hands shut or held behind our backs. Alas, for ears which have not +heard, for seeing eyes which have not seen because they loved evil +simplicity and hated knowledge! + +Then note the terrible retribution. That is an awful picture of the +mocking laughter of Wisdom, accompanying the rush of the whirlwind and +the groans of anguish and shrieks of terror. It is even more solemn +and dreadful than the parallel representations in Psalm ii., for there +the laughter indicates God's knowledge that the schemes of opponents +are vain, but here it figures pleasure in calamities. Of course it is +to be remembered that the Wisdom thus represented is not to be +identified with God; but still the imagery is startling, and needs to +be taken along with declarations that God has 'no pleasure in the +death of the sinner,' and to be interpreted as indicating, with daring +anthropomorphism, the inevitable character of the 'destruction,' and +the uselessness of appeals to the Wisdom once despised. But we +joyfully remember that the Incarnate Wisdom, fairer than the ancient +personification, wept over the city which He knew must perish. + +Verses 28-31 carry on the picture of too late repentance and +inevitable retribution. They who let Wisdom cry, and paid no heed, +shall cry to her in their turn, and be unnoticed. They whom she vainly +sought shall vainly seek for her. Actions have their consequences, +which are not annihilated because the doers do not like them. Thoughts +have theirs; for the foolish not only eat of the fruit of their ways +or doings, but are filled with their own devices or counsels. +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' That inexorable +law works, deaf to all cries, in the field of earthly life, both as +regards condition and character; and that field of its operation is +all that the writer of this book has in view. He is not denying the +possibility of forgiveness, nor the efficacy of repentance, nor is he +asserting that a penitent soul ever seeks God in vain; but he is +declaring that it is too late to cry out for deliverance from +consequences of folly when the consequences have us in their grip, and +that wishes for deliverance are vain, though sighs of repentance are +not. We cannot reap where we have not sowed. We must reap what we +have. If we are such sluggards that we will 'not plough in winter by +reason of the cold,' we shall 'beg in harvest and have nothing.' + +But though the writer had probably only this life in view, Jesus +Christ has extended the teaching to the next, when He has told of +those who will seek to enter in and not be able. The experience of the +fruits of their godlessness will make godless men wish to escape +eating the fruits--and that wish shall be vain. It is not for us to +enlarge on such words, but it is for us all to lay them to heart, and +to take heed that we listen now to the beseeching call of the heavenly +Wisdom in its tenderest and noblest form, as it appeared in Christ, +the Incarnate Word. + +Verses 32 and 33 generalise the preceding promises and warnings in a +great antithesis. 'The backsliding [or, turning away] of the simple +slays them.' There is allusion to Wisdom's call in verse 23. The +simple had turned, but in the wrong direction--away from and not +towards her. To turn away from heavenly Wisdom is to set one's face +toward destruction. It cannot be too earnestly reiterated that we must +make our choice of one of two directions for ourselves--either towards +God, to seek whom is life, to find whom is heaven; or away from Him, +to turn our backs on whom is to embrace unrest, and to be separate +from whom is death. 'The security of fools,' by which is meant, not +their safety, but their fancy that they are safe, 'destroys them.' No +man is in such danger as the careless man of the world who thinks that +he is all right. A traveller along the edge of a precipice in the +night, who goes on as if he walked a broad road and takes no heed to +his footing, will soon repent his rashness at the bottom, mangled and +bruised. A man who in this changing world fancies that he sits as a +king, and sees no sorrow, will have a rude wakening. A moment's heed +saves hours of pain. + +The alternative to this suicidal folly is in listening to Wisdom's +call. Whoever does that will 'dwell safely,' not in fancied but real +security; and in his quiet heart there need be no unrest from feared +evils, for he will have hold of a charm which turns evils into good, +and with such a guide he cannot go astray, nor with such a +defender be wounded to death, nor with such a companion ever be +solitary. If Christ be our Light, we shall not walk in darkness. If He +be our Wisdom, we shall not err. If He be our Life, we shall never see +death. If He is our Good, we shall fear no evil. + + + +THE SECRET OF WELL-BEING + +'My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. +2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to +thee. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy +neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4. So shalt thou find +favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 5. Trust in +the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own +understanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct +thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart +from evil. 8. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy +bones. 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits +of all thine increase: 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, +and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.'--PROVERBS iii. 1-10. + + +The first ten verses of this passage form a series of five couplets, +which enforce on the young various phases of goodness by their +tendency to secure happiness or blessedness of various sorts. The +underlying axiom is that, in a world ruled by a good Being, obedience +must lead to well-being; but while that is in the general true, +exceptions do occur, and good men do encounter evil times. Therefore +the glowing promises of these verses are followed by two verses which +deal with the explanation of good men's afflictions, as being results +and tokens of God's fatherly love. + +The first couplet is general in character. It inculcates obedience to +the precepts of the teacher, and gives as reason the assurance that +thereby long life and peace will be secured. True to the Old Testament +conception of revelation as a law, the teacher sets obedience in the +forefront. He is sure that his teaching contains the sufficient guide +for conduct, and coincides with the divine will. He calls, in the +first instance, for inward willing acceptance of His commandments; for +it is the heart, not primarily the hands, which he desires should +'keep' them. The mother of all graces of conduct is the bowing of the +will to divine authority. The will is the man, and where it ceases to +lift itself up in self-sacrificing and self-determining rebellion, and +dissolves into running waters of submission, these will flow through +the life and make it pure. To obey self is sin, to obey God is +righteousness. The issues of such obedience are 'length of days ... +and peace.' + +Even if we allow for the difference between the Old and the New +Testaments, it remains true that a life conformed to God's will tends +to longevity, and that many forms of sin do shorten men's days. +Passion and indulged appetites eat away the very flesh, and many a +man's 'bones are full of the sin of his youth.' The profligate has +usually 'a short life,' whether he succeeds in making it 'merry' or +not. + +'Peace' is a wide word, including all well-being. Ease-loving +Orientals, especially when living in warlike times, naturally used the +phrase as a shorthand expression for all good. Busy Westerns, torn by +the distractions and rapid movement of modern life, echo the sigh for +repose which breathes in the word. 'There is no joy but calm,' and the +sure way to deepest peace is to give up self-will and live in +obedience. + +The second couplet deals with our relations to one another, and puts +forward the two virtues of 'loving-kindness and truth'--that is truth, +or faithfulness--as all-inclusive. They are the two which are often +jointly ascribed to God, especially in the Psalms. Our attitude to one +another should be moulded in God's to us all. The tiniest crystal has +the same facets and angles as the largest. The giant hexagonal pillars +of basalt, like our Scottish Staffa, are identical in form with the +microscopic crystals of the same substance. God is our Pattern; +goodness is likeness to Him. + +These graces are to be bound about the neck, perhaps as an ornament, +but more probably as a yoke by which the harnessed ox draws its +burden. If we have them, they will fit us to bear one another's +burdens, and will lead to all human duties to our fellows. + +These graces are also to be written on the 'table of the heart'; that +is, are to be objects of habitual meditation with aspiration. If so, +they will come to sight in life. He who practises them will 'find +favour with God and man,' for God looks with complacency on those who +display the right attitude to men; and men for the most part treat us +as we treat them. There are surly natures which are not won by +kindness, like black tarns among the hills, that are gloomy even in +sunshine, and requite evil for good; but the most of men reflect our +feelings to them. + +'Good understanding' is another result. It is 'found' when it is +attributed to us, so that the expression substantially means that the +possessors of these graces will win the reputation of being really +wise, not only in the fallible judgment of men, but before the pure +eyes of the all-seeing God. Really wise policy coincides with +loving-kindness and truth. + +The remaining couplets refer to our relations to God. The New +Testament is significantly anticipated in the pre-eminence given to +trust; that is, faith. Nor less significant and profound is the +association of self-distrust with trust in the Lord. The two things +are inseparable. They are but the under and upper sides of one thing, +or like the two growths that come from a seed--one striking downwards +becomes the root; one piercing upwards becomes the stalk. The double +attitude of trust and distrust finds expression in acknowledging Him +in all our ways; that is, ordering our conduct under a constant +consciousness of His presence, in accordance with His will, and in +dependence on His help. + +Such a relation to God will certainly, and with no exceptions, issue +in His 'directing our paths,' by which is meant that He will be not +only our Guide, but also our Roadmaker, showing us the way and +clearing obstacles from it. Calm certitude follows on willingness to +accept God's will, and whoever seeks only to go where God sends him +will neither be left doubtful whither he should go, nor find his road +blocked. + +The fourth couplet is, in its first part, in inverted parallelism with +the third; for it begins with self-distrust, and proceeds thence to +'fear of the Lord,' which corresponds to, and is, in fact, but one +phase of, trust in Him. It is the reverent awe which has no torment, +and is then purest when faith is strongest. It necessarily leads to +departing from evil. Morality has its roots in religion. There is no +such magnet to draw men from sin as the happy fear of God, which is +likewise faith. Whoever separates devoutness from purity of life, this +teacher does not. He knows nothing of religion which permits +association with iniquity. Such conduct will tend to physical +well-being, and in a deeper sense will secure soundness of life. +Godlessness is the true sickness. He only is healthy who has a +healthy, because healed, soul. + +The fifth couplet appears at first as being a drop to a lower region. +A regulation of the Mosaic law may strike some as out of place here. +But it is to be remembered that our modern distinction of ceremonial +and moral law was non-existent for Israel, and that the command has a +wider application than to Jewish tithes. To 'honour God with our +substance' is not necessarily to give it away for religious purposes, +but to use it devoutly and as He approves. + +Christianity has more to say about the distribution, as well as the +acquisition, of wealth, than professing Christians, especially in +commercial communities, practically recognise. This precept grips us +tight, and is much more than a ceremonial regulation. Many causes +besides the devout use of property tend to wealth in our highly +artificial state of society. The world tries to get it by shrewdness, +unscrupulousness, and by many other vices which are elevated to the +rank of virtues; but he who honours the Lord in getting and spending +will generally have as much as his true needs and regulated desires +require. + + + +THE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM + +'My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of +His correction: 12. For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a +father the son in whom he delighteth. 13. Happy is the man that +findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. 14. For the +merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the +gain thereof than fine gold. 15. She is more precious than rubies: and +all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 16. +Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and +honour. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are +peace. 18. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and +happy is every one that retaineth her. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath +founded the earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens. +20. By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop +down the dew. 21. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep +sound wisdom and discretion: 22. So shall they be life unto thy soul, +and grace to thy neck. 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and +thy foot shall not stumble. 24. When thou liest down, thou shalt not +be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be +sweet.'--PROVERBS iii. 11-24. + + +The repetition of the words 'my son' at the beginning of this passage +marks a new section, which extends to verse 20, inclusively, another +section being similarly marked as commencing in verse 21. The fatherly +counsels of these early chapters are largely reiterations of the same +ideas, being line upon line. 'To write the same things to you, to me +indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.' Many strokes drive +the nail home. Exhortations to get Wisdom, based upon the blessings +she brings, are the staple of the whole. If we look carefully at the +section (vers. 11-20), we find in it a central core (vers. 13-18), +setting forth the blessings which Wisdom gives, preceded by two +verses, inculcating the right acceptance of God's chastisements which +are one chief means of attaining Wisdom, and followed by two verses +(vers. 19, 20), which exalt her as being divine as well as human. So +the portraiture of her working in humanity is framed by a prologue and +epilogue, setting forth two aspects of her relation to God; namely, +that she is imparted by Him through the discipline of trouble, and +that she dwells in His bosom and is the agent of His creative work. + +The prologue, then, points to sorrow and trouble, rightly accepted, as +one chief means by which we acquire heavenly Wisdom. Note the profound +insight into the meaning of sorrows. They are 'instruction' and +'reproof.' The thought of the Book of Job is here fully incorporated +and assimilated. Griefs and pains are not tokens of anger, nor +punishments of sin, but love-gifts meant to help to the acquisition of +wisdom. They do not come because the sufferers are wicked, but in +order to make them good or better. Tempests are meant to blow us into +port. The lights are lowered in the theatre that fairer scenes may +become visible on the thin screen between us and eternity. Other +supports are struck away that we may lean hard on God. The voice of +all experience of earthly loss and bitterness is, 'Wisdom is the +principal thing; therefore get Wisdom.' God himself becomes our +Schoolmaster, and through the voice of the human teacher we hear His +deeper tones saying, 'My son, despise not the chastening.' + +Note, too, the assurance that all discipline is the fruit of Fatherly +love. How many sad hearts in all ages these few words have calmed and +braced! How sharp a test of our childlike spirit our acceptance of +them, when our own hearts are sore, is! How deep the peace which they +bring when really believed! How far they go to solve the mystery of +pain, and turn darkness into a solemn light! + +Note, further, that the words 'despise' and 'be weary' both imply +rather rejection with loathing, and thus express unsubmissive +impatience which gets no good from discipline. The beautiful rendering +of the Septuagint, which has been made familiar by its adoption in +Hebrews, makes the two words express two opposite faults. They +'despise' who steel their wills against the rod, and make as if they +did not feel the pain; they 'faint' who collapse beneath the blows, +which they feel so much that they lose sight of their purpose. Dogged +insensibility and utter prostration are equally harmful. He who meets +life's teachings, which are a Father's correction, with either, has +little prospect of getting Wisdom. + +Then follows the main part of this section (vers. 13-18),--the praise +of Wisdom as in herself most precious, and as bestowing highest good. +'The man that findeth Wisdom' reminds us of the peasant in Christ's +parable, who found treasure hidden in a field, and the 'merchandise' +in verse 14, of the trader seeking goodly pearls. But the finding in +verse 13 is not like the rustic's in the parable, who was seeking +nothing when a chance stroke of his plough or kick of his heel laid +bare the glittering gold. It is the finding which rewards seeking. The +figure of acquiring by trading, like that of the pearl-merchant in the +companion parable, implies pains, effort, willingness to part with +something in order to attain. + +The nature of the price is not here in question. We know who has said, +'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.' We buy heavenly +Wisdom when we surrender ourselves. The price is desire to possess, +and willingness to accept as an undeserved, unearned gift. But that +does not come into view in our lesson. Only this is strongly put in +it--that this heavenly Wisdom outshines all jewels, outweighs all +wealth, and is indeed the only true riches. 'Rubies' is probably +rather to be taken as 'corals,' which seem to have been very highly +prized by the Jews, and, no doubt, found their way to them from the +Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. The word rendered 'things thou canst +desire' is better taken as meaning 'jewels.' + +This noble and conclusive depreciation of material wealth in +comparison with Wisdom, which is not merely intellectual, but rests on +the fear of the Lord, and is goodness as well as understanding, never +needed preaching with more emphasis than in our day, when more and +more the commercial spirit invades every region of life, and rich men +are the aristocrats and envied types of success. When will England and +America believe the religion which they profess, and adjust their +estimates of the best things accordingly? How many so-called Christian +parents would think their son mad if he said, 'I do not care about +getting rich; my goal is to be wise with God's Wisdom'? How few of us +order our lives on the footing of this old teacher's lesson, and act +out the belief that Wisdom is more than wealth! The man who heaps +millions together, and masses it, fails in life, however a vulgar +world and a nominal church may admire and glorify him. The man who +wins Wisdom succeeds, however bare may be his cupboard, and however +people may pity him for having failed in life, because he has not +drawn prizes in the Devil's lottery. His blank is a prize, and their +prizes are blanks. This decisive subordination of material to +spiritual good is too plainly duty and common sense to need being +dwelt upon; but, alas! like a great many other most obvious, accepted +truths, it is disregarded as universally as believed. + +The inseparable accompaniments of Wisdom are next eloquently +described. The picture is the poetical clothing of the idea that all +material good will come to him who despises it all and clasps Wisdom +to his heart. Some things flow from Wisdom possessed as usual +consequences; some are inseparable from her. The gift in her right +hand is length of days; that in her left, which, by its position, is +suggested as inferior to the former, is wealth and honour--two goods +which will attend the long life. No doubt such promises are to be +taken with limitations; but there need be no doubt that, on the whole, +loyal devotion to and real possession of heavenly Wisdom do tend in +the direction of lengthening lives, which are by it delivered from +vices and anxieties which cut many a career short, and of gathering +round silver hairs reverence and troops of friends. + +These are the usual consequences, and may be fairly brought into view +as secondary encouragements to seek Wisdom. But if she is sought for +the sake of getting these attendant blessings, she will not be found. +She must be loved for herself, not for her dowry, or she will not be +won. At the same time, the overstrained and fantastic morality, which +stigmatises regard to the blessed results of a religious life as +selfishness, finds no support in Scripture, as it has none in common +sense. Would there were more of such selfishness! + +Sometimes Wisdom's hands do not hold these outward gifts. But the +connection between her and the next blessings spoken of is +inseparable. Her ways are pleasantness and peace. 'In keeping'--not +_for_ keeping--'her commandments is great reward.' Inward delight +and deep tranquillity of heart attend every step taken in obedience to +Wisdom. The course of conduct so prescribed will often involve painful +crucifying of the lower nature, but its pleasure far outweighs its +pain. It will often be strewn with sharp flints, or may even have +red-hot ploughshares laid on it, as in old ordeal trials; but still it +will be pleasant to the true self. Sin is a blunder as well as a +crime, and enlightened self-interest would point out the same course +as the highest law of Wisdom. In reality, duty and delight are +co-extensive. They are two names for one thing--one taken from +consideration of its obligation; the other, from observation of its +issues. 'Calm pleasures there abide.' The only complete peace, which +fills and quiets the whole man, comes from obeying Wisdom, or what is +the same thing, from following Christ. There is no other way of +bringing all our nature into accord with itself, ending the war +between conscience and inclination, between flesh and spirit. There is +no other way of bringing us into amity with all circumstances, so that +fortunate or adverse shall be recognised as good, and nothing be able +to agitate us very much. Peace with ourselves, the world, and God, is +always the consequence of listening to Wisdom. + +The whole fair picture is summed up in verse 18: 'She is a tree of +life to them that lay hold upon her.' This is a distinct allusion to +the narrative of Genesis. The flaming sword of the cherub guard is +sheathed, and access to the tree, which gives immortal life to those +who eat, is open to us. Mark how that great word 'life' is here +gathering to itself at least the beginnings of higher conceptions than +those of simple existence. It is swelling like a bud, and preparing to +open and disclose the perfect flower, the life which stands in the +knowledge of God and the Christ whom He has sent. Jesus, the incarnate +Wisdom, is Himself 'the Tree of Life in the midst of the paradise of +God.' The condition of access to it is 'laying hold' by the +outstretched hand of faith, and keeping hold with holy obstinacy of +grip, in spite of all temptations to slack our grasp. That retaining +is the condition of true blessedness. + +Verses 19 and 20 invest the idea of Wisdom with still loftier +sublimity, since they declare that it is an attribute of God Himself +by which creation came into being. The meaning of the writer is +inadequately grasped if we take it to be only that creation shows +God's Wisdom. This personified Wisdom dwells with God, is the agent of +creation, comes with invitations to men, may be possessed by them, and +showers blessings on them. The planet Neptune was divined before it +was discovered, by reason of perturbations in the movements of the +exterior members of the system, unaccountable unless some great globe +of light, hitherto unseen, were swaying them in their orbits. Do we +not see here like influence streaming from the unrisen light of +Christ? Personification prepares for Incarnation. There is One who has +been with the Father from the beginning, by whom all things came into +being, whose voice sounds to all, who is the Tree of Life, whom we may +all possess, and with whose own peace we may be peaceful and blessed +for evermore. + +Verses 21-24 belong to the next section of the great discourse or +hymn. They add little to the preceding. But we may observe the earnest +exhortation to let wisdom and understanding be ever in sight. Eyes are +apt to stray and clouds to hide the sun. Effort is needed to +counteract the tendency to slide out of consciousness, which our +weakness imposes on the most certain and important truths. A Wisdom +which we do not think about is as good or as bad as non-existent for +us. One prime condition of healthy spiritual life is the habit of +meditation, thereby renewing our gaze upon the facts of God's +revelation and the bearing of these on our conduct. + +The blessings flowing from Wisdom are again dilated on, from a +somewhat different point of view. She is the giver of life. And then +she adorns the life she gives. One has seen homely faces so refined +and glorified by the fair soul that shone through them as to be, 'as +it were, the face of an angel.' Gracefulness should be the outward +token of inward grace. Some good people forget that they are bound to +'adorn the doctrine.' But they who have drunk most deeply of the +fountain of Wisdom will find that, like the fabled spring, its waters +confer strange loveliness. Lives spent in communion with Jesus will be +lovely, however homely their surroundings, and however vulgar eyes, +taught only to admire staring colours, may find them dull. The world +saw 'no beauty that they should desire Him,' in Him whom holy souls +and heavenly angels and the divine Father deemed 'fairer than the sons +of men'! + +Safety and firm footing in active life will be ours if we walk in +Wisdom's ways. He who follows Christ's footsteps will tread surely, +and not fear foes. Quiet repose in hours of rest will be his. A day +filled with happy service will be followed by a night full of calm +slumber, 'Whether we sleep or wake, we live' with Him; and, if we do +both, sleeping and waking will be blessed, and our lives will move on +gently to the time when days and nights shall melt into one, and there +will be no need for repose; for there will be no work that wearies and +no hands that droop. The last lying down in the grave will be attended +with no terrors. The last sleep there shall be sweet; for it will +really be awaking to the full possession of the personal Wisdom, who +is our Christ, our Life in death, our Heaven in heaven. + + + +THE TWO PATHS + +'Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life +shall be many. 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led +thee in right paths. 12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be +straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13. Take +fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy +life. 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way +of evil men. 15. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass +away. 16. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and +their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. 17. For +they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. 18. +But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more +and more unto the perfect day. 19. The way of the wicked is as +darkness; they know not at what they stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 10-19. + + +This passage includes much more than temperance or any other single +virtue. It is a perfectly general exhortation to that practical wisdom +which walks in the path of righteousness. The principles laid down +here are true in regard to drunkenness and abstinence, but they are +intended to receive a wider application, and to that wider application +we must first look. The theme is the old, familiar one of the two +paths, and the aim is to recommend the better way by setting forth the +contrasted effects of walking in it and in the other. + +The general call to listen in verse 10 is characteristically enforced +by the Old Testament assurance that obedience prolongs life. That is a +New Testament truth as well; for there is nothing more certain than +that a life in conformity with God's will, which is the same thing as +a life in conformity with physical laws, tends to longevity. The +experience of any doctor will show that. Here in England we have +statistics which prove that total abstainers are a long-lived people, +and some insurance offices construct their tables accordingly. + +After that general call to listen comes, in verse 11, the description +of the path in which long life is to be found. It is 'the way of +Wisdom'--that is, that which Wisdom prescribes, and in which therefore +it is wise to walk. It is always foolish to do wrong. The rough title +of an old play is _The Devil is an Ass_, and if that is not true +about him, it is absolutely true about those who listen to his lies. +Sin is the stupidest thing in the universe, for it ignores the +plainest facts, and never gets what it flings away so much to secure. + +Another aspect of the path is presented in the designation 'paths of +uprightness,' which seems to be equivalent to those which belong to, +or perhaps which consist of, uprightness. The idea of straightness or +evenness is the primary meaning of the word, and is, of course, +appropriate to the image of a path. In the moral view, it suggests how +much more simple and easy a course of rectitude is than one of sin. +The one goes straight and unswerving to its end; the other is crooked, +devious, intricate, and wanders from the true goal. A crooked road is +a long road, and an up-and-down road is a tiring road. Wisdom's way is +straight, level, and steadily approaches its aim. + +In verse 13 the image of the path is dropped for the moment, and the +picture of the way of uprightness and its travellers is translated +into the plain exhortation to keep fast hold of 'instruction,' which +is substantially equivalent to the queenly Wisdom of these early +chapters of Proverbs. The earnestness of the repeated exhortations +implies the strength of the forces that tend to sweep us, especially +those of us who are young, from our grasp of that Wisdom. Hands become +slack, and many a good gift drops from nerveless fingers; thieves +abound who will filch away 'instruction,' if we do not resolutely hold +tight by it. Who would walk through the slums of a city holding jewels +with a careless grasp, and never looking at them? How many would he +have left if he did? We do not need to do anything to lose +instruction. If we will only do nothing to keep it, the world and our +own hearts will make sure that we lose it. And if we lose it, we lose +ourselves; for 'she is thy life,' and the mere bodily life, that is +lived without her, is not worth calling the life of a man. + +Verses 14 to 17 give the picture of the other path, in terrible +contrast with the preceding. It is noteworthy that, while in the +former the designation was the 'path of uprightness' or of 'wisdom,' +and the description therefore was mainly of the characteristics of the +path, here the designation is 'the path of the _wicked_,' and the +description is mainly of the travellers on it. Righteousness was dealt +with, as it were, in the abstract; but wickedness is too awful and +dark to be painted thus, and is only set forth in the concrete, as +seen in its doers. Now, it is significant that the first exhortation +here is of a negative character. In contrast with the reiterated +exhortations to keep wisdom, here are reiterated counsels to steer +clear of evil. It is all about us, and we have to make a strong effort +to keep it at arm's-length. 'Whom resist' is imperative. True, +negative virtue is incomplete, but there will be no positive virtue +without it. We must be accustomed to say 'No,' or we shall come to +little good. An outer belt of firs is sometimes planted round a centre +of more tender and valuable wood to shelter the young trees; so we +have to make a fence of abstinences round our plantation of positive +virtues. The decalogue is mostly prohibitions. 'So did _not_ I, +because of the fear of God' must be our motto. In this light, entire +abstinence from intoxicants is seen to be part of the 'way of Wisdom.' +It is one, and, in the present state of England and America, perhaps +the most important, of the ways by which we can 'turn from' the path +of the wicked and 'pass on.' + +The picture of the wicked in verses 16 and 17 is that of very grossly +criminal sinners. They are only content when they have done harm, and +delight in making others as bad as themselves. But, diabolical as such +a disposition is, one sees it only too often in full operation. How +many a drunkard or impure man finds a fiendish pleasure in getting +hold of some innocent lad, and 'putting him up to a thing or two,' +which means teaching him the vices from which the teacher has ceased +to get much pleasure, and which he has to spice with the condiment of +seeing an unaccustomed sinner's eagerness! Such people infest our +streets, and there is only one way for a young man to be safe from +them,--'avoid, pass not by, turn from, and pass on.' The reference to +'bread' and 'wine' in verse 17 seems simply to mean that the wicked +men's living is won by their 'wickedness,' which procures bread, and +by their 'violence,' which brings them wine. It is the way by which +these are obtained that is culpable. We may contrast this foul source +of a degraded living with verse 13, where 'instruction' is set forth +as 'the life' of the upright. + +Verses 18 and 19 bring more closely together the two paths, and set +them in final, forcible contrast. The phrase 'the perfect day' might +be rendered, vividly though clumsily, 'the steady of the day'--that +is, noon, when the sun seems to stand still in the meridian. So the +image compares the path of the just to the growing brightness of +morning dawn, becoming more and more fervid and lustrous, till the +climax of an Eastern midday. No more sublime figure of the continuous +progress in goodness, brightness, and joy, which is the best reward of +walking in the paths of uprightness, can be imagined; and it is as +true as it is sublime. Blessed they who in the morning of their days +begin to walk in the way of wisdom; for, in most cases, years will +strengthen their uprightness, and to that progress there will be no +termination, nor will the midday sun have to decline westward to +diminishing splendour or dismal setting, but that noontide glory will +be enhanced, and made eternal in a new heaven. The brighter the light, +the darker the shadow. That blaze of growing glory, possible for us +all, makes the tragic gloom to which evil men condemn themselves the +thicker and more doleful, as some dungeon in an Eastern prison seems +pitch dark to one coming in from the blaze outside. 'How great is that +darkness!' It is the darkness of sin, of ignorance, of sorrow, and +what adds deeper gloom to it is that every soul that sits in that +shadow of death might have been shining, a sun, in the spacious heaven +of God's love. + + + +MONOTONY AND CRISES + +'When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou +runnest, thou shalt not stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 12. + + +The old metaphor likening life to a path has many felicities in it. It +suggests constant change, it suggests continuous progress in one +direction, and that all our days are linked together, and are not +isolated fragments; and it suggests an aim and an end. So we find it +perpetually in this Book of Proverbs. Here the 'way' has a specific +designation, 'the way of Wisdom'--that is to say, the way which Wisdom +teaches, and the way on which Wisdom accompanies us, and the way which +leads to Wisdom. Now, these two clauses of my text are not merely an +instance of the peculiar feature of Hebrew poetry called parallelism, +in which two clauses, substantially the same, occur, but with a little +pleasing difference. 'When thou goest'--that is, the monotonous tramp, +tramp, tramp of slow walking along the path of an uneventful daily +life, the humdrum 'one foot up and another foot down' which makes the +most of our days. 'When thou runnest'--that points to the crises, the +sudden spurts, the necessarily brief bursts of more than usual energy +and effort and difficulty. And about both of them, the humdrum and the +exciting, the monotonous and the startling, the promise comes that if +we walk in the path of Wisdom we shall not get disgusted with the one +and we shall not be overwhelmed by the other. 'When thou walkest, thy +steps shall not be straitened; when thou runnest, thou shalt not +stumble.' + +But before I deal with these two clauses specifically, let me recall +to you the condition, and the sole condition, upon which either of +them can be fulfilled in our daily lives. The book from which my text +is taken is probably one of the very latest in the Old Testament, and +you catch in it a very significant and marvellous development of the +Old Testament thought. For there rises up, out of these early chapters +of the Book of Proverbs, that august and serene figure of the queenly +Wisdom, which is more than a personification and is less than a person +and a prophecy. It means more than the wise man that spoke it saw; it +means for us Christ, 'the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.' And so +instead of keeping ourselves merely to the word of the Book of +Proverbs, we must grasp the thing that shines through the word, and +realise that the writer's visions can only become realities when the +serene and august Wisdom that he saw shimmering through the darkness +took to itself a human Form, and 'the Word became flesh, and dwelt +among us.' + +With that heightening of the meaning of the phrase, 'the path of +Wisdom' assumes a heightened meaning too, for it is the path of the +personal Wisdom, the Incarnate Wisdom, Christ Himself. And what does +it _then_ come to be to obey this command to walk in the way of +Wisdom? Put it into three sentences. Let the Christ who is not only +wise, but Wisdom, choose your path, and be sure that by the submission +of your will all your paths are His, and not only yours. Make His path +yours by following in His steps, and do in your place what you think +Christ would have done if He had been there. Keep company with Him on +the road. If we will do these three things--if we will say to Him, +'Lord, when Thou sayest go, I go; when Thou biddest me come, I come; I +am Thy slave, and I rejoice in the bondage more than in all licentious +liberty, and what Thou biddest me do, I do'--if you will further say, +'As Thou art, so am I in the world'--and if you will further say, +'Leave me not alone, and let me cling to Thee on the road, as a little +child holds on by her mother's skirt or her father's hand,' then, and +only then, will you walk in the path of Wisdom. + +Now, then, these three things--submission of will, conformity of +conduct, closeness of companionship--these three things being +understood, let us look for a moment at the blessings that this text +promises, and first at the promise for long uneventful stretches of +our daily life. That, of course, is mainly the largest proportion of +all our lives. Perhaps nine-tenths at least of all our days and years +fall under the terms of this first promise, 'When thou walkest.' For +many miles there comes nothing particular, nothing at all exciting, +nothing new, nothing to break the plod, plod, plod along the road. +Everything is as it was yesterday, and the day before that, and as it +will be to-morrow, and the day after that, in all probability. 'The +trivial round, the common task' make up by far the largest percentage +of our lives. It is as in wine, the immense proportion of it is +nothing but water, and only a small proportion of alcohol is diffused +through the great mass of the tamer liquid. + +Now, then, if Jesus Christ is not to help us in the monotony of our +daily lives, what, in the name of common sense, is His help good for? +If it is not true that He will be with us, not only in the moments of +crisis, but in the long commonplace hours, we may as well have no +Christ at all, for all that I can see. Unless the trivial is His +field, there is very little field for Him, in your life or mine. And +so it should come to all of us who have to take up this daily burden +of small, monotonous, constantly recurring, and therefore often +wearisome, duties, as even a more blessed promise than the other one, +that 'when thou walkest, thy steps shall not be straitened.' + +I remember hearing of a man that got so disgusted with having to dress +and undress himself every day that he committed suicide to escape from +the necessity. That is a very extreme form of the feeling that comes +over us all sometimes, when we wake in a morning and look before us +along the stretch of dead level, which is a great deal more wearisome +when it lasts long than are the cheerful vicissitudes of up hill and +down dale. We all know the deadening influence of a habit. We all know +the sense of disgust that comes over us at times, and of utter +weariness, just because we have been doing the same things day after +day for so long. I know only one infallible way of preventing the +common from becoming commonplace, of preventing the small from +becoming trivial, of preventing the familiar from becoming +contemptible, and it is to link it all to Jesus Christ, and to say, +'For Thy sake, and unto Thee, I do this'; then, not only will the +rough places become plain, and the crooked things straight, and not +only will the mountains be brought low, but the valleys of the +commonplace will be exalted. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened.' 'I +will make his feet as hind's feet,' says one of the old prophets. What +a picture of light, buoyant, graceful movement that is! And each of us +may have that, instead of the grind, grind, grind! tramp, tramp, +tramp! along the level and commonplace road of our daily lives, if we +will. Walk in the path of Christ, with Christ, towards Christ, and +'thy steps shall not be straitened.' + +Now, there is another aspect of this same promise--viz. if we thus are +in the path of Incarnate Wisdom, we shall not feel the restrictions of +the road to be restraints. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened'; +although there is a wall on either side, and the road is the narrow +way that leads to life, it is broad enough for the sober man, because +he goes in a straight line, and does not need half the road to roll +about in. The limits which love imposes, and the limits which love +accepts, are not narrowing. 'I will walk at liberty, for--I do as I +like.' No! that is slavery; but, 'I will walk at liberty, for I keep +Thy precepts'; and I do not want to go vagrantising at large, but +limit myself thankfully to the way which Thou dost mark out. 'Thy +steps shall not be straitened.' So much for the first of these +promises. + +Now what about the other one? 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not +stumble.' + +As I have said, the former promise applies to the hours and the years +of life. The latter applies to but a few moments of each man's life. +Cast your thoughts back over your own days, and however changeful, +eventful, perhaps adventurous, and as we people call it, romantic, +some parts of our lives may have been, yet for all that you can put +the turning-points, the crises that have called for great efforts, and +the gathering of yourselves up, and the calling forth of all your +powers to do and to dare, you can put them all inside of a week, in +most cases. 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.' The greater +the speed, the greater the risk of stumbling over some obstacle in the +way. We all know how many men there are that do very well in the +uneventful commonplaces of life, but bring them face to face with some +great difficulty or some great trial, and there is a dismal failure. +Jesus Christ is ready to make us fit for anything in the way of +difficulty, in the way of trial, that can come storming upon us from +out of the dark. And He will make us so fit if we follow the +injunctions to which I have already been referring. Without His help +it is almost certain that when we have to run, our ankles will give, +or there will be a stone in the road that we never thought of, and the +excitement will sweep us away from principle, and we shall lose our +hold on Him; and then it is all up with us. + +There is a wonderful saying in one of the prophets, which uses this +same metaphor of my text with a difference, where it speaks of the +divine guidance of Israel as being like that of a horse in the +wilderness. Fancy the poor, nervous, tremulous creature trying to keep +its footing upon the smooth granite slabs of Sinai. Travellers dare +not take their horses on mountain journeys, because they are highly +nervous and are not sure-footed enough. And, so says the old prophet, +that gracious Hand will be laid on the bridle, and hold the nervous +creature's head up as it goes sliding over the slippery rocks, and so +He will bring it down to rest in the valley. 'Now unto Him that is +able to keep us from stumbling,' as is the true rendering, 'and to +present us faultless ... be glory.' Trust Him, keep near Him, let Him +choose your way, and try to be like Him in it; and whatever great +occasions may arise in your lives, either of sorrow or of duty, you +will be equal to them. + +But remember the virtue that comes out victorious in the crisis must +have been nourished and cultivated in the humdrum moments. For it is +no time to make one's first acquaintance with Jesus Christ when the +eyeballs of some ravenous wild beast are staring into ours, and its +mouth is open to swallow us. Unless He has kept our feet from being +straitened in the quiet walk, He will not be able to keep us from +stumbling in the vehement run. + +One word more. This same distinction is drawn by one of the prophets, +who adds another clause to it. Isaiah, or the author of the second +portion of the book which goes by his name, puts in wonderful +connection the two thoughts of my text with analogous thoughts in +regard to God, when he says, 'Hast thou not known, hast thou not +heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of +the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?' and immediately goes on to +say, 'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They +shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' So it is +from God, the unfainting and the unwearied, that the strength comes +which makes our steps buoyant with energy amidst the commonplace, and +steadfast and established at the crises of our lives. But before these +two great promises is put another one: 'They shall mount up with wings +as eagles,' and therefore both the other become possible. That is to +say, fellowship with God in the heavens, which is made possible on +earth by communion with Christ, is the condition both of the unwearied +running and of unfainting walking. If we will keep in the path of +Christ, He will take care of the commonplace dreary tracts and of the +brief moments of strain and effort, and will bring us at last where He +has gone, if, looking unto Him, we 'run with patience the race,' and +walk with cheerfulness the road, 'that is set before us.' + + + +FROM DAWN TO NOON + +'The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and +more unto the perfect day.'--PROVERBS iv. 18. + +'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of +their father.--MATT. xiii. 43. + + +The metaphor common to both these texts is not infrequent throughout +Scripture. In one of the oldest parts of the Old Testament, Deborah's +triumphal song, we find, 'Let all them that love Thee be as the sun +when he goeth forth in his might.' In one of the latest parts of the +Old Testament, Daniel's prophecy, we read, 'They that be wise shall +shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to +righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' Then in the New +Testament we have Christ's comparison of His servants to light, and +the great promise which I have read as my second text. The upshot of +them all is this--the most radiant thing on earth is the character of +a good man. The world calls men of genius and intellectual force its +lights. The divine estimate, which is the true one, confers the name +on righteousness. + +But my first text follows out another analogy; not only brightness, +but progressive brightness, is the characteristic of the righteous +man. + +We are to think of the strong Eastern sun, whose blinding light +steadily increases till the noontide. 'The perfect day' is a somewhat +unfortunate translation. What is meant is the point of time at which +the day culminates, and for a moment, the sun seems to stand steady, +up in those southern lands, in the very zenith, raying down 'the +arrows that fly by noonday.' The text does not go any further, it does +not talk about the sad diminution of the afternoon. The parallel does +not hold; though, if we consult appearance and sense alone, it seems +to hold only too well. For, sadder than the setting of the suns, which +rise again to-morrow, is the sinking into darkness of death, from +which there seems to be no emerging. But my second text comes in to +tell us that death is but as the shadow of eclipse which passes, and +with it pass obscuring clouds and envious mists, and 'then shall the +righteous blaze forth like the sun in their Heavenly Father's +kingdom.' + +And so the two texts speak to us of the progressive brightness, and +the ultimate, which is also the progressive, radiance of the +righteous. + +I. In looking at them together, then, I would notice, first, what a +Christian life is meant to be. + +I must not linger on the lovely thoughts that are suggested by that +attractive metaphor of life. It must be enough, for our present +purpose, to say that the light of the Christian life, like its type in +the heavens, may be analysed into three beams--purity, knowledge, +blessedness. And these three, blended together, make the pure +whiteness of a Christian soul. + +But what I wish rather to dwell upon is the other thought, the +intention that every Christian life should be a life of increasing +lustre, uninterrupted, and the natural result of increasing communion +with, and conformity to, the very fountain itself of heavenly +radiance. + +Remember how emphatically, in all sorts of ways, progress is laid down +in Scripture as the mark of a religious life. There is the emblem of +my text. There is our Lord's beautiful one of vegetable growth: 'First +the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.' There is the +other metaphor of the stages of human life, 'babes in Christ,' young +men in Him, old men and fathers. There is the metaphor of the growth +of the body. There is the metaphor of the gradual building up of a +structure. We are to 'edify ourselves together,' and to 'build +ourselves up on our most holy faith.' There is the other emblem of a +race--continual advance as the result of continual exertion, and the +use of the powers bestowed upon us. + +And so in all these ways, and in many others that I need not now touch +upon, Scripture lays it down as a rule that life in the highest +region, like life in the lowest, is marked by continual growth. It is +so in regard to all other things. Continuity in any kind of practice +gives increasing power in the art. The artisan, the blacksmith with +his hammer, the skilled artificer at his trade, the student at his +subject, the good man in his course of life, and the bad man in his, +do equally show that use becomes second nature. And so, in passing, +let me say what incalculable importance there is in our getting habit, +with all its mystical power to mould life, on the side of +righteousness, and of becoming accustomed to do good, and so being +unfamiliar with evil. + +Let me remind you, too, how this intention of continuous growth is +marked by the gifts that are bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. He +gives us--and it is by no means the least of the gifts that He +bestows--an absolutely unattainable aim as the object of our efforts. +For He bids us not only be 'perfect, as our Father in Heaven is +perfect,' but He bids us be entirely conformed to His own Self. The +misery of men is that they pursue aims so narrow and so shabby that +they can be attained, and are therefore left behind, to sink hull down +on the backward horizon. But to have before us an aim which is +absolutely unreachable, instead of being, as ignorant people say, an +occasion of despair and of idleness, is, on the contrary, the very +salt of life. It keeps us young, it makes hope immortal, it +emancipates from lower pursuits, it diminishes the weight of sorrows, +it administers an anaesthetic to every pain. If you want to keep +life fresh, seek for that which you can never fully find. + +Christ gives us infinite powers to reach that unattainable aim, for He +gives us access to all His own fullness, and there is more in His +storehouses than we can ever take, not to say more than we can ever +hope to exhaust. And therefore, because of the aim that is set before +us, and because of the powers that are bestowed upon us to reach it, +there is stamped upon every Christian life unmistakably as God's +purpose and ideal concerning it, that it should for ever and for ever +be growing nearer and nearer, as some ascending spiral that ever +circles closer and closer, and yet never absolutely unites with the +great central Perfection which is Himself. + +So, brethren, for every one of us, if we are Christian people at all, +'this is the will of God, even your perfection.' + +II. Consider the sad contrast of too many Christian lives. + +I would not speak in terms that might seem to be reproach and +scolding. The matter is far too serious, the disease far too +widespread, to need or to warrant any exaggeration. But, dear +brethren, there are many so-called and, in a fashion, really Christian +people to whom Christ and His work are mainly, if not exclusively, the +means of escaping the consequences of sin--a kind of 'fire-escape.' +And to very many it comes as a new thought, in so far as their +practical lives are concerned, that these ought to be lives of +steadily increasing deliverance from the love and the power of sin, +and steadily increasing appropriation and manifestation of Christ's +granted righteousness. There are, I think, many of us from whom the +very notion of progress has faded away. I am sure there are some of us +who were a great deal farther on on the path of the Christian life +years ago, when we first felt that Christ was anything to us, than we +are to-day. 'When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need +that one teach you which be the first principles of the oracles of +God.' + +There is an old saying of one of the prophets that a child would die a +hundred years old, which in a very sad sense is true about very many +folk within the pale of the Christian Church who are seventy-year-old +babes still, and will die so. Suns 'growing brighter and brighter +until the noonday!' Ah! there are many of us who are a great deal more +like those strange variable stars that sometimes burst out in the +heavens into a great blaze, that brings them up to the brightness of +stars of the first magnitude, for a day or two; and then they dwindle +until they become little specks of light that the telescope can hardly +see. + +And there are hosts of us who are instances, if not of arrested, at +any rate of unsymmetrical, development. The head, perhaps, is +cultivated; the intellectual apprehension of Christianity increases, +while the emotional, and the moral, and the practical part of it are +all neglected. Or the converse may be the case; and we may be full of +gush and of good emotion, and of fervour when we come to worship or to +pray, and our lives may not be a hair the better for it all. Or there +may be a disproportion because of an exclusive attention to conduct +and the practical side of Christianity, while the rational side of it, +which should be the basis of all, and the emotional side of it, which +should be the driving power of all, are comparatively neglected. + +So, dear brethren! what with interruptions, what with growing by fits +and starts, and long, dreary winters like the Arctic winters, coming +in between the two or three days of rapid, and therefore brief and +unwholesome, development, we must all, I think, take to heart the +condemnation suggested by this text when we compare the reality of our +lives with the divine intention concerning them. Let us ask ourselves, +'Have I more command over myself than I had twenty years ago? Do I +live nearer Jesus Christ today than I did yesterday? Have I more of +His Spirit in me? Am I growing? Would the people that know me best say +that I am growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour?' +Astronomers tell us that there are dark suns, that have burnt +themselves out, and are wandering unseen through the skies. I wonder +if there are any extinguished suns of that sort listening to me at +this moment. + +III. How the divine purpose concerning us may be realised by us. + +Now the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_ of this, the one means which +includes all other, is laid down by Jesus Christ Himself in another +metaphor when He said, 'Abide in Me, and I in you; so shall ye bring +forth much fruit.' Our path will brighten, not because of any radiance +in ourselves, but in proportion as we draw nearer and nearer to the +Fountain of heavenly radiance. + +The planets that move round the sun, further away than we are on +earth, get less of its light and heat; and those that circle around it +within the limits of our orbit, get proportionately more. The nearer +we are to Him, the more we shall shine. The sun shines by its own +light, drawn indeed from the shrinkage of its mass, so that it gives +away its very life in warming and illuminating its subject-worlds. But +we shine only by reflected light, and therefore the nearer we keep to +Him the more shall we be radiant. + +That keeping in touch with Jesus Christ is mainly to be secured by the +direction of thought, and love, and trust to Him. If we follow close +upon Him we shall not walk in darkness. It is to be secured and +maintained very largely by what I am afraid is much neglected by +Christian people of all sorts nowadays, and that is the devotional use +of their Bibles. That is the food by which we grow. It is to be secured +and maintained still more largely by that which I, again, am afraid is +but very imperfectly attained to by Christian people now, and that is, +the habit of prayer. It is to be secured and maintained, again, by the +honest conforming of our lives, day by day, to the present amount of our +knowledge of Him and of His will. Whosoever will make all his life the +manifestation of his belief, and turn all his creed into principles of +action, will grow both in the comprehensiveness, and in the depths of +his Christian character. 'Ye are the light in the Lord.' Keep in Him, +and you will become brighter and brighter. So shall we 'go from strength +to strength, till we appear before God in Zion.' + +IV. Lastly, what brighter rising will follow the earthly setting? + +My second text comes in here. Beauty, intellect, power, goodness; all +go down into the dark. The sun sets, and there is left a sad and +fading glow in the darkening pensive sky, which may recall the +vanished light for a little while to a few faithful hearts, but +steadily passes into the ashen grey of forgetfulness. + +But 'then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun, in their +Heavenly Father's kingdom.' The momentary setting is but apparent. And +ere it is well accomplished, a new sun swims into the 'ampler ether, +the diviner air' of that future life, 'and with new spangled beams, +flames in the forehead of the morning sky.' + +The reason for that inherent brightness suggested in our second text +is that the soul of the righteous man passes from earth into a region +out of which we 'gather all things that offend, and them that do +iniquity.' There are other reasons for it, but that is the one which +our Lord dwells on. Or, to put it into modern scientific language, +environment corresponds to character. So, when the clouds have rolled +away, and no more mists from the undrained swamps of selfishness and +sin and animal nature rise up to hide the radiance, there shall be a +fuller flood of light poured from the re-created sun. + +That brightness thus promised has for its highest and most blessed +character that it is conformity to the Lord Himself. For, as you may +remember, the last use of this emblem that we find in Scripture refers +not to the servant but to the Master, whom His beloved disciple in +Apocalyptic vision saw, with His 'countenance as the sun shining in +his strength.' Thus 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.' And therefore that radiance of the sainted dead is progressive, +too. For it has an infinite fulness to draw upon, and the soul that is +joined to Jesus Christ, and derives its lustre from Him, cannot die +until it has outgrown Jesus and emptied God. The sun will one day be a +dark, cold ball. We shall outlast it. + +But, brethren, remember that it is only those who here on earth have +progressively appropriated the brightness that Christ bestows who have +a right to reckon on that better rising. It is contrary to all +probability to believe that the passage from life can change the +ingrained direction and set of a man's nature. We know nothing that +warrants us in affirming that death can revolutionise character. Do +not trust your future to such a dim peradventure. Here is a plain +truth. They who on earth are as 'the shining light that shineth more +and more unto the perfect day,' shall, beyond the shadow of eclipse, +shine on as the sun does, behind the opaque, intervening body, all +unconscious of what looks to mortal eyes on earth an eclipse, and +'shall blaze out like the sun in their Heavenly Father's kingdom.' For +all that we know and are taught by experience, religious and moral +distinctions are eternal. 'He that is righteous, let him be righteous +still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.' + + + +KEEPING AND KEPT + +'Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of +life.'--PROVERBS iv. 23. + +'Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'--1 PETER 1. +5. + + +The former of these texts imposes a stringent duty, the latter +promises divine help to perform it. The relation between them is that +between the Law and the Gospel. The Law commands, the Gospel gives +power to obey. The Law pays no attention to man's weakness, and points +no finger to the source of strength. Its office is to set clearly +forth what we ought to be, not to aid us in becoming so. 'Here is your +duty, do it' is, doubtless, a needful message, but it is a chilly one, +and it may well be doubted if it ever rouses a soul to right action. +Moralists have hammered away at preaching self-restraint and a close +watch over the fountain of actions within from the beginning, but +their exhortations have little effect unless they can add to their icy +injunctions the warmth of the promise of our second text, and point to +a divine Keeper who will make duty possible. We must be kept by God, +if we are ever to succeed in keeping our wayward hearts. + +I. Without our guarding our hearts, no noble life is possible. + +The Old Testament psychology differs from our popular allocation of +certain faculties to bodily organs. We use head and heart, roughly +speaking, as being respectively the seats of thought and of emotion. +But the Old Testament locates in the heart the centre of personal +being. It is not merely the home of the affections, but the seat of +will, moral purpose. As this text says, 'the issues of life' flow from +it in all the multitudinous variety of their forms. The stream parts +into many heads, but it has one fountain. To the Hebrew thinkers the +heart was the indivisible, central unity which manifested itself in +the whole of the outward life. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is +he.' The heart is the man. And that personal centre has a moral +character which comes to light in, and gives unity and character to, +all his deeds. + +That solemn thought that every one of us has a definite moral +character, and that our deeds are not an accidental set of outward +actions but flow from an inner fountain, needs to be driven home to +our consciences, for most of the actions of most men are done so +mechanically, and reflected on so little by the doers, that the +conviction of their having any moral character at all, or of our +incurring any responsibility for them, is almost extinct in us, unless +when something startles conscience into protest. + +It is this shrouded inner self to which supreme care is to be +directed. All noble ethical teaching concurs in this--that a man who +seeks to be right must keep, in the sense both of watching and of +guarding, his inner self. Conduct is more easily regulated than +character--and less worth regulating. It avails little to plant +watchers on the stream half way to the sea. Control must be exercised +at the source, if it is to be effectual. The counsel of our first text +is a commonplace of all wholesome moral teaching since the beginning +of the world. The phrase 'with all diligence' is literally 'above all +guarding,' and energetically expresses the supremacy of this keeping. +It should be the foremost, all-pervading aim of every wise man who +would not let his life run to waste. It may be turned into more modern +language, meaning just what this ancient sage meant, if we put it as, +'Guard thy character with more carefulness than thou dost thy most +precious possessions, for it needs continual watchfulness, and, +untended, will go to rack and ruin.' The exhortation finds a response +in every heart, and may seem too familiar and trite to bear dwelling +on, but we may be allowed to touch lightly on one or two of the plain +reasons which enforce it on every man who is not what Proverbs very +unpolitely calls 'a fool.' + +That guarding is plainly imposed as necessary, by the very +constitution of our manhood. Our nature is evidently not a republic, +but a monarchy. It is full of blind impulses, and hungry desires, +which take no heed of any law but their own satisfaction. If the reins +are thrown on the necks of these untamed horses, they will drag the +man to destruction. They are only safe when they are curbed and +bitted, and held well in. Then there are tastes and inclinations which +need guidance and are plainly meant to be subordinate. The will is to +govern all the lower self, and conscience is to govern the will. +Unmistakably there are parts of every man's nature which are meant to +serve, and parts which are appointed to rule, and to let the servants +usurp the place of the rulers is to bring about as wild a confusion +within as the Ecclesiast lamented that he had seen in the anarchic +times when he wrote--princes walking and beggars on horseback. As +George Herbert has it-- + + 'Give not thy humours way; + God gave them to thee under lock and key.' + +Then, further, that guarding is plainly imperative, because there is +an outer world which appeals to our needs and desires, irrespective +altogether of right and wrong and of the moral consequences of +gratifying these. Put a loaf before a starving man and his impulse +will be to clutch and devour it, without regard to whether it is his +or no. Show any of our animal propensities its appropriate food, and +it asks no questions as to right or wrong, but is stirred to grasp its +natural food. And even the higher and nobler parts of our nature are +but too apt to seek their gratification without having the license of +conscience for doing so, and sometimes in defiance of its plain +prohibitions. It is never safe to trust the guidance of life to +tastes, inclinations, or to anything but clear reason, set in motion +by calm will, and acting under the approbation of 'the Lord Chief +Justice, Conscience.' + +But again, seeing that the world has more evil than good in it, the +keeping of the heart will always consist rather in repelling +solicitations to yielding to evil. In short, the power and the habit +of sternly saying 'No' to the whole crowd of tempters is always the +main secret of a noble life. 'He that hath no rule over his own spirit +is like a city broken down and without walls.' + +II. There is no effectual guarding unless God guards. + +The counsel in Proverbs is not mere toothless moral commonplace, but +is associated, in the preceding chapter, with fatherly advice to 'let +thine heart keep my commandments' and to 'trust in the Lord with all +thine heart.' The heart that so trusts will be safely guarded, and +only such a heart will be. The inherent weakness of all attempts at +self-keeping is that keeper and kept being one and the same +personality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to +effect it. If in the very garrison are traitors, how shall the +fortress be defended? If, then, we are to exercise an effectual guard +over our characters and control over our natures, we must have an +outward standard of right and wrong which shall not be deflected by +variations in our temperature. We need a fixed light to steer towards, +which is stable on the stable shore, and is not tossing up and down on +our decks. We shall cleanse our way only when we 'take heed thereto, +according to Thy word.' For even God's viceroy within, the sovereign +conscience, can be warped, perverted, silenced, and is not immune from +the spreading infection of evil. When it turns to God, as a mirror to +the sun, it is irradiated and flashes bright illumination into dark +corners, but its power depends on its being thus lit by radiations +from the very Light of Life. And if we are ever to have a coercive +power over the rebellious powers within, we must have God's power +breathed into us, giving grip and energy to all the good within, +quickening every lofty desire, satisfying every aspiration that feels +after Him, cowing all our evil and being the very self of ourselves. + +We need an outward motive which will stimulate and stir to effort. Our +wills are lamed for good, and the world has strong charms that appeal +to us. And if we are not to yield to these, there must be somewhere a +stronger motive than any that the sorceress world has in its stores, +that shall constrainingly draw us to ways that, because they tend +upward, and yield no pabulum for the lower self, are difficult for +sluggish feet. To the writer of this Book of Proverbs the name of God +bore in it such a motive. To us the name of Jesus, which is Love, +bears a yet mightier appeal, and the motive which lies in His death +for us is strong enough, and it alone is strong enough, to fire our +whole selves with enthusiastic, grateful love, which will burn up our +sloth, and sweep our evil out of our hearts, and make us swift and +glad to do all that may please Him. If there must be fresh +reinforcements thrown into the town of Mansoul, as there must be if it +is not to be captured, there is one sure way of securing these. Our +second text tells us whence the relieving force must come. If we are +to keep our hearts with all diligence, we must be 'kept by the power +of God,' and that power is not merely to make diversion outside the +beleaguered fortress which may force the besiegers to retreat and give +up their effort, but is to enter in and possess the soul which it +wills to defend. It is when the enemy sees that new succours have, in +some mysterious way, been introduced, that he gives up his siege. It +is God in us that is our security. + +III. There is no keeping by God without faith. + +Peter was an expert in such matters, for he had had a bitter +experience to teach him how soon and surely self-confidence became +self-despair. 