{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13860/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13860","id":"gutenberg_13860","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13860","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Biography","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"MEN OF THE BIBLE; SOME LESSER-KNOWN CHARACTERS\n\nby\n\n  GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D.\n  J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n  ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n  PRINCIPAL WALTER F. ADENEY, D.D.\n  J. MORGAN GIBBON.\n  H. ELVET LEWIS.\n  PRINCIPAL D. ROWLANDS, B.A.\n  W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.\n\n1904\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n  1. ENOCH\n     By W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.\n\n  2. ELDAD AND MEDAD\n     By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n  3. BARZILLAI\n     By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n  4. ADONIJAH\n     By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n  5. HIRAM\n     By W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.\n\n  6. JEROBOAM\n     By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n  7. ASA\n     By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n  8. AHAZIAH\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n  9. GEHAZI\n     By J. MORGAN GIBBON\n\n 10. HAZAEL\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n 11. MANASSEH\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n 12. AMAZIAH\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n 13. JABEZ\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n 14. SIMEON\n     By H. ELVET LEWIS\n\n 15. PONTIUS PILATE\n     By Principal WALTER F. ADENEY, D.D.\n\n 16. BARABBAS\n     By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n 17. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA\n     By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n 18. PHILIP, THE EVANGELIST\n     By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 19. ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA\n     By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 20. DEMAS\n     By Principal D. ROWLANDS, B.A.\n\n\n\n\nENOCH, THE DEATHLESS\n\nBY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.\n\n\nEnoch was the bright particular star of the patriarchal epoch.  His\nrecord is short, but eloquent.  It is crowded into a few words, but\nevery word, when placed under examination, expands indefinitely.  Every\nvirtue may be read into them; every eulogium possible to a human\ncharacter shines from them.  He was a devout man, a fearless preacher\nof righteousness, an intimate friend of God, and the only man of his\ndispensation who did not see death.  He sheds a lustre on the\nantediluvian age, and he shines still as an example to all generations\nof steady and lofty piety.\n\nIt is difficult to realise the exact environment of the early\npatriarchs.  Human society was then in its making.  There were giants\nin those days, both physically and intellectually.  They lived long,\nand unfolded a vigorous manhood, by which civilisation was developed in\nevery direction.  Some of them, also, were tenderly responsive to\nsupernatural influences, and thus rose to a spiritual stature which\nenables them to bulk largely in sacred history.\n\nThe guiding lines of Enoch's biography are clear though few.  \"_He\nwalked with God_\"; \"_he pleased God_\"; \"_he was translated that he\nshould not see death_.\" These are the pregnant remnants of his history,\nfrom which we may construct a character and career of striking eminence.\n\n\nI.\n\n\"He walked with God.\"\n\n\nTherefore he knew God.  The articles of his creed were not many, but he\nwas fixed on this foundation-truth of all religion.  Further than this,\nhe knew God as taking a living interest in His creatures, as one who\ncould be approached by them in prayer and communion, and who was\nsympathetically responsive to their needs.  He somehow knew God, also,\nas being righteous and holy, and he must have had a rudimentary idea of\nthe Christ, as it unfolded itself in the great promise of a deliverer\nfrom evil made to our first parents in Paradise.  However scanty in\nnumber were the articles of his creed, they were not scanty in results.\nThey produced a great life and a great name.  The results were that \"he\nwalked with God.\"  Walking is the habitual exercise of a man's life.  A\nman runs sometimes.  Under great strain, or the demand of special\ncircumstances, he runs, but finds that exhaustion follows; or if he\nruns too frequently, total collapse is the inevitable consequence.  Two\nof the most eminent ministers of our times recently died owing to\noverstrain and over-exertion.  But we have some now living who have\ndone signal service for the Church during a ministry of fifty years,\nand who are still hale and having a green old age.  To walk at a steady\npace, fulfilling life's responsibilities and the demands of duty, is to\nfulfil the will of God and serve our generation.  This rule refers to\nman's religious and spiritual life.  To walk onward and upward in the\nhighest things is to grow in excellence and grace.\n\nAs man is a social being, he must walk with someone in life.  Perpetual\nsolitude dries up the springs of existence, and true manhood is\nshrivelled up.  Solitary confinement is the saddest and cruellest\npunishment that can be inflicted by man on his fellow.  The prisoner in\nthe Bastille, when his reason reeled through prolonged silence and\nloneliness, was saved from mental collapse by the friendship of a rat;\nand a similar story is told of an English prisoner, who, under similar\ncircumstances, found solace in the company of a pigeon.  Man craves for\nfellowship and friendship.  Happiest is he who has the noblest\ncompanion.  God alone fills the deep craving of the heart for a\ncongenial and helpful presence, and Enoch \"_walked with God_.\"  The\nwords imply regular, unbroken, well-sustained communion with Him.  With\na sublime and lofty aspiration Enoch had risen above shadows, idols,\nand pretences, and with simple, manly faith had grasped the unseen\nsubstance and reality, the personal God, the Father of us all.\n\nThis \"_walking with God_\" may be fairly inferred to have been carried\nout in all the affairs of life.  The statement has no exceptions in it.\nOther saints have their failings and sins recorded with an admirable\ncandour, but we are left to conclude that this was a saint of pure life\nand character.  In tending his flocks and herds, in carrying out the\nbarter of the markets in the early world, in commanding his children\nand ordering his household, in preaching righteousness and foretelling\njudgment, the great law of his life was here, \"_walking with God_.\"\n\nWhen such unbroken intercourse with God is maintained, all duty and\nlabour have a new meaning, and are suffused with a new glory.  Every\noccupation or profession becomes a transparency by which divine truth\nand purity are translated to the world.  No man is then a menial or a\nslave, but a free man, living in love and by love.  He becomes an\nevangel, who, by words of holiness and deeds of sacrifice, adorns the\ndoctrine of God and Christ in all things.  Nothing is common, nothing\nis unclean; all life is sanctified and beautiful; the man is a temple\nconsecrated by and for God alone.\n\nIn such habitual fellowship there is constant growth in familiarity and\nintimacy.  God becomes known more and more in the tenderness and\nconsiderateness of His love.  He unfolds Himself to the soul of His\nfriend in such love-compelling charm as that the believer is\nconstrained to ever-growing reverence, gratitude, and devotion.  The\nman is transfigured.  His thoughts, motives, desires, actions, are all\ninspired by the Divine Mind and framed after a Divine Pattern.  The\nlimitations of human nature are relaxed, and the man expands into\nnewness of life; he soars into heavenly places; he is charged with holy\ninfluences.  \"The trivial round, the common task,\" become _media_ to\nhim, by which he can interpret and make known to all, the beauty of\nholiness as revealed to him by communion with God.\n\nIt is a significant fact in the history of Enoch, that his piety shone\nbrightest amid family surroundings.  He was not an ascetic or an\nanchorite.  He was a husband and a father.  It is said that he \"_walked\nwith God after the birth of Methusaleh_.\"  With what measure of fervour\nhe served God before the coming of a child into his house, we are not\ntold; but we are told that after that event \"_he walked with God three\nhundred years_.\"  Possibly he had not manifested special piety before.\nHis children gathered round him, for we are told that after Methusaleh,\nhe had \"sons and daughters.\"  But the blessing of children in no wise\nslackened his course of piety.  Not infrequently, family cares and\nbusiness responsibilities draw men's thoughts and desires from God; and\nmany who in youth were ardent in religious exercises and unfailing in\nspiritual duties, in middle life and old age are found to be merely\nformalists in worship, and paralysed for useful work in the Church.\nThe fine gold has become dim, through the fretting cares or the surging\nexcitements of life.  It is awful when such is the case, when the\npromise and interest of youth settles into impotence and rigidity, when\nthe type which once had the die of thought fresh upon it is worn flat\nby overuse, or when the shell, once the home of life and bright with\nocean's spray, lies with faded colour and emptied hollowness.  This is\nmelancholy, indeed, and many such wrecks of religious life are around\nus.  But with Enoch, the increase of life's cares brought an access of\nfresh devotion.  New gifts of Providence roused new feelings of\ngratitude, and he grappled himself the closer in attachment to the\nGiver of enlarged blessing.  This is as it should be.  Every gift of\nGod should be a call to renewed praise and prayer, to a more perfect\nand joyous service.\n\nThis record of Enoch's piety teaches that the highest spirituality of\nnature is not found in avoiding the duties and cares of life, or in\nseeking a cloistered and solitary existence.  The piety of monkery is\nnot the crown of living.  It is neither an experience of healthy joy\nnor of abundant fruitfulness.  The healthful influences of Christianity\nare immeasurably more beautiful when manifested in the joys of family\nand home life, or in the discharge of honest trade and commerce, than\nin the introspective gloom of the recluse, or the ceremonial round of\nthe ascetic.  It is remarkable that the record states that Enoch's walk\nwith God lasted \"_three hundred years after the birth of Methusaleh_.\"\nThere was no break in his spiritual course; it was continuous growth\nand progress until the light of eventide deepened into the glory of\nheaven.\n\n\nII.\n\n\"He pleased God.\"\n\n\nThis is to win the highest prize of life.  Not only because God is\nhighest and noblest of beings, but also because His pleasure\npresupposes great moral and spiritual qualities, and unfolds itself in\nblessings of untold preciousness both in this life and that which is to\ncome.  The pleasure of the Lord is graduated to the intrinsic beauty or\nvalue possessed by the object which draws it out.  It was manifested\nwhen the great creation stood in finished order before Him, and He\npronounced it \"only good.\"  But of a higher kind is that pleasure said\nto be taken by Him in His only-begotten Son, in His people, and in His\nChurch.  Over these He rejoices with singing, as He rests in His love.\nOf such pleasure Enoch was the recipient, and it was bestowed upon him\nin a most signal and unique manner.  Two especial qualities are\nindispensable to those with whom God is pleased.  One is\nfaith--\"_Without faith it is impossible to please God_\" (Heb. xi. 6).\nThe other is uprightness--\"_I know also, my God, that Thou hast\npleasure in uprightness_\" (1 Chron. xxix. 17).  The former grace is the\nsuperlative and distinguishing feature of the people of God.  It is\nindeed the foundation quality on which all others rest, and from which\nthey spring.  It is the broad separating act which marks the difference\nbetween the saint and the sinner.  Without it man is in opposition to\nGod.  The Divine displeasure rests upon him, because absence of faith\nmeans want of confidence and want of sympathy.  The unbeliever\ndistrusts God, and has no fellow-feeling with Him or His ways.\n\nThere is no more offensive feeling that can be shown by one being\ntowards another than distrust.  It irritates our sensibility; it arrays\nin opposition all the resentment of our nature.  It is the parent of\ngloom, dissatisfaction, pessimism, and rebellion.  It writes discontent\non the brow, and bitterness on the heart.  It is the fruitful parent of\nall ill in human nature.  But faith pleases God.  It draws the human\nand Divine into loving association.  It leads the human to look to the\nDivine for counsel, to lean upon Him for help, to refer all things to\nHis decision, to wait on Him for guidance in every step and enterprise\nin life.  The faith of the patriarchs seems to have been characterised\nby entire simplicity and childlikeness.  As manifested by Enoch, Noah,\nand Abraham, all of whom had the pleasure of the Lord resting on them\nin a pre-eminent degree, there was no stumbling or hesitancy.  Some of\nthem had their faith severely tried, but it came forth from the test\nvictorious, as \"gold tried in the fire.\"  Therefore, if the command of\nGod was hard, faith led to obedience; if the mystery of life was deep,\nfaith drew them close to the Father; if the sense of sin and guilt was\nstrong, faith never failed, but led them to look for the promised\nRedeemer, and they rejoiced to see His day and were glad.\n\nFaith is said to be difficult to exercise in this day of bustle,\nexcitement, and pressure.  The differences between this day and Enoch's\nday are merely accidental and not essential.  There were the same\ninducements and temptations to evil then as now.  There were scoffers\nand cavillers then as now.  The doubting spirit in our first parents\nand in Cain was felt in all; but there was also the strong and manly\nfaith which resisted the sin of doubt, which looked from the seen to\nthe unseen, from the temporal to the eternal, from sin and folly to\nGod, and which established itself firmly on His promise of unchangeable\nlove.  Therefore Enoch \"pleased God.\"  Faith presupposes reverence,\nlove, obedience, and man never pays a higher tribute to another than to\ntrust him implicitly and for all in all.  Such faith God accepts and\ndelights in.  Such faith builds a noble character and a lofty life.\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n\"He was translated that he should not see death.\"\n\n\nThat was the crowning evidence and token of the Divine pleasure.  Death\nis the wages of sin, the harbinger of retribution, the seal of man's\nhumiliation and defeat.  The fear of death is a bondage under which the\nrace of man lies, save only where Christian faith and hope alleviate\nthe terror and inspire a superhuman courage before which all fear is\nbanished.  The extraordinary nature of Enoch's piety could not be\ndemonstrated by any fact so imperative as this, \"_He was translated_.\"\n\nThere are three complete men in heaven.  Man is threefold in his\nnature.  He is body, soul, and spirit.  He is not complete without his\nbodily organisation.  The work of faith is not perfect, nor is the work\nof sin undone until at the Resurrection trump man shall stand complete\nin his threefold being.  But of that completeness there are three\nspecimens in heaven; Enoch from the patriarchal epoch; Elijah from the\nJewish dispensation; and Christ from the Christian.  The translation of\nElijah was a marvellously dramatic episode.  It was witnessed by Elisha\nand the sons of the prophets--and a heavenly equipage, lambent with\nsupernal glow, carried him in triumph out of sight.  But as to Enoch\nthere was no such scenic display.  \"_He was not found, for God took\nhim_.\"  It was a quiet but beautifully fitting end.  Moonlight rising\ninto sunlight, the sweet calm light of a starlit sky becoming flushed\nwith the auroral tints of a brilliant morning.\n\nTranslation means promotion, and also expansion.\n\nIt is _promotion_ in honour, in office, in privilege.  The bishop is\ntranslated from Rochester to Winchester and thence to Canterbury,\nbecause he has pleased his party and his sovereign.  It is a sign that\nhe has won promotion by devoted service.  Christ says to his follower,\n\"_Occupy till I come_\"; and after a due period of labour well\ndischarged, he says, \"_Come up higher_.\"  The rule of the Divine\nKingdom is, \"_faithful in that which is least_,\" then, \"_ruler over\nthat which is much_.\"  Translation to Enoch meant the elevation to\nhigher duties and enjoyments without the wearing agonies of disease,\nthe sharpness of death, or the darkness of the grave.\n\nIt meant also _expansion_.  In the passing from a lower to a higher\ncondition, we cannot now realise the quick change which would pass over\nthe material framework of the patriarch, but that it would be\netherialised so as to be \"_a heavenly body_\" marvellously endowed with\nnew powers of sense, of insight and locomotion, fit to be the\ninstrument of a soul fully redeemed from the consequences of sin, we\ncannot doubt; and for thousands of generations has that soul sunned\nitself in the brightest fellowships and employments of the highest\nheaven.\n\n\n\n\nELDAD AND MEDAD\n\nBY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n\nNUMBERS xi. 24-30.\n\n\nNothing is known of these two men beyond the incident recorded in the\nBook of Numbers; but this is so remarkable and significant, that it\nwell repays careful study.\n\nThe Israelites had been once more displaying suspicion and ingratitude.\nTurning with loathing from the manna, they whimpered, like spoilt\nchildren, for the fish and flesh they had enjoyed in Egypt, and\nmurmured against God and against Moses.  The patience of their leader,\nunder this new provocation, completely broke down, so that he went so\nfar as to accuse God Himself of being a hard taskmaster, who had laid\ntoo much upon him.  With infinite forbearance, allowance was made for\nthe manner in which Divine counsel and help had been asked for, and the\npromise was graciously fulfilled, \"_Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and\nHe shall sustain thee.  He will never suffer the righteous to be\nmoved_.\"  God dealt with his servant as a father at his best will deal\nwith his child who runs to him, hurt and bruised, in a passion of\ntears.  Instead of beginning with an angry rebuke, help and relief are\nfirst given, and then in a few calm words the needed counsel is\nproffered.  It was in a spirit of patient love that God appointed\nelders from among the people to help his over-wrought servant and share\nhis heavy burden.\n\nMoses was, no doubt, justified in saying, \"_I am not able to bear all\nthis people alone, because it is too heavy for me_.\"  Indeed it was\nwell for him, as it is for us all, to feel the need there is for human\nsympathy and Divine aid.  Self-contained, self-reliant men are not the\nhighest type of humanity, and they are sometimes for their own good\nvisited by anxieties and responsibilities which compel them to cry,\n\"_Lord help me_.\"  Thus was it with Moses.  Indeed, our Lord Himself\nshared that experience, when for our sakes He became man.  He chose\ncomrades who were a blessing to Himself, although He was a far greater\nblessing to them.  He took them with Him when he went forth to confront\nthe crises of His life--on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in the\nGarden of Gethsemane, where His sorrow was intensified by their failure\nto watch with Him.  He had three specially intimate friends.  He called\ntwelve to be apostles, and sent forth seventy as missioners--an\narrangement in which we see the New Testament counterpart of the\nchoosing of these seventy-two elders, to rule and judge the Israelites,\nand thus share the responsibility of Moses.\n\nThe account given us of their appointment is singularly interesting.\nSix men out of each of the twelve tribes were summoned to the\nTabernacle, solemnly set apart and filled with the Spirit--but two of\nthe men--Eldad and Medad--were absent \"_They were of them written to_\"\nis the exact phrase--and the fact that they received a written summons\ndenotes a higher and more general culture among that ancient people\nthan is generally imagined to have existed.  Yet it is what might be\nreasonably expected, for they had come out of Egypt, the most civilised\npower then in the world, a country where the usual writing materials\nwere exclusively made.  Though the Israelites had been only slaves\nthere, they would doubtless be familiar with the art of writing, for\nthe men of that race have never yet lagged behind any people among whom\nthey have lived.\n\nSeventy of the men thus summoned came together promptly, and were\nranged in a semicircle before the Tabernacle.  Then, in the sight of\nall the people, the cloud descended, wrapped them all in impenetrable\nmist, as a sign that the chosen men were being mysteriously baptised\nwith the Spirit, and when again they emerged they began to prophesy.\nIt was the ancient counterpart of the day of Pentecost, when the\ndisciples met, and the Spirit came upon them as a mighty, rushing wind,\nand they began to speak with other tongues, as men chosen and inspired\nby God.\n\nIn the 25th verse of the eleventh chapter of Numbers, it is said that\n\"_the Lord took of the spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it unto the\nseventy elders_.\"  Some conclude from this statement that, as a\npunishment for his intemperate prayer, the wisdom of Moses was thus\nlessened, while others were enriched at his expense.  But wisdom, and\nall gifts similar to it, are not diminished by distribution.  If we\nimpart information, we do not lessen our own store of knowledge.  If we\ngive of our love lavishly, yet affection is not lessened by such\noutpouring.  The spread of fire over what is inflammable increases its\nintensity.  Though we light a thousand candles from one which burned\nalone at first, it still burns brightly as before.  So is it with the\nSpirit of whose fulness we all receive.  No Christian man is poorer\nbecause his brother is enriched with grace, nor was Moses.  \"_There is\nthat scattereth, and yet increaseth_.\"\n\nIt is time that we turned to the two men, Eldad and Medad, who,\nalthough summoned with their brethren, did not come to the assembly at\nthe Tabernacle.  They may have been absent from their tents when the\npapyrus letter was delivered, and would not be quickly found in the\nvast camp.  Be this as it may, what followed is evidence that they did\nnot wilfully disobey the summons, and that their absence was not due to\nany bad motive.  For some reason unknown to us they failed to put in an\nappearance at the critical time, when others of the elect were\nreceiving the mysterious but efficient grace of the Spirit.  Yet, at\none and the same moment, they also were inspired while walking\ntogether, as they probably were doing, in some far-off part of the\ncamp.  To the amazement of the people, and doubtless to their own\namazement too, they suddenly began to prophesy, and crowds of listeners\nquickly gathered round them, as on Pentecost they ran together to hear\nthe inspired apostles.  This unique experience was given by God, and\nreceived by the people as convincing evidence that Eldad and Medad were\ndivinely appointed, and divinely qualified, equally with their brethren\nnearer the Tabernacle.  It is true that Joshua exhibited some jealousy\nand suspicion, and would have silenced them because the blessing had\nnot come through Moses; but the great law-giver, with characteristic\ninsight and generosity, would not heed the request--\"_My lord Moses,\nforbid them_.\"  Calmly, yet decisively, the answer rang out, \"_Enviest\nthou for my sake?  Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets,\nand that the Lord would put His spirit upon them_!\"\n\nIn the experience of these two men there is imbedded valuable and\npermanent truth.  We regard it as an evidence, the more remarkable\nbecause given under a ceremonial regime, that God did not intend to\ninstitute any order of men outside the limits of which there was to be\nno liberty of prophesying and no fitness for it.  Nor is there any\nexclusively sacred place, be it tabernacle, temple, synagogue, or\nchurch, where alone such gifts can be conferred.  We believe that\noutside all sacred places, outside the churches of our own faith and\norder, and of any other churches, there are men, and women too, equally\ncalled of God with those within such limits, and the evidence that they\nare so called lies in the fact that in them also the Spirit of God is\nresting, and through them the Spirit of God is working.\n\nThis lesson, which still needs to be enforced in our own day, is\nperhaps best deduced from an incident so early and so simple as this.\nJust as we may learn more of the way in which an engine really works\nfrom a simple model--say of George Stephenson's--than from one of the\ncomplicated machines of the present day, so we may gain the more\ninstruction from this incident, because of its very simple character,\nwhile its antiquity keeps it out of the confusion caused by modern\ncontroversies.\n\nEldad and Medad were men called of God to undertake holy service for\nthe good of His people.  In their case the call was manifestly inward\nrather than outward.  Though truly chosen, they were not in the\nTabernacle, nor were they wrapped in the cloud, and they received no\nordination from the laying on of hands by Moses and Aaron.  The\nevidence of their call lay in their fitness for the work, and their\nfitness was due to the gift of the Spirit.  Yet all this occurred under\na dispensation which was far more strict in ceremonial law than that\nunder which we live.\n\nWhat does it teach?  It surely confirms our belief that the word of God\nis not bound.  The exposition and enforcement of Divine truth is not to\nbe confined to those who have received priestly ordination by some\noutward rite.  No man therefore has the right to forbid any preacher\nfrom exercising his functions on the ground that his orders are not\nregular, or because he has not been recognised by an Episcopate, a\nPresbytery, a Conference, or a Union.\n\nTo put the same truth in hortatory form, I would say to any one who has\nknowledge of Divine truth, who has experienced the graces of the Holy\nSpirit, and who has the gift of utterance: You are called upon, by the\nfact of possessing these qualifications, to serve God as opportunity\ncomes.  You ought not to be silent on the claims of Christ, nor should\nyou refrain from leading others in prayer, while on every other topic\nyou are fluency itself.  \"_Neglect not the gift that is in thee_,\"\nwhether it came by laying on of hands, or in some other way.  Every\ntrue convert should sometimes feel as the prophet Jeremiah felt, when\nhe said, \"_The word of the Lord was within me as a burning fire shut up\nin my bones.  I was weary with forbearing and could not stay_.\"  The\nwork assigned too often exclusively to the minister is really the work\nof the Church.\n\nHappily, speech is not the only mode in which men can serve God.  It is\nclear from the Hebrew narrative that Eldad and Medad, like their\nbrethren at the door of the Tabernacle, did not receive an abiding gift\nof prophecy, but a transient sign which seemed adequate to convince the\npeople that they had been chosen and inspired.  Unfortunately, the\nAuthorised Version gives us a phrase which is the exact opposite of the\nmeaning of the Hebrew phrase in the twenty-fifth verse, rendering it\nthus, \"_They prophesied, and did not cease_.\"  The Revised Version sets\nthis right in the phrase, \"_They prophesied, but they did so no more_.\"\nIn other words, the singular manifestation of power soon passed away.\nIt was not a permanent possession.\n\nThis is in harmony with the experience of the early Christian Church.\nThe miraculous power given to the apostles, as evidence of their Divine\ncommission, was not always at their disposal.  The gift of tongues\nbestowed on them, and on others, soon ceased; for it was intended to\nshow the supernatural origin of Christianity until written evidence was\navailable, and then it was withdrawn.  The Holy Spirit still remained\nin the Church, and was revealed in a diversity of operations.  His\npresence was proved by the changed characters of converts more\neffectually than by abnormal gifts--and similarly the religious ecstasy\nof Eldad and Medad and their comrades was soon exchanged for their\nabiding spirit of wisdom and justice.\n\nChristians who at one time spoke for Christ are not always to blame if\nthey speak publicly no more.  They may have withdrawn from Sunday\nSchool teaching, for example, but only to serve God in another form.\nTheir matured experience may be quite as valuable as their once fervent\nzeal.  The river which near its source noisily rushes over the pebbles,\nis not lessened in value when, full and deep, it silently glides onward\nto the sea.\n\nHappily, there are diversities of operations, though they are all under\nthe inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and if we are faithful to our\nspecial calling, we may hope to receive our Lord's \"_Well done_,\" just\nas did these seventy-two men, who sustained and aided Moses, though\nthey left no record of their steady, useful work.  Indeed, there are\nthose who in actual service can do very little, whose gracious and\nbenign influence is the best proof of true inspiration.  Such was he of\nwhom Cowper sings:\n\n  \"When one that holds communion with the skies\n  Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise,\n  And once more mingles with us meaner things,\n  'Tis even as if an angel shook his wings;\n  Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,\n  That tells us whence his treasures are supplied.\"\n\nGod calls us to Himself before He calls us to His service.  The same\nDivine Spirit who qualifies for religious work, creates men anew.  Of\nevery one so created, it may be said he was \"_born of the Spirit_.\"\n\nIn this, also, neither place nor circumstance is essential.  Eldad and\nMedad were both away from the Tabernacle, somewhere in the\nunconsecrated camp; yet they received the same blessing which their\nbrethren were enjoying at the door of the Tabernacle.  And we rejoice\nthat some who are now outside a place of worship--outside this or that\ndenomination--outside Christendom, do receive the Spirit who transforms\nthem into the likeness of Christ.\n\nIn confirmation of this, we recall the fact that our Lord spoke more\noften in houses, and fields, and boats, and streets, than in the\nTemple.  And the apostles who were called to follow Him were engaged at\nthe time of their calling in their ordinary occupations, at the\ntoll-office or in the fishing-boat.  Saul was converted on the road to\nDamascus, the jailor of Philippi in prison, Lydia by the river side.\nAll this reminds us that though our power may be limited by time and\nplace, God's power is not; though our work is contracted, His is broad.\nThe Holy Spirit is no more confined to a place than the wind is, which\nbloweth as it listeth over land and sea, over desert and garden.\n\nIt is a comfort to remember this when we grieve over some prodigal, who\nhas gone beyond the reach of religious observances; who never attends\nworship, or reads the Bible.  We may hope about him, believe in him,\nand pray for him still, because the Spirit of God can reach him as He\nreached Eldad and Medad, \"_who went not up to the Tabernacle_.\"  The\nold promise is not exhausted yet: \"_I will pour out of My Spirit upon\nall flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your\nyoung men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams_.\"\n\nIt is this divine afflatus, this outpouring of the Spirit, which is the\ngreat need of the age we live in.  The Church seems to be lying\nlistless as a sailing ship, due to leave harbour, but still waiting for\na breeze.  Her masts are firm, the canvas ready to be stretched, and\nher equipment complete.  The helmsman stands impatient at the wheel,\nand all the sailors are alert, but not a ripple runs along the vessel's\nside.  She waits, and must wait, for a heavenly breeze to fill her\nsails, and till it comes she cannot stir.  Like that ship the Church is\nwanting impulse, and we ought to be waiting for it, and praying for it.\nThe power we need can only come from heaven, the breath of God must be\nour real moving force, and we should be wiser, stronger, and more\nhopeful if we entered into the meaning of the old, oft-repeated verse:\n\n  \"At anchor laid, remote from home,\n  Toiling, I cry, 'sweet Spirit, come,'\n  Celestial breeze no longer stay,\n  But swell my sails, and speed my way.\"\n\n\n\n\nBARZILLAI\n\nBY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D.\n\n\n\"There is nothing,\" says Socrates to Cephalus in the _Republic_, \"I\nlike better than conversing with aged men.  For I regard them as\ntravellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of\nwhom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is\nrugged or difficult, or smooth and easy\" (p. 328 E.).\n\nIt is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of\nBarzillai the Gileadite.  And though he is one of the lesser-known\ncharacters of Scripture--and we might perhaps never have heard of him\nat all had it not been for his connection with King David--on the few\noccasions on which he does appear he acts with an independence and\ndisinterestedness which are very striking.\n\nThe first of these occasions is at Mahanaim, in his own country of\nGilead.  In the strong fortress there David and his companions had\ntaken refuge after the disastrous revolt of Absalom.  Owing to their\nhurried flight, the fugitives were wanting in almost all the\nnecessaries of life, and they could hardly fail also to have been a\nlittle apprehensive of the kind of welcome the Gileadites would extend\nto them.  But if so, their fears were soon set at rest.  Three of the\nrichest and most influential men in the district at once came to their\naid.  Shobi the son of Nahash, and Machir the son of Ammiel, and\nBarzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and cups, and wheat,\nand barley, and honey, and butter, and sheep--all, in fact, that was\nneeded--for David, and for the people that were with him: for they\nsaid, \"_The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the\nwilderness_\" (2 Sam. xvii. 29).\n\nIn so acting, the first of these, Shobi, may have been trying to atone\nfor his brother's insulting conduct when David had sent messengers to\ncomfort him on his father's death (2 Sam. x. 1-5);[1] and Machir as the\nfriend of Mephibosheth (2 Sam, ix. 4), was naturally grateful for the\nking's kindness to the lame prince.  But, as regards Barzillai, we know\nof no such reasons for his conduct, and his generosity may, therefore,\nbe traced to the natural impulses of a kind and generous heart.  In any\ncase, this unlooked-for sympathy and friendship had an arousing and\nencouraging effect upon the king.  He no longer despaired of his\nfortunes, black though at the moment they looked, but, marshalling his\nforces under three captains, prepared for war with his rebellious son;\nwith the result that in the forest of Ephraim Absalom's army was wholly\ndefeated, and the young prince himself treacherously slain.\n\nWith the death of its leader, the rebellion against David may be said\nto have ended; but to the sorrow-stricken father victory at such a\nprice seemed an almost greater calamity than defeat would have been.\nAnd it needed the strong, almost harsh, remonstrances of Joab to rouse\nhim from his grief, and lead him to think of his duty to his people.\nAt length, however, the homeward journey began, the king following the\nsame route by which so shortly before he had fled, until he came to the\nbanks of the Jordan, where a ferry-boat was in readiness to take him\nand his household across (2 Sam. xix. 18).  Before, however, he\ncrossed, several interesting interviews took place.  Shimei, who had\ncursed so shamelessly on the day of misfortune, was forgiven, and\nreceived the promise of protection; Mephibosheth was restored to the\nking's favour, and his old place at the king's table; and, what\nspecially concerns us at present, David had his final parting with\nBarzillai.\n\nThe loyal chieftain, notwithstanding his eighty years, had come all the\nway from his upland farm to bid farewell to his king, and see him\nsafely over Jordan.  And as David remarked the old man's devotion, and\nremembered his former favours, the wish seized him to attach him still\nmore closely to his person.  \"_Come thou over with me_,\" he said, \"_and\nI will feed thee with me in Jerusalem_\" (2 Sam. xix. 33).  It was from\none point of view a dazzling offer.  Barzillai had seen enough of David\nto know that what the king said he meant, and that if he chose to go\nwith him, honour and position awaited him at the court.  But he would\nnot be moved.  His grey hairs, if nothing else, stood in the way.\n\"_How long have I to live_,\" he answered, \"_that I should go up with\nthe king unto Jerusalem_?\" (verse 34).  I am too old, that is, for such\na life as would there be expected of me.  