{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15836/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15836","id":"gutenberg_15836","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15836","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Commentaries","Bible. Ezekiel -- Commentaries","Bible. Matthew I-VIII -- Commentaries","Bible. Minor Prophets -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Charles Franks, Don Kretz and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D.\n\n\nEZEKIEL, DANIEL, AND THE MINOR PROPHETS\n\nST. MATTHEW\nCHAPTERS I to VIII\n\nNEW YORK\nGEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\nEZEKIEL, DANIEL, AND THE MINOR PROPHETS\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n        THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL\n\n    CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY (Ezekiel viii. 12)\n    A COMMON MISTAKE AND LAME EXCUSE (Ezekiel xii. 27)\n    THE HOLY NATION (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25-38)\n    THE DRY BONES AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE (Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-14)\n    THE RIVER OF LIFE (Ezekiel xlvii. 1)\n\n\n        THE BOOK OF DANIEL\n\n    YOUTHFUL CONFESSORS (Daniel i. 8-21)\n    THE IMAGE AND THE STONE (Daniel ii. 36-49)\n    HARMLESS FIRES (Daniel iii. 13-25)\n    MENE, TEKEL, PERES (Daniel v. 17-31)\n    A TRIBUTE FROM ENEMIES (Daniel vi. 5)\n    FAITH STOPPING THE MOUTHS OF LIONS (Daniel vi. 16-28)\n    A NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE (Daniel xii. 13)\n\n\n        HOSEA\n\n    THE VALLEY OF ACHOR (Hosea ii. 15)\n    'LET HIM ALONE' (Hosea iv. 17)\n    'PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE' (Hosea v. 13, R.V.)\n    'FRUIT WHICH IS DEATH' (Hosea x. 1-15)\n    DESTRUCTION AND HELP (Hosea xiii. 9)\n    ISRAEL RETURNING (Hosea xiv. 1-9)\n    THE DEW AND THE PLANTS (Hosea xiv. 5, 6)\n\n\n        AMOS\n\n    A PAIR OF FRIENDS (Amos iii. 3)\n    SMITTEN IN VAIN (Amos iv. 4-13)\n    THE SINS OF SOCIETY (Amos v. 4-15)\n    THE CARCASS AND THE EAGLES (Amos vi. 1-8)\n    RIPE FOR GATHERING (Amos viii. 1-14)\n\n\n        JONAH\n\n    GUILTY SILENCE AND ITS REWARD (Jonah i. 1-17)\n    'LYING VANITIES' (Jonah ii. 8)\n    THREEFOLD REPENTANCE (Jonah iii. 1-10)\n\n\n        MICAH\n\n    IS THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD STRAITENED? (Micah ii. 7)\n    CHRIST THE BREAKER (Micah ii. 13)\n    AS GOD, SO WORSHIPPER (Micah iv. 5, R.V.)\n    'A DEW FROM THE LORD' (Micah v. 7)\n    GOD'S REQUIREMENTS AND GOD'S GIFT (Micah vi. 8)\n\n\n        HABAKKUK\n\n    THE IDEAL DEVOUT LIFE (Habakkuk iii. 19)\n\n\n        ZEPHANIAH\n\n    ZION'S JOY AND GOD'S (Zephaniah iii. 14, 17)\n\n\n        HAGGAI\n\n    VAIN TOIL (Haggai i. 6)\n    BRAVE ENCOURAGEMENTS (Haggai ii. 1-9)\n\n\n        ZECHARIAH\n\n    DYING MEN AND THE UNDYING WORD (Zechariah i. 5, 6)\n    THE CITY WITHOUT WALLS (Zechariah ii. 4, 5)\n    A VISION OF JUDGMENT AND CLEANSING (Zechariah iii. 1-10)\n    THE RIGHT OF ENTRY (Zechariah iii. 7)\n    THE SOURCE OF POWER (Zechariah iv. 1-10)\n    THE FOUNDER AND FINISHER OF THE TEMPLE (Zechariah iv. 9)\n    THE PRIEST OF THE WORLD AND KING OF MEN (Zechariah vi. 13)\n\n\n        MALACHI\n\n    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi i. 6, 7)\n    BLEMISHED OFFERINGS (Malachi i. 8)\n    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi ii. 12, 14, R.V.)\n    THE LAST WORD OF PROPHECY (Malachi iii. 1-12)\n    THE UNCHANGING LORD (Malachi iii. 6)\n    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi iii. 7, R.V.)\n    'STOUT WORDS,' AND THEIR CONFUTATION\n        (Malachi iii. 13-18; iv. 1-6)\n    THE LAST WORDS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS\n        (Malachi iv. 6; Revelation xxii. 21)\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF EZEKIEL\n\n\nCHAMBERS OF IMAGERY\n\n     'Then said He unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients\n     of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of\n     his imagery!'--EZEKIEL viii. 12.\n\nThis is part of a vision which came to the prophet in his captivity. He\nis carried away in imagination from his home amongst the exiles in the\nEast to the Temple of Jerusalem. There he sees in one dreadful series\nrepresentations of all the forms of idolatry to which the handful that\nwere left in the land were cleaving. There meets him on the threshold of\nthe court 'the image of jealousy,' the generalised expression for the\naggregate of idolatries which had stirred the anger of the divine\nhusband of the nation. Then he sees within the Temple three groups\nrepresenting the idolatries of three different lands. First, those with\nwhom my text is concerned, who, in some underground room, vaulted and\nwindowless, were bowing down before painted animal forms upon the walls.\nProbably they were the representatives of Egyptian worship, for the\ndescription of their temple might have been taken out of any book of\ntravels in Egypt in the present day. It is only an ideal picture that\nis represented to Ezekiel, and not a real fact. It is not at all\nprobable that all these various forms of idolatry were found at any\ntime within the Temple itself. And the whole cast of the vision\nsuggests that it is an ideal picture, and not reality, with which\nwe have to do. Hence the number of these idolaters was seventy--the\nsuccessors of the seventy whom Moses led up to Sinai to see the God\nof Israel! And now here they are grovelling before brute forms painted\non the walls in a hole in the dark. Their leader bears a name which\nmight have startled them in their apostasy, and choked their prayers\nin their throats, for Jaazan-iah means 'the Lord hears.' Each man has\na censer in his hand--self-consecrated priests of self-chosen deities.\nShrouded in obscurity, they pleased themselves with the ancient lie,\n'The Lord sees not; He hath forsaken the earth.' And then, into that\nSanhedrim of apostates there comes, all unknown to them, the light of\nGod's presence; and the eye of the prophet marks their evil.\n\nI have nothing to do here with the other groups which Ezekiel saw in his\nvision. The next set were the representatives of the women of Israel,\nwho, false at once to their womanhood and to their God, were taking part\nin the nameless obscenities and abominations of the worship of the\nSyrian Adonis. And the next, who from their numbers seem to be intended\nto stand for the representatives of the priesthood, as the former were\nof the whole people, represent the worshippers who had fallen under the\nfascinations of a widespread Eastern idolatry, and with their backs to\nthe house of the Lord were bowing before the rising sun.\n\nAll these false faiths got on very well together. Their worshippers had\nno quarrel with each other. Polytheism, by its very nature and the\nnecessity of its being, is tolerant. All its rabble of gods have a\nmutual understanding, and are banded together against the only One that\nsays, 'Thou shalt have none other gods beside Me.'\n\nBut now, I take this vision in a meaning which the prophet had no\nintention to put on it. I do not often do that with my texts, and when I\ndo I like to confess frankly that I am doing it. So I take the words now\nas a kind of symbol which may help to put into a picturesque and more\nstriking form some very familiar and homely truths. Look at that\ndark-painted chamber that we have all of us got in our hearts; at the\nidolatries that go on there, and at the flashing of the sudden light of\nGod who marks, into the midst of the idolatry, 'Hast thou seen what the\nancients of the children of Israel do in the dark, each man in the\nchambers of his imagery?'\n\nI. Think of the dark and painted chamber which we all of us carry in our\nhearts.\n\nEvery man is a mystery to himself as to his fellows. With reverence, we\nmay say of each other as we say of God--'Clouds and darkness are round\nabout Him.' After all the manifestations of a life, we remain enigmas to\none another and mysteries to ourselves. For every man is no fixed\nsomewhat, but a growing personality, with dormant possibilities of good\nand evil lying in him, which up to the very last moment of his life may\nflame up into altogether unexpected and astonishing developments.\nTherefore we have all to feel that after all self-examination there lie\nawful depths within us which we have not fathomed; and after all our\nknowledge of one another we yet do see but the surface, and each soul\ndwells alone.\n\nThere is in every heart a dark chamber. Oh, brethren! there are very,\nvery few of us that dare tell all our thoughts and show our inmost\nselves to our dearest ones. The most silvery lake that lies sleeping\namidst beauty, itself the very fairest spot of all, when drained off\nshows ugly ooze and filthy mud, and all manner of creeping abominations\nin the slime. I wonder what we should see if our hearts were, so to\nspeak, drained off, and the very bottom layer of every thing brought\ninto the light. Do you think you could stand it? Well, then, go to God\nand ask Him to keep you from unconscious sins. Go to Him and ask Him to\nroot out of you the mischiefs that you do not know are there, and live\nhumbly and self-distrustfuliy, and feel that your only strength is:\n'Hold Thou me up, and I shall be saved.' 'Hast thou seen what they do in\nthe _dark_?'\n\nStill further, we may take another part of this description with\npossibly permissible violence as a symbol of another characteristic of\nour inward nature. The walls of that chamber were all painted with\nanimal forms, to which these men were bowing down. By our memory, and by\nthat marvellous faculty that people call the imagination, and by our\ndesires, we are for ever painting the walls of the inmost chambers of\nour hearts with such pictures. That is an awful power which we possess,\nand, alas! too often use for foul idolatries.\n\nI do not dwell upon that, but I wish to drop one very earnest caution\nand beseeching entreaty, especially to the younger members of my\ncongregation now. You, young men and women, especially you young men,\nmind what you paint upon those mystic walls! Foul things, as my text\nsays, 'creeping things and abominable beasts,' only too many of you are\ntracing there. Take care, for these figures are ineffaceable. No\nrepentance will obliterate them. I do not know whether even Heaven can\nblot them out. What you love, what you desire, what you think about, you\nare photographing on the walls of your immortal soul. And just as\nto-day, thousands of years after the artists have been gathered to the\ndust, we may go into Egyptian temples and see the figures on their\nwalls, in all the freshness of their first colouring, as if the painter\nhad but laid down his pencil a moment ago; so, on your hearts, youthful\nevils, the sins of your boyhood, the pruriences of your earliest days,\nmay live in ugly shapes, that no tears and no repentance will ever wipe\nout. Nothing can do away with 'the marks of that which once hath been.'\nWhat are you painting on the chambers of imagery in your hearts?\nObscenity, foul things, mean things, low things? Is that mystic shrine\nwithin you painted with such figures as were laid bare in some chambers\nin Pompeii, where the excavators had to cover up the pictures because\nthey were so foul? Or, is it like the cells in the convent of San Marco\nat Florence, where Fra Angelico's holy and sweet genius has left on the\nbare walls, to be looked at, as he fancied, only by one devout brother\nin each cell, angel imaginings, and noble, pure celestial faces that\ncalm and hallow those who gaze upon them? What are you doing, my\nbrother, in the dark, in your chambers of imagery?\n\nII. Now look with me briefly at the second thought that I draw from this\nsymbol,--the idolatries of the dark chamber.\n\nAll these seventy grey-bearded elders that were bowing there before the\nbestial gods which they had portrayed, had, no doubt, often stood in the\ncourts of the Temple and there made prayers to the God of Israel, with\nbroad phylacteries, to be seen of men. Their true worship was their\nworship in the dark. The other was conscious or unconscious hypocrisy.\nAnd the very chamber in which they were gathered, according to the ideal\nrepresentation of our text, was a chamber in, and therefore partaking of\nthe consecration of, the Temple. So their worship was doubly criminal,\nin that it was sacrilege as well as idolatry. Both things are true about\nus.\n\nA man's true worship is not the worship which he performs in the public\ntemple, but that which he offers down in that little private chapel,\nwhere nobody goes but himself. Worship is the attribution of supreme\nexcellence to, and the entire dependence of the heart upon, a certain\nperson. And the people or the things to which a man attributes the\nhighest excellence, and on which he hangs his happiness and well-being,\nthese be his gods, no matter what his outward profession is. You can\nfind out what these are for you, if you will ask yourself, and honestly\nanswer, one or two questions. What is that I want most? What is it which\nmakes my ideal of happiness? What is that which I feel that I should be\ndesperate without? What do I think about most naturally and\nspontaneously, when the spring is taken off, and my thoughts are allowed\nto go as they will? And if the answer to none of these questions is\n'God!' then I do not know why you should call yourself a worshipper of\nGod. It is of no avail that we pray in the temple, if we have a dark\nunderground shrine where our true adoration is rendered.\n\nOh, dear brethren! I am afraid there are a great many of us nominal\nChristians, connected with Christian Churches, posing before men as\northodox religionists, who keep this private chapel where we do our\ndevotion to an idol and not to God. If our real gods could be made\nvisible, what a pantheon they would make! All the foul forms painted on\nthat cell of this vision would be paralleled in the creeping things,\nwhich crawl along the low earth and never soar nor even stand erect, and\nin the vile, bestial forms of passion to which some of us really bow\ndown. Honour, wealth, literary or other distinction, the sweet\nsanctities of human love dishonoured and profaned by being exalted to\nthe place which divine love should hold, ease, family, animal appetites,\nlust, drink--these are the gods of some of us. Bear with my poor words\nand ask yourselves, not whom do you worship before the eye of men, but\nwho is the God to whom in your inmost heart you bow down? What do you do\nin the dark? That is the question. Whom do you worship there? Your other\nworship is not worship at all.\n\nDo not forget that all such diversion of supreme love and dependence\nfrom God alone is like the sin of these men in our text, in that it is\nsacrilege. They had taken a chamber in the very Temple, and turned it\ninto a temple of the false gods. Whom is your heart made to enshrine?\nWhy! every stone, if I may so say, of the fabric of our being bears\nmarked upon it that it was laid in order to make a dwelling-place for\nGod. Whom are you meant to worship, by the witness of the very\nconstitution of your nature and make of your spirits? Is there anybody\nbut One who is worthy to receive the priceless gift of human love\nabsolute and entire? Is there any but One to whom it is aught but\ndegradation and blasphemy for a man to bow down? Is there any being but\nOne that can still the tumult of my spirit, and satisfy the immortal\nyearnings of my soul? We were made for God, and whensoever we turn the\nhopes, the desires, the affections, the obedience, and that which is\nthe root of them all, the confidence that ought to fix and fasten upon\nHim, to other creatures, we are guilty not only of idolatry but of\nsacrilege. We commit the sin of which that wild reveller in Babylon was\nguilty, when, at his great feast, in the very madness of his presumption\nhe bade them bring forth the sacred vessels from the Temple at\nJerusalem; 'and the king and his princes and his concubines drank in\nthem and praised the gods.' So we take the sacred chalice of the human\nheart, on which there is marked the sign manual of Heaven, claiming it\nfor God's, and fill it with the spiced and drugged draught of our own\nsensualities and evils, and pour out libations to vain and false gods.\nBrethren! Render unto Him that which is His; and see even upon the walls\nscrabbled all over with the deformities that we have painted there,\nlingering traces, like those of some dropping fresco in a roofless\nItalian church, which suggest the serene and perfect beauty of the image\nof the One whose likeness was originally traced there, and for whose\nworship it was all built.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, look at the sudden crashing in upon the cowering\nworshippers of the revealing light.\n\nApparently the picture of my text suggests that these elders knew not\nthe eyes that were looking upon them. They were hugging themselves in\nthe conceit, 'the Lord seeth not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.' And\nall the while, all unknown, God and His prophet stand in the doorway and\nsee it all. Not a finger is lifted, not a sign to the foolish\nworshippers of His presence and inspection, but in stern silence He\nrecords and remembers.\n\nAnd does that need much bending to make it an impressive form of\nputting a solemn truth? There are plenty of us--alas! alas! that it\nshould be so--to whom it is the least welcome of all thoughts that there\nin the doorway stand God and His Word. Why should it be, my brother,\nthat the properly blessed thought of a divine eye resting upon you\nshould be to you like the thought of a policeman's bull's-eye to a\nthief? Why should it not be rather the sweetest and the most calming and\nstrength-giving of all convictions--'Thou God seest me'? The little\nchild runs about the lawn perfectly happy as long as she knows that her\nmother is watching her from the window. And it ought to be sweet and\nblessed to each of us to know that there is no darkness where a Father's\neye comes not. But oh! to the men that stand before bestial idols and\nhave turned their backs on the beauty of the one true God, the only\npossibility of composure is that they shall hug themselves in the vain\ndelusion:--'The Lord seeth not.'\n\nI beseech you, dear friends, do not think of His eye as the prisoner in\na cell thinks of the pin-hole somewhere in the wall, through which a\njailer's jealous inspection may at any moment be glaring in upon him,\nbut think of Him your Brother, who 'knew what was in man,' and who knows\neach man, and see in Christ the all-knowing Godhood that loves yet\nbetter than it knows, and beholds the hidden evils of men's hearts, in\norder that it may cleanse and forgive all which it beholds.\n\nOne day a light will flash in upon all the dark cells. We must all be\nmanifest before the judgment-seat of Christ. Do you like that thought?\nCan you stand it? Are you ready for it? My friend! let Jesus Christ\ncome to you with His light. Let Him come into the dark corners of your\nhearts. Cast all your sinfulness, known and unknown, upon Him that died\non the Cross for every soul of man, and He will come; and His light,\nstreaming into your hearts, like the sunbeam upon foul garments, will\ncleanse and bleach them white by its shining upon them. Let Him come\ninto your hearts by your lowly penitence, by your humble faith, and all\nthese vile shapes that you have painted on its walls will, like\nphosphorescent pictures in the daytime, pale and disappear when the 'Sun\nof Righteousness, with healing in His beams, floods your soul, leaving\nno part dark, and turning all into a temple of the living God.'\n\n\nA COMMON MISTAKE AND LAME EXCUSE\n\n'... He prophesieth of the times that are far off.'--EZEKIEL xii. 27.\n\nHuman nature was very much the same in the exiles that listened to\nEzekiel on the banks of the Chebar and in Manchester to-day. The same\nneglect of God's message was grounded then on the same misapprehension\nof its bearings which profoundly operates in the case of many people\nnow. Ezekiel had been proclaiming the fall of Jerusalem to the exiles\nwhose captivity preceded it by a few years; and he was confronted by the\nincredulity which fancied that it had a great many facts to support it,\nand so it generalised God's long-suffering delay in sending the\nthreatened punishment into a scoffing proverb which said, 'The days are\nprolonged, and every vision faileth.' To translate it into plain\nEnglish, the prophets had cried 'Wolf! wolf!' so long that their alarms\nwere disbelieved altogether.\n\nEven the people that did not go the length of utter unbelief in the\nprophetic threatening took the comfortable conclusion that these\nthreatenings had reference to a future date, and they need not trouble\nthemselves about them. And so they said, according to my text, 'They of\nthe house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for many days to\ncome, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.' 'It may be all\nquite true, but it lies away in the distant future there; and things\nwill last our time, so we do not need to bother ourselves about what he\nsays.'\n\nSo the imagined distance of fulfilment turned the edge of the plainest\ndenunciations, and was like wool stuffed in the people's ears to deaden\nthe reverberations of the thunder.\n\nI wonder if there is anybody here now whom that fits, who meets the\npreaching of the gospel with a shrug, and with this saying, 'He\nprophesies of the times that are far off.' I fancy that there are a few;\nand I wish to say a word or two about this ground on which the\nwidespread disregard of the divine message is based.\n\nI. First, then, notice that the saying of my text--in the application\nwhich I now seek to make of it--is a truth, but it is only half a truth.\n\nOf course, Ezekiel was speaking simply about the destruction of\nJerusalem. If it had been true, as his hearers assumed, that that was\nnot going to happen for a good many years yet, the chances were that it\nhad no bearing upon them, and they were right enough in neglecting the\nteaching. And, of course, when I apply such a word as this in the\ndirection in which I wish to do now, we do bring in a different set of\nthoughts; but the main idea remains the same. The neglect of God's\nsolemn message by a great many people is based, more or less\nconsciously, upon the notion that the message of Christianity--or, if\nyou like to call it so, of the gospel; or, if you like to call it more\nvaguely, religion--has to do mainly with blessings and woes beyond the\ngrave, and that there is plenty of time to attend to it when we get\nnearer the end.\n\nNow is it true that 'he prophesies of times that are far off'? Yes! and\nNo! Yes! it is true, and it is the great glory of Christianity that it\nshifts the centre of gravity, so to speak, from this poor, transient,\ncontemptible present, and sets it away out yonder in an august and\ninfinite future. It brings to us not only knowledge of the future, but\ncertitude, and takes the conception of another life out of the region of\nperhapses, possibilities, dreads, or hopes, as the case may be, and sets\nit in the sunlight of certainty. There is no more mist. Other faiths,\neven when they have risen to the height of some contemplation of a\nfuture, have always seen it wrapped in nebulous clouds of possibilities,\nbut Christianity sets it clear, definite, solid, as certain as\nyesterday, as certain as to-day.\n\nIt not only gives us the knowledge and the certitude of the times that\nare afar off, and that are not times but eternities, but it gives us, as\nthe all-important element in that future, that its ruling characteristic\nis retribution. It 'brings life and immortality to light,' and just\nbecause it does, it brings the dark orb which, like some of the double\nstars in the heavens, is knit to the radiant sphere by a necessary\nband. It brings to light, with life and immortality, death and woe. It\nis true--'he prophesies of times that are far off' and it is the glory\nof the gospel of Christ's revelation, and of the religion that is based\nthereon, that its centre is beyond the grave, and that its eye is so\noften turned to the clearly discerned facts that lie there.\n\nBut is that all that we have to say about Christianity? Many\nrepresentations of it, I am free to confess, from pulpits and books and\nelsewhere, do talk as if that was all, as if it was a magnificent thing\nto have when you came to die. As the play has it, 'I said to him that I\nhoped there was no need that he should think about God yet,' because he\nwas not going to die. But I urge you to remember, dear brethren, that\nall that prophesying of times that are far off has the closest bearing\nupon this transient, throbbing moment, because, for one thing, one\nsolemn part of the Christian revelation about the future is that Time is\nthe parent of Eternity, and that, in like manner as in our earthly\ncourse 'the child is father of the man,' so the man as he has made\nhimself is the author of himself as he will be through the infinite\nspaces that lie beyond the grave. Therefore, when a Christian preacher\nprophesies of times that are afar off, he is prophesying of present\ntime, between which and the most distant eternity there is an iron\nnexus--a band which cannot be broken.\n\nNor is that all. Not only is the truth in my text but a half truth, if\nit is supposed that the main business of the gospel is to talk to us\nabout heaven and hell, and not about the earth on which we secure and\nprocure the one or the other; but also it is a half truth because, large\nand transcendent, eternal in their duration, and blessed beyond all\nthought in their sweetness as are the possibilities, the certainties\nthat are opened by the risen and ascended Christ, and tremendous beyond\nall words that men can speak as are the alternative possibilities, yet\nthese are not all the contents of the gospel message; but those\nblessings and penalties, joys and miseries, exaltations and\ndegradations, which attend upon righteousness and sin, godliness and\nirreligion to-day are a large part of its theme and of its effects.\nTherefore, whilst on the one hand it is true, blessed be Christ's name!\nthat 'he prophesies of times that are far off'; on the other hand it is\nan altogether inadequate description of the gospel message and of the\nChristian body of truth to say that the future is its realm, and not the\npresent.\n\nII. So, then, in the second place, my text gives a very good reason for\nprizing and attending to the prophecy.\n\nIf it is true that God, speaking through the facts of Christ's death and\nResurrection and Ascension, has given to us the sure and certain hope of\nimmortality, and has declared to us plainly the conditions upon which\nthat immortality may be ours, and the woful loss and eclipse into the\nshadow of which we shall stumble darkling if it is not ours, then surely\nthat is a reason for prizing and laying to heart, and living by the\nrevelation so mercifully made. People do not usually kick over their\ntelescopes, and neglect to look through them, because they are so\npowerful that they show them the craters in the moon and turn faint\nspecks into blazing suns. People do not usually neglect a word of\nwarning or guidance in reference to the ordering of their earthly lives\nbecause it is so comprehensive, and covers so large a ground, and is so\ncertain and absolutely true. Surely there can be no greater sign of\ndivine loving-kindness, of a Saviour's tenderness and care for us, than\nthat He should come to each of us, as He does come, and say to each of\nus, 'Thou art to live for ever; and if thou wilt take Me for thy Life,\nthou shalt live for ever, blessed, calm, and pure.' And we listen, and\nsay, 'He prophesies of times that are far off!' Oh! is that not rather a\nreason for coming very close to, and for grappling to our hearts and\nliving always by the power of, that great revelation? Surely to announce\nthe consequences of evil, and to announce them so long beforehand that\nthere is plenty of time to avoid them and to falsify the prediction, is\nthe token of love.\n\nNow I wish to lay it on the hearts of you people who call yourselves\nChristians, and who are so in some imperfect degree, whether we do at\nall adequately regard, remember, and live by this great mercy of God,\nthat He _should_ have prophesied to us 'of the times that are far off.'\nPerhaps I am wrong, but I cannot help feeling that, for this generation,\nthe glories of the future rest with God have been somewhat paled, and\nthe terrors of the future unrest away from God have been somewhat\nlightened. I hope I am wrong, but I do not think that the modern average\nChristian thinks as much about heaven as his father did. And I believe\nthat his religion has lost something of its buoyancy, of its power, of\nits restraining and stimulating energy, because, from a variety of\nreasons, the bias of this generation is rather to dwell upon, and to\nrealise, the present social blessings of Christianity than to project\nitself into that august future. The reaction may be good. I have no\ndoubt it was needed, but I think it has gone rather too far, and I would\nbeseech Christian men and women to try and deserve more the sarcasm that\nis flung at us that we live for another world. Would God it were\ntrue--truer than it is! We should see better work done in this world if\nit were. So I say, that 'he prophesieth of times that are far off' is a\ngood reason for prizing and obeying the prophet.\n\nIII. Lastly, this is a very common and a very bad reason for neglecting\nthe prophecy.\n\nIt does operate as a reason for giving little heed to the prophet, as I\nhave been saying. In the old men-of-war, when an engagement was\nimpending, they used to bring up the hammocks from the bunks and pile\nthem into the nettings at the side of the ship, to defend it from\nboarders and bullets. And then, after these had served their purpose of\nrepelling, they were taken down again and the crew went to sleep upon\nthem. That is exactly what some of my friends do with that misconception\nof the genius of Christianity which supposes that it is concerned mainly\nwith another world. They put it up as a screen between them and God,\nbetween them and what they know to be their duty--viz., the acceptance\nof Christ as their Saviour. It is their hammock that they put between\nthe bullets and themselves; and many a good sleep they get upon it!\n\nNow, that strange capacity that men have of ignoring a certain future is\nseen at work all round about us in every region of life. I wonder how\nmany young men there are in Manchester to-day that have begun to put\ntheir foot upon the wrong road, and who know just as well as I do that\nthe end of it is disease, blasted reputation, ruined prospects, perhaps\nan early death. Why! there is not a drunkard in the city that does not\nknow that. Every man that takes opium knows it. Every unclean, unchaste\nliver knows it; and yet he can hide the thought from himself, and go\nstraight on as if there was nothing at all of the sort within the\nhorizon of possibility. It is one of the most marvellous things that men\nhave that power; only beaten by the marvel that, having it, they should\nbe such fools as to choose to exercise it. The peasants on the slopes of\nVesuvius live very careless lives, and they have their little vineyards\nand their olives. Yes, and every morning when they come out, they can\nlook up and see the thin wreath of smoke going up in the dazzling blue,\nand they know that some time or other there will be a roar and a rush,\nand down will come the lava. But 'a short life and a merry one' is the\ncreed of a good many of us, though we do not like to confess it. Some of\nyou will remember the strange way in which ordinary habits survived in\nprisons in the dreadful times of the French Revolution, and how ladies\nand gentlemen, who were going to have their heads chopped off next\nmorning, danced and flirted, and sat at entertainments, just as if there\nwas no such thing in the world as the public prosecutor and the tumbril,\nand the gaoler going about with a bit of chalk to mark each door where\nwere the condemned for next day.\n\nThat same strange power of ignoring a known future, which works so\nwidely and so disastrously round about us, is especially manifested in\nregard to religion. The great bulk of English men and women who are not\nChristians, and the little sample of such that I have in my audience\nnow, as a rule believe as fully as we do the truths which they agree to\nneglect. Let me speak to them individually. You believe that death will\nintroduce you into a world of two halves--that if you have been a good,\nreligious man, you will dwell in blessedness; that if you have not, you\nwill not--yet you never did a single thing, nor refrained from a single\nthing, because of that belief. And when I, and men of my profession,\ncome and plead with you and try to get through that strange web of\ninsensibility that you have spun round you, you listen, and then you\nsay, with a shrug, 'He prophesies of things that are far off.' and you\nturn with relief to the trivialities of the day. Need I ask you whether\nthat is a wise thing or not?\n\nSurely it is not wise for a man to ignore a future that is certain\nsimply because it is distant. So long as it is certain, what in the name\nof common-sense has the time when it begins to be a present to do with\nour wisdom in regard to it? It is the uncertainty in future\nanticipations which makes it unwise to regulate life largely by them,\nand if you can eliminate that element of uncertainty--which you can do\nif you believe in Jesus Christ--then the question is not when is the\nprophecy going to be fulfilled, but is it true and trustworthy? The man\nis a fool who, because it is far off, thinks he can neglect it.\n\nSurely it is not wise to ignore a future which is so incomparably\ngreater than this present, and which also is so connected with this\npresent as that life here is only intelligible as the vestibule and\npreparation for that great world beyond.\n\nSurely it is not wise to ignore a future because you fancy it is far\naway, when it may burst upon you at any time. These exiles to whom\nEzekiel spoke hugged themselves in the idea that his words were not to\nbe fulfilled for many days to come; but they were mistaken, and the\ncrash of the fall of Jerusalem stunned them before many months had\npassed by. We have to look forward to a future which must be very near\nto some of us, which may be nearer to others than they think, which at\nthe remotest is but a little way from us, and which must come to us all.\nOh, dear friends, surely it is not wise to ignore as far off that which\nfor some of us may be here before this day closes, which will probably\nbe ours in some cases before the fresh young leaves now upon the trees\nhave dropped yellow in the autumn frosts, which at the most distant must\nbe very near us, and which waits for us all.\n\nWhat would you think of the crew and passengers of some ship lying in\nharbour, waiting for its sailing orders, who had got leave on shore, and\ndid not know but that at any moment the blue-peter might be flying at\nthe fore--the signal to weigh anchor--if they behaved themselves in the\nport as if they were never going to embark, and made no preparations for\nthe voyage? Let me beseech you to rid yourselves of that most\nunreasonable of all reasons for neglecting the gospel, that its most\nsolemn revelations refer to the eternity beyond the grave.\n\nThere are many proofs that man on the whole is a very foolish creature,\nbut there is not one more tragical than the fact that believing, as many\nof you do, that 'the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is\neternal life through Jesus Christ,' you stand aloof from accepting the\ngift, and risk the death.\n\nThe 'times far off' have long since come near enough to those scoffers.\nThe most distant future will be present to you before you are ready for\nit, unless you accept Jesus Christ as your All, for time and for\neternity. If you do, the time that is near will be pure and calm, and\nthe times that are far off will be radiant with unfading bliss.\n\n\nTHE HOLY NATION\n\n     'Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be\n     clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,\n     will I cleanse you. 26. A new heart also will I give you, and\n     a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the\n     stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart\n     of flesh. 27. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause\n     you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments,\n     and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave\n     to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be\n     your God. 29. I will also save you from all your\n     uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will\n     increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30. And I will\n     multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the\n     field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among\n     the heathen. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,\n     and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe\n     yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your\n     abominations. 32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the\n     Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for\n     your own ways, O house of Israel. 33. Thus saith the Lord\n     God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your\n     iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and\n     the wastes shall be builded. 34. And the desolate land shall\n     be tilled, whereat; it lay desolate in the sight of all that\n     passed by. 35. And they shall say, This land that was\n     desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and\n     desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are\n     inhabited. 36. Then the heathen that are left round about you\n     shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant\n     that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will\n     do it. 37. Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be\n     enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will\n     increase them with men like a flock. 38. As the holy flock,\n     as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the\n     waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall\n     know that I am the Lord.'--EZEKIEL xxxvi. 25-38.\n\nThis great prophecy had but a partial fulfilment, though a real one, in\nthe restored Israel. The land was given back, the nation _was_\nmultiplied, fertility again blessed the smiling fields and vineyards,\nand, best of all, the people _were_ cleansed 'from all their idols' by\nthe furnace of affliction. Nothing is more remarkable than the\ntransformation effected by the captivity, in regard to the idolatrous\npropensities of the people. Whereas before it they were always hankering\nafter the gods of the nations, they came back from Babylon the resolute\nchampions of monotheism, and never thereafter showed the smallest\ninclination for what had before been so irresistible.\n\nBut the fulness of Ezekiel's prophecy is not realised until Jeremiah's\nprophecy of the new covenant is brought to pass. Nor does the state of\nthe militant church on earth exhaust it. Future glories gleam through\nthe words. They have a 'springing accomplishment' in the Israel of the\nrestoration, a fuller in the New Testament church, and their ultimate\nrealisation in the New Jerusalem, which shall yet descend to be the\nbride, the Lamb's wife. The principles involved in the prophecy belong\nto the region of purely spiritual religion, and are worth pondering,\napart from any question of the place and manner of fulfilment.\n\nFirst comes the great truth that the foundation, so far as concerns the\nhistory of a soul or of a community, of all other good is divine\nforgiveness (v. 25). Ezekiel, the priest, casts the promise into\nceremonial form, and points to the sprinklings of the polluted under the\nlaw, or to the ritual of consecration to the priesthood. That cleansing\nis the removal of already contracted defilement, especially of the guilt\nof idolatry. It is clearly distinguished from the operation on the\ninward nature which follows; that is to say, it is the promise of\nforgiveness, or of justification, not of sanctification.\n\nFrom what deep fountains in the divine nature that 'clean water' was to\nflow, Ezekiel does not know; but we have learned that a more precious\nfluid than water is needed, and have to think of Him 'who came not by\nwater only, but by water and blood,' in whom we have redemption through\nHis blood, even the forgiveness of our sins. But the central idea of\nthis first promise is that it must be God's hand which sprinkles from an\nevil conscience. Forgiveness is a divine prerogative. He only can, and\nHe will, cleanse from all filthiness. His pardon is universal. The most\ningrained sins cannot be too black to melt away from the soul. The\ndye-stuffs of sin are very strong, but there is one solvent which they\ncannot resist. There are no 'fast colours' which God's 'clean water'\ncannot move. This cleansing of pardon underlies all the rest of the\nblessings. It is ever the first thing needful when a soul returns to\nGod.\n\nThen follows an equally exclusively divine act, the impartation of a new\nnature, which shall secure future obedience (vs. 26, 27). Who can thrust\nhis hand into the depths of man's being, and withdraw one\nlife-principle and enshrine another, while yet the individuality of the\nman remains untouched? God only. How profound the consciousness of\nuniversal obstinacy and insensibility which regards human nature, apart\nfrom such renewal, as possessing but a 'heart of stone'! There are no\nsentimental illusions about the grim facts of humanity here. Superficial\nviews of sin and rose-tinted fancies about human nature will not admit\nthe truth of the Scripture doctrine of sinfulness, alienation from God.\nThey diagnose the disease superficially, and therefore do not know how\nto cure it. The Bible can venture to give full weight to the gravity of\nthe sickness, because it knows the remedy. No surgery but God's can\nperform that operation of extracting the stony heart and inserting a\nheart of flesh. No system which cannot do that can do what men want. The\ngospel alone deals thoroughly with man's ills.\n\nAnd how does it effect that great miracle? 'I will put My Spirit within\nyou.' The new life-principle is the effluence of the Spirit of God. The\npromise does not merely offer the influence of a divine spirit, working\non men as from without, or coming down upon them as an afflatus, but the\nactual planting of God's Spirit in the deep places of theirs. We fail to\napprehend the most characteristic blessing of the gospel if we do not\ngive full prominence to that great gift of an indwelling Spirit, the\nlife of our lives. Cleansing is much, but is incomplete without a new\nlife-principle which shall keep us clean; and that can only be God's\nSpirit, enshrined and operative within us; for only thus shall we 'walk\nin His statutes, and keep His judgments.' When the Lawgiver dwells in\nour hearts, the law will be our delight; and keeping it will be the\nnatural outcome and expression of our life, which is His life.\n\nThen follows the picture of the blessed effects of obedience (vs.\n28-30). These are cast into the form appropriate to the immediate\npurpose of the prophecy, and received fulfilment in the actual\nrestoration to the land, which fulfilment, however, was imperfect,\ninasmuch as the obedience and renewal of the people's hearts were\nincomplete. These can only be complete under the gospel, and, in the\nfullest sense, only in another order than the present. When men fully\nkeep God's judgments, they shall dwell permanently in a good land.\nIsrael's hold on its country was its obedience, not its prowess. Our\nreal hold on even earthly good is the choosing of God for our supreme\ngood. In the measure in which we can say 'Thy law is within my heart,'\nall things are ours; and we may possess all things while having nothing\nin the vulgar world's sense of having. Similarly that obedience, which\nis the fruit of the new life of God's Spirit in our spirits, is the\ncondition of close mutual possession in the blessed reciprocity of trust\nand faithfulness, love bestowing and love receiving, by which the quiet\nheart knows that God is its, and it is God's. If stains and\ninterruptions still sometimes break the perfectness of obedience and\ncontinuity of reciprocal ownership, there will be a further cleansing\nfor such sins. 'If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ His\nSon cleanseth us from all sin' (v. 29).\n\nThe lovely picture of the blessed dwellers in their good land is closed\nby the promise of abundant harvests from corn and fruit-tree; that is,\nall that nourishes or delights. The deepest truth taught thereby is that\nhe who lives in God has no unsatisfied desires, but finds in Him all\nthat can sustain, strengthen, and minister to growth, and all that can\ngive gladness and delight. If we make God our heritage, we dwell secure\nin a good land; and 'the dust of that land is gold,' and its harvests\never plenteous.\n\nVery profoundly and beautifully does Ezekiel put as the last trait in\nhis picture, and as the upshot of all this cornucopia of blessings, the\npenitent remembrance of past evils. Undeserved mercies steal into the\nheart like the breath of the south wind, and melt the ice. The more we\nadvance in holiness and consequent blessed communion with God, the more\nclearly shall we see the evil of our past. Forgiven sin looks far\nblacker because it is forgiven. When we are not afraid of sin's\nconsequences, we see more plainly its sinfulness. When we have tasted\nGod's sweetness, we think with more shame of our ingratitude and folly.\nIf God forgets, the more reason for us to remember our transgressions.\nThe man who 'has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins' is in\ndanger of finding out that he is not purged from them. There is no\ngnawing of conscience, nor any fearful looking for of judgment in such\nremembrance, but a wholesome humility passing into thankful wonder that\nsuch sin is pardoned, and such a sinner made God's friend.\n\nThe deep foundation of all the blessedness is finally laid bare (v. 32)\nas being God's undeserved mercy. 'For Mine holy name' (v. 22) is God's\nreason. He is His own motive, and He wills that the world should know\nHis name,--that is, His manifested character,--and understand how loving\nand long-suffering He is. So He wills, not because such knowledge adds\nto His glory, but because it satisfies His love, since it will make the\nmen who know His name blessed. The truth that God's motive is His own\nname's sake may be so put as to be hideous and repellent; but it really\nproclaims that He is love, and that His motive is His poor creatures'\nblessing.\n\nTo this great outline of the blessings of the restored nations are\nappended two subsidiary prophecies, marked by the recurring 'Thus saith\nthe Lord.' The former of these (vs. 33-36) deals principally with the\nnew beauty that was to clothe the land. The day in which the inhabitants\nwere cleansed from their sins was to be the day in which the land was to\nbe raised from its ruin. Cities are to be rebuilt, the ground that had\nlain fallow and tangled with briers and thorns is to be tilled, and to\nbloom like Eden, a restored paradise. How far the fulfilment has halted\nbehind the promise, the melancholy condition of Palestine to-day may\nremind us. Whether the literal fulfilment is to be anticipated or no\nseems less important than to note that the experience of forgiveness\n(and of the consequent blessings described above) is the precursor of\nthis fair picture. Therefore, the Church's condition of growth and\nprosperity is its realisation in the persons of its individual members,\nof pardon, the renewal of the inner man by the indwelling Spirit,\nfaithful obedience, communion with God, and lowly remembrance of past\nsins. Where churches are marked by such characteristics, they will grow.\nIf they are not, all their 'evangelistic efforts' will be as sounding\nbrass and a tinkling cymbal.\n\nThe second appended prophecy (vs. 37, 38) is that of increase of\npopulation. The picture of the flocks of sheep for sacrifice, which\nthronged Jerusalem at the feasts, is given as a likeness of the swarms\nof inhabitants in the 'waste cities.' The point of comparison is chiefly\nthe number. One knows how closely a flock huddles and seems to fill the\nroad in endless procession. But the destination as well as the number\ncomes into view. All these patient creatures, crowding the ways, are\nmeant for sacrifices. So the inhabitants of the land then shall all\nyield themselves to God, living sacrifices. The first words of our text\npoint to the priesthood of all believers; the last words point to the\nsacrifice of themselves which they have to offer.\n\n'For this moreover will I be inquired of by the house of Israel.' The\nblessings promised do not depend on our merits, as we have heard, but\nyet they will not be given without our co-operation in prayer. God\npromises, and that promise is not a reason for our not asking the gifts\nfrom Him, but for our asking. Faith keeps within the lines of God's\npromise, and prayers which do not foot themselves on a promise are the\noffspring of presumption, not of faith. God 'lets Himself be inquired\nof' for that which is in accordance with His will; and, accordant with\nHis will though it be, He will not 'do it for them,' unless His flock\nask of Him the accomplishment of His own word.\n\n\nTHE DRY BONES AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE\n\n     1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the\n     spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley\n     which was full of bones, 2. And caused me to pass by them round\n     about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and,\n     lo, they were very dry. 3. And He said unto me, Son of man, can\n     these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest. 4.\n     Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto\n     them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5. Thus saith the\n     Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter\n     into you, and ye shall live: 6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and\n     will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put\n     breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I _am_ the\n     Lord. 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied,\n     there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came\n     together, bone to his bone. 8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews\n     and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above:\n     but there was no breath in them. 9. Then said He unto me, Prophesy\n     unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus\n     saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe\n     upon these slain, that they may live. 10. So I prophesied as He\n     commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and\n     stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 11. Then He said\n     unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:\n     behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are\n     cut off for our parts. 12. Therefore prophesy and say unto them,\n     Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O My people, I will open your\n     graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you\n     into the land of Israel. 13. And ye shall know that I am the Lord,\n     when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out\n     of your graves. 14. And shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall\n     live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know\n     that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the\n     Lord.'--EZEKIEL xxxvii. 1-14.\n\nThis great vision apparently took its form from a despairing saying,\nwhich had become a proverb among the exiles, 'Our bones are dried up,\nand our hope is lost: we are clean cut off' (v. 11). Ezekiel lays hold\nof the metaphor, which had been taken to express the hopeless\ndestruction of Israel's national existence, and even from it wrings a\nmessage of hope. Faith has the prerogative of seeing possibilities of\nlife in what looks to sense hopeless death. We may look at the vision\nfrom three points of view, considering its bearing on Israel, on the\nworld, and on the resurrection of the body.\n\nI. The saying, already referred to, puts the hopelessness of the mass of\nthe exiles in a forcible fashion. The only sense in which living men\ncould say that their bones were dried up, and they cut off, is a\nfigurative one, and obviously it is the national existence which they\nregarded as irretrievably ended. The saying gives us a glimpse into the\ndespair which had settled down on the exiles, and against which Ezekiel\nhad to contend, as he had also to contend against its apparently\nopposite and yet kindred feeling of presumptuous, misplaced hope. We\nobserve that he begins by accepting fully the facts which bred despair,\nand even accentuating them. The true prophet never makes light of the\nmiseries of which he knows the cure, and does not try to comfort by\nminimising the gravity of the evil. The bones _are_ very many, and they\n_are_ very dry. As far as outward resources are concerned, despair was\nrational, and hope as absurd as it would have been to expect that men,\ndead so long that their bones had been bleached by years of exposure to\nthe weather, should live again.\n\nBut while Ezekiel saw the facts of Israel's powerlessness as plainly as\nthe most despondent, he did not therefore despair. The question which\nrose in his mind was God's question, and the very raising it let a gleam\nof hope in. So he answered with that noble utterance of faith and\nsubmission, 'O Lord God, Thou knowest.' 'With God all things are\npossible.' Presumption would have said 'Yes'; Unbelief would have said\n'No'; Faith says, 'Thou knowest.'\n\nThe grand description of the process of resurrection follows the analogy\nof the order in the creation of man, giving, first, the shaping of the\nbody, and afterwards the breathing into it of the breath which is life.\nBoth stages are wholly God's work. The prophet's part was to prophesy to\nthe bones first; and his word, in a sense, brought about the effect\nwhich it foretold, since his ministry was the most potent means of\nrekindling dying hopes, and bringing the _disjecta membra_ of the nation\ntogether again. The vivid and gigantic imagination of the prophet gives\na picture of the rushing together of the bones, which has no superior in\nany literature. He hears a noise, and sees a 'shaking' (by which is\nmeant the motion of the bones to each other, rather than an\n'earthquake,' as the Revised Version has it, which inserts a quite\nirrelevant detail), and the result of all is that the skeletons are\ncomplete. Then follows the gradual clothing with flesh. There they lie,\na host of corpses.\n\nThe second stage is the quickening of these bodies with life, and here\nagain Ezekiel, as God's messenger, has power to bring about what he\nannounces; for, at his command, the breath, or wind, or spirit, comes,\nand the stiff corpses spring to their feet, a mighty army. The\nexplanation in the last verses of the text somewhat departs from the\ntenor of the vision by speaking of Israel as buried, but keeps to its\nsubstance, and point the despairing exiles to God as the source of\nnational resurrection. But we must not force deeper meaning on Ezekiel's\nwords than they properly bear. The spirit promised in them is simply the\nsource of life,--literally, of physical life; metaphorically, of\nnational life. However that national restoration was connected with\nholiness, that does not enter into the prophet's vision. Israel's\nrestoration to its land is all that Ezekiel meant by it. True, that\nrestoration was to lead to clearer recognition by Israel of the name of\nJehovah, and of all that it implied in him and demanded from them. But\nthe proper scope of the vision is to assure despairing Israelites that\nGod would quicken the apparently slain national life, and replace them\nin the land.\n\nII. We may extend the application of the vision to the condition of\nhumanity and the divine intervention which communicates life to a dead\nworld, but must remember that no such meaning was in Ezekiel's thoughts.\nThe valley full of dry bones is but too correct a description of the\naspect which a world 'dead in trespasses and sins' bears, when seen from\nthe mountain-top by pure and heavenly eyes. The activities of godless\nlives mask the real spiritual death, which is the condition of every\nsoul that is separate from God. Galvanised corpses may have muscular\nmovements, but they are dead, notwithstanding their twitching. They that\nlive without God are dead while they live.\n\nAgain, we may learn from the vision the preparation needful for the\nprophet, who is to be the instrument of imparting divine life to a dead\nworld. The sorrowful sense of the widespread deadness must enter into a\nman's spirit, and be ever present to him, in order to fit him for his\nwork. A dead world is not to be quickened on easy terms. We must see\nmankind in some measure as God sees them if we are to do God's work\namong them. So-called Christian teachers, who do not believe that the\nrace is dead in sin, or who, believing it, do not feel the tragedy of\nthe fact, and the power lodged in their hands to bring the true life,\nmay prophesy to the dry bones for ever, and there will be no shaking\namong them.\n\nThe great work of the gospel is to communicate divine life. The details\nof the process in the vision are not applicable in this respect. As we\nhave pointed out, they are shaped after the pattern of the creation of\nAdam, but the essential point is that what the world needs is the\nimpartation from God of His Spirit. We know more than Ezekiel did as to\nthe way by which that Spirit is given to men, and as to the kind of life\nwhich it imparts, and as to the connection between that life and\nholiness. It is a diviner voice than Ezekiel's which speaks to us in the\nname of God, and says to us with deeper meaning than the prophet of the\nExile dreamed of, 'I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live.'\n\nBut we may note that it is possible to have the outward form of a living\nbody, and yet to have no life. Churches and individuals may be perfectly\norganised and perfectly dead. Creeds may be articulated most correctly,\nevery bone in its place, and yet have no vitality in them. Forms of\nworship may be punctiliously proper, and have no breath of life in them.\nReligion must have a body, but often the body is not so much the organ\nas the sepulchre of the spirit. We have to take heed that the externals\ndo not kill the inward life.\n\nAgain, we note that this great act of life-giving is God's revelation of\nHis name,--that is, of His character so far as men can know it. 'Ye\nshall know that I am the Lord' (vs. 13, 14). God makes Himself known in\nHis divinest glory when He quickens dead souls. The world may learn what\nHe is therefrom, but they who have experienced the change, and have, as\nit were, been raised from the grave to new life, have personal\nexperience of His power and faithfulness so sure and sweet that\nhenceforward they cannot doubt Him nor forget His grace.\n\nIII. As to the bearing of the vision on the doctrine of the resurrection\nlittle need be said. It does not necessarily presuppose the people's\nacquaintance with that doctrine, for it would be quite conceivable that\nthe vision had revealed to the prophet the thought of a resurrection,\nwhich had not been in his beliefs before. The vision is so entirely\nfigurative, that it cannot be employed as evidence that the idea of the\nresurrection of the dead was part of the Jewish beliefs at this date. It\ndoes, however, seem most natural to suppose that the exiles were\nfamiliar with the idea, though the vision cannot be taken as a\nrevelation of a literal resurrection of dead men. For clear expectations\nof such a resurrection we must turn to such scriptures as Daniel xii. 2,\n13.\n\n\nTHE RIVER OF LIFE\n\n     Waters issued out from under the threshold of the house ... EZEKIEL\n     xlvii. 1.\n\nUnlike most great cities, Jerusalem was not situated on a great river.\nTrue, the inconsiderable waters of Siloam--'which flow softly' because\nthey were so inconsiderable--rose from a crevice in the Temple rock, and\nbeneath that rock stretched the valley of the Kedron, dry and bleached\nin the summer, and a rainy torrent during the rainy seasons; but that\nwas all. So, many of the prophets, who looked forward to the better\ntimes to come, laid their finger upon that one defect, and prophesied\nthat it should be cured. Thus we read in a psalm: 'There is a river,\nthe divisions whereof make glad the City of our God.' Faith saw what\nsense saw not. Again, Isaiah says: 'There'--that is to say, in the new\nJerusalem--'the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers\nand streams.' And so, this prophet casts his anticipations of the\nabundant outpouring of blessing that shall come when God in very deed\ndwells among men, into this figure of a river pouring out from beneath\nthe Temple-door, and spreading life and fertility wherever its waters\ncome. I need not remind you how our Lord Himself uses the same figure,\nand modifies it, by saying that whosoever believeth on Him, 'out of him\nshall flow rivers of living waters'; or how, in the very last words of\nthe Apocalyptic seer, we hear again the music of the ripples of the\ngreat stream, 'the river of the water of life proceeding out of the\nThrone of God and of the Lamb.' So then, all through Scripture, we may\nsay that we hear the murmur of the stream, and can catch the line of\nverdure upon its banks. My object now is not only to deal with the words\nthat I have read as a starting-point, but rather to seek to draw out the\nwonderful significance of this great prophetic parable.\n\nI. I notice, first, the source from which the river comes.\n\nI have already anticipated that in pointing out that it flows from the\nvery Temple itself. The Prophet sees it coming out of the house--that is\nto say, the Sanctuary. It flows across the outer court of the house,\npasses the altar, comes out under the threshold, and then pours itself\ndown on to the plain beneath. This is the symbolical dress of the\nthought that all spiritual blessings, and every conceivable form of\nhuman good, take their rise in the fact of God's dwelling with men. From\nbeneath the Temple threshold comes the water of life; and wherever it\nis true that in any heart--or in any community--God dwells, there will\nbe heard the tinkling of its ripples, and freshness and fertility will\ncome from the stream. The dwelling of God with a man, like the dwelling\nof God in humanity in the Incarnation of His own dear Son, is, as it\nwere, the opening of the fountain that it may pour out into the world.\nSo, if we desire to have the blessings that are possible for us, we must\ncomply with the conditions, and let God dwell in our hearts, and make\nthem His temples; and then from beneath the threshold of that temple,\ntoo, will pour out, according to Christ's own promise, rivers of living\nwater which will be first for ourselves to drink of and be blessed by,\nand then will refresh and gladden others.\n\nAnother thought connected with this source of the river of life is that\nall the blessings which, massed together, are included in that one word\n'salvation'--which is a kind of nebula made up of many unresolved\nstars--take their rise from nothing else than the deep heart of God\nHimself. This river rose in the House of the Lord, and amidst the\nmysteries of the Divine Presence; it took its rise, one might say, from\nbeneath the Mercy-seat where the brooding Cherubim sat in silence and\npoured itself into a world that had not asked for it, that did not\nexpect it, that in many of its members did not desire it and would not\nhave it. The river that rose in the secret place of God symbolises for\nus the great thought which is put into plainer words by the last of the\napostles when he says, 'We love Him because He first loved us.' All the\nblessings of salvation rise from the unmotived, self-impelled, self-fed\ndivine love and purpose. Nothing moves Him to communicate Himself but\nHis own delight in giving Himself to His poor creatures; and it is all\nof grace that it might be all through faith.\n\nStill further, another thought that may be suggested in connection with\nthe source of this river is, that that which is to bless the world must\nnecessarily take its rise above the world. Ezekiel has sketched, in the\nlast portion of his prophecy, an entirely ideal topography of the Holy\nLand. He has swept away mountains and valleys, and levelled all out into\na great plain, in the midst of which rises the mountain of the Lord's\nHouse, far higher than the Temple hill. In reality, opposite it rose the\nMount of Olives, and between the two there was the deep gorge of the\nValley of the Kedron. The Prophet smooths it all out into one great\nplain, and high above all towers the Temple-mount, and from it there\nrushes down on to the low levels the fertilising, life-giving flood.\n\nThat imaginary geography tells us this, that what is to bless the world\nmust come from above the world. There needs a waterfall to generate\nelectricity; the power which is to come into humanity and deal with its\nmiseries must have its source high above the objects of its energy and\nits compassion, and in proportion to the height from which it falls will\nbe the force of its impact and its power to generate the quickening\nimpulse. All merely human efforts at social reform, rivers that do not\nrise in the Temple, are like the rivers in Mongolia, that run for a few\nmiles and then get sucked up by the hot sands and are lost and nobody\nsees them any more. Only the perennial stream, that comes out from\nbeneath the Temple threshold, can sustain itself in the desert, to say\nnothing of transforming the desert into a Garden of Eden. So moral and\nsocial and intellectual and political reformers may well go to Ezekiel,\nand learn that the 'river of the water of life,' which is to heal the\nbarren and refresh the thirsty land, must come from below the Temple\nthreshold.\n\nII. Note the rapid increase of the stream.\n\nThe Prophet describes how his companion, the interpreter, measured down\nthe stream a thousand cubits--about a quarter of a mile--and the waters\nwere ankle-deep another thousand, making half a mile from the start, and\nthe water was knee-deep. Another thousand--or three-quarters of a\nmile--and the water was waist-deep; another thousand--about a mile in\nall--and the water was unfordable, 'waters to swim in, a river that\ncould not be passed over.' Where did the increase come from? There were\nno tributaries. We do not hear of any side-stream flowing into the main\nbody. Where did the increase come from? It came from the abundant\nwelling-up in the sanctuary. The fountain was the mother of the\nriver--that is to say, God's ideal for the world, for the Church, for\nthe individual Christian, is rapid increase in their experience of the\ndepth and the force of the stream of blessings which together make up\nsalvation. So we come to a very sharp testing question. Will anybody\ntell me that the rate at which Christianity has grown for these nineteen\ncenturies corresponds with Ezekiel's vision--which is God's ideal? Will\nany Christian man say, 'My own growth in grace, and increase in the\ndepth and fulness of the flow of the river through my spirit and my life\ncorrespond to that ideal'? A mile from the source the river is\nunfordable. How many miles from the source of _our_ first experience do\nwe stand? How many of us, instead of having 'a river that could not be\npassed over, waters to swim in,' have but a poor and all but stagnant\nfeeble trickle, as shallow as or shallower than it was at first?\n\nI was speaking a minute ago about Mongolian rivers. Australian rivers\nare more like some men's lives. A chain of ponds in the dry season--nay!\nnot even a chain, but a series, with no connecting channel of water\nbetween them. That is like a great many Christian people; they have\nisolated times when they feel the voice of Christ's love, and yield\nthemselves to the powers of the world to come, and then there are long\nintervals, when they feel neither the one nor the other. But the picture\nthat ought to be realised by each of us is God's ideal, which there is\npower in the gospel to make real in the case of every one of us, the\nrapid and continuous increase in the depth and in the scour of 'the\nriver of the water of life,' that flows through our lives. Luther used\nto say, 'If you want to clean out a dunghill, turn the Elbe into it.' If\nyou desire to have your hearts cleansed of all their foulness, turn the\nriver into it. But it needs to be a progressively deepening river, or\nthere will be no scour in the feeble trickle, and we shall not be a bit\nthe holier or the purer for our potential and imperfect Christianity.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the effects of the stream.\n\nThese are threefold: fertility, healing, life. Fertility. In the East\none condition of fertility is water. Irrigate the desert, and you make\nit a garden. Break down the aqueduct, and you make the granary of the\nworld into a waste. The traveller as he goes along can tell where there\nis a stream of water, by the verdure along its banks. You travel along a\nplateau, and it is all baked and barren. You plunge into a wady, and\nimmediately the ground is clothed with under-growth and shrubs, and the\nbirds of the air sing among the branches. And so, says Ezekiel, wherever\nthe river comes there springs up, as if by magic, fair trees 'on the\nbanks thereof, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit\nthereof be consumed.'\n\nFertility comes second, the reception of the fertilising agent comes\nfirst. It is wasted time to tinker at our characters unless we have\nbegun with getting into our hearts the grace of God, and the new spirit\nthat will be wrought out by diligent effort into all beauty of life and\ncharacter. Ezekiel seems to be copying the first psalm, or vice versa,\nthe Psalmist is copying Ezekiel. At any rate, there is a verbal\nsimilarity between them, in that both dwell upon the unfading leaf of\nthe tree that grows planted by rivers of water. And our text goes\nfurther, and speaks about perennial fruitfulness month by month, all the\nyear round. In some tropical countries you will find blossoms, buds in\ntheir earliest stage, and ripened fruit all hanging upon one laden\nbranch. Such ought to be the Christian life--continuously fruitful\nbecause dependent upon continual drawing into itself, by means of its\nroots and suckers, of the water of life by which we are fructified.\n\nThere is yet another effect of the waters--healing. As we said, Ezekiel\ntakes great liberties with the geography of the Holy Land, levelling it\nall, so his stream makes nothing of the Mount of Olives, but flows due\neast until it comes to the smitten gorge of the Jordan, and then turns\nsouth, down into the dull, leaden waters of the Dead Sea, which it\nheals. We all know how these are charged with poison. Dip up a glassful\nanywhere, and you find it full of deleterious matter. They are the\nsymbol of humanity, with the sin that is in solution all through it. No\nchemist can eliminate it, but there is One who can. 'He hath made Him to\nbe sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness\nof God in Him.' The pure river of the water of life will cast out from\nhumanity the malignant components that are there, and will sweeten it\nall. Ay, all, and yet not all, for very solemnly the Prophet's optimism\npauses, and he says that the salt marshes by the side of the sea are not\nhealed. They are by the side of it. The healing is perfectly available\nfor them, but they are not healed. It is possible for men to reject the\ninfluences that make for the destruction of sin and the establishment of\nrighteousness. And although the waters are healed, there still remain\nthe obstinate marshes with the white crystals efflorescing on their\nsurface, and bringing salt and barrenness. You can put away the healing\nand remain tainted with the poison.\n\nAnd then the last thought is the life-giving influence of the river.\nEverything lived whithersoever it went. Contrast Christendom with\nheathendom. Admit all the hollowness and mere nominal Christianity of\nlarge tracts of life in so-called Christian countries, and yet why is it\nthat on the one side you find stagnation and death, and on the other\nside mental and manifold activity and progressiveness? I believe that\nthe difference between 'the people that _sit_ in darkness' and 'the\npeople that _walk_ in the light is that one has the light and the other\nhas not, and activity befits the light as torpor befits the darkness.\n\nBut there is a far deeper truth than that in the figure, a truth that I\nwould fain lay upon the hearts of all my hearers, that unless we our own\nselves have this water of life which comes from the Sanctuary and is\nbrought to us by Jesus Christ, 'we are dead in trespasses and sins.' The\nonly true life is in Christ. 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me,\nand drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of\nhis heart shall flow rivers of living water.'\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF DANIEL\n\n\nYOUTHFUL CONFESSORS\n\n     'But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself\n     with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he\n     drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he\n     might not defile himself. 9. Now God had brought Daniel into favour\n     and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. 10. And the prince\n     of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath\n     appointed your meat and your drink; for why should he see your\n     faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then\n     shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. 11. Then said Daniel\n     to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel,\n     Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12. Prove thy servants, I beseech\n     thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to\n     drink. 13. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee,\n     and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the\n     king's meat; and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. 14. So he\n     consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. 15. And\n     at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and\n     fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of\n     the king's meat. 16. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their\n     meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse. 17.\n     As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in\n     all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all\n     visions and dreams. 18. Now at the end of the days that the king\n     had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs\n     brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19. And the king communed\n     with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah,\n     Mishael, and Azariah; therefore stood they before the king. 20. And\n     in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired\n     of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and\n     astrologers that were in all his realm. 21. And Daniel continued\n     even unto the first year of king Cyrus.'--DANIEL i. 8-21.\n\nDaniel was but a boy at the date of the Captivity, and little more at\nthe time of the attempt to make a Chaldean of him. The last verse says\nthat he 'continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus,' the date\ngiven elsewhere as the close of the Captivity (2 Chron. xxxvi. 22; Ezra\ni. 1; vi. 3). From Daniel x. 1 we learn that he lived on till Cyrus's\nthird year, if not later; but the date in i. 21 is probably given in\norder to suggest that Daniel's career covered the whole period of the\nCaptivity, and burned like a star of hope for the exiles. The incident\nin our passage is a noble example of religious principle applied to\nsmall details of daily life, and shows how God crowns such conscientious\nself-restraint with success. The lessons which it contains are best\ngathered by following the narrative.\n\nI. The heroic determination of the boyish confessor is first set forth.\nThe plan of taking leading young men from the newly captured nation and\nturning them into Babylonians was a stroke of policy as heartless and\nhigh-handed as might be expected from a great conqueror. In some\nmeasure, the same thing has been done by all nations who have built up a\nworld-wide dominion. The new names given to the youths, the attaching of\nthem to the court, their education in Babylonish fashion, all were meant\nfor the same purpose,--to denationalise them, and strip them of their\nreligion, and thus to make them tools for more easily governing their\ncountrymen.\n\nMost men would yield to the influences, and be so lapped in the\ncomforts of their new position as to become pliable as wax in the\nconqueror's hands; but here and there he would come across a bit of\nstiffer stuff, which would break rather than bend. Such an obstinate\npiece of humanity was found in the Hebrew youth, of some fifteen years,\nwhose Hebrew name ('God is my judge') expressed a truth that ruled him,\nwhen the name was exchanged for one that invoked Bel. It took some\nfirmness for a captive lad, without friends or influence, to take\nDaniel's stand; for the motive of his desire to be excused from taking\nthe fare provided can only have been religious. He was determined, in\nhis brave young heart, not to 'defile' himself with the king's meat. The\nphrase points to the pollution incurred by eating things offered to\nidols, and does not imply scrupulousness like that of Pharisaic times,\nnor necessarily suggest a late date for the book. Probably there had\nbeen some kind of religious consecration of the food to Babylonian gods,\nand Daniel, in his solitary faithfulness, was carrying out the same\nprinciples which Paul afterwards laid down for Corinthian Christians as\nto partaking of things offered to idols. Similar difficulties are sure\nto emerge in analogous cases, and do so, on many mission fields.\n\nThe motive here, then, is distinctly religious. Common life was so woven\nin with idolatrous worship that every meal was in some sense a\nsacrifice. Therefore 'Touch not, taste not, handle not,' was the\ninevitable dictate for a devout heart. Daniel seems to have been the\nmoving spirit; but as is generally the case, he was able to infuse his\nown strong convictions into his companions, and the four of them held\ntogether in their protest. The great lesson from the incident is that\nreligion should regulate the smallest details of life, and that it is\nnot narrow over-scrupulousness, but fidelity to the highest duty, when a\nman sets his foot down about any small matter, and says, 'No, I dare not\ndo it, little as it is, and pleasant as it might be to sense, because I\nshould thereby be mixed up in a practical denial of my God.' 'So did not\nI, because of the fear of God' (Neh. v. 15), is a motto which will\nrequire from many a young man abstinence from many things which it would\nbe much easier to accept.\n\nII. This young confessor was as prudent as he was brave; and the story\ngoes on to show how wisely he played his part, and how willing he was to\naccept all working compromises which might smooth his way. He did not at\nall want to pose as a martyr, and had no pleasure in making a noise. The\nfavour which he had won with the high officer who looked after the lads\nbefore their formal examination (graduation we might call it), is set\ndown in the narrative to the divine favour; but that favour worked by\nmeans, and no doubt the lad had done his part to win the important good\nopinion of his superior. The more firm is our determination to take no\nstep beyond the line of duty, the more conciliatory we should be. But\nmany people seem to think that heroism is shown by rudeness, and that if\nwe are afraid that we shall some time have to say 'No' very\nemphatically, we should prepare for it by a great many preliminary and\nunnecessary negatives. The very stern need for parting company, when\nconscience points one way and companions another, is a reason for\nkeeping cordially together whenever we can.\n\n'The prince of the eunuchs' made a very reasonable objection. He had\nbeen appointed to see after the health of the lads, and had ample means\nat his disposal; and if they lost their health in this chase after what\nhe could only think a superstitious fad, the despot whom he served would\nthink nothing of making him answer with his head. His fear gives a\nstriking side-light as to the conditions of service in such a court,\nwhere no man's head was firm between his shoulders. Why should the\nprince of the eunuchs have supposed that the diet asked for would not\nnourish the lads? It was that of the bulk of men everywhere, and he had\nonly to go out into the streets or the nearest barrack in Babylon to see\nwhat thews and muscles could be nurtured on vegetable diet and water.\nBut whatever the want of ground in his objection, it was enough that he\nmade it. Note that he puts it entirely on possible harmful results to\nhimself, and that silences Daniel, who had no right to ask another to\nrun his head into the noose, into which he was ready to put his own, if\nnecessary. Martyrs by proxy, who have such strong convictions that they\nthink it somebody else's duty to run risk for them, are by no means\nunknown.\n\nThis boy was made of other metal. So, apparently he gives up the prince\nof the eunuchs, and turns to another of the friends whom he had made in\nhis short captivity--the person in whose more immediate charge he and\nhis three friends were. He is named Melzar in the Authorised Version;\nbut the Revised Version more accurately takes that to be a name of\noffice, and translates it as 'steward.' He did the catering for them,\nand was sufficiently friendly to listen to Daniel's reasonable proposal\nto try the vegetable diet for 'ten days'--probably meaning an indefinite\nperiod, sufficiently long to test results, which a literal ten days\nwould perhaps scarcely be. So the good-natured steward let the lads have\ntheir way, much wondering in his soul, no doubt, why they should take as\nmuch trouble to avoid good living as most youths would have taken to get\nit.\n\nIII. The success of the experiment comes next. We do not need to suppose\na miracle as either wrought or suggested by the narrative. The issue\nmight have taught the steward a wholesome lesson in dietetics, which he\nand a great many of us much need. 'A man's life consisteth not in the\nabundance of the things which he possesseth,' and his bodily life\nconsisteth not in the abundance and variety of the things that he\neateth. The teaching of this lesson is, not that vegetarianism or total\nabstinence is obligatory, for diet is here regarded only as part of\nidolatrous worship; but certainly a secondary conclusion, fairly drawn\nfrom the story, is that vigorous health is best kept up on very simple\nfare. Many dinner-tables, over which God's blessing is formally asked,\nare spread in such a fashion as it is hard to suppose deserves His\nblessing. The simpler the fare, the fewer the wants: the fewer the\nwants, the greater the riches; the freer the life, the more leisure for\nhigher pursuits, and the more sound the bodily health.\n\nBut the rosy faces and vigorous health of Daniel and his friends may\nillustrate, by a picturesque example, a large truth--that God suffers no\nman to be a loser by faithfulness, and more than makes up all that is\nsurrendered for His sake. The blessing of God on small means makes them\nfountains of truer joy than large ones unblessed. No man hath left\nanything for Christ's sake but he receives a hundred-fold in this life,\nif not in the actual blessings surrendered, at all events in the peace\nand joy of heart of which they were supposed to be bearers. God fills\nplaces emptied by Himself, and those emptied by us for His sake.\n\nIV. The conscientious abstinence of Daniel had limits. The learning of\nthe 'Chaldeans' was largely ritualistic, and magic, incantations,\ndivination, and mythology constituted a most important part of it. Did\nnot the conscience, which could not swallow idolatrous food, resent\nbeing forced to assimilate idolatrous learning? No; for all that\nlearning could be acquired by a faithful monotheist, and could be used\nagainst the system which gave it birth. Like Moses, or like the young\nPharisee Saul, these Jewish boys nurtured their faith by knowledge of\ntheir enemies' belief, and used their childhood's lessons as weapons in\nfighting for God's truth. It is not every man's duty to become familiar\nwith error, or to master anti-Christian systems. But if it become ours,\nwe are not to turn away from the task, nor to doubt that God will keep\nHis own truth alight in our minds, if we realise the danger of the\nposition, and seek to cling to Him.