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,' was +said but a few hours before he denied Jesus. His faith failed, and +then the divine guard that was keeping his soul passed thence, and, +left alone, he fell. + +That divine Power is exerted for our keeping on condition of our +trusting ourselves to Him and trusting Him for ourselves. And that +condition is no arbitrary one, but is prescribed by the very nature of +divine help and of human faith. If God could keep our souls without +our trust in Him He would. He does so keep them as far as is possible, +but for all the choicer blessings of His giving, and especially for +that of keeping us free from the domination of our lower selves, there +must be in us faith if there is to be in God help. The hand that lays +hold on God in Christ must be stretched out and must grasp His warm, +gentle, and strong hand, if the tingling touch of it is to infuse +strength. If the relieving force is victoriously to enter our hearts, +we must throw open the gates and welcome it. Faith is but the open +door for God's entrance. It has no efficacy in itself any more than a +door has, but all its blessedness depends on what it admits into the +hidden chambers of the heart. + +I reiterate what I have tried to show in these poor words. There is no +noble life without our guarding our hearts; there is no effectual +guarding unless God guards; there is no divine guarding unless through +our faith. It is vain to preach self-governing and self-keeping. +Unless we can tell the beleaguered heart, 'The Lord is thy Keeper; He +will keep thee from all evil; He will keep thy soul,' we only add one +more impossible command to a man's burden. And we do not apprehend nor +experience the divine keeping in its most blessed and fullest reality, +unless we find it in Jesus, who is 'able to keep us from falling, and +to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with +exceeding joy.' + + + +THE CORDS OF SIN + +'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be +holden with the cords of his sins.'--PROVERBS v. 22. + + +In Hosea's tender picture of the divine training of Israel which, +alas! failed of its effect, we read, 'I drew them with cords of a +man,' which is further explained as being 'with bands of love.' The +metaphor in the prophet's mind is probably that of a child being +'taught to go' and upheld in its first tottering steps by +leading-strings. God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield to the +drawing. But if these gentle, attractive influences, which ever are +raying out from Him, are resisted, another set of cords, not now +sustaining and attracting, but hampering and fettering, twine +themselves round the rebellious life, and the man is like a wild +creature snared in the hunter's toils, enmeshed in a net, and with its +once free limbs restrained. The choice is open to us all, whether we +will let God draw us to Himself with the sweet manlike cords of His +educative and forbearing love, or, flinging off these, which only +foolish self-will construes into limitations, shall condemn ourselves +to be prisoned within the narrow room of our own sins. We may choose +which condition shall be ours, but one or other of them must be ours. +We may either be drawn by the silken cord of God's love or we may be +'holden by the cords' of our sins. + +In both clauses of our text evil deeds done are regarded as having a +strange, solemn life apart from the doer of them, by which they become +influential factors in his subsequent life. Their issues on others may +be important, but their issues on him are the most important of all. +The recoil of the gun on the shoulder of him who fired it is certain, +whether the cartridge that flew from its muzzle wounded anything or +not. 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked'--they ring him round, +a grim company to whom he has given an independent being, and who have +now 'taken' him prisoner and laid violent hands on him. A long since +forgotten novel told of the fate of 'a modern Prometheus,' who made +and put life into a dreadful creature in man's shape, that became the +curse of its creator's life. That tragedy is repeated over and over +again. We have not done with our evil deeds when we have done them, +but they, in a very terrible sense, begin to be when they are done. We +sow the seeds broadcast, and the seed springs up dragon's teeth. + +The view of human experience set forth, especially in the second +clause of this text, directs our gaze into dark places, into which it +is not pleasant to look, and many of you will accuse me of preaching +gloomily if I try to turn a reflective eye inwards upon them, but no +one will be able to accuse me of not preaching truly. It is impossible +to enumerate all the cords that make up the net in which our own evil +doings hold us meshed, but let me point out some of these. + +I. Our evil deeds become evil habits. + +We all know that anything once done becomes easier to do again. That +is true about both good and bad actions, but 'ill weeds grow apace,' +and it is infinitely easier to form a bad habit than a good one. The +young shoot is green and flexible at first, but it soon becomes woody +and grows high and strikes deep. We can all verify the statement of +our text by recalling the tremors of conscience, the self-disgust, the +dread of discovery which accompanied the first commission of some evil +deed, and the silence of undisturbed, almost unconscious facility, +that accompanied later repetitions of it. Sins of sense and animal +passion afford the most conspicuous instances of this, but it is by no +means confined to these. We have but to look steadily at our own lives +to be aware of the working of this solemn law in them, however clear +we may be of the grosser forms of evil deeds. For us all it is true +that custom presses on us 'with a weight, heavy as frost and deep +almost as life,' and that it is as hard for the Ethiopian to change +his skin or the leopard his spots as for those who 'are accustomed to +do evil' to 'do good.' + +But experience teaches not only that evil deeds quickly consolidate +into evil habits, but that as the habit grips us faster, the poor +pleasure for the sake of which the acts are done diminishes. The zest +which partially concealed the bitter taste of the once eagerly +swallowed morsel is all but gone, but the morsel is still sought and +swallowed. Impulses wax as motives wane, the victim is like an ox +tempted on the road to the slaughter-house at first by succulent +fodder held before it, and at last driven into it by pricking goads +and heavy blows. Many a man is so completely wrapped in the net which +his own evil deeds have made for him, that he commits the sin once +more, not because he finds any pleasure in it, but for no better +reason than that he has already committed it often, and the habit is +his master. + +There are many forms of evil which compel us to repeat them for other +reasons than the force of habit. For instance, a fraudulent +book-keeper has to go on making false entries in his employer's books +in order to hide his peculations. Whoever steps on to the steeply +sloping road to which self-pleasing invites us, soon finds that he is +on an inclined plane well greased, and that compulsion is on him to go +on, though he may recoil from the descent, and be shudderingly aware +of what the end must be. Let no man say, 'I will do this doubtful +thing once only, and never again.' Sin is like an octopus, and if the +loathly thing gets the tip of one slender filament round a man, it +will envelop him altogether and drag him down to the cruel beak. + +Let us then remember how swiftly deeds become habits, and how the +fetters, which were silken at first, rapidly are exchanged for iron +chains, and how the craving increases as fast as the pleasure from +gratifying it diminishes. Let us remember that there are many kinds of +evil which seem to force their own repetition, in order to escape +their consequences and to hide the sin. Let us remember that no man +can venture to say, 'This once only will I do this thing.' Let us +remember that acts become habits with dreadful swiftness, and let us +beware that we do not forge chains of darkness for ourselves out of +our own godless deeds. + +II. Our evil deeds imprison us for good. + +The tragedy of human life is that we weave for ourselves manacles that +fetter us from following and securing the one good for which we are +made. Our evil past holds us in a firm grip. The cords which confine +our limbs are of our own spinning. What but ourselves is the reason +why so many of us do not yield to God's merciful drawings of us to +Himself? We have riveted the chains and twined the net that holds us +captive, by our own acts. It is we ourselves who have paralysed our +wills, so that we see the light of God but as a faint gleam far away, +and dare not move to follow the gleam. It is we who have smothered or +silenced our conscience and perverted our tastes, and done violence to +all in us that 'thirsteth for God, even the living God.' Alas! how +many of us have let some strong evil habit gain such a grip of us that +it has overborne our higher impulses, and silenced the voice within us +that cries out for the living God! We are kept back from Him by our +worse selves, and whoever lets that which is lowest in him keep him +from following after God, who is his 'being's end and aim,' is caught +and prisoned by the cords woven and knitted out of his sins. Are there +none of us who know, when they are honest with themselves, that they +would have been true Christians long since, had it not been for one +darling evil that they cannot make up their minds to cast off? Wills +disabled from strongly willing the good, consciences silenced as when +the tongue is taken out of a bell-buoy on a shoal, tastes perverted +and set seeking amid the transitory treasures of earth for what God +only can give them, these are the 'cords' out of which are knotted the +nets that hold so many of us captive, and hinder our feet from +following after God, even the living God, in following and possessing +whom is the only liberty of soul, the one real joy of life. + +III. Our evil deeds work their own punishment. + +I do not venture to speak of the issues beyond the grave. It is not +for a man to press these on his brethren. But even from the standpoint +of this Book of Proverbs, it is certain that 'the righteous shall be +recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.' +Probably it was the earthly consequences of wrongdoing that were in +the mind of the proverb-maker. And we are not to let our Christian +enlightenment as to the future rob us of the certainty, written large +on human life here and now, that with whatever apparent exceptions in +regard to prosperous sin and tried righteousness, it is yet true that +'every transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of +reward.' Life is full of consequences of evil-doing. Even here and now +we reap as we have sown. Every sin is a mistake, even if we confine +our view to the consequences sought for in this life by it, and the +consequences actually encountered. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' +True, we believe that there is a future reaping so complete that it +makes the partial harvests gathered here seem of small account. But +the framer of this proverb, who had little knowledge of that future, +had seen enough in the meditative survey of this present to make him +sure that the consequences of evil-doing were certain, and in a very +true sense, penal. And leaving out of sight all that lies in the dark +beyond, surely if we sum up the lamed aspirations, the perverted +tastes, the ossifying of noble emotions, the destruction of the +balance of the nature, the blinding of the eye of the soul, the +lowering and narrowing of the whole nature, and many another wound to +the best in man that come as the sure issue of evil deeds, we do not +need to doubt that every sinful man is miserably 'holden with the +cords of his sin.' Life is the time for sowing, but it is a time for +reaping too, and we do not need to wait for death to experience the +truth of the solemn warning that 'he who soweth to the flesh shall of +the flesh reap corruption.' Let us, then, do no deeds without asking +ourselves, What will the harvest be? and if from any deeds that we +have done we have to reap sorrow or inward darkness, let us be +thankful that by experience our Father is teaching us how bitter as +well as evil a thing it is to forsake Him, and cast off His fear from +our wayward spirits. + +IV. The cords can be loosened. + +Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly +to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net +and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression +which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast +off himself. The desperate problem that fronts every effort at +self-emendation has two bristling impossibilities in it: one, how to +annihilate the past; one, how to extirpate the evil that is part of my +very self, and yet to keep the self entire. The very terms of the +problem show it to be insoluble, and the climax of all honest efforts +at making a clean thing of an unclean by means within reach of the +unclean thing itself, is the despairing cry, 'O wretched man that I +am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?' + +But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralysed beyond +writhing, and indifferent, because hopeless, or because they have come +to like their captivity, comes one whose name is 'the Breaker,' whose +mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid +on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the +limbs and sets the bondsman free. Many tongues praise Jesus for many +great gifts, but His proper work, and that peculiar to Himself alone, +is His work on the sin and the sins of the world. He deals with that +which no man can deal with for himself or by his own power. He can +cancel our past, so that it shall not govern our future. He can give +new power to fight the old habits. He can give a new life which owes +nothing to the former self, and is free from taint from it. He can +break the entail of sin, the 'law of the spirit of life in Christ +Jesus' can make any of us, even him who is most tied and bound by the +chain of his sins, 'free from the law of sin and death.' We cannot +break the chains that fetter us, and our own struggles, like the +plungings of a wild beast caught in the toils, but draw the bonds +tighter. But the chains that cannot be broken can be melted, and it +may befall each of us as it befell the three Hebrews in the furnace, +when the king 'was astonished' and asked, 'Did not we cast three men +bound into the midst of the fire?' and wonderingly declared, 'Lo, I +see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and the aspect of +the fourth is like a son of the gods.' + + + +WISDOM'S GIFT + +'That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance.'--PROVERBS +viii. 21. + + +The word here rendered 'substance' is peculiar. Indeed, it is used in +a unique construction in this passage. It means 'being' or +'existence,' and seems to have been laid hold of by the Hebrew +thinkers, from whom the books commonly called 'the Wisdom Books' come, +as one of their almost technical expressions. 'Substance' may be used +in our translation in its philosophical meaning as the supposed +reality underlying appearances, but if we observe that in the parallel +following clause we find 'treasures,' it seems more likely that in the +text, it is to be taken in its secondary, and much debased meaning of +wealth, material possessions. But the prize held out here to the +lovers of heavenly wisdom is much more than worldly good. In deepest +truth, the being which is theirs is God Himself. They who love and +seek the wisdom of this book possess Him, and in possessing Him become +possessed of their own true being. They are owners and lords of +themselves, and have in their hearts a fountain of life, because they +have God dwelling with and in them. + +I. The quest which always finds. + +'Those who love wisdom' might be a Hebrew translation of +'philosopher,' and possibly the Jewish teachers of wisdom were +influenced by Greece, but their conception of wisdom has a deeper +source than the Greek had, and what they meant by loving it was a +widely different attitude of mind and heart from that of the Greek +philosopher. It could never be said of the disciples of a Plato that +their quest was sure to end in finding what they sought. Many a man +then, and many a man since, and many a man to-day, has 'followed +knowledge, like a sinking star,' and has only caught a glimmer of a +far-off and dubious light. There is only one search which is certain +always to find what it seeks, and that is the search which knows where +the object of it is, and seeks not as for something the locality of +which is unknown, but as for that which the place of which is certain. +The manifold voices of human aims cry, 'Who will show us any good?' +The seeker who is sure to find is he who prays, 'Lord, lift Thou up +the light of Thy countenance upon us.' The heart that truly and +supremely affects God is never condemned to seek in vain. The Wisdom +of this book herself is presented as proclaiming, 'They that seek me +earnestly shall find me,' and humble souls in every age since then +have set to their seal that the word is true to their experience. For +there are two seekers in every such case, God and man. 'The Father +seeketh such to worship Him,' and His love goes through the world, +yearning and searching for hearts that will turn to Him. The shepherd +seeks for the lost sheep, and lays it on his shoulders to bear it back +to the fold. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the seeking love of +God. And the human seeker finds God, or rather is found by God, for no +aspiration after Him is vain, no longing unresponded to, no effort to +find Him unresponded to. We have as much of God as we wish, as much as +our desires have fitted us to receive. The all-penetrating atmosphere +enters every chink open to it, and no seeking soul has ever had to +say, 'I sought Him but found Him not.' + +Is there any other quest of which the same can be said? Are not all +paths of human effort strewed with the skeletons of men who have +fretted and toiled away their lives in vain attempts to grasp aims +that have eluded their grip? Do we not all know the sickness of +disappointed effort, or the sadder sickness of successful effort, +which has secured the apparent good and found it not so good after +all? The Christian life is, amid all the failures of human effort, the +only life in which the seeking after good is but a little less blessed +than the finding of it is, and in which it is always true that 'he +that seeketh findeth.' Nor does such finding deaden the spirit of +seeking, for in every finding there is a fresh discovery of new depths +in God, and a consequent quickening of desire to press further into +the abyss of His Being, so that aspiration and fruition ever beget +each other, and the upward, Godward progress of the soul is eternal. + +II. The finding that is always blessed. + +We have seen that being is the gift promised to the lovers of wisdom, +and that the promise may either be referred to the possession of God, +who is the fountain of all being, or to the true possession of +ourselves, which is a consequence of our possession of Him. In either +aspect, that possession is blessedness. If we have God, we have real +life. We truly own ourselves when we have God. We really live when God +lives in us, the life of our lives. We are ourselves, when we have +ceased to be ourselves, and have taken God to be the Self of +ourselves. + +Such a life, God-possessing, brings the one good which corresponds to +our whole nature. All other good is fragmentary, and being fragmentary +is inadequate, as men's restless search after various forms of good +but too sadly proves. Why does the merchantman wander over sea and +land seeking for many goodly pearls? Because he has not found one of +great price, but tries to make up by their number for the +insufficiency of each. But the soul is made, not to find its wealth in +the manifold but in the one, and no aggregation of incompletenesses +will make up completeness, nor any number of partial satisfactions of +this and the other appetite or desire make a man feel that he has +enough and more than enough. We must have all good in one Person, if +we are ever to know the rest of full satisfaction. It will be fatal to +our blessedness if we have to resort to a hundred different sources +for different supplies. The true blessedness is simple and yet +infinitely complex, for it comes from possessing the one Person in +whom dwell for us all forms of good, whether good be understood as +intellectual or moral or emotional. That which cannot be everything to +the soul that seeks is scarcely worth the seeking, and certainly is +not wisely proposed as the object of a life's search, for such a life +will be a failure if it fails to find its object, and scarcely less +tragically, though perhaps less conspicuously, a failure if it finds +it. All other good is but apparent; God is the one real object that +meets all man's desires and needs, and makes him blessed with real +blessedness, and fills the cup of life with the draught that slakes +thirst and satisfies the thirstiest. + +III. The blessedness that always lasts. + +He who finds God, as every one of us may find Him, in Christ, has +found a Good that cannot change, pass, or grow stale. His blessedness +will always last, as long as he keeps fast hold of that which he has, +and lets no man take his crown. + +For the Christian's good is the only one that does not intend to grow +old and pall. We can never exhaust God. We need never grow weary of +Him. Possession robs other wealth of its glamour, and other pleasures +of their poignant sweetness. We grow weary of most good things, and +those which we have long had, we generally find get somewhat faded and +stale. Habit is a fatal enemy to enjoyment. But it only adds to the +joy which springs from the possession of God in Christ. Swedenborg +said that the oldest angels look the youngest, and they who have +longest experience of the joy of fellowship with God are they who +enjoy each instance of it most. We can never drink the chalice of His +love to the dregs, and it will be fresh and sparkling as long as we +have lips that can absorb it. He keeps the good wine till the last. + +The Christian's good is the only good which cannot be taken away. Loss +and change beggars the millionaire sometimes, and the possibility of +loss shadows all earthly good with pale foreboding. Everything that is +outside the substance of the soul can be withdrawn, but the possession +of God in Christ is so intimate and inward, so interwoven with the +very deepest roots of the Christian's personal being, that it cannot +be taken out from these by any shocks of time or change. There is but +one hand that can end that possession and that is his own. He can +withdraw himself from God, by giving himself over to sin and the +world. He can empty the shrine and compel the indwelling deity to say, +as the legend told was heard in the Temple the night before Roman +soldiers desecrated the Holy of Holies: Let us depart. But besides +himself, 'neither things present, nor things to come, nor height nor +depth, nor any other creature' has power to take away that faithful +God to whom a poor soul clings, and in whom whoso thus clings finds +its unchangeable good. + +The Christian's good is the only one from which we cannot be taken. A +grim psalm paints for us the life and end of men 'who trust in the +multitude of their possessions,' and whose 'inward thought is that +they have founded families that will last.' It tells how 'this their +way is folly,' and yet is approved with acclamations by the crowd. It +lets us see the founder of a family, the possessor of broad acres, +going down to the grave, carrying nothing away, stripped of his glory +and with Death for his shepherd, who has driven his flock from +pleasant pastures here into the dreariness of Sheol. But that shepherd +has a double office. Some he separates from all their possessions, +hopes, and joys. Some he, stern though his aspect and harsh though his +guidance, leads up to the green pastures of God, and as the last +messenger of the love of God in Christ, unites the souls that found +God amid the distractions of earth with the God whom they will know +better and possess more fully and blessedly, amid the unending +felicities and progressive blessednesses of Heaven. + + + +WISDOM AND CHRIST + +'Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his +delight, rejoicing always before him; 31. Rejoicing in the habitable +part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of +men.'--PROVERBS viii. 30, 31. + + +There is a singular difference between the two portions of this Book +of Proverbs. The bulk of it, beginning with chapter x., contains a +collection of isolated maxims which may be described as the product of +sanctified common sense. They are shrewd and homely, but not +remarkably spiritual or elevated. To these is prefixed this +introductory portion, continuous, lofty in style, and in its +personification of divine wisdom, rising to great sublimity both of +thought and of expression. It seems as if the main body of the book +had been fitted with an introduction by another hand than that of the +compilers of the various sets of proverbial sayings. It is apparently +due to an intellectual movement, perhaps not uninfluenced by Greek +thought, and chronologically the latest of the elements composing the +Old Testament scriptures. In place of the lyric fervour of prophets, +and the devout intuition of psalmists, we have the praise of Wisdom. +But that noble portrait is no copy of the Greek conception, but +contains features peculiar to itself. She stands opposed to blatant, +meretricious Folly, and seeks to draw men to herself by lofty motives +and offering pure delights. She is not a person, but she is a +personification of an aspect of the divine nature, and seeing that she +is held forth as willing to bestow herself on men, that queenly figure +shadows the great truth of God's self-communication as being the end +and climax of all His revelation. + +We are on the wrong tack when we look for more or less complete +resemblances between the 'Wisdom' of Proverbs and the 'Sophia' of +Greek thinkers. It is much rather an anticipation, imperfect but real, +of Jesus than a pale reflection of Greek thought. The way for the +perfect revelation of God in the incarnation was prepared by prophet +and psalmist. Was it not also prepared by this vision of a Wisdom +which was always with God, and yet had its delights with the sons of +men, and whilst 'rejoicing always before Him,' yet rejoiced in the +habitable parts of the earth? + +Let us then look, however imperfect our gaze may be, at the +self-revelation in Proverbs of the personified divine Wisdom, and +compare it with the revelation of the incarnate divine Word. + +I. The Self-revelation of Wisdom. + +The words translated in Authorised Version, 'As one brought up with +him,' are rendered in Revised Version, 'as a master workman,' and seem +intended to represent Wisdom--that is, of course, the divine +Wisdom--as having been God's agent in the creative act. In the +preceding context, she triumphantly proclaims her existence before His +'works of old,' and that she was with God, 'or ever the earth was.' +Before the everlasting mountains she was, before fountains flashed in +the light and refreshed the earth, her waters flowed. But that +presence is not all, Wisdom was the divine agent in creation. That +thought goes beyond the ancient one: 'He spake and it was done.' +Genesis regards the divine command as the cause of creatural being. +God said, 'Let there be--and there was': the forthputting of His will +was the impulse to which creatures sprang into existence at response. +That is a great thought, but the meditative thinker in our text has +pondered over the facts of creation, and notwithstanding all their +apparent incompletenesses and errors, has risen to the conclusion that +they can all be vindicated as 'very good.' To him, this wonderful +universe is not only the product of a sovereign will, but of one +guided in its operations by all-seeing Wisdom. + +Then the relation of this divine Wisdom to God is represented as being +a continual delight and a childlike rejoicing in Him, or as the word +literally means, a 'sporting' in Him. Whatever energy of creative +action is suggested by the preceding figure of a 'master workman,' +that energy had no effort. To the divine Wisdom creation was an easy +task. She was not so occupied with it as to interrupt her delight in +contemplating God, and her task gave her infinite satisfaction, for +she 'rejoiced always' before Him, and she rejoiced in His habitable +earth. The writer does not shrink from ascribing to the agent of +creation something like the glow of satisfaction that we feel over a +piece of well-done work, the poet's or the painter's rapture as he +sees his thoughts bodied forth in melody or glowing on canvas. + +But there is a greater thought than these here, for the writer adds, +'and my delight was with the sons of men.' It is noteworthy that the +same word is used in the preceding verse. The 'delight of the heavenly +Wisdom in God' is not unlike that directed to man. 'The sons of men' +are the last, noblest work of Creation, and on them, as the shining +apex, her delight settles. The words describe not only what was true +when man came into being, as the utmost possible climax of creatural +excellence, but are the revelation of what still remains true. + +One cannot but feel how in all this most striking disclosure of the +depths of God, a deeper mystery is on the verge of revelation. There +is here, as we have said, a personification, but there seems to be a +Person shining through, or dimly discerned moving behind, the curtain. +Wisdom is the agent of creation. She creates with ease, and in +creating delights in God as well as in her work, which calls for no +effort in doing, and done, is all very good. She delights most of all +in the sons of men, and that delight is permanent. Does not this +unknown Jewish thinker, too, belong, as well as prophet and psalmist, +to those who went before crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh in the +name of the Lord? Let us turn to the New Testament and find an answer +to the question. + +II. The higher revelation of the divine Word. + +There can be no doubt that the New Testament is committed to the +teaching that the Eternal Word of God, who was incarnate in Jesus, was +the agent of creation. John, in his profound prologue to the Gospel, +utters the deepest truths in brief sentences of monosyllables, and +utters them without a trace of feeling that they needed proof. To him +they are axiomatic and self evident. 'All things were made by Him.' +The words are the words of a child; the thought takes a flight beyond +the furthest reach of the mind of men. Paul, too, adds his Amen when +he proclaims that 'All things have been created through Him and unto +Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold +together.' The writer of Hebrews declares a Son 'through whom also He +made the worlds, and who upholds all things by the word of His power' +and does not scruple at transferring to Jesus the grand poetry of the +Psalmist who hymned 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the +foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.' +We speak of things too deep for us when we speak of persons in the +Godhead, but yet we know that the Eternal Word, which was from the +beginning, was made flesh and dwelt among us. The personified Wisdom +of Proverbs is the personal Word of John's prologue. John almost +quotes the former when he says 'the same was in the beginning with +God.' for his word recalls the grand declaration, 'The Lord possessed +me in the beginning of His way ... I was set up in the beginning or +ever the earth was.' Then there are two beginnings, one lost in the +depths of timeless being, one, the commencement of creative activity, +and that Word was with God in the remotest, as in the nearer, +beginning. + +But the ancient vision of the Jewish thinker anticipated the perfect +revelation of the New Testament still further, in its thought of an +unbroken communion between the personified Wisdom and God. That dim +thought of perfect communion and interchange of delights flashes into +wondrous clearness when we think of Him who spake of 'the glory which +I had with Thee before the foundation of the world,' and calmly +declared: 'Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' Into +that depth of mutual love we cannot look, and our eyes are too +dim-sighted to bear the blaze of that flashing interchange of glory, +but we shall rob the earthly life of Jesus of its pathos and saving +power, if we do not recognise that in Him the personification of +Proverbs has become a person, and that when He became flesh, He not +only took on Him the garment of mortality, but laid aside 'the visible +robes of His imperial majesty,' and that His being found in fashion as +a man was humbling Himself beyond all humiliation that afterwards was +His. + +But still further, the Gospel reality fills out and completes the +personification of Proverbs in that it shows us a divine person who so +turned to 'the sons of men' that He took on Him their nature and +Himself bore their sicknesses. The Jewish writer had great thoughts of +the divine condescension, and was sure that God's love still rested on +men, sinful as they were, but not even he could foresee the miracle of +long-suffering love in the Incarnate Jesus, and he had no power of +insight into the depths of the heart of God, that enabled him to +foresee the sufferings and death of Jesus. Till that supreme +self-sacrifice was a fact, it was inconceivable. Alas, now that it is +a fact, to how many hearts that need it most is it still incredible. +But passing all anticipation as it is, it is the root of all joy, the +ground of all hope, and to millions of sinful souls it is their only +refuge, and their sovereign example and pattern of life. + +The Jewish thinker had a glimpse of a divine wisdom which delighted in +man, but he did not dream of the divine stooping to share in man's +sorrows, or of its so loving humanity as to take on itself its +limitations, not only to pity these as God's images, but to take part +of the same and to die. That man should minister to the divine delight +is wonderful, but that God should participate in man's grief passes +wonder. Thereby a new tenderness is given to the ancient +personification, and the august form of the divine Wisdom softens and +melts into the yet more august and tender likeness of the divine Love. +Nor is there only an adumbration of the redeeming love of Jesus as He +dwells among us here, but we have to remember that Jesus delights in +the sons of men when they love Him back again. All the sweet mysteries +of our loving communion with Him, and of His joy in our faith, love, +and obedience, all the secret treasures of His self-impartation to, +and abiding in, souls that open themselves to His entrance, are +suggested in that thought. We can minister to the joy of Jesus, and +when He is welcomed into any heart, and any man's love answers His, He +sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. + +III. The call of the personal Word to each of us. + +The Wisdom of Proverbs is portrayed in her queenly dignity, as calling +men to herself, and promising them the satisfaction of all their +needs. She describes herself that the description may draw men to her. +The self-revelation of God is His mightiest means of attracting men to +Him. We but need to know Him as He really is, in order to love Him and +cling to Him. A fairer form than hers has drawn near to us, and calls +us with tenderer invitations and better promises. The divine Wisdom +has become Man with 'sweet human hands and lips and eyes.' Such was +His delight in the sons of men that He emptied Himself of His glory, +and finished a greater work than that over which he presided when the +mountains were settled and the hills brought forth. Now He calls us, +and His summons is tenderer, and gives promise of loftier blessings +than the call of Wisdom was and did. She called to the simple, 'Come +eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.' He +invites us: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,' and +He furnishes a table for us, and calls us to eat of the bread which is +His body broken for us, and to drink of the wine which is His blood +shed for many for the remission of sins. She promises 'riches and +honour, yea, durable riches and righteousness.' His voice vibrates +with sympathy, and calls the weary and heavy laden, of whom she +scarcely thinks, and offers to them a gift, which may seem humble +enough beside her more dazzling offers of fruit, better than gold and +revenues, better than choice silver, but which come closer to +universal wants, the gift of rest, which is really what all men long +for, and none but they who take His yoke upon them possess. 'See that +ye refuse not Him that speaketh,' for if they escaped not when they +refused her that spake through the Jewish thinker's lips of old, 'much +more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that beseecheth us +from heaven.' Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and it +is in Him crucified that our weakness and our folly are made strong +and wise, and Wisdom's ancient promise is fulfilled: 'Whoso findeth me +findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.' + + + +THE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING + +'The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall +be to the workers of iniquity.'--PROVERBS x. 29. + + +You observe that the words 'shall be,' in the last clause, are a +supplement. They are quite unnecessary, and in fact they rather hinder +the sense. They destroy the completeness of the antithesis between the +two halves of the verse. If you leave them out, and suppose that the +'way of the Lord' is what is spoken of in both clauses, you get a far +deeper and fuller meaning. 'The way of the Lord is strength to the +upright; but destruction to the workers of iniquity.' It is the same +way which is strength to one man and ruin to another, and the moral +nature of the man determines which it shall be to him. That is a +penetrating word, which goes deep down. The unknown thinkers, to whose +keen insight into the facts of human life we are indebted for this +Book of Proverbs, had pondered for many an hour over the perplexed and +complicated fates of men, and they crystallised their reflections at +last in this thought. They have in it struck upon a principle which +explains a great many things, and teaches us a great many solemn +lessons. Let us try to get a hold of what is meant, and then to look +at some applications and illustrations of the principle. + +I. First, then, let me just try to put clearly the meaning and bearing +of these words. 'The way of the Lord' means, sometimes in the Old +Testament and sometimes in the New, religion, considered as the way in +which God desires a man to walk. So we read in the New Testament of +'the way' as the designation of the profession and practice of +Christianity; and 'the way of the Lord' is often used in the Psalms +for the path which He traces for man by His sovereign will. + +But that, of course, is not the meaning here. Here it means, not the +road in which God prescribes that we should walk, but that road in +which He Himself walks; or, in other words, the sum of the divine +action, the solemn footsteps of God through creation, providence, and +history. 'His goings forth are from everlasting.' 'His way is in the +sea.' 'His way is in the sanctuary.' Modern language has a whole set +of phrases which mean the same thing as the Jew meant by 'the way of +the Lord,' only that God is left out. They talk about the 'current of +events,' 'the general tendency of things,' 'the laws of human +affairs,' and so on. I, for my part, prefer the old-fashioned +'Hebraism.' To many modern thinkers the whole drift and tendency of +human affairs affords no sign of a person directing these. They hear +the clashing and grinding of opposing forces, the thunder as of +falling avalanches, and the moaning as of a homeless wind, but they +hear the sounds of no footfalls echoing down the ages. This ancient +teacher had keener ears. Well for us if we share his faith, and see in +all the else distracting mysteries of life and history, 'the way of +the Lord!' + +But not only does the expression point to the operation of a personal +divine Will in human affairs, but it conceives of that operation as +one, a uniform and consistent whole. However complicated, and +sometimes apparently contradictory, the individual events were, there +was a unity in them, and they all converged on one result. The writer +does not speak of 'ways,' but of 'the way,' as a grand unity. It is +all one continuous, connected, consistent mode of operation from +beginning to end. + +The author of this proverb believed something more about the way of +the Lord. He believed that although it is higher than our way, still, +a man can know something about it; and that whatever may be +enigmatical, and sometimes almost heart-breaking, in it, one thing is +sure--that as we have been taught of late years in another dialect, it +'makes for righteousness.' 'Clouds and darkness are round about Him,' +but the Old Testament writers never falter in the conviction, which +was the soul of all their heroism and the life blood of their +religion, that in the hearts of the clouds and darkness, 'Justice and +judgment are the foundations of His throne.' The way of the Lord, says +this old thinker, _is_ hard to understand, very complicated, full +of all manner of perplexities and difficulties, and yet on the whole +the clear drift and tendency of the whole thing is discernible, and it +is this: it is all on the side of good. Everything that is good, and +everything that does good, is an ally of God's, and may be sure of the +divine favour and of the divine blessing resting upon it. + +And just because that is so clear, the other side is as true; the same +way, the same set of facts, the same continuous stream of tendency, +which is all with and for every form of good, is all against every +form of evil. Or, as one of the Psalmists puts the same idea, 'The +eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto +their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.' The +same eye that beams in lambent love on 'the righteous' burns terribly +to the evil doer. 'The face of the Lord' means the side of the divine +nature which is turned to us, and is manifested by His self-revealing +activity, so that the expression comes near in meaning to 'the way of +the Lord,' and the thought in both cases is the same, that by the +eternal law of His being, God's actions must all be for the good and +against the evil. + +_They_ do not change, but a man's character determines which +aspect of them he sees and has to experience. God's way has a bright +side and a dark. You may take which you like. You can lay hold of the +thing by whichever handle you choose. On the one side it is convex, on +the other concave. You can approach it from either side, as you +please. 'The way of the Lord' must touch _your_ 'way.' Your cannot +alter that necessity. Your path must either run parallel in the same +direction with His, and then all His power will be an impulse to bear +you onward; or it must run in the opposite direction, and then all His +power will be for your ruin, and the collision with it will crush you +as a ship is crushed like an egg-shell, when it strikes an iceberg. +You can choose which of these shall befall you. + +And there is a still more striking beauty about the saying, if we give +the full literal meaning to the word 'strength.' It is used by our +translators, I suppose, in a somewhat archaic and peculiar +signification, namely, that of a stronghold. At all events the Hebrew +means a fortress, a place where men may live safe and secure; and if +we take that meaning, the passage gains greatly in force and beauty. +This 'way of the Lord' is like a castle for the shelter of the +shelterless good man, and behind those strong bulwarks he dwells +impregnable and safe. Just as a fortress is a security to the +garrison, and a frowning menace to the besiegers or enemies, so the +'name of the Lord is a strong tower,' and the 'way of the Lord' is a +fortress. If you choose to take shelter within it, its massive walls +are your security and your joy. If you do not, they frown down grimly +upon you, a menace and a terror. How differently, eight hundred years +ago, Normans and Saxons looked at the square towers that were built +all over England to bridle the inhabitants! To the one they were the +sign of the security of their dominion; to the other they were the +sign of their slavery and submission. Torture and prison-houses they +might become; frowning portents they necessarily were. 'The way of the +Lord' is a castle fortress to the man that does good, and to the man +that does evil it is a threatening prison, which may become a hell of +torture. It is 'ruin to the workers of iniquity.' I pray you, settle +for yourself which of these it is to be to you. + +II. And now let me say a word or two by way of application, or +illustration, of these principles that are here. + +First, let me remind you how the order of the universe is such that +righteousness is life and sin is death. This universe and the fortunes +of men are complicated and strange. It is hard to trace any laws, +except purely physical ones, at work. Still, on the whole, things do +work so that goodness is blessedness, and badness is ruin. That is, of +course, not always true in regard of outward things, but even about +them it is more often and obviously true than we sometimes recognise. +Hence all nations have their proverbs, embodying the generalised +experience of centuries, and asserting that, on the whole, 'honesty is +the best policy,' and that it is always a blunder to do wrong. What +modern phraseology calls 'laws of nature,' the Bible calls 'the way of +the Lord'; and the manner in which these help a man who conforms to +them, and hurt or kill him if he does not, is an illustration on a +lower level of the principle of our text. This tremendous congeries of +powers in the midst of which we live does not care whether we go with +it or against it, only if we do the one we shall prosper, and if we do +the other we shall very likely be made an end of. Try to stop a train, +and it will run over you and murder you; get into it, and it will +carry you smoothly along. Our lives are surrounded with powers, which +will carry our messages and be our slaves if we know how to command +nature by obeying it, or will impassively strike us dead if we do not. + +Again, in our physical life, as a rule, virtue makes strength, sin +brings punishment. 'Riotous living' makes diseased bodies. Sins in the +flesh are avenged in the flesh, and there is no need for a miracle to +bring it about that he who sows to the flesh shall 'of the flesh reap +corruption.' God entrusts the punishment of the breach of the laws of +temperance and morality in the body to the 'natural' operation of such +breach. The inevitable connection between sins against the body and +disease in the body, is an instance of the way of the Lord--the same +set of principles and facts--being strength to one man and destruction +to another. Hundreds of young men in Manchester--some of whom are +listening to me now, no doubt--are killing themselves, or at least are +ruining their health, by flying in the face of the plain laws of +purity and self-control. They think that they must 'have their fling,' +and 'obey their instincts,' and so on. Well, if they must, then +another 'must' will insist upon coming into play--and they must reap +as they have sown, and drink as they have brewed, and the grim saying +of this book about profligate young men will be fulfilled in many of +them. 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth, which shall +lie down with him in the grave.' Be not deceived, God is not mocked, +and His way avenges bodily transgressions by bodily sufferings. + +And then, in higher regions, on the whole, goodness makes blessedness, +and evil brings ruin. All the powers of God's universe, and all the +tenderness of God's heart are on the side of the man that does right. +The stars in their courses fight against the man that fights against +Him; and on the other side, in yielding thyself to the will of God and +following the dictates of His commandments, 'Thou shalt make a league +with the beasts of the field, and the stones of the field shall be at +peace with thee.' All things serve the soul that serves God, and all +war against him who wars against his Maker. The way of the Lord cannot +but further and help all who love and serve Him. For them all things +must work together for good. By the very laws of God's own being, +which necessarily shape all His actions, the whole 'stream of tendency +without us makes for righteousness.' In the one course of life we go +with the stream of divine activity which pours from the throne of God. +In the other we are like men trying to row a boat _up_ Niagara. +All the rush of the mighty torrent will batter us back. Our work will +be doomed to destruction, and ourselves to shame. For ever and ever to +be good is to be well. An eternal truth lies in the facts that the +same word 'good' means pleasant and right, and that sin and sorrow are +both called 'evil.' All sin is self-inflicted sorrow, and every 'rogue +is a roundabout fool.' So ask yourselves the question: 'Is my life in +harmony with, or opposed to, these omnipotent laws which rule the +whole field of life?' + +Still further, this same fact of the two-fold aspect and operation of +the one way of the Lord will be made yet more evident in the future. +It becomes us to speak very reverently and reticently about the +matter, but I can conceive it possible that the one manifestation of +God in a future life may be in substance the same, and yet that it may +produce opposite effects upon oppositely disposed souls. According to +the old mystical illustration, the same heat that melts wax hardens +clay, and the same apocalypse of the divine nature in another world +may to one man be life and joy, and to another man may be terror and +despair. I do not dwell upon that; it is far too awful a thing for us +to speak about to one another, but it is worth your taking to heart +when you are indulging in easy anticipations that of course God is +merciful and will bless and save everybody after he dies. Perhaps--I +do not go any further than a perhaps--perhaps God cannot, and perhaps +if a man has got himself into such a condition as it is possible for a +man to get into, perhaps, like light upon a diseased eye, the purest +beam may be the most exquisite pain, and the natural instinct may be +to 'call upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them' and cover +them up in a more genial darkness from that Face, to see which should +be life and blessedness. + +People speak of future rewards and punishments as if they were given +and inflicted by simple and divine volition, and did not stand in any +necessary connection with holiness on the one hand or with sin on the +other. I do not deny that some portion of both bliss and sorrow may be +of such a character. But there is a very important and wide region in +which our actions here must automatically bring consequences hereafter +of joy or sorrow, without any special retributive action of God's. + +We have only to keep in view one or two things about the future which +we know to be true, and we shall see this. Suppose a man with his +memory of all his past life perfect, and his conscience stimulated to +greater sensitiveness and clearer judgment, and all opportunities +ended of gratifying tastes and appetites, whose food is in this world, +while yet the soul has become dependent on them for ease and comfort, +What more is needed to make a hell? And the supposition is but the +statement of a fact. We seem to forget much; but when the waters are +drained off all the lost things will be found at the bottom. +Conscience gets dulled and sophisticated here. But the icy cold of +death will wake it up, and the new position will give new insight into +the true character of our actions. You see how often a man at the end +of life has his eyes cleared to see his faults. But how much more will +that be the case hereafter! When the rush of passion is past, and you +are far enough from your life to view it as a whole, holding it at +arm's length, you will see better what it looks like. There is nothing +improbable in supposing that inclinations and tastes which have been +nourished for a lifetime may survive the possibility of indulging them +in another life, as they often do in this; and what can be worse than +such a thirst for one drop of water, which never can be tasted more? +These things are certain, and no more is needed to make sin produce, +by necessary consequence, misery, and ruin; while similarly, goodness +brings joy, peace, and blessing. + +But again, the self-revelation of God has this same double aspect. + +'The way of the Lord' may mean His process by which He reveals His +character. Every truth concerning Him may be either a joy or a terror +to men. All His 'attributes' are builded into 'a strong tower, into +which the righteous runneth, and is safe,' or else they are builded +into a prison and torture-house. So the thought of God may either be a +happy and strengthening one, or an unwelcome one. 'I remembered God, +and was troubled' says one Psalmist. What an awful confession--that +the thought of God disturbed him! The thought of God to some of us is +a very unwelcome one, as unwelcome as the thought of a detective to a +company of thieves. Is not that dreadful? Music is a torture to some +ears: and there are people who have so alienated their hearts and +wills from God that the Name which should be 'their dearest faith' is +not only their 'ghastliest doubt,' but their greatest pain. O +brethren, the thought of God and all that wonderful complex of mighty +attributes and beauties which make His Name should be our delight, the +key to all treasures, the end of all sorrows, our light in darkness, +our life in death, our all in all. It is either that to us, or it is +something that we would fain forget. Which is it to you? + +Especially the Gospel has this double aspect. Our text speaks of the +distinction between the righteous and evil doers; but how to pass from +the one class to the other, it does not tell us. The Gospel is the +answer to that question. It tells us that though we are all 'workers +of iniquity,' and must, therefore, if such a text as this were the +last word to be spoken on the matter, share in the ruin which smites +the opponent of the divine will, we may pass from that class; and by +simple faith in Him who died on the Cross for all workers of iniquity, +may become of those righteous on whose side God works in all His way, +who have all His attributes drawn up like an embattled army in their +defence, and have His mighty name for their refuge. + +As the very crown of the ways of God, the work of Christ and the +record of it in the Gospel have most eminently this double aspect. God +meant nothing but the salvation of the whole world when He sent us +this Gospel. His 'way' therein was pure, unmingled, universal love. We +can make that great message untroubled blessing by simply accepting +it. Nothing more is needed but to take God at His word, and to close +with His sincere and earnest invitation. Then Christ's work becomes +the fortress in which we are guarded from sin and guilt, from the +arrows of conscience, and the fiery darts of temptation. But if not +accepted, then it is not passive, it is not nothing. If rejected, it +does more harm to a man than anything else can, just because, if +accepted, it would have done him more good. The brighter the light, +the darker the shadow. The pillar which symbolised the presence of God +sent down influences on either side; to the trembling crowd of the +Israelites on the one hand, to the pursuing ranks of the Egyptians on +the other; and though the pillar was one, opposite effects streamed +from it, and it was 'a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light +by night to these.' Everything depends on which side of the pillar you +choose to see. The ark of God, which brought dismay and death among +false gods and their worshippers, brought blessing into the humble +house of Obed Edom, the man of Gath, with whom it rested for three +months before it was set in its place in the city of David. That which +is meant to be the savour of life unto life must either be that or the +savour of death unto death. + +Jesus Christ is _something_ to each of us. For you who have heard +His name ever since you were children, your relation to Him settles +your condition and your prospects, and moulds your character. Either +He is for you the tried corner-stone, the sure foundation, on which +whosoever builds will not be confounded, or He is the stone of +stumbling, against which whosoever stumbles will be broken, and which +will crush to powder whomsoever it falls upon, 'This Child is set for +the rise' or for the fall of all who hear His name. He leaves no man +at the level at which He found him, but either lifts him up nearer to +God, and purity and joy, or sinks him into an ever-descending pit of +darkening separation from all these. Which is He to you? Something He +must be--your strength or your ruin. If you commit your souls to Him +in humble faith, He will be your peace, your life, your Heaven. If you +turn from His offered grace, He will be your pain, your death, your +torture. 'What maketh Heaven, that maketh hell.' Which do you choose +Him to be? + + + +THE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY + +'Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof +is brutish. 2. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord: but a man of +wicked devices will he condemn. 3. A man shall not be established by +wickedness; but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. 4. A +virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed +is as rottenness in his bones. 5. The thoughts of the righteous are +right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. 6. The words of the +wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright +shall deliver them. 7. The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the +house of the righteous shall stand. 8. A man shall be commended +according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be +despised. 9. He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than +he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread. 10. A righteous man +regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked +are cruel. 11. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: +but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. 12. The +wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous +yieldeth fruit. 13. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his +lips: but the just shall come out of trouble. 14. A man shall be +satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth; and the recompence of a +man's hands shall be rendered unto him. 15. The way of a fool is right +in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is +wise.'--PROVERBS xii. 1-15. + + +The verses of the present passage are a specimen of the main body of +the Book of Proverbs. They are not a building, but a heap. The stones +seldom have any mortar between them, and connection or progress is for +the most part sought in vain. But one great antithesis runs through +the whole--the contrast of wisdom or righteousness with folly or +wickedness. The compiler or author is never weary of setting out that +opposition in all possible lights. It is, in his view, the one +difference worth noting between men, and it determines their whole +character and fortunes. The book traverses with keen observation all +the realm of life, and everywhere finds confirmation of its great +principle that goodness is wisdom and sin folly. + +There is something extremely impressive in this continual reiteration +of that contrast. As we read, we feel as if, after all, there were +nothing in the world but it and its results. That profound sense of +the existence and far-reaching scope of the division of men into two +classes is not the least of the benefits which a thoughtful study of +Proverbs brings to us. In this lesson it is useless to attempt to +classify the verses. Slight traces of grouping appear here and there; +but, on the whole, we have a set of miscellaneous aphorisms turning on +the great contrast, and setting in various lights the characters and +fates of the righteous and the wicked. + +The first mark of difference is the opposite feeling about discipline. +If a man is wise, he will love 'knowledge'; and if he loves knowledge, +he will love the means to it, and therefore will not kick against +correction. That is another view of trials from the one which +inculcates devout submission to a Father. It regards only the benefits +to ourselves. If we want to be taught anything, we shall not flinch +from the rod. There must be pains undergone in order to win knowledge +of any sort, and the man who rebels against these shows that he had +rather be comfortable and ignorant than wise. A pupil who will not +stand having his exercises corrected will not learn his faults. On the +other hand, hating reproof is 'brutish' in the most literal sense; for +it is the characteristic of animals that they do not understand the +purpose of pain, and never advance because they do not. Men can grow +because they can submit to discipline; beasts cannot improve because, +except partially and in a few cases, they cannot accept correction. + +The first proverb deals with wisdom or goodness in its inner source; +namely, a docile disposition. The two next deal with its consequences. +It secures God's favour, while its opposite is condemned; and then, as +a consequence of this, the good man is established and the wicked +swept away. The manifestations of God's favour and its opposite are +not to be thrown forward to a future life. Continuously the sunshine +of divine love falls on the one man, and already the other is +condemned. It needs some strength of faith to look through the shows +of prosperity often attending plain wickedness, and believe that it is +always a blunder to do wrong. + +But a moderate experience of life will supply many instances of +prosperous villainy in trade and politics which melted away like mist. +The shore is strewn with wrecks, dashed to pieces because +righteousness did not steer. Every exchange gives examples in plenty. +How many seemingly solid structures built on wrong every man has seen +in his lifetime crumble like the cloud masses which the wind piles in +the sky and then dissipates! The root of the righteous is in God, and +therefore he is firm. The contrast is like that of Psalm i.--between +the tree with strong roots and waving greenery, and the chaff, +rootless, and therefore whirled out of the threshing-floor. + +The universal contrast is next applied to women; and in accordance +with the subordinate position they held in old days, the bearing of +her goodness is principally regarded as affecting her husband. That +does not cover the whole ground, of course. But wherever there is a +true marriage, the wife will not think that woman's rights are +infringed because one chief issue of her beauty of virtue is the +honour and joy it reflects upon him who has her heart. 'A virtuous +woman' is not only one who possesses the one virtue to which the +phrase has been so miserably confined, but who is 'a woman of +strength'--no doll or plaything, but + + 'A perfect woman, nobly planned + To warn, to comfort, and command.' + +The gnawing misery of being fastened like two dogs in a leash to one +who 'causes shame' is vividly portrayed by that strong figure, that +she is like 'rottenness in his bones,' eating away strength, and +inflicting disfigurement and torture. + +Then come a pair of verses describing the inward and outward work of +the two kinds of men as these affect others. The former verses dealt +with their effects on the actors; the present, with their bearing on +others. Inwardly, the good man has thoughts which scrupulously keep +the balance true and are just to his fellows, while the wicked plans +to deceive for his own profit. When thoughts are translated into +speech, deceit bears fruit in words which are like ambushes of +murderers, laying traps to destroy, while the righteous man's words +are like angels of deliverance to the unsuspecting who are ready to +fall into the snare. Selfishness, which is the root of wickedness, +will be cruelty and injustice when necessary for its ends. The man who +is wise because God is his centre and aim will be merciful and +helpful. The basis of philanthropy is religion. The solemn importance +attached to speech is observable. Words can slay as truly as swords. +Now that the press has multiplied the power of speech, and the world +is buzzing with the clatter of tongues, we all need to lay to heart +the responsibilities and magic power of spoken and printed words, and +'to set a watch on the door of our lips.' + +Then follow a couple of verses dealing with the consequences to men +themselves of their contrasted characters. The first of these (verse +7) recurs to the thought of verse 3, but with a difference. Not only +the righteous himself, but his house, shall be established. The +solidarity of the family and the entail of goodness are strongly +insisted on in the Old Testament, though limitations are fully +recognised. If a good man's son continues his father's character, he +will prolong his father's blessings; and in normal conditions, a +parent's wisdom passes on to his children. Something is wrong when, as +is so often the case, it does not; and it is not always the children's +fault. + +The overthrow of the wicked is set in striking contrast with their +plots to overthrow others. Their mischief comes back, like an +Australian boomerang, to the hand that flings it; and contrariwise, +delivering others is a sure way of establishing one's self. Exceptions +there are, for the world-scheme is too complicated to be condensed +into a formula; but all proverbs speak of the average usual results of +virtue and vice, and those of this book do the same. Verse 8 asserts +that, on the whole, honour attends goodness, and contempt wickedness. +Of course, companions in dissipation extol each other's vices, and +launch the old threadbare sneers at goodness. But if wisdom were not +set uppermost in men's secret judgment, there would be no hypocrites, +and their existence proves the truth of the proverb. + +Verse 9 seems suggested by 'despised' in verse 8. There are two kinds +of contempt--one which brands sin deservedly, one which vulgarly +despises everybody who is not rich. A man need not mind, though his +modest household is treated with contempt, if quiet righteousness +reigns in it. It is better to be contented with little, and humble in +a lowly place, than to be proud and hungry, as many were in the +writer's time and since. A foolish world set on wealth may despise, +but its contempt breaks no bones. Self-conceit is poor diet. + +This seems to be the first of a little cluster of proverbs bearing on +domestic life. It prefers modest mediocrity of station, such as Agur +desired. Its successor shows how the contrasted qualities come out in +the two men's relation to their domestic animals. Goodness sweeps a +wide circle touching the throne of God and the stall of the cattle. It +was not Coleridge who found out that 'He prayeth best who loveth best' +but this old proverb-maker; and he could speak the thought without the +poet's exaggeration, which robs his expression of it of half its +value. The original says 'knoweth the soul' which may indeed mean, +'regardeth the life' but rather seems to suggest sympathetic interest +in leading to an understanding of the dumb creature, which must +precede all wise care for its well-being. It is a part of religion to +try to enter into the mysterious feelings of our humble dependants in +farmyard and stable. On the other hand, for want of such sympathetic +interest, even when the 'wicked' means to be kind, he does harm; or +the word rendered 'tender mercies' may here mean the feelings +(literally, 'bowels') which, in their intense selfishness, are cruel +even to animals. + +Verse 11 has no connection with the preceding, unless the link is +common reference to home life and business. It contrasts the sure +results of honest industry with the folly of speculation. The Revised +Version margin 'vain things' is better than the text 'vain persons,' +which would give no antithesis to the patient tilling of the first +clause. That verse would make an admirable motto to be stretched +across the Stock Exchange, and like places on both sides of the +Atlantic. How many ruined homes and heart-broken wives witness in +America and England to its truth! The vulgar English proverb, 'What +comes over the Devil's back goes under his belly,' says the same +thing. The only way to get honest wealth is to work for it. Gambling +in all its forms is rank folly. + +So the next proverb (verse 12) continues the same thought, and puts it +in a somewhat difficult phrase. It goes a little deeper than the +former, showing that the covetousness which follows after vain things, +is really wicked lusting for unrighteous gain. 'The net of evildoers' +is better taken as in the margin (Rev. Ver.) 'prey' or 'spoil,' and +the meaning seems to be as just stated. Such hankering for riches, no +matter how obtained, or such envying of the booty which admittedly has +been won by roguery, is a mark of the wicked. How many professing +church members have known that feeling in thinking of the millions of +some railway king! Would they like the proverb to be applied to them? + +The contrast to this is 'the root of the righteous yields fruit,' or +'shoots forth,' We have heard (verse 3) that it shall never be moved, +being fixed in God; now we are told that it will produce all that is +needful. A life rooted in God will unfold into all necessary good, +which will be better than the spoil of the wicked. There are two ways +of getting on--to struggle and fight and trample down rivals; one, to +keep near God and wait for him. 'Ye fight and war; ye have not, +because ye ask not.' + +The next two proverbs have in common a reference to the effect of +speech upon the speaker. 'In the transgression of the lips is an evil +snare'; that is, sinful words ensnare their utterer, and whoever else +he harms, he himself is harmed most. The reflex influence on character +of our utterances is not present to us, as it should be. They leave +stains on lips and heart. Thoughts expressed are more definite and +permanent thereby. A vicious thought clothed in speech has new power +over the speaker. If we would escape from that danger, we must +_be_ righteous, and _speak_ righteousness; and then the same +cause will deepen our convictions of 'whatsoever things are lovely and +of good report.' + +Verse 14 insists on this opposite side of the truth. Good words will +bring forth fruit, which will satisfy the speaker, because, whatever +effects his words may have on others, they will leave strengthened +goodness and love of it in himself. 