And, after all, why should\nconduct such as mine meet with so great a reward?  No! let me go a\nlittle way over Jordan with the king, and then \"_Let thy servant, I\npray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be\nburied by the grave of my father and of my mother_.\"  \"_But_,\" he\nhastened to add, as if anxious to show that he appreciated to the full\nthe king's generous offer, and saw the advantages it presented to those\nwho were able to enjoy them, \"_behold thy servant Chimham_,\" my son,\n\"_let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem\ngood unto thee_\" (verse 37).  With a plea so expressed, David could not\nbut acquiesce: \"_The king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he\nreturned unto his own place . . . and Chimham went on with him_\"\n(verses 39, 40), to become famous as the founder of a caravanserai, or\nhalting-place for pilgrims on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem,\nwhich for at least four centuries continued to bear his name (Jer. xli.\n17) and which may even, it has been conjectured, have been the same\nwhich, at the time of the Christian era \"furnished shelter for two\ntravellers with their infant child, when 'there was no room in the\ninn.'\"[2]\n\nRound Barzillai's own name no such associations have gathered.  After\nhis parting with David we do not hear of him again, if we except a\npassing reference in David's dying instructions to Solomon, to \"_shew\nkindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite_\" (1 Kings ii. 7),\nand the mention, as late as the return from Babylon, of a family of\npriests who traced their descent to a marriage with the Gileadite's\ndaughter, and prided themselves on the distinctive title of \"_the\nchildren of Barzillai_\" (Ezra ii. 61).  But in the absence of anything\nto the contrary, we may be allowed to conjecture that, full of years\nand experience, surrounded by all the love which his useful, helpful\nlife had called forth, Barzillai died in peace among his own people,\nand was buried, as he had himself desired, by his parents' grave.\n\nSuch, then, is the story of Barzillai's life, so far as the Bible\nreveals it to us.  It is, as I have already said, as an old man that he\nis principally brought before us, and in thinking of his character\nfurther, it may be well to do so from this point of view, and see what\nhe has to teach us regarding a true old age.  Four points at least\nstand out clearly from the Bible narrative.\n\n\nI.\n\n_Barzillai was evidently by nature a warm-hearted, sunshiny old man,\nhimself happy and making others happy_.\n\n\nDavid himself was such a man before the great sin which brought a\ntrouble and a sorrow into his life that he was never again able wholly\nto surmount.  And it may have been the sight of his own lost gaiety and\nlightness of spirit in the aged Gileadite that first drew out his heart\nto him.\n\nIt may be said, perhaps, that it was easy for Barzillai to be cheerful.\nThe sun had shone on him very brightly: the good things of life had\nfallen very freely to his share.  He was, according to the Bible\nrecord, \"_a very great man_\" (2 Sam. xix. 32), evidently a most\nsuccessful farmer, rich in flocks and herds, looked up and respected in\nthe district in which he lived.  But after all, is it the universal, or\neven the general, experience that wealth and power are associated with\nsimple cheerfulness and happiness?  Could anything, for example, have\nexceeded the bitterness and the boorishness of the other rich\nflockmaster whom David's youths, with Eastern frankness, had asked,\n\"_Give, we pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy\nservants, and to thy son David_\"  \"_Who is David? and who is the son of\nJesse_?\" burst out Nabal in a fury.  \"_Shall I then take my bread, and\nmy water . . . and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be_?\"\n(1 Sam. xxv. 8, 10, 11).  And even if that be an extreme instance, it\nwill not be denied that outward blessings in themselves, and considered\nonly by themselves, are apt to have a hardening rather than a softening\neffect.  It says much, therefore, for Barzillai, that amidst his great\npossessions, he still kept the free, open, happy disposition of youth.\n\n\nII.\n\n_That he did so, is due amongst other reasons to the fact that he was a\ngenerous man_.\n\n\nHis unsolicited assistance of David clearly proves this, while the very\nlength of the catalogue of articles with which he and his friends\nsupplied the fugitive's needs, proves that when he gave, he did so in\nno stinted fashion, but freely and liberally.\n\nIt is an excellent example for all who are feeling themselves burdened\nby the possessions and the opportunities with which God has enriched\nthem.  Let them remember that they hold them only in trust, and in\nhelping to bear others' burdens, they will actually, strange to say,\nlighten their own.\n\n  \"'Tis worth a wise man's best of life,\n  'Tis worth a thousand years of strife,\n  If thou canst lessen but by one,\n  The countless ills beneath the sun.\"\n\nWhile, on the other hand, can there be a sadder thought for the man\nwhose earthly course is nearly run, than the thought that there will be\nnone to rise up after him and call him blessed, but that he will die,\nas he has lived, unhonoured, unwept?\n\nIf that, then, is not to be our fate, we cannot use too diligently\nevery opportunity of well-doing which God has placed within our reach;\nwe cannot live too earnestly, not for ourselves only, but for others:\nthat from the seeds which we sow now, there may spring up hereafter a\nrich and abundant harvest.\n\n\nIII.\n\n_Barzillai was contented_.\n\n\nNot many men in his position would have refused the king's offer.  It\nseems rather to be one of the penalties of wealth and greatness, that\ntheir owners cannot rest satisfied with what they have, but are always\ndesiring more.  But Barzillai felt, and felt rightly, that in his\ncircumstances, the place in which he had been brought up--\"_his own\nplace_\"--was the best place for him.  He was a home-loving old man, and\nthe simple interests and pleasures of his daily life had more\nattraction for him than the excitements and rivalries of the court.\n\nI do not, of course, mean to say that either here or elsewhere in\nScripture, a wise and healthy ambition is discouraged.  It is natural\nto wish to get on, if only for the sake of a wider sphere of\nusefulness; but let us see to it that we avoid that restless longing\nfor change, simply for the sake of change, that coveting of positions\nfor which we are not suited, and which, if gratified, can end only in\ndisappointment.\n\n\"It is a great thing,\" said one to an ancient philosopher, \"to possess\nwhat one wishes.\"  \"It is a greater blessing still,\" was the reply,\n\"not to desire what one does not possess.\"  And surely, in what we do\npossess, in the beauties of nature with which we are here surrounded,\nin the love of home and wife and children, in the intercourse with\nfriends and acquaintance, we have much to make us contented, much, very\nmuch, to be thankful for.  \"To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms\nset; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think,\nto love, to pray,\"--these, says John Ruskin, \"are the things that make\nmen happy.\"  And these are things that, in some measure at least, are\nwithin the reach of us all.\n\n\nIV.\n\n_There remains still a fourth and a last element in Barzillai's\nhonoured, life and happy old age--his attitude towards God_.\n\n\nThough we are never distinctly told so, we cannot doubt that he was a\nreligious man.  And as it was in gratitude to God for all that He had\ndone to him, that he first showed kindness to God's anointed, so it was\nin the same humble and trusting spirit that he accepted old age, and\nall that it involved when it came.  That is by no means always the\ncase.  Are there not some, who, as they look forward to the time of old\nage, if God should ever permit them to see it, do so with a certain\namount of dread?  They think only of what they will be called upon to\nabandon--the duties they must give up, the pleasures, so dear to them\nnow, they must forego.  But to Barzillai, the presence of such\ndisabilities brought, as we have seen, no disquieting thoughts.  He\ncould relinquish, without a sigh, what he was no longer fitted to\nenjoy.  He desired nothing but to end his days peacefully in his\nappointed lot.  Enough for him that the God who had been with him all\nhis life long was with him still.\n\nHappy old man!  Who does not long for an old age, if he is ever to see\nold age, such as his?  But, if so, it must be sought in the same way.\nEvery man's old age is just what his own past has made it.  If, in his\ndays of health and vigour, he has lived an idle, careless, selfish\nlife, he must not wonder if his closing years are querulous, and\nbitter, and lonely.  But if, on the other hand, he has devoted himself\nto good and doing good, if he has made the will of God his rule and\nguide amidst all the difficulties and perplexities of his daily lot,\nthen in that will he will find peace.  God wilt not forget his \"_work\nand labour of love_\" (Heb. vi. 10): and in him the old promise will be\nonce more fulfilled--\"_Even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar\nhairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry\nand will deliver you_\" (Isa. xlvi. 4).\n\n\n\n[1]In view, however, of the difficulty of reconciling the two passages,\nand of the fact that Shobi is not mentioned elsewhere, it has been\nconjectured that for \"Shobi the son of Nahash\" in 2 Sam. xvii. 27, we\nshould read simply \"Nahash,\" see Hastings' _Dict. of the Bible_, art.\n\"Shobi.\"\n\n[2]Stanley, _History of the Jewish Church_, ii., p. 154.\n\n\n\n\nADONIJAH\n\nBY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n\nIt is notorious that the sons of devout men sometimes prove a curse to\ntheir parents, and bring dishonour on the cause of God.  When Eve\nrejoiced over her first-born, she little suspected that passions were\nsleeping within him which would impel him to slay his own brother; and\nthe experience of the first mother has been repeated, though in\ndifferent forms, in all lands and in all ages.  Isaac's heart was rent\nby the deceit of Jacob, and by the self-will of Esau.  Jacob lived to\nsee his own sin repeated in his sons, and he who deceived his father\nwhen he was old and blind, suffered for years an agony of grief because\nhe had been falsely told that Joseph, his favourite son, was dead.\n\nProbably few men have known domestic sorrows, so many and so great, as\nthose which befell David.  He shared, in all its bitterness, the misery\nof a parent who sees his best hopes disappointed, and who is racked\nwith anxiety as to what his wayward boy will do next, sometimes wishing\nthat before such dishonour had befallen him his son had been laid to\nrest under the daisies, in the time of infant innocence.  David's\neldest son, Amnon, after committing a terrible crime, was assassinated\nby his brother Absalom.  In his turn, Absalom, the fairest of the\nfamily, rebelled against his own father, and was killed by Joab, as he\nhung in the oak.  Chiliah, or Daniel, died we know not how, and then\nAdonijah, the fourth son, the eldest of those surviving, followed in\nAbsalom's footsteps.\n\nAdonijah's sin appears at first sight so unnatural that, in justice to\nhim as well as for our own instruction, we should try to discover the\nsources whence this stream of evil flowed which was so bitter and so\ndesolating in its results.\n\nThis is not an easy task, because the full details of his life are not\nrecorded.  There are, however, no less than three evil influences\nhinted at in these words: \"_His father had not displeased him at any\ntime, in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly\nman, and his mother bare him after Absalom_\" (1 Kings i. 6).  Taking\nthem in reverse order: _Heritage_, _Adulation_, and _Lack of\nDiscipline_, were three sources of moral peril, and these would tend to\nthe ruin of any man.  Let us think of each of these, for they are not\nextinct by any means.\n\nWe know very little of Haggith, but she was probably a dancing girl who\nmade her way to the front by her ambition and beauty.  From her and\nfrom his father we may assume that Adonijah inherited a tendency to\nambition and self-conceit such as Absalom inherited from the union of\nDavid with Bathsheba.  It is one of the laws of life that \"like\nproduces like,\" Evidence of this constantly appears in the lower\nanimals, in the speed of the racehorse, in the scent of the hound, and\nso forth.  This asserts itself in men also.  We often notice what we\ncall a \"family likeness.\"  Tricks of manner, and various mental\nqualities such as heroism, statesmanship, mathematical or artistic\ntalent, descend from parents to children, and sometimes reappear for\ngenerations in the same family.  This cannot be due to example alone,\nbecause the phenomena is almost as frequent when the parents die during\nthe child's infancy.  Similarly, moral tendencies are transmitted, and\nthe Bible gives us many examples of the fact.  The luxury-loving Isaac,\nwho must have his savoury food, just as his son, Esau, who would sell\nhis birthright for a mess of pottage, Rebekah, who, like her brother\nLaban is shrewd and cunning, sees her tendency repeated in her son\nJacob, who needed a life of discipline and prayer to set him free from\nit.\n\nIn more senses than one \"the evil which men do lives after them.\"  A\ndrunkard's son, for example, is often conscious of an inbred craving\nwhich is a veritable disease, so that he is heavily weighted as he\nstarts out on the race of life.  This solemn and suggestive fact that\nthe future well-being of children depends largely on the character of\nparents, should give emphasis to the adjuration in the wedding\nservice--marriage, therefore, is to be honourable in all, and ought not\nto be engaged in rashly, \"thoughtlessly, or lightly, but advisedly,\nreverently, and in the fear of God.\"  The law of moral heritage makes\nparental responsibility a solemn trust, while, in so far as it affects\nthose who inherit bad or good tendencies, we are sure that the Judge of\nall the earth will do right.  But it must never be forgotten that even\na bad disposition need never become a dominant habit.  It is something\nto be resisted and conquered, and, it may be, by the grace of Him who\nis faithful, and will not suffer any of us to be tempted above what we\nare able to bear.  Our tendencies are Divine calls to us to recognise\nand guard certain weak places in the citadel of character, for it is\nagainst these that our enemy directs his most persistent and vigorous\nattacks.\n\nUnhappily, Adonijah's natural bias was made the more dangerous by the\natmosphere of the court, where flatterers naturally abounded--for \"_he\nwas a very goodly man_,\" physically a repetition of Absalom, the Adonis\nof his time.  We may also fairly surmise that his parents were guilty\nof partiality and indulgence in their treatment of him, for David would\nlove him the more as one who revived the memory of his favourite\nAbsalom, the idol of the people, distinguished for his noble mien and\nprincely bearing.  Courtiers, soldiers, and people all flattered\nAdonijah, and Joab, the greatest captain of his age, next only to the\nking, was his partisan, the more so because he neither forgot nor\nforgave David's reproaches after the death of Absalom.  Even Abiathar,\nwho represented the younger and more ambitious branch of the\npriesthood, joined in the general adulation, until Adonijah,\nintoxicated by vanity, set up his own court in rivalry to that of his\nfather, and when he moved abroad was accompanied by a stately retinue\nof chariots and horsemen, and fifty foot attendants gorgeously\napparelled.\n\nNo doubt every position in life has its own peculiar temptations.  The\nill-favoured lad, who is the butt at school and the scapegoat at home,\nis in serious danger of becoming bitter and revengeful, and of growing\ncrooked in character, like a plant in a dark vault, which will have no\nbeauty because it enjoys no sunshine.  But, on the other hand, physical\nbeauty, which attracts attention and wins admiration, especially if it\nis associated with brilliant conversational gifts, and great charm of\nmanner, has befooled both men and women into sin and misery.  Many a\ngirl has been entrapped into an unhappy marriage; and many a lad, moved\nby a vaunting ambition which overleaped itself, has fallen never to\nrise: like Icarus, when his waxen wings melted in the sun.\n\nThere must have been sad laxity of discipline in the home of David.  It\nis said of Adonijah that \"_his father had not displeased him at any\ntime in saying, Why hast thou done so_?\"  In other words, Adonijah had\nnever been checked and rebuked as he ought to have been, and this\nfoolish indulgence was as fatal to him as it had been to the sons of\nEli.  There are still such homes as David's, although their inmates do\nwell to draw down the veil of secrecy over them with loyal hands, and\nnever blazon abroad the grief and anxiety which rend their hearts.  In\none home a fair, bright girl mars the beauty of her early womanhood by\na flippant disregard of her mother's wishes, and by an exaltation of\nher own pleasure-loving disposition as the one law of her life.  In\nanother, a mere child, hasty and uncontrolled in temper, is the dread\nof the whole household, and at last becomes its tyrant, because every\nwish is gratified rather than that a scene should be provoked.  In yet\nanother a grown-up son is callous about his mother's anxiety and his\nfather's counsels; and gladly ignores his home associations as he\ndrifts away upon the sea of vice, and there becomes a miserable wreck.\nWith each of these it might have been otherwise.  If authority had been\nasserted, and steadily maintained, before bad habits were formed; if\nfirm resolution on the part of the parents had taken the place of\nindulgent laxity, if, instead of being left to chance, character had\nbeen moulded during the time when it was plastic--these might, with\nGod's blessing, have grown up to be wise, pure-hearted, courageous\nfollowers of Christ--who would not only have sweetened the atmosphere\nof home, but would have done something to purify and illumine society,\nas the salt and the light of the world.\n\nThe sin of which Adonijah was guilty, whose sources we have tried to\ndiscover, was the assumption of unlawful authority and state, which\ninvolved rebellion against his own father.\n\nAmbition is not always wrong.  It is a common inspiration often nerving\nmen to attempt daring and noble deeds.  Desire for distinction, with\ncapacity for it, may often be regarded as the voice of God summoning to\nhigh effort.  The world would soon be stagnant without ambition.  The\nscholar working for a prize, the writer or speaker resolving to make a\nname, the man of business pressing onward past the indolent and the\nne'er-do-weel, are not to be condemned, so long as they seek lawful\nobjects by lawful means.  Those who strenuously and hopefully fulfil\nthe duties of their present sphere will be called higher, either in\nthis world or the next, for God means us to rise by our fidelity where\nwe are, and not by discontent with what we are.  Ambition may have\nconscience in it, and this will reveal itself in the steady and minute\nperformance of small duties.  Any who are content, with tireless hand,\nto make crooked things straight and rough places plain, will ultimately\nsee glory revealed.  But if ambition is not ruled by righteousness, if\nit is not modified by love and consideration for others, it becomes a\nsin, and will prove to be the herald of disobedience and death, for it\nis such ambition which has cursed the world by tyrannies and bloodshed,\nand dragged down angels from realms of light.  This was the ambition\nwhich let Adonijah exalt himself, and say, \"I will be _king_.\"\n\nIt may be said that his conduct was natural enough, although it was too\nprecipitate, because he would legitimately succeed his father in due\ncourse, as his eldest surviving son.  But this was not so.  The law of\nprimogeniture was not law for Israel.  The invisible King expressly\nreserved to Himself the right of appointing the ruler of His people, as\nis evident from Deut. xvii. 14 and 15.  The government was theocratic,\nnot monarchical nor democratic.  David himself had been chosen and\nanointed in preference to Jonathan, Saul's son, and Solomon, David's\nyounger son, had already been designated as his successor through the\nprophet Nathan, partly because he was best fitted to become the man of\npeace who should erect Jehovah's temple, and partly as a sign to David\nthat his sin with Bathsheba was forgiven.  It was not as the \"leader of\na court cabal,\" but as a prophet inspired by Jehovah, that Nathan had\nmade this solemn appointment.  Adonijah knew this perfectly well; he\nacknowledged it to Bathsheba in the fifteenth verse of the second\nchapter, and therefore, when he declared, \"_I_ will be king,\" he was\ndeliberately and knowingly setting his will against God's, and this was\na sin.\n\nThe divine choice often differs from the human, for \"_the Lord seeth\nnot as man seeth_.\"  In his reply to the sons of Zebedee, Jesus\ndeclared that God is not swayed by favouritism, nor moved by arbitrary\nimpulse, but assigns to each his position according to his fitness.\nThis should give us contentment with our lot, and should emphasise the\nprecept, \"_Seekest thou great things for thyself; seek them not_.\"\nThough it is natural enough to wish for escape from the fret of\npoverty, or the weariness of pain, and to win for ourselves wealth or\nprominence, we must be on our guard against the indulgence of defiant\nself-will, like that of him who said, \"I _will_ be king.\"\n\nAdonijah's motive in aspiring to the throne was not that he might the\nbetter care for the welfare of others, but that he might selfishly\nenjoy wealth and honour.  He cared much for outward show, while he\nfailed to cultivate inward worth, preparing for himself chariots,\nhorsemen, and a retinue of servants, but never displaying a love of\njustice or ability in statesmanship.  And such little motives as his\nnever make greatness.\n\nAdonijah was not the last to be attracted by glitter and tinsel, and to\nlive for earthly things which perish in the using.  The candidate who\ncares much for honour and nothing for learning, the professional man\nwho will sacrifice reputation to win a fortune, and all who wrong\nothers in order to better themselves, only gain what is transient and\nunsatisfying.  It would be well for all to learn the lesson (not least\nhe for whom the ceremony is primarily intended), which is symbolically\ntaught when a Pope is crowned.  The Master of the Ceremonies takes a\nlighted taper in one hand, and in the other a reed with a handful of\nflax fastened to it.  The flax flares up for a moment, and then the\nflame dies away into thin, almost imperceptible, ashes, which fall at\nthe Pontiff's feet, as the choir chant the refrain \"Pater sanctus, sic\ntransit gloria mundi.\"  No earthly honour is worth having except it is\nthe result or the reward of character.  Even in Pagan Rome the Temple\nof Honour could only be reached through the Temple of Virtue.  And over\nthe gateway of the greatest of all kingdoms in which Christ Jesus is\nsupreme, this motto is inscribed indelibly--\"_He that humbleth himself\nshall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased_.\"\n\nHow often such ambition is accompanied by disregard of the rights of\nothers!  What did Adonijah care for his father's dignity, or his\nbrother's claims?  David was still on the throne, and Solomon's right\nto succeed him had been authoritatively proclaimed, and yet, with\ninbred selfishness, this ambitious prince declared, \"_I_ will be king!\"\nThe lawfulness of any ambition may often be tested by the amount of\nselfishness which inheres in it.  If desire for distinction, or wealth,\nleads one to crush a competitor to the wall without ruth, or to refuse\nall help to others in a struggle where every man seems to fight for his\nown hand, its lawfulness may well be questioned.  Our Lord taught us to\nlove even our enemies, and surely competitors have a still stronger\nclaim on our consideration, and certainly all who belong to a church\nwhich is based on sacrifice, and symbolised by a cross, should even in\nsuch matters deny themselves, and seek every man his neighbour's good.\n\nAll sin is the worse when it is committed, as Adonijah's was, in\ndefiance of warning.  He deliberately repeated his brother's offence.\nYet he knew the tragic story of his death, and how his brilliant life\nhad been ended by violence in a wood, where he perished without a\nfriend; and he must often have seen his father brooding alone over the\ntrouble thus caused, as if he was still whispering to himself: \"_O\nAbsalom, my son, would God I had died for thee!  O Absalom, my son, my\nson_!\"  Yet the very sin of Absalom which had been so terribly\npunished, Adonijah boldly committed.\n\nHistory is crowded with examples of ambitious men who died in\ndisappointment and despair,--Alexander, who conquered a world, and then\nwept because there were no more worlds to conquer, perished in a scene\nof debauchery, after setting fire to the city.  Hannibal, who filled\nthree bushel measures with the gold rings of fallen knights, at last,\nby poison self-administered, died unwept in a foreign land.  Caesar,\nwho had practically the whole world at his feet, was stabbed to the\nheart by so-called friends, even Brutus being among them.  Napoleon,\nthe scourge and conqueror of Europe, died, a heart-broken exile, in St\nHelena.  Indeed, it is written in letters of blood on the pages of\nhistory, \"_The expectation of the wicked shall perish_.\"\n\nHappily, angels' voices are calling us to higher things.  Conscience\nwhispers to us of duty and love.  Christ Himself, from the Cross, which\nwas the stepping-stone to His throne, still cries to every one who will\nlisten, \"_Follow me_.\"\n\nThe false must be displaced by the true--the world by the Christ--the\nusurper by the Divinely-appointed King.  It was thus that Adonijah's\nscheme was defeated.  Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and Nathan, the\nprophet, hurried in to tell David of Adonijah's revolt against his\nauthority, and that at his coronation-festival, then begun, even Joab,\nthe commander-in-chief, and Abiathar, the priest, were present.  Then\nDavid's old decision and promptitude reasserted themselves once more.\nAt his command, Solomon, his designated successor, was seated on the\nKing's own mule, and rode in state to Gihon, where Zadok anointed him\nin Jehovah's name; and when the trumpet was blown all the people said,\n\"_God save King Solomon_!\"\n\nIt was the crowning of the new king which proved the dethronement of\nthe false; and this fact enshrines a principle divine and permanent.\nFalse doctrine is overcome, not by abuse, but by the proclamation of\nthe true.  Evil, whether enthroned in the heart or in the world, is\nconquered by greater good.  The strong man armed, only keeps his goods\nin peace, until One stronger than he comes to bind him and cast him\nout.  Christ conquers the devil, be he where he may.  \"_For this\npurpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works\nof the devil_.\"\n\nIn the progress of Solomon, as he rode on his mule to Jerusalem, amid\nthe acclamations of the people, we see the Old Testament counterpart to\nthe New Testament narrative, which tells how Christ Jesus entered\nJerusalem as its king, while the people met Him with welcomes, and with\npalms, and children sang His praises.  And in both is a symbol of His\nadvent to every heart, and, if He be but welcomed as rightful king, He\nwill take to Himself His power, and reign.\n\n\n\n\nHIRAM, THE INSPIRED ARTIFICER\n\nBY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.\n\n\n\n\nThe Temple of Solomon was the crown of art in the old world.  There were\ntemples on a larger scale, and of more massive construction, but the\nenormous masses of masonry of the oldest nations were not comparable with\nthe artistic grace, the luxurious adornments, and the harmonious\nproportions of this glorious House of God.  David had laid up money and\nmaterial for the great work, but he was not permitted to carry it out.\nHe was a man of war, and blood-stained hands were not to build the temple\nof peace and righteousness.  Solomon was the providential man for such an\nundertaking.  He had large ideas, a keen sense of beauty, generous\ninstincts, a religious nature, a literary training, and a highly\ncultivated mind.  He was in peaceful alliance with surrounding nations,\nmany of whom would be drawn into requisition for the suitable materials.\nThey had to supply the cedar wood, iron, copper, brass, tin, gold,\nsilver, and the rich fabrics which have made proverbial the sumptuous and\nbeautiful raiment and decorations of those times, with the rarest marbles\nthat the quarries of Lebanon and Bezetha could contribute.  So with the\nthousands of busy builders and artificers,\n\n  \"Like some tall palm, the graceful fabric grew,\"\n\nuntil it stood complete on Mount Moriah, an inspiration to the people, a\ncontinual benediction to the nation, and the envy of many a covetous\nconqueror.\n\nThe name of one man only has been handed down the ages as having\nspecially signalised himself in the decoration of the temple.  Solomon\nmust procure the best of human talent and genius for the perfection of\nthe work he meditated.  Therefore he not only made a treaty with Hiram,\nKing of Tyre, for supplies of material, but of workmen, and chief of\nthese, one whose artistic productions were to be the best adornments of\nthe House of God for succeeding centuries.  He was a tried veteran in\ndecorative work, an expert in almost every kind of art, and fit to be\nplaced in the position of chief superintendent of so superb a building.\nThe King of Tyre sent to Solomon a testimony which was eloquent in his\npraise: \"_I have sent a cunning man endued with understanding . . . .\nthe son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, his father was a man of Tyre,\nskilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and\nin timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to\ngrave any manner of graving, and to find out every device_\" (2 Chron. ii.\n13, i4).  Another record says: \"_He was filled with wisdom, and\nunderstanding, and cunning to work all works in brass_\" (1 Kings vii. 14).\n\nIt is a significant fact in the history that Hiram, this expert\nartificer, bearing the same name as his king, should have had an\nIsraelitish mother, and a Gentile father who had also been a worker in\nmetal.  Thus he got his artistic taste and training from the father, his\nreligious knowledge and sympathy from the mother.  Religious feeling and\nsympathy he certainly had, as his magnificent work in the temple fully\ndemonstrated.\n\nHiram constructed of bright, burnished brass, an immense laver, called \"a\nmolten sea,\" to be used for the ablutions of the priests.  It was capable\nof containing from fifteen to twenty thousand gallons of water, and the\nornamentation was elaborate exceedingly.  Under the brim were two rows of\nballs or bosses, encircling the laver.  Twelve oxen, three looking in\nfour different directions, supported it, and the brim was wrought like\nthe brim of a cup with flowers of lilies.  Beyond this, there were ten\nlavers, smaller in size, for the washing of such things as were offered\nin sacrifice.  These were carefully decorated with lions, oxen, and\ncherubim on the borders of the ledges.  They stood upon bases, measuring\n6 feet by 4 1/2 feet, ornamented carefully on each side with garlands\nhanging in festoons, literally, \"garlands, pensile work.\"  Each base had\nbrasen wheels attached, with brasen axletrees, and brackets which\nstretched from the four upper corners of the bases to the outward rim of\nthe laver.  All the furnishings were also made by Hiram, such as pots,\nbasons, shovels; probably also the golden altar, and table, with the\nseven-branched lamp stands, of which there were ten, of beautiful\nconstruction and ornamentation.  But the most glorious work of Hiram was\nthe construction of the two majestic brasen pillars, called Jachin and\nBoaz, They were stately in height, the shaft of each measuring 27 feet, a\nbase of 12 feet, and two capitals of 13 1/2 feet, thus the whole height\nof each pillar being 52 1/2 feet.  The decoration was equally graceful\nand elaborate, especially upon the capitals.  The lower capitals had a\nfine network over the whole, and chain-work hanging in festoons outside.\nThere were also pomegranates wrought upon them.  The upper capitals,\nforming a cornice to the whole pillar, were ornamented with lily-work.\nAt Persepolis there still stands a pillar, the cornice of which is carved\nwith three rows of lily leaves.  These pillars were esteemed the most\nimportant ornaments in the magnificent temple, the erection of which was\nthe best feature of Solomon's reign.  They were of such prominent\nimportance that a name was affixed to each of them.  One was called\n\"Jachin,\" which means, \"he will establish,\" the other was called \"Boaz,\"\nwhich means \"in strength.\"  The ideas involved are stability and\nstrength.  Possibly the Psalmist had these pillars in his mind when he\nwrote, \"_Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary_\" (Ps. xcvi. 6);\nstrength first, then beauty; strength as the foundation of divine work,\nthen beauty, graceful finish, and ornament.\n\nHiram was an inspired artist and artificer.  He was \"_filled with wisdom\nand understanding, and cunning to work_.\"  We are told the same as to the\ngreat decorative workers of the Tabernacle, concerning whom the Lord\nsaid: \"_See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of\nHur of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God,\nin wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of\nworkmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and\nin brass, and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood,\nto work in all manner of workmanship_\" (Exod. xxxi.  2-5).  So also it is\nwritten of Aholiab, Ahisamach, and other Tabernacle workers.\n\nIt is instructive to find that in Scripture, genius as displayed in\nliterary insight and facility, in ingenuity and inventiveness as to the\nvarious arts, and even in the conception of instruments of husbandry, is\nattributed to Divine inspiration.  It may not be the same order of\ninspiration by which \"_men spake from God, being moved by the Holy\nGhost_\"; \"_Searching what time or manner of time the spirit of Christ\nwhich was in them did point unto when it testified beforehand the\nsufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them_\" (2 Peter\ni. 21; 1 Peter i. 11); but the fact is clear, whether it was inspiration\nof a different nature or in a different degree, that on men of special\ngifts in various departments and of the highest order, wisdom and\nunderstanding are a direct gift of the Holy Spirit.  This truth was\nacknowledged in earliest times, and skilled experts in art or handicraft\nwere reckoned to be under the inspiration of God.  Among the heathen this\nbelief lingered long.  The ancient poets invoked the aid of their deities\nwhen entering on some great composition, and the devout earnestness of\nsome recorded prayers is remarkable.  There should be a line of\ndemarcation drawn in this connection between a man of talent and a man of\ngenius.  Talent may be a matter of cultivation and perseverance.  A man\nof ordinary intelligence may, by determined resolution, push his way to\npower in many directions, and the one talent may become ten talents.  But\ngenius is not mere cleverness, however well directed and carefully\ndeveloped.  Genius is creative and inventive; it has insight, it has\nimagination, it \"bodies forth the forms of things unknown,\" and \"gives to\nairy nothings a local habitation and a name.\"  Isaiah speaks of the\ninspiration of the inventor of the agricultural instrument: \"_His God\ndoth instruct him aright, and doth teach him . . . This also cometh from\nthe Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in\nwisdom_\" (Isa.  xxviii. 26-29).\n\nWhen man required in the old time direct teaching of great religious\ntruths and realities, God inspired prophets and seers, but the world\nrequired also to be educated, regulated, civilised.  Therefore poets,\npainters, _litterateurs_, artists, and artificers were called for, by\ndeep needs of humanity.  God answered the need by giving the marvellous\ngift in various forms and degrees to men who had understanding of their\ntimes, and who by special insight were able to give impulses to progress\nin every direction.  This truth is powerfully stated by a German\nmetaphysician:--\"Nothing calls us more powerfully to adore the living God\nthan the appearance and embodiment of genius upon the earth.  Whatever in\nthe ordinary course of things we may choose to attribute to the\nmechanical process of cause and effect, the highest manifestations of\nintellect can be called forth only by the express will of the original\nMind, independent of second causes.  Genius descends upon us from the\nclouds precisely where we least look for it.  Events may be calculated,\npredicted--spirits never; no earthly oracle announces the appearance of\ngenius: the unfathomable will of the Creator suddenly calls to it--Be!\"[1]\n\nThe Apostle Paul says concerning the Christ, \"_IN HIM were all things\ncreated_\" (Col. i. 16).  