\n\nV. So we have the last scene in the youths' appearance before\nNebuchadnezzar. A three years' curriculum was considered necessary to\nturn a Jewish boy into a Chaldean expert, fit to be a traitor to his\nnation, an apostate from his God, and a tool of the tyrant. So far as\nknowledge of the priestly and astronomical science went, the four\nHebrews came out at the top of the lists. The great king himself, with\nthat personal interference in all departments which makes a despot's\nlife so burdensome, put them through their paces, and was satisfied. His\nobject had been to get instruments with which he could work on the\nCaptivity, and, no doubt, also to secure servants who had no links with\nanybody in Babylon. Foreigners, 'kinless loons,' are favourites with\ndespots, for plain reasons. But Nebuchadnezzar could not fathom the\nhearts of the lads. An incarnation of unbridled will would find it\ndifficult to understand a life guided by conscience, and religious\nscruples would have sounded as an unknown tongue to him. But yet, as he\nand they stood face to face, who was stronger, the conqueror or the\nyouths who feared God, and none besides? They were in their right place\nat the head of the examination lists. They had not said, 'We do not\nbelieve in all this rubbish, and we are not going to trouble ourselves\nto master it,' but they had set themselves determinedly to work, and\nbeen all the more persevering because of their objection to the diet. If\na young man has to be singular by reason of his religion, let him be\nsingularly diligent in his work, and seek to be first, not merely for\nhis own glory, but for the sake of the religion which he professes.\n\n'Plain living and high thinking' ought to go together. England and\nAmerica have many names carved high on their annals, and written deep on\ntheir citizens' hearts, who have nourished a sublime, studious youth in\npoverty, 'cultivating literature on a little oatmeal,' and who all their\nlives have 'scorned delights and lived laborious days.' It is the temper\nwhich is most likely to succeed, but which, whether it succeeds or not,\nbrings the best blessings to those who cultivate it. Such a youth will\ngenerally be followed by an honoured manhood like Daniel's, but will, at\nall events, be its own reward, and have God's blessing.\n\n'Daniel continued unto the first year of king Cyrus.' These simple words\ncontain volumes. During all the troubles of the nation, from the king's\ninsanity, and the murders of his successors, amidst whirling intrigues,\nenvies, plots, and persecutions, this one man stood firm, like a pillar\namid blowing sands. So God keeps the steadfast soul which is fixed on\nHim; and while the world passeth away, and the fashion thereof, he that\ndoeth the will of God abideth for ever.\n\n\nTHE IMAGE AND THE STONE\n\n     'This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof\n     before the king. 37. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God\n     of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and\n     glory. 38. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of\n     the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine\n     hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of\n     gold. 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to\n     thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule\n     over all the earth. 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as\n     iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all\n     things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in\n     pieces and bruise. 41. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes,\n     part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be\n     divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron,\n     forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42. And as\n     the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the\n     kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43. And whereas\n     thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves\n     with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another,\n     even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44. And in the days of these\n     kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never\n     be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people,\n     but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it\n     shall stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone\n     was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in\n     pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the\n     great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass\n     hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof\n     sure. 46. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and\n     worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation\n     and sweet odours unto him. 47. The king answered unto Daniel, and\n     said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord\n     of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal\n     this secret. 48. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave\n     him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of\n     Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of\n     Babylon. 49. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set\n     Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province\n     of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.'--DANIEL ii.\n     36-49.\n\nThe colossal image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, was a\nreproduction of those which met his waking eyes, and still remain for\nour wonder in our museums. The mingled materials are paralleled in\nancient art. The substance of the dream is no less natural than its\nform. The one is suggested by familiar sights; the other, by pressing\nanxieties. What more likely than that, 'in the second year of his reign'\n(v. 1), waking thoughts of the future of his monarchy should trouble the\nwarrior-king, scarcely yet firm on his throne, and should repeat\nthemselves in nightly visions? God spoke through the dream, and He is\nnot wont to answer questions before they are asked, nor to give\nrevelations to men on points which they have not sought to solve. We may\nbe sure that Nebuchadnezzar's dream met his need.\n\nThe unreasonable demand that the 'Chaldeans' should show the dream as\nwell as interpret it, fits the character of the king, as an imperious\ndespot, intolerant of obstacles to his will, and holding human life very\ncheap. Daniel's knowledge of the dream and of its meaning is given to\nhim in a vision by night, which is the method of divine illumination\nthroughout the book, and may be regarded as a lower stage thereof than\nthe communications to prophets of 'the word of the Lord.'\n\nThe passage falls into two parts: the image and the stone.\n\nI. The Image.\n\nIt was a human form of strangely mingled materials, of giant size no\ndoubt, and of majestic aspect. Barbarous enough it would have looked\nbeside the marble lovelinesses of Greece, but it was quite like the\ncoarser art which sought for impressiveness through size and costliness.\nOther people than Babylonian sculptors think that bigness is greatness,\nand dearness preciousness.\n\nThis image embodied what is now called a philosophy of history. It set\nforth the fruitful idea of a succession and unity in the rise and fall\nof conquerors and kingdoms. The four empires represented by it are\ndiverse, and yet parts of a whole, and each following on the other. So\nthe truth is taught that history is an organic whole, however unrelated\nits events may appear to a superficial eye. The writer of this book had\nlearned lessons far in advance of his age, and not yet fully grasped by\nmany so-called historians.\n\nBut, further, the human figure of the image sets forth all these\nkingdoms as being purely the work of men. Not that the overruling divine\nprovidence is ignored, but that the play of human passions, the lust of\nconquest and the like, and the use of human means, such as armies, are\nemphasised.\n\nAgain, the kingdoms are seen in their brilliancy, as they would\nnaturally appear to the thoughts of a conqueror, whose highest notion of\nglory was earthly dominion, and who was indifferent to the suffering and\nblood through which he waded to a throne. When the same kingdoms are\nshown to Daniel in chapter vii. they are represented by beasts. Their\ncruelty and the destruction of life which they caused were uppermost in\na prophet's view; their vulgar splendour dazzled a king's sleeping eyes,\nbecause it had intoxicated his waking thoughts. Much worldly glory and\nmany of its aims appear as precious metal to dreamers, but are seen by\nan illuminated sight to be bestial and destructive.\n\nOnce more there is a steady process of deterioration in the four\nkingdoms. Gold is followed by silver, and that by brass, and that by the\nstrange combination of iron and clay. This may simply refer to the\ndiminution of worldly glory, but it may also mean deterioration, morally\nand otherwise. Is it not the teaching of Scripture that, unless God\ninterpose, society will steadily slide downwards? And has not the fact\nbeen so, wherever the brake and lever of revelation have not arrested\nthe decline and effected elevation? We are told nowadays of evolution,\nas if the progress of humanity were upwards; but if you withdraw the\ninfluence of supernatural revelation, the evidence of power in manhood\nto work itself clear of limitations and lower forms is very ambiguous at\nthe best--in reference to morals, at all events. Evil is capable of\ndevelopment, as well as good; and perhaps Nebuchadnezzar's colossus is a\ntruer representation of the course of humanity than the dreams of modern\nthinkers who see manhood becoming steadily better by its own effort, and\nthink that the clay and iron have inherent power to pass into fine gold.\n\nThe question of the identification of these successive monarchies does\nnot fall to be discussed here. But I may observe that the definite\nstatement of verse 44 ('in the days of these kings') seems to date the\nrise of the everlasting kingdom of God in the period of the last of the\nfour, and therefore that the old interpretation of the fourth kingdom as\nthe Roman seems the most natural. The force of that remark may, no\ndoubt, be weakened by the consideration that the Old Testament prophets'\nperspective of the future brought the coming of Messiah into immediate\njuxtaposition with the limits of their own vision; but still it has\nforce.\n\nThe allocation of each part of the symbol is of less importance for us\nthan the lessons to be drawn from it as a whole. But the singular\namalgam of iron and clay in the fourth kingdom is worth notice. No\nsculptor or metallurgist could make a strong unity out of such\nmaterials, of which the combination could only be apparent and\nsuperficial. The fact to which it points is the artificial unity into\nwhich the great conquering empires of old crushed their unfortunate\nsubject peoples, who were hammered, not fused, together. 'They shall\nmingle themselves with the seed of men' (ver. 43), may either refer to\nthe attempts to bring about unity by marriages among different races, or\nto other vain efforts to the same end. To obliterate nationalities has\nalways been the conquering despot's effort, from Nebuchadnezzar to the\nCzar of Russia, and it always fails. This is the weakness of these huge\nempires of antiquity, which have no internal cohesion, and tumble to\npieces as soon as some external bond is loosened. There is only one\nkingdom which has no disintegrating forces lodged in it, because it\nunites men individually to its king, and so binds them to one another;\nand that is the kingdom which Nebuchadnezzar saw in its destructive\naspect.\n\nII. So we have now to think of the stone cut out without hands.\n\nThree things are specified with regard to it: its origin, its duration,\nand its destructive energy. The origin is heavenly, in sharp contrast to\nthe human origin of the kingdoms symbolised in the colossal man. That\nidea is twice expressed: once in plain words, 'the God of heaven shall\nset up a kingdom'; and once figuratively as being cut out of the\nmountain without hands. By the mountain we are probably to understand\nZion, from which, according to many a prophecy, the Messiah King was to\nrule the earth (Ps. ii.; Isa. ii. 3).\n\nThe fulfilment of this prediction is found, not only in the supernatural\nbirth of Jesus Christ, but in the spread of the gospel without any of\nthe weapons and aids of human power. Twelve poor men spoke, and the\nworld was shaken and the kingdoms remoulded. The seer had learned the\nomnipotence of ideas and the weakness of outward force. A thought from\nGod is stronger than all armies, and outconquers conquerors. By the\nmystery of Christ's Incarnation, by the power of weakness in the\npreachers of the Cross, by the energies of the transforming Spirit, the\nGod of heaven has set up the kingdom. 'It shall never be destroyed.' Its\ndivine origin guarantees its perpetual duration. The kingdoms of man's\nfounding, whether they be in the realm of thought or of outward\ndominion, 'have their day, and cease to be,' but the kingdom of Christ\nlasts as long as the eternal life of its King. He cannot die any more,\nand He cannot live discrowned. Other forms of human association perish,\nas new conditions come into play which antiquate them; but the kingdom\nof Jesus is as flexible as it is firm, and has power to adapt to itself\nall conditions in which men can live. It will outlast earth, it will\nfill eternity; for when He 'shall have delivered up the kingdom to His\nFather,' the kingdom, which the God of heaven set up, will still\ncontinue.\n\nIt 'shall not be left to other people.' By that, seems to be meant that\nthis kingdom will not be like those of human origin, in which dominion\npasses from one race to another, but that Israel shall ever be the happy\nsubjects and the dominant race. We must interpret the words of the\nspiritual Israel, and remember how to be Christ's subject is to belong\nto a nation who are kings and priests.\n\nThe destructive power is graphically represented. The stone, detached\nfrom the mountain, and apparently self-moved, dashes against the\nheterogeneous mass of iron and clay on which the colossus insecurely\nstands, and down it comes with a crash, breaking into a thousand\nfragments as it falls. 'Like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors'\n(Daniel ii. 35) is the debris, which is whirled out of sight by the\nwind. Christ and His kingdom have reshaped the world. These ancient,\nhideous kingdoms of blood and misery are impossible now. Christ and His\ngospel shattered the Roman empire, and cast Europe into another mould.\nThey have destructive work to do yet, and as surely as the sun rises\ndaily, will do it. The things that can be shaken will be shaken till\nthey fall, and human society will never obtain its stable form till it\nis moulded throughout after the pattern of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nThe vision of our passage has no reference to the quickening power of\nthe kingdom; but the best way in which it destroys is by transformation.\nIt slays the old and lower forms of society by substituting the purer\nwhich flow from possession of the one Spirit. That highest glory of the\nwork of Christ is but partially represented here, but there is a hint in\nDaniel ii. 35, which tells that the stone has a strange vitality, and\ncan grow, and does grow, till it becomes an earth-filling mountain.\n\nThat issue is not reached yet; but 'the dream is certain.' The kingdom\nis concentrated in its King, and the life of Jesus, diffused through His\nservants, works to the increase of the empire, and will not cease till\nthe kingdoms of the world are the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.\nThat stone has vital power, and if we build on it we receive, by\nwonderful impartation, a kindred derived life, and become 'living\nstones.' It is laid for a sure foundation. If a man stumble over it\nwhile it lies there to be built upon, he will lame and maim himself. But\nit will one day have motion given to it, and, falling from the height of\nheaven, when He comes to judge the world which He rules and has\nredeemed, it will grind to powder all who reject the rule of the\neverlasting King of men.\n\n\nHARMLESS FIRES\n\n     'Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring\n     Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men\n     before the king. 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it\n     true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods,\n     nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15. Now if ye be\n     ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute,\n     harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye\n     fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye\n     worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a\n     burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you\n     out of my hands? 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and\n     said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer\n     thee in this matter. 17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able\n     to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver\n     us out of thine hand, O king. 18. But if not, be it known unto\n     thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the\n     golden image which thou hast set up. 19. Then was Nebuchadnezzar\n     full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against\n     Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, and commanded\n     that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was\n     wont to be heated. 20. And he commanded the most mighty men that\n     were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and to\n     cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21. Then these men were\n     bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other\n     garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery\n     furnace. 22. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent,\n     and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men\n     that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. 23. And these three\n     men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the\n     midst of the burning fiery furnace. 24. Then Nebuchadnezzar the\n     king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto\n     his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of\n     the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 25.\n     He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the\n     midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the\n     fourth is like the Son of God.'--DANIEL iii. 13-25.\n\nThe way in which the 'Chaldeans' describe the three recusants, betrays\ntheir motive in accusing them. 'Certain Jews whom thou hast set over the\naffairs of the province of Babylon' could not but be envied and hated,\nsince their promotion wounded both national pride and professional\njealousy. The form of the accusation was skilfully calculated to rouse a\ndespot's rage. 'They have not regarded thee' is the head and front of\ntheir offending. The inflammable temper of the king blazed up according\nto expectation, as is the way with tyrants. His passion of rage is twice\nmentioned (vs. 13, 19), and in one of the instances, is noted as\ndistorting his features. What a picture of ungoverned fury as of one who\nhad never been thwarted! It is the true portrait of an Eastern despot.\n\nWhere was Daniel in this hour of danger? His absence is not accounted\nfor, and conjecture is useless; but the fact that he has no share in the\nincident seems to raise a presumption in favour of the disputed\nhistorical character of the Book, which, if it had been fiction, could\nscarcely have left its hero out of so brilliant an instance of\nfaithfulness to Jehovah.\n\nNebuchadnezzar's vehement address to the three culprits is very\ncharacteristic and instructive. Fixed determination to enforce his\nmandate, anger which breaks into threats that were by no means idle, and\na certain wish to build a bridge for the escape of servants who had done\ntheir work well, are curiously mingled in it. His question, best\nrendered as in the Revised Version, 'Is it of purpose ... that ye' do so\nand so? seems meant to suggest that they may repair their fault by\npleading inadvertence, accident, or the like, and that He will accept\nthe transparent excuse. The renewed offer of an opportunity of worship\ndoes not say what will happen should they obey; and the omission makes\nthe clause more emphatic, as insisting on the act, and slurring over the\nself-evident result.\n\nOn the other hand, in the next clause the act is slightly touched ('if\nye worship not'); and all the stress comes on the grim description of\nthe consequence. This monarch, who has been accustomed to bend men's\nwills like reeds, tries to shake these three obstinate rebels by terror,\nand opens the door of the furnace, as it were, to let them hear it roar.\nHe finishes with a flash of insolence which, if not blasphemy, at least\nbetrays his belief that he was stronger than any god of his conquered\nsubject peoples.\n\nBut the main point to notice in this speech is the unconscious\nrevelation of his real motive in demanding the act of worship. The\ncrime of the three was not that they worshipped wrongly, but that they\ndisobeyed Nebuchadnezzar. He speaks of 'my gods', and of the 'image\nwhich I have set up.' Probably it was an image of the god of the\nBabylonian pantheon whom he took for his special patron, and was erected\nin commemoration of some victorious campaign.\n\nAt all events, the worship required was an act of obedience to him, and\nto refuse it was rebellion. Idolatry is tolerant of any private opinions\nabout gods, and intolerant of any refusal to obey authority in worship.\nSo the early Christians were thrown to the lions, not because they\nworshipped Jesus, but because they would not sacrifice at the Emperor's\ncommand. It is not only heathen rulers who have confounded the spheres\nof civil and religious obedience. Nonconformity in England was long\nidentified with disloyalty; and in many so-called Christian countries\nto-day a man may think what he likes, and worship as he pleases in his\nchamber, if only he will decently comply with authority and pretend to\nunite in religious ceremonies, which those who appoint and practise them\nobserve with tongue in cheek.\n\nBut we may draw another lesson from this truculent apostle of his god.\nHe is not the only instance of apparent religious zeal which is at\nbottom nothing but masterfulness. 'You shall worship my god, not because\nhe is God, but because he is mine.' That is the real meaning of a great\ndeal which calls itself 'zeal for the Lord.' The zealot's own will,\nopinions, fancies, are crammed down other people's throats, and the\ninsult in not thinking or worshipping as he does, is worse in his eyes\nthan the offence against God.\n\nThe kind of furnace in which recusants are roasted has changed since\nNebuchadnezzar's time, and what is called persecution for religion is\nout of fashion now. But every advance in the application of Christian\nprinciple to social and civil life brings a real martyrdom on its\nadvocates. Every audacious refusal to bow to the habits or opinions of\nthe majority, is visited by consequences which only the martyr spirit\nwill endure. Despots have no monopoly of imperious intolerance. A\ndemocracy is more cruel and more impatient of singularity, and\nespecially of religious singularity, than any despot.\n\nEngland and America have no need to fear the old forms of religious\npersecution. In both, a man may profess and proclaim any kind of\nreligion or of no religion. But in both, the advance guard of the\nChristian Church, which seeks to apply Christ's teachings more rigidly\nto individual and social life, has to face obloquy, ostracism,\nmisrepresentation, from the world and the fossil church, for not serving\ntheir gods, nor worshipping the golden image which they have set up.\nMartyrs will be needed and persecutors will exist till the world is\nChristian.\n\nHow did the three confessors meet this rumble of thunder about their\nears? The quiet determination of their reply is very striking and\nbeautiful. It is perfectly loyal, and perfectly unshaken. 'We have no\nneed to answer thee' (Revised Version). 'It is ill sitting at Rome and\nstriving with the Pope.' Nebuchadnezzar's palace was not precisely the\nplace to dispute with Nebuchadnezzar; and as his logic was only 'Do as I\nbid you, or burn,' the sole reply possible was, 'We will not do as you\nbid, and we will burn.' The 'If' which is immediately spoken is already\nin the minds of the speakers, when they say that _they_ do not need to\nanswer. They think that God will take up the taunt which ended the\nking's tirade. Beautifully they are silent, and refer the blusterer to\nGod, whose voice they believe that He will hear in His deed. 'But Thou\nshalt answer, Lord, for me,' is the true temper of humble faith, dumb\nbefore power as a sheep before her shearers, and yet confident that the\nmeek will not be left unvindicated. Let us leave ourselves in God's\nhands; and when conscience accuses, or the world maligns or threatens,\nlet us be still, and feel that we have One to speak for us, and so we\nmay hold our peace.\n\nThe rendering of verse 17 is doubtful, but the general meaning is clear.\nThe brave speakers have hope that God will rebuke the king's taunt, and\nwill prove Himself to be able to deliver out of his hand. So they repeat\nhis very words with singular boldness, and contradict him to his face.\nThey have no absolute certainty of deliverance, but whether it comes or\nnot will make no manner of difference to them. They have absolute\ncertainty as to duty; and so they look the furious tyrant right in the\neyes, and quietly say, 'We will not serve thy gods.' Nothing like that\nhad ever been heard in those halls.\n\nDuty is sovereign. The obligation to resist all temptations to go\nagainst conscience is unaffected by consequences. There may be hope that\nGod will not suffer us to be harmed, but whether He does or not should\nmake no difference to our fixed resolve. That temper of lowly faith and\ninflexible faithfulness which these Hebrews showed in the supreme\nmoment, when they took their lives in their hands, may be as nobly\nillustrated in the small difficulties of our peaceful lives. The same\nlaws shape the curves of the tiny ripples in a basin and of the Atlantic\nrollers. No man who cannot say 'I will not' in the face of frowns and\ndangers, be they what they may, and stick to it, will do his part, He\nwho has conquered regard for personal consequences, and does not let\nthem deflect his course a hairsbreadth, is lord of the world.\n\nHow small Nebuchadnezzar was by the side of his three victims! How empty\nhis threats to men who cared nothing whether they burned or not, so long\nas they did not apostatise! What can the world do against a man who\nsays, 'It is all one to me whether I live or die; I will not worship at\nyour shrines?' The fire of the furnace is but painted flames to such an\none.\n\nThe savage punishment intended for the audacious rebels is abundantly\nconfirmed as common in Babylon by the inscriptions, which may be seen\nquoted by many commentators. The narrative is exceedingly graphic. We\nsee the furious king, with features inflamed with passion. We hear his\nhoarse, angry orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter, which he\nforgot would be a mercy, as shortening the victims' agonies. We see the\nswift execution of the commands, and the unresisting martyrs bound as\nthey stood, and dragged away by the soldiers to the near furnace, the\nking following. Its shape is a matter of doubt. Probably the three were\nthrown in from above, and so the soldiers were caught by the flames.\n\n'And these three men ... fell down bound into the midst of the burning\nfiery furnace' Their helplessness and desperate condition are\npathetically suggested by that picture, which might well be supposed to\nbe the last of them that mortal eyes would see. Down into the glowing\nmass, like chips of wood into Vesuvius, they sank. The king sitting\nwatching, to glut his fury by the sight of their end, had some way of\nlooking into the core of the flames.\n\nThe story shifts its point of view with very picturesque abruptness\nafter verse 23. The vaunting king shall tell what he saw, and thereby\nconvict himself of insolent folly in challenging 'any god' to deliver\nout of his hand. He alone seems to have seen the sight, which he tells\nto his courtiers. The bonds were gone, and the men walking free in the\nfire, as if it had been their element. Three went in bound, four walk\nthere at large; and the fourth is 'like a son of the gods,' by which\nexpression Nebuchadnezzar can have meant nothing more than he had\nlearned from his religion; namely, that the gods had offspring of\nsuperhuman dignity. He calls the same person an angel in Daniel iii. 28.\nHe speaks there as the three would have spoken, and here as Babylonian\nmythology spoke.\n\nBut the great lesson to be gathered from this miracle of deliverance is\nsimply that men who sacrifice themselves for God find in the sacrifice\nabundant blessing. They may, or may not, be delivered from the external\ndanger. Peter was brought out of prison the night before his intended\nmartyrdom; James, the brother of John, was slain with the sword, but God\nwas equally near to both, and both were equally delivered from 'Herod\nand from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.' The disposal of\nthe outward event is in His hands, and is a comparatively small matter.\nBut no furnace into which a man goes because he will be true to God, and\nwill not yield up his conscience, is a tenth part so hot as it seems,\nand it will do no real harm. The fire burns bonds, but not Christ's\nservants, consuming many things that entangled, and setting them free.\n'I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts'--even if we have to\nwalk in the furnace. No trials faced in obedience to God will be borne\nalone. 'When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; ...\nwhen thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.'\n\nThe form which Nebuchadnezzar saw amid the flame, as invested with more\nthan human majesty, may have been but one of the ministering spirits\nsent forth to minister to the martyrs--the embodiment of the divine\npower which kept the flames from kindling upon them. But we have Jesus\nfor our Companion in all trials, and His presence makes it possible for\nus to pass over hot ploughshares with unblistered feet; to bathe our\nhands in fire and not feel the pain; to accept the sorest consequences\nof fidelity to Him, and count them as 'not worthy to be compared with\nthe glory which shall be revealed,' and is made more glorious through\nthese light afflictions. A present Christ will never fail His servants,\nand will make the furnace cool even when its fire is fiercest.\n\n\nMENE, TEKEL, PERES\n\n     'Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to\n     thyself, and give thy rewards to another: yet I will read the\n     writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.\n     18. O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a\n     kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: 19. And for the\n     majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages,\n     trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he\n     would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would\n     he put down. 20. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind\n     hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they\n     took his glory from him: 21. And he was driven from the sons of\n     men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was\n     with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his\n     body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most\n     high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over\n     it whomsoever he will. 22. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not\n     humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this: 23. But hast\n     lifted up thyself against the Lord of Heaven: and they have brought\n     the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy\n     wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast\n     praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and\n     stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand\n     thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:\n     24. Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing\n     was written. 25. And this is the writing that was written, 'MENE,\n     MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.' 26. This is the interpretation of the\n     thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. 27.\n     TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28.\n     PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.\n     29. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with\n     scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a\n     proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in\n     the kingdom. 30. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the\n     Chaldeans slain. 31. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being\n     about threescore and two years old.'--DANIEL v. 17-31.\n\nBelshazzar is now conceded to have been a historical personage, the son\nof the last monarch of Babylon, and the other name in the narrative\nwhich has been treated as erroneous--namely, Darius--has not been found\nto be mentioned elsewhere, but is not thereby proved to be a blunder.\nFor why should it not be possible for Scripture to preserve a name that\nsecular history has not yet been ascertained to record, and why must it\nalways be assumed that, if Scripture and cuneiform or other documents\ndiffer, it is Scripture that must go to the wall?\n\nWe do not deal with the grim picture of the drunken orgy, turned into\nabject terror as 'the fingers of a man's hand' came forth out of empty\nair, and in the full blaze of 'the candlestick' wrote the illegible\nsigns. There is something blood-curdling in the visibility of but a\npart of the hand and its busy writing. Whose was the body, and where was\nit? No wonder if the riotous mirth was frozen into awe, and the wine\nlost flavour. Nor need we do more than note the craven-hearted flattery\naddressed to Daniel by the king, who apparently had never heard of him\ntill the queen spoke of him just before. We have to deal with the\nindictment, the sentence, and the execution.\n\nI. The indictment. Daniel's tone is noticeably stern. He has no\nreverential preface, no softening of his message. His words are as if\ncut with steel on the rock. He brushes aside the promises of vulgar\ndecorations and honours with undisguised contempt, and goes straight to\nhis work of rousing a torpid conscience.\n\nBabylon was the embodiment and type of the godless world-power, and\nBelshazzar was the incarnation of the spirit which made Babylon. So\nDaniel's indictment gathers together the main forms of sin, which cleave\nto every godless national or individual life. And he begins with that\nfeather-brained frivolity which will learn nothing by example.\nNebuchadnezzar's fate might have taught his successors what came of\nGod-forgetting arrogance, and attributing success to oneself; and his\nrestoration might have been an object-lesson to teach that devout\nrecognition of the Most High as sovereign was the beginning of a king's\nprosperity and sanity. But Belshazzar knew all this, and ignored it all.\nWas he singular in that? Is not the world full of instances of the ruin\nthat attends godlessness, which yet do not check one godless man in his\ncareer? The wrecks lie thick on the shore, but their broken sides and\ngaunt skeletons are not warnings sufficient to keep a thousand other\nships from steering right on to the shoals. Of these godless lives it\nis true, 'This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve\ntheir sayings,' and their doings, and say and do them over again.\nIncapacity to learn by example is a mark of godless lives.\n\nFurther, Belshazzar 'lifted up' himself 'against the Lord of heaven,'\nand 'glorified not Him in whose hand was his breath and whose were all\nhis ways.' The very essence of all sin is that assertion of self as\nLord, as sufficient, as the director of one's path. To make myself my\ncentre, to depend on myself, to enthrone my own will as sovereign, is to\nfly in the face of nature and fact, and is the mother of all sin. To\nlive to self is to die while we live; to live to God is to live even\nwhile we die. Nations and individuals are ever tempted thus to ignore\nGod, and rebelliously to say, 'Who is Lord over us?' or presumptuously\nto think themselves architects of their own fortunes, and sufficient for\ntheir own defence. Whoever yields to that temptation has let the 'prince\nof the devils' in, and the inferior evil spirits will follow. Positive\nacts are not needed; the negative omission to 'glorify' the God of our\nlife binds sin on us.\n\nFurther, Belshazzar, the type of godlessness, had desecrated the\nsacrificial vessels by using them for his drunken carouse, and therein\nhad done just what we do when we take the powers of heart and mind and\nwill, which are meant to be filled with affections, thoughts, and\npurposes, that are 'an odour of a sweet smell, well-pleasing to God,'\nand desecrate them by pouring from them libations before creatures. Is\nnot love profaned when it is lavished on men or women without one\nreference to God? Is not the intellect desecrated when its force is\nspent on finite objects of thought, and never a glance towards God? Is\nnot the will prostituted from its high vocation when it is used to drive\nthe wheels of a God-ignoring life?\n\nThe coin bears the image and superscription of the true king. It is\ntreason to God to render it to any paltry 'Caesar' of our own coronation.\nBelshazzar was an avowed idolater, but many of us are worshipping gods\n'which see not, nor hear, nor know' as really as he did. We cannot but\ndo so, if we are not worshipping God; for men must have some person or\nthing which they regard as their supreme good, to which the current of\ntheir being sets, which, possessed, makes them blessed; and that is our\ngod, whether we call it so or not.\n\nFurther, Belshazzar was carousing while the Medes and Persians were\nringing Babylon round, and his hand should have been grasping a sword,\nnot a wine-cup. Drunkenness and lust, which sap manhood, are notoriously\nstimulated by peril, as many a shipwreck tells when desperate men break\nopen the spirit casks, and go down to their death intoxicated, and as\nmany an epidemic shows when morality is flung aside, and mad vice rules\nand reels in the streets before it sinks down to die. A nation or a man\nthat has shaken off God will not long keep sobriety or purity.\n\nII. After the stern catalogue of sins comes the tremendous sentence.\nDaniel speaks like an embodied conscience, or like an avenging angel,\nwith no word of pity, and no effort to soften or dilute the awful truth.\nThe day for wrapping up grim facts in muffled words was past. Now the\nonly thing to be done was to bare the sword, and let its sharp edge cut.\nThe inscription, as given in verse 25, is simply 'Numbered, numbered,\nweighed and breakings.' The variation in verse 28 (Peres) is the\nsingular of the noun used in the plural in verse 25, with the omission\nof 'U,' which is merely the copulative 'and.' The disjointed brevity\nadds to the force of the words. Apparently, they were not written in a\ncharacter which 'the king's wise men' could read, and probably were in\nAramaic letters as well as language, which would be familiar to Daniel.\nOf course, a play on the word 'Peres' suggests the _Persian_ as the\nagent of the _breaking_. Daniel simply supplied the personal application\nof the oracular writing. He fits the cap on the king's head. 'God hath\nnumbered _thy_ kingdom ... _thou_ art weighed ... _thy_ kingdom is\ndivided' (broken).\n\nThese three fatal words carry in them the summing up of all divine\njudgment, and will be rung in the ears of all who bring it on\nthemselves. Belshazzar is a type of the end of every godless world-power\nand of every such individual life. 'Numbered'--for God allows to each\nhis definite time, and when its sum is complete, down falls the knife\nthat cuts the threads. 'Weighed'--for 'after death the judgment,' and a\ngodless life, when laid in the balance which His hand holds, is\n'altogether lighter than vanity.' 'Breakings'--for not only will the\ngodless life be torn away from its possessions with much laceration of\nheart and spirit, but the man himself will be broken like some earthen\nvessel coming into sharp collision with an express engine. Belshazzar\nsaw the handwriting on the same night in which it was carried out in\nact; we see it long before, and we can read it. But some of us are mad\nenough to sit unconcerned at the table, and go on with the orgy, though\nthe legible letters are gleaming plain on the wall.\n\nIII. The execution of the sentence need not occupy us long. Belshazzar\nso little realised the facts, that he issued his order to deck out\nDaniel in the tawdry pomp he had promised him, as if a man with such a\nmessage would be delighted with purple robes and gold chains, and made\nhim third ruler of the kingdom which he had just declared was numbered\nand ended by God. The force of folly could no further go. No wonder\nthat the hardy invaders swept such an Imbecile from his throne without a\nstruggle! His blood was red among the lees of the wine-cups, and the\nominous writing could scarcely have faded from the wall when the shouts\nof the assailants were heard, the palace gates forced, and the\nhalf-drunken king, alarmed too late, put to the sword. 'He that, being\noften reproved, hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that\nwithout remedy.'\n\n\nA TRIBUTE FROM ENEMIES\n\n     Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this\n     Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his\n     God.'--DANIEL vi. 5.\n\nDaniel was somewhere about ninety years old when he was cast to the\nlions. He had been for many years the real governor of the whole empire;\nand, of course, in such a position had incurred much hatred and\njealousy. He was a foreigner and a worshipper of another God, and\ntherefore was all the more unpopular, as a Brahmin would be in England\nif he were a Cabinet Minister. He was capable and honest, and therefore\nall the incompetent and all the knavish officials would recognise in him\ntheir natural enemy. So, hostile intrigues, which grow quickly in\ncourts, especially in Eastern courts, sprung up round him, and his\nsubordinates laid their heads together in order to ruin him. They say,\nin the words of my text, 'We cannot find any holes to pick. There is\nonly one way to put him into antagonism to the law, and that is by\nmaking a law which shall be in antagonism to God's law.' And so they\nscheme to have the mad regulation enacted, which, in the sequel of the\nstory, we find was enforced.\n\nThese intriguers say, 'We shall not find any occasion against this\nDaniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.'\n\nNow, then, if we look at that confession, wrung from the lips of\nmalicious observers, we may, I think, get two or three lessons.\n\nI. First, note the very unfavourable soil in which a character of\nsingular beauty and devout consecration may be rooted and grow.\n\nWhat sort of a place was that court where Daniel was? Half shambles and\nhalf pigsty. Luxury, sensuality, lust, self-seeking, idolatry, ruthless\ncruelty, and the like were the environment of this man. And in the\nmiddle of these there grew up that fair flower of a character, pure and\nstainless, by the acknowledgment of enemies, and in which not even\naccusers could find a speck or a spot. There are no circumstances in\nwhich a man must have his garments spotted by the world. However deep\nthe filth through which he has to wade, if God sent him there, and if he\nkeeps hold of God's hand, his purity will be more stainless by reason of\nthe impurity round him. There were saints in Caesar's household, and\ndepend upon it, they were more saintly saints just because they were in\nCaesar's household. You will always find that people who have any\ngoodness in them, and who live in conditions unusually opposed to\ngoodness, have a clearer faith, and a firmer grasp of their Master, and\na higher ideal of Christian life, just because of the foulness in which\nthey have to live. It may sound a paradox, but it is a deep truth that\nunfavourable circumstances are the most favourable for the development\nof Christian character. For that development comes, not by what we draw\nfrom the things around, but by what we draw from the soil in which we\nare rooted, even God Himself, in whom the roots find both anchorage and\nnutriment. And the more we are thrown back upon Him, and the less we\nfind food for our best selves in the things about us, the more likely is\nour religion to be robust and thorough-going, and conscious ever of His\npresence. Resistance strengthens muscles, and the more there is need for\nthat in our Christian lives, the manlier and the stronger and the better\nshall we probably be. Let no man or woman say, 'If only circumstances\nwere more favourable, oh, what a saint I could be; but how can I be one,\nwith all these unfavourable conditions? How can a man keep the purity of\nhis Christian life and the fervour of his Christian communion amidst the\ntricks and chicanery and small things of Manchester business? How can a\nwoman find time to hold fellowship with God, when all day long she is\ndistracted in her nursery with all these children hanging on her to look\nafter? How can we, in our actual circumstances, reach the ideal of\nChristian character?'\n\nAh, brother, if the ideal's being realised depends on circumstances, it\nis a poor affair. It depends on you, and he that has vitality enough\nwithin him to keep hold of Jesus Christ, has thereby power enough within\nhim to turn enemies into friends, and unfavourable circumstances into\nhelps instead of hindrances. Your ship can sail wonderfully near to the\nwind if you trim the sails rightly, and keep a good, strong grip on the\nhelm, and the blasts that blow all but in your face, may be made to\ncarry you triumphantly into the haven of your desire. Remember Daniel,\nin that godless court reeking with lust and cruelty, and learn that\npurity and holiness and communion with God do not depend on environment,\nbut upon the inmost will of the man.\n\nII. Notice the keen critics that all good men have to face.\n\nIn this man's case, of course, their eyesight was mended by the\nmicroscope of envy and malice. That is no doubt the case with some of us\ntoo. But whether that be so or no, however unobtrusive and quiet a\nChristian person's life may be, there will be some people standing\nclose by who, if not actually watching for his fall, are at least by no\nmeans indisposed to make the worst of a slip, and to rejoice over an\ninconsistency.\n\nWe do not need to complain of that. It is perfectly reasonable and\nperfectly right. There will always be a tendency to judge men, who by\nany means profess that they are living by the highest law, with a\njudgment that has very little charity in it. And it is perfectly right\nthat it should be so. Christian people need to be trained to be\nindifferent to men's opinions, but they also need to be reminded that\nthey are bound, as the Apostle says, to 'provide things honest in the\nsight of all men.' It is a reasonable and right requirement that they\nshould 'have a good report of them that are without.' Be content to be\ntried by a high standard, and do not wonder, and do not forget that\nthere are keen eyes watching your conduct, in your home, in your\nrelations to your friends, in your business, in your public life, which\nwould weep no tears, but might gleam with malicious satisfaction, if\nthey saw inconsistencies in you. Remember it, and shape your lives so\nthat they may be disappointed.\n\nIf a minister falls into any kind of inconsistency or sin, if a\nprofessing Christian makes a bad failure in Manchester, what a talk\nthere is, and what a pointing of fingers! We sometimes think it is hard;\nit is all right. It is just what should be meted out to us. Let us\nremember that unslumbering tribunal which sits in judgment upon all our\nprofessions, and is very ready to condemn, and very slow to acquit.\n\nIII. Notice, again, the unblemished record.\n\nThese men could find no fault, 'forasmuch as Daniel was faithful.'\nNeither was there any error'--of judgment, that is,--'or\nfault'--dereliction of duty, that is,--'found in him.' They were very\npoor judges of his religion, and they did not try to judge that; but\nthey were very good judges of his conduct as prime minister, and they\ndid judge that. The world is a very poor critic of my Christianity, but\nit is a very sufficient one of my conduct. It may not know much about\nthe inward emotions of the Christian life, and the experiences in which\nthe Christian heart expatiates and loves to dwell, but it knows what\nshort lengths, and light weights, and bad tempers, and dishonesty, and\nselfishness are. And it is by our conduct, in the things that they and\nwe do together, that worldly men judge what we are in the solitary\ndepths where we dwell in communion with God. It is useless for\nChristians to be talking, as so many of them are fond of doing, about\ntheir spiritual experiences and their religious joy, and all the other\nsweet and sacred things which belong to the silent life of the spirit in\nGod, unless, side by side with these, there is the doing of the common\ndeeds which the world is actually able to appraise in such a fashion as\nto extort, even from them, the confession, 'We find no occasion against\nthis man.'\n\nYou remember the pregnant, quaint old saying, 'If a Christian man is a\nshoeblack, he ought to be the best shoeblack in the parish.' If we call\nourselves Christians, we are bound, by the very name, to live in such a\nfashion as that men shall have no doubt of the reality of our profession\nand of the depth of our fellowship with Christ. It is by our common\nconduct that they judge us. And the 'Christian Endeavourer' needs to\nremember, whether he or she be old or young, that the best sign of the\nreality of the endeavour is the doing of common things with absolute\nrightness, because they are done wholly for Christ's sake.\n\nIt is a sharp test, and I wonder how many of us would like to go out\ninto the world, and say to all the irreligious people who know us, 'Now\ncome and tell me what the faults are that you have seen in me.' There\nwould be a considerable response to the invitation, and perhaps some of\nus would learn to know ourselves rather better than we have been able to\ndo. 'We shall not find any occasion in _this_ Daniel'--I wonder if\nthey would find it in _that_ Daniel--'except we find it concerning\nthe law of his God.' There is a record for a man!\n\nIV. Lastly, note obedient disobedience.\n\nThe plot goes on the calculation that, whatever happens, this man may be\ntrusted to do what his God tells him, no matter who tells him not to do\nit. And so on that calculation the law, surely as mad a one as any\nEastern despot ever hatched, is passed that, for a given space of time,\nnobody within the dominions of this king, Darius, is to make any\npetition or request of any man or god, save of the king only. It was one\nof the long series of laws that have been passed in order to be broken,\nand being broken, might be an instrument to destroy the men that broke\nit. It was passed with no intention of getting obedience, but only with\nthe intention of slaying one faithful man, and the plot worked according\nto calculation.\n\nWhat did it matter to Daniel what was forbidden or commanded? He needed\nto pray to God, and nothing shall hinder him from doing that. And so,\nobediently disobedient, he brushes the preposterous law of the poor,\nshadowy Darius on one side, in order that he may keep the law of his\nGod.\n\nNow I do not need to remind you how obedience to God has in the past\noften had to be maintained by disobedience to law. I need not speak of\nmartyrs, nor of the great principle laid down so clearly by the apostle\nPeter, 'We ought to obey God rather than man.' Nor need I remind you\nthat if a man, for conscience sake, refuses to render active obedience\nto an unrighteous law, and unresistingly accepts the appointed penalty,\nhe is not properly regarded as a law-breaker.\n\nIf earthly authorities command what is clearly contrary to God's law, a\nChristian is absolved from obedience, and cannot be loyal unless he is a\nrebel. That is how our forefathers read constitutional obligations. That\nis how the noble men on the other side of the Atlantic, fifty years ago,\nread their constitutional obligations in reference to that devilish\ninstitution of slavery. And in the last resort--God forbid that we\nshould need to act on the principle--Christian men are set free from\nallegiance when the authority over them commands what is contrary to the\nwill and the law of God.\n\nBut all that does not touch us. But I will tell you what does touch us.\nObedience to God needs always to be sustained--in some cases more\nmarkedly, in some cases less so--but always in some measure, by\ndisobedience to the maxims and habits of most men round about us. If\nthey say 'Do this,' and Jesus Christ says 'Don't,' then they may talk as\nmuch as they like, but we are bound to turn a deaf ear to their\nexhortations and threats.\n\n    'He is a slave that dare not be\n     In the right with two or three,'\n\nas that peaceful Quaker poet of America sings.\n\nAnd for us, in our little lives, the motto, 'This did not I, because of\nthe fear of the Lord,' is absolutely essential to all noble Christian\nconduct. Unless you are prepared to be in the minority, and now and\nthen to be called 'narrow,' 'fanatic,' and to be laughed at by men\nbecause you will not do what they do, but abstain and resist, then there\nis little chance of your ever making much of your Christian profession.\n\nThese people calculated upon Daniel, and they had a right to calculate\nupon him. Could the world calculate upon us, that we would rather go to\nthe lions' den than conform to what God and our consciences told us to\nbe a sin? If not, we have not yet learned what it means to be a\ndisciple. The commandment comes to us absolutely, as it came to the\nservants in the first miracle, 'Whatsoever He saith unto you'--that, and\nthat only--'whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.'\n\n\nFAITH STOPPING THE MOUTHS OF LIONS\n\n     'Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him\n     into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy\n     God whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee. 17. And a\n     stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king\n     sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords;\n     that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. 18. Then\n     the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither\n     were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went\n     from him. 19. Then the king arose very early in the morning, and\n     went in haste unto the den of lions. 20. And when he came to the\n     den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king\n     spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is\n     thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from\n     the lions? 21. Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for\n     ever. 22. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions'\n     mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him\n     innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I\n     done no hurt, 23. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and\n     commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So\n     Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found\n     upon him, because he believed in his God. 24. And the king\n     commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and\n     they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and\n     their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all\n     their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.\n     25. Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages,\n     that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. 26. I\n     make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and\n     fear before the God of Daniel: for He is the living God, and\n     stedfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be\n     destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. 27. He\n     delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven\n     and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the\n     lions. 28. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in\n     the reign of Cyrus the Persian.'--DANIEL vi. 16-28.\n\nDaniel was verging on ninety when this great test of his faithfulness\nwas presented to him. He had been honoured and trusted through all the\nchanges in the kingdom, and, when the Medo-Persian conquest came, the\nnew monarch naturally found in him, as a foreigner, a more reliable\nminister than in native officials. 'Envy doth merit as its shade\npursue,' and the crafty trick by which his subordinates tried to procure\nhis fall, was their answer to Darius's scheme of making him prime\nminister. Our passage begins in the middle of the story, but the earlier\npart will come into consideration in the course of our remarks.\n\nI. We note, first, the steadfast, silent confessor and the weak king.\nDarius is a great deal more conspicuous in the narrative than Daniel.\nThe victim of injustice is silent. He does not seem to have been called\non to deny or defend the indictment. His deed was patent, and the breach\nof the law flagrant. He, too, was 'like a sheep before the shearers,'\ndumb. His silence meant, among other things, a quiet, patient, fixed\nresolve to bear all, and not to deny his God. Weak men bluster. Heroic\nendurance has generally little to say. Without resistance, or a word,\nthe old man, an hour ago the foremost in the realm, is hauled off and\nflung into the pit or den. It is useless and needless to ask its form.\nThe entrance was sealed with two seals, one the king's, one the\nconspirators', that neither party might steal a march on the other.\nFellows in iniquity do not trust each other. So, down in the dark there,\nwith the glittering eyeballs of the brutes round him, and their growls\nin his ears, the old man sits all night long, with peace in his heart,\nand looking up trustfully, through the hole in the roof, to his\nProtector's stars, shining their silent message of cheer.\n\nThe passage dwells on the pitiable weakness and consequent unrest of the\nking. He had not yielded Daniel to his fate without a struggle, which\nthe previous narrative describes in strong language. 'Sore displeased,'\nhe 'set his heart' on delivering him, and 'laboured' to do so. The\ncurious obstacle, limiting even his power, is a rare specimen of\nconservatism in its purest form. So wise were our ancestors, that\nnothing of theirs shall ever be touched. Infallible legislators can make\nimmutable laws; the rest of us must be content to learn by blundering,\nand to grow by changing. The man who says, 'I never alter my opinions,'\ncondemns himself as either too foolish or too proud to learn.\n\nBut probably, if the question had been about a law that was inconvenient\nto Darius himself, or to these advocates of the constitution as it has\nalways been, some way of getting round it would have been found out. If\nthe king had been bold enough to assert himself, he could have walked\nthrough the cobweb. But this is one of the miseries of yielding to evil\ncounsels, that one step taken calls for another. 'In for a penny, in for\na pound.' Therefore let us all take heed of small compliances, and be\nsure that we can never say about any doubtful course, 'Thus far will I\ngo, and no farther.' Darius was his servants' servant when once he had\nput his name to the arrogant decree. He did not know the incidence of\nhis act, and we do not know that of ours; therefore let us take heed of\nthe quality of actions and motives, since we are wholly incapable of\nestimating the sweep of their consequences.\n\nDarius's conduct to Daniel was like Herod's to John the Baptist and\nPilate's to Jesus. In all the cases the judges were convinced of the\nvictim's innocence, and would have saved him; but fear of others biassed\njustice, and from selfish motives, they let fierce hatred have its way.\nSuch judges are murderers. From all come the old lessons, never too\nthreadbare to be dinned into the ears, especially of the young, that to\nbe weak is, in a world so full of temptation, the same as to be wicked,\nand that he who has a sidelong eye to his supposed interest, will never\nsee the path of duty plainly.\n\nWhat a feeble excuse to his own conscience was Darius's parting word to\nDaniel! 'Thy God, whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee!'\nAnd was flinging him to the lions the right way to treat a man who\nserved God continually? Or, what right had Darius to expect that any god\nwould interfere to stop the consequences of his act, which he thus\nhimself condemned? We are often tempted to think, as he did, that a\ndivine intervention will come in between our evil deeds and their\nnatural results. We should be wiser if we did not do the things that,\nby our own confession, need God to avert their issues.\n\nBut that weak parting word witnessed to the impression made by the\nlifelong consistency of Daniel. He must be a good man who gets such a\ntestimony from those who are harming him. The busy minister of state had\ndone his political work so as to extort that tribute from one who had no\nsympathy with his religion. Do we do ours in that fashion? How many of\nour statesmen 'serve God continually' and obviously in their public\nlife?\n\nWhat a contrast between the night passed in the lions' den and the\npalace! 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage,' and\nsoft beds and luxurious delights of sense bring no ease to troubled\nconsciences. Daniel is more at rest, though his 'soul is among lions,'\nthan Darius in his palace. Peter sleeps soundly, though the coming\nmorning is to be his last. Better to be the victim than the doer of\ninjustice!\n\nThe verdict of nightly thoughts on daily acts is usually true, and if\nour deeds do not bear thinking of 'on our beds,' the sooner we cancel\nthem by penitence and reversed conduct, the better. But weak men are\noften prone to swift and shallow regrets, which do not influence their\nfuture any more than a stone thrown into the sea makes a permanent gap.\nWhy should Darius have waited for morning, if his penitence had moved\nhim to a firm resolution to undo the evil done? He had better have\nsprung from his bed, and gone with his guards to open the den in the\ndark. Feeble lamentations are out of place when it is still time to act.\n\nThe hurried rush to the den in the morning twilight, and the 'lamentable\nvoice,' so unlike royal impassiveness, indicate the agitation of an\nimpulsive nature, accustomed to let the feeling of the moment sway it\nunchecked. Absolute power tends to make that type of man. The question\nthrown into the den seems to imply that its interior was not seen. If\nso, the half-belief in Daniel's survival is remarkable. It indicates, as\nbefore, the impression of steadfast devoutness made by the old man's\nlife, and also a belief that his God was possibly a true and potent\ndivinity.\n\nSuch a belief was quite natural, but it does not mean that Darius was\nprepared to accept Daniel's God as his god. His religion was probably\nelastic and hospitable enough to admit that other nations might have\nother gods. But his thoughts about this 'living God' are a strange\nmedley. He is not sure whether He is stronger than the royal lions, and\nhe does not seem to feel that if a god delivers, his own act in\nsurrendering a favoured servant of such a god looks very black. A\nhalf-belief blinds men to the opposition between their ways and God's,\nand to the certain issue of their going in one direction and God in\nanother. If Daniel be delivered, what will become of Darius? But, like\nmost men, he is illogical, and that question does not seem to have\noccurred to him. Surely this man may sit for a portrait of a weak,\npassionate nature, in the feebleness of his resistance to evil, the half\nhopes that wrong would be kept from turning out so badly as it promised,\nthe childish moanings over wickedness that might still have been mended,\nand the incapacity to take in the grave, personal consequences of his\ncrime.\n\nII. We next note the great deliverance. The king does not see Daniel,\nand waits in sickening doubt whether any sound but the brutes' snarl at\nthe disturber of their feast will be heard. There must have been a sigh\nof relief when the calm accents were audible from the unseen depth. And\nwhat dignity, respect, faith, and innocence are in them! Even in such\ncircumstances the usual form of reverential salutation to the king is\nremembered. That night's work might have made a sullen rebel of Daniel,\nand small blame to him if he had had no very amiable feelings to Darius;\nbut he had learned faithfulness in a good school, and no trace of\nreturning evil for evil was in his words or tones.\n\nThe formal greeting was much more than a form, when it came up from\namong the lions. It heaped coals of fire on the king's head, let us\nhope, and taught him, if he needed the lesson, that Daniel's\ndisobedience had not been disloyalty. The more religion compels us to\ndisregard the authority and practices of others, the more scrupulously\nattentive should we be to demonstrate that we cherish all due regard to\nthem, and wish them well. How simply, and as if he saw nothing in it to\nwonder at, he tells the fact of his deliverance! 'My God has sent His\nangel, and hath shut the lions' mouths.' He had not been able to say, as\nthe king did before the den was opened, 'Thy God will deliver thee'; but\nhe had gone down into it, knowing that He was able, and leaving himself\nin God's care. So it was no surprise to him that he was safe.\nThankfulness, but not astonishment, filled his heart. So faith takes\nGod's gifts, however great and beyond natural possibility they may be;\nfor the greatest of them are less than the Love which faith knows to\nmove all things, and whatsoever faith receives is just like Him.\n\nDaniel did not say, as Darius did, that he served God continually, but\nhe did declare his own innocency in God's sight and unimpeachable\nfidelity to the king. His reference is probably mainly to his official\nconduct; but the characteristic tone of the Old Testament saint is\naudible, which ventured on professions of uprightness, accordant with\nan earlier stage of revelation and religious consciousness, but scarcely\ncongruous with the deeper and more inward sense of sin produced by the\nfull revelation in Christ. But if the tone of the latter part of verse\n22 is somewhat strange to us, the historian's summary in verse 23 gives\nthe eternal truth of the matter: 'No manner of hurt was found upon him,\nbecause he had trusted in his God.' That is the basis of the reference\nin Hebrews xi. 33: 'Through faith ... stopped the mouths of lions.'\n\nSimple trust in God brings His angel to our help, and the deliverance,\nwhich is ultimately to be ascribed to His hand muzzling the gaping\nbeasts of prey, may also be ascribed to the faith which sets His hand in\nmotion. The true cause is God, but the indispensable condition without\nwhich God will not act, and with which He cannot but act, is our trust.\nTherefore all the great things which it is said to do are due, not to\nanything in it, but wholly to that of which it lays hold. A foot or two\nof lead pipe is worth little, but if it is the channel through which\nwater flows into a city, it is priceless.\n\nFaith may or may not bring external deliverances, such as it brought to\nDaniel; but the good cheer which this story brings us does not depend on\nthese. When Paul lay in Rome, shortly before his martyrdom, the\nexperience of Daniel was in his mind, as he thankfully wrote to Timothy,\n'I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.' He adds a hope which\ncontrasts strangely, at first sight, with the clear expectation of a\nspeedy and violent death, expressed a moment or two before ('I am\nalready being offered, and the time of my departure is come') when he\nsays, 'The Lord will deliver me from every evil work'; but he had\nlearned that it was possible to pass through the evil and yet to be\ndelivered from it, and that a man might be thrown to the lions and\ndevoured by them, and yet be truly shielded from all harm from them. So\nhe adds, 'And will save me unto His heavenly kingdom,' thereby teaching\nus that the true deliverance is that which carries us into, or something\nnearer towards, the eternal home. Thus understood, the miracle of\nDaniel's deliverance is continually repeated to all who partake of\nDaniel's faith, 'Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation ... thou\nshalt tread upon the lion and adder.'\n\nThe savage vengeance on the conspirators and the proclamation of Darius\nmust be left untouched. The one is a ghastly example of retributive\njudgment, in which, as sometimes is the case even now, men fall into the\npit they have digged for others, and it shows the barbarous cruelty of\nthat gorgeous civilisation. The other is an example of how far a man may\ngo in perceiving and acknowledging the truth without its influencing his\nheart. The decree enforces recognition of Daniel's God, in language\nwhich even prophets do not surpass; but it is all lip-reverence, as\nevanescent as superficial. It takes more than a fright caused by a\nmiracle to make a man a true servant of the living God.\n\nThe final verse of the passage implies Daniel's restoration to rank, and\ngives a beautiful, simple picture of the old man's closing days, which\nhad begun so long before, in such a different world as Nebuchadnezzar's\nreign, and closed in Cyrus's, enriched with all that should accompany\nold age--honour, obedience, troops of friends. 'When a man's ways please\nthe Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.'\n\n\nA NEW YEARS MESSAGE\n\n     'But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and\n     stand in thy lot at the end of the days.'--DANIEL xii. 13.\n\nDaniel had been receiving partial insight into the future by the visions\nrecorded in previous chapters. He sought for clearer knowledge, and was\ntold that the book of the future was sealed and closed, so that no\nfurther enlightenment was possible for him. But duty was clear, whatever\nmight be dark; and there were some things in the future certain,\nwhatever might be problematic. So he is bidden back to the common paths\nof life, and is enjoined to pursue his patient course with an eye on the\nend to which it conducts, and to leave the unknown future to unfold\nitself as it may.\n\nI do not need, I suppose, to point the application. Anticipations of\nwhat may be before us have, no doubt, been more or less in the minds of\nall of us in the last few days. The cast of them will have been very\ndifferent, according to age and present circumstances. But bright or\ndark, hopes or dreads, they reveal nothing. Sometimes we think we see a\nlittle way ahead, and then swirling mists hide all.\n\nSo I think that the words of my text may help us not only to apprehend\nthe true task of the moment, but to discriminate between the things in\nthe unknown future that are hidden and those that stand clear. There are\nthree points, then, in this message--the journey, the pilgrim's\nresting-place, and the final home. 'Go thou thy way till the end be: for\nthou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.' Let us,\nthen, look at these three points briefly.\n\nI. The journey.\n\nThat is a threadbare metaphor for life. But threadbare as it is, its\nsignificance is inexhaustible. But before I deal with it, note that very\nsignificant 'but' with which my text begins. The Prophet has been asking\nfor a little more light to shine on the dark unknown that stretches\nbefore him. And his request is negatived--'_But_ go thou thy way.' In\nthe connection that means, 'Do not waste your time in dreaming about, or\npeering into, what you can never see, but fill the present with\nstrenuous service.' 'Go thou thy way.' Never mind the far-off issues;\nthe step before you is clear, and that is all that concerns you. Plod\nalong the path, and leave to-morrow to take care of itself. There is a\npiece of plain practical wisdom, none the less necessary for us to lay\nto heart because it is so obvious and commonplace.\n\nAnd then, if we turn to the emblem with which the continuity of daily\nlife and daily work is set forth here, as the path along which we\ntravel, how much wells up in the shape of suggestion, familiar, it may\nbe, but very needful and wholesome for us all to lay to heart!\n\nThe figure implies perpetual change. The landscape glides past us, and\nwe travel on through it. How impossible it would be for us older people\nto go back to the feelings, to the beliefs, to the tone and the temper\nwith which we used to look at life thirty or forty years ago! Strangely\nand solemnly, like the silent motion of some gliding scene in a theatre,\nbit by bit, inch by inch, change comes over all surroundings, and,\nsaddest of all, in some aspects, over ourselves.\n\n    'We all are changed, by still degrees,\n     All but the basis of the soul.'\n\nAnd it is foolish for us ever to forget that we live in a state of\nthings in which constant alteration is the law, as surely as, when the\ntrain whizzes through the country, the same landscape never meets the\neye twice, as the traveller looks through the windows. Let us, then,\naccept the fact that nothing abides with us, and so not be bewildered\nnor swept away from our moorings, nor led to vain regrets and paralysing\nretrospects when the changes that must come do come, sometimes slowly\nand imperceptibly, sometimes with stunning suddenness, like a bolt out\nof the blue. If life is truly represented under the figure of a journey,\nnothing is more certain than that we sleep in a fresh hospice every\nnight, and leave behind us every day scenes that we shall never traverse\nagain. What madness, then, to be putting out eager and desperate hands\nto clutch what must be left, and so to contradict the very law under\nwhich we live!\n\nThen another of the well-worn commonplaces which are so believed by us\nall that we never think about them, and therefore need to be urged, as I\nam trying, poorly enough, to do now--another of the commonplaces that\nspring from this image is that life is continuous. Geologists used to be\ndivided into two schools, one of whom explained everything by invoking\ngreat convulsions, the other by appealing to the uniform action of laws.\nThere are no convulsions in life. To-morrow is the child of to-day, and\nyesterday was the father of this day. What we are, springs from what we\nhave been, and settles what we shall be. The road leads somewhither, and\nwe follow it step by step. As the old nursery rhyme has it--\n\n    'One foot up and one foot down,\n     That's the way to London town.'\n\nWe make our characters by the continual repetition of small actions. Let\nno man think of his life as if it were a heap of unconnected points. It\nis a chain of links that are forged together inseparably. Let no man\nsay, 'I do this thing, and there shall be no evil consequences impressed\nupon my life as results of it.' It cannot be. 'To-morrow _shall be_ as\nthis day, and much more abundant.' We shall to-morrow be more of\neverything that we are to-day, unless by some strong effort of\nrepentance and change we break the fatal continuity, and make a new\nbeginning by God's grace. But let us lay to heart this, as a very solemn\ntruth which lifts up into mystical and unspeakable importance the things\nthat men idly call trifles, that life is one continuous whole, a march\ntowards a definite end.\n\nAnd therefore we ought to see to it that the direction in which our life\nruns is one that conscience and God can approve. And, since the rapidity\nwith which a body falls increases as it falls, the more needful that we\ngive the right direction and impulses to the life. It will be a dreadful\nthing if our downward course acquires strength as it travels, and being\nslow at first, gains in celerity, and accrues to itself mass and weight,\nlike an avalanche started from an Alpine summit, which is but one or two\nbits of snow and ice at first, and falls at last into the ravine, tons\nof white destruction. The lives of many of us are like it.\n\nFurther, the metaphor suggests that no life takes its fitting course\nunless there is continuous effort. There will be crises when we have to\nrun with panting breath and strained muscles. There will be long\nstretches of level commonplace where speed is not needed, but 'pegging\naway' is, and the one duty is persistent continuousness in a course. But\nwhether the task of the moment is to 'run and not be weary,' or to\n'walk and not faint,' crises and commonplace stretches of land alike\nrequire continuous effort, if we are to 'run with patience the race that\nis set before us.'\n\nMark the emphasis of my text, 'Go thy way _till_ the end.' You, my\ncontemporaries, you older men! do not fancy that in the deepest aspect\nany life has ever a period in it in which a man may 'take it easy.' You\nmay do that in regard to outward things, and it is the hope and the\nreward of faithfulness in youth and middle age that, when the grey\nhairs come to be upon us, we may slack off a little in regard to outward\nactivity. But in regard to all the deepest things of life, no man may\never lessen his diligence until he has attained the goal.\n\nSome of you will remember how, in a stormy October night, many years\nago, the _Royal Charter_ went down when three hours from Liverpool, and\nthe passengers had met in the saloon and voted a testimonial to the\ncaptain because he had brought them across the ocean in safety. Until\nthe anchor is down and we are inside the harbour, we may be shipwrecked,\nif we are careless in our navigation. 'Go thou thy way _until the end_.'\nAnd remember, you older people, that until that end is reached you have\nto use all your power, and to labour as earnestly, and guard yourself as\ncarefully, as at any period before.\n\nAnd not only '_till_ the end,' but 'go thou thy way _to_ the end.' That\nis to say, let the thought that the road has a termination be ever\npresent with us all. Now, there is a great deal of the so-called devout\ncontemplation of death which is anything but wholesome. People were\nnever meant to be always looking forward to that close. Men may think of\n'the end' in a hundred different connections. One man may say, 'Let us\neat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' Another man may say, 'I have only\na little while to master this science, to make a name for myself, to win\nwealth. Let me bend all my efforts in a fierce determination--made the\nfiercer because of the thought of the brevity of life--to win the end.'\nThe mere contemplation of the shortness of our days may be an ally of\nimmorality, of selfishness, of meanness, of earthly ambitions, or it may\nlay a cooling hand on fevered brows, and lessen the pulsations of hearts\nthat throb for earth.\n\nBut whilst it is not wholesome to be always thinking of death, it is\nmore unwholesome still never to let the contemplation of that end come\ninto our calculations of the future, and to shape our lives in an\nobstinate blindness to what is the one certain fact which rises up\nthrough the whirling mists of the unknown future, like some black cliff\nfrom the clouds that wreath around it. Is it not strange that the surest\nthing is the thing that we forget most of all? It sometimes seems to me\nas if the sky rained down opiates upon people, as if all mankind were in\na conspiracy of lunacy, because they, with one accord, ignore the most\nprominent and forget the only certain fact about their future; and in\nall their calculations do _not_' so number their days' as to 'apply'\ntheir 'hearts unto wisdom.' 'Go thou thy way until the end,' and let thy\nway be marked out with a constant eye towards the end.\n\nII. Note, again, the resting-place.\n\n'Go thou thy way, for thou shalt rest.' Now, I suppose, to most careful\nreaders that clearly is intended as a gracious, and what they call a\neuphemistic way of speaking about death. 'Thou shalt rest'; well, that\nis a thought that takes away a great deal of the grimness and the terror\nwith which men generally invest the close. It is a thought, of course,\nthe force of which is very different in different stages and conditions\nof life. To you young people, eager, perhaps ambitious, full of the\nconsciousness of inward power, happy, and, in all human probability,\nwith the greater portion of your lives before you in which to do what\nyou desire, the thought of 'rest' comes with a very faint appeal. And\nyet I do not suppose that there is any one of us who has not some burden\nthat is hard to carry, or who has not learned what weariness means.\n\nBut to us older people, who have tasted disappointments, who have known\nthe pressure of grinding toil for a great many years, whose hearts have\nbeen gnawed by harassments and anxieties of different kinds, whose lives\nare apparently drawing nearer their end than the present moment is to\ntheir beginning, the thought, 'Thou shalt rest,' comes with a very\ndifferent appeal from that which it makes to these others.\n\n    'There remaineth a rest for the people of God,\n     And I have had trouble enough for one,'\n\nsays our great modern poet; and therein he echoes the deepest thoughts\nof most of this congregation. That rest is the cessation of toil, but\nthe continuance of activity--the cessation of toil, and anxiety, and\nharassment, and care, and so the darkness is made beautiful when we\nthink that God draws the curtain, as a careful mother does in her\nchild's chamber, that the light may not disturb the slumberer.\n\nBut, dear friends, that final cessation of earthly work has a double\ncharacter. 'Thou shalt rest' was said to this man of God. But what of\npeople whom death takes away from the only sort of work that they are\nfit to do? It will be no rest to long for the occupations which you\nnever can have any more. And if you have been living for this wretched\npresent, to be condemned to have nothing to do any more in it and with\nit will be torture, and not repose. Ask yourselves how you would like to\nbe taken out of your shop, or your mill, or your study, or your\nlaboratory, or your counting-house, and never be allowed to go into it\nagain. Some of you know how wearisome a holiday is when you cannot get\nto your daily work. You will get a very long holiday after you are dead.\nAnd if the hungering after the withdrawn occupation persists, there will\nbe very little pleasure in rest. There is only one way by which we can\nmake that inevitable end a blessing, and turn death into the opening of\nthe gate of our resting-place; and that is by setting our heart's\ndesires and our spirit's trust on Jesus Christ, who is the 'Lord both of\nthe dead and of the living.' If we do that, even that last enemy will\ncome to us as Christ's representative, with Christ's own word upon his\nlip, 'Come unto Me, ye that are weary and are heavy laden, and\nI'--because He has given Me the power--'_I_ will give you rest.'\n\n    'Sleep, full of rest, from head to foot;\n     Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.'\n\n\nIII. That leads me to the last thought, the home.\n\n'Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days.' 'Stand'--that is\nDaniel's way of preaching, what he has been preaching in several other\nparts of his book, the doctrine of the resurrection. 'Thou shalt stand\nin _thy lot_.' That is a reference to the ancient partition of the land\nof Canaan amongst the tribes, where each man got his own portion, and\nsat under his own vine and fig-tree. And so there emerge from these\nsymbolical words thoughts upon which, at this stage of my sermon, I can\nbarely touch. First comes the thought that, however sweet and blessed\nthat reposeful state may be, humanity has not attained its perfection\nuntil once again the perfected spirit is mated with, and enclosed\nwithin, its congenial servant, a perfect body. 'Corporeity is the end of\nman.' Body, soul, and spirit partake of the redemption of God.\n\nBut then, apart from that, on which I must not dwell, my text suggests\none or two thoughts. God is the true inheritance. Each man has his own\nportion of the common possession, or, to put it into plainer words, in\nthat perfect land each individual has precisely so much of God as he is\ncapable of possessing. 'Thou shalt stand in thy lot,' and what\ndetermines the lot is how we wend our way till that other end, the end\nof life. 'The end of the days' is a period far beyond the end of the\nlife of Daniel. And as the course that terminated in repose has been, so\nthe possession of 'the portion of the inheritance of the saints in\nlight' shall be, for which that course has made men meet. Destiny is\ncharacter worked out. A man will be where he is fit for, and have what\nhe is fit for. Time is the lackey of eternity. His life here settles how\nmuch of God a man shall be able to hold, when he stands in his lot at\nthe 'end of the days,' and his allotted portion, as it stretches around\nhim, will be but the issue and the outcome of his life here on earth.\n\nTherefore, dear brethren, tremendous importance attaches to each\nfugitive moment. Therefore each act that we do is weighted with eternal\nconsequences. If we will put our trust in Him, 'in whom also we obtain\nthe inheritance,' and will travel on life's common way in cheerful\ngodliness, we may front all the uncertainties of the unknown future,\nsure of two things--that we shall rest, and that we shall stand in our\nlot. We shall all go where we have fitted ourselves, by God's grace, to\ngo; get what we have fitted ourselves to possess; and be what we have\nmade ourselves. To the Christian man the word comes, 'Thou shalt stand\nin thy lot.' And the other word that was spoken about one sinner, will\nbe fulfilled in all whose lives have been unfitting them for heaven:\n'Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.' He,\ntoo, stands in his lot. Now settle which lot is yours.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nHOSEA\n\n\nTHE VALLEY OF ACHOR\n\n     'I will give her ... the valley of Achor for a door of\n     hope.'