'If the house be worthy, your +peace shall rest upon it; if not, it shall return to you again.' That +reaction of words on oneself is but one case of the universal law of +consequences coming back on us. We are the architects of our own +destinies. Every deed has an immortal life, and returns, either like a +raven or a dove, to the man who sent it out on its flight. It comes +back either croaking with blood on its beak, or cooing with an olive +branch in its mouth. All life is at once sowing and reaping. A harvest +comes in which retribution will be even more entire and accurate. + +The last proverb of the passage gives a familiar antithesis, and +partially returns to the thought of verse 1. The fool has no standard +of conduct but his own notions, and is absurdly complacent as to all +his doings. The wise seeks better guidance than his own, and is +docile, because he is not so ridiculously sure of his infallibility. +No type of weak wickedness is more abominable to the proverbialist +than that of pert self-conceit, which knows so little that it thinks +it knows everything, and is 'as untameable as a fly.' But in the +wisest sense, it is true that a mark of folly is +self-opinionativeness; that a man who has himself for teacher has a +fool for scholar; that the test of wisdom is willingness to be taught; +and, especially, that to bring a docile, humble spirit to the Source +of all wisdom, and to ask counsel of God, is the beginning of true +insight, and that the self-sufficiency which is the essence of sin, is +never more fatal than when it is ignorant of guilt, and therefore +spurns a Saviour. + + + +THE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR + +'There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is that +maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.'--PROVERBS xiii. 7. + + +Two singularly-contrasted characters are set in opposition here. One, +that of a man who lives like a millionaire and is a pauper; another, +that of a man who lives like a pauper and is rich. The latter +character, that of a man who hides and hoards his wealth, was, +perhaps, more common in the days when this collection of Proverbs was +put together, because in all ill-governed countries, to show wealth is +a short way to get rid of it. But they have their modern +representatives. We who live in a commercial community have seen many +a blown-out bubble soaring and glittering, and then collapsing into a +drop of soapsuds, and on the other hand, we are always hearing of +notes and bank-books being found stowed away in some wretched hovel +where a miser has died. + +Now, I do not suppose that the author of this proverb attached any +kind of moral to it in his own mind. It is simply a jotting of an +observation drawn from a wide experience; and if he meant to teach any +lesson by it, I suppose it was nothing more than that in regard to +money, as to other things, we should avoid extremes, and should try to +show what we are, and to be what we seem. But whilst thus I do not +take it that there is any kind of moral or religious lesson in the +writer's mind, I may venture, perhaps, to take this saying as being a +picturesque illustration, putting in vivid fashion certain great +truths which apply in all regions of life, and which find their +highest application in regard to Christianity, and our relation to +Jesus Christ. There, too, 'there is that maketh himself rich, and yet +hath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet'--or one +might, perhaps, say _therefore_--'hath great riches.' It is from +that point of view that I wish to look at the words at this time. I +must begin with recalling to your mind, + +I. Our universal poverty. + +Whatever a man may think about himself, however he may estimate +himself and conceit himself, there stand out two salient facts, the +fact of universal dependence, and the fact of universal sinfulness, +which ought to bear into every heart the consciousness of this +poverty. A word or two about each of these two facts. + +First, the fact of universal dependence. Now, wise men and deep +thinkers have found a very hard problem in the question of how it is +possible that there should be an infinite God and a finite universe +standing, as it were, over against Him. I am not going to trouble you +with the all-but-just-succeeding answers to that great problem which +the various systems of thinking have given. These lie apart from my +present purpose. But what I would point out is that, whatever else may +be dark and difficult about the co-existence of these two, the +infinite God and the finite universe, this at least is sun-clear, that +the creature depends absolutely for everything on that infinite +Creator. People talk sometimes, and we are all too apt to think, as if +God had made the world and left it. And we are all too apt to think +that, however we may owe the origination of our own personal existence +to a divine act, the act was done when we began to be, and the life +was given as a gift that could be separated from the Bestower. But +that is not the state of the case at all. The real fact is that life +is only continued because of the continued operation on every living +thing, just as being is only continued by reason of the continued +operation on every existing thing, of the Divine Power. 'In Him we +live,' and the life is the result of the perpetual impartation from +Himself 'in whom all things consist,' according to the profound word +of the Apostle. Their being depends on their union with Him. If it +were possible to cut a sunbeam in two, so that the further half of it +should be separated from its vital union with the great central fire +from which it rushed long, long ago, that further half would pale into +darkness. And if you cut the connection between God and the creature, +the creature shrivels into nothing. By Him the spring buds around us +unfold themselves; by Him all things are. So, at the very foundation +of our being there lies absolute dependence. + +In like manner, all that we call faculties, capacities, and the like, +are, in a far deeper sense than the conventional use of the word +'gift' implies, bestowments from Him. The Old Testament goes to the +root of the matter when, speaking of the artistic and aesthetic skill +of the workers in the fine arts in the Tabernacle, it says, 'the +Spirit of the Lord' taught Bezaleel; and when, even in regard to the +brute strength of Samson--surely the strangest hero of faith that ever +existed--it says that when 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,' +into his giant hands there was infused the strength by which he tore +the lion's jaws asunder. In like manner, all the faculties that men +possess they have simply because He has given them. 'What hast thou +that thou hast not received? If thou hast received, why dost thou +boast thyself?' So there is a great psalm that gathers everything that +makes up human life, and traces it all to God, when it says, 'They +shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house,' for from +God comes all that sustains us; 'Thou shalt make them drink of the +river of Thy pleasures,' for from God comes all that gladdens us; +'with Thee is the fountain of life,' for from Him flow all the tiny +streams that make the life of all that live; 'in Thy light shall we +see light,' for every power of perceiving, and all grace and lustre of +purity, owe their source to Him. As well, then, might the pitcher +boast itself of the sparkling water that it only holds, as well might +the earthen jar plume itself on the treasure that has been deposited +in it, as we make ourselves rich because of the riches that we have +received. 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the +mighty man glory in his strength. Let not the rich man glory in his +riches; but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.' + +Then, turn for a moment to the second of the facts on which this +universal poverty depends, and that is the fact of universal +sinfulness. Ah! there is one thing that is our own-- + + 'If any power we have, it is to will.' + +We have that strange faculty, which nobody has ever thoroughly +explained yet, but which we all know to exist, of wrenching ourselves +so far away from God, 'in whom we live and move and have our being,' +that we can make our thoughts and ways, not merely lower than, but +contradictory of, and antagonistic to, His thoughts, and His ways. +Conscience tells us, and we all know it, that we are the causes of our +own actions, though from Him come the powers by which we do them. The +electricity comes from the central powerstation, but it depends on us +what sort of wheels we make it drive, and what kind of work we set it +to do. Make all allowances you like for circumstances--what they call +nowadays 'environment,' by which formidable word some people seem to +think that they have explained away a great many difficulties--make +all allowances you like for inheritance--what they now call +'heredity,' by which other magic word people seem to think that they +may largely obliterate the sense of responsibility and sin--allow as +much as you like, in reason, for these, and there remains the +indestructible consciousness in every man, 'I did it, and it was my +fault that I did it; and the moral guilt remains.' + +So, then, there are these two things, universal dependence and +universal sinfulness, and on them is built the declaration of +universal poverty. Duty is debt. Everybody knows that the two words +come from the same root. What we ought is what we owe. We all owe an +obedience which none of us has rendered. Ten thousand talents is the +debt and--'they had nothing to pay.' We are like bankrupts that begin +business with a borrowed capital, by reason of our absolute +dependence; and so manage their concerns as to find themselves +inextricably entangled in a labyrinth of obligations which they cannot +discharge. We are all paupers. And so I come to the second point, and +that is-- + +II. The poor rich man. + +'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing.' That +describes accurately the type of man of whom there are thousands; of +whom there are dozens listening to me at this moment; who ignores +dependence and is not conscious of sin, and so struts about in +self-complacent satisfaction with himself, and knows nothing of his +true condition. There is nothing more tragic--and so it would be seen +to be if it were not so common--than that a man, laden, as we each of +us are, with a burden of evil that we cannot get rid of, should yet +conceit himself to possess merits, virtues, graces, that ought to +secure for him the admiration of his fellows, or, at least, to exempt +him from their censure, and which he thinks, when he thinks about it +at all, may perhaps secure for him the approbation of God. 'The +deceitfulness of sin' is one of its mightiest powers. There is nothing +that so blinds a man to the real moral character of actions as that +obstinate self-complacency which approves of a thing because it is +mine. You condemn in other people the very things you do yourself. You +see all their ugliness in them; you do not recognise it when it is +your deed. Many of you have never ventured upon a careful examination +and appraisement of your own moral and religious character. You durst +not, for you are afraid that it would turn out badly. So, like some +insolvent who has not the courage to face the facts, you take refuge +in defective bookkeeping, and think that that is as good as being +solvent. Then you have far too low a standard, and one of the main +reasons why you have so low a standard is just because the sins that +you do have dulled your consciences, and like the Styrian peasants +that eat arsenic, the poison does not poison you, and you do not feel +yourself any the worse for it. Dear brethren! these are very rude +things for me to say to you. I am saying them to myself as much as to +you, and I would to God that you would listen to them, not because I +say them, but because they are true. The great bulk of us know our own +moral characters just as little as we know the sound of our own +voices. I suppose if you could hear yourself speak you would say, 'I +never knew that my voice sounded like that.' And I am quite sure that +many of you, if the curtain could be drawn aside which is largely +woven out of the black yarn of your own evil thoughts, and you could +see yourselves as in a mirror, you would say, 'I had no notion that I +looked like that.' 'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath +nothing.' + +Ay! and more than that. The making of yourself rich is the sure way to +prevent yourself from ever being so. We see that in all other regions +of life. If a student says to himself, 'Oh! I know all that subject,' +the chances are that he will not get it up any more; and the further +chance is that he will be 'ploughed' when the examination-day comes. +If the artist stands before the picture, and says to himself, 'Well +done, that is the realisation of my ideal!' he will paint no more +anything worth looking at. And in any department, when a man says 'Lo! +I have attained,' then he ceases to advance. + +Now, bring all that to bear upon religion, upon Christ and His +salvation, upon our own spiritual and religious and moral condition. +The sense of imperfection is the salt of approximation to perfection. +And the man that says 'I am rich' is condemning himself to poverty and +pauperism. If you do not know your need, you will not go to look for +the supply of it. If you fancy yourselves to be quite well, though a +mortal disease has gripped you, you will take no medicine, nor have +recourse to any physician. If you think that you have enough good to +show for man's judgment and for God's, and have not been convinced of +your dependence and your sinfulness, then Jesus Christ will be very +little to you, and His great work as the Redeemer and Saviour of His +people from their sins will be nothing to you. And so you will condemn +yourselves to have nothing unto the very end. + +I believe that this generation needs few things more than it needs a +deepened consciousness of the reality of sin and of the depth and +damnable nature of it. It is because people feel so little of the +burden of their transgression that they care so little for that gentle +Hand that lifts away their burden. It is because from much of popular +religion--and, alas! that I should have to say it, from much of +popular preaching--there has vanished the deep wholesome sense of +poverty, that, from so much of popular religion, and preaching too, +there has faded away the central light of the Gospel, the proclamation +of the Cross by which is taken away the sin of the whole world. + +So, lastly, my text brings before us-- + +III. The rich poor man. + +'There is that maketh himself poor and yet'--or, as varied, the +expression is, 'therefore hath great riches.' Jesus Christ has lifted +the thoughts in my text into the very region into which I am trying to +bring them, when in the first of all the Beatitudes, as they are +called, 'He opened His mouth and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, +for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Poor, and therefore an owner of +a kingdom! Now I need not, at this stage of my sermon, insist upon the +fact that that consciousness of poverty is the only fitting attitude +for any of us to take up in view of the two facts with which I +started, the fact of our dependence and the fact of our sinfulness. +What absurdity it seems for a man about whom these two things are +true, that, as I said, he began with a borrowed capital, and has only +incurred greater debts in his transactions, there should be any +foothold left in his own estimation on which he can stand and claim to +be anything but the pauper that he is. Oh! brethren, of all the +hallucinations that we put upon ourselves in trying to believe that +things are as we wish, there is none more subtle, more obstinate, more +deeply dangerous than this, that a man full of evil should be so +ignorant of his evil as to say, like that Pharisee in our Lord's +parable, 'I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I give tithes +... I pray ... I am this, that, and the other thing; not like that +wretched publican over there.' Yes, this is the fit attitude for +us,--'He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven.' + +Then let me remind you that this wholesome recognition of facts about +ourselves as they are is the sure way to possess the wealth. Of +course, it is possible for a man by some mighty influence or other +brought to bear upon him, to see himself as God sees him, and then, if +there is nothing more than that, he is tortured with 'the sorrow that +worketh death.' Judas 'went out and hanged himself'; Peter 'went out +and wept bitterly.' The one was sent 'to his own place,' wherever that +was; the other was sent foremost of the Twelve. If you see your +poverty, let self-distrust be the nadir, the lowest point, and let +faith be the complementary high point, the zenith. The rebound from +self-distrust to trust in Christ is that which makes the consciousness +of poverty the condition of receiving wealth. + +And what wealth it is!--the wealth of a peaceful conscience, of a +quiet heart, of lofty aims, of a pure mind, of strength according to +our need, of an immortal hope, of a treasure in the heavens that +faileth not, 'where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt; where thieves +do not break through nor steal.' Blessed be God! the more we have the +riches of glory in Christ Jesus, the more shall we feel that we have +nothing, and that all is His, and none of it ours. And so, as the +rivers run in the valleys, and the high mountain-tops are dry and +barren, the grace which makes us rich will run in the low ground of +our conscious humiliation and nothingness. + +Dear brother! do you estimate yourself as you are? Have you taken +stock of yourself? Have you got away from the hallucination of +possessing wealth? Has your sense of need led you to cease from trust +in yourself, and to put all your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you taken +the wealth which He freely gives to all who sue _in forma +pauperis_? He does not ask you to bring anything but debts and +sins, emptiness and weakness, and penitent faith. He will strengthen +the weakness, fill the emptiness, forgive the sins, cancel the debts, +and make you 'rich toward God.' I beseech you to listen to Him, +speaking from heaven, and taking up the strain of this text: 'Because +thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of +nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and +poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in +the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' And then you will be of those +blessed poor ones who are 'rich through faith, and heirs of the +Kingdom.' + + + +THE TILLAGE OF THE POOR + +'Much food is in the tillage of the poor.'--PROVERBS xiii. 23. + + +Palestine was a land of small peasant proprietors, and the institution +of the Jubilee was intended to prevent the acquisition of large +estates by any Israelite. The consequence, as intended, was a level of +modest prosperity. It was 'the tillage of the poor,' the careful, +diligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to +look after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the +proverb of our text arose. It preserves the picture of the economical +conditions in which it originated, and it is capable of, and is +intended to have, an application to all forms and fields of work. In +all it is true that the bulk of the harvested results are due, not to +the large labours of the few, but to the minute, unnoticed toils of +the many. Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such +produces large crops. Spade husbandry gets most out of the ground. The +labourer's allotment of half an acre is generally more prolific than +the average of the squire's estate. Much may be made of slender gifts, +small resources, and limited opportunities if carefully cultivated, as +they should be, and as their very slenderness should stimulate their +being. + +One of the psalms accuses 'the children of Ephraim' because, 'being +armed and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle.' That +saying deduces obligation from equipment, and preaches a stringent +code of duty to those who are in any direction largely gifted. Power +to its last particle is duty, and not small is the crime of those who, +with great capacities, have small desire to use them, and leave the +brunt of the battle to half-trained soldiers, badly armed. + +But the imagery of the fight is not sufficient to include all aspects +of Christian effort. The peaceful toil of the 'husbandman that +labours' stands, in one of Paul's letters, side by side with the +heroism of the 'man that warreth.' Our text gives us the former image, +and so supplements that other. + +It completes the lesson of the psalm in another respect, as insisting +on the importance, not of the well endowed, but of the slenderly +furnished, who are immensely in the majority. This text is a message +to ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence. + +I. It teaches, first, the responsibility of small gifts. + +It is no mere accident that in our Lord's great parable He represents +the man with the _one_ talent as the hider of his gift. There is +a certain pleasure in doing what we can do, or fancy we can do, well. +There is a certain pleasure in the exercise of any kind of gift, be it +of body or mind; but when we know that we are but very slightly gifted +by Him, there is a temptation to say, 'Oh! it does not matter much +whether I contribute my share to this, that, or the other work or no. +I am but a poor man. My half-crown will make but a small difference in +the total. I am possessed of very little leisure. The few minutes that +I can spare for individual cultivation, or for benevolent work, will +not matter at all. I am only an insignificant unit; nobody pays any +attention to my opinion. It does not in the least signify whether I +make my influence felt in regard of social, religious, or political +questions, and the like. I can leave all that to the more influential +men. My littleness at least has the prerogative of immunity. My little +finger would produce such a slight impact on the scale that it is +indifferent whether I apply it or not. It is a good deal easier for me +to wrap up my talent--which, after all, is only a threepenny bit, and +not a talent--and put it away and do nothing.' + +Yes, but then you forget, dear friend! that responsibility does not +diminish with the size of the gifts, but that there is as great +responsibility for the use of the smallest as for the use of the +largest, and that although it does not matter very much to anybody but +yourself what you do, it matters all the world to you. + +But then, besides that, my text tells us that it does matter whether +the poor man sets himself to make the most of his little patch of +ground or not. 'There is much food in the tillage of the poor.' The +slenderly endowed are the immense majority. There is a genius or two +here and there, dotted along the line of the world's and the Church's +history. The great men and wise men and mighty men and wealthy men may +be counted by units, but the men that are not very much of anything +are to be counted by millions. And unless we can find some stringent +law of responsibility that applies to them, the bulk of the human race +will be under no obligation to do anything either for God or for their +fellows, or for themselves. If I am absolved from the task of bringing +my weight to bear on the side of right because my weight is +infinitesimal, and I am only one in a million, suppose all the million +were to plead the same excuse; what then? Then there would not be any +weight on the side of the right at all. The barns in Palestine were +not filled by farming on a great scale like that pursued away out on +the western prairies, where one man will own, and his servants will +plough a furrow for miles long, but they were filled by the small +industries of the owners of tiny patches. + +The 'tillage of the poor,' meaning thereby not the mendicant, but the +peasant owner of a little plot, yielded the bulk of the 'food.' The +wholesome old proverb, 'many littles make a mickle,' is as true about +the influence brought to bear in the world to arrest evil and to +sweeten corruption as it is about anything besides. Christ has a great +deal more need of the cultivation of the small patches that He gives +to the most of us than He has even of the cultivation of the large +estates that He bestows on a few. Responsibility is not to be measured +by amount of gift, but is equally stringent, entire, and absolute +whatsoever be the magnitude of the endowments from which it arises. + +Let me remind you, too, how the same virtues and excellences can be +practised in the administering of the smallest as in that of the +greatest gifts. Men say--I dare say some of you have said--'Oh! if I +were eloquent like So-and-so; rich like somebody else; a man of weight +and importance like some other, how I would consecrate my powers to +the Master! But I am slow of speech, or nobody minds me, or I have but +very little that I can give.' Yes! 'He that is faithful in that which +is least is faithful also in much.' If you do not utilise the capacity +possessed, to increase the estate would only be to increase the crop +of weeds from its uncultivated clods. We never palm off a greater +deception on ourselves than when we try to hoodwink conscience by +pleading bounded gifts as an excuse for boundless indolence, and to +persuade ourselves that if we could do more we should be less inclined +to do nothing. The most largely endowed has no more obligation and no +fairer field than the most slenderly gifted lies under and possesses. + +All service coming from the same motive and tending to the same end is +the same with God. Not the magnitude of the act, but the motive +thereof, determines the whole character of the life of which it is a +part. The same graces of obedience, consecration, quick sympathy, +self-denying effort may be cultivated and manifested in the spending +of a halfpenny as in the administration of millions. The smallest +rainbow in the tiniest drop that hangs from some sooty eave and +catches the sunlight has precisely the same lines, in the same order, +as the great arch that strides across half the sky. If you go to the +Giant's Causeway, or to the other end of it amongst the Scotch +Hebrides, you will find the hexagonal basaltic pillars all of +identically the same pattern and shape, whether their height be +measured by feet or by tenths of an inch. Big or little, they obey +exactly the same law. There is 'much food in the tillage of the poor.' + +II. But now, note, again, how there must be a diligent cultivation of +the small gifts. + +The inventor of this proverb had looked carefully and sympathetically +at the way in which the little peasant proprietors worked; and he saw +in that a pattern for all life. It is not always the case, of course, +that a little holding means good husbandry, but it is generally so; +and you will find few waste corners and few unweeded patches on the +ground of a man whose whole ground is measured by rods instead of by +miles. There will usually be little waste time, and few neglected +opportunities of working in the case of the peasant whose subsistence, +with that of his family, depends on the diligent and wise cropping of +the little patch that does belong to him. + +And so, dear brethren! if you and I have to take our place in the +ranks of the one-talented men, the commonplace run of ordinary people, +the more reason for us to enlarge our gifts by a sedulous diligence, +by an unwearied perseverance, by a keen look-out for all opportunities +of service, and above all by a prayerful dependence upon Him from whom +alone comes the power to toil, and who alone gives the increase. The +less we are conscious of large gifts the more we should be bowed in +dependence on Him from whom cometh 'every good and perfect gift'; and +who gives according to His wisdom; and the more earnestly should we +use that slender possession which God may have given us. Industry +applied to small natural capacity will do far more than larger power +rusted away by sloth. You all know that it is so in regard of daily +life, and common business, and the acquisition of mundane sciences and +arts. It is just as true in regard to the Christian race, and to the +Christian Church's work of witness. + +Who are they who have done the most in this world for God and for men? +The largely endowed men? 'Not many wise, not many mighty, not many +noble are called.' The coral insect is microscopic, but it will build +up from the profoundest depth of the ocean a reef against which the +whole Pacific may dash in vain. It is the small gifts that, after all, +are the important ones. So let us cultivate them the more earnestly +the more humbly we think of our own capacity. 'Play well thy part; +there all the honour lies.' God, who has builded up some of the +towering Alps out of mica-flakes, builds up His Church out of +infinitesimally small particles--slenderly endowed men touched by the +consecration of His love. + +III. Lastly, let me remind you of the harvest reaped from these +slender gifts when sedulously tilled. + +Two great results of such conscientious cultivation and use of small +resources and opportunities may be suggested as included in that +abundant 'food' of which the text speaks. + +The faithfully used faculty increases. 'To him that hath shall be +given.' 'Oh! if I had a wider sphere how I would flame in it, and fill +it!' Then twinkle your best in your little sphere, and that will bring +a wider one some time or other. For, as a rule, and in the general, +though with exceptions, opportunities come to the man that can use +them; and roughly, but yet substantially, men are set in this world +where they can shine to the most advantage to God. Fill your place; +and if you, like Paul, have borne witness for the Master in little +Jerusalem, He will not keep you there, but carry you to bear witness +for Him in imperial Rome itself. + +The old fable of the man who told his children to dig all over the +field and they would find treasure, has its true application in regard +to Christian effort and faithful stewardship of the gifts bestowed +upon us. The sons found no gold, but they improved the field, and +secured its bearing golden harvests, and they strengthened their own +muscles, which was better than gold. So if we want larger endowments +let us honestly use what we possess, and use will make growth. + +The other issue, about which I need not say more than a word, is that +the final reward of all faithful service--'Enter thou into the joy of +thy Lord' is said, not to the brilliant, but to the 'faithful' +servant. In that great parable, which is the very text-book of this +whole subject of gifts and responsibilities and recompense, the men +who were entrusted with unequal sums used these unequal sums with +equal diligence, as is manifest by the fact that they realised an +equal rate of increase. He that got two talents made two more out of +them, and he that had five did no more; for he, too, but doubled his +capital. So, because the poorer servant with his two, and the richer +with his ten, had equally cultivated their diversely-measured estates, +they were identical in reward; and to each of them the same thing is +said: 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' It matters little whether +we copy some great picture upon a canvas as big as the side of a +house, or upon a thumbnail; the main thing is that we copy it. If we +truly employ whatsoever gifts God has given to us, then we shall be +accepted according to that we have, and not according to that we have +not. + + + +SIN THE MOCKER + +'Fools make a mock at sin; but among the righteous there is +favour.'--Proverbs xiv, 9. + + +The wisdom of this Book of Proverbs is not simply intellectual, but it +has its roots in reverence and obedience to God, and for its +accompaniment, righteousness. The wise man is the good man, and the +good man is the godly man. And as is wisdom, so its opposite, folly, +is not only intellectual feebleness--the bad man is a fool, and the +godless is a bad man. The greatest amount of brain-power cultivated to +the highest degree does not make a man wise, and about many a student +and thinker God pronounces the sentence 'Thou fool!' + +That does not mean that all sin is ignorance, as we sometimes hear it +said with a great show of tolerant profundity. There is some ignorance +in all sin, but the essence of sin is the aversion of the will from a +law and from a Person, not the defect of the understanding. So far +from all sin being but ignorance, and therefore blameless, there is no +sin without knowledge, and the measure of ignorance is the measure of +blamelessness; unless the ignorance be itself, as it often is, +criminal. Ignorance is one thing, folly is another. + +One more remark by way of introduction must be made on the language of +our text. The margin of the Revised Version correctly turns it +completely round, and for 'the foolish make a mock at guilt,' would +read, 'guilt mocketh at the foolish.' In the original the verb in our +text is in the singular, and the only singular noun to go with it is +'guilt.' The thought then here is, that sin tempts men into its +clutches, and then gibes and taunts them. It is a solemn and painful +subject, but perhaps this text rightly pondered may help to save some +of us from hearing the mocking laugh which echoes through the empty +chambers of many an empty soul. + +I. Sin mocks us by its broken promises. + +The object immediately sought by any wrong act may be attained. In +sins of sense, the appetite is gratified; in other sins, the desire +that urged to them attains its end. But what then? The temptation lay +in the imagination that, the wrong thing being done, an inward good +would result, and it does not; for even if the immediate object be +secured, other results, all unforeseen, force themselves on us which +spoil the hoped for good. The sickle cuts down tares as well as wheat, +and the reaper's hands are filled with poisonous growths as well as +with corn. There is a revulsion of feeling from the thing that before +the sin was done attracted. The hideous story of the sin of David's +son, Amnon, puts in ugliest shape the universal experience of men who +are tempted to sin and are victims of the revulsion that follows--He +'hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was +greater than the love wherewith he had loved her.' Conscience, which +was overpowered and unheard amid the loud cries of desire, speaks. We +find out the narrow limits of satisfaction. The satisfied appetite has +no further driving power, but lies down to sleep off its debauch, and +ceases to be a factor for the time. Inward discord, the schism between +duty and inclination, sets up strife in the very sanctuary of the +soul. We are dimly conscious of the evil done as robbing us of power +to do right. We cannot pray, and would be glad to forget God. And a +self thus racked, impoverished, and weakened, is what a man gains by +the sin that promised him so much and hid so much from him. + +Or if these consequences are in any measure silenced and stifled, a +still more melancholy mockery betrays him, in the continuance of the +illusion that he is happy and all is well, when all the while he is +driving headlong to destruction. Many a man orders his life so that it +is like a ship that sails with huzzas and bedizened with flags while a +favouring breeze fills its sails, but comes back to port battered and +all but waterlogged, with its canvas 'lean, rent, and beggared by the +strumpet wind.' It is always a mistake to try to buy happiness by +doing wrong. The price is rigorously demanded, but the _quid pro +quo_ is not given, or if it seems to be so, there is something else +given too, which takes all the savour out of the composite whole. The +'Folly' of the earlier half of this book woos men by her sweet +invitations, and promises the sweetness of stolen waters and the +pleasantness of bread eaten in secret, but she hides the fact, which +the listener to her seducing voice has to find out for himself after +he has drunk of the stolen waters and tasted the maddening +pleasantness of her bread eaten in secret, that 'her guests are in the +depths of Sheol.' The temptations that seek to win us to do wrong and +dazzle us by fair visions are but 'juggling fiends that keep the word +of promise to the ear, and break it to the hope.' + +II. Sin mocks fools by making them its slaves. + +There is not only a revulsion of feeling from the evil thing done that +was so tempting before, but there is a dreadful change in the voice of +the temptress. Before her victim had done the sin, she whispered hints +of how little a thing it was. 'Don't make such a mountain of a +molehill. It is a very small matter. You can easily give it up when +you like.' But when the deed is done, then her mocking laugh rings +out, 'I have got you now and you cannot get away.' The prey is seduced +into the trap by a carefully prepared bait, and as soon as its +hesitating foot steps on to the slippery floor, down falls the door +and escape is impossible, We are tempted to sin by the delusion that +we are shaking off restraints that fetter our manhood, and that it is +spirited to do as we like, and as soon as we have sinned we discover +that we were pleasing not ourselves but a taskmaster, and that while +the voice said, 'Show yourself a man, beyond these petty, +old-fashioned maxims'; the meaning of it was, 'Become my slave.' + +Sin grows in accordance with an awful necessity, so that it is never +in a sinner's power to promise himself 'It is only this one time that +I will do the wrong thing. Let me have one lapse and I will abjure the +evil for ever after.' We have to reckon with the tremendous power of +habit, and to bethink ourselves that a man may never commit a given +sin, but that if he has committed it once, it is all but impossible +that he will stop there. The incline is too slippery and the ice too +smooth to risk a foot on it. Habit dominates, outward circumstances +press, there springs up a need for repeating the draught, and for its +being more highly spiced. Sin begets sin as fast as the green flies +which infest rose-bushes. One has heard of slavers on the African +coast speaking negroes fair, and tempting them on board by wonderful +promises, but once the poor creatures are in the ship, then on with +the hatches and, if need be, the chains. + +III. Sin mocks fools by unforeseen consequences. + +These are carefully concealed or madly disregarded, while we are in +the stage of merely being tempted, but when we have done the evil, +they are unmasked, like a battery against a detachment that has been +trapped. The previous denial that anything will come of the sin, and +the subsequent proclamation that this ugly issue has come of it, are +both parts of sin's mockery, and one knows not which is the more +fiendish, the laugh with which she promises impunity or that with +which she tells of the certainty of retribution. We may be mocked, but +'God is not mocked. Whatever a man soweth, that'--and not some other +growth--'shall he also reap.' We dwell in an all-related order of +things, in which no act but has its appropriate consequences, and in +which it is only fools who say to themselves, 'I did not think it +would matter much.' Each act of ours is at once sowing and reaping; a +sowing, inasmuch as it sets in motion a train the issues of which may +not be realised by us till the act has long been forgotten; a reaping, +inasmuch as what we are and do to-day is the product of what we were +and did in a forgotten past. We are what we are, because we were long +ago what we were. As in these composite photographs, which are +produced by laying one individual likeness on another, our present +selves have our past selves preserved in them. We do not need to bring +in a divine Judge into human life in order to be sure that, by the +play of the natural laws of cause and effect, 'every transgression and +disobedience receives its just recompense of reward.' Given the world +as it is, and the continuous identity of a man, and you have all that +is needed for an Iliad of woes flowing from every life that makes +terms with sin. If we gather into one dismal pile the weakening of +power for good, the strengthening of impulses to evil, the inward +poverty, the unrest, the gnawings of conscience or its silence, the +slavery under evil often loathed even while it is being obeyed, the +dreary sense of inability to mend oneself, and often the wreck of +outward life which dog our sins like sleuth-hounds, surely we shall +not need to imagine a future tribunal in order to be sure that sin is +a murderess, or to hear her laugh as she mocks her helpless victims. + +But as surely as there are in this present world experiences which +must be regarded as consequences of sin, so surely do they all assume +a more dreadful character and take on the office of prophets of a +future. If man lives beyond the grave, there is nothing to suggest +that he will there put off character as he puts off the bodily life. +He will be there what he has made himself here. Only he will be so +more intensely, more completely. The judgments of earth foretell and +foreshadow a judgment beyond earth. + +There is but one more word that I would say, and it is this. Jesus has +come to set the captives of sin free from its mockery, its tyranny, +its worst consequences. He breaks the power of past evil to domineer +over us. He gives us a new life within, which has no heritage of evil +to pervert it, no memories of evil to discourage it, no bias towards +evil to lead it astray. As for the sins that we have done, He is ready +to forgive, to seal to us God's forgiveness, and to take from our own +self-condemnation all its bitterness and much of its hopelessness. For +the past, His blood has taken away its guilt and power. For the future +it sets us free from the mockery of our sin, and assures us of a +future which will not be weakened or pained by remembrances of a +sinful past. Sin mocks at fools, but they who have Christ for their +Redeemer, their Righteousness, and their Life can smile at her +impotent rage, and mock at her and her impotent attempts to terrify +them and assert her lost power with vain threats. + + + +HOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY + +'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is +heaviness.'--PROVERBS xiv. 13. + +'These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and +that your joy may be fulfilled.'--JOHN xv. 11 (R.V.). + + +A poet, who used to be more fashionable than he is now, pronounces +'happiness' to be our being's end and aim. That is not true, except +under great limitations and with many explanations. It may be regarded +as God's end, but it is ruinous to make it man's aim. It is by no +means the highest conception of the Gospel to say that it makes men +happy, however true it may be. The highest is that it makes them good. +I put these two texts together, not only because they bring out the +contrast between the laughter which is hollow and fleeting and the joy +which is perfect and perpetual, but also because they suggest to us +the difference in kind and object between earthly and heavenly joys; +which difference underlies the other between the boisterous laughter +in which is no mirth and no continuance and the joy which is deep and +abiding. + +In the comparison which I desire to make between these two texts we +must begin with that which is deepest, and consider-- + +I. The respective objects of earthly and heavenly joy. + +Our Lord's wonderful words suggest that they who accept His sayings, +that they who have His word abiding in them, have in a very deep sense +His joy implanted in their hearts, to brighten and elevate their joys +as the sunshine flashes into silver the ripples of the lake. What then +were the sources of the calm joys of 'the Man of Sorrows'? Surely His +was the perfect instance of 'rejoicing in the Lord always'--an +unbroken communion with the Father. The consciousness that the divine +pleasure ever rested on Him, and that all His thoughts, emotions, +purposes, and acts were in perfect harmony with the perfect will of +the perfect God, filled His humanity up to the very brim with gladness +which the world could not take away, and which remains for us for ever +as a type to which all our gladness must be conformed if it is to be +worthy of Him and of us. As one of the Psalmists says, God is to be +'the gladness of our joy.' It is in Him, gazed upon by the faith and +love of an obedient spirit, sought after by aspiration and possessed +inwardly in peaceful communion, confirmed by union with Him in the +acts of daily obedience, that the true joy of every human life is to +be realised. They who have drunk of this deep fountain of gladness +will not express their joy in boisterous laughter, which is the +hollower the louder it is, and the less lasting the more noisy, but +will manifest itself 'in the depth and not the tumult of the soul.' + +Nor must we forget that 'My joy' co-existed with a profound experience +of sorrow to which no human sorrow was ever like. Let us not forget +that, while His joy filled His soul to the brim, He was 'acquainted +with grief'; and let us not wonder if the strange surface +contradiction is repeated in ourselves. It is more Christlike to have +inexpressibly deep joy with surface sorrow, than to have a shallow +laughter masking a hurtful sorrow. + +We have to set the sources of earthly gladness side by side with those +of Christ's joy to be aware of a contrast. His sprang from within, the +world's is drawn from without. His came from union with the Father, +the world's largely depends on ignoring God. His needed no supplies +from the gratifications ministered by sense, and so independent of the +presence or absence of such; the world's need the constant +contributions of outward good, and when these are cut off they droop +and die. He who depends on outward circumstances for his joy is the +slave of externals and the sport of time and chance. + +II. The Christian's joy is full, the world's partial. + +All human joys touch but part of our nature, the divine fills and +satisfies all. In the former there is always some portion of us +unsatisfied, like the deep pits on the moon's surface into which no +light shines, and which show black on the silver face. No human joys +wait to still conscience, which sits at the banquet like the skeleton +that Egyptian feasters set at their tables. The old story told of a +magician's palace blazing with lighted windows, but there was always +one dark;--what shrouded figure sat behind it? Is there not always a +surly 'elder brother' who will not come in however the musicians may +pipe and the servants dance? Appetite may be satisfied, but what of +conscience, and reason, and the higher aspirations of the soul? The +laughter that echoes through the soul is the hollower the louder it +is, and reverberates most through empty spaces. + +But when Christ's joy remains in us our joy will be full. Its flowing +tide will rush into and placidly occupy all the else oozy shallows of +our hearts, even into the narrowest crannies its penetrating waters +will pass, and everywhere will bring a flashing surface that will +reflect in our hearts the calm blue above. We need nothing else if we +have Christ and His joy within us. If we have everything else, we need +His joy within us, else ours will never be full. + +III. The heavenly joys are perpetual, the earthly joys transient. + +Many of our earthly joys die in the very act of being enjoyed. Those +which depend on the gratification of some appetite expire in fruition, +and at each recurrence are less and less complete. The influence of +habit works in two ways to rob all such joys of their power to +minister to us--it increases the appetite and decreases the power of +the object to satisfy. Some are followed by swift revulsion and +remorse; all soon become stale; some are followed by quick remorse; +some are necessarily left behind as we go on in life. To the old man +the pleasures of youth are but like children's toys long since +outgrown and left behind. All are at the mercy of externals. Those +which we have not left we have to leave. The saddest lives are those +of pleasure-seekers, and the saddest deaths are those of the men who +sought for joy where it was not to be found, and sought for their +gratification in a world which leaves them, and which they have to +leave. + +There is a realm where abide 'fullness of joy and pleasures for ever +more.' Surely they order their lives most wisely who look for their +joys to nothing that earth holds, and have taken for their own the +ancient vow: 'Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall +fruit be in the vine.... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in +the God of my salvation.' If 'My joy' abides in us in its calm and +changeless depth, our joy will be 'full' whatever our circumstances +may be; and we shall hear at last the welcome: 'Enter thou into the +joy of thy Lord.' + + + +SATISFIED FROM SELF + +'... A good man shall be satisfied from himself.'--PROVERBS xiv. 14. + + +At first sight this saying strikes one as somewhat unlike the ordinary +Scripture tone, and savouring rather of a Stoical self-complacency; +but we recall parallel sayings, such as Christ's words, 'The water +that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water'; and the +Apostle's, 'Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone.' We further +note that the text has an antithetic parallel in the preceding clause, +where the picture is drawn of 'a backslider in heart,' as 'filled with +his own ways'; so that both clauses set forth the familiar but solemn +thought that a man's deeds react upon the doer, and apart from all +thoughts of divine judgment, themselves bring certain retribution. To +grasp the inwardness of this saying we must note that-- + +I. Goodness comes from godliness. + +There is no more striking proof that most men are bad than the notion +which they have of what is good. The word has been degraded to mean in +common speech little more than amiability, and is applied with little +discrimination to characters of which little more can be said than +that they are facile and indulgent of evil. 'A good fellow' may be a +very bad man. At the highest the epithet connotes merely more or less +admirable motives and more or less admirable deeds as their results, +whilst often its use is no more than a piece of unmeaning politeness. +That was what the young ruler meant by addressing Christ as 'Good +Master'; and Christ's answer to him set him, and should set us, on +asking ourselves why we call very ordinary men and very ordinary +actions 'good.' The scriptural notion is immensely deeper, and the +scriptural employment of the word is immensely more restricted. It is +more inward: it means that motives should be right before it calls any +action good; it means that our central and all-influencing motive +should be love to God and regard to His will. That is the Old +Testament point of view as well as the New. Or to put it in other +words, the 'good man' of the Bible is a man in whom outward +righteousness flows from inward devotion and love to God. These two +elements make up the character: godliness is an inseparable part of +goodness, is the inseparable foundation of goodness, and the sole +condition on which it is possible. But from this conception follows, +that a man may be truly called good, although not perfect. He may be +so and yet have many failures. The direction of his aspirations, not +the degree to which these are fulfilled, determines his character, and +his right to be reckoned a good man. Why was David called 'a man after +God's own heart,' notwithstanding his frightful fall? Was it not +because that sin was contrary to the main direction of his life, and +because he had struggled to his feet again, and with tears and +self-abasement, yet with unconquerable desire and hope, 'pressed +toward the mark for the prize of his high calling'? David in the Old +Testament and Peter in the New bid us be of good cheer, and warn us +against the too common error of thinking that goodness means +perfection. 'The new moon with a ragged edge' is even in its +imperfections beautiful, and in its thinnest circlet prophesies the +perfect round. + +Remembering this inseparable connection between godliness and goodness +we further note that-- + +II. Godliness brings satisfaction. + +There is a grim contrast between the two halves of this verse. The +former shows us the backslider in heart as filled 'with his own ways.' +He gets weary with satiety; with his doings he 'will be sick of them'; +and the things which at first delighted will finally disgust and be +done without zest. There is nothing sadder than the gloomy faces often +seen in the world's festivals. But, on the other hand, the godly man +will be satisfied from within. This is no Stoical proclamation of +self-sufficingness. Self by itself satisfies no man, but self, become +the abiding-place of God, does satisfy. A man alone is like 'the chaff +which the wind driveth away'; but, rooted in God, he is 'like a tree +planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf does not wither.' He has +found all that he needs. God is no longer without him but within; and +he who can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' has +within him the secret of peace and the source of satisfaction which +can never say 'I thirst.' Such an inward self, in which God dwells and +through which His sweet presence manifests itself in the renewed +nature, sets man free from all dependence for blessedness on +externals. We hang on them and are in despair if we lose them, because +we have not the life of God within us. He who has such an indwelling, +and he only, can truly say, 'All my possessions I carry with me.' Take +him and strip from him, film after film, possessions, reputation, +friends; hack him limb from limb, and as long as there is body enough +left to keep life in him, he can say, 'I have all and abound.' 'Ye +took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have +your own selves for a better possession.' + +III. Godly goodness brings inward satisfaction. + +No man is satisfied with himself until he has subjugated himself. What +makes men restless and discontented is their tossing, anarchical +desires. To live by impulse, or passion, or by anything but love to +God, is to make ourselves our own tormentors. It is always true that +he 'who loveth his life shall lose it,' and loses it by the very act +of loving it. Most men's lives are like the troubled sea, 'which +cannot rest,' and whose tossing surges, alas! 'cast up mire and dirt,' +for their restless lives bring to the surface much that was meant to +lie undisturbed in the depths. + +But he who has subdued himself is like some still lake which 'heareth +not the loud winds when they call,' and mirrors the silent heavens on +its calm surface. But further, goodness brings satisfaction, because, +as the Psalmist says, 'in keeping Thy commandments there is great +reward.' There is a glow accompanying even partial obedience which +diffuses itself with grateful warmth through the whole being of a man. +And such goodness tends to the preservation of health of soul as +natural, simple living to the health of the body. And that general +sense of well-being brings with it a satisfaction compared with which +all the feverish bliss of the voluptuary is poor indeed. + +But we must not forget that satisfaction from one's self is not +satisfaction _with_ one's self. There will always be the +imperfection which will always prevent self-righteousness. The good +man after the Bible pattern most deeply knows his faults, and in that +very consciousness is there a deep joy. To be ever aspiring onwards, +and to know that our aspiration is no vain dream, this is joy. Still +to press 'toward the mark,' still to have 'the yet untroubled world +which gleams before us as we move,' and to know that we shall attain +if we follow on, this is the highest bliss. Not the accomplishment of +our ideal, but the cherishing of it, is the true delight of life. + +Such self-satisfying goodness comes only through Christ. He makes it +possible for us to love God and to trust Him. Only when we know 'the +love wherewith He has loved us,' shall we love with a love which will +be the motive power of our lives. He makes it possible to live outward +lives of obedience, which, imperfect as it is, has 'great reward.' He +makes it possible for us to attain the yet unattained, and to be sure +that we 'shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' He has +said, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water +springing up unto everlasting life.' Only when we can say, 'I live, +yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' will it be true of us in its +fullest sense, 'A good man shall be satisfied from himself.' + + + +WHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF ME + +'All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord +weigheth the spirits.'--PROVERBS xvi. 2. + + +'All the ways of a man'--then there is no such thing as being +conscious of having gone wrong, and having got into miry and foul +ways? Of course there is; and equally of course a broad statement such +as this of my text is not to be pressed into literal accuracy, but is +a simple, general assertion of what we all know to be true, that we +have a strange power of blinding ourselves as to what is wrong in +ourselves and in our actions. Part of the cure for that lies in the +thought in the second clause of the text--'But the Lord weigheth the +spirits.' He weighs them in a balance, or as a man might take up +something and poise it on his palm, moving his hand up and down till +his muscles by their resistance gave him some inkling of its weight. +But what is it that God weighs? 'The spirits.' We too often content +ourselves with looking at our ways; God looks at ourselves. He takes +the inner man into account, estimates actions by motives, and so very +often differs from our judgment of ourselves and of one another. + +Now so far the verse of my text carries me, and as a rule we have to +keep ourselves within the limits of each verse in reading this Book of +Proverbs, for two adjoining verses have very seldom anything to do +with each other. But in the present case they have, for here is what +follows: 'Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts' (about +thyself and everything else) 'shall be established.' That is to say, +since we make such terrible blunders about the moral character of our +own works, and since side by side with these erroneous estimates there +is God's absolutely correct and all-penetrating one, common sense +says: 'Put yourself into His hands, and then it will be all right.' So +we consider now these very well-worn and familiar thoughts as to our +strange blunders about ourselves, as to the contemporaneous divine +estimate, which is absolutely correct, and as to the practical issues +that come from two facts. + +I. Our strange power of blinding ourselves. + +It is difficult to make so threadbare a commonplace at all impressive. +But yet if we would only take this thought, 'All the ways of a +man'--that is me--'are right in his own eyes'--that is, my eyes--and +apply it directly to our own personal experience and thoughts of +ourselves, we should find that, like every other commonplace of +morality and religion, the apparently toothless generality has sharp +enough teeth, and that the trite truth flashes up into strange beauty, +and has power to purify and guide our lives. Some one says that +'recognised truths lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by +side with exploded errors.' And I am afraid that that is true of this +thought, that we cannot truly estimate ourselves. + +'All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.' For to begin with, +we all know that there is nothing that we so habitually neglect as the +bringing of conscience to bear right through all our lives. Sometimes +it is because there is a temptation that appeals very strongly, +perhaps to sense, perhaps to some strong inclination which has been +strengthened by indulgence. And when the craving arises, that is no +time to begin asking, 'Is it right, or is it wrong to yield?' That +question stands small chance of being wisely considered at a moment +when, under the goading of roused desire, a man is like a mad bull +when it charges. It drops its head and shuts its eyes, and goes right +forward, and no matter whether it smashes its horns against an iron +gate, and damages them and itself, or not, on it will go. So when +great temptations rise--and we all know such times in our lives--we +are in no condition to discuss that question with ourselves. Sometimes +the craving is so vehement that if we could not get this thing that we +want without putting our hands through the sulphurous smoke of the +bottomless pit, we should thrust them out to grasp it. But in regard +to the smaller commonplace matters of daily life, too, we all know +that there are whole regions of our lives which seem to us to be so +small that it is hardly worth while summoning the august thought of +'right or wrong?' to decide them. Yes, and a thousand smugglers that +go across a frontier, each with a little package of contraband goods +that does not pay any duty, make a large aggregate at the year's end. +It is the trifles of life that shape life, and it is to them that we +so frequently fail in applying, honestly and rigidly, the test, 'Is +this right or wrong?' 'He that is faithful in that which is least,' +and conscientious down to the smallest things, 'is faithful also in +much.' The legal maxim has it, 'The law does not care about the very +smallest matters.' What that precisely means, as a legal maxim, I do +not profess to know, but it is rank heresy in regard to conduct and +morality. Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after +themselves. Get the habit of bringing conscience to bear on little +things, or you will never be able to bring it to bear when great +temptations come and the crises emerge in your lives. Thus, by reason +of that deficiency in the habitual application of conscience to bur +lives, we slide through, and take for granted that all our ways are +right in our eyes. + +Then there is another thing: we not only neglect the rigid application +of conscience to all our lives, but we have a double standard, and the +notion of right and wrong which we apply to our neighbours is very +different from that which we apply to ourselves. No wonder that the +criminal is acquitted, and goes away from the tribunal 'without a +stain on his character,' when he is his own judge and jury. 'All the +ways of a man are right in his own eyes,' but the very same 'ways' +that you allow to pass muster and condone in yourselves, you visit +with sharp and unfailing censure in others. That strange +self-complacency which we have, which is perfectly undisturbed by the +most general confessions of sinfulness, and only shies when it is +brought up to particular details of faults, we all know is very deep +in ourselves. + +Then there is another thing to be remembered, and that is--the +enormous and the tragical influence of habit in dulling the mirror of +our souls, on which our deeds are reflected in their true image. There +are places in Europe where the peasantry have become so accustomed to +minute and constantly repeated doses of arsenic that it is actually a +minister of health to them, and what would poison you is food for +them. We all know that we may sit in a hall like this, packed full and +steaming, while the condensed breath is running down the windows, and +never be aware of the foulness of the odours and the air. But when we +go out and feel the sweet, pure breath of the unpolluted atmosphere, +then we know how habit has dulled the lungs. And so habit dulls the +conscience. According to the old saying, the man that began by +carrying a calf can carry an ox at the end, and feel no burden. What +we are accustomed to do we scarcely ever recognise to be wrong, and it +is these things which pass because they are habitual that do more to +wreck lives than occasional outbursts of far worse evils, according to +the world's estimate of them. Habit dulls the eye. + +Yes; and more than that, the conscience needs educating just as much +as any other faculty. A man says, 'My conscience acquits me'; then the +question is, 'And what sort of a conscience have you got, if it +acquits you?' All that your conscience says is, 'It is right to do +what is right, it is wrong to do what is wrong.' But for the +explanation of what is wrong and what is right you have to go +somewhere else than to your consciences. You have to go to your +reason, and your judgment, and your common sense, and a hundred other +sources. And then, when you have found out what is right and what is +wrong, you will hear the voice saying, 'Do that, and do not do this.' +Every one of us has faults that we know nothing about, and that we +bring up to the tribunal of our consciences, and wipe our mouths and +say, 'We have done no harm.' 'I thought within myself that I verily +ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.' +'They think that they do God service.' Many things that seem to us +virtues are vices. + +And as for the individual so for the community. The perception of what +is right and what is wrong needs long educating. When I was a boy the +whole Christian Church of America, with one voice, declared that +'slavery was a patriarchal institution appointed by God.' The +Christian Church of to-day has not awakened either to the sin of war +or of drink. And I have not the smallest doubt that there are hosts of +things which public opinion, and Christian public opinion, regards +to-day as perfectly allowable and innocent, and, perhaps, even +praiseworthy, and over which it will ask God's blessing, at which, in +a hundred years our descendants will hold up their hands in wonder, +and say, 'How did good people--and good people they no doubt +were--tolerate such a condition of things for a moment?' 'All a man's +ways are right in his own eyes,' and he needs a great deal of teaching +before he comes to understand what, according to God's will, really, +is right and what is wrong. + +Now let me turn for a moment to the contrasted picture, with which I +can only deal in a sentence or two. + +II. The divine estimate. + +I have already pointed out the two emphatic thoughts that lie in that +clause, 'God weigheth,' and 'weigheth the spirits.' I need not repeat +what I said, in the introduction to these remarks, upon this subject. +Just let us take with us these two thoughts, that the same actions +which we sometimes test, in our very defective and loaded balances, +have also to go into the infallible scales, and that the actions go +with their interpretation in their motive. 'God weighs the spirits.' +He reads what we do by His knowledge of what we are. We reveal to one +another what we are by what we do, and, as is a commonplace, none of +us can penetrate, except very superficially and often inaccurately, to +the motives that actuate. But the motive is three-fourths of the +action. God does not go from without, as it were, inwards; from our +actions to estimate our characters; but He starts with the character +and the motive--the habitual character and the occasional motive--and +by these He reads the deed. He weighs, ponders, penetrates to the +heart of the thing, and He weighs the spirits. + +So on the one hand, 'I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in +unbelief,' and many a deed which the world would condemn, and in which +we onlookers would see evil, God does not wholly condemn, because He, +being the Inlooker as well as the Onlooker, sees the albeit mistaken +yet pure motives that underlay it. So it is conceivable that the +inquisitor, and the heretic that he sent to the stake, may stand side +by side in God's estimate; the one if he were actuated by pure zeal +for the truth, the other because he was actuated by self-sacrifice in +loyalty to his Lord. And, on the other hand, many a deed that goes +flaunting through the world in 'purple and fine linen' will be +stripped of its gauds, and stand naked and ugly before the eyes of +'Him with whom we have to do.' He 'weighs the spirits.' + +Lastly, a word about-- + +III. The practical issues of these thoughts. + +'Commit thy works unto the Lord'--that is to say, do not be too sure +that you are right because you do not think you are wrong. We should +be very distrustful of our own judgments of ourselves, especially when +that judgment permits us to do certain things. 'I know nothing against +myself,' said the Apostle, 'yet am I not hereby justified.' And again, +still more emphatically, he lays down the principle that I would have +liked to have enlarged upon if I had had time. 'Happy is he that +condemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth.' You may have +made the glove too easy by stretching. It is possible that you may +think that something is permissible and right which a wiser and more +rigid and Christlike judgment of yourself would have taught you was +wrong. Look under the stones for the reptiles, and remember the +prayer, 'Cleanse thou me from secret faults,' and distrust a +permitting and easy conscience. + +Then, again, let us seek the divine strengthening and illumination. We +have to seek that in some very plain ways. Seek it by prayer. There is +nothing so powerful in stripping off from our besetting sins their +disguises and masks as to go to God with the honest petition: 'Search +me ... and try me ... and see if there be any wicked way in me, and +lead me in the way everlasting.' Brethren! if we will do that, we +shall get answers that will startle us, that will humble us, but that +will be blessed beyond all other blessedness, and will bring to light +the 'hidden things of darkness.' Then, after they are brought to light +and cast out, 'then shall every man have praise of God.' + +We ought to keep ourselves in very close union with Jesus Christ, +because if we cling to Him in simple faith, He will come into our +hearts, and we shall be saved from walking in darkness, and have the +light of life shining down upon our deeds. Christ is the conscience of +the Christian man's conscience, who, by His voice in the hearts that +wait upon Him, says, 'Do this,' and they do it. It is when He is in +our spirits that our estimate of ourselves is set right, and that we +hear the voice saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it'; and not +merely do we hear the voice, but we get help to our feet in running in +the way of His commandments, with enlarged and confirmed hearts. +Brethren! for the discovery of our faults, which we ought all to long +for, and for the conquest of these discovered faults, which, if we are +Christians, we do long for, our confidence is in Him. And if you trust +Him, 'the blood of Christ will cleanse'--because it comes into our +life's blood--'from all sin.' + +And the last thing that I would say is this. We must punctiliously +obey every dictate that speaks in our own consciences, especially when +it urges us to unwelcome duties or restrains us from too welcome sins. +'To him that hath shall be given'--and the sure way to condemn +ourselves to utter blindness as to our true selves is to pay no +attention to the glimmers of light that we have, whilst, on the other +hand, the sure way to be led into fuller illumination is to follow +faithfully whatsoever sparkles of light may shine upon our hearts. 'Do +the duty that lies nearest thee.' Put thy trust in Jesus Christ. +Distrust thine own approbation or condonation of thine actions, and +ever turn to Him and say, 'Show me what to do, and make me willing and +fit to do it.' Then there will be little contrariety between your +estimate of your ways and God's judgments of your spirits. + + + +A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS + +'Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the +instruction of fools is folly. 