Everything in the universe became objective,\nbecause they were first subjective in Christ, the second Person in the\nadorable Trinity.  All things were made from forms and types which were\nin Himself before they were impressed on Creation.  The infinite glories\nof sky, and air, and sea, the beauties of the tree, the flower, the bird,\nand all forms of life, the fleeting and recurring grandeurs that paint\nthe seasons and the years, are all but revelations of the boundless\nresources and the ineffable beauties and qualities of the mind of Christ,\nour Master and Teacher.  Our craving of genius, and its never-dying\nambition, is to come ever nearer to the perfection of the Infinite Artist\nand Architect.  The inspiration which filled the soul of Bezalel or Hiram\nmay not be so elevated or elevating as that which enabled Isaiah to soar\nto the throne of the Eternal in speechless rapture, or which enabled\nMichael Angelo to represent in form and colour his vast conceptions of\nthe beautiful and sublime; but it was as real, and in some aspects as\nserviceable in suggestion and realisation, as these.  \"God fulfils\nHimself in many ways.\"  As the Divine Spirit plays on the minds of\nspecial men, one is turned to music, another to painting, another to\nsculpture, another to architecture, another to mechanics, and another to\na smith's imaginings; but it is still the same Spirit that worketh in all\nand through all, and each may be perfected instruments by which He\naccomplishes His wise and gracious purposes in the uplift of men.\n\nWhat a living force among men is the true poet, the man who can take\nwords and weave them into forms of perfect rhythm, rhyme, and measure,\nand then fill them with thoughts so suggestive and burning, as that they\nbecome for ever a force in the hearts of men, thrilling the souls of men\nand women with lofty ideals, prompting them to noble deeds, nerving them\nto patience in suffering and courage in battle.  What may not the artist\naccomplish by throwing on the canvas landscapes or seascapes, like\nTurner, Scripture scenes, like Raphael, or heroic deeds, like Millais?\nDo these things not speak to the heart through the eye effectually?  And\nwhat refining influences may not be silently absorbed into the nature by\nthe artificer, who works in metals, or in pottery, in glass, or in wood,\nproducing shapes of graceful contour, and decoration of delicate beauty,\nso that the articles of the household or the warehouse may be an\neducation to the mind, and become to it patterns of things in the\nheavens.  The command to Moses on the Mount was, concerning all the\nfurniture of the Tabernacle, which Bezalel and Aholiab had to construct\nwas, \"_See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to\nthee in the mount_\" (Heb.  viii. 5).  The beautiful things were in the\nmind of God first, and then had to be produced by the inspiration of the\nartist, in the house of prayer by the wisdom and deftness imparted by the\nSpirit.\n\nIt is possible, we sorrow to think, to misuse the Divine gift of artistic\ninspiration.  The poet may devote his genius to animalism, like Byron, or\nto teach immoral license, like Swinburne; the painter may crowd his\ncanvas with degrading ideas and vulgar representations, and the artificer\nmay be ingenious in the production of forms of ugliness and degrading\ngrotesqueness.  Such desecration of great endowments is alike displeasing\nto God and ruinous to the man.  Of such it may be said: \"_He feedeth on\nashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his\nsoul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand_?\" (Isa. xliv. 20).\n\nThank God, that we may say truly that generally the superlatives might\nhave been found sitting at the feet of Jesus.  The heavy, dull masses of\nmeaningless masonry which belonged to Egypt or Assyria, flowered into the\npure, delicate, ideality of the Greek builders, and this again developed\ninto the warm, spiritual, suggestive style of Christianity which has\ncovered Christendom with consecrated buildings like the cathedrals of\nCologne or Chartres.  The art of twenty centuries has been proclaiming\nthe Christ as perfect in beauty, in grace and refinement, as He is\nperfect in love and in sacrifice.  The music of the past, in all its\nhighest reaches from Gregory to Mendelssohn, celebrates His grand\nredemption.  The most gifted poets, from Dante, pealing his threefold\nanthem from the topmost peak of Parnassus, to Shakespeare, with \"his\nwoodnotes wild\"; from Milton, with his \"sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs\nand harping symphonies,\" to Tennyson, with his \"happy bells,\" which\n\n  \"Ring in the valiant man and free,\n  The larger heart, the kindlier hand,\"\n\nbut chief of all which\n\n  \"Ring in the Christ that is to be,\"\n\nare resonant with loyalty and devotion to Him.  Thus, all voices and all\ngifts, as they come from Christ, and are claimed by Christ, should be\nused for Him and Him alone.  The lofty reach of genius is called to\nglorify Him, and the humblest gift of the peasant in the cottage, or the\nworkman in the mill, or the little child at the mother's knee, are all\ndue to Christ, to be devoted to Him, and also to be appreciated and\nrewarded by Him.\n\n\n[1]Gustav Schwab, quoted by Ullmann, in _The Worship of Genius_.\n\n\n\n\nJEROBOAM\n\nBY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n\n\"Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.\"--1 KINGS xiv. 16.\n\n\nJeroboam's character is worthy of serious study, not only because it\ninfluenced the destiny of God's ancient people, but because it suggests\nlessons of the utmost value to His people still.  He may be fairly\nregarded as a type of those who are successful men of the world.  He was\nnot an example of piety, for he had none--nor of lofty principle, for he\nwas an opportunist who made expediency the law of his life throughout.\nYet he was permitted to win all that he could have hoped for, and reached\nthe very zenith of his ambition, though he went down to the grave at\nlast, defeated and dishonoured, with this as his record--he was the man\n\"_who made Israel to sin_.\"\n\nSuch a life as his throws a flood of light on our possibilities and\nperils, showing unscrupulous men both what they may possibly win, and\nwhat they will certainly lose.\n\nJeroboam appears to have been a man of lowly origin.  Of his father\nNebat, whose name is so often linked with his own, we know nothing,\nalthough an old Jewish tradition, preserved by Jerome, identifies him\nwith Shimei, who was the first to insult David in his flight, and the\nfirst of all the house of Joseph to congratulate him on his return.  All\nwe know with certainty is that he belonged to the powerful tribe of\nEphraim, which was always jealous of the supremacy of Judah, and\ntherefore hated David, Solomon, and Rehoboam.  It was this feeling of\nwhich Jeroboam skilfully availed himself when he split the kingdom of\nDavid in twain.\n\nIn the Book of Kings, this remarkable man first appears as an ordinary\nworkman, or possibly as a foreman of the masons who were engaged in\nbuilding Fort Millo, one of the chief defences of the citadel of Zion,\nguarding its weakest point, and making it almost impregnable.  Under the\nsystem of forced labour then in vogue, the workmen would be inclined to\nshirk their toil, and among them Jeroboam stood out in conspicuous\ncontrast, by reason of his eagerness and industry.  Solomon the king, who\nalways had a keen eye for capacity, saw the young man that he was\nindustrious, and after making some inquiries about him, raised him to the\nremunerative post of superintendent of the tribute payable by the tribe\nof Ephraim.  It was, no doubt, a difficult office to fill, for the tribe\nwas restive and powerful, but it would be very profitable, because the\nsystem on which taxes were collected, as is still usual in Eastern\ncountries, gave immense opportunities for enrichment to an unscrupulous\nman.  We may be sure, therefore, that Jeroboam quickly became wealthy.\nAt the same time he won influence with the tribe, by expressing secret\nsympathy with his fellow-tribesmen, and he stealthily fostered their\ndiscontent until the opportunity came for asserting himself as a more\nsuccessful Wat Tyler, in the kingdom which by that time Solomon had left\nto his foolish son, Rehoboam.  Little did Solomon imagine that when he\nadvanced Jeroboam he was preparing the instrument of his son's ruin, and\nthat this Ephraimite would prove to be like the viper Aesop tells of,\nwhich a kind-hearted man took in from the cold, but which when roused by\nwarmth from its torpor, killed its benefactor.\n\n\nI\n\n1. In looking for the elements which contributed to Jeroboam's\nrapidly-won success, we must certainly credit him with remarkable natural\nability.\n\nNo one can read his biography carefully without noticing his shrewdness\nin seeing his chance when it came, and his boldness and promptitude in\nseizing it.  He possessed such self-control that he kept his plans\nabsolutely to himself until the critical moment, and then he made a\ndaring dash for power, and won it.  And these characteristics of his were\ngifts from God, as Ahijah the prophet emphatically declared.\n\nWe are far too timid in the maintenance of our professed belief that\nphysical and mental gifts are divine in their origin.  Mediaeval\ntheology, which was largely tinged by Pagan philosophy, sometimes went so\nfar as to attribute exceptional beauty, or talent, to evil powers; and we\nare apt to trace them to a merely human source.  But keen perception,\nsound judgment, a retentive memory, a vigorous imagination, and, not\nleast, good common-sense, are among the talents entrusted to us by God\nHimself, who will by-and-bye take account of His servants.\n\nThis is regarded by many as an old-fashioned and effete theory.  They\nassume that the doctrine of evolution has conclusively shown that no man\nis a new creation, but is a necessary product of preceding lives; that\nhis lineaments and talents may be traced to parentage, that the\nbrilliance of the Cecils and the solid sense of the Cavendishes, for\nexample, are simply a matter of heritage.  But even admitting this to be\nlargely true, it does not invalidate the statement that our gifts are of\nGod--He is the Father of all the \"families\" of the earth, as well as of\nindividuals.  He does not rule over one year only, but over all the\ngenerations.  Time and change, of which we make much, are nothing to Him.\nThe theory of evolution, therefore, merely extends our conceptions of the\nrange of His power and forethought.  Whether a child presents a striking\ncontrast to his parents, or whether he seems to be a re-incarnation of\ntheir talents, it is equally true that all things are of God, and that\nfor Him and by Him all things consist.  Natural abilities are Divine\ntrusts.\n\nThere is startling unevenness in the distribution of these gifts.  Not\nonly do two families differ widely in their talents and possessions, but\nchildren of the same parents are often strangely unlike, physically and\nmentally.  One is radiantly beautiful, and another has no charm in\nappearance or in manners.  One is physically vigorous, and another is\nfrail as a hothouse flower.  One is so quick that lessons are no trouble\nat all, and another wearily plods over them till ready to give up in\ndespair.  Evidences of this unevenness of distribution meet us\neverywhere.  One man will make a fortune where another would not suspect\na chance.  One remains a third-rate salesman all his days, and would\nspend even his holidays in looking into shop windows, for his soul does\nnot rise beyond them; while his comrade is brimful of talent, and the\nworld will ring at last with his name and fame.  We say \"it is in them\";\nbut what is in them is of God, and these very differences between men are\nintended by Him to elicit mutual consideration and mutual helpfulness;\nfor we are members one of another, and the deficiencies of one are to be\nsupplemented by the superabundance of another.\n\n2.  The most brilliant gifts are of no great value apart from personal\ndiligence, such as distinguished Jeroboam.\n\nHe did thoroughly the work which lay to his hand, whether as mason,\ntax-collector, or king.  Such diligence often rectifies the balance\nbetween two men of unequal ability.  The plodding tortoise still beats\nthe hare, who believes herself to be so swift that she can afford time to\nsleep.  Any one who looks back on his classmates will see that the\ncleverest have not proved the most successful, but that the prizes of\nlife have usually gone to those who diligently developed to the utmost\nwhat they had.  Scripture is crowded with examples of this.  Jacob\nlaboured night and day, and therefore he prospered, even under Laban,\nunjust and exacting though Laban was.  Joseph won his way to the front,\nthough an exile and a slave, for he made himself indispensable in prison,\nand in the kingdom.  \"_Seest thou a man diligent in business?  he shall\nstand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men_.\"  And because\nthis is a Divine law, it prevails in higher spheres also.  If a Christian\nuses, in the service of his heavenly Master, the gifts he possesses,\nfaith in God, knowledge of truth, power in prayer, persuasive speech--his\nfive talents will become ten, or his two will gain other two.  \"_To him\nthat hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance_.\"\n\n3. It may be said that talent and diligence combined do not always win\nsuccess, and so far as this world is concerned, it is true.  Possibly\nJeroboam would never have come to the front if Solomon had not happened\nto notice him.  But if we read the interviews which Ahijah the prophet\nhad with Jeroboam, and with his mother, we shall learn to recognise the\ncontrol of God in this also.\n\nIf God over-rules anything he must over-rule everything, because what\nappears to be the most trivial incident, often has the most far-reaching\nresults on human character and destiny.  Trifles are often turning-points\nin one's history.  A casual word spoken in our favour may bring about the\nintroduction which leads to a happy marriage, or to a prosperous business\ncareer.  It may not have been known to us at the time, nor thought of\nagain by the friend who spoke about us, but back of his friendly\nutterance God was.  In life we are not infrequently like a passenger on\nboard ship, who chats to those about him, but pays no regard to the\nwheel, or to the seaman who controls it, still less to the officer who\ngives the man his instructions; and yet the turning of that wheel, in\nthis direction or in that, involves safety, or wreck.  God keeps\ncontrol--unseen--over the lives of men, and it was more than a lucky\nchance which led Solomon to notice the smart, stalwart worker at Millo,\nand raise him to a higher post.\n\nThe wise king showed his wisdom in rewarding as he did, fidelity and\ndiligence.  It is because this is often not done in offices and\nwarehouses that there is so little mutual goodwill between servants and\nmasters.  An employer will often treat his people as mere \"hands,\" who\nare to sell his goods and do his bidding, but directly work is slack, he\nwill turn them adrift without scruple or ruth; or if they remain for\nyears in his service, will give no increase of wage or salary\nproportioned to capacity and diligence.  A Christian employer, at least,\nshould follow a more excellent way, and advance a diligent servant, not\nbecause he cannot be done without, or because it is for the good of the\nfirm to retain his services, but because his promotion is right and\nrichly deserved.  It would be a woful thing if God treated us exactly as\nwe treat our fellows.\n\nBut whatever the immediate result, fidelity and industry are called for\nfrom us all.  Our Lord Himself said, \"_It is My meat and My drink to do\nthe will of My Father in heaven_,\" and this He felt to be as true of His\nwork at the carpenter's bench as in the precincts of the Temple.  Whether\nin the business, or in the household, or in the Church, the King is ever\nwatching His servants, and of His grace will raise every faithful one to\nhigher service and larger possibilities.  \"_The Father, who seeth in\nsecret, shall reward thee openly_,\" and His reward will come not only in\nloftier position but in ennobled character--\n\n  \"Toil is no thorny crown of pain,\n    Bound round man's brow for sin;\n  True souls from it all strength may gain,\n    High manliness may win.\n\n  \"O God, who workest hitherto,\n    Working in all we see,\n  Fain would we be, and hear, and do,\n    As best it pleaseth Thee.\"\n\n\n\nII.\n\nJeroboam's defects in character, and indeed his actual sins, were many\nand great.\n\n1. His ingratitude to his benefactor was a disgrace to him.\n\nHe fostered and used, as far as he dared, the discontent which smouldered\nin the tribe of Ephraim, as the result partly of jealousy of Judah, and\npartly of restiveness under extravagant expenditure and increasing\ntaxation, and this treachery went on until he was expelled the country by\nSolomon, and driven out as an exile into Egypt, where, however, he still\ncarried out his ambitious schemes, till his chance came under Rehoboam.\n\nMany a man kicks away the ladder by which he rose to fortune.  He likes\nto divest himself of the past wherein he needed help, for it was a time\nof humiliation, and by cutting off association with former friends, would\nfain lead people to believe that his success was entirely due to his own\ncleverness.  Even his own parents are sometimes neglected and ignored,\nand these, to whom he owed his life, who cared for him in his helpless\ninfancy and wayward youth, are left unhelped.  \"_Cursed is the man who\nsetteth light by his father or mother_.\"\n\nBut though we naturally cry \"shame\" upon such an one, it is possible that\nwe ourselves are acting an unfilial part towards our Heavenly Father.\nAnd the more He prospers us the greater is the danger of our forgetting\nHim, who crowns us with loving-kindness and tender mercies.\n\n2. Jeroboam's sin against Solomon was as nothing compared with his sin\nagainst God.\n\nFrom the first he seems to have been an irreligious man.  He regarded\nreligion as a kind of restraint on the lower orders, and therefore useful\nin government.  Priests and prophets constituted, in his opinion, the\nvanguard of the police, and they should, therefore, be supported and\nencouraged by the State.  As to the form religion assumed, he was not\nparticular.  In Egypt he had become accustomed to the ritual of Apis and\nMnevis, which was by no means so gross and demoralising as the idolatry\nof the Canaanites, and he evidently could not see why the worship of\nJehovah could not be carried on by those who believed in Him through the\nuse of emblems, and, if need be, of idols.  Therefore he set about the\nestablishment of the cult of Apis, and \"_made two calves of gold, and set\nthe one in Bethel and the other put he in Dan_.\"  This was the sin for\nwhich he was condemned again and again with almost wearisome iteration.\nHe was by no means a fanatical idolater, and this act of his was simply\nthe dictate of his worldly policy.  He was engaged in the establishment\nof the separate kingdom of Israel, which for many a long year was to\nexist side by side with the kingdom of Judah.  But this policy of\nseparation would be impossible so long as there was the old spirit of\nunity in the nation.  And this unity was expressed and fostered most of\nall by the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, the common centre to\nwhich all the tribes resorted, and from which all government emanated.\nIf this continued so to be, it was evident that the nation would sooner\nor later reassert its unity.  The men of Ephraim were just now\nexasperated by the taxation imposed by Solomon, and increased by\nRehoboam, and they still resented the precedence and supremacy of the\nrival tribe of Judah; but this feeling might prove transient, it might be\nsome day dissipated by the statesmanship of a wiser king, and then the\nseparated kingdom would die out, and all God's people would appear as\none.  To prevent this was Jeroboam's aim in the erection of the golden\ncalves.\n\nIt was a policy which would naturally appeal to the jealous people, who\nwere told that they ought not to be dependent for their means of worship\non Judah, nor send up their tribute for the support of the Temple in\nJerusalem.  And they would welcome a scheme which brought worship within\neasier range, and saved the cost of leaving business and undertaking a\nwearisome journey in order to keep the feasts.  Thus, without deliberate\nchoice, they swiftly glided down into idolatry and national ruin.\n\nJeroboam thus led the people to a violation of one of the fundamental\nlaws in the Decalogue.  For if the first command was not disobeyed by all\nthe people, the second was, and these laws are still obligatory, nor can\nthey be broken with impunity.  With fatal facility those who worshipped\nJeroboam's golden calf became identified with the heathen, and the\nkingdom thus set upon a false foundation was at last utterly destroyed.\nAnd as surely as the tide flows in upon the shore, so surely will the\nlaws of God bring retribution on all who are impenitent.  To every man\nthe choice is proffered between the false and the true ideal of life.  On\nthe one side the tempter points to wealth and position, which may often\nbe won, as Jeroboam won it, by unscrupulousness; and on the other side\nstands the Son of God, who, though rejected and crucified, was\nnevertheless the Victor over sin, and who now from His heavenly throne\nexclaims, \"_To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My\nthrone, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His\nthrone_.\"\n\n\n\n\nASA\n\nBY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B.\n\n\n\n1 KINGS xv. 8-24; 2 CHRON. xiv-xvi.\n\n\nAsa was the third king who reigned over the separated kingdoms of\nJudah.  His father was Ahijah, of whom it is sternly said, \"_He walked\nin all the sins of his father, Rehoboam, which he had done before\nhim_.\"  A worse bringing-up than Asa's could scarcely be imagined.  As\na child, and as a lad, he was grievously tempted by his father's\nexample, and by the influence of an idolatrous court, which was crowded\nby flatterers and panderers.  The leading spirit of the court-circle\nwas Maachah, \"_the King's mother_,\" as she is called--the Sultana\nValide.  She was a woman of strong character, and held a high official\nposition.  She was the grand-daughter of Absalom, and was notorious for\nher fanatical idolatry.  In short, she was the evil genius of the\nkingdom, like the Chinese Queen-mother of our own times, although,\nhappily, Asa possessed a force of character which the young Emperor of\nChina seems to lack.  It is certainly noteworthy, that, with so much\nagainst the cultivation of a religious life, \"_Asa did that which was\nright in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father_.\"  Sometimes on\na heap of corruption, which we are glad to hurry past with abhorrence,\nGod plants a beautiful and fragrant flower, as if in defiance of man's\nneglect; and thus Asa appeared in the family, and in the court of\nAhijah, his father--a God-fearing, single-minded lad, with a will of\nhis own.\n\nAs there was hope for him, there is hope for all.  Whatever a man's\nparentage and circumstances may be, he is not forced into sin, and has\nno right to say, \"_We are delivered to do all these abominations_.\"\nAmid all his difficulties and discouragements, if he is earnestly\nseeking to serve God, and looking to Him for help and hope, he may\ntriumph over the most adverse circumstances, and prove himself to be a\ntrue citizen of heaven.  If he waits in prayer on God, as Joseph did in\nEgypt, Daniel in Babylon, and Asa in Ahijah's court, he will not only\nbe endued with piety, but with an independent spirit, and a resolute\nwill, which will make him a power for good in the very sphere where he\nseemed likely to be crushed by the powers of evil.  It is not in vain\nthat the apostle gave the exhortation, \"_Be not overcome of evil, but\novercome evil with good_.\"  Asa was a noble example of obedience to\nthat command.\n\nIt is clear from the narrative, in the First Book of Kings, that Asa\nwas rich in noble qualities, such as manly resoluteness, political\nsagacity, and administrative vigour.  But special prominence is given\nin the Bible (as one might expect) to his religious sincerity, for it\nis emphatically said--\"_Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his\ndays_.\"  This does not mean that he was sinless, that he had reached\nmoral perfection, but that he had completely, with whole-heartedness,\ngiven himself over to the will of God, to be and to do what He ordained.\n\nThe proof of this was seen in the reformation Asa daringly attempted.\nThis is the record of it--\"_He took away the sodomites out of the land,\nand removed all the idols that his father had made.  And also Maachah\nhis mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made\nan idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the\nbrook Kidron_.\"\n\nThings must have gone badly in the kingdom before he ascended the\nthrone.  Although it was only about twenty years since the death of\nSolomon, irreligion and vice had corrupted the nation.  The truth is\nthat evil spreads faster than good in this world, which is evidence\nthat it has fallen.  We have embodied this truth in a familiar\nproverb--\"Ill weeds grow apace.\"  If we neglect a garden, we are soon\nconfronted with weeds, not with flowers.  Valuable fruit-trees grow\nslowly, but a poisonous fungus will spring up in a night.\n\nEvidence of this often appears in national affairs.  A few months of\nwar will suffice to desolate many homes, to destroy fertile fields, and\nto burn down prosperous villages, but it is long before that waste can\nbe repaired, confidence restored, and prosperity and goodwill\nre-established.  The devil will carry fire and sword through the world\nwith the swiftness of a whirlwind, but Jesus Christ patiently waits and\nweeps over an irresponsive people, as he says, \"_Ye will not come to Me\nthat ye might have life_.\"\n\nThe same contrast in the progress of good and evil appears in our own\nexperience.  If we yield to evil, and indulge sinful passions, we move\nso swiftly downward that it is hard to stop,--like an Alpine climber on\na snow-slope, who, having once slipped, in a few minutes' rush loses\nall that he has gained by toilsome climbing, and becomes less able to\nmake new effort because of his wounds and bruises.  Among our Lord's\ndisciples, we see Judas swiftly rushing on self-destruction, whereas\nPeter and John received years of discipline, before they were fully\nprepared to fulfil their mission.  No doubt, in such cases evil may\nhave been, making slow and stealthy advance under the surface, though\nthe result appears with startling suddenness, just as gas will escape\nwithout noise, and creep into every corner of the room; but when a\nlight comes in, death and destruction come in a flash.  Evil is an\nexplosion, good is a growth.\n\nThis perhaps accounts for the facts that evil had quickly grown strong\nin the kingdom; while, on the other hand, Asa's attempt at reformation\nwas incomplete and transient.  He seems, however, to have done what he\ncould, and that is more than can be said of many.  If he had been a\ntimid, half-hearted man he might have been content to worship Jehovah\nin his private room, and thus rebuke, by his example, any idolaters who\nhappened to hear of it But his was no policy of _laissez-faire_.  He\nfelt that the evils encouraged by the father ought to be put down by\nthe son, and this he did with a strong hand, wherever he could reach it.\n\nUnhappily, there is a sad dearth of such reforming zeal in the Church,\nand in the world.  Even among those who in private lament prevailing\nevils there is a singular contentment and tolerance even of those which\nmight be at once removed.  This is grievously common in large centres\nof population, where each individual feels insignificant among such\nvast multitudes, and loses the sense of individual responsibility in\nthe vastness of the crowd which surrounds him.  How many professing\nChristians, for example, deplore drunkenness and impurity, while they\nshrink from any kind of open protest, and will not even trouble\nthemselves to vote for representatives who will fight these evils; and\nif a preacher boldly denounces such iniquities they will even beg him\nto leave questions of that kind alone, and to confine himself to\ndoctrinal exposition.  We are all too apt to forget that truth and\nrighteousness, sobriety and holiness, are of God; and that the mission\nof Jesus Christ was to establish these, and to put away sin, even by\nthe sacrifice of Himself.  The religion He exemplified was not to be\nranged on the shelves of a library, but to prove itself a living force\nin politics, in business, and at home.  What was His own doctrine?\n\"_Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the\nkingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in\nheaven_.\"  Evils outside the Church, then, are to be combated, and not\ntolerated, by all true Christians--even though in the result they are\nmaligned as renegades to their party, or jeered at as Pharisees or\nPuritans.  The late Tom Hughes was quite right half a century ago, when\nhe thus described to the lads before him the lot of a would-be reformer.\n\n\"If the angel Gabriel were to come down from heaven, and head a\nsuccessful rise against the most abominable and unrighteous vested\ninterests which this poor old world groans under, he would most\ncertainly lose his character for many years, probably for centuries,\nnot only with upholders of the said vested interest, but with the\nrespectable mass of the people he has delivered.  They wouldn't ask him\nto dinner, or let their names appear with his in the papers; they would\nbe careful how they spoke of him in the palaver, or at their clubs.\nWhat can we expect, then, when we have only poor gallant, blundering\nmen like Garibaldi and Mazzini, and righteous causes which do not\ntriumph in their hands; men who have holes enough in their armour, God\nknows, easy to be hit by respectabilities sitting in their\nlounge-chairs, and having large balances at their bankers.  But you are\nbrave, gallant boys, who have no balances or bankers, and hate\neasy-chairs.  You only want to have your heads set straight to take the\nright side; so bear in mind that majorities, especially respectable\nones, are nine times out of ten in the wrong, and that if you see a man\nor boy striving earnestly on the weaker side, however wrong-headed or\nblundering he may be, you are not to go and join the cry against him.\nIf you cannot join him, and help him, and make him wiser, at any rate\nremember that he has found something in the world which he will fight\nand suffer for--which is just what you have got to do for\nyourselves--and so think and speak of him tenderly.\"\n\nThose manly words are worth quoting in full, and they will fitly set\nforth the service young Asa rendered to his kingdom, and to the world\nat large.\n\n\nI.\n\nIt may be well to analyse a little more closely the reformation this\nright-hearted king attempted.  He diminished opportunities for sin.\nThe traffic in vice, by which many were making profit, he put down with\na strong hand.  And there are hotbeds of vice to be found in our own\nland, where strong appeal is made to the lusts of the flesh, and where\nintoxicating drink incites men to yield to passions which need\nrestraint.  Indeed, even in our streets moral perils assail the young\nand innocent, which no Christian nation ought to tolerate.  We often\nmeet the assertion that we cannot make people moral by Acts of\nParliament; but if dens of infamy, which it is perilous to enter, are\nswept away, if gin-palaces and public-houses which flood the land with\nruin are diminished in number, and in their hours of trade, it would\ncertainly lessen the evils we deplore.  Vested interests fight against\nsuch a change, and many on the side of sobriety and righteousness\nshrink from the contest, so that we need the inspiration which God gave\nto Asa, if we are to win the victory.\n\nThis kingly reformer not only lessened opportunities for vice, but\ncertain evil influences in his kingdom he brushed aside with a strong\nhand.  Maachah, the king's mother, was a potent influence on the side\nof idolatry.  It seemed at first impossible to touch her.  The king was\nindebted to her.  She was aged, and age merits respect, and, therefore,\nsome would argue that she might be tolerated for the few years she yet\nhad to live.  But these pleas did not avail her, for the issues\ninvolved were too serious for the nation, and for the kingdom of God.\nAnd because \"_Asa's heart was perfect_,\" completely devoted to\nJehovah's cause, he \"_removed her from being queen_,\" and publicly\nburnt the idol she had put up.\n\nLeaders in evil are sometimes found among the leaders of the world.\nClever, unscrupulous men succeed in winning power through their want of\nprinciple, and even of scruple.  Distinguished writers, gifted with\nbrilliant style, or poetic power, exercise widespread influence for\nevil.  Young people of singularly attractive personality win to\nthemselves a large following, and use it for the worst ends.  Many a\ngolden image, or beautiful object of adoration, still stands on the\nhigh places of the world; and even if we cannot pull them down, as Asa\ndid, at least we can say to the evil one, who set them up, \"_Be it\nknown unto thee that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden\nimage which thou hast set up_.\"\n\nThe history of Asa should inspire us to a renewal of war against the\nevils which Jesus Christ died to put away.  Victory will not come\nwithout conflict.  In respect to anxiety we are to be quiescent as the\nlilies, which neither toil nor spin, but in respect of moral evil,\nwithin or without, we must be vigilant and strenuous.\n\n  \"Lilies have no sin\n    Leading them astray,\n  No false heart within\n    That would them bewray,\n  Nought to tempt them in\n    An evil way;\n  And if canker come and blight,\n  Nought will ever put them right.\n\n  \"But good and ill, I know,\n    Are in my being blent,\n  And good or ill may flow\n    From mine environment;\n  And yet the ill, laid low,\n    May better the event;\n  Careless lilies, happy ye!\n  But careless life were death to me.\"\n\n\nII.\n\nThe courage of Asa had as its root confidence in God, and this is shown\nmore fully in the narrative which appears in the Second Book of\nChronicles than in the First Book of Kings.\n\nHis reforming work--carried out with ruthless vigour--naturally raised\nup adversaries on every side.  In the court itself Maachah and her\nparty were implacable.  Outside it the idolatrous priests, and all\ntheir hangers-on, whose vested interests were abolished, were plotting\nand scheming against the king.  But Asa was imperturbable, because he\nhad found God to be his refuge and strength.  The man who really fears\nGod finds the fear of his fellows thereby cast out.\n\nTo Jehovah, therefore, the brave king brought all his difficulties.\nThis was beautifully exemplified when he found himself confronted with\nan overwhelming force of Ethiopians, for then \"_Asa cried unto the Lord\nhis God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with\nmany, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we\nrest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.  O Lord,\nThou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee_.\"  Prayer was the\nsecret of his strength, and in it we also may find all the help we need\nin meeting our discouragements--the ignorance which tries our patience,\nthe indifference to God which nothing seems to stir, the vice which\nholds its victim as an octopus, the sin which is as subtle as it is\nstrong.  Against them all we have no power, and may well pray as Asa\ndid.  \"Lord, help us.\"  Then He will fulfil the promise, \"_When the\nenemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a\nstandard against him_.\"\n\n\nIII.\n\nAfter his great deliverance Asa renewed his consecration.  The need for\nits renewal shows that in character and conduct he was far from being\nall that he ought to have been.  He was not \"_perfect_\" in that sense.\nHis earnestness cooled down.  Through his carelessness the \"_high\nplaces_\" were re-erected.  He seems to have been content that the\n\"_groves_,\" with their grosser forms of idolatry, were gone, and that\nother forms might be tolerated, just as some, who have conquered their\nvices, are morally ruined by what the world calls little sins.  But, in\nspite of these failings, the judgment of God, who is ever slow to anger\nand of great mercy, was that Asa's heart was \"_perfect_\"--sound, whole,\nand sincere, though not sinless.\n\nHow happy it is that God judges not as man judges, that He can\nunerringly read the heart, and graciously accepts even the imperfect\nand blundering service which we sincerely offer to Him.  Jehu\naccurately executed Jehovah's fiat, whereas Asa's obedience seemed\nimperfect; yet the latter was commended, and the former condemned,\nbecause Asa, unlike Jehu, was right in heart.  Therefore we may be\nencouraged still to do our little part in God's service, in spite of\nthe failures and imperfections of the past, if only we can say, \"_Lord,\nThou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee_.