--HOSEA II. 15.\n\nThe Prophet Hosea is remarkable for the frequent use which he makes of\nevents in the former history of his people. Their past seems to him a\nmirror in which they may read their future. He believes that 'which is\nto be hath already been,' the great principles of the divine government\nliving on through all the ages, and issuing in similar acts when the\ncircumstances are similar. So he foretells that there will yet be once\nmore a captivity and a bondage, that the old story of the wilderness\nwill be repeated once more. In that wilderness God will speak to the\nheart of Israel. Its barrenness shall be changed into the fruitfulness\nof vineyards, where the purpling clusters hang ripe for the thirsty\ntravellers. And not only will the sorrows that He sends thus become\nsources of refreshment, but the gloomy gorge through which they\njourney--the valley of Achor--will be a door of hope.\n\nOne word is enough to explain the allusion. You remember that after the\ncapture of Jericho by Joshua, the people were baffled in their first\nattempt to press up through the narrow defile that led from the plain of\nJordan to the highlands of Canaan. Their defeat was caused by the\ncovetousness of Achan, who for the sake of some miserable spoil which he\nfound in a tent, broke God's laws, and drew down shame on Israel's ranks\nWhen the swift, terrible punishment on him had purged the camp, victory\nagain followed their assault, and Achan lying stiff and stark below his\ncairn, they pressed on up the glen to their task of conquest. The rugged\nvalley, where that defeat and that sharp act of justice took place, was\nnamed in memory thereof, the valley of _Achor_, that is, _trouble_; and\nour Prophet's promise is that as then, so for all future ages, the\ncomplicity of God's people with an evil world will work weakness and\ndefeat, but that, if they will be taught by their trouble and will purge\nthemselves of the accursed thing, then the disasters will make a way for\nhope to come to them again. The figure which conveys this is very\nexpressive. The narrow gorge stretches before us, with its dark\noverhanging cliffs that almost shut out the sky; the path is rough and\nset with sharp pebbles; it is narrow, winding, steep; often it seems to\nbe barred by some huge rock that juts across it, and there is barely\nroom for the broken ledge yielding slippery footing between the beetling\ncrag above and the steep slope beneath that dips so quickly to the black\ntorrent below. All is gloomy, damp, hard; and if we look upwards the\nglen becomes more savage as it rises, and armed foes hold the very\nthroat of the pass. But, however long, however barren, however rugged,\nhowever black, however trackless, we may see if we will, a bright form\ndescending the rocky way with radiant eyes and calm lips, God's\nmessenger, Hope; and the rough rocks are like the doorway through which\nshe comes near to us in our weary struggle. For us all, dear friends, it\nis true. In all our difficulties and sorrows, be they great or small; in\nour business perplexities; in the losses that rob our homes of their\nlight; in the petty annoyances that diffuse their irritation through so\nmuch of our days; it is within our power to turn them all into occasions\nfor a firmer grasp of God, and so to make them openings by which a\nhappier hope may flow into our souls.\n\nBut the promise, like all God's promises, has its well-defined\nconditions. Achan has to be killed and put safe out of the way first, or\nno shining Hope will stand out against the black walls of the defile.\nThe tastes which knit us to the perishable world, the yearnings for\nBabylonish garments and wedges of gold, must be coerced and subdued.\nSwift, sharp, unrelenting justice must be done on the lust of the flesh,\nand the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, if our trials are ever\nto become _doors of hope._ There is no natural tendency in the mere fact\nof sorrow and pain to make God's love more discernible, or to make our\nhope any firmer. All depends on how we use the trial, or as I say--first\nstone Achan, and then hope!\n\nSo, the trouble which detaches us from earth gives us new hope.\nSometimes the effect of our sorrows and annoyances and difficulties is\nto rivet us more firmly to earth. The eye has a curious power, which\nthey call persistence of vision, of retaining the impression made upon\nit, and therefore of seeming to see the object for a definite time after\nit has really been withdrawn. If you whirl a bit of blazing stick round,\nyou will see a circle of fire though there is only a point moving\nrapidly in the circle. The eye has its memory like the soul. And the\nsoul has its power of persistence like the eye, and that power is\nsometimes kindled into activity by the fact of loss. We often see our\ndeparted joys, and gaze upon them all the more eagerly for their\ndeparture. The loss of dear ones should stamp their image on our hearts,\nand set it as in a golden glory. But it sometimes does more than that;\nit sometimes makes us put the present with its duties impatiently away\nfrom us. Vain regret, absorbed brooding over what is gone, a sorrow kept\ngaping long after it should have been healed, like a grave-mound off\nwhich desperate love has pulled turf and flowers, in the vain attempt to\nclasp the cold hand below--in a word, the trouble that does not withdraw\nus from the present will never be a door of hope, but rather a grim gate\nfor despair to come in at.\n\nThe trouble which knits us to God gives us new hope. That bright form\nwhich comes down the narrow valley is His messenger and herald--sent\nbefore His face. All the light of hope is the reflection on our hearts\nof the light of God. Her silver beams, which shed quietness over the\ndarkness of earth, come only from that great Sun. If our hope is to grow\nout of our sorrow, it must be because our sorrow drives us to God. It is\nonly when we by faith stand in His grace, and live in the conscious\nfellowship of peace with Him, that we rejoice in hope. If we would see\nHope drawing near to us, we must fix our eyes not on Jericho that lies\nbehind among its palm-trees, though it has memories of conquests, and\nattractions of fertility and repose, nor on the corpse that lies below\nthat pile of stones, nor on the narrow way and the strong enemy in front\nthere; but higher up, on the blue sky that spreads peaceful above the\nhighest summits of the pass, and from the heavens we shall see the angel\ncoming to us. Sorrow forsakes its own nature, and leads in its own\nopposite, when sorrow helps us to see God. It clears away the thick\ntrees, and lets the sunlight into the forest shades, and then in time\ncorn will grow. Hope is but the brightness that goes before God's face,\nand if we would see it we must look at Him.\n\nThe trouble which we bear rightly with God's help, gives new hope. If we\nhave made our sorrow an occasion for learning, by living experience,\nsomewhat more of His exquisitely varied and ever ready power to aid and\nbless, then it will teach us firmer confidence in these inexhaustible\nresources which we have thus once more proved, 'Tribulation worketh\npatience, and patience experience, and experience hope.' That is the\norder. You cannot put patience and experience into a parenthesis, and\nomitting them, bring hope out of tribulation. But if, in my sorrow, I\nhave been able to keep quiet because I have had hold of God's hand, and\nif in that unstruggling submission I have found that from His hand I\nhave been upheld, and had strength above mine own infused into me, then\nmy memory will give the threads with which Hope weaves her bright web. I\nbuild upon two things--God's unchangeableness, and His help already\nreceived; and upon these strong foundations I may wisely and safely\nrear a palace of Hope, which shall never prove a castle in the air. The\npast, when it is God's past, is the surest pledge for the future.\nBecause He has been with us in six troubles, therefore we may be sure\nthat in seven He will not forsake us. I said that the light of hope was\nthe brightness from the face of God. I may say again, that the light of\nhope which fills our sky is like that which, on happy summer nights,\nlives till morning in the calm west, and with its colourless, tranquil\nbeauty, tells of a yesterday of unclouded splendour, and prophesies a\nto-morrow yet more abundant. The glow from a sun that is set, the\nexperience of past deliverances, is the truest light of hope to light\nour way through the night of life.\n\nOne of the psalms gives us, in different form, a metaphor and a promise\nsubstantially the same as that of this text. 'Blessed are the men who,\npassing through the valley of weeping, make it a well.' They gather\ntheir tears, as it were, into the cisterns by the wayside, and draw\nrefreshment and strength from their very sorrows, and then, when thus we\nin our wise husbandry have irrigated the soil with the gathered results\nof our sorrows, the heavens bend over us, and weep their gracious tears,\nand 'the rain also covereth it with blessings.' No chastisement for the\npresent seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it\nyieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.'\n\nThen, dear friends, let us set ourselves with our loins girt to the\nroad. Never mind how hard it may be to climb. The slope of the valley of\ntrouble is ever upwards. Never mind how dark is the shadow of death\nwhich stretches athwart it. If there were no sun there would be no\nshadow; presently the sun will be right overhead, and there will be no\nshadow then. Never mind how black it may look ahead, or how frowning the\nrocks. From between their narrowest gorge you may see, if you will, the\nguide whom God has sent you, and that Angel of Hope will light up all\nthe darkness, and will only fade away when she is lost in the sevenfold\nbrightness of that upper land, whereof our 'God Himself is Sun and\nMoon'--the true Canaan, to whose everlasting mountains the steep way of\nlife has climbed at last through valleys of trouble, and of weeping, and\nof the shadow of death.\n\n\n'LET HIM ALONE'\n\n     'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.'--HOSEA iv. 17.\n\nThe tribe of Ephraim was the most important member of the kingdom of\nIsrael; consequently its name was not unnaturally sometimes used in a\nwider application for the whole of the kingdom, of which it was the\nprincipal part. Being the 'predominant partner,' its name was used alone\nfor that of the whole firm, just as in our own empire, we often say\n'England,' meaning thereby the three kingdoms: England, Scotland, and\nIreland. So 'Ephraim' here does not mean the single tribe, but the whole\nkingdom of Israel.\n\nNow Hosea himself was a Northerner, a subject of that kingdom; and its\niniquities and idolatries weighed heavily on his heart, and were ripped\nup and brought to light with burning eloquence in his prophecies. The\nwords of my text have often, and terribly, been misunderstood. And I\nwish now to try to bring out their true meaning and bearing. They have a\nmessage for us quite as much as they had for the people who originally\nreceived them.\n\nI. I must begin by explaining what, in my judgment, this text does not\nmean.\n\nFirst, it is not what it is often taken to be, a threatening of God's\nabandoning of the idolatrous nation. I dare say we have all heard grim\nsermons from this text, which have taken that view of it, and have tried\nto frighten men into believing now, by telling them that, perhaps, if\nthey do not, God will never move on their hearts, or deal with them any\nmore, but withdraw His grace, and leave them to insensibility. There is\nnot a word of that sort in the text. Plainly enough it is not so, for\nthis vehement utterance of the Prophet is not a declaration as to God,\nand what He is going to do, but it is a commandment to some men, telling\nthem what _they_ are to do. 'Let him alone' does not mean the same thing\nas '_I_ will let him alone'; and if people had only read with a little\nmore care, they would have been delivered from perpetrating a libel on\nthe divine loving-kindness and forbearance.\n\nIt is clear enough, too, that such a meaning as that which has been\nforced upon the words of my text, and is the common use of it, I\nbelieve, in many evangelical circles, cannot be its real meaning,\nbecause the very fact that Hosea was prophesying to call Ephraim from\nhis sin showed that God had _not_ let Ephraim alone, but was wooing him\nby His prophet, and seeking to win him back by the words of his mouth.\nGod was doing all that He could do, rising early and sending His\nmessenger and calling to Ephraim: 'Turn ye! Turn ye! why will ye die?'\nFor Hosea, in the very act of pleading with Israel on God's behalf, to\nhave declared that God had abandoned it, and ceased to plead, would have\nbeen a palpable absurdity and contradiction.\n\nBut beyond considerations of the context, other reasons conclusively\nnegative such an interpretation of this text. I, for my part, do not\nbelieve that there are any bounds or end to God's forbearing pleading\nwith men in this life. I take, as true, the great words of the old\nPsalm, in their simplest sense--'His mercy endureth for ever'; and I\nfall back upon the other words which a penitent had learned to be true\nby reflecting on the greatness of his own sin: 'With Him are multitudes\nof redemptions'; and I turn from psalmists and prophets to the Master\nwho showed us God's heart, and knew what He spake when He laid it down\nas the law and the measure of human forgiveness which was moulded upon\nthe pattern of the divine, that it should be 'seventy times seven'--the\nmultiplication of both the perfect numbers into themselves--than which\nthere can be no grander expression for absolute innumerableness and\nunfailing continuance.\n\nNo, no! men may say to God, 'Speak no more to us'; or they may get so\nfar away from Him, as that they only hear God's pleading voice, dim and\nfaint, like a voice in a dream. But surely the history of His\nprogressive revelation shows us that, rather than such abandonment of\nthe worst, the law of the divine dealing is that the deafer the man, the\nmore piercing the voice beseeching and warning. The attraction of\ngravitation decreases as distance increases, but the further away we are\nfrom Him, the stronger is the attraction which issues from Him, and\nwould draw us to Himself.\n\nClear away, then, altogether out of your minds any notion that there is\nhere declared what, in my judgment, is not declared anywhere in the\nBible, and never occurs in the divine dealings with men. Be sure that He\nnever ceases to seek to draw the most obstinate, idolatrous, and\nrebellious heart to Himself. That divine charity 'suffereth long, and is\nkind' ... 'hopeth all things, and beareth all things.'\n\nAgain, let me point out that the words of my text do not enjoin the\ncessation of the efforts of Christian people for the recovery of the\nmost deeply sunken in sin. 'Let him alone' is a commandment, and it is a\ncommandment to God's Church, but it is not a commandment to despair of\nany that they may be brought into the fold, or to give up efforts to\nthat end. If our Father in heaven never ceases to bear in His heart His\nprodigal children, it does not become those prodigals, who have come\nback, to think that any of their brethren are too far away to be drawn\nby their loving proclamation of the Father's heart of love.\n\n_There_ is the glory of our Gospel, that, taking far sadder, graver\nviews of what sin and alienation from God are, than the world's\nphilosophers and philanthropists do, it surpasses them just as much as\nin the superb confidence with which it sets itself to the cure of the\ndisease as in the unflinching clearness with which it diagnoses the\ndisease as fatal, if it be not dealt with by the all-healing Gospel. All\nother methods for the restoration and elevation of mankind are compelled\nto recognise that there is an obstinate residuum that will not and\ncannot be reached by their efforts. It used to be said that some old\ncannon-balls, that had been brought from some of the battlefields of the\nPeninsula, resisted all attempts to melt them down; so there are\n'cannon-balls,' as it were, amongst the obstinate evil-doers, and the\ndegraded and 'dangerous' classes, which mark the despair of our modern\nreformers and civilisers and elevators, for no fire in their furnaces\ncan melt down their hardness. No; but there is the furnace of the Lord\nin Jerusalem, and the fire of God in Zion, which can melt them down, and\nhas done so a hundred and a thousand times, and is as able to do it\nagain to-day as it ever was. Despair of no human soul. That boundless\nconfidence in the power of the Gospel is the duty of the Christian\nChurch. 'The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth!' They laughed Him to\nscorn, knowing that she was dead. But He put out His hand, and said unto\nher '_Talitha cumi_, I say unto thee, Arise!' When we stand on one side\nof the bed with your social reformers on the other, and say 'The damsel\nis not dead, but sleepeth,' they laugh us to scorn, and bid us try our\nGospel upon these people in our slums, or on those heathens in the New\nHebrides. We have the right to answer, 'We have tried it, and man after\nman, and woman after woman have risen from the sick-bed, like Peter's\nwife's mother; and the fever has left them, and they have ministered\nunto Him. There are no people in the world about whom Christians need\ndespair, none that Christ's Gospel cannot redeem. Whatever my text\nmeans, it does not mean cowardly and unbelieving doubt as to the power\nof the Gospel on the most degraded and sinful.\n\nII. So, the text enjoins on the Christian Church separation from an\nidolatrous world.\n\n'Ephraim is joined to idols.' Do you 'let him alone.' Now, there has\nbeen much harm done by misreading the force of the injunction of\nseparation from the world. There is a great deal of union and\nassociation with the most godless people in our circle, which is\ninevitable. Family bonds, business connections, civic obligations--all\nthese require that the Church shall not withdraw from the world. There\nis the wide common ground of Politics and Art and Literature, and a\nhundred other interests, on which it does Christian men no good, and the\nworld much harm, if the former withdraw to themselves, and on the plea\nof superior sanctity, leave these great departments of interest and\ninfluence to be occupied only by non-Christians.\n\nThen, besides these thoughts of necessary union and association upon\ncommon ground, there is the other consideration that absolute separation\nwould defeat the very purpose for which Christian people are here. 'Ye\nare the salt of the earth,' said Christ. Yes, and if you keep the meat\non one plate and the salt on another, what good will the salt be? It has\nto be rubbed in particle by particle, and brought into contact over all\nthe surface, and down into the depths of the meat that it is to preserve\nfrom putrefaction. And no Christian churches or individuals do their\nduty, and fulfil their function on earth, unless they are thus closely\nassociated and intermingled with the world that they should be trying to\nleaven and save. A cloistered solitude, or a proud standing apart from\nthe ordinary movements of the community, or a neglect, on the plea of\nour higher duties, of the duties of the citizen of a free country--these\nare not the ways to fulfil the exhortation of my text. 'Let the dead\nbury their dead,' said Christ; but He did not mean that His Church was\nto stand apart from the world, and let it go its own way. It is a bad\nthing for both when little Christian coteries gather themselves\ntogether, and talk about their own goodness and religion, and leave the\nworld to perish. Clotted blood is death; circulated, it is life.\n\nBut, whilst all this is perfectly true--and there are associations that\nwe must not break if we are to do our work as Christian people--it is\nalso true that it is possible, in the closest unions with men who do not\nshare our faith, to do the same thing that they are doing, with a\ndifference which separates us from them, even whilst we are united with\nthem. They tell us that, however dense any material substance may seem\nto be, there is always a film of air between contiguous particles. And\nthere should be a film between us and our Christless friends and\ncompanions and partners, not perceptible perhaps to a superficial\nobserver, but most real. If we do our common work as a religious duty,\nand in the exercise of all our daily occupations 'set the Lord always\nbefore' us, however closely we may be associated with people who do not\nso live, they will know the difference; never fear! And you will know\nthe difference, and will not be identified with them, but separate in a\nwholesome fashion from them.\n\nAnd, dear brethren, if I may go a step further, I would venture to say\nthat it seems to me that our Christian communities want few things more\nin this day than the reiteration of the old saying, 'Have no fellowship\nwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' There\nis so much in this time to break down the separation between him that\nbelieveth in Christ and him that doth not; narrowness has come to be\nthought such an enormous wickedness, and liberality is so lauded by all\nsorts of superficial people, that Christian men need to be summoned back\nto their standard. 'Being let go, they went to their own company'--there\nis a natural affinity which should, and will, if our faith is vital,\ndraw us to those who, on the gravest and solemnest things, have the same\nthoughts, the same hopes, the same faith. I do not urge you, God knows,\nto be bigoted and narrow, and shut yourselves up in your faith, and\nleave the world to go to the devil; but I do not wish, either, that\nChristian people should fling themselves into the arms and nestle in the\nhearts of persons who do not share with them 'like precious faith.'\n\nI am sure that there are many Christian people, old and young, who are\nsuffering in their religious life because they are neglecting this\ncommandment of my text. 'Let him alone.' There can be no deep affection,\nand, most of all--if I may venture on such ground--no wedded love worth\nthe name, where there is not unanimity in regard to the deepest matters.\nIt does not say much for the religion of a professing Christian who\nfinds his heart's friends and his chosen companions in people that have\nno sympathy with the religion which he professes. It does not say much\nfor you if it is so with you, for the Christian, whom you like least, is\nnearer you in the depths of your true self than is the non-Christian\nwhom you love most.\n\nBe sure, too, that if we mix ourselves up with Ephraim, we shall find\nourselves grovelling beside him before his idols ere long. Godlessness\nis infectious. Many a young woman, a professing Christian, has married a\ngodless man in the fond hope that she might win him. It is a great deal\nmore frequently the case that he perverts her than that she converts\nhim. Do not let us knit ourselves in these close bonds with the\nworshippers of idols, lest we 'learn their ways, and get a snare into\nour souls.' 'Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship\nhath light with darkness? Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye\nseparate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a\nFather unto you, and ye shall be My sons and My daughters.'\n\n\n'PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE'\n\n     'When Ephralm saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went\n     Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to\n     heal you, neither shall he cure you of your wound.'--HOSEA v. 13\n     (R.V.).\n\nThe long tragedy which ended in the destruction of the Northern Kingdom\nby Assyrian invasion was already beginning to develop in Hosea's time.\nThe mistaken politics of the kings of Israel led them to seek an ally\nwhere they should have dreaded an enemy. As Hosea puts it in figurative\nfashion, Ephraim's discovery of his 'sickness' sent him in the vain\nquest for help to the apparent source of the 'sickness,' that is to\nAssyria, whose king in the text is described by a name which is not his\nreal name, but is a significant epithet, as the margin puts it, 'a king\nthat should contend'; and who, of course, was not able to heal nor to\ncure the wounds which he had inflicted. Ephraim's suicidal folly is but\none illustration of a universal madness which drives men to seek for the\nhealing of their misery, and the alleviation of their discomfort, in\nthe repetition of the very acts which brought these about. The attempt\nto get relief in such a fashion, of course, fails; for as the verse\nbefore our text emphatically proclaims, it is God who has been 'as a\nmoth unto Ephraim,' gnawing away his strength: and it is only He who can\nheal, since in reality it is He, and not the quarrelsome king of\nAssyria, who has inflicted the sickness.\n\nThus understood, the text carries wide lessons, and may serve us as a\nstarting-point for considering man's discovery of his 'sickness,' man's\nmad way of seeking healing, God's way of giving it.\n\nI. First, then, man's discovery of his sickness.\n\nThe greater part of most lives is spent in mechanical, unreflecting\nrepetition of daily duties and pleasures. We are all apt to live on the\nsurface, and it requires an effort, which we are too indolent to make\nexcept under the impulse of some arresting motive, to descend into the\ndepths of our own souls, and there to face the solemn facts of our own\npersonality. The last place with which most of us are familiar, is our\ninnermost self. Men are dimly conscious that things within are not well\nwith them; but it is only one here and there that says so distinctly to\nhimself, and takes the further step of thoroughly investigating the\ncause. But that superficial life is at the mercy of a thousand\naccidents, each one of which may break through the thin film, and lay\nbare the black depths.\n\nBut there is another aspect of this discovery of sickness, far graver\nthan the mere consciousness of unrest. Ephraim does not see his sickness\nunless he sees his sin. The greater part of every life is spent without\nthat deep, all-pervading sense of discord between itself and God. Small\nand recurrent faults may evoke recurring remonstrances of conscience,\nbut that is a very different thing from the deep tones and the clear\nvoice of condemnation in respect to one's whole life and character which\nsounds in a heart that has learned how 'deceitful and desperately\nwicked' it is. Such a conviction may flash upon a man at any moment, and\nfrom a hundred causes. A sorrow, a sunset-sky, a grave, a sermon, may\nproduce it.\n\nBut even when we have come to recognise clearly our unrest, we have gone\nbut part of the way, we have become conscious of a symptom, not of the\ndisease. Why is it that man is alone among the creatures in that\ndiscontent with externals, and that dissatisfaction with himself? 'Foxes\nhave holes, and the birds of the air have roosting-places': why is it\nthat amongst all God's happy creatures, and God's shining stars, men\nstand 'strangers in a strange land,' and are cursed with a restlessness\nwhich has not 'where to lay its head'? The consciousness of unrest is\nbut the agitation of the limbs which indicates disease. That disease is\nthe twitching paralysis of sin. Like 'the pestilence that walketh in\ndarkness,' it has a fell power of concealing itself, and the man whose\nsins are the greatest is always the least conscious of them. He dwells\nin a region where the malaria is so all-pervading that the inhabitants\ndo not know what the sweetness of an unpoisoned atmosphere is. If there\nis a 'worst man' in the world, we may be very sure that no conscience is\nless troubled than his is.\n\nSo the question may well be urged on those so terribly numerous amongst\nus, whose very unconsciousness of their true condition is the most fatal\nsymptom of their fatal disease. What is the worth of a peace which is\nonly secured by ignoring realities, and which can be shattered into\nfragments by anything that compels a man to see himself as he is? In\nsuch a fool's paradise thousands of us live. 'Use and wont,' the\ncontinual occupation with the trifles of our daily lives, the fleeting\nsatisfactions of our animal nature, the shallow wisdom which bids us\n'let sleeping dogs lie,' all conspire to mask, to many consciences,\ntheir unrest and their sin. We abstain from lifting the curtain behind\nwhich the serpent lies coiled in our hearts, because we dread to see\nits loathly length, and to rouse it to lift its malignant head, and to\nstrike with its forked tongue. But sooner or later--may it not be too\nlate--we shall be set face to face with the dark recess, and discover\nthe foul reptile that has all the while been coiled there.\n\nII. Man's mad way of seeking healing.\n\nCan there be a more absurd course of action than that recorded in our\ntext? 'When Ephraim saw his sickness, then went Ephraim to Assyria.' The\nNorthern Kingdom sought for the healing of their national calamities\nfrom the very cause of their national calamities, and in repetition of\ntheir national sin. A hopeful policy, and one which speedily ended in\nthe only possible result! But that insanity was but a sample of the\ninfatuation which besets us all. When we are conscious of our unrest,\nare we not all tempted to seek to conceal it with what has made it? Take\nexamples from the grosser forms of animal indulgence. The drunkard's\nvulgar proverb recommending 'a hair of the dog that bit you,' is but a\ncoarse expression of a common fault. He is wretched until 'another\nglass' steadies, for a moment, his trembling hand, and gives a brief\nstimulus to his nerves. They say that the Styrian peasants, who\nhabitually eat large quantities of arsenic, show symptoms of poison if\nthey leave it off suddenly. These are but samples, in the physical\nregion, of a tendency which runs through all lire, and leads men to\ndrown thought by plunging into the thick of the worldly absorptions that\nreally cause their unrest. The least persistent of men is strangely\nobstinate in his adherence to old ways, in spite of all experience of\ntheir crooked slipperiness. We wonder at the peasants who have their\ncottages and vineyards on the slopes of Vesuvius, and who build them,\nand plant them, over and over again after each destructive eruption. The\ntragedy of Israel is repeated in many of our lives; and the summing up\nof the abortive efforts of one of its kings to recover power by\nfollowing the gods that had betrayed him, might be the epitaph of the\ninfatuated men who see their sickness and seek to heal it by renewed\ndevotion to the idols who occasioned it: 'They were the ruin of him and\nof all Israel.' The experience of the woman who had 'spent all her\nliving on physicians, and was nothing the better, but rather the worse,'\nsums up the sad story of many a life.\n\nBut again the sense of sin sometimes seeks to conceal itself by\nrepetition of sin. When the dormant snake begins to stir, it is lulled\nto sleep again by absorption of occupations, or by an obstinate refusal\nto look inwards, and often by plunging once more into the sin which has\nbrought about the sickness. To seek thus for ease from the stings of\nconscience, is like trying to silence a buzzing in the head by standing\nbeside Niagara thundering in our ears. They used to beat the drums when\na martyr died, in order to drown his testimony; and so foolish men seek\nto silence the voice of conscience by letting passions shout their\nloudest. It needs no words to demonstrate the incurable folly of such\nconduct; but alas, it takes many words far stronger than mine to press\nhome the folly upon men. The condition of such a half-awakened\nconscience is very critical if it is soothed by any means by which it is\nweakened and its possessor worsened. In the sickness of the soul\nhomoeopathic treatment is a delusion. Ephraim may go to Assyria, but\nthere is no healing of him there.\n\nIII. God's way of giving true healing.\n\nEphraim thought that, because the wounds were inflicted by Assyria, it\nwas the source to which to apply for bandages and balm. If it had\nrealised that Assyria was but the battle-axe wherewith the hand of God\nstruck it, it would have learned that from God alone could come healing\nand health. The unrest which betrays the presence in our souls of a\ndeep-seated sin, is a divine messenger. We terribly misinterpret the\ntrue source of all that disturbs us when we attribute it only to the\noccasions which bring it about; for the one purpose of all our\nrestlessness is to drive us nearer to God, and to wrench us away from\nour Assyria. The true issue of Ephraim's sickness would have been the\npenitent cry, 'Come, let us return to the Lord our God, for He hath\nsmitten, and He will bind us up.' It is in the consciousness of loving\nnearness to Him that all our unrest is soothed, and the heaving ocean in\nour hearts becomes as a summer's sea and 'birds of peace sit brooding on\nthe charmed waves.' It is in that same consciousness that conscience\nceases to condemn, and loses its sting. The prophet from whom our text\nis taken ends his wonderful ministry, that had been full of fiery\ndenunciations and dark prophecies, with words that are only surpassed in\ntheir tenderness and the outpouring of the heart of God, by the fuller\nrevelation in Jesus Christ: 'O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.\nTake with you words, and return unto the Lord, and say unto Him: Assyria\nshall not save us, for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy.' The divine\nanswer which he was commissioned to bring to the penitent Israel--'I\nwill heal their backslidings, I will love them freely; if Mine anger is\nturned away from Me'--is, in all its wealth of forgiving love but an\nimperfect prophecy of the great Physician, from the hem of whose garment\nflowed out power to one who 'had spent all her living on physicians and\ncould not be healed of any,' and who confirmed to her the power which\nshe had thought to steal from Him unawares by the gracious words which\nbound her to Him for ever--'Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go\nin peace.'\n\n\n'FRUIT WHICH IS DEATH'\n\n     'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself:\n     according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the\n     altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly\n     images. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty:\n     He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. 3.\n     For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the\n     Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words,\n     swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up\n     as hemlock in the furrows of the field. 5. The inhabitants of\n     Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the\n     people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that\n     rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from\n     it. 6. It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king\n     Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of\n     his own counsel. 7. As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam\n     upon the water. 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel,\n     shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on\n     their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to\n     the hills, Fall on us. 9. O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days\n     of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the\n     children of iniquity did not overtake them. 10. It is in my desire\n     that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered\n     against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.\n     11. And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread\n     out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make\n     Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.\n     12. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up\n     your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come\n     and rain righteousness upon you. 13. Ye have plowed wickedness, ye\n     have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou\n     didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. 14.\n     Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy\n     fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the\n     day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.\n     15. So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness:\n     in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.'--HOSEA\n     x. 1-15.\n\nThe prophecy of this chapter has two themes--Israel's sin, and its\npunishment. These recur again and again. Reiteration, not progress of\nthought, characterises Hosea's fiery stream of inspired eloquence.\nConviction of sin and prediction of judgment are his message. We trace a\nfourfold repetition of it here, and further note that in each case there\nis a double reference to Israel's sin as consisting in the rebellion\nwhich set up a king and in the schism which established the calf\nworship; while there is also a double phase of the punishment\ncorresponding to these, in the annihilation of the kingdom and the\ndestruction of the idols.\n\nThe first section may be taken to be verses 1-3. The image of a\nluxuriant vine laden with fruit is as old as Jacob's blessing of the\ntribes (Gen. xlix. 22), where it is applied to Joseph, whose descendants\nwere the strength of the Northern Kingdom. Hosea has already used it,\nand here it is employed to set forth picturesquely the material\nprosperity of Israel. Probably the period referred to is the successful\nreign of Jeroboam II. But prosperity increased sin. The more fruit or\nmaterial wealth, the more altars; the better the harvests, the more the\nobelisks or pillars to gods, falsely supposed to be the authors of the\nblessings. The words are as condensed as a proverb, and are as true\nto-day as ever. Israel had attributed its prosperity to Baal (Hosea ii.\n8). The misuse of worldly wealth and the tendency of success to draw us\naway from God, and to blind to the true source of all blessing, are as\nrife now as then.\n\nThe root of the evil was, as always, a heart divided--that is, between\nGod and Baal--or, perhaps, 'smooth'; that is, dissimulating and\ninsincere. In reality, Baal alone possesses the heart which its owner\nwould share between him and Jehovah. 'All in all, or not at all,' is the\nlaw. Whether Baals or calves were set beside God, He was equally\ndeposed.\n\nThen, with a swift turn, Hosea proclaims the impending judgment, setting\nhimself and the people as if already in the future. He hears the first\npeal of the storm, and echoes it in that abrupt 'now.' The first burst\nof the judgment shatters dreams of innocence, and the cowering wretches\nsee their sin by the lurid light. That discovery awaits every man whose\nheart has been 'divided.' To the gazers and to himself masks drop, and\nthe true character stands out with appalling clearness. What will that\nlight show us to be? An unnamed hand overthrows altars and pillars. No\nneed to say whose it is. One half of Israel's sin is crushed at a blow,\nand the destruction of the other follows immediately.\n\nThey themselves abjure their allegiance; for they have found out that\ntheir king is a king Log, and can do them no good. A king, set up in\nopposition to God's will, cannot save. The ruin of their projects\nteaches godless men at last that they have been fools to take their own\nway; for all defences, recourses, and protectors, chosen in defiance of\nGod, prove powerless when the strain comes. The annihilation of one half\nof their sin sickens them of the other. The calves and the monarchy\nstood or fell together. It is a dismal thing to have to bear the brunt\nof chastisement for what we see to have been a blunder as well as a\ncrime. But such is the fate of those who seek other gods and another\nking.\n\nIn verse 4 Hosea recurs to Israel's crime, and appends a description of\nthe chastisement, substantially the same as before, but more detailed,\nwhich continues till verse 8. The sin now is contemplated in its effects\non human relations. Before, it was regarded in relation to God. But men\nwho are wrong with Him cannot be right with one another. Morality is\nrooted in religion, and if we lie to God, we shall not be true to our\nbrother. Hence, passing over all other sins for the present, Hosea fixes\nupon one, the prevalence of which strikes at the very foundation of\nsociety. What can be done with a community in which lying has become a\nnational characteristic, and that even in formal agreements?\nHoney-combed with falsehood, it is only fit for burning.\n\nSin is bound by an iron link to penalty. Therefore, says Hosea, God's\njudgment springs up, like a bitter plant (the precise name of which is\nunknown) in the furrows, where the farmer did not know that its seeds\nlay. They little dreamed what they were sowing when they scattered\nabroad their lies, but this is the fruit of these. 'Whatsoever a man\nsoweth, that shall he also reap'; and whatever other crop we may hope to\ngather from our sins, we shall gather that bitter one which we did not\nexpect. The inevitable connection of sin and judgment, the bitterness of\nits results, the unexpectedness of them, are all here, and to be laid to\nheart by us.\n\nThen verses 5 and 6 dilate with keen irony on the fate of the first half\nof Israel's sin--the calf. It was thought a god, but its worshippers\nshall be in a fright for it. 'Calves,' says Hosea, though there was but\none at Beth-el; and he uses the feminine, as some think, depreciatingly.\n'Beth-aven' or the 'house of vanity,' he says, instead of Beth-el, 'the\nhouse of God.' A fine god whose worshippers had to be alarmed for its\nsafety! 'Its people'--what a contrast to the name they might have borne,\n'My people'! God disowns them, and says, 'They belong to it, not to Me.'\nThe idolatrous priests of the calf worship will tremble when that image,\nwhich had been shamefully their 'glory,' is carried off to Assyria, and\ngiven as a present to 'king Jareb'--a name for the king of Assyria\nmeaning the fighting or quarrelsome king. The captivity of the god is\nthe shame of the worshippers. To be 'ashamed of their own counsel' is\nthe certain fate of all who depart from God; for, sooner or later,\nexperience will demonstrate to the blindest that their refuges of lies\ncan neither save themselves nor those who trust in them. But shame is\none thing and repentance another; and many a man will say, 'I have been\na great fool, and my clever policy has all crumbled to pieces,' who will\nonly therefore change his idols, and not return to God.\n\nVerse 7 recurs to the political punishment of the civil rebellion. The\nimage for the disappearance of the king is striking, whether we render\n'foam' or 'chip,' but the former has special beauty. In the one case we\nsee the unsubstantial bubble,\n\n    'A moment white, then melts for ever';\n\nand in the other, the helpless twig swept down by the stream. Either\nbrings vividly before us the powerlessness of Israel against the roaring\ntorrent of Assyrian power; and the figure may be widened out to teach\nwhat is sure to become of all man-made and self-chosen refuges when the\nfloods of God's judgments sweep over the world. The captivity of the\nidol and the burst bubble of the monarchy bid us all make Jehovah our\nGod and King. The vacant shrine and empty throne are followed by utter\nand long-continued desolation. Thorns and thistles have time to grow on\nthe altars, and no hand cuts them down. What of the men thus stripped of\nall in which they had trusted? Desperate, they implore the mountains to\nfall on them, as preferring to die, and the hills to cover them, as\nwilling to be crushed, if only they may be hidden. That awful cry is\nheard again in our Lord's predictions of judgment, and in the\nApocalypse. Therefore this prophecy foreshadows, in the destruction of\nIsrael's confidences and in their shame and despair, a more dreadful\ncoming day, in which we shall be concerned.\n\nVerses 9 to 11 again give the sin and its punishment. 'The days of\nGibeah' recall the hideous story of lust and crime which was the\nlow-water mark of the lawless days of old. That crime had been avenged\nby merciless war. But its taint had lived on, and the Israel of Hosea's\nday 'stood,' obstinately persistent, just where the Benjamites had been\nthen, and set themselves in dogged resistance, as these had done, 'that\nthe battle against the children of unrighteousness might not touch\nthem.'\n\nStiff-necked setting oneself against God's merciful fighting with evil\nlasts for a little while, but verse 10 tells how soon and easily it is\nannihilated. God's 'desire' brushes away all defences, and the obstinate\nsinners are like children, who are whipped when their father wills, let\nthem struggle as they may. The instruments of chastisement are foreign\narmies, and the chastisement itself is described with a striking figure\nas 'binding them to their two transgressions'; that is, the double sin\nwhich is the keynote of the chapter. Punishment is yoking men to their\nsins, and making them drag the burden like bullocks in harness. What\nsort of load are we getting together for ourselves? When we have to drag\nthe consequences of our doings behind us, how shall we feel?\n\nThe figure sets the Prophet's imagination going, and he turns it another\nway, comparing Israel to a heifer, broken in, and liking the easy work\nof threshing, in which the unmuzzled ox could eat its fill, but now set\nto harder tasks in the fields. Judah, too, is to share in the\npunishment. If men will not serve God in and because of prosperous ease,\nHe will try what toil and privation will do. Abused blessings are\nwithdrawn, and the abundance of the threshing-floor is changed for\ndragging a heavy plough or harrow.\n\nVerse 12 still deals with the figure suggested in the close of the\nprevious verse. It is the only break in the clouds in this chapter. It\nis a call to amendment, accompanied by a promise of acceptance. If we\n'sow for righteousness'--that is, if our efforts are directed to\nembodying it in our lives--we 'shall reap according to mercy.' That is\ntrue universally, whether it is taken to mean God's mercy to us, or ours\nto others. The aim after righteousness ever secures the divine favour,\nand usually ensures the measure which we mete being measured to us\nagain.\n\nBut sowing is not all; thorns must be grubbed up. We must not only turn\nover a new leaf, but tear out the old one. The old man must be slain if\nthe new man is to live. The call to amend finds its warrant in the\nassurance that there is still time to seek the Lord, and that, for all\nHis threatenings, He is ready to rain blessings upon the seekers. The\nunwearying patience of God, the possibility of the worst sinner's\nrepentance, the conditional nature of the threatenings, the possibility\nof breaking the bond between sin and sorrow, the yet deeper thought that\nrighteousness must come from above, are all condensed in this brief\ngospel before the Gospel.\n\nBut that bright gleam passes, and the old theme recurs. Once more we\nhave sin and punishment exhibited in their organic connection in verses\n13 and 14. Israel's past had been just the opposite of sowing\nrighteousness and reaping mercy. Wickedness ploughed in, iniquity will\nsurely be its fruit. Sin begets sin, and is its own punishment. What\nfruit have we of doing wrong? 'Lies'; that is, unfulfilled expectations\nof unrealised satisfaction. No man gets the good that he aimed at in\nsinning, or he gets something more that spoils it. At last the\ndeceitfulness of sin will be found out, but we may be sure of it now.\nThe root of all Israel's sin was the root of ours; namely, trust in\nself, and consequent neglect of God. The first half of verse 13 is an\nexhaustive analysis of the experience of every sinful life; the second,\na penetrating disclosure of the foundation of it.\n\nThen the whole closes with the repeated threatening, dual as before, and\nillustrated by the forgotten horrors of some dreadful siege, one of the\n'unhappy, far-off things,' fallen silent now. A significant variation\noccurs in the final threatening, in which Beth-el is set forth as the\ncause, rather than as the object, of the destruction. 'They were the\nruin of him and of all Israel.' Our vices are made the whips to scourge\nus. Our idols bring us no help, but are the causes of our misery.\n\nThe Prophet ends with the same double reference which prevails\nthroughout, when he once more declares the annihilation of the monarchy,\nwhich, rather than a particular person, is meant by 'the king.' 'In the\nmorning' is enigmatical. It may mean 'prematurely,' or 'suddenly,' or\n'in a time of apparent prosperity,' or, more probably, the Prophet\nstands in vision in that future day of the Lord, and points to 'the\nking' as the first victim. The force of the prophecy does not depend on\nthe meaning of this detail. The teaching of the whole is the certainty\nthat suffering dogs sin, but yet does so by no iron, impersonal law, but\naccording to the will of God, who will rain righteousness even on the\nsinner, being penitent, and will endow with righteousness from above\nevery lowly soul that seeks for it.\n\n\nDESTRUCTION AND HELP\n\n     'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine\n     help.'--HOSEA xiii. 9 (A.V.).\n\n     'It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against Me, against\n     thy Help' (R.V.).\n\nThese words are obscure by reason of their brevity. Literally they might\nbe rendered, 'Thy destruction for, in, or against Me; in, or against thy\nHelp.' Obviously, some words must be supplied to bring out any sense.\nOur Authorised Version has chosen the supplement 'is,' which fails to\nobserve the second occurrence with 'thy Help' of the preposition, and is\nsomewhat lax in rendering the 'for' of the second clause by the neutral\n'but.' It is probably better to read, as the Revised Version, with most\nmodern interpreters, 'Thou art against Me, against thy Help,' and to\nfind in the second clause the explanation, or analysis, of the\ndestruction announced in the first. So we have here the wail of the\nparental love of God over the ruin which Israel has brought on itself,\nand that parental love is setting forth Israel's true condition, in the\nhope that they may discern it. Thus, even the rebuke holds enclosed a\npromise and a hope. Since God is their help, to depart from Him has been\nruin, and the return to Him will be life. Hosea, or rather the Spirit\nthat spake through Hosea, blended wonderful tenderness with unflinching\ndecision in rebuke, and unwavering certainty in foretelling evil with\nunfaltering hope in the promise of possible blessing. His words are set\nin the same key as the still more wonderfully tender ones that Jesus\nuttered as He looked across the valley from Olivet to the gleaming city\non the other side, and wailed, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would\nI have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens\nunder her wings, and ye would not! Therefore your house is left unto you\ndesolate.'\n\nWe may note here\n\nI. The loving discovery of ruin.\n\nIt is strange that men should need to be told, and that with all\nemphasis, the evil case in which they are; and stranger still that they\nshould resent the discovery and reject it. This pathetic pleading is the\nvoice of a divine Father trying to convince His son of misery and\ndanger; and the obscurity of the text is as if that voice was choked\nwith sobs, and could only speak in broken syllables the tragical word in\nwhich all the evil of Israel's sin is gathered up--'his destruction,' or\n'corruption.' It gathers up in one terrible picture the essential nature\nof sin and the death of the soul, which is its wages--inward misery and\nunrest, outward sorrows, the decay of mental and moral powers, the\nspreading taint which eats its way through the whole personality of a\nman who has sinned, and pauses not till it has reduced his corpse to\nputrefaction. All these, and a hundred more effects of sin, are crowded\ntogether in that one word 'thy destruction.'\n\nIt is strange that it needs God's voice, and that in its most piercing\ntones, to convince men of ruin brought by sin. A mortifying limb is\npainless. There is no consciousness in the drugged sleep which becomes\nheavier and heavier till it ends in death. There is no surer sign of the\nreality and extent of the corruption brought about by sin, than man's\nignorance of it. There is no more tragical proof that a man is\n'wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked' than his vehement\naffirmation, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of\nnothing,' and his self-complacent rejection of the counsel to 'buy\nrefined gold, and white garments, and eye-salve to anoint his eyes.' So\nobstinately unconscious are we of our ruin that even God's voice,\nwhether uttered in definite words, or speaking in sharp sorrows and\npunitive acts, but too often fails to pierce the thick layer of self\ncomplacency in which we wrap ourselves, and to pierce the heart with the\narrow of conviction. Indeed we may say that the whole process of divine\neducation of a soul, conducted through many channels of providences, has\nfor its end mainly this--to convince His wandering children that to be\nagainst Him, against their Help, is their destruction.\n\nBut, perhaps, the strangest of all is the attitude which we often take\nup of resenting the love that would reveal our ruin. It is stupid of the\nox to kick against its driver's goad; but that is wise in comparison\nwith the action of the man who is angry with God because He warns that\ndeparture from Him is ruin. Many of us treat Christianity as if it had\nmade the mischief which it reveals, and would fain mend; and we all need\nto be reminded that it is cruel kindness to conceal unpleasant truths,\nand that the Gospel is no more to be blamed for the destruction which it\ndeclares than is the signalman with his red flag responsible for the\nbroken-down viaduct to which the train is rushing that he tries to save.\n\nII. The loving appeal to conscience as to the cause.\n\nIsrael's destruction arose from the fact of Israel having turned against\nGod, its Help. Sin is suicide. God is our Help, and only Help. His will\nis love and blessing. His only relation to our sin is to hate it, and\nfight against it. In conflict of love with lovelessness one of His\nchiefest weapons is to drive home to our consciousness the conviction of\nour sin. When He is driven to punish, it is our wrongdoing that forces\nHim to what Isaiah calls, 'His strange act.' The Heavenly Father is\nimpelled by His love not to spare the rod, lest the sparing spoil the\nchild. An earthly father suffers more punishment than he inflicts upon\nthe little rebel whom, unwillingly and with tears, he may chastise; and\nGod's love is more tender, as it is more wise, than that of the fathers\nof our flesh who corrected us. 'He doth not willingly afflict nor is\nsoon angry'; and of all the mercies which He bestows upon us, none is\nmore laden with His love than the discipline by which He would make us\nknow, through our painful experience, that it is 'an evil and bitter\nthing to forsake the Lord, and that His fear is not in us.' In its\nessence and depth, separation from God is death to the creature that\nwrenches itself away from the source of life; and all the weariness and\npains of a godless life are, if we take them as He meant them, the very\nangels of His presence.\n\nJust as the sole reason for our sorrows lies in our wrongdoing, the sole\ncause of our wrongdoing is in ourselves. It is because 'Israel is\nagainst Me' that Israel's destruction rushes down upon it. It could have\ndefended its hankering after Assyria and idols, by wise talk about\npolitical exigencies and the wisdom of trying to turn possibly powerful\nenemies into powerful allies, and the folly of a little nation, on a\nnarrow strip of territory between the desert and the sea, fancying\nitself able to sustain itself uncrushed between the upper millstone of\nAssyria on the north, and the under one, Egypt, on the south. But\ncircumstances are never the cause, though they may afford the excuse of\nrebellion against our Helper, God; and all the modern talk about\nenvironments and the like, is merely a cloak cast round, but too scanty\nto conceal the ugly fact of the alienated will. All the excuses for sin,\nwhich either modern scientific jargon about 'laws,' or hyper-Calvinistic\ntalk about 'divine decrees,' alleges, are alike shattered against the\nplain fact of conscience, which proclaims to every evil-doer, 'Thou art\nthe man!' We shall get no further and no deeper than the truth of our\ntext: 'It is thy destruction that thou art against Me.'\n\nThe pleading God has from the beginning spoken words as tender as they\nare stern, and as stern as they are tender. His voice to the sons of men\nhas from of old asked the unanswerable question, 'Why should ye be\nstricken any more?' and has answered it, so far as answer is possible,\nby the fact, which is as mysterious as it is undeniable, 'Ye will revolt\nmore and more.' God calls upon man to judge between Him and His\nvineyard, and asks, 'What could have been done more to My vineyard that\nI have not done unto it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring\nforth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?' The fault lay not in the\nvine-dresser, but in some evil influence that had found its way into the\nlife and sap of the vine, and bore fruits in an unnatural product, which\ncould not have been traced to the vine-dresser's action. So God stands,\nas with clean hands, declaring that 'He is pure from the blood of all\nmen; that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked'; and His word\nto the men on whom falls the whole weight of His destroying power is,\n'Thou hast procured this unto thyself.'\n\nIII. The loving forbearance which still offers restoration.\n\nHe still claims to be Israel's Help. Separation from Him has all but\ndestroyed the rebellious; but it has not in the smallest degree affected\nthe fulness of His power, nor the fervency of His desire to help.\nHowever earth may be shaken by storms, or swathed in mist that darkens\nall things and shuts out heaven, the sun is still in its tabernacle and\npouring down its rays through the cloudless blue that is above the\nenfolding cloud. Our text has wrapped up in it the broad gospel that all\nour self-inflicted destruction may be arrested, and all the evil which\nbrought it about swept away. God is ready to prove Himself our true and\nonly Helper in that, as our prophet says, 'He will ransom us from the\npower of the grave'; and, even when death has laid its cold hand upon\nus, will redeem us from it, and destroy the destruction which had fixed\nits talons in us. All the guilt is ours; all the help is His; His work\nis to conquer and cast out our sins, to heal our sicknesses, to soothe\nour sorrows. And He has Himself vindicated His great name of our Help\nwhen He has revealed Himself as 'the God and Father of our Lord and\nSaviour Jesus Christ.'\n\n\nISRAEL RETURNING\n\n     'O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by\n     thine iniquity. 2. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say\n     unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so\n     will we render the calves of our lips. 3. Asshur shall not save us;\n     we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the\n     work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless\n     findeth mercy. 4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them\n     freely: for mine anger is turned away from Him. 5. I will be as the\n     dew unto Israel: He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth His\n     roots as Lebanon. 6. His branches shall spread, and His beauty\n     shall be as the olive-tree, and His smell as Lebanon. 7. They that\n     dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn,\n     and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of\n     Lebanon. 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with\n     idols? I have heard Him, and observed Him: I am like a green\n     fir-tree. From me is thy fruit found. 9. Who is wise, and He shall\n     understand these things? prudent, and He shall know them? for the\n     ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but\n     the transgressors shall fall therein.'--HOSEA xiv. 1-9.\n\nHosea is eminently the prophet of divine love and of human repentance.\nBoth streams of thought are at their fullest in this great chapter. In\nverses 1 to 3 the very essence of true return to God is set forth in the\nprayer which Israel is exhorted to offer, while in verses 4 to 8 the\nforgiving love of God and its blessed results are portrayed with equal\npoetical beauty and spiritual force. Verse 9 closes the chapter and the\nbook with a kind of epilogue.\n\nI. The summons to repentance.\n\n'Israel,' of course, here means the Northern Kingdom, with which Hosea's\nprophecies are chiefly occupied. 'Thou hast fallen by thine\niniquity'--that is the lesson taught by all its history, and in a deeper\nsense it is the lesson of all experience. Sin brings ruin for nations\nand individuals, and the plain teachings of each man's own life exhort\neach to 'return unto the Lord.' We have all proved the vanity and misery\nof departing from Him; surely, if we are not drawn by His love, we might\nbe driven by our own unrest, to go back to God.\n\nThe Prophet anticipates the clear accents of the New Testament call to\nrepentance in his expansion of what he meant by returning. He has\nnothing to say about sacrifices, nor about self-reliant efforts at moral\nimprovement. 'Take with you _words_,' not 'the blood of bulls and\ngoats.' Confession is better than sacrifice. What words are they which\nwill avail? Hosea teaches the penitent's prayer. It must begin with the\npetition for forgiveness, which implies recognition of the petitioner's\nsin. The cry, 'Take away all iniquity,' does not specify sins, but\nmasses the whole black catalogue into one word. However varied the forms\nof our transgressions, they are in principle one, and it is best to bind\nthem all into one ugly heap, and lay it at God's feet. We have to\nconfess not only sins, but sin, and the taking away of it includes\ndivine cleansing from its power, as well as divine forgiveness of its\nguilt. Hosea bids Israel ask that God would take away all iniquity; John\npointed to 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'\nBut beyond forgiveness and cleansing, the penitent heart will seek that\nGod would 'accept the good' in it, which springs up by His grace, when\nthe evil has been washed from it, like flowers that burst from soil off\nwhich the matted under-growth of poisonous jungle has been cleared. Mere\nnegative absence of 'evil' is not all that we should desire or exhibit;\nthere must be positive good; and however sinful may have been the past,\nwe are not too bold when we ask and expect that we may be made able to\nproduce 'good,' which shall be fragrant as sweet incense to God.\n\nPetitions are followed by vows. On the one hand, the experience of\nforgiveness and cleansing will put a new song in our mouths, and instead\nof animal sacrifices, we shall render the praise which is better than\n'calves' laid on the altar. Perhaps the Septuagint rendering of that\ndifficult phrase 'the calves of our lips,' which is given in Hebrews\nxiii. 15, 'the fruit of our lips,' is preferable. In either case, the\nsame thought appears--that the penitent's experience of forgiving and\nrestoring love makes 'the tongue of the dumb sing,' and it will bind\nmen's hearts more closely to God than anything besides can do, so that\ntheir old inclinations to false reliances and idolatries drop away from\nthem. The old fable tells us that the storm made the traveller wrap his\ncloak closer round him, but the sunshine made him throw it off.\nJudgments often make men cling more closely to their sins, but forgiving\nmercy makes them 'cast off the works of darkness.' The men who had\nexperienced that in God, the Israel, which by its sins had brought down\nthe punishment of His repudiation of being its father (i. 9), had found\nmercy, would no longer feel temptation to turn to Assyria for help, nor\nto seek protection from Egypt's cavalry, nor to debase their manhood by\ncalling stocks and stones, the work of their own hands, their gods. What\nearthly sweetness will tempt, or what earthly danger will affright, the\nheart that is feeling the bliss of union with God? Would Judas's thirty\npieces of silver attract the disciple reclining on Jesus' bosom? We are\nmost firmly bound to God, not by our resolves, but by our experience of\nHis all-sufficient mercy. Fill the heart with that wine of the kingdom,\nand bitter or poisonous draughts will find no entrance into the cup.\n\nII. God's welcoming answer.\n\nThe very abruptness of its introduction, without any explanation as to\nthe speaker, suggests how swiftly and joyfully the Father hastens to\nmeet the returning prodigal while he is yet afar off. Like pent-up\nwaters rushing forth as soon as a barrier is taken away, God's love\npours itself out immediately. His answer ever gives more than the\npenitent asks--robe and ring and shoes, and a feast to him who dared not\nexpect more than a place among the hired servants. He gives not by\ndrops, but in floods, answering the prayer for the taking away of\niniquity by the promise to heal backsliding, going beyond desires and\nhopes in the gift of love which asks for no recompense, is drawn forth\nby no desert, but wells up from the depths of God's heart, and\nstrengthens the new, tremulous trust of the penitent by the assurance\nthat every trace of anger is effaced from God's heart.\n\nThe blessings consequent on the gift of God's love are described in\nlovely imagery, drawn, like Hosea's other abundant similes, from nature,\nand especially from trees and flowers. The source of all fruitfulness is\na divine influence, which comes silently and refreshing as the 'dew,'\nor, rather, as the 'night mist,' a phenomenon occurring in Palestine in\nsummer, and being, accurately, rolling masses of vapour brought from\nthe Mediterranean, which counteract the dry heat and keep vegetation\nalive. The influences which refresh and fructify our souls must fall in\nmany a silent hour of meditation and communion. They will effloresce\ninto manifold shapes of beauty and fruitfulness, of which the Prophet\nsignalises three. The lily may stand for beauty of purity, though\nbotanists differ as to the particular flower meant. Christians should\npresent to the world 'whatsoever things are lovely,' and see to it that\ntheir goodness is attractive. But the fragrant, pure lily has but\nshallow roots, and beauty is not all that a character needs in this\nworld of struggle and effort. So there are to be both the lily's blossom\nand roots like Lebanon. The image may refer to the firm buttresses of\nthe widespread foot-hills, from which the sovereign summits of the great\nmountain range rise, or, as is rather suggested by the accompanying\nsimiles from the vegetable world, it may refer to the cedars growing\nthere. Their roots are anchored deep and stretch far underground;\ntherefore they rear towering heads, and spread broad shelves of dark\nfoliage, safe from any blast. Our lives must be deep rooted in God if\nthey are to be strong. Boots generally spread beneath the soil about as\nfar as branches extend above it. There should be at least as much\nunderground, 'hid with Christ in God,' as is visible to the world.\n\nBut beauty and strength are not all. So Hosea thinks of yet another of\nthe characteristic growths of Palestine, the olive, which is not\nstrikingly beautiful in form, with its strangely gnarled, contorted\nstem, its feeble branches, and its small, pointed, pale leaves, but has\nthe beauty of fruitfulriess, and is green when other trees are bare.\nSuch 'beauty' should be ours, and will be if the 'dew' falls on us.\n\nIn verse 7 there are difficulties, both as to the application of the\n'his,' and as to the reading and rendering of some of the words. But the\ngeneral drift is clear. It prolongs the tones of the foregoing verses,\nkeeping to the same class of images, and expressing fruitfulness,\nabundant as the corn and precious as the grape, and fragrance like the\n'bouquet' of the choicest wine.\n\nVerse 8 offers great difficulties on any interpretation. The supplement\n'shall say' is questionable, and it is doubtful whether Ephraim is the\nspeaker at all, and whether, if so, he speaks all the four clauses, and\nwho speaks any or all of them, if not he. To the present writer, it\nseems best to take the supplement as right, and possible to regard the\nwhole verse as spoken by Ephraim, though perhaps the last clause is\nmeant to be God's utterance. The meaning will then come out as follows.\nThe penitent Israel again speaks, after the gracious promises preceding.\nThe tribal name is, as usual in Hosea, equivalent to Israel, whose\npenitent cry we heard at the beginning of the passage. Now we hear his\nglad response to God's abundant answer. 'What have I to do any more with\nidols?' He had vowed (verse 3) to have no more to do with them, and the\nresolve is deepened by the rich grace held forth to him. Hosea had\nlamented Ephraim's mad adherence to 'his idols' (iv. 17), but now the\nunion is dissolved, and by penitence and reception of God's grace, he is\njoined to the Lord, and parted from them. His renunciation of idolatry\nis based, in the second clause, on his experience of what God can do,\nand on his having heard God's gracious voice of pardon and promise. If a\nman hears God, he will not be drawn to worship at any idol's shrine.\n\nFurther, in the third clause, Ephraim is joyfully conscious of the\nchange that has passed on him, in accordance with the great promises\njust spoken, and with grateful astonishment that such verdure should\nhave burst out from the dry and rotten stump of his own sinful nature,\nexclaims, 'I am like a green fir-tree.' That is another reason why he\nwill have no more to do with idols. They could never have made his\nsapless nature break into leafage. But what of the fourth clause--'From\nMe is thy fruit found'? Can we understand that to mean that Ephraim\nstill speaks, keeping up the image of the previous clause, and declaring\nthat all the new fruitfulness which he finds in himself he recognises to\nbe God's, both in the sense that, in reality, it is produced by Him, and\nthat it belongs to Him? He comes seeking fruit, and He finds it. All our\ngood is His, and we shall be happy, productive, and wise, in proportion\nas we offer all our works to Him, and feel that, after all, they are not\nours, but the works of that Spirit which dwells in penitent and\nbelieving hearts. Some have thought that this last clause must be taken\nas spoken by God; but, even if so taken, it conveys substantially the\nsame thought as to the divine origin of man's fruitfulness.\n\nThe last verse is rather a general reflection summing up the whole than\nan integral part of this wonderful representation of penitence, pardon,\nand fruitfulness. It declares the great truth that the knowledge of the\npardoning mercy of God, and of the ways by which He weans men from sin\nand makes them fruitful of good, makes us truly wise. That knowledge is\nmore than intellectual apprehension; it is experience. Providence has\nits mysteries, but they who keep near to God, and are 'just' because\nthey do, will find the opportunity of free, unfettered activity in\nGod's ways, and transgressors will stumble therein. Therefore wisdom and\nsafety lie in penitence and confession, which will ever be met by\ngracious pardon and showers of blessing that will cause our hearts,\nwhich sin has made desert, to rejoice and blossom like the rose.\n\n\nTHE DEW AND THE PLANTS\n\n     'I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and\n     cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 6. His branches shall spread, and\n     his beauty shall be as the olive-tree ...'--Hosea xiv. 5, 6.\n\nLike his brethren, Hosea was a poet as well as a prophet. His little\nprophecy is full of similes and illustrations drawn from natural\nobjects; scarcely any of them from cities or from the ways of men;\nalmost all of them from Nature, as seen in the open country, which he\nevidently loved, and where he had looked upon things with a clear and\nmeditative eye. This whole chapter is full of emblems drawn from the\nvegetable world. The lily, the cedar, the olive, are in my text. And\nthere follow, in the subsequent verses, the corn, and the vine, and the\ngreen fir-tree.\n\nThe words which I have read, no doubt originally had simply a reference\nto the numerical increase of the people and their restoration to their\nland, but they may be taken by us quite fairly as having a very much\ndeeper and more blessed reference than that. For they describe the\nuniform condition of all spiritual life and growth,' I will be as the\ndew unto Israel'; and then they set forth some of the manifold aspects\nof that growth, and the consequences of receiving that heavenly dew,\nunder the various metaphors to which I have referred. It is in that\nhigher signification that I wish to look at them now.\n\nI. The first thought that comes out of the words is that for all life\nand growth of the spirit there must be a bedewing from God.\n\n'I will be as the dew unto Israel.' Now, scholars tell us that the kind\nof moisture that is meant in these words is not what we call dew, of\nwhich, as a matter of fact, there falls, in Palestine, little or none at\nthe season of the year referred to in my text, but that the word really\nmeans the heavy night-clouds that come upon the wings of the south-west\nwind, to diffuse moisture and freshness over the parched plains, in the\nvery height and fierceness of summer. The metaphor of my text becomes\nmore beautiful and striking, if we note that, in the previous chapter,\nwhere the Prophet was in his threatening mood, he predicts that 'an east\nwind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the\nwilderness'--the burning sirocco, with death upon its wings--'and his\nspring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up.' We have\nthen to imagine the land gaping and parched, the hot air having, as with\ninvisible tongue of flame, licked streams and pools dry, and having\nshrunken fountains and springs. Then, all at once there comes down upon\nthe baking ground and on the faded, drooping flowers that lie languid\nand prostrate on the ground in the darkness, borne on the wings of the\nwind, from the depths of the great unfathomed sea, an unseen moisture.\nYou cannot call it rain, so gently does it diffuse itself; it is liker a\nmist, but it brings life and freshness, and everything is changed. The\ndew, or the night mist, as it might more properly be rendered, was\nevidently a good deal in Hosea's mind; you may remember that he uses the\nimage again in a remarkably different aspect, where he speaks of men's\ngoodness as being like 'a morning cloud, and the early dew that passes\naway.'\n\nThe natural object which yields the emblem was all inadequate to set\nforth the divine gift which is compared to it, because as soon as the\nsun has risen, with burning heat, it scatters the beneficent clouds, and\nthe 'sunbeams like swords' threaten to slay the tender green shoots. But\nthis mist from God that comes down to water the earth is never dried up.\nIt is not transient. It may be ours, and live in our hearts. Dear\nbrethren, the prose of this sweet old promise is 'If I depart, I will\nsend Him unto you.' If we are Christian people, we have the perpetual\ndew of that divine Spirit, which falls on our leaves and penetrates to\nour roots, and communicates life, freshness, and power, and makes growth\npossible--more than possible, certain--for us. 'I'--Myself through My\nSon, and in My Spirit--'I will be'--an unconditional assurance--'as the\ndew unto Israel.'\n\nYes! That promise is in its depth and fulness applicable only to the\nChristian Israel, and it remains true to-day and for ever. Do we see it\nfulfilled? One looks round upon our congregations, and into one's own\nheart, and we behold the parable of Gideon's fleece acted over\nagain--some places soaked with the refreshing moisture, and some as hard\nas a rock and as dry as tinder and ready to catch fire from any spark\nfrom the devil's forge and be consumed in the everlasting burnings some\nday. It will do us good to ask ourselves why it is that, with a promise\nlike this for every Christian soul to build upon, there are so few\nChristian souls that have anything like realised its fulness and its\ndepth. Let us be quite sure of this--God has nothing to do with the\nfailure of His promise, and let us take all the blame to ourselves.\n\n'I will be as the dew unto Israel.' Who was Israel? The man that\nwrestled all night in prayer with God, and took hold of the angel and\nprevailed and wept and made supplication to Him. So Hosea tells us; and\nas he says in the passage where he describes the Angel's wrestling with\nJacob at Peniel, 'there He spake with us'--when He spake, He spake with\nhim who first bore the name. Be you Israel, and God will surely be your\ndew; and life and growth will be possible. That is the first lesson of\nthis great promise.\n\nII. The second is, that a soul thus bedewed by God will spring into\npurity and beauty.\n\nWe go back to Hosea's vegetable metaphors. 'He shall grow as the lily'\nis his first promise. If I were addressing a congregation of botanists,\nI should have something to say about what kind of a plant is meant, but\nthat is quite beside the mark for my present purpose. It is sufficient\nto notice that in this metaphor the emphasis is laid upon the two\nattributes which I have named--beauty and purity. The figure teaches us\nthat ugly Christianity is not Christ's Christianity. Some of us older\npeople remember that it used to be a favourite phrase to describe\nunattractive saints that they had 'grace grafted on a crab stick.' There\nare a great many Christian people whom one would compare to any other\nplant rather than a lily. Thorns and thistles and briers are a good deal\nmore like what some of them appear to the world. But we are bound, if we\nare Christian people, by our obligations to God, and by our obligations\nto men, to try to make Christianity look as beautiful in people's eyes\nas we can. That is what Paul said, 'Adorn the teaching'; make it look\nwell, inasmuch as it has made you look attractive to men's eyes. Men\nhave a fairly accurate notion of beauty and goodness, whether they have\nany goodness or any beauty in their own characters or not. Do you\nremember the words: 'Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are\nof good report, whatsoever things are venerable ... if there be any\npraise'--from men--'think on these things'? If we do not keep that as\nthe guiding star of our lives, then we have failed in one very distinct\nduty of Christian people--namely, to grow more like a lily, and to be\ngraceful in the lowest sense of that word, as well as _grace full_ in\nthe highest sense of it. We shall not be so in the lower, unless we are\nso in the higher. It may be a very modest kind of beauty, very humble,\nand not at all like the flaring reds and yellows of the gorgeous flowers\nthat the world admires. These are often like a great sunflower, with a\ndisc as big as a cheese. But the Christian beauty will be modest and\nunobtrusive and shy, like the violet half buried in the hedge-bank, and\nunnoticed by careless eyes, accustomed to see beauty only in gaudy,\nflaring blooms. But unless you, as a Christian, are in your character\narrayed in the \"beauty of holiness,\" and the holiness of beauty, you are\nnot quite the Christian that Jesus Christ wants you to be; setting forth\nall the gracious and sweet and refining influences of the Gospel in your\ndaily life and conduct. That is the second lesson of our text.\n\nIII. The third is, that a God-bedewed soul that has been made fair and\npure by communion with God, ought also to be strong.\n\nHe \"shall cast forth his roots like Lebanon.\" Now I take it that simile\ndoes not refer to the roots of that giant range that slope away down\nunder the depths of the Mediterranean. That is a beautiful emblem, but\nit is not in line with the other images in the context. As these are all\ndependent on the promise of the dew, and represent different phases of\nthe results of its fulfilment, it is natural to expect thus much\nuniformity in their variety, that they shall all be drawn from\nplant-life. If so, we must suppose a condensed metaphor here, and take\n\"Lebanon\" to mean the forest which another prophet calls \"the glory of\nLebanon.\" The characteristic tree in these, as we all know, was the\ncedar.\n\nIt is named in Hebrew by a word which is connected with that for\n\"strength.\" It stands as the very type and emblem of stability and\nvigour. Think of its firm roots by which it is anchored deep in the\nsoil. Think of the shelves of massive dark foliage. Think of its\nunchanged steadfastness in storm. Think of its towering height; and thus\narriving at the meaning of the emblem, let us translate it into practice\nin our own lives. \"He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon.\" Beauty?\nYes! Purity? Yes! And braided in with them, if I may so say, the\nstrength which can say \"No!\" which can resist, which can persist, which\ncan overcome; power drawn from communion with God. \"Strength and beauty\"\nshould blend in the worshippers, as they do in the \"sanctuary\" in God\nHimself. There is nothing admirable in mere force; there is often\nsomething sickly and feeble, and therefore contemptible in mere beauty.\nMany of us will cultivate the complacent and the amiable sides of the\nChristian life, and be wanting in the manly \"thews that throw the\nworld,\" and can fight to the death. But we have to try and bring these\ntwo excellences of character together, and it needs an immense deal of\ngrace and wisdom and imitation of Jesus Christ, and a close clasp of His\nhand, to enable us to do that. Speak we of strength? He is the type of\nstrength. Of beauty? He is the perfection of beauty. And it is only as\nwe keep close to Him that our lives will be all fair with the reflected\nloveliness of His, and strong with the communicated power of His\ngrace--\"strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.\"\n\nBrethren, if we are to set forth anything, in our daily lives, of this\nstrength, remember that our lives must be rooted in, as well as bedewed\nby, God. Hosea's emblems, beautiful and instructive as they are, do not\nreach to the deep truth set forth in still holier and sweeter words; \"I\nam the Vine, ye are the branches.\" The union of Christ and His people\nis closer than that between dew and plant. Our growth results from the\ncommunication of His own life to us. Therefore is the command stringent\nand obedience to it blessed, \"Abide in Me, for apart from Me ye can\ndo\"--and are--\"nothing.\"\n\nLet us remember that the loftier the top of the tree and the wider the\nspread of its shelves of dark foliage, if it is steadfastly to stand,\nunmoved by the loud winds when they call, the deeper must its roots\nstrike into the firm earth. If your life is to be a fair temple-palace\nworthy of God's dwelling in, if it is to be impregnable to assault,\nthere must be quite as much masonry underground as above, as is the case\nin great old buildings and palaces. And such a life must be a life \"hid\nwith Christ in God,\" then it will be strong. When we strike our roots\ndeep into Him, our branch also shall not wither, and our leaf shall be\ngreen, and all that we do shall prosper. The wicked are not so. They are\nlike chaff--rootless, fruitless, lifeless, which the wind driveth away.\n\nIV. Lastly, the God-bedewed soul, beautiful, pure, strong, will bear\nfruit.\n\nThat is the last lesson from these metaphors. \"His beauty shall be as\nthe olive-tree.\" Anybody that has ever seen a grove of olives knows that\ntheir beauty is not such as strikes the eye. If it was not for the blue\nsky overhead, that rays down glorifying light, they would not be much to\nlook at or talk about. The tree has a gnarled, grotesque trunk which\ndivides into insignificant branches, bearing leaves mean in shape, harsh\nin texture, with a silvery underside. It gives but a quivering shade and\nhas no massiveness, nor symmetry. Ay! but there are olives on the\nbranches. And so the beauty of the humble tree is in what it grows for\nman's good. After all, it is the outcome in fruitfulness which is the\nmain thing about us. God's meaning, in all His gifts of dew, and beauty,\nand purity, and strength, is that we should be of some use in the world.\n\nThe olive is crushed into oil, and the oil is used for smoothing and\nsuppling joints and flesh, for nourishing and sustaining the body as\nfood, for illuminating darkness as oil in the lamp. And these three\nthings are the three things for which we Christian people have received\nall our dew, and all our beauty, and all our strength--that we may give\nother people light, that we may be the means of conveying to other\npeople nourishment, that we may move gently in the world as lubricating,\nsweetening, soothing influences, and not irritating and provoking, and\nleading to strife and alienation. _The_ question after all is, Does\nanybody gather fruit off us, and would anybody call _us_ 'trees of\nrighteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified'? That\nis lesson four from this text. May we all open our hearts for the dew\nfrom heaven, and then use it to produce in ourselves beauty, purity,\nstrength, and fruitfulness!\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nAMOS\n\n\nA PAIR OF FRIENDS\n\n     'Can two walk together, except they be agreed?'-AMOS III. 8.