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his +mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. 24. Pleasant words are as an +honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 25. There is a +way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of +death. 26. He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth +craveth it of him. 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips +there is as a burning fire. 28. A froward man soweth strife: and a +whisperer separateth chief friends. 29. A violent man enticeth his +neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. 30. He +shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he +bringeth evil to pass. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it +be found in the way of righteousness. 32. He that is slow to anger is +better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that +taketh a city. 33. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole +disposing thereof is of the Lord.'--PROVERBS xvi. 22-33. + + +A slight thread of connection may be traced in some of the proverbs in +this passage. Verse 22, with its praise of 'Wisdom,' introduces one +instance of Wisdom's excellence in verse 23, and that again, with its +reference to speech, leads on to verse 24 and its commendation of +'pleasant words.' Similarly, verses 27-30 give four pictures of vice, +three of them beginning with 'a man.' We may note, too, that, starting +with verse 26, every verse till verse 30 refers to some work of 'the +mouth' or 'lips.' + +The passage begins with one phase of the contrast between Wisdom and +Folly, which this book is never weary of emphasising and underscoring. +We shall miss the force of its most characteristic teaching unless we +keep well in mind that the two opposites of Wisdom and Folly do not +refer only or chiefly to intellectual distinctions. The very basis of +'Wisdom,' as this book conceives it, is the 'fear of the Lord,' +without which the man of biggest, clearest brain, and most richly +stored mind, is, in its judgment, 'a fool.' Such 'understanding,' +which apprehends and rightly deals with the deepest fact of life, our +relation to God and to His law, is a 'well-spring of life.' The figure +speaks still more eloquently to Easterns than to us. In those hot +lands the cool spring, bursting through the baked rocks or burning +sand, makes the difference between barrenness and fertility, the death +of all green things and life. So where true Wisdom is deep in a heart, +it will come flashing up into sunshine, and will quicken the seeds of +all good as it flows through the deeds. 'Everything liveth +whithersoever the river cometh.' Productiveness, refreshment, the +beauty of the sparkling wavelets, the music of their ripples against +the stones, and all the other blessings and delights of a perpetual +fountain, have better things corresponding to them in the life of the +man who is wise with the true Wisdom which begins with the fear of +God. Just as _it_ is active in the life, so is Folly. But its +activity is not blessing and gladdening, but punitive. For all sin +automatically works its own chastisement, and the curse of Folly is +that, while it corrects, it prevents the 'fool' from profiting by the +correction. Since it punishes itself, one might expect that it would +cure itself, but experience shows that, while it wields a rod, its +subjects 'receive no correction.' That insensibility is the paradox +and the Nemesis of 'Folly.' + +The Old Testament ethics are remarkable for their solemn sense of the +importance of words, and Proverbs shares in that sense to the full. In +some aspects, speech is a more perfect self-revelation than act. So +the outflow of the fountain in words comes next. Wise heart makes wise +speech. That may be looked at in two ways. It may point to the +utterance by word as the most precious, and incumbent on its +possessor, of all the ways of manifesting Wisdom; or it may point to +the only source of real 'learning,'--namely, a wise heart. In the +former view, it teaches us our solemn obligation not to hide our light +under a bushel, but to speak boldly and lovingly all the truth which +God has taught us. A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are bound to +give voice to our 'Wisdom.' In the other aspect, it reminds us that +there is a better way of getting Wisdom than by many books,--namely, +by filling our hearts, through communion with God, with His own will. +Then, whether we have worldly 'learning' or no, we shall be able to +instruct many, and lead them to the light which has shone on us. + +There are many kinds of pleasant words, some of which are not like +'honey,' but like poison hid in jam. Insincere compliments, flatteries +when rebukes would be fitting, and all the brood of civil +conventionalities, are not the words meant here. Truly pleasant ones +are those which come from true Wisdom, and may often have a surface of +bitterness like the prophet's roll, but have a core of sweetness. It +is a great thing to be able to speak necessary and unwelcome truths +with lips into which grace is poured. A spoonful of honey catches more +flies than a hogshead of vinegar. + +Verse 25 has no connection with its context. It teaches two solemn +truths, according to the possible double meaning of 'right.' If that +word means ethically right, then the saying sets forth the terrible +possibility of conscience being wrongly instructed, and sanctioning +gross sin. If it means only _straight_, or level--that is, +successful and easy--the saying enforces the not less solemn truth +that sin deceives as to its results, and that the path of wrong-doing, +which is flowery and smooth at first, grows rapidly thorny, and goes +fast downhill, and ends at last in a _cul-de-sac,_ of which death +is the only outlet. We are not to trust our own consciences, except as +enlightened by God's Word. We are not to listen to sin's lies, but to +fix it well in our minds that there is only one way which leads to +life and peace, the narrow way of faith and obedience. + +The Revised Version's rendering of verse 26 gives the right idea. 'The +appetite,' or hunger, 'of the labourer labours for him' (that is, the +need of food is the mainspring of work), and it lightens the work to +which it impels. So hunger is a blessing. That is true in regard to +the body. The manifold material industries of men are, at bottom, +prompted by the need to earn something to eat. The craving which +drives to such results is a thing to be thankful for. It is better to +live where toil is needful to sustain life than in lazy lands where an +hour's work will provide food for a week. But the saying reaches to +spiritual desires, and anticipates the beatitude on those who 'hunger +and thirst after righteousness.' Happy they who feel that craving, and +are driven by it to the labour for the bread which comes down from +heaven! 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath +sent.' + +The next three proverbs (vs. 27-29) give three pictures of different +types of bad men. First, we have 'the worthless man' (Rev. Ver.), +literally 'a man of Belial,' which last word probably means +worthlessness. His work is 'digging evil'; his words are like +scorching fire. To dig evil seems to have a wider sense than has +digging a pit for others (Ps. vii. 15), which is usually taken as a +parallel. The man is not merely malicious toward others, but his whole +activity goes to further evil. It is the material in which he delights +to work. What mistaken spade husbandry it is to spend labour on such a +soil! What can it grow but thistles and poisonous plants? His words +are as bad as his deeds. No honey drops from _his_ lips, but +scorching fire, which burns up not only reputations but tries to +consume all that is good. As James says, such a tongue is 'set on fire +of hell.' The picture is that of a man bad through and through. But +there may be indefinitely close approximations to it, and no man can +say, 'Thus far will I go in evil ways, and no further.' + +The second picture is of a more specific kind. The 'froward man' here +seems to be the same as the slanderer in the next clause. He utters +perverse things, and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are +people whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower's +basket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them +broadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be, +but often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and +alienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm +as a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people's faults is not +innocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief he was +setting agoing. + +In verse 29 another type of evil-doer is outlined--the opposite, in +some respects, of the preceding. The slanderer works secretly; this +mischief-maker goes the plain way to work. He uses physical force or +'violence.' But how does that fit in with 'enticeth'? It may be that +the enticement of his victim into a place suitable for robbing or +murder is meant, but more probably there is here the same combination +of force and craft as in chapter i. 10-14. Criminals have a wicked +delight in tempting innocent people to join their gangs. A lawless +desperado is a hotbed of infection. + +Verse 30 draws a portrait of a bad man. It is a bit of homely +physiognomical observation. A man with a trick of closing his eyes has +something working in his head; and, if he is one of these types of +men, one may be sure that he is brewing mischief. Compressed lips mean +concentrated effort, or fixed resolve, or suppressed feeling, and in +any of these cases are as a danger signal, warning that the man is at +work on some evil deed. + +Two sayings follow, which contrast goodness with the evils just +described. The 'if' in verse 31 weakens the strong assertion of the +proverb. 'The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way +of righteousness.' That is but putting into picturesque form the Old +Testament promise of long life to the righteous--a promise which is +not repeated in the new dispensation, but which is still often +realised. 'Whom the gods love, die young,' is a heathen proverb; but +there is a natural tendency in the manner of life which Christianity +produces to prolong a man's days. A heart at peace, because stayed on +God, passions held well in hand, an avoidance of excesses which eat +away strength, do tend to length of life, and the opposites of these +do tend to shorten it. How many young men go home from our great +cities every year, with their 'bones full of the iniquities of their +youth,' to die! + +If we are to tread the way of righteousness, and so come to 'reverence +and the silver hair,' we must govern ourselves. So the next proverb +extols the ruler of his own spirit as 'more than conquerors,' whose +triumphs are won in such vulgar fields as battles and sieges, Our +sorest fights and our noblest victories are within. + + 'Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!' + +Verse 31 takes the casting of the lot as one instance of the +limitation of all human effort, in all which we can but use the +appropriate means, while the whole issue must be left in God's hands. +The Jewish law did not enjoin the lot, but its use seems to have been +frequent. The proverb presents in the sharpest relief a principle +which is true of all our activity. The old proverb-maker knew nothing +of chance. To him there were but two real moving forces in the +world--man and God. To the one belonged sowing the seed, doing his +part, whether casting the lot or toiling at his task. His force was +real, but derived and limited. Efforts and attempts are ours; results +are God's. We sow; He 'gives it a body as it pleases Him.' Nothing +happens by accident. Man's little province is bounded on all sides by +God's, and the two touch. There is no neutral territory between, where +godless chance rules. + + + +TWO FORTRESSES + +'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into +it, and is safe. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as +an high wall in his own conceit'--PROVERBS xviii. 10,11. + + +The mere reading of these two verses shows that, contrary to the usual +rule in the Book of Proverbs, they have a bearing on each other. They +are intended to suggest a very strong contrast, and that contrast is +even more emphatic in the original than in our translation; because, +as the margin of your Bibles will tell you, the last word of the +former verse might be more correctly rendered, 'the righteous runneth +into it, and is _set on high._' It is the same word which is +employed in the next verse--'a high wall.' + +So we have 'the strong tower' and 'the strong city'; the man lifted up +above danger on the battlements of the one, and the man fancying +himself to be high above it (and only fancying himself) in the +imaginary safety of the other. + +I. Consider then, first, the two fortresses. + +One need only name them side by side to feel the full force of the +intended contrast. On the one hand, the name of the Lord with all its +depths and glories, with its blaze of lustrous purity, and infinitudes +of inexhaustible power; and on the other, 'the rich man's wealth.' +What contempt is expressed in putting the two side by side! It is as +if the author had said, 'Look on this picture and on that!' Two +fortresses! Yes! The one is like Gibraltar, inexpugnable on its rock, +and the other is like a painted castle on the stage; flimsy canvas +that you could put your foot through--solidity by the side of +nothingness. For even the poor appearance of solidity is an illusion, +as our text says with bitter emphasis--'a high wall _in his own +conceit_.' + +'The name of the Lord,' of course, is the Biblical expression for the +whole character of God, as He has made it known to us, or in other +words, for God Himself, as He has been pleased to reveal Himself to +mankind. The syllables of that name are all the deeds by which He has +taught us what He is; every act of power, of wisdom, of tenderness, of +grace that has manifested these qualities and led us to believe that +they are all infinite. In the name, in its narrower sense, the name of +Jehovah, there is much of 'the name' in its wider sense. For that name +'Jehovah,' both by its signification and by the circumstances under +which it was originally employed, tells us a great deal about God. It +tells us, for instance, by virtue of its signification, that He is +self-existent, depending upon no other creature. 'I AM THAT I AM!' No +other being can say that. All the rest of us have to say, 'I am that +which God made me.' Circumstances and a hundred other things have made +me; God finds the law of His being and the fountain of His being +within Himself. + + 'He sits on no precarious throne, + Nor borrows leave to be.' + +His name proclaims Him to be self-existent, and as self-existent, +eternal; and as eternal, changeless; and as self-existent, eternal, +changeless, infinite in all the qualities by which He makes Himself +known. This boundless Being, all full of wisdom, power, and +tenderness, with whom we can enter into relations of amity and +concord, surely He is 'a strong tower into which we may run and be +safe.' + +But far beyond even the sweep of that great name, Jehovah, is the +knowledge of God's deepest heart and character which we learn in Him +who said, 'I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and will declare +it.' Christ in His life and death, in His meekness, sweetness, +gentleness, calm wisdom, infinite patience, attractiveness; yearning +over sinful hearts, weeping over rebels, in the graciousness of His +life, in the sacredness and the power of His Cross, is the Revealer to +our hearts of the heart of God. If I may so say, He has builded 'the +strong tower' broader, has expanded its area and widened its gate, and +lifted its summit yet nearer the heavens, and made the name of God a +wider name and a mightier name, and a name of surer defence and +blessing than ever it was before. + +And so, dear brethren! it all comes to this, the name that is 'the +strong tower' is the name 'My Father!' a Father of infinite tenderness +and wisdom and power. Oh! where can the child rest more quietly than +on the mother's breast, where can the child be safer than in the +circle of the father's arms? 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower.' + +Now turn to the other for a moment: 'The rich man's wealth is' (with +great emphasis on the next little word) '_his_ strong city, and +as a high wall in his own conceit.' Of course we have not to deal here +only with wealth in the shape of money, but all external and material +goods, the whole mass of the 'things seen and temporal,' are gathered +together here in this phrase. + +Men use their imaginations in very strange fashion, and make, or fancy +they make, for themselves out of the things of the present life a +defence and a strength. Like some poor lunatic, out upon a moor, that +fancies himself ensconced in a castle; like some barbarous tribes +behind their stockades or crowding at the back of a little turf wall, +or in some old tumble-down fort that the first shot will bring +rattling down about their ears, fancying themselves perfectly secure +and defended--so do men deal with these outward things that are given +them for another purpose altogether: they make of them defences and +fortresses. + +It is difficult for a man to have them and not to trust them. So Jesus +said to His disciples once: 'How hardly shall they that have riches +enter into the Kingdom'; and when they were astonished at His words, +He repeated them with the significant variation, 'How hard is it for +them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God.' So He +would teach that the misuse and not the possession of wealth is the +barrier, but so, too, He would warn us that, nine times out of ten, +the possession of them in more than a very modest measure, tempts a +man into confidence in them. + +The illusion is one that besets us all. We are all tempted to make a +defence of the things that we can see and handle. Is it not strange, +and is it not sad, that most of us just turn the truth round about and +suppose that the real defence is the imaginary, and that the imaginary +one is the real? How many men are there in this chapel who, if they +spoke out of their deepest convictions, would say: 'Oh yes! the +promises of God are all very well, but I would rather have the cash +down. I suppose that I may trust that He will provide bread and water, +and all the things that I need, but I would rather have a good solid +balance at the banker's.' How many of you would rather honestly, and +at the bottom of your hearts, have that than God's word for your +defence? How many of you think that to trust in a living God is but +grasping at a very airy and unsubstantial kind of support; and that +the real solid defence is the defence made of the things that you can +see? + +My brother! it is exactly the opposite way. Turn it clean round, and +you get the truth. The unsubstantial shadows are the material things +that you can see and handle; illusory as a dream, and as little able +to ward off the blows of fate as a soap bubble. The real is the unseen +beyond--'the things that _are_,' and He who alone really is, and +in His boundless and absolute Being is our only defence. + +In one aspect or another, that false imagination with which my last +text deals is the besetting sin of Manchester. Not the rich man only, +but the poor man just as much, is in danger of it. The poor man who +thinks that everything would be right if only he were rich, and the +rich man who thinks that everything is right because he _is_ +rich, are exactly the same man. The circumstances differ, but the one +man is but the other turned inside out. And all round about us we see +the fierce fight to get more and more of these things, the tight grip +of them when we have got them, the overestimate of the value of them, +the contempt for the people who have less of them than ourselves. Our +aristocracy is an aristocracy of wealth; in some respects, one by no +means to be despised, because there often go a great many good +qualities to the making and the stewardship of wealth; but still it is +an evil that men should be so largely estimated by their money as they +are here. It is not a sound state of opinion which has made 'what is +he _worth_?' mean 'how much of _it_ has he?' We are taught +here to look upon the prizes of life as being mainly wealth. To win +that is 'success'--'prosperity'--and it is very hard for us all not to +be influenced by the prevailing tone. + +I would urge you, young men, especially to lay this to heart--that of +all delusions that can beset you in your course, none will work more +disastrously than the notion that the _summum bonum_, the shield +and stay of a man, is the 'abundance of the things that he possesses.' +I fancy I see more listless, discontented, unhappy faces looking out +of carriages than I see upon the pavement. And I am sure of this, at +any rate, that all which is noble and sweet and good in life can be +wrought out and possessed upon as much bread and water as will keep +body and soul together, and as much furniture as will enable a man to +sit at his meal and lie down at night. And as for the rest, it has +many advantages and blessings, but oh! it is all illusory as a defence +against the evils that will come, sooner or later, to every life. + +II. Consider next how to get into the true Refuge. + +'The righteous runneth into it and is safe,' says my text. You may get +into the illusory one very easily. Imagination will take you there. +There is no difficulty at all about that. And yet the way by which a +man makes this world his defence may teach you a lesson as to how you +can make God your defence. How _does_ a man make this world his +defence? By trusting to it. He that says to the fine gold, 'Thou art +my confidence,' has made it his fortress--and that is how you will +make God your fortress--by trusting to _Him_. The very same +emotion, the very same act of mind, heart, and will, may be turned +either upwards or downwards, as you can turn the beam from a lantern +which way you please. Direct it earthwards, and you 'trust in the +uncertainty of riches.' Flash it heavenwards, and you 'trust in the +living God.' + +And that same lesson is taught by the words of our text, 'The +righteous runneth into it.' I do not dwell upon the word 'righteous.' +That is the Old Testament point of view, which could not conceive it +possible that any man could have deep and close communion with God, +except on condition of a pure character. I will not speak of that at +present, but point to the picturesque metaphor, which will tell us a +great deal more about what faith is than many a philosophical +dissertation. Many a man who would be perplexed by a theologian's talk +will understand this: 'The righteous runneth into the name of the +Lord.' + +The metaphor brings out the idea of eager haste in betaking oneself to +the shelter, as when an invading army comes into a country, and the +unarmed peasants take their portable belongings and their cattle, and +catch up their children in their arms, and set their wives upon their +mules, and make all haste to some fortified place; or as when the +manslayer in Israel fled to the city of refuge, or as when Lot hurried +for his life out of Sodom. There would be no dawdling then; but with +every muscle strained, men would run into the stronghold, counting +every minute a year till they were inside its walls, and heard the +heavy door close between them and the pursuer. No matter how rough the +road, or how overpowering the heat--no time to stop to gather flowers, +or even diamonds on the road, when a moment's delay might mean the +enemy's sword in your heart! + +Now that metaphor is frequently used to express the resolved and swift +act by which, recognising in Jesus Christ, who declares the name of +the Lord, our hiding-place, we shelter ourselves in Him, and rest +secure. One of the picturesque words by which the Old Testament +expresses 'trust' means literally 'to flee to a refuge.' The Old +Testament _trust_ is the New Testament _faith_, even as the +Old Testament '_Name of the Lord_' answers to the New Testament +'_Name of Jesus_.' And so we run into this sure hiding-place and +strong fortress of the name of the Lord, when we betake ourselves to +Jesus and put our trust in Him as our defence. + +Such a faith--the trust of mind, heart, and will--laying hold of the +name of the Lord, makes us 'righteous,' and so capable of 'dwelling +with the devouring fire' of God's perfect purity. The Old Testament +point of view was righteousness, in order to abiding in God. The New +Testament begins, as it were, at an earlier stage in the religious +life, and tells us how to get the righteousness, without which, it +holds as strongly as the Old Testament, 'no man shall see the Lord.' +It shows us that our faith, by which we run into that fortress, fits +us to enter the fortress, because it makes us partakers of Christ's +purity. + +So my earnest question to you all is--Have you 'fled for refuge to lay +hold' on that Saviour in whom God has set His name? Like Lot out of +Sodom, like the manslayer to the city of refuge, like the unwarlike +peasants to the baron's tower, before the border thieves, have you +gone thither for shelter from all the sorrows and guilt and dangers +that are marching terrible against you? Can you take up as yours the +old grand words of exuberant trust in which the Psalmist heaps +together the names of the Lord, as if walking about the city of his +defence, and telling the towers thereof, 'The Lord is my rock, and my +fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; +my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower'? If you +have, then 'because you have made the Lord your refuge, there shall no +evil befall you.' + +III. So we have, lastly, what comes of sheltering in these two +refuges. + +As to the former of them, I said at the beginning of these remarks +that the words 'is safe' were more accurately as well as picturesquely +rendered by 'is set aloft.' They remind us of the psalm which has many +points of resemblance with this text, and which gives the very same +thought when it says, 'I will set him on high, because he hath known +My name.' The fugitive is taken within the safe walls of the strong +tower, and is set up high on the battlements, looking down upon the +baffled pursuers, and far beyond the reach of their arrows. To stand +upon that tower lifts a man above the region where temptations fly, +above the region where sorrow strikes; lifts him above sin and guilt +and condemnation and fear, and calumny and slander, and sickness, and +separation and loneliness and death; 'and all the ills that flesh is +heir to.' + +Or, as one of the old Puritan commentators has it: 'The tower is so +deep that no pioneer can undermine it, so thick that no cannon can +breach it, so high that no ladder can scale it.' 'The righteous +runneth into it,' and is perched up there; and can look down like Lear +from his cliff, and all the troubles that afflict the lower levels +shall 'show scarce so gross as beetles' from the height where he +stands, safe and high, hidden in the name of the Lord. + +I say little about the other side. Brethren! the world in any of its +forms, the good things of this life in any shape, whether that of +money or any other, can do a great deal for us. They can keep a great +many inconveniences from us, they can keep a great many cares and +pains and sorrows from us. I was going to say, to carry out the +metaphor, they can keep the rifle-bullets from us. But, ah! when the +big siege-guns get into position and begin to play; when the great +trials that every life must have, sooner or later, come to open fire +at us, then the defence that anything in this outer world can give +comes rattling about our ears very quickly. It is like the pasteboard +helmet which looked as good as if it had been steel, and did admirably +as long as no sword struck it. + +There is only one thing that will keep us peaceful and unharmed, and +that is to trust our poor shelterless lives and sinful souls to the +Saviour who has died for us. In Him we find the hiding-place, in which +secure, as beneath the shadow of a great rock, dreaded evils will pass +us by, as impotent to hurt as savages before a castle fortified by +modern skill. All the bitterness of outward calamities will be taken +from them before they reach us. Their arrows will still wound, but He +will have wiped the poison off before He lets them be shot at us. The +force of temptation will be weakened, for if we live near Him we shall +have other tastes and desires. The bony fingers of the skeleton Death, +who drags men from all other homes, will not dislodge us from our +fortress-dwelling. Hid in Him we shall neither fear going down to the +grave, nor coming up from it, nor judgment, nor eternity. Then, I +beseech you, make no delay. Escape! flee for your life! A growing host +of evil marches swift against you. Take Christ for your defence and +cry to Him, + + 'Lo! from sin and grief and shame, + Hide me, Jesus! in Thy name.' + + + +A STRING OF PEARLS + +'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived +thereby is not wise. 2. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a +lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. 3. It +is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be +meddling. 4. The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold; +therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5. Counsel in the +heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw +it out. 6. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a +faithful man who can find? 7. The just man walketh in his integrity: +his children are blessed after him.'--PROVERBS xx. 1-7. + + +The connection between the verses of this passage is only in their +common purpose to set forth some details of a righteous life, and to +brand the opposite vices. A slight affinity may be doubtfully traced +in one or two adjacent proverbs, but that is all. + +First comes temperance, enforced by the picture of a drunkard. Wine +and strong drink are, as it were, personified, and their effects on +men are painted as their own characters. And an ugly picture it is, +which should hang in the gallery of every young man and woman. 'Wine +is a mocker.' Intemperance delights in scoffing at all pure, lofty, +sacred things. It is the ally of wild profanity, which sends up its +tipsy and clumsy ridicule against Heaven itself. If a man wants to +lose his sense of reverence, his susceptibility for what is noble, let +him take to drink, and the thing is done. If he would fain keep these +fresh and quick, let him eschew what is sure to deaden them. Of course +there are other roads to the same end, but there is no other end to +this road. Nobody ever knew a drunkard who did not scoff at things +that should be reverenced, and that because he knew that he was acting +in defiance of them. + +'A brawler,' or, as Delitzsch renders it, 'boisterous'--look into a +liquor-store if you want to verify that, or listen to a drunken party +coming back from an excursion and making night hideous with their +bellowings, or go to any police court on a Monday morning. We in +England are familiar with the combination on police charge-sheets, +'drunk and disorderly.' So does the old proverb-maker seem to have +been. Drink takes off the brake, and every impulse has its own way, +and makes as much noise as it can. + +The word rendered in Authorised Version 'is deceived,' and in Revised +Version 'erreth,' is literally 'staggers' or 'reels,' and it is more +graphic to keep that meaning. There is a world of quiet irony in the +unexpectedly gentle close of the sentence, 'is not wise.' How much +stronger the assertion might have been! Look at the drunkard as he +staggers along, scoffing at everything purer and higher than himself, +and ready to fight with his own shadow, and incapable of self-control. +He has made himself the ugly spectacle you see. Will anybody call +_him_ wise? + +The next proverb applies directly to a state of things which most +nations have outgrown. Kings who can give full scope to their anger, +and who inspire mainly terror, are anomalies in civilised countries +now. The proverb warns that it is no trifle to rouse the lion from his +lair, and that when he begins to growl there is danger. The man who +stirs him 'forfeits his own life,' or, at all events, imperils it. + +The word rendered 'sins' has for its original meaning 'misses,' and +seems to be so used here, as also in Proverbs viii. 36. 'Against' is a +supplement. The maxim inculcates the wisdom of avoiding conduct which +might rouse an anger so sure to destroy its object. And that is a good +maxim for ordinary times in all lands, monarchies or republics. For +there is in constitutional kingdoms and in republics an uncrowned +monarch, to the full as irresponsible, as easily provoked, and as +relentless in hunting its opponents to destruction, as any old-world +tyrant. Its name is Public Opinion. It is not well to provoke it. If a +man does, let him well understand that he takes his life, or what is +sometimes dearer than life, in his hand. Not only self-preservation, +which the proverb and Scripture recognise as a legitimate motive, but +higher considerations, dictate compliance with the ruling forces of +our times, as far as may be. Conscience only has the right to limit +this precept, and to say, 'Let the brute roar, and never mind if you +_do_ forfeit your life. It is your duty to say "No," though all +the world should be saying "Yes."' + +A slight thread of connection may be established between the second +and third proverbs. The latter, like the former, commends peacefulness +and condemns pugnacity. Men talk of 'glory' as the warrior's meed, and +the so-called Christian world has not got beyond the semi-barbarous +stage which regards 'honour' as mainly secured by fighting. But this +ancient proverb-maker had learned a better conception of what 'honour' +or 'glory' was, and where it grew. + + 'Peace hath her victories + No less renowned than war,' + +said Milton. But our proverb goes farther than 'no less,' and gives +_greater_ glory to the man who never takes up arms, or who lays +them down. The saying is true, not only about warfare, but in all +regions of life. Fighting is generally wasted time. Controversialists +of all sorts, porcupine-like people, who go through the world all +sharp quills sticking out to pierce, are less to be admired than +peace-loving souls. Any fool can 'show his teeth,' as the word for +'quarrelling' means. But it takes a wise man, and a man whose spirit +has been made meek by dwelling near God in Christ, to withhold the +angry word, the quick retort. It is generally best to let the glove +flung down lie where it is. There are better things to do than to +squabble. + +Verse 4 is a parable as well as a proverb. If a man sits by the +fireside because the north wind is blowing, when he ought to be out in +the field holding the plough with frost-nipped fingers, he will beg +(or, perhaps, _seek for a crop_) in harvest, and will find +nothing, when others are rejoicing in the slow result of winter +showers and of their toilsome hours. So, in all life, if the fitting +moments for preparation are neglected, late repentance avails nothing. +The student who dawdles when he should be working, will be sure to +fail when the examination comes on. It is useless to begin ploughing +when your neighbours are driving their reaping machines into the +fields. 'There is a time to sow, and a time to reap.' The law is +inexorable for this life, and not less certainly so for the life to +come. The virgins who cried in vain, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' and +were answered, 'Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now!' are sisters +of the man who was hindered from ploughing because it was cold, and +asked in vain for bread when harvest time had come. 'To-day, if ye +will to hear His voice, harden not your hearts.' + +The next proverb is a piece of shrewd common sense. It sets before us +two men, one reticent, and the other skilful in worming out designs +which he wishes to penetrate. The former is like a deep draw-well; the +latter is like a man who lets down a bucket into it, and winds it up +full. 'Still waters are deep.' The faculty of reading men may be +abused to bad ends, but is worth cultivating, and may be allied to +high aims, and serve to help in accomplishing these. It may aid good +men in detecting evil, in knowing how to present God's truth to hearts +that need it, in pouring comfort into closely shut spirits. Not only +astute business men or politicians need it, but all who would help +their fellows to love God and serve Him--preachers, teachers, and the +like. And there would be more happy homes if parents and children +tried to understand one another. We seldom dislike a man when we come +to know him thoroughly. We cannot help him till we do. + +The proverb in verse 6 is susceptible of different renderings in the +first clause. Delitzsch and others would translate, 'Almost every man +meets a man who is gracious to him.' The contrast will then be between +partial 'grace' or kindness, and thoroughgoing reliableness or +trustworthiness. The rendering of the Authorised and Revised Versions, +on the other hand, makes the contrast between talk and reality, +professions of goodwill and acts which come up to these. In either +case, the saying is the bitter fruit of experience. Even charity, +which 'believeth all things,' cannot but admit that soft words are +more abundant than deeds which verify them. It is no breach of the law +of love to open one's eyes to facts, and so to save oneself from +taking paper money for gold, except at a heavy discount. Perhaps the +reticence, noted in the previous proverb, led to the thought of a +loose-tongued profession of kindliness as a contrast. Neither the one +nor the other is admirable. The practical conclusion from the facts in +this proverb is double--do not take much heed of men's eulogiums on +their own benevolence; do not trumpet your own praises. Caution and +modesty are parts of Christian perfection. + +The last saying points to the hereditary goodness which sometimes, for +our comfort, we do see, as well as to the halo from a saintly parent +which often surrounds his children. Note that there may be more than +mere succession in time conveyed by the expression 'after him.' It may +mean following in his footsteps. Such children are blessed, both in +men's benedictions and in their own peaceful hearts. Weighty +responsibilities lie upon the children of parents who have transmitted +to them a revered name. A Christian's children are doubly bound to +continue the parental tradition, and are doubly criminal if they +depart from it. There is no sadder sight than that of a godly father +wailing over an ungodly son, unless it be that of the ungodly son who +makes him wail. Absalom hanging by his curls in the oak-tree, and +David groaning, 'My son, my son!' touch all hearts. Alas that the +tragedy should be so often repeated in our homes to-day! + + + +THE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST + +'The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he +beg in harvest, and have nothing.'--PROVERBS xx. 4. + + +Like all the sayings of this book, this is simply a piece of plain, +practical common sense, intended to inculcate the lesson that men +should diligently seize the opportunity whilst it is theirs. The +sluggard is one of the pet aversions of the Book of Proverbs, which, +unlike most other manuals of Eastern wisdom, has a profound reverence +for honest work. + +He is a great drone, for he prefers the chimney-corner to the field, +even although it cannot have been very cold if the weather was open +enough to admit of ploughing. And he is a great fool, too, for he buys +his comfort at a very dear price, as do all men who live for to-day, +and let to-morrow look out for itself. + +But like most of the other sayings of this book, my text contains +principles which are true in the highest regions of human life, for +the laws which rule up there are not different from those which +regulate the motions of its lower phases. Religion recognises the same +practical common-sense principles that daily business does. I venture +to take this as my text now, in addressing young people, because they +have special need of, and special facilities for, the wisdom which it +enjoins; and because the words only want to be turned with their faces +heavenwards in order to enforce the great appeal, the only one which +it is worth my while to make, and worth your while to come here to +listen to; the appeal to each of you, 'I beseech you, by the mercies +of God, that ye yield yourselves to God' _now_. + +My object, then, will be perhaps best accomplished if I simply ask you +to look, first, at the principles involved in this quaint proverb; +and, secondly, to apply them in one or two directions. + +I. First, then, let us try to bring out the principles which are +crystallised in this picturesque saying. + +The first thought evidently is: present conduct determines future +conditions. Life is a series of epochs, each of which has its destined +work, and that being done, all is well; and that being left undone, +all is ill. + +Now, of course, in regard to many of the accidents of a man's +condition, his conduct is only one, and by no means the most powerful, +of the factors which settle them. The position which a man fills, the +tasks which he has to perform, and the whole host of things which make +up the externals of his life, depend upon far other conditions than +any that he brings to them. But yet on the whole it is true that what +a man does, and is, settles how he fares. And this is the mystical +importance and awful solemnity of the most undistinguished moments and +most trivial acts of this awful life of ours, that each of them has an +influence on all that comes after, and may deflect our whole course +into altogether different paths. It is not only the moments that we +vulgarly and blindly call great which settle our condition, but it is +the accumulation of the tiny ones; the small deeds, the unnoticed +acts, which make up so large a portion of every man's life. It is +these, after all, that are the most powerful in settling what we shall +be. There come to each of us supreme moments in our lives. Yes! and if +in all the subordinate and insignificant moments we have not been +getting ready for them, but have been nurturing dispositions and +acquiring habits, and cultivating ways of acting and thinking which +condemn us to fail beneath the requirements of the supreme moment, +then it passes us by, and we gain nothing from it. Tiny mica flakes +have built up the Matterhorn, and the minute acts of life after all, +by their multiplicity, make up life to be what it is. 'Sand is heavy,' +says this wise book of Proverbs. The aggregation of the minutest +grains, singly so light that they would not affect the most delicate +balance, weighs upon us with a weight 'heavy as frost, and deep almost +as life.' The mystic significance of the trivialities of life is that +in them we largely make destiny, and that in them we wholly make +character. + +And now, whilst this is true about all life, it is especially true +about youth. You have facilities for moulding your being which some of +us older men would give a great deal to have again for a moment, with +our present knowledge and bitter experience. The lava that has +solidified into hard rock with us is yet molten and plastic with you. +You can, I was going to say, be anything you make up your minds to; +and, within reasonable limits, the bold saying is true. 'Ask what thou +wilt and it shall be given to thee' is what nature and Providence, +almost as really as grace and Christ, say to every young man and +woman, because you are the arbiters, not wholly, indeed, of your +destiny, and are the architects, altogether, of your character, which +is more. + +And so I desire to lay upon your hearts this threadbare old truth, +because you are living in the ploughing time, and the harvest is +months ahead. Whilst it is true that every day is the child of all the +yesterdays, and the parent of all the to-morrows, it is also true that +life has its predominant colouring, varying at different epochs, and +that for you, though you are largely inheriting, even now, the results +of your past, brief as it is, still more largely is the future, the +plastic future, in your hands, to be shaped into such forms as you +will. 'The child is father of the man,' and the youth has the blessed +prerogative of standing before the mouldable to-morrow, and possessing +a nature still capable of being cast into an almost infinite variety +of form. + +But then, not only do you stand with special advantages for making +yourselves what you will, but you specially need to be reminded of the +terrible importance and significance of each moment. For this is the +very irony of human life, that we seldom awake to the sense of its +importance till it is nearly ended, and that the period when +reflection would avail the most is precisely the period when it is the +least strong and habitual. What is the use of an old man like me +thinking about what he could make of life if he had it to do over +again, as compared with the advantage of your doing it? Yet I dare say +that for once that you think thus, my contemporaries do it fifty +times. So, not to abate one jot of your buoyancy, not to cast any +shadow over joys and hopes, but to lift you to a sense of the blessed +possibilities of your position, I want to lay this principle of my +text upon your consciences, and to beseech you to try to keep it +operatively in mind--you are making yourselves, and settling your +destiny, by every day of your plastic youth. + +There is another principle as clear in my text--viz., the easy road is +generally the wrong one. The sluggard was warmer at the fireside than +he would be in the field with his plough in the north wind, and so he +stopped there. There are always obstacles in the way of noble life. It +is always easier, as flesh judges, to live ignobly than to live as +Jesus Christ would have us live. 'Endure hardness' is the commandment +to all who would be soldiers of any great cause, and would not fling +away their lives in low self-indulgence. If a man is going to be +anything worth being, or to do anything worth doing, he must start +with, and adhere to this, 'to scorn delights and live laborious days.' +And only then has he a chance of rising above the fat dull weed that +rots in Lethe's stream, and of living anything like the life that it +becomes him to live. + +Be sure of this, dear young friends, that self-denial and rigid +self-control, in its two forms, of stopping your ears to the +attractions of lower pleasures, and of cheerily encountering +difficulties, is an indispensable condition of any life which shall at +the last yield a harvest worth the gathering, and not destined to be + + 'Cast as rubbish to the void, + When God hath made the pile complete.' + +Never allow yourselves to be turned away from the plain path of duty +by any difficulties. Never allow yourselves to be guided in your +choice of a road by the consideration that the turf is smooth, and the +flowers by the side of it sweet. Remember, the sluggard would have +been warmer, with a wholesome warmth, at the ploughtail than cowering +in the chimney corner. And the things that seem to be difficulties and +hardships only need to be fronted to yield, like the east wind in its +season, good results in bracing and hardening. Fix it in your minds +that nothing worth doing is done but at the cost of difficulty and +toil. + +That is a lesson that this generation wants, even more than some that +have lived. I suppose it is one of the temptations of older men to +look askance upon the amusements of younger ones, but I cannot help +lifting up here one word of earnest appeal to the young men and women +of this congregation, and beseeching them, as they value the nobleness +of their own lives, and their power of doing any real good, to beware +of what seems to me the altogether extravagant and excessive love, and +following after, of mere amusement which characterises this day to so +large an extent. Better toil than such devotion to mere relaxation. + +The last principle here is that the season let slip is gone for ever. +Whether my text, in its second picture, intends us to think of the +sluggard when the harvest came as 'begging' from his neighbours; or +whether, as is possibly the construction of the Hebrew, it simply +means to describe him as going out into his field, and looking at it, +and asking for the harvest and seeing nothing there but weeds, the +lesson it conveys is the same--the old, old lesson, so threadbare that +I should be almost ashamed of taking up your time with it unless I +believed that you did not lay it to heart as you should. Opportunity +is bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. Life is full of +tragic _might-have-beens_. No regret, no remorse, no +self-accusation, no clear recognition that I was a fool will avail one +jot. The time for ploughing is past; you cannot stick the share into +the ground when you should be wielding the sickle. 'Too late' is the +saddest of human words. And, my brother, as the stages of our lives +roll on, unless each is filled as it passes with the discharge of the +duties, and the appropriation of the benefits which it brings, then, +to all eternity, that moment will never return, and the sluggard may +beg in harvest, that he may have the chance to plough once more, and +have none. The student that has spent the term in indolence, perhaps +dissipation, has no time to get up his subject when he is in the +examination-room, with the paper before him. And life, and nature, and +God's law, which is the Christian expression for the heathen one of +_nature_, are stern taskmasters, and demand that the duty shall +be done in its season or left undone for ever. + +II. In the second place, let me, just in a few words, carry the lamp +of these principles of my text and flash its rays upon one or two +subjects. + +Let me say a word, first, about the lowest sphere to which my text +applies. I referred at the beginning of this discourse to this proverb +as simply an inculcation of the duty of honest work, and of the +necessity of being wide awake to opportunities in our daily work. Now, +the most of you young men, and many of you young women, are destined +for ordinary trades, professions, walks in commerce; and I do not +suppose it to be beneath the dignity of the pulpit to say this: Do not +trust to any way of getting on by dodges or speculation, or favour, or +anything but downright hard work. Don't shirk difficulties, don't try +to put the weight of the work upon some colleague or other, that you +may have an easier life of it. Set your backs to your tasks, and +remember that 'in all labour there is profit'; and whether the profit +comes to you in the shape of advancement, position, promotion in your +offices, partnerships perhaps, wealth, and the like, or no, the profit +lies in the work. Honest toil is the key to pleasure. + +Then, let me apply the text in a somewhat higher direction. Carry +these principles with you in the cultivation of that important part of +yourself--your intellects. What would some of us old students give if +we had the flexibility, the power of assimilating new truth, the +retentive memories, that you young people have? Some of you, perhaps, +are students by profession; I should like all of you to make a +conscience of making the best of your brains, as God has given them to +you, a trust. 'The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold.' +The dawdler will read no books that tax his intellect, therefore shall +he beg in harvest and have nothing. Amidst all the flood of feeble, +foolish, flaccid literature with which we are afflicted at this day, I +wonder how many of you young men and women ever set yourselves to some +great book or subject that you cannot understand without effort. +Unless you do you are not faithful stewards of the supreme gift of God +to you of that great faculty which apprehends and lives upon truth. So +remember the sluggard by his fireside; and do you get out with your +plough. + +Again I say, apply these principles to a higher work still--that of +the formation of character. Nothing will come to you noble, great, +elevating, in that direction, unless it is sought, and sought with +toil. + + 'In woods, in waves, in wars, she wont to dwell, + And will be found with peril and with pain; + Before her gate high Heaven did sweat ordain, + And wakeful watches ever to abide.' + +Wisdom and truth, and all their elevating effects upon human +character, require absolutely for their acquirement effort and toil. +You have the opportunity still. As I said a moment ago--you may mould +yourselves into noble forms. But in the making of character we have to +work as a painter in fresco does, with a swift brush on the plaster +while it is wet. It sets and hardens in an hour. And men drift into +habits which become tyrannies and dominant before they know where they +are. Don't let yourselves be shaped by accident, by circumstance. +Remember that you can build yourselves up into forms of beauty by the +help of the grace of God, and that for such building there must be the +diligent labour and the wise clutching at opportunity and +understanding of the times which my text suggests. + +And, lastly, let these principles applied to religion teach us the +wisdom and necessity of beginning the Christian life at the earliest +moment. I am by no means prepared to say that the extreme tragedy of +my text can ever be wrought out in regard to the religious experience +of any man here on earth, for I believe that at any moment in his +career, however faultful and stained his past has been, and however +long and obstinate has been his continuance in evil, a man may turn +himself to Jesus Christ, and beg, and not in vain, nor ever find +'nothing' there. + +But whilst all that is quite true, I want you, dear young friends, to +lay this to heart, that if you do not yield yourselves to Jesus Christ +now, in your early days, and take Him for your Saviour, and rest your +souls upon Him, and then take Him for your Captain and Commander, for +your Pattern and Example, for your Companion and your Aim, you will +lose what you can never make up by any future course. You lose years +of blessedness, of peaceful society with Him, of illumination and +inspiration. You lose all the sweetness of the days which you spend +away from Him. And if at the end you did come to Him, you would have +one regret, deep and permanent, that you had not gone to Him before. +If you put off, as some of you are putting off, what you know you +ought to do--namely, give your hearts to Jesus Christ and become +His--think of what you are laying up for yourselves thereby. You get +much that it would be gain to lose--bitter memories, defiled +imaginations, stings of conscience, habits that it will be very hard +to break, and the sense of having wasted the best part of your lives, +and having but the fag end to bring to Him. And if you put off, as +some of you are disposed to do, think of the risk you run. It is very +unlikely that susceptibilities will remain if they are trifled with. +You remember that Felix trembled once, and sent for Paul often; but we +never hear that he trembled any more. And it is quite possible, and +quite likely, more likely than not, that you will never be as near +being a Christian again as you are now, if you turn away from the +impressions that are made upon you at this moment, and stifle the +half-formed resolution. + +But there is a more solemn thought still. This life as a whole is to +the future life as the ploughing time is to the harvest, and there are +awful words in Scripture which seem to point in the same direction in +reference to the irrevocable and irreversible issue of neglected +opportunities on earth, as this proverb does in regard to the +ploughing and harvests of this life. + +I dare not conceal what seems to me the New Testament confirmation and +deepening of the solemn words of our text, 'He shall beg in harvest +and have nothing,' by the Master's words, 'Many shall say to me in +that day, Lord! Lord I and I will say, I never knew you.' The five +virgins who rubbed their sleepy eyes and asked for oil when the master +was at hand got none, and when they besought, 'Lord! Lord! open to +us,' all the answer was, 'Too late! too late! ye cannot enter now.' +Now, while it is called day, harden not your hearts. + + + +BREAD AND GRAVEL + +'"Bread of deceit" is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall +be filled with gravel.'--PROVERBS xx. 17. + + +'Bread of deceit' is a somewhat ambiguous phrase, which may mean +either of two things, and perhaps means both. It may either mean any +good obtained by deceit, or good which deceives in its possession. In +the former signification it would appear to have reference primarily +to unjustly gotten gain, while in the latter it has a wider meaning +and applies to all the worthless treasures and lying delights of life. +The metaphor is full of homely vigour, and the contrast between the +sweet bread and the gravel that fills the mouth and breaks the teeth, +carries a solemn lesson which is perpetually insisted upon in this +book of Proverbs, and confirmed in every man's experience. + +I. The first lesson here taught is the perpetuity of the most +transient actions. + +We are tempted to think that a deed done is done with, and to grasp at +momentary pleasure, and ignore its abiding consequences. But of all +the delusions by which men are blinded to the true solemnity of life +none is more fatal than that which ignores the solemn 'afterwards' +that has to be taken into account. For, whatever issues in outward +life our actions may have, they have all a very real influence on +their doers; each of them tends to modify character, to form habits, +to drag after itself a whole trail of consequences. Each strikes +inwards and works outwards. The whole of a life may be set forth in +the pregnant figure, 'A sower went forth to sow,' and 'Whatsoever a +man soweth, that shall he also reap.' The seed may lie long dormant, +but the green shoots will appear in due time, and pass through all the +stages of 'first the blade, and then the ear, and after that the full +corn in the ear.' The sower has to become the reaper, and the reaper +has to eat of the bread made from the product of the long past sowing. +Shall _we_ have to reap a harvest of poisonous tares, or of +wholesome wheat? 'If 'twere done when 'tis done, 'twere well it were +done quickly'; but since it begins to do when 'tis done, it were often +better that it were not done at all. A momentary pause to ask +ourselves when tempted to evil, 'And what then?' would burst not a few +of the painted bubbles after which we often chase. + +Is there any reason to suppose that these permanent consequences of +our transient actions are confined in their operation to this life? +Does not such a present, which is mainly the continuous result of the +whole past, seem at least to prophesy and guarantee a similar future? +Most of us, I suppose, believe in the life continuous through and +after death retributive in a greater degree than life here. Whatever +changes may be involved in the laying aside of the 'earthly house of +this tabernacle,' it seems folly to suppose that in it we lay aside +the consequences of our past inwrought into our very selves. Surely +wisdom suggests that we try to take into view the whole scope of our +actions, and to carry our vision as far as the consequences reach. We +should all be wiser and better if we thought more of the 'afterwards,' +whether in its partial form in the present, or in its solemn +completion in the future beyond. + +II. The bitterness of what is sweet and wrong. + +There is no need to deny that 'bread of deceit is sweet to a man.' +There is a certain pleasure in a lie, and the taste of the bread +purchased by it is not embittered because it has been bought by +deceit. If we succeed in getting the good which any strong desire +hungers after, the gratification of the desire ministers pleasure. If +a man is hungry, it matters not to his hunger how he has procured the +bread which he devours. And so with all forms of good which appeal to +sense. The sweetness of the thing desired and obtained is more subtle, +but not less real, if it nourishes some inclination or taste of a +higher nature. But such sweetness in its very essence is momentary, +and even, whilst being masticated, 'bread of deceit' turns into +gravel; and a mouthful of it breaks the teeth, excoriates the gums, +interferes with breathing, and ministers no nourishment. The metaphor +has but too familiar illustrations in the experience of us all. How +often have we flattered ourselves with the thought, 'If I could but +get this or that, how happy I should be'? How often when we got it +have we been as happy as we expected? We had forgotten the voice of +conscience, which may be overborne for a moment, but begins to speak +more threateningly when its prohibitions have been neglected; we had +forgotten that there is no satisfying our hungry desires with 'bread +of deceit,' but that they grow much faster than it can be presented to +them; we had forgotten the evil that was strengthened in us when it +has been fed; we had forgotten that the remembrance of past delights +often becomes a present sorrow and shame; we had forgotten avenging +consequences of many sorts which follow surely in the train of sweet +satisfactions which are wrong. + +So, even in this life nothing keeps its sweetness which is wrong, and +nothing which is sweet and wrong avoids a _tang_ of intensest +bitterness 'afterwards.' And all that bitterness will be increased in +another world, if there is another, when God gives us to read the book +of our lives which we ourselves have written. Many a page that records +past sweetness will then be felt to be written, 'within and without,' +with lamentation and woe. + +All bitterness of what is sweet and wrong makes it certain that sin is +the stupidest, as well as the wickedest, thing that a man can do. + +III. The abiding sweetness of true bread. + +In a subordinate sense, the true bread may be taken as meaning our own +deeds inspired by love of God and approved by conscience. They may +often be painful to do, but the pain merges into calm pleasure, and +conscience whispers a foretaste of heaven's 'Well done! good and +faithful servant.' The roll may be bitter to the lips, but, eaten, +becomes sweet as honey; whereas the world's bread is sweet at first +but bitter at last. The highest wisdom and the most exacting +conscience absolutely coincide in that which they prescribe, and +Scripture has the warrant of universal experience in proclaiming that +sin in its subtler and more refined forms, as well as in its grosser, +is a gigantic mistake, and the true wisdom and reasonable regard for +one's own interest alike point in the same direction,--to a life based +on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as being the life which +yields the happiest results today and perpetual bliss hereafter. But +let us not forget that in the highest sense Christ Himself is the +'true bread that cometh down from heaven.' He may be bitter at first, +being eaten with tears of penitence and painful efforts at conquering +sin, but even in the first bitterness there is sweetness beyond all +the earth can give. He 'spreads a table before us in the presence of +our enemies,' and the bread which He gives tastes as the manna of old +did, like wafers made of honey. Only perverted appetites loathe this +light bread and prefer the strong-favoured leeks and garlics of Egypt. +They who sit at the table in the wilderness will finally sit at the +table prepared in the kingdom of the heavens. + + + +A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE + +'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. +16. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17. +Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord +all the day long. 18. For surely there is an end; and thine +expectation shall not be cut off. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, +and guide thine heart in the way. 20. Be not among winebibbers; among +riotous eaters of flesh: 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall +come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22. +Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother +when she is old. 23. Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and +instruction, and understanding.'--PROVERBS xxiii. 15-23. + + +The precepts of this passage may be said to sum up the teaching of the +whole Book of Proverbs. The essentials of moral character are +substantially the same in all ages, and these ancient advices fit very +close to the young lives of this generation. The gospel has, no doubt, +raised the standard of morals, and, in many respects, altered the +conception and perspective of virtues; but its great distinction lies, +not so much in the novelty of its commandments as in the new motives +and powers to obey them. Reverence for parents and teachers, the +habitual 'fear of the Lord,' temperance, eager efforts to win and +retain 'the truth,' have always been recognised as duties; but there +is a long weary distance between recognition and practice, and he who +draws inspiration from Jesus Christ will have strength to traverse it, +and to do and be what he knows that he should. + +The passage may be broken up into four parts, which, taken together, +are a young life's directory of conduct which is certain to lead to +peace. + +I. There is, first, an appeal to filial affection, and an unveiling of +paternal sympathy (verses 15, 16). The paternal tone characteristic of +the Book of Proverbs is most probably regarded as that of a teacher +addressing his disciples as his children. But the glimpse of the +teacher's heart here given may well apply to parents too, and ought to +be true of all who can influence other and especially young hearts. +Little power attends advices which are not sweetened by manifest love. +Many a son has been kept back from evil by thinking, 'What would my +mother say?' and many a sound admonition has been nothing but sound, +because the tone of it betrayed that the giver did not much care +whether it was taken or not. + +A true teacher must have his heart engaged in his lessons, and must +impress his scholars with the conviction that their failure drives a +knife into it, and their acceptance of them brings him purest joy. On +the other hand, the disciple, and still more the child, must have a +singularly cold nature who does not respond to loving solicitude and +does not care whether he wounds or gladdens the heart which pours out +its love and solicitude over him. May we not see shining through this +loving appeal a truth in reference to the heart of the great Father +and Teacher, who, in the depths of His divine blessedness, has no +greater joy than that His children should walk in the truth? God's +heart is glad when man's is wise. + +Note, also, the wide general expression for goodness--a wise heart, +lips speaking right things. The former is source, the latter stream. +Only a pure fountain will send forth sweet waters. 'If thy heart +become wise' is the more correct rendering, implying that there is no +inborn wisdom, but that it must be made ours by effort. We _are_ +foolish; we _become_ wise. + +What the writer means by wisdom he will tell us presently. Here he +lets us see that it is a good to be attained by appropriate means. It +is the foundation of 'right' speech. Nothing is more remarkable than +the solemn importance which Scripture attaches to words, even more, we +might almost say than to deeds, therein reversing the usual estimate +of their relative value. Putting aside the cases of insincerity, +falsehood, and the like, a man's speech is a truer transcript of +himself than his deeds, because less hindered and limited by +externals. The most precious wine drips from the grapes by their own +weight in the vat, without a turn of the screw. 'By thy words thou +shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.' 'God's +great gift of speech abused' is one of the commonest, least +considered, and most deadly sins. + +II. We have next the one broad precept with its sure reward, which +underlies all goodness (verses 17, 18). The supplement 'be thou,' in +the second clause of verse 17, obscures the close connection of +clauses. It is better to regard the verb of the first clause as +continued in the second. Thus the one precept is set forth negatively +and positively: 'Strive not after [that is, seek not to imitate or be +associated with] sinners, but after the fear of the Lord.' The heart +so striving becomes wise. So, then, wisdom is not the result of +cultivating the intellect, but of educating the desires and +aspirations. It is moral and religious, rather than simply +intellectual. The magnificent personification of Wisdom at the +beginning of the book influences the subsequent parts, and the key to +understanding that great conception is, 'The fear of the Lord is the +beginning of Wisdom.' The Greek goddess of Wisdom, noble as she is, is +of the earth earthy when contrasted with that sovereign figure. Pallas +Athene, with her clear eyes and shining armour, is poor beside the +Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, who dwelt with God 'or ever the earth +was,' and comes to men with loving voice and hands laden with the +gifts of 'durable riches and righteousness.' + +He is the wise man who fears God with the fear which has no torment +and is compact of love and reverence. He is on the way to become wise +whose seeking heart turns away from evil and evil men, and feels after +God, as the vine tendrils after a stay, or as the sunflower turns to +the light. For such wholehearted desire after the one supreme good +there must be resolute averting of desire from 'sinners.' In this +world full of evil there will be no vigorous longing for good and God, +unless there be determined abstention from the opposite. We have but a +limited quantity of energy, and if it is frittered away on +multifarious creatures, none will be left to consecrate to God. There +are lakes which discharge their waters at both ends, sending one +stream east to the Atlantic and one west to the Pacific; but the heart +cannot direct its issues of life in that fashion. They must be banked +up if they are to run deep and strong. 'All the current of my being' +must 'set to thee' if my tiny trickle is to reach the great ocean, to +be lost in which is blessedness. + +And such energy of desire and direction is not to be occasional, but +'all the day long.' It is possible to make life an unbroken seeking +after and communion with God, even while plunged in common tasks and +small cares. It is possible to approximate indefinitely to that ideal +of continually 'dwelling in the house of the Lord'; and without some +such approximation there will be little realising of the Lord, sought +by fits and starts, and then forgotten in the hurry of business or +pleasure. A photographic plate exposed for hours will receive the +picture of far-off stars which would never show on one exposed for a +few minutes. + +The writer is sure that such desires will be satisfied, and in verse +18 says so. The 'reward' (Rev. Ver.) of which he is sure is the +outcome of the life of such seekers after God. It does not necessarily +refer to the future after death, though that may be included in it. +But what is meant is that no seeking after the fear of the Lord shall +be in vain. There is a tacit emphasis on 'thy,' contrasting the sure +fulfilment of hopes set on God with the as sure 'cutting of' of those +mistakenly fixed upon creatures and vanities. Psalm xxxvii. 