\"\n\n\n\n\nAHAZIAH\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\n\"And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, by coming to Joram; for,\nwhen he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of\nNimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.\"--2\nCHRON. xxii. 7.\n\n\nWe rarely read this part of the Bible.  And I do not wonder at it.  For\nthose particular chapters are undoubtedly dreary and monotonous.  They\ncontain the names of a number of incompetent and worthless kings who\ndid nothing that was worth writing about, and who were singularly\nalike, so that when you have heard the story of one of them you know\npretty well the story of all.  It is the good lives that furnish\nattractive reading, because there is so much individuality and variety\nin them, so many pictorial lights and shadows.  A novel in which all\nthe characters are mean, would be read by nobody.  The blackness needs\nto be relieved by something good, for darkness is always monotonous.\nBad men show a dreary sameness in their thoughts and doings, their rise\nand fall.  The godly are like nature illumined by the sunlight,\nmanifold and infinite; the wicked are like nature when the darkness\ncovers it, uniform and dismal.  Nearly all that is said in the Bible\nabout these bad kings, is that they walked in the ways of Ahab or\nJeroboam or some other wicked person, that they closely imitated the\ndoings of their model.  The Bible does not waste space in describing\nthem more accurately.  One or two specimens do for all.\n\nBut certain things are said about Ahaziah which afford room for\nreflection, and may, perhaps, be useful to us if we take them in a\nright way.\n\nAnd first let me give you a lesson in genealogy.  These lessons are\noften very wearisome.  Let two men get on talking about who was the\ncousin, father, grandfather, great-grandmother, and what not of such a\nperson, and you begin at once to wish that you were out of it, or that\nyou could quietly go to sleep until they settle the question; and yet\nit is not so unimportant as it seems.  When a man writes a biography he\ndeems it his duty to go back three or four generations, and tell you\nwhat sort of fathers and mothers and grandmothers and even\ngreat-grandsires his hero had.  It is very wearisome, but it is very\nnecessary.  The story is not complete without that--for breed and\nancestry go quite as far with men as with cattle, and often further.\n\nAhaziah's descent was right on one side, but it was very mean on the\nother.  He had David's blood in his veins, and Jehoshaphat's, and\nmingled with that, the venom of heathenism.  His mother was Athaliah,\nand Athaliah was the daughter of Jezebel, and Jezebel was a licentious\nheathen princess whom Ahab on an evil day had made his wife.\n\nThere is nothing in the Bible more tragical and more infamous than the\nstory of this woman Jezebel, and the part which she took in shaping the\ndestiny of the Jewish nation.  She was a Syro-Phenician princess, whose\nfather ruled over the powerful and wealthy cities of Tyre and Sidon.\nAhab was caught by her beauty, and by the attractive political alliance\nof which she was the pledge.  Some think that the forty-fifth Psalm had\nreference to her, which speaks of the daughter of Tyre coming with gold\nof Ophir, splendidly arrayed, and bringing a handsome dowry with her.\nAhab thought he was marrying wealth and dignity, and providing for the\ngreatness of his house, and, as often happens in such marriages, he\nforgot to ask for a certificate of character, forgot to ask what sort\nof mother he was providing for his children.  She came with all her\nmeretricious splendour covering one of the most fiendish natures that\never wore a woman's form.  She developed, if she did not bring with\nher, all imaginable vices--her vindictive passion revelled in blood;\nher religion was the filthiest licentiousness; her beauty became the\npainted face of a common harlot.  Her figure stands forth in the Bible\nas the very worst exemplification of the dark possibilities of human\nnature.  Tennyson says men do not mount as high as the best of\nwomen--but they scarce can sink as low as the worst.  For men at most\ndiffer as heaven and earth; but women, worst and best, as heaven and\nhell.  And this woman became, alas, the mother of kings; and all who\nwent forth from her inherited her nature, and forgot nothing of her\ntraining.  For several generations the taint of her evil influence was\nfelt throughout the whole court life of Israel, and the licentious\nabominations which she had introduced infected the whole national life.\nAhab married for money and position, and this was what came of it.\n\nHer influence extended also to the southern kingdom of Judah.  Jehoram,\nKing of Judah, must needs marry Ahab's daughter, Athaliah, who was the\nexact counterpart of her mother, Jezebel.  Another wedding in which\nmorals and religion were sacrificed on the altar of gain--for by means\nof it a small kingdom was to be cemented in alliance with a greater,\nand another rich dowry to be secured.  And the same dreary results\nfollowed--a court corrupted with all manner of impurity, sons and\ndaughters initiated into all the mysteries of wickedness,\ndemoralisation spreading all around.\n\nIn this atmosphere Ahaziah was trained.  His mother's name, says the\nrecord briefly, was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, that is, the direct\ndaughter of Jezebel.  He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab,\nfor his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly--wherefore he did evil\nin the sight of the Lord, for they were his counsellors after the death\nof his father to his destruction.  What else could result in a home of\nwhich Athaliah was the head, in which the main training and influence\nwere supplied by one of Jezebel's brood.  The significant feature in\nall these Chronicles is the immense influence of women in shaping the\nlives and characters of kings.  The men seem to have little to do with\nit; the women are almost supreme.  Sons do not take after their fathers\nbut after their mothers.  Again and again we read of a good king who\nhad a wicked father--Josiah, Hezekiah, and others.  They shake off\ntheir evil inheritance; they refuse to follow in their fathers' steps;\nthey destroy idolatry, and endeavour to redeem Israel from its\niniquity.  But whenever this is the case you do not look far without\ndiscovering the cause.  A good mother has been at work--woman's\ngracious influence has counteracted against the pernicious example of\nthe father.  And, on the other hand, we have a long list of vile and\nidolatrous kings, whose fathers were either comparatively worthy, or\nfull of downright godliness, and then, invariably, there is some\nevil-minded royal consort at the back of it.  Whenever we can get into\nthe secrets of court life, we find that the character of the wife\ndetermines the moral weight and form of the royal children.  It is her\ntraining that shapes the men.  How could it be otherwise indeed?  What\ntime had those kings to spend on home matters, what with their\nfighting, judging, governing, and attending to all the affairs of\nempire?  How could they do a father's work and watch the training of\nthe future kings?  It was left to the mothers, and unhappy they who had\nmothers like Ahaziah's.\n\nAnd is not this an everlasting story, true to-day as it was in those\nold days?  It is the mother's hand mainly that shapes men for good or\nevil.  Women more than men make the atmosphere of home--the atmosphere\nwhich young lives breathe, and breathing never lose.  The wise woman\nbuildeth her house--the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.  What\ntime does a father spend in disciplining the moral and spiritual nature\nof his children?  That has to be done in the hours when he is toiling\nin the warehouse, or resting wearily after the labours of the day, or\nsurely it is not done at all.  From a mother the child receives all its\nearly religious thoughts.  By her the Bible stories are taught, and\nthrough her lips the good book comes to be loved.  None can do it\nexcept her.  It is her eyes that watch every moral movement in the\nyoung life--every sign of change--every incipient error--every\nbeginning of good and evil habit.  No eyes can detect these things as\nquickly and as surely as hers.  And if she is too careless to discover\nthem, they will go unobserved and unchecked.  Unhappy is the mother who\ngives to society, or to friendship, or to pleasure the time which she\nowes to her sons and daughters, for she will have to reap in vain\nregrets the penalty of her neglect.  How rarely do good and true women\nand men go forth from a home in which a mother has been too busy with\nthe giddy affairs of the pleasurable world to teach and pray with her\nchildren.  Still more rarely do permanently evil and incorrigible lives\ngo forth from a home in which a noble and religious mother has made it\nthe chief business of her life to mould and train her children in paths\nof pure thought and reverent purpose.  There is no religious work which\na woman can do that equals this in importance, and none which secures\nsuch sure and blessed results.  That, then, is the main thought\nsuggested by these chapters--the measureless influence of women in\nforming lives for evil or for good.\n\nThen comes the only other thing that we are told about this\nAhaziah--that he was killed because he happened to be found in evil\ncompany.  He lived badly because he followed the counsels of his\nmother, we read, and he died suddenly and tragically because he\nendeavoured to be on very friendly terms with his mother's relatives.\nHe was King of Judah, and Judah with all its sins still worshipped God\nand was comparatively free from idolatry.  But Israel, over which\nJehoram, his mother's brother ruled, was given up to all the\nabominations of heathenism.  Its court was a horrible sink of iniquity,\nand God's judgment had gone forth against it and all its doings.\nAhaziah must needs join hands and pledge friendship with his relatives,\nand for that purpose visited them--probably he did not intend to do\nmore.  It was just to look at the doings of this court, and have a\ntaste of its pleasures, and then come back again.  But once there he\nwas led on from step to step--found Jehoram's company very attractive,\nentered into his plans, went out with him to battle, took part, no\ndoubt, in the worship of his gods, and then while the two were going\nhand and glove together, the long-deferred judgment of God fell on\nJezebel's house.  The soldier raised up by God for that purpose swooped\ndown upon the wicked king and his favourites with resistless force,\nmaking no distinction; and Ahaziah, being one of the band, shared in\nthe general destruction.\n\nThe destruction of Ahaziah, says the Book, was of God, by coming to\nJehoram.  By his coquetting with evil he was made to pay the last\npenalty.  So runs the story, and it seems far removed from everything\nthat concerns our lives--yet not so far--things of a similar kind are\nhappening every day.  Men who tread the ways of sinners, who enter into\nany sort of fellowship with them, often find themselves involved very\nstrangely and suddenly in their shame and their punishment.  You cannot\ngo into ways of evil men, or visit any forbidden scenes, or lend your\ncountenance in any way to their doings, even though you have no further\nintention than just to look on, but there is ever hanging over you the\nsword of detection.  The policeman appears, or God's light is let down\nupon the scene, and you are discovered as having part in it, and your\nname is stained and your character gone, and your life marked with a\nperpetual stigma of disgrace.  When God's Judgment comes on sin it\nalways involves some who are just hovering on the edge of it, as well\nas those who are in the thick of it.  You ought not to be there.\nRemember Ahaziah.\n\nAnd there are some evil natures and some evil things which a man cannot\ntouch in even the slightest degree without being led on from step to\nstep, as Ahaziah was, until he was in the thick of Jehoram's iniquity.\nA young woman cannot enter a gin-palace and drink her glass at the\ncounter--as I see scores do any night--without gradually going further\nand losing all the modesty and grace of womanhood.  A young man cannot\ntouch gambling in any of its forms without almost inevitably being\ndrawn under its fascinations, as one who is slowly involved in a wily\nserpent's coils.  An English bishop thinks and has said that a little\nbetting is allowable, that if you only indulge moderately in it, you\nmay do it with impunity.  He might as well have said that if you only\nsteal coppers the law will smile upon you, but if you steal gold you\nwill come in for its stripes.  He might as well have said, \"If you only\nput your little finger in this fire it will not hurt you, but if you\nthrust your whole hand in, it will burn.\"  There can be no moderation\nin a thing which is essentially and in all its principles based on\ndishonesty and corruption, and evil excitement and evil greed.  I am\nprofoundly sorry that such a thing has been said by one whose word has\nso much authority and influence.  It will be taken by thousands as an\nencouragement to do what they are only too prone and eager to do.  Who\nshall curse what a father in Christ has condescended to bless?  We need\nrather to have all Christian hands and voices raised in passionate and\ntearful denunciation of that which is doing more than anything else to\ndemoralise our youth and eat away the very morals of the nation.  We\nneed to warn against it and denounce it in whatever form and degree it\nis practised, and to say, \"Touch not, taste not, handle not the\naccursed thing.\"\n\nWe must keep away altogether from the men who delight in evil paths,\nand from the things, the very touch of which defiles.  Go not in their\nway, pass not by it.  \"If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.\"\nLearn the lesson of Ahaziah's life, and how his fall came because he\nconsorted with wickeder men than himself, and was anxious to see their\ndoings.\n\n\n\n\nGEHAZI\n\nBY REV. J. MORGAN GIBBON\n\n\n\n\"The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy\nseed for ever.  And he went out from his presence a leper as white as\nsnow.\"--2 KINGS v. 27.\n\n\nElisha and Gehazi were master and man.  They were more.  They were\nalmost father and son.  Elisha calls him \"_my heart_,\" just as Paul\ncalls Onesimus his heart.  Yet they parted so.--\"_He went out from his\npresence a leper_.\"  The punishment was terrible.  Was it deserved?\nHad the master a right to pass this sentence?  \"_The leprosy of\nNaaman_\"--yes! but had Gehazi caught nothing from Elisha?\n\nMost commentators fall on Gehazi with one accord.  He is pilloried as a\nliar.  He is branded as a thief.  He is bracketed with Achan, and\ncoupled with Judas.  They flatter the master, they are hard on the man.\nBut this is surely a very false reading of facts.  By clothing the\nprophet in spotless white, and tarring Gehazi a deep black all over, we\nviolate the truth of things and miss the lesson of the story, which,\nlike the sword-flames at Eden's gate, turn many ways.\n\nTo take but one out of its numerous suggestions, we have here a story\nfor servants of all sorts, and for masters and mistresses too, of all\nkinds.\n\nThe section is rich in domestic interiors.  Servants have always formed\nimportant members of the household, and often their service has risen\nto be a beautiful and holy ministry.\n\nWe see here, for example, a great Eastern lady, Naaman's wife, and her\nlittle Jewish maid, whom the fortunes of war had swept from her home\n\"in the land of Israel.\"  In the division of the spoil, this human mite\nhad fallen to Naaman's share, and drifted into his lady's service.  The\nslave-child has evidently reached the woman, perhaps the hungering\nmother's heart, in her mistress; and the sorrow of the woman, for alas!\nshe is a leper's wife, has touched the servant's heart.  The burning\nsense of the wrong to herself is cooled and quenched by the pity she\nfeels for her master; and the expedition that brought health to Naaman,\nand unspeakable joy to Naaman's wife, was the outcome of a word she\nspoke.  She knew of Elisha, she said what she knew, and great things\ncame of it.\n\nShe did this, not as a slave of Naaman's wife, but as a free human\nsoul, and servant of God.  No tyranny could extort this service.  No\nwealth could pay for this golden secret.  Sometimes a character appears\nbut once in the course of a great drama.  The man or woman, comes on\nthe stage to deliver one message, and then disappears.  But that one\nbrief word has its place in the playwright's scheme, and its effect on\nthe action of the piece.  This child was sent to Syria to utter one\nspeech, to speak one name, and because she spoke her little speech,\nkindly and clearly, things went better with ever so many people.\n\n\"A fair day's wage for a fair day's work,\" but let there be more than\nmoney in the wage, and more than labour in the service.  Let no one, in\nbeing a servant, cease to be a free human soul.  Do you serve in Syria?\nIs your lot cast among those that know not the Prophet?  Well, but\n_you_ are from the land of Israel; speak your speech, tell out the\nProphet's name.  Be more than servant, more than clerk, more than a\n\"hand,\" an apprentice, a journeyman; be a soul, an influence, a link\nwith higher things, a reminder of God, a minister of Christ.\n\nNaaman, too, was happy in _his_ servants.  He was a Bismarckian,\npeppery man.  Accustomed to command, he expected miracles to be done to\norder, and prophets to toe the line.  And because he did not like\nElisha's manner nor his prescription, he was on the point of returning\nto Syria in a rage.  But he had servants that knew him through and\nthrough.  They knew what note to sound, and they saved him from\nhimself.  The expedition had been suggested by a servant who generously\npaid good for evil.  It was saved from defeat by servants who did for\nkindness what no contract could have specified and no wage could cover.\nThey also were souls who knew at times that man was created for\nspiritual service.\n\nBut Elisha, too, though doubtless poor, had his servant, and an\nefficient, tactful servant he was.\n\nA very good book might be written on \"poor men's servants.\"  For they\nhave had of the very best.  The whole world knows Boswell, and with all\nhis faults it loves him still, for he was loyal to a royal soul.  Well,\nmost great men have had their Boswells.  When all is known it will be\nfound that the men of the five talents have owed much of their success\nand more of their happiness to the fidelity and love of men of the one\ntalent.\n\nHow well Gehazi served Elisha!  How nobly the servant comes out in that\nexquisite story of the Lady of Shunem.  How jealous he is of his\nmaster's honour! How dear he was to Elisha's soul, \"my heart! my other\nself!\"  And yet, he did this thing.  He lied, he cheated, he obtained\ngoods by false pretences, he lowered the prophet in Naaman's sight; and\nafter all his years of noble service, his master smote him with his\ncurse, and he went out of his presence a leper!\n\nBut was Naaman's the only leprosy that infected Gehazi?  Had Elisha any\nshare in his fall?  After all, it is a sorry business to heal a\nstranger and send forth one's own friend in this fashion.\n\nNothing can exonerate Gehazi.  His lie remains a lie, say what you\nwill.  But our business is not to apportion blame, but to try to find\nout how such things came to be, in order to guard against them in our\nown homes.  If a servant leaves your employ poorer in character than\nwhen she came to you, if a youth leaves your business harder, colder,\nweaker in will, further from God than when you received him from home,\nit is a clear case for inquiry.  It is our duty to see that young\npeople are not exposed to moral infection in our homes.\n\nIn the matter of physical infection, two facts are familiar to us all.\nThe first is, that mischief enters the system by means of a germ; and\nthe second is, that the action of the germ depends very much on the\ncondition of health in which it finds a man.  If the man is healthy, he\nis often proof against the arrow that fleeth by day, and the pestilence\nthat walketh in darkness.  But if the body is already enfeebled, the\ngerms find half their work done for them beforehand.\n\nWell now, these natural laws are valid in the spiritual world.  The\nrules of moral hygiene are summed up in our Lord's prayer, \"_Lead us\nnot into temptation_,\" that is to say, do not breathe the germ-laden\nair, and in St Paul's precept, \"_Be strong in the Lord_,\" cultivate\ngeneral spiritual health, safety lies in strength.  Good health is the\nbest prophylactic.  There is no precaution so effective as being well.\n\nNow what have we in this narrative?  When the prophet permitted Naaman\nto bow in the temple of Rimmon he did very right, say the chorus of\ncommentators.  But the common-sense of mankind has taken a different\nview.  Bowing in the temple of Rimmon has become a byword and a\nreproach.  It signifies something which men feel is not quite right.\nIt was, in fact, an indulgence.  Still, perhaps it was wise not to\nforce the new-born convert.  Perhaps it did Naaman no harm.  Possibly\nit did Elisha's soul no injury to be so far complaisant towards\nidolatry.  But surely there was a germ of evil in the thing, and this\ngerm found a nidus, found a nest in Gehazi's soul, in which to hatch\nits evil brood.  It lighted on Gehazi at the psychological moment.  He\nhad seen the gorgeous equipage.  He had gazed on the ingots of gold and\nthe great bars of silver.  He had fingered the silks and brocades.\nElisha had waved them away.  To him they were as child's trinkets.  But\nhe had other resources than Gehazi, and when the cavalcade drew off,\nleaving nothing of its treasures behind, his longing grew into a fever\nof desire.  It was so mad of the master to let _all_ that gold and\nsilver go, and he so poor!  Gehazi had to bear the brunt of the\npoverty, and tax his five wits to make ends meet.  And to think that a\ngold mine had come to their very door and they had refused to let it in!\n\nBut it is too late now--and yet why should it be too late?  The company\nmoves slowly.  One could easily catch up with it.  But what to say?\n\nPilgrims sometimes knock at Elisha's door.  Sons of the prophets from\nthe college on Mount Ephraim often come to see the master.  There were\ntwo last week, or was it the week before?  Without doubt we shall have\nothers soon, for they like to talk to the master.  They are miserably\npoor like ourselves, but they have good appetites.  Naaman would be\ndelighted to leave something for them.  He would feel easier in his\nmind.  It would be a kindness to let him give something.  True, we have\nnone of them in the house at this moment.  But we have had and we shall\nhave.  If I say we have them _now_--well, that will only be making a\nlittle bow in the temple of Rimmon.  Naaman means to do that.  Master\nallows him to do it.  We must not be _too_ strict.  \"_As the Lord\nliveth I will run after him and take somewhat of him_!\"  Elisha was\nhurt, shamed, and angry.  The sin was great and terrible.  Yet,\nperhaps, had Gehazi met Elijah this would not have happened.  Had\nElisha sounded the great Elijah-note, \"if the Lord is God, follow Him,\nbut if Rimmon, then follow him,\" perhaps the germ of temptation would\nnot have found Gehazi even quite such an easy prey,\n\nMind, I am not whitewashing him or mitigating his crime.  I am trying\nto get at the forces that conspired to make him what he was, and among\nthese I have no doubt at all that his master's complaisant permission\nof compromise was a very potent force.  Of course he was wrong, of\ncourse there is no logical connection between what the master allowed\nin the Syrian general and the great lie Gehazi told.  And yet there was\na sort of ghastly logic in this poor wretch's procedure.  There are\nmany commandments.  But duty is one thing, and if you weaken a man's\nsense of duty by breaking one commandment yourself, you must not be\nsurprised if you find him breaking another commandment later on.\nGehazi was cured of the leprosy of Naaman.  The prophet's angry word\nwas not countersigned on high, and one hopes that he also shook off by\nGod's assisting grace the ill-effects of Elisha's complacency.  For the\ngreater danger lay in _that_.  And does it not still lie there?\n\nOur young people, our children, our servants that minister to our\ncomfort, our assistants and clerks that multiply our personal\nactivities and help to build up our fortunes, is there no danger to\ntheir spiritual life in being exposed as they are to the spiritual\ninfluences which we give off every hour?  They see the cavalcades of\nwealth, they gaze at the ingots of gold and the great white silver\nbars; they look with longing eyes at the silks with colours that come\nand go like the iris on the dove's neck.  The luxuries of meat and\ndrink appeal to them.  The temptation to live for these things assaults\nthem.\n\nAnd what help does Gehazi get from Elisha to-day?  What help do young\nmen in offices and shops get from masters and heads of departments?\nWhat help do servants in London homes get from the daily examples of\nmistresses?  What are the inferences drawn in the kitchen from things\nheard and seen in the dining or drawing-room? and what in the nursery?\nDoes a young man who sees to the very core of your business say to\nhimself, \"The master's profession of religion is hypocrisy--_all_\nreligion is hypocrisy?\"  Then may God help him, for he is smitten with\nthe leprosy of Elisha; and may God help you, for it is a sorry business\nto evangelise Asiatics and send your own servants forth from your\npresence lepers white as snow.\n\nLet every master and mistress pray, \"_Search me, O God, and know my\nheart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any way of\nwickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting_.\"\n\n\n\n\nHAZAEL\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\"But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great\nthing?\"--2 KINGS viii. 13.\n\n\nHazael was the chief minister and prime favourite of Benhadad, the\nSyrian king.  He had been raised from a humble lot and promoted to that\nhigh post by the partiality of his sovereign, who had doubtless\ndiscerned his exceptional abilities, and certainly placed implicit\ntrust in him.  Just now the king was dangerously ill, and Hazael had\nbeen sent to inquire of the prophet of Israel as to the probable issue\nof the sickness.  He put the question with seeming anxiety: \"Will my\nmaster recover?\"  He spoke as if that was his dearest wish; perhaps he\ndid wish it.  But there were evidently other thoughts half-formed,\nlurking and hiding themselves in the background.  Suppose the king\nshould die and leave the throne vacant, what then?  May there not be a\nchance for me?  Elisha read these hidden thoughts, and looked the man\nin the face long and steadfastly, until the face turned crimson and the\nhead was lowered with shame.  And then the prophet said, \"Thy master\nneed not die of the sickness; nevertheless, he will die, and I see you\nfilling a throne won by murder, and I have a picture before me of the\nterrible things which you will do to my dear land of Israel.\"  And as\nthis vision passed before the prophet's eyes, he wept.  Then Hazael\ngave the answer which stands at the head of this paper.\n\nIt is open to two interpretations.  The Authorised Version gives one\nand the Revised Version the other.  According to the first, it is an\nindignant denial; he recoils with horror from the picture of perfidy,\ncruelty, and enormous criminality which the prophet has sketched for\nhim.  I am not capable of such a thing, he says; \"_Is thy servant a\ndog, that he should do this great thing_?\"  According to the other\nreading it is not the crime that he revolts from, but the kingship and\nthe greatness that he refuses to believe in.  It seems so improbable\nand all but impossible that he, a man of obscure birth, should climb to\nsuch eminence.  He exclaims against it as a piece of incredulous and\nextravagant imagination.  \"_What is thy servant, which is but a dog,\nthat he should do this great thing_?\"\n\nNow, I doubt not that both readings may be allowed.  For certainly both\nthoughts were in the speaker's mind.  He did not believe at that moment\nthat he could ever be brought to commit such infamous deeds, and he did\nnot believe that he could ever attain such high ambitions and power.\nThere was a dark moral depth predicted for him to which he was sure he\nwould never fall, and there was a certain grandeur and elevation to\nwhich he was confident he would never rise.  To both things he said,\n\"It is impossible,\" and yet the impossible came to pass.\n\nNow I would have you observe that this is one of the prominent lessons\nof the Bible; on many a page does it bring out an unexpected\ndevelopment like this.  Again and again it is the unlikely that happens\nin the lives which figure on its pages.  They rise or they fall in a\nway that no one looked for, and which they, least of all, anticipated\nthemselves.  We seem to hear them saying with Hazael, \"Impossible,\" and\nthen, before we get far, the thing is done.  Impossible, we say, that\nking Saul should ever descend so low as to deal in witches; or that\nSolomon, the wise, God-fearing youth, should give himself up to the\nsway of lustful passions and idolatries.  Yet that comes to pass.\nImpossible, we say, that the cunning, lying Jacob should ever develop\ninto a man of prayer; and the outcast beggar, Jephthah, ever grow into\na hero-patriot and king.  Yet we see it.  In the Bible stories\ngreatness always comes to those who have neither marked themselves out\nfor it, nor deemed themselves fit for it; and, on the contrary, its\nmost infamous deeds are done, and its most shameful lives lived, by\nthose who have given promise of fairer things, and who in their early\nmanhood would have scouted the possibility of descending so low.  The\nmen whom it describes have no suspicion, to begin with, of the great\npower for good that is in them, or the equally great possibilities of\nevil.  Tell the shepherd youth, David, that he has in him the making of\na king and an immortal poet, and he will think you are poking fun at\nhim.  Tell him that he will one day fall into the crimes of adultery\nand murder, and make all Israel blush for him, and he will be indignant\nenough to strike you to the ground.  Speak to the fisherman, Peter, of\nthe commanding influence which awaits him in some coming kingdom of\nGod, and he will think you are beside yourself: and then tell him that\nhe will one day deny and curse his sworn Master and kindest Friend, and\nhe will ask you, Do you think I am a dog or a devil that I should do\nthis?  Impossible!  And yet the thing comes off.\n\nWhy do the sacred writers give us so many stories of this kind?  Surely\nit is because we need both the warning and encouragement.  It is to\nprove to us that on one side of our nature we are greater than we\nthink, and on the other side weaker and lower than we believe.  It is\nto inspire the diffident with courage, and the despairing with hope,\nwhile it pulls up the forward, the careless, and the over-confident\nwith the wholesome and humbling word, \"_Let him that thinketh he\nstandeth, take heed lest he fall_.\" These men of the Bible were\nstrangely mixed.  They were conspicuous instances of the contradictions\nand surprises which are in us all.  For that is the point: the thing\ncomes home to us.\n\nBelieve me, we are all a riddle to ourselves.  Each man is to himself,\nand each woman too, the greatest of all mysteries save the one greater\nmystery, God.  None of us know of what elements he is composed, and how\nstrangely the good and evil mix and mingle and clash and strive in each\nday's doings, and through the whole of life.  They who believe that the\nsaint is all saint, and the sinner all sinner, are blindly and pitiably\nignorant of human nature.  God has made no man without putting some\nlittle bit of the Divine image in him.  The worst has some lingering\ntrace or ruin of it.  And the best is not so entirely the temple of the\nHoly Ghost that no fouler spirits ever obtain entrance there.  You may\nsay that you do not believe in a devil.  Well, that may be; but there\nis something like a devil in all of us at certain times, and I would\nrather believe that it comes from the outside than that it is born and\nbred and originates within.  At any rate, there are in all of us the\nstrange oppositions, the darkness and the light overlapping each other,\nthe evil and the good ever contending, like Esau and Jacob, in the\nbirth hour.  The awful and the blessed possibilities are there, and\nwhich shall get the uppermost depends first on God, and then upon\nourselves.\n\n\n\nI.\n\nRemember first, then, that we have all a lower side.\n\n\nThere is in us what I may call a lurking, crouching, slumbering devil,\nwhich needs constant watching and holding down with the strong hand of\nself-mastery and prayer.  \"Praying always with all prayer, and watching\nthereunto,\" says the apostle.  In every one of us there is the\npossibility of falling, however high we stand and however near God we\nwalk.  Bunyan says, in his immortal story, \"Then I saw in my dream that\nby the very gate of heaven there was a way that led down to hell.\"  No\nman, however ripe in goodness, however firmly rooted and grounded in\nfaith, love, and Christian qualities, ever gets beyond the need of\nvigilant sentinel work--watching himself.  He must always be buffeting\nhimself, and keeping under his body, as Paul did, lest he himself\nshould be a castaway.  Let him grow careless, presumptuous, neglectful\nof prayer, and all the old tempers and passions slowly steal in, and\nbit by bit obtain the mastery, and the Christian disgraces his\nprofession, and the saint becomes a sinner again.  Every Christian\nknows this.  He knows the evil powers that are in him.\n\nIt is the man who has never fought with his temptation, never prayed,\nwho especially needs to be reminded of it; young men and women who have\nbeen well brought up, who have kept themselves moderately straight so\nfar, and who are full of good resolutions.  I hear them say, \"Oh I am\nstrong enough.  I am not such a fool as to throw myself away in the\nstupid game of the prodigal, in drunkenness, and gambling, and unclean\nliving.  I can hold myself in.  I can go just as far as I please.  I\ncan indulge to a certain extent, and pull myself up just at the moment\nI please; and as for prayer and seeking God's help, thank my stars I\ncan clear a safe course without all that.  I shall not overstep the\nline you may depend upon it.\"  \"_Is thy servant a dog, that he should\ndo this_?\"\n\nAnd I answer, yes--there is quite enough of the dog in you, or of the\ndevil, if you like the word better, to do this and to do worse\nthings--if you play with the dog and let it loose, and let it have a\nfree run now and then.  In my time I have heard scores of young men\ntalk in this way.  I have heard them laugh scornfully when danger was\nmentioned to them, and I have seen a few of them fortunate enough to\ngrow up to manhood with a fairly unspotted character; a few, but not\nmany--the greater part have gone wrong, and some deplorably wrong.\nThere is hardly one of us can keep that dog fastened up and chained\ndown always, unless we rely upon a stronger power than our own.  It\ngets loose at times with the best of us--it runs wild and plays\ndreadful havoc with those who are not the best; there is always in you\nthe baser self--always the dry torches of evil passions which a spark\nmay kindle--always the moral weaknesses and lusts, half-sleeping, which\nsome stronger blast of temptation may awaken and bring out; and if you\nwish to escape the evil and hold fast to the good, you will commit your\nway unto the Lord, and put on the Christian armour, and strengthen\nyourselves by prayer.  Do not presume too much--better men than you\nhave fallen every day.  God only can save you from yourselves.\n\n\n\nII.\n\nIt is just as needful to remember the other side--the side of better\npossibilities.\n\n\nSome of you are tempted to say at times with Hazael, \"_Thy servant is\nbut a dog; how can he do these great things_?\"  You are disposed to\nunderrate your gifts, your opportunities, your happy chances in\nlife--in a word, your possibilities.  You despair of finding any\nopening; you are sure that you will never hear a call to come up\nhigher; you think your lives must always be ill-paid drudgery, with no\npromotion.  It is sad to work with a conviction of that kind.  You\nnever work well if there is nothing to look forward to, and it is\ncowardly to give way to a conviction of that kind.  Perhaps you are not\nspecially clever--no, but there are better things than cleverness in\nthe world, and things which have more to do with life's real successes.\n\nIf you have in you some power of plodding, to do steady work, doing it\nalways honestly; if you have perseverance, self-control, a sense of\nduty, a determination to do always the thing that is right, all will be\nwell--these are the qualities which lift a man up to the best places,\nand one of those places is being prepared for you if you are worthy to\nfill it.  You say, perhaps, \"I can never be a good man.  I can never be\na Christian.  I am not made for these high things; it is not in me.