\n\nThey do not need to be agreed about everything. They must, however, wish\nto keep each others company, and they must be going by the same road to\nthe same place. The application of the parable is very plain, though\nthere are differences of opinion as to the bearing of the whole context\nwhich need not concern us now. The 'two,' whom the Prophet would fain\nsee walking together, are God and Israel, and his question suggests not\nonly the companionship and communion with God which are the highest form\nof religion and the aim of all forms and ceremonies of worship, but also\nthe inexorable condition on which alone that height of communion can be\nsecured and sustained. Two _may_ walk together, though the one be God in\nheaven and the other be I on earth. But they have to be agreed thus far,\nat any rate, that both shall wish to be together, and both be going the\nsame road.\n\nI. So I ask you to look, first, at that possible blessed companionship\nwhich may cheer a life.\n\nThere are three phrases in the Old Testament, very like each other, and\nyet presenting different facets or aspects of the same great truth.\nSometimes we read about 'walking before God' as Abraham was bid to do.\nThat means ordering the daily life under the continual sense that we are\n'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye' Then there is 'walking after God,'\nand that means conforming the will and active efforts to the rule that\nHe has laid down, setting our steps firm on the paths that He has\nprepared that we should walk in them, and accepting His providences.\nBut also, high above both these conceptions of a devout life is the one\nwhich is suggested by my text, and which, as you remember, was realised\nin the case of the patriarch Enoch--'walking with God.' For to walk\nbefore Him may have with it some tremor, and may be undertaken in the\nspirit of the slave who would be glad to get away from the jealous eye\nthat rebukes his slothfulness; and 'walking after Him' may be a painful\nand partial effort to keep His distant figure in sight; but to 'walk\nwith Him' implies a constant, quiet sense of His Divine Presence which\nforbids that I should ever be lonely, which guides and defends, which\nfloods my soul and fills my life, and in which, as the companions pace\nalong side by side, words may be spoken by either, or blessed silence\nmay be eloquent of perfect trust and rest.\n\nBut, dear brother, far above us as such experience seems to sound, such\na life is a possibility for every one of us. We may be able to say, as\ntruly as our Lord said it, 'I am not alone, for the Father is with me.'\nIt is possible that the dreariest solitude of a soul, such as is not\nrealised when the body is removed from men, but is felt most in the\ncrowded city where there is none that loves or fathoms and sympathises,\nmay be turned into blessed fellowship with Him. Yes, but that solitude\nwill not be so turned unless it is first painfully felt. As Daniel said,\n'I was left alone, and I saw the great vision.' We need to feel in our\ndeepest hearts that loneliness on earth before we walk with God.\n\nIf we are so walking, it is no piece of fanaticism to say that there\nwill be mutual communications. Do you not believe that God knows His way\ninto the spirits that He has endowed with conscious life? Do you not\nbelieve that He speaks now to people as truly as He did to prophets and\nApostles of old? as truly; though the results of His speech to us of\nto-day be not of the same authority for others as the words that He\nspoke to a Paul or a John. The belief in God's communications as for\never sounding in the depths of the Christian spirit does not at all\nobliterate the distinction between the kind of inspiration which\nproduced the New Testament and that which is realised by all believing\nand obedient souls. High above all our experience of hearing the words\nof God in our hearts stands that of those holy men of old who heard\nGod's message whispered in their ears, that they might proclaim it on\nthe housetops to all the world through all generations. But though they\nand we are on a different level, and God spoke to them for a different\npurpose, He speaks in our spirits, if we will comply with the\nconditions, as truly as He did in theirs. As really as it was ever true\nthat the Lord spoke to Abraham, or Isaiah, or Paul, it is true that He\nnow speaks to the man who walks with Him. Frank speech on both sides\nbeguiles many a weary mile, when lovers or friends foot it side by side;\nand this pair of friends of whom our text speaks have mutual\nintercourse. God speaks with His servant now, as of old, 'as a man\nspeaketh with his friend'; and we on our parts, if we are truly walking\nwith Him, shall feel it natural to speak frankly to God. As two friends\non the road will interchange remarks about trifles, and if they love\neach other, the remarks about the trifles will be weighted with love, so\nwe can tell our smallest affairs to God; and if we have Him for our\nPilgrim-Companion, we do not need to lock up any troubles or concerns of\nany sort, big or little, in our hearts, but may speak them all to our\nFriend who goes with us.\n\nThe two _may_ walk together. That is the end of all religion. What are\ncreeds for? What are services and sacraments for? What is theology for?\nWhat is Christ's redeeming act for? All culminate in this true, constant\nfellowship between men and God. And unless, in some measure, that result\nis arrived at in our cases, our religion, let it be as orthodox as you\nlike, our faith in the redemption of Jesus Christ, let it be as real as\nyou will, our attendances on services and sacraments, let them be as\npunctilious and regular as may be, are all 'sounding brass and tinkling\ncymbal.' Get side by side with God; that is the purpose of all these,\nand fellowship with Him is the climax of all religion.\n\nIt is also the secret of all blessedness, the only thing that will make\na life absolutely sovereign over sorrow, and fixedly unperturbed by all\ntempests, and invulnerable to all 'the slings and arrows of outrageous\nfortune.' Hold fast by God, and you have an amulet against every evil,\nand a shield against every foe, and a mighty power that will calm and\nsatisfy your whole being. Nothing else, nothing else will do so. As\nAugustine said, 'O God! Thou hast made us for Thyself, and in Thyself\nonly are we at rest.' If the Shepherd is with us we will fear no evil.\n\nII. Now, a word, in the next place, as to the sadly incomplete reality,\nin much Christian experience, which contrasts with this possibility.\n\nI am afraid that very, very few so-called Christian people habitually\nfeel, as they might do, the depth and blessedness of this communion. And\nsure I am that only a very small percentage of us have anything like the\ncontinuity of companionship which my text suggests as possible. There\nmay be, and therefore there should be, running unbroken through a\nChristian life one long, bright line of communion with God and happy\ninspiration from the sense of His presence with us. Is it a line in _my_\nlife, or is there but a dot here, and a dot there, and long breaks\nbetween? The long, embarrassed pauses in a conversation between two who\ndo not know much of, or care much for, each other are only too like\nwhat occurs in many professing Christians' intercourse with God. Their\ncommunion is like those time-worn inscriptions that archaeologists dig\nup, with a word clearly cut and then a great gap, and then a letter or\ntwo, and then another gap, and then a little bit more legible, and then\nthe stone broken, and all the rest gone. Did you ever read the\nmeteorological reports in the newspapers and observe a record like this,\n'Twenty minutes' sunshine out of a possible eight hours'? Do you not\nthink that such a state of affairs is a little like the experience of a\ngreat many Christian people in regard to their communion with God? It is\nbroken at the best, and imperfect at the completest, and shallow at the\ndeepest. O, dear brethren! rise to the height of your possibilities, and\nlive as close to God as He lets you live, and nothing will much trouble\nyou.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, a word about the simple explanation of the failure\nto realise this continual presence.\n\n'Can two walk together except they be agreed?' Certainly not. Our\nfathers, in a sterner and more religious age than ours, used to be\ngreatly troubled how to account for a state of Christian experience\nwhich they supposed to be due to God's withdrawing of the sense of His\npresence from His children. Whether there is any such withdrawal or not,\nI am quite certain that that is not the cause of the interrupted\ncommunion between God and the average Christian man.\n\nI make all allowance for the ups and downs and changing moods which\nnecessarily affect us in this present life, and I make all allowance,\ntoo, for the pressure of imperative duties and distracting cares which\ninterfere with our communion, though, if we were as strong as we might\nbe, they would not wile us away from, but drive us to, our Father in\nheaven. But when all such allowances have been made, I come back to my\ntext as _the_ explanation of interrupted communion. The two are _not_\nagreed; and that is why they are not walking together. The consciousness\nof God's presence with us is a very delicate thing. It is like a very\nsensitive thermometer, which will drop when an iceberg is a league off\nover the sea, and scarcely visible. We do not wish His company, or we\nare not in harmony with His thoughts, or we are not going His road, and\ntherefore, of course, we part. At bottom there is only one thing that\nseparates a soul from God, and that is sin--sin of some sort, like tiny\ngrains of dust that get between two polished plates in an engine that\nought to move smoothly and closely against each other. The obstruction\nmay be invisible, and yet be powerful enough to cause friction, which\nhinders the working of the engine and throws everything out of gear. A\nlight cloud that we cannot see may come between us and a star, and we\nshall only know it is there, because the star is _not_ visibly there.\nSimilarly, many a Christian, quite unconsciously, has something or other\nin his habits, or in his conduct, or in his affections, which would\nreveal itself to him, if he would look, as being wrong, because it blots\nout God.\n\nLet us remember that very little divergence will, if the two paths are\nprolonged far enough, part their other ends by a world. Our way may go\noff from the ways of the Lord at a very acute angle. There may be\nscarcely any consciousness of parting company at the beginning. Let the\nman travel on upon it far enough, and the two will be so far apart that\nhe cannot see God or hear Him speak. Take care of the little divergences\nwhich are habitual, for their accumulated results will be complete\nseparation. There must be absolute surrender if there is to be\nuninterrupted fellowship.\n\nSuch, then, is the direction in which we are to look for the reasons for\nour low and broken experiences of communion with God. Oh, dear friends!\nwhen we do as we sometimes do, wake with a start, like a child that all\nat once starts from sleep and finds that its mother is gone--when we\nwake with a start to feel that we are alone, then do not let us be\nafraid to go straight back. Only be sure that we leave behind us the sin\nthat parted us.\n\nYou remember how Peter signalised himself on the lake, on the occasion\nof the second miraculous draught of fishes, when he floundered through\nthe water and clasped Christ's feet. He did not say then, 'Depart from\nMe, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!' He had said that before on a similar\noccasion, when he felt his sin less, but now he knew that the best place\nfor the denier was with his head on Christ's bosom. So, if we have\nparted from our Friend, there should be no time lost ere we go back. May\nit be true of us that we walk with God, so that at last the great\npromise may be fulfilled about us, 'that we shall walk with Him in\nwhite,' being by His love accounted 'worthy,' and so 'follow' and keep\ncompany with, 'the Lamb whithersoever He goeth!'\n\n\nSMITTEN IN VAIN\n\n     'Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression;\n     and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after\n     three years: 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,\n     and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for this liketh you, O\n     ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. 6. And I also have given\n     you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all\n     your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 7.\n     And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet\n     three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city,\n     and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained\n     upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. 8. So two or\n     three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were\n     not satisfied; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 9.\n     I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens, and\n     your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees increased,\n     the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto Me,\n     saith the Lord. 10. I have sent among you the pestilence, after the\n     manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and\n     have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your\n     camps to come up unto your nostrils; yet have ye not returned unto\n     Me, saith the Lord. 11. I have overthrown some of you, as God\n     overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked\n     out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the\n     Lord. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because\n     I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13.\n     For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and\n     declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning\n     darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord,\n     The God of hosts, is His name.'--AMOS iv. 4-13.\n\nThe reign of Jeroboam II. was one of brilliant military success and of\nprofound moral degradation. Amos was a simple, hardy shepherd from the\nsouthern wilds of Judah, and his prophecies are redolent of his early\nlife, both in their homely imagery and in the wholesome indignation and\ncontempt for the silken-robed vice of Israel. No sterner picture of an\nutterly rotten social state was ever drawn than this book gives of the\nluxury, licentiousness, and oppressiveness of the ruling classes. This\npassage deals rather with the religious declension underlying the moral\nfilth, and sets forth the self-willed idolatry of the people (vs. 4, 5),\ntheir obstinate resistance to God's merciful chastisement (vs. 6-11),\nand the heavier impending judgment (vs. 12, 13).\n\nI. Indignant irony flashes in that permission or command to persevere in\nthe calf worship. The seeming command is the strongest prohibition.\nThere can be no worse thing befall a man than that he should be left to\ngo on forwardly in the way of his heart. The real meaning is\nsufficiently emphasised by that second verb, 'and _transgress_'. 'Flock\nto one temple after another, and heap altars with sacrifices which you\nwere never bid to offer, but understand that what you do is not worship,\nbut sin.' That is a smiting sentence to pass upon elaborate ceremonial.\nThe word literally means treason or rebellion, and by it Amos at one\nblow shatters the whole fabric. Note, too, that the offering of tithes\nwas not called for by Mosaic law, 'every three days' (Revised Version),\nand that the use of leaven in burnt offerings was prohibited by it, and\nalso that to call for freewill offerings was to turn spontaneousness\ninto something like compulsion, and to bring ostentation into worship.\nAll these characteristics spoiled the apparent religiousness, over and\nabove the initial evil of disobedience, and warrant Amos's crushing\nequation, 'Your worship = rebellion.' All are driven home by the last\nwords of verse 5, 'So ye love it.' The reason for all this prodigal\nostentatious worship was to please themselves, not to obey God. That\ntainted everything, and always does.\n\nThe lessons of this burst of sarcasm are plain. The subtle influence of\nself creeps in even in worship, and makes it hollow, unreal, and\npowerless to bless the worshipper. Obedience is better than costly\ngifts. The beginning and end of all worship, which is not at same time\n'transgression' is the submission of tastes, will, and the whole self.\nAgain, men will lavish gifts far more freely in apparent religious\nservice, which is but the worship of their reflected selves, than in\ntrue service of God. Again, the purity of willing offerings is marred\nwhen they are given in response to a loud call, or, when given, are\nproclaimed with acclamations. Let us not suppose that all the brunt of\nAmos's indignation fell only on these old devotees. The principles\ninvolved in it have a sharp edge, turned to a great deal which is\nallowed and fostered among ourselves.\n\nII. The blaze of indignation changes in the second part of the passage\ninto wounded tenderness, as the Prophet speaks in the name of God, and\nrecounts the dreary monotony of failure attending all God's loving\nattempts to arrest Israel's departure by the mercy of judgment. Mark the\nsad cadence of the fivefold refrain, 'Ye have not returned unto Me,\nsaith the Lord.' The 'unto' implies reaching the object to which we\nturn, and is not the less forcible but more usual word found in this\nphrase, which simply means 'towards' and indicates direction, without\nsaying anything as to how far the return has gone. So there may have\nbeen partial moments of bethinking themselves, when the chastisement was\non Israel; but there had been no thorough 'turning,' which had landed\nthem at the side of God. Many a man turns _towards_ God, who, for lack\nof resolved perseverance, never so turns as to get _to_ God. The\nrepeated complaint of the inefficacy of chastisements has in it a tone\nof sorrow and of wonder which does not belong only to the Prophet. If we\nremember who it was who was 'grieved at the blindness of their heart,'\nand who 'wondered at their unbelief' we shall not fear to recognise here\nthe attribution of the same emotions to the heart of God.\n\nTo Amos, famine, drought, blasting, locusts, pestilence, and probably\nearthquake, were five messengers of God, and Amos was taught by God. If\nwe looked deeper, we should see more clearly. The true view of the\nrelation of all material things and events to God is this which the\nherdsman of Tekoa proclaimed. These messengers were not 'miracles,' but\nthey were God's messengers all the same. Behind all phenomena stands a\npersonal will, and they are nearer the secret of the universe who see\nGod working in it all, than they who see all forces except the One which\nis the only true force. 'I give cleanness of teeth. I have withholden\nthe rain. I have smitten. I have sent the pestilence. I have overthrown\nsome of you.' To the Prophet's eye the world is all aflame with a\npresent God. Let no scientific views, important and illuminating as\nthese may be, hide from us the deeper truth, which lies beyond their\nregion. The child who says 'God,' has got nearer the centre than the\nscientist who says 'Force.'\n\nBut Amos had another principle, that God sent physical calamities\nbecause of moral delinquencies and for moral and religious ends. These\ndisasters were meant to bring Israel back to God, and were at once\npunishments and reformatory methods. No doubt the connection between sin\nand material evils was closer under the Old Testament than now. But if\nwe may not argue as Amos did, in reference to such calamities as\ndrought, and failures of harvests, and the like, as these affect\ncommunities, we may, at all events, affirm that, in the case of the\nindividual, he is a wise man who regards all outward evil as having a\npossible bearing on his bettering spiritually. 'If a drought comes,\nlearn to look to your irrigation, and don't cut down your forests so\nwantonly,' say the wise men nowadays; 'if pestilence breaks out, see to\nyour drainage.' By all means. These things, too, are God's commandments,\nand we have no right to interpret the consequences of infraction of\nphysical laws as being meant to punish nations for their breach of moral\nand religious ones. If we were prophets, we might, but not else. But\nstill, is God so poor that He can have but one purpose in a providence?\nEvery sorrow, of whatever sort, is meant to produce all the good effects\nwhich it naturally tends to produce; and since every experience of pain\nand loss and grief naturally tends to wean us from earth, and to drive\nus to find in God what earth can never yield, all our sorrows are His\nmessengers to draw us back to Him. Amos' lesson as to the purpose of\ntrials is not antiquated.\n\nBut he has still another to teach us; namely, the awful power which we\nhave of resisting God's efforts to draw us back. 'Our wills are ours, we\nknow not how,' but alas! it is too often not 'to make them Thine.' This\nis the true tragedy of the world that God calls, and we do refuse, even\nas it is the deepest mystery of sinful manhood that God calls and we can\nrefuse. What infinite pathos and grieved love, thrown back upon itself,\nis in that refrain, 'Ye have not returned unto Me!' How its recurrence\nspeaks of the long-suffering which multiplied means as others failed, and\nof the divine charity, which 'suffered long, was not soon angry, and\nhoped all things!' How vividly it gives the impression of the obstinacy\nthat to all effort opposed insensibility, and clung the more closely and\ninsanely to the idolatry which was its crime and its ruin! The very same\ntemper is deep in us all. Israel holds up the mirror in which we may see\nourselves. If blows do not break iron, they harden it. A wasted\nsorrow--that is, a sorrow which does not drive us to God--leaves us less\nimpressible than it found us.\n\nIII. Again the mood changes, and the issue of protracted resistance is\nprophesied (vs. 12, 13). 'Therefore' sums up the instances of refusal\nto be warned, and presents them as the cause of the coming evil. The\nhigher the dam is piled, the deeper the water that is gathered behind\nit, and the surer and more destructive the flood when it bursts.\nLong-delayed judgments are severe in proportion as they are slow. Note\nthe awful vagueness of threatening in that emphatic 'thus,' as if the\nProphet had the event before his eyes. There is no need to specify, for\nthere can be but one result from such obstinacy. The 'terror of the\nLord' is more moving by reason of the dimness which wraps it. The\ncontact of divine power with human rebellion can only end in one way,\nand that is too terrible for speech. Conscience can translate 'thus.'\nThe thunder-cloud is all the more dreadful for the vagueness of its\noutline, where its livid hues melt into formless black. What bolts lurk\nin its gloom?\n\nThe certainty of judgment is the basis of a call to repentance, which\nmay avert it. The meeting with God for which Israel is besought to\nprepare, was, of course, not judgment after death, but the impending\ndestruction of the Northern Kingdom. But Amos's prophetic call is not\nmisapplied when directed to that final day of the Lord. Common-sense\nteaches preparation for a certain future, and Amos's trumpet-note is\ndeepened and re-echoed by Jesus: 'Be ye ready also, for ... the Son of\nman cometh.' Note, too, that Israel's peculiar relation to God is the\nvery ground of the certainty of its punishment, and of the appeal for\nrepentance. Just because He is 'thy God,' will He assuredly come to\njudge, and you may assuredly prepare, by repentance, to meet Him. The\nconditions of meeting the Judge, and being 'found of Him in peace,' are\nthat we should be 'without spot, and blameless'; and the conditions of\nbeing so spotless and uncensurable are, what they were in Amos's day,\nrepentance and trust. Only we have Jesus as the brightness of the\nFather's glory to trust in, and His all-sufficient work to trust to, for\npardon and purifying.\n\nThe magnificent proclamation of the name of the Lord which closes the\npassage, is meant as at once a guarantee of His judgment and an\nenforcement of the call to be ready to meet Him. He in creation forms\nthe solid, changeless mountains and the viewless, passing wind. The most\nstable and the most mobile are His work. He reads men's hearts, and can\ntell them their thoughts afar off. He is the Author of all changes, both\nin the physical and the moral world, bringing the daily wonder of\nsunrise and the nightly shroud of darkness, and with like alternation\nblending joy and sorrow in men's lives. He treads 'on the high places of\nthe earth,' making all created elevations the path of His feet, and\ncrushing down whatever exalts itself. Thus, in creation almighty, in\nknowledge omniscient, in providence changing all things and Himself the\nsame, subjugating all, and levelling a path for His purposes across\nevery opposition, He manifests His name, as the living, eternal Jehovah,\nthe God of the Covenant, and therefore of judgment on its breakers, and\nas the Commander and God of the embattled forces of the universe. Is\nthis a God whose coming to judge is to be lightly dealt with? Is not\nthis a God whom it is wise for us to be ready to meet?\n\n\nTHE SINS OF SOCIETY\n\n     'For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and\n     ye shall live: 5. But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and\n     pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,\n     and Beth-el shall come to nought. 6. Seek the Lord, and ye shall\n     live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and\n     devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el. 7. Ye who\n     turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the\n     earth, 8. Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and\n     turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day\n     dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and\n     poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is His name:\n     9. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the\n     spoiled shall come against the fortress. 10. They hate him that\n     rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.\n     11. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye\n     take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone,\n     but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards,\n     but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12. For I know your manifold\n     transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they\n     take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their\n     right 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;\n     for it is an evil time. 14. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may\n     live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye\n     have spoken. 15. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish\n     judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be\n     gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.'--AMOS v. 4-15.\n\nThe reign of Jeroboam II, in which Amos prophesied, was a period of\ngreat prosperity and of great corruption. Amos, born in the Southern\nKingdom, and accustomed to the simple life of a shepherd, blazed up in\nindignation at the signs of misused wealth and selfish luxury that he\nsaw everywhere, in what was to him almost a foreign country. If one\nfancies a godly Scottish Highlander sent to the West end of London, or a\nBible-reading New England farmer's man sent to New York's 'upper ten,'\none will have some notion of this prophet, the impressions made, and the\ntask laid on him. He has a message to our state of society which, in\nmany particulars, resembles that which he had to rebuke.\n\nThere seems to be a slight dislocation in the order of the verses of the\npassage, for verse 7 comes in awkwardly, breaking the connection between\nverses 6 and 8, and itself cut off from verse 10, to which it belongs.\nIf we remove the intruding verse to a position after verse 9, the whole\npassage is orderly and falls into three coherent parts: an exhortation\nto seek Jehovah, enforced by various considerations (vs. 4-9); a\nvehement denunciation of social vices (vs. 7, 10-13); and a renewed\nexhortation to seek God by doing right to man (vs. 14, 15).\n\nAmos's first call to Israel is but the echo of God's to men, always and\neverywhere. All circumstances, all inward experiences, joy and sorrow,\nprosperity and disaster, our longings and our fears, they all cry aloud\nto us to seek His face. That loving invitation is ever sounding in our\nears. And the promise which Amos gave, though it may have meant on his\nlips the continuance of national life only, yet had, even on his lips, a\ndeeper meaning, which we now cannot but hear in it. For, just as to\n'seek the Lord' means more to us than it did to Israel, so the\nconsequent life has greatened, widened, deepened into life eternal. But\nAmos's narrower, more external promise is true still, and there is no\nsurer way of promoting true well-being than seeking God. 'With Thee is\nthe fountain of life,' in all senses of the word, from the lowest purely\nphysical to the highest, and it is only they who go thither to draw that\nwill carry away their pitchers full of the sparkling blessing. The\nfundamental principle of Amos's teaching is an eternal truth, that to\nseek God is to find Him, and to find Him is life.\n\nBut Amos further teaches us that such seeking is not real nor able to\nfind, unless it is accompanied with turning away from all sinful quests\nafter vanities. We must give up seeking Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba,\nseats of the calf worship, if we are to seek God to purpose. The sin of\nthe Northern Kingdom was that it wanted to worship Jehovah under the\nsymbol of the calves, thus trying to unite two discrepant things. And is\nnot a great deal of our Christianity of much the same quality? Too many\nof us are doing just what Elijah told the crowds on Carmel that they\nwere doing, trying to 'shuffle along on both knees.' We would seek God,\nbut we would like to have an occasional visit to Bethel. It cannot be\ndone. There must be detachment, if there is to be any real attachment.\nAnd the certain transiency of all creatural objects is a good reason for\nnot fastening ourselves to them, lest we should share their fate.\n'Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought,'\ntherefore let us join ourselves to the Eternal Love and we shall abide,\nas it abides, for ever.\n\nThe exhortation is next enforced by presenting the consequences of\nneglecting it. To seek Him is life, not to seek Him incurs the danger of\nfinding Him in unwelcome ways. That is for ever true. We do not get away\nfrom God by forgetting Him, but we run the risk of finding in Him, not\nthe fire which vitalises, purifies, melts, and gladdens, but that which\nconsumes. The fire is one, but its effects are twofold. God is for us\neither that fire into which it is blessedness to be baptized, or that by\nwhich it is death to be burned up. And what can Bethel, or calves, or\nall the world do to quench it or pluck us out of it?\n\nOnce more the exhortation is urged, if we link verse 8 with verse 6, and\nsupply 'Seek ye' at its beginning. Here the enforcement is drawn from\nthe considerations of God's workings in nature and history. The shepherd\nfrom Tekoa had often gazed up at the silent splendours of the Pleiades\nand Orion, as he kept watch over his flocks by night, and had seen the\nthick darkness on the wide uplands thinning away as the morning stole op\nover the mountains across the Dead Sea, and the day dying as he gathered\nhis sheep together. He had cowered under the torrential rains which\nswept across his exposed homeland, and had heard God's voice summoning\nthe obedient waters of the sea, that He might pour them down in rain.\nBut the moral government of the world also calls on men to seek Jehovah.\n'He causeth destruction to flash forth on the strong, so that\ndestruction cometh upon the fortress.' High things attract the\nlightning. Godless strength is sure, sooner or later, to be smitten\ndown, and no fortress is so impregnable that He cannot capture and\noverthrow it. Surely wisdom bids us seek Him that does all these\nwonders, and make Him our defence and our high tower.\n\nThe second part gives a vivid picture of the vices characteristic of a\nprosperous state of society which is godless, and therefore selfishly\nluxurious. First, civil justice is corrupted, turned into bitterness,\nand prostrated to the ground. Then bold denouncers of national sins are\nviolently hated. Do we not know that phase of an ungodly and rich\nsociety? What do the newspapers say about Christians who try to be\nsocial reformers? Are the epithets flung at them liker bouquets or\nrotten eggs? 'Fanatics and faddists' are the mildest of them. Then the\npoor are trodden down and have to give large parts of their scanty\nharvests to the rich. Have capital and labour just proportions of their\njoint earnings? Would a sermon on verse 11 be welcome in the suburbs of\nindustrial centres, where the employers have their 'houses of hewn\nstone'? Such houses, side by side with the poor men's huts, struck the\neye of the shepherd from Tekoa as the height of sinful luxury, and still\nmore sinful disproportion in the social condition of the two classes.\nWhat would he have said if he had lived in England or America? Justice,\ntoo, was bought and sold. A murderer could buy himself off, while the\npoor man, who could not pay, lost his case. We do not bribe juries, but\n(legal) justice is an expensive luxury still, and counsel's fees put it\nout of the reach of poor men.\n\nOne of the worst features of such a state of society as Amos saw is that\nmen are afraid to speak out in condemnation of it, and the ill weeds\ngrow apace for want of a scythe. Amos puts a certain sad emphasis on\n'prudent,' as if he was feeling how little he could be called so, and\nyet there is a touch of scorn in him too. The man who is over-careful of\nhis skin or his reputation will hold his tongue; even good men may\nbecome so accustomed to the glaring corruptions of society in the midst\nof which they have always lived, that they do not feel any call to\nrebuke or wage war against them; but the brave man, the man who takes\nhis ideals from Christ, and judges society by its conformity with\nChrist's standard, will not keep silence, and the more he feels that 'It\nis an evil time' the more will he feel that he cannot but speak out,\nwhatever comes of his protest. What masquerades as prudence is very\noften sinful cowardice, and such silence is treason against Christ.\n\nThe third part repeats the exhortation to 'seek,' with a notable\ndifference. It is now 'good' that is to be sought, and 'evil' that is to\nbe turned from. These correspond respectively to 'Jehovah,' and 'Bethel,\nGilgal, and Beersheba,' in former verses. That is to say, morality is\nthe garb of religion, and religion is the only true source of morality.\nIf we are not seeking the things that are lovely and of good report, our\nprofessions of seeking God are false; and we shall never earnestly and\nsuccessfully seek good and hate evil unless we have begun by seeking and\nfinding God, and holding Him in our heart of hearts. Modern social\nreformers, who fancy that they can sweeten society without religion,\nmight do worse than go to school to Amos.\n\nNotable, too, is the lowered tone of confidence in the beneficial result\nof obeying the Prophet's call. In the earlier exhortation the promise\nhad been absolute. 'Seek ye Me, and ye _shall_ live'; now it has cooled\nto 'it may be.' Is Amos faltering? No; but while it is always true that\nblessed life is found by the seeker after God, because He finds the very\nsource of life, it is not always true that the consequences of past\nturnings from Him are diverted by repentance. 'It may be' that these\nhave to be endured, but even they become tokens of Jehovah's\ngraciousness, and the purified 'remnant of Joseph' will possess the true\nlife more abundantly because they have been exercised thereby.\n\n\nTHE CARCASS AND THE EAGLES\n\n     'Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of\n     Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of\n     Israel came! 2. Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye\n     to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be\n     they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your\n     border? 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of\n     violence to come near; 4. That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch\n     themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock,\n     and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5. That chant to the\n     sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick,\n     like David; 6. That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with\n     the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of\n     Joseph. 7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that\n     go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall\n     be removed. 8. The Lord God hath sworn by Himself, saith the Lord\n     the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his\n     palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is\n     therein.'--AMOS vi. 1-8.\n\nAmos prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.\nJeroboam's reign was a time of great prosperity for Israel. Moab,\nGilead, and part of Syria were reconquered, and the usual effects of\nconquest, increased luxury and vainglory, followed. Amos was not an\nIsraelite born, for he came from Tekoa, away down south, in the wild\ncountry west of the Dead Sea, where he had been a simple herdsman till\nthe divine call sent him into the midst of the corrupt civilisation of\nthe Northern Kingdom. The first words of his prophecy give its whole\nspirit: 'The Lord will roar from Zion.' The word rendered 'roar' is the\nterm specially used for the terrible cry with which a lion leaps on its\nsurprised prey (Amos iii. 4, 8). It is from Zion, the seat of God's\nTemple, that the 'roar' proceeds, and Amos's prophecy is but the echo of\nit in Israel.\n\nThe prophecy of judgment in this passage is directed against the sins of\nthe upper classes in Samaria. They are described in verse 1 as the\n'notable men ... to whom the house of Israel come,' which, in modern\nlanguage, is just 'conspicuous citizens,' who set the fashion, and are\nlooked to as authorities and leaders, whether in political or commercial\nor social life. The word by which they are designated is used in Numbers\ni. 17: 'Which are _expressed_ by name.' The word 'carried back the\nthoughts of the degenerate aristocracy of Israel to the faith and zeal\nof their forefathers' (Pusey, _Minor Prophets_, on this verse). Israel,\nAmos calls 'The first of the nations.' It is singular that such a title\nshould be given to the nation against whose corruption his one business\nis to testify, but probably there is keen irony in the word. It takes\nIsrael at its own estimate, and then goes on to show how rotten, and\ntherefore short-lived, was the prosperity which had swollen national\npride to such a pitch. The chiefs of the foremost nation in the world\nshould surely be something better than the heartless debauchees whom the\nProphet proceeds to paint. Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the Atlantic,\nwho are by no means deficient in this same complacent estimate of their\nown superiority to all other peoples, may take note. The same thought is\nprominent in the description of these notables as 'at ease.' They are\nliving in a fool's paradise, shutting their eyes to the thunder-clouds\nthat begin to rise slowly above the horizon, and keeping each other in\ncountenance in laughing at Amos and his gloomy forecasts. They 'trusted\nin the mountain of Samaria,' which, they thought, made the city\nimpregnable to assault. No doubt they thought that the Prophet's talk\nabout doing right and trusting in Jehovah was very fanatical and\nunpractical, just as many in England and America think that their\nnations are exalted, not by righteousness, but by armies, navies, and\ndollars or sovereigns.\n\nVerse 2 is very obscure to us from our ignorance of the facts underlying\nits allusions. In fact, it has been explained in exactly opposite ways,\nbeing taken by some to enumerate three instances of prosperous\ncommunities, which yet are not more prosperous than Israel, and by\nothers to enumerate three instances of God's judgments falling on places\nwhich, though strong, had been conquered. In the former explanation,\nGod's favour to Israel is made the ground of an implied appeal to their\ngratitude; in the latter, His judgments on other nations are made the\nground of an appeal to their fear, lest like destruction should fall on\nthem.\n\nBut the main points of the passage are the photograph of the crimes\nwhich are bringing the judgment of God, and the solemn divine oath to\ninflict the judgment. The crimes rebuked are not the false worship of\nthe calves, though in other parts of his prophecy Amos lashes that with\nterrible invectives, nor foul breaches of morality, though these were\nnot wanting in Israel, but the vices peculiar to selfish, luxurious\nupper classes in all times and countries, who forget the obligations of\nwealth, and think only of its possibilities of self-indulgence. French\n_noblesse_ before the Revolution, and English peers and commercial\nmagnates, and American millionaires, would yield examples of the same\nsin. The hardy shepherd from Tekoa had learned 'plain living and high\nthinking' before he was a prophet, and would look with wondering and\ndisgusted eyes at the wicked waste which he saw in Samaria. He begins\nwith scourging the reckless security already referred to. These notables\nin Israel were 'at ease' because they 'put far away the evil day,' by\nrefusing to believe that it was at hand, and paying no heed to prophets'\nwarnings, as their fellows do still and always, and as we all are\ntempted to do. They who see and declare the certain end of national or\npersonal sins are usually jeered at as pessimists, fanatics, alarmists,\nbad patriots, or personal ill-wishers, and the men whom they try to warn\nfancy that they hinder the coming of a day of retribution by\ndisbelieving in its coming. Incredulity is no lightning-conductor to\nkeep off the flash, and, listened to or not, the low growls of the\nthunder are coming nearer.\n\nWith one hand these sinners tried to push away the evil day, while with\nthe other they drew near to themselves that which made its coming\ncertain--'the seat of violence,' or, rather, 'the sitting,' or\n'session.' Violence, or wrongdoing, is enthroned by them, and where men\nenthrone iniquity, God's day of vengeance is not far off.\n\nThen follows a graphic picture of the senseless, corrupting luxury of\nthe Samaritan magnates, on which the Tekoan shepherd pours his scorn,\nbut which is simplicity itself, and almost asceticism, before what he\nwould see if he came to London or New York. To him it seemed effeminate\nto loll on a divan at meals, and possibly it was a custom imported from\nabroad. It is noted that 'the older custom in Israel was to sit while\neating.' The woodwork of the divans, inlaid with ivory, had caught his\neye in some of his peeps into the great houses, and he inveighs against\nthem very much as one of the Pilgrim Fathers might do if he could see\nthe furniture in the drawing-rooms of some of his descendants. There is\nno harm in pretty things, but the aesthetic craze does sometimes indicate\nand increase selfish heartlessness as to the poverty and misery, which\nhave not only no ivory on their divans, but no divans at all. Thus\nstretched in unmanly indolence on their cushions, they feast on\ndelicacies. 'Lambs out of the flock' and 'calves out of the stall' seem\nto mean animals too young to be used as food. These gourmands, like\ntheir successors, prided themselves on having dainties out of season,\nbecause they were more costly then. And their feasts had the adornment\nof music, which the shepherd, who knew only the pastoral pipe that\ngathered his sheep, refers to with contempt. He uses a very rare word of\nuncertain meaning, which is probably best rendered in some such way as\nthe Revised Version does: 'They sing idle songs.' To him their\nelaborate performances seemed like empty babble. Worse than that, they\n'devise musical instruments like David.' But how unlike him in the use\nthey make of art! What a descent from the praises of God to the 'idle\nsongs' fit for the hot dining-halls and the guests there! Amos was\nindignant at the profanation of art, and thought it best used in the\nservice of God. What would he have said if he had been 'fastened into a\nfront-row box' and treated to a modern opera?\n\nThe revellers 'drink wine in bowls' by which larger vessels than\ngenerally employed are intended. They drank to excess, or as we might\nsay, by bucketfuls. So the dainty feast, with its artistic refinement\nand music, ends at last in a brutal carouse, and the heads anointed with\nthe most costly unguents drop in drunken slumber. A similar picture of\nSamaritan manners is drawn by Isaiah (chap. xxviii.), and obviously\ndrunkenness was one of the besetting sins of the capital.\n\nBut the darkest hue in the dark picture has yet to be added: 'They are\nnot grieved for the affliction (literally, the 'breach' or 'wound') of\nJoseph.' The tribe of Ephraim, Joseph's son, being the principal tribe\nof the Northern Kingdom, Joseph is often employed as a synonym for\nIsrael. All these pieces of luxury, corrupting and effeminate as they\nare, might be permitted, but heartless indifference to the miseries\ngroaning at the door of the banqueting-hall goes with them. 'The\nclasses' are indifferent to the condition of 'the masses.' Put Amos into\nmodern English, and he is denouncing the heartlessness of wealth,\nrefinement, art, and culture, which has no ear for the complaining of\nthe poor, and no eyes to see either the sorrows and sins around it, or\nthe lowering cloud that is ready to burst in tempest.\n\nThe inevitable issue is certain, because of the very nature of God. It\nis outlined with keen irony. Amos sees in imagination the long\nprocession of sad captives, and marching in the front ranks, the\nself-indulgent Sybarites, whose pre-eminence is now only the melancholy\nprerogative of going first in the fettered train. What has become of\ntheir revelry? It is gone, like the imaginary banquets of dreams, and\ninstead of luxurious lolling on silken couches, there is the weary tramp\nof the captive exiles. Such result must be, since God is what He is. He\nhas sworn 'by Himself'; His being and character are the pledge that it\nwill be so as Amos has declared. How can such a God as He is do\notherwise than hate the pride of such a selfish, heartless,\nGod-forgetting aristocracy? How can He do otherwise than deliver up the\ncity? God has not changed, and though His mills grind slowly, they do\ngrind still; and it is as true for England and America, as it was for\nSamaria, that a wealthy and leisurely upper class, which cares only for\nmaterial luxury glossed over by art, which has condescended to be its\nservant, is bringing near the evil day which it hugs itself into\nbelieving will never come.\n\n\nRIPE FOR GATHERING\n\n     'Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of\n     summer fruit. 2. And He said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A\n     basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come\n     upon My people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.\n     3. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith\n     the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they\n     shall cast them forth with silence. 4. Hear this, O ye that swallow\n     up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail. 5. Saying,\n     When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the\n     sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and\n     the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? 6. That\n     we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;\n     yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? 7. The Lord hath sworn by\n     the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their\n     works. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn\n     that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and\n     it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. 9. And\n     it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will\n     cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in\n     the clear day: 10. And I w ill turn your feasts into mourning, and\n     all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon\n     all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the\n     mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. 11.\n     Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a\n     famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,\n     but of hearing the words of the Lord: 12. And they shall wander\n     from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall\n     run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.\n     13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for\n     thirst. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy\n     God, O Dan, liveth: and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they\n     shall fall, and never rise up again.'--AMOS viii. 1-14.\n\nThere are three visions in the former chapter, each beginning as verse\n1. This one is therefore intended to be taken as the continuation of\nthese, and it is in substance a repetition of the third, only with more\ndetail and emphasis. An insolent attempt, by the priest of Beth-el, to\nsilence the Prophet, and the fiery answer which he got for his pains,\ncome between. The stream of Amos's prophecy flows on, uninterrupted by\nthe boulder which had tried to dam it up. Some courage was needed to\ntreat Amaziah and his blasphemous bluster as a mere parenthesis.\n\nWe have first to note the vision and its interpretation. It is such as a\ncountryman, 'a dresser of sycamore trees' would naturally have.\nExperience supplies forms and material for the imagination, and moulds\ninto which God-given revelations run. The point of the vision is rather\nobscured by the rendering 'summer fruit.' 'Ripe fruit' would be better,\nsince the emblem represents the Northern Kingdom as ripe for the\ndreadful ingathering of judgment. The word for this (_qayits_) and that\nfor 'the end' (_qets_) are alike in sound, but the play of words cannot\nbe reproduced, except by some clumsy device, such as 'the end ripens' or\n'the time of ripeness comes.' The figure is frequent in other prophecies\nof judgment, as, for instance, in Revelation xiv. 14-20.\n\nObserve the repetition, from the preceding vision, of 'I will not pass\nby them any more.' The first two visions had threatened judgments, which\nhad been averted by the Prophet's intercession; but the third, and now\nthe fourth, declare that the time for prolonged impunity is passed. Just\nas the mellow ripeness of the fruit fixes the time of gathering it, so\nthere comes a stage in national and individual corruption, when there is\nnothing to be done but to smite. That period is not reached because God\nchanges, but because men get deeper in sin. Because 'the harvest is\nripe,' the long-delayed command, 'Put in thy sickle' is given to the\nangel of judgment, and the clusters of those black grapes, whose juice\nin the wine-press of the wrath of God is blood, are cut down and cast\nin. It is a solemn lesson, applying to each soul as well as to\ncommunities. By neglect of God's voice, and persistence in our own evil\nways, we can make ourselves such that we are ripe for judgment, and can\ncompel long-suffering to strike. Which are we ripening for--the harvest\nwhen the wheat shall be gathered into Christ's barns, or that when the\ntares shall be bound in bundles for burning?\n\nThe tragedy of that fruit-gathering is described with extraordinary\ngrimness and force in the abrupt language of verse 3. The merry songs\nsung in the palace (this rendering seems more appropriate here than\n'temple') will be broken off, and the singers' voices will quaver into\nshrill shrieks, so suddenly will the judgment be. Then comes a picture\nas abrupt in its condensed terribleness as anything in Tacitus--'Many\nthe corpses; everywhere they fling them; hush!' We see the ghastly\nmasses of dead ('corpse' is in the singular, as if a collective noun),\nso numerous that no burial-places could hold them; and no ceremonial\nattended them, but they were rudely flung anywhere by anybody (no\nnominative is given), with no accustomed voice of mourning, but in\ngloomy silence. It is like Defoe's picture of the dead-cart in the\nplague of London. Such is ever the end of departing from God--songs\npalsied into silence or turned into wailing when the judgment bursts;\ndeath stalking supreme, and silence brooding over all.\n\nThe crimes that ripened men for this terrible harvest are next set\nforth, in part, in verses 4 to 6. These verses partly coincide verbally\nwith the previous indictment in Amos ii. 6, etc., which, however, is\nmore comprehensive. Here only one form of sin is dealt with. And what\nwas the sin that deserved the bad eminence of being thus selected as the\nchief sign that Israel was ripe and rotten? Precisely the one which gets\nmost indulgence in the Christian Church; namely, eagerness to be rich,\nand sharp, unkindly dealing. These men, who were only fit to be swept\nout of the land, were most punctual in their religious duties. They\nwould not on any account do business either on a festival or on Sabbath,\nbut they were very impatient till--shall we say? Monday morning\ncame--that they might get to their beloved work again.\n\nTheir lineal descendants are no strangers on the exchanges, or in the\nchurches of London or New York. They were not only outwardly scrupulous\nand inwardly weary of religious observances, but when they did get to\n'business,' they gave short measure and took a long price, and knew how\nto turn the scales always in their own favour. It was the expedient of\nrude beginners in the sacred art of getting the best of a bargain, to\nput a false bottom in the _ephah_, and to stick a piece of lead below\nthe shekel weight, which the purchaser had to make go up in the scale\nwith his silver. There are much neater ways of doing the same thing now;\nand no doubt some very estimable gentlemen in high repute as Christians,\nwho give respectability to any church or denomination, could have taught\nthese early practitioners a lesson or two.\n\nThey were as cruel as they were greedy. They bought their brethren as\nslaves, and if a poor man had run into their debt for even a pair of\nshoes, they would sell him up in a very literal sense. Avarice,\nunbridled by the fear of God, leads by a short cut to harshness and\ndisregard of the claims of others. There are more ways of buying the\nneedy for a pair of shoes than these people practised.\n\nThe last touch in the picture is meanness, which turned everything into\nmoney. Even what fell through the sieve when wheat was winnowed, which\nought to have been given to anybody, was carefully scraped up, and,\ndirty as it was, sold. Is not 'nothing for nothing' an approved maxim\nto-day? Are not people held up as shining lights of commerce, who have\nthe faculty of turning everything into saleable articles? Some serious\nreflections ought to be driven home to us who live in great commercial\ncommunities, and are in manifold ways tempted to 'learn their ways, and\nso get a snare unto our souls,' by this gibbeting of tempers and\ncustoms, very common among ourselves, as the very head and front of the\nsin of Israel, which determined its ripeness for destruction.\n\nThe catalogue of sins is left incomplete (compare with chapter ii.), as\nif holy indignation turned for relief to the thought of the certain\njudgment. That certainly is strongly affirmed by the representation of\nthe oath of Jehovah. 'He can swear by no other,' therefore He 'swears by\nHimself'; and the 'excellency of Jacob' cannot with propriety mean\nanything else than Him who is, or ought to be, the sole ground of\nconfidence and occasion of 'boasting' to the nation (Hos. v. 5). He\ngives His own being as the guarantee that judgment shall fall. As surely\nas God is God, injustice and avarice will ruin a nation. We talk now\nabout necessary consequences and natural laws rendering penalties\ninevitable. The Bible suggests a deeper foundation for their certain\nincidence--even the very nature of God Himself. As long as He is what He\nis, covetousness and its child, harshness to the needy, will be sin\nagainst Him, and be avenged sooner or later. God has a long and a wide\nmemory, and the sins which He 'remembers' are those which He has not\nforgiven, and will punish.\n\nAmos heaps image on image to deepen the impression of terror and\nconfusion. Everything is turned to its opposite. The solid land reels,\nrises, and falls, like the Nile in flood (see Revised Version). The sun\nsets at midday, and noon is darkness. Feasts change to mourning, songs\nto lamentations. Rich garments are put aside for sackcloth, and flowing\nlocks drop off and leave bald heads. These are evidently all figures\nvividly piled together to express the same thought. The crash that\ndestroyed their national prosperity and existence would shake the most\nsolid things and darken the brightest. It would come suddenly, as if the\nsun plunged from the zenith to the west. It would make joy a stranger,\nand bring grief as bitter as when a father or a mother mourns the death\nof an only son. Besides all this, something darker beyond is dimly\nhinted in that awful, vague, final threat, 'The end thereof as a bitter\nday.'\n\nNow all these threats were fulfilled in the fall of the kingdom of\nIsrael; but that 'day of the Lord' was in principle a miniature\nforeshadowing of the great final judgment. Some of the very features of\nthe description here are repeated with reference to it in the New\nTestament. We cannot treat such prophecies as this as if they were\nexhausted by their historical fulfilment. They disclose the eternal\ncourse of divine judgment, which is to culminate in a future day of\njudgment. The oath of God is not yet completely fulfilled. Assuredly as\nHe lives and is God, so surely will modern sinners have to stand their\ntrial; and, as of old, the chase after riches will bring down crashing\nruin. We need that vision of judgment as much as Samaria did when Amos\nsaw the basket of ripe fruit, craving, as it were, to be plucked. So do\nobstinate sinners invite destruction.\n\nThe last section specifies one feature of judgment, the deprivation of\nthe despised word of the Lord (vs. 11-14). Like Saul, whose piteous wail\nin the witch's hovel was, 'God ... answereth me no more,' they who paid\nno heed to the word of the Lord shall one day seek far and wearily for a\nprophet, and seek in vain. The word rendered 'wander,' which is used in\nthe other description of people seeking for water in a literal drought\n(iv. 8), means 'reel,' and gives the picture of men faint and dizzy with\nthirst, yet staggering on in vain quest for a spring. They seek\neverywhere, from the Dead Sea on the east to the Mediterranean on the\nwest, and then up to the north, and so round again to the\nstarting-point. Is it because Judah was south that that quarter is not\nvisited? Perhaps, if they had gone where the Temple was, they would have\nfound the stream from under its threshold, which a later prophet saw\ngoing forth to heal the marshes and dry places. Why was the search vain?\nHas not God promised to be found of those that seek, however far they\nhave gone away? The last verse tells why. They still were idolaters,\nswearing by the 'sin of Samaria,' which is the calf of Beth-el, and by\nthe other at Dan, and going on idolatrous pilgrimages to Beer-sheba, far\naway in the south, across the whole kingdom of Judah (Amos v. 5). It was\nvain to seek for the word of the Lord with such doings and worship.\n\nThe truth implied is universal in its application. God's message\nneglected is withdrawn. Conscience stops if continually unheeded. The\nGospel may still sound in a man's ears, but have long ceased to reach\nfarther. There comes a time when men shall wish wasted opportunities\nback, and find that they can no more return than last summer's heat.\nThere may be a wish for the prophet in time of distress, which means no\nreal desire for God's word, but only for relief from calamity. There may\nbe a sort of seeking for the word, which seeks in the wrong places and\nin the wrong ways, and without abandoning sins. Such quest is vain. But\nif, driven by need and sorrow, a poor soul, feeling the thirst after the\nliving God, cries from ever so distant a land of bondage, the cry will\nbe answered. But let us not forget that our Lord has told us to take\nheed how we hear, on the very ground that 'to him that hath shall be\ngiven; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken\naway.'\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nJONAH\n\n\nGUILTY SILENCE AND ITS REWARD\n\n     Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,\n     saying, 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great, city, and cry against\n     it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. 3. But Jonah rose\n     up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went\n     down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid\n     the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto\n     Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4. But the Lord sent out a\n     great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,\n     so that the ship was like to be broken. 5. Then the mariners were\n     afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares\n     that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But\n     Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was\n     fast asleep. 6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him,\n     What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be\n     that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 7. And they said\n     every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may\n     know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and\n     the lot fell upon Jonah. 8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we\n     pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine\n     occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of\n     what people art thou? 9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and\n     I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the\n     dry land. 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto\n     him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from\n     the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11. Then said\n     they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm\n     unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. 12. And he said\n     unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the\n     sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great\n     tempest is upon you. 13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring\n     it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was\n     tempestuous against them. 14. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord,\n     and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not\n     perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for\n     Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. 15. So they took up\n     Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her\n     raging. 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a\n     sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. 17. Now the Lord had\n     prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the\n     belly of the fish three days and three nights.'--JONAH i. 1-17.\n\nJonah was apparently an older contemporary of Hosea and Amos. The\nAssyrian power was looming threateningly on the northern horizon, and a\nflash or two had already broken from that cloud. No doubt terror had\nwrought hate and intenser narrowness. To correct these by teaching, by\nan instance drawn from Assyria itself, God's care for the Gentiles and\ntheir susceptibility to His voice, was the purpose of Jonah's mission.\nHe is a prophet of Israel, because the lesson of his history was for\nthem, though his message was for Nineveh. He first taught by example the\ntruth which Jesus proclaimed in the synagogue of Nazareth, and Peter\nlearned on the housetop at Joppa, and Paul took as his guiding star. A\ntruth so unwelcome and remote from popular belief needed emphasis when\nfirst proclaimed; and this singular story, as it were, underlines it for\nthe generation which heard it first. Its place would rather have been\namong the narratives than the prophets, except for this aspect of it. So\nregarded, Jonah becomes a kind of representative of Israel; and his\nhistory sets forth large lessons as to its function among the nations,\nits unwillingness to discharge it, the consequences of disobedience, and\nthe means of return to a better mind.\n\nNote then, first, the Prophet's unwelcome charge. There seems no\nsufficient reason for doubting the historical reality of Jonah's mission\nto Nineveh; for we know that intercourse was not infrequent, and the\nsilence of other records is, in their fragmentary condition, nothing\nwonderful. But the fact that a prophet of Israel was sent to a heathen\ncity, and that not to denounce destruction except as a means of winning\nto repentance, declared emphatically God's care for the world, and\nrebuked the exclusiveness which claimed Him for Israel alone. The same\nspirit haunts the Christian Church, and we have all need to ponder the\nopposite truth, till our sympathies are widened to the width of God's\nuniversal love, and we discern that we are bound to care for all men,\nsince He does so.\n\nJonah sullenly resolved not to obey God's voice. What a glimpse into the\nprophetic office that gives us! The divine Spirit could be resisted, and\nthe Prophet was no mere machine, but a living man who had to consent\nwith his devoted will to bear the burden of the Lord. One refused, and\nhis refusal teaches us how superb and self-sacrificing was the\nfaithfulness of the rest. So we have each to do in regard to God's\nmessage intrusted to us. We must bow our wills, and sink our prejudices,\nand sacrifice our tastes, and say, 'Here am I; send me.'\n\nJonah represents the national feelings which he shared. Why did he\nrefuse to go to Nineveh? Not because he was afraid of his life, or\nthought the task hopeless. He refused because he feared success. God's\ngoodness was being stretched rather too far, if it was going to take in\nNineveh. Jonah did not want it to escape. If he had been sent to destroy\nit, he would probably have gone gladly. He grudged that heathen should\nshare Israel's privileges, and probably thought that gain to Nineveh\nwould be loss to Israel. It was exactly the spirit of the prodigal's\nelder brother. There was also working in him the concern for his own\nreputation, which would be damaged if the threats he uttered turned out\nto be thunder without lightning, by reason of the repentance of Nineveh.\n\nIsrael was set among the nations, not as a dark lantern, but as the\ngreat lampstand in the Temple court proclaimed, to ray out light to all\nthe world. Jonah's mission was but a concrete instance of Israel's\ncharge. The nation was as reluctant to fulfil the reason of its\nexistence as the Prophet was. Both begrudged sharing privileges with\nheathen dogs, both thought God's care wasted, and neither had such\nfeelings towards the rest of the world as to be willing to be messengers\nof forgiveness to them. All sorts of religious exclusiveness,\ncontemptuous estimates of other nations, and that bastard patriotism\nwhich would keep national blessings for our own country alone, are\ncondemned by this story. In it dawns the first faint light of that sun\nwhich shone at its full when Jesus healed the Canaanite's daughter, or\nwhen He said, 'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.'\n\nNote, next, the fatal consequences of refusal to obey the God-given\ncharge. We need not suppose that Jonah thought that he could actually\nget away from God's presence. Possibly he believed in a special presence\nof God in the land of Israel, or, more probably, the phrase means to\nescape from service. At any rate, he determined to do his flight\nthoroughly. Tarshish was, to a Hebrew, at the other end of the world\nfrom Nineveh. The Jews were no sailors, and the choice of the sea as\nmeans of escape indicates the obstinacy of determination in Jonah.\n\nThe storm is described with a profusion of unusual words, all apparently\ntechnical terms, picked up on board, just as Luke, in the only other\naccount of a storm in Scripture, has done. What a difference between the\ntwo voyages! In the one, the unfaithful prophet is the cause of\ndisaster, and the only sluggard in the ship. In the other, the Apostle,\nwho has hazarded his life to proclaim his Lord, is the source of hope,\ncourage, vigour, and safety. Such are the consequences of silence and of\nbrave speech for God. No wonder that the fugitive Prophet slunk down\ninto some dark corner, and sat bitterly brooding there, self-accused\nand condemned, till weariness and the relief of the tension of his\njourney lulled him to sleep. It was a stupid and heavy sleep. Alas for\nthose whose only refuge from conscience is oblivion!\n\nOver against this picture of the insensible Prophet, all unaware of the\nstorm (which may suggest the parallel insensibility of Israel to the\nimpending divine judgments), is set the behaviour of the heathen\nsailors, or 'salts,' as the story calls them. Their conduct is part of\nthe lesson of the book; for, heathen as they are, they have yet a sense\nof dependence, and they pray; they are full of courage, battling with\nthe storm, jettisoning the cargo, and doing everything possible to save\nthe ship. Their treatment of Jonah is generous and chivalrous. Even when\nthey hear his crime, and know that the storm is howling like a wild\nbeast for him, they are unwilling to throw him overboard without one\nmore effort; and when at last they do it, their prayer is for\nforgiveness, inasmuch as they are but carrying out the will of Jehovah.\nThey are so much touched by the whole incident that they offer\nsacrifices to the God of the Hebrews, and are, in some sense, and\npossibly but for a time, worshippers of Him.\n\nAll this holds the mirror up to Israel, by showing how much of human\nkindness and generosity, and how much of susceptibility for the truth\nwhich Israel had to declare, lay in rude hearts beyond its pale. This\ncrew of heathen of various nationalities and religions were yet men who\ncould be kind to a renegade Prophet, peril their lives to save his, and\nworship Jehovah. 'I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,'\nis the same lesson in another form. We may find abundant opportunities\nfor learning it; for the characters of godless men, and of some among\nthe heathen, may well shame many a Christian.\n\nJonah's conduct in the storm is no less noble than his former conduct\nhad been base. The burst of the tempest blew away all the fog from his\nmind, and he saw the stars again. His confession of faith; his calm\nconviction that he was the cause of the storm; his quiet, unhesitating\ncommand to throw him into the wild chaos foaming about the ship; his\nwilling acceptance of death as the wages of his sin, all tell how true a\nsaint he was in the depth of his soul. Sorrow and chastisement turn up\nthe subsoil. If a man has any good in him, it generally comes to the top\nwhen he is afflicted and looks death in the face. If there is nothing\nbut gravel beneath, it too will be brought up by the plough. There may\nbe much selfish unfaithfulness overlying a real devoted heart.\n\nJonah represented Israel here too, both in that the consequence of the\nnational unfaithfulness and greedy, exclusive grasp of their privileges\nwould lead to their being cast into the roaring waves of the sea of\nnations, amid the tumult of the peoples, and in that, for them as for\nhim, the calamity would bring about a better mind, the confession of\ntheir faith, and acknowledgment of their sin. The history of Israel was\ntypified in this history, and the lessons it teaches are lessons for all\nchurches, and for all God's children for all time. If we shirk our duty\nof witnessing for Him, or any other of His plain commands,\nunfaithfulness will be our ruin. The storm is sure to break where His\nJonahs try to hide, and their only hope lies in bowing to the\nchastisement and consenting to be punished, and avowing whose they are\nand whom they serve. If we own Him while the storm whistles round us,\nthe worst of it is past, and though we have to struggle amid its waves,\nHe will take care of us, and anything is possible rather than that we\nshould be lost in them.\n\nThe miracle of rescue is the last point. Jonah's repentance saved his\nlife. Tossed overboard impenitent he would have been drowned. So Israel\nwas taught that the break-up of their national life would not be their\ndestruction if they turned to the Lord in their calamity. The wider\nlesson of the means of making chastisement into blessing, and securing a\nway of escape--namely, by owning the justice of the stroke, and\nreturning to duty--is meant for us all. He who sends the storm watches\nits effect on us, and will not let His repentant servants be utterly\noverwhelmed. That is a better use to make of the story than to discuss\nwhether any kind of known Mediterranean fish could swallow a man. If we\nbelieve in miracles, the question need not trouble us. And miracle there\nmust be, not only in the coincidence of the fish and the Prophet being\nin the same bit of sea at the same moment, but in his living for so long\nin his strange 'ark of safety.'\n\nThe ever-present providence of God, the possible safety of the nation,\neven when in captivity, the preservation of every servant of God who\nturns to the Lord in his chastisement, the exhibition of penitence as\nthe way of deliverance, are the purposes for which the miracle was\nwrought and told. Flippant sarcasms are cheap. A devout insight yields a\nworthy meaning. Jesus Christ employed this incident as a symbol of His\nDeath and Resurrection. That use of it seems hard to reconcile with any\nview but that the story is true. But it does not seem necessary to\nsuppose that our Lord regarded it as an intended type, or to seek to\nfind in Jonah's history further typical prophecy of Him. The salient\npoint of comparison is simply the three days' entombment; and it is\nrather an illustrative analogy than an intentional prophecy. The\nsubsequent action of the Prophet in Nineveh, and the effect of it, were\ntrue types of the preaching of the Gospel by the risen Lord, through His\nservants, to the Gentiles, and of their hearing the Word. But it\nrequires considerable violence in manipulation to force the bestowing\nof Jonah, for safety and escape from death, in the fish's maw, into a\nproper prophecy of the transcendent fact of the Resurrection.\n\n\n'LYING VANITIES'\n\n     'They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.'--JONAH\n     11. 8.\n\nJonah's refusal to obey the divine command to go to Nineveh and cry\nagainst it is best taken, not as prosaic history, but as a poetical\nrepresentation of Israel's failure to obey the divine call of witnessing\nfor God. In like manner, his being cast into the sea and swallowed by\nthe great fish, is a poetic reproduction, for homiletical purposes, of\nIsrael's sufferings at the hands of the heathen whom it had failed to\nwarn. The song which is put into Jonah's mouth when in the fish's belly,\nof which our text is a fragment, represents the result on the part of\nthe nation of these hard experiences. 'Lying vanities' mean idols, and\n'their own mercy' means God. The text is a brief, pregnant utterance of\nthe great truth which had been forced home to Israel by sufferings and\nexile, that to turn from Jehovah to false gods was to turn from the sure\nsource of tender care to lies and emptiness. That is but one case of the\nwider truth that an ungodly life is the acme of stupidity, a tragic\nmistake, as well as a great sin.\n\nIn confirmation and enforcement of our text we may consider:--\n\nI. The illusory vanity of the objects pursued.\n\nThe Old Testament tone of reference to idols is one of bitter contempt.\nIts rigid monotheism was intensified and embittered by the universal\nprevalence of idolatry; and there is a certain hardness in its tone in\nreference to the gods of the nations round about, which has little room\nfor pity, and finds expression in such names as those of our\ntext--'vanities,' 'lies,' 'nothingness,' and the like. To the Jew,\nencompassed on all sides by idol-worshippers, the alternative was\nvehement indignation or entire surrender. The Mohammedan in British\nIndia exhibits much the same attitude to Vishnu and Siva as the Jew did\nto Baal and Ashtoreth. It is easy to be tolerant of dead gods, but it\nbecomes treason to Jehovah to parley with them when they are alive.\n\nBut the point which we desire to insist upon here is somewhat wider than\nthe vanity of idols. It is the emptiness of all objects of human pursuit\napart from God. These last three words need to be made very prominent;\nfor in itself 'every creature of God is good,' and the emptiness does\nnot inhere in themselves, but first appears when they are set in His\nplace. He, and only He, can, and does, satisfy the whole nature--is\nauthority for the will, peace for the conscience, love for the heart,\nlight for the understanding, rest for all seeking. He, and He alone, can\nfill the past with the light in which is no regret, the present with a\nsatisfaction rounded and complete, the future with a hope certain as\nexperience, to which we shall ever approximate, and which we can never\nexhaust and outgrow. Any, or all, the other objects of human endeavour\nmay be won, and yet we may be miserable. The inadequacy of all these\nought to be pressed home upon us more than it is, not only by their\nlimitations whilst they last, but by the transiency of them all. 'The\nfashion of this world passeth away,' as the Apostle John puts it, in a\nforcible expression which likens all this frame of things to a panorama\nbeing unwound from one roller and on to another. The painted screen is\nbut paint at the best, and is in perpetual motion, which is not arrested\nby the vain clutches of hands that would fain stop the irresistible and\ntragic gliding past.\n\nThese vanities are 'lying vanities.' There is only one aim of life\nwhich, being pursued and attained, fulfils the promises by which it drew\nman after it. It is a bald commonplace, reiterated not only by preachers\nbut by moralists of every kind, and confirmed by universal experience,\nthat a hope fulfilled is a hope disappointed. There is only one thing\nmore tragic than a life which has failed in its aims, and it is a life\nwhich has perfectly succeeded in them, and has found that what promised\nto be bread turns to ashes. The word of promise may be kept to the ear,\nbut is always broken to the hope. Many a millionaire loses the power to\nenjoy his millions by the very process by which he gains them. The old\nJewish thinker was wise not only in taking as the summing up of all\nworldly pursuits the sad sentence, 'All is vanity,' but in putting it\ninto the lips of a king who had won all he sought. The sorceress draws\nus within her charmed circle by lying words and illusory charms, and\nwhen she has so secured the captives, her mask is thrown off and her\nnative hideousness displayed.\n\nII. The hard service which lying vanities require.\n\nThe phrase in our text is a quotation, slightly altered, from Psalm\nxxxi. 6: 'I hate them that regard lying vanities; but I trust in the\nLord.' The alteration in the form of the verb as it occurs in Jonah\nexpresses the intensity of regard, and gives the picture of watching\nwith anxious solicitude, as the eyes of a servant turned to his master,\nor those of a dog to its owner. The world is a very hard master, and\nrequires from its servants the concentration of thought, heart, and\neffort. We need only recall the thousand sermons devoted to the\nenforcement of 'the gospel of getting on,' which prosperous worldlings\nare continually preaching. A chorus of voices on every side of us is\ndinning into the ears of every young man and woman the necessity for\nsuccess in life's struggle of taking for a motto, 'This one thing I do.'\nHow many a man is there, who in the race after wealth or fame, has flung\naway aspirations, visions of noble, truthful love to life, and a hundred\nother precious things? Browning tells a hideous story of a mother\nflinging, one after another, her infants to the wolves as she urged her\nsledge over the snowy plain. No less hideous, and still more maiming,\nare the surrenders that men make when once their hearts have been filled\nwith the foolish ambitions of worldly success. Let us fix it in our\nminds, that nothing that time and sense can give is worth the price that\nit exacts.\n\n    'It is only heaven that can be had for the asking;\n     It is only God that is given away.'\n\nAll sin is slavery. Its yoke presses painfully on the neck, and its\nburden is heavy indeed, and the rest which it promises never comes.\n\nIII. The self-inflicted loss.\n\nOur text suggests that there are two ways by which we may learn the\nfolly of a godless life--One, the consideration of what it turns to, the\nother, the thought of what it departs from.\n\n'They forsake their own Mercy,' that is God. The phrase is here almost\nequivalent to 'His name'; and it carries the blessed thought that He has\nentered into relations with every soul, so that each man of us--even if\nhe have turned to 'lying vanities'--can still call Him, 'my own Mercy.'\nHe is ours; more our own than is anything without us. He is ours,\nbecause we are made for Him, and He is all for us. He is ours by His\nlove, and by His gift of Himself in the Son of His love. He is ours; if\nwe take Him for ours by an inward communication of Himself to us in the\ninnermost depths of our being. He becomes 'the Master-Light of all our\nseeing.' In the mysterious inwardness of mutual possession, the soul\nwhich has given itself to God and possesses Him, has not only communion,\nbut may even venture to claim as its own the deeper and more mysterious\n_union_ with God. Those multiform mercies, 'which endure for ever,' and\nspeed on their manifold errands into every remotest region of His\nuniverse, gather themselves together, as the diffused lights of some\nnebulae concentrate themselves into a sun. That sun, like the star that\nled the wise men from the East, and finally stood over one poor house in\nan obscure village, will shine lambent above, and will pass into, the\nhumblest heart that opens for it. They who can say, as we all can if we\nwill, 'My God,' can never want.\n\nAnd if we turn to the alternative in our text, and consider who they are\nto whom we turn when we turn from God, there should be nothing more\nneeded to drive home the wholesome conviction of the folly of the\nwisest, who deliberately prefers shadow to substance, lying vanities to\nthe one true and only reality. I beseech you to take that which is your\nown, and which no man can take from you. Weigh in the scales of\nconscience, and in the light of the deepest necessities of your nature,\nthe whole pile of those emptinesses that have been telling you lies ever\nsince you listened to them; and place in the other scale the mercy of\nGod, and the Christ who brings it to you, and decide which is the\nweightier, and which it becomes you to take for your pattern for ever.\n\n\nTHREEFOLD REPENTANCE\n\n     'And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,\n     2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the\n     preaching that I bid thee. 3. So Jonah arose, and went unto\n     Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an\n     exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to\n     enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet\n     forty days, and Nineveh shall he overthrown. 5. So the people of\n     Ninoveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth,\n     from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6. For word\n     came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he\n     laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in\n     ashes. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through\n     Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let\n     neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not\n     feed, nor drink water: 8. But let man and beast be covered with\n     sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one\n     from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9.\n     Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His\n     fierce anger, that we perish not? 10. And God saw their works, that\n     they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that\n     He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.'--JONAH\n     iii. 1-10.\n\nThis passage falls into three parts: Jonah's renewed commission and new\nobedience (vs. 1-4), the repentance of Nineveh (vs. 5-9), and the\nacceptance thereof by God (ver. 10). We might almost call these three\nthe repentance of Jonah, of Nineveh, and of God. The evident intention\nof the narrative is to parallel the Ninevites turning from their sins,\nand God's turning from His anger and purpose of destruction; and if the\nword 'repentance' is not applied to Jonah, his conduct sufficiently\nshows the thing.\n\nI. Note the renewed charge to the penitent Prophet, and his new\neagerness to fulfil it. His deliverance and second commission are put as\nif all but simultaneous, and his obedience was swift and glad. Jonah did\nnot venture to take for granted that the charge which he had shirked was\nstill continued to him. If God commands to take the trumpet, and we\nrefuse, we dare not assume that we shall still be honoured with the\ndelivery of the message. The punishment of dumb lips is often dumbness.