38, has +the same word here rendered 'reward' and declares that 'the future [or +reward] of the wicked shall be cut off.' The great fulfilment of this +assurance is reserved for the life beyond; but even here among all +disappointments and hopes of which fulfilment is so often +disappointment also, it remains true that the one striving which +cannot be fruitless is striving for more of God, and the one hope +which is sure to be realised, and is better when realised than +expected, is the hope set on Him. Surely, then, the certainty that if +we delight ourselves in God He will give us the desires of our hearts, +is a good argument, and should be with us an operative motive for +directing desire and effort away from earth and towards Him. + +III. Special precepts as to the control of the animal nature follow in +verses 19-21. First, note that general one of verse 19, 'Guide thine +heart in the way.' In most general terms, the necessity of +self-government is laid down. There is a 'way' in which we should be +content to travel. It is a definite path, and feet have to be kept +from straying aside to wide wastes on either hand. Limitation, the +firm suppression of appetites, the coercing of these if they seek to +draw aside, are implied in the very conception of 'the way.' And a man +must take the upper hand of himself, and, after all other guidance, +must be his own guide; for God guides us by enabling us to guide +ourselves. + +Temperance in the wider sense of the word is prominent among the +virtues flowing from fear of the Lord, and is the most elementary +instance of 'guiding the heart.' Other forms of self-restraint in +regard to animal appetites are spoken of in the context, but here the +two of drunkenness and gluttony are bracketed together. They are +similarly coupled in Deuteronomy xxi. 20, in the formula of accusation +which parents are to bring against a degenerate son. Allusion to that +passage is probable here, especially as the other crime mentioned in +it--namely, refusal to 'hear' parental reproof--is warned against in +verse 22. The picture, then, here is that of a prodigal son, and we +have echoes of it in the great parable which paints first riotous +living, and then poverty and misery. + +Drunkenness had obviously not reached the dimensions of a national +curse in the date when this lesson was written. We should not put +over-eating side by side with it. But its ruinous consequences were +plain then, and the bitter experience of England and America repeats +on a larger scale the old lesson that the most productive source of +poverty, wretchedness, rags, and vice, is drink. Judges and social +reformers of all sorts concur in that now, though it has taken fifty +years to hammer it into the public conscience. Perhaps in another +fifty or so society may have succeeded in drawing the not very obscure +inference that total abstinence and prohibition are wise. At any rate, +they who seek after the fear of the Lord should draw it, and act on +it. + +IV. The last part is in verses 22 and 23. The appeal to filial duty +cannot here refer to disciple and teacher, but to child and parents. +It does not stand as an isolated precept, but as underscoring the +important one which follows. But a word must be spared for it. The +habits of ancient days gave a place to the father and mother which +modern family life woefully lacks, and suffers in many ways for want +of. Many a parent in these days of slack control and precocious +independence might say, 'If I be a father, where is mine honour?' +There was perhaps not enough of confidence between parent and child in +former days, and authority on the one hand and submission on the other +too much took the place of love; but nowadays the danger is all the +other way--and it is a very real danger. + +But the main point here is the earnest exhortation of verse 23, which, +like that to the fear of the Lord, sums up all duty in one. The +'truth' is, like 'wisdom,' moral and religious, and not merely +intellectual. 'Wisdom' is subjective, the quality or characteristic of +the devout soul; 'truth' is objective, and may also be defined as the +declared will of God. The possession of truth is wisdom. 'The entrance +of Thy words giveth light.' It makes wise the simple. There is, then, +such a thing as 'the truth' accessible to us. We can know it, and are +not to be for ever groping amid more or less likely guesses, but may +rest in the certitude that we have hold of foundation facts. For us, +the truth is incarnate in Jesus, as He has solemnly asserted. That +truth we shall, if we are wise, 'buy,' by shunning no effort, +sacrifice, or trouble needed to secure it. + +In the lower meanings of the word, our passage should fire us all, and +especially the young, to strain every muscle of the soul in order to +make truth for the intellect our own. The exhortation is needed in +this day of adoration of money and material good. Nobler and wiser far +the young man who lays himself out to know than he who is engrossed +with the hungry desire to have! But in the highest region of truth, +the buying is 'without money and without price,' and all that we can +give in exchange is ourselves. We buy the truth when we know that we +cannot earn it, and forsaking self-trust and self-pleasing, consent to +receive it as a free gift. 'Sell it not,'--let no material good or +advantage, no ease, slothfulness, or worldly success, tempt you to +cast it away; for its 'fruit is better than gold,' and its 'revenue +than choice silver.' We shall make a bad bargain if we sell it for +anything beneath the stars; for 'wisdom is better than rubies,' and he +has been cheated in the transaction who has given up 'the truth' and +got instead 'the whole world.' + + + +THE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE + +'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely +there is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off.'--PROVERBS +xxiii. 17, 18. + + +The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, +but now and then the mists lift and a wider horizon is disclosed. Our +text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not +only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a +very striking way. 'Surely there is an end,' says our Authorised +Version, substituting in the margin, for end, 'reward.' The latter +word is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither 'end' +nor 'reward' conveys the precise idea. The word so translated +literally means 'something that comes after.' So it is the very +opposite of 'end', it is really that which lies beyond the end--the +'sequel,' or the 'future'--as the margin of the Revised Version gives +alternatively, or, more simply still, the afterwards. Surely there is +an afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify +one aspect of that afterwards: 'Thine expectation'--or, better, +because more simply, thy hope--shall not be cut off. And then, upon +these two convictions that there is, if I might so say, an afterclap, +and that it is the time and the sphere in which the fairest hopes that +a man can paint to himself shall be surpassed by the reality, it +builds the plain partial exhortation: 'Be thou in the fear of the Lord +all the day long.' + +So then, we have three things here, the certainty of the afterwards, +the immortality of hope consequent thereon, and the bearing of these +facts on the present. + +I. The certainty of the hereafter. + +Now, this Book of Proverbs, as I have said in the great collection of +popular sayings which makes the bulk of it, has no enthusiasm, no +poetry, no mysticism. It has religion, and it has a very pure and +lofty morality, but, for the most part, it deals with maxims of +worldly prudence, and sometimes with cynical ones, and represents, on +the whole, the wisdom of the market-place, and the 'man in the +street.' But now and then, as I have said, we hear strains of a higher +mood. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to +point only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it +would be teaching us simply the very much needed lessons that even in +this life, 'Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' But it +seems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other +places in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life +beyond the grave. I need not trouble you with quoting parallel +passages which are sown thinly up and down the book, but I venture to +take the words in the wider sense to which I have referred. + +Now, the question comes to be, where did the coiners of Proverbs, +whose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential +morality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty +experience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third +Psalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard +to a future life, where the Psalmist finds himself so completely +blessed and well in present fellowship with God, that he must needs +postulate its eternal continuance, and just because he has made God +the portion of his heart, and is holding fellowship with Him, is sure +that nothing can intervene to break that sweet communion. They did not +get it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the +resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has made that future life far more +than an inference for us, but they got it from thinking over the facts +of this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from the +standpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they +represent to us the impression that is made upon a man's mind, if he +has the 'eye that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality,' that is made +by the facts of this earthly life--viz. that it is so full of +onward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and +yet wonderfully and hopefully. Incomplete and fragmentary in itself, +that there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to +vindicate, the life that now is. And that aspect of fragmentary +incompleteness is what I would insist upon for a moment now. + +You sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of them has, in its +outer gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for +chimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that +external wall says that the row is half built, and there are some more +tenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live +here, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it, +too, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the +bookseller's catalogue, a book put down 'volume one; all that is +published.' That is our present life--volume one, all that is +published. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. Volume +two is due, and will come, and it will be the continuation of volume +one. + +What is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face +of the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find +in our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the +fact that, whilst 'foxes have holes' where they curl themselves up, +and they are at rest, 'and the birds of the air have roosting-places,' +where they tuck their heads beneath their wings and sleep, the 'son of +man' hath not where to lay his head, but looks round upon the earth +and says, 'The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy. I am a stranger on +the earth.' What is the meaning of it? Here is the meaning of it: +'Surely there is a hereafter.' + +What is the meaning of the fact that lodged in men's natures there +lies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not +as though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through +Eternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath +the stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this: +Surely there is a hereafter. The man that wrote the book of +Ecclesiastes, in his sceptical moment ere he had attained to his last +conclusion, says, in a verse that is mistranslated in our rendering, +'He hath set Eternity in their hearts, therefore the misery of man is +great upon him.' That is true, because the root of all our unrest and +dissatisfaction is that we need God, and God in Eternity, in order +that we may be at rest. But whilst on the one hand 'therefore the +misery of man is great upon him,' on the other hand, because Eternity +is in our hearts, therefore there is the answer to the longings, the +adequate sphere for the capacities in that great future, and in the +God that fills it. You go into the quarries left by reason of some +great convulsion or disaster, by forgotten races, and you will find +there half excavated and rounded pillars still adhering to the matrix +of the rock from which they were being hewn. Such unfinished abortions +are all human lives if, when Death drops its curtain, there is an end. + +But, brethren, God does not so clumsily disproportion His creatures +and their place. God does not so cruelly put into men longings that +have no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that +there should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter. +Every human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity +for progress. Every human life, up to the very end, has been educated +and trained, and that, surely, for something. There may be masters in +workshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the +years that are needed, and then turn round and say, 'I have no work +for you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else.' That is not +how God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work +to do. Surely there is a hereafter, + +But that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not +only a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent +on the present, and the outcome of it. The analogy of our earthly life +avails here. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the +yesterdays and to-day are the parent of tomorrow. The past, our past, +has made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present +is making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of +this life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we +were. There may be much on the surface changed, there will be much +taken away, thank God! dropped, necessarily, by the cessation of the +corporeal frame, and the connection into which it brings us with +things of sense. There will be much added, God only knows how much, +but the core of the man will remain untouched. 'We all are changed by +still degrees,' and suddenly at last 'All but the basis of the evil.' +And so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and, 'what a +man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Oh that they were wise, that +they understood this, that they would consider their afterward! + +II. Now, secondly, my text suggests the immortality of hope. 'Thine +expectation'--or rather, as I said, 'thy hope'--'shall not be cut +off.' This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful +saying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, 'The +righteous hath hope in his death.' Ah! we all know how swiftly, as +years increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we +approach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the +possibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if +there is no afterwards, the dying man's hopes must necessarily die +before he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a +cave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you +may write over it Dante's grim word: 'All hope abandon, ye who enter +here.' But let in that thought, 'surely there is an afterwards,' and +the enclosed cave becomes a rock-passage, in which one can see the +arch of light at the far end of the tunnel; and as one passes through +the gloom, the eye can travel on to the pale radiance beyond, and +anticipate the ampler ether, the diviner air, 'the brighter +constellations burning, mellow moons and happy stars,' that await us +there. 'The righteous hath hope in his death.' 'Thine expectation +shall not be cut off.' + +But, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a +condition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality. +Here, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a +fulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal +larger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted +out and scaled. And I suppose that, on the whole, perhaps as much pain +as pleasure comes from the hopes which are illusions far more often +than they are realities. They serve their purpose in whirling us along +the path of life and in stimulating effort, but they do not do much +more. + +But there does come a time, if you believe that there is an +afterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible +good for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of +the reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and +we shall have to say 'the half was not told to us.' + +And, further, if that afterwards is of the sort that we, through Jesus +Christ and His resurrection and glory, know to be, then all through +the timeless eternity hope will be our guide. For after each fresh +influx of blessedness and knowledge we shall have to say 'it doth not +yet appear what we shall be.' 'Thus now abideth'--and not only now, +but then and eternally--'these three--faith, hope, and charity,' and +hope will never be cut off through all the stretch of that great +afterwards. + +III. And now, finally, notice the bearing of all this on the daily +present. + +'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.' The conviction of +the hereafter, and the blessed vision of hopes fulfilled, are not the +only reasons for that exhortation. A great deal of harm has been done, +I am afraid, by well-meaning preachers who have drawn the bulk of +their strongest arguments to persuade men to Christian faith from the +thought of a future life. Why, if there were no future, it would be +just as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to 'be in the +fear of the Lord all the day long.' But seeing that there is that +future, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet +subsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to 'be in +the fear of the Lord all the day long,' which being turned into +Christian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with, +and love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. + +Surely, surely the very climax and bad eminence of folly is shutting +the eyes to that future that we all have to face; and to live here, as +some of you are doing, ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining, +and confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things +present and visible. For to live so, as our text enjoins, is the sure +way, and the only way, to make these great hopes realities for +ourselves. + +Brethren, that afterwards has two sides to it. The prophet Malachi, in +almost his last words, has a magnificent apocalypse of what he calls +'the day of the Lord,' which he sets forth as having a double aspect. +On the one hand, it is lurid as a furnace, and burns up the wicked +root and branch. I saw a forest fire this last autumn, and the great +pine-trees stood there for a moment pyramids of flame, and then came +down with a crash. So that hereafter will be to godless men. And on +the other side, that 'day of the Lord' in the prophet's vision was +radiant with the freshness and dew and beauty of morning, and the Sun +of Righteousness arose with healing in his wings. Which of the two is +it going to be to us? We have all to face it. We cannot alter that +fact, but we can settle how we shall face it. It will be to either the +fulfilment of blessed hope, the 'appearance of the glory of the great +God and our Saviour,' or else, as is said in this same Book of +Proverbs: 'The hope of the godless' shall be like one of those water +plants, the papyrus or the flag, which, when the water is taken away, +'withereth up before any other herb.' It is for us to determine +whether the afterwards that we must enter upon shall be the land in +which our hopes shall blossom and fruit, and blossom again immortally, +or whether we shall leave behind us, with all the rest that we would +fain keep, the possibility of anticipating any good. 'Surely there is +an afterwards,' and if thou wilt 'be in the fear of the Lord all the +day long,' then for evermore 'thy hope shall not be cut off.' + + + +THE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKYARD + +'Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath +babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30. +They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31. +Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour +in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32. At the last it biteth +like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33. Thine eyes shall +behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34. +Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or +as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35. They have stricken me, +shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it +not: when shall I awake! I will seek it yet again.'--PROVERBS xxiii. +29-35. + + +This vivid picture of the effects of drunkenness leaves its sinfulness +and its wider consequences out of sight, and fixes attention on the +sorry spectacle which a man makes of himself in body and mind when he +'puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains.' Disgust and +ridicule are both expressed. The writer would warn his 'son' by +impressing the ugliness and ludicrousness of drunkenness. The argument +is legitimate, though not the highest. + +The vehement questions poured out on each other's heels in verse 29 +are hot with both loathing and grim laughter. The two words rendered +'woe' and 'sorrow' are unmeaning exclamations, very like each other in +sound, and imitating the senseless noises of the drunkard. They +express discomfort as a dog might express it. They are howls rather +than words. That is one of the prerogatives won by drunkenness,--to +come down to the beasts' level, and to lose the power of articulate +speech. The quarrelsomeness which goes along with certain stages of +intoxication, and the unmeaning maudlin misery and whimpering into +which it generally passes, are next coupled together. + +Then come a pair of effects on the body. The tipsy man cannot take +care of himself, and reeling against obstacles, or falling over them, +wounds himself, and does not know where the scratches and blood came +from. 'Redness of eyes' is, perhaps, rather 'darkness,' meaning +thereby dim sight, or possibly 'black eyes,' as we say,--a frequent +accompaniment of drunkenness, and corresponding to the wounds in the +previous clause. It is a hideous picture, and one that should be +burned in on the imagination of every young man and woman. The +liquor-sodden, miserable wrecks that are found in thousands in our +great cities, of whom this is a picture, were, most of them, in +Sunday-schools in their day. The next generation of such poor +creatures are, many of them, in Sunday-schools now, and may be reading +this passage to-day. + +The answer to these questions has a touch of irony in it. The people +who win as their possessions these six precious things have to sit up +late to earn them. What a noble cause in which to sacrifice sleep, and +turn night into day! And they pride themselves on being connoisseurs +in the several vintages; they 'know a good glass of wine when they see +it.' What a noble field for investigation! What a worthy use of the +faculties of comparison and judgment! And how desirable the prizes won +by such trained taste and delicate discrimination! + +In verses 31 and 32 weighty warning and dehortation follow, based in +part on the preceding picture. The writer thinks that the only way of +sure escape from the danger is to turn away even the eyes from the +temptation. He is not contented with saying 'taste not,' but he goes +the whole length of 'look not'; and that because the very sparkle and +colour may attract. 'When it is red' might perhaps better be rendered +'when it reddens itself,' suggesting the play of colour, as if put +forth by the wine itself. The word rendered in the Authorised Version +and Revised Version 'colour' is literally 'eye,' and probably means +the beaded bubbles winking on the surface. 'Moveth itself aright' +(Authorised Version) is not so near the meaning as 'goeth down +smoothly' (Revised Version). The whole paints the attractiveness to +sense of the wine-cup in colour, effervescence, and taste. + +And then comes in, with startling abruptness, the end of all this +fascination,--a serpent's bite and a basilisk's sting. The kind of +poisonous snake meant in the last clause of verse 32 is doubtful, but +certainly is one much more formidable than an adder. The serpent's +lithe gracefulness and painted skin hide a fatal poison; and so the +attractive wine-cup is sure to ruin those who look on it. The evil +consequences are pursued in more detail in what follows. + +But here we must note two points. The advice given is to keep entirely +away from the temptation. 'Look not' is safe policy in regard of many +of the snares for young lives that abound in our modern society. It is +not at all needful to 'see life,' or to know the secrets of +wickedness, in order to be wise and good. 'Simple concerning evil' is +a happier state than to have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. +Many a young man has been ruined, body and soul, by a prurient +curiosity to know what sort of life dissipated men and women led, or +what sort of books they were against which he was warned, or what kind +of a place a theatre was, and so on. Eyes are greedy, and there is a +very quick telephone from them to the desires. 'The lust of the eye' +soon fans the 'lust of the flesh' into a glow. There are plenty of +depths of Satan gaping for young feet; and on the whole, it is safer +and happier not to know them, and so not to have defiling memories, +nor run the risk of falling into fatal sins. Whether the writer of +this stern picture of a drunkard was a total abstainer or not, the +spirit of his counsel not to 'look on the wine' is in full accord with +that practice. It is very clear that if a man is a total abstainer, he +can never be a drunkard. As much cannot be said of the moderate man. + +Note too, how in all regions of life, the ultimate results of any +conduct are the important ones. Consequences are hard to calculate, +and they do not afford a good guidance for action. But there are many +lines of conduct of which the consequences are not hard to calculate, +but absolutely certain. It is childish to take a course because of a +moment's gratification at the beginning, to be followed by protracted +discomfort afterwards. To live for present satisfaction of desires, +and to shut one's eyes tight against known and assured results of an +opposite sort, cannot be the part of a sensible man, to say nothing of +a religious one. So moralists have been preaching ever since there was +such a thing as temptation in the world; and men have assented to the +common sense of the teaching, and then have gone straight away and +done the exact opposite. + +'What shall the end be?' ought to be the question at every beginning. +If we would cultivate the habit of holding present satisfactions in +suspense, and of giving no weight to present advantages until we saw +right along the road to the end of the journey, there would be fewer +failures, and fewer weary, disenchanted old men and women, to lament +that the harvest they had to reap and feed on was so bitter. There are +other and higher reasons against any kind of fleshly indulgence than +that at the last it bites like a serpent, and with a worse poison than +serpent's sting ever darted; but that is a reason, and young hearts, +which are by their very youth blessedly unused to look forward, will +be all the happier to-day, and all the surer of to-morrow's good, if +they will learn to say, 'And afterwards--what?' + +The passage passes to a renewed description of the effects of +intoxication, in which the disgusting and the ludicrous aspects of it +are both made prominent. Verse 33 seems to describe the excited +imagination of the drunkard, whose senses are no longer under his +control, but play him tricks that make him a laughingstock to sober +people. One might almost take the verse to be a description of +delirium tremens. 'Strange things' are seen, and perverse things (that +is, unreal, or ridiculous) are stammered out. The writer has a keen +sense of the humiliation to a man of being thus the fool of his own +bewildered senses, and as keen a one of the absurd spectacle he +presents; and he warns his 'son' against coming down to such a depth +of degradation. + +It may be questioned whether the boasted quickening and brightening +effects of alcohol are not always, in a less degree, that same +beguiling of sense and exciting of imagination which, in their extreme +form, make a man such a pitiable and ridiculous sight. It is better to +be dull and see things as they are, than to be brilliant and see +things larger, brighter, or any way other than they are, because we +see them through a mist. Imagination set agoing by such stimulus, will +not work to as much purpose as if aroused by truth. God's world, seen +by sober eyes, is better than rosy dreams of it. If we need to draw +our inspiration from alcohol, we had better remain uninspired. If we +desire to know the naked truth of things, the less we have to do with +strong drink the better. Clear eyesight and self-command are in some +degree impaired by it always. The earlier stages are supposed to be +exhilaration, increased brilliancy of fancy and imagination, expanded +good-fellowship, and so on. The latter stages are these in our +passage, when strange things dance before cheated eyes, and strange +words speak themselves out of lips which their owner no longer +controls. Is that a condition to be sought after? If not, do not get +on to the road that leads to it. + +Verse 34 adds another disgusting and ridiculous trait. A man who +should try to lie down and go to sleep in the heart of the sea or on +the masthead of a ship would be a manifest fool, and would not keep +life in him for long. One has seen drunken men laying themselves down +to sleep in places as exposed and as ridiculous as these; and one +knows the look of the heavy lump of insensibility lying helpless on +public roads, or on railway tracks, or anywhere where the fancy took +him. The point of the verse seems to be the drunken man's utter loss +of sense of fitness, and complete incapacity to take care of himself. +He cannot estimate dangers. The very instinct of self-preservation has +forsaken him. There he lies, though as sure to be drowned as if he +were in the depth of the sea, though on as uncomfortable a bed as if +he were rocking on a masthead, where he could not balance himself. + +The torpor of verse 34 follows on the unnatural excitement of verse +33, as, in fact, the bursts of uncontrolled energy in which the man +sees and says strange things, are succeeded by a collapse. One moment +raging in excitement caused by imaginary sights, the next huddled +together in sleep like death,--what a sight the man is! The teacher +here would have his 'son' consider that he may come to that, if he +looks on the wine-cup. '_Thou_ shalt be' so and so. It is very +impolite, but very necessary, to press home the individual application +of pictures like this, and to bid bright young men and women look at +the wretched creatures they may see hanging about liquor shops, and +remember that they may come to be such as these. + +Verse 35 finishes the picture. The tipsy man's soliloquy puts the +copestone on his degradation. He has been beaten, and never felt it. +Apparently he is beginning to stir in his sleep, though not fully +awake; and the first thing he discovers when he begins to feel himself +over is that he has been beaten and wounded, and remembers nothing +about it. A degrading anaesthetic is drink. Better to bear all ills +than to drown them by drowning consciousness. There is no blow which a +man cannot bear better if he holds fast by God's hand and keeps +himself fully exposed to the stroke, than if he sought a cowardly +alleviation of it, softer the drunkard's fashion. + +But the pains of his beating and the discomforts of his waking do not +deter the drunkard. 'When shall I awake?' He is not fully awake yet, +so as to be able to get up and go for another drink. He is in the +stage of feeling sorry for himself, and examining his bruises, but he +wishes he were able to shake off the remaining drowsiness, that he +might 'seek yet again' for his curse. The tyranny of desire, which +wakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the +enfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields +at once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard's +life. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the +craving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether. +Doctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical +disease. Yes; but it is a disease manufactured by the patient, and he +is responsible for getting himself into such a state. + +This tragic picture proves that there were many originals of it in the +days when it was painted. Probably there are far more, in proportion +to population, in our times. The warning it peals out was never more +needed than now. Would that all preachers, parents, and children laid +it to heart and took the advice not even to 'look upon the wine'! + + +THE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE + +'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those +that are ready to be slain; 12. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it +not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that +keepeth thy soul, doth not he render to every man according to his +works?'--PROVERBS xxiv. 11, 12. + + +What is called the missionary spirit is nothing else than the +Christian church working in a particular direction. If a man has a +conviction, the health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he +has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a +duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak +what he believes. On these common grounds rests the whole obligation +of Christ's followers to speak the Gospel which they have received; +only the obligation presses on them with greater force because of the +higher worth of the word and the deeper misery of men without it. The +text contains nothing specially bearing on Christian missions, but it +deals with the fault which besets us all in our relations and in life: +and the wholesome truths which it utters apply to our duties in regard +to Christian missions because they apply to our duties in regard to +every misery within our reach. They speak of the murderous cruelty and +black sin of negligence to save any whom we can help from any sort of +misery which threatens them. They appear to me to suggest four +thoughts which I would now deal with:-- + +I. The crime of negligence. + +Not to use any power is a sin; to omit to do anything that we can do +is a crime: to withhold a help that we can render is to participate in +the authorship of all the misery that we have failed to relieve. He +who neglects to save a life, kills. There are more murderers than +those who lift violent hands with malice aforethought against a hated +life. Rulers or communities who leave people uncared for to die, who +suffer swarming millions to live where the air is poison and the light +is murky, and first the soul and then the body, are dwarfed and die; +the incompetent men in high places, and the indolent ones in low, +whose selfishness brings, and whose blundering blindness allows to +continue, the conditions that are fatal to life--on these the guilt of +blood lies. Violence slays its thousands, but supine negligence slays +its tens of thousands. + +And when we pass from these merely physical conditions to think of the +world and of the Church in the world, where shall we find words +weighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the +unthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ's +professed followers? There is nothing which the ordinary type of +Christian, so called, more needs than to be aroused to a living sense +of personal responsibility for all the unalleviated misery of the +world. For every one who has laid the sorrows of humanity on his +heart, and has felt them in any measure as his own, there are a +hundred to whom these make no appeal and give no pang. Within ear-shot +of our churches and chapels there are squalid aggregations of stunted +and festering manhood, of whom it is only too true that they are +'drawn unto death' and 'ready to be slain,' and yet it would be an +exaggeration to say that the bulk of our congregations cast even a +languid eye of compassion upon those, to say nothing of stretching out +a hand to help. It needs to be dinned, far more than it is at present, +into every professing Christian that each of us has an obligation +which cannot be ignored or shuffled off, to acquaint ourselves with +the glaring facts that force themselves upon all thoughtful men, and +that the measure of our power is the measure of our obligation. The +question, Has the church done its best to deliver these? needs to be +sharpened to the point of 'Have I done my best?' And the vision of +multitudes perishing in the slums of a great city needs to be expanded +into the vision of dim millions perishing in the wide world. + +II. The excuse of negligence. + +The shuffling plea, 'Behold we knew it not,' is a cowardly lie. It +admits the responsibility to knowledge and pretends an ignorance which +it knows to be partly a false excuse, and in so far as it is true, to +be our own fault. We are bound to know, and the most ignorant of us +does know, and cannot help knowing, enough to condemn our negligence. +How many of us have ever tried to find out how the pariahs of +civilisation live who live beside us? Our ignorance so far as it is +real is the result of a sinful indolence. And there is a sadder form +of it in an ignorance which is the result of familiarity. We all know +how custom dulls our impressions. It is well that it should be so, for +a surgeon would be fit for little if he trembled and was shaken at the +sight of the tumour he had to work to remove, as we should be; but his +familiarity with misery does not harden him, because he seeks to +remove the suffering with which he has become familiar. But that same +familiarity does harden and injure the whole nature of the onlooker +who does nothing to alleviate it. Then there is an ignorance of other +suffering which is the result of selfish absorption in one's own +concerns. The man who is caring for himself only, and whose thoughts +and feelings all flow in the direction of his own success, may see +spread before him the most poignant sorrows without feeling one throb +of brotherly compassion and without even being aware of what his eyes +see. So, in so far as the excuse 'we knew it not' is true, it is no +excuse, but an indictment. It lays bare the true reason of the +criminal negligence as being a yet more criminal callousness as to the +woe and loss in which such crowds of men whom we ought to recognise as +brethren are sunken. + +III. The condemnation of negligence. + +The great example of God is put forward in the text as the contrast to +all this selfish negligence. Note the twofold description of Him given +here, 'He that pondereth the heart,' and 'He that keepeth thy soul.' +The former of these presents to us God's sedulous watching of the +hearts of men, in contrast to our indolent and superficial looks; and +in this divine attitude we find the awful condemnation of our +disregard of our fellows. God 'takes pain,' so to speak, to see after +His children. Are they not bound to look lovingly on each other? God +seeks to know them. Are they not bound to know one another? Lofty +disregard of human suffering is not _God's_ way. Is it ours? He +'looks down from the height of His sanctuary to hear the crying of the +prisoner.' Should not we stoop from our mole-hill to see it? God has +not too many concerns on His hands to mark the obscurest sorrow and be +ready to help it. And shall we plead that we are too busy with petty +personal concerns to take interest in helping the sorrows and fighting +against the sins of the world? + +No less eloquently does the other name which is here applied to God +rebuke our negligence. 'He preserveth thy soul.' By His divine care +and communication of life, we live; and surely the soul thus preserved +is thereby bound to be a minister of preservation to all that are +'ready to be slain.' The strongest motive for seeking to save others +is that God has saved us. Thus this name for God touches closely upon +the great Christian thought, 'Christ has given Himself for me.' And in +that thought we find the true condemnation of a Christianity which has +not caught from Him the enthusiasm for self-surrender, and the passion +for saving the outcast and forlorn. If to be a Christian is to imitate +Christ, then the name has little application to those who see 'them +that are drawn to death,' and turn from them unconcerned and +unconscious of responsibility. + +IV. The judgment of negligence. + +'Doth not He render to every man according to his works?' There is +such a judgment both in the present and in the future for Christian +men as for others. And not only what they do, but what they +inconsistently fail to do, comes into the category of their works, and +influences their position. It does so in the present, for no man can +cherish such a maimed Christian life as makes such negligence possible +without robbing himself of much that would tend to his own growth in +grace and likeness to Jesus Christ. The unfaithful servant is poorer +by the pound hidden in the napkin which might all the while have been +laid out at interest with the money-changers, which would have +increased the income whilst the lord was absent. We rob ourselves of +blessed sympathies and of the still more blessed joy of service, and +of the yet more blessed joy of successful effort, by our indolence and +our negligence. Let us not forget that our works do follow us in this +life as in the life to come, and that it is here as well as hereafter, +that he that goeth forth with a full basket and scatters the precious +seed with weeping, and yet with joy, shall doubtless come again +bringing his sheaves with him. And if we stretch our view to take in +the life beyond, what gladness can match that of the man who shall +enter there with some who will be his joy and crown of rejoicing in +that day, and of whom he shall be able to say, 'Behold I and the +children whom Thou hast given me!' + +I venture earnestly to appeal to all my hearers for more faithful +discharge of this duty. I pray you to open your ears to hear, and your +eyes to see, and your hearts to feel, and last of all, your hands to +help, the miseries of the world. Solemn duties wait upon great +privileges. It is an awful trust to have Christ and His gospel +committed to our care. We get it because from One who lived no life of +luxurious ease, but felt all the woes of humanity which He redeemed, +and forbore not to deliver us from death, though at the cost of His +own. We get it for no life of silken indolence or selfish disregard of +the sorrows of our brethren. If there is one tear we could have dried +and didn't, or one wound we could have healed and didn't, that is a +sin; if we could have lightened the great heap of sorrow by one grain +and didn't, that is a sin; and if there be one soul that perishes +which we might have saved and didn't, the negligence is not merely the +omission of a duty, but the doing of a deed which will be 'rendered to +us according to our works.' + + + +THE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN + +'I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man +void of understanding; 31. And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, +and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof +was broken down.'--PROVERBS xxiv. 30, 31. + + +This picture of the sluggard's garden seems to be intended as a +parable. No doubt its direct simple meaning is full of homely wisdom +in full accord with the whole tone of the Book of Proverbs; but we +shall scarcely do justice to this saying of the wise if we do not see +in 'the ground grown over with thorns,' and 'the stone wall thereof +broken down,' an apologue of the condition of a soul whose owner has +neglected to cultivate and tend it. + +I. Note first who the slothful man is. + +The first plain meaning of the word is to be kept in view. The whole +Book of Proverbs brands laziness as the most prolific source of +poverty. Honest toil is to it the law of life. It is never weary of +reiterating 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; and it +condemns all swift modes of getting riches without labour. No doubt +the primitive simplicity of life as set forth in this book seems far +behind the many ingenuities by which in our days the law is evaded. +How much of Stock Exchange speculation and 'Company promoters' +gambling would survive the application of the homely old law? + +But it is truer in the inward life than in the outward that 'the hand +of the diligent maketh rich.' After all, the differences between men +who truly 'succeed' and the human failures, which are so frequent, are +more moral than intellectual. It has been said that genius is, after +all, 'the capacity for taking infinite pains'; and although that is an +exaggerated statement, and an incomplete analysis, there is a great +truth in it, and it is the homely virtue of hard work which tells in +the long run, and without which the most brilliant talents effect but +little. However gifted a man may be, he will be a failure if he has +not learned the great secret of dogged persistence in often unwelcomed +toil. No character worth building up is built without continuous +effort. If a man does not labour to be good, he will surely become +bad. It is an old axiom that no man attains superlative wickedness all +at once, and most certainly no man leaps to the height of the goodness +possible to his nature by one spring. He has laboriously, and step by +step, to climb the hill. Progress in moral character is secured by +long-continued walking upwards, not by a jump. + +We note that in our text 'the slothful' is paralleled by 'the man void +of understanding'; and the parallel suggests the stupidity in such a +world as this of letting ourselves develop according to whims, or +inclinations, or passions; and also teaches that 'understanding' is +meant to be rigidly and continuously brought to bear on actions as +director and restrainer. If the ship is not to be wrecked on the rocks +or to founder at sea, Wisdom's hand must hold the helm. Diligence +alone is not enough unless directed by 'understanding.' + +II. What comes of sloth. + +The description of the sluggard's garden brings into view two things, +the abundant, because unchecked, growth of profitless weeds, and the +broken down stone wall. Both of these results are but too sadly and +evidently true in regard to every life where rigid and continuous +control has not been exercised. It is a familiar experience known, +alas! to too many of us, that evil things, of which the seeds are in +us all, grow up unchecked if there be not constant supervision and +self-command. If we do not carefully cultivate our little plot of +garden ground, it will soon be overgrown by weeds. 'Ill weeds grow +apace' as the homely wisdom of common experience crystallises into a +significant proverb. And Jesus has taught the sadder truth that +'thorns spring up and choke the word and it becometh unfruitful.' In +the slothful man's soul evil will drive out good as surely as in the +struggle for existence the thorns and nettles will cover the face of +the slothful man's garden. In country places we sometimes come across +a ruined house with what was a garden round it, and here and there +still springs up a flower seeking for air and light in the midst of a +smothering mass of weeds. _They_ needed no kindly gardener's hand +to make them grow luxuriantly; can barely put out a pale petal unless +cared for and guarded. + +But not only is there this unchecked growth, but 'the stone wall +thereof was broken down.' The soul was unfenced. The solemn imperative +of duty ceases to restrain or to impel in proportion as a man yields +slothfully to the baser impulses of his nature. Nothing is hindered +from going out of, nor for coming into, an unfenced soul, and he that +'hath no rule over his own spirit,' but is like a 'city broken down +without walls,' is certain sooner or later to let much go forth from +that spirit that should have bean rigidly shut up, and to let many an +enemy come in that will capture the city. It is not yet safe to let +any of the fortifications fall into disrepair, and they can only be +kept in their massive strength by continuous vigilance. + +III. How sloth excuses itself. + +Our text is followed at the distance of one verse with what seemed to +be the words of the sluggard in answer to the attempt to awake him: +'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands +to sleep.' They are a quotation from an earlier chapter (ch. vi.) +where 'His Laziness' is sent to 'consider the ways of the ant and be +wise.' They are a drowsy petition which does not dispute the wisdom of +the call to awake, but simply craves for a little more luxurious +laziness from which he has unwillingly been aroused. And is it not +true that we admit too late the force of the summons and yet shrink +from answering it? Do we not cheat ourselves and try to deceive God +with the promise that we will set about amendment soon? This indolent +sleeper asks only for a _little_: 'A little sleep, a little +slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.' Do we not all know +that mood of mind which confesses our slothfulness and promises to be +wide awake tomorrow but would fain bargain to be left undisturbed +today? The call 'Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead!' +rings from Christ's lips in the ears of every man, and he who answers, +'I will presently, but must sleep a little longer,' may seem to +himself to have complied with the call, but has really refused it. The +'little more' generally becomes _much_ more; and the answer +'presently' alas! too often becomes the answer 'never.' When a man is +roused so as to be half awake, the only safety for him is +_immediately_ to rise and clothe himself; the head that drowsily +droops back on the pillow after he has heard the morning's call, is +likely to lie there long. Now, not 'by-and-by' is the time to shake +off the bonds of sloth to cultivate our garden. + +IV. How sloth ends. + +The sleeper's slumber is dramatically represented as being awakened by +armed robbers who bring a grim awakening. 'Poverty' and 'want' break +in on his 'folding hands to sleep.' That is true as regards the +outward life, where indulgence in literal slothfulness brings want, +and the whole drift of things executes on the sluggard the sentence +that if 'any man will not work, neither shall he eat.' + +But the picture is more sadly and fatally true concerning the man who +has made his earthly life 'a little sleep' as concerns heavenly +things, and in spite of his beseechings, is roused to life and +consciousness of himself and of God by death. That man's 'poverty' in +his lack of all that is counted as wealth in the world of realities to +which he goes will indeed come as a robber. I would press upon you all +the plain question, Is this fatal slothfulness characteristic of me? +It may co-exist with, and indeed is often the consequence of vehement +energy and continuous work to secure wealth, or wisdom, or material +good; and the contrast between a man who is all eagerness in regard to +the things that don't matter, and all carelessness in regard to the +things that do, is the tragedy of life amongst us. My friend! if +_your_ garden has been suffered by you to be overgrown with +weeds, be sure of this, that one day you will be awakened from the +slumber that you would fain continue, and will find yourself in a life +where your 'poverty' will come as a robber and your want of all which +_there_ is counted treasure 'as an armed man.' + +One word more. Christ's parable of the sower may be brought into +relationship with this parable. He sows the true seed in our hearts, +but when sown, it, too, has to be cared for and tended. If it is sown +in the sluggard's garden, it will bring forth few ears, and the tares +will choke the wheat. + + + +AN UNWALLED CITY + +'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is +broken down, and without walls.'--PROVERBS xxv. 28. + + +The text gives us a picture of a state of society when an unwalled +city is no place for men to dwell in. In the Europe of today there are +still fortified places, but for the most part, battlements are turned +into promenades; the gateways are gateless; the sweet flowers blooming +where armed feet used to tread; and men live securely without bolts +and bars. But their spirits cannot yet afford to raise their defences +and fling themselves open to all comers. + +We may see here three points: the city defenceless, or human nature as +it is; the city defended, human nature as it may be in Christ; the +city needing no defence, human nature as it will be in heaven. + +I. The city defenceless, or human nature as it is. + +Here we are in a state of warfare which calls for constant shutting +out of enemies. Temptations are everywhere; our foes compass us like +bees; evils of many sorts seduce. We can picture to ourselves some +little garrison holding a lonely outpost against lurking savages ready +to attack if ever the defenders slacken their vigilance for a moment. +And that is the truer picture of human nature as it is than the one by +which most men are deluded. Life is not a playground, but an arena of +grim, earnest fighting. No man does right in his sleep; no man does +right without a struggle. + +The need for continual vigilance and self-control comes from the very +make of our souls, for our nature is not a democracy, but a kingdom. +In us all there are passions, desires, affections, all of which may +lead to vice or to virtue: and all of which evidently call out for +direction, for cultivation, and often for repression. Then there are +peculiarities of individual character which need watching lest they +become excessive and sinful. Further, there are qualities which need +careful cultivation and stimulus to bring them into due proportion. We +each of us receive, as it were, an undeveloped self, and have +entrusted to us potential germs which come to nothing, or shoot up +with a luxuriance that stifles unless we exercise a controlling power. +Besides all this, we all carry in us tendencies which are positively, +and only, sinful. There would be no temptation if there were no such. + +But the slightest inspection of our own selves clearly points out, not +only what in us needs to be controlled, but that in us which is +_meant_ to control. The will is regal; conscience is meant to +govern the will, and its voice is but the echo of God's law. + +But, while all this is true, it is too sadly true that the +accomplishment of this ideal is impossible in our own strength. Our +own sad experience tells us that we cannot govern ourselves; and our +observations of our brethren but too surely indicate that they too are +the prey of rebellious, anarchical powers within, and of temptations, +against the rush of which they and we are as powerless as a voyager in +a bark-canoe, caught in the fatal drift of Niagara. Conscience has a +voice, but no hands; it can speak, but if its voice fails, it cannot +hold us back. From its chair it can bid the waves breaking at our feet +roll back, as the Saxon king did, but their tossing surges are deaf. +As helpless as the mud walls of some Indian hill-fort against modern +artillery, is the defence, in one's own strength, of one's own self +against the world. We would gladly admit that the feeblest may do much +to 'keep himself unspotted from the world'; but we must, if we +recognise facts, confess that the strongest cannot do all. No man can +alone completely control his own nature; no man, unenlightened by God, +has a clear, full view of duty, nor a clear view of himself. Always +there is some unguarded place: + + 'Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!' + +but no man can so lift himself so as that self will not drag him down. +The walls are broken down and the troops of the spoilers sack the +city. + +II. The defended city, or human nature as it may be in Christ. + +If our previous remarks are true, they give us material for judging +how far the counsels of some very popular moral teachers should be +followed. It is a very old advice, 'know thyself; and it is a very +modern one that + + 'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control + Lead life to sovereign power.' + +But if these counsels are taken absolutely and without reference to +Christ and His work, they are 'counsels of despair,' demanding what we +cannot give, and promising what they cannot bestow. When we know +Christ, we shall know ourselves; when He is the self of ourselves, +then, and only then, shall we reverence and can we control the inner +man. The city of Mansoul will then be defended when 'the peace of God +keeps our hearts and minds in Jesus.' + +He who submits himself to Christ is lord of himself as none else are. +He has a light within which teaches him what is sin. He has a love +within which puts out the flame of temptation, as the sun does a coal +fire. He has a motive to resist; he has power for resistance; he has +hope in resisting. Only thus are the walls broken down rebuilded. And +as Christ builds our city on firmer foundations, He will appear in His +glory, and will 'lay the windows in agates, and all thy borders in +precious stones.' The sure way to bring our ruined earth, 'without +form and void,' into a cosmos of light and beauty, is to open our +spirit for the Spirit of God to 'brood upon the face of the waters.' +Otherwise the attempts to rule over our own spirit will surely fail; +but if we let Christ rule over our spirit, then it will rule itself. + +But let us ever remember that he who thus submits to Christ, and can +truly say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in _me_,' still +needs defence. The strife does not thereby cease; the enemies still +swarm; sin is not removed. There will be war to the end, and war for +ever; but He will 'keep our heads in the day of battle'; and though +often we may be driven from the walls, and outposts may be lost, and +gaping breaches made, yet the citadel shall be safe. If only we see to +it that '_He_ is the glory in the midst of us,' He will be 'a +wall of fire round about us.' Our nature as it may be in Christ is a +walled city as needing defence, and as possessing the defence which it +needs. + +III. The city defenceless, and needing no defence; that is, human +nature as it will be hereafter. + +'The gates shall not be shut day nor night,' for 'every thing that +defileth' is without. We know but little of that future, what we know +will, surely, be theirs who here have been 'guarded by the power of +God, through faith, unto salvation.' That salvation will bring with it +the end for the need of guardianship; though it leaves untouched the +blessed dependence, we shall stand secure when it is impossible to +fall. And that impossibility will be realised, partly, as we know, +from change in surroundings, partly from the dropping away of flesh, +partly from the entire harmony of our souls with the will of God. Our +ignorance of that future is great, but our knowledge of it is greater, +and our certainty of it is greatest of all. + +This is what we may become. Dear friends! toil no longer at the +endless, hopeless task of ruling those turbulent souls of yours; you +can never rebuild the walls already fallen. Give up toiling to attain +calmness, peace, self-command. Let Christ do all for you, and let Him +in to dwell in you and be all to you. Builded on the true Rock, we +shall stand stately and safe amid the din of war. He will watch over +us and dwell in us, and we shall be as 'a city set on a hill,' +impregnable, a virgin city. So may it be with each of us while strife +shall last, and hereafter we may quietly hope to be as a city without +walls, and needing none; for they that hated us shall be far away, for +between us and them is 'a great gulf fixed,' so that they cannot cross +it to disturb us any more; and we shall dwell in the city of God, of +which the name is Salem, the city of peace, whose King is Himself, its +Defender and its Rock, its Fortress and its high Tower. + + + +THE WEIGHT OF SAND + +'The sand is weighty.'--PROVERBS, xxvii. 3. + + +This Book of Proverbs has a very wholesome horror of the character +which it calls 'a fool'; meaning thereby, not so much intellectual +feebleness as moral and religious obliquity, which are the stupidest +things that a man can be guilty of. My text comes from a very +picturesque and vivid description, by way of comparison, of the fatal +effects of such a man's passion. The proverb-maker compares two heavy +things, stones and sand, and says that they are feathers in comparison +with the immense lead-like weight of such a man's wrath. + +Now I have nothing more to do with the immediate application of my +text. I want to make a parable out of it. What is lighter than a grain +of sand? What is heavier than a bagful of it? As the grains fall one +by one, how easily they can be blown away! Let them gather, and they +bury temples, and crush the solid masonry of pyramids. 'Sand is +weighty.' The accumulation of light things is overwhelmingly +ponderous. Are there any such things in our lives? If there are, what +ought we to do? So you get the point of view from which I want to look +at the words of our text. + +I. The first suggestion that I make is that they remind us of the +supreme importance of trifles. + +If trivial acts are unimportant, what signifies the life of man? For +ninety-nine and a half per cent. of every man's life is made up of +these light nothings; and unless there is potential greatness in them, +and they are of importance, then life is all 'a tale told by an idiot, +full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Small things make life; +and if are small, then _it_ is so too. + +But remember, too, that the supreme importance of so-called trivial +actions is seen in this, that there may be every bit as much of the +noblest things that belong to humanity condensed in, and brought to +bear upon, the veriest trifle that a man can do, as on the greatest +things that he can perform. We are very poor judges of what is great +and what is little. We have a very vulgar estimate that noise and +notoriety and the securing of, not _great_ but 'big,' results of +a material kind make the deeds by which they are secured, great ones. +And we think that it is the quiet things, those that do not tell +outside at all, that are the small ones. + +Well! here is a picture for you. Half-a-dozen shabby, travel-stained +Jews, sitting by a river-side upon the grass, talking to a handful of +women outside the gates of a great city. Years before that, there had +been what the world calls a great event, almost on the same ground--a +sanguinary fight, that had settled the emperorship of the then +civilised world, for a time. I want to know whether the first +preaching of the Gospel in Europe by the Apostle Paul, or the battle +of Philippi, was the great event, and which of the two was the little +one. I vote for the Jews on the grass, and let all the noise of the +fight, though it reverberated through the world for a bit, die away, +as 'a little dust that rises up, and is lightly laid again.' Not the +noisy events are the great ones; and as much true greatness may be +manifested in a poor woman stitching in her garret as in some of the +things that have rung through the world and excited all manner of +vulgar applause. Trifles may be, and often are, the great things in +life. + +And then remember, too, how the most trivial actions have a strange +knack of all at once leading on to large results, beyond what could +have been expected. A man shifts his seat in a railway carriage, from +some passing whim, and five minutes afterwards there comes a +collision, and the bench where he had been sitting is splintered up, +and the place where he is sitting is untouched, and the accidental +move has saved his life. According to the old story a boy, failing in +applying for a situation, stoops down in the courtyard and picks up a +pin, and the millionaire sees him through the window, and it makes his +fortune. We cannot tell what may come of anything; and since we do not +know the far end of our deeds, let us be quite sure that we have got +the near end of them right. Whatever may be the issue, let us look +after the motive, and then all will be right. Small seeds grow to be +great trees, and in this strange and inexplicable network of things +which men call circumstances, and Christians call Providence, the only +thing certain is that 'great' and 'small' all but cease to be a +tenable, and certainly altogether cease to be an important +distinction. + +Then another thing which I would have you remember is, that it is +these trivial actions which, in their accumulated force, make +character. Men are not made by crises. The crises reveal what we have +made ourselves by the trifles. The way in which we do the little +things forms the character according to which we shall act when the +great things come. If the crew of a man-of-war were not exercised at +boat and fire drill during many a calm day, when all was safe, what +would become of them when tempests were raging, or flames breaking +through the bulk-heads? It is no time to learn drill then. And we must +make our characters by the way in which, day out and day in, we do +little things, and find in them fields for the great virtues which +will enable us to front the crises of our fate unblenching, and to +master whatsoever difficulties come in our path. Geologists nowadays +distrust, for the most part, theories which have to invoke great +forces in order to mould the face of a country. They tell us that the +valley, with its deep sides and wide opening to the sky, may have been +made by the slow operation of a tiny brooklet that trickles now down +at its base, and by erosion of the atmosphere. So we shape +ourselves--and that is a great thing--by the way we do small things. + +Therefore, I say to you, dear friends! think solemnly and reverently +of this awful life of ours. Clear your minds of the notion that +anything is small which offers to you the alternative of being done in +a right way or in a wrong; and recognise this as a fact--'sand is +weighty,' trifles are of supreme importance. + +II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to take this saying as suggesting +the overwhelming weight of small sins. + +That is only an application in one direction of the general principle +that I have been trying to lay down; but it is one of such great +importance that I wish to deal with it separately. And my point is +this, that the accumulated pressure upon a man of a multitude of +perfectly trivial faults and transgressions makes up a tremendous +aggregate that weighs upon him with awful ponderousness. + +Let me remind you, to begin with, that, properly speaking, the words +'great' and 'small' should not be applied in reference to things about +which 'right' or 'wrong' are the proper words to employ. Or, to put it +into plainer language, it is as absurd to talk about the 'size' of a +sin, as it is to take the superficial area of a picture as a test of +its greatness. The magnitude of a transgression does not depend on the +greatness of the act which transgresses--according to human +standards--but on the intensity with which the sinful element is +working in it. For acts make crimes, but motives make sins. If you +take a bit of prussic acid, and bruise it down, every little +microscopic fragment will have the poisonous principle in it; and it +is very irrelevant to ask whether it is as big as a mountain or small +as a grain of dust, it is poison all the same. So to talk about +magnitude in regard to sins, is rather to introduce a foreign +consideration. But still, recognising that there is a reality in the +distinction that people make between great sins and small ones, though +it is a superficial distinction, and does not go down to the bottom of +things, let us deal with it now. + +I say, then, that small sins, by reason of their numerousness, have a +terrible accumulative power. They are like the green flies on our +rose-bushes, or the microbes that our medical friends talk so much +about nowadays. Like them, their power of mischief does not in the +least degree depend on their magnitude, and like them, they have a +tremendous capacity of reproduction. It would be easier to find a man +that had not done any one sin than to find out a man that had only +done it once. And it would be easier to find a man that had done no +evil than a man who had not been obliged to make the second edition of +his sin an enlarged one. For this is the present Nemesis of all evil, +that it requires repetition, partly to still conscience, partly to +satisfy excited tastes and desires; so that animal indulgence in drink +and the like is a type of what goes on in the inner life of every man, +in so far as the second dose has to be stronger than the first in +order to produce an equivalent effect; and so on _ad infinitum_. + +And then remember that all our evil doings, however insignificant they +may be, have a strange affinity with one another, so that you will +find that to go wrong in one direction almost inevitably leads to a +whole series of consequential transgressions of one sort or another. +You remember the old story about the soldier that was smuggled into a +fortress concealed in a hay cart, and opened the gates of a virgin +citadel to his allies outside. Every evil thing, great or small, that +we admit into our lives, still more into our hearts, is charged with +the same errand as he had:--' Set wide the door when you are inside, +and let us all come in after you.' 'He taketh with him seven other +spirits worse than himself, and they dwell there.' 'None of them,' +says one of the prophets, describing the doleful creatures that haunt +the ruins of a deserted city, 'shall by any means want its mate,' and +the satyrs of the islands and of the woods join together! and hold +high carnival in the city. And so, brethren! our little transgressions +open the door for great ones, and every sin makes us more accessible +to the assaults of every other. + +So let me remind you how here, in these little unnumbered acts of +trivial transgression which scarcely produce any effect on conscience +or on memory, but make up so large a portion of so many of our lives, +lies one of the most powerful instruments for making us what we are. +If we indulge in slight acts of transgression be sure of this, that we +shall pass from them to far greater ones. For one man that leaps or +falls all at once into sin which the world calls gross, there are a +thousand that slide into it. The storm only blows down the trees whose +hearts have been eaten out and their roots loosened. And when you see +a man having a reputation for wisdom and honour all at once coming +crash down and disclosing his baseness, be sure that he began with +small deflections from the path of right. The evil works underground; +and if we yield to little temptations, when great ones come we shall +fall their victims. + +Let me remind you, too, that there is another sense in which 'sand is +weighty.' You may as well be crushed under a sandhill as under a +mountain of marble. It matters not which. The accumulated weight of +the one is as great as that of the other. And I wish to lay upon the +consciences of all that are listening to me now this thought, that an +overwhelming weight of guilt results from the accumulation of little +sins. Dear friends! I do not desire to preach a gospel of fear, but I +cannot help feeling that, very largely, in this day, the ministration +of the Christian Church is defective in that it does not give +sufficient, though sad and sympathetic, prominence to the plain +teaching of Christ and of the New Testament as to future retribution +for present sin. We shall 'every one of us give account of himself to +God'; and if the account is long enough it will foot up to an enormous +sum, though each item may be only halfpence. The weight of a lifetime +of little sins will be enough to crush a man down with guilt and +responsibility when he stands before that Judge. That is all true, and +you know it, and I beseech you, take it to your hearts, 'Sand is +weighty.' Little sins have to be accounted for, and may crush. + +III. And now, lastly, let me ask you to consider one or two of the +plain, practical issues of such thoughts as these. + +And, first, I would say that these considerations set in a very clear +light the absolute necessity for all-round and ever-wakeful +watchfulness over ourselves. A man in the tropics does not say, +'Mosquitoes are so small that it does not matter if two or three of +them get inside my bed-curtains.' He takes care that not one is there +before he lays himself down to sleep. There seems to be nothing more +sad than the complacent, easy-going way in which men allow themselves +to keep their higher moral principles and their more rigid +self-examination for the 'great' things, as they suppose, and let the +little things often take care of themselves. What would you think of +the captain of a steamer who in calm weather sailed by rule of thumb, +only getting out his sextant when storms began to blow? And what about +a man that lets the myriad trivialities that make up a day pass in and +out of his heart as they will, and never arrests any of them at the +gate with a 'How camest thou in hither?' 