\"  I\nanswer, \"It is in you, or if it be not in you now, God will put it in\nyou if you diligently ask Him.\"\n\nNay, truly, there are the germs of goodness in every one of us.  Thy\nservant is something more than a dog, though he calls himself that, and\nnothing else.  There is something of the religious emotion in you, and\nthat means there is something of the Divine.  You have dreams at times\nof a beautiful life, you have longings for it, sometimes you even set\nout to reach it--and these are all touches of God.  They all prove that\nthe Holy Ghost sometimes pays at least a passing visit to your hearts.\nYou do not know what God can make of you until you trust and try Him.\nThere are greater things by far in you than you have guessed.  Have\nconfidence in Him, and He will bring them out.  I can see a man of God\nin you, a pillar in the Church, an honour to the town.  I can see a\nChristian mother in you, a half-sainted woman full of good works,\nbringing children up to noble lives.  It is there in many of you, if\nyou do not despise and neglect the gift that is in you, but use it and\ncultivate it prayerfully, and let God bring it to perfection.\n\n\n\n\nMANASSEH\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\n\"Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned\nfifty and five years in Jerusalem.\"--2 CHRON. xxxiii. l.\n\n\nFifty and five years--he wore the crown a longer time than any other of\nthe house of David.  Of all the kings that reigned in Jerusalem, this\nman's reign filled the largest space; yet he is the one king of Judah\nabout whom we are told least.  In the modern city of Venice there is a\nhall which is adorned with the portraits of all the doges or kings who\nruled that city in the days of its splendour--all except one--one who\nmade himself infamous by evil deeds.  Where his portrait ought to be,\nthere is a black blank space which says nothing, yet speaks volumes;\nwhich says to every visitor, Do not think of him, let him be forgotten.\nIn some such way Manasseh is disposed of by the sacred writers.  They\nhurry over the fifty-five years; they crowd them into half a chapter,\nas if they were ashamed to dwell upon them, as if they wanted the\nmemory of them and of the man to be forgotten.  And that was the\nfeeling of all the Jews.  Century after century, and even to the\npresent time, Jews have held the man's name in abhorrence.  Do not\nspeak of him, they say.  He was the curse of our nation.  He denied our\nfaith.  He slew our prophets.  He brought Jerusalem to ruin.\n\nYet, strange to say, the man so hated and cursed was once a nation's\nhope and joy.  When his father, Hezekiah, lay sick unto death, his\ngreatest grief and the profoundest sorrow of his people was caused by\nthe thought that he was dying childless.  They prayed for his recovery\nmainly on that ground.  He recovered, and married, and a child was\nborn, and the glad father called him Manasseh, which means, God hath\nmade me forget--forget my sickness and my sorrow; and all over the land\nthe ringing of bells was heard and shouts of rejoicing, and the prophet\nIsaiah sang of the child's birth in those triumphant words which we\nhave often heard since in another connection, \"_Unto us a son is born,\nunto us a child is given_\"; and they thought that all would go well now\nthat there was an heir to the throne, and they prayed that he might be\nsturdy and strong, and get over all the ailments of childhood.  They\nhoped more from the child than they did from God.  Their prayers were\ngranted.  God gave them their desire, and the result was such as to\nmake us doubtful whether we are always wise in pressing such prayers.\nWe are never sure that it will be good for us, or good for our darling\nchild, that its life should be spared and prolonged in some time of\ncrisis.  Often the early death which we dread may be far less cruel\nthan the evil which waits beyond.  Better to leave these things in\nGod's hands, and say that will be best for all which seems right to\nThee.  A whole nation prayed for the birth and preservation of this\nson.  That same nation came to curse the day on which he was born.\n\nStrange that a father like Hezekiah had a child like this.  Hezekiah\nwas, I think, the best of the Jewish kings, wise and brave, gentle and\nstrong, full of reverence and faith, pre-eminently a man who walked\nwith God and strengthened himself by prayer, and fought as earnest and\ntrue a battle for religion and righteousness as we have recorded in the\nOld Testament.  How came it that the son was in all respects his\nopposite?  Did an evil mother shape him, or what?  We cannot tell.\nThese are among the saddest mysteries of human life.  The law that a\nchild's training and environment determine the character of the man,\noften fails most deplorably.  The wisest man may have a most foolish\nson; the godliest home may send forth a reprobate; the child of many\nprayers may live a life of shame.  When a young man goes wrong, it is\noften both unjust and cruel to lay it on the home training, and to say\nthat there has been neglect or want of discipline, or want of right\nexample there.  It is adding another burden to hearts already weighted\nwith intolerable grief.\n\nFor the most part, children will follow their parents in what is good,\nand those nursed in prayer will grow up praying men.  But there are\nhideous exceptions, and sometimes the most Christlike people have this\ncross to bear; and it is the most heart-crushing of all to see children\nturning aside from all that they have held dear, and by the whole\ncourse of their lives mocking the religious ideals and hopes which were\ncherished for them.  God save all you fathers and mothers from this\ncalamity, and God save all our young people from crushing tender hopes\nin this cruel way.\n\nManasseh's life was spent in undoing what his father had done.  It\nseemed to be his great ambition to overturn and destroy the sacred\nedifice which his father's hands, with untiring prayer and devotion,\nhad raised.  Hezekiah had taught his people to trust in God, and in\nreliance on His help to sustain a noble independence separate from\nheathen alliances.  Manasseh hastened to join hands with Babylon, and\nmake his nation the vassal of a great heathen empire.  Hezekiah had\nswept the land clean of idols.  Manasseh filled every grove and\nhillside with these vain images again.  Hezekiah had restored the\nTemple worship and the Mosaic ritual, and the moral law, and laboured\nto establish a reign of sobriety, purity, justice, and order.  Manasseh\noutraged all the moralities, and delighted in introducing everywhere\nthe licentious abominations of the neighbouring peoples.  Hezekiah had\ncultivated and encouraged prophecy, and gathered about him great and\nnoble souls like Isaiah and Habakkuk.  Manasseh drove them from his\npresence, and finally slew them.\n\nThere were new lights in those days, as there are now.  Men who sneered\nat all the old thoughts and ways, who swept Moses aside with disdain,\nand thought that David's psalms were poor and feeble things, and that\nthe old-fashioned religion was narrow and provincial, and that the\nstories of victories won by faith and miracles wrought by prayer were\nworn-out fictions.  They said that if the nation would prosper, it must\nturn its back on all this stuff, and follow new methods, and profess a\nnew religion.  Let them make the great empire, Babylon, their model,\nwith its advanced civilisation, and science, and literature, and vast\nstores of wealth, with its worship, too, of the sun, and stars, and\nfire, its religion full of jollity and license, which contrasted so\nhappily with the sober and severe worship of Jehovah, and did not\ntrouble men with unwelcome moral precepts.  See how great that empire\nhad become, and how stationary and unprogressive was their own little\nkingdom, because it clung to the old ways.  That was what the new party\nsaid.  Away with the old-fashioned thoughts and the old-fashioned\ntrusts and beliefs and worship.  We are wiser than our simple-minded\nfathers.  We know a few things more than these narrow-minded and crazy\nprophets.  We will have all things new.\n\nAnd Manasseh, being a young man and as foolish as he was young, drank\nin greedily their counsels and made himself their leader.  For it is\never the temptation of young life to think lightly of their father's\nwisdom, and to despise what they call the narrow religious beliefs, and\nthe careful moral scruples of the old, and to fancy that they know all\nthings so much better than those who have gone before.  They want to\ntry experiments of their own with life, and shake off the shackles of\nold moral laws and religious creeds, and be free to do and think as\nthey please, and put the Bible away on the shelf, and shove prayer\naside as a sort of worn-out heirloom, and have a merrier and better\ntime than the old folks knew.  That was the course which Manasseh took,\njust as headstrong and irreverent youths take it now.\n\nThen followed that time which the Jewish people never speak of without\nshame--a hideous reign of idolatry, and immorality, and injustice; an\nawful period of persecution for the few righteous and God-fearing\npeople who were left when the prophets had been sought out and slain.\nIsaiah sawn asunder, Habakkuk stoned to death, the faithful driven into\ndens and caves of earth.  It is of this time that we read in the\nEpistle to the Hebrews, in that graphic account of the martyred\nfaithful: \"_They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,\nwere slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and\ngoatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: of whom the world was\nnot worthy_\" (xi. 37, 38).  A few years of this sufficed to pull down\nthe whole fabric of religion which Hezekiah had so painfully and\npatiently raised.  For it is so easy to destroy; so easy for folly and\nirreverence to pull down what wisdom and goodness have taken years in\nbuilding; so easy for a vicious and irreligious son to bring shame and\nruin upon the house which a godly father and mother have spent a\nlifetime in rearing with honour; so easy, by a few rash acts, to\ndestroy the character and reputation which the prayers and training of\nyears have sought to establish.  It is the easiest thing in the world\nto undo and overturn; there is no cleverness and courage required for\ndestroying, the cleverness and courage are called for in building it up.\n\nManasseh succeeded to his heart's content.  People followed him\ngreedily, except the steadfast few.  And presently the prophets were\nall gone, and the worship of the true God was nowhere practised except\nin secret, and the sacred names were no more mentioned, and the land\ngave itself up to all the foul rites and the shameful indulgences of\nthe heathen world, And then God's retribution came swiftly.  Where the\nrotting carcase was, there the eagles gathered together.  These same\nBabylonians whose ways the renegade Jews had so much admired and\nimitated, swept down upon them with the talons of a vulture, with\ncruelty that spared neither tender woman nor innocent child, and\nJerusalem was burned with fire, and Manasseh carried off in chains and\nflung into a foreign prison to muse in solitude over the end of his\nprojects, and to find out there that the old ways had been the best.\n\nThere we are told that he repented, that he was stricken with shame\nbecause of all the evil that he had done, and turned with prayer and\nhumility to the God whom he had defied.  And we are told that God was\nmerciful and heard his entreaties, and accepted his repentance, and\nbrought him back after sorrowful years of imprisonment to his land and\nthrone.  This is the part of the story which most people emphasise.\nThat, they say, is the main lesson of the story--Manasseh's repentance,\nand how God accepted the rebellious sinner at the last and forgave him\nall his iniquities--and they draw from that the conclusion that it is\nnever too late to turn to God, and that all the dark doings of a man's\nlife are swept clean away, if at any time the heart repents and\nbelieves.\n\nBut this is not the part of the story which the sacred writers dwell\nupon.  In the Book of Kings, where there is another version of\nManasseh's doings, no mention is made whatever of the repentance, and\nhere it is only briefly recorded, and in a somewhat sorrowful tone.\n\nHe came back humbled and forgiven, indeed, but not in a happy state of\nmind.  He came back to a ruined kingdom; to a sinful and demoralised\nand destitute people; to see everywhere the sorrow, and the evil and\nthe misery and shame which his doings had caused; to be reminded\ncontinually that his life had been a great wicked and foolish blunder,\nand that there was no undoing the mischief which he had done.  For the\nsake of his repentance he was spared a little longer, but there could\nbe little joy in the remaining years of a life like that.\n\nI think that that is the experience of most men who turn away in their\nyouth from the example and precepts of godly fathers, who reject the\ntruths which make life sober and strong, who betake themselves to\nthoughts of infidelity and ways of sin, and fancy that they can live\nlife happily without God and prayer.  There comes a time when they are\nmade to feel that their life has been a mistake, that it would have\nbeen far better for them to have stuck to the old ways, that those\nbelieving fathers whom they laughed at were right after all; perhaps\nthey repent and go back to God at last, and He accepts them; but\nwhether repentant or not, they always carry with them an awful burden.\nShame is upon them for the evil they have done, shame for the life that\nhas been spent to so little purpose, regret and humbling that they\ncannot undo the blind and guilty past.  Repentance at the best is a\npoor business when it comes in the evening hours of life.  Better then\nthan never; but better far to have gone with God from the beginning.\nThat, I think, is the lesson which the wise man will find in the story\nof the evil king.\n\n\n\n\nAMAZIAH\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\"And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the\nhundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?  And the man\nof God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.\"--2\nCHRON. xxv. 9.\n\n\nAmaziah, King of Judah, belonged to that numerous class of men who wish\nto stand well with both worlds.  He was what we call in religious\nmatters half-and-half.  He wanted to secure the favour and protection\nof God without losing much or anything of the ungodly helps and\nadvantages.  One hardly knows whether to describe him as a bad sort of\ngood man, or a better sort of bad man.  He was like those gentlemen in\nthe _Pilgrim's Progress_ whom Bunyan names Mr Facing-both-ways and Mr\nPliable.  It depended very much on the company he was in, whether he\nshowed a religious face or assumed the other character.\n\nWe have an illustration of this doubleness in the incident recorded\nhere.  He was preparing to go to war against the neighbouring nation of\nthe Edomites, or probably he had learned that they were about to make\nwar on him.  For these neighbours, like some others you know, were\nalways ready to pick a quarrel.  Edomite and Jew were never long\nwithout a scrimmage or a battle.  Amaziah, with this business on hand,\ntook count of his forces, found that he had three hundred thousand\nsoldiers; big enough battalions if they had only had a leader with a\nbig heart.  David had scattered those Edomites with an army not\none-twentieth part the size of that.  But Amaziah was not a David.  He\nmust needs have more men.  He sent, therefore, to the king of Israel to\nhire another hundred thousand, and paid him down an enormous sum of\nmoney for the loan.  Now these men of Israel and their king had fallen\naway from God, and become heathen people, worshippers of Baal, foul and\nimmoral as the Edomites themselves.  But Amaziah thought that was of no\nconsequence so long as he could increase his fighting force.  The money\nwas paid, and the hundred thousand hirelings came.\n\nAnd then suddenly appeared another man whom he had not sent for, one of\nthose prophets or preachers whom kings and other people find very\ntroublesome at times, who upset all the nice arrangements, and stop the\nbusiness which promises so well, with an unwelcome \"_Thus saith the\nLord_\"; prophets who do not know how to flatter, who cannot be bought\nfor a hundred talents, or for any price, and who say what God has given\nthem to say whether the great folk like it or not.  This man came\nuninvited, and told the king that he must pack off these mercenaries to\ntheir own country again, for God was not with them, and God would not\nbe with him if he joined hands with idolaters and paid them to fight\nhis battles.\n\nIt was an awkward position.  Amaziah knew that what the prophet said\nwas true, and he believed, moreover, that if God should turn against\nhim, that business with the Edomites was likely to end badly for him.\nBut, on the other hand, to send that goodly array of fighting men away\nand lose all that gold into the bargain, was both galling to his pride\nand a ridiculous waste of treasure.  He knew well what was the right\nthing to do, but to do it at such a sacrifice, that was the difficulty.\nHe was in a strait betwixt two, wriggling and hesitating, and at last\nhe cries in his bewilderment, \"_What shall we do for the hundred\ntalents which I have given to the army of Israel_?\"  And the man of God\nanswers, \"_Never mind the money, let that go; far better forfeit that\nthan lose God's help.  The Lord is able to do for thee much more than\nthe hundred talents are worth_.\"\n\nAnd now, out of this old story, we learn some lessons for this and\nevery day.\n\n\nI.\n\nOur difficulties in the way of serving and obeying God are often\nself-made.\n\n\nThey are always more or less self-made.  This man pleads his own wrong\nact as a reason why he should not do right now.  He himself has raised\nthe obstacle which now stands in the way of obedience.  He ought not to\nhave sought the help of an idolatrous king.  He ought not to have\nbargained for these hirelings, he ought not to have paid the money.\nGod had not put the difficulty in his way; his own foolish and wicked\naction had created it.  And people are constantly talking as this man\ntalked, declaring that there are hindrances and immense difficulties\nwhich prevent them from doing what is right, prevent them from doing\nwhat they know to be the will of God.  They talk as if God was somehow\nresponsible for those hindrances, when, in fact, their own wrong-doing\nhas caused them.\n\nFor instance, some of you know perfectly well that you ought to be\nChristians, avowed Christians, that you ought to take the Lord's side\nin the great battle of life; you know that you ought to be His\nservants, followers, and soldiers; you know that that is your duty, you\ncannot help knowing it and admitting it, unless you reject the Bible\naltogether, and deny the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ.  You have known\nfrom childhood that Christ has claims upon you, and that to live the\nChristian life is your solemn obligation.  It is more than probable\nthat you told your mother, your teachers, and yourselves long ago, and\nperhaps many a time over, that you fully intended to give your lives\nand hearts to Christ's service.  But you have not done it yet, and the\nreason is that there are certain self-made difficulties which hold you\nback.  God has not put them in the way--you have built them up\nyourselves.  I hear young men and women say, in the very tone of this\nperplexed king.  But what shall we do for the hundred talents?  If we\ntake up religion, how shall we bear the loss which it involves?  How\nare we to get on without those pleasures, self-indulgences, and\ndearly-loved habits which Christ's service would cut us off from?  How\nare we to abandon those very pleasant, but not very inspiring and pure,\ncompanionships, with and among which we spend most of our leisure time?\nHow are we to resign all our free and easy and thoughtless ways, our\nloose talk, our vain and sinful imaginations?\n\nThese are your difficulties, are they?  But who made them for you?\nHeaven did not send them.  I am not sure, even, that the devil was the\nauthor of them.  You made every one of them yourselves.  It was your\nown weak yielding that formed those habits so dear to you.  It was\nbecause you preferred your own way to God's that you took to pleasures\nand self-indulgences which were wrong in His sight.  It was your own\nchoice that sought out and formed friendships and companionships of the\nungodly sort.  If you have any joys, delights, and associations which\nChrist would compel you to resign, they are only such as you ought\nnever to have entered upon.  They are self-made difficulties which\nought never to have been made; and now, with curious inconsistency, you\nare urging them as reasons why you cannot serve God.  You are using the\nsinful things which you have done in the past as an excuse for not\ndoing the right and noble thing now.\n\nThere are hundreds of people who, if they could begin again, would join\nthe ranks of the religious--at least they think they would, and perhaps\nsay it.  If we could just start with a clean sheet, we would be\nChristians, we would walk in the noble and faithful way.  But then, you\nsee, we cannot undo the years that have been lived in the other way.\nWe have committed ourselves to the irreligious side.  We have made all\nwho know us understand that we do not care about religious things.  We\nhave talked about them carelessly, perhaps contemptuously, as if we put\nno value upon them at all.  We have made a reputation of that sort, and\nnow it stands in the way.  We cannot go back of all our old\nprofessions; the inconsistency would be manifest.  No one expects it of\nus.  No one would believe if we did it.  There you have the self-made\ndifficulties again.  Because you did wrong all those years, you must\nneeds go on doing wrong.  Because you talked and acted in an\nunbelieving way, you must not now change into the higher and prayerful\nway.  Because you have robbed God and your own souls so long, there is\nnothing for you but to continue repeating the offence.  Yet these, when\nyou name them, are so absurd, that one could almost laugh at them.  The\nconviction that you have hitherto been on the wrong side is the one\nthing that ought to force you now to the right side.  Why should you\nperpetuate blunders, follies, and misdoings?  Why should the evil past\nchain you?  Let the dead bury its dead--forget the things which are\nbehind.  You have paid the hundred talents to the wrong master.  Why\nshould you go on paying because you have done it once?  Let God's mercy\ncover and forgive that.  And now pay your vows and give your lives to\nHim henceforth.\n\n\n\nII.\n\nWe are held back from the right thing by the fear of the loss which it\nwill involve.\n\n\nWe say with poor, frightened Amaziah, But what about the hundred\ntalents?  They will be clean gone if I obey the voice of God.  The\nhundred talents take many forms, but the principle is always the same.\nWe shall lose a little in the way of business, if we make up our minds\nto be scrupulously honest, and to speak the simple truth.  We shall\nforfeit a little of our present popularity, if we take the course which\nconscience dictates.  We shall have to forego and neglect certain\nthings, and suffer loss, if we undertake Christian work.  We shall have\nto give up many an easy hour, many a light and frivolous hour, many an\nopen and secret sin, sweeter to us than honey, if we confess the Lord\nChrist, and take up the burden of discipleship.  The hundred talents\nblock the way, and rather than let them go, we let God go, and\nsacrifice all the sanctities, and all the precious and immortal things.\n\nAnd this answer comes to all of us--the answer which the prophet gave\nto the hesitating king as he stood balancing the hundred talents\nagainst the duty of the hour: \"_The Lord is able to give thee much more\nthan this_.\"  Better to win thy great battle and lose the talents, than\nkeep the money and lose thyself and everything in the impending\nstruggle.  God is not so poor that He cannot pay His servants as ample\nwages as they ever get from other masters.  It is not the same kind of\npay, but it is always, in the long-run, larger and better.  No man ever\ndoes the right thing at God's command, without receiving eventually\nsufficient wages for it--joy even in this life.  Whatever immediate\nlosses he may incur, there will be more than compensating gains.  The\nman who lives an upright, conscientious, pure and kindly life, wronging\nno one, showing justice and mercy to all, is always the happier man;\nricher in all his thoughts and emotions, richer in friendships and\naffections, richer in peace of mind, in abiding satisfactions, richer\nin hopes.  He has within him a well-spring of joy which never ceases to\nflow.  Righteousness is not a losing business: it has the best part in\nthis life, and in that which is to come.\n\nWhatever you resign at Christ's call: whatever His service costs you in\nthe way of sacrifice: however much you must give up in the shape of\npleasure, ease, and agreeable habits--there will be more given to you\nin return.  When Christ asked the disciples to leave all things and\nfollow Him, He said nothing about the rewards--not just then.  He told\nthem to take up their cross and come after Him; that was all.  He spoke\noften to them about the pains they would have to endure, the scorn they\nwould meet with, the tribulation they would have to pass through.  When\nhe called the last of the apostles, Paul, He even said, and it was the\nonly promise He gave, \"_I will show him how great things he must suffer\nfor My name's sake_\" (Acts ix. 16).  No talk of rewards and gains at\nfirst.  He knew the men.  He knew their eagerness to do what was right\nand to obey the voice of God.  Men who have the right spirit, men with\nsome fire of enthusiasm, do not need crowns held before them to draw\nthem into the true and noble way.  They are almost glad to think that\ncrosses and self-sacrifices await them in that way.  Christ spoke no\nwords at the beginning about gains and rewards.  Come, because I want\nyou, and God asks you, and it is your duty: but afterwards, when they\nhad obeyed His call, He talked to them often about the gains.  They had\nbegun to understand them then.  There is no man who hath left anything\nfor My sake, who shall not receive a hundredfold in this present time,\nand in the world to come, life everlasting.\n\nAnd we all learn in a measure what that means, when we have faithfully\nserved Christ for a little time.  You talk about the sacrifices and\nlosses of the Christian life.  Yes, but no man is fit to be called a\nChristian who has not found in Christ ten or twenty times as much joy\nas he has lost.  If there were no hereafter, no future crowns at all,\nit would be a terrible disappointment, but even, apart from that, the\npresent life of every one who believes in Christ and does Christ's\nwork, and loves as Christ loved, is richer, fuller, wider, and happier\nin almost every way than the life which knows Him not.  What about the\nhundred talents? you say, and I answer with the prophet, \"_The Lord is\nable to give thee much more than this_.\"\n\n\n\n\nJABEZ\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\n\"And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren.\"--1 CHRON. iv, 9.\n\n\nThis is a curious fragment of biography, half-hidden in a dreary mass\nof wholly uninteresting names.  We cannot conjecture how it got there.\nIt seems to have no connection either with what comes before or what\nfollows.  It is like a sweet little poem in the midst of a dry,\ngenealogical chart; or like a real, living face with the flush of warm\ncolour in it, speaking amid endless rows of mummies or waxwork effigies.\n\nIt is indeed the short, incomplete story of a life with neither\nbeginning nor end.  We are not told who his father was, or who his\nmother was, or what tribe or family he belonged to.  Not a word about\norigin, descent, pedigree.  And there seems to be a purpose in this.\nFor the sacred writer at this point is doing nothing else but tracing\npedigrees.  These four chapters are to us the most useless in the\nBible: names, nothing but long-forgotten names.  Names of everybody's\nfather, grandfather, great-grandfather, back to a remote antiquity.  I\nquestion whether there are many Bible readers who have ever laboured\nthrough the list.  Yet these family trees, as we may call them, were\nvery precious to the Jews.  They thought as much of long descent as my\nlord Noodle does now.  It swelled them immeasurably in self-importance\nif they could trace their lineage back in unbroken line to one of the\ntwelve patriarchs, or to one of those who came out of Egypt.  And the\nhistorian ministers to this prejudice or vanity by diligently recording\nthe whole dry catalogue, and then, as if weary of the business, or,\nperhaps, with just a touch of scorn, he introduces this one name as\nsomething worth talking about.\n\nHere was a god-made nobleman, whose heraldry need not be written on\nearth, because it is more surely written in heaven.  All the rest were\ntheir fathers' sons, and that was about all.  This man did not need a\npedigree: he won a name and reputation for himself without the help of\na distinguished ancestry.  By prayerfulness, and energy, and courage,\nhe fought his way from obscurity to honour.  And when that happens,\nwhen a man has fought the fight with adverse circumstances and overcome\nthem, when he has made his mark in the world by sheer force of work and\ncharacter, no one cares to grope through musty fusty parchments in\nsearch of his progenitors.  What does it matter!  God has given him a\ncertificate of noble birth; that was surely what the historian meant:\n\"_Jabez was more honourable than his brethren_.\"\n\nNow there are two or three touches in this little story worth noticing.\nGod sends us some of our best joys in the guise of sorrows.\n\n\nI.\n\nHe came into the world without a welcome.\n\n\nI venture to say, and I thank God for it, that there is hardly one of\nmy readers of whom that can be said.  No matter into what home you were\nborn, there was a welcome awaiting you on the part of one at least.  It\nmay be that no one else was particularly glad, that every one else\nlooked upon you as one too many; but your mother at least met you with\na sweet kiss which plainly said, thank God for this gift.  Here,\nhowever, there was not even that; this child was received with\nmisgivings and fears, and awoke no joy in the mother's breast.  She\ncalled his name Jabez, which means sorrowful, because she had borne him\nin sorrow.\n\nOf course, we do not know what lies behind that, but it was something\nof a heart-burning or heart-breaking kind; either the father was dead,\nor the home was in a state of terrible poverty and distress, or the\nchild was a child of shame; you can only guess, and all your queries\nwill probably be wide of the mark.  But the mother looked mournfully\nupon him, and wished he had not come, and could not believe that a life\nwhich commenced so untowardly would ever be anything better than a\nburden to her, and a misfortune and misery to himself.  She expressed\nher fears and forebodings in the name which she gave him--Jabez, the\nchild of sorrow.\n\nAnd while she was gloomily predicting his future with the black colours\nof her despondency, God was writing the child's story in golden lines\nwhich would have set her heart leaping for joy could she have read\nthem.  This despised one was to win for himself a noble name, and build\nup the house in honour, and become his mother's pride, and make her\nyoung again in hope and gladness.\n\nWhat fools we are when we set ourselves to forecast the future of our\nchildren!  They rarely develop on the lines we draw for them; the most\npromising of them sometimes flatter us in the bud and blossom, and mock\nus in the fruit.  Where we hope most there comes most heartache, our\nfavourites are made our burdens, our pride is humbled by a harvest of\nsorrow.  And where we have bestowed most tenderness we get most\ningratitude--the child of many gifts, the joy of the household, the\nflower of the flock, turns out the nightmare of our lives, the one\nunhappy failure which costs us endless tears.\n\nAnd perhaps it is partly our own fault, because we have pampered,\nflattered, and indulged them too much.  Ah! and just as often the\nreverse is true--the child whom in our hearts we called Jabez; the\nslow, dull child so hard to teach, so unresponsive, or perhaps so\nwilful and obstinate that we never thought or spoke of him save with\nsecret fears and misgivings--the child who was always to be a burden\nand a cross to us, develops by-and-by in beautiful and unexpected ways,\ngrows into moral strength and religious grace, becomes honourable in\nthe sight of all men, and saves our old age from going down with sorrow\nto the grave.  The golden harvest of our lives grows not where we look\nfor it, but often in the neglected places where God bids it grow.\nWhere our pride built its palace of content we find emptiness and\nshame, and that which we almost cursed God for sending us becomes our\ncrown of rejoicing.  She called his name Jabez, my sorrow, and lo! he\nbecame her very consolation, most honourable of all.\n\n\nII.\n\nFaith wins the battle of life against many odds.\n\n\nYes! this is indeed a romance of faith--faith overcoming the world.\nThis child or youth starts out with all things against him.  He is\nlikely to grow up into an Ishmaelite if he grows up at all.  He starts\nwith an ill-starred name--a name that spells misfortune.  He starts\nwithout his mother's blessing and without a glimmer of hope to cheer\nhim; no father to give him a helping hand by the way--without\nendowment, fortune, family, or friends.  What chance can there be in\nthe race for one so heavily handicapped?  Failure is written on his\nbrow by the hand that nursed him.  Failure is written on all his\ncircumstances.  It will be a desperate struggle all through.  There\nwill be none of the prizes of life for him.  If he gets a bare living\nwage, it is as much as he may expect.\n\nThat is what he has before him, apparently!  Well, for one thing, he\nputs on courage, and starts on his way singing _Nil desperandum_.  And\nthen, knowing well that he has few or no human friends, he falls back\non the Father of the fatherless and the Helper of those who have no\nother help.  He relies on faith instead of fortune.  He will make\nprayer his main weapon, and the light of the Lord his guide, and duty\nhis pole star.  He will pursue a straight course, avoiding evil, trying\nto feel the hand of God upon him, and the watchful eyes of God over\nhim.  And he will make a brave fight of it day by day, doing his best,\nand leave a higher power to determine what shall follow.  That is what\nwe read between the lines of this story.  Nay, that is all expressed.\n\"_He called on the God of Israel_.\"  He committed his life to the\nordering of the Almighty.  And the Almighty promoted him.  He became\nmore honourable than his brethren.\n\nThey are poor creatures who complain that the battle is lost before it\nis even begun, who groan that the chances of life are all against them\nbefore they have made one brave venture and endeavour; and they are\nvain and self-deceiving men who fancy that the victory will be easy\nbecause somebody has given them a good start, and they have the backing\nof family, social position, wealth, and mental gifts.  If some of you\nthink because your fathers stand high, because your education has been\nwell looked after, because there are unlimited money and plenty of\nfriends to push you on--if you think that because of these things you\ncan dispense with the fear of God, and the daily obligations of duty,\nand make pleasure and self-indulgence your main ends, and do without\nhonest, persevering, self-denying toil, you will be miserably\ndisappointed.  God has some hard things to say to you before you get\nfar on in years.  It does not matter how promising one's beginnings, if\nthere is no steady, conscientious brave self-discipline, and endeavour.\n\nLife is always a failure and a disgraceful thing with a downward\ncourse, if there is no serious purpose in it and no great thoughts.\nAnd if you are ever tempted to say, as many do, that there is no hope\nfor a life which commences heavily weighted; that all the chances go to\nthose who are clever, and richly endowed; that if a youth begins with\nno money to back him and no friends to push him into promotion, he must\nremain chained down to that low condition to the end--then I point you\nto this little bit of biography.  I could take you round a certain town\nand point you to a hundred men who have repeated that bit of biography\nin their own lives, and I tell you that even now the chances are\nplentiful: waiting at the feet of those who tread life's way, a brave\nheart within and God overhead, and that no one need despair, however\nunpromising his start, who makes God his guide, and prayer his\ninspiration, and duty his chosen companion, and shuns evil, and pursues\nthat which is good.  Faith and loyalty to conscience and a courageous\ntemper are still the weapons which conquer in the fight.  Jabez, the\nchild of sorrow and misfortune, became more honourable than all his\nbrethren.\n\n\nIII.\n\nAnd now I commend this prayer to all of you--the prayer which this\nyouth offered when he went out carrying his unhonoured name and empty\nhand into the rough places of the world.  