\nOpportunities of service, slothfully or faintheartedly neglected, are\noften withdrawn. We can fancy how Jonah, brought back to the better mind\nwhich breathes in his psalm, longed to be honoured by the trust of\npreaching once more, and how rapturously his spirit would address itself\nto the task. Duties once unwelcome become sweet when we have passed\nthrough the experience of the misery that comes from neglecting them. It\nis God's mercy that gives us the opportunity of effacing past\ndisobedience by new alacrity.\n\nThe second charge is possibly distinguishable from the first as being\nless precise. It may be that the exact nature of 'the preaching that I\nbid thee' was not told Jonah till he had to open his mouth in Nineveh;\nbut, more probably, the second charge was identical with the first.\n\nThe word rendered 'preach' is instructive. It means 'to cry' and\nsuggests the manner befitting those who bear God's message. They should\nsound it out loudly, plainly, urgently, with earnestness and marks of\nemotion in their voice. Languid whispers will not wake sleepers. Unless\nthe messenger is manifestly in earnest, the message will fall flat. Not\nwith bated breath, as if ashamed of it; nor with hesitation, as if not\nquite sure of it; nor with coldness, as if it were of little\nurgency,--is God's Word to be pealed in men's ears. The preacher is a\ncrier. The substance of his message, too, is set forth. 'The preaching\nwhich I bid thee'--not his own imaginations, nor any fine things of his\nown spinning. Suppose Jonah had entertained the Ninevites with\ndissertations on the evidences of his prophetic authority, or submitted\nfor their consideration a few thoughts tending to show the agreement of\nhis message with their current opinions in religion, or an argument for\nthe existence of a retributive Governor of the world, he would not have\nshaken the city. The less the Prophet shows himself, the stronger his\ninfluence. The more simply he repeats the stern, plain, short message,\nthe more likely it is to impress. God's Word, faithfully set forth, will\nprove itself. The preacher or teacher of this day has substantially the\nsame charge as Jonah had; and the more he suppresses himself, and\nbecomes but a voice through which God speaks, the better for himself,\nhis hearers, and his work.\n\nNineveh, that great aggregate of cities, was full, as Eastern cities\nare, of open spaces, and might well be a three days' journey in\ncircumference. What a task for that solitary stranger to thunder out his\nloud cry among all these crowds! But he had learned to do what he was\nbid; and without wasting a moment, he 'began to enter into the city a\nday's journey,' and, no doubt, did not wait till the end of the day to\nproclaim his message. Let us learn that there is an element of\nthreatening in God's most merciful message, and that the appeal to\nterror and to the desire for self-preservation is part of the way to\npreach the Gospel. Plain warnings of coming evil may be spoken tenderly,\nand reveal love as truly as the most soothing words. The warning comes\nin time. 'Forty days' of grace are granted. The gospel warns us in time\nenough for escape. It warns us because God loves; and they are as\nuntrue messengers of His love as of His justice who slur over the\ndeclaration of His wrath.\n\nII. Note the repentance of Nineveh (vs. 5-9). The impression made by\nJonah's terrible cry is perfectly credible and natural in the excitable\npopulation of an Eastern city, in which even now any appeal to terror,\nespecially if associated with religious and prophetic claims, easily\nsets the whole in a frenzy. Think of the grim figure of this foreign\nman, with his piercing voice and half-intelligible speech, dropped from\nthe clouds as it were, and stalking through Nineveh, pealing out his\nconfident message, like that gaunt fanatic who walked Jerusalem in its\nlast agony, crying, 'Woe! woe unto the bloody city!' or that other, who,\nwith flaming fire on his head and madness in his eyes, affrighted London\nin the plague. No wonder that alarm was kindled, and, being kindled,\nspread like wildfire. Apparently the movement was first among the\npeople, who began to fast before the news penetrated to the seclusion of\nthe palace. But the contagion reached the king, and the popular\nexcitement was endorsed and fanned by a royal decree. The specified\ntokens of repentance are those of ordinary mourning, such as were common\nall over the East, with only the strange addition, which smacks of\nheathen ideas, that the animals were made sharers in them.\n\nThere is great significance in that 'believed God' (ver. 5). The\nfoundation of all true repentance is crediting God's word of\nthreatening, and therefore realising the danger, as well as the\ndisobedience, of our sin. We shall be wise if we pass by the human\ninstrument, and hear God speaking through the Prophet. Never mind about\nJonah, believe God.\n\nWe learn from the Ninevites what is true repentance They brought no\nsacrifices or offerings, but sorrow, self-abasement, and amendment. The\ncharacteristic sin of a great military power would be 'violence,' and\nthat is the specific evil from which they vow to turn. The loftiest\nlesson which prophets found Israel so slow to learn, 'A broken and a\ncontrite heart Thou wilt not despise,' was learned by these heathens. We\nneed it no less. Nineveh repented on a peradventure that their\nrepentance might avail. How pathetic that 'Who can tell?' (ver. 9) is!\nWe _know_ what they _hoped_. Their doubt might give fervour to their\ncries, but our certainty should give deeper earnestness and confidence\nto ours.\n\nThe deepest meaning of the whole narrative is set forth in our Lord's\nuse of it, when He holds up the men of Nineveh as a condemnatory\ninstance to the hardened consciences of His hearers. Probably the very\npurpose of the book was to show Israel that the despised and yet dreaded\nheathen were more susceptible to the voice of God than they were: 'I\nwill provoke you to jealousy by them which are no people.' The story was\na smiting blow to the proud exclusiveness and self-complacent contempt\nof prophetic warnings, which marked the entire history of God's people.\nAs Ezekiel was told: 'Thou are not sent ... to many peoples of a strange\nspeech and of an hard language.... Surely, if I sent thee to them, they\nwould hearken unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto\nthee.' It is ever true that long familiarity with the solemn thoughts of\nGod's judgment and punishment of sin abates their impression on us. Our\nPuritan forefathers used to talk about 'gospel-hardened sinners,' and\nthere are many such among us. The man who lives by Niagara does not\nhear its roar as a stranger does. The men of Nineveh will rise in the\njudgment with other generations than that which was 'this generation' in\nChrist's time; and that which is 'this generation' to-day will, in many\nof its members, be condemned by them.\n\nBut the wave of feeling soon retired, and there is no reason to believe\nthat more than a transient impression was made. It does not seem certain\nthat the Ninevites knew what 'God' they hoped to appease. Probably their\npantheon was undisturbed, and their repentance lasted no longer than\ntheir fear. Transient repentance leaves the heart harder than before, as\nhalf-melted ice freezes again more dense. Let us beware of frost on the\nback of a thaw. 'Repentance which is repented of' is worse than none.\n\nIII. We note the repentance of God (ver. 10). Mark the recurrence of the\nword 'turn,' employed in verses 8, 9, and 10 in reference to men and to\nGod. Mark the bold use of the word 'repent,' applied to God, which,\nthough it be not applied to the Ninevites in the previous verses, is\nimplied in every line of them. The same expression is found in Exodus\nxxxii. 14, which may be taken as the classical passage warranting its\nuse. The great truth involved is one that is too often lost sight of in\ndealing with prophecy; namely, that all God's promises and threatenings\nare conditional. Jeremiah learned that lesson in the house of the\npotter, and we need to keep it well in mind. God threatens, precisely in\norder that He may not have to perform His threatenings. Jonah was sent\nto Nineveh to cry, 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' in\norder that it might not be overthrown. What would have been the use of\nproclaiming the decree, if it had been irreversible? There is an\nimplied 'if' in all God's words. 'Except ye repent' underlies the most\nabsolute threatenings of evil. 'If we hold fast the beginning of our\nconfidence firm unto the end,' is presupposed in the brightest and\nbroadest promises of good.\n\nThe word 'repent' is denied and affirmed to have application to God. He\nis not 'a son of man, that He should repent,' inasmuch as His\nimmutability and steadfast purpose know no variableness. But just\nbecause they cannot change, and He must ever be against them that do\nevil, and ever bless them that turn to Him with trust, therefore He\nchanges His dealings with us according to our relation to Him, and\nbecause He cannot repent, or be other than He was and is, 'repents of\nthe evil that He had said that He would do' unto sinners when they\nrepent of the evil that they have done against Him, inasmuch as He\nleaves His threatening unfulfilled, and 'does it not.'\n\nSo we might almost say that the purpose of this book of Jonah is to\nteach the possibility and efficacy of repentance, and to show how the\npenitent man, heathen or Jew, ever finds in God changed dealings\ncorresponding to his changed heart. The widest charity, the humbling\nlesson for people brought up in the blaze of revelation, that dwellers\nin the twilight or in the darkness are dear to God and may be more\nsusceptible of divine impressions than ourselves, the rebuke of all\npluming ourselves on our privileges, the boundlessness of God's mercy,\nare among the other lessons of this strange book; but none of them is\nmore precious than its truly evangelic teaching of the blessedness of\ntrue penitence, whether exemplified in the renegade Prophet returning\nto his high mission, or the fierce Ninevites humbled and repentant, and\nfinding mercy from the God of the whole earth.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nMICAH\n\n\nIS THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD STRAITENED?\n\n     'O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the\n     Lord straitened? Are these His doings?'--MICAH ii. 7.\n\nThe greater part of so-called Christendom is to-day[1] celebrating the\ngift of a Divine Spirit to the Church; but it may well be asked whether\nthe religious condition of so-called Christendom is not a sad satire\nupon Pentecost. There seems a woful contrast, very perplexing to faith,\nbetween the bright promise at the beginning and the history of the\ndevelopment in the future. How few of those who share in to-day's\nservices have any personal experience of such a gift! How many seem to\nthink that that old story is only the record of a past event, a\ntransient miracle which has no kind of relation to the experience of the\nChristians of this day! There were a handful of believers in one of the\ntowns of Asia Minor, to whom an Apostle came, and was so startled at\ntheir condition that he put to them in wonder the question that might\nwell be put to multitudes of so-called Christians amongst us: 'Did you\nreceive the Holy Ghost when you believed?' And their answer is only too\ntrue a transcript of the experience of large masses of people who call\nthemselves Christians: 'We have not so much as heard whether there be\nany Holy Ghost.'\n\n[1] Whitsunday\n\nI desire, then, dear brethren, to avail myself of this day's\nassociations in order to press upon your consciences and upon my own\nsome considerations naturally suggested by them, and which find voice in\nthose two indignant questions of the old Prophet:--'Is the Spirit of the\nLord straitened?' 'Are these'--the phenomena of existing popular\nChristianity--'are these His doings?' And if we are brought sharp up\nagainst the consciousness of a dreadful contrast, it may do us good to\nask what is the explanation of so cloudy a day following a morning so\nbright.\n\nI. First, then, I have to ask you to think with me of the promise of the\nPentecost.\n\nWhat did it declare and hold forth for the faith of the Church? I need\nnot dwell at any length upon this point. The facts are familiar to you,\nand the inferences drawn from them are commonplace and known to us all.\nBut let me just enumerate them as briefly as may be.\n\n'Suddenly there came a sound, as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it\nfilled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared cloven\ntongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all\nfilled with the Holy Ghost.'\n\nWhat lay in that? First, the promise of a Divine Spirit by symbols which\nexpress some, at all events, of the characteristics and wonderfulness of\nHis work. The 'rushing of a mighty wind' spoke of a power which varies\nin its manifestations from the gentlest breath that scarce moves the\nleaves on the summer trees to the wildest blast that casts down all\nwhich stands in its way.\n\nThe natural symbolism of the wind, to popular apprehension the least\nmaterial of all material forces, and of which the connection with the\nimmaterial part of a man's personality has been expressed in all\nlanguages, points to a divine, to an immaterial, to a mighty, to a\nlife-giving power which is free to blow whither it listeth, and of which\nmen can mark the effects, though they are all ignorant of the force\nitself.\n\nThe other symbol of the fiery tongues which parted and sat upon each of\nthem speaks in like manner of the divine influence, not as destructive,\nbut full of quick, rejoicing energy and life, the power to transform and\nto purify. Whithersoever the fire comes, it changes all things into its\nown substance. Whithersoever the fire comes, there the ruddy spires\nshoot upwards towards the heavens. Whithersoever the fire comes, there\nall bonds and fetters are melted and consumed. And so this fire\ntransforms, purifies, ennobles, quickens, sets free; and where the fiery\nSpirit is, there are energy, swift life, rejoicing activity,\ntransforming and transmuting power which changes the recipient of the\nflame into flame himself.\n\nThen, still further, in the fact of Pentecost there is the promise of a\nDivine Spirit which is to influence all the moral side of humanity.\nThis is the great and glorious distinction between the Christian\ndoctrine of inspiration and all others which have, in heathen lands,\npartially reached similar conceptions--that the Gospel of Jesus Christ\nhas laid emphasis upon the _Holy_ Spirit, and has declared that holiness\nof heart is the touchstone and test of all claims of divine inspiration.\nGifts are much, graces are more. An inspiration which makes wise is to\nbe coveted, an inspiration which makes holy is transcendently better.\nThere we find the safeguard against all the fanaticisms which have\nsometimes invaded the Christian Church, namely, in the thought that the\nSpirit which dwells in men, and makes them free from the obligations of\noutward law and cold morality, is a Spirit that works a deeper holiness\nthan law dreamed, and a more spontaneous and glad conformity to all\nthings that are fair and good, than any legislation and outward\ncommandment could ever enforce. The Spirit that came at Pentecost is not\nmerely a Spirit of rushing might and of swift-flaming energy, but it is\na Spirit of holiness, whose most blessed and intimate work is the\nproduction in us of all homely virtues and sweet, unpretending\ngoodnesses which can adorn and gladden humanity.\n\nStill further, the Pentecost carried in it the promise and prophecy of a\nSpirit granted to all the Church. 'They were all filled with the Holy\nGhost.' This is the true democracy of Christianity, that its very basis\nis laid in the thought that every member of the body is equally close to\nthe Head, and equally recipient of the life. There is none now who has a\nSpirit which others do not possess. The ancient aspiration of the Jewish\nlaw-giver: 'Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that\nthe Lord would put His Spirit upon them,' is fulfilled in the\nexperience of Pentecost; and the handmaiden and the children, as well as\nthe old men and the servants, receive of that universal gift. Therefore\nsacerdotal claims, special functions, privileged classes, are alien to\nthe spirit of Christianity, and blasphemies against the inspiring God.\nIf 'one is your Master, all ye are brethren,' and if we have all been\nmade to drink into one Spirit, then no longer hath any man dominion over\nour faith nor power to intervene and to intercede with God for us.\n\nAnd still further, the promise of this early history was that of a\nSpirit which should fill the whole nature of the men to whom He was\ngranted; filling--in the measure, of course, of their receptivity--them\nas the great sea does all the creeks and indentations along the shore.\nThe deeper the creek, the deeper the water in it; the further inland it\nruns, the further will the refreshing tide penetrate the bosom of the\ncontinent. And so each man, according to his character, stature,\ncircumstances, and all the varying conditions which determine his power\nof receptivity, will receive a varying measure of that gift. Yet it is\nmeant that all shall be full. The little vessel, the tiny cup, as well\nas the great cistern and the enormous vat, each contains according to\nits capacity. And if all are filled, then this quick Spirit must have\nthe power to influence all the provinces of human nature, must touch the\nmoral, must touch the spiritual. The temporary manifestations and\nextraordinary signs of His power may well drop away as the flower drops\nwhen the fruit has set. The operations of the Divine Spirit are to be\nfelt thrilling through all the nature, and every part of the man's being\nis to be recipient of the power. Just as when you take a candle and\nplunge it into a jar of oxygen it blazes up, so my poor human nature\nimmersed in that Divine Spirit, baptized in the Holy Ghost, shall flame\nin all its parts into unsuspected and hitherto inexperienced brightness.\nSuch are the elements of the promise of Pentecost.\n\nII. And now, in the next place, look at the apparent failure of the\npromise.\n\n'Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?' Look at Christendom. Look at all\nthe churches. Look at yourselves. Will any one say that the religious\ncondition of any body of professed believers at this moment corresponds\nto Pentecost? Is not the gap so wide that to fill it up seems almost\nimpossible? Is not the stained and imperfect fulfilment a miserable\nsatire upon the promise? 'If the Lord be with us,' said one of the\nheroes of ancient Israel, 'wherefore is all this come upon us?' I am\nsure that we may say the same. If the Lord be with us, what is the\nmeaning of the state of things which we see around us, and must\nrecognise in ourselves? Do any existing churches present the final\nperfect form of Christianity as embodied in a society? Would not the\nbest thing that could happen, and the thing that will have to happen\nsome day, be the disintegration of the existing organisations in order\nto build up a more perfect habitation of God through the Spirit? I do\nnot wish to exaggerate. God knows there is no need for exaggerating. The\nplain, unvarnished story, without any pessimistic picking out of the\nblack bits and forgetting ail the light ones, is bad enough.\n\nTake three points on which I do not dwell and apply them to yourselves,\ndear brethren, and estimate by them the condition of things around us.\nFirst, say whether the ordinary tenor of our own religious life looks\nas if we had that Divine Spirit in us which transforms everything into\nits own beauty, and makes men, through all the regions of their nature,\nholy and pure. Then ask yourselves the question whether the standard of\ndevotion and consecration in any church witnesses of the presence of a\nDivine Spirit. A little handful of people, the best of them very\npartially touched with the life of God, and very imperfectly consecrated\nto His service, surrounded by a great mass about whom we can scarcely,\nin the judgment of charity, say even so much, that is the description of\nmost of our congregations. 'Are these His doings?' Surely somebody\nelse's than His.\n\nTake another question. Do the relations of modern Christians and their\nchurches to one another attest the presence of a unifying Spirit? 'We\nhave all been made to drink into one Spirit,' said Paul. Alas, alas!\ndoes it seem as if we had? Look round professing Christendom, look at\nthe rivalries and the jealousies between two chapels in adjoining\nstreets. Look at the gulfs between Christian men who differ only on some\ncomparative trifle of organisation and polity, and say if such things\ncorrespond to the Pentecostal promise of one Spirit which is to make all\nthe members into one body? 'Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are\nthese _His_ doings?'\n\nTake another branch of evidence. Look at the comparative impotence of\nthe Church in its conflict with the growing worldliness of the world. I\ndo not forget how much is being done all about us to-day, and how still\nChrist's Gospel is winning triumphs, but I do not suppose that any man\ncan look thoughtfully and dispassionately on the condition, say, for\ninstance, of Manchester, or of any of our great towns, and mark how the\npopulace knows nothing and cares nothing about us and our Christianity,\nand never comes into our places of worship, and has no share in our\nhopes any more than if they lived in Central Africa, and that after\neighteen hundred years of nominal Christianity, without feeling that\nsome malign influence has arrested the leaping growth of the early\nChurch, and that somehow or other that lava stream, if I might so call\nit, which poured hot from the heart of God in the old days has had its\nflow checked, and over its burning bed there has spread a black and\nwrinkled crust, whatsoever lingering heat there may still be at the\ncentre. 'If God be with us, why has all this come upon us?'\n\nIII. And now, lastly, let us think for a moment of the solution of the\ncontradiction.\n\nThe indignant questions of my text may be taken, with a little possibly\npermissible violence, as expressing and dismissing some untrue\nexplanations. One explanation that sometimes is urged is, the Spirit of\nthe Lord _is_ straitened. That explanation takes two forms. Sometimes\nyou hear people saying, 'Christianity is effete. We have to go now to\nfresh fountains of inspiration, and turn away from these broken cisterns\nthat can hold no water.' I am not going to argue that question. I do not\nthink for my part that Christianity will be effete until the world has\ngot up to it and beyond it in its practice, and it will be a good while\nbefore that happens. Christianity will not be worn out until men have\ncopied and reduced to practice the example of Jesus Christ, and they\nhave not quite got that length yet. No shadow of a fear that the gospel\nhas lost its power, or that God's Spirit has become weak, should be\npermitted to creep over our hearts. The promise is, 'I will send\nanother Comforter, and He shall abide with you _for ever_.' It is a\npermanent gift that was given to the Church on that day. We have to\ndistinguish in the story between the symbols, the gift, and the\nconsequences of the gift. The first and the last are transient, the\nsecond is permanent. The symbols were transient. The people who came\nrunning together saw no tongues of fire. The consequences were\ntransient. The tongues and the miraculous utterances were but for a\ntime. The results vary according to the circumstances; but the central\nthing, the gift itself, is an irrevocable gift, and once bestowed is\never with the Church to all generations.\n\nAnother form of the explanation is the theory that God in His\nsovereignty is pleased to withhold His Spirit for reasons which we\ncannot trace. But it is not true that the gift once given varies in the\ndegree in which it is continued. There is always the same flow from God.\nThere are ebbs and flows in the spiritual power of the Church. Yes! and\nthe tide runs out of your harbours. Is there any less water in the sea\nbecause it does? So the gift may ebb away from a man, from a community,\nfrom an epoch, not because God's manifestation and bestowment fluctuate,\nbut because our receptivity changes. So we dismiss, and are bound to\ndismiss, if we are Christians, the unbelieving explanation, 'The Spirit\nof the Lord is straitened,' and not to sit with our hands folded, as if\nan inscrutable sovereignty, with which we have nothing to do, sometimes\nsent more and sometimes less of His spiritual gifts upon a waiting\nChurch. It is not so. 'With Him is no variableness.' The gifts of God\nare without repentance; and the Spirit that was given once, according to\nthe Master's own word already quoted, is given that He may abide with us\nfor ever.\n\nTherefore we have to come back to this, which is the point to which I\nseek to bring you and myself, in lowly penitence and contrite\nacknowledgment--that it is all our own fault and the result of evils in\nourselves that may be remedied, that we have so little of that divine\ngift; and that if the churches of this country and of this day seem to\nbe cursed and blasted in so much of their fruitless operations and\nformal worship, it is the fault of the churches, and not of the Lord of\nthe churches. The stream that poured forth from the throne of God has\nnot lost itself in the sands, nor is it shrunken in its volume. The fire\nthat was kindled on Pentecost has not died down into grey ashes. The\nrushing of the mighty wind that woke on that morning has not calmed and\nstilled itself into the stagnancy and suffocating breathlessness of\nmidday heat. The same fulness of the Spirit which filled the believers\non that day is available for us all. If, like that waiting Church of\nold, we abide in prayer and supplication, the gift will be given to us\ntoo, and we may repeat and reproduce, if not the miracles which we do\nnot need, yet the necessary inspiration of the highest and the noblest\ndays and saints in the history of the Church. 'If ye, being evil, know\nhow to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your\nHeavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' 'Ask and ye\nshall receive,' and be filled 'with the Holy Ghost and with power.'\n\n\nCHRIST THE BREAKER\n\n     'The Breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have\n     passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king\n     shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.'--MICAH\n     ii. 13.\n\nMicah was contemporary with Isaiah. The two prophets stand, to a large\nextent, on the same level of prophetic knowledge. Characteristic of both\nof them is the increasing clearness of the figure of the personal\nMessiah, and the increasing fulness of detail with which His functions\nare described. Characteristic of both of them is the presentation which\nwe find in this text of that Messiah's work as being the gathering\ntogether of the scattered captive people and the leading them back in\ntriumph into the blessed land.\n\nSuch is the image which underlies my text. Of course I have nothing to\ndo now with questions as to any narrower and nearer historical\nfulfilment, because I believe that all these Messianic prophecies which\nwere susceptible of, and many of which obtained, a historical and\napproximate fulfilment in the restoration of the Jews from the\nBabylonish captivity, have a higher and broader and more real\naccomplishment in that great deliverance wrought by Jesus Christ, of\nwhich all these earlier and partial and outward manifestations were\nthemselves prophecies and shadows.\n\nSo I make no apology for taking the words before us as having their only\nreal accomplishment in the office and working of Jesus Christ. He is\n'the Breaker which is come up before us.' He it is that has broken out\nthe path on which we may travel, and in whom, in a manner which the\nProphet dreamed not of, 'the Lord is at the head' of us, and our King\ngoes before us. So that my object is simply to take that great name, the\nBreaker, and to see the manifold ways in which in Scripture it is\napplied to the various work of Jesus Christ in our redemption.\n\nI. I follow entirely the lead of corresponding passages in other\nportions of Scripture, and to begin with, I ask you to think of that\ngreat work of our Divine Redeemer by which He has broken for the\ncaptives the prison-house of their bondage.\n\nThe image that is here before us is either that of some foreign land in\nwhich the scattered exiles were bound in iron captivity, or more\nprobably some dark and gloomy prison, with high walls, massive gates,\nand barred windows, wherein they were held; and to them sitting hopeless\nin the shadow of death, and bound in affliction and iron, there comes\none mysterious figure whom the Prophet could not describe more\nparticularly, and at His coming the gates flew apart, and the chains\ndropped from their hands; and the captives had heart put into them, and\ngathering themselves together into a triumphant band, they went out with\nsongs and everlasting joy upon their heads; freemen, and on the march to\nthe home of their fathers. 'The Breaker is gone up before them; they\nhave broken, and passed through the gate, and are gone out by it.'\n\nAnd is not that our condition? Many of us know not the bondage in which\nwe are held. We are held in it all the more really and sadly because we\nconceit ourselves to be free. Those poor, light-hearted people in the\ndreadful days of the French Revolution, used to keep up some ghastly\nmockery of society and cheerfulness in their prisons; and festooned the\nbars with flowers, and made believe to be carrying on their life freely\nas they used to do; but for all that, day after day the tumbrils came to\nthe gates, and morning after morning the jailer stood at the door of the\ndungeons with the fatal list in his hand, and one after another of the\ntriflers was dragged away to death. And so men and women are living a\nlife which they fancy is free, and all the while they are in bondage,\nheld in a prison-house. You, my brother! are chained by guilt; you are\nchained by sin, you are chained by the habit of evil with a strength of\nwhich you never know till you try to shake it off.\n\nAnd there comes to each of us a mighty Deliverer, who breaks the gates\nof brass, and who cuts the bars of iron in sunder. Christ comes to us.\nBy His death He has borne away the guilt; by His living Spirit He will\nbear away the dominion of sin from our hearts; and if the Son will make\nus free we shall be free indeed. Oh! ponder that deep truth, I pray you,\nwhich the Lord Christ has spoken in words that carry conviction in their\nvery simplicity to every conscience: 'He that committeth sin is the\nslave of sin.' And as you feel sometimes--and you all feel\nsometimes--the catch of the fetter on your wrists when you would fain\nstretch out your hands to good, listen as to a true gospel to this old\nword which, in its picturesque imagery, carries a truth that should be\nlife. To us all 'the Breaker is gone up before us,' the prison gates are\nopen. Follow His steps, and take the freedom which He gives; and be sure\nthat you 'stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free,\nand be not entangled again with any yoke of bondage.'\n\nMen and women! Some of you are the slaves of your own lusts. Some of you\nare the slaves of the world's maxims. Some of you are held in bondage by\nsome habit that you abominate, but cannot get away from. Here is freedom\nfor you. The dark walls of the prison are round us all. 'The Scripture\nhath shut up all in sin, that He might have mercy upon all.' Blessed be\nHis name! As the angel came to the sleeping Apostle, and to his light\ntouch the iron gates swung obedient on their hinges, and Roman soldiers\nwho ought to have watched their prey were lulled to sleep, and fetters\nthat held the limbs dropped as if melted; so, silently, in His meek and\nmerciful strength, the Christ comes to us all, and the iron gate which\nleadeth out into freedom opens of its own accord at His touch, and the\nfetters fall from our limbs, and we go forth free men. 'The Breaker is\ngone up before us.'\n\nII. Again, take another application of this same figure found in\nScripture, which sets forth Jesus Christ as being the Opener of the path\nto God.\n\n'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, no man cometh to the Father\nbut by Me,' said He. And again, 'By a new and living way which He hath\nopened for us through the veil' (that is to say, His flesh), we can have\nfree access 'with confidence by the faith of Him.' That is to say, if we\nrightly understand our natural condition, it is not only one of bondage\nto evil, but it is one of separation from God. Parts of the divine\ncharacter are always beautiful and sweet to every human heart when it\nthinks about them. Parts of the divine character stand frowning before a\nman who knows himself for what he is; and conscience tells us that\nbetween God and us there is a mountain of impediment piled up by our own\nevil. To us Christ comes, the Path-finder and the Path; the Pioneer who\nbreaks the way for us through all the hindrances, and leads us up to the\npresence of God.\n\nFor we do not know God as He is except by Jesus Christ. We see\nfragments, and often distorted fragments, of the divine nature and\ncharacter apart from Jesus, but the real divine nature as it is, and as\nit is in its relation to me, a sinner, is only made known to me in the\nface of Jesus Christ. When we see Him we see God; Christ's tears are\nGod's pity, Christ's gentleness is God's meekness, Christ's tender,\ndrawing love is not only a revelation of a most pure and sweet Brother's\nheart, but a manifestation through that Brother's heart of the deepest\ndepths of the divine nature. Christ is the heart of God. Apart from Him,\nwe come to the God of our own consciences and we tremble; we come to the\nGod of our own fancies and we presume; we come to the God dimly guessed\nat and pieced together from out of the hints and indications of His\nworks, and He is little more than a dead name to us. Apart from Christ\nwe come to a peradventure which we call a God; a shadow through which\nyou can see the stars shining. But we know the Father when we believe in\nChrist. And so all the clouds rising from our own hearts and consciences\nand fancies and misconceptions, which we have piled together between God\nand ourselves, Christ clears away; and thus He opens the path to God.\n\nAnd He opens it in another way too, on which I cannot dwell. It is only\nthe God manifest in Jesus Christ that draws men's hearts to Him. The\nattractive power of the divine nature is ail in Him who has said, 'I, if\nI be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.' The God whom men know, or\nthink they know, outside of the revelation of divinity in Jesus Christ,\nis a God before whom they sometimes tremble, who is far more often their\nterror than their love, who is their 'ghastliest doubt' still more\nfrequently than He is their 'dearest faith.' But the God that is in\nChrist woos and wins men to Him, and from His great sweetness there\nstreams out, as it were, a magnetic influence that draws hearts to Him.\nThe God that is in Christ is the only God that humanity ever loved.\nOther gods they may have worshipped with cowering terror and with\nfar-off lip reverence, but this God has a heart, and wins hearts because\nHe has. So Christ opens the way to Him.\n\nAnd still further, in a yet higher fashion, that Saviour is the\nPath-breaker to the Divine Presence, in that He not only makes God known\nto us, and not only makes Him so known to us as to draw us to Him, but\nin that likewise He, by the fact of His Cross and passion, has borne and\nborne away the impediments of our own sin and transgression which rise\nfor ever between us and Him, unless He shall sweep them out of the way.\nHe has made 'the rough places plain and the crooked things straight';\nlevelled the mountains and raised the valleys, and cast up across all\nthe wilderness of the world a highway along which 'the wayfaring man\nthough a fool' may travel. Narrow understandings may know, and selfish\nhearts may love, and low-pitched confessions may reach the ear of the\nGod who comes near to us in Christ, that we in Christ may come near to\nHim. The Breaker is gone up before us; 'having therefore, brethren,\nboldness to enter into the holiest of all ... by a new and living way,\nwhich He hath consecrated for us ... let us draw near with true hearts'\n\nIII. Then still further, another modification of this figure is found in\nthe frequent representations of Scripture, by which our Lord is the\nBreaker, going up before us in the sense that He is the Captain of our\nlife's march.\n\nWe have, in the words of my text, the image of the gladly-gathered\npeople flocking after the Leader. 'They have broken up, and have passed\nthrough the gate, and are gone out by it; and their King shall pass\nbefore them, and the Lord on the head of them.' The Prophet knew not\nthat the Lord their King, of whom it is enigmatically said that He too,\nas well as 'the Breaker,' is to go before them, was in mysterious\nfashion to dwell in that Breaker; and that those two, whom He sees\nseparately, are yet in a deep and mysterious sense one. The host of the\ncaptives, returning in triumphant march through the wilderness and to\nthe promised land, is, in the Prophet's words, headed both by the\nBreaker and by the Lord. We know that the Breaker is the Lord, the Angel\nof the Covenant in whom is the name of Jehovah.\n\nAnd so we connect with all these words of my text such words as\ndesignate our Saviour as the Captain of our salvation; such words as His\nown in which He says, 'When He putteth forth His sheep He goeth before\nthem'--such words as His Apostle used when he said, 'Leaving us an\nensample that we should follow in His steps.' And by all there is\nsuggested this--that Christ, who breaks the prison of our sins, and\nleads us forth on the path to God, marches at the head of our life's\njourney, and is our Example and Commander; and Himself present with us\nthrough all life's changes and its sorrows.\n\nHere is the great blessing and peculiarity of Christian morals that they\nare all brought down to that sweet obligation: 'Do as I did.' Here is\nthe great blessing and strength for the Christian life in all its\ndifficulties--you can never go where you cannot see in the desert the\nfootprints, haply spotted with blood, that your Master left there before\nyou, and planting your trembling feet in the prints, as a child might\nimitate his father's strides, may learn to recognise that all duty comes\nto this: 'Follow Me'; and that all sorrow is calmed, ennobled, made\ntolerable, and glorified, by the thought that He has borne it.\n\nThe Roman matron of the legend struck the knife into her bosom, and\nhanded it to her husband with the words, 'It is not painful!' Christ has\ngone before us in all the dreary solitude, and in all the agony and\npains of life. He has hallowed them all, and has taken the bitterness\nand the pain out of each of them for them that love Him. If we feel that\nthe Breaker is before us, and that we are marching behind Him, then\nwhithersoever He leads us we may follow, and whatsoever He has passed\nthrough we may pass through. We carry In His life the all-sufficing\npattern of duty. We have in His companionship the all-strengthening\nconsolation. Let us leave the direction of our road in His hands, who\nnever says 'Go!' but always 'Come!' This General marches in the midst of\nHis battalions and sets His soldiers on no enterprises or forlorn hopes\nwhich He has not Himself dared and overcome.\n\nSo Christ goes as our Companion before us, the true pillar of fire and\ncloud in which the present Deity abode, and He is with us in real\ncompanionship. Our joyful march through the wilderness is directed,\npatterned, protected, companioned by Him, and when He 'putteth forth His\nown sheep,' blessed be His name, 'He goeth before them.'\n\nIV. And now, lastly, there is a final application of this figure which\nsets forth our Lord as the Breaker for us of the bands of death, and the\nForerunner 'entered for us into the heavens.'\n\nChrist's resurrection is the only solid proof of a future life. Christ's\npresent resurrection life is the power by partaking in which, 'though we\nwere dead, yet shall we live.'\n\nHe has trodden that path, too, before us. He has entered into the great\nprison-house into which the generations of men have been hounded and\nhurried; and where they lie in their graves, as in their narrow cells.\nHe has entered there; with one blow He has struck the gates from their\nhinges, and has passed out, and no soul can any longer be shut in as for\never into that ruined and opened prison. Like Samson, He has taken the\ngates which from of old barred its entrance, and borne them on His\nstrong shoulders to the city on the hill, and now Death's darts are\nblunted, his fetters are broken, and his gaol has its doors wide open,\nand there is nothing for him to do now but to fall upon his sword and to\nkill himself, for his prisoners are free. 'Oh, death! I will be thy\nplague; oh, grave! I will be thy destruction.' 'The Breaker has gone\nup before us'; therefore it is not possible that we should be holden of\nthe impotent chains that He has broken.\n\nThe Forerunner is for us entered and passed through the heavens, and\nentered into the holiest of all. We are too closely knit to Him, if we\nlove Him and trust Him, to make it possible that we shall be where He is\nnot, or that He shall be where we are not. Where He has gone we shall\ngo. In heaven, blessed be His name! He will still be the leader of our\nprogress and the captain at the head of our march. For He crowns all His\nother work by this, that having broken the prison-house of our sins, and\nopened for us the way to God, and been the leader and the captain of our\nmarch through all the pilgrimage of life, and the opener of the gate of\nthe grave for our joyful resurrection, and the opener of the gate of\nheaven for our triumphal entrance, He will still as the Lamb that is in\nthe midst of the Throne, go before us, and lead us into green pastures\nand by the still waters, and this shall be the description of the\ngrowing blessedness and power of the saints' life above, 'These are\nthey which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.'\n\n\nAS GOD, SO WORSHIPPER\n\n     '... All the peoples will walk every one in the name of his god,\n     and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and\n     ever.'--MICAH iv. 5 (R.V.).\n\nThis is a statement of a general truth which holds good of all sorts of\nreligion. 'To walk' is equivalent to carrying on a course of practical\nactivity. 'The name' of a god is his manifested character. So the\nexpression 'Walk in the name' means, to live and act according to, and\nwith reference to, and in reliance on, the character of the worshipper's\ngod. In the Lord's prayer the petition 'Hallowed be Thy name' precedes\nthe petition 'Thy will be done.' From reverent thoughts about the name\nmust flow life in reverent conformity to the will.\n\nI. A man's god is what rules his practical life.\n\nReligion is dependence upon a Being recognised to be perfect and\nsovereign, whose will guides, and whose character moulds, the whole\nlife. That general statement may be broken up into parts; and we may\ndwell upon the attitude of dependence, or of that of submission, or upon\nthat of admiration and recognition of ideal perfection, or upon that of\naspiration; but we come at last to the one thought--that the goal of\nreligion is likeness and the truest worship is imitation. Such a view of\nthe essence of religion gives point to the question, What is our god?\nand makes it a very easily applied, and very searching test, of our\nlives. Whatever we profess, that which we feel ourselves dependent on,\nthat which we invest, erroneously or rightly, with supreme attributes of\nexcellence, that which we aspire after as our highest good, that which\nshapes and orders the current of our lives, is our god. We call\nourselves Christians. I am afraid that if we tried ourselves by such a\ntest, many of us would fail to pass it. It would thin the ranks of all\nchurches as effectually as did Gideon's ordeal by water, which brought\ndown a mob of ten thousand to a little steadfast band of three hundred.\nNo matter to what church we belong, or how flaming our professions, our\npractical religion is determined by our answer to the question, What do\nwe most desire? What do we most eagerly pursue? England has as much need\nas ever the house of Jacob had of the scathing words that poured like\nmolten lead from the lips of Isaiah the son of Amoz, 'Their land is full\nof silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their\nland is also full of idols: they worship the work of their own hands.'\nMoney, knowledge, the good opinion of our fellows, success in a\npolitical career--these, and the like, are our gods. There is a worse\nidolatry than that which bows down before stocks and stones. The aims\nthat absorb us; our highest ideal of excellence; that which possessed,\nwe think would secure our blessedness; that lacking which everything\nelse is insipid and vain--these are our gods: and the solemn prohibition\nmay well be thundered in the ears of the unconscious idolaters not only\nin the English world, but also in the English churches. 'Thou shalt not\ngive My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.'\n\nII. The worshipper will resemble his god in character.\n\nAs we have already said, the goal of religion is likeness, and the\ntruest worship is imitation. It is proved by the universal experience of\nhumanity that the level of morality will never rise above the type\nenshrined in their gods; or if it does, in consequence of contact with a\nhigher type in a higher religion, the old gods will be flung to the\nmoles and the bats. 'They that make them are like unto them; so is every\none that trusteth in them.' That is a universal truth. The worshippers\nwere in the Prophet's thought as dumb and dead as the idols. They who\n'worship vanity' inevitably 'become vain.' A Venus or a Jupiter, a Baal\nor an Ashtoreth, sets the tone of morals.\n\nThis truth is abundantly enforced by observation of the characters of\nthe men amongst us who are practical idolaters. They are narrowed and\nlowered to correspond with their gods. Low ideals can never lead to\nlofty lives. The worship of money makes the complexion yellow, like\njaundice. A man who concentrates his life's effort upon some earthly\ngood, the attainment of which seems to be, so long as it is unattained,\nhis passport to bliss, thereby blunts many a finer aspiration, and makes\nhimself blind to many a nobler vision. Men who are always hunting after\nsome paltry and perishable earthly good, become like dogs who follow\nscent with their noses at the ground, and are unconscious of everything\na yard above their heads. We who live amidst the rush of a great\ncommercial community see many instances of lives stiffened, narrowed,\nimpoverished, and hardened by the fierce effort to become rich. And\nwherever we look with adequate knowledge over the many idolatries of\nEnglish life, we see similar processes at work on character. Everywhere\naround us 'the peoples are walking every one in the name of his god.'\nThat character constitutes the worshipper's ideal; it is a pattern to\nwhich he aims to be assimilated; it is a good the possession of which he\nthinks will make him blessed; it is that for which he willingly\nsacrifices much which a clearer vision would teach him is far more\nprecious than that for which he is content to barter it.\n\nThe idolaters walking in the name of their god is a rebuke to the\nChristian men who with faltering steps and many an aberration are\nseeking to walk in the name of the Lord their God. If He is in any real\nand deep sense 'our God,' we shall see in Him the realised ideal of all\nexcellence, the fountain of all our blessedness, the supreme good for\nour seeking hearts, the sovereign authority to sway our wills; the\nmeasure of our conscious possession of Him will be the measure of our\nglad imitation of Him, and our joyful spirits, enfranchised by the\nassurance of our loving possession of Him who is love, will hear Him\never whisper to us, 'Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is\nperfect.' The desire to reproduce in the narrow bounds of our human\nspirits the infinite beauties of the Lord our God will give elevation to\nour lives, and dignity to our actions attainable from no other source.\nIf we hallow His name, we shall do His will, and earth will become a\nforetaste of heaven.\n\nIII. The worshipper will resemble his god in fate.\n\nWe may observe that it is only of God's people that Micah in our text\napplies the words 'for ever and ever.' 'The peoples'' worship perishes.\nThey walk for a time in the name of their god, but what comes of it at\nlast is veiled in silence. It is Jehovah's worshippers who walk in His\nname for ever and ever, and of whom the great words are true, 'Because I\nlive ye shall live also.' We may be sure of this that all the divine\nattributes are pledged for our immortality; we may be sure, too, that a\nsoul which here follows in the footsteps of Jesus, which in its earthly\nlife walked in the name of the Lord its God, will continue across the\nnarrow bridge, and go onward 'for ever and ever' in direct progress in\nthe same direction in which it began on earth. The imitation, which is\nthe practical religion of every Christian, has for its only possible\nresult the climax of likeness. The partial likeness is attained on earth\nby contemplation, by aspiration, and by effort; but it is perfected in\nthe heavens by the perfect vision of His perfect face. 'We shall be like\nHim, for we shall see Him as He is.' Not till it has reached its goal\ncan the Christian life begun here be conceived as ended. It shall never\nbe said of any one who tried by God's help to walk 'in the name of the\nLord' that he was lost in the desert, and never reached his journey's\nend. The peoples who walked in the name of any false god will find their\npath ending as on the edge of a precipice, or in an unfathomable bog;\nloss, and woe, and shame will be their portion. But 'the name of the\nLord is a strong tower,' into which whoever will may run and be safe,\nand to walk in the name of the Lord is to walk on a way 'that shall be\ncalled the Way of Holiness, whereon no ravenous beast shall go up, but\nthe redeemed shall walk there,' and all that are on it 'shall come with\nsinging to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.'\n\n\n'A DEW FROM THE LORD'\n\n     'The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew\n     from the Lord, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons\n     of men.'--MICAH v. 7.\n\nThe simple natural science of the Hebrews saw a mystery in the\nproduction of the dew on a clear night, and their poetic imagination\nfound in it a fit symbol for all silent and gentle influences from\nheaven that refreshed and quickened parched and dusty souls. Created by\nan inscrutable process in silence and darkness, the dewdrops lay\ninnumerable on the dry plains and hung from every leaf and thorn, each\nlittle globule a perfect sphere that reflected the sun, and twinkled\nback the beams in its own little rainbow. Where they fell the scorched\nvegetation lifted its drooping head. That is what Israel is to be in the\nworld, says Micah. He saw very deep into God's mind and into the\nfunction of the nation.\n\nIt may be a question as to whether the text refers more especially to\nthe place and office of Israel when planted in its own land, or when\ndispersed among the nations. For, as you see, he speaks of 'the remnant\nof Jacob' as if he was thinking of the survivors of some great calamity\nwhich had swept away the greater portion of the nation. Both things are\ntrue. When settled in its own land, Israel's office was to teach the\nnations God; when dispersed among the Gentiles, its office ought to have\nbeen the same. But be that as it may, the conception here set forth is\nas true to-day as ever it was. For the prophetic teachings, rooted\nthough they may be in the transitory circumstances of a tiny nation, are\n'not for an age, but for all time,' and we get a great deal nearer the\nheart of them when we grasp the permanent truths that underlie them,\nthan when we learnedly exhume the dead history which was their\noccasion.\n\nMicah's message comes to all Christians, and very eminently to English\nChristians. The subject of Christian missions is before us to-day, and\nsome thoughts in the line of this great text may not be inappropriate.\n\nWe have here, then,\n\nI. The function of each Christian in his place.\n\n'The remnant of Jacob shall be as a dew from the Lord in the midst of\nmany nations.' What made Israel 'as a dew'? One thing only; its\nreligion, its knowledge of God, and its consequent purer morality. It\ncould teach Greece no philosophy, no art, no refinement, no\nsensitiveness to the beautiful. It could teach Rome no lessons of policy\nor government. It could bring no wisdom to Egypt, no power or wealth to\nAssyria. But God lit His candle and set it on a candlestick, that it\n'might give light to all that were in the house.' The same thing is true\nabout Christian people. We cannot teach the world science, we cannot\nteach it philosophy or art, but we can teach it God. Now the possibility\nbrings with it the obligation. The personal experience of Jesus Christ\nin our hearts, as the dew that brings to us life and fertility, carries\nwith it a commission as distinct and imperative as if it had been pealed\ninto each single ear by a voice from heaven. That which made Israel the\n'dew amidst many nations,' parched for want of it, makes Christian men\nand women fit to fill the analogous office, and calls upon them to\ndischarge the same functions. For--in regard to all our possessions, and\ntherefore most eminently and imperatively in regard to the best--that\nwhich we have, we have as stewards, and the Gospel, as the Apostle\nfound, was not only given to him for his own individual enjoyment,\nelevation, ennobling, emancipation, salvation, but was 'committed to\nhis charge,' and he was 'entrusted' with it, as he says, as a sacred\ndeposit.\n\nRemember, too, that, strange as it may seem, the only way by which that\nknowledge of God which was bestowed upon Israel could become the\npossession of the world was by its first of all being made the\npossession of a few. People talk about the unfairness, the harshness, of\nthe providential arrangement by which the whole world was not made\nparticipant of the revelation which was granted to Israel. The fire is\ngathered on to a hearth. Does that mean that the corners of the room are\nleft uncared for? No! the brazier is in the middle--as Palestine was,\neven geographically in the centre of the then civilised world--that from\nthe centre the beneficent warmth might radiate and give heat as well as\nlight to 'all them that are in the house.'\n\nSo it is in regard to all the great possessions of the race. Art,\nliterature, science, political wisdom, they are all intrusted to a few\nwho are made their apostles; and the purpose is their universal\ndiffusion from these human centres. It is in the line of the analogy of\nall the other gifts of God to humanity, that chosen men should be raised\nup in whom the life is lodged, that it may be diffused.\n\nSo to us the message comes: 'The Lord hath need of thee.' Christ has\ndied; the Cross is the world's redemption. Christ lives that He may\napply the power and the benefits of His death and of His risen life to\nall humanity. But the missing link between the all sufficient redemption\nthat is in Christ Jesus, and the actual redemption of the world, is\n'the remnant of Jacob,' the Christian Church which is to be 'in the\nmidst of many people, as a dew from the Lord.'\n\nNow, that diffusion from individual centres of the life that is in Jesus\nChrist is the chiefest reason--or at all events, is one chief\nreason--for the strange and inextricable intertwining in modern society,\nof saint and sinner, of Christian and non-Christian. The seed is sown\namong the thorns; the wheat springs up amongst the tares. Their roots\nare so matted together that no hand can separate them. In families, in\nprofessions, in business relations, in civil life, in national life,\nboth grow together. God sows His seed thin that all the field may smile\nin harvest. The salt is broken up into many minute particles and rubbed\ninto that which it is to preserve from corruption. The remnant of Jacob\nis in the _midst_ of many peoples; and you and I are encompassed by\nthose who need our Christ, and who do not know Him or love Him; and one\ngreat reason for the close intertwining is that, scattered, we may\ndiffuse, and that at all points the world may be in contact with those\nwho ought to be working to preserve it from putrefaction and decay.\n\nNow there are two ways by which this function may be discharged, and in\nwhich it is incumbent upon every Christian man to make his contribution,\nbe it greater or smaller, to the discharge of it. The one is by direct\nefforts to impart to others the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ which\nwe have, and which we profess to be the very root of our lives. We can\nall do that if we will, and we are here to do it. Every one of us has\nsomebody or other close to us, bound to us, perhaps, by the tie of\nkindred and love, who will listen to us more readily than to anybody\nelse. Christian men and women, have you utilised these channels which\nGod Himself, by the arrangements of society, has dug for you, that\nthrough them you may pour upon some thirsty ground the water of life? We\ncould also help, and help far more than any of us do, in associated\nefforts for the same purpose. The direct obligation to direct efforts to\nimpart the Gospel cannot be shirked, though, alas! it is far too often\nignored by us professing Christians.\n\nBut there is another way by which 'the remnant of Jacob' is to be 'a dew\nfrom the Lord,' and that is by trying to bring to bear Christian\nthoughts and Christian principles upon all the relations of life in\nwhich we stand, and upon all the societies, be they greater or\nsmaller--the family, the city, or the nation--of which we form parts. We\nhave heard a great deal lately about what people that know very little\nabout it, are pleased to call 'the Nonconformist conscience,' I take the\ncompliment, which is not intended, but is conveyed by the word. But I\nventure to say that what is meant, is not the 'Nonconformist'\nconscience, it is the _Christian_ conscience. We Nonconformists have no\nmonopoly, thank God, of that. Nay, rather, in some respects, our friends\nin the Anglican churches are teaching some of us a lesson as to the\napplication of Christian principles to civic duty and to national life.\nI beseech you, although I do not mean to dwell upon that point at all at\nthis time, to ask yourselves whether, as citizens, the vices, the\ngodlessness, the miseries--the removable miseries--of our great town\npopulations, lie upon your hearts. Have you ever lifted a finger to\nabate drunkenness? Have you ever done anything to help to make it\npossible that the masses of our town communities should live in places\nbetter than the pigsties in which many of them have to wallow? Have you\nany care for the dignity, the purity, the Christianity of our civic\nrulers; and do you, to the extent of your ability, try to ensure that\nChrist's teaching shall govern the life of our cities? And the same\nquestion may be put yet more emphatically with regard to wider subjects,\nnamely, the national life and the national action, whether in regard to\nwar or in regard to other pressing subjects for national consideration.\nI do not touch upon these; I only ask you to remember the grand ideal of\nmy text, which applies to the narrowest circle--the family; and to the\nwider circles--the city and the nation, as well as to the world. Time\nwas when a bastard piety shrank back from intermeddling with these\naffairs and gathered up its skirts about it in an ecstasy of unwholesome\nunworldliness. There is not much danger of that now, when Christian men\nare in the full swim of the currents of civic, professional, literary,\nnational life. But I will tell you of what there is a danger--Christian\nmen and women moving in their families, going into town councils, going\ninto Parliament, going to the polling booths, and leaving their\nChristianity behind them. 'The remnant of Jacob shall be as a dew from\nthe Lord.'\n\nNow let me turn for a moment to a second point, and that is\n\nII. The function of English Christians in the world.\n\nI have suggested in an earlier part of this sermon that possibly the\napplication of this text originally was to the scattered remnant. Be\nthat as it may, wherever you go, you find the Jew and the Englishman. I\nneed not dwell upon the ubiquity of our race. I need not point you to\nthe fact that, in all probability, our language is destined to be the\nworld's language some day. I need do nothing more than recall the fact\nthat a man may go on board ship, in Liverpool or London, and go round\nthe world; everywhere he sees the Union Jack, and everywhere he lands\nupon British soil. The ubiquity of the scattered Englishman needs no\nillustration.\n\nBut I do wish to remind you that that ubiquity has its obligation. We\nhear a great deal to-day about Imperialism, about 'the Greater Britain,'\nabout 'the expansion of England.' And on one side all that new\natmosphere of feeling is good, for it speaks of a vivid consciousness\nwhich is all to the good in the pulsations of the national life. But\nthere is another side to it that is not so good. What is the expansion\nsought for? Trade? Yes! necessarily; and no man who lives in Lancashire\nwill speak lightly of that necessity. Vulgar greed, and earth-hunger?\n_that_ is evil. Glory? that is cruel, blood-stained, empty. My text\ntells us why expansion should be sought, and what are the obligations it\nbrings with it. 'The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many\npeople as a dew from the Lord' There are two kinds of Imperialism: one\nwhich regards the Empire as a thing for the advantage of us here, in\nthis little land, and another which regards it as a burden that God has\nlaid on the shoulders of the men whom John Milton, two centuries ago,\nwas not afraid to call 'His Englishmen.'\n\nLet me remind you of two contrasted pictures which will give far more\nforcibly than anything I can say, the two points of view from which our\nworld-wide dominion may be regarded. Here is one of them: 'By the\nstrength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent.\nAnd I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their\ntreasures, and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people;\nand as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth;\nand there was none that moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or peeped.'\nThat is the voice of the lust for Empire for selfish advantages. And\nhere is the other one: 'The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall\nbring presents; yea, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations\nshall serve Him, for He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor\nalso, and him that hath no helper. He shall redeem their soul from\ndeceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight.'\nThat is the voice that has learned: 'He that is greatest among you, let\nhim be your servant'; and that the dominion founded on unselfish\nsurrender for others is the only dominion that will last. Brethren! that\nis the spirit in which alone England will keep its Empire over the\nworld.\n\nI need not remind you that the gift which we have to carry to the\nheathen nations, the subject peoples who are under the aegis of our laws,\nis not merely our literature, our science, our Western civilisation,\nstill less the products of our commerce, for all of which some of them\nare asking; but it is _the_ gift that they do _not_ ask for. The dew\n'waiteth not for man, nor tarrieth for the sons of men.' We have to\ncreate the demand by bringing the supply. We have to carry Christ's\nGospel as the greatest gift that we have in our hands.\n\nAnd now, I was going to have said a word, lastly, but I see it can only\nbe a word, about--\n\nIII. The failure to fulfil the function.\n\nIsrael failed. Pharisaism was the end of it--a hugging itself in the\npossession of the gift which it did not appreciate, and a bitter\ncontempt of the nations, and so destruction came, and the fire on the\nhearth was scattered and died out, and the vineyard was taken from them\nand 'given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.' Change the\nname, as the Latin poet says, and the story is told about us. England\nlargely fails in this function; as witness in India godless civilians;\nas witness on every palm-shaded coral beach in the South Seas,\nprofligate beach-combers, drunken sailors, unscrupulous traders; as\nwitness the dying out of races by diseases imported with profligacy and\ngin from this land. 'A dew from the Lord!'; say rather a malaria from\nthe devil! 'By you,' said the Prophet, 'is the name of God blasphemed\namong the Gentiles.' By Englishmen the missionary's efforts are, in a\nhundred cases, neutralised, or hampered if not neutralised.\n\nWe have failed because, as Christian people, we have not been adequately\nin earnest. No man can say with truth that the churches of England are\nawake to the imperative obligation of this missionary enterprise. 'If\nGod spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He spare not thee.'\nIsrael's religion was not diffusive, therefore it corrupted; Israel's\nreligion did not reach out a hand to the nations, therefore its heart\nwas paralysed and stricken. They who bring the Gospel to others increase\ntheir own hold upon it. There is a joy of activity, there is a firmer\nfaith, as new evidences of its power are presented before them. There is\nthe blessing that comes down upon all faithful discharge of duty; 'If\nthe house be not worthy, your peace shall return to you.' After all, our\nEmpire rests on moral foundations, and if it is administered by us--and\nwe each have part of the responsibility for all that is done--on the\nselfish ground of only seeking the advantage of 'the predominant\npartner,' then our hold will be loosened. There is no such cement of\nempire as a common religion. If we desire to make these subject peoples\nloyal fellow-subjects, we must make them true fellow-worshippers. The\nmissionary holds India for England far more strongly than the soldier\ndoes. If we apply Christian principles to our administration of our\nEmpire, then instead of its being knit together by iron bands, it will\nbe laced together by the intertwining tendrils of the hearts of those\nwho are possessors of 'like precious faith.' Brethren, there is another\nsaying in the Old Testament, about the dew. 'I will be as the dew unto\nIsrael,' says God through the Prophet. We must have Him as the dew for\nour own souls first. Then only shall we be able to discharge the office\nlaid upon us, to be in the midst of many peoples as 'dew from the Lord.'\nIf our fleece is wet and we leave the ground dry, our fleece will soon\nbe dry, though the ground may be bedewed.\n\n\nGOD'S REQUIREMENTS AND GOD'S GIFT\n\n     'What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love\n     mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?'--MICAH vi. 8.\n\nThis is the Prophet's answer to a question which he puts into the mouth\nof his hearers. They had the superstitious estimate of the worth of\nsacrifice, which conceives that the external offering is pleasing to\nGod, and can satisfy for sin. Micah, like his great contemporary Isaiah,\nand the most of the prophets, wages war against that misconception of\nsacrifice, but does not thereby protest against its use. To suppose that\nhe does so is to misunderstand his whole argument. Another misuse of the\nwords of my text is by no means uncommon to-day. One has heard people\nsay, 'We are plain men; we do not understand your theological\nsubtleties; we do not quite see what you mean by \"Repentance toward God,\nand faith in Jesus Christ.\" \"To do justly, and to love mercy, and to\nwalk humbly with my God,\" that is my religion, and I leave all the rest\nto you.' That is our religion too, but notice that word 'require.' It is\na harsh word, and if it is the last word to be said about God's relation\nto men, then a great shadow has fallen upon life.\n\nBut there is another word which Micah but dimly caught uttered amidst\nthe thunders of Sinai, and which you and I have heard far more clearly.\nThe Prophet read off rightly God's _requirements_, but he had not\nanything to say about God's _gifts_. So his word is a half-truth, and\nthe more clearly it is seen, and the more earnestly a man tries to live\nup to the standard of the requirements laid down here, the more will he\nfeel that there is something else needed, and the more will he see that\nthe great central peculiarity and glory of Christianity is not that it\nreiterates or alters God's requirements, but that it brings into view\nGod's gifts. 'To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God,'\nis possible only through repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord\nJesus Christ. And if you suppose that these words of my text disclose\nthe whole truth about God's relation to men, and men's to God, you have\nfailed to apprehend the flaming centre of the Light that shines from\nheaven.\n\nI. So, then, the first thing that I wish to suggest is God's\nrequirements.\n\nNow, I do not need to say more than just a word or two about the\nsumming-up in my text of the plain, elementary duties of morality and\nreligion. It covers substantially the same ground, in a condensed form,\nas does the Decalogue, only that Moses began with the deepest thing and\nworked outwards, as it were; laying the foundation in a true relation to\nGod, which is the most important, and from which will follow the true\nrelation to men. Micah begins at the other end, and starting with the\nlesser, the more external, the purely human, works his way inwards to\nthat which is the centre and the source of all.\n\n'To do justly,' that is elementary morality in two words. Whatever a man\nhas a right to claim from you, give him; that is the sum of duty. And\nyet not altogether so, for we all know the difference between a\nrighteous man and a good man, and how, if there is only rigidly\nrighteous action, there is something wanting to the very righteousness\nof the action and to the completeness of the character. 'To do' is not\nenough; we must get to the heart, and so '_love_ mercy.' Justice is not\nall. If each man gets his deserts, as Shakespeare says, 'who of us shall\nscape whipping?' There must be the mercy as well as the justice. In a\nvery deep sense no man renders to his fellows all that his fellows have\na right to expect of him, who does not render to them mercy. And so in a\nvery deep sense, mercy is part of justice, and you have not given any\npoor creature all that that poor creature has a right to look for from\nyou, unless you have given him all the gracious and gentle charities of\nheart and hand. Justice and mercy do, in the deepest view, run into one.\n\nThen Micah goes deeper. 'And to walk humbly with thy God.' Some people\nwould say that this summary of the divine requirements is defective,\nbecause there is nothing in it about a man's duty to himself, which is\nas much a duty as his duty to his fellows, or his duty to God. But there\nis a good deal of my duty to myself crowded into that one word,\n'humbly.' For I suppose we might almost say that the basis of all our\nobligations to our own selves lies in this, that we shall take the right\nview--that is, the lowly view--of ourselves. But I pass that.\n\n'To walk humbly with thy God.' 'Can two walk together unless they be\nagreed?' For walking with God there must be communion, based in love,\nand resulting in imitation. And that communion must be constant, and run\nthrough all the life, like a golden thread through some web. So, then,\nhere is the minimum of the divine requirements, to give everybody what\nhe has a right to, including the mercy to which he has a right, to have\na lowly estimate of myself, and to live continually grasping the hand of\nGod, and conscious of His overshadowing wing at all moments, and of\nconformity to His will at every step of the road. That is the minimum;\nand the people who so glibly say, 'That is my religion,' have little\nconsciousness of how far-reaching and how deep-down-going the\nrequirements of this text are. The requirements result from the very\nnature of God, and our relation to Him, and they are endorsed by our own\nconsciences, for we all know that these, and nothing less than these are\nthe duties that we owe to God. So much for God's requirements.\n\nII. Our failure.\n\nThere is not one of us that has come up to the standard. Man after man\nmay be conceived of as bringing in his hands the actions of his life,\nand laying them in the awful scales which God's hand holds. In the one\nare God's requirements, in the other my life; and in every case down\ngoes the weight, and 'weighed in the balances we are altogether lighter\nthan vanity.' We stand before the great Master in the school, and one by\none we take up our copybooks; and there is not one of them that is not\nblack with blots and erasures and swarming with errors. The great cliff\nstands in front of us with the victor's prize on its topmost ledge, and\nman after man tries to climb, and falls bruised and broken at the base.\n'There is none righteous, no, not one.' Micah's requirements come to\nevery man that will honestly take stock of his life and his character as\nthe statement of an unreached and unreachable ideal to which he never\nhas climbed nor ever can climb.\n\nOh, brethren! if these words are all the words that are to be said about\nGod and me, then I know not what lies before the enlightened conscience\nexcept shuddering despair, and a paralysing consciousness of inevitable\nfailure. I beseech you, take these words, and go apart with them, and\ntest your daily life by them. God requires me to do justly. Does there\nnot rise before my memory many an act in which, in regard to persons and\nin regard to circumstances, I have fallen beneath that requirement? He\nrequires me 'to love mercy.' He requires me 'to walk humbly,' and I have\noften been inflated and self-conceited and presumptuous. He requires me\nto walk with Himself, and I have shaken away His hand from me, and\npassed whole days without ever thinking of Him, and 'the God in whose\nhands' my 'breath is, and whose are all' my 'ways,' I have 'not\nglorified.' I cannot hammer this truth into your consciences. You have\nto do it for yourselves. But I beseech you, recognise the fact that you\nare implicated in the universal failure, and that God's requirement is\nGod's condemnation of each of us.\n\nIf, then, that is true, that all have come short of the requirement,\nthen there should follow a universal sense of guilt, for there is the\nuniversal fact of guilt, whether there be the sense of it or not. There\nmust follow, too, consequences resulting from the failure of each of us\nto comply with these divine requirements, consequences very alarming,\nvery fatal; and there must follow a darkening of the thought of God. 'I\nknew thee that thou wert an austere man, reaping where thou didst not\nsow, and gathering where thou didst not straw.' That is the God of all\nthe people who take my text as the last word of their religion--God\n'requires of me. The blessed sun in the heavens becomes a lurid ball of\nfire when it is seen through the mist of such a conception of the divine\ncharacter, and its relation to men. There is nothing that so drapes the\nsky in darkness, and hides out the great light of God, as the thought of\nHis requirements as the last thought we cherish concerning Him.\n\nThere follows, too, upon this conception, and the failure that results\nto fulfil the requirements, a hopelessness as to ever accomplishing that\nwhich is demanded of us. Who amongst us is there that, looking back upon\nhis past in so far as it has been shaped by his own effort and his own\nunaided strength, can look forward to a future with any hope that it\nwill mend the past? Brethren! experience teaches us that we have not\nfulfilled, and cannot fulfil, what remains our plain duty,\nnotwithstanding our inability to discharge it--viz., 'To do justly, and\nto love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.' To think of God's\nrequirements, and of my own failure, is the sure way to paralyse all\nactivity; just as that man in the parable who said, 'Thou art an austere\nman,' went away and hid his talent in the earth. To think of God's\nrequirements and my own failures, if heaven has nothing more to say to\nme than this stern 'Thou shalt,' is the short way to despair. And that\nis why most of us prefer to be immersed in the trivialities of daily\nlife rather than to think of God, and of what He asks from us. For the\nonly way by which some of us can keep our equanimity and our\ncheerfulness is by ignoring Him and forgetting what He demands, and\nnever taking stock of our own lives.\n\nIII. Lastly, my text leads us to think of God's gift.\n\nI said it is a half-truth, for it only tells us of what He desires us to\nbe, and does not tell us of how we may be it. It is meant, like the law\nof which it is a condensation, to be the _pedagogue_, to lead the child\nto Jesus Christ, the true Master, and the true Gift of God.\n\nGod 'requires.' Yes, and He requires, in order that we should say to\nHim, 'Lord, Thou hast a right to ask this, and it is my blessedness to\ngive it, but I cannot. Do Thou give me what Thou dost require, and then\nI can.'\n\nThe gift of God is Jesus Christ, and that gift meets all our failures. I\nhave spoken of the sense of guilt that rises from the consciousness of\nfailure to keep the requirements of the divine law; and the gift of God\ndeals with that. It comes to us as we lie wounded, bruised, conscious of\nfailure, alarmed for results, sensible of guilt, and dreading the\npenalties, and it says to us, 'Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin\npurged.' 'God requires of thee what thou hast not done. Trust yourselves\nto Me, and all iniquity is passed from your souls.'\n\nI spoke of the hopelessness of future performance, which results from\nexperience of past failures; and the gift of God deals with that. You\ncannot meet the requirements. Christ will put His Spirit into your\nspirits, if you will trust yourselves to Him, and then you will meet\nthem, for the things which are impossible with men are possible with\nGod. So, if led by Micah, we pass from God's requirements to His gifts,\nlook at the change in the aspect which God bears to us. He is no longer\nstanding strict to mark, and stern to judge and condemn: but bending\ndown graciously to help. His last word to us is not 'Thou shalt do' but\n'I will give.' His utterance in the Gospel is not 'do,' but it is\n'take'; and the vision of God, which shines out upon us from the life\nand from the Cross of Jesus Christ, is not that of a great Taskmaster,\nbut that of Him who helps all our weakness, and makes it strength. A God\nwho 'requires' paralyses men, shuts men out from hope and joy and\nfellowship; a God who gives draws men to His heart, and makes them\ndiligent in fulfilling all His blessed requirements.\n\nThink of the difference which the conception of God as giving makes to\nthe spirit in which we work. No longer, like the Israelites in Egypt, do\nwe try to make bricks without straw, and break our hearts over our\nfailures, or desperately abandon the attempt, and live in neglect of God\nand His will; but joyfully, with the clear confidence that 'our labour\nis not in vain in the Lord,' we seek to keep the commandments which we\nhave learned to be the expressions of His love. One of the Fathers puts\nall in one lovely sentence: 'Give what Thou commandest, and command what\nThou wilt.'\n\nThink, too, of the difference which this conception of the giving rather\nthan of the requiring God brings into what we have to do. We have not to\nbegin with effort, we have to begin with faith. The fountain must be\nfilled from the spring before it can send up its crystal pillar flashing\nin the sunlight; and we must receive by our trust the power to will and\nto do. First fill the lamp with oil, and let the Master light it, and\nthen let its blaze beam forth. First, we have to go to the giving God,\nwith thanks 'unto Him for His unspeakable gift'; and then we have to say\nto Him, 'Thou hast given me Thy Son. What dost Thou desire that I shall\ngive to Thee?' We have first to accept the gift, and then, moved by the\nmercy of God, to ask, 'Lord I what wilt Thou have me to do?'\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nHABAKKUK\n\n\nTHE IDEAL DEVOUT LIFE\n\n     'The Lord God is my Strength, and He will make my feet like hinds'\n     feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high\n     places.'--HABBAKKUK iii. 19.\n\nSo ends one of the most magnificent pieces of imaginative poetry in\nScripture or anywhere else. The singer has been describing a great\ndelivering manifestation of the Most High God, which, though he knew it\nwas for the deliverance of God's people, shed awe and terror over his\nsoul. Then he gathers himself together to vow that in this God, thus\nmanifested as the God of his salvation, he 'will rejoice,' whatever\npenury or privation may attach to his outward life. Lastly, he rises, in\nthese final words, to the apprehension of what this God, thus rejoiced\nin, will become to those who so put their trust and their gladness upon\nHimself.\n\nThe expressions are of a highly metaphorical and imaginative character,\nbut they admit of being brought down to very plain facts, and they tell\nus the results in heart and mind of true faith and communion with God.\n\nIt is to be noticed that a parallel saying, almost verbatim the same as\nthat of my text, occurs in the 18th psalm, and that there, too, it is\nthe last and joyous result of a tremendous manifestation of the\ndelivering energy of God.\n\nWithout any attempt to do more than bring out the deep meaning of the\nwords, I note that the three clauses of our text present three aspects\nof what our lives and ourselves may steadfastly be if we, too, will\nrejoice in the God of our salvation.\n\nI. First, such communion with God brings God to a man for his strength.\n\nThe 18th psalm, which is closely parallel, as I have remarked, with this\none, gives a somewhat different and inferior version of that thought\nwhen it says, 'It is the Lord that girdeth me with strength.' But\nHabakkuk, though perhaps he could not have put into dogmatic shape all\nthat he meant, had come farther than that with this: 'The Lord is my\nstrength.' He not only _gives_, as one might put a coin into the hand of\na beggar, while standing separate from him all the while, but 'He is my\nstrength.'\n\nAnd what does that mean? It is an anticipation of that most wonderful\nand highest of all the New Testament truths which the Apostle declared\nwhen he said: 'I can do all things in Christ which strengtheneth me\nwithin.' It is the anticipation in experience--which always comes before\ndogmatic formulas that reduce experiences into articulate utterances, of\nwhat the Apostle recorded when he said that he had heard the voice that\ndeclared, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, and My strength is made\nperfect in weakness.'\n\nAh, brother! do not let us deprive ourselves of the lofty consolations\nand the mysterious influx of power which may be ours, if we will open\nour eyes to see, and our hearts to receive, what is really the central\nblessing of the Gospel, the communication through the same faith as\nHabakkuk exercised when he said, 'I will rejoice in the God of my\nsalvation,' of an actual divine strength to dwell in and manifest itself\nmajestically and triumphantly through, our weakness. 'The Lord is my\nstrength,' and if we will rejoice in the Lord we shall find that\nHabakkuk's experience was lower than ours, inasmuch as he knew less of\nGod than we do; and we shall be able to surpass his saying with the\nother one of the Prophet: 'The Lord is my strength and song; He also is\nbecome my salvation.' That is the first blessing that this ancient\nbeliever, out of the twilight of early revelation, felt as certain to\ncome through communion with God.\n\nII. The second is like unto it. Such rejoicing communion with God will\ngive light-footedness in the path of life.\n\n'He makes my feet like hinds' feet.' The stag is, in all languages\nspoken by people that have ever seen it, the very type and emblem of\nelastic, springing ease, of light and bounding gracefulness, that clears\nevery obstacle, and sweeps swiftly over the moor. And when this singer,\nor his brother psalmist in the other psalm that we have referred to,\nsays, 'Thou makest my feet like hinds' feet,' what he is thinking about\nis that light and easy, springing, elastic gait, that swiftness of\nadvance. What a contrast that is to the way in which most of us get\nthrough our day's work! Plod, plod, plod, in a heavy-footed, spiritless\ngrind, like that with which the ploughman toils down the sticky furrows\nof a field, with a pound of clay at each heel; or like that with which a\nman goes wearied home from his work at night. The monotony of trivial,\nconstantly recurring doings, the fluctuations in the thermometer of our\nown spirits; the stiff bits of road that we have all to encounter sooner\nor later; and as days go on, our diminishing buoyancy of nature, and the\nlove of walking a little slower than we used to do; we all know these\nthings, and our gait is affected by them. But then my text brings a\nbright assurance, that swift and easy and springing as the course of a\nstag on a free hill-side may be the gait with which we run the race set\nbefore us.