'Look after the pence, and +the pounds will look after themselves.' Look after your trivial acts, +and, take my word for it, the great ones will be as they ought to be. + +Again, may not this thought somehow take down our easy-going and +self-complacent estimate of ourselves? I have no doubt that there are +a number of people in my audience just now who have been more or less +consciously saying to themselves whilst I have been going on, 'What +have _I_ to do with all this talk about sin, sin, sin? I am a +decent kind of a man. I do all the duties of my daily life, and nobody +can say that the white of my eyes is black. I have done no great +transgressions. What is it all about? It has nothing to do with me.' + +Well, my friend! it has this to do with you--that in your life there +are a whole host of things which only a very superficial estimate +hinders you from recognising to be what they are--small deeds, but +great sins. Is it a small thing to go, as some of you do go on from +year to year, with your conduct and your thoughts and your loves and +your desires utterly unaffected by the fact that there is a God in +heaven, and that Jesus Christ died for you? Is that a small thing? It +manifests itself in a great many insignificant actions. That I grant +you; and you are a most respectable man, and you keep the commandments +as well as you can. But 'the God in whose hand thy breath is, and +whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.' I say that that is +not a small sin. + +So, dear brethren! I beseech you judge yourselves by this standard. I +charge none of you with gross iniquities. I know nothing about that. +But I do appeal to you all, as I do to myself, whether we must not +recognise the fact that an accumulated multitude of transgressions +which are only superficially small, in their aggregate weigh upon us +with 'a weight heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.' + +Last of all, this being the case, should we not all turn ourselves +with lowly hearts, with recognition of our transgressions, +acknowledging that whether it be five hundred or fifty pence that we +owe, we have nothing to pay, and betake ourselves to Him who alone can +deliver us from the habit and power of these small accumulated faults, +and who alone can lift the burden of guilt and responsibility from off +our shoulders? If you irrigate the sand it becomes fruitful soil. +Christ brings to us the river of the water of life; the inspiring, the +quickening, the fructifying power of the new life that He bestows, and +the sand may become soil, and the wilderness blossom as the rose. A +heavy burden lies on our shoulders. Ah! yes! but 'Behold the Lamb of +God that beareth away the sins of the world!' What was it that crushed +Him down beneath the olives of Gethsemane? What was it that made Him +cry, 'My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?' I know no answer but one, +for which the world's gratitude is all too small. 'The Lord hath laid +on Him the iniquity of us all.' + +'Sand is weighty,' but Christ has borne the burden, 'Cast thy burden +upon the Lord,' and it will drop from your emancipated shoulders, and +they will henceforth bear only the light burden of His love. + + + +PORTRAIT OF A MATRON + +'Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11. +The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall +have no need of spoil. 12. She will do him good, and not evil, all the +days of her life. 13. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh +willingly with her hands. 14. She is like the merchants' ships; she +bringeth her food from afar. 15. She riseth also while it is yet +night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. +16. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her +hands she planteth a vineyard. 17. She girdeth her loins with +strength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18. She perceiveth that her +merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19. She layeth +her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20. She +stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands +to the needy. 21. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for +all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22. She maketh herself +coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23. Her +husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the +land. 24. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth +girdles unto the merchant. 25. Strength and honour are her clothing; +and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26. She openeth her mouth with +wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27. She looketh well +to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. +28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and +he praiseth her. 29. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou +excellest them all. 30. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a +woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the +fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the +gates.'-PROVERBS xxxi 10-31. + + +This description of a good 'house-mother' attests the honourable +position of woman in Israel. It would have been impossible in Eastern +countries, where she was regarded only as a plaything and a better +sort of slave. The picture is about equally far removed from old-world +and from modern ideas of her place. This 'virtuous woman' is neither a +doll nor a graduate nor a public character. Her kingdom is the home. +Her works 'praise her in the gates'; but it is her husband, and not +she, that 'sits' there among the elders. There is no sentiment or +light of wedded love in the picture. It is neither the ideal woman nor +wife that is painted, but the ideal head of a household, on whose +management, as much as on her husband's work, its well-being depends. + +There is plenty of room for modern ideals by the side of this old one, +but they are very incomplete without it. If we take the 'oracle which +his mother taught' King Lemuel to include this picture, the artist is +a woman, and her motive may be to sketch the sort of wife her son +should choose. In any case, it is significant that the book which +began with the magnificent picture of Wisdom as a fair woman, and hung +beside it the ugly likeness of Folly, should end with this charming +portrait. It is an acrostic, and the fetters of alphabetic sequence +are not favourable to progress or continuity of thought. + +But I venture to suggest a certain advance in the representation which +removes the apparent disjointed character and needless repetition. +There are, first, three verses forming a kind of prologue or +introduction (vers. 10-12). Then follows the picture proper, which is +brought into unity if we suppose that it describes the growing +material success of the diligent housekeeper, beginning with her own +willing work, and gradually extending till she and her family are well +to do and among the magnates of her town (vers. 13-29), Then follow +two verses of epilogue or conclusion (vers. 30, 31). + +The rendering 'virtuous' is unsatisfactory; for what is meant is not +moral excellence, either in the wider sense or in the narrower to +which, in reference to woman, that great word has been unfortunately +narrowed. Our colloquialism 'a woman of faculty' would fairly convey +the idea, which is that of ability and general capacity. We have said +that there was no light of wedded love in the picture. That is true of +the main body of it; but no deeper, terser expression of the inmost +blessedness of happy marriage was ever spoken than in the quiet words, +'The heart of her husband trusteth in her,' with the repose of +satisfaction, with the tranquillity of perfect assurance. The bond +uniting husband and wife in a true marriage is not unlike that uniting +us with God. Happy are they who by their trust in one another and the +peaceful joys which it brings are led to united trust in a yet deeper +love, mirrored to them in their own! True, the picture here is mainly +that of confidence that the wife is no squanderer of her husband's +goods, but the sweet thought goes far beyond the immediate +application. So with the other general feature in verse 12. A true +wife is a fountain of good, and good only, all the days of her +life--ay, and beyond them too, when her remembrance shines like the +calm west after a cloudless sunset. This being, as it were, the +overture, next follows the main body of the piece. + +It starts with a description of diligence in a comparatively humble +sphere. Note that in verse 13 the woman is working alone. She toils +'willingly,' or, as the literal rendering is, 'with the pleasure of +her hands.' There is no profit in unwilling work. Love makes toil +delightful, and delighted toil is successful. Throughout its pages the +Bible reverences diligence. It is the condition of prosperity in +material and spiritual things. Vainly do men and women try to dodge +the law which makes the 'sweat of the brow' the indispensable +requisite for 'eating bread.' When commerce becomes speculation, which +is the polite name for gambling, which, again, is a synonym for +stealing, it may yield much more dainty fare than bread to some for a +time, but is sure to bring want sooner or later to individuals and +communities. The foundation of this good woman's fortune was that she +worked with a will. There is no other foundation, either for fortune +or any other good, or for self-respect, or for progress in knowledge +or goodness or religion. + +Then her horizon widened, and she saw a way of increasing her store. +'She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.' +She looks afield, and sees opportunities for profitable exchange. +Promptly she avails herself of these, and is at work while it is yet +dark. She has a household now, and does not neglect their comfort, any +more than she does their employment. Their food and their tasks are +both set them in the early morning, and their mistress is up as soon +as they. Her toil brings in wealth, and so verse 16 shows another step +in advance. 'She considereth a field, and buyeth it,' and has made +money enough to stock it with vines, and so add a new source of +revenue, and acquire a new position as owning land. + +But prosperity does not make her relax her efforts so we are told +again in verses 17-19 of her abridging the hours of sleep, and toiling +with wool and flax, which would be useless tautology if there were not +some new circumstances to account for the repetition. Encouraged by +success, she 'girdeth her loins with strength,' and, since she sees +that 'her merchandise is profitable,' she is the more induced to +labour. She still works with her own hands (ver. 19). But the hands +that are busy with distaff and spindle are also stretched out with +alms in the open palm, and are extended in readiness to help the +needy. A woman made unfeeling by wealth is a monster. Prosperity often +leads men to niggardliness in charitable gifts; but if it does the +same for a woman, it is doubly cursed. Pity and charity have their +home in women's hearts. If they are so busy holding the distaff or the +pen that they become hard and insensible to the cry of misery, they +have lost their glory. + +Then follow a series of verses describing how increased wealth brings +good to her household and herself. The advantages are of a purely +material sort, Her children are 'clothed with scarlet,' which was not +only the name of the dye, but of the stuff. Evidently thick material +only was dyed of that hue, and so was fit for winter clothing, even if +the weather was so severe for Palestine that snow fell. Her house was +furnished with 'carpets,' or rather 'cushions' or 'pillows,' which are +more important pieces of furniture where people recline on divans than +where they sit on chairs. Her own costume is that of a rich woman. +'Purple and fine linen' are tokens of wealth, and she is woman enough +to like to wear these. There is nothing unbecoming in assuming the +style of living appropriate to one's position. Her children and +herself thus share in the advantages of her industry; and the husband, +who does not appear to have much business of his own, gets his share +in that he sits among the wealthy and honoured inhabitants of the +town, 'in the gates,' the chief place of meeting for business and +gossip. + +Verse 24 recurs to the subject of the woman's diligence. She has got +into a 'shipping business,' making for the export trade with the +'merchants'--literally, 'Canaanites' or Phoenicians, the great traders +of the East, from whom, no doubt, she got the 'purple' of her clothing +in exchange for her manufacture. But she had a better dress than any +woven in looms or bought with goods. 'Strength and dignity' clothe +her. 'She laugheth at the time to come'; that is, she is able to look +forward without dread of poverty, because she has realised a competent +sum. Such looking forward may be like that of the rich man in the +parable, a piece of presumption, but it may also be compatible with +devout recognition of God's providence. As in verse 20, beneficence +was coupled with diligence, so in verse 26 gentler qualities are +blended with strength and dignity, and calm anticipation of the +future. + +A glimpse into 'the very pulse' of the woman's nature is given. A true +woman's strength is always gentle, and her dignity attractive and +gracious. Prosperity has not turned her head. 'Wisdom,' the +heaven-descended virgin, the deep music of whose call we heard +sounding in the earlier chapters of Proverbs, dwells with this very +practical woman. The collocation points the lesson that heavenly +Wisdom has a field for its display in the common duties of a busy +life, does not dwell in hermitages, or cloisters, or studies, but may +guide and inspire a careful housekeeper in her task of wisely keeping +her husband's goods together. The old legend of the descending deity +who took service as a goat-herd, is true of the heavenly Wisdom, which +will come and live in kitchens and shops. + +But the ideal woman has not only wisdom in act and word, but 'the law +of kindness is on her tongue.' Prosperity should not rob her of her +gracious demeanour. Her words should be glowing with the calm flame of +love which stoops to lowly and undeserving objects. If wealth leads to +presumptuous reckoning on the future, and because we have 'much goods +laid up for many years,' we see no other use of leisure than to eat +and drink and be merry, we fatally mistake our happiness and our duty. +But if gentle compassion and helpfulness are on our lips and in our +hearts and deeds, prosperity will be blessed. + +Nor does this ideal woman relax in her diligence, though she has +prospered. Verse 27 seems very needless repetition of what has been +abundantly said already, unless we suppose, as before, new +circumstances to account for the reintroduction of a former +characteristic. These are, as it seems to me, the increased wealth of +the heroine, which might have led her to relax her watchfulness. Some +slacking off might have been expected and excused; but at the end, as +at the beginning, she looks after her household and is herself +diligent. The picture refers only to outward things. But we may +remember that the same law applies to all, and that any good, either +of worldly wealth or of intellectual, moral, or religious kind, is +only preserved by the continuous exercise of the same energies which +won it at first. + +Verses 28 and 29 give the eulogium pronounced by children and husband. +The former 'rise up' as in reverence; the latter declares her +superiority to all women, with the hyperbolical language natural to +love. Happy the man who, after long years of wedded life, can repeat +the estimate of his early love with the calm certitude born of +experience! + +The epilogue in verses 30 and 31 is not the continuation of the +husband's speech. It at once points the lesson from the whole picture +for King Lemuel, and unveils the root of the excellences described. +Beauty is skin deep. Let young men look deeper than a fair face. Let +young women seek for that beauty which does not fade. The fear of the +Lord lies at the bottom of all goodness that will last through the +tear and wear of wedded life, and of all domestic diligence which is +not mere sordid selfishness or slavish toil. The narrow arena of +domestic life affords a fit theatre for the exercise of the highest +gifts and graces; and the woman who has made a home bright, and has +won and kept a husband's love and children's reverence, may let who +will grasp at the more conspicuous prizes which women are so eager +after nowadays. She has chosen the better part, which shall not be +taken from her. She shall receive 'of the fruit of her hands' both now +and hereafter, if the fear of the Lord has been the root from which +that fruit has grown; and 'her works shall praise her in the gate,' +though she sits quietly in her home. It is well when our deeds are the +trumpeters of our fame, and when to tell them is to praise us. + +The whole passage is the hallowing of domestic life, a directory for +wives and mothers, a beautiful ideal of how noble a thing a busy +mother's life may be, an exhibition to young men of what they should +seek, and of young women of what they should aim at. It were well for +the next generation if the young women of this one were as solicitous +to make cages as nets, to cultivate qualities which would keep love in +the home as to cultivate attractions which lure him to their feet. + + + + +ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER + + +WHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES + +'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the +earth abideth for ever.'--ECCLES. i. 4. + +'And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth +the will of God abideth for ever.'--1 JOHN ii. 17. + + +A great river may run through more than one kingdom, and bear more +than one name, but its flow is unbroken. The river of time runs +continuously, taking no heed of dates and calendars. The importance +that we attach to the beginnings or endings of years and centuries is +a sentimental illusion, but even an illusion that rouses us to a +consciousness of the stealthy gliding of the river may do us good, and +we need all the helps we can find to wise retrospect and sober +anticipation. So we must let the season colour our thoughts, even +whilst we feel that in yielding to that impulse we are imagining what +has no reality in the passing from the last day of one century to the +first day of another. + +I do not mean to discuss in this sermon either the old century or the +new in their wider social and other aspects. That has been done +abundantly. We shall best do our parts in making the days, and the +years, and the century what they should be, if we let the truths that +come from these combined texts sink into and influence our individual +lives. I have put them together, because they are so strikingly +antithetical, both true, and yet looking at the same facts from +opposite points of view, But the antithesis is not really so complete +as it sounds at first hearing, because what the Preacher means by 'the +earth' that 'abideth for ever' is not quite the same as what the +Apostle means by the 'world' that 'passes' and the 'generations' that +come and go are not exactly the same as the men that 'abide for ever.' +But still the antithesis is real and impressive. The bitter melancholy +of the Preacher saw but the surface; the joyous faith of the Apostle +went a great deal deeper, and putting the two sets of thoughts and +ways of looking at man and his dwelling-place together, we get lessons +that may well shape our individual lives. + +So let me ask you to look, in the first place, at-- + +I. The sad and superficial teaching of the Preacher. + +Now in reading this Book of Ecclesiastes--which I am afraid a great +many people do not read at all--we have always to remember that the +wild things and the bitter things which the Preacher is saying so +abundantly through its course do not represent his ultimate +convictions, but thoughts that he took up in his progress from error +to truth. His first word is: 'All is vanity!' That conviction had been +set vibrating in his heart, as it is set vibrating in the heart of +every man who does as he did, viz., seeks for solid good away from +God. That is his starting-point. It is not true. All is not vanity, +except to some _blase_ cynic, made cynical by the failure of +his voluptuousness, and to whom 'all things here are out of joint,' +and everything looks yellow because his own biliary system is out of +order. That is the beginning of the book, and there are hosts of other +things in the course of it as one-sided, as cynically bitter, and +therefore superficial. But the end of it is: 'Let us hear the +conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep His commandments: +for this is the whole duty of man.' In his journey from the one point +to the other my text is the first step, 'One generation goeth, and +another cometh: the earth abideth for ever.' + +He looks out upon humanity, and sees that in one aspect the world is +full of births, and in another full of deaths. Coffins and cradles +seem the main furniture, and he hears the tramp, tramp, tramp of the +generations passing over a soil honeycombed with tombs, and therefore +ringing hollow to their tread. All depends on the point of view. The +strange history of humanity is like a piece of shot silk; hold it at +one angle, and you see dark purple, hold at another, and you see +bright golden tints. Look from one point of view, and it seems a long +history of vanishing generations. Look to the rear of the procession, +and it seems a buoyant spectacle of eager, young faces pressing +forwards on the march, and of strong feet treading the new road. But +yet the total effect of that endless procession is to impress on the +observer the transiency of humanity. And that wholesome thought is +made more poignant still by the comparison which the writer here draws +between the fleeting generations and the abiding earth. Man is the +lord of earth, and can mould it to his purpose, but it remains and he +passes. He is but a lodger in an old house that has had generations of +tenants, each of whom has said for a while, 'It is mine'; and they all +have drifted away, and the house stands. The Alps, over which Hannibal +stormed, over which the Goths poured down on the fertile plains of +Lombardy, through whose passes mediaeval emperors led their forces, +over whose summits Napoleon brought his men, through whose bowels this +generation has burrowed its tunnels, stand the same, and smile the +same amid their snows, at the transient creatures that have crawled +across them. The primrose on the rock blooms in the same place year +after year, and nature and it are faithful to their covenant, but the +poet's eyes that fell upon them are sealed with dust. Generations have +gone, the transient flower remains. 'One generation cometh and another +goeth,' and the tragedy is made more tragical because the stage stands +unaltered, and 'the earth abides for ever.' That is what sense has to +say--'the foolish senses'--and that is all that sense has to say. Is +it all that can be said? If it is, then the Preacher's bitter +conclusion is true, and 'all is vanity and chasing after wind.' + +He immediately proceeds to draw from this undeniable, but, as I +maintain, partial fact, the broad conclusion which cannot be rebutted, +if you accept what he has said in my text as being the sufficient and +complete account of man and his dwelling-place. If, says he, it is +true that one generation comes and another goes, and the earth abides +for ever, and if that is all that has to be said, then all things are +full of labour. There is immense activity, and there is no progress; +it is all rotary motion round and round and round, and the same +objects reappear duly and punctually as the wheel revolves, and life +is futile. Yes; so it is unless there is something more to be said, +and the life that is thus futile is also, as it seems to me, +inexplicable if you believe in God at all. If man, being what he is, +is wholly subject to that law of mutation and decay, then not only is +he made 'a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,' +but he is also inferior to that persistent, old mother-earth from +whose bosom he has come. If all that you have to say of him is, 'Dust +thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' then life is futile, and +God is not vindicated for having produced it. + +And there is another consequence that follows, if this is all that we +have got to say. If the cynical wisdom of Ecclesiastes is the ultimate +word, then I do not assert that morality is destroyed, because right +and wrong are not dependent either upon the belief in a God, or on the +belief in immortality. But I do say that to declare that the fleeting, +transient life of earth is all does strike a staggering blow at all +noble ethics and paralyses a great deal of the highest forms of human +activity, and that, as has historically been the case, so on the large +scale, and, speaking generally, it will be the case, that the man +whose creed is only 'To-morrow we die' will very speedily draw the +conclusion, 'Let us eat and drink,' and sensuous delights and the +lower side of his nature will become dominant. + +So, then, the Preacher had not got at the bottom of all things, either +in his initial conviction that all was vanity, or in that which he +laid down as the first step towards establishing that, that man passes +and the earth abides. There is more to be said; the sad, superficial +teaching of the Preacher needs to be supplemented. + +Now turn for a moment to what does supplement it. + +II. The joyous and profounder teaching of the Apostle. + +The cynic never sees the depths; that is reserved for the mystical eye +of the lover. So John says: 'No, no; that is not all. Here is the true +state of affairs: "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but +he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."' The doctrine of the +passing generations and the abiding earth is fronted squarely in my +second text by the not contradictory, but complementary doctrine of +the passing world and the abiding men. I do not suppose that John had +this verse of Ecclesiastes in his mind, for the word 'abide' is one of +his favourite expressions, and is always cropping up. But even though +he had not, we find in his utterance the necessary correction to the +first text. As I have said, and now need not do more than repeat in a +sentence, the antithesis is not so complete as it seems. John's +'world' is not the Preacher's 'earth,' but he means thereby, as we all +know, the aggregate of created things, including men, considered apart +from God, and in so far as it includes voluntary agents set in +opposition to God and the will of God. He means the earth rent away +from God, and turned to be what it was not meant to be, a minister of +evil, and he means men, in so far as they have parted themselves from +God and make up an alien, if not a positively antagonistic company. + +Perhaps he was referring, in the words of our text, to the break-up of +the existing order of things which he discerned as impending and +already begun to take effect in consequence of the coming of Jesus +Christ, the shining of the true Light. For you may remember that in a +previous part of the epistle he uses precisely the same expression, +with a significant variation. Here, in our text, he says, 'The world +passeth away'; there he says, 'The darkness has passed and the true +light now shineth.' He sees a process installed and going on, in which +the whole solid-seeming fabric of a godless society is being dissolved +and melted away. And says he, in the midst of all this change there is +one who stands unchanged, the man that does God's will. + +But just for a moment we may take the lower point of view, and see +here a flat contradiction of the Preacher. He said, 'Men go, and the +world abides.' 'No,' says John; 'your own psalmists might have taught +you better: "As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be +changed."' The world, the earth, which seems so solid and permanent, +is all the while in perpetual flux, as our later science has taught +us, in a sense of which neither Preacher nor Apostle could dream. For +just as from the beginning forces were at work which out of the +fire-mist shaped sun and planets, so the same forces, continuing in +operation, are tending towards the end of the system which they began; +and a contracting sun and a diminished light and a lowered temperature +and the narrower orbits in which the planets shall revolve, prophesy +that 'the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' and that all things +which have been made must one day cease to be. Nature is the true +Penelope's web, ever being woven and ever being unravelled, and in the +most purely physical and scientific sense the world is passing away. +But then, because you and I belong, in a segment of our being, to that +which thus is passing away, we come under the same laws, and all that +has been born must die. So the generations come, and in their very +coming bear the prophecy of their going. But, on the other hand, there +is an inner nucleus of our being, of which the material is but the +transient envelope and periphery, which holds nought of the material, +but of the spiritual, and that 'abides for ever.' + +But let us lift the thought rather into the region of the true +antithesis which John was contemplating, which is not so much the +crumbling away of the material, and the endurance of the spiritual, as +the essential transiency of everything that is antagonism to the will +of God, and the essential eternity of everything which is in +conformity with that will. And so, says he, 'The world is passing, and +the lust thereof.' The desires that grasp it perish with it, or +perhaps, more truly still, the object of the desire perishes, and with +it the possibility of their gratification ceases, but the desire +itself remains. But what of the man whose life has been devoted to the +things seen and temporal, when he finds himself in a condition of +being where none of these have accompanied him? Nothing to slake his +lusts, if he be a sensualist. No money-bags, ledgers, or cheque-books +if he be a plutocrat or a capitalist or a miser. No books or +dictionaries if he be a mere student. Nothing of his vocations if he +lived for 'the world.' But yet the appetite is abiding. Will that not +be a thirst that cannot be slaked? + +'The world is passing and the lust thereof,' and all that is +antagonistic to God, or separated from Him, is essentially as 'a +vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away,' +whereas the man who does the will of God abideth for ever, in that he +is steadfast in the midst of change. + + 'His hand the good man fastens on the skies, + And lets earth roll, nor heeds its idle whirl.' + +He shall 'abide for ever,' in the sense that his work is perpetual. In +one very deep and solemn sense, nothing human ever dies, but in +another all that is not running in the same direction as, and borne +along by the impulse of, the will of God, is destined to be +neutralised and brought to nothing at last. There may be a row of +figures as long as to reach from here to the fixed stars, but if there +is not in front of them the significant digit, which comes from +obedience to the will of God, all is but a string of ciphers, and +their net result is nothing. And he 'abideth for ever,' in the most +blessed and profound sense, in that through his faith, which has +kindled his love, and his love which has set in motion his practical +obedience, he becomes participant of the very eternity of the living +God. 'This is eternal life,' not merely to know, but 'to do the will' +of our Father. Nothing else will last, and nothing else will prosper, +any more than a bit of driftwood can stem Niagara. Unite yourself with +the will of God, and you abide. + +And now let me, as briefly as I can, throw together-- + +III. The plain, practical lessons that come from both these texts. + +May I say, without seeming to be morbid or unpractical, one lesson is +that we should cultivate a sense of the transiency of this outward +life? One of our old authors says somewhere, that it is wholesome to +smell at a piece of turf from a churchyard. I know that much harm has +been done by representing Christianity as mainly a scheme which is to +secure man a peaceful death, and that many morbid forms of piety have +given far too large a place to the contemplation of skulls and +cross-bones. But for all that, the remembrance of death present in our +lives will often lay a cool hand upon a throbbing brow; and, like a +bit of ice used by a skilful physician, will bring down the +temperature, and stay the too tumultuous beating of the heart. 'So +teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.' +It will minister energy, and lead us to say, like our Lord, 'We must +work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh.' + +Let me say again--a very plain, practical lesson is to dig deep down +for our foundations below the rubbish that has accumulated. If a man +wishes to build a house in Rome or in Jerusalem he has to go fifty or +sixty feet down, through potsherds and broken tiles and triturated +marbles, and the dust of ancient palaces and temples. We have to drive +a shaft clear down through all the superficial strata, and to lay the +first stones on the Rock of Ages. Do not build on that which quivers +and shakes beneath you. Do not try to make your life's path across the +weeds, or as they call it in Egypt, the 'sudd,' that floats on the +surface of the Nile, compacted for many a mile, and yet only a film on +the surface of the river, to be swept away some day. Build on God. + +And the last lesson is, let us see to it that our wills are in harmony +with His, and the work of our hands His work. We can do that will in +all the secularities of our daily life. The difference between the +work that shrivels up and disappears and the work that abides is not +so much in its external character, or in the materials on which it is +expended, as in the motive from which it comes. So that, if I might so +say, if two women are sitting at the same millstone face to face, and +turning round the same handle, one of them for one half the +circumference, and the other for the other, and grinding out the same +corn, the one's work may be 'gold, silver, precious stones,' which +shall abide the trying fire; and the other's may be 'wood, hay, +stubble,' which shall be burnt up. 'He that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' + +So let us set ourselves, dear friends! to our several tasks for this +coming year. Never mind about the century, it will take care of +itself. Do your little work in your little corner, and be sure of +this, that amidst changes you will stand unchanged, amidst tumults you +may stand calm, in death you will be entering on a fuller life, and +that what to others is the end will be to you the beginning. 'If any +man's work abide, he shall receive a reward,' and he himself shall +abide with the abiding God. + +The bitter cynic said half the truth when he said, 'One generation +goeth, and another cometh; but the earth abides.' The mystic Apostle +saw the truth steadily, and saw it whole when he said, 'Lo! the world +passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' + + + +THE PAST AND THE FUTURE + +'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall he; and that which +is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under +the sun.'--ECCLES. i. 9. + +'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to +the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 3. For the time past of our +life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.'--l +PETER iv. 2, 3. + + +If you will look at these two passages carefully you will, I think, +see that they imply two different, and in some respects contradictory, +thoughts about the future in its relation to the past. The first of +them is the somewhat exaggerated utterance of a dreary and depressing +philosophy, which tells us that, as in the outer world, so in regard +to man's life, there is an enormous activity and no advance, that it +is all moving round like the scenes in some circular panorama, that +after it has gone the round back it comes again, that it is the same +thing over and over again, that life is a treadmill, so to speak, with +an immense deal of working of muscles; but it all comes to nothing +over again. 'The rivers run into the sea and the sea is not full, and +where the rivers come from they go back to; and the wind goes to the +south, turns to the north, and whirls about continually. Everything is +full of labour, and it has all been done before, and there is nothing +fresh; everything is flat, stale, and unprofitable.' + +Well that is not true altogether, but though it be not true +altogether--though it be an exaggeration, and though the inference +that is built upon it is not altogether satisfactory and profound--yet +the thought itself is one that has a great deal in it that is true and +important, and may be very helpful and profitable to us now; for there +is a religious way, as well as an irreligious way, of saying there is +nothing new under the sun. It may be the utterance of a material, +_blase_, unprofitable, spurious philosophy, or it may be the +utterance of the profoundest, and the happiest, and the most peaceful +religious trust and confidence. + +The other passage implies the opposite notion of man's life, that +however much in my future may be just the same as what my past has +been, there is a region in which it is quite possible to make +to-morrow unlike to-day, and so to resolve and so to work as that 'the +time past of our lives' may be different from 'the rest of our time in +the flesh'; that a great revolution may come upon a man, and that +whilst the outward life is continuous and the same, and the tasks to +be done are the same, and the joys the same, there may be such a +profound and radical difference in the spirit and motive in which they +are done as that the thing that has been is _not_ that which +shall be, and for us there _may_ be a new thing under the sun. + +And so just now I think we may take these two passages in their +connection--their opposition, and in their parallelism--as suggesting +to us two very helpful, mutually completing thoughts about the unknown +future that stretches before us--first, the substantial identity of +the future with the past; second, the possible total unlikeness of the +future and the past. + +First then, let us try to get the impress from the first phrase of +that conviction, so far as it is true, as to the sameness of the +things that are going to be with the things that have been. The +immediate connection in which the words are spoken is in regard, +mainly, to the outer world, the physical universe, and only +secondarily and subordinately in regard to man's life. And I need not +remind you how that thought of the absolute sameness and continuous +repetition of the past and the future has gained by the advance of +physical science in modern times. It seems to be contradicted no doubt +by the continual emergence of new things here and there, but they tell +us that the novelty is only a matter of arrangement, that the atoms +have never had an addition to them since the beginning of things, that +all stand just as they were from the very commencement and foundation +of all things, and that all that seems new is only a new arrangement, +so that the thing which has been is that which shall be. And then +there comes up the other thought, upon which I need not dwell for a +moment, that the present condition of things round about us is the +result of the uniform forces that have been working straight on from +the very beginning. And yet, whilst all that is quite true, we come to +our own human lives, and we find there the true application of such +words as these: to-morrow is to be like yesterday. There is one very +important sense in which the opposite of that is true, and no +to-morrow can ever be like any yesterday for however much the events +may be the same, we are so different that, in regard even to the most +well trodden and beaten of our paths of daily life, we may all say, +'We have not passed this way before!' We cannot bring back that which +is gone--that which is gone is gone for good or evil, irrevocable as +the snow or the perfume of last year's flowers. I dare say there are +many here before me who are saying to themselves, 'No! life can never +again be what life has been for me, and the only thing that I am quite +sure about in regard to to-morrow is that it is utterly impossible +that it should ever be as yesterday was!' Notwithstanding, the word of +my text is a true word, the thing that hath been is that which shall +be. I need not dwell on the grounds upon which the certainty rests, +such, for instance, as that the powers which shape to-morrow are the +same as the powers which shaped yesterday; that you and I, in our +nature, are the same, and that the mighty Hand up there that is +moulding it is the same; that every to-morrow is the child of all the +yesterdays; that the same general impression will pervade the future +as has pervaded the past. Though events may be different the general +stamp and characteristics of them will be the same, and when we pass +into a new region of human life we shall find that we are not walking +in a place where no footprints have been before us, but that all about +us the ground is trodden down smooth. + +'That which hath been is that which shall be.' Thus, while this is +proximately true in regard to the future, let me just for a moment or +two give you one or two of the plain, simple pieces of well-worn +wisdom which are built upon such a thought. And first of all let me +give you this, 'Well, then, let us learn to tone down our expectations +of what may be coming to us.' Especially I speak now to the younger +portion of my congregation, to whom life is beginning, and to whom it +is naturally tinted with roseate hue, and who have a great deal +stretching before them which is new to them, new duties, new +relationships, new joys. But whilst that is especially true for them +it is true for all. It is a strange illusion under which we all live +to the very end of our lives, unless by reflection and effort we +become masters of it and see things in the plain daylight of common +sense, that the future is going somehow or other to be brighter, +better, fuller of resources, fuller of blessings, freer from sorrow +than the past has been. We turn over each new leaf that marks a new +year, and we cannot help thinking: 'Well! perhaps hidden away in its +storehouses there may be something brighter and better in store for +me.' It is well, perhaps, that we should have that thought, for if we +were not so drawn on, even though it be by an illusion, I do not know +that we should be able to live on as we do. But don't let us forget in +the hours of quiet that there is no reason at all to expect that any +of these arbitrary, and conventional, and unreal distinctions of +calendars and dates make any difference in that uniform strand of our +life which just runs the same, which is reeled off the great drum of +the future and on to the great drum of the past, and that is all spun +out of one fibre and is one gauge, and one sort of stuff from the +beginning to the end. And so let us be contented where we are, and not +fancy that when I get that thing that I am looking forward to, when I +get into that position I am waiting for, things will be much different +from what they are to-day. Life is all one piece, the future and the +past, the pattern runs right through from the beginning to the end, +and the stuff is the same stuff. So don't you be too enthusiastic, you +people who have an eager ambition for social and political +advancement. Things will be very much as they are used to be, with +perhaps some slow, gradual, infinitesimal approximation to a higher +ideal and a nobler standard; but there will be no jump, no breaks, no +spasmodic advance. We must be contented to accept the law, that there +is no new thing under the sun. As you would lay a piece of healing ice +upon the heated forehead, lay that law upon the feverish anticipations +some of you have in regard to the future, and let the heart beat more +quietly, and with the more contentment for the recognition of that +law. + +And then I may say, at the same time, though I won't dwell upon it for +more than a moment, let us take the same thought to teach us to +moderate our fears. Don't be afraid that anything whatever may come +that will destroy the substantial likeness between the past and the +future; and so leave all those jarring and terrifying thoughts that +mingle with all our anticipations of the time to come, leave them very +quietly on one side and say, 'Thou hast been my Help leave me not, +neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.' + +And then there are one or two other points I mean to touch upon, and +let me just name them. Do not let us so exaggerate that thought of the +substantial sameness of the future and the past as to flatten life and +make it dreary and profitless and insignificant. Let us rather feel, +as I shall have to say presently, that whilst the framework remains +the same, whilst the general characteristics will not be much +different, there is room within that uniformity for all possible play +of variety and interest, and earnestness and enthusiasm, and hope. +They make the worst possible use of this fixity and steadfastness of +things who say, as the dreary man at the beginning of the Book of +Ecclesiastes is represented as saying, that because things are the +same as they will and have been, all is vanity. It is not true. Don't +let the uniformity of life flatten your interest in the great miracle +of every fresh day, with its fresh continuation of ancient blessings +and the steadfast mercies of our Lord. + +And let us hold firmly to the far deeper truth that the future will be +the same as the past, because God is the same. God's yesterday is +God's to-morrow--the same love, the same resources, the same wisdom, +the same power, the same sustaining Hand, the same encompassing +Presence. 'A thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand +years'; and when we say there is no new thing under the sun let us +feel that the deepest way of expressing that thought is, 'Thou art the +same, and Thy steadfast purposes know no alteration.' + +Turn to the other side of the thought suggested by the second passage +of the text. It speaks to us, as I have said, of the possible entire +unlikeness between the future and the past. To-morrow is the child of +yesterday--granted; 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he +reap'--certainly; there is a persistent uniformity of nature, and the +same causes working make the future much of the same general structure +as all the past has been--be it so; and yet within the limits of that +identity there may be breathed into the self-sameness of to-morrow +such an entire difference of disposition, temper, motive, direction of +life, that my whole life may be revolutionised, my whole being, I was +going to say, cleft in twain, my old life buried and forgotten, and a +new life may emerge from chaos and from the dead. Of course, the +question, Is such an alteration possible? rises up very solemnly to +men, to most of them, for I suppose we all of us know what it is to +have been beaten time after time in the attempt to shake off the +dominion of some habit or evil, and to alter the bearing and the +direction of the whole life, and we have to say, 'It is no good trying +any longer my life must run on in the channel which I have carved for +it; I have made my bed and I must lie on it; I cannot get rid of these +things.' And, no doubt, in certain aspects, change is impossible. +There are certain limitations of natural disposition which I never can +overcome. For instance, if I have no musical ear I cannot turn myself +into a musician. If I have no mathematical faculty it is no good +poring over Euclid, for, with the best intentions in the world, I +shall make nothing of it. We must work within the limits of our +natural disposition, and cut our coat according to our cloth. In that +respect to-morrow will be as yesterday, and there cannot be any +change. And it is quite true that character, which is the great +precipitate from the waters of conduct, gets rocky, that habits become +persistent, and man's will gets feeble by long indulgence in any +course of life. But for all that, admitting to the full all that, I am +here now to say to every man and woman in this place, 'Friend, you may +make your life from this moment so unlike the blotted, stained, +faultful, imperfect, sinful past that no words other than the words of +the New Testament will be large enough to express the fact. "If any +man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away."' +For we all know how into any life the coming of some large conviction +not believed in or perceived before, may alter the whole bias, +current, and direction of it; how into any life the coming of a new +love not cherished and entertained before, may ennoble and transfigure +the whole of its nature; how into any life the coming of new motives, +not yielded to and recognised before, may make all things new and +different. These three plain principles, the power of conviction, the +power of affection, the power of motive, are broad enough to admit of +building upon them this great and helpful and hopeful promise to us +all--'The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the +will of the Gentiles,' that 'henceforth we may live the rest of our +time in the flesh according to the will of God.' + +To you who have been living in the past with little regard to the +supreme powers and principles of Christ's love and God's Gospel in +Him, I bring the offer of a radical revolution; and I tell you that if +you like you may this day begin a life which, though it shall be like +yesterday in outward things, in the continuity of some habits, in the +continuance of character, shall be all under the influence of an +entirely new, and innovating, and renovating power. I ask you whether +you don't think that you have had enough, to use the language of my +text, in the part of obeying the will of the flesh; and I beseech you +that you will let these great principles, these grand convictions +which cluster round and explain the cross of Jesus Christ, influence +your mind, character, habits, desires, thoughts, actions; that you +will yield yourself to the new power of the Spirit of life in Christ, +which is granted to us if only we submit ourselves to it and humbly +desire it. And to you who have in some measure lived by this mighty +influence I come with the message for you and for myself that the time +to come may, if we will, be filled very much fuller than it is; +'To-morrow may be as this day, and much more abundant.' I believe in a +patient, reflecting, abundant examination of the past. The old proverb +says that 'Every man by the time he is forty is either a fool or a +physician'; and any man or woman by the time they get ten years short +of that age, ought to know where they are weakest, and ought to be +able to guard against the weak places in their character. I do not +believe in self-examination for the purpose of finding in a man's own +character reasons for answering the question, 'Am I a Christian?' But +I do believe that no people will avail themselves fully of the power +God has given them for making the future brighter and better than the +past who have not a very clear, accurate, comprehensive, and +penetrating knowledge of their faults and their failures in the past. +I suppose if the Tay Bridge is to be built again, it won't be built of +the same pattern as that which was blown into the water last week; and +you and I ought to learn by experience the places in our souls that +give in the tempests, where there is most need for strengthening the +bulwarks and defending our natures. And so I say, begin with the +abundant recognition of the past, and then a brave confidence in the +possibilities of the future. Let us put ourselves under that great +renovating Power which is conviction and affection and motive all in +one. 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' And so while we front the +future we can feel that, God being in us, and Christ being in us, we +shall make it a far brighter and fairer thing than the blurred and +blotted past which to-day is buried, and life may go on with grand +blessedness and power until we shall hear the great voice from the +Throne say, 'There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more +crying, no more pain, for the former things are passed away, 'Behold! +I make all things new.' + + + +TWO VIEWS OF LIFE + +'This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man, to be exercised +therewith.--ECCLES. i. 13. + +'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His +holiness.'--HEBREWS xii. 10. + + +These two texts set before us human life as it looks to two observers. +The former admits that God shapes it; but to him it seems sore +travail, the expenditure of much trouble and efforts; the results of +which seem to be nothing beyond profitless exercise. There is an +immense activity and nothing to show for it at the end but wearied +limbs. The other observer sees, at least, as much of sorrow and +trouble as the former, but he believes in the 'Father of spirits,' and +in a hereafter; and these, of course, bring a meaning and a wider +purpose into the 'sore travail,' and make it, not futile but, +profitable to our highest good. + +I. Note first the Preacher's gloomy half-truth. + +The word rendered in our text 'travail' is a favourite one with the +writer. It means occupation which costs effort and causes trouble. The +phrase 'to be exercised therewith,' rather means to _fatigue +themselves_, so that life as looked upon by the Preacher consists +of effort without result but weariness. + +If he knew it at all, it was very imperfectly and dimly; and whatever +may be thought of teaching on that subject which appears in the formal +conclusion of the book, the belief in a future state certainly +exercises no influence on its earlier portions. These represent phases +through which the writer passes on his way to his conclusion. He does +believe in 'God,' but, very significantly, he never uses the sacred +name 'Lord.' He has shaken himself free, or he wishes to represent a +character who has shaken himself free from Revelation, and is fighting +the problem of life, its meaning and worth, without any help from Law, +or Prophet, or Psalm. He does retain belief in what he calls 'God,' +but his pure Theism, with little, if any, faith in a future life, is a +creed which has no power of unravelling the perplexed mysteries of +life, and of answering the question, 'What does it all mean?' With +keen and cynical vision he looks out not only over men, as in this +first chapter, but over nature; and what mainly strikes him is the +enormous amount of work that is being done, and the tragical poverty +of its results. The question with which he begins his book is, 'What +profit hath a man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the +sun?' And for answer he looks at the sun rising and going down, and +being in the same place after its journey through the heavens; and he +hears the wind continually howling and yet returning again to its +circuits; and the waters now running as rivers into the sea and again +drawn up in vapours, and once more falling in rain and running as +waters. This wearisome monotony of intense activity in nature is +paralleled by all that is done by man under heaven, and the net result +of all is 'Vanity and a strife after wind.' + +The writer proceeds to confirm his dreary conclusion by a piece of +autobiography put into the mouth of Solomon. He is represented as +flinging himself into mirth and pleasure, into luxury and debauchery, +and as satisfying every hunger for any joy, and as being pulled up +short in the midst of his rioting by the conviction, like a funeral +bell, tolling in his mind that all was vanity. 'He gave himself to +wisdom, and madness, and folly'; and in all he found but one +result--enormous effort and no profit. There seemed to be a time for +everything, and a kind of demonic power in men compelling them to toil +as with equal energy, now at building up, and now at destroying. But +to every purpose he saw that there was 'time and judgment,' and +therefore, 'the misery of man was great upon him.' To his jaundiced +eye the effort of life appeared like the play of the wind in the +desert, always busy, but sometime busy in heaping the sands in +hillocks, and sometimes as busy in levelling them to a plain. + +We may regard such a view of humanity as grotesquely pessimistic; but +there is no doubt that many of us do make of life little more than +what the Preacher thought it. It is not only the victims of +civilisation who are forced to wearisome monotony of toil which barely +yields daily bread; but we see all around us men and women wearing out +their lives in the race after a false happiness, gaining nothing by +the race but weariness. What shall we say of the man who, in the +desire to win wealth, or reputation, lives laborious days of cramping +effort in one direction, and allows all the better part of his nature +to be atrophied, and die, and passes, untasted, brooks by the way, the +modest joys and delights that run through the dustiest lives. What is +the difference between a squirrel in the cage who only makes his +prison go round the faster by his swift race, and the man who lives +toilsome days for transitory objects which he may never attain? In the +old days every prison was furnished with a tread-mill, on which the +prisoner being set was bound to step up on each tread of the revolving +wheel, not in order to rise, but in order to prevent him from breaking +his legs. How many men around us are on such a mill, and how many of +them have fastened themselves on it, and by their own misreading and +misuse of life have turned it into a dreary monotony of resultless +toil. The Preacher may be more ingenious than sound in his pessimism, +but let us not forget that every godless man does make of life 'Vanity +and strife after wind.' + +II. The higher truth which completes the Preacher's. + +Of course the fragmentary sentence in our second text needs to be +completed from the context, and so completed will stand, 'God chastens +us for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.' Now +let us consider for a moment the thought that the true meaning of life +is _discipline_. I say discipline rather than 'chastening,' for +chastening simply implies the fact of pain, whereas discipline +includes the wholesome _purpose_ of pain. The true meaning of +life is not to be found by estimating its sorrows or its joys, but by +trying to estimate the effects of either upon us. The true value of +life, and the meaning of all its tears and of all its joys, is what it +makes us. If the enormous effort which struck the Preacher issues in +strengthened muscles and braced limbs, it is not 'vanity.' He who +carries away with him out of life a character moulded as God would +have it, does not go in all points 'naked as he came.' He bears a +developed self, and that is the greatest treasure that a man can carry +out of multitudinous toils of the busiest life. If we would think less +of our hard work and of our heavy sorrows, and more of the loving +purpose which appoints them all, we should find life less difficult, +less toilsome, less mysterious. That one thought taken to our hearts, +and honestly applied to everything that befalls us, would untie many a +riddle, would wipe away many a tear, would bring peace and patience +into many a heart, and would make still brighter many a gladness. +Without it our lives are a chaos; with it they would become an ordered +world. + +But the recognition of the hand that ministers the discipline is +needed to complete the peacefulness of faith. It would be a dreary +world if we could only think of some inscrutable or impersonal power +that inflicted the discipline; but if in its sharpest pangs we give +'reverence to the Father of spirits,' we shall 'live.' Of course, a +loving father sees to his children's education, and a loving child +cannot but believe that the father's single purpose in all his +discipline is his good. The good that is sought to be attained by the +sharpest chastisement is better than the good that is given by weak +indulgence. When the father's hand wields the rod, and a loving child +receives the strokes, they may sting, but they do not wound. The +'fathers of our flesh chasten us after their own pleasure,' and there +may be error and arbitrariness in their action; and the child may +sometimes nourish a right sense of injustice, but 'the Father of +spirits' makes no mistakes, and never strikes too hard. 'He for our +profit' carries with it the declaration that the deep heart of God +doth not willingly afflict, and seeks in afflicting for nothing but +His children's good. + +Nor are these all the truths by which the New Testament completes and +supersedes the Preacher's pessimism, for our text closes by unveiling +the highest profit which discipline is meant to secure to us as being +that we should be 'partakers of His holiness.' The Biblical conception +of holiness in God is that of separation from and elevation above the +creature. Man's holiness is separation from the world and dedication +to God. He is separated from the world by moral perfection yet more +than by His other attributes, and men who have yielded themselves to +Him will share in that characteristic. This assimilation to His nature +is the highest 'profit' to which we can attain, and all the purpose of +His chastening is to make us more completely like Himself. 'The +fathers of our flesh' chasten with a view to the brief earthly life, +but His chastening looks onwards beyond the days of 'strife and +vanity' to a calm eternity. + +Thus, then, the immortality which glimmered doubtfully in the end of +his book before the eyes of the Preacher is the natural inference for +the Christian thought of moral discipline as the great purpose of +life. No doubt it might be possible for a man to believe in the +supreme importance of character, and in all the discipline of life as +subsidiary to its development, and yet not believe in another world, +where all that was tendency, often thwarted, should be accomplished +result, and the schooling ended the rod should be broken. But such a +position will be very rare and very absurd. To recognise moral +discipline as the greatest purpose of life, gives quite overwhelming +probability to a future. Surely God does not take such pains with us +in order to make no more of us than He makes of us in this world. +Surely human life becomes 'confusion worse confounded' if it is +carefully, sedulously, continuously tended, checked, inspired, +developed by all the various experiences of sorrow and joy, and then, +at death, broken short off, as a man might break a stick across his +knee, and the fragments tossed aside and forgotten. If we can say, 'He +for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness,' we have +the right to say 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.' + + + +'A TIME TO PLANT' + +'A time to plant.'--Eccles. iii. 2. + + +The writer enumerates in this context a number of opposite courses of +conduct arranged in pairs, each of which is right at the right time. +The view thus presented seems to him to be depressing, and to make +life difficult to understand, and aimless. We always appear to be +building up with one hand and pulling down with the other. The ship +never heads for two miles together in the same direction. The history +of human affairs appears to be as purposeless as the play of the wind +on the desert sands, which it sometimes piles into huge mounds and +then scatters. + +So he concludes that only God, who appoints the seasons that demand +opposite courses of conduct, can understand what it all means. The +engine-driver knows why he reverses his engine, and not the wheels +that are running in opposite directions in consecutive moments +according to his will. + +Now that is a one-sided view, of course, for it is to be remembered +that the Book of Ecclesiastes is the logbook of a voyager after truth, +and tells us all the wanderings and errors of his thinking until he +has arrived at the haven of the conclusion that he announces in the +final word: 'Hear the sum of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His +commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.' + +I have nothing to do just now with the conclusion which he arrives at, +but the facts from which he starts are significant and important. +There are things in life, God has so arranged it, which can only be +done fittingly, and for the most part of all, at certain seasons; and +the secret of success is the discernment of present duty, and the +prompt performance of it. + +And this is especially true about your time of life, my young friends. +There are things, very important things, which, unless you do them +now, the overwhelming probability is that you will never do at all; +and the certainty is that you will not do them half as well. And so I +want to ask you to look at these words, which, by a legitimate +extension of the writer's meaning, and taking them in a kind of +parabolic way, may sum up for us the whole of the special duties of +youth. 'A time to plant.' + +I. Now, my first remark is this: that you are now in the planting time +of your lives. + +No wise forester will try to shift shrubs or to put them into his +gardens or woods, except in late autumn or early spring. And our lives +are as really under the dominion of the law of seasons as the green +world of the forest and the fields. Speaking generally, and admitting +the existence of many exceptions, the years between childhood and, +say, two or three-and-twenty, for a young man or woman, for the most +part settle the main outline of their character, and thereby determine +their history, which, after all, is mainly the outcome of their +character. + +You have wide possibilities before you, of moulding your characters +into beauty, and purity, holiness, and strength. + +For one thing, you have got no past, or next to none written all over, +which it is hard to erase. You have substantially a clean sheet on +which to write what you like. Your stage of life predisposes you in +favour of novelty. New things are glad things to you, whereas to us +older people a new thought coming into some of our brains is like a +new bit of furniture coming into a crowded room. All the other pieces +need to be arranged, and it is more of a trouble than anything else. +You are flexible and plastic as yet, like the iron running out of the +blast furnace in a molten stream, which in half an hour's time will be +a rigid bar that no man can bend. + +You have all these things in your favour, and so, dear young friends, +whether you think of it or not, whether voluntarily or not, I want you +to remember that this awful process is going on inevitably and +constantly in every one of you. You are planting, whether you +recognise the fact or no. What are you planting? + +Well, for one thing, you are making _habits_, which are but +actions hardened, like the juice that exudes from the pine-tree, +liquid, or all but liquid, when it comes out, and when exposed to the +air, is solidified and tenacious. The old legend of the man in the +tower who got a slim thread up to his window, to which was attached +one thicker and then thicker, and so on ever increasing until he +hauled in a cable, is a true parable of what goes on in every human +life. Some one deed, a thin film like a spider's thread, draws after +it a thicker, by that inevitable law that a thing done once tends to +be done twice, and that the second time it is easier than the first +time. A man makes a track with great difficulty across the snow in a +morning, but every time that he travels it, it is a little harder, and +the track is a little broader, and it is easier walking. You play with +the tiger's whelp of some pleasant, questionable enjoyment, and you +think that it will always keep so innocent, with its budding claws not +able to draw blood, but it grows--_it grows_. And it grows +according to its kind, and what was a plaything one day is a +full-grown and ravening wild beast in a while. You are making habits, +whatever else you are making, and you are planting in your hearts +seeds that will spring and bear fruit according to their kind. + +Then remember, you are planting _belief_.--Most of us, I am +afraid, get our opinions by haphazard; like the child in the +well-known story, whose only account of herself was that 'she expected +she growed.' That is the way by which most of you come to what you +dignify by the name of your opinions. They come in upon you, you do +not know how. Youth is receptive of anything new. You can learn a vast +deal more easily than many of us older people can. Set down a man who +has never learned the alphabet, to learn his letters, and see what a +task it is for him. Or if he takes a pen in his hand for the first +time, look how difficult the stiff wrist and thick knuckles find it to +bend. Yours is the time for forming your opinions, for forming some +rational and intelligent account of yourself and the world about you. +See to it, that you plant truth in your hearts, under which you may +live sheltered for many days. + +Then again, you are planting character, which is not only habit, but +something more. You are making _yourselves_, whatever else you +are making. You begin with almost boundless possibilities, and these +narrow and narrow and narrow, according to your actions, until you +have laid the rails on which you travel--one narrow line that you +cannot get off. A man's character is, if I may use a chemical term, a +'precipitate' from his actions. Why, it takes acres of roses to make a +flask of perfume; and all the long life of a man is represented in his +ultimate character. Character is formed like those chalk cliffs in the +south, built up eight hundred feet, beetling above the stormy sea; and +all made up of the relics of microscopic animals. So you build up a +great solid structure--yourself--out of all your deeds. You are making +your character, your habits, your opinions.