It is a beautiful prayer.  It\nis on the whole a wise prayer.  There are better and more Christian\nprayers in the gospels and epistles; but in the Old Testament there are\nfew prayers more worthy of imitation than this.\n\nHe asked that \"_God might bless him indeed_,\" that is, above every\nhuman blessing and favour, that he might, by his life and conduct,\ndeserve it He asked what we may all safely and humbly ask of God,\nprovided that we give a large and not a low meaning.  He asked that\n\"_God would enlarge his coast_.\"  If that meant broad estates, you had\nbetter drop it out of your prayer.  But if it means to have your life\nenlarged, your sympathies and interests widened out, your influence and\nyour power of service increased, it is such a prayer as Christ might\nhave taught you.  Never forget to offer it.  He asked that \"_the hand\nof God might be with him_\"; that every day he might feel the leadings\nand take no step which was not a step approved by God.  And he asked\nthat the watchful and restraining power of the Almighty would \"_keep\nhim from evil_.\"\n\nYou will do well to offer that prayer at the beginning.  You will do\nwell to offer it every day to the end.  It is a prayer that will keep;\nyou will find it fresh each morning.  And every day will be a better\nday which is thus commenced, and every life will grow honourable in the\nsight of men, and beautiful in the sight of God, which develops in the\nspirit of it.\n\n\n\n\nSIMEON\n\nBY REV. H. ELVET LEWIS\n\n\nThe Temple shows to better advantage at the beginning of the Gospel\nhistory than at its close.  As we follow our Lord through the events of\nthe last week, we meet no winsome faces within its precincts.  Annas is\nthere, and Caiaphas; Pharisees too, blinded with envy; but there is no\nZacharias seen there, no Simeon, no doctors of the law even, such as\ngathered around the Boy of twelve.  If any successors of these still\nfrequented the sanctuary, they are lost in the deep shadow cast by a\nnation's crime.  Perhaps we may consider those whom we meet on the\nthreshold of our Lord's life as the last of an old regime of prophetic\nsouls, the last watchers passing out of sight as the twilight of a\ncoming doom thickened and settled on the Holy City.\n\nBut there he stands, the gracious, winsome old man, whom death is not\npermitted to touch till the Star of Bethlehem has risen.  \"_It was\nrevealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before\nhe had seen the Lord's Christ_!\"  He is like a dweller of the spiritual\nworld, who only returns to visit earthly ways.  For him the veil,\nthough not as yet rent, has worn thin, and he is more familiar with the\nvoices from beyond it than with the voices of earth.  The priest, the\nLevite, the Rabbi, pass him like shadows: the Holy Ghost is his living\ncompanion and teacher.  Browning's Rabbi ben Ezra might well have\nborrowed his song from the lips of this aged saint:\n\n      \"Grow old along with me!\n      The best is yet to be,\n    The last of life, for which the first was made:\n      Our times are in His hand\n      Who saith, 'A whole I planned,\n  Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'\"\n\nConsider his CHARACTER: \"_the same man was just and devout_.\"  Inward\nand outward are in equipoise; he does not make frequent prayers atone\nfor equally frequent lapses in duty.  He looks upon men in the light\nwhich has risen upon him through looking upon God.  He brought with\nhim, from the Throne of Grace, the tranquil beams which helped him to\nperceive what he owed to his fellow-men.  He was so subdued to charity,\nthat his one expectation was the consolation of Israel.  He was no\nprophet of doom; perhaps he was even blind to the moral deterioration,\nthe blight of ideals, growing more wasteful, every day, of the nation's\nbest life.  To him, Israel was still more in need of consolation than\nchastisement.  Alas! for these gentle-souled patriots, whose hopes rise\nfrom their own heart's goodness, and not from their nation's worth!  So\nobscure, so devout: while the great ones sin, they pray; while the\npopular priests lead in worldliness, they retire into God's\nhiding-places to intercede.  They have private paths into God's\nParadise: they do not always see the cherubim with flaming sword.  God\noften calls them home before the stormy dawn of the evil day.  So they\nlive and die, waiting for the consolation.\n\nConsider, again, his HOLY FELLOWSHIP: \"_the Holy Ghost was upon him_.\"\nHis heart became the ark of the Heavenly Dove, wandering over the grey\nwaters; and to him was the olive leaf brought.  He looked past the face\nof the Rabbi and the priest, not contemptuously, but wistfully,\nwondering why he must: he looked past them, and beheld in the dawning\nshadow a diviner Face.  He heard secrets which would be foolishness to\nothers, even to frequenters of the Temple and to robed priests.  He\nthought of death peacefully; but that other Face always came, faintly\nbut immutably, between him and the Last Shadow.  The Lord's Christ\nfirst, death after.  What gracious ways God has of treating some of\nthese simply-trusting children of His!  How graciously He orders the\ncourse of spiritual wants for them!  \"_And the evening and the\nmorning_\" are--each day.\n\n\"_And he came by the Spirit into the Temple_.\"  He required no\necclesiastical calendar, no book of the hours.  This obscure denizen of\nthe sanctuary had a dial in his own soul, and the silent shadow on the\nfigures came from no visible sun.  Be sure that there are men and women\nstill, just, and fearing God, who anticipate the days of heaven, and\nalmost win their dawning.  How often must Simeon have come, waiting:\nand yet how fresh was his hope each time!  He fed on God's\ndisappointments; the unfulfilled was his hidden manna.\n\nConsider his ONE GREAT DAY.  An obscure worshipper suddenly becomes the\nrichest, most honoured man in all the world: in his arms he holds God's\nIncarnate Son.  Yesterday was a day of earth, tomorrow also may well be\na day of earth: but this, a day of heaven!  Alas! but only to him.  To\nothers this, too, is a very day of earth.  Did some officiating priest\nwatch the little group of peasant parents showing their first-born to\nan obscure worshipper?  And did he look, without a stain of contempt\nupon his vision?  And yet Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome, had no such gift\nand prize as the arms of that humble dreamer held.  Who would not have\ntaken his place, had they known!  It is well to be reckoned God's\nintimate, lest we miss the Child.\n\n  \"The sages frowned, their beards they shook,\n    For pride their heart beguiled;\n  They said, each looking on his book,\n      'We want no child.'\"\n\nBut Simeon had dwelt nearer God than they--nearest God of all that came\nto the Temple that day.  And so God trusted him with His Best.\n\nThen, once more, consider his PROPHETIC PRAYER.  He was now ready to\ndepart.  He had arrived at the house where the chamber of peace looks\ntowards the sunrising: why should he return to the warfare again?  He\nwas unfitted for earth, by the face of that Child: he would go where\nsuch a vision would not be marred by earthly airs!  \"_For mine eyes\nhave seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of\nall people: a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy\npeople Israel_.\"  The sentinel has been long on duty: now the watch is\ndone, \"_now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace_.\"  And as he\npasses from his well-kept post, his heart's charity overflows, and\nGentile and Jew are covered with his blessing: the Gentile even coming\nfirst, as though, perhaps, he perceived that \"the salvation of the Jews\ncould only be realised after the enlightenment of the heathen, and by\nthis means\"--Godet suggests.  To the darkened souls of the pagan\nworld--light: to the humiliated Jewish people--glory.  Israel had seen\nand lost many a glory: it had seen the glory of conquest, of wealth, of\nwisdom, of ritual, of righteousness: but in the little Child was the\nsum and essential radiancy of all glory that had been, the earnest of\nall glory that was to be.  Eternally, Christ is \"_the hope of glory_.\"\n\nConsider also his PERFECT CANDOUR.  He looked in the Child's face, he\nlooked in the mother's face, with all the tenderness and love that made\nit half divine; and then this disciple of the Spirit, strangely moved\nfrom his wonted calm, described truth purely as he saw it.  He scanned\nthe future, heard the sound of many a fall, caught the hiss and cry of\nuneasy consciences against the \"sign\"; he saw the gleam of the sword,\nand the wounded mother's heart; he saw the revelations of good and of\nevil which the child would surely effect.  One might not unnaturally\nconclude that these presentiments were of the day--of that very hour.\nHe had hitherto walked and dwelt in the light of consolation; he had\ndreamed his tranquil dream \"_beside still waters_.\"  But in this moment\nof contact with God, he was made strong to see the darkness which is\nnever absent from the azure of truth--\"a deep, but dazzling darkness.\"\nSo to young Samuel came the sorrowful vision of the fall of the house\nof Eli; so to the old prophet-saint now glittered the gleaming arrows\nof truth.  But neither scorn nor wrathful eloquence moves him, in view\nof what he saw: he simply accepts this burden of the Lord, and bears\nit, without murmuring or exulting.  He sees the \"_fall and rising again\nof many in Israel_\"; it is God's will: let His will be done!  \"_A sword\nshall pierce through thy own soul also_\": bow, mother-heart, to the\npurposes of God's heart of love!  \"_In peace_\" this servant of the Lord\nstill stands; \"_in peace_\" he departs.  Blessed are they whom darkling\ntruths may grieve, but not distract; whom stormy revelations beat upon,\nbut cannot shake.  They live in the house founded upon a rock.\n\nWhat presentiment of his nation's doom came to him in that moment of\nclearer insight, of more candid intercourse with truth?  \"_The thoughts\nof many hearts_\"--\"the uneasy working of the understanding in the\nservice of a bad heart\":--how much was revealed, how much was\nmercifully concealed?  We cannot tell; but strength was given him to\nbear the gleam of the vision, and still wait.  \"_O rest in the Lord;\nwait patiently for Him_.\"  He saw the Child go out of the Temple; and\nif, for a moment, a breath as of a chill wind smote his soul, he\nretired into the deeper consolations of God, where the sun smites not\nby day, nor the moon by night.  If it was his last visit to the Temple,\nhe had seen what would have made it worth his while to have gone there\nevery day for seventy years or more.  And let it not be forgotten that\nGod still gives His Child to those who humbly, faithfully wait for the\nconsolation of Israel.\n\n\nSuch a picture as that of Simeon gives piety its divinest charm.  It is\nnot simply that men have wished to be in his place; but--what is far\nbetter and far more practical--they have wished to be in his spirit.\nHe draws them towards him, and after him.  He stands in a glorious\ncompany of winsome souls, who not only lead to heaven, but attract men\non the way.\n\n  \"They are, indeed, our Pillar-fires\n        Seen as we go;\n  They are that City's shining spires,\n        We travel to:\n      A sword-like gleam\n        Kept man for sin\n      First out; this beam\n        Will guide him in.\"\n\n\n\n\nPONTIUS PILATE\n\nBY REV. PRINCIPAL WALTER F. ADENEY, D.D.\n\n\nIn spite of the fact that he condemned Jesus to death, the Gospels\npresent us a more favourable portrait of Pontius Pilate than that which\nwe derive from secular historians.  Josephus relates incidents that\nreveal him as the most insolent and provoking of governors.  For\ninstance, the Jewish historian ascribes to him a gratuitous insult, the\nstory of which shows its perpetrator to have been as weak as he was\noffensive.  It was customary for Roman armies to carry an image of the\nemperor on their standards; but previous governors of Judaea had\nrelaxed this rule when entering Jerusalem, in deference to the strong\nobjection of the Jews to admit \"the likeness of anything.\"\nNevertheless Pilate ordered the usual images to be introduced at night.\nWhen they were discovered, the citizens protested vehemently.  Pilate\nhad the crowd that he had admitted to his presence surrounded with\nsoldiers, and threatened them with instant death.  But they threw\nthemselves on the ground, protesting that they would submit to this\nfate rather than that the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed.\nThe governor had not reckoned on this.  He was only \"bluffing,\" and now\nhe had to climb down, and the images were removed.  On another\noccasion, described by the same historian, Pilate had seized the sacred\nmoney at the Temple and employed it in building an aqueduct, a piece of\nutilitarian profanity which enraged the Jews to such an extent that a\nvast crowd gathered, clamouring against Pilate and insisting on the\nstoppage of the works.  Then the governor sent soldiers among the\npeople, disguised in the garb of civilians, who at a given signal drew\ntheir clubs and attacked them more savagely than Pilate had intended,\nkilling and wounding a great number.  Although Josephus does not\nmention the incident recorded by St Luke (xiii. 1), in which Pilate\nmingled the blood of some Galilean pilgrims with their sacrifices, this\nis entirely in accordance with his brutality of conduct in the events\nthe historian records.  Philo goes further, giving a story told by\nAgrippa, according to which Pilate hung gilt shields in the palace of\nHerod at Jerusalem, but was compelled to take them down as the result\nof an appeal to Tiberius Caesar, and adding that Agrippa described\nPilate as \"inflexible, merciless, and obstinate.\"  He says that Pilate\ndreaded lest the Jews should go on an embassy to the emperor,\nimpeaching him for \"his corruptions, his acts of insolence, his rapine,\nand his habit of insulting people; his cruelty, and his continual\nmurders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never-ending,\ngratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity.\"  Josephus is not\ntrustworthy, always writing \"with a motive,\" and Philo must be\nconsidered prejudiced, since he saw too much of the worst side of the\nRoman treatment of Jews; and the wholly unfavourable verdict of these\ntwo writers should be qualified by what we read in the New Testament\nconcerning the subject of them.  The interesting point is that we have\nto go to the Christian documents for the more calm and just estimate of\nthe man who crucified Christ.  This fact should deepen our sense of the\nfairness of the evangelists.  They evince nothing of that bitterness of\nresentment which the Jews, quite naturally, as the world judges,\ncherished towards their oppressors.  They were the followers of One who\nhad taught them to love their enemies, and who, when in mortal agony,\nprayed to God to forgive the men who had inflicted it.  But further,\nthe early Christians discriminated between the Jewish authorities, who\nplanned and purposed the death of Christ and really compassed it, and\nPilate, who was but a weak instrument in the hands of these men.  The\nfact that the evangelists so clearly mark this distinction is a sign\nthat they are in close touch with the events, and that they faithfully\nrecord what they know to have taken place.  In a word, it is clear that\nwe have a more just and accurate portrait of Pilate in our Gospels than\nthe representations of him by Josephus and Philo, who are thus seen to\nbe less trustworthy historians than the New Testament writers.\n\nThe word \"Pilate\" as a proper name has been variously explained.  Some\nhave derived it from the Latin _pileatus_, meaning one who wore the\n_pileus_, the cap of a freed slave, and so have regarded the Roman\ngovernor by whom Jesus was tried as a man who had been raised from the\nranks of slavery.  The worst condemnation of slavery is, that it\ndegrades the characters of its victims, developing the servile vices of\ncowardice, meanness, and cruelty--all of which vices are manifest in\nPilate's character.  But such a promotion as this theory implies would\nbe most improbable.  A more likely explanation connects the name with\n_pilum_, a javelin.  The earlier name Pontius suggests the family of\nthe Pontii, of Samnite origin, well-known in Roman history.  It was\ncustomary to confine such an office as that which Pilate held to\nknights, men of the equestrian order.  Nevertheless, it was not a very\ndignified office.  It is described indefinitely in the Gospels as that\nof a \"governor.\"  But Pilate is designated more distinctly by Tacitus\nand Josephus as _procurator_ of Judaea.  This official served under the\nLegate of Syria.  His proper duty was simply to collect the taxes of\nthe district over which he was appointed.  Thus he would be likely to\ncome into contact with the chief local collectors, such as Zaccheus;\nand in this way he may have heard, and that not unfavourably, of One\nwho was known as the \"Friend of publicans and sinners.\"  But in the\nturbulent districts--such as Judaea and Egypt--the procurators were\nentrusted with almost unlimited powers, subject to an appeal to Caesar\non the part of Roman citizens.  Soldiers were sometimes needed for the\nforcible collection of taxes, and the disturbed condition of these\nparts demanded an official in residence who could act at once and on\nthe spot.  The punishment of turbulence was with the rigour of martial\nlaw, which really means no law at all, but only the will of the man in\ncharge of the army.  A subordinate official lifted to a position of\nalmost irresponsible power--such was Pilate.  We can well understand\nhow a man with no moral backbone would succumb to its temptations.\nPilate was a much smaller man than Gallic the proconsul at Corinth, and\nthat other proconsul at Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, whom St Paul won over\nto Christian faith.  But his pettiness in the eyes of Roman society\nwould lead him to magnify his importance in the little world he was\ntrying to rule like a king, though often with consequences humiliating\nto himself.\n\nPilate's headquarters were at Caesarea, by the sea coast, the Roman\ncapital of Palestine; but he came up to Jerusalem with a troop of\nsoldiers at the Passover, to prevent any disturbance among the vast\nhosts of pilgrims then gathered together in the city, just as Turkish\nsoldiers now mount guard at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the\nEaster celebrations, to prevent the Christians from quarrelling and\nfighting.  That is how it was he happened to be present when Jesus was\narrested and brought up for trial.  In this fact also we may see why\nthe Jewish authorities felt it necessary to hand their Prisoner over to\nthe Roman governor; although, a few years later, they were able\nthemselves to execute the death sentence on Stephen in the Jewish mode,\nby stoning, and still later to do the same with James, the Lord's\nbrother.\n\nAll four Gospels refer to the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate; but\nthe fullest information is to be obtained from the third and fourth.\nSt Luke throughout both his works seizes every suitable opportunity for\nsetting out the scene of his story on the large stage of the world's\nhistory, and he is especially interested in showing it in relation to\nthe imperial government.  Thus, while Matthew only connects the time of\nthe birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod, a Jewish note of time, Luke\nalso associates it with Caesar Augustus and the chronology of Rome; and\nlater, while Matthew does not say when John the Baptist began his work,\nbut notes the imprisonment of John as the occasion of the commencement\nof our Lord's public ministry, Luke carefully records that it was \"in\nthe fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, _Pontius Pilate\nbeing governor of Judaea_\" (Luke iii. 1), that John the Baptist began\npreaching and baptizing.  It is this same evangelist only who refers to\nPilate's savage slaughter of the Galileans at Jerusalem.  The author of\nthe Fourth Gospel does not mention Pilate before the time of our Lord's\ntrial, but he gives us a much fuller account of that trial than any of\nhis companion evangelists.  Next to John, our fullest account is in\nLuke.  On these two authorities therefore we must mainly rely.  But\nJohn's is not only the most ample and fully detailed narrative; it also\nfurnishes us with by far the most vivid and convincing portrait of the\nRoman governor.  This is one of the numerous cases of life-like\ncharacter-drawing with which the Fourth Gospel abounds.  Nicodemus, the\nwoman of Samaria, Thomas, Judas, Mary Magdalene, and now Pilate, are\nall known to history from St John's portraits of them.  Should not this\nsignificant fact lead us to attach great weight to his portrait of\nJesus Christ, which soars above the Christ-pictures of the synoptics in\nthe most exalted Divine glory?\n\nJesus had been tried soon after His arrest before Caiaphas and the\nSanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jews, and there He had been\ncondemned to death, not on the charge for which He had been\narrested--threatening to destroy the Temple--for the evidence against\nHim had broken down, but for blasphemy during the course of His trial,\nwhen adjured by the high priest to declare whether He was the Christ.\nBut the presence of Pilate prevented the council from executing their\nsentence (as doubtless they would have done if he had been away at\nCaesarea), in defiance of the law, which was entrusted to a weak and\ncapricious governor.  Accordingly they brought their Prisoner to the\nprocurator's residence--probably Herod's palace, a magnificent building\nwith two marble wings, containing large rooms sumptuously furnished,\nand spacious porticos surrounded by gardens and enclosed in a lofty\nwall with towers, situated in the western district of the city, and\napproached by a bridge across the Tyropaean valley.  The facts that a\nlater governor, Gestius Florus, resided here, and that Pilate lived in\nHerod's palace at Caesarea when in that city, and that he hung the\nshields about which there was so much trouble in the Jerusalem palace,\nmake this view more probable than the traditional idea that the trial\nof Jesus took place in the Castle of Antonio, the imperial barracks,\nclose to the Temple.\n\nThe Jews objected to enter this fine palace, because as a Gentile\nresidence it was defiled, and therefore defiling, and they wished to be\n\"clean\" for the feast they were to eat in the evening.  Pilate humoured\nthem, and had his conferences with them outside the building.  Seeing\ntheir object and observing their temper, he must have discovered at\nonce their miserable hypocrisy.  These were the men who affected to be\nthe leaders of the one pure faith on earth, a faith which looked with\nscorn on the \"idolatry\" of the cultured Roman.  He must have regarded\nthem with immense contempt.  If his tone is cynical, it is but a match\nfor the unmitigated cynicism of their conduct.\n\nPilate inquires as to the crime with which the Prisoner is charged.  At\nfirst, the Jews do not give an explicit reply, only stating that they\nhave already found Him guilty.  Pilate catches at that.  His weakness,\nso pitiably apparent throughout the whole proceedings, appears at this\nearly stage.  Desiring to shirk the responsibility of deciding the\ncase--he would use the first apparent loophole of escape.  Since the\nJews have taken this case in hand, let them carry it through, dealing\nwith it according to their law.  They are not to be caught by that\nflattering suggestion.  They know that they have not the power of life\nand death.  Pilate would not let them kill Jesus.  His proposal, which\non the surface looks like the granting of a privilege, amounts to this,\nthat they may exercise ecclesiastical discipline, excommunicate their\nPrisoner, or perhaps fling Him into jail, possibly scourge Him.  But\nthe worst of these punishments will not satisfy their determined\nhatred, or rid them of the haunting fear inspiring it, that Jesus will\nundermine their influence with the people.  Nothing less than His death\nwill put an end to that danger; so they thought, although the event\nproved that it was this very death of Christ that was to lead to the\nvictory of Christianity over Judaism.  This, however, even His own\ndisciples could not foresee, much less could it enter into the minds of\nHis enemies among the Jews.\n\nThwarted in his first attempt to escape, and compelled to try this\ndifficult case, Pilate enters the palace where Jesus is kept under\narrest, and questions Him.  He has been informed that Jesus claims to\nbe the king of the Jews.  Is that so?  Is the charge but a piece of\nmalicious slander?  If it is, there is an end of the matter.  Pilate is\nnot going to lend himself to humour the whim of those hateful Jews,\nwhom he affects to despise while in his heart he is mortally afraid of\nthem.  There is nothing of the bearing of the violent insurgent in this\ncalm peasant who stands before him.  Surely this is some stupid\nmistake, or there is more Jewish malice in it than Pilate can fathom.\nBut the Roman magistrate soon discovers that he is dealing with no\nordinary man.  Jesus takes his measure in a moment.  Pilate is a feeble\ncreature, with no character, insincere, dishonest.  He must be made to\nfeel his littleness.  We can imagine how our Lord would fix on him a\npenetrating gaze before which the shallow nature of the man would\nbecome apparent, as He asked whether this cross-examination was\ngenuine, or whether Pilate was prompted to it; whether, as we should\nsay, it was \"a put-up affair\"--\"_Sayest thou this of thyself, or did\nothers say it concerning Me_?\"  Picture the situation--the great marble\npalace, the representative of Imperial Rome clad in the purple robe of\noffice, and seated in his chair on the dais, the surrounding officials\nand bodyguard; and then the peasant from Galilee, alone, unattended,\nundefended, come straight from insult and mockery in another court, and\nthat after a night of mental agony.  Observe how completely the\nrelative position of judge and Prisoner are reversed, at least, to the\neyes of the onlooker.  Jesus calmly questions Pilate, calmly tells him\nof the limit of his power, and calmly claims the kinship for\nhimself--there of all places--in the Roman governor's residence,\nspeaking to this governor himself, knowing that it must seal His own\nfate.  The two powers are now face to face--the world-power of Rome,\noutwardly so imposing, but at this moment shrinking to insignificance,\nlooking so vulgar, so mean, so sordid, so unreal, so essentially weak,\nin the person of the paltry governor; and the heavenly power, the power\nof truth and goodness, the Kingdom of God represented by the provincial\nPrisoner whose inherent dignity of Presence is seen to be all the more\nsublime for the contrast.  And Pilate?  How does he view this?  He is\nmanifestly disconcerted, but he tries to hide his awkwardness under a\nmask of Roman scorn.  \"_Am I a Jew_?\" he exclaims, in a tone of\nmeasureless contempt.  It is like the contempt of Agrippa when, in\nresponse to St Paul's enthusiastic appeal and close home-thrust, he\ncried, \"_With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a\nChristian_!\"  Pilate reminds Jesus that He has been given up by His own\npeople.  Jews might be expected to stand by a fellow-Jew under the\nRoman tyranny.  How comes it to pass that the Jewish people have\nbrought a man of their own race to the foreign tribunal, prosecuting\nHim before this alien power, seeking His death from the hated Imperial\ngovernment?  What can He have done to bring about so unusual a\nsituation?  Pilate is perplexed; and the answer of Jesus does not\nclarify the magistrate's ideas.  It seems only more mystifying.  Jesus\ndescribes His kingdom, so different from any institution bearing the\nname that Pilate has ever heard of.  It is not of the order of things\nin this world.  If it were, of course Christ's servants would fight, as\ndo the servants of the claimants of earthly thrones.  But they do not\nresort to violence.  The kingdom and its methods of government are both\nunearthly.  Pilate is interested, perhaps amused, with what now seem to\nhim the fancies of a fanatical dreamer.  He pursues the inquiry, we may\nsuppose, with a smile on his lips, \"_Art thou a king, then_?\" he asked.\nThere is no ambiguity in his Prisoner's reply.  He is a king.  This\nstrange kingdom, not resting on any basis of earthly power, dispensing\nwith fighting, with all that an army suggests, with force, is the very\nopposite to Pilate's idea of a state.  Rome was materialistic to the\ncore.  Her rule rested on brute force.  The Empire, the _Imperium_, was\nthe dominion of the _Imperator_, that is to say, of the\ncommander-in-chief of the army.  It was a military despotism.\nNominally the government was still republican, and the older and more\npeaceable provinces were administered by proconsuls, whose appointment\nrested with the senate, or was supposed by a legal fiction to rest with\nthat body.  But the newer and more troublesome provinces were governed\nas conquered territory directly by the emperor as the head of the army.\nNow Judaea came in this latter division.  Pontius Pilate and his\nsuperior, the Legate of Syria, were both directly responsible to\nTiberius Caesar.  Pilate was Caesar's officer under military direction.\nMilitary methods characterised the procurator's rule.  To a man placed\nas Pilate, the notion of a ruler independent of fighting supporters,\nand that in territory held down by force of arms, was simply absurd.\n\nOur Lord's further explanation seems to Pilate still more out of\nkeeping with the notion of royalty.  Jesus says He was born to be a\nking in order that He might bear witness to the truth.  A\nking--truth--what have these two words in common, the one referring to\nthe most real region, the other to the most ideal?  To Pilate, the\nconjunction is absolutely incongruous.  \"_What is truth_?\" he asks, as\nhe turns away, too contemptuous to wait for an answer.  This famous\nutterance has been quoted as a text for the anxious inquirer, and\npreachers have gravely set themselves to answer it.  Jesus did nothing\nof the kind.  Evidently it was not a serious inquiry.  Pilate flung off\nthe very idea of truth--a mere abstraction, nothing to a practical\nRoman.  Still, though he was not seeking any answer to his question, by\nthe very tone of it he suggested that he did not possess that gem which\nthose who hold it prize above all things.  \"The Scepticism of Pilate\"\nis the title of one of Robertson's greatest sermons.  The preacher\ntraces it to four sources: indecision; falseness to his own\nconvictions; the taint of the worldly temper of his day; and that\npriestly bigotry which forbids inquiry, and makes doubt a crime.\nPilate is the typical sceptic, who is worlds removed from the \"honest\"\ndoubter.  Serious doubt, which is pained and anxious in the search of\ntruth, is in essence belief, for it believes in the value of truth, if\nonly truth can be discovered; but typical scepticism not only does not\ncredit what the believer takes for truth, but despises it as not worth\nseeking.  That is the fatal doubt, a doubt that eats into the soul as a\nmoral canker.\n\nNevertheless, although what is of supreme value to Jesus is reckoned by\nPilate as of no importance whatever, the cross-examination has\nsatisfied the magistrate of the innocence of his Prisoner.  His duty,\nthen, is plain.  He should acquit the innocent man.  But he dare not do\nso immediately.  That howling mob of Jews and those odious priests and\nSadducees of the council are determined on the death of their victim.\nPilate has made himself well hated by the roughness of his government.\nNothing would please the Jews and their leaders better than to have\nsome chance of impeaching him before his jealous master at Rome, on the\ncharge of leniency to treason.  Pilate quails before the terrible\npossibility.  In face of it he simply dares not pronounce a verdict of\nacquittal.  Yet he means to do all he can to effect the escape of his\nPrisoner.  His inbred instinct for justice prompts him to this; for the\nRomans cherished reverence for law, and even so corrupt a ruler as\nPilate was not independent of the atmosphere of his race.  Then it\nwould be a bitter humiliation to let his judgment be overruled by those\ncontemptible Jews.  He would be heartily glad to confound and\ndisappoint them.  More than this, he had begun to feel some awakening\ninterest in his remarkable Prisoner.  He had come to the conclusion\nthat Jesus was a harmless dreamer; but he had felt some faint shadow of\nthe spell of the wonderful Personality.  If only it could be managed\nwith safety to himself, he would be glad to have Jesus set free.\n\nAccordingly we now see Pilate resorting to a series of devices in order\nto escape from his vexatious dilemma.  From this point his conduct\nopens out to us a curious study in psychological phenomena.  The\ningenuity of Pilate in resorting to one expedient after another, is\nvery striking.  Evidently he has keen wits, and he uses them with some\nagility.  But it is all in vain.  He is pushed from each of the\npositions he takes up by the same stubborn, relentless pressure which\nhe invariably finds to be irresistible.  The explanation is, that\nthough he has intellect, he lacks will-power.  On the other side there\nis not much need for intelligence, but there is the most obstinate\nwill.  The Jews possess a clear notion of what they want, and a set\ndetermination to have their way.  In such a contest there is no doubt\nwhich side will win.  When will is bitter against intellect, it is the\nlatter that succumbs.  The determined will forces itself through all\nopposition that rests only on intelligence, reasoning, contrivance.\nIntellect does not count for nothing; allied to a strong will, as in\nCalvin, Cromwell, Napoleon, it helps to effect gigantic results.  But\nin the sphere of action, it is will-power that tells in immediate\nresults.  Even here, reason may conquer stupid obstinacy in the\nlong-run.  But you must give it time; and you must have honesty of\ncharacter.  Neither condition was present in this case of Pilate.  He\nhad to decide promptly; and his moral nature was unsound.  Such a man\nunder such circumstances will never find his most cunning devices a\nmatch for the set determination of his opponents.  So Pilate, feebly\nprotesting, helplessly scheming, is pushed back step by step; and\nultimately he concedes everything demanded of him, and the final issue\nis more humiliating to himself and more cruel to the innocent Prisoner\nwhom he is trying to shield, than it would have been if he had yielded\nat the beginning.  The real victim of this tragedy in the palace is not\nJesus, it is the soul of Pilate.  We seem to see a weak man being\nthrust down a steep place, resisting and catching at the shrubs and\nrocks that he passes, but torn from his grasp of them and finally flung\nover the precipice.\n\nPilate's first device was to send Jesus to Herod Antipas, who happened\nto be at Jerusalem at the time.  It was a compliment to the frivolous\n\"king of Galilee\" to remit a Galilean prisoner to his judgment, and\nPilate would gladly rid himself of the awkward case by this ingenious\ndevice.  But it was useless, for the simple reason that Herod had no\npower of life and death in Jerusalem, and Pilate soon had his Prisoner\non his hands again.  Next he clutched at the custom of releasing a\nprisoner during the feast.  Here was a chance for letting off Jesus\nwithout declaring Him innocent.  But this suggestion was hopeless.  If\nthe Jews were set on effecting the death of Jesus, they would not give\nup their right to choose their prisoners to be released, and take at\nthe dictation of Pilate the very man they wanted to have done to death.\nThey clamoured for an insurgent, Barabbas, a man caught red-handed in\nthe very crime for which these hypocrites professed in their\nnew-fledged loyalty to Caesar to be anxious to have Jesus executed.\nThe cynicism of their choice is palpable.  By daring to make it, they\nshow in what contempt they hold Pilate.  The governor loses ground\nconsiderably by this false move.  Then he tries to throw the blame of\nthe murder of Jesus, which he sees he cannot prevent, on the Jews.  A\nnew motive urges him to escape from the responsibility of committing a\njudicial murder.  His wife had sent a private message warning him to\n\"_have nothing to do with that righteous man_.\"  She had been much\ndisturbed by a dream about him.  Romans were slaves to omens and\nauguries, and the most materialistic of them felt some awe of dreams,\nalthough they had lost faith in real religion.  Your confirmed sceptic\nis often slavishly superstitious in the secret of his soul.  It is a\nway the spiritual has of avenging itself on the man who openly flouts\nit.  Boldly flung out of the window, it creeps back into the cellar and\nvexes the soul with petty tricks played on the subterranean\nconsciousness.  The man who expels his good angel is haunted by imps\nand elves.  He who will not believe in God and despises truth succumbs\nto the message of a dream.\n\nMore anxious now than ever to escape responsibility, Pilate calls for\nwater and publicly washes his hands, telling the Jews that the innocent\nblood will be on their heads.  