\n\nIt is the same thought, under a somewhat different garb, which the\nApostle has when he tells us that the Christian soldier ought to have\nhis 'feet shod with the alacrity that comes from the gospel of peace.'\nWe are to be always ready to run, and to run with light hearts when we\ndo. That is a possible result of Christian communion, and ought, far\nmore than it is, to be an achieved reality with each of us. Of course\nphysical conditions vary. Of course our spirits go up and down. Of\ncourse the work that we have to do one day seems easier than the same\nwork does another. All these fluctuations and variations, and causes of\nheavy-footedness--and sometimes more sinful ones, causes of\nsluggishness--will survive; but in spite of them all, and beneath them\nall, it is possible that we may have ourselves thus equipped for the\nroad, and may rejoice in our work 'as a strong man to run a race,' and\nmay cheerily welcome every duty, and cast ourselves into all our tasks.\nIt is possible, because communion with God manifest in Christ does, as\nwe have been seeing, actually breathe into men a vigour, and\nconsequently a freshness and a buoyancy that do not belong to\nthemselves, and do not come from nature or from surrounding things.\nUnless that is true, that Christianity gives to a man the divine\ngladness which makes him ready for work, I do not know what is the good\nof his Christianity to him.\n\nBut not only is that so, but this same communion with God, which is the\nopening of the heart for the influx of the divine power, brings to bear\nupon all our work new motives which redeem it from being oppressive,\ntedious, monotonous, trivial, too great for our endurance, or too little\nfor our effort. All work that is not done in fellowship with Jesus\nChrist tends to become either too heavy to be tackled successfully, or\ntoo trivial to demand our best energies, and in either case will be done\nperfunctorily, and as the days go on, mechanically and wearisomely, as a\ngrind and a pled. 'Thou makest my feet like hinds' feet'--if I get the\nnew motive of love to God in Christ well into my heart so that it comes\nout and influences all my actions, there will be no more tasks too\nformidable to undertake, or too small to be worth an effort. There will\nbe nothing unwelcome. The rough places will be made plain, and the\ncrooked things straight, and our feet will be shod with the preparedness\nof the gospel of peace.\n\nIf we live in daily communion with God, another thought, too, will come\nin, which will, in like manner, make us ready 'to run with' cheerfulness\n'the race that is set before us.' We shall connect everything that\nbefalls us, and everything that we have to do, with the final issue, and\nlife will become solemn, grave, and blessed, because it is the outer\ncourt and vestibule of the eternal life with God in Christ. They that\nhold communion with Him, and only they, will, as another prophet says,\n'run and not be weary,' when there come the moments that require a\nspecial effort; and 'will walk and not faint' through the else\ntediously long hours of commonplace duty and dusty road.\n\nIII. The last of the thoughts here is--Communion with God brings\nelevation.\n\n'He will make me to walk upon my high places.' One sees the herd on the\nskyline of the mountain ridge, and at home up there, far above dangers\nand attack; able to keep their footing on cliff and precipice, and\ntossing their antlers in the pure air. One wave of the hand, and they\nare miles away. 'He sets me upon my high places'; if we will keep\nourselves in simple, loving fellowship with God in Christ; and day by\nday, even when 'the fig-tree does not blossom, and there is no fruit in\nthe vine,' will still 'rejoice in the God of our salvation,' He will\nlift us up, and Isaiah's other clause in the verse which I have quoted\nwill be fulfilled: 'They shall mount up with wings as eagles.' Communion\nwith God does not only help us to plod and to travel, but it helps us to\nsoar. If we keep ourselves in touch with Him, we shall be like a weight\nthat is hung on to a balloon. The buoyancy of the one will lift the\nleadenness of the other. If we hold fast by Christ's hand that will lift\nus up to the high places, the heights of God, in so far as we may reach\nthem in this world; and we shall be at home up there. They will be '_my_\nhigh places,' that I never could have got at by my own scrambling, but\nto which Thou hast lifted me up, and which, by Thy grace, have become my\nnatural abode. I am at home there, and walk at liberty in the loftiness,\nand fear no fall amongst the cliffs.\n\nAre you and I familiar with these upper ranges of thought and experience\nand life? Do we feel at home there more than down in the bottoms,\namongst the swamps, and the miasma, and the mists? Where is your home,\nbrother? The Mass begins with _Sursum corda_: 'Up with your hearts,' and\nthat is the word for us. But the way to get up is to keep ourselves in\ntouch with Jesus Christ, and then He will, even whilst our feet are\ntravelling along this road of earth, set us at His own right hand in the\nheavenly places, and make them '_our_ high places.' It is safe up there.\nThe air is pure; the poison mists are down lower; the hunters do not\ncome there; their arrows or their rifles will not carry so far. It is\nonly when the herd ventures a little down the hill that it is in danger\nfrom shots.\n\nBut the elevation will not be such as to make us despise the low paths\non which duty--the sufficient and loftiest thing of all--lies for us.\nOur souls may be like stars, and dwell apart, and yet may lay the\nhumblest duties upon themselves, and whilst we live in the high places,\nwe 'may travel on life's common way in cheerful godliness.' Communion\nwith Him will make us light-footed, and lift us high, and yet it will\nkeep us at desk, and mill, and study, and kitchen, and nursery, and\nshop, and we shall find that the high places are reachable in every\nlife, and in every task. So we may go on until at last we shall hear the\nVoice that says, 'Come up higher,' and shall he lifted to the mountain\nof God, where the living waters are, and shall fear no snares or hunters\nany more for ever.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nZEPHANIAH\n\n\nZION'S JOY AND GOD'S\n\n     'Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice\n     with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.... 17. He will rejoice\n     over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee\n     with singing.'--ZEPHANIAH iii. 14, 17.\n\nWhat a wonderful rush of exuberant gladness there is in these words! The\nswift, short clauses, the triple invocation in the former verse, the\ntriple promise in the latter, the heaped together synonyms, all help the\nimpression. The very words seem to dance with joy. But more remarkable\nthan this is the parallelism between the two verses. Zion is called to\nrejoice in God because God rejoices in her. She is to shout for joy and\nsing because God's joy too has a voice, and breaks out into singing. For\nevery throb of joy in man's heart, there is a wave of gladness in God's.\nThe notes of our praise are at once the echoes and the occasions of His.\nWe are to be glad because He is glad: He is glad because we are so. We\nsing for joy, and He joys over us with singing because we do.\n\nI. God's joy over Zion.\n\nIt is to be noticed that the former verse of our text is followed by the\nassurance: 'The Lord is in the midst of thee'; and that the latter verse\nis preceded by the same assurance. So, then, intimate fellowship and\ncommunion between God and Israel lies at the root both of God's joy in\nman and man's joy in God.\n\nWe are solemnly warned by 'profound thinkers' of letting the shadow of\nour emotions fall upon God. No doubt there is a real danger there; but\nthere is a worse danger, that of conceiving of a God who has no life and\nheart; and it is better to hold fast by this--that in Him is that which\ncorresponds to what in us is gladness. We are often told, too, that the\nJehovah of the Old Testament is a stern and repellent God, and the\nreligion of the Old Testament is gloomy and servile. But such a\nmisconception is hard to maintain in the face of such words as these.\nZephaniah, of whom we know little, and whose words are mainly forecasts\nof judgments and woes pronounced against Zion that was rebellious and\npolluted, ends his prophecy with these companion pictures, like a gleam\nof sunshine which often streams out at the close of a dark winter's day.\nTo him the judgments which he prophesied were no contradiction of the\nlove and gladness of God. The thought of a glad God might be a very\nawful thought; such an insight as this prophet had gives a blessed\nmeaning to it. We may think of the joy that belongs to the divine nature\nas coming from the completeness of His being, which is raised far above\nall that makes of sorrow. But it is not in Himself alone that He is\nglad; but it is because He loves. The exercise of love is ever\nblessedness. His joy is in self-impartation; His delights are in the\nsons of men: 'As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy\nGod rejoice over thee.' His gladness is in His children when they let\nHim love them, and do not throw back His love on itself. As in man's\nphysical frame it is pain to have secretions dammed up, so when God's\nlove is forced back upon itself and prevented from flowing out in\nblessing, some shadow of suffering cannot but pass across that calm sky.\nHe is glad when His face is mirrored in ours, and the rays from Him are\nreflected from us.\n\nBut there is another wonderfully bold and beautiful thought in this\nrepresentation of the gladness of God. Note the double form which it\nassumes: 'He will rest'--literally, be silent--'in His love; He will joy\nover thee with singing.' As to the former, loving hearts on earth know\nthat the deepest love knows no utterance, and can find none. A heart\nfull of love rests as having attained its desire and accomplished its\npurpose. It keeps a perpetual Sabbath, and is content to be silent.\n\nBut side by side with this picture of the repose of God's joy is set\nwith great poetic insight the precisely opposite image of a love which\ndelights in expression, and rejoices over its object with singing. The\ncombination of the two helps to express the depth and intensity of the\none love, which like a song-bird rises with quivering delight and pours\nout as it rises an ever louder and more joyous note, and then drops,\ncomposed and still, to its nest upon the dewy ground.\n\nII. Zion's joy in God.\n\nTo the Prophet, the fact that 'the Lord is in the midst of thee' was the\nguarantee for the confident assurance 'Thou shalt not fear any more';\nand this assurance was to be the occasion of exuberant gladness, which\nripples over in the very words of our first text. That great thought of\n'God dwelling in the midst' is rightly a pain and a terror to rebellious\nwills and alienated hearts. It needs some preparation of mind and spirit\nto be glad because God is near; and they who find their satisfaction in\nearthly sources, and those who seek for it in these, see no word of good\nnews, but rather a 'fearful looking for of judgment' in the thought that\nGod is in their midst. The word rendered 'rejoices' in the first verse\nof our text is not the same as that so translated in the second. The\nlatter means literally, to move in a circle; while the former literally\nmeans, to leap for joy. Thus the gladness of God is thought of as\nexpressing itself in dignified, calm movements, whilst Zion's joy is\nlikened in its expression to the more violent movements of the dance.\nTrue human joy is like God's, in that He delights in us and we in Him,\nand in that both He and we delight in the exercise of love. But we are\nnever to forget that the differences are real as the resemblances, and\nthat it is reserved for the higher form of our experiences in a future\nlife to 'enter into the joy of the Lord.'\n\nIt becomes us to see to it that our religion is a religion of joy. Our\ntext is an authoritative command as well as a joyful exhortation, and we\ndo not fairly represent the facts of Christian faith if we do not\n'rejoice in the Lord always.' In all the sadness and troubles which\nnecessarily accompany us, as they do all men, we ought by the effort of\nfaith to set the Lord always before us that we be not moved. The secret\nof stable and perpetual joy still lies where Zephaniah found it--in the\nassurance that the Lord is with us, and in the vision of His love\nresting upon us, and rejoicing over us with singing. If thus our love\nclasps His, and His joy finds its way into our hearts, it will remain\nwith us that our 'joy may be full'; and being guarded by Him whilst\nstill there is fear of stumbling, He will set us at last 'before the\npresence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nHAGGAI\n\n\nVAIN TOIL\n\n     'Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not\n     enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you,\n     but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to\n     put it into a bag with holes.'--HAGGAI i. 6\n\nA large emigration had taken place from the land of captivity to\nJerusalem. The great purpose which the returning exiles had in view was\nthe rebuilding of the Temple, as the centre-point of the restored\nnation. With true heroism, and much noble and unselfish enthusiasm, they\nbegan the work, postponing to it all considerations of personal\nconvenience. But the usual fate of all great national enthusiasms\nattended this. Political difficulties, hard practical realities, came in\nthe way, and the task was suspended for a time. A handful remained true\nto the original ideas; the rest fell away. Personal comfort, love of\nease, the claims of domestic life, the greed of gain, all the ignoble\nmotives which, like gravitation and friction, check such movements after\nthe first impulse is exhausted, came into play. Like every great cause,\nthis one was launched amidst high hopes and honest zeal: but by degrees\nthe hopes faded and became nothing better than 'godly imaginations.' The\nexiles took to building their own ceiled houses, and let the House of\nGod lie waste. They began to think more of settling on the land than of\nbuilding the Temple. No doubt they said all the things with which men\nare wont to hide their selfishness under the mask of duty:--Men must\nlive; we must take care of ourselves; it is mad enthusiasm to build a\ntemple when we have not homes; we mean to build it some time, but we are\npractical men and must provide for our wants first.'\n\nThis wisdom of theirs turned out folly, as it generally does. There\ncame, as we learn from this prophet, a season of distress, in which the\nharvest, for which they had sacrificed their duties and their calling,\nfailed: and in spite of their prudent diligence, or rather, just because\nof their misplaced and selfish attention to their worldly well-being,\nthey were poor and hungry. 'The heaven over them was stayed from dew,\nand the earth from her fruit.' Haggai was sent by God to interpret the\ncalamity, and to urge to the fulfilment of their earlier purposes.\n\nHis words apply to a supernatural condition of things with which he is\ndealing, but they contain truths illustrated by it and true for ever.\nFor us all, as truly as for those Jews, the first thing, the primary,\nall-embracing duty, is to serve God, to obey, love, and live with Him.\nThe same selfish and worldly excuses have force with us: 'We have\nbusiness to look after; men must live; we have no time to think about\nreligion; I have built a new mill that occupies my thoughts; I have\nfound a new plaything, and I must try it; I have married a wife, and\ntherefore I cannot come.' So God and His claims, Christ and His love,\nare hustled into a corner to be attended to when opportunity serves, but\nto be neglected in the meantime. And the same result follows, not by\nmiracle, but by natural necessity. Haggai puts these results in our text\nwith bitter, indignant amplification. His words are all the working out\nof one idea-the unprofitableness, on the whole and in the long-run, of a\ngodless life. He illustrates this in the clauses of our text in various\nforms, and my purpose now is simply to apply each of these to the\nrealities of a godless life.\n\nI. It is a life of fruitless toil.\n\nThe Prophet pictures the sowing, the abundant seed thrown broadcast, the\nlong waiting, and then, finally, a wretched harvest--a few prematurely\nyellow ears and short stalks. I remember a friend telling me that when\nhe was a boy he went out reaping with his father in one of our years of\ngreat drought; and after a day's work threshed out all that he had cut,\nand carried it home with him in his handkerchief. That is what Haggai\nsaw realised in fact, because the sowing had been without God. It is\nwhat we may see in others and feel in ourselves. It is the very law and\ncurse of godless toil with its unproductive harvest. The builders set\nout to build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven, and they never get\nhigher than a story or two. There is nothing more tragic than the\ncontrast between what a man actually accomplishes in his life and what\nhe planned when he began it. Many and many of our lives are like the\nhalf-built houses in Pompeii, where the stones are lying that had been\nall squared and polished, and have never been lifted to their place in\nthe unfinished walls. Much of the seed never comes up at all; and what\nwe gather is always less than what we expected. The prize gleams before\nus; when we get it, is it as good as it looked when it hung tempting at\nthe unreached goal? A fox-brush is scarcely sufficient payment for\nriding over half a county. Ah! but you say, there is the enthusiasm and\nstir of the pursuit. Well, yes; it is something if it is _training_ you\nfor something, and if you can say that faculties worth the cultivating\nare developed in that way: and whether that is so depends on what you\nthink a man is made for, and on whether these are faculties which will\nlast and find their scope as long as you last. Consider what you are,\nwhat you seek; and then say whether the most fruitful harvest from which\nGod and His love are left out is not little.\n\nThis fruitlessness of toil is inevitable unless it springs from a motive\nwhich in itself is sufficient, pursues a purpose which will surely be\naccomplished, and is done in hope of the world where 'our works do\nfollow us.' If we are allied to Christ, then whether our work be great\nor small, apparently successful or frustrated, it will be all right.\nThough we do not see our fruit, we know that He will bless the springing\nthereof, and that no least deed done for Him but shall in the\nharvest-day be found waving a nodding head of multiplied results. 'God\ngiveth it a body as it hath pleased Him'; and 'he that goeth forth\nweeping shall doubtless return, bringing his sheaves with him.' 'Your\nlabour is not in vain to the Lord.'\n\nII. A godless life is one of unsatisfied hunger and thirst.\n\nThe poor results of the exiles' toil did not avail to stay gnawing\nhunger nor slake burning thirst, and the same result applies only too\nsadly to lives lived apart from God. There are a multitude of desires\nproper to the human soul besides those which belong to the bodily frame,\nand these have their proper objects. Is it true that the objects are\nsufficient to satisfy the desires? Does any one of the things for which\nwe toil feed us full when we have it? Do we not always want just a\nlittle more? And is not that want accompanied with a real and sharp\nsense of hunger? Is it not true the appetite GROWS with what it feeds\non? And even if a man schools himself to something like content, it\ncomes not because the desire is satisfied, but because it is somehow\nbridled. Cerberus often breaks his chain, in spite of honied cakes that\nhave been tossed into the wide mouths of his tripled heads. What do\nwealth and ambition do for their votaries? And even he who thirsts for\nnobler occupations and lives for higher aims is often obliged to admit,\nin weariness, that 'this also is vanity.'\n\nBut even when the desire is satisfied, the man desiring is not. To feed\ntheir bodies men starve their souls. How many longings are crushed or\nneglected by him who pushes eagerly after any one longing! We have\neither to race from one course to another, splitting life into\nintolerable distractions, or we have to circumscribe and limit ourselves\nin order to devote all our power to securing one; and if we secure it,\nthen a hundred others will bark like a kennel of hounds.\n\nAnd if you say, 'I know nothing about all this; I have my aims, and on\nthe whole I secure a tolerable satisfaction for them,' do you not know a\nnameless unrest? If you do not, then you are so much the poorer and the\nlower, and you have murdered part of yourself. Some one single tyrannous\ndesire sits solitary in your heart. He has slain all his brethren that\nhe may rule, as sultans used to do in Constantinople. One big fish in\nthe aquarium has eaten up all the others.\n\nGod only satisfies the soul. It is only the 'bread which came down from\nHeaven,' of which if we eat our souls shall live, and be filled as with\nmarrow and fatness. That One is all-sufficient in His Oneness.\nPossessing Him, we know no satiety; possessing Him, we do not need to\nmaim any part of our nature; possessing Him, we shall not covet divers\nmultifarious objects. The loftiest powers of the soul find in Him their\nadequate, inexhaustible, eternal object. The lowest desires may, like\nthe beasts of the forest, seek their meat from God. If we take Him for\nour own and live on Him by faith, our blessed experience will be, 'I am\nfull: I have all and abound.'\n\nIII. The godless life is one of futile defences.\n\n'Ye clothe you, but there is none warm.' The clothing was to guard\nagainst the nipping air that blew shrewdly on their hills, and it failed\nto keep them from the weather. We may be indulging in fancy in this\napplication of our text, but still raiment is as needful as food, and\nits failure to answer its purpose points to a real sorrow and\ninsufficiency of a life lived without God. In it there is no real\ndefence against the manifold evils which storm upon all of us. When the\nbitter, biting weather comes, what have you to shelter you from the cold\nblast? Some rags of stoical resignation or proverbial commonplaces?\n'What is done cannot be helped'; 'What cannot be cured must be endured';\n'It is a long lane that has no turning,' and the like. But what are\nthese? You may have other occupations to interest you, but these will\nnot heal, though they may divert your attention from, your gaping\nwounds. You have friends, and the like, but though you have all these\nand much beside, these will not avail. 'The covering is shorter than\nthat a man can wrap himself in it.' Naked and shivering, exposed to the\npelting and the pitiless storm, with rags soaked through, and chilled to\nthe bone, what is there but death before the man in the wild weather on\nsome trackless moor? And what is there for us if we have to bear the\nstorms and cold of life without God? No doubt most of us struggle\nthrough somehow. Time heals much; work does a great deal; to live is so\nmuch, that no living being can be wholly miserable. Other cares and\nother occupations blossom and grow, and the brown mounds get covered\nwith sweet springing grass. But how many lie down and die? How many for\nthe rest of their lives go crushed and broken-spirited? How many carry\nabout with them, deep in their hearts, a sleepless sorrow? How many have\nto bear passionate paroxysms of agony and bursts of angry grief, all of\nwhich might have been softened and soothed and made to gleam with the\nmellow light of hope as from a hidden sun, if only, instead of defiantly\nand weakly fronting the world alone, they had found in the man Christ\nthe refuge from the storm and the covert from the tempest. How can a man\nface all the awful possibilities and the solemn certainties of life\nwithout God and not go mad? It is impossible to work without Him; it is\nimpossible to rejoice without Him; but more impossible still, if that\ncould be, is it to endure without Him. It is in union with Jesus Christ,\nand with Him alone, that we shall receive 'the pure linen, clean and\nwhite,' which is a surer defence than the warrior's mail, and 'being\nclothed we shall not be found naked.'\n\nIV. A godless life is one of fleeting riches.\n\nIn Haggai's strong metaphor, the poor day-labourer earns his small wage\nand puts it into a ragged bag, or as we should say, a pocket with a hole\nin it; and when he comes to look for it, it is gone, and all his toil is\nfor nothing. What a picture this is of the very experience that befalls\nall men who work for less wages than God's 'Well done.' Take an instance\nor two: here is a man who works hard for a long time, and puts his money\ninto some bank, and one morning he gets a letter to tell him the bank's\ndoors are closed, and his savings gone--a bag with holes. Here is a man\nwho climbs by slow degrees to the head of his profession and lives in\npopular admiration, and some day he sees a younger competitor shooting\nahead of him, and all is lost--a bag with holes. Here is a man who has,\nby some great discovery, established his fame or his fortune, and a new\nman, standing on his shoulders, makes a greater, and his fame dwarfs and\nhis trade runs into other channels--a bag with holes. Here is a man who\nhas conquered a world, and dies on the rock of St. Helena, with his\npompous titles stripped off him, and instead of kingdoms a rood or two\nof garden, and instead of his legions, half a dozen soldiers, a doctor,\nand a jailer--a bag with holes. Here is a man who, having amassed his\nriches and kept them without loss all his life, is dying. They cannot go\nwith him. That would not matter; but unfortunately he has to live\nyonder, and he will have 'nothing of all his labour that he can carry\naway in his hands'--a bag with holes.\n\nSuch loss and final separation befall us all; but he who loves God loses\nnone of his real treasure when he parts from earthly treasures. Fortune\nmay turn her wheel as she pleases, his wealth cannot be taken from him.\nHis riches are laid up in a sure storehouse, 'where neither moth nor\nrust doth corrupt.' We each live for ever. Should we not have for our\nobject in life that which is eternal as ourselves? Why should we fix\nour hopes on that which is not abiding--on things that can perish, on\nthings that we must lose? Let us not run this awful risk. Do not\nimpoverish or darken life here; do not condemn yourselves to unfruitful\ntoil, to unsatisfied desires, to unguarded calamities, to unstable\npossessions; but come, as sinful men ought to come, to Jesus Christ for\npardon and for life. Then, in due season, you will reap if you faint\nnot; and the harvest will not be little, but 'some sixty-fold and some\nan hundred-fold'; then you will 'hunger no more, neither thirst any\nmore,' but 'He that hath mercy on you will lead you to living fountains\nof water'; then you will not have to draw your poor rags round you for\nwarmth, but shall be clothed with the robe of righteousness and the\ngarment of praise; then you will never need to fear the loss of your\nriches, but bear with you whilst you live your treasures beyond the\nreach of change, and will find them multiplied a thousand-fold when you\ndie and go to God, your portion and your joy for ever.\n\n\nBRAVE ENCOURAGEMENTS\n\n     'In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month,\n     came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. Speak\n     now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to\n     Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of\n     the people, saying, 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in\n     her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes\n     in comparison of it as nothing? 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,\n     saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high\n     priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord,\n     and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts: 5. According\n     to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt,\n     so My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. 6. For thus saith\n     the Lord of Hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will\n     shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7.\n     And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall\n     come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of\n     Hosts. 8. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord\n     of Hosts. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than\n     of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I\n     give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts.'--HAGGAI ii. 1-9.\n\nThe second year of Darius, in which Haggai prophesied, was 520 B.C.\nPolitical intrigues had stopped the rebuilding of the Temple, and the\nenthusiasm of the first return had died away in the face of prolonged\ndifficulties. The two brave leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshua, still\nsurvived, and kept alive their own zeal; but the mass of the people were\nmore concerned about their comforts than about the restoration of the\nhouse of Jehovah. They had built for themselves 'ceiled houses,' and\nwere engrossed with their farms.\n\nThe Book of Ezra dwells on the external hindrances to the rebuilding.\nHaggai goes straight at the selfishness and worldliness of the people as\nthe great hindrance. We know nothing about him beyond the fact that he\nwas a prophet working in conjunction with Zechariah. He has been thought\nto have been one of the original company who came back with Zerubbabel,\nand it has been suggested, though without any certainty, that he may\nhave been one of the old men who remembered the former house. But these\nconjectures are profitless, and all that we know is that God sent him to\nrouse the slackened earnestness of the people, and that his words\nexercised a powerful influence in setting forward the work of\nrebuilding. This passage is the second of his four short prophecies. We\nmay call it a vision of the glory of the future house of Jehovah.\n\nThe prophecy begins with fully admitting the depressing facts which were\nchilling the popular enthusiasm. Compared with the former Temple, this\nwhich they had begun to build could not but be 'as nothing.' So the\nmurmurers said, and Haggai allows that they are quite right. Note the\nturn of his words: 'Who is left ... that saw this house in its former\nglory?' There had been many eighteen years ago; but the old eyes that\nhad filled with tears then had been mostly closed by death in the\ninterval, and now but few survived. Perhaps if the eyes had not been so\ndim with age, the rising house would not have looked so contemptible.\nThe pessimism of the aged is not always clear-sighted, nor their\ncomparisons of what was, and what is beginning to be, just. But it is\nalways wise to be frank in admitting the full strength of the opinions\nthat we oppose; and encouragements to work will never tell if they blink\ndifficulties or seek to deny plain facts. Haggai was wise when he began\nwith echoing the old men's disparagements, and in full view of them,\npealed out his brave incitements to the work.\n\nThe repetition of the one exhortation, 'Be strong, be strong, be\nstrong,' is very impressive. The very monotony has power. In the face of\nthe difficulties which beset every good work the cardinal virtue is\nstrength. 'To be weak is to be miserable,' and is the parent of\nfailures. One hears in the exhortation an echo of that to Joshua, to\nwhom and to his people the command 'Be strong and of good courage' was\ngiven with like repetition (Joshua i.).\n\nBut there is nothing more futile than telling feeble men to be strong,\nand trembling ones to be very courageous. Unless the exhorter can give\nsome means of strength and some reason for courage, his word is idle\nwind. So Haggai bases his exhortation upon its sufficient ground, 'For I\nam with you, saith Jehovah of hosts.' Strength is a duty, but only if we\nhave a source of strength available. The one basis of it is the presence\nof God. His name reveals the immensity of His power, who commands all\nthe armies of heaven, angels, or stars, and to whom the forces of the\nuniverse are as the ordered ranks of His disciplined army; and who is,\nmoreover, the Captain of earthly hosts, ever giving victory to those who\nare His 'willing soldiers in the day of His power.' It is not vain to\nbid a man be strong, if you can assure him that God is with him. Unless\nyou can, you may save your breath.\n\nHere is the temper for all Christian workers. Let them realise the duty\nof strength; let them have recourse to the Fountain of strength; let\nthem mark the purpose of strength, which is 'work,' as Haggai puts it so\nemphatically. We have nothing to do with the magnitude of what we may be\nable to build. It may be very poor beside the great houses that greater\nages or men have been able to rear. But whether it be a temple brave\nwith gold and cedar, or a log, it is our business to put all our\nstrength into the task, and to draw that strength from the assurance\nthat God is with us.\n\nThe difficulties connected with the translation of verse 5 need not\nconcern us here. For my purpose, the general sense resulting from any\ntranslation is clear enough. The covenant made of old, when Israel came\nfrom an earlier captivity, is fresh as ever, and God's Spirit is with\nthe people; therefore they need not fear. 'Fear ye not' is another of\nthe well-meant exhortations which often produce the opposite effect from\nthe intended one. One can fancy some of the people saying, 'It is all\nvery well to talk about not being afraid; but look at our feebleness,\nour defencelessness, our enemies; we cannot but fear, if we open our\neyes.' Quite true; and there is only one antidote to fear, and that is\nthe assurance that God's covenant binds Him to take care of me. Unless\none believes that, he must be strangely blind to the facts of life if he\nhas not a cold dread coiled round his heart and ever ready to sting.\n\nThe Prophet rises into grand predictions of the glory of the poor house\nwhich the weak hands were raising. Verses 6-9 set things invisible over\nagainst the visible. In general terms the Prophet announces a speedy\nconvulsion, partly symbolical and partly real, in which 'all nations'\nshall be revolutionised, and as a consequence, shall become Jehovah's\nworshippers, bringing their treasures to the Temple, and so filling the\nhouse with glory. This shall be because Jehovah is the true Possessor of\nall their wealth. But the scope of verse 9 seems to transcend these\npromises, and to point to an undescribed 'glory,' still greater than\nthat of the universal flocking of the nations with their gifts, and to\nreach a climax in the wide promise of peace given in the Temple, and\nthence, as is implied, flowing out 'like a river' through a\ntranquillised world.\n\n'Yet once, it is a little while.' How long did the little while last?\nThere were, possibly, some feeble incipient fulfilments of the prophecy\nin the immediate future; for, after the exile, there were convulsions in\nthe political world which resulted in security to the Jews, and the\nreligion of Israel began to draw some scattered proselytes. But the\nprophecy is not completely fulfilled even now, and it covers the entire\ndevelopment of the 'kingdom that cannot be moved' until the end of time.\nThe writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews thus understands the prophecy\n(Hebrews xii. 26, 27), and there are echoes of it in Revelation xxi.,\nwhich describes the final form of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. So\nthe chronology of prophecy is not altogether that of history; and while\nthe events stand clear, their perspective is foreshortened. All the ages\nare but 'a little while' in the calendar of heaven. In regard to the\nwhole of the prophetic utterances, we have often to say with the\ndisciples, 'What is this that he saith, a little while?' Eighteen\ncenturies have rolled away since the seer heard, 'Behold, I come\nquickly,' and the vision still tarries.\n\nThe old interpretation of 'the desire of all nations' as meaning Jesus\nChrist gave a literal fulfilment of the prophecy by His presence in the\nTemple; but that meaning of the phrase is untenable, both because the\nverb is in the plural, which would be impossible if a person were meant,\nand because the only interpretation which gives relevancy to verse 8 is\nthat the expression means the silver and gold, there declared to be\nJehovah's. That venerable explanation, then, cannot stand. There were\nofferings from heathen kings, such as those from Darius recorded in Ezra\nvi. 6-10, and the gifts of Artaxerxes (Ezra vii. 15), which may be\nregarded as incipient accomplishments; but such facts as these cannot\nexhaust the prophecy.\n\nIt must be admitted that nothing happened during the history of that\nTemple to answer to the full meaning of this prophecy. But was it\ntherefore a delusion that God spoke by Haggai? We must distinguish\nbetween form and substance. The Temple was the centre point of the\nkingdom of God on earth, the place of meeting between God and men, the\nplace of sacrifice. The fulfilment of the prophecy is not to be found in\nany house made with hands, but in the true Temple which Jesus Christ has\nbuilded. He in His own humanity was all that the Temple shadowed and\nforetold. It is in Him, and in the spiritual Temple which He has reared,\nthat Haggai's vision will find its full realisation, which is yet\nfuture. The powers that issue from Him shattered the Roman empire, have\never since been casting earth's kingdoms into new moulds, and have still\ndestructive work to do. The 'once more' began when Jesus came, but the\nfinal 'shaking' lies in front still. Every smaller revolution in thought\nor sweeping away of institutions is a prelude to that great 'shaking'\nwhen everything will go except the kingdom that cannot be moved. Its\nresult shall be that the treasures of the nations shall be poured at His\nfeet who is 'worthy to receive riches,' even as other prophecies have\nforetold that 'men shall bring unto Thee the wealth of the nations'\n(Isaiah lx. 11; Revelation xxi. 24, 26).\n\nIn that true Temple the glory of the Shechinah, which was wanting in the\nsecond, for ever abides, 'the glory as of the only-begotten of the\nFather'; and in it dwells for ever the dove of peace, ready to glide\ninto every heart that enters to worship at the shrine. Jesus Christ is\nnot the 'desire of all nations' which shall come to the Temple, but is\nthe Temple to which the wealth of all nations shall be brought, in whom\nthe true glory of a manifested God abides, and from whom the peace of\nGod which passeth all understanding, and is His own peace too, shall\nenter reconciled souls, and calm turbulent passions, and reconcile\ncontending peoples, and diffuse its calm through all the nations of the\nsaved who there 'walk in the light of the Lord.'\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nZECHARIAH\n\n\nDYING MEN AND THE UNDYING WORD\n\n     'Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for\n     ever? 6. But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My\n     servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your\n     fathers?'-Zechariah i. 5, 6.\n\nZechariah was the Prophet of the Restoration. Some sixteen years before\nthis date a feeble band of exiles had returned from Babylon, with high\nhopes of rebuilding the ruined Temple. But their designs had been\nthwarted, and for long years the foundations stood unbuilded upon. The\ndelay had shattered their hopes and flattened their enthusiasm; and\nwhen, with the advent of a new Persian king, a brighter day dawned, the\nlittle band was almost too dispirited to avail itself of it. At that\ncrisis, two prophets 'blew soul-animating strains,' and as the narrative\nsays elsewhere, 'the work prospered through the prophesying of Haggai\nand Zechariah.'\n\nMy text comes from the first of Zechariah's prophecies. In it he lays\nthe foundation for all that he has subsequently to say. He points to\nthe past, and summons up the august figures of the great pre-Exilic\nprophets, and reminds his contemporaries that the words which they spoke\nhad been verified in the experience of past generations. He puts himself\nin line with these, his mighty predecessors, and declares that, though\nthe hearers and the speakers of that prophetic word had glided away into\nthe vast unknown, the word remained, lived still, and on his lips\ndemanded the same obedience as it had vainly demanded from the\ngeneration that was past.\n\nIt has sometimes been supposed that of the two questions in my text the\nfirst is the Prophet's--'Your fathers, where are they?' and that the\nsecond is the retort of the people--'The prophets, do they live for\never?' 'It is true that our fathers are gone, but what about the\nprophets that you are talking of? Are they any better off? Are they not\ndead, too?' But though the separation of the words into dialogue gives\nvivacity, it is wholly unnecessary. And it seems to me that Zechariah's\nappeal is all the more impressive if we suppose that he here gathers the\nmortal hearers and speakers of the immortal word into one class, and\nsets over against them the Eternal Word, which lives to-day as it did\nthen, and has new lessons for a new generation. So it is from that point\nof view that I wish to look at these words now, and try to gather from\nthem some of the solemn, and, as it seems to me, striking lessons which\nthey inculcate. I follow with absolute simplicity the Prophet's\nthoughts.\n\nI. The mortal hearers and speakers of the abiding Word.\n\n'Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?'\nIt is all but impossible to invest that well-known thought with any\nfresh force; but, perhaps, if we look at it from the special angle from\nwhich the Prophet here regards it, we may get some new impression of the\nold truth. That special angle is to bring into connection the Eternal\nWord and the transient vehicles and hearers of it.\n\nDid you ever stand in some roofless, ruined cathedral or abbey church,\nand try to gather round you the generations that had bowed and\nworshipped there? Did you ever step across the threshold of some ancient\nsanctuary, where the feet of vanished generations had worn down the\nsand-stone steps at the entrance? It is solemn to think of the fleeting\nseries of men; it is still more striking to bring them into connection\nwith that everlasting Word which once they heard, and accepted or\nrejected.\n\nBut let me bring the thought a little closer. There is not a sitting in\nour churches that has not been sat in by dead people. As I stand here\nand look round I can re-people almost every pew with faces that we shall\nsee no more. Many of you, the older _habitues_ of this place, can do the\nsame, and can look and think, 'Ah! _he_ used to sit there; _she_ used to\nbe in that corner.' And I can remember many mouldering lips that have\nstood in this place where I stand, of friends and brethren that are\ngone. 'Your fathers, where are they?' 'Graves under us, silent,' is the\nonly answer. 'And the prophets, do they live for ever?' No memories are\nshorter-lived than the memories of the preachers of God's Word.\n\nTake another thought, that all these past hearers and speakers of the\nWord had that Word verified in their lives. 'Took it not hold of your\nfathers?' Some of them neglected it, and its burdens were upon them,\nlittle as they felt them sometimes. Some of them clave to it, and\naccepted it, and its blessed promises were all fulfilled to them. Not\none of those who, for the brief period of their earthly lives, came in\ncontact with that divine message but realised, more or less consciously,\nsome blessedly and some in darkened lives and ruined careers, the solemn\ntruth of its promises and of its threatenings. The Word may have been\nreceived, or it may have been neglected, by the past generations; but\nwhether the members thereof put out a hand to accept, or withheld their\ngrasp, whether they took hold of it or it took hold of them--wherever\nthey are now, their earthly relation to that word is a determining\nfactor in their condition. The syllables died away into empty air, the\nmessages were forgotten, but the men that ministered them are eternally\ninfluenced by the faithfulness of their ministrations, and the men that\nheard them are eternally affected by the reception or rejection of that\nword. So, when we summon around us the congregation of the dead, which\nis more numerous than the audience of the living to whom I now speak,\nthe lesson that their silent presence teaches us is, 'Wherefore we\nshould give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard.'\n\nII. Let us note the abiding Word, which these transient generations of\nhearers and speakers have had to do with.\n\nIt is maddening to think of the sure decay and dissolution of all human\nstrength, beauty, wisdom, unless that thought brings with it\nimmediately, like a pair of coupled stars, of which the one is bright\nand the other dark, the corresponding thought of that which does not\npass, and is unaffected by time and change. Just as reason requires some\nunalterable substratum, below all the fleeting phenomena of the\nchangeful creation--a God who is the Rock-basis of all, the staple to\nwhich all the links hang--so we are driven back and back and back, by\nthe very fact of the transiency of the transient, to grasp, for a refuge\nand a stay, the permanency of the permanent. 'In the year that King\nUzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne'--the passing away of\nthe mortal shadow of sovereignty revealed the undying and true King. It\nis blessed for us when the lesson which the fleeting of all that _can_\nflee away reads to us is that, beneath it all, there is the Unchanging.\nWhen the leaves drop from the boughs of the trees that veil the face of\nthe cliff, then the steadfast rock is visible; and when the generations,\nlike leaves, drop and rot, then the rock background should stand out the\nmore clearly.\n\nZechariah meant by the 'word of God' simply the prophetic utterances\nabout the destiny and the punishment of his nation. We ought to mean by\nthe 'word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,' not merely the\nwritten embodiment of it in the Old or New Testament, but the Personal\nWord, the Incarnate Word, the everlasting Son of the Father, who came\nupon earth to be God's mouthpiece and utterance, and who is for us all\n_the_ Word, the Eternal Word of the living God. It is His perpetual\nexistence rather than the continuous duration of the written word,\ndeclaration of Himself though it is, that is mighty for our strength and\nconsolation when we think of the transient generations.\n\nChrist lives. That is the deepest meaning of the ancient saying, 'All\nflesh is grass.... The Word of the Lord endureth for ever.' He lives;\ntherefore we can front change and decay in all around calmly and\ntriumphantly. It matters not though the prophets and their hearers pass\naway. Men depart; Christ abides. Luther was once surprised by some\nfriends sitting at a table from which a meal had been removed, and\nthoughtfully tracing with his fingers upon its surface with some drop of\nwater or wine the one word 'Vivit'; He lives. He fell back upon that\nwhen all around was dark. Yes, men may go; what of that? Aaron may have\nto ascend to the summit of Hor, and put off his priestly garments and\ndie there. Moses may have to climb Pisgah, and with one look at the land\nwhich he must never tread, die there alone by the kiss of God, as the\nRabbis say. Is the host below leaderless? The Pillar of Cloud lies still\nover the Tabernacle, and burns steadfast and guiding in front of the\nfiles of Israel. 'Your fathers, where are they? The prophets, do they\nlive for ever?' 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day and for\never.'\n\nAnother consideration to be drawn from this contrast is, since we have\nthis abiding Word, let us not dread changes, however startling and\nrevolutionary. Jesus Christ does not change. But there is a human\nelement in the Church's conceptions of Jesus Christ, and still more in\nits working out of the principles of the Gospel in institutions and\nforms, which partakes of the transiency of the men from whom it has\ncome. In such a time as this, when everything is going into the\nmelting-pot, and a great many timid people are trembling for the Ark of\nGod, quite unnecessarily as it seems to me, it is of prime importance\nfor the calmness and the wisdom and the courage of Christian people,\nthat they should grasp firmly the distinction between the divine\ntreasure which is committed to the churches, and the earthen vessels in\nwhich it has been enshrined. Jesus Christ, the man Jesus, the divine\nperson, His incarnation, His sacrifice, His resurrection, His ascension,\nthe gift of His Spirit to abide for ever with His Church--these are the\npermanent 'things which cannot be shaken.' And creeds and churches and\nformulas and forms--these are the human elements which are capable of\nvariation, and which need variation from time to time. No more is the\nsubstance of that eternal Gospel affected by the changes, which are\npossible on its vesture, than is the stateliness of some cathedral\ntouched, when the reformers go in and sweep out the rubbish and the\ntrumpery which have masked the fair outlines of its architecture, and\nvulgarised the majesty of its stately sweep. Brethren! let us fix this\nin our hearts, that nothing which is of Christ can perish, and nothing\nwhich is of man can or should endure. The more firmly we grasp the\ndistinction between the permanent and the transient in existing\nembodiments of Christian truth, the more calm shall we be amidst the\nsurges of contending opinions. 'He that believeth shall not make haste.'\n\nIII. Lastly, the present generation and its relation to the abiding\nWord.\n\nZechariah did not hesitate to put himself in line with the mighty forms\nof Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Hosea. He, too, was a prophet.\nWe claim, of course, no such authority for present utterers of that\neternal message, but we do claim for our message a higher authority than\nthe authority of this ancient Prophet. He felt that the word of God that\nwas put into his lips was a new word, addressed to a new generation, and\nwith new lessons for new circumstances, fitting as close to the wants of\nthe little band of exiles as the former messages, which it succeeded,\nhad fitted to the wants of their generation. We have no such change in\nthe message, for Jesus Christ speaks to us all, speaks to all times and\nto all circumstances, and to every generation. And so, just as Zechariah\nbased upon the history of the past his appeal for obedience and\nacceptance, the considerations which I have been trying to dwell upon\nbring with them stringent obligations to us who stand, however unworthy,\nin the place of the generations that are gone, as the hearers and\nministers of the Word of God. Let me put two or three very simple and\nhomely exhortations. First, see to it, brother, that you accept that\nWord. By acceptance I do not mean a mere negative attitude, which is\nvery often the result of lack of interest, the negative attitude of\nsimply not rejecting; but I mean the opening not only of your minds but\nof your hearts to it. For if what I have been saying is true, and the\nWord of God has for its highest manifestation Jesus Christ Himself, then\nyou cannot accept a person by pure head-work. You must open your hearts\nand all your natures, and let Him come in with His love, with His pity,\nwith His inspiration of strength and virtue and holiness, and you must\nyield yourselves wholly to Him. Think of the generations that are gone.\nThink of their brief moment when the great salvation was offered to\nthem. Think of how, whether they received or rejected it, that Word took\nhold upon them. Think of how they regard it now, wherever they are in\nthe dimness; and be you wise in time and be not as those of your fathers\nwho rejected the Word.\n\nHold it fast. In this time of unrest make sure of your grasp of the\neternal, central core of Christianity, Jesus Christ Himself, the\ndivine-human Saviour of the world. There are too many of us whose faith\noozes out at their finger ends, simply because they have so many around\nthem that question and doubt and deny. Do not let the floating icebergs\nbring down _your_ temperature; and have a better reason for not\nbelieving, if you do not believe, than that so many and such influential\nand authoritative men have ceased to believe. When Jesus asks, 'Will ye\nalso go away?' our answer should be, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou\nhast the words of eternal life.'\n\nAccept Him, hold Him fast, trust to His guidance in present day\nquestions. Zechariah felt that his message belonged to the generation to\nwhom he spoke. It was a new message. We have no new message, but there\nare new truths to be evolved from the old message. The questionings and\nproblems, social, economical, intellectual, moral--shall I say\npolitical?--of this day, will find their solution in that ancient word,\n'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish.' There is the key to all\nproblems. 'In Him are hid all the treasures and wisdom of knowledge.'\n\nZechariah pointed to the experiences of a past generation as the basis\nof his appeal. We can point back to eighteen centuries, and say that the\nexperiences of these centuries confirm the truth that Jesus Christ is\nthe Saviour of the world. The blessedness, the purity, the power, the\npeace, the hope which He has breathed into humanity, the subsidiary and\naccompanying material and intellectual prosperity and blessings that\nattend His message, its independence of human instruments, its\nadaptation to all varieties of class, character, condition, geographical\nposition, its power of recuperating itself from corruptions and\ndistortions, its undiminished adaptedness to the needs of this\ngeneration and of each of us--enforce the stringency of the exhortation,\nand confirm the truth of the assertion: 'This is My beloved Son; hear ye\nHim!' 'The voice said, Cry. And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is\ngrass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field: the\ngrass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the Word of\nour God shall stand for ever.' Three hundred years after Isaiah a\ntriumphant Apostle added, 'This is the word which by the Gospel is\npreached unto you.' Eighteen hundred years after Peter we can echo his\nconfident declaration, and, with the history of these centuries to\nsupport our faith, can affirm that the Christ of the Gospel and the\nGospel of the Christ are in deed and in truth the Living Word of the\nLiving God.\n\n\nTHE CITY WITHOUT WALLS\n\n     'Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls.... For I,\n     saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and\n     will be the glory in the midst of her.'--ZECHARIAH ii. 4, 5.\n\nZechariah was the Prophet of the returning exiles, and his great work\nwas to hearten them for their difficult task, with their small resources\nand their many foes, and to insist that the prime condition to success,\non the part of that portion of the nation that had returned, was\nholiness. So his visions, of which there is a whole series, are very\nlargely concerned with the building of the Temple and of the city. In\nthis one, he sees a man with a measuring-rod in his hand coming forth to\ntake the dimensions of the still un-existing city of God. The words that\nI have read are the centre portion of that vision. You notice that there\nare three clauses, and that the first in order is the consequence of the\nother two. 'Jerusalem shall be builded as a city without walls ... for I\nwill be a wall of fire round about her, and the glory in the midst of\nher.'\n\nAnd that exuberant promise was spoken about the Jerusalem over which\nChrist wept when he foresaw its inevitable destruction. When the Romans\nhad cast a torch into the Temple, and the streets of the city were\nrunning with blood, what had become of Zechariah's dream of a wall of\nfire round about her? Then can the divine fire be quenched? Yes. And\nwho quenched it? Not the Romans, but the people that lived within that\nflaming rampart. The apparent failure of the promise carries the lesson\nfor churches and individuals to-day, that in spite of such glowing\npredictions, there may again sound the voice that the legend says was\nheard within the Temple, on the night before Jerusalem fell. 'Let us\ndepart,' and there was a rustling of unseen wings, and on the morrow the\nlegionaries were in the shrine. 'If God spared not the natural branches,\ntake heed lest He also spare not thee.'\n\nNow let us look, in the simplest possible way, at these three clauses,\nand the promises that are in them; keeping in mind that, like all the\ndivine promises, they are conditional.\n\nThe first is this:--\n\nI. 'I will be a wall of fire round about her.'\n\nI need not dwell on the vividness and beauty of that metaphor. These\nencircling flames will consume all antagonism, and defy all approach.\nBut let me remind you that the conditional promise was intended for\nJudaea and Jerusalem, and was fulfilled in literal fact. So long as the\ncity obeyed and trusted God it was impregnable, though all the nations\nstood round about it, like dogs round a sheep. The fulfilment of the\npromise has passed over, with all the rest that characterised Israel's\nposition, to the Christian Church, and to-day, in the midst of all the\nagitations of opinion, and all the vauntings of men about an effete\nChristianity, and dead churches, it is as true as ever it was that the\nliving Church of God is eternal. If it had not been that there was a God\nas a wall of fire round about the Church, it would have been wiped off\nthe face of the earth long ago. If nothing else had killed it the faults\nof its members would have done so. The continuance of the Church is a\nperpetual miracle, when you take into account the weakness, and the\nerrors, and the follies, and the stupidities, and the narrownesses, and\nthe sins, of the people who in any given day represent it. That it\nshould stand at all, and that it should conquer, seems to me to be as\nplain a demonstration of the present working of God, as is the existence\nstill, as a separate individuality amongst the peoples of the earth, of\nHis ancient people, the Jews. Who was it who said, when somebody asked\nhim for the best proof of the truth of Christianity, 'The Jews'? and so\nwe may say, if you want a demonstration that God is working in the\nworld, 'Look at the continuance of the Christian Church.'\n\nIn spite of all the vauntings of people that have already discounted its\nfall, and are talking as if it needed no more to be reckoned with, that\ncalm confidence is the spirit in which we are to look around and\nforward. It does not become any Christian ever to have the smallest\nscintillation of a fear that the ship that bears Jesus Christ can fail\nto come to land, or can sink in the midst of the waters. There was once\na timid would-be helper who put out his hand to hold up the Ark of God.\nHe need not have been afraid. The oxen might stumble, and the cart roll\nabout, but the Ark was safe and stable. A great deal may go, but the\nwall of fire will be around the Church. In regard to its existence, as\nin regard to the immortal being of each of its members, the great word\nremains for ever true: 'Because I live ye shall live also.'\n\nBut do not let us forget that this great promise does not belong only to\nthe Church as a whole, but that we have each to bring it down to our\nown individual lives, and to be quite sure of this, that in spite of all\nthat sense says, in spite of all that quivering hearts and weeping eyes\nmay seem to prove, there is a wall of fire round each of us, if we are\nkeeping near Jesus Christ, through which it is as impossible that any\nreal evil should pass and get at us, as it would be impossible that any\nliving thing should pass through the flaming battlements that the\nProphet saw round his ideal city. Only we have to interpret that promise\nby faith and not by sense, and we have to make it possible that it shall\nbe fulfilled by keeping inside the wall, and trusting to it. As faith\ndwindles, the fiery wall burns dim, and evil can get across its embers,\nand can get at us. Keep within the battlements, and they will flame up\nbright and impassable, with a fire that on the outer side consumes, but\nto those within is a fire that cherishes and warms.\n\nII. The next point of the promise passes into a more intimate region. It\nis well to have a defence from that which is without us; but it is more\nneedful to have, if a comparison can be made between the two, a glory\n'in the midst' of us.\n\nThe one is external defence; the other inward illumination, with all\nwhich light symbolises--knowledge, joy, purity.\n\nThere is even more than that meant by this great promise. For notice\nthat emphatic little word _the--the_ glory, not _a_ glory--in the midst\nof her. Now you all know what 'the glory' was. It was that symbolic\nLight that spoke of the special presence of God, and went with the\nChildren of Israel in their wanderings, and sat between the Cherubim.\nThere was no 'Shechinah,' as it is technically called, in that second\nTemple. But yet the Prophet says, 'The glory'--the actual presence of\nGod--'shall be in the midst of her,' and the meaning of that great\npromise is taught us by the very last vision in the New Testament, in\nwhich the Seer of the Apocalypse says, 'The glory of the Lord did\nlighten it' (evidently quoting Zechariah), 'and the Lamb is the light\nthereof.' So the city is lit as by one central glow of radiance that\nflashes its beams into every corner, and therefore 'there shall be no\nnight there.'\n\nNow this promise, too, bears on churches and on individuals. On the\nChurch as a whole it bears in this way: the only means by which a\nChristian community can fulfil its function, and be the light of the\nworld, is by having the presence of God, in no metaphor, the actual\npresence of the illuminating Spirit in its midst. If it has not that, it\nmay have anything and everything else--wealth, culture, learning,\neloquence, influence in the world--but all is of no use; it will be\ndarkness. We are light only in proportion as we are 'light in the Lord.'\nAs long as we, as communities, keep our hearts in touch with Him, so\nlong do we shine. Break the contact, and the light fades and flickers\nout.\n\nThe same thing is true, dear brethren, about individuals. For each of us\nthe secret of joy, of purity, of knowledge, is that we be holding close\ncommunion with God. If we have Him in the depths of our hearts, then,\nand only then, shall we be 'light in the Lord.'\n\nAnd now look at the last point which follows, as I have said, as the\nresult of the other two.\n\nIII. 'Jerusalem shall be without walls.'\n\nIt is to be like the defenceless villages scattered up and down over\nIsrael. There is no need for bulwarks of stone. The wall of fire is\nround about. The Prophet has a vision of a great city, of a type unknown\nin those old times, though familiar to us in our more peaceful days,\nwhere there was no hindrance to expansion by encircling ramparts, no\ncrowding together of the people because they needed to hide behind the\ncity walls; and where the growing community could spread out into the\nouter suburbs, and have fresh air and ample space. That is the vision of\nthe manner of city that Jerusalem was to be. It did not come true, but\nthe ideal was this. It has not yet come true sufficiently in regard to\nthe churches of to-day, but it ought to be the goal to which they are\ntending. The more a Christian community is independent of external\nmaterial supports and defences the better.\n\nI am not going to talk about the policy or impolicy of Established\nChurches, as they are called. But it seems to me that the principle that\nis enshrined in this vision is their condemnation. Never mind about\nstone and lime walls, trust in God and you will not need them, and you\nwill be strong and 'established' just in the proportion in which you are\ncut loose from all dependence upon, and consequent subordination to, the\ncivil power.\n\nBut there is another thought that I might suggest, though I do not know\nthat it is directly in the line of the Prophet's vision; and that is--a\nChristian Church should neither depend on, nor be cribbed and cramped\nby, men-made defences of any kind. Luther tells us somewhere, in his\nparabolic way, of people that wept because there were no visible pillars\nto hold up the heavens, and were afraid that the sky would fall upon\ntheir heads. No, no, there is no fear of that happening, for an unseen\nhand holds them up. A church that hides behind the fortifications of\nits grandfathers' erection has no room for expansion; and if it has no\nroom for expansion it will not long continue as large as it is. It must\neither grow greater, or grow, and deserve to grow, less.\n\nThe same thing is true, dear brethren, about ourselves individually.\nZechariah's prophecy was never meant to prevent what he himself helped\nto further, the building of the actual walls of the actual city. And our\ndependence upon God is not to be so construed as that we are to waive\nour own common-sense and our own effort. That is not faith; it is\nfanaticism.\n\nWe have to build ourselves round, in this world, with other things than\nthe 'wall of fire,' but in all our building we have to say, 'Except the\nLord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord\nkeep the city, the watchers watch in vain.' But yet neither Jerusalem\nnor the Church, nor the earthly state of that believer who lives most\nfully the life of faith, exhausts this promise. It waits for the day\nwhen the city shall descend, 'like a bride adorned for her husband,\nhaving no need of the sun nor of the moon, for the glory ... lightens\nit.' Having walls, indeed, but for splendour, not for defence; and\nhaving gates, which have only one of the functions of a gate--to stand\nwide open, to the east and the west, and the north and the south, for\nthe nations to enter in; and never needing to be barred against enemies\nby day, 'for there shall be no night there.'\n\n\nA VISION OF JUDGEMENT AND CLEANSING\n\n     'And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel\n     of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2.\n     And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even\n     the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a\n     brand plucked out of the fire? 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy\n     garments, and stood before the Angel. 4. And He answered and spake\n     unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy\n     garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused\n     thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with\n     change of raiment. 5. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon\n     his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him\n     with garments. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. 6. And the Angel\n     of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, 7. Thus saith the Lord\n     of Hosts, If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My\n     charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My\n     courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand\n     by, 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows\n     that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I\n     will bring forth My servant The BRANCH. 9. For behold the stone\n     that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes:\n     behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of\n     Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10.\n     In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, shall ye call every man his\n     neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree.'--ZECHARIAH iii.\n     1-10.\n\nZechariah worked side by side with Haggai to quicken the religious life\nof the people, and thus to remove the gravest hindrances to the work of\nrebuilding the Temple. Inward indifference, not outward opposition, is\nthe real reason for slow progress in God's work, and prophets who see\nvisions and preach repentance are the true practical men.\n\nThis vision followed Haggai's prophecy at the interval of a month. It\nfalls into two parts--a symbolical vision and a series of promises\nfounded on it.\n\nI. The Symbolical Vision (vs. 1-5).--The scene of the vision is left\nundetermined, and the absence of any designation of locality gives the\npicture the sublimity of indefiniteness. Three figures, seen he knows\nnot where, stand clear before the Prophet's inward eye. They were shown\nhim by an unnamed person, who is evidently Jehovah Himself. The real and\nthe ideal are marvellously mingled in the conception of Joshua the high\npriest--the man whom the people saw every day going about\nJerusalem--standing at the bar of God, with Satan as his accuser. The\ntrial is in process when the Prophet is permitted to see. We do not hear\nthe pleadings on either side, but the sentence is solemnly recorded. The\naccusations are dismissed, their bringer rebuked, and in token of\nacquittal, the filthy garments which the accused had worn are changed\nfor the full festal attire of the high priest.\n\nWhat, then, is the meaning of this grand symbolism? The first point to\nkeep well in view is the representative character of the high priest. He\nappears as laden not with individual but national sins. In him Israel\nis, as it were, concentrated, and what befalls him is the image of what\nbefalls the nation. His dirty dress is the familiar symbol of sin; and\nhe wears it, just as he wore his sacerdotal dress, in his official\ncapacity, as the embodied nation. He stands before the judgment seat,\nbearing not his own but the people's sins.\n\nTwo great truths are thereby taught, which are as true to-day as ever.\nThe first is that representation is essential to priesthood. It was so\nin shadowy and external fashion in Israel; it is so in deepest and most\nblessed reality in Christ's priesthood. He stands before God as our\nrepresentative--'And the Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of\nus all.' If by faith we unite ourselves with Him, there ensues a\nwondrous transference of characteristics, so that our sin becomes His,\nand His righteousness becomes ours; and that in no mere artificial or\nforensic sense, but in inmost reality. Theologians talk of a\n_communicatio idiomatum_ as between the human and the divine elements in\nChrist. There is an analogous passage of the attributes of either to the\nother, in the relation of the believer to his Saviour.\n\nThe second thought in this symbolic appearance of Joshua before the\nangel of the Lord is that the sins of God's people are even now present\nbefore His perfect judgment, as reasons for withdrawing from them His\nfavour. That is a solemn truth, which should never be forgotten. A\nChristian man's sins do accuse him at the bar of God. They are all\nvisible there; and so far as their tendency goes, they are like wedges\ndriven in to rend him from God.\n\nBut the second figure in the vision is 'the Satan,' standing in the\nplaintiff's place at the Judge's right hand, to accuse Joshua. The Old\nTestament teaching as to the evil spirit who 'accuses' good men is not\nso developed as that of the New, which is quite natural, inasmuch as the\nshadow of bright light is deeper than that of faint rays. It is most\nfull in the latest books, as here and in Job; but doctrinal inferences\ndrawn from such highly imaginative symbolism as this are precarious. No\none who accepts the authority of our Lord can well deny the existence\nand activity of a malignant spirit, who would fain make the most of\nmen's sins, and use them as a means of separating their doers from God.\nThat is the conception here.\n\nBut the main stress of the vision lies, not on the accuser or his\naccusation, but on the Judge's sentence, which alone is recorded. 'The\nAngel of the Lord' is named in verse 1 as the Judge, while the sentence\nin verse 2 is spoken by 'the Lord.' It would lead us far away from our\npurpose to inquire whether that Angel of the Lord is an earlier\nmanifestation of the eternal Son, who afterwards became flesh--a kind of\npreluding or rehearsing of the Incarnation. But in any case, God so\ndwells in Him as that what the Angel says God says and the speaker\nvaries as in our text. The accuser is rebuked, and God's rebuke is not a\nmere word, but brings with it punishment. The malicious accusations have\nfailed, and their aim is to be gathered from the language which\nannounces their miscarriage. Obviously Satan sought to procure the\nwithdrawal of divine favour from Joshua, because of his sin; that is, to\ndepose the nation from its place as the covenant people, because of its\ntransgressions of the covenant. Satan here represents what might\notherwise have been called, in theological language, 'the demands of\njustice.' The answer given him is deeply instructive as to the grounds\nof the divine forbearance.\n\nNote that Joshua's guilt as the representative of the people is not\ndenied, but tacitly admitted and actually spoken of in verse 4. Why,\nthen, does not the accuser have his way? For two reasons. God has chosen\nJerusalem. His great purpose, the fruit of His undeserved mercy, is not\nto be turned aside by man's sins. The thought is the same as that of\nJeremiah: 'If heaven above can be measured ... then I will also cast off\nall the seed of Israel for all that they have done' (Jer. xxxi. 37).\nAgain, the fact that Joshua was 'a brand plucked from the burning'--that\nis, that the people whom he represented had been brought unconsumed from\nthe furnace of captivity--is a reason with God for continuing to extend\nHis favour, though they have sinned. God's past mercies are a motive\nwith him. Creatural love is limited, and too often says, 'I have\nforgiven so often, that I am wearied, and can do it no more.' He _has_,\ntherefore he _will_. We often come to the end of our long-suffering a\ngood many times short of the four hundred and ninety a day which Christ\nprescribes. But God never does. True, Joshua and his people have sinned,\nand that since their restoration, and Satan had a good argument in\npointing to these transgressions; but God does not say, 'I will put back\nthe half-burned brand in the fire again, since the evil is not burned\nout of it,' but forgives again, because He has forgiven before.\n\nThe sentence is followed by the exchange of the filthy garments\nsymbolical of sin, for the full array of the high priest. Ministering\nangels are dimly seen in the background, and are summoned to unclothe\nand clothe Joshua. The Prophet ventures to ask that the sacerdotal\nattire should be completed by the turban or mitre, probably that\nheaddress which bore the significant writing 'Holiness to the Lord,'\nexpressive of the destination of Israel and of its ceremonial cleanness.\nThe meaning of this change of clothing is given in verse 4: 'I have\ncaused thine iniquity to pass from thee.' Thus the complete restoration\nof the pardoned and cleansed nation to its place as a nation of priests\nto Jehovah is symbolised. To us the gospel of forgiveness fills up the\noutline in the vision; and we know how, when sin testifies against us,\nwe have an Advocate with the Father, and how the infinite love flows out\nto us notwithstanding all sin, and how the stained garment of our souls\ncan be stripped off, and the 'fine linen clean and white,' the priestly\ndress on the day of atonement, be put on us, and we be made priests unto\nGod.\n\nII. The remainder of the vision is the address of the Angel of the Lord\nto Joshua, developing the blessings now made sure to him and his people\nby this renewed consecration and cleansing. First (verse 7) is the\npromise of continuance in office and access to God's presence, which,\nhowever, are contingent on obedience. The forgiven man must keep God's\ncharge, if he is to retain his standing. On that condition, he has 'a\nplace of access among those that stand by'; that is, the privilege of\napproach to God, like the attendant angels. This promise may be taken as\nsurpassing the prerogatives hitherto accorded to the high priest, who\nhad only the right of entrance into the holiest place once a year, but\nnow is promised the _entree_ to the heavenly court, as if he were one of\nthe bright spirits who stand there. They who have access with confidence\nwithin the veil because Christ is there, have more than the ancient\npromise of this vision.\n\nThe main point of verse 8 is the promise of the Messiah, but the former\npart of the verse is remarkable. Joshua and his fellows are summoned to\nlisten, 'for they are men which are a sign.' The meaning seems to be\nthat he and his brethren who sat as his assessors in official functions,\nare collectively a sign or embodied prophecy of what is to come. Their\nrestoration to their offices was a shadowy prophecy of a greater act of\nforgiving grace, which was to be effected by the coming of the Messiah.\n\nThe name 'Branch' is used here as a proper name. Jeremiah (Jer. xxiii.\n5; xxxiii. 15) had already employed it as a designation of Messiah,\nwhich he had apparently learned from Isaiah iv. 2. The idea of the word\nis that of the similar names used by Isaiah, 'a shoot out of the stock\nof Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots' (Isaiah xi. 1), and 'a tender\nplant, and as a root out of a dry ground' (Isaiah liii. 2); namely, that\nof his origin from the fallen house of David, and the lowliness of his\nappearance.\n\nThe Messiah is again meant by the 'stone' in verse 9. Probably there was\nsome great stone taken from the ruins, to which the symbol attaches\nitself. The foundation of the second Temple had been laid years before\nthe prophecy, but the stone may still have been visible. The Rabbis have\nmuch to say about a great stone which had been in the first Temple, and\nthere used for the support of the ark, but in the second was set in the\nempty place where the ark should have been. Isaiah had prophesied of the\n'tried corner-stone' laid in Zion, and Psalm cxviii. 22 had sung of the\nstone rejected and made the head of the corner. We go in the track,\nthen, of established usage, when we see in this stone the emblem of\nMessiah, and associate with it all thoughts of firmness, preciousness,\nsupport, foundation of the true Temple, basis of hope, ground of\ncertitude, and whatever other substratum of fixity and immovableness\nmen's hearts or lives need. In all possible aspects of the metaphor,\nJesus is the Foundation.\n\nAnd what are the 'seven eyes on the stone'? That may simply be a vivid\nway of saying that the fulness of divine Providence would watch over the\nMessiah, bringing Him when the time was ripe, and fitting Him for His\nwork. But if we remember the subsequent explanation (iv. 10) of the\n'seven,' as 'the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole\nearth,' and connect this with Revelation v. 6, we can scarcely rest\ncontent with that meaning, but find here the deeper thought that the\nfulness of the divine Spirit was given to Messiah, even as Isaiah (xi.\n2) prophesies of the sevenfold Spirit.\n\n'I will engrave the graving thereof' is somewhat obscure. It seems to\nmean that the seven eyes will be cut on the stone, like masons' marks.\nIf the seven eyes are the full energies of the Holy Spirit, God's\ncutting of them on the stone is equivalent to His giving them to His\nSon; and the fulfilment of the promise was when He gave the Holy Spirit\nnot 'by measure unto Him.'\n\nThe blessed purpose of Messiah's coming and endowment with the Spirit is\ngloriously stated in the last clause of verse 9: 'I will remove the\niniquity of that land in one day.' Jesus Christ has 'once for all' made\natonement, as the Epistle to the Hebrews so often says. The better\nJoshua by one offering has taken away sin. 'The breadth of Thy land, O\nImmanuel,' stretched far beyond the narrow bounds which Zechariah knew\nfor Israel's territory. It includes the whole world. As has been\nbeautifully said, 'That one day is the day of Golgotha.'\n\nThe vision closes with a picture of the felicity of Messianic times,\nwhich recalls the description of the golden age of Solomon, when 'Judah\nand Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his\nfig-tree' (1 Kings iv. 25). In like manner the nation, cleansed,\nrestored to its priestly privilege of free access to God by the Messiah\nwho comes with the fulness of the Spirit, shall dwell in safety, and\nshall be knit together by friendship, and unenvyingly shall each share\nhis good with all others, recognising in every man a neighbour, and\ngladly welcoming him to partake of all the blessings which the true\nSolomon has brought to his house and heart.\n\n\nTHE RIGHT OF ENTRY\n\n     'I will give thee places to walk among these that stand\n     by.'--ZECHARIAH iii. 7.\n\nA WORD or two of explanation will probably be necessary in order to see\nthe full meaning of this great promise. The Prophet has just been\ndescribing a vision of judgment which he saw, in which the high priest,\nas representative of the nation, stood before the Angel of the Lord as\nan unclean person. He is cleansed and clothed, his foul raiment stripped\noff him, and a fair priestly garment, with 'Holiness to the Lord'\nwritten on the front of it, put upon him. And then follow a series of\npromises, of which the climax is the one that I have read. 'I will give\nthee a place of access,' says the Revised Version, instead of 'places to\nwalk'; 'I will give thee a place of access among those that stand by';\nthe attendant angels are dimly seen surrounding their Lord. And so the\npromise of my text, in highly figurative fashion, is that of free and\nunrestrained approach to God, of a life that is like that of the angels\nthat stand before His Face.\n\nSo, then, the words suggest to us, first, what a Christian life may be.\n\nThere are two images blended together in the great words of my text; the\none is that of a king's court, the other is that of a temple. With\nregard to the former it is a privilege given to the highest nobles of a\nkingdom--or it was so in old days--to have the right of _entree_, at all\nmoments and in all circumstances, to the monarch. With regard to the\nlatter, the prerogative of the high priest, who was the recipient of\nthis promise, as to access to the Temple, was a very restricted one.\nOnce a year, with the blood that prevented his annihilation by the\nbrightness of the Presence into which he ventured, he passed within the\nveil, and stood before that mysterious Light that coruscated in the\ndarkness of the Holy of Holies. But this High Priest is promised an\naccess on all days and at all times; and that He may stand there, beside\nand like the seraphim, who with one pair of wings veiled their faces in\ntoken of the incapacity of the creature to behold the Creator; 'with\ntwain veiled their feet' in token of the unworthiness of creatural\nactivities to be set before Him, 'and with twain did fly' in token of\ntheir willingness to serve Him with all their energies. This Priest\npasses within the veil when He will. Or, to put away the two metaphors,\nand to come to the reality far greater than either of them, we can,\nwhensoever we please, pass into the presence before which the splendours\nof an earthly monarch's court shrink into vulgarity, and attain to a\nreal reception of the light that irradiates the true Holy Place, before\nwhich that which shone in the earthly shrine dwindles and darkens into a\nshadow. We may live with God, and in Him, and wrap a veil and 'privacy\nof glorious light' about us, whilst we pilgrim upon earth, and may have\nhidden lives which, notwithstanding all their surface occupation with\nthe distractions and duties and enjoyments of the present, deep down in\ntheir centres are knit to God. Our lives may on the outside thus be\nlargely amongst the things seen and temporal, and yet all the while may\npenetrate through these, and lay hold with their true roots on the\neternal. If we have any religious life at all, the measure in which we\npossess it is the measure in which we may ever more dwell in the house\nof the Lord, and have our hearts in the secret place of the Most High,\namid the stillnesses and the sanctities of His immediate dwelling.\n\nOur Master is the great Example of this, of whom it is said, not only\nin reference to His mysterious and unique union of nature with the\nFather in His divinity, but in reference to the humanity which He had in\ncommon with us all, yet without sin, that the Son of Man came down from\nheaven, and even in the act of coming, and when He had come, was yet the\nSon of Man 'which _is in heaven_.' Thus we, too, may have 'a place of\naccess among them that stand by,' and not need to envy the angels and\nthe spirits of the just made perfect, the closeness of their communion,\nand the vividness of their vision, for the same, in its degree, may be\nours. We, too, can turn all our desires into petitions, and of every\nwish make a prayer. We, too can refer all our needs to His infinite\nsupply. We, too may consciously connect all our doings with His will and\nHis glory; and for us it is possible that there shall be, as if borne on\nthose electric wires that go striding across pathless deserts, and carry\ntheir messages through unpeopled solitudes, between Him and us a\ncommunication unbroken and continuous, which, by a greater wonder than\neven that of the telegraph, shall carry two messages, going opposite\nways simultaneously, bearing to Him the swift aspirations and\nsupplications of our spirits, and bringing to us the abundant answer of\nHis grace. Such a conversation in heaven, and such association with the\nbands of the blessed is possible even for a life upon earth.\n\nSecondly, let us consider this promise as a pattern for us of what\nChristian life should be, and, alas! so seldom is.