--And you are making your +reputation too. And you will not be able to get rid of that. This is +the time for you to make a good record or a bad one, in other people's +opinions. + +And so, young men and women, boys and girls, I want you to remember +the permanent effects of your most fleeting acts. Nothing ever dies +that a man does. Nothing! You go into a museum, and you will see +standing there a slab of red sandstone, and little dints and dimples +upon it. What are they? Marks made by a flying shower that lasted for +five minutes, nobody knows how many millenniums ago. And there they +are, and there they will be until the world is burned up. So our +fleeting deeds are all recorded here, in our permanent character. +Everything that we have done is laid up there in the testimony of the +rocks:-- + + 'Through our soul the echoes roll, + And grow for ever and for ever.' + +You are now living in 'a time to plant.' + +II. Notice, in the next place, that as surely as _now_ is the +time to plant, _then_ will be a time to reap. + +I do not know whether the writer of my text meant the harvest, when he +put in antithesis to my text the other clause, 'and a time to pluck up +that which is planted.' Probably, as most of the other pairs are +opposites, here, too, we are to see an opposite rather than a result; +the destructive action of plucking up, and not the preservative action +of gathering a harvest. But, however that may be, let me remind you +that there stands, irrefragable, for every human soul and every human +deed, this great solemn law of retribution. + +Now what lies in that law? Two things--that the results are similar in +kind, and more in number. The law of likeness, and the law of +increase, both of them belong to the working of the law of +retribution. And so, be sure that you will find out that all your past +lives on into your present; and that the present, in fact, is very +little more than the outcome of the past. What you plant as a youth +you will reap as a man. This mysterious life of ours is all sowing and +reaping intermingled, right away on to the very end. Each action is in +turn the child of all the preceding and the parent of all that +follows. But still, though that be true, your time of life is +predominantly the time of sowing; and my time of life, for instance, +is predominantly the time of reaping. There are a great many things +that I could not do now if I wished. There are a great many things in +our past that I, and men of my age, would fain alter; but there they +stand, and nothing can do away the marks of that which once has been. +We have to reap, and so will you some day. + +And I will tell you what you will have to reap, as sure as you are +sitting in those pews. You will have the enlarged growth of your +present characteristics. A man takes a photograph upon a sensitive +plate, half the size of the palm of my hand; and then he enlarges it +to any size he pleases. And that is what life does for all of us. The +pictures, drawn small on the young man's imagination, on the young +woman's dreaming heart, be they of angels or of beasts, are permanent; +and they will get bigger and bigger and bigger, as get older. You do +not reap only as much as you sowed, but 'some sixty fold, and some an +hundred fold.' + +And you will reap the increased dominion of your early habits. There +is a grim verse in the Book of Proverbs that speaks about a man being +tied and bound by the chains of his sins. And that is just saying that +the things which you chose to do when you were a boy, many of them you +will have to do when you are a man; because you have lost the power, +though sometimes not the will, of doing anything else. There be men +that sow the wind, and they do not reap the wind, but the law of +increase comes in and they reap the whirlwind. There be men who, +according to the old Greek legend, sow dragon's teeth and they reap +armed soldiers. There are some of you that are sowing to the flesh, +and as sure as God lives, you will 'of the flesh reap corruption.' +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that,' even here, 'shall he also reap.' + +And let me remind you that that law of inheriting the fruit of our +doings is by no means exhausted by the experience of life. Whenever +conscience is awakened it at once testifies not only of a broken law, +but of a living Law-giver; and not only of retribution here, but of +retribution hereafter. And I for my part believe that the modern form +of Christianity and the tendencies of the modern pulpit, influenced by +some theological discussions, about details in the notion of +retribution that have been going on of late years, have operated to +make ministers of the Gospel too chary of preaching, and hearers +indisposed to accept, the message of 'the terror of the Lord.' My dear +friends! retribution cannot stop on this side of the grave, and if you +are going yonder you are carrying with you the necessity in yourself +for inheriting the results of your life here. I beseech you, do not +put away such thoughts as this, with the notion that I am brandishing +before you some antiquated doctrine, fit only to frighten old women +and children. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes was no +weak-minded, superstitious fanatic. He was far more disposed to +scepticism than to fanaticism. But for all that, with all his sympathy +for young men's breadth and liberality, with his tolerance for all +sorts and ways of living, with all his doubts and questionings, he +came to this, and this was his teaching to the young men whom in idea +he had gathered round his chair,--'Rejoice, oh young man, in thy +youth. And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk +in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.' By all +means, God has put you into a fair world, and meant you to get all the +good out of it. 'But,' and that not as a kill-joy, 'know thou, that +for all these things God will bring thee into judgment,' and shape +your characters accordingly. + +III. Still further, let me say, these things being so, you especially +need to ponder them. + +That is so, because you especially are in danger of forgetting them. +It is meant that young people should live by impulse much more than by +reflection. + + 'If nature put not forth her power + About the opening of the flower, + Who is there that could live an hour?' + +The days of calculation will come soon enough; and I do not want to +hurry them. I do not want to put old heads upon young shoulders. I +would rather see the young ones, a great deal. But I want you not to +go down to the level of the beast, living only by instinct and by +impulse. You have got brains, you are meant to use them. You have the +great divine gift of reason, that looks before and after, and though +you have not much experience yet, you can, if you will, reflect upon +such things as I have just been saying to you, and take them into your +hearts, and live accordingly. My dear young friend! enjoy yourself, +live buoyantly, yield to your impulses, be glad for the beautiful life +that is unfolding around you, and the strong nature that is blossoming +within you. And then take this other lesson, 'Ponder the path of thy +feet,' and remember that all the while you dance along the flowery +path, you are planting what you will have to reap. + +Then, still further, it is especially needful for you that you should +ponder these things, because unless you do you will certainly go +wrong. If you do not plant good, somebody else will plant evil. An +untilled field is not a field that nothing grows in, but it is a field +full of weeds; and the world and the flesh and the devil, the +temptations round about you and the evil tendencies in you, unless +they are well kept down and kept off, are sure to fill your souls full +of all manner of seeds that will spring up to bitterness, and poison, +and death. Oh! think, think! for it is the only chance of keeping your +hearts from being full of wickedness--think what you are sowing, and +think what will the harvest be. There are some of you, as I said, +sowing to the flesh, young men living impure and wicked lives, and +'their bones are full of the sins of their youth.' There are some of +you letting every wind bring the thistledown of vanities, and scatter +them all across your hearts, that they may spring up prickly, and +gifted with a fatal power of self-multiplication. There are some of +you, young men, and young women too, whose lives are divided between +Manchester business and that ignoble thirst for mere amusement which +is eating all the dignity and the earnestness out of the young men of +this city. I beseech you, do not slide into habits of frivolity, +licentiousness, and sin, for want of looking after yourselves. +Remember, if you do not ponder the path of your feet, you are sure to +take the turn to the left. + +Again, it is needful for you to ponder these things, for if you waste +this time, it will never come back to you any more. It is useless to +sow corn in August. There are things in this world that a man can only +get when he is young, such as sound education, for instance; business +habits, habits of industry, of application, of concentration, of +self-control, a reputation which may avail in the future. If you do +not begin to get these before you are five-and-twenty, you will never +get them. + +And although the certainty is not so absolute in regard to spiritual +and religious things, the dice are frightfully weighted, and the +chances are terribly small that a young man who, like some of you, has +passed his early years in church or chapel, in weekly contact with +earnest preaching, and has not accepted the Saviour, will do it when +he grows old. He may; he may. But it is a great deal more likely that +he will not. + +IV. The conclusion of the whole matter is, Begin on the spot, to trust +and to serve Jesus Christ. + +These are the best things to plant--simple reliance upon His death for +your forgiveness, upon His power to make you pure and clean; simple +submission to His commandment. Oh! dear young friend; if you have +these in your hearts everything will come right. You will get habit on +your side, and that is much; and you will be saved from a great deal +of misery which would be yours if you went wrong first, and then came +right. + +If you will plant a cutting of the tree of life in your heart it will +yield everything to you when it grows. The people in the South Seas, +if they have a palm-tree, can get out of it bread and drink, food, +clothing, shelter, light, materials for books, cordage for their +boats, needles to sew with, and everything. If you will take Jesus +Christ, and plant Him in your hearts, everything will come out of +that. That Tree 'bears twelve manners of fruits, and yields His fruit +every month.' With Christ in your heart all other fair things will be +planted there; and with Him in your heart, all evil things which you +may already have planted there, will be rooted out. Just as when some +strong exotic is carried to some distant land and there takes root, it +exterminates the feebler vegetation of the place to which it comes; so +with Christ in my heart the sins, the evil habits, the passions, the +lusts, and all other foul spawn and offspring, will die and disappear. +Take Him, then, dear friend! by simple faith, for your Saviour. He +will plant the good seed in your spirit, and 'instead of the briar +shall come up the myrtle.' Your lives will become fruitful of goodness +and of joy, according to that ancient promise: 'The righteous shall +flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. +Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the +courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.' + + + +ETERNITY IN THE HEART + +'He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the +world in their heart.'--ECCLES. iii. 11. + + +There is considerable difficulty in understanding what precise meaning +is to be attached to these words, and what precise bearing they have +on the general course of the writer's thoughts; but one or two things +are, at any rate, quite clear. + +The Preacher has been enumerating all the various vicissitudes of +prosperity and adversity, of construction and destruction, of society +and solitude, of love and hate, for which there is scope and verge +enough in one short human life; and his conclusion is, as it always is +in the earlier part of this book, that because there is such an +endless diversity of possible occupation, and each of them lasts but +for a little time, and its opposite has as good a right of existence +as itself; therefore, perhaps, it might be as well that a man should +do nothing as do all these opposite things which neutralise each +other, and the net result of which is nothing. If there be a time to +be born and a time to die, nonentity would be the same when all is +over. If there be a time to plant and a time to pluck, what is the +good of planting? If there be a time for love and a time for hate, why +cherish affections which are transient and may be succeeded by their +opposites? + +And then another current of thought passes through his mind, and he +gets another glimpse somewhat different, and says in effect, 'No! that +is not all true--God has made all these different changes, and +although each of them seems contradictory of the other, in its own +place and at its own time each is beautiful and has a right to exist.' +The contexture of life, and even the perplexities and darknesses of +human society, and the varieties of earthly condition--if they be +confined within their own proper limits, and regarded as parts of a +whole--they are all co-operant to an end. As from wheels turning +different ways in some great complicated machine, and yet fitting by +their cogs into one another, there may be a resultant direct motion +produced even by these apparently antagonistic forces. + +But the second clause of our text adds a thought which is in some +sense contrasted with this. + +The word rendered 'world' is a very frequent one in the Old Testament, +and has never but one meaning, and that meaning is _eternity_. +'He hath set _eternity_ in their heart.' + +Here, then, are two antagonistic facts. They are transient things, a +vicissitude which moves within natural limits, temporary events which +are beautiful in their season. But there is also the contrasted fact, +that the man who is thus tossed about, as by some great battledore +wielded by giant powers in mockery, from one changing thing to +another, has relations to something more lasting than the transient. +He lives in a world of fleeting change, but he has 'eternity' in 'his +heart.' So between him and his dwelling-place, between him and his +occupations, there is a gulf of disproportion. He is subjected to +these alternations, and yet bears within him a repressed but immortal +consciousness that he belongs to another order of things, which knows +no vicissitude and fears no decay. He possesses stifled and +misinterpreted longings which, however starved, do yet survive, after +unchanging Being and eternal Rest, And thus endowed, and by contrast +thus situated, his soul is full of the 'blank misgiving of a creature +moving about in worlds not realised.' Out of these two facts--says our +text--man's _where_ and man's _what_, his nature and his +position, there rises a mist of perplexity and darkness that wraps the +whole course of the divine actions--unless, indeed, we have reached +that central height of vision above the mists, which this Book of +Ecclesiastes puts forth at last as the conclusion of the whole +matter--'Fear God, and keep His commandments.' If transitory things +with their multitudinous and successive waves toss us to solid safety +on the Rock of Ages, then all is well, and many mysteries will be +clear. But if not, if we have not found, or rather followed, the one +God-given way of harmonising these two sets of experiences--life in +the transient, and longings for the eternal--then their antagonism +darkens our thoughts of a wise and loving Providence, and we have lost +the key to the confused riddle which the world then presents. 'He hath +made everything beautiful in his time: also He hath set Eternity in +their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from +the beginning to the end.' + +Such, then, being a partial but, perhaps, not entirely inadequate view +of the course of thought in the words before us, I may now proceed to +expand the considerations thus brought under our notice in them. These +may be gathered up in three principal ones: the consciousness of +Eternity in every heart; the disproportion thence resulting between +this nature of ours and the order of things in which we dwell; and +finally, the possible satisfying of that longing in men's hearts--a +possibility not indeed referred to in our text, but unveiled as the +final word of this Book of Ecclesiastes, and made clear to us in Jesus +Christ. + +I. Consider that eternity is set in every human heart. + +The expression is, of course, somewhat difficult, even if we accept +generally the explanation which I have given. It may be either a +declaration of the actual immortality of the soul, or it may mean, as +I rather suppose it to do, the consciousness of eternity which is part +of human nature. + +The former idea is no doubt closely connected with the latter, and +would here yield an appropriate sense. We should then have the +contrast between man's undying existence and the transient trifles on +which he is tempted to fix his love and hopes. We belong to one set of +existences by our bodies, and to another by our souls. Though we are +parts of the passing material world, yet in that outward frame is +lodged a personality that has nothing in common with decay and death. +A spark of eternity dwells in these fleeting frames. The laws of +physical growth and accretion and maturity and decay, which rule over +all things material, do not apply to my true self. 'In our embers is +something that doth live.' Whatsoever befalls the hairs that get grey +and thin, and the hands that become wrinkled and palsied, and the +heart that is worn out by much beating, and the blood that clogs and +clots at last, and the filmy eye, and all the corruptible frame; yet, +as the heathen said, 'I shall not _all_ die,' but deep within +this transient clay house, that must crack and fall and be resolved +into the elements out of which it was built up, there dwells an +immortal guest, an undying personal self. In the heart, the inmost +spiritual being of every man, eternity, in this sense of the word, +does dwell. + +'Commonplaces,' you say. Yes; commonplaces, which word means two +things--truths that affect us all, and also truths which, because they +are so universal and so entirely believed, are all but powerless. +Surely it is not time to stop preaching such truths as long as they +are forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the people who +acknowledge them. Thank God! the staple of the work of us preachers is +the reiteration of commonplaces, which His goodness has made familiar, +and our indolence and sin have made stale and powerless. + +My brother! you would be a wiser man if, instead of turning the edge +of statements which you know to be true, and which, if true, are +infinitely solemn and important, by commonplace sarcasm about pulpit +commonplaces, you would honestly try to drive the familiar neglected +truth home to your mind and heart. Strip it of its generality and +think, 'It is true about _me. I_ live for ever. My outward life +will cease, and _my_ dust will return to dust--but _I_ shall +last undying.' And ask yourselves--What then? 'Am I making "provision +for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof," in more or less refined +fashion, and forgetting to provide for that which lives for evermore? +Eternity is in _my_ heart. What a madness it is to go on, as if +either I were to continue for ever among the shows of time, or when I +leave them all, to die wholly and be done with altogether!' + +But, probably, the other interpretation of these words is the truer. +The doctrine of immortality does not seem to be stated in this Book of +Ecclesiastes, except in one or two very doubtful expressions. And it +is more in accordance with its whole tone to suppose the Preacher here +to be asserting, not that the heart or spirit is immortal, but that, +whether it is or no, in the heart is planted the _thought_, the +_consciousness_ of eternity--and the longing after it. + +Let me put that into other words. We, brethren, are the only beings on +this earth who can think the thought and speak the word--Eternity. +Other creatures are happy while immersed in time; we have another +nature, and are disturbed by a thought which shines high above the +roaring sea of circumstance in which we float. + +I do not care at present about the metaphysical puzzles that have been +gathered round that conception, nor care to ask whether it is positive +or negative, adequate or inadequate. Enough that the word has a +meaning, that it corresponds to a thought which dwells in men's minds. +It is of no consequence at all for our purpose, whether it is a +positive conception, or simply the thinking away of all limitations. +'I know what God is, when you do not ask me.' I know what eternity is, +though I cannot define the word to satisfy a metaphysician. The little +child taught by some grandmother Lois, in a cottage, knows what she +means when she tells him 'you will live for ever,' though both scholar +and teacher would be puzzled to put it into other words. When we say +eternity flows round this bank and shoal of time, men know what we +mean. Heart answers to heart; and in each heart lies that solemn +thought--for ever! + +Like all other of the primal thoughts of men's souls, it may be +increased in force and clearness, or it may be neglected and opposed, +and all but crushed. The thought of God is natural to man, the thought +of right and wrong is natural to man--and yet there may be atheists +who have blinded their eyes, and there may be degraded and almost +animal natures who have seared their consciences and called sweet +bitter and evil good. Thus men may so plunge themselves into the +present as to lose the consciousness of the eternal--as a man swept +over Niagara, blinded by the spray and deafened by the rush, would see +or hear nothing outside the green walls of the death that encompassed +him. And yet the blue sky with its peaceful spaces stretches above the +hell of waters. + +So the thought is in us all--a presentiment and a consciousness; and +that universal presentiment itself goes far to establish the reality +of the unseen order of things to which it is directed. The great +planet that moves on the outmost circle of our system was discovered +because that next it wavered in its course in a fashion which was +inexplicable, unless some unknown mass was attracting it from across +millions of miles of darkling space. And there are 'perturbations' in +our spirits which cannot be understood, unless from them we may divine +that far-off and unseen world, that has power from afar to sway in +their orbits the little lives of mortal men. It draws us to +itself--but, alas! the attraction may be resisted and thwarted. The +dead mass of the planet bends to the drawing, but we can repel the +constraint which the eternal world would exercise upon us--and so that +consciousness which ought to be our nobleness, as it is our +prerogative, may become our shame, our misery, and our sin. + +That Eternity which is set in our hearts is not merely the thought of +ever-during Being, or of an everlasting order of things to which we +are in some way related. But there are connected with it other ideas +besides those of mere duration. Men know what perfection means. They +understand the meaning of perfect goodness; they have the notion of +infinite Wisdom and boundless Love. These thoughts are the material of +all poetry, the thread from which the imagination creates all her +wondrous tapestries. This 'capacity for the Infinite,' as people call +it--which is only a fine way of putting the same thought as that in +our text--which is the prerogative of human spirits, is likewise the +curse of many spirits. By their misuse of it they make it a fatal +gift, and turn it into an unsatisfied desire which gnaws their souls, +a famished yearning which 'roars, and suffers hunger.' Knowing what +perfection is, they turn to limited natures and created hearts for +their rest. Having the haunting thought of an absolute Goodness, a +perfect Wisdom, an endless Love, an eternal Life--they try to find the +being that corresponds to their thought here on earth, and so they are +plagued with endless disappointment. + +My brother! God has put eternity in _your_ heart. Not only will +you live for ever, but also in your present life you have a +consciousness of that eternal and infinite and all-sufficient Being +that lives above. You have need of Him, and whether you know it or +not, the tendrils of your spirits, like some climbing plant not +fostered by a careful hand but growing wild, are feeling out into the +vacancy in order to grasp the stay which they need for their fruitage +and their strength. + +By the make of our spirits, by the possibilities that dawn dim before +us, by the thoughts 'whose very sweetness yieldeth proof that they +were born for immortality,'--by all these and a thousand other signs +and facts in every human life we say, 'God has set eternity in their +hearts!' + +II. And then turn to the second idea that is here. The disproportion +between this our nature, and the world in which we dwell. + +The writer of this book (whether Solomon or no we need not stay to +discuss) looks out upon the world; and in accordance with the +prevailing tone of all the earlier parts of his contemplations, finds +in this prerogative of man but another reason for saying, 'All is +vanity and vexation of spirit.' + +Two facts meet him antagonistic to one another: the place that man +occupies, and the nature that man bears. This creature with eternity +in his heart, where is he set? what has he got to work upon? what has +he to love and hold by, to trust to, and anchor his life on? A crowd +of things, each well enough, but each having a _time_--and though +they be beautiful in their time, yet fading and vanishing when it has +elapsed. No multiplication of _times_ will make _eternity_. +And so with that thought in his heart, man is driven out among objects +perfectly insufficient to meet it. + +Christ said, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but +the Son of man hath not where to lay His head'--and while the words +have their proper and most pathetic meaning in the history of His own +earthly life of travail and toil for our sakes, we may also venture to +give them the further application, that all the lower creatures are at +rest here, and that the more truly a man is man, the less can he find, +among all the shadows of the present, a pillow for his head, a place +of repose for his heart. The animal nature is at home in the material +world, the human nature is not. + +Every other creature presents the most accurate correspondence between +nature and circumstances, powers and occupations. Man alone is like +some poor land-bird blown out to sea, and floating half-drowned with +clinging plumage on an ocean where the dove 'finds no rest for the +sole of her foot,' or like some creature that loves to glance in the +sunlight, but is plunged into the deepest recesses of a dark mine. In +the midst of a universe marked by the nicest adaptations of creatures +to their habitation, man alone, the head of them all, presents the +unheard-of anomaly that he is surrounded by conditions which do +_not_ fit his whole nature, which are not adequate for all his +powers, on which he cannot feed and nurture his whole being. 'To what +purpose is this waste?' 'Hast thou made all men in vain?' + +Everything is 'beautiful in its time.' Yes, and for that very reason, +as this Book of Ecclesiastes says in another verse, 'Because to every +purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is +great upon him.' It was happy when we loved; but the day of +indifference and alienation and separation comes. Our spirits were +glad when we were planting; but the time for plucking up that which +was planted is sure to draw near. It was blessed to pour out our souls +in the effluence of love, or in the fullness of thought, and the time +to speak was joyous; but the dark day of silence comes on. When we +twined hearts and clasped hands together it was glad, and the time +when we embraced was blessed; but the time to refrain from embracing +is as sure to draw near. It is good for the eyes to behold the sun, +but so certainly as it rolls to its bed in the west, and 'leaves the +world to darkness' and to us, do all earthly occupations wane and +fade, and all possessions shrivel and dwindle, and all associations +snap and drop and end, and the whirligig of time works round and takes +away everything which it once brought us. + +And so man, with eternity in his heart, with the hunger in his spirit +after an unchanging whole, an absolute good, an ideal perfectness, an +immortal being--is condemned to the treadmill of transitory +revolution. Nothing continueth in one stay, 'For all that _is_ in +the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the +pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the +world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' It is limited, it is +changeful, it slips from under us as we stand upon it, and therefore, +mystery and perplexity stoop down upon the providence of God, and +misery and loneliness enter into the heart of man. These changeful +things, they do not meet our ideal, they do not satisfy our wants, +they do not last even our duration. + +'The misery of man is great upon him,' said the text quoted a moment +ago. And is it not? Is this present life enough for you? Sometimes you +fancy it is. Many of us habitually act on the understanding that it +is, and treat all that I have been saying about the disproportion +between our nature and our circumstances as not true about them. 'This +world not enough for me!' you say--'Yes! it is; only let me get a +little more of it, and keep what I get, and I shall be all right.' So +then--'a little more' is wanted, is it? And that 'little more' will +always be wanted, and besides it, the guarantee of permanence will +always be wanted, and failing these, there will be a hunger that +nothing can fill which belongs to earth. Do you remember the bitter +experience of the poor prodigal, 'he would fain have filled his belly +with the husks'? He tried his best to live upon the horny, +innutritious pods, but he could not; and after them he still was +'perishing with hunger.' So it is with us all when we try to fill the +soul and satisfy the spirit with earth or aught that holds of it. It +is as impossible to still the hunger of the heart with that, as to +stay the hunger of the body with wise sayings or noble sentiments. + +I appeal to your real selves, to your own past experience. Is it not +true that, deep below the surface contentment with the world and the +things of the world, a dormant but slightly slumbering sense of want +and unsatisfied need lies in your souls? Is it not true that it wakes +sometimes at a touch; that the tender, dying light of sunset, or the +calm abysses of the mighty heavens, or some strain of music, or a line +in a book, or a sorrow in your heart, or the solemnity of a great joy, +or close contact with sickness and death, or the more direct appeals +of Scripture and of Christ, stir a wistful yearning and a painful +sense of emptiness in your hearts, and of insufficiency in all the +ordinary pursuits of your lives? It cannot but be so; for though it be +true that our natures are in some measure subdued to what we work in, +and although it is possible to atrophy the deepest parts of our being +by long neglect or starvation, yet you will never do that so +thoroughly but that the deep-seated longing will break forth at +intervals, and the cry of its hunger echo through the soul. Many of us +do our best to silence it. But I, for my part, believe that, however +you have crushed and hardened your souls by indifference, by ambition, +by worldly cares, by frivolous or coarse pleasures, or by any of the +thousand other ways in which you can do it--yet there is some response +in your truest self to my poor words when I declare that a soul +without God is an empty and an aching soul! + +These things which, even in their time of beauty, are not enough for a +man's soul--have all but a time to be beautiful in, and then they fade +and die. A great botanist made what he called 'a floral clock' to mark +the hours of the day by the opening and closing of flowers. It was a +graceful and yet a pathetic thought. One after another they spread +their petals, and their varying colours glow in the light. But one +after another they wearily shut their cups, and the night falls, and +the latest of them folds itself together, and all are hidden away in +the dark. So our joys and treasures, were they sufficient did they +last, cannot last. After a summer's day comes a summer's night, and +after a brief space of them comes winter, when all are killed and the +leafless trees stand silent. + + 'Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.' + +We cleave to these temporal possessions and joys, and the natural law +of change sweeps them away from us one by one. Most of them do not +last so long as we do, and they pain us when _they_ pass away +from us. Some of them last longer than we do, and _they_ pain us +when we pass away from them. Either way our hold of them is a +transient hold, and one knows not whether is the sadder--the bare +garden beds where all have done blowing, and nothing remains but a +tangle of decay, or the blooming beauty from which a man is summoned +away, leaving others to reap what he has sown. Tragic enough are both +at the best--and certain to befall us all. We live and they fade; we +die and they remain. We live again and they are far away. The facts +are _so_. We may make them a joy or a sorrow as we will. +Transiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and +delights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of +eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our +inmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed +even by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will +be the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do you mean that they +shall be for you? + +III. These thoughts lead us to consider the possible satisfying of our +souls. + +This Book of Ecclesiastes is rather meant to enforce the truth of the +weariness and emptiness of a godless life, than of the blessedness of +a godly one. It is the record of the struggles of a soul--'the +confessions of an inquiring spirit'--feeling and fighting its way +through many errors, and many partial and unsatisfactory solutions of +the great problem of life, till he reaches the one in which he can +rest. When he has touched that goal his work is done. And so the +devious way is told in the book at full length, while a sentence sets +forth the conclusion to which he was working, even when he was most +bewildered. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is 'Fear God and keep +His commandments.' That is all that a man needs. It is 'the whole of +man.' 'All is' _not_ 'vanity and vexation of spirit' +_then_--but 'all things work together for good to them that love +God.' + +The Preacher in his day learned that it was possible to satisfy the +hunger for eternity, which had once seemed to him a questionable +blessing. He learned that it was a loving Providence which had made +man's home so little fit for him, that he might seek the 'city which +hath foundations.' He learned that all the pain of passing beauty, and +the fading flowers of man's goodliness, were capable of being turned +into a solemn joy. Standing at the centre, he saw order instead of +chaos, and when he had come back, after all his search, to the old +simple faith of peasants and children in Judah, to fear God and keep +His commandments, he understood why God had set eternity in man's +heart, and then flung him out, as if in mockery, amidst the stormy +waves of the changeful ocean of time. + +And we, who have a further word from God, may have a fuller and yet +more blessed conviction, built upon our own happy experience, if we +choose, that it _is_ possible for us to have that deep thirst +slaked, that longing appeased. We have Christ to trust to and to love. +He has given Himself for us that all our many sins against the eternal +love and our guilty squandering of our hearts upon transitory +treasures may be forgiven. He has come amongst us, the Word in human +flesh, that our poor eyes may see the Eternal walking amidst the +things of time and sense, and may discern a beauty in Him beyond +'whatsoever things are lovely.' He has come that we through Him may +lay hold on God, even as in Him God lays hold on us. As in mysterious +and transcendent union the divine takes into itself the human in that +person of Jesus, and Eternity is blended with Time; we, trusting Him +and yielding our hearts to Him, receive into our poor lives an +incorruptible seed, and for us the soul-satisfying realities that +abide for ever mingle with and are reached through the shadows that +pass away. + +Brethren, yield yourselves to Him! In conscious unworthiness, in lowly +penitence, let us cast ourselves on Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice, for +pardon and peace! Trust Him and love Him! Live by Him and for Him! And +then, the loftiest thoughts of our hearts, as they seek after absolute +perfection and changeless love, shall be more than fulfilled in Him +who is more than all that man ever dreamed, because He is the +perfection of man, and the Son of God. + +Love Christ and live in Him, taking Him for the motive, the spring, +and the very atmosphere of your lives, and then no capacities will +languish for lack of either stimulus or field, and no weariness will +come over you, as if you were a stranger from your home. For if Christ +be near us, all things go well with us. If we live for Him, the power +of that motive will make all our nature blossom like the vernal woods, +and dry branches break into leafage. If we dwell in Him, we shall be +at home wherever we are, like the patriarch who pitched his tent in +many lands, but always had the same tent wherever he went. So we shall +have the one abode, though its place in the desert may vary--and we +shall not need to care whether the encampment be beneath the +palm-trees and beside the wells of Elim, or amidst the drought of +Marah, so long as the same covering protects us, and the same pillar +of fire burns above us. + +Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great +aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ +gives, and is. The vicissitude will really become the source of +freshness and progress which God meant it to be. Everything which, +when made our all-sufficient portion, becomes stale and unprofitable, +even in its time, will be apparelled in celestial light. It shall all +be lovely and pleasant while it lasts, and its beauty will not be +saddened by the certainty of its decay, nor its empty place a pain +when it has passed away. + +Take Christ for Saviour and Friend, your Guide and Support through +time, and Himself, your Eternity and Joy, then all discords are +reconciled--and 'all things are yours--whether the world, or life, or +death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are +Christ's, and Christ is God's.' + + + +LESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK + +'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready +to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not +that they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine +heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and +thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh +through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by +multitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to +pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast +vowed. 5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou +shouldest vow and not pay. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh +to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: +wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of +thine hands? 7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words there +are also divers vanities: but fear thou God. 8. If thou seest the +oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice +in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than +the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. 9. Moreover, the +profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the +field. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; +nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. 11. +When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good +is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with +their eyes? 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat +little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to +sleep.'--ECCLES. v. 1-12. + + +This passage is composed of two or perhaps three apparently +disconnected sections. The faults in worship referred to in verses 1-7 +have nothing to do with the legalised robbery of verse 8, nor has the +demonstration of the folly of covetousness in verses 10-12 any +connection with either of the preceding subjects. But they are brought +into unity, if they are taken as applications in different directions +of the bitter truth which the writer sets himself to prove runs +through all life. 'All is vanity.' That principle may even be +exemplified in worship, and the obscure verse 7 which closes the +section about the faults of worship seems to be equivalent to the more +familiar close which rings the knell of so many of men's pursuits in +this book, 'This also is vanity.' It stands in the usual form in verse +10. + +We have in verses 1-7 a warning against the faults in worship which +make even it to be 'vanity,' unreal and empty and fruitless. These are +of three sorts, arranged, as it were, chronologically. The worshipper +is first regarded as going to the house of God, then as presenting his +prayers in it, and then as having left it and returned to his ordinary +life. The writer has cautions to give concerning conduct before, +during, and after public worship. + +Note that, in all three parts of his warnings, his favourite word of +condemnation appears as describing the vain worship to which he +opposes the right manner. They who fall into the faults condemned are +'fools.' If that class includes all who mar their worship by such +errors, the church which holds them had need to be of huge dimensions; +for the faults held up in these ancient words flourish in full +luxuriance to-day, and seem to haunt long-established Christianity +quite as mischievously as they did long-established Judaism. If we +could banish them from our religious assemblies, there would be fewer +complaints of the poor results of so much apparently Christian prayer +and preaching. + +Fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins. So our +passage commences with the demeanour of the worshipper on his way to +the house of God. He is to keep his foot; that is, to go deliberately, +thoughtfully, with realisation of what he is about to do. He is to +'draw near to hear' and to bethink himself, while drawing near, of +what his purpose should be. Our forefathers Sunday began on Saturday +night, and partly for that reason the hallowing influence of it ran +over into Monday, at all events. What likelihood is there that much +good will come of worship to people who talk politics or scandal right +up to the church door? Is reading newspapers in the pews, which they +tell us in England is not unknown in America, a good preparation for +worshipping God? The heaviest rain runs off parched ground, unless it +has been first softened by a gentle fall of moisture. Hearts that have +no dew of previous meditation to make them receptive are not likely to +drink in much of the showers of blessing which may be falling round +them. The formal worshipper who goes to the house of God because it is +the hour when he has always gone; the curious worshipper (?) who draws +near to hear indeed, but to hear a man, not God; and all the other +sorts of mere outward worshippers who make so large a proportion of +every Christian congregation--get the lesson they need, to begin with, +in this precept. + +Note, that right preparation for worship is better than worship +itself, if it is that of 'fools.' Drawing near with the true purpose +is better than being near with the wrong one. Note, too, the reason +for the vanity of the 'sacrifice of fools' is that 'they know not'; +and why do they not know, but because they did not draw near with the +purpose of hearing? Therefore, as the last clause of the verse says, +rightly rendered, 'they do evil.' All hangs together. No matter how +much we frequent the house of God, if we go with unprepared minds and +hearts we shall remain ignorant, and because we are so, our sacrifices +will be 'evil.' If the winnowing fan of this principle were applied to +our decorous congregations, who dress their bodies for church much +more carefully than they do their souls, what a cloud of chaff would +fly off! + +Then comes the direction for conduct in the act of worship. The same +thoughtfulness which kept the foot in coming to, should keep the heart +when in, the house of God. His exaltation and our lowliness should +check hasty words, blurting out uppermost wishes, or in any way +outrunning the sentiments and emotions of prepared hearts. Not that +the lesson would check the fervid flow of real desire. There is a type +of calm worship which keeps itself calm because it is cold. Propriety +and sobriety are its watchwords--both admirable things, and both dear +to tepid Christians. Other people besides the crowds on Pentecost +think that men whose lips are fired by the Spirit of God are +'drunken,' if not with wine, at all events with unwholesome +enthusiasm. But the outpourings of a soul filled, not only with the +sense that God is in heaven and we on earth, but also with the +assurance that He is near to it, and it to Him, are not rash and +hasty, however fervid. What is condemned is words which travel faster +than thoughts or feelings, or which proceed from hearts that have not +been brought into patient submission, or from such as lack reverent +realisation of God's majesty; and such faults may attach to the most +calm worship, and need not infect the most fervent. Those prayers are +not hasty which keep step with the suppliant's desires, when these +take the time from God's promises. That mouth is not rash which waits +to speak until the ear has heard. + +'Let thy words be few.' The heathen 'think that they shall be heard +for much speaking.' It needs not to tell our wants in many words to +One who knows them altogether, any more than a child needs many when +speaking to a father or mother. But 'few' must be measured by the +number of needs and desires. The shortest prayer, which is not +animated by a consciousness of need and a throb of desire, is too +long; the longest, which is vitalised by these, is short enough. What +becomes of the enormous percentage of public and private prayers, +which are mere repetitions, said because they are the right thing to +say, because everybody always has said them, and not because the man +praying really wants the things he asks for, or expects to get them +any the more for asking? + +Verse 3 gives a reason for the exhortation, 'A dream comes through a +multitude of business'--when a man is much occupied with any matter, +it is apt to haunt his sleeping as well as his waking thoughts. 'A +fool's voice comes through a multitude of words.' The dream is the +consequence of the pressure of business, but the fool's voice is the +cause, not the consequence, of the gush of words. What, then, is the +meaning? Probably that such a gush of words turns, as it were, the +voice of the utterer, for the time being, into that of a fool. Voluble +prayers, more abundant than devout sentiments or emotions, make the +offerer as a 'fool' and his prayer unacceptable. + +The third direction refers to conduct after worship. It lays down the +general principle that vows should be paid, and that swiftly. A keen +insight into human nature suggests the importance of prompt fulfilment +of the vows; for in carrying out resolutions formed under the impulse +of the sanctuary, even more than in other departments, delays are +dangerous. Many a young heart touched by the truth has resolved to +live a Christian life, and has gone out from the house of God and put +off and put off till days have thickened into months and years, and +the intention has remained unfulfilled for ever. Nothing hardens +hearts, stiffens wills, and sears consciences so much as to be brought +to the point of melting, and then to cool down into the old shape. All +good resolutions and spiritual convictions may be included under the +name of vows; and of all it is true that it is better not to have +formed them, than to have formed and not performed them. + +Verses 6 and 7 are obscure. The former seems to refer to the case of a +man who vows and then asks that he may be absolved from his vow by the +priest or other ecclesiastical authority. His mouth--that is, his +spoken promise--leads him into sin, if he does not fulfil it (comp. +Deut. xxiii, 21, 22). He asks release from his promise on the ground +that it is a sin of weakness. The 'angel' is best understood as the +priest (messenger), as in Malachi ii.7. Such a wriggling out of a vow +will bring God's anger; for the 'voice' which promised what the hand +will not perform, sins. + +Verse 7 is variously rendered. The Revised Version supplies at the +beginning, 'This comes to pass,' and goes on 'through the multitude of +dreams and vanities and many words.' But this scarcely bears upon the +context, which requires here a reason against rash speech and vows. +The meaning seems better given, either by the rearranged text which +Delitzsch suggests, 'In many dreams and many words there are also many +vanities' (so, substantially, the Auth. Ver.), or as Wright, following +Hitzig, etc., has it, 'In the multitude of dreams are also vanities, +and [in] many words [as well].' The simile of verse 3 is recurred to, +and the whirling visions of unsubstantial dreams are likened to the +rash words of voluble prayers in that both are vanity. Thus the writer +reaches his favourite thought, and shows how vanity infects even +devotion. The closing injunction to 'fear God' sets in sharp contrast +with faulty outward worship the inner surrender and devotion, which +will protect against such empty hypocrisy. If the heart is right, the +lips will not be far wrong. + +Verses 8 and 9 have no direct connection with the preceding, and their +connection with the following (vs. 10-12) is slight. Their meaning is +dubious. According to the prevailing view now, the abuses of +government in verse 8 are those of the period of the writer; and the +last clauses do not, as might appear at first reading, console +sufferers by the thought that God is above rapacious dignitaries, but +bids the readers not be surprised if small officials plunder, since +the same corruption goes upwards through all grades of functionaries. +With such rotten condition of things is contrasted, in verse 9, the +happy state of a people living under a patriarchal government, where +the king draws his revenues, not from oppression, but from +agriculture. The Revised Version gives in its margin this rendering. +The connection of these verses with the following may be that they +teach the vanity of riches under such a state of society as they +describe. What is the use of scraping wealth together when hungry +officials are 'watching' to pounce on it? How much better to be +contented with the modest prosperity of a quiet country life! If the +translation of verse 9 in the Authorised Version and the Revised +Version is retained, there is a striking contrast between the rapine +of the city, where men live by preying on each other (as they do still +to a large extent, for 'commerce' is often nothing better), and the +wholesome natural life of the country, where the kindly earth yields +fruit, and one man's gain is not another's loss. + +Thus the verses may be connected with the wise depreciation of money +which follows. That low estimate is based on three grounds, which +great trading nations like England and the United States need to have +dinned into their ears. First, no man ever gets enough of worldly +wealth. The appetite grows faster than the balance at the banker's. +That is so because the desire that is turned to outward wealth really +needs something else, and has mistaken its object. God, not money or +money's worth, is the satisfying possession. It is so because all +appetites, fed on earthly things, increase by gratification, and +demand ever larger draughts. The jaded palate needs stronger +stimulants. The seasoned opium-eater has to increase his doses to +produce the same effects. Second, the race after riches is a race +after a phantom, because the more one has of them the more people +there spring up to share them. The poor man does with one servant; the +rich man has fifty; and his own portion of his wealth is a very small +item. His own meal is but a small slice off the immense provisions for +which he has the trouble of paying. It is so, thirdly, because in the +chase he deranges his physical nature; and when he has got his wealth, +it only keeps him awake at night thinking how he shall guard it and +keep it safe. + +That which costs so much to get, which has so little power to satisfy, +which must always be less than the wish of the covetous man, which +costs so much to keep, which stuffs pillows with thorns, is surely +vanity. Honest work is rewarded by sweet sleep. The old legend told of +unslumbering guards who kept the treasure of the golden fruit. The +millionaire has to live in a barred house, and to be always on the +lookout lest some combination of speculators should pull down his +stocks, or some change in the current of population should make his +city lots worthless. Black care rides behind the successful man of +business. Better to have done a day's work which has earned a night's +repose than to be the slave of one's wealth, as all men are who make +it their aim and their supreme good. Would that these lessons were +printed deep on the hearts of young Englishmen and Americans! + + + +NAKED OR CLOTHED? + +'As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as +he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away +in his hand.'--ECCLES. v. 15. + +'... Their works do follow them.'--REV. xiv. 13. + + +It is to be observed that these two sharply contrasted texts do not +refer to the same persons. The former is spoken of a rich worldling, +the latter of 'the dead who die in the Lord.' The unrelieved gloom of +the one is as a dark background against which the triumphant assurance +of the other shines out the more brightly, and deepens the gloom which +heightens it. The end of the man who has to go away from earth naked +and empty-handed acquires new tragic force when set against the lot of +those 'whose works do follow them.' Well-worn and commonplace as both +sets of thought may be, they may perhaps be flashed up into new +vividness by juxtaposition; and if in this sermon we have nothing new +to say, old truth is not out of place till it has been wrought into +and influenced our daily practice. We shall best gather the lessons of +our text if we consider what we must leave, what we must take, and +what we may take. + +I. What we must leave. + +The Preacher in the context presses home a formidable array of the +limitations and insufficiencies of wealth. Possessed, it cannot +satisfy, for the appetite grows with indulgence. Its increase barely +keeps pace with the increase of its consumers. It contributes nothing +to the advantage of its so-called owner except 'the beholding of it +with his eyes,' and the need of watching it keeps them open when he +would fain sleep. It is often kept to the owner's hurt, it often +disappears in unfortunate speculation, and the possessor's heirs are +paupers. But, even if all these possibilities are safely weathered, +the man has to die and leave it all behind. 'He shall take nothing of +his labour which he can carry away in his hand'; that is to say, death +separates from all with whom the life of the body brings us into +connection. The things which are no parts of our true selves are ours +in a very modified sense even whilst we seem to possess them, and the +term of possession has a definite close. 'Shrouds have no pockets,' as +the stern old proverb says. How many men have lived in the houses +which we call ours, sat on our seats, walked over our lands, carried +in their purses the money that is in ours! Is 'the game worth the +candle' when we give our labour for so imperfect and brief a +possession as at the fullest and the longest we enjoy of all earthly +good? Surely a wise man will set little store by possessions of all +which a cold, irresistible hand will come to strip him. Surely the +life is wasted which spends its energy in robing itself in garments +which will all be stripped from it when the naked self 'returns to go +as he came.' + +But there are other things than these earthly possessions from which +death separates us. It carries us far away from the sound of human +voices and isolates us from living men. Honour and reputation cease to +be audible. When a prominent man dies, what a clatter of conflicting +judgments contends over his grave! and how utterly he is beyond them +all! Praise or blame, blessing or banning are equally powerless to +reach the unhearing ear or to agitate the unbeating heart. And when +one of our small selves passes out of life, we hear no more the voice +of censure or of praise, of love or of hate. Is it worth while to toil +for the 'hollow wraith of dying fame,' or even for the clasp of loving +hands which have to be loosened so surely and so soon? + +Then again, there are other things which must be left behind as +belonging only to the present order, and connected with bodily life. +There will be no scope for material work, and much of all our +knowledge will be antiquated when the light beyond shines in. As we +shall have occasion to see presently, there is a permanent element in +the most material work, and if in handling the transient we have been +living for the eternal, such work will abide; but if we think of the +spirit in which a sad majority do their daily tasks, whether of a more +material or of a more intellectual sort, we must recognise that a very +large proportion of all the business of life must come to an end here. +There is nothing in it that will stand the voyage across the great +deep, or that can survive in the order of things to which we go. What +is a man to do in another world, supposing there is another world, +where ledgers and mills are out of date? Or what has a scholar or +scientist to do in a state of things where there is no place for +dictionaries and grammars, for acute criticism, or for a careful +scientific research? + +Physical science, linguistic knowledge, political wisdom, will be +antiquated. The poetry which glorifies afresh and interprets the +present will have lost its meaning. Half the problems that torture us +here will cease to have existence, and most of the other half will +have been solved by simple change of position. 'Whether there be +tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish +away'; and it becomes us all to bethink ourselves whether there is +anything in our lives that we can carry away when all that is 'of the +earth earthy' has sunk into nothingness. + +II. What we must take. + +We must take _ourselves_. It is the same 'he' who goes 'naked as +he came'; it is the same 'he' who 'came from his mother's womb,' and +is 'born again' as it were into a new life, only 'he' has by his +earthly life been developed and revealed. The plant has flowered and +fruited. What was mere potentiality has become fact. There is now +fixed character. The transient possessions, relationships, and +occupations of the earthly life are gone, but the man that they have +made is there. And in the character there are predominant habits which +insist upon having their sway, and a memory of which, as we may +believe, there is written indelibly all the past. Whatever death may +strip from us, there is no reason to suppose that it touches the +consciousness and personal identity, or the prevailing set and +inclination of our characters. And if we do indeed pass into another +life 'not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness,' but +carrying a perfected memory and clothed in a garment woven of all our +past actions, there needs no more to bring about a solemn and +continuous act of judgment. + +III. What we may take. + +'Their works do follow them.' These are the words of the Spirit +concerning 'the dead who die in the Lord.' We need not fear marring +the great truth that 'not by works of righteousness but by His mercy +He saved us,' if we firmly grasp the large assurance which this text +blessedly contains. A Christian man's works are perpetual in the +measure in which they harmonise with the divine will, in the measure +they have eternal consequences in himself whatever they may have on +others. If we live opening our minds and hearts to the influx of the +divine power 'that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good +pleasure,' then we may be humbly sure that these 'works' are eternal; +and though they will never constitute the ground of our acceptance, +they will never fail to secure 'a great recompence of reward.' To many +a humble saint there will be a moment of wondering thankfulness when +he sees these his 'children whom God hath given him' clustered round +him, and has to say, 'Lord, when saw I Thee naked, or in prison, and +visited Thee?' There will be many an apocalypse of grateful surprise +in the revelations of the heavens. We remember Milton's noble +explanation of these great words which may well silence our feeble +attempts to enforce them-- + + 'Thy works and alms and all thy good endeavour + Stood not behind, nor in the grave were trod, + But as faith pointed with her golden rod, + Followed them up to joy and bliss for ever.' + +So then, life here and yonder will for the Christian soul be one +continuous whole, only that there, while 'their works do follow them,' +'they rest from their labours.' + + + +FINIS CORONAT OPUS + +'Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.'--ECCLES. vii. 8. + + +This Book of Ecclesiastes is the record of a quest after the chief +good. The Preacher tries one thing after another, and tells his +experiences. Amongst these are many blunders. It is the final lesson +which he would have us learn, not the errors through which he reached +it. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is what he would commend to +us, and to it he cleaves his way through a number of bitter +exaggerations and of partial truths and of unmingled errors. The text +is one of a string of paradoxical sayings, some of them very true and +beautiful, some of them doubtful, but all of them the kind of things +which used-up men are wont to say--the salt which is left in the pool +when the tide is gone down. The text is the utterance of a wearied man +who has had so many disappointments, and seen so many fair beginnings +overclouded, and so many ships going out of port with flying flags and +foundering at sea, that he thinks nothing good till it is ended; +little worth beginning--rest and freedom from all external cares and +duties best; and, best of all, to be dead, and have done with the +whole coil. Obviously, 'the end of a thing' here is the parallel to +'the day of death' in verse 1, which is there preferred to 'the day of +one's birth.' That is the godless, worn-out worlding's view of the +matter, which is infinitely sad, and absolutely untrue. + +But from another point of view there is a truth in these words. The +life which is lived for God, which is rooted in Christ, a life of +self-denial, of love, of purity, of strenuous 'pressing towards the +mark,' is better in its 'end' than in its 'beginning.' To such a life +we are all called, and it is possible for each. May my poor words help +some of us to make it ours. + +I. Then our life has an end. + +It is hard for any of us to realise this in the midst of the rush and +pressure of daily duty; and it is not altogether wholesome to think +much about it; but it is still more harmful to put it out of our +sight, as so many of us do, and to go on habitually as if there would +never come a time when we shall cease to be where we have been so +long, and when there will no more arise the daily calls to transitory +occupations. The thought of the certainty and nearness of that end has +often become a stimulus to wild, sensuous living, as the history of +the relaxation of morality in pestilences, and in times when war +stalked through the land, has abundantly shown. 'Let us eat and drink, +for tomorrow we die,' is plainly a way of reasoning that appeals to +the average man. But the entire forgetfulness that there is an end is +no less harmful, and is apt to lead to over-indulgence in sensuous +desires as the other extreme. Perhaps the young need more especially +to be recalled to the thought of the 'end' because they are more +especially likely to forget it, and because it is specially worth +their while to remember it. They have still the long stretch before +the 'end' before them, to make of it what they will. Whereas for us +who are further on in the course, there is less time and opportunity +to shape our path with a view to its close, and to those of us in old +age, there is but little need to preach remembrance of what has come +so close to us. It is to the young man that the Preacher proffers his +final advice, to 'rejoice in his health, and to walk in the ways of +his heart, and in the sight of his eyes,' but withal to know that 'for +these God will bring him into judgment.' + +And in that counsel is involved the thought that 'the end which is +better than the beginning' is neither old age, with its limitations +and compulsory abstinences, nor death, which is, as the dreary creed +of the book in its central portions believes it to be, the close of +all things, but, beyond these, the state in which men will reap as +they have sown, and inherit what they have earned. It is that +condition which gives all its importance to death--the porter who +opens the door into a future life of recompence. + +II. The end will, in many respects, not be better than the beginning. + +Put side by side the infant and the old man. Think of the undeveloped +strength, the smooth cheek, the ruddy complexion, the rejoicing in +physical well-being, of the one, with the failing senses, the +tottering limbs, the lowered vitality, the many pains and aches, of +the other. In these respects the end is worse than the beginning. Or +go a step further onwards in life, and think of youth, with its unworn +energy, and the wearied longing for rest which comes at the end; of +youth, with its quick, open receptiveness for all impressions, and the +horny surface of callousness which has overgrown the mind of the old; +of youth, with its undeveloped powers and endless possibilities, which +in the old have become rigid and fixed; of youth, with the rich gift +before it of a continent of time, which in the old has been washed +away by the ocean, till there is but a crumbling bank still to stand +on; of youth, with its wealth of hopes, and of the hopes of the old, +which are solemn ventures, few and scanty--and then say if the end is +not worse than the beginning. + +And if we go further, and think of death as the end, is it not in a +very real and terrible sense, loss, loss? It is loss to be taken out +of the world, to 'leave the warm precincts and the cheerful day,' to +lose friends and lovers, and to be banned into a dreary land. Yet, +further, the thought of the end as being a state of retribution +strikes upon all hearts as being solemn and terrible. + +III. Yet the end may be better. + +The sensuous indulgence which Ecclesiastes preaches in its earlier +portions will never lead to such an end. It breeds disgust of life, as +the examples of in all ages, and today, abundantly shows. Epicurean +selfishness leads to weariness of all effort and work. If we are +unwise enough to make either of these our guides in life, the only +desirable end will be the utter cessation of being and consciousness. + +But there is a better sense in which this paradoxical saying is simple +truth, and that sense is one which it is possible for us all to +realise. What sort of end would that be, the brightness of which would +far outshine the joy when a man-child is born into the world? Would it +not be a birth into a better life than that which fills and often +disturbs the 'threescore years and ten' here? Would it not be an end +to a course in which all our nature would be fully developed and all +opportunities of growth and activity had been used to the full? which +had secured all that we could possess? which had happy memories and +calm hopes? Would it not be an end which brought with it communion +with the Highest--joys that could never fade, activities that could +never weary? Surely the Christian heaven is better than earth; and +that heaven may be ours. + +That supreme and perfect end will be reached by us through faith in +Christ, and through union by faith with Him. If we are joined to the +Lord and are one with Him, our end in glory will be as much better +than this our beginning on earth as the full glory of a summer's day +transcends the fogs and frosts of dreary winter. 'The path of the just +is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect +day.' + +If the end is not better than the beginning, it will be infinitely +worse. Golden opportunities will be gone; wasted years will be +irrevocable. Bright lights will be burnt out; sin will be graven on +the memory; remorse will be bitter; evil habits which cannot be +gratified will torment; a wearied soul, a darkened understanding, a +rebellious heart, will make the end awfully, infinitely, always worse +than the beginning. From all these Jesus Christ can save us; and, full +as He fills the cup of life as we travel along the road, He keeps the +best wine till the last, and makes 'the end of a thing better than the +beginning.' + + + +MISUSED RESPITE + +'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, +therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do +evil'--ECCLES. viii. 11. + + +When the Pharaoh of the Exodus saw there was respite, he hardened his +heart. Abject in his fear before Moses, he was ready to promise +anything; insolent in his pride, he swallows down his promises as soon +as fear is eased, his repentance and his retractation of it combined +to add new weights about his neck. He was but a conspicuous example of +a universal fault. Every nation, I suppose, has its proverb scoffing +at the contrast between the sick man's vow and the recovered man's +sins. The bitter moralist of the Old Testament was sure not to let +such an instance of man's inconceivable levity pass unnoticed. His +settled habit of dragging to light the seamy side of human nature was +sure to fall on this illustration of it as congenial food. He has +wrapped up here in these curt, bitter words a whole theory of man's +condition, of God's providence, of its abuse, and of the end to which +it all tends. + +I. Note the delay in executing sentence. + +Every 'evil work' is already sentenced. 