They accept the awful responsibility.\nWhat do they care for the weak Roman's scruples?  He is doing their\nwill, and of course no hand-washing can cleanse his conscience from the\nstain of guilty compliance.\n\nYet one thing more Pilate will do.  He will scourge Jesus.  Perhaps\nthat may satisfy these savage Jews.  For scourging was a savage\npunishment.  The whip was loaded with lead and sharp fish-bones, and at\nevery stroke the flesh was cut.  Men often died under this severe\ntreatment.  Pilate had it inflicted on Jesus, knowing Him to be\ninnocent; but hoping that, if He survived, no more might be required.\nIt was an abominable compromise.  If Jesus were innocent--and Pilate\nknew He was innocent--He should have been set free unscathed, with\napologies for a mistaken arrest.  If he were guilty, of course he ought\nto receive the death-penalty for the crime of treason.  Justice could\nallow of no middle course.  But Pilate is not thinking of Justice.  He\nonly wants to escape the onus of killing an innocent man.  Then he has\nJesus brought forth, bleeding, in agony, His lacerated flesh exposed to\nthe view of that heartless multitude.  \"_Behold the man_,\" says Pilate.\n\"Look at your victim; is not this enough?\"  If Pilate thought his\nappeal _ad misericordiam_ would touch those hardened sinners of the\nSanhedrin, he was strangely mistaken.  The sight of their victim in His\nagony only maddens them.  They are like hounds who had tasted blood.\nLike hounds, they \"give tongue,\" and yell for His death.  Pilate can\nresist no longer.  He has played his last card, and it has been taken.\nThoroughly humiliated and quite helpless, he gives sentence, and so in\nspite of the governor's desperate efforts to escape the stigma of his\nawful crime, it goes down to all the ages that Jesus was \"crucified\nunder Pontius Pilate.\"\n\n\n\n\nBARABBAS\n\nBY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.\n\n\n\n\"And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and\nrelease unto us Barabbas.\"--ST LUKE xxiii. 18.\n\n\nYou have heard a crowd of people cry out all at once.  It is always\nimpressive, it is sometimes very terrible, occasionally it is sublime.\nIt begins in a way that no one can explain.  Somebody in the crowd\nutters a name, or ejaculates a brief sentence.  What happens?  Often\nnothing at all.  Men are not in the mood for it; it drops unnoticed, or\nprovokes a jeer or two and is then forgotten.  But sometimes the word\nfalls like a spark on a mass of dry tinder--ten thousand hearts have\nbeen prepared for it--swift as a flash of lightning a sympathetic\ncurrent passes through the whole throng--ten thousand lips take up the\ncry.  They are all carried away by contagion, magnetism, or madness,\nand a shout goes up enough to rend the sky.  When some great and noble\nsentiment has laid hold of them, the shout of a people is one of the\ngrandest things on earth; when it is some awful prejudice, unreasoning\nhatred, or cowardly terror that sways them, the shout is the most\ninhuman and hellish thing on earth; and that was the character of the\nshout that was raised here.\n\nThe world has never forgotten that cry, and never will.  To the very\nlast the world will wonder how it should have come to be raised, and\nwill condemn and pity the crowd of people who gave themselves up to it,\nfor they were making a hero of the vilest stuff, and clamouring for the\nmurder of the world's one Divine man.  There never was a more brutal\nand insane shout than that; never again can there be a choice so fatal\nand so suicidal as the choice they made: \"_Away with this man, and\nrelease unto us Barabbas_.\"\n\nIf the thing had not happened, we should say it was impossible.  It\nseems well-nigh incredible that human eyes and human hearts could be so\nblind.  A story of this kind is food for the bitterest cynic.  He who\nhas the most utter contempt for the race to which he belongs might find\nhere almost a justification of his scorn.  Oh what a satire upon human\nnature, that a whole city full of people, men, women, mothers and\ndaughters, had come to this pass that they could not discern which was\nthe nobler of these two--nay, thought that Barabbas was more deserving\nof their honour.  One the very flower and crown of humanity, the\nexpress image of God; and the other a gaol bird, a notorious criminal,\nwhose hands had been dyed red, and whose heart had been hardened by the\nshedding of blood.  Well might those pitiful lips say, \"_Father forgive\nthem, for they know not what they do_.\"\n\nWhy did they do it?  Why did they raise their voices for Barabbas?\n\nThe main answer is that men make their heroes as the heathen make gods,\nafter their own image.  There is no doubt that Barabbas was more to the\ntaste of this people, more according to their heart, than Christ; or at\nleast they thought he was; not quite their ideal man, perhaps, but\ncertainly nearer to their ideal than the Christ whom they rejected.  It\nmay be that they had had no particular love for him until just now,\npossibly they had hardly thought of him at all; but now it was a\nquestion between this man and Jesus, and Jesus they did not want at any\nprice.  And their very hatred of the one made the other look beautiful.\nBarabbas is our man, they said, and the more they said it the more they\nbelieved it; and each time the name was repeated it sounded sweeter,\nuntil they were all shouting it, nine-tenths of them because the others\nshouted it, and until they really made themselves believe that in this\nman they had got a veritable hero and hardly less than a god.\n\nThat is always what happens in such cases, the greater part begin\nshouting for no particular reason because a few others have led the\nway, and they end by believing that the man whom they are acclaiming is\nalmost divine; yet it is certain that they elected this man on the\nwhole because of the two he had more points in common with them, this\npoor despicable and very unheroic thing was the person whom they\ndelighted to honour because they themselves were very unheroic and\nsomewhat despicable.  We cannot see the greatness of a truly great man\nunless there is just a bit of greatness in ourselves; Christ was too\nbig and too divine to be seen and measured by their small and vulgar\neyes.  Barabbas was about their size, and they raised their voices for\nhim.\n\nWe have had Carlyle's words quoted to us a thousand times about heroes\nand hero-worship--how it is part of human nature to go after heroes and\nmake them--how the world has always been given up to this worship, and\nalways will be.  We all revere and follow great men, or those whom we\ndeem great, which is not quite the same thing.  And it is a beautiful\nfeature in human nature if it is wisely directed, if we can only set\nour hearts on the true heroes and follow them.  It is not beautiful at\nall when we make our gods of clay, and shout ourselves hoarse in\nexalting to the skies creatures as undivine and quite as small as we\nare.\n\nHeroes are sometimes easily made to-day, and martyrs too.  Modern\nmartyrdom of the popular sort is about the least costly thing going.\nIt calls for no tears and blood, it can be gained on very easy terms.\nYou have only to break a law which you do not like, or your conscience\ndoes not approve, and to be brought up for it with an admiring crowd\naccompanying you, and to have a fine imposed, which is paid for,\nperhaps, by popular subscription--and lo, you are a martyr.  I am not\ncalling in question the thing itself.  It may be both right and\nChristian to refuse obedience to a law on extreme occasions; but to\ncall this martyrdom is extravagant and almost humorous.\n\nIt was not so in the olden time when the real martyrs were made.  No,\nthose martyrs were not delicately handled, but stripped and stoned to\npieces, and burned, and there were no crowds to greet them with bravoes\nand caresses, but furious mobs clamouring for their blood.  We have\nchanged all that indeed, thank God: but they were heroes and martyrs\nindeed, and it sounds to me somewhat like a desecration of the word to\napply it to men and even women who are good, probably brave in a way,\nbut who win their crown of glory very cheaply indeed.  If we are to\nhave heroes, let us make sure that they possess some heroic stuff.\n\nThere is a vast amount of hero-worship to-day which reminds us too much\nof that shout for Barabbas.  We are glorifying the wrong people; at\nleast, most of us are.  It is one of the deplorable weaknesses of the\ntimes, or if you like it better, it is one of the fashions or crazes to\nwhich human nature at times gives itself up.  The heroes of the crowd,\nof the great mass of people, are not the good men, not the men of light\nand leading, not the men who are morally great or even intellectually\ngreat, not the men who are the strength and salt of a nation, but the\nmen who minister to its pleasures, and lead the way in sports.  No one\ncan have any doubt of that.  No one can have any doubt about the sort\nof persons whom the vast majority of young people, and some older\npeople too, delight to honour.  With some it is the star of the music\nhall or opera.  With a great many more it is the winner of a race, or\nthe champion player in a successful football team, or the most\neffective bowler, or the highest scorer in cricket.  The crowd goes mad\nabout these heroes.  There is no throne high enough to place them on.\nMoney and favours are lavished at their feet, and all the newspapers\nare full of their glorious triumphs.\n\nMark I am not speaking against athletic sports.  I like to see a well\nand honestly played game, and I would join in the clapping when a man\nmakes a clever stroke.  What I object to is the crazy and almost\ndelirious worship which is given to these champions of the sporting\nworld.  It is the excess of the thing that proves a diseased state of\nmind.  There is more fuss made over some youth who scores a few\nhundreds on the cricket-field, than there would be over a man who had\nsaved six hundred lives.  In hundreds of journals his portrait appears,\nand his doings are chronicled as if he had wrought some deliverance for\nthe nation.  Poor lad, it is not his fault that he has sprung up\nsuddenly into fame, it is the fault of the people who love to have\nthese things so.  It is because men have gone pleasure-mad and\nsport-mad, and in their madness cannot see the difference between a\nclever athlete and a mental or moral giant.  We prove what our own\ntastes are, we prove the quality of our own hearts and minds, we prove\nour own debasement, when we exalt physical strength above excellence of\ncharacter, when we make our heroes out of muscle instead of soul, when\nwe worship those who serve our pleasure more than those who set us\nexamples of noble things, and lead the way in them.  It is only another\nrendering of the old shout, \"_Away with this man, and release unto us\nBarabbas_.\"  Not so wicked, of course, but equally foolish and unworthy.\n\nWho are your heroes?  That is the question.  Or in other words, What\nsort of men do you admire most?  Answer that, and I know at once what\nsort of men and women you are.  If you are worshippers of pleasure, the\nchampions of the pleasure-world will be your idols and kings.  If you\nare rooted and grounded in the love of lucre, the successful\nmillionaire is the man that you will fawn upon or worship from afar.\nIf your main delight is in intellectual things, the great thinkers and\nwriters will be the men to whom you look up with reverence.  And if you\nare good men, with a passionate love for goodness, and a constant\nstriving to be better than you are, there are none whom you will admire\nwith all your hearts except the good, except the best, and those who\nare leading in the way of goodness.\n\nIn a land which is truly Christian, the only heroes will be those who\nmost resemble Christ.  If we are truly Christians, and Christian\nthoughts have taken full possession of our hearts, we shall recognise\nno heroes save those who serve as Christ served, who live in a measure\nas Christ lived, who deny themselves for others, and spend their\nstrength for the benefit of their fellow-men as the Master did.  These\nare the true heroes, and all the others are more or less cheap\nimitations of them, or false substitutes for them.  These are the true\nheroes, I say.  The men and women who risk their lives to save other\nlives.  The men who use their strength and ability, not for pay, but\nfor the good and the advancement of their fellow-men, to save men from\ntheir sins, and to lessen the sum of human ill.  The brave men and\nwomen who venture all things to serve some great and righteous cause,\nand to speed on the Kingdom of Christ and righteousness in the world.\n\nWe have no right to count any as heroes unless they have courage,\npatience, self-denial, great love for their fellow-men, and strength\nwhich they cheerfully employ for something greater than themselves.\nThe men, in fact, who have something of Christ in them; these are the\nonly heroes whom God writes down in His book of life, and they are the\nonly heroes whom we shall exalt in our hearts if we are followers of\nthe crucified One.\n\nIn a Christian land, the beginning and end of all true and healthy\nhero-worship, is to set Christ first and above everything else and\nevery one else in our affections.  We shall measure all other men truly\nif we have first of all taken the true measure of Him.  Love Him with\nall your hearts, say of Him, \"Thou art the chief among ten thousand,\nand the altogether lovely,\" and you will never give much of your hearts\nagain to the things and the men who are morally not worth loving.  You\nwill never be carried away again into the worship of that which is\nfalse, common, or cheap.  A man who sees _all_ beauty, and the perfect\nbeauty in Christ, will never say that there is much beauty anywhere\nelse, except where there is something that resembles Christ.\n\nWe have to make our choice to-day, as those men made it long ago.  It\nis not quite the same choice.  It is not Barabbas against Christ, but\nit is the poor, coarse, common, frivolous things of the world against\nChrist.  It is the earthly against the heavenly; it is pleasure and sin\nagainst the service of the Man who was crucified: it is the love of\nself, and things baser than ourselves, against the love of Him who died\nfor us.  And everything depends upon that choice.  To make Him your\nKing is to become kingly yourselves, and to be crowned at last with the\ntrue glory and honour.  But it is a terrible thing to say, \"_Away with\nthis man, and release unto us Barabbas_.\"\n\n\n\n\nJOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA\n\nBY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D.. LL.B.\n\n\n\"Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for\nthe kingdom of God.\"--MARK xv. 43.\n\n\nThe crucifixion of our Lord produced strange and startling effects in\nmoral experience, as well as in the physical world.  The veil of the\nTemple was rent from top to bottom as if a hand from heaven had torn\nit, in order to teach men that the ancient ritual was done with.\nDarkness covered the earth, suggesting to thoughtful minds the guilt of\nthe world and the mystery of the sacrifice which atoned for it.\nConcurrently with these physical phenomena were spiritual experiences.\nThe Roman centurion who, in command of four soldiers, had the duty of\nseeing the sentence of the law duly executed, was so profoundly moved\nby what he saw of the Divine Sufferer and by His dying cry, that he\nexclaimed, \"_Truly this was the Son of God_,\" and thus he became the\nfirst of the great multitude out of all nations who give honour to the\nLamb that has been slain.  The women, too, who were sometimes despised\nfor weakness and timidity, proved themselves in this crisis to be\nheroines.  And Joseph of Arimathea, who up to this moment of shame and\napparent defeat had been content to remain a secret disciple of our\nLord, now boldly avowed his love and loyalty.\n\nThe \"_even_\" had come, the second evening of the Jews, and the last\nstreak of golden light was beginning to fade from the western sky.\nThree lifeless bodies were still hanging on the crosses at Golgotha,\nbut according to Jewish custom they were about to be taken down, and\nflung into a dishonourable grave, when Joseph \"_went in boldly to\nPilate, and begged the body of Jesus_,\" caring for our Lord in death as\nanother Joseph had cared for him in infancy.\n\nThis man is described as an \"_honourable counsellor_,\" which doubtless\nmeans a member of the Sanhedrim.  He is also spoken of as \"_a good man\nand a just_,\" which could not have been said of many of his\nfellow-counsellors.  On this occasion his action was sufficiently\nimportant in its relation to prophecy, and in its bearing as evidence\nof the reality of the burial and of the resurrection of our Lord, to be\nmentioned in each of the Four Gospels.  Yet neither by this nor by\nsocial influence, nor by brilliant gifts (if he possessed them), did he\nbecome prominent in the early Church.  Probably he was a man of\npractical sagacity and ready resource, rather than of great spiritual\nforce.  He could not stand on the same level with Simon Peter, the\nfisherman, whose honour it was so to hold the key of the Kingdom as to\nopen the door of it to the Gentiles; nor did he ever attain influence\ncomparable to that of Paul, who shook the citadel of paganism to its\nfoundations, and planted amid its fallen defences the seed of the\nKingdom, even the word of God.  Joseph must be regarded as a common\nsoldier, rather than as a general in Christ's army; but when the\nofficers had fallen, or deserted their Leader, he bravely stepped to\nthe front and proved himself a hero.  Perhaps all the more on this\naccount some study of his character and conduct may encourage those who\nare not prominent in the Church to cultivate his fidelity, promptitude,\nand courage.\n\nIf we piece together the few fragments of his biography which are\nscattered through the Four Gospels, we shall gain a fuller and more\naccurate conception of the man.\n\n\nI.\n\nIt is clear that Joseph had already protested against the wrong done to\nour Lord by the Sanhedrim, though he had been powerless to prevent it.\n\nIn this protest no doubt Nicodemus would have sided with him, but he\nwas probably absent, for Joseph seems to have stood alone in his\nrefusal to condemn the prophet of Nazareth.  This was not easy.  He\nwould be urged to vote with his fellow-counsellors on the ground that\ntheir ecclesiastical authority, which had been defied, must be\nmaintained, and that loyalty to the Sanhedrim demanded that all members\nof it should sink their private opinions in its defence.  To hold out\nagainst an otherwise unanimous council would be the more difficult if\nJoseph had but recently attained the honour of membership, and this is\nprobable, for the allusion to his \"_new grave_\" seems to imply that he\nhad not long resided in Jerusalem.  It was difficult, and possibly\ndangerous, to assert his independence; but he did so by vote, if not by\nvoice, for he \"_had not consented to the counsel and deed of them_.\"\n\nRight-minded men are not infrequently placed in a similar position.  A\npolicy may be initiated which they disapprove, and yet their protest\nagainst it may wreck the party and even displace the government, so\nthat they naturally hesitate between party loyalty and enlightened\nconscience.  Others who are engaged in business, or in professional\naffairs, have sometimes to confront doubtful practices  which, though\nsanctioned by custom, unquestionably tend to the lowering of the moral\ntone of the nation.  Their own financial interests, their fear of\ncasting a slur on some known to them, who, though guilty of such\npractices are in other respects honourable men, and their dread of\nposing before the world as over-scrupulous, pharisaic men, who are\nrighteous over-much--all urge them to keep quiet, especially as such a\ncustom cannot be put down by one man.  Yet is not conscience to be\nsupreme, even under such conditions?  The cultivation of the required\nmoral heroism, which is sadly lacking in all sections of society, must\nbegin in youth; and in this, elder brothers and sisters as well as\nparents and teachers of all grades have serious responsibility.\nOccasionally the moral atmosphere of a whole school becomes corrupt,\nand practices spring up which can only be put down by some right-minded\nlad or girl running the risk of unpopularity and social ostracism, yet\nit is under such conditions that God's heroes are bred; and books like\n_Tom Brown's Schooldays_ have done much to foster the development of\nthe heroic temper.\n\nThe truth is, that, wherever we are, in this world where evil widely\nprevails, fidelity to conscience must occasionally inspire what seems\nan unavailing protest against the practice of the majority.  But we\nmust see to it on such occasions that a real principle is at stake, and\nthat we are not moved by mere desire for self-assertion, nor by pride\nand obstinacy.  If, however, we are consciously free from these, and\nbravely protest against a wrong we cannot prevent, we may at least look\nfor the approval of Him who carried His protest against evil up to the\npoint of death, even the death of the Cross.\n\nIn thus taking up our stand against what we believe to be wrong, we may\nbe, imperceptibly to ourselves, emboldening others, who are secretly\nwaiting for some such lead.\n\n\nII.\n\nIf Joseph required bravery on the council, he needed it still more when\nhe went into the presence of Pilate to beg the body of Jesus.\n\nThe Roman procurator was a man to be dreaded by any Jew, and was just\nnow in a suspicious and angry mood.  But Joseph not only braved a\nrepulse from him.  He knew he would have to confront the far more\nbitter hostility of the priests.  Theirs was a relentless hate, before\nwhich Peter had fallen, and Pilate himself had quailed.  Yet this man\nJoseph, brought up though he had been in circumstances of ease, went in\nboldly to Pilate and deliberately ran the risk of their savage hatred,\nwhich would not only bring about as he believed his expulsion from\noffice, but in all probability cruel martyrdom.  It was a bold step;\nbut no sooner did he take it than another rich man was by his\nside--Nicodemus by name--who also himself was one of Christ's\ndisciples, though secretly, for fear of the Jews.  The act of Joseph\nhad more far-reaching consequences on the conduct of others than he\nexpected.\n\nMost heroic actions are richer in results than is expected by those who\ndare to do them; though the immediate effects may seem disappointing.\nElijah learnt to his amazement that although all the people on Carmel\nhad not been converted, more than seven thousand faithful men had been\nemboldened by his conduct.  And when John plucked up courage to go\nright in to the palace of the high priest, Peter, who till then had\nfollowed Jesus afar off, went in also.\n\nThe truth is, that we all have influence beyond the limits of what we\ncan see or estimate--parents over children, employers over their young\npeople, mistresses over servants; for what we are these are encouraged\nto be, whether for good or for evil.  Indeed, even a child who\nfearlessly speaks the truth, a servant who does her work thoroughly and\ncheerfully, an obscure lad who in a small situation is faithful to\nhonour and truth, will effect far more than is imagined.  Others who\nare unperceived are emboldened, and range themselves on the side of\nrighteousness.\n\nJoseph discovered, as many have done since, that when he steadfastly\nset his face towards duty he succeeded far better then he expected.\nWhen he went into the palace of Pilate he foresaw that he might be\nasked to pay an enormous ransom, for that would be only customary; or\npossibly his request might be scornfully refused by the procurator, who\nwas angry with himself and with the Jews.  But, doubtless to his\namazement, no such thing happened.  Without delay, or bartering or\nabuse, Pilate at once gave him leave.\n\nHistory is crowded with similar incidents.  How helpless and hopeless\nthe Israelites were when they found themselves face to face with the\nwaters of the Red Sea, while the army of Egypt was rapidly overtaking\nthem; yet they soon discovered that their danger was to prove their\nmeans of deliverance; for the waters which barred their progress to\nliberty soon overwhelmed their enemies.  In other spheres of experience\nsuch deliverances have come, and will continue to come, to trustful\nsouls:\n\n  \"Dark and wide the sea appears,\n  Every soul is full of fears,\n  Yet the word is 'onward still,'\n  Onward move and do His will;\n  And the great deep shall discover\n  God's highway to take thee over.\"\n\nPeter had a similar experience when in prison.  He arose and followed\nthe angel, and safely passed through the first and the second ward; but\nthe great iron gate seemed an insuperable barrier, yet that opened to\nthem of its own accord, and he stepped through it into liberty.  Thus\nit was with the women who as they walked, while it was yet dark,\ntowards the grave of their Lord, thought of one difficulty which seemed\ninsurmountable, and asked one another, \"_Who shall roll us away the\nstone at the door of the sepulchre_?\"  Still on they went, with faith\nand courage, and when they reached their imagined difficulty they found\nthat it had vanished; for they saw that the stone was rolled away.\n\nA similar experience is constantly met with.  It is shared by a young\nman who is expected to undertake some doubtful transaction, but from\nconscientious scruple hesitates.  He fears what the result of a refusal\nmay be, but resolves to risk it; perhaps to find that the order is not\npressed, or that some new incident opens up for him a way of escape.\nTrue, God does not always deliver a conscientious man from the special\ndanger before him, but in the forum of conscience, and before the\njudgment-seat of Christ, he will be righted.\n\nBe the result what it may, we must be true to conscience, which,\nhowever, is but another form of saying, we must be true to God; and\ninstead of peering into the future, and picturing to ourselves all\npossible evil results, we must learn to take the next obvious step in\nthe pathway of duty, trusting that God will make the next step clear,\npossible, and safe.  When a tourist is climbing a difficult mountain,\nhis guide sometimes rounds a corner, or climbs up to a higher level,\nand for a time is lost to sight, having left his charge behind him; and\nhe, unaccustomed to such an expedition, dares not look down, and fears\nto stir another step, till feeling the rope taut between himself and\nthe guide, and hearing his cheery voice, he ventures forward, to find\nthat the danger was not so great as he imagined.  Thus made bolder by\neach difficulty surmounted, he begins to feel the exhilaration of a\nmountain climb, which braces the nerves more than anything besides.  If\nwe are really anxious to be in God's appointed way, and boldly take it\nwhen it is made clear, we may be sure that He will answer the prayer:\n\"_Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not_.\"\n\n\nIII.\n\nThere are crises in the experience of every one when the whole future\nis determined; and such a crisis came to Joseph of Arimathea.\n\nHe had been for some time a disciple of Jesus, but had never avowed the\nfact.  But after standing on Calvary and seeing the death of his Lord,\nsorrow, shame, and indignation so stirred him, that at once he went in\nboldly unto Pilate.  It was the turning-point in his history, when\nobedience to God-given impulse decided his whole destiny.  The\nspiritual influences which play upon our souls are not even in their\nflow.  There are times when one is strangely moved, although in outward\nenvironment there is little to account for it.  The sermon listened to\nmay be illiterate, the hymn sung may be destitute of poetic beauty, the\nfriendly word may be spoken by a social inferior--yet one of these\nsometimes suffices as the channel of divine power, which shakes the\nsoul to its very depths.  We have known the unexpected avowal of love\nto Christ on the part of one obscure scholar set all in the class\nthinking on the subject of personal responsibility to God, and to His\nChurch.  And sometimes the sorrow of leaving home for the first time,\nor the death of a dearly-loved friend, has sufficed to arouse the\nquestion, \"_What must I do to be saved_?\"  We must beware of allowing\nsuch opportunities for decisive action to slip away unimproved.  When a\nvessel has grounded at the harbour-bar, she must wait till the tide\nlifts her, or she will not reach a safe anchorage; but when the tide\ndoes flow in, no sane man will let the chance go by, lest a storm\nshould rise and wreck her within reach of home.\n\nIt is noteworthy that Joseph was moved to decision and confession by\nthe crucifixion of the Lord; for this might have been expected to seal\nhis lips.  It would seem to have been easier to follow the great\nTeacher when listening crowds gathered round Him, and multitudes were\nbeing healed of whatsoever diseases they had, than to acknowledge\nloyalty to Him when He was crucified as a malefactor.  Yet it was from\nthe Cross that this man went into the Church.  The light came to him\nwhen darkness seemed deepest.  It was in the presence of the crucified\nSaviour, of whom even the Roman centurion said, \"_Truly this was the\nSon of God_,\" that Joseph learned to say, \"Because thou hast died for\nme, I will henceforth live for Thee.\"  This was one of the earliest\ntriumphs of the Cross, in which Paul gloried, and of Him who died\nthereon--dying for us all, that we who live should not henceforth live\nunto ourselves but unto Him.  In the presence of that memorable scene\nwe are called on for more than admiration or adoration, even for a\npassionate devotion to Him who gave Himself up for us all.\n\nIt may be that some of His professed followers may again fail Him, and\nthat others will step in to do the service which He requires.  In the\nhour of darkness all His recognised disciples forsook him and fled; and\nwhen the tragedy on Golgotha was over, it was not Peter, and James, and\nJohn, and Andrew, who rendered Him the last service, but holy, humble\nwomen, and Joseph and Nicodemus, who up till then had not been reckoned\nas disciples at all.  There are times in the history of the Church when\nour Lord seems \"_crucified afresh, and put to an open shame_,\" while\nHis so-called disciples remain silent and hidden.  Superstition and sin\nstill join hands to put the Christ to death, to bury Him, and seal His\nsepulchre.  But secret disciples are meanwhile avowing themselves;\ncoming from the east, and the west, from the north, and from the south,\nto fill up the vacant places, to do the needed services, and to rejoice\nin a risen and glorified Lord.  Better by far the doing of a simple act\nof love to the Saviour who died for us--such as Joseph did--than loud\nprofessions of loyalty, or accurate knowledge of creeds.  Hear once\nmore the solemn words of Jesus: \"_Not every one that saith unto Me,\nLord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth\nthe will of My Father which is in heaven_.\"\n\n        \"And that voice still soundeth on\n        From the centuries that are gone\n        To the centuries that shall be!\n  From all vain pomps and shows, from the pride that overflows,\n  From all the narrow rules and subtleties of Schools,\n        And the craft of tongue and pen:\n  Bewildered in its search, bewildered with the cry:\n  'Lo here, lo there, the Church!' poor, sad Humanity\n  Through all the dust and heat turns back with bleeding feet\n        By the weary road it came\n  Unto the simple thought by the Great Master taught,\n        And that remaineth still:\n        'Not he that repeateth the Name\n        But he that doeth the Will.'\"\n\n\n\n\nPHILIP, THE EVANGELIST\n\nBY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D.\n\n\nPhilip the Evangelist must be carefully distinguished from Philip the\nApostle.  And though it is little that we are told regarding him in\nScripture, that little is very significant.  He first comes before us\nas one of the seven chosen by the early Church at Jerusalem to take\ncharge of the daily ministration of charity to the poor widows (Acts\nvi. I ff.).  And when this work is hindered by the outbreak of\npersecution following on the death of Stephen, we find him at once\ndeparting to enter on active missionary work elsewhere (Acts viii. 4\nff.).  The fact that he should have selected Samaria as the scene of\nthese new labours, is in itself a proof that he was able to rise above\nthe ordinary Jewish prejudices of his time.  And this same liberal\nspirit is further exemplified by the incident in connection with which\nhe will always be principally remembered.\n\nIn obedience to a Divine summons, Philip had betaken himself to the way\nthat goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza.  And if at first he may have\nwondered why he should have been called upon to leave his rapidly\nprogressing work in Samaria for a desert road, he was not for long left\nin doubt as to what was required of him.  For as he walked along he was\novertaken by an Ethiopian stranger returning in his chariot from\nJerusalem.  This man, who was the chamberlain or treasurer of Candace,\nQueen of the Ethiopians, had heard somehow in his distant home, of the\nJewish religion, and had undertaken this long journey to make further\ninquiries regarding it.  We are not told how he had been impressed;\nvery possibly the actual fruits that he witnessed were very different\nfrom what he had expected.  But one treasure at least he had found, a\nGreek copy of the prophecies of Isaiah, and this he was eagerly\nsearching on his return journey, to see if he could find further light\nthere.  One passage specially arrested his attention, the touching\npassage in which the prophet draws out his great portraiture of the Man\nof Sorrows.  But, then, how reconcile the thought of this Messiah,\nsuffering, wounded, dying, with the great King and Conqueror whom the\nJews at Jerusalem had been expecting!  Could it be that he had anything\nto do with our Jesus of Nazareth, of whom he had also heard, and whom,\nbecause of the Messianic claims He had put forward, the Jewish leaders\nhad crucified on a cross?  Oh, for some one to help him!  Help was\nnearer than he thought.  Prompted by the Spirit, Philip ran forward to\nthe chariot; and no sooner had he learned the royal chamberlain's\ndifficulties than he \"_opened his mouth, and beginning from this\nscripture, preached unto him Jesus_\" (Acts viii. 35).\n\nWe are not told on what particulars Philip dwelt; but, doubtless,\nstarting from the prophetic description of the Man of Sorrows,\n\"_despised and rejected of men_,\" he would show how that description\nheld true of the earthly life of Jesus.  And then he would go on to\nshow the meaning and bearing of these sufferings.  They arose from no\nfault on the part of Jesus; but, \"_He was wounded for our\ntransgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities_.\"  And yet that was\nnot the end.  The life which had thus ended in shame had begun again in\nglory: the cross had led on to the crown.  And as thus he unfolded the\nfirst great principles of the Christian faith, Philip would press home\non the eunuch's awakened conscience that they had a vital meaning for\nhim.  \"_Repent_,\" can we not imagine him pleading as Peter had pleaded\nbefore, \"_and be baptised . . . in the name of Jesus Christ unto the\nremission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy\nGhost_\" (Acts ii. 38).  The eunuch's heart was touched, and he asked\nthat he might be baptized.  Satisfied that he was in earnest, Philip\nagreed to his request.  And when they came to a certain water, \"_they\nboth went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he\nbaptized him_.\"  Thus \"the Ethiopian changed his skin,\" and \"_went on\nhis way rejoicing_\" to his distant home, to declare in his turn to his\ncountrymen the tidings of great joy.\n\nThere are many points of view from which we might regard this beautiful\nincident, but it is with it in its bearing on the person and character\nof Philip that we are alone at present concerned.  And in considering\nit further in this light, it may be well to confine ourselves to\nnoticing in what way it gained for Philip his distinctive title of\n\"_the Evangelist_,\" and consequently what it has to teach us still\nregarding all evangelistic and missionary work.\n\n\nI.\n\nThe Evangelist.\n\nWith regard to the evangelist himself, one truth stands out clearly\nfrom the whole narrative, his work is _given_ to him to do.  He is\nfirst and foremost a missionary, one sent.\n\nIt is a pity, perhaps, that in our ordinary speech, we have come to\nlimit the name \"missionary\" so much to the man who carries the gospel\nabroad.  No doubt he is a missionary in the highest sense of the word;\nbut still the fundamental idea in every minister or evangelist's\nposition is the idea of one sent--sent for a particular purpose, with a\nparticular message to proclaim wherever God may place him.  He has no\npower, no authority of his own.  All that he has comes from Him whose\nservant he is, and whose truth he has to announce.\n\nYou remember--to appeal at once to the highest example--how\never-present this thought of His mission was to the mind of our Lord\nand Master.  His meat, so He told His disciples, was to do the will of\nHim that sent Him (John iv. 34).  The word which He spake was not His\nown, but the Father's who sent Him (John xiv. 24).  And so when the\ntime came for His sending forth His disciples to carry on His work, it\nwas as \"Apostles,\" those sent, that the work was entrusted to them; and\nin the same spirit He prayed for them in His great intercessory prayer:\n\"_As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the\nworld_\" (John xvii. 18).\n\nIf we keep this view of the evangelist as the missionary, ever before\nus, there is one fact regarding his position we can never lose sight\nof.  He has no new truth of his own to declare, no new theories of his\nown to frame.  The message which he has to deliver is not his own, but\nGod's; and it must be his constant endeavour to learn that message for\nhimself, and then, as God's servant, to announce it to others.  Men may\nreceive his message.  If they do not, he dare not substitute any other.\n\n\nII.\n\nHis Message.\n\nIn what does the evangelist's message consist?  \"_Philip_,\" we are\ntold, \"_preached unto him_ JESUS.\" And what that included we have\nalready seen.  It was the story of the life, and the death, and the\nresurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, a new story then, an old story now,\nbut still \"the old, old story\" for us.\n\nThe duty of the Christian teacher must be first of all to proclaim\nChrist and His salvation, to announce the glad tidings of mercy and of\nlove to sinful men.\n\nThis is not, of course, to say that every address or sermon is to be\noccupied with the objective facts of Christ's life and death.  Such\nteaching would soon become monotonous and wearisome, and fail in the\nvery purpose it set before it.  Nor have men only to be awakened to the\ntruth, they must be built up in it.  And the practical question for us\nall is to learn how to apply and carry out in our daily lives, the\ntruths we have received, how to make our conduct correspond to our\ncreed.  That opens up an endless field for the evangelist's work: that\nintroduces us to lectures on Home Missions and Foreign Missions, to the\nstory of noble lives; to all, in fact, that is likely to deepen and to\nquicken our moral nature.  But still this remains as the fundamental\nobject of the whole evangel, to preach Jesus, to bring those to Him who\nknow Him not, to strengthen and to comfort those who do.\n\nWhen, then, men call upon the Christian teacher to leave the objective\nfacts of the gospel alone, and to occupy himself with the philosophic\nand social questions of the day, they are calling upon him to surrender\nhis special function and duty.  He must indeed endeavour so to present\nthe truth so as to meet the peculiar wants of his own time.  The form\nin which the gospel was presented in one age may not be the best form\nof presenting it in another.  At one time it may be necessary to\nemphasise one aspect of the truth, at another, another.  But underneath\nall its changing forms and aspects, _the_ truth remains unchanged; and\nit is that which must be taught.\n\nAnd after all, has not the simple gospel message ever proved itself the\none message that can touch the hearts and meet the wants of men?  What\nwas it, for example, in the preaching of Savonarola that so mightily\nmoved Florence, the elegant, refined, wicked, pagan Florence of the\nfifteenth century?  He himself tells us that it was the preaching of\nScripture truth.  When he discoursed in a philosophical manner, the\nignorant and the learned were alike inattentive: but \"the word\"\nmightily delighted the minds of men, and showed its divine power in the\nreformation of their lives.  Or, to take another instance from nearer\nhome.  Archdeacon Wilson describes somewhere the experience of the\npromoters of a certain evening-class, which they had instituted for the\nbenefit of some of the more ignorant and degraded inhabitants of\nBristol.  All that they could think of they did for the benefit of the\nmen who gathered to it.  They read to them; they sang to them: they\ntaught them to read and write.  Yet, in course of time, interest\nflagged.  Every expedient failed, and they were on the point of\nabandoning the work in despair, when it occurred to them to apply to\nthe men themselves.  \"What would you like us to tell you about next?\"\nthey asked.  \"Could you tell us something about Jesus Christ?\" answered\none of the men.  That was the one thing needful, the one abiding\nsatisfaction for their deepest needs.\n\nAnd so ever.  It may be strange, but it is true, that it is \"_the Man\nof Sorrows_\" who has won the love of men; it is the Saviour who has\nbeen lifted up on high out of the earth, who has drawn all men to\nHimself.  Christ: Christ crucified: Christ risen: that is the message\nwhich every Christian evangelist has to declare.\n\n\nIII.\n\nHis Message of Glad Tidings.\n\nAnd is not that good news?  \"_Beginning from that same scripture,\nPhilip preached the GLAD TIDINGS of Jesus_.\"\n\nPhilip made the eunuch's previous knowledge the starting-point of all\nthat he had to say, and, as he went on, showed how there was in his\nmessage the answer to all his doubts and the solution of all his\ndifficulties.\n\nAnd the gospel has still the same meaning for us.  It has a message for\nthe man struggling with the battle of life, in the example of One who\nhas fought that fight before, who knows its every trial and sorrow, and\nwho has come gloriously through them all.  It has a message for the\nsinner, brooding anxiously over his guilty past, conscious only of his\nown defilement and unworthiness in the sight of an all-holy God, as it\nassures him of mercy and free forgiveness, of sin blotted out in the\nblood of Christ.  It has a message for the trembling believer,\ncompassed about with temptations and doubts, as it tells of One who can\nstill be \"_touched with the feeling of our infirmities_,\" and who,\nbecause \"_He Himself hath suffered being tempted_,\" is \"_able to\nsuccour them that are tempted_.\"  And it has a message for the mourner\nsorrowing over the loss of near and dear ones, for it points to Him who\nis \"_the Resurrection and the Life_\" of His people, and gives promise\nof the \"_Father's house_\" with its many mansions, where He is preparing\na place for His children.\n\nAnd yet great and glorious though that message is, where there are not\na hearing ear, an understanding heart, and a willing mind, even a St\nPhilip or a St Paul may preach in vain.  But where, on the other hand,\nthese are present, then God may use even the humblest and feeblest of\nHis servants to speak some word, to utter some warning, which may be\nworth to us more than all we have in the world besides.  God grant that\nit may be so with us, and that by the power of the Holy Ghost the word\npreached may be welcomed, \"not as the word of men, but, as it is in\ntruth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe\" (1\nThess. ii. 13).\n\n\n\n\nANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA\n\nBY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D.\n\n\nOne of the most striking features of the early Christian Church was\nwhat we have come to know as Christian Communism, or as the historian\ndescribes it in Acts iv, 32: \"_And the multitude of them that believed\nwere of one heart and soul: and not one of them said that aught of the\nthings which he possessed was his own; but they had all things\ncommon_.\"  It is a bright and a pleasing picture that is thus\npresented.  Nor is it difficult to understand how such a spirit should\narise amongst men whose hearts were full to overflowing with the new\nChristian graces of brotherhood and peace.  For we must not imagine\nthat there was anything compulsory about this communism.  It was\nentirely voluntary, and was due to the eager desire on the part of the\nwealthier members of the Church to do all that they could for their\npoorer brethren.  In this particular alone, we can at once see how\nwidely it differed from what is generally known as communism or\nsocialism in the present day.  The spirit of much at any rate of our\npresent-day socialism--so the distinction has been cleverly drawn--is,\n\"What is thine, is mine\": but the spirit of those early believers was\nrather, \"What is mine, is thine.\"\n\nAt the same time, we can readily understand that in a large and mixed\ncommunity like the early Church, all members would not think exactly\nalike, and that while many, we may believe most, would cheerfully obey\nthis unwritten law of love, and share and share alike, others would\ngive in to it--if they did give in, for, let me again emphasise, there\nwas no compulsion upon any--more grudgingly and hesitatingly.\n\nOf these two classes the writer of the Book of Acts presents us with\nindividual examples--of the former class, in the case of Joseph, or\nBarnabas, a wealthy Cypriot, who \"_having a field, sold it, and brought\nthe money, and laid it at the apostles' feet_\" (Acts iv. 37)--of the\nlatter, in the case of Ananias with Sapphira his wife, whose melancholy\nstory is now before us.\n\nThat story is very familiar, and is often regarded simply as an\ninstance of the sinfulness of lying.  And that undoubtedly it is; but\nit warns us also against other equally dangerous and insidious errors,\nas a little consideration will, I think, show.  For what were Ananias's\nmotives in acting as he did?  If we can discover them, we shall have\nthe key to the whole story.\n\nAnd here, it seems to me, they must, in the first instance at any rate,\nhave been of a sufficiently _generous_ character.  Ananias had seen\nwhat was going on around him, and he had determined that he must not be\nbehindhand in this ministry of love.  But--and now we get a little\ndeeper into his character--_ambition_ to stand well with his\nfellow-members evidently mingled with the pure spirit of charity:\nthough we do not need to suppose that there was as yet any conscious\nintention to deceive.  Acting, then, on these somewhat mixed motives of\ncharity and ambition, Ananias determined to sell a possession, some\nfarm or other which he had, and hand over the money to the apostles.\nHe probably meant at first to hand over the whole price, but with the\nmoney in his hand, the demon of avarice entered into his heart.   And\nhe \"_kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and\nbrought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.  But Peter\nsaid, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy\nGhost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?  Whiles it\nremained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it\nnot in thy power?  How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in thy\nheart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God_\" (Acts v. 2-4).\n\nThe sin of Ananias, then, lay in this, that he gave a certain sum _as\nif it were the whole_.  There was no necessity for his giving either\nthe whole or the part.  Had he hung back, when others were selling\ntheir possessions, he would have been pronounced _ungenerous_ in\ncomparison with them.  Had he brought a part, making no mistake about\nit that it was only a part, when they were giving all, then he would\nhave been not _so generous_.  But when he brought a part as if it were\nthe whole, he added to his former selfishness and avarice _deceit and\nhypocrisy_.  If he did not in so many words tell a lie, he did what was\nequally heinous, he _acted_ a lie.\n\nIt is only when we thus clearly realise the enormity of Ananias's sin,\nthat we can understand the reason of the dreadful doom that followed.\n\"_And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost_\"\n(ver. 5).  The judgment came not from men, but from God.  As it was in\nGod's sight--the sight of the living and heart-searching God--that the\nsin had been committed: so it was by the direct \"visitation of God\"\nthat it was now punished.\n\nNor was the awful lesson yet over.  Three hours had scarcely elapsed\nsince the young men had carried forth her husband, and buried him, when\nSapphira, \"_not knowing what was done, came in_.\"  \"_And Peter answered\nunto her_\"--answered her look of amazement as she regarded the\nawe-struck faces of those present--\"_Tell me, whether ye sold the land\nfor so much_?\"  \"_Yea, for so much_,\" she replied, adhering to the\nunholy compact into which, with Ananias, she had entered, and adding\ndeceit in speech to his deceit in act.  \"_But Peter said unto her, How\nis it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?\nbehold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door,\nand they shall carry thee out_\" (verses 8, 9).\n\nIt was the first intimation the unhappy woman had received of Ananias's\ndeath: and to the shame of her own consciousness of guilt, must have\nbeen added the feeling that she had a certain responsibility in what\nhad befallen him.  A word of remonstrance on her part might, at the\nbeginning, have prevented the crime: it was too late now.  \"_And she\nfell down immediately at his feet, and gave up the ghost: and the young\nmen came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her\nby her husband_\" (ver. 10).  And as the sacred historian again\nimpressively adds, showing how deep was the effect produced: \"_And\ngreat fear came upon the whole church, and upon all that heard these\nthings_\" (ver. 11).\n\nSuch is the story.  Who does not feel its sadness?  All before had been\nso peaceful and happy.  The early believers had presented such a\nbeautiful spectacle of brotherly unity and love.  And now, all too\nsoon, the enemy had been at work, sowing tares among the wheat.  In the\nvery particular in which the Church most deserved praise--the\nenthusiasm of its members' charity--sin had appeared.  And thus early\nhad the young Church of Christ learned that truth, which it has been\nthe work of nineteen centuries to emphasise, that her true danger comes\nnot so much from without as from within, and that then only is she\ndisgraced, when she disgraces herself.\n\nFor what may we learn from this tragic incident?\n\n\nI.\n\nWe learn the sanctity, the holiness, which Christ looks for in His\nChurch.\n\n\nThe Church of Christ is holy: it consists of those who have separated\nthemselves from the world and its defilements, and who have set\nthemselves apart--body, soul, and spirit--for Christ's service.  That,\nI say, is the Church's ideal.  But we know, alas! only too well, how\nfar short the Church on earth falls of that--how much worldliness, and\nvanity, and ambition--yes, and even grosser sins--mingle with our holy\nthings.\n\nBut we must keep God's ideal ever before us, that ideal which assures\nus that God, by His Spirit, actually dwells in His Church, dwells in\nthe heart of each individual believer.  Only when we remember that, can\nwe see how great was Ananias's sin.  \"_He lied to the Holy Ghost: he\nlied not unto men, but unto God_.\"  As by God's Spirit his heart had\nbeen enlightened and opened to the knowledge of the truth: so now\nagainst that Spirit he had deliberately sinned.\n\nSuch a sin could not pass unpunished.  Had that been allowed, the false\nimpression would have got abroad that God was easy and tolerant of sin.\nRather it was necessary \"that men should be taught once for all, by\nsudden death treading swiftly on the heels of detected sin, that the\ngospel, which discovers God's boundless mercy, has not wiped out the\nsterner attributes of the Judge.\"[1]\n\n\nII.\n\nWe learn the reality of the power of Satan.\n\n\nOn this point, Peter's question is very suggestive--\"_Why has Satan\nfilled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost_?\"\n\nThere is a constant tendency in those days, which are so impatient of\nall that is supersensible and wonderful, to try and get rid of the\npersonality of the devil, and to tone down the question of man's\nsalvation to a struggle between two opposing principles within the\nheart, instead of regarding it, as the Bible teaches us to regard it,\nas an actual contest for the soul of man between real persons--the\nSpirit of God from above, the Spirit of evil from beneath.  The heart\nof man is as it were a little city or fortress on the borderland\nbetween two nations at war with each other, and which is liable to be\ncaptured by whichever at that point proves itself the strongest.  But\nat the same time with this great difference, that every man has the\npower of deciding into whose hands he is to fall.  His will is free:\nand he is personally accountable for whom he may choose as master.\n\nFor, notice how, in the case before us, St Peter, while tracing the\nfall of Ananias to the agency of Satan, yet prefixes his question with\na _why_: \"_Why hath Satan jilted thine heart_?\"  There had been a time\nwhen resistance was still possible.  Ananias might have rejected the\nsuggestion of the tempter: he was not bound to yield: but he had\nyielded.  And very suggestive of why he had fallen so low, is that\nother word \"_filled_.\"  It brings before us the quiet, gradual manner\nin which evil takes possession of the heart of man.  We have seen\nalready that it was so in the case of Ananias.  _Ambition_ to stand\nwell in the sight of others was his first step: to ambition was\nafterwards added _avarice_: and then ambition and avarice combined led\nto _deceit and hypocrisy_.  Or, as bringing out the same truth of the\ngradual progression of sin, notice how Ananias apparently first\n_thought_ over the sin in his own heart: then _spoke_ of it to his\nwife, and agreed with her that it could be done: and then how together\nthey _carried it out_.  Thought, speech, action: how often are these\nthe successive links by which a man is led on from one degree of sin to\nanother?  The lesson is surely to resist at the very outset: so much\ndepends upon the first step.  We must not give place to even the first\nthought of evil: nor listen to the tempter's whisper, whisper he ever\nso softly.  How many, as they look back upon a downward career, can\ntrace its beginning to some idle or vain thought, or to some hasty or\ncareless word!\n\n\nIII.\n\nWe learn that a divided service is not possible.\n\n\n\"_No man_!\" said our Lord Himself, \"_can serve two masters: ye cannot\nserve God and mammon_.\"  Not that we are not tempted sometimes to try\nit.  What commoner sin is there amongst professing Christians than the\nattempt to make the best of both worlds--to lay hold of this world with\nthe one hand, while we give it up with the other--to seem other than we\nare?\n\nBut surely with this old story from the Book of Acts to warn us, we\nmust see how vain all such divided efforts are.  We may deceive\nourselves or others for a while; but the deception cannot last, and in\nsome hour of searching or of trial our true characters will be laid\nbare.  Let us see to it, then, that we may take this awful example home\nas a very real and practical warning to ourselves--that we not only\n\"_hate and abhor lying_,\" but put away from us whatsoever \"_maketh a\nlie_\"! and that the prayer continually on our lips and in our hearts\nis, \"From the crafts and assaults of the devil . . . from pride,\nvain-glory, and hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us.\"\n\n\n[1]Dr Oswald Dykes.\n\n\n\n\nDEMAS\n\nBY REV. PRINCIPAL DAVID ROWLANDS, B.A.\n\n\nMany a man who figures in history, is only known in connection with\nsome stupendous fault--some mistake, some folly, or some sin--that has\ngiven him an unenviable immortality.  Mention his name, and the huge\nblot by which his memory is besmirched starts up before the mind in all\nits hideousness.  Take Cain, for example.  He occupies the foremost\nrank as regards fame; his name is one of the first that children learn\nto lisp; and yet what do we know about him?  Very little indeed; our\nknowledge, in fact, is limited to a single act--an act which is the\nmost horrible of human crimes.  His name is suggestive only of\nviolence, murder, the shedding of innocent blood--the foulest deeds\nthat man can possibly commit.  Or take Judas Iscariot.  We know more\nparticulars about him--we know that he was one of the original\napostles, that he managed their common fund, that he posed as a strict\neconomist, and above all, that he was a consummate hypocrite.  Yet when\nwe mention his name, we call up the remembrance of only one vile deed,\none treacherous act--an act that has made his name a curse and a byword\nthroughout the ages.  The same remark is applicable to Demas.  His name\nis familiar enough, but the story of his life is almost unknown.  Paul\nrefers to him more than once as a fellow-labourer, which shows that for\na time at least he was an exemplary Christian.  But he failed in the\nhour of trial--failed through being dominated by an inordinate love of\nthe world--and his memory survives, therefore, as a representative of\nthat worldly-mindedness which leads to apostasy.\n\nThe tone in which the great apostle mentions Demas, in his second\nletter to Timothy, is very touching.  \"_Demas_,\" saith he, \"_has\nforsaken me, having loved the present world_\" (2 Tim. iv. 16).  We\nmight have expected him to give vent to his feelings in bitter\ninvective--as is customary in such cases--and to denounce the\ncowardliness of this desertion in language aflame with indignation.  It\nwould have been no more than justice to the offender, and it might have\ndeterred others from stumbling in the same way.  But no, he does\nnothing of the kind; his words contain nothing more than the brief,\ndeep, pathetic groan of a wounded heart.  He had probably built many\nhopes upon Demas, and not without reason.  In his arduous labours among\nthe Gentiles he had found him an efficient helper, and many were the\nhours of sweet communion he had spent with him and others, in\ndiscussing the triumphs of the Gospel.  And he was confident that now\nin his bonds, waiting the pleasure of the Roman tyrant, he would have\nderived comfort from his companionship and encouragement from his\nfaithfulness.  But alas! these bright hopes had been cruelly shattered;\nfor in the hour of his greatest need Demas had abandoned him.  The\napostle was too grieved to use harsh language--too grieved, not only at\nhis own disappointment, but also when he thought of Demas's own future.\nUnconsciously, in this unostentatious exercise of self-restraint, he\nhas left us an impressive lesson in Christian charity, and has shown us\nthe way in which those who fall away from their steadfastness ought to\nbe treated.  How many of those hapless delinquents might have been\nreclaimed, had the high, noble, generous spirit which animated the\napostle been manifested towards them by those whose confidence they had\nbetrayed, it is impossible to tell; but it is certain that not a few.\n\nThe question that presents itself here is this: In what light are we to\nregard Demas's character?  Was he a cool, calculating, determined\napostate; or did he simply give way to weakness?  There is an essential\ndifference between the two cases, and they ought to be judged\naccordingly.  There are men who through sheer perversity renounce their\nfaith, and are not ashamed to vilify the religion which they once\nprofessed.  They are generally embodiments of irreverence, who glory in\ntheir atheism, and talk of infidelity as if it were a cardinal virtue.\nWhenever there is foul work to be done, they are almost always to the\nfore; whenever holy things are to be held up to ridicule, they are the\nmen to do it.  These are deliberate apostates; men who with their eyes\nopen prefer darkness to light, who of set purpose deny the truth and\nembrace error.  Happily the world contains but few such.  To the honour\nof human nature, fallen though it be, it may be said that it\ninstinctively recoils from such characters with a sense of horror.  We\ndo not think for a moment that Demas belonged to this class, though the\nterms in which he is sometimes spoken of might lead one to suppose so.\n\nThere are others who fall away through weakness.  They find themselves\nin circumstances for which they are not prepared--circumstances by\nwhich their faith is sorely tried--and, lacking that strength of\nconviction, which alone can give stability, they recede from the\nposition which they took up with so much apparent enthusiasm.  Theirs\nis not that deep spiritual experience which makes its possessor count\nsuffering as a privilege and martyrdom as a crown.  They rejoice for a\nseason in Christ and His salvation, but \"_they have no root in\nthemselves_,\" so that \"_when tribulation or persecution ariseth because\nof the word, by and by they are offended_.\"  We are inclined to think\nthat Demas belonged to this class.  The apostle was now overwhelmed by\ncalamities.  His career as a messenger of the Cross had been ruthlessly\ncut short.  There were unmistakable signs of a coming storm, when he,\nand possibly those around him, would be tortured and slain, to gratify\nthe bloodthirstiness of the Roman emperor.  He seems to be fully\ncognisant of this, for he says, \"_I am now ready to be offered, and the\ntime of my departure is at hand_.\"  It is probable, therefore, that\nDemas feared lest by continuing with the apostle he might share his\ndreadful fate.  He pictured himself being carried away in chains by the\nbrutal soldiery, as he had seen many others, to the great amphitheatre,\nto be thrown into the arena, and there to be drawn limb from limb by\nferocious beasts, for the amusement of the frivolous thousands who\ngloated on such scenes.  The bare thought of it made him tremble.  He\n\"_loved the present world_\"; to him life was too precious, too full of\ndelightful possibilities, to be thrown away in the prime of manhood--to\nbe thrown away especially in this awful fashion.  Visions of former\ndays began to haunt him.  His early home, the comrades of his youth,\nhis loving kindred, all that he had left when he became a convert,\ncompletely engrossed his thoughts, and cast over him a fascination that\nwas becoming irresistible.  There was nothing else for it; he must see\nthem once more, even though it should cost him his hope of heaven.  And\nso he \"departed to Thessalonica,\" the place where he was bred and born.\nSome suppose that he took this step for the sake of gain--for the sake\nof engaging in some lucrative trade.  It may be so; but there is no\nevidence to prove it.\n\nThese considerations, though they explain, do not excuse Demas's\nconduct.  Far from it.  He richly merits all the censure that has been\nmeted out to him.  He ought to have played the man, and braved any\ndanger for the sake of his principles.  Like the Psalmist, he ought to\nhave said: \"_The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?\nThe Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid_?\"\nCompared with the kingdom to which he belonged, what was Rome with all\nits power?  Compared with the King whom he served, what was Nero with\nall his glory?  Compared with the joys of holy living, what was the\nworld with all its attractions?  But he failed to realise these great\nfacts, and hence he acted the part of a weakling; he bent as a reed,\nwhen he ought to have stood firm as an oak.  If all the first disciples\nhad been made of such pliable stuff as himself, what would have been\nthe condition of the world to-day?  How mean and cowardly his action\nappears when contrasted with the heroic endurance of weak women, who\nrather than deny their Lord faced the \"_violence of fire_!\"  Weakness\nin certain situations amounts to a crime.  Who ever thinks of\njustifying Pontius Pilate?  He was not guilty of wilful wrong; he would\nhave gladly acquitted our Lord, had he been able to do so without\nrisking his own safety; when he delivered Him to be crucified, he\nsimply gave way, through fear, to the clamour of an enraged populace.\nNevertheless he stands convicted by after-ages of the vilest act that\nany judge has ever committed.  Wrong-doing is not to be palliated by\nascribing it to the overpowering force of temptation.  The claims of\nconscience are paramount, and no inducements, however plausible, can\njustify us in setting them aside.\n\nIt is sometimes asked, what became of Demas eventually?  Did he, after\nwandering in the world, and finding no rest to his soul, identify\nhimself again with the cause which he had deserted?  We should like to\nbe able to believe this.  But the record is silent; and this silence is\nominous; for when the Bible describes the fall of a good man, it\ngenerally gives some account of his restoration.  Peter is a notable\ninstance.  Amidst the terrors of the Judgment-hall he thrice denied his\nLord.  The evangelists make no attempt to shield him from adverse\ncriticism; on the other hand, they mention in detail every circumstance\nthat enhances the baseness of his behaviour.  But they are equally\ncareful to dwell also upon the reality of his repentance.  John, in a\npassage of marvellous beauty, relates how in a saner mood, on the shore\nof the sea of Galilee, he thrice confessed his Lord--confessed Him with\nsuch glowing fervour, that he was there and then restored into the\nposition which he had so miserably forfeited.  But the last word about\nDemas is that which points him out as a backslider; and as such he must\nbe for ever known.\n\nThe lesson of Demas's life is clear, nay even obtrusively clear, and\nthe need of it has been freely acknowledged at all times.  We could\nalmost wish that it were inscribed in letters of fire upon the midnight\nsky.  He was a man who \"_loved this present world_,\" and we see in his\nhistory how loving the world involves separation from God, and how\nseparation from God results in the abandonment of His cause.\n\nIt is difficult to discourse to any purpose upon worldliness.  You\nmight get a crowd of people anywhere to hear you dilate upon it.  They\nwould probably applaud to the echo your most scathing denunciations of\nits baseness.  But after all the probability is that no one would apply\nthose fervid periods to himself.  And why?  Just because this evil\nprinciple manifests itself in such a variety of ways.  A man who\ndetects worldliness in his neighbour with the greatest ease may be\nabsolutely incapable of seeing it in himself, simply because his own\nand his neighbour's are so different in form.  It is the old story.\nDavid boiled over with indignation at the hard-hearted monster who had\ntaken the poor man's lamb; but the fact that he himself had taken\nanother man's wife, gave him no concern whatever.\n\nIt will be readily conceded that the miser is a worldly man.  He loves\ngold for its own sake; he hoards up riches, not with the view of\nenjoying them, but in order to satisfy an inordinate greed of\npossession; his chief object in life is to die worth his hundreds, his\nthousands, or his millions.  Though rich, he is frequently tormented\nwith the fear of ending his days in want, and is more anxious for the\nmorrow than the poorest of the poor.  The only redeeming point in his\ncharacter is his self-denial--a truly noble characteristic when\nassociated with a generous disposition--which, however, in his case,\nloses its value through the sordidness of its aim.  Yes, he is a\nworldly man, beyond the shadow of a doubt.  But this is equally true of\nthe man whose manner of life is the very opposite of this--the\nspendthrift.  He values money only in so far as it enables him to make\na grand display, to spend his days in riotous living, to gain the\ngoodwill of the empty, useless, pleasure-living society in which he\nmoves.  How totally different the latter from the former!  How\nfrequently do they despise and condemn each other--the miser the\nspendthrift, and the spendthrift the miser!  And yet they worship, so\nto speak, at the same shrine; they are victims of the same delusion;\nthey both make this world their all.\n\nThis love of the world leads in every case to separation from God.  The\nstory of the Fall furnishes an apt illustration of this fatal result.\nStript of its poetic setting, what have we there depicted?\nCovetousness--the desire of material good--the determination to obtain\nit at all hazards.  It was under this guise that sin made its first\nentrance into human life--sin, which in its turn\n\n  \"Brought death into our world and all our woe.\"\n\nNow mark the effect of the first act of transgression.  We are told\nthat when Adam and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God walking in\nthe garden in the cool of the day, they \"hid themselves\" from His\npresence \"amongst the trees.\"  In other words, the cords of love which\nup to that point bound man to God were rudely severed.  Before this the\nthought of God filled their souls with joy; they loved to hear His\nvoice in the whisperings of the wind, to see His smile in the merry\nsunshine, to trace His power in the structure of the heavens; but now\nall was mysteriously changed, things which previously ministered to\ntheir enjoyment became a source of terror.\n\nWhy should the love of the world lead to this result?  It is because\nGod must be all or nothing to the human soul.  The first commandment in\nthe law is--\"_Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,\nwith all thy soul, and with all thy might_.\"  This is not an arbitrary\nenactment, but it has its ground in the eternal fitness of things.  God\nis the infinitely powerful, the infinitely wise, and the infinitely\ngood, and as such demands the undivided love of man.  Anything less\nthan this, not only falls below His lawful claim, but also fails to\nsatisfy our profoundest aspirations.  As Augustine puts it, \"Thou hast\nmade us for Thyself; our hearts are restless, until they find rest in\nThee.\"  But it may be asked, Does love to God exclude all other loves?\nBy no means.  The second commandment in the law, \"_Thou shalt love thy\nneighbour as thyself_,\" is inseparable from the first.  It is\nimpossible to obey the one without obeying the other.  Obedience that\ndoes not regard both is partial, and therefore futile.  The reason is\nplain.  God is immanent in creation.  The Christian beholds God in\neverything, and everything in God.  Thus it comes to pass that his\nsupreme love--his love to God--intensifies, ennobles, and hallows every\nother.  If you would have an example of the highest type of love--love\nto God manifesting itself as love to man--go to a Christian home, and\nyou will find it there in all its charm, uniting husband and wife,\nparents and children, master and servants, making the house a veritable\n\"paradise regained.\"\n\nThere is a sense in which the Christian even loves the world--loves it\nas no other man can love it--that is, when the term is applied to the\nwondrous system of nature.  He loves sometimes to wander in the fields,\nwhere innumerable lovely forms, both animate and inanimate, reveal\ntheir beauty to the eye; and at other times to meditate upon the\nillimitable expanse of heaven, crowded by ten thousand worlds, which\nall declare the glory of Him who is Lord over all.  Paul could not have\nhad this meaning in his mind when he spoke of Demas as having, through\nloving the present world, made shipwreck concerning his faith.  He was\nthinking rather of the sum-total of those pursuits, pleasures, and\nambitions which bind man to earth, hamper his spiritual growth, and\nlead him to his ruin.  The \"world\" in this sense is God's rival; to\nlove the \"world\" is to hate God.\n\nWhat does separation from God imply, and when can it be said to take\nplace?  God is everywhere; who can flee His presence?  God is a spirit;\nwho can do Him injury?  These are questions that have always presented\nsome difficulty.  It was asked in the days of Malachi, \"_Will a man rob\nGod_?\" as if such a thing were beyond the range of possibility.  At the\nday of judgment, those on the left hand will ask the Judge, \"_Lord when\nsaw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick,\nor in prison, and did not minister unto Thee_?\" as if the things laid\nto their charge were without foundation.  Now, the objectors in the\ndays of Malachi who asked, \"Wherein have we robbed thee?\" were\nanswered, \"In the tithes and offering.\"  And the objectors at the day\nof judgment will be answered, \"_Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye\ndid it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me_.\"\nEvidently, therefore, God--or God in Christ--and His cause are in a\nvery real sense identical; so that he who forsakes the one, of\nnecessity forsakes the other also.\n\nSeparation from the world is an inward process; it takes place in the\nheart, and cannot therefore be perceived by a man's most intimate\nfriends.  But the forsaking of God's cause is the outward expression of\nthis process, the manner whereby it becomes known to all the world.  If\nit is asked why we assert that Demas had forsaken God, the answer is\nevident; it is because he forsook Paul, who was the representative of\nGod's cause.\n\nThis is never the work of a day, though it may sometimes appear such.\nA professedly religious man commits a flagrant act of sin--or perhaps a\npunishable crime--which places him at once among the open enemies of\nreligion.  We wonder at it; we say in our minds, \"What a sudden change!\nyesterday a saint, to-day an unmitigated villain!\"  But are we right in\nsaying so?  Certainly not.  That rash act was simply the culmination of\na process that had been going on through a long period.  The man had\nbeen sailing towards the rapids for months, or perhaps years, only the\nfact was unobserved; it was not until he was hurled headlong over the\nprecipice into the foaming gulf, that the attention of the world was\nattracted to it.","title":"Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known Characters","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":52591}