\n\nAll privilege is duty, and everything that is possible for any Christian\nman to become, it is imperative on him to aim at. There is no greater\nsin than living beneath the possibilities of our lives, in any region,\nwhether religious or other it matters not. Sin is not only going\ncontrary to the known law of God, but also a falling beneath a divine\nideal which is capable of realisation. And in regard to our Christian\nlife, if God has flung open His temple-gates and said to us, 'Come in,\nMy child, and dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide\nthere under the shadow of the Almighty, finding protection and communion\nand companionship in My worship,' there can be nothing more insulting to\nHim, and nothing more fatally indicative of the alienation of our hearts\nfrom Him, than that we should refuse to obey the merciful invitation.\n\nWhat should we say of a subject who never presented himself in the court\nto which he had the right of free _entree?_ His absence would be a mark\nof disloyalty, and would be taken as a warning-bell in preparation for\nhis rebellion. What should we say of a son or a daughter, living in the\nsame city with their parents, who never crossed the threshold of the\nfather's house, but that they had lost the spirit of a child, and that\nif there was no desire to be near there could be no love?\n\nSo, if we will ask ourselves, 'How often do I use this possibility of\ncommunion with God, which might irradiate all my daily life?' I think we\nshall need little else, in the nature of evidence, that our piety and\nour religious experience are terribly stunted and dwarfed, in comparison\nwith what they ought to be.\n\nThere is an old saying, 'He that can tell how often he has thought of\nGod in a day has thought of Him too seldom.' I dare say many of us would\nhave little difficulty in counting on the fingers of one hand, and\nperhaps not needing them all, the number of times in which, to-day, our\nthoughts have gone heavenwards. What we may be is what we ought to be,\nand not to use the prerogatives of our position is the worst of sins.\n\nAgain, my text suggests to us what every Christian life will hereafter\nperfectly be.\n\nSome commentators take the words of my text to refer only to the\ncommunion of saints from the earth, with the glorified angels, in and\nafter the Resurrection. That is a poor interpretation, for heaven is\nhere to-day. But still there is a truth in the interpretation which we\nneed not neglect. Only let us remember that nothing--so far as Scripture\nteaches us--begins yonder except the full reaping of the fruits of what\nhas been sown here, and that if a man's feet have not learned the path\ninto the Temple when he was here upon earth, death will not be the guide\nfor him into the Father's presence. All that here has been imperfect,\nfragmentary, occasional, interrupted, and marred in our communion with\nGod, shall one day be complete. And then, oh! then, who can tell what\nundreamed-of depths and sweetnesses of renewed communion and of\nintercourses begun, for the first time then, between 'those that stand\nby,' and have stood there for ages, will then be realised?\n\n'Ye are come'--even here on earth--'to an innumerable company of angels,\nto the general assembly and Church of the first-born,' but for us all\nthere may be the quiet hope that hereafter we shall 'dwell in the house\nof the Lord for ever'; and 'in solemn troops and sweet societies' shall\nlearn what fellowship, and brotherhood, and human love may be.\n\nLastly, notice, not from my text but from its context, how any life may\nbecome thus privileged.\n\nThe promise is preceded by a condition: 'If thou wilt walk in My ways,\nand if thou wilt keep My charge, then ... I will give thee access among\nthose that stand by.' That is to say, you cannot keep the consciousness\nof God's presence, nor have any blessedness of communion with Him, if\nyou are living in disobedience of His commandments or in neglect of\nmanifest duty. A thin film of vapour in our sky tonight will hide the\nmoon. Though the vapour itself may be invisible, it will be efficacious\nas a veil. And any sin, great or small, fleecy and thin, will suffice to\nshut me out from God. If we are keeping His commandments, then, and only\nthen, shall we have access with free hearts into His presence.\n\nBut to lay down that condition seems the same thing as slamming the door\nin every man's face. But let us remember what went before my text, the\nexperience of the priest to whom it was spoken in the vision. His filthy\ngarments were stripped off him, and the pure white robes worn on the\ngreat Day of Atonement, the sacerdotal dress, were put upon him. It is\nthe _cleansed_ man that has access among 'those that stand by.' And if\nyou ask how the cleansing is to be effected, take the great words of the\nEpistle to the Hebrews as an all-sufficient answer, coinciding with, but\ntranscending, what this vision taught Zechariah: 'Having, therefore,\nbrethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of\nJesus, ... and having a High Priest over the house of God; let us draw\nnear with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts\nsprinkled from an evil conscience.' Cleansed by Christ, and with Him for\nour Forerunner, we have boldness and 'access with confidence by the\nfaith of Him,' who proclaims to the whole world, 'No man cometh to the\nFather but by Me.'\n\n\nTHE SOURCE OF POWER\n\n     'And the Angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a\n     man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2. And said unto me, What\n     seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick\n     all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps\n     thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top\n     thereof: 3. And two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of\n     the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4. So I\n     answered and spake to the Angel that talked with me, saying, What\n     are these, my Lord? 5. Then the Angel that talked with me answered\n     and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No,\n     my Lord. 6. Then He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the\n     word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by\n     power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. 7. Who art thou,\n     O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and\n     he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying,\n     Grace, grace unto it. 8. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto\n     me, saying, 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of\n     this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know\n     that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto you. 10. For who hath\n     despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall\n     see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they\n     are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole\n     earth.'--ZECHARIAH iv. 1-10.\n\nTHE preceding vision had reference to Joshua the priest, and showed him\nrestored to his prerogative of entrance into the sanctuary. This one\nconcerns his colleague Zerubbabel, the representative of civil power, as\nhe of ecclesiastical, and promises that he shall succeed in rebuilding\nthe Temple. The supposition is natural that the actual work of\nreconstruction was mainly in the hands of the secular ruler.\n\nFlesh is weak, and the Prophet had fallen into deep sleep, after the\ntension of the previous vision. That had been shown him by Jehovah, but\nin this vision we have the same angel interpreter who had spoken with\nZechariah before. He does not bring the vision, but simply wakes the\nProphet that he may see it, and directs his attention to it by the\nquestion, 'What seest thou?' The best way to teach is to make the\nlearner put his conceptions into definite words. We see things more\nclearly, and they make a deeper impression, when we tell what we see.\nHow many lazy looks we give at things temporal as well as at things\neternal, after which we should be unable to answer the Angel's question!\nIt is not every one who sees what he looks at.\n\nThe passage has two parts--the vision and its interpretation, with\nrelated promises.\n\nThe vision may be briefly disposed of. Its original is the great lamp\nwhich stood in the tabernacle, and was replaced in the Solomonic Temple\nby ten smaller ones. These had been carried away at the Captivity, and\nwe do not read of their restoration. But the main thing to note is the\ndifferences between this lamp and the one in the tabernacle. The\ndescription here confines itself to these: They are three--the 'bowl' or\nreservoir above the lamp, the pipes from it to the seven lights, and the\ntwo olive-trees which stood on either side of the lamp and replenished\nfrom their branches the supply in the reservoir. The tabernacle lamp had\nno reservoir, and consequently no pipes, but was fed with oil by the\npriests. The meaning of the variations, then, is plain. They were\nintended to express the fuller and more immediately divine supply of\noil. If the Revised Version's rendering of the somewhat doubtful\nnumerals in verse 2 be accepted, each several light had seven pipes,\nthus expressing the perfection of its supplies.\n\nNow, there can be no doubt about the symbolism of the tabernacle lamp.\nIt represented the true office of Israel, as it rayed out its beams into\nthe darkness of the desert. It meant the same thing as Christ's words,\n'Ye are the light of the world,' and as the vision of the seven golden\ncandlesticks, in Revelation i. 12, 13, 20. The substitution of separate\nlamps for one with seven lights may teach the difference between the\nmere formal unity of the people of God in the Old Testament and the true\noneness, conjoined with diversity, in the New Testament Church, which is\none because Christ walks in the midst. Zechariah's lamp, then, called to\nthe minds of the little band of restored exiles their high vocation, and\nthe changed arrangements for the supply of that oil, which is the\nstanding emblem for divine communications fitting for service, or, to\nkeep to the metaphor, fitting to shine, signified the abundance of\nthese.\n\nThe explanation of the vision is introduced, as at Zechariah i. 9, 19,\nby the Prophet's question of its meaning. His angelic teacher is\nastonished at his dullness, as indeed heavenly eyes must often be at\nours, and asks if he does not know so familiar an object. The Prophet's\n'No, my Lord,' brings full explanation. Ingenuously acknowledged\nignorance never asks Heaven for enlightenment in vain.\n\nFirst, the true source of strength and success, as shown by the vision,\nis declared in plain terms. What fed the lamp? Oil, which symbolises\nthe gift of a divine Spirit, if not in the full personal sense as in the\nNew Testament, yet certainly as a God-breathed influence, preparing\nprophets, priests, kings, and even artificers, for their several forms\nof service. Whence came the oil? From the two olive-trees, which though,\nas verse 14 shows, they represented the two leaders, yet set forth the\ntruth that their power for their work was from God; for the Bible knows\nnothing of 'nature' as a substitute for or antithesis to God, and the\ngrowth of the olive and its yield of oil is His doing.\n\nThis, then, was the message for Zerubbabel and his people, that God\nwould give such gifts as they needed, in order that the light which He\nHimself had kindled should not be quenched. If the lamp was fed with\noil, it would burn, and there would be a Temple for it to stand in. If\nwe try to imagine the feebleness of the handful of discouraged men, and\nthe ring of enemies round them, we may feel the sweetness of the promise\nwhich bade them not despond because they had little of what the world\ncalls might.\n\nWe all need the lesson; for the blustering world is apt to make us\nforget the true source of all real strength for holy service or for\nnoble living. The world's power at its mightiest is weak, and the\nChurch's true power, at her feeblest, is omnipotent, if only she grasps\nthe strength which is hers, and takes the Spirit which is given. The\neternal antithesis of man's weakness at his haughtiest, and God's\nstrength even in its feeblest possessors, is taught by that lamp\nflaming, whatever envious hands or howling storms might seek to quench\nit, because fed by oil from on high. Let us keep to God's strength, and\nnot corrupt His oil with mixtures of foul-smelling stuff of our own\ncompounding.\n\nNext, in the strength of that revelation of the source of might a\ndefiant challenge is blown to the foe. The 'great mountain' is primarily\nthe frowning difficulties which lifted themselves against Zerubbabel's\nenterprise, and more widely the whole mass of worldly opposition\nencountered by God's servants in every age. It seems to bar all advance;\nbut an unseen Hand crushes it down, and flattens it out into a level, on\nwhich progress is easy. The Hebrew gives the suddenness and completeness\nof the transformation with great force; for the whole clause, 'Thou\nshalt become a plain,' is one word in the original.\n\nSuch triumphant rising above difficulties is not presumption when it has\nbeen preceded by believing gaze on the source of strength. If we have\ntaken to heart the former words of the Prophet, we shall not be in\ndanger of rash overconfidence when we calmly front obstacles in the path\nof duty, assured that every mountain shall be made low. A brave scorn of\nthe world, both in its sweetnesses and its terrors, befits God's men,\nand is apt to fulfil its own confidences; for most of these terrors are\nlike ghosts, who will not wait to be spoken to, but melt away if fairly\nfaced. Nor should we forget the other side of this thought; namely, that\nit is the constant drift of Providence to abase the lofty in mind, and\nto raise the lowly. What is high is sure to get many knocks which pass\nover lower heads. To men of faith every mountain shall either become a\nplain or be cast into the sea.\n\nThen follows, on the double revelation of the source of strength and the\nfutility of opposition, the assurance of the successful completion of\nthe work. The stone which is to crown the structure shall be brought\nforth and set in its place amid jubilant prayers not offered in vain,\nthat 'grace'--that is, the protecting favour of God--may rest on it.\n\nThe same thought is reiterated and enlarged in the next 'word,' which is\nsomewhat separated from the former, as if the flow of prophetic\ncommunication had paused for a moment, and then been resumed. In verse 9\nwe have the assurance, so seldom granted to God's workers, that\nZerubbabel shall be permitted to complete the task which he had begun.\nIt is the fate of most of us to inherit unfinished work from our\npredecessors, and to bequeath the like to our successors. And in one\naspect, all human work is unfinished, as being but a fragment of the\nfulfilment of the mighty purpose which runs through all the ages. Yet\nsome are more happy than others, in that they see an approximate\ncompletion of their work. But whether it be so or not, our task is to\n'do the little we can do, and leave the rest with God,' sure that He\nwill work all the fragments into a perfect whole, and content to do the\nsmallest bit of service for Him. Few of us are strong enough to do\nseparate building. We are like coral insects, whose reef is one, though\nits makers are millions.\n\nZerubbabel finished his task, but its end was but a new beginning of an\norder of things of which he did not see the end. There are no beginnings\nor endings, properly speaking, in human affairs, but all is one unbroken\nflow. One man only has made a real new beginning, and that is Jesus\nChrist; and He only will really carry His work to its very last issues.\nHe is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. He is the\nFoundation of the true Temple, and He is also the Headstone of the\ncorner, the foundation on which all rests, the apex to which all runs\nup. 'When He begins, He will also make an end.'\n\nThe completion of the work is to be the token that the 'angel who spake\nwith me' was God's messenger. We can know that before the fulfilment,\nbut we cannot but know it after. Better to be sure that the message is\nfrom God while yet the certainty is the result of faith, than to be sure\nof it afterwards, when the issue has shattered and shamed our doubts.\n\nIf we realise that God's Spirit is the guarantee for the success of work\ndone for God, we shall escape the vulgar error of measuring the\nimportance of things by their size, as, no doubt, many of these builders\nwere doing. No one will help on the day of great things who despises\nthat of small ones. They say that the seeds of the 'big trees' in\nCalifornia are the smallest of all the conifers. I do not vouch for the\ntruth of the statement, but God's work always begins with little seeds,\nas the history of the Church and of every good cause shows. 'What do\nthese feeble Jews?' sneered the spectators of their poor little walls,\npainfully piled up, over which a fox could jump. They did very little,\nbut they were building the city of God, which has outlasted all the\nmockers.\n\nMen might look with contempt on the humble beginning, but other eyes\nthan theirs looked at it with other emotions. The eyes which in the last\nvision were spoken of as directed on the foundation stone, gaze on the\nwork with joy. These are the seven eyes of 'the Lord,' which are 'the\nseven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth' (Rev. v. 6). The\nSpirit is here contemplated in the manifoldness of His operations rather\nthan in the unity of His person. Thus the closing assurance, which\ninvolves the success of the work, since God's eyes rest on it with\ndelight, comes round to the first declaration, 'Not by might, not by\npower, but by My Spirit.' Note the strong contrast between 'despise' and\n'rejoice.' What matter the scoffs of mockers, if God approves? What are\nthey but fools who look at that which moves His joy, and find in it only\nfood for scorn? What will become of their laughter at last? If we try to\nget so near God as to see things with His eyes, we shall be saved from\nmany a false estimate of what is great and what is small, and may have\nour own poor little doings invested with strange dignity, because He\ndeigns to behold and bless them.\n\n\nTHE FOUNDER AND FINISHER OF THE TEMPLE\n\n     'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house;\n     his hands shall also finish it.'--ZECHARIAH iv. 9.\n\nI am afraid that Zerubbabel is very little more than a grotesque name to\nmost Bible-readers, so I may be allowed a word of explanation as to him\nand as to the original force of my text. He was a prince of the blood\nroyal of Israel, and the civil leader of the first detachment of\nreturning exiles. With Joshua, the high priest, he came, at the head of\na little company, to Palestine, and there pathetically attempted, with\nsmall resources, to build up some humble house that might represent the\nvanished glories of Solomon's Temple. Political enmity on the part of\nthe surrounding tribes stopped the work for nearly twenty years. During\nall that time, the hole in the ground, where the foundations had been\ndug and a few courses of stones been laid, gaped desolate, a sad\nreminder to the feeble band of the failure of their hopes. But with the\naccession of a new Persian king, new energy sprang up, and new,\nfavourable circumstances developed themselves. The Prophet Zechariah\ncame to the front, although quite a young man, and became the mainspring\nof the renewed activity in building the Temple. The words of my text\nare, of course, in their plain, original meaning, the prophetic\nassurance that the man, grown an old man by this time, who had been\nhonoured to take the first spadeful of soil out of the earth should be\nthe man 'to bring forth the headstone with shoutings of Grace, grace\nunto it!'\n\nBut whilst that is the original application, and whilst the words open\nto us a little door into long years of constrained suspension of work\nand discouraged hope, I think we shall not be wrong if we recognise in\nthem something deeper than a reference to the Prince of David's line,\nconcerning whom they were originally spoken. I take them to be, in the\ntrue sense of the term, a Messianic prophecy; and I take it that, just\nbecause Zerubbabel, a member of that royal house from which the Messiah\nwas to come, was the builder of the Temple, he was a prophetic person.\nWhat was true about him primarily is thereby shown to have a bearing\nupon the greater Son of David who was to come thereafter, and who was to\nbuild the Temple of the Lord. In that aspect I desire to look at the\nwords now: 'His hands have laid the foundation of the house, and His\nhands shall also finish it.'\n\nI. There is, then, here a large truth as to Christ, the true\nTemple-builder.\n\nIt is the same blessed message which was given from His own lips long\ncenturies after, when He spoke from heaven to John in Patmos, and said,\n'I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.' The first letter of the\nGreek alphabet, and the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and all the\nletters that lie between, and all the words that you can make out of the\nletters--they are all from Him, and He underlies everything.\n\nNow that is true about creation, in the broadest and in the most\nabsolute sense. For what does the New Testament say, with the consenting\nvoice of all its writers? 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word\nwas with God, and the Word was God. Without Him was not anything made\nthat was made.' His hands laid the foundations of this great house of\nthe universe, with its 'many mansions.' And what says Paul? 'He is the\nBeginning, in Him all things consist' ... 'that in all things He might\nhave the pre-eminence.' And what says He Himself from heaven? 'I am the\nFirst and the Last.' So, in regard to everything in the universe, Christ\nis its origin, and Christ is its goal and its end. He 'has laid the\nfoundation, and His hands shall also finish it.'\n\nBut, further, we turn to the application which is the more usual one,\nand say that He is the Beginner and Finisher of the work of redemption,\nwhich is His only from its inception to its accomplishment, from the\nfirst breaking of the ground for the foundations of the Temple to the\ntriumphant bringing forth of the last stone that crowns the corner and\ngleams on the topmost pinnacle of the completed structure. There is\nnothing about Jesus Christ, as it seems to me, more manifest, unless our\neyes are blinded by prejudice, than that the Carpenter of Nazareth, who\ngrew up amidst the ordinary conditions of infant manhood, was trained as\nother Jewish children, increased in wisdom, spoke a language that had\nbeen moulded by man, and inherited His nation's mental and spiritual\nequipment, yet stands forth on the pages of these four Gospels as a\nperfectly original man, to put it on the lowest ground, and as owing\nnothing to any predecessor, and not as merely one in a series, or\nnaturally accounted for by reference to His epoch or conditions. He\nmakes a new beginning; He presents a perfectly fresh thing in the\nhistory of human nature. Just as His coming was the introduction into\nthe heart of humanity of a new type, the second Adam, the Lord from\nheaven, so the work that He does is all His own. He does it all Himself,\nfor all that His servants do in carrying out the purposes dear to His\nheart is done by His working in and through them, and though we are\nfellow-labourers with Him, His hands alone lay every stone of the\nTemple.\n\nNot only does my text, in its highest application, point to Jesus Christ\nas the Author of redemption from its very beginning, but it also\ndeclares that all through the ages His hand is at work. 'Shall also\nfinish it'--then He is labouring at it now; and we have not to think of\na Christ who once worked, and has left to us the task of developing the\nconsequences of His completed activity, but of a Christ who is working\non and on, steadily and persistently. The builders of some great\nedifice, whilst they are laying its lower courses, are down upon our\nlevel, and as the building rises the scaffolding rises, and sometimes\nthe platform where they stand is screened off by some frail canvas\nstretched round it, so that we cannot see them as they ply their work\nwith trowel and mortar. So Christ came down to earth to lay the courses\nof His Temple that had to rest upon earth, but now the scaffolding is\nraised and He is working at the top stories. Though out of our sight, He\nis at work as truly and energetically as He was when He was down here.\nYou remember how strikingly one of the Evangelists puts that thought in\nthe last words of his Gospel--if, indeed, they are his words. 'He was\nreceived up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God, and they went\neverywhere, preaching the word.' Well, that looks as if there were a sad\nseparation between the Commander and the soldiers that He had ordered to\nthe front, as if He were sitting at ease on a hill overlooking the\nbattlefield from a safe distance and sending His men to death. But the\nnext words bring Him and them together--'The Lord also working with\nthem, and confirming the word with signs following.' And so, brethren, a\nwork begun, continued, and ended by the same immortal Hand, is the work\non which the redemption of the world depends.\n\nII. Notice, secondly, that we have here the assurance of the triumph of\nthe Gospel.\n\nNo doubt, in the long-forgotten days in which my text was spoken, there\nwere plenty of over-prudent calculators in the little band of exiles who\nsaid, 'What is the use of our trying to build in face of all this\nopposition and with these poor resources of ours?' They would throw cold\nwater enough on the works of Zerubbabel, and on Zechariah who inspired\nthem. But there came the great word of promise to them, 'He shall bring\nforth the headstone with shoutings.' The text is the cure for all such\ncalculations by us Christian people, and by others than Christian\npeople. When we begin to count up resources, and to measure these\nagainst the work to be done, there is little wonder if good men and bad\nmen sometimes concur in thinking that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has\nvery little chance of conquering the world. And that is perfectly true,\nunless you take Him into the calculation, and then the probabilities\nlook altogether different. We are but like a long row of ciphers, but\nput one significant figure in front of the row of ciphers and it comes\nto be of value. And so, if you are calculating the probabilities of the\nsuccess of Christianity in the world and forget to start with Christ,\nyou have left out the principal factor in the problem. Churches lose\ntheir fervour, their members die and pass away. He renews and purifies\nthe corrupted Church, and He liveth for ever. Therefore, because we may\nsay, with calm confidence, 'His hands have laid the foundation of the\nhouse, and His hands are at work on all the courses of it as it rises,'\nwe may be perfectly sure that the Temple which He founded, at which He\nstill toils, shall be completed, and not stand a gaunt ruin, looking on\nwhich passers-by will mockingly say, 'This man began to build and was\nnot able to finish.' When Brennus conquered Rome, and the gold for the\ncity's ransom was being weighed, he clashed his sword into the scale to\noutweigh the gold. Christ's sword is in the scale, and it weighs more\nthan the antagonism of the world and the active hostility of hell. 'His\nhands have laid the foundation; His hands shall also finish it.'\n\nIII. Still further, here is encouragement for despondent and timid\nChristians.\n\nJesus Christ is not going to leave you half way across the bog. That is\nnot His manner of guiding us. He began; He will finish. Remember the\nwords of Paul which catch up this same thought: 'Being confident of this\nvery thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect the\nsame until the day of Jesus Christ.' Brethren! if the seed of the\nkingdom is in our hearts, though it be but as a grain of mustard seed,\nbe sure of this, that He will watch over it and bless the springing\nthereof. So, although when we think of ourselves, our own slowness of\nprogress, our own feeble resolutions, our own wayward hearts, our own\nvacillating wills, our many temptations, our many corruptions, our many\nfollies, we may well say to ourselves, 'Will there ever be any greater\ncompleteness in this terribly imperfect Christian character of mine than\nthere is to-day?' Let us be of good cheer, and not think only of\nourselves, but much rather of Him who works on and in and for us. If we\nlift up our hearts to Him, and keep ourselves near Him, and let Him\nwork, He will work. If we do not--like the demons in the old monastic\nstories, who every night pulled down the bit of walling that the monks\nhad in the daytime built for their new monastery--by our own hands pull\ndown what He, by His hand, has built up, the structure will rise, and we\nshall be 'builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.'\nBe of good cheer, only keep near the Master, and let Him do what He\ndesires to do for us all. God is 'faithful who hath called us to the\nfellowship of His Son,' and He also will do it.\n\nIV. Lastly, here is a striking contrast to the fate which attends all\nhuman workers.\n\nThere are very few of us who even partially seem to be happy enough to\nbegin and finish any task, beyond the small ones of our daily life.\nAuthors die, with books half finished, with sentences half finished\nsometimes, where the pen has been laid down. No man starts an entirely\nfresh line of action; he inherits much from his past. No man completes a\ngreat work that he undertakes; he leaves it half-finished, and coming\ngenerations, if it is one of the great historical works of the world,\nwork out its consequences for good or for evil. The originator has to be\ncontented with setting the thing going and handing on unfinished tasks\nto his successors. That is the condition under which we live. We have to\nbe contented to do our little bit of work, that will fit in along with\nthat of a great many others, like a chain of men who stand between a\nriver and a burning house, and pass the buckets from end to end. How\nmany hands does it take to make a pin? How many did it take to make the\ncloth of our dress? The shepherd out in Australia, the packer in\nMelbourne, the sailors on the ship that brought the wool home, the\nrailwayman that took it to Bradford, the spinner, the weaver, the dyer,\nthe finisher, the tailor--they all had a hand in it, and the share of\nnone of them was fit to stand upright by itself, as it were, without\nsomething on either side of it to hold it up.\n\nSo it is in all our work in the world, and eminently in our Christian\nwork. We have to be contented with being parts of a mighty whole, to do\nour small piece of service, and not to mind though it cannot be singled\nout in the completed whole. What does that matter, as long as it is\nthere? The waters of the brook are lost in the river, and it, in turn,\nin the sea. But each drop is there, though indistinguishable.\n\nMultiplication of joy comes from division of labour, 'One soweth and\nanother reapeth,' and the result is that there are two to be glad over\nthe harvest instead of one--'that he that soweth and he that reapeth may\nrejoice together.' So it is a good thing that the hands that laid the\nfoundations so seldom are the hands that finish the work; for thereby\nthere are more admitted into the social gladness of the completed\nresults. The navvy that lifted the first spadeful of earth in excavating\nfor the railway line, and the driver of the locomotive over the\ncompleted track, are partners in the success and in the joy. The\nforgotten bishop who, I know not how many centuries ago, laid the\nfoundations of Cologne Cathedral, and the workmen who, a few years\nsince, took down the old crane that had stood for long years on the\nspire, and completed it to the slender apex, were partners in one work\nthat reached through the ages.\n\nSo let us do our little bit of work, and remember that whilst we do it,\nHe for whom we are doing it is doing it in us, and let us rejoice to\nknow that at the last we shall share in the 'joy of our Lord,' when He\nsees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. Though He builds all\nHimself, yet He will let us have the joy of feeling that we are\nlabourers together with Him. 'Ye are God's building'; but the Builder\npermits us to share in His task and in His triumph.\n\n\nTHE PRIEST OF THE WORLD AND KING OF MEN\n\n     'He shall build the Temple of the Lord ... and He shall be a Priest\n     upon His throne.'--ZECHARIAH vi. 13.\n\nA handful of feeble exiles had come back from their Captivity. 'The holy\nand beautiful house' where their fathers praised Him was burned with\nfire. There was no king among them, but they still possessed a\nrepresentative of the priesthood, the other great office of divine\nappointment. Their first care was to rear some poor copy of the Temple;\nand the usual difficulties that attend reconstruction of any sort, and\ndog every movement that rests upon religious enthusiasm, beset them\n--strong enemies, and half-hearted friends, and personal jealousies\nweakening still more their weak forces. In this time of anarchy, of toil\nat a great task with inadequate resources, of despondency that was\nrapidly fulfilling its own forebodings, the Prophet, who was the spring\nof the whole movement, receives a word in season from the Lord. He is\nbidden to take from some of the returned exiles the tribute-money which\nthey had brought, and having made of it golden and silver crowns--the\nsign of kingship--to set them on the high priest's head, thus uniting\nthe sacerdotal and regal offices, which had always been jealously\nseparated in Israel. This singular action is explained, by the words\nwhich he is commanded to speak, as being a symbolic prophecy of Him who\nis 'the Branch'--the well-known name which older prophets had used for\nthe Messiah--indicating that in Him were the reality which the\npriesthood shadowed, and the rule which was partly delegated to Israel's\nking as well as the power which should rear the true temple of God among\nmen.\n\nIt is in accordance with the law of prophetic development from the\nbeginning, that the external circumstances of the nation at the moment\nshould supply the mould into which the promise is run. The earliest of\nall Messianic predictions embraced only the existence of evil, as\nrepresented by the serpent, and the conquest of it by one who was known\nbut as a son of Eve. When the history reaches the patriarchal stage,\nwherein the family is the predominant conception, the prophecy\nproportionately advances to the assurance, 'In thy seed shall all the\nfamilies of the earth be blessed.' When the mission of Moses had made\nthe people familiar with the idea of a man who was the medium of\nrevelation, then a further stage was reached--'a Prophet shall the Lord\nyour God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me.' The kingdom\nof David prepared the way for the prediction of the royal dignity of the\nMessiah, as the peaceful reign of Solomon for the expectation of one who\nshould bring peace by righteousness. The approach of national disaster\nand sorrow was reflected in Isaiah's vision of the suffering Messiah,\nand that prophet's announcements of exile had for their counterpoise the\nproclamation of Him who should bring liberty to the captive. So, here,\nthe kingless band of exiles, painfully striving to rear again the\ntabernacle which had fallen down, are heartened for their task by the\nthought of the priest-king of the nation, the builder of an imperishable\ndwelling-place for God.\n\nTo-day we need these truths not less than Zechariah's contemporaries\ndid. And, thank God! we can believe that, for every modern perplexity,\nthe blessed old words carry the same strength and consolation. If kings\nseem to have perished from among men, if authorities are dying out, and\nthere are no names of power that can rally the world--yet there is a\nSovereign. If old institutions are crumbling, and must still further\ndecay ere the site for a noble structure be cleared, yet He shall build\nthe Temple. If priest be on some lips a name of superstitious folly, and\non others a synonym for all that is despised as effete in religion, yet\nthis Priest abideth for ever, the guide and the hope for the history of\nhumanity and for the individual spirit. Let us, then, put ourselves\nunder the Prophet's guidance, and consider the eternal truths which he\npreaches to us too.\n\nI. The true hope of the world is a priest.\n\nThe idea of priesthood is universal. It has been distorted and abused;\nit has been made the foundation of spiritual tyranny. The priest has not\nbeen the teacher nor the elevator of the people. All over the world he\nhas been the ally of oppression and darkness, he has hindered and\ncramped social and intellectual progress. And yet, in spite of all this,\nthere the office stands, and wherever men go, by some strange perversity\nthey take with them this idea, and choose from among themselves those\nwho, being endowed with some sort of ceremonial and symbolic purity,\nshall discharge for their brethren the double office of representing\nthem before God, of representing God to them. That is what the world\nmeans, with absolute and entire unanimity, by a priest--one who shall be\nsacrificer, intercessor, representative; bearer of man's worship,\nchannel of God's blessing. How comes it, that, in spite of all the\ncruelties and lies that have gathered round the office, it lives,\nindestructible, among the families of men? Why, because it springs from,\nand corresponds to, real and universal wants in their nature. It is the\nresult of the universal consciousness of sin. Men feel that there is a\ngulf betwixt them and God. They know themselves to be all foul. True, as\ntheir knowledge of God dims and darkens, their conscience hardens and\ntheir sense of sin lessens; but, as long as there is any notion of God\nat all, there will be a parallel and corresponding conviction of moral\nevil. And so, feeling that, and feeling it, as I believe, not because\nthey are rude and barbarous, but because, though rude and barbarous,\nthey still preserve some trace of their true relation to God, they lay\nhold upon some of their fellows, and say, 'Here! be thou for us this\nthing which we cannot be for ourselves--stand thou there in front of us,\nand be at once the expression of our knowledge that we dare not come\nbefore our gods, and likewise, if it may be, the medium by which their\ngifts may come on us, unworthy.'\n\nThat is a wide-spread and all but universally expressed instinct of\nhuman nature. Argue about it as you like, explain it away how you\nchoose, charge the notions of priesthood and sacrifice with\nexaggeration, immorality, barbarism, if you will--still the thing\nremains. And I believe for my part that, so far from that want being one\nwhich will be left behind, with other rude and savage desires, as men\nadvance in civilisation--it is as real and as permanent as the craving\nof the understanding for truth, and of the heart for love. When men lose\nit, it is because they are barbarised, not civilised, into forgetting\nit. On that rock all systems of religion and eminently all theories of\nChristianity, that leave out priest and sacrifice, will strike and\nsplit. The Gospel for the world must be one which will meet all the\nfacts of man's condition. Chief among these facts is this necessity of\nthe conscience, as expressed by the forms in which for thousands of\nyears the worship of mankind has been embodied all but everywhere--an\naltar, and a priest standing by its side.\n\nI need not pause to remind you how this Jewish people, who have at all\nevents taught the world the purest Theism, and led men up to the most\nspiritual religion, had this same institution of a priesthood for the\nvery centre of its worship. Nor need I dwell at length on the fact that\nthe New Testament gives--in its full adhesion to the same idea. We are\ntold that all these sacerdotal allusions in it are only putting pure\nspiritual truth in the guise of the existing stage of religious\ndevelopment--the husk, not the kernel. It seems to me much rather that\nthe Old Testament ceremonial--Temple, priesthood, sacrifice--was\nestablished for this along with other purposes, to be a shadow of things\nto come. Christ's office is not metaphorically illustrated by reference\nto the Jewish ritual; but the Jewish ritual is the metaphor, and\nChrist's office the reality. He is the Priest.\n\nAnd what is the priest whom men crave?\n\nThe first requisite is oneness with those whom he represents. Men have\never felt that one of themselves must fill this office, and have taken\nfrom among their brethren their medium of communication with God. And we\nhave a Priest who, 'in all things, is made like unto His brethren,'\nhaving taken part of their flesh and blood, and being 'in all points\ntempted like as we are.' The next requisite is that these men, who\nminister at earth's altars, should, by some lustration, or abstinence,\nor white robe, or other external sign, be separated from the profane\ncrowd, and possess, at all events, a symbolic purity--expression of the\nconviction that a priest must be cleaner and closer to God than his\nfellows. And we have a Priest who is holy, harmless, undefiled, radiant\nin perfect purity, lustrous with the light of constant union with God.\n\nAnd again, as in nature and character, so in function, Christ\ncorresponds to the widely expressed wants of men, as shown in their\npriesthoods. They sought for one who should offer gifts and sacrifices\non their behalf, and we have One who is 'a merciful and faithful High\nPriest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.' They sought\nfor a man who should pass into the awful presence, and plead for them\nwhile they stood without, and we lift hopeful eyes of love to the\nheavens, 'whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an\nHigh Priest for ever.' They sought for a man who should be the medium of\ndivine blessings bestowed upon the worshippers, and we know who hath\ngone within the veil, having ascended up on high, that He might give\ngifts unto men.\n\nThe world needs a priest. Its many attempts to find such show how deep\nis the sense of need, and what he must be who shall satisfy them. We\nhave the Priest that the world and ourselves require. I believe that\nmodern Englishmen, with the latest results of civilisation colouring\ntheir minds and moulding their characters, stand upon the very same\nlevel, so far as this matter is concerned, as the veriest savage in\nAfrican wilds, who has darkened even the fragment of truth which he\npossesses, till it has become a lie and the parent of lies. You and I,\nand all our brethren, alike need a brother who shall be holy and close\nto God, who shall offer sacrifices for us, and bring God to us. For you\nand me, and all our brethren alike, the good news is true, 'we have a\ngreat High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of\nGod.' That message quenches the fire on every other altar, and strips\nthe mitre from every other head. It, and it alone, meets fully and for\never that strange craving, which, though it has been productive of so\nmany miseries and so many errors, though it has led to grinding tyranny\nand dark superstitions, though it has never anywhere found what it longs\nfor, remains deep in the soul, indestructible and hungry, till it is\nvindicated and enlightened and satisfied by the coming of the true\nPriest,' made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the\npower of an endless life.'\n\nII. Our text tells us, secondly, that 'the priest of the world is the\nking of men.' 'He shall be a Priest upon His throne.'\n\nIn Israel these two offices were jealously kept apart, and when one\nmonarch, in a fit of overweening self-importance, tried to unite in his\nown person the kingly and the priestly functions, 'the leprosy rose up\nin his forehead,' even as he stood with the censer in his hand, and\n'Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death.' And the history\nof the world is full of instances, in which the struggles of the\ntemporal and spiritual power have caused calamities only less\nintolerable than those which flowed from that alliance of priests and\nkings which has so often made monarchy a grinding tyranny, and religion\na mere instrument of statecraft. History being witness, it would seem to\nbe a very doubtful blessing for the world that one man should wield both\nforms of control without check or limitation, and be at once king and\npriest. If the words before us refer to any one but to Christ, the\nprophet had an altogether mistaken notion about what would be good for\nmen, politically and ecclesiastically, and we may be thankful that his\ndream has never come true. But if they point to the Son of David who has\ndied for us, and declare that because He is Priest, He is therefore\nKing--oh! then they are full of blessed truth concerning the basis and\nthe nature and the purpose of His dominion, which may well make us lift\nup our heads and rejoice that in the midst of tyranny and anarchy, of\nsovereignties whose ultimate resort is force, there is another\nkingdom--the most absolute of despotisms and yet the most perfect\ndemocracy, whose law is love, whose subjects are every one the children\nof a King, the kingdom of that Priest-ruler on whose head is Aaron's\nmitre, and more than David's crown.\n\nHe does rule. 'The kingdom of Christ' is no unreal fanciful phrase. Take\nthe lowest ground. Who is it that, by the words He spoke, by the deeds\nHe did, by the life He lived, has shaped the whole form of moral and\nreligious thought and life in the civilised world? Is there One among\nthe great of old, the dead yet sceptred sovereigns, who still rule our\nspirits from their urns, whose living power over thought and heart and\ndeed among the dominant races of the earth is to be compared with His?\nAnd beyond that, we believe that, as the result of His mighty work on\nearth, the dominion of the whole creation is His, and He is King of\nkings, and Lord of lords, that His will is sovereign and His voice is\nabsolute law, to which all the powers of nature, all the confusions of\nearth's politics, all the unruly wills of men, all the pale kingdoms of\nthe dead, and all the glorious companies of the heavens, do bow in real\nthough it be sometimes unconscious and sometimes reluctant obedience.\n\nThe foundation of His rule is His sacrifice; or in other words--no truer\nthough a little more modern in their sound--men will do anything for Him\nwho does _that_ for them. Men will yield their whole souls to the warmth\nand light that stream from the Cross, as the sunflower turns itself to\nthe sun. He that can give an anodyne which is not an opiate, to my\nconscience--He that can appeal to my heart and will, and say, 'I have\ngiven Myself for thee,' will never speak in vain to those who accept His\ngift, when He says, 'Now give thyself to Me.'\n\nBrethren! it is not the thinker who is the true king of men, as we\nsometimes hear it proudly said. We need One who will not only show but\nbe the Truth; who will not only point, but open and be, the Way; who\nwill not only communicate thought, but give, because He is, the Life.\nNot the rabbi's pulpit, nor the teacher's desk, still less the gilded\nchairs of earthly monarchs, least of all the tents of conquerors, are\nthe throne of the true King. He rules from the Cross. The one dominion\nworth naming, that over men's inmost spirits, springs from the one\nsacrifice which alone calms and quickens men's inmost spirits. 'Thou art\nthe King of Glory, O Christ,' for Thou art 'the Lamb of God, which\ntaketh away the sin of the world.'\n\nHis rule is wielded In gentleness. Priestly dominion has ever been\nfierce, suspicious, tyrannous. 'His words were softer than oil, yet were\nthey drawn swords.' But the sway of this merciful and faithful High\nPriest is full of tenderness. His sceptre is not the warrior's mace, nor\nthe jewelled rod of gold, but the reed--emblem of the lowliness of His\nheart, and of authority guided by love. And all His rule is for the\nblessing of His subjects, and the end of it is that they may be made\nfree by obedience, emancipated in and for service, crowned as kings by\nsubmission to the King of kings, consecrated as priests by their\nreliance on the only Priest over the house of God, whose loving will\nrests not until it has made all His people like Himself.\n\nThen, dear brethren! amid all the anarchic chaos of this day, when old\ninstitutions are crumbling or crashing into decay, when the whole\ncivilised world seems slowly and painfully parting from its old\nmoorings, and like some unwieldy raft, is creaking and straining at its\nchains as it feels the impulse of the swift current that is bearing it\nto an unknown sea, when venerable names cease to have power, when old\ntruths are flouted as antiquated, and the new ones seem so long in\nmaking their appearance, when a perfect Babel of voices stuns us, and on\nevery side are pretenders to the throne which they fancy vacant, let us\njoyfully welcome all change, and hopefully anticipate the future.\nLifting our eyes from the world, let us fix them on the likeness of a\nthrone above the firmament that is above the cherubs, and rejoice since\nthere we behold 'the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it.'\n'Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee.'\n\nIII. Our text still further reminds us that the Priest-King of men\nbuilds among men the Temple of God.\n\nThe Prophet and his companions had become familiar in their captivity\nwith the gigantic palaces and temples which Assyrian and Babylonian\nmonarchs had a passion for rearing. They had learned to regard the king\nas equally magnified by his conquests and by his buildings. Zechariah\nforetells that the true King shall rear a temple more lasting than\nSolomon's, more magnificent than those which towered on their\nmarble-faced platforms over the Chaldean plain.\n\nChrist is Himself the true Temple of God. Whatsoever that shadowed\nChrist is or gives. In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead. 'The\nglory' which once dwelt between the cherubim, 'tabernacled among us' in\nHis flesh. As the place of sacrifice, as the place where men meet God,\nas the seat of revelation of the divine will, the true tabernacle which\nthe Lord hath pitched is the Manhood of our Lord.\n\nChrist builds the temple. By faith, the individual soul becomes the\nabode of God, and into our desecrated spirits there comes the King of\nGlory. 'Know ye not that ye are the temples of God?' By faith, the whole\nbody of believing men 'are builded together for an habitation of God\nthrough the Spirit.'\n\nChrist builds this temple because He is the Temple. By His incarnation\nand work, He makes our communion with God and God's dwelling in us\npossible. By His death and sacrifice He draws men to Himself, and blends\nthem in a living unity. By the gift of His Spirit and His life, He\nhallows their wills, and makes them partakers of His own likeness; so\nthat 'coming to Him, we also are built up a spiritual house.'\n\nChrist builds the temple, and uses us as His servants in the work. Our\nprophecy was given to encourage faint-hearted toilers, not to supply an\nexcuse for indolence. Underlying all our poor labours, and blessing them\nall, is the power of Christ. We may well work diligently who work in the\nline of His purposes, after the pattern of His labours, in the strength\nof His power, under the watchfulness of His eye. The little band may be\nfew and feeble; let them not be fearful, for He, the throned Priest,\neven _He_, and not they with their inadequate resources, shall build the\ntemple.\n\nChrist builds on through all the ages, and the prophecy of our text is\nyet unfulfilled. Its fulfilment is the meaning and end of all history.\nFor the present, there has to be much destructive as well as\nconstructive work done. Many a wretched hovel, the abode of sorrow and\nwant, many a den of infamy, many a palace of pride, many a temple of\nidols, will have to be pulled down yet, and men's eyes will be blinded\nby the dust, and their hearts will ache as they look at the ruins. Be\nit so. The finished structure will obliterate the remembrance of poor\nbuildings that cumbered its site. This Emperor of ours may indeed say,\nthat He found the city of brick and made it marble. Have patience if His\nwork is slow; mourn not if it is destructive; doubt not, though the\nunfinished walls, and corridors that seem to lead nowhere, and all the\nconfusion of unfinished toils puzzle you, when you try to make out the\nplan. See to it, my brother, that you lend a hand and help to rear the\ntrue temple, which is rising slowly through the ages, at which\nsuccessive generations toil, and from whose unfinished glories they\ndying depart, but which shall be completed, because the true Builder\n'ever liveth,' and is 'a priest for ever after the order of\nMelchizedek.' Above all, brethren! take heed that you are yourselves\nbuilded in that temple. Travellers sometimes find in lonely quarries\nlong abandoned or once worked by a vanished race, great blocks squared\nand dressed, that seem to have been meant for palace or shrine. But\nthere they lie, neglected and forgotten, and the building for which they\nwere hewn has been reared without them. Beware lest God's grand temple\nshould be built up without you, and you be left to desolation and decay.\nTrust your souls to Christ, and He will set you in the spiritual house\nwhich the King greater than Solomon is building still.\n\nIn one of the mosques of Damascus, which has been a Christian church,\nand before that was a heathen temple, the portal bears, deep cut in\nGreek characters, the inscription, 'Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an\neverlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all\ngenerations.' The confident words seem contradicted by the twelve\ncenturies of Mohammedanism on which they have looked down. But though\ntheir silent prophecy is unheeded and unheard by the worshippers below,\nit shall be proved true one day, and the crescent shall wane before the\nsteady light of the Sun of Righteousness. The words are carven deep over\nthe portals of the temple which Christ rears; and though men may not be\nable to read them, and may not believe them if they do, though for\ncenturies traffickers have defiled its courts, and base-born usurpers\nhave set up their petty thrones, yet the writing stands sure, a dumb\nwitness against the transient lies, a patient prophet of the eternal\ntruth. And when all false faiths, and their priests who have oppressed\nmen and traduced God, have vanished; and when kings that have\nprostituted their great and godlike office to personal advancement and\ndynastic ambition are forgotten; and when every shrine reared for\nobscene and bloody rites, or for superficial and formal worship, has\nbeen cast to the ground, then from out of the confusion and desolation\nshall gleam the temple of God, which is the refuge of men, and on the\none throne of the universe shall sit the Eternal Priest--our Brother,\nJesus the Christ.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nMALACHI\n\n\nA DIALOGUE WITH GOD\n\n     'A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be\n     a Father, where is Mine honour? and if I be a master, where is My\n     fear? saith the Lord of Hosts unto you, O priests, that despise My\n     Name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised Thy Name? 7. Ye offer\n     polluted bread upon Mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we\n     polluted Thee?'--MALACHI i. 6, 7.\n\nA charactistic of this latest of the prophets is the vivacious dialogue\nof which our text affords one example. God speaks and the people\nquestion His word, which in reply He reiterates still more strongly. The\nother instances of its occurrence may here be briefly noted, and we\nshall find that they cover all the aspects of the divine speech to men,\nwhether He charges sin home upon them or pronounces threatenings of\njudgment, or invites by gracious promises the penitent to return. His\ncharges of sin are repelled in our text and in the following verse by\nthe indignant question, 'Wherein have we polluted Thee?' And similarly\nin the next chapter the divine accusation, 'Ye have wearied the Lord\nwith your words,' is thrown back with the contemptuous retort, 'Wherein\nhave we wearied Him?' And in like manner in the third chapter, 'Ye have\nrobbed Me,' calls forth no confession but only the defiant answer,'\nWherein have we robbed Thee?' And in a later verse, the accusation,\n'Your words have been stout against Me,' is traversed by the question,\n'What have we spoken so much against Thee?' Similarly the threatening of\njudgment that the Lord will 'cut off' the men that 'profane the holiness\nof the Lord' calls forth only the rebutting question, 'Wherefore?' (ii.\n14). And even the gracious invitation, 'Return unto Me, and I will\nreturn unto you,' evokes not penitence, but the stiff-necked reply,\n'Wherein shall we return?' (iii. 7). In this sermon we may deal with the\nfirst of these three cases, and consider, God's Indictment, and man's\nplea of 'Not guilty.'\n\nI. God's Indictment.\n\nThe precise nature of the charge is to be carefully considered. The Name\nis the sum of the revealed character, and that Name has been despised.\nThe charge is not that it has been blasphemed, but that it has been\nneglected, or under-estimated, or cared little about. The pollution of\nthe table of the Lord is the overt act by which the attitude of mind and\nheart expressed in despising His Name is manifested; but the overt act\nis secondary and not primary--a symptom of a deeper-lying disease. And\nherein our Prophet is true to the whole tenor of the Old Testament\nteaching, which draws its indictment against men primarily in regard to\ntheir attitude, and only as a manifestation of that, to their acts. The\nsame deed may be, if estimated in relation to human law, a crime: if\nestimated in relation to godless ethics, a wrong; and if estimated in\nthe only right way, namely, the attitude towards God which it reveals, a\nsin. 'The despising of His Name' may be taken as the very definition of\nsin. It is usual with men to-day to say that 'Sin is selfishness'; but\nthat statement does not go deep enough unless it be recognised that\nself-regard only becomes sin when it rears its puny self in opposition\nto, or in disregard of, the plain will of God. The 'New Theology,' of\ncourse, minimises, even where it does not, as it to be consistent\nshould, deny the possibility of sin: for, if God is all and all is God,\nthere can be no opposition, there can be no divine will to be opposed,\nand no human will to oppose it. But the fact of sin certified by men's\nown consciences is the rock on which Pantheism must always strike and\nsink. A superficial view of human history and of human nature may try to\nexplain away the fact of sin by shallow talk about 'heredity' and\n'environment,' or about 'ignorance' and 'mistakes'; but after all such\neuphemistic attempts to rechristen the ugly thing by beguiling names,\nthe fact remains, and conscience bears sometimes unwilling witness to\nits existence, that men do set their own inclinations against God's\ncommands, and that there is in them that which is 'not subject to the\nlaw of God, neither indeed can be.' The root of all sin is the\ndespising of His Name.\n\nAnd as sin has but one root, it has many branches, and as working\nbackwards from deed to motive, we find one common element in all the\nvarious acts; so working outwards from motive to deed, we have to see\none common character stamped upon a tragical variety of acts. The\npoison-water is exhibited in many variously coloured and tasted\ndraughts, but however unlike each other they may be, it is always the\nsame.\n\nThe great effort of God's love is to press home this consciousness of\ndespising His Name upon all hearts. The sorrows, losses, and\ndisappointments which come to us all are not meant only to make us\nsuffer, but through suffering to lead us to recognise how far we have\nwandered from our Father, and to bring us back to His heart and our\nhome. The beginning of all good in us is the contrite acknowledgment of\nour evil. Christ's first preaching was the continuation of John's\nmessage, 'Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'; and His\ntenderest revelation of the divine love incarnated in Himself was meant\nto arouse the penitent confession, 'I am no more worthy to be called Thy\nson,' and the quickening resolve, 'I will arise and go to my Father.'\nThere is no way to God but through the narrow gate of repentance. There\nis no true reception of the gift of Christ which does not begin with a\nvivid and heart-broken consciousness of my own sin. We can pass into,\nand abide in, the large room of joyous acceptance and fellowship, but we\nmust reach it by a narrow path walled in by gloomy rocks and trodden\nwith bleeding feet. The penitent knowledge of oar sin is the first step\ntowards the triumphant knowledge of Christ's righteousness as ours. Only\nthey who have called out in the agony of their souls, 'Lord, save us, we\nperish,' have truly learned the love of God, and truly possess the\nsalvation that is in Christ.\n\nII. Man's plea of 'Not Guilty.'\n\nThat such an answer should be given to such a charge is a strange,\nsolemn fact, which tragically confirms the true indictment. The effect\nof all sin is to make us less conscious of its presence, as persons in\nan unventilated room are not aware of its closeness. It is with profound\ntruth that the Apostle speaks of being hardened by the 'deceitfulness'\nof sin. It comes to us in a cloud and enfolds us in obscure mist. Like\nwhite ants, it never works in the open, but makes a tunnel or burrows\nunder ground, and, hidden in some piece of furniture, eats away all its\nsubstance whilst it seems perfectly solid. The man's perception of the\nstandard of duty is enfeebled. We lose our sense of the moral character\nof any habitual action, just as a man who has lived all his life in a\nslum sees little of its hideousness, and knows nothing of green fields\nand fresh air. Conscience is silenced by being neglected. It can be\nwrongly educated and perverted, so that it may regard sin as doing God's\nservice; and the only judgment in which it can be absolutely trusted is\nthe declaration that it is right to do right, while all its other\ndecisions as to what is right may be biassed by self-interest; but the\nforce with which it pronounces its only unalterable decision depends on\nthe whole tenor of the life of the man. The sins which are most in\naccordance with our characters, and are therefore most deeply rooted in\nus, are those which we are least likely to recognise as sins. So, the\nmore sinful we are, the less we know it; therefore there is need for a\nfixed standard outside of us. The light on the deck cannot guide us;\nthere must be the lighthouse on the rock. This sad answer of the heart\nuntouched by God's appeal prevents all further access of God's love to\nthat heart. That love can only enter when the reply to its indictment\nis, 'I have despised Thy name.'\n\nLet us not forget the New Testament modification of the divine\naccusation. 'In Christ' is the Name of God fully and finally revealed to\nmen. For us who live in the blaze of the ineffable brightness of the\nrevelation, our attitude towards Him who brings it is the test of our\n'hallowing of the Name' which He brings. He Himself has varied Malachi's\nindictment when He said, 'He that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent\nMe.' Our sin is now to be measured by our under-estimate and neglect of\nHim, and chiefly of His Cross. That Cross prevents our consciousness of\nsin from becoming despair of pardon. Judas went out, and with bitter\nweeping, himself ended his traitorous life. If God's last word to us\nwere, 'Ye have despised My Name,' and it sank into our souls, there\nwould be no hope for any of us. But the message which begins with the\nuniversal indictment of sin passes into the message which holds forth\nforgiveness and freedom as universal as the sin, and 'God hath concluded\nall in unbelief that He may have mercy upon all.'\n\n\nBLEMISHED OFFERINGS\n\n     'Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or\n     accept thy person? saith the Lord of Hosts.'--MALACHI i. 8.\n\nA word of explanation may indicate my purpose in selecting this, I am\nafraid, unfamiliar text. The Prophet has been vehemently rebuking a\ncharacteristic mean practice of the priests, who were offering maimed\nand diseased animals in sacrifice. They were probably dishonest as well\nas mean, because the worshippers would bring sound beasts, and the\npriests, for their own profit, slipped in a worthless animal, and kept\nthe valuable one for themselves. They had become so habituated to this\npiece of economical religion, that they saw no harm in it, and when they\noffered the lame and the sick and the blind for sacrifice they said to\nthemselves, 'It is not evil.' And so Malachi, with the sudden sharp\nthrust of my text, tries to rouse their torpid consciences. He says to\nthem: 'Take that diseased creature that you are not ashamed to lay on\nGod's altar, and try what the governor'--the official appointed by the\nPersian Kings to rule over the returned exiles--'will think about it.\nWill an offering of that sort be considered a compliment or an insult?\nDo you think it will smooth your way or help your suit with him? Surely\nGod deserves as much reverence as the deputy of Artaxerxes. Surely what\nis not good enough for a Persian satrap is not good enough for the Lord\nof Hosts. Offer it to the governor, will he be pleased with it? Will he\naccept thy person?'\n\nNow, it seems to me that this cheap religion of the priests, and this\nscathing irony of the Prophet's counsel need little modification to fit\nus very closely. You will bear me witness, I think, that I do not often\nspeak to you about money. But I am going to try to bring out something\nabout the great subject of Christian administration of earthly\npossessions from this text, because I believe that the Christian\nconsciousness of this generation does need a great deal of rousing and\ninstructing about this matter.\n\nI. We note the startling and strange contrast which the text suggests.\n\nThe diseased lamb was laid without scruple or hesitation on God's altar,\nand not one of these tricky priests durst have taken it to Court in\norder to secure favour there. Generalise that, and it comes to this--the\ngifts that we lavish on men are the condemnation of the gifts that we\nbring to God; and further, we should be ashamed to offer to men what we\nare not in the least ashamed to bring to God. Let me illustrate in one\nor two points.\n\nLet us contrast in our own consciences, for instance, the sort of love\nthat we give to one another with the sort of love that we bring to Him.\nHow strong, how perennially active, how delighting in sacrifice and\nservice, what a felt source of blessedness is the love that knits many\nhusbands and wives, many parents and children, many lovers and friends\ntogether! And in dreadful contrast, how languid, how sporadic and\ninterrupted, how reluctant when called upon for service and sacrifice,\nhow little operative in our lives is the love we bring to God! We durst\nnot lay upon the altar of family affection, of wedded love, of true\nfriendship, a love of such a sort as we take to God and expect Him to he\nsatisfied with. It would be an insult if offered to 'the governor,' but\nwe think it good enough for the King of kings. Here a gushing flood,\nthere a straitened trickle coming drop by drop; here a glowing flame\nthat fills life with warmth and light, there a few dying embers. Measure\nand contrast the love that is lavished by men upon one another, and the\nlove that is coldly brought to Him. And I think we must all bow our\nheads penitently.\n\nContrast the trust that we put in one another, and the trust that we\ndirect to Him. In the one case it is absolute. 'I am as sure as I am of\nmy own existence that so-and-so will always be as true as steel to me,\nand will never fail me, and whatever he, or she, does, or fails to do,\nno shadow of suspicion, or mist of doubt, will creep across the sunshine\nof our sky.' And in contrast to the firm grasp with which we clasp an\ninfirm human hand, there is a tremulous touch, scarcely a grasp at all,\nwhich we lay upon the one Hand that is strong enough always to be\noutstretched for our defence and our blessing. Contrast your confidence\nin men, and your confidence in God. Are we not all committing the\nabsurdity of absolutely trusting that which has no stability or stay,\nand refusing so to trust that which is the Rock of Ages? God's\nfaithfulness is absolute, our faith in it is tremulous. Men's\nfaithfulness is uncertain, our faith in it is entire.\n\nWe might contrast the submission and obedience with which we follow\nthose who have secured our confidence and evoked our love, as contrasted\nwith the rebellion, the reluctance, the self-will, which come in to\nbreak and mar our submission to God. Men that will not take Jesus Christ\nfor their Master, and refuse to follow Him when He speaks, will bind\nthemselves to some human teacher, and enrol themselves as disciples in\nsome school of thought or science or philosophy, with a submission so\nentire, that it puts to shame the submission which Christians render to\nthe Incarnate Truth Himself.\n\nAnd so I might go on, all round the horizon of our human nature, and\nsignalise the difference that exists between the blemished sacrifices\nwhich each part of our being dares to bring to God and expects Him to\naccept, and the sacrifices, unblemished and spotless, which we carry to\none another.\n\nBut let me say a word more directly about the subject of which Malachi\nis speaking. It seems to me that we may well take a very condemnatory\ncontrast between what we offer to God in regard to our administration of\nearthly good, and what we offer on other altars. Contrast what you give,\nfor directly beneficent and Christian purposes, with what you spend,\nwithout two thoughts, on your own comfort, indulgence, recreation,\ntastes--sometimes doubtful tastes--and the like. Contrast England's\ndrink bill and England's missionary contribution. We spend L10,000,000\non some wretched war, and some of you think it is cheap at the price,\nand the whole contributions of English Christians to missionary purposes\nin a twelvemonth do not amount to a tenth of that sum. You offer that to\nthe spread of Christ's kingdom. 'Offer it to your Government,' and try\nto compound for your share of the ten millions that you are going to\nspend in shells and gunpowder by the amount you give to Christian\nmissions, and you will very soon have the tax-gatherer down on you.\n'Will he be pleased with it?'\n\nThis one Missionary Society with which we are nominally connected has an\nincome of L70,000 a year. I suppose that is about a shilling per head\nfrom the members of our congregations. Of this congregation there are\nmany that never give us a farthing, except, perhaps, the smallest coin\nin their pockets when the collecting-box comes round. I do not suppose\nthat there is one of us that applies the underlying principle in our\ntext, of giving God our best, to this work. I am not going to urge you.\nIt is my business now simply to state, as boldly and strongly as I can,\nthe fact; and I say with all sadness, with self-condemnation, as well as\nbringing an indictment against my brethren, but with the clearest\nconviction that I am not exaggerating in the smallest degree, that the\ncontrast between what we lavish on other things and what we give for\nGod's work in the world, is a shameful contrast, like that other which\nthe Prophet gibbeted with his indignant eloquence.\n\nII. And now let me come to another point--viz., that we have here\nsuggested and implied the true law and principle on which all Christian\ngiving of all sorts is to be regulated.\n\nAnd that is--give the best. The diseased animal was no more fit for the\naltar of God than it was for the shambles of the viceroy. It was the\nentire and unblemished one that would be accepted in either case. But\nfor us Christian people that general principle has to be expanded. Let\nme do it in two or three sentences.\n\nThe foundation of all is 'the unspeakable Gift.' Jesus Christ has given\nHimself, God has given His Son. And Jesus Christ and God, in giving,\ngave up that we might receive. Do you believe that? Do you believe it\nabout yourself? If you do, then the next step becomes certain. That\ngift, truly received by any man, will infallibly lead to a kindred\n(though infinitely inferior) self-surrender. If once we come within the\ncircle of the attraction of that great Sun, if I might so say, it will\nsweep us clean out of our orbit, and turn us into satellites reflecting\nHis light. To have self for our centre is death and misery, to have\nChrist for our centre is life and blessedness. And the one power that\ndecentralises a man, and sweeps him into an orbit around Jesus, is the\nfaithful acceptance of His great gift. Just as some little State will\ngive up its independence in order to be blessedly absorbed into a great\nEmpire, on the frontiers of which it maintains a precarious existence,\nso a man is never so strong, never so blessed, never so truly himself,\nas when the might of Christ's sacrifice has melted down all his\nselfishness, and has made it flow out in rivers of self-surrender,\nself-absorption, self-annihilation, and so self-preservation. 'He that\nloseth his life shall find it.'\n\nThen the next step is that this self-surrender, consequent upon my\nfaithful acceptance of the Lord's surrender for me, changes my whole\nconception as to what I call my possessions. If I, in the depths of my\nsoul, have yielded myself to Jesus Christ, which I shall have done if I\nhave truly accepted Him as yielding Himself for me, then the yielding of\nself draws after it, necessarily, and without a question, a new relation\nbetween me and all that I have and all that I can do. Capacities,\nfaculties, means, opportunities, powers of brain and heart and mind, and\neverything else--they all belong to Him. As in old times a nobleman came\nand put his hands between the King's hands, and kneeling before him\nsurrendered his lands, and all his property, to the over-lord, and got\nthem back again for his own, so we shall do, in the measure in which we\nhave accepted Christ as our Saviour and our Guide. And so, because am\nHis, I shall feel that I am His steward to administer what He gives me,\nnot for myself, but for men and for God.\n\nThen there follows another thing, and that is, that Christian giving,\nnot of money only, but of money in a very eminent degree, is only right\nand truly Christian when you give yourself with your gift. A great many\nof us put our sixpence, or our half-crown, or our sovereign, into the\nplate, and no part of ourselves goes with it, except a little twinge of\nunwillingness to part with it. That is how they fling bones to dogs.\nThat is not how you have to give your money and your efforts to God and\nGod's cause. Farmers nowadays sow their seed-corn out of a machine with\na number of little conical receptacles at the back of it and a small\nhole in the bottom of each, and as the thing goes bumping along over the\nfurrows, out they fall. That drill does as well as, and better than, the\nhand of the sower scattering the seed, but it does not do near as well\nin the Christian agriculture in sowing the seed of the Kingdom.\nMachine-work will not do there; we have to have the sower's hand, and\nthe sower's heart with his hand, as he scatters the seed. Brethren!\napply the lesson to yourselves, and let your sympathies and your prayers\nand your wishes to help go along with your gifts, if you intend them to\nbe of any good.\n\nAnd there is another thing, and that is that, somehow or other, if not\nin the individual gifts, at all events in their aggregate, there must be\npresent the fact of sacrifice. 'I will not offer unto the Lord burnt\nofferings of that which doth cost me nothing,' said the old king. And we\ndo not give as we ought, unless our gifts involve some measure of\nsacrifice. From many a subscription list some of the biggest donations\nwould disappear, like the top-writing in one of those old manuscripts\nwhere the Gospel has been half-erased and written over with some foolish\nlegend, which vanishes when the detergent liquid is applied to the\nparchment, if that thought were brought to bear upon it. God asks how\nmuch is kept, not how much is given.\n\nNow, dear friends, these are all threadbare, elementary, 'A.B.C.'\ntruths. Are they the alphabet of our stewardship and administration of\nour possessions?\n\nIII. One last suggestion I would make on this text is that it brings\nbefore us the possible blessing and possible grave results of right or\nwrong Christian giving.\n\n'Will he be pleased with it? Or will he accept thy person?' Will the\ngovernor think the hobbling creature, blind of an eye, and infected with\nsome sickness, to be a beautiful addition to his flock? Will it help\nyour suit with him? No!\n\nIt is New Testament teaching that our faithfulness in the administration\nof earthly possessions of all sorts has a bearing on our spiritual life.\nRemember our Lord's triple illustration of this principle, when He\nspeaks about faithfulness 'in that which is least,' leading on to the\npossession of that which is the greatest; when He speaks of faithfulness\nin regard to 'the unrighteous Mammon' leading on to being intrusted with\nthe true riches; when He speaks of faithfulness in our administration of\nthat which is another's--alien to ourselves, and which may pass into the\npossession of a thousand more--leading on to our firmer hold, and our\ndeeper and fuller possession of the riches which, in the deepest sense\nof the word, are our own. One very important element in the development\nand advance of the religious life is our right use of these earthly\nthings. I have seen many a case in which a man was far better when he\nwas a poor man than he was when a rich one, in which slowly, stealthily,\ncertainly, the love of wealth has closed round a man like an iron band\nround a sapling, and has hindered the growth of his Christian character,\nand robbed him of the best things. And, God be thanked! one has seen\ncases, too, in which, by their Christian use of outward possessions, men\nhave weakened the dominion of self upon themselves, have learned the\nsubordinate value of the wealth that can be counted and detached from\nits possessor, and have grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and\nSaviour Jesus Christ. Dear friends, God has given all of us something in\ncharge, the faithful use of which is a potent factor in the growth of\nour Christian characters.\n\nIt is New Testament teaching that our faithful administration of earthly\npossessions has a bearing on the future. Remember what Jesus Christ\nsaid, 'That when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting\nhabitations.' Remember what His Apostle says, 'Laying up in store for\nthemselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay\nhold on eternal life.' Let no fear of imperilling the great truth of\nsalvation by faith lead us to forget that the faith which saves\nmanifests its vitality and genuineness, by its effects upon our lives,\nand that no small part of our lives is concerned with the right\nacquisition and right use of these perishable outward gifts. And let us\ntake care that we do not, in our dread of damaging the free grace of\nGod, forget that although we do not earn blessedness, here or hereafter,\nby gifts whilst we are living or legacies when we are dead, the\nadministration of money has an important part to play in shaping\nChristian character, and the Christian character which we acquire here\nsettles our hereafter.\n\nBrethren! we all need to revise our scale of giving, especially in\nregard to missionary operations. And if we will do that at the foot of\nthe Cross, then we shall join the chorus, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was\nslain to receive _riches_,' and we shall come to Him 'bringing our\nsilver and our gold with us,' rejoicing that He gives us the possibility\nof sharing His blessedness, 'according to the word of the Lord Jesus\nwhich He spake, It is more blessed to give than to receive.'\n\n\nA DIALOGUE WITH GOD\n\n     'The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this ... out of the tents\n     of Jacob, ... 14. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been\n     witness between thee and the wife of thy youth.'--MALACHI ii. 12,\n     14 (R.V.).\n\nIt is obvious from the whole context that divorce and foreign\ninter-marriage were becoming increasingly prevalent in Malachi's time.\nThe conditions in these respects were nearly similar to that prevailing\nin the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is these sins which the Prophet is\nhere vehemently condemning, and for which he threatens to cut off the\ntransgressors out of the tents of Jacob, and to regard no more their\nofferings and simulated worship. They might cover 'the altar of the Lord\nwith tears,' but the sacrifice which they laid upon it was polluted by\nthe sins of their daily domestic life, and therefore was not 'regarded\nby Him any more.' Malachi is true to the prophetic spirit when he\ndenounces a religion which has the form of godliness without its power\nover the practical life. But his sharp accusations have their edge\nturned by the question, 'Wherefore?' which again calls out from the\nProphet's lips a more sharply-pointed accusation, and a solemner warning\nthat none should 'deal treacherously against the wife of his youth,'\n'for I hate putting away, saith the Lord.' We may dismiss any further\nreference to the circumstances of the text, and regard it as but one\ninstance of man's way of treating the voice of God when it warns of the\nconsequences of the sin of man. Looked at from such a point of view the\nwords of our text bring before us God's merciful threatenings and man's\nincredulous rejection of them.\n\nI. God's merciful threatenings.\n\nThe fact of sin affects God's relation to and dealings with the sinner.\nIt does not prevent the flowing forth of His love, which is not drawn\nout by anything in us, but wells up from the depths of His being, like\nthe Jordan from its source at Dan, a broad stream gushing forth from\nthe rock. But that love which is the outgoing of perfect moral purity\nmust necessarily become perfect opposition to its own opposite in the\nsinfulness of man. The divine character is many-sided, and whilst 'to\nthe pure' it 'shows itself pure,' it cannot but be that 'to the froward'\nit 'will show itself froward.' Man's sin has for its most certain and\ndreadful consequence that, if we may so say, it forces God to present\nthe stern side of His nature which hates evil. But not merely does sin\nthus modify the fact of the divine relation to men, but it throws men\ninto opposition in which they can see only the darkness which dwells in\nthe light of God. To the eye looking through a red tinted medium all\nthings are red, and even the crystal sea before the throne is 'a sea of\nglass mingled with fire.'\n\nNo sin can stay our reception of a multitude of good gifts appealing to\nour hearts and revealing the patient love of our Father in heaven, but\nevery sin draws after it as certainly as the shadow follows the\nsubstance, evil consequences which work themselves out on the large\nscale in nations and communities, and in the smaller spheres of\nindividual life. And surely it is the voice of love and not of anger\nthat comes to warn us of the death which is the wages of sin. It is not\nGod who has ordained that 'the soul that sinneth it shall die,' but it\nis God who tells us so. The train is rushing full steam ahead to the\nbroken bridge, and will crash down the gulph and be huddled, a hideous\nruin, on the rocks; surely it is care for life that holds out the red\nflag of danger, and surely God is not to be blamed if in spite of the\nflag full speed is kept up and the crash comes.\n\nThe miseries and sufferings which follow our sins are self-inflicted,\nand for the most part automatic. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that'--and\nnot some other crop--'will he also reap.' The wages of sin are paid in\nready money; and it is as just to lay them at God's door as it would be\nto charge Him with inflicting the disease which the dissolute man brings\nupon himself. It is no arbitrary appointment of God's that 'he that\nsoweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption'; nor is it His\nwill acting as that of a jealous despot which makes it inevitably true\nthat here and hereafter, 'Every transgression and disobedience shall\nreceive its just recompense of reward,' and that to be parted from Him\nis death.\n\nIf then we rightly understand the connection between sin and suffering,\nand the fact that the sorrows which are but the echoes of preceding sins\nhave all a distinctly moral and restorative purpose, we are prepared\nrightly to estimate how tenderly the God who warns us against our sins\nby what men call threatenings loves us while He speaks.\n\nII. Man's rejection of God's merciful threatenings.\n\nIt is the great mystery and tragedy of life that men oppose themselves\nto God's merciful warnings that all sin is a bitter, because it is an\nevil, thing. He has to lament, 'I have smitten your children, and they\nhave received no correction.' The question 'Wherefore?' is asked in very\nvarious tones, but none of them has in it the accent of true conviction;\nand there is a whole world of difference between the lowly petition,\n'Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me,' and the curt,\nself-complacent brushing aside of God's merciful threatenings in the\ntext. The last thing which most of us think of as the cause of our\nmisfortunes is ourselves; and we resent as almost an insult the word,\nwhich if we were wise, we should welcome as the crowning proof of the\nseeking love of our Father in heaven. We are more obstinate and foolish\nthan Balaam, who persisted in his purpose when the angel with the drawn\nsword in his hand would have barred his way, not to the tree of life,\nbut to death. The awful mystery that a human will can, and the yet\nsadder mystery that it does, set itself against the divine, is never\nmore unintelligible, never so stupid, and never so tragic as when God\nsays, 'Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?' and we say, 'Why need I die?\nI will not turn.'\n\nThe 'Wherefore?' of our text is widely asked in the present day as an\nexpression of utter bewilderment at the miseries of humanity, both in\nthe wide area of this disordered world and in the narrower field of\nindividual lives. There are whole schools of so-called political and\nsocial thinkers who have yet to learn that the one thing which the world\nand the individual need is not a change of conditions or environment,\nbut redemption from sin. Man's sorrows are but a symptom of his disease,\nand he is no more to be healed by tinkering with these than a\nfever-stricken patient can be restored to health by treating the\nblotches on his skin which tell of the disease that courses through his\nveins.\n\nBut sometimes the question is more than an expression of bewilderment;\nit conceals an arraignment of God's justice, or even a denial that there\nis a God at all. There are men among us who hesitate not to avow that\nthe miseries of the world have rooted out of their minds a belief in\nHim; and who point to all the ills under which humanity staggers as\nconclusive against the ancient faith of a God of love. They, too, forget\nthat that love is righteousness, and that if there be sin in the world\nand God above it, He must necessarily war against it and hate it.\n\nOur right response to God's merciful threatenings is to ask this\nquestion in the right spirit. We are not wise if we turn a deaf ear to\nHis warnings, or go on in a headlong course which He by His providences\ndeclared to be dangerous and fatal. We use them as wise men should, only\nif our 'Wherefore?' is asked in order to learn our evil, and having\nlearned it, to purge our bosoms of the perilous stuff by confession and\nto seek pardon and victory in Christ. Then we shall 'know the secret of\nthe Lord' which is 'with them that fear Him'; and the mysteries that\nstill hang over our own histories and the world's destiny will have\nshining down upon them the steadfast light of that love which seeks to\nmake men blessed by making them good.\n\n\nTHE LAST WORD OF PROPHECY\n\n     'Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way\n     before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His\n     temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:\n     behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. 2. But who may\n     abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?\n     for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3. And He\n     shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify\n     the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may\n     offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. 4. Then shall the\n     offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in\n     the days of old, and as in former years. 5. And I will come near to\n     you to judgment; and I will be a swift Witness against the\n     sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers,\n     and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the\n     widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from\n     his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of Hosts. 6. For I am\n     the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not\n     consumed. 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away\n     from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I\n     will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But ye said, Wherein\n      shall we return? 8. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me.\n     But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings.\n     9. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this\n     whole nation. 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that\n     there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith\n     the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,\n     and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to\n     receive it. 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and\n     he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your\n     vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of\n     Hosts. 12. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be\n     a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.'--MALACHI iii. 1-12.\n\nDeep obscurity surrounds the person of this last of the prophets. It is\nquestioned whether Malachi is a proper name at all. It is the Hebrew\nword rendered in verse 1 of our passage 'My messenger,' and this has led\nmany authorities to contend that the prophecy is in fact anonymous, the\nname being only a designation of office. Whether this is so or not, the\nname, if it is a name, is all that we know about him. The tenor of his\nprophecy shows that he lived after the restoration of the Temple and its\nworship, and the sins which he castigates are substantially those with\nwhich Ezra and Nehemiah had to fight. One ancient Jewish authority\nasserts that he was Ezra; but the statement has no confirmation, and if\nit had been correct, we should not have expected that such an author\nwould have been anonymous. This dim figure, then, is the last of the\nmighty line of prophets, and gives strong utterance to the 'hope of\nIsrael'! One clear voice, coming from we scarcely know whose lips,\nproclaims for the last time, 'He comes! He comes!' and then all is\nsilence for four hundred years. Modern critics, indeed, hold that the\nbulk of the Psalter is of later date; but that contention has much to do\nbefore it can be regarded as established.\n\nThe first point worthy of notice in this passage, then, is the\nconcentration, in this last prophetic utterance, of that element of\nforward-looking expectancy which marked all the earlier revelation. From\nthe beginning, the selectest spirits in Israel had set their faces and\npointed their fingers to a great future, which gathered distinctness as\nthe ages rolled, and culminated in the King from David's line, of whom\nmany psalms sung, and in the suffering Servant of the Lord, who shines\nout from the pages of the second part of Isaiah's prophecy. This\nMessianic hope runs through all the Old Testament, like a broadening\nriver. 'They that went before cried, Hosanna! Blessed is He that\ncometh.'\n\nThat hope gives unity to the Old Testament, whatever criticism may have\nto teach about the process of its production. The most important thing\nabout the book is that one purpose informs it all; and the student who\nmisses the truth that 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'\nhas a less accurate conception of the meaning and inter-relations of the\nOld Testament than the unlearned who has accepted that great truth. We\nshould be willing to learn all that modern scholarship has to teach\nabout the course of revelation. But we should take care that the new\nknowledge does not darken the old certainty that the prophets 'testified\nbeforehand of the sufferings of Christ and of the glory that should\nfollow,' Here, at the very end, stands Malachi, reiterating the\nassurance which had come down through the centuries. The prophets, as it\nwere, had lit a beacon which flamed through the darkness. Hand after\nhand had flung new fuel on it when it burned low. It had lighted up many\na stormy night of exile and distress. Now we can dimly see one more, the\nlast of his order, casting his brand on the fire, which leaps up again;\nand then he too passes into the darkness, but the beacon burns on.\n\nThe next point to note is the clear prophecy of a forerunner. 'My\nmessenger' is to come, and to 'prepare the way before Me.' Isaiah had\nheard a voice calling, 'Prepare the way of the Lord,' and Malachi quotes\nhis words, and ascribes the same office to the 'messenger.' In the last\nverses of his prophecy he calls this messenger 'Elijah the prophet.'\nHere, then, we have a remarkable instance of a historical detail set\nforth in prophecy. The coming of the Lord is to be immediately preceded\nby the appearance of a prophet, whose function is to effect a moral and\nreligious reformation, which shall prepare a path for Him. This is no\nvague ideal, but definite announcement of a definite fact, to be\nrealised in a historical personality. How came this half-anonymous Jew,\nfour hundred years beforehand, to hit upon the fact that the next\nprophet in Israel would herald the immediate coming of the Lord? There\nought to be but one answer possible.\n\nAnother point to note is the peculiar relation between Jehovah and Him\nwho comes. Emphatically and broadly it is declared that Jehovah Himself\n'shall suddenly come to His temple'; and then the prophecy immediately\npasses on to speak of the coming of 'the Messenger of the covenant,'\nand dwells for a time exclusively on his work of purifying; and then\nagain it glides, without conscious breach of continuity or mark of\ntransition, into, 'And _I_ will come near to you in judgment.' A\nmysterious relationship of oneness and yet distinctness is here\nshadowed, of which the solution is only found in the Christian truth\nthat the Word, which was Grod, and was in the beginning with God, became\nflesh, and that in Him Jehovah in very deed tabernacled among men. The\nexpression 'the Messenger (or Angel) of the covenant' is connected with\nthe remarkable representations in other parts of the Old Testament, of\n'the Angel of Jehovah,' in whom many commentators recognise a\npre-incarnate manifestation of the eternal Word. That 'Angel' had\nredeemed Israel from Egypt, had led them through the desert, had been\nthe 'Captain of the Lord's host.' The name of Jehovah was 'in Him.' He\nit is whose coming is here prophesied, and in His coming Jehovah comes\nto His temple.\n\nWe next note the aspect of the coming which is prominent here. Not the\nkingly, nor the redemptive, but the judicial, is uppermost. With keen\nirony the Prophet contrasts the professed eagerness of the people for\nthe appearance of Jehovah and their shrinking terror when He does come.\nHe is 'the Lord whom ye seek'; the Messenger of the covenant is He 'whom\nye delight in.' But all that superficial and partially insincere longing\nwill turn into dread and unwillingness to abide His scrutiny. The images\nof the refiner's fire and the fullers' soap imply painful processes, of\nwhich the intention is to burn out the dross and beat out the filth. It\nsounds like a prolongation of Malachi's voice when John the Baptist\npeals out his herald cry of one whose 'fan was in His hand,' and who\nshould plunge men into a fiery baptism, and consume with fire that\ndestroyed what would not submit to be cast into the fire that cleansed.\nNor should we forget that our Lord has said, 'For judgment am I come\ninto the world.' He came to 'purify'; but if men would not let Him do\nwhat He came for, He could not but be their bane instead of their\nblessing.\n\nThe stone is laid. If we build on it, it is a sure foundation; if we\nstumble over it, we are broken. The double aspect and effect of the\ngospel, which was meant only to have the single operation of blessing,\nare clearly set forth in this prophecy, which first promises purging\nfrom sin, so that not only the 'sons of Levi' shall offer in\nrighteousness, but that the 'offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be\npleasant,' and then passes immediately to foretell that God will come in\njudgment and witness against evil-doers. Judgment is the shadow of\nsalvation, and constantly attends on it. Neither Malachi nor the Baptist\ngives a complete view of Messiah's work, but still less do they give an\nerroneous one; for the central portion of both prophecies is His\npurifying energy which both liken to cleansing fire.\n\nThat real and inward cleansing is the great work of Christ. It was\nwrought on as many of His contemporaries as believed on Him, and for\nsuch as did not He was a swift Witness against them. Nor are we to\nforget that the prophecy is not exhausted yet; for there remains another\n'day of His coming' for judgment. The prophets did not see the\nperspective of the future, and often bring together events widely\nseparated in time, just as, to a spectator on a mountain, distances\nbetween points far away towards the horizon are not measurable. We have\nto allow for foreshortening.\n\nThis blending of events historically widely apart is to be kept in view\nin interpreting Malachi's prediction that the coming would result in\nJudah's and Israel's offerings being 'pleasant unto the Lord as in\nformer years.' That prediction is not yet fulfilled, whether we regard\nthe name of Israel and the relation expressed in it as having passed\nover to the Christian Church, or whether we look forward to that\nbringing in of all Israel which Paul says will be as 'life from the\ndead.' But by slow degrees it is being fulfilled, and by Christ men are\nbeing led to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God.\n\nThe more directly Messianic part of this prophecy is closed in verse 6\nby a great saying, which at once gives the reason for the coming and for\nits severe aspect of witness against sin. The unchangeableness of God,\nwhich is declared in His very name, guarantees the continued existence\nof Israel. As Paul says in regard to the same subject, 'The calling of\nGod is without change of purpose' (on His part). But it is as impossible\nthat God should leave them to their sins, which would destroy them, as\nthat He should Himself consume them. Therefore He will surely come; and\ncoming, will deliver from evil. But they who refuse to be so delivered\nwill forfeit that title and the pledge of preservation which it implies.\n\nA new paragraph begins with verse 7, which is not closely connected with\nthe promises preceding. It recurs to the prevailing tone of Malachi, the\nrebuke of negligence in attending to the legal obligations of worship.\nThat negligence is declared to be a reason for God's withdrawal from\nthem. But the 'return,' which is promised on condition of their renewed\nobedience, can scarcely be identified with the coming just foretold.\nThat coming was to bring about offerings of righteousness which should\nbe pleasant to the Lord. This section (vs. 7-12) promises blessings as\nresults of such offerings, and a 'return' of Jehovah to His people\ncontingent upon their return to Him. If the two sections of this passage\nare taken as closely connected, this one must describe the consequences\nof the coming. But, more probably, this accusation of negligence and\npromise of blessing on a change of conduct are independent of the\nprevious verses. We, however, may fairly take them as exhibiting the\nobligations of those who have received that great gift of purifying from\nJesus Christ, and are thereby consecrated as His priests.\n\nThe key-word of the Christian life is 'sacrifice'--surrender, and that\nto God. That is to be stamped on the inmost selves, and by the act of\nthe will, on the body as well. 'Yield yourselves to God, and your\nmembers as instruments of righteousness to Him.' It is to be written on\npossessions. Malachi necessarily keeps within the limits of the\nsacrificial system, but his impetuous eloquence hits us no less. It is\nstill possible to 'rob God.' We do so when we keep anything as our own,\nand use it at our own will, for our own purposes. Only when we recognise\nHis ownership of ourselves, and consequently of all that we call 'ours,'\ndo we give Him His due. All the slave's chattels belong to the owner to\nwhom he belongs. Such thorough-going surrender is the secret of thorough\npossession. The true way to enjoy worldly goods is to give them to God.\n\nThe lattices of heaven are opened, not to pour down, as of old, fiery\ndestruction, but to make way for the gentle descent of God's blessing,\nwhich will more than fill every vessel set to receive it. This is the\nuniversal law, not always fulfilled in increase of outward goods, but in\nthe better riches of communion and of larger possession in God Himself.\nHe suffers no man to be His creditor, but more than returns our gifts,\nas legends tell of some peasant who brought his king a poor tribute of\nfruits of his fields, and went away from the presence-chamber with a\njewel in his hand.\n\n\nTHE UNCHANGING LORD\n\n     'I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not\n     consumed.' MALACHI iii. 6.\n\nThe scriptural revelations of the divine Name are always the basis of\nintensely practical admonition. The Bible does not think it worth while\nto proclaim the Name of God without building on the proclamation\npromises or commandments. There is no 'mere theology' in Scripture; and\nit does not speak of 'attributes,' nor give dry abstractions of\ninfinitude, eternity, omniscience, unchangeableness, but lays stress on\nthe personality of God, which is so apt to escape us in these abstract\nconceptions, and thus teaches us to think of this personal God our\nFather, as infinite, eternal, knowing all things, and never changing.\nThere is all the difference in our attitude towards the very same truth\nif we think of the unchangeableness of God, or if we think that our\nFather God is unchangeable. In our text the thought of Him as unchanging\ncomes into view as the foundation of the continuance of the unfaithful\nsons of Jacob in their privileges and in their very lives. 'I am the\nLord,' Jehovah, the Self-existent, the Eternal whose being is not under\nthe limitations of succession and time. 'Because I am Jehovah, I change\nnot'; and because Jehovah changes not, therefore our finite and mortal\nselves abide, and our infinite and sinful selves are still the objects\nof His steadfast love.\n\nLet us consider, first, the unchangeable God, and second, the unchanging\nGod as the foundation of our changeful lives.\n\nI. The unchangeable God.\n\nIn the great covenant-name Jehovah there is revealed an existence which\nreverses all that we know of finite and progressive being, or finite and\nmortal being, or finite and variable nature. With us there are mutations\narising from physical nature. The material must needs be subject to laws\nof growth and decadence. Our spiritual nature is subject to changes\narising from the advancement in knowledge. Our moral nature is subject\nto fluctuations; circumstances play upon us, and 'nothing continueth in\none stay.' Change is the condition of life. It means growth and\nhappiness; it belongs to the perfection of creatures. But the\nunchangeableness of God is the negation of all imperfection, it is the\nnegation of all dependence on circumstances, it is the negation of all\npossibility of decay or exhaustion, it is the negation of all caprice.\nIt is the assurance that His is an underived, self-dependent being, and\nthat with Him is the fountain of light; it is the assurance that, raised\nabove the limits of time and the succession of events, He is in the\neternal present, where all things that were and are, and are to come,\nstand naked and open. It is the assurance that the calm might of His\neternal will acts, not in spasms of successive volitions preceded by a\nperiod of indecision and equilibrium between contending motives, but is\none continuous uniform energy, never beginning, never bending, never\nending; that the purpose of His will is 'the eternal purpose which He\nhath purposed in Himself.' It is the assurance that the clear vision of\nHis infinite knowledge, from the heat of which nothing is hid, has no\nstages of advancement, and no events lying nebulous in a dim horizon by\nreason of distance, or growing in clearness as they draw nearer, but\nwhich pierces the mists of futurity and the veils of the past and the\ninfinities of the present, and 'from the beginning to the end knoweth\nall things.' It is the assurance that the mighty stream of love from the\nheart of God is not contingent on the variations of our character and\nthe fluctuations of our poor hearts, but rises from His deep well, and\nflows on for ever, 'the river of God' which 'is full of water.' It is\nthe assurance that round all the majesty and the mercy which He has\nrevealed for our adoration and our trust there is the consecration of\npermanence, that we might have a rock on which to build and never be\nconfounded. Is there anywhere in the past an act of His power, a word of\nHis lip, a revelation of His heart which has been a strength or a joy or\na light to any man? It is valid for me, and is intended for my use. 'He\nfainteth not, nor is weary.' The bush burns and is not consumed. 'I will\nnot alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.' 'By two immutable\nthings in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong\nconsolation.'\n\nII. The unchanging God as the foundation of our changeful lives.\n\nIn the most literal sense our text is true. Because He lives we live\nalso. He is the same for ever, therefore we are not consumed. The\nfoundation of our being lies beyond and beneath all the mutable things\nfrom which we are tempted to believe that we draw our lives, and is in\nGod. The true lesson to be drawn from the mutable phenomena of earth\nis--heaven. The many links in the chain must have a staple. Reason\nrequires that behind all the fleeting shall be the permanent. There must\nbe a basis which does not partake of change. The lesson from all the\nmutable creation is the immutable God.\n\nSince God changes not, the life of our spirits is not at the mercy of\nchanging events. We look back on a lifetime of changing scenes through\nwhich we have passed, and forward to a similar succession, and this\nmutability is sad to many of us, and in some aspects sad to all, so\npowerless we are to fix and arrest any of our blessings. Which we shall\nkeep we know not; we only know that, as certainly as buds and blossoms\nof spring drop, and the fervid summer darkens to November fogs and\nDecember frosts, so certainly we shall have to part with much in our\npassage through life. But if we let God speak to us, the necessary\nchanges that come to us will not be harmful but blessed, for the lesson\nthat the mutability of the mutual is meant to impress upon us is, the\npermanency of the divine, and our dependence, not on them, but on Him.\nWe may look upon all the world of time and chance and think that He who\nHimself is unchanging changeth all. The eye of the tempest is a point of\nrest. The point in the heavens towards which, according to some\nastronomers, the whole of the solar system is drifting, is a fixed\npoint. If we depend on Him, then change is not all sad; it cannot take\nGod away, but it may bring us nearer to Him. We cannot be desolate as\nlong as we have Him. We know not what shall be on the morrow. Be it so;\nit will be God's to-morrow. When the leaves drop we can see the rock on\nwhich the trees grow; and when changes strip the world for us of some of\nits waving beauty and leafy shade, we may discern more clearly the firm\nfoundation on which our hopes rest. All else changes. Be it so; that\nwill not kill us, nor leave us utterly forlorn as long as we hear the\nvoice which says, 'I am the Lord; I change not; therefore ye are not\nconsumed.'\n\nGod's purposes and promises change not, therefore our faith may rest on\nHim, notwithstanding our own sins and fluctuations. It is this aspect of\nthe divine immutability which is the thought of our text. God does not\nturn from His love, nor cancel His promises, nor alter His purposes of\nmercy because of our sins. If God could have changed, the godless\nforgetfulness of, and departure from, Him of 'the Sons of Jacob' would\nhave driven Him to abandon His purposes; but they still live--living\nevidences of His long-suffering. And in that preservation of them God\nwould have them see the basis of hope for the future. So this is the\nconfidence with which we should cheer ourselves when we look upon the\npast, and when we anticipate the future. The sins that have been in our\npast have deserved that we should have been swept away, but we are here\nstill. Why are we? Why do we yet live? Because we have to do with an\nunchanging love, with a faithfulness that never departs from its word,\nwith a purpose of blessing that will not be turned aside. So let us look\nback with this thought and be thankful; let us look forward with it and\nbe of good cheer. Trust yourself, weak and sinful as you are, to that\nunchanging love. The future will have in it faults and failures, sins\nand shortcomings, but rise from yourself to God. Look beyond the light\nand shade of your own characters, or of earthly events to the central\nlight, where there is no glimmering twilight, no night, 'no variableness\nnor shadow of turning.' Let us live in God, and be strong in hope.\nForward, not backward, let us look and strive; so our souls, fixed and\nsteadied by faith in Him, will become in a manner partakers of His\nunchangeableness; and we too in our degree will be able to say, 'The\nLord is at my side; I shall not be moved.'\n\n\nA DIALOGUE WITH GOD\n\n     'Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of\n     Hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?'--MALACHI iii. 7\n     (R.V.).\n\nIn previous sermons we have considered God's indictment of man's sin met\nby man's plea of 'not guilty,' and God's threatenings brushed aside by\nman's question. Here we have the climax of self-revealing and patient\nlove in God's wooing voice to draw the wanderer back, met by man's\nrefusing answer. These three divine utterances taken together cover the\nwhole ground of His speech to us; and, alas! these three human\nutterances but too truly represent for the most part our answers to Him.\n\nI. God's invitation to His wandering child.\n\nThe gracious invitation of our text presupposes a state of departure.\nThe child who is tenderly recalled has first gone away. There has been a\nbreach of love. Dependence has been unwelcome, and cast off with the\nvain hope of a larger freedom in the far-off land; and this is the true\ncharge against us. It is not so much individual acts of sin but the\ngoing away in heart and spirit from our Father God which describes the\ninmost essence of our true condition, and is itself the source of all\nour acts of sin. Conscience confirms the description. We know that we\nhave departed from Him in mind, having wasted our thoughts on many\nthings and not having had Him in the multitude of them in us. We have\ndeparted from Him in heart, having squandered our love and dissipated\nour desires on many objects, and sought in the multiplicity of many\npearls--some of them only paste--a substitute for the all-sufficient\nsimplicity of the One of great price. We have departed from Him in will,\nhaving reared up puny inclinations and fleeting passions against His\ncalm and eternal purpose, and so bringing about the shock of a collision\nas destructive to us as when a torpedo-boat crashes in the dark against\na battleship, and, cut in two, sinks.\n\nThe gracious invitation of our text follows, 'I am the Lord, I change\nnot; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.' Threatenings, and the\nexecution of these in acts of judgment, are no indication of a change in\nthe loving heart of God; and because it is the same, however we have\nsinned against it and departed from it, there is ever an invitation and\na welcome. We may depart from Him, but He never departs from us. Nor\ndoes He wait for us to originate the movement of return, but He invites\nus back. By all His words in His threatenings and in His commandments,\nas in the acts of His providence, we can hear His call to return. The\nfathers of our flesh never cease to long for their prodigal child's\nreturn; and their patient persistence of hope is but brief and broken\nwhen contrasted with the infinite long-suffering of the Father of\nspirits. We have heard of a mother who for long empty years has nightly\nset a candle in her cottage window to guide her wandering boy back to\nher heart; and God has bade us think more loftily of the\nunchangeableness of His love than that of a woman who may forget, that\nshe should not have compassion upon the son of her womb.\n\nII. Man's answer to God's invitation.\n\nIt is a refusal which is half-veiled and none the less real. There is\nno unwillingness to obey professed, but it is concealed under a mask of\ndesiring a little more light as to how a return is to be accomplished.\nThere are not many of us who are rooted enough in evil as to be able to\nblurt out a curt 'I will not' in answer to His call. Conscience often\nbars the way to such a plain and unmannerly reply; but there are many\nwho try to cheat God, and who do to some extent cheat themselves, by\nprofessing ignorance of the way which would lead them to His heart. Some\nof us have learned only too well to raise questions about the method of\nsalvation instead of accepting it, and to dabble in theology instead of\nmaking sure work of return. Some of us would fain substitute a host of\nisolated actions, or apparent moral or religious observance, for the\nreturn of will and heart to God; and all who in their consciences answer\nGod's call by saying, 'Wherein shall we return?' with such a meaning are\nplaying tricks with themselves, and trying to hoodwink God.\n\nBut the question of our text has often a nobler origin, and comes from\nthe depths of a troubled heart. Not seldom does God's loving invitation\nrouse the dormant conscience to the sense of sin. The man, lying broken\nat the foot of the cliff down which he has fallen, and seeing the\nbrightness of God far above, has his heart racked with the question: How\nam I, with lame limbs, to struggle back to the heights above? 'How shall\nman be just with God?' All the religions of the world, with their\nofferings and penances and weary toils, are vain attempts to make a way\nback to the God from whom men have wandered, and that question, 'Wherein\nshall we return?' is really the meaning of the world's vain seeking and\nprofitless effort.\n\nGod has answered man's question; for Christ is at once the way back to\nGod, and the motive which draws us to walk in it. He draws us back by\nthe magnetism of His love and sacrifice. We return to God when we cling\nto Jesus. He is the highest, the tenderest utterance of the divine\nvoice; and when we yield to His invitation to Himself we return to God.\nHe calls to each of us, 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' What\ncan we reply but, 'I come; let me never wander from Thee'?\n\n\n'STOUT WORDS,' AND THEIR CONFUTATION\n\n     'Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord: yet ye say,\n     What have we spoken so much against Thee? 14. Ye have said, It is\n     vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His\n     ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of\n     Hosts? 15. And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work\n     wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.\n     16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and\n     the Lord hearkened, and heard it; and a book of remembrance was\n     written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought\n     upon His name. 17. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts,\n     in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a\n     man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18. Then shall ye return,\n     and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that\n     serveth God and him that serveth Him not. IV. 1. For, behold, the\n     day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and\n     all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh\n     shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave\n     them neither root nor branch. 2. But unto you that fear My Name\n     shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and\n     ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3. And ye\n     shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the\n     soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord\n     of Hosts. 4. Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I\n     commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and\n     judgments. 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the\n     coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6. And he shall\n     turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the\n     children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a\n     curse.'--MALACHI iii. 13-18; iv. 1-6.\n\nThis passage falls into three parts,--the 'stout words' against God\nwhich the Prophet sets himself to confute (verses 13-15); the prophecy\nof the day which will show their falsehood (verse 16 to iv. 3); and the\nclosing exhortation and prediction (iv. 4-6).\n\nI. The returning exiles had not had the prosperity which they had hoped.\nSo many of them, even of those who had served God, began to let doubts\ndarken their trust, and to listen to the whispers of their own hearts,\nreinforced by the mutterings of others, and to ask: 'What is the use of\nreligion? Does it make any difference to a man's condition?' Here had\nthey been keeping God's charge, and going in black garments 'before the\nLord,' in token of penitence, and no good had come to them, while\narrogant neglect of His commandments did not seem to hinder happiness,\nand 'they that work wickedness are built up.' Sinful lives appeared to\nhave a firm foundation, and to rise high and palace-like, while\nrighteous ones were like huts. Goodness seemed to spell ruin.\n\nWhat was wrong in these 'stout words'? It was wrong to attach such worth\nto external acts of devotion, as if these were deserving of reward. It\nwas wrong to suspend the duty of worship on the prosperity resulting\nfrom it, and to seek 'profit' from 'keeping his charge.' Such religion\nwas shallow and selfish, and had the evils of the later Pharisaism in\ngerm in it. It was wrong to yield to the doubts which the apparently\nunequal distribution of worldly prosperity stirred in their hearts. But\nthe doubts themselves were almost certain to press on Old Testament\nbelievers, as well as on Old Testament scoffers, especially under the\ncircumstances of Malachi's time. The fuller light of Christianity has\neased their pressure, but not removed it, and we have all had to face\nthem, both when our own hearts have ached with sorrow and when pondering\non the perplexities of this confused world. We look around, and, like\nthe psalmist, see 'the prosperity of the wicked,' and, like him, have to\nconfess that our 'steps had wellnigh slipped' at the sight. The old, old\nquestion is ever starting up. 'Doth God know?' The mystery of suffering\nand the mystery of its distribution, the apparent utter want of\nconnection between righteousness and well-being, are still formidable\ndifficulties in the way of believing in a loving, all-knowing, and\nall-powerful God, and are stock arguments of the unbeliever and\nperplexities of humble faith. Never to have felt the force of the\ndifficulty is not so much the sign of steadfast faith as of scant\nreflection. To yield to it, and still more, to let it drive us to cast\nreligion aside, is not merely folly, but sin. So thinks Malachi.\n\nII. To the stout words of the doubters is opposed the conversation of\nthe godly. '_Then_ they that feared the Lord spake one with another,'\nnourishing their faith by believing speech with like-minded. The more\nthe truths by which we believe are contradicted, the more should we\ncommune with fellow-believers. Attempts to rob us should make us hold\nour treasure the faster. Bold avowal of the faith is especially called\nfor when many potent voices deny it. And, whoever does not hear, God\nhears. Faithful words may seem lost, but they and every faithful act are\nwritten in His remembrance and will be recompensed one day. If our names\nand acts are written there, we may well be content to accept scanty\nmeasures of earthly good, and not be 'envious of the foolish' in their\nprosperity.\n\nMalachi's answer to the doubters leaves all other considerations which\nmight remove the difficulty unmentioned, and fixes on the one, the\nprophecy of a future which will show that it is not all the same whether\na man is good or bad. It was said of an English statesman that he called\na new world into existence to redress the balance of the old, and that\nis what the Prophet does. Christianity has taught us many other ways of\nmeeting the doubters' difficulty, but the sheet anchor of faith in that\nstorm is the unconquerable assurance that a day comes when the\nrighteousness of providence will be vindicated, and the eternal\ndifference between good and evil manifested in the fates of men. The\nProphet is declaring what will be a fact one day, but he does not know\nwhen. Probably he never asked himself whether 'the day of the Lord' was\nnear or far off, to dawn on earth or to lie beyond mortal life. But this\nhe knew--that God was righteous, and that sometime and somewhere\ncharacter would settle destiny, and even outwardly it would be good to\nbe good. He first declares this conviction in general terms, and then\npasses on to a magnificent and terrible picture of that great day.\n\nThe promise, which lay at the foundation of Israel's national existence,\nincluded the recognition of it as 'a peculiar treasure unto Me above all\npeople,' and Malachi looks forward to that day as the epoch when God\nwill show by His acts how precious the righteous are in His sight. Not\nthe whole Israel, but the righteous among them, are the heirs of the old\npromise. It is an anticipation of the teaching that 'they are not all\nIsrael which are of Israel,' And it bids us look for the fulfilment of\nevery promise of God's to that great day of the Lord which lies still\nbefore us all, when the gulf between the righteous and the wicked shall\nbe solemnly visible, wide, and profound. There have been many 'days\nwhich I make' in the world's history, and in a measure each of them has\nre-established the apparently tottering truth that there is a God who\njudgeth in the earth, but the day of days is yet to come.\n\nNo grander vision of judgment exists than Malachi's picture of 'the\nday,' lurid, on the one hand, with the fierce flame, before which the\nwicked are as stubble that crackles for a moment and then is grey ashes,\nor as a tree in a forest fire, which stands for a little while, a pillar\nof flame, and then falls with a crash, shaking the woods; and on the\notherhand, radiant with the early beams of healing sunshine, in whose\nsweet morning light the cattle, let out from their pent-up stalls,\ngambol in glee. But let us not forget while we admire the noble poetry\nof its form that this is God's oracle, nor that we have each to settle\nfor ourselves whether that day shall be for us a furnace to destroy or a\nsun to cheer and enlighten.\n\nWe can only note in a sentence the recurrence in verse 1 of the phrases\n'the proud' and they 'that work wickedness,' from verse 15 of chapter\niii. The end of those whom the world called happy, and who seemed stable\nand elevated, is to be as stubble before the fire. We must also point\nout that 'the sun of righteousness' means the sun which is\nrighteousness, and is not a designation of the Messiah. Nor can we dwell\non the picture of the righteous treading down the wicked, which seems to\nprolong the previous metaphor of the leaping young cattle. Then shall\n'the upright have dominion over them in the morning.'\n\nIII. The final exhortation and promise point backwards and forwards,\nsumming up duty in obedience to the law, and fixing hope on a future\nreappearance of the leader of the prophets. Moses and Elijah are the two\ngiant figures which dominate the history of Israel. Law and prophecy are\nthe two forms in which God spoke to the fathers. The former is of\nperpetual obligation, the latter will flash up again in power on the\nthreshold of the day. Jesus has interpreted this closing word for us.\nJohn came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah,' and the purpose of his\ncoming was to 'turn the hearts of the fathers to the children' (Luke i.\n16, 17); that is, to bring back the devout dispositions of the\npatriarchs to the existing generations, and so to bring the 'hearts of\nthe children to their fathers,' as united with them in devout obedience.\nIf John's mission had succeeded, the 'curse' which smote Israel would\nhave been stayed. God has done all that He can do to keep us from being\nconsumed by the fire of that day. The Incarnation, Life, and Death of\nJesus Christ made a day of the Lord which has the twofold character of\nthat in Malachi's vision, for He is a 'saviour of life unto life' or\n'of death unto death,' and must be one or other to us. But another day\nof the Lord is still to come, and for each of us it will come burning as\na furnace or bright as sunrise. Then the universe shall 'discern between\nthe righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that\nserveth Him not.'\n\n\nTHE LAST WORDS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS\n\n     'Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.'--MALACHI iv. 6.\n\n     'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.\n     Amen.'--REVELATION xxii. 21.\n\nIt is of course only an accident that these words close the Old and the\nNew Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible Malachi's prophecies do not stand at\nthe end; but he was the last of the Old Testament prophets, and after\nhim there were 'four centuries of silence.' We seem to hear in his words\nthe dying echoes of the rolling thunders of Sinai. They gather up the\nwhole burden of the Law and of the prophets; of the former in their\ndeclaration of a coming retribution, of the latter in the hope that that\nretribution may be averted.\n\nThen, in regard to John's words, of course as they stand they are simply\nthe parting benediction with which he takes leave of his readers; but it\nis fitting that the Book of which they are the close should seal up the\ncanon, because it stands as the one prophetic book of the New Testament,\nand so reaches forward into the coming ages, even to the consummation of\nall things. And just as Christ in His Ascension was taken from them\nwhilst His hands were lifted up in the act of blessing, so it is fitting\nthat the revelation of which He is the centre and the theme should part\nfrom us as He did, shedding with its final words the dew of benediction\non our upturned heads.\n\nI venture, then, to look at these significant closing words of the two\nTestaments as conveying the spirit of each, and suggesting some thoughts\nabout the contrast and the harmony and the order that subsist between\nthem.\n\nI. I ask you, first, to notice the apparent contrast and the real\nharmony and unity of these two texts.\n\n'Lest I come and smite the land with a curse.' That last awful word does\nnot convey, in the original, quite the idea of our English word 'curse.'\nIt refers to a somewhat singular institution in the Mosaic Law according\nto which things devoted, in a certain sense, to God were deprived of\nlife. And the reference historically is to the judgments that were\ninflicted upon the nations that occupied the land before the Israelitish\ninvasion, those Canaanites and others who were put under 'the ban' and\ndevoted to utter destruction. So, says my text, Israel, which has\nstepped into their places, may bring down upon its head the same\ndevastation; and as they were swept off the face of the land that they\nhad polluted with their iniquities, so an apostate and God-forgetting\nJudah may again experience the same utter destruction falling upon them.\nIf instead of the word 'curse' we were to substitute the word\n'destruction,' we should get the true idea of the passage.\n\nAnd the thought that I want to insist upon is this, that here we have\ndistinctly gathered up the whole spirit of millenniums of divine\nrevelation, all of which declare this one thing, that as certainly as\nthere is a God, every transgression and disobedience receives, and must\nreceive, its just recompense of reward.\n\nThat is the spirit of law, for law has nothing to say, except, 'Do this,\nand thou shalt live; do not this, and thou shalt die.'\n\nAnd then turn to the other. 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with\nyou all.' What has become of the thunder? All melted into dewy rain of\nlove and pity and compassion. Grace is love that stoops; grace is love\nthat foregoes its claims, and forgives sins against itself. Grace is\nlove that imparts, and this grace, thus stooping, thus pardoning, thus\nbestowing, is a universal gift. The Apostolic benediction is the\ndeclaration of the divine purpose, and the inmost heart and loftiest\nmeaning of all the words which from the beginning God hath spoken is\nthat His condescending, pardoning, self-bestowing mercy may fall upon\nall hearts, and gladden every soul.\n\nSo there seems to emerge, and there is, a very real and a very\nsignificant contrast. 'I come and smite the earth with a curse' sounds\nstrangely unlike 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.'\nAnd, of course, in this generation there is a strong tendency to dwell\nupon that contrast and to exaggerate it, and to assert that the more\nrecent has antiquated the more ancient, and that now the day when we\nhave to think of and to dread the curse that smites the earth is past,\n'because the true Light now shineth.'\n\nSo I ask you to notice that beneath this apparent contrast there is a\nreal harmony, and that these two utterances, though they seem to be so\ndiverse, are quite consistent at bottom, and must both be taken into\naccount if we would grasp the whole truth. For, as a matter of fact,\nnowhere are there more tender utterances and sweeter revelations of a\ndivine mercy than in that ancient law with its attendant prophets. And\nas a matter of fact, nowhere, through all the thunderings and lightnings\nof Sinai, are there such solemn words of retribution as dropped from the\nlips of the Incarnate Love. There is nothing anywhere so dreadful as\nChrist's own words about what comes, and must come, to sinful men. Is\nthere any depth of darkness in the Old Testament teaching of retribution\nhalf as deep, half as black, and as terrible, as the gulf that Christ\nopens at your feet and mine? Is there anything so awful as the\nthreatenings of Infinite Love?\n\nAnd the same blending of the widest proclamation of, and the most\nperfect rejoicing confidence in, the universal and all-forgiving love of\nGod, with the teaching of the sharpest retribution, lies in the writings\nof this very Apostle about whose words I am speaking. There are nowhere\nin Scripture more solemn pictures than those in that book of the\nApocalypse, of the inevitable consequences of departure from the love\nand the faith of God, and John, the Apostle of love, is the preacher of\njudgment as none of the other writers of the New Testament are.\n\nSuch is the fact, and there is a necessity for it. There must be this\nblending; for if you take away from your conception of God the absolute\nholiness which hates sin, and the rigid righteousness which apportions\nto all evil its bitter fruits, you have left a maimed God that has not\npower to love but is nothing but weak, good-natured indulgence. Impunity\nis not mercy, and punishment is never the negation of perfect love, but\nrather, if you destroy the one you hopelessly maim the other. The two\nhalves are needed in order to give full emphasis to either. Each note\nalone is untrue; blended, they make the perfect chord.\n\nII. And now, let me ask you to look with me at another point, and that\nis, the relation of the grace to the punishment.\n\nIs it not love which proclaims judgment? Are not the words of my first\ntext, if you take them all, merciful, however they wear a surface of\nthreatening? 'Lest I come.' Then He speaks that He may not come, and\ndeclares the issue of sin in order that that issue may never need to be\nexperienced by us that listen to Him. Brethren! both in regard to the\nBible and in regard to human ministrations of the Gospel, it is\nall-important, as it seems to me at present, to insist that it is the\ncruellest kindness to keep back the threatenings for fear of darkening\nthe grace; and that, on the other hand, it is the truest tenderness to\nwarn and to proclaim them. It is love that threatens; 'tis mercy to tell\nus that the wrath will come.\n\nAnd just as one relation between the grace and the retribution is that\nthe proclamation of the retribution is the work of the grace, so there\nis another relation--the grace is manifested in bearing the punishment,\nand in bearing it away by bearing it. Oh! there is no adequate measure\nof what the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is except the measure of the\nsmiting destruction from which He frees us. It is because every\ntransgression receives its just recompense of reward, because the wages\nof sin is death, because God cannot but hate and punish the evil, that\nwe get our truest standard of what Christ's love is to every soul of us.\nFor on Him have met all the converging rays of the divine retribution,\nand burnt the penal fire into His very heart. He has come between every\none of us, if we will, and that certain incidence of retribution for our\nevil, taking upon Himself the whole burden of our sin and of our guilt,\nand bearing that awful death which consists not in the mere dissolution\nof the tie between soul and body, but in the separation of the conscious\nspirit from God, in order that we may stand peaceful, serene, untouched,\nwhen the hail and the fire of the divine judgment are falling from the\nheavens and running along the earth. The grace depends for all our\nconceptions of its glory, its tenderness, and its depth, on our estimate\nof the wrath from which it delivers.\n\nSo, dear brethren, remember, if you tamper with the one you destroy the\nother; if there be no fearful judgment from which men need to be\ndelivered, Christ has borne nothing for us that entitles Him to demand\nour hearts; and all the ascriptions of praise and adoration to Him, and\nall the surrender of loving hearts, in utter self-abandonment, to Him\nthat has borne the curse for us, fade and are silent. If you strike out\nthe truth of Christ's bearing the results of sin from your theology, you\ndo not thereby exalt, but you fatally lower the love; and in the\ninterests of the loftiest conceptions of a divine loving-kindness and\nmercy that ever have blessed the world, I beseech you, be on your guard\nagainst all teachings that diminish the sinfulness of sin, and that ask\nagain the question which first of all came from lips that do not commend\nit to us--'_Hath_ God said?' or advance to the assertion--'Ye shall\n_not_ surely die.' If 'I come to smite the earth with a curse' ceases to\nbe a truth to you, 'the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ' will fade away\nfor you likewise.\n\nIII. Now, still further, let me ask you to consider, lastly, the\nalternative which these texts open for us.\n\nI believe that the order in which they stand in Scripture is the order\nin which men generally come to believe them, and to feel them. I am\nold-fashioned enough and narrow enough to believe in conversion; and to\nbelieve further that, as a rule, the course through which the soul\npasses from darkness into light is the course which divine revelation\ntook: first, the unveiling of sin and its issues, and then the glad\nleaping up of the trustful heart to the conception of redeeming grace.\n\nBut what I seek briefly to suggest now is, not only the order of\nmanifestation as brought out in these words, but also the alternative\nwhich they present to us, one branch or other of which every soul of you\nwill have to experience. You must have either the destruction or the\ngrace. And, more wonderful still, the same coming of the same Lord will\nbe to one man the destruction, and to another the manifestation and\nreception of His perfect grace. As it was in the Lord's first coming,\n'He is set for the rise and the fall of many in Israel.' The same heat\nsoftens some substances and bakes others into hardness. A bit of wax and\na bit of clay put into the same fire--one becomes liquefied and the\nother solidified. The same light is joy to one eye and torture to\nanother. The same pillar of cloud was light to the hosts of Israel, and\ndarkness and dismay to the armies of Egypt. The same Gospel is 'a savour\nof life unto life, or of death unto death,' by the giving forth of the\nsame influences killing the one and reviving the other; the same Christ\nis a Stone to build upon or a Stone of stumbling; and when He cometh at\nthe last, Prince, King, Judge, to you and me, His coming shall be\nprepared as the morning; and ye 'shall have a song as when one cometh\nwith a pipe to the mountain of the Lord'; or else it shall be a day of\ndarkness and not of light. He comes to me, to you; He comes to smite or\nHe comes to glorify.\n\nOh, brethren! do not believe that God's threatenings are wind and words;\ndo not let teachings that sap the very foundations of morality and eat\nall the power out of the Gospel persuade you that the solemn words, 'The\nsoul that sinneth it shall die,' are not simple verity.\n\nAnd then, my brethren, oh! then, do you turn yourselves to that dear\nLord whose grace is magnified in this most chiefly, that 'He hath borne\nour sins and carried our sorrows'; and taking Him for your Saviour, your\nKing, your Shield, your All, when He cometh it will be life to you; and\nthe grace that He imparts will be heaven for ever more.\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\n\n\nST. MATTHEW\n\n_Chaps. I to VIII_\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n        MATTHEW'S GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST (Matt. i. 1-16)\n        THE NATIVITY (Matt. i. 18-25)\n        THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME (Matt. i. 21)\n        THE FIRST-FRUITS OF THE GENTILES (Matt. ii. 1-12)\n        THE KING IN EXILE (Matt. ii. 13-23)\n        THE HERALD OF THE KING (Matt. iii. 1-12)\n        THE BAPTISM IN FIRE (Matt. iii. 11)\n        THE BAPTISM OF JESUS (Matt. iii. 13-17)\n        THE DOVE OF GOD (Matt. in. 16)\n        THE VICTORY OF THE KING (Matt. iv. 1-11)\n        THE SPRINGING OF THE GREAT LIGHT (Matt. iv. 12-16)\n        THE EARLY WELCOME AND THE FIRST MINISTERS OF THE KING\n            (Matt. iv. 17-25)\n        THE NEW SINAI (Matt. v. 1-16)\n        THE FIRST BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 3)\n        THE SECOND BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 4)\n        THE THIRD BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 5)\n        THE FOURTH BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 6)\n        THE FIFTH BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 7)\n        THE SIXTH BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 8)\n        THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 9)\n        THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE (Matt. v. 10)\n        SALT WITHOUT SAVOUR (Matt. v. 13)\n        THE LAMP AND THE BUSHEL (Matt. v. 14-16)\n        THE NEW FORM OF THE OLD LAW (Matt. v. 17-26)\n        'SWEAR NOT AT ALL' (Matt. v. 33-37)\n        NON-RESISTANCE (Matt. v. 38-42)\n        THE LAW OF LOVE (Matt. v. 43-48)\n        TRUMPETS AND STREET CORNERS (Matt. vi. 1-5)\n        SOLITARY PRAYER (Matt. vi. 6)\n        THE STRUCTURE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER (Matt. vi. 9)\n        'OUR FATHER' (Matt. vi. 9)\n        'HALLOWED BE THY NAME' (Matt. vi. 9)\n        'THY KINGDOM COME' (Matt. vi. 10)\n        'THY WILL BE DONE' (Matt. vi. 10)\n        THE CRY FOR BREAD (Matt. vi. 11)\n        'FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS' (Matt. vi. 12)\n        'LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION' (Matt. vi. 13)\n        'DELIVER US FROM EVIL' (Matt. vi. 13)\n        'THINE IS THE KINGDOM' (Matt. vi. 13)\n        FASTING (Matt. vi. 16-18)\n        TWO KINDS OF TREASURE (Matt. vi. 10-20)\n        HEARTS AND TREASURES (Matt. vi. 21)\n        ANXIOUS CARE (Matt. vi. 24-25)\n        JUDGING, ASKING, AND GIVING (Matt. vii. 1-12)\n        OUR KNOCKING (Matt. vii. 7)\n        THE TWO PATHS (Matt, vii. 1344)\n        THE TWO HOUSES (Matt. vii. 24-26)\n        THE CHRIST OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (Matt. vii. 28-29)\n        THE TOUCH THAT CLEANSES (Matt. viii. 14)\n        THE FAITH WHICH CHRIST PRAISES (Matt. viii. 8-9)\n        SWIFT HEALING AND IMMEDIATE SERVICE (Matt. viii. 14-15)\n        THE HEALING CHRIST (Matt. viii. 17)\n        CHRIST REPRESSING RASH DISCIPLESHIP (Matt. viii. 19-20)\n        CHRIST STIMULATING SLUGGISH DISCIPLESHIP (Matt. viii. 21-22)\n        THE PEACE-BRINGER IN THE NATURAL WORLD (Matt, viii. 23-27)\n        THE PEACE-BRINGER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD (Matt. viii. 28-34)\n\n\n        *        *        *        *        *\n\n\nMATTHEW'S GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST\n\n     'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the\n     son of Abraham. 2. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and\n     Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; 3. And Judas begat Phares and\n     Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; 4.\n     And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson\n     begat Salmon; 5. And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat\n     Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6. And Jesse begat David the\n     king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the\n     wife of Urias; 7. And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia;\n     and Abia begat Asa; 8. And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat\n     Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9. And Ozias begat Joatham; and\n     Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10. And Ezekias begat\n     Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; 11. And\n     Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were\n     carried away to Babylon: 12. And after they were brought to\n     Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;\n     13. And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim\n     begat Azor; 14. And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and\n     Achim begat Eliud; 15. And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat\n     Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; 16. And Jacob begat Joseph the\n     husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called\n     Christ.'--MATT. 1. 1-16.\n\nTo begin a Gospel with a genealogy strikes us modern Westerns as\nsingular, to say the least of it. To preface the Life of Jesus with an\nelaborate table of descents through forty-one generations, and then to\nshow that the forty-second had no real connection with the forty-first,\nstrikes us as irrelevant. Clause after clause comes the monotonous\n'begat,' till the very last, when it fails, and we read instead: 'Jacob\nbegat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.' So, then,\nwhoever drew up this genealogy knew that Jesus was not Joseph's son.\nWhy, then, was he at the pains to compile it, and why did the writer of\nthe Gospel, if he was not the compiler, think it important enough to\nopen his narrative? The answer lies in two considerations: the ruling\nidea of the whole Gospel, that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah,\nDavid's son and Israel's king; and the characteristic ancient idea that\nthe full rights of sonship were given by adoption as completely as by\nactual descent. Joseph was 'of the house and lineage of David,' and\nJoseph took Mary's first-born as his own child, thereby giving Him\ninheritance of all his own status and claims. Incidentally we may remark\nthat this presentation of Jesus as Joseph's heir seems to favour the\nprobability that He was regarded as His reputed father's first-born\nchild, and so disfavours the contention that the 'brethren' of Jesus\nwere Joseph's children by an earlier marriage. But, apart from that, the\nplace of this table of descent at the beginning of the Gospel makes it\nclear that the prophecies of the Messiah as David's son were by the\nHebrew mind regarded as adequately fulfilled by Jesus being by adoption\nthe son of Joseph, and that such fulfilment was regarded as important by\nthe evangelist, not only for strengthening his own faith, but for urging\nhis Lord's claims on his fellow-countrymen, whom he had chiefly in view\nin writing. Such external 'fulfilment' goes but for little with us, who\nrest Jesus' claims to be our King on more inward and spiritual grounds,\nbut it stands on the same level as other similar fulfilments of prophecy\nwhich meet us in the Gospels; such as the royal entry into Jerusalem,\n'riding upon an ass,' in which the outward, literal correspondence is\nbut a finger-post, pointing to far deeper and truer realisation of the\nprophetic ideal in Jesus.\n\nWhat, then, did the evangelist desire to make prominent by the\ngenealogy? The first verse answers the question. We need not discuss\nwhether the title, 'The book of the generations of Jesus Christ,'\napplies to the table of descent only, or to the whole chapter. The\nformer seems the more probable conclusion, but the point to note is that\ntwo facts are made prominent in the title; viz. that Jesus was a true\nJew, 'forasmuch as He also is a son of Abraham,' and was the true king\nof Israel, being the 'Son of David,' of whom prophets had spoken such\ngreat things. If we would take in the full significance of Matthew's\nstarting-point, we must set by the side of it those of the other three\nevangelists. Mark plunges at once, without preface or allusion to\nearlier days, into the stir and stress of Christ's work, slightly\ntouching on the preliminaries of John's mission, the baptism and\ntemptation, and hurrying on to the call of the fishermen, and the busy\nscenes on the Sabbath in Capernaum. Luke has his genealogy as well as\nMatthew, but, in accordance with his universalistic, humanist tone, he\ntraces the descent from far behind Abraham, even to 'Adam, which was the\nson of God,' and he works in the reverse order to Matthew, going upwards\nfrom Joseph instead of downwards to him. John soars high above all\nearthly birth, and begins away back in the Eternities before the world\nwas, for his theme is not so much the son of Joseph who was the son of\nDavid and the son of Abraham, or the son of Adam who was the son of God,\nas the Eternal 'Word' who 'was with God,' and entered into history and\ntime when He 'became flesh.' We must take all these points of view\ntogether if we would understand any of them, for they are not\ncontradictory, but complementary.\n\nThe purpose of Matthew's genealogy is further brought out by its\nsymmetrical arrangement into three groups of fourteen generations\neach--an arrangement not arrived at without some free manipulating of\nthe links. The sacred number is doubled in each case, which implies\neminent completeness. Each of the three groups makes a whole in which a\ntendency runs out to its goal, and becomes, as it were, the\nstarting-point for a new epoch. So the first group is pre-monarchical,\nand culminates in David the King. Israel's history is regarded as all\ntending towards that consummation. He is thought of as the first King,\nfor Saul was a Benjamite, and had been deposed by divine authority. The\nsecond group is monarchical, and it, too, has a drift, as it were, which\nis tragically marked by the way in which its last stage is described:\n'Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time that they were\ncarried away to Babylon.' Josiah had four successors, all of them\nphantom kings;--Jehoahaz, who reigned for three months and was taken\ncaptive to Egypt; his brother Jehoiakim, a puppet set up by Egypt,\nknocked down by Babylon; his son Jehoiachin, who reigned eleven years\nand was carried captive to Babylon; and last, Zedekiah, Josiah's son,\nunder whom the ruin of the kingdom was completed. The genealogy does not\nmention the names of these ill-starred 'brethren,' partly because it\ntraces the line of descent through 'Jeconias' or Jehoiachin, partly\nbecause it despises them too much. A line that begins with David and\nends with such a quartet! This was what the monarchy had run out to:\nDavid at the one end and Zedekiah at the other, a bright fountain\npouring out a stream that darkened as it flowed through the ages, and\ncrept at last into a stagnant pond, foul and evil-smelling. Then comes\nthe third group, and it too has a drift. Unknown as the names in it are,\nit is the epoch of restoration, and its 'bright consummate flower' is\n'Jesus who is called the Christ.' He will be a better David, will\nburnish again the tarnished lustre of the monarchy, will be all that\nearlier kings were meant to be and failed of being, and will more than\nbring the day which Abraham desired to see, and realise the ideal to\nwhich 'prophets and righteous men' unconsciously were tending, when as\nyet there was no king in Israel.\n\nA very significant feature of this genealogical table is the insertion\nin it, in four cases, of the names of the mothers. The four women\nmentioned are Thamar a harlot, Rachab another, Ruth the Moabitess, and\nBathsheba; three of them tainted in regard to womanly purity, and the\nfourth, though morally sweet and noble, yet mingling alien blood in the\nstream. Why are pains taken to show these 'blots in the scutcheon'? May\nwe not reasonably answer--in order to suggest Christ's relation to the\nstained and sinful, and to all who are 'strangers from the covenants of\npromise.' He is to be a King with pity and pardon for harlots, with a\nheart and arms open to welcome all those who were afar off among the\nGentiles. The shadowy forms of these four dead women beckon, as it were,\nto all their sisters, be they stained however darkly or distant however\nremotely, and assure them of welcome into the kingdom of the king who,\nby Jewish custom, could claim to be their descendant.\n\nThe ruling idea of the genealogy is clearly though unostentatiously\nshown by the employment of the names 'Jesus Christ' and 'Christ,' while\nthroughout the rest of this Gospel the name used habitually is Jesus.\nIn verse 1 we have the full title proclaimed at the very beginning; then\nin verse 16, 'Jesus who is called Christ' repeats the proclamation at\nthe end of the genealogy proper, while verse 17 again presents the three\nnames with which it began as towering like mountain peaks, Abraham,\nDavid, and--supreme above the other two, the dominant summit to which\nthey led up, we have once more 'Christ.' Similarly the narrative that\nfollows is of 'the birth of Jesus Christ.' That name is never used again\nin this Gospel, except in one case where the reading is doubtful; and as\nfor the form 'Jesus who is called Christ,' by which He is designated in\nthe genealogy itself, the only other instance of it is on the mocking\nlips of Pilate, while the uniform use of Jesus in the body of this\nGospel is broken only by Peter in his great confession, and in, at most,\nfour other instances. Could the purpose to assert and establish, at the\nvery outset, His Messianic, regal dignity, as the necessary\npre-supposition to all that follows, be more clearly shown? We must\nbegin our study of His life and works with the knowledge that He, of\nwhom these things are about to be told, is the King of Israel.\n\n\nTHE NATIVITY\n\n     'Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother\n     Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was\n     found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19. Then Joseph her husband,\n     being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example,\n     was minded to put her away privily. 20. But while he thought on\n     these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a\n     dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto\n     thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the\n     Holy Ghost. 21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt\n     call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.\n     22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was\n     spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23. Behold, a virgin\n     shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall\n     call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.\n     24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the\n     Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25. And knew her\n     not till she had brought forth her first-born son: and he called His\n     name JESUS.'--MATT. 1.18-25.\n\nMatthew's account of the Nativity sets Joseph in the foreground. His\npain and hesitation, his consideration for Mary, the divine\ncommunication to him, and his obedience to it, embarrassing as his\nposition must have been, take up larger space than the miracle of the\nbirth itself. Probably in all this we have an unconscious disclosure of\nthe source of the evangelist's information. At all events, he speaks as\nif from Joseph's point of view. Luke, on the other hand, has most to say\nabout Mary's maidenly wonder and meek submission, her swift hurrying to\nfind help from a woman's sympathy, as soon as the Angel of the\nAnnunciation had spoken, and the hymn of exultation which Elisabeth's\nsalutation heartened her to pour forth. Surely that narrative could have\ncome from none but her meek and faithful lips? The two accounts\nbeautifully supplement each other, and give two vivid pictures of these\ntwo devout souls, each sharply tried in a different fashion, each richly\nblessed by variously moulded obedience. Joseph took up his burden, and\nMary hers, because God had spoken and they believed.\n\nThe shock to Joseph of the sudden discovery, crashing in on him after he\nwas bound to Mary, and in what would else have been the sweet interval\nof love and longing 'before they came together,' is delicately and\nunconsciously brought out in verse 18. 'She was found'--how the\nremembrance of the sudden disclosure, blinding and startling as a\nlightning flash, lives in that word! And how the agony of perplexity as\nto the right thing to do in such a cruel dilemma is hinted at in the two\nclauses that pull in opposite directions! As a 'just man' and 'her\nhusband,' Joseph owed it to righteousness and to himself not to ignore\nhis betrothed's condition; but as her lover and her husband, how could\nhe put her, who was still so dear to him, to public shame, some of which\nwould cloud his own name? To 'put her away' was the only course\npossible, though it racked his soul, and to do it 'privily' was the\nlast gift that his wounded love could give her. No wonder that 'these\nthings' kept him brooding sadly on them, nor that his day's troubled\nthinkings coloured his sleeping hours! The divine guidance, which is\never given to waiting minds, was given to him by the way of a dream,\nwhich is one of the Old Testament media of divine communications, and\noccurs with striking frequency in this and the following chapter, there\nbeing three recorded as sent to Joseph and one to the Magi. It is\nobservable, however, that to Joseph it is always '_the_'or 'an angel of\nthe Lord' who appears in the dream, whereas the dream only is mentioned\nin the case of the Magi. The difference of expression may imply a\ndifference in the manner of communication. But in any case, we need not\nwonder that divine communications were abundant at such an hour, nor\nshall we be startled, if we believe in the great miracle of the Word's\nbecoming flesh, that a flight of subsidiary miracles, like a bevy of\nattendant angels, clustered round it.\n\nThe most stupendous fact in history is announced by the angel chiefly as\nthe reason for Joseph's going on with his marriage. Surely that strange\ninversion of the apparent importance of the two things speaks for the\nhistorical reliableness of the narrative. The purpose in hand is mainly\nto remove his hesitation and point his course, and he is to take Mary as\nhis wife, _for_ 'that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.'\nCould 'the superstitious veneration of a later age', which is supposed\nto have originated the story of a supernatural birth, have spoken so? As\naddressed to Joseph, tortured with doubts of Mary and hesitations as to\nhis duty, the sequence of the two things is beautifully appropriate,\notherwise it is monstrous. The great mystery, which lies at the\nfoundation of Christianity, is declared in the fewest and simplest\nwords. That He who is to show God to men, and to save them from their\nsins, must be born of a woman, is plainly necessary. Because 'the\nchildren are partakers of flesh and blood,' He also must 'take part of\nthe same.' That He must be free from the taint in nature, which passes\ndown to all 'who are born of the will of the flesh or of man,' is no\nless obviously requisite. Both requirements are met in the supernatural\nbirth of Jesus, and unless both have been met, He is not, and cannot be,\nthe world's saviour. Nor is that supernatural birth less needful to\nexplain His manifestly sinless character than it is to qualify Him for\nHis unique office. The world acknowledges that in Him it finds a man\nwithout blemish and without spot. How comes He to be free from the flaws\nwhich, like black streaks in Parian marble, spoil the noblest\ncharacters? Surely if, after millions of links in the chain, which have\nall been of mingled metal, there comes one of pure gold, it cannot have\nhad the same origin as the others. It is part of the chain, 'the Word\nwas made flesh'; but it has been cast and moulded in another forge, for\nit is 'that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.'\n\n'She shall bring forth a son.' The angel does not say, 'a son to thee,'\nbut yet Joseph was to assume the position of father, and by naming the\nchild to acknowledge it as his. The name of Jesus or Joshua was borne by\nmany a Jewish child then. There was a Jesus among Paul's _entourage_. It\nrecalled the warrior leader, and, no doubt, was often given to children\nin these days of foreign dominion by fathers who hoped that Israel might\nagain fight for freedom. But holier thoughts were to be Joseph's, and\nthe salvation from God which was expressed by the name was to be of\nanother kind than Joshua had brought. It was to be salvation from sin\nand from sins. This child was to be a leader too, a conqueror and a\nking, and the mention of 'His people,' taken in connection with Joseph's\nhaving been addressed as 'the son of David,' is most significant. He,\ntoo, is to have a subject people, and the deliverance which He is to\nbring is not political or to be wrested from Rome by the sword, but\ninward, moral, and spiritual, and therefore to be effected by moral and\nspiritual weapons.\n\nIt is the evangelist, not the angel, who points to Isaiah's prophecy. He\ndoes so with a certain awe, as he thinks of the greatness of 'all these\nthings'. Undoubtedly the Hebrew word rendered in Matthew, after the\nSeptuagint, 'virgin', does not necessarily imply the full meaning of\nthat word; and as undoubtedly the prophecy, as it stands in Isaiah,\npointed to an event to occur in the immediate future; yet it is clear,\nfrom the further development of the prophecy by Isaiah, and especially\nfrom the fourfold name given to the child in Isaiah ix. 6, and the\nglorious dominion there foretold for Him, that Isaiah conceives of Him\nas the Messiah. And, since any 'fulfilment' of the glowing prophecies\nattached to the Child were, in Isaiah's time, but poor and partial, the\ngreat Messianic hope was necessarily trained to look further down the\nstream of time. He who should fill the _role_ set forth was yet to come.\nMatthew believed that it was completely filled by Jesus, and we know\nthat he was right. The fulfilment does not depend on the question\nwhether or not the idea of Virginity is contained in the Hebrew word,\nbut on the correspondence between the figure seen by the prophet in the\ngolden haze of his divinely quickened imagination, and the person to be\ndescribed in the gospel, and we know that the correspondence is\ncomplete. The name Immanuel, to be given to the prophetic child,\nbreathed the certainty that in 'God with us' Israel would find the\nsecret of its charmed existence, even while an Ahaz was on the throne.\nThe name takes on a deeper meaning when applied to Him to whom alone it\nin fullest truth belongs. It proclaims that in Jesus God dwells among\nus, and it lays bare the ground of the historical name Jesus, for only\nby a man who is one of ourselves, and in whom God is with us, can we be\nsaved from our sins. The one Name is the deep, solid foundation, the\nother is the fortress refuge built upon it. He is Jesus, because He is\nImmanuel.\n\nHow different the world and his own life looked to Joseph when he woke!\nHesitations and agonising doubts of his betrothed's purity had vanished\nwith the night, and, instead of the dread that her child would be the\noffspring of shame, had come a divinely given certainty that it was 'a\nholy thing.' In the rush of the sudden revulsion, all that was involved\nwould not be clear, but the duty that lay nearest him was clear, and his\nobedience was as swift as it was glad. He believed, and his faith took\nthe burden off him, and brought back the sweet relations which had\nseemed to be rent for ever. The Birth was foretold by the angel in a\nsingle clause, it is recorded by the evangelist in another. In both\ncases, Mary's part and Joseph's are set side by side ('she shall bring\nforth ... and thou shalt call: she had brought forth ... and he\ncalled'), and the birth itself is in verse 25 recorded mainly in its\nbearing on Joseph's marital relations. Could such a perspective in the\nnarrative be conceived of from any other point of view than Joseph's?\n\nWe do not enter on the controversy as to whether that 'till' and the\nexpression 'first-born' shut us up to the conclusion that Joseph and Mary\nhad children. The words are not decisive, and probably opinions will\nalways differ on the point. Mediaevally-minded persons will reject with\nhorror the notion that Jesus had brethren in the proper sense of the\nword, while those who believe that the perfect woman is a happy wife and\nmother, will not feel that it detracts from Mary's sacredness, nor from\nher purity, to believe that she had other children than 'her first-born\nSon'.\n\n\nTHE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME\n\n     '... Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people\n     from their sins'.--MATT. 1. 21.\n\nI. THE historical associations of the name.\n\nIt was a very common Jewish name, and of course was given in memory of\nthe great leader who brought the hosts of Israel to rest in the promised\nland.\n\nThere is no sharper contrast conceivable than between Joshua and Jesus.\nThe contrast and the parallel are both most significant.\n\n(a) The contrast.\n\nJoshua is perhaps one of the least interesting of the Old Testament men;\na mere soldier, fit for the fierce work which he had to do, rough and\nhard, ready and prompt, of an iron will and a brave heart. The one\nexhortation given him when he comes to the leadership is 'be strong and\nof a good courage,' and that seems to have been the main virtue of his\ncharacter. The task he had to do was a bloody one, and thoroughly he did\nit. The difficulties that have been found in the extermination of the\nCanaanites may be met by considerations of the changed atmosphere\nbetween then and now, and of their moral putrescence. But no explanation\ncan make the deed other than terrible, or the man that did it other than\nfierce and stern. No traits of chivalrous generosity are told of him,\nnothing that softens the dreadfulness of war. He showed no touch of pity\nor compunction, no lofty, statesmanlike qualities, nothing constructive;\nhe was simply a rough soldier, with an iron hand and an iron heel, who\nburned and slew and settled down his men in the land they had\ndevastated.\n\nThe very sharpness of the contrast in character is intended to be felt\nby us. Put by the side of this man the image of Jesus Christ, in all His\nmeekness and gentleness.\n\nDoes not this speak to us of the profound change which He comes to\nestablish among men?\n\nThe highest ideal of character is no longer the rough soldier, the\nstrong man, but the man of meekness, and gentleness, and patience.\n\nHow far the world yet is from understanding all that is meant in the\ncontrast between the first and the second bearers of the name!\n\nWe have done with force, and are come into the region of love. There is\nno place in Christ's kingdom for arms and vulgar warfare.\n\nThe strongest thing is love, armed with celestial armour. 'Truth and\nmeekness and righteousness' are our keenest-edged weapons--this is true\nfor _Christian morals_; and for _politics_ in a measure which the world\nhas not yet learned.\n\n'Put up thy sword into its sheath,'\n\n(b) The parallel.\n\nIt is not to be forgotten that the work which the soldier did in type is\nthe work which Christ does. He is the true Moses who leads us through\nthe wilderness. But also He is the Captain who will bring us into the\nmountain of His inheritance.\n\nBut besides this, we too often forget the soldier-like virtues in the\ncharacter of Christ.\n\nWe have lost sight of these very much, but certainly they are present\nand most conspicuous. If only we will look at our Lord's life as a real\nhuman one, and apply the same tests and terms to it which we do to\nothers, we shall see these characteristics plainly enough.\n\nWhat do we call persistence which, in spite of all opposition, goes\nright on to the end, and is true to conscience and duty, even to death?\nWhat do we call the calmness which forgets self even in the agonies of\npain on the cross? What do we call the virtue which rebukes evil in high\nplaces and never blanches nor falters in the utterance of unwelcome\ntruths?\n\nDaring courage.       |\nPromptness of action. | All conspicuous in Jesus.\nIron will.            |\n\nIt has become a commonplace thing now to say that the bravery which\ndares to do right in the face of all opposition is higher than that of\nthe soldier who flings away his life on the battlefield. The soldiers of\npeace are known now to deserve the laurel no less than the heroes of\nwar.\n\nBut who can tell how much of the modern world's estimate of the\nsuperiority of moral courage to mere brute force is owing to the history\nof the life of Christ?\n\nWe find a further parallel in the warfare through which He conquers for\nus the land.\n\nHis own struggle ('I have overcome'), and the lesson that we too must\nfight, and that all our religious life is to be a conflict. It is easy\nto run off into mere rhetorical metaphor, but it is a very solemn and a\nvery practical truth which is taught us, if we ponder that name of the\nwarrior Leader borne by our Master as explained to us by Himself in His\nwords, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I\nhave overcome the world.'\n\nPs. cx. 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the\nbeauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of\nthy youth.'\n\nII. The significance of the name.\n\nJoshua means God is Saviour. As borne by the Israelitish leader, it\npointed both him and the people away from him to the unseen and\nomnipotent source of their victory, and was in one word an explanation\nof their whole history, with all its miracles of deliverance and\npreservation of that handful of people against the powerful nations\naround. It taught the leader that he was only the lieutenant of an\nunseen Captain. It taught the soldiers that 'they got not the land in\npossession by their own arms, but because He had a favour unto them.'\n\n1. God as Saviour appears in highest manifestation in Jesus.\n\nI do not now mean in regard to the nature of the salvation, but in\nregard to the relation between the human and the divine. Joshua was the\nhuman agent through which the divine will effected deliverance, but, as\nin all helpers and teachers, he was but the instrument. He could not\nhave said, 'I lead you, I give you victory.' His name taught him that he\nwas not to come in his own name. But '_he_ shall save'--not merely God\nshall save through him. And '_his_ people'--not 'the people of _God_'\n\nAll this but points to the broad distinction between Christ and all\nothers, in that God, the Saviour, is manifest in Him as in none other.\n\nWe are not detracting from the glory of God when we say that Christ\nsaves us.\n\nChrist's consciousness of being Himself Salvation is expressed in many\nof His words. He makes claims and puts forward His own personality in a\nfashion that would be blasphemy in any other man, and yet all the while\nis true to His name, 'God is the Saviour.'\n\nThe paradox which lies in these earliest words, the great gulf between\nthe name and the interpretation on the angel's lips, is only solved when\nwe accept the teaching which tells us that in that Word made flesh and\ndwelling among us, we behold 'God manifest in the flesh,' and 'in Christ\nreconciling the world unto Himself.'\n\nThe name guards us, too, from that very common error of thinking of\nChrist as if He were more our Saviour than God is. We are not without\nneed of this warning. Christ does not bend the divine will to love, is\nnot more tender than our Father God.\n\n2. The Salvation brought by Jesus is in its nature the loftiest.\n\nIt is with strong emphasis that the angel defines the sphere of\nsalvation as being 'their sins.' The Messianic expectation had been\ndegraded as it flowed through the generations, as some pure stream loses\nits early sparkle, and gathers scum on its surface from filth flung into\nit by men. Mere deliverance from the Roman yoke was all the salvation\nthat the mass wanted or expected, and the tragedy of the Cross was\nforeshadowed in this prophecy which declares an inward emancipation from\nsin as the true work of Mary's unborn Son.\n\nWe can discern the Jewish error in externalising and materialising the\nconception of salvation, but many of us repeat it in