'He that believeth not,' said +Christ, 'is condemned already'; and that is one case of a general +truth. The text writes the sentence as passed, though the execution is +for a time suspended. What is the underlying fact expressed by this +metaphor? God's thorough knowledge of, and displeasure at, every evil. +When one sees vile things done on earth, and no bolt coming out of the +clear sky, it is not easy to believe that all the foulness is known to +God; but His eye reaches further than He wills to stretch His arm. He +sits a silent Onlooker and beholds; the silence does not argue +indifference. The sentence is pronounced, but the execution is +delayed. It is not wholly delayed, for there are consequences which +immediately dog our evil deeds, and are, as it were, premonitions of a +yet more complete penalty. But in the present order of things the +connection between a man's evil-doing and suffering is, on the whole, +slight, obscure, and partial. Evil triumphs; goodness not seldom +suffers. If one thinks for a moment of the manifold evils of the +world, which swathe it, as it were, in an atmosphere of woe--the wars, +the slavery, the oppressions, the private sorrows--and then thinks +that there is a God who lets all these go on from generation to +generation, we seem to be in the presence of a mystery of mysteries. +The Psalmist of old exclaimed in adoring wonder, 'Thy judgments are a +great deep'; but the absence of His judgments seems to open a +profounder abyss into which even the great mountains of His +righteousness appear in danger of falling. + +II. The reasons for this delay. + +It is not only a mystery, but it is a 'mystery of love.' We can see +but a little way into it, but we can see so far as to be sure that the +apparent passivity of God, which looks like leaving evil to work its +unhindered will, is the silence of a God who 'doth not willingly +afflict,' and is 'slow to anger,' because He is perfect love. + +The ground of necessity for the delay in executing the sentence lies, +partly, in the probationary character of this present life. If +evil-doing was always followed by swift retribution, obedience would +be only the obedience of fear, and God does not desire such obedience. +It would be impossible that testing could go on at all if at every +instant the whole of the consequences of our actions were being +realised. Such a condition of things is unthinkable, and would be as +confusing, in the moral sphere, as if harvest weather and spring +weather were going on together. Again, the great reason why sentence +against an evil work is not executed speedily lies in God's own heart, +and His desire to win us to Himself by benefits. He does not seek +enforced obedience; He neither desires our being wedded to evil, nor +our being weighed upon by the consequences of our sin, and so He holds +back His hand. It is to be remembered that He not merely does thus +restrain the forthcoming of His hand of judgment, but, instead of it, +puts forth a hand of blessing. He moves around us wooing us to +Himself, and, in patience possessing His spirit, marks all our sins, +but loves and blesses still. He gives us the vineyard, though we do +not give Him the fruit. Still He is not angry, but sends His +messengers, and we stone them. Still He waits: we go on heaping year +upon year of rebellious forgetfulness, and no lightning flashes from +His eye, no exclamation of wearied-out patience, comes from His lips, +no rush of the sudden arrow from His long-stretched bow. The endless +patience of God has no explanation but only this, that He loves us too +well to leave any means untried to bring us to Him, and that He +lingers round us to win our hearts. O rare and unspeakable love, the +patient love of the patient God! + +III. The abuse of this delay. + +We have the knack of turning God's pure gifts into poison, and +practise a devilish chemistry by which we distil venom from the +flowers of Eden and the roses of the garden of God. I don't suppose +that to many men the respite which marks God's dealing with them +actually tends to doubts of His righteousness, or of His power, or of +His being. We have evidence enough of these; and the apparently +counter evidence, arising from the impunity of evil-doers, is fairly +enough laid aside by our moral instincts and consciousness, and by the +consideration that the mighty sweep of God's providence is too great +for us to decide on the whole circle by the small portion of the +circumference which we have seen. But what most men do is simply that +they permit impunity to deaden their sense of right and wrong, and go +on in their course without any serious thought of God's blessings, to +jostle Him out of their mind; they _'despise the riches of His +long-suffering goodness,'_ and never suffer it to _'lead them to +repentance.'_ To the unthinking minds of most of us, the long +continuance of impunity lulls us into a dream of its perpetuity. Man's +godless ingratitude is as deep a mystery as is God's loving patience. +It is strange that, with such constant failure of His love to win, God +should still persevere in it. For more than seventy times seven He +persists in forgiving the rebellious child who sins against Him, and +for more than seventy times seven the child persists in the abuse of +the Father's love, which still remains-an abuse of sin above all sins. + +IV. The end of the delay. + +The sentence is passed. It is impossible that it should not be +executed. When God has done all, and sees that the point of +hopelessness is reached, or when the time has for other reasons come, +then He lets the sentence take effect. He kept back the destroying +angels from Sodom, but He sent them forth at last. There is a point in +the history of nations and of men when iniquity is 'full,' and when +God sees that it is best, on world-wide grounds or personal ones, to +end it. So there come for nations and for individuals crises; and the +law for the divine working is, 'A short work will the Lord make on the +earth.' For long years Noah was building the ark, and exposed to the +scoffs of a generation whose sentence had been pronounced and not yet +executed; but the day came when he entered into its covert, and 'the +flood came and destroyed them all.' For generations He would fain have +gathered the people of Jerusalem to His bosom 'as a hen gathereth her +chickens under her wings, and they would not'; but the day came when +the Roman soldiers cast their torches into the beautiful house where +their fathers had praised Him, and sinned against Him, and it was left +unto them desolate. Let us not be high-minded nor victims of our +levity and inconsiderateness, but fear. + +Let us remember too that the intensity of the execution is aggravated +by all the sins committed during the delay. By them we 'treasure wrath +against the day of wrath.' He says to His angels at last 'Now,' and +the sword falls, and justice is done. 'The mills of God grind slowly, +but they grind exceeding small.' The sum of the whole matter is, every +evil of ours is sentenced already; the punishment is delayed for our +sins, and because Christ has died. God is wooing our hearts, and +trying to win us to love Him by the holding back of the sentence which +we are daily abusing. Shall we not accept His forbearance and take His +gifts as tokens of the patient tenderness of His heart? Or are we to +be like 'the brutes that perish,' knowing neither the hand that feeds +them, nor the hand that kills them. The delay in rendering 'the just +recompence of reward' only aggravates its weight when it falls. As in +some levers, the slower the motion, the greater the force of the lift. + + + +FENCES AND SERPENTS + +'... Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.'--ECCLES. x. +8. + + +What is meant here is, probably, not such a hedge as we are accustomed +to see, but a dry-stone wall, or, perhaps, an earthen embankment, in +the crevices of which might lurk a snake to sting the careless hand. +The connection and purpose of the text are somewhat obscure. It is one +of a string of proverb-like sayings which all seem to be illustrations +of the one thought that every kind of work has its own appropriate and +peculiar peril. So, says the Preacher, if a man is digging a pit, the +sides of it may cave in and he may go down. If he is pulling down a +wall he may get stung. If he is working in a quarry there may be a +fall of rock. If he is a woodman the tree he is felling may crush him. +What then? Is the inference to be, Sit still and do nothing, because +you may get hurt whatever you do? By no means. The writer of this book +hates idleness very nearly as much as he does what he calls 'folly,' +and his inference is stated in the next verse--'Wisdom is profitable +to direct.' That is to say, since all work has its own dangers, work +warily, and with your brains as well as your muscles, and do not put +your hand into the hollow in the wall, until you have looked to see +whether there are any snakes in it. Is that very wholesome maxim of +prudence all that is meant to be learned? I think not. The previous +clause, at all events, embodies a well-known metaphor of the Old +Testament. 'He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it,' often occurs as +expressing the retribution in kind that comes down on the cunning +plotter against other men's prosperity, and the conclusion that wisdom +suggests in that application of the sentence is, 'Dig judiciously,' +but 'Do not dig at all.' And so in my text the 'wall' may stand for +the limitations and boundary-lines of our lives, and the inference +that wisdom suggests in that application of the saying is not 'Pull +down judiciously,' but 'Keep the fence up, and be sure you keep on the +right side of it.' For any attempt to pull it down--which being +interpreted is, to transgress the laws of life which God has +enjoined--is sure to bring out the hissing snake with its poison. + +Now it is in that aspect that I want to look at the words before us. + +I. First of all, let us take that thought which underlies my +text--that all life is given us rigidly walled up. + +The first thing that the child learns is, that it must not do what it +likes. The last lesson that the old man has to learn is, you must do +what you ought. And between these two extremes of life we are always +making attempts to treat the world as an open common, on which we may +wander at our will. And before we have gone many steps, some sort of +keeper or other meets us and says to us, 'Trespassers, back again to +the road!' Life is rigidly hedged in and limited. To live as you like +is the prerogative of a brute. To live as you ought, and to recognise +and command by obeying the laws and limitations stamped upon our very +nature and enjoined by our circumstances, is the freedom and the glory +of a man. There are limitations, I say--fences on all sides. Men put +up their fences; and they are often like the wretched wooden hoardings +that you sometimes see limiting the breadth of a road. But in regard +to these conventional limitations and regulations, which own no higher +authority or lawgiver than society and custom, you must make up your +mind even more certainly than in regard of loftier laws, that if you +meddle with them, there will be plenty of serpents coming out to hiss +and bite. No man that defies the narrow maxims and petty restrictions +of conventional ways, and sets at nought the opinions of the people +round about him, but must make up his mind for backbiting and slander +and opposition of all sorts. It is the price that we pay for obeying +at first hand the laws of God and caring nothing for the +conventionalities of men. + +But apart from that altogether, let me just remind you, in half a +dozen sentences, of the various limitations or fences which hedge up +our lives on every side. There are the obligations which we owe, and +the relations in which we stand, to the outer world, the laws of +physical life, and all that touches the external and the material. +There are the relations in which we stand, and the obligations which +we owe, to ourselves. And God has so made us as that obviously large +tracts of every man's nature are given to him on purpose to be +restrained, curbed, coerced, and sometimes utterly crushed and +extirpated. God gives us our impulses under lock and key. All our +animal desires, all our natural tendencies, are held on condition that +we exercise control over them, and keep them well within the rigidly +marked limits which He has laid down, and which we can easily find +out. There are, further, the relations in which we stand, and the +obligations and limitations, therefore, under which we come, to the +people round about us. High above them all, and in some sense +including them all, but loftier than these, there is the +all-comprehending relation in which we stand to God, who is the +fountain of all obligations, the source and aim of all duty, who +encompasses us on every side, and whose will makes the boundary walls +within which alone it is safe for a man to live. + +We sometimes foolishly feel that a life thus hedged up, limited by +these high boundaries on either side, must be uninteresting, +monotonous, or unfree. It is not so. The walls are blessings, like the +parapet on a mountain road, that keeps the travellers from toppling +over the face of the cliff. They are training-walls, as our +hydro-graphical engineers talk about, which, built in the bed of a +river, wholesomely confine its waters and make a good scour which +gives life, instead of letting them vaguely wander and stagnate across +great fields of mud. Freedom consists in keeping willingly within the +limits which God has traced, and anything else is not freedom but +licence and rebellion, and at bottom servitude of the most abject +type. + +II. So, secondly, note that every attempt to break down the +limitations brings poison into the life. + +We live in a great automatic system which, by its own operation, +largely avenges every breach of law. I need not remind you, except in +a word, of the way in which the transgression of the plain physical +laws stamped upon our constitutions avenges itself; but the certainty +with which disease dogs all breaches of the laws of health is but a +type in the lower and material universe of the far higher and more +solemn certainty with which 'the soul that sinneth, it shall die.' +Wherever a man sets himself against any of the laws of this material +universe, they make short work of him. We command them, as I said, by +obeying them; and the difference between the obedience and the breach +of them is the difference between the engineer standing on his engine +and the wretch that is caught by it as it rushes over the rails. But +that is but a parable of the higher thing which I want to speak to you +about. + +The grosser forms of transgression of the plain laws of temperance, +abstinence, purity, bring with them, in like manner, a visible and +palpable punishment in the majority of cases. Whoso pulls down the +wall of temperance, a serpent will bite him. Trembling hands, broken +constitutions, ruined reputations, vanished ambitions, wasted lives, +poverty, shame, and enfeebled will, death--these are the serpents that +bite, in many cases, the transgressor. I have a man in my eye at this +moment that used to sit in one of these pews, who came into Manchester +a promising young man, a child of many prayers, with the ball at his +foot, in one of your great warehouses, the only hope of his house, +professedly a Christian. He began to tamper with the wall. First a +tiny little bit of stone taken out that did not show the daylight +through; then a little bigger, and a bigger. And the serpent struck +its fangs into him, and if you saw him now, he is a shambling wreck, +outside of society, and, as we sometimes tremblingly think, beyond +hope. Young men! 'whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.' + +In like manner there are other forms of 'sins of the flesh avenged in +kind,' which I dare not speak about more plainly here. I see many +young men in my congregation, many strangers in this great city, +living, I suppose, in lodgings, and therefore without many restraints. +If you were to take a pair of compasses and place one leg of them down +at the Free Trade Hall, and take a circle of half a mile round there, +you would get a cavern of rattlesnakes. You know what I mean. Low +theatres, low music-halls, casinos, haunts of yet viler sorts--there +the snakes are, hissing and writhing and ready to bite. Do not 'put +your hand on the hole of the asp.' Take care of books, pictures, +songs, companions that would lead you astray. Oh for a voice to stand +at some doors that I know in Manchester, and peal this text into the +ears of the fools, men and women, that go in there! + +I heard only this week of one once in a good position in this city, +and in early days, I believe, a member of my own congregation, begging +in rags from door to door. And the reason was, simply, the wall had +been pulled down and the serpent had struck. It always does; not with +such fatal external effects always, but be ye sure of this, 'God is +not mocked; "whatsoever a man," or a woman either, "soweth, that shall +he also reap."' For remember that there are other ways of pulling down +walls than these gross and palpable transgressions with the body; and +there are other sorts of retributions which come with unerring +certainty besides those that can be taken notice of by others. I do +not want to dwell upon these at any length, but let me just remind you +of one or two of them. + +Some serpents' bites inflame, some paralyse; and one or other of these +two things--either an inflamed conscience or a palsied conscience--is +the result of all wrongdoing. I do not know which is the worst. There +are men and women now in this chapel, sitting listening to me, perhaps +half interested, without the smallest suspicion that I am talking +about them. The serpent's bite has led to the torpor of their +consciences. Which is the worse--to loathe my sin and yet to find its +slimy coils round about me, so that I cannot break it, or to have got +to like it and to be perfectly comfortable in it, and to have no +remonstrance within when I do it? Be sure of this, that every +transgression and disobedience acts immediately upon the conscience of +the doer, sometimes to stir that conscience into agonies of gnawing +remorse, more often to lull it into a fatal slumber. + +I do not speak of the retributions which we heap upon ourselves in +loading our memories with errors and faults, in polluting them often +with vile imaginations, or in laying up there a lifelong series of +actions, none of which have ever had a trace of reference to God in +them. I do not speak, except in a sentence, of the retribution which +comes from the habit of evil which weighs upon men, and makes it all +but impossible for them ever to shake off their sin. I do not speak, +except in a sentence, of the perverted relations to God, the +incapacity of knowing Him, the disregard, and even sometimes the +dislike, of the thought of Him which steal across the heart of the man +that lives in evil and sin; but I put all into two words--every sin +that I do tells upon myself, inasmuch as its virus passes into my +blood as _guilt_ and as _habit_. And then I remind you of +what you say you believe, that beyond this world there lies the solemn +judgment-seat of God, where you and I have to give account of our +deeds. O brother, be sure of this, 'whoso breaketh an hedge'--here and +now, and yonder also--'a serpent shall bite him'! + +That is as far as my text carries me. It has nothing more to say. Am I +to shut the book and have done? There is only one system that has +anything more to say, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. + +III. And so, passing from my text, I have to say, lastly, All the +poison may be got out of your veins if you like. + +Our Lord used this very same metaphor under a different aspect, and +with a different historical application, when He said, 'As Moses +lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be +lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have +eternal life.' + +There is Christ's idea of the condition of this world of ours--a camp +of men lying bitten by serpents and drawing near to death. What I have +been speaking about, in perhaps too abstract terms, is the condition +of each one of us. It is hard to get people, when they are gathered by +the hundred to listen to a sermon flung out in generalities, to +realise it. If I could get you one by one, and 'buttonhole' you; and +instead of the plural 'you' use the singular 'thou,' perhaps I could +reach you. But let me ask you to try and realise each for himself that +this serpent bite, as the issue of pulling down the wall, is true +about each soul in this place, and that Christ endorsed the +representation. How are we to get this poison out of the blood? Reform +your ways? Yes; I say that too; but reforming the life will deliver +from the poison in the character, when you cure hydrophobia by washing +the patient's skin, and not till then. It is all very well to repaper +your dining-rooms, but it is very little good doing that if the +drainage is wrong. It _is_ the drainage that is wrong with us +all. A man cannot reform himself down to the bottom of his sinful +being. If he could, it does not touch the past. That remains the same. +If he could, it does not affect his relation to God. Repentance--if it +were possible apart from the softening influence of faith in Jesus +Christ--repentance alone would not solve the problem. So far as men +can see, and so far as all human systems have declared, 'What I have +written I have written.' There is no erasing it. The irrevocable past +stands stereotyped for ever. Then comes in this message of forgiveness +and cleansing, which is the very heart of all that we preachers have +to say, and has been spoken to most of you so often that it is almost +impossible to invest it with any kind of freshness or power. But once +more I have to preach to you that Christ has received into His own +inmost life and self the whole gathered consequences of a world's sin; +and by the mystery of His sympathy, and the reality of His mysterious +union with us men, He, the sinless Son of God, has been made sin for +us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The brazen +serpent lifted on the pole was in the likeness of the serpent whose +poison slew, but there was no poison in it. Christ has come, the +sinless Son of God, for you and me. He has died on the Cross, the +Sacrifice for every man's sin, that every man's wound might be healed, +and the poison cast out of his veins. He has bruised the malignant, +black head of the snake with His wounded heel; and because He has been +wounded, we are healed of our wounds. For sin and death launched their +last dart at Him, and, like some venomous insect that can sting once +and then must die, they left their sting in His wounded heart, and +have none for them that put their trust in Him. + +So, dear brother, here is the simple condition--namely, faith. One +look of the languid eye of the poisoned man, howsoever bloodshot and +dim it might be, and howsoever nearly veiled with the film of death, +was enough to make him whole. The look of our consciously sinful souls +to that dear Christ that has died for us will take away the guilt, the +power, the habit, the love of evil; and, instead of blood saturated +with the venom of sin, there will be in our veins the Spirit of life +in Christ, which will 'make us free from the law of sin and death.' +'Look unto Him and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth!' + + + +THE WAY TO THE CITY + +'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he +knoweth not how to go to the city.'--ECCLES. x. 15. + + +On the surface this seems to be merely a piece of homely, practical +sagacity, conjoined with one of the bitter things which Ecclesiastes +is fond of saying about those whom he calls 'fools.' It seems to +repeat, under another metaphor, the same idea which has been presented +in a previous verse, where we read: 'If the iron be blunt, and he do +not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is +profitable to direct.' That is to say, skill is better than strength; +brain saves muscle; better sharpen your axe than put yourself into a +perspiration, hitting fierce blows with a blunt one. The prerogative +of wisdom is to guide brute force. And so in my text the same general +idea comes under another figure. Immense effort may end in nothing but +tired feet if the traveller does not know his road. A man lost in the +woods may run till he drops, and find himself at night in the place +from which he started in the morning. The path must be known, and the +aim clear, if any good is to come of effort. + +That phrase, 'how to go to the city,' seems to be a kind of proverbial +comparison for anything that is very plain and conspicuous, just as +our forefathers used to say about any obvious truth, that it was 'as +plain as the road to London town.' The road to the capital is sure to +be a well-marked one, and he must be a fool indeed who cannot see +that. So our text, though on the surface, as I say, is simply a +sarcasm and a piece of homely, practical sagacity, yet, like almost +all the sayings in this Book of Ecclesiastes, it has a deeper meaning +than appears on the surface; and may be applied in higher and more +important directions. It carries with it large truths, and enshrines +in a vivid metaphor bitter experiences which, I suppose, we can all +confirm. + +I. We consider, first, the toil that tires. + +'The labour wearies every one of them.' The word translated 'labour' +seems to carry with it both the idea of effort and of trouble. Or to +recur to a familiar distinction in modern English, the word really +covers both the ground of work and of worry. And it is a sad and +solemn thought that a word with that double element in it should be +the one which is most truly applicable to the efforts of a large +majority of men. I suppose there never was a time in the world's +history when life went so fast as it does in these great centres of +civilisation and commerce in which you and I live. And it is awful to +have to think that the great mass of it all ends in nothing else but +tired limbs and exhaustion. That is a truth to be verified by +experience, and I am bold to believe that every man and woman in this +chapel now can say more or less distinctly 'Amen!' to the assertion +that every life, except a distinctly and supremely religious one, is +worry and work without adequate satisfying result, and with no lasting +issue but exhaustion. + +Let us begin at the bottom. For instance, take a man who has avowedly +flung aside the restraints of right and wrong and conscience, and does +things habitually that he knows to be wrong. Every sin is a blunder as +well as a crime. No man who aims at an end through the smoke of hell +gets the end that he aims at. Or if he does, he gets something that +takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of +the success. They put a very evil-tasting ingredient into spirits of +wine to prevent its being drunk. The cup that sin reaches to a man, +though the wine moveth itself aright and is very pleasant to look at +before being tasted, cheats with _methylated_ spirits. Men and +women take more pains and trouble to damn themselves than ever they do +to have their souls saved. The end of all work, which begins with +tossing conscience on one side, is simply this--'The labour of the +foolish wearieth every one of them.' + +Take a step higher--a respectable, well-to-do Manchester man, +successful in business. He has made it his aim to build up a large +concern, and has succeeded. He has a fine house, carriages, +greenhouses; he has 'J.P.' to his name; he stands high in credit and +on Change. His name is one that gives respectability to anything that +it is connected with. Has he 'come to the city'? Has he got what he +thought he would get when he began his career? He has succeeded in his +immediate and smaller purpose; has that immediate and smaller purpose +succeeded in bringing him what he thought it would bring him? Or has +he fallen a victim to those-- + + 'juggling fiends ... + That palter with us in a double sense; + That keep the word of promise to the ear, + And break it to the hope?' + +They tell us that if you put down in one column the value of the ore +that has been extracted from all the Australian gold-mines, and in +another the amount that it has cost to get it, the latter sum will +exceed the former. There are plenty of people in Manchester who have +put more down into the pit from which they dig their wealth than ever +they will get out of it. And their labour, too, leaves a very dark and +empty aching centre in their lives, 'and wearieth every one of them.' +And so I might go the whole round. We students, so long as our pursuit +of knowledge has not in it as supreme, directing motive, and ultimate +aim and issue, the glory and the service of God, come under the lash +of the same condemnation as those grosser and lower forms of life of +which I have been speaking. But wherever we look, if there be not in +the heart and in the life a supreme regard to God and a communion with +Him, then this characteristic is common to all the courses, that, +whilst they may each meet some immediate and partial necessity of our +natures, none of them is adequate for the whole circumference of a +man's being, nor any of them able, during the whole duration of that +being, to be his satisfaction and his rest. Therefore, I say, all +toil, however successful to the view of a shorter range of vision, and +however noble--excluding the noblest of all--all toil that ends only +in securing that which perishes with the using, or that which we leave +behind us here when we pass hence, is condemned for folly and labour +that wearies the men who are fools enough to surrender themselves to +it. + +I need not remind you of the wonderful variety of metaphor under which +that threadbare thought, which yet it is so hard for us to believe and +make operative in our lives, is represented to us in Scripture. Just +let me recall one or two of them in the briefest way. 'Why do ye spend +your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which +profiteth not?' 'They have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken +cisterns that can hold no water.' 'Their webs shall not become +garments.' That may want a word of explanation. The metaphor is this. +You are all like spiders spinning carefully and diligently your web. +There is not substance enough in it to make a coat out of. You will +never cover yourselves with the product of your own brains or your own +efforts. There is no clothing in the spider's webs of a godless life. + +Ah! brother, all these earthly aims which some of my friends listening +to me now have for the _sole_ aims of their lives, are as foolish +and as inadequate to accomplish that which is sought for by them, as +it would be to seek to quench raging thirst by lifting to the lips a +golden cup that is empty. Some of us have a whole sideboard full of +such, and vary our pursuits according to inclination and task. Some of +us have only one such, but they are all empty, and the lip is parched +after the cup has been lifted to it as it was before. + +II. And so, consider now, secondly, the foolish ignorance that makes +the toil tiresome. + +The metaphor of my text says that the reason why the 'fool' is so +wearied after the day's march is that he does not in the morning +settle where he is going, and how he is to get there; and so, having +started to go nowhither, he has got where he started for. He 'does not +know how to go to the city'--which, being translated into plain and +unmetaphorical English, is just this, that many men wreck their lives +for want of a clear sight of their true aim, and of the way to secure +it. + +There is nothing more tragical than the absence, in the great bulk of +men, of anything like deliberate, definite views as to their aim in +life, and the course to be taken to secure it. There are two things +obviously necessary for success in any enterprise. One is, that there +shall be the most definite and clear conception of what is aimed at; +and the other, that there shall be a wisely considered plan to get at +it. Unless there be these, if you go at random, running a little way +for a moment in this direction, and then heading about and going in +the other, you cannot expect to get to the goal. + +Now, what I want to ask some of my friends here is, Did you ever give +ten deliberate minutes to try to face for yourselves, and put into +plain words, what you are living for, and how you mean to secure it? +Of course I know that you have given thought and planning in plenty to +the nearer aims, without which material life cannot be lived at all. I +do not suppose that anybody here is chargeable with not having thought +enough about how to get on in business, or in their chosen walk of +life. It is not that kind of aim which I mean at all; but it is a +point beyond it that I want to press upon you. You are like men who +would carefully victual a ship and take the best information for their +guide as to what course to lie, and had never thought what they were +going to do when they got to the port. So you say, 'I am going to be +such-and-such a thing.' Well, what then? 'Well, I am going to lay +myself out for success.' Be it commercial, be it intellectual, be it +social, be it in the sphere of the affections, or whatever it may be. +Well, what then? 'Well, then I am going to advance in material +prosperity, I hope, or in wisdom, or to be surrounded by loving faces +of children and those that are dear to me.' What then? 'Then I am +going to die.' What then? + +It is not till you get to that last question, and have faced it and +answered it, that you can be said to have taken the whole sweep of the +circumstances into view, and regulated your course according to the +dictates of common sense and right reason. And a terribly large number +of us live with careful adaptation of means to ends in regard of all +the smaller and more immediately to be realised aims of life, but have +never faced the larger question which reduces all these smaller aims +to insignificance. The simple child's interrogation which in the +well-known ballad ripped the tinsel off the skeleton, and showed war +in its hideousness, strips many of your lives of all pretence to be +reasonable. 'What good came of it at the last?' Can you answer the +question that the infant lips asked, and say, 'This good will come of +it at last. That I shall have God for my own, and Jesus Christ in my +heart'? + +Brother! if I could only get you to this point, that you would take +half an hour now to think over what you ought to be, and to ask +yourself whether your aims in life correspond to what your aims should +be, I should have done more than I am afraid I shall do with some of +you. The naturalist can tell when he picks up a skeleton something of +the habits and the element of the creature to which it belonged. If it +has a hollow _sternum_ he knows it is meant to fly. On your +nature is impressed unmistakably that your destiny is not to creep, +but to soar. Not in vain does the Westminster Catechism lay the +foundation of everything in this, the prime question for all men, +'What is the chief end of man?' Ask that, and do not rest till you +have answered it. + +Then there is another idea connected with this ignorance of my +text--viz. that it is the result of folly. Now the words 'folly' and +'foolish' and 'foolishness,' and their opposites, 'wisdom' and 'wise,' +in this Book of Ecclesiastes, as in the Book of Proverbs, do not mean +merely dull stupidity intellectually, which is a thing for which a man +is to be pitied rather than to be blamed, but they always carry +besides the idea of intellectual defect, also the idea of moral +obliquity. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'; and, +conversely, the absence of that fear is the foundation of that which +this writer stigmatises as 'folly' He is not merely sneering at men +with small brains and little judgments. There may be plenty of us who +are so, and yet are wise unto salvation and possessed of a far higher +wisdom than that of this world. But he tells us that so strangely +intertwined are the intellectual and moral parts of our nature, that +wheresoever there is the obscuration of the latter there is sure to be +the perversion of the former, and the man knows not 'how to go to the +city' because he is 'foolish.' + +That is to say, you go wrong in your judgment about your conduct +because you have gone wrong morally. And your blunders about life, and +your ignorance of its true end and aim, and your mistakes as to how to +secure happiness and blessedness, are your own faults, and are owing +to the aversion of your nature from that which is highest and noblest, +even God and His service. Therefore you are not only to be pitied +because you are out of the road, but to be blamed because you have +darkened the eyes of your mind by loving the darkness rather than the +light. And you 'do not know how to go to the city,' because you do not +want to go to the city, and would rather huddle here in the +wilderness, and live upon its poor supplies, than pass within the +golden gates. My brethren! the folly which blinds a man to his true +aim and mission in life is a folly which has in it the darker aspect +of sin, and is punishable as such. + +III. Lastly, note the plain path which the foolish miss. + +He 'does not know how to go to the city.' What on earth will he be +able to see if he cannot see that broad highway, beaten and white, +stretching straight before him, over hill and dale, and going right to +the gates? A man must be a fool who cannot find the way to London. + +The principles of moral conduct are trite and obvious. It is plain +that it is better to be good than bad. It is better to be unselfish +than selfish. It is better not to live for things that perish, seeing +that we are going to last for ever. It is better not to make the flesh +our master here, seeing that the spirit will have to live without the +flesh some day. It is better to get into training for the world to +coma, seeing that we are all drifting thither. All these things are +plain and obvious. + +Man's destiny for God is unmistakable. 'Whose image and superscription +hath it?' said Christ about the coin. 'Caesar's!' 'Then give it to +Caesar.' Whose image and superscription hath my heart, this restless +heart of mine, this spirit that wanders on through space and time, +homeless and comfortless, until it can grasp the Eternal? Who are you +meant for? God! And every fibre of your nature has a voice to say so +to you if you listen to it. So, then, a godless life such as some of +you, my hearers, are contentedly living, ignores facts that are most +patent to every man's experience. And while before you, huge 'as a +mountain, open, palpable,' are the commonplaces and undeniable +verities which declare that every man who is not a God-fearing man is +a fool, you admit them all, and, bowing your heads in reverence, let +them all go over you and produce no effect. + +The road is clearer than ever since Jesus Christ came. He has shown us +the city, for He has brought life and immortality to light by the +Gospel. He has shown us the road, for His life is the pattern of all +that men ought to aim at and to be. The motto of the eternal Son of +God, if I may venture upon such a metaphor, is like the motto of the +heir-apparent of the English throne, 'I serve.' Lo! 'I come to do Thy +will'--and that is the only word which will make a human life peaceful +and strong and beautiful. In the presence of His radiant and solitary +perfection, men no longer need to wonder, What is the ideal to which +conduct and character should be conformed? And Jesus Christ has come +to make it possible to go to the city, by that cross on which He bore +the burden of all sin, and takes away the sin of the world, and by +that Spirit of life which He will impart to our weakness, and which +makes our sluggish feet run in the way of His commandments, and not be +weary, and walk and not faint. + +Take that dear Lord for your revelation of duty, for your Pattern of +conduct, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the Inspirer with power +to do His will, and then you will see stretching before you, high up +above the surrounding desert, so that no lion nor ravenous beast shall +go up there, the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord shall walk, +'and the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.' +'Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may enter in +through the gates into the City.' + + + +A NEW YEARS SERMON TO THE YOUNG + +'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in +the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the +sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will +bring thee into judgment.... Remember now thy Creator in the days of +thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when +thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.'--ECCLES. xi. 9; xii. 1. + + +This strange, and in some places perplexing Book of Ecclesiastes, is +intended to be the picture of a man fighting his way through +perplexities and half-truths to a clear conviction in which he can +rest. What he says in his process of coming to that conviction is not +always to be taken as true. Much that is spoken in the earlier portion +of the Book is spoken in order to be confuted, and its insufficiency, +its exaggerations, its onesidedness, and its half-truths, to be +manifest in the light of the ultimate conclusion to which he comes. +Through all these perplexities he goes on 'sounding his dim and +perilous way,' with pitfalls on this side of him and bogs on that, +till he comes out at last upon the open way, with firm ground under +foot and a clear sky overhead. These phrases which I have taken are +the opening sentences and the final conclusion on which he rests. How +then are they meant to be understood? Is that saying, 'Rejoice, O +young man! in the days of thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in +the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the +sight of thine eyes,' to be taken as a bit of fierce irony? Is this a +man taking the maxims of the foolish world about him and seeming to +approve of them in order that he may face round at the end with a +quick turn and a cynical face and hand them back their maxims along +with that which will shatter them to pieces--as if he said, 'Oh, yes! +go on, talk your fill about making the best of this world, and +rejoicing and doing as you like, dancing on the edge of a precipice, +and fiddling, like Nero, whilst a worse fire than that of Rome is +burning'? Well, I do not think that is the meaning of it. Though there +is irony to be found in the Bible, I do not think that fierce irony +like that which might do for the like of Dean Swift, is the intention +of the Preacher. So I take these words to be said in good faith, as a +frank recognition of the fact that, after all we have been hearing +about vanity and vexation of spirit, life is worth living for, and +that God means young people to be glad and to make the best of the +fleeting years that will never come back with the same buoyancy and +elasticity all their lives long. And then I take it that the words +added are not meant to destroy or neutralise the concession of the +first sentence, but only to purify and ennoble a gladness which, +without them, would be apt to be stained by many a corruption, and to +make permanent a joy which, without them, would be sure to die down +into the miserable, peevish, and feeble old age of which the grim +picture follows, and to be quenched at last in death. So there are +three words that I take out of this text of mine, and that I want to +bring before my young friends as exhortations which it is wise to +follow. These are Rejoice, Reflect, Remember. Rejoice--the fitting +gladness of youth; reflect--the solemn thought that will guard the +gladness from stain; remember--the religion which will make these +things ever last. + +First of all 'Rejoice.' Do as you like, for that is the English +translation of the words, 'Walk in the ways of thine heart and in the +sight of thine eyes.' Buoyantly and cheerfully follow the inclinations +and the desires which are stamped upon your nature and belong to your +time of life. All young things are joyful, from the lamb in the +pastures upwards, and are meant to be so. The mere bounding sense of +physical strength which leads so many of you young men astray is a +good thing and a blessed thing--a blessing to be thankful for and to +cherish. Your smooth cheeks, so unlike those of old age, are only an +emblem of the comparative freedom from care which belongs to your +happy condition. Your memories are not yet like some--a book written +within and without with the records of mourning and disappointment and +crosses. There are in all probability long years stretching before +you, instead of a narrow strip of barren sand, before you come to the +great salt sea that is going to swallow you up, as is the case with +some of us. Christianity looks with complacency on your gladness, and +does not mean to clip the wing of one white-winged pleasure, or to +breathe one glimmer of blackness on your atmosphere. You are meant to +be glad, but it is gladness in a far higher sense that I want to +secure for you, or rather to make you secure for yourselves. God +delights in the prosperity and light-hearted buoyancy of His children, +especially of His young children. Ah! but I know there are young lives +over which poverty or ill-health or sorrows of one kind or another +have cast a gloom as incongruous to your time of life as snow in the +garden in the spring, that pinches the crocuses and weighs down young +green beech-leaves, would be. And if I am speaking to any young man or +young woman at this time who by reason of painful outward +circumstances has had but a chilling spring and youth, I would say to +them, 'don't lose heart'; a cloudy morning often breaks into a perfect +day. It is good for a man to have to 'bear the yoke in his youth,' and +if you miss joy, you may get grace and strength and patience, which +will be a blessing to you all your days. For all that, the ordinary +course of things is that the young should be glad, and that the young +life should be as the rippling brook in the sunshine. I want to leave +upon your minds this impression, that it is all right and all in the +order of God's providence, who means every one of you to rejoice in +the days of your youth. The text says further, 'Walk in the ways of +thine heart.' That sounds very like the unwholesome teaching, 'Follow +nature; do as you like; let passions and tastes and inclinations be +your guides.' + +Well, that needs to be set round with a good many guards to prevent it +becoming a doctrine of devils. But for all that, I wish you to notice +that that has a great and a religious side to it. You have come into +possession of this mystical life of yours, a possession which requires +that you must choose what kind of life you will follow. Every one has +this awful prerogative of being able to walk in the way of their +heart. You have to answer for the kind of way that is, and the kind of +heart out of which it has come. But I want to go to more important +things, and so with a clear understanding that the joy of youth is all +right and legitimate, that you are intended to be glad, and to feel +the physical and intellectual spring and buoyancy of early days, let +us go on to the next thing. 'Rejoice,' says my text, and it adds, +'Reflect.' It is one of the blessings of your time of life, my young +friends, that you do not do much of that. It is one of your happy +immunities that you are not yet in the habit of looking at life as a +whole, and considering actions and consequences. Keep that spontaneity +as long as you can; it is a good thing to keep. But for all that, do +not forget this awful thing, that it may turn to exaggeration and +excess, and that it needs, like all other good things, to be guarded +and rightly used. And so, 'Rejoice,' and 'walk in the sight of thine +eyes'; _but_--'know that for all these things God will bring thee +to judgment.' Well, now, is that thought to come in (I was going to +say, like a mourning-coach driven through a wedding procession) to +kill the joys we have been seeming to receive from the former words? +Are we taking back all that we have been giving, and giving out +instead something that will make them all cower and be quiet, like the +singing birds that stop their singing and hide in the leaves when they +see the kite in the sky? No, there is no need for anything of the +sort. 'For all these things God will bring thee to judgment': that is +not the thought that kills, but that purifies and ennobles. Regard +being had to the opinions expressed at various points in the earlier +portion of this Book, we may be allowed to think of this testimony as +having reference to the perpetual judgment that is going on in this +world always over every man's life. A great German thinker has it, in +reference to the history of nations, that the history of the world is +the judgment of the world, and although that is not true if it is a +denial of a physical day of judgment, it is true in a very profound +and solemn sense with regard to the daily life of every man, that +whether there be a judgment-seat beyond the grave or not, and whether +this Preacher knew anything about that or no, there is going on +through the whole of a man's life, and evolving itself, this solemn +conviction, that we are to pass away from this present life. All our +days are knit together as one whole. Yesterday is the parent of today, +and today is the parent of all the tomorrows. The meaning and the +deepest consequence of man's life is that no feeling, no thought that +flits across the mirror of his life and heart dies utterly, leaving +nothing behind it. But rather the metaphor of the Apostle is the true +one, 'That which thou sowest, that shalt thou also reap.' All your +life a seed-time, all your life a harvest-time too, for the seed which +I sow today is the seed which I have reaped from all my former +sowings, and so cause and consequence go rolling on in life in +extricable entanglement, issuing out in this, that whatever a man does +lives on in him, and that each moment inherits the whole consequence +of his former life. And now, you young men and women, you boys and +girls, mind! this seed-time is the one that will be most powerful in +your lives, and there is a judgment you do not need to die to meet. If +you are idle at school, you will never learn Latin when you go to +business. If you are frivolous in your youth, if you stain your souls +and soil your lives by outward coarse sin here in Manchester in your +young days, there will be a taint about you all your lives. You cannot +get rid of that brave law that 'Whatever a man sows, that, thirtyfold, +sixtyfold, an hundredfold, that shall he also reap'--the same kind, +but infinitely multiplied in quantity. Let me therefore name some of +the ways in which your joys or pleasures, as lads, as boys and girls, +as growing young men and women, will bring you to judgment. Health, +that is one; position, that is two; reputation, that is three; +character, that is four. Did you ever see them build one of those +houses they make in some parts of the country, with concrete instead +of stones? Take a spadeful of the mud, and put it into a frame on the +wall. When it is dry, take away the frame and the supports, and it +hardens into rock. You take your single deeds--the mud sometimes, +young men!--pop them on the wall, and think no more about it. Ay, but +they stop there and harden there, and lo! a character--a house for +your soul to live in--health, position, memory, capacity, and all +that. If you have not done certain things which you ought to have +done, you will never be able to do them, and there are the materials +for a judgment. That is going on every moment, and especially is it +going on in the region of your pleasures. If they are unworthy, you +are unworthy; if they are gross, and coarse, and low, and animal, they +are dragging you down; if they are frivolous and foolish, they are +making you a poor butterfly of a creature that is worth nothing and +will be of no good to anybody; if they are pure, and chaste, and +lofty, and virginal and white, they will make your souls good and +gracious and tender with the tenderness and beauty of God. + +But that is not all. I am not going to travel beyond the limits of +this present life with any words of mine, but as I read this final +conclusion in this Book of Ecclesiastes, I think I can perceive that +the doubts and the scepticisms about a future life, and the difference +between a man and a beast which are spoken of in the earlier chapters, +have all been overcome, and the clear conviction of the writer is +expressed in these twofold great sayings: 'The spirit shall return +unto God who gave it, and the words with which He stamps all His +message upon our hearts, the final words of His book'; 'God shall +bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.' And I come to +you and say, 'I suppose you believe in a state of retribution beyond?' +I suppose that most of the young folk I am speaking to now at all +events believe that 'Thou wilt come to be our judge,' as the _Te +Deum_ has it; and that it is this same personal self of mine that +is to stand there who is sitting here? God shall bring _thee_ +into judgment. Never mind what is to come of the body, the quivering, +palpitating, personal centre. The very same self that I know myself to +be will be carried there. Now, take that with you and lay it to heart, +and let it have a bearing on your pleasure. It will kill nothing that +deserves to live, it will take no real joy out of a man's life. It +will only strain out the poison that would kill you. You turn that +thought upon your heart, my friends. Is it like a policeman's +bull's-eye turned upon a lot of bad characters hiding under a railway +arch in the corner there? If so, the sooner you get rid of the +pleasures and inclinations that slink away when that beam of light +strikes their ugly faces, the better for yourselves and for your +lives. 'Rejoice in the way of thine heart and, that thy joy may be +pure, know that for all this God will bring thee into judgment.' + +And now my last word, 'Remember God,' says my text. The former two +sayings, if taken by themselves, would make a very imperfect guide to +life. Self-indulgence regulated by the thought of retribution is a +very low kind of life after all. There is something better in this +world, and that is work; something higher, and that is duty; something +nobler than self-indulgence, and that is self-sacrifice. And so no +religion worthy the name contents itself by saying to a man, 'Be good +and you will be glad'; but, 'Never mind whether you are glad; be good +at any rate, and such gladness as is good for you will come to you, +and you can want the rest.' 'Remember thy Creator in the days of thy +youth.' Recall God to your thoughts, and keep Him in your mind all the +day long. That is wonderfully unlike your life, is it not? Remember +thy Creator; shift the centre of your life. What I have been saying +might be true of a man, the centre of whose life was himself, and such +a man is next door to a devil, for, I suppose, the definition of devil +is 'self-engrossed still,' and whosoever lives for himself is dead. +Don't let the earth be the centre of your system, but the sun. Do not +live to yourselves, or your pleasures will all be ignoble and +creeping, but live to God. 'Remember.' Well, then, you and I know a +good deal more about God than the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes +did--both about what He is and how to remember Him. I am not going to +content myself by taking his point of view, but I must take a far +higher and a far better one. If he had been here he would have said +'Remember God.' He would have said, 'Look at God in Jesus Christ, and +trust Him and love Him; go to Him as your Saviour, and take all the +burden of your past sin and lay it upon His merciful shoulders, and +for His dear sake look for forgiveness and cleansing; and then for His +dear sake live to serve and bless Him. Never mind about yourself, and +do not think much about your gladness. Follow in the footsteps of Him +who has shown us that the highest joy is to give oneself utterly away. +Love Jesus Christ and trust Him and serve Him, and that will make all +your gladness permanent.' There is one thing I want to teach you. Look +at that description, or rather read when you go home the description +which follows my text, of that wretched old man who has got no hope in +God and no joy, feeble in body, going down to the grave, and dying out +at last. That is what rejoicing in the days of thy youth, and walking +in the ways of thine own heart, come to when you do not remember God. +There is nothing more miserable on the face of this earth than an +ill-conditioned old man, who is ill-conditioned because he has lost +his early joys and early strength, and has got nothing to make up for +them. How many of your joys, my dear young friends, will last when old +age comes to you? How many of them will survive when your eye is no +longer bright, and your hand no longer strong, and your foot no longer +fleet? How many of them, young woman! when the light is out of your +eye, and the beauty and freshness out of your face and figure, when +you are no longer able for parties, when it is no longer a pastime to +read novels, and when the ballroom is not exactly the place for +you,--how many of your pleasures will survive? Young man! how many of +yours will last when you can no longer go into dissipation, and +stomach and system will no longer stand fast living, nor athletics, +and the like? Oh! let me beseech thee, go to the ant and consider her +ways, who in the summer layeth up for the winter; and do ye likewise +in the days of your youth, store up for yourselves that which knows no +change and laughs at the decay of flesh and sense. A thousand motives +coincide and press on my memory if I had words and time to speak them. +Let me beseech you--especially you young men and women of this +congregation, of some of whom I may venture to speak as a father to +his children, whom I have seen growing up, as it were, from your +mothers' arms, and the rest of you whom I do not know so well--Oh! +carry away with you this beseeching entreaty of mine at the end. Love +Jesus Christ and trust to Him as your Saviour; serve Him as your +Captain and your King in the days of your youth. Do not offer Him the +fag end of a life--the last inch of the candle that is burning down +into the socket. Do it now, for the moments are flying, and you may +never have Him offered to you any more. If there is any softening, any +touch of conscience in your heart, yield to the impulse and do not +stifle it. Take Christ for your Saviour, take Him now--'Now is the +accepted time, now is the day of salvation.' + + + +THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER + +'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil +days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no +pleasure in them; 2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the +stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; 3. In +the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong +men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, +and those that look out of the windows be darkened, 4. And the doors +shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, +and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters +of musick shall be brought low; 5. Also when they shall be afraid of +that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree +shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire +shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go +about the streets: 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden +bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel +broken at the cistern. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as +it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.... 13. Let +us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His +commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14. For God shall +bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be +good, or whether it be evil.'--ECCLES. xii. 1-7,13,14. + + +The Preacher has passed in review 'all the works that are done under +the sun,' and has now reached the end of his long investigation. It +has been a devious path. He has announced many provisional +conclusions, which are not intended for ultimate truths, but rather +represent the progress of the soul towards the final, sufficient +ground and object of belief and aim of all life, even God Himself. +'Vanity of vanities' is a cheerless creed and a half-truth. Its +completion lies in being driven, by recognising vanity as stamped on +all creatures, to clasp the one reality. 'All is vanity' apart from +God, but He is fullness, and possessed and enjoyed and endured in Him, +life is not 'a striving after wind.' Leave out this last section, and +this book of so-called 'Wisdom' is one-sided and therefore error, as +is modern pessimism, which only says more feebly what the Preacher had +said long ago. Take the rest of the book as the autobiography of a +seeker after reality, and this last section as his declaration of +where he had found it, and all the previous parts fall into their +right places. + +Our passage omits the first portion of the closing section, which is +needed in order to set the counsel to remember the Creator in its +right relation. Observe that, properly rendered, the advice in verse 1 +is 'remember also,' and that takes us back to the end of the preceding +chapter. There the young are exhorted to enjoy the bright, brief +blossom-time of their youth, withal keeping the consciousness of +responsibility for its employment. In earlier parts of the book +similar advice had been given, but based on different grounds. Here +religion and full enjoyment of youthful buoyancy and delight in fresh, +unhackneyed, homely pleasures are proclaimed to be perfectly +compatible. The Preacher had no idea that a devout young man or woman +was to avoid pleasures natural to their age. Only he wished their joy +to be pure, and the stern law that 'whatsoever a man soweth that shall +he also reap' to be kept in mind. Subject to that limitation, or +rather that guiding principle, it is not only allowable, but +commanded, to 'put away sorrow and evil.' Young people are often +liable to despondent moods, which come over them like morning mists, +and these have to be fought against. The duty of joy is the more +imperative on the young because youth flies so fast, or, as the +Preacher says,' is vanity.' + +Now these advices sound very like the base incitements to sensual and +unworthy delight which poets of the meaner sort, and some, alas! of +the nobler in their meaner moments, have presented. But this writer is +no teacher of 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,' and wicked trash of +that sort. Therefore he brings side by side with these advices the +other of our passage. That 'also' saves the former from being misused, +just as the thought of judgment did. + +That possible combination of hearty, youthful glee and true religion +is the all-important lesson of this passage. The word for Creator is +in the plural number, according to the Hebrew idiom, which thereby +expresses supremacy or excellence. The name of 'Creator' carries us +back to Genesis, and suggests one great reason for the injunction. It +is folly to forget Him on whom we depend for being; it is ingratitude +to forget, in the midst of the enjoyments of our bright, early days, +Him to whom we owe them all. The advice is specially needed; for youth +has so much, that is delightful in its novelty, to think about, and +the world, on both its innocent and its sinful side, appeals to it so +strongly, that the Creator is only too apt to be crowded out of view +by His works. The temptation of the young is to live in the present. +Reflection belongs to older heads; spontaneous action is more +characteristic of youth. Therefore, they specially need to make +efforts to bring clearly to their thoughts both the unseen future and +Him who is invisible. The advice is specially suitable for them; for +what is begun early is likely to last and be strong. + +It is hard for older men, stiffened into habits, and with less power +and love of taking to new courses, to turn to God, if they have +forgotten Him in early days. Conversion is possible at any age, but it +is less likely as life goes on. The most of men who are Christians +have become so in the formative period between boyhood and thirty. +After that age, the probabilities of radical change diminish rapidly. +So, 'Remember ... in the days of thy youth,' or the likelihood is that +you will never remember. To say, 'I mean to have my fling, and I shall +turn over a new leaf when I am older,' is to run dreadful risk. +Perhaps you will never be older. Probably, if you are, you will not +want to turn the leaf. If you do, what a shame it is to plan to give +God only the dregs of life! You need Him, quite as much, if not more, +now in the flush of youth as in old age. Why should you rob yourself +of years of blessing, and lay up bitter memories of wasted and +polluted moments? If ever you turn to God in your older days, nothing +will be so painful as the remembrance that you forgot Him so long. + +The advice is further important, because it presents the only means of +delivering life from the 'vanity' which the Preacher found in it all. +Therefore he sets it at the close of his meditations. This is the +practical outcome of them all. Forget God, and life is a desert. +Remember Him, and 'the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.' + +The verses from the middle of verse 1 to the end of verse 7 enforce +the exhortation by the consideration of what will certainly follow +youth, and advise remembrance of the Creator before that future comes. +So much is clear, but the question of the precise meaning of these +verses is much too large for discussion here. The older explanation +takes them for an allegory representing the decay of bodily and mental +powers in old age, whilst others think that in them the advance of +death is presented under the image of an approaching storm. Wright, in +his valuable commentary, regards the description of the gradual waning +away of life in old age, in the first verses, as being set forth under +images drawn from the closing days of the Palestinian winter, which +are dreaded as peculiarly unhealthy, while verse 4_b_ and verse 5 +present the advent of spring, and contrast the new life in animals and +plants with the feebleness of the man dying in his chamber and unable +to eat. Still another explanation is that the whole is part of a +dirge, to be taken literally, and describing the mourners in house and +garden. I venture, though with some hesitation, to prefer, on the +whole, the old allegorical theory, for reasons which it would be +impossible to condense here. It is by no means free from difficulty, +but is, as I think, less difficult than any of its rivals. + +Interpreters who adopt it differ somewhat in the explanation of +particular details, but, on the whole, one can see in most of the +similes sufficient correspondence for a poet, however foreign to +modern taste such a long-drawn and minute allegory may be. 'The +keepers of the house' are naturally the arms; the 'strong men,' the +legs; the 'grinding women,' the teeth; the 'women who look out at the +windows,' the eyes; 'the doors shut towards the street,' either the +lips or, more probably, the ears. 'The sound of the grinding,' which +is 'low,' is by some taken to mean the feeble mastication of toothless +gums, in which case the 'doors' are the lips, and the figure of the +mill is continued. 'Arising at the voice of the bird' may describe the +light sleep or insomnia of old age; but, according to some, with an +alteration of rendering ('The voice riseth into a sparrow's'), it is +the 'childish treble' of Shakespeare. The former is the more probable +rendering and reference. The allegory is dropped in verse _5a_, +which describes the timid walk of the old, but is resumed in 'the +almond trees shall flourish'; that is, the hair is blanched, as the +almond blossom, which is at first delicate pink, but fades into white. +The next clause has an appropriate meaning in the common translation, +as vividly expressing the loss of strength, but it is doubtful whether +the verb here used ever means 'to be a burden.' The other explanations +of the clause are all strained. The next clause is best taken, as in +the Revised Version, as describing the failure of appetite, which the +stimulating caper-berry is unable to rouse. All this slow decay is +accounted for, 'because the man is going to his long home,' and +already the poet sees the mourners gathering for the funeral +procession. + +The connection of the long-drawn-out picture of senile decay with the +advice to remember the Creator needs no elucidation. That period of +failing powers is no time to begin remembering God. How dreary, too, +it will be, if God is not the 'strength of the heart,' when 'heart and +flesh fail'! Therefore it is plain common sense, in view of the +future, not to put off to old age what will bless youth, and keep the +advent of old age from being wretched. + +Verses 6 and 7 still more stringently enforce the precept by pointing, +not to the slow approach, but to the actual arrival of death. If a +future of possible weakness and gradual creeping in on us of death is +reason for the exhortation, much more is the certainty that the crash +of dissolution will come. The allegory is partially resumed in these +verses. The 'golden bowl' is possibly the head, and, according to +some, the 'silver cord' is the spinal marrow, while others think +rather of the bowl or lamp as meaning the body, and the cord the soul +which, as it were, holds it up. The 'pitcher' is the heart, and the +'wheel' the organs of respiration. Be this as it may, the general +thought is that death comes, shivering the precious reservoir of +light, and putting an end to drawing of life from the Fountain of +bodily life. Surely these are weighty reasons for the Preacher's +advice. Surely it is well for young hearts sometimes to remember the +end, and to ask, 'What will ye do in the end?' and to do before the +end what is so hard to begin doing at the end, and so needful to have +done if the end is not to be worse than 'vanity.' + +The collapse of the body is not the end of the man, else the whole +force of the argument in the preceding verses would disappear. If +death is annihilation, what reason is there for seeking God before it +comes? Therefore verse 7 is no interpolation to bring a sceptical book +into harmony with orthodox Jewish belief, as some commentators affirm. +The 'contradiction' between it and Ecclesiastes iii. 21 is alleged as +proof of its having been thus added. But there is no contradiction. +The former passage is interrogative, and, like all the earlier part of +the book, sets forth, not the Preacher's ultimate convictions, but a +phase through which he passed on his way to these. It is because man +is twofold, and at death the spirit returns to its divine Giver, that +the exhortation of verse 1 is pressed home with such earnestness. + +The closing verses are confidently asserted to be, like verse 7, +additions in the interests of Jewish 'orthodoxy.' But Ecclesiastes is +made out to be a 'sceptical book' by expelling these from the text, +and then the character thus established is taken to prove that they +are not genuine. It is a remarkably easy but not very logical process. + +'The end of the matter' when all is heard, is, to 'fear God and keep +His commandments.' The inward feeling of reverent awe which does not +exclude love, and the outward life of conformity to His will, is 'the +whole duty of man,' or 'the duty of every man.' And that plain summary +of all that men need to know for practical guidance is enforced by the +consideration of future judgment, which, by its universal sweep and +all-revealing light, must mean the judgment in another life. + +Happy they who, through devious mazes of thought and act, have +wandered seeking for the vision of any good, and having found all to +be vanity, have been led at last to rest, like the dove in the ark, in +the broad simplicity of the truth that all which any man needs for +blessedness in the buoyancy of fresh youthful strength and in the +feebleness of decaying age, in the stress of life, in the darkness of +death, and in the day of judgment, is to 'fear God and keep His +commandments'! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named exp2k10.txt or exp2k10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, exp2k11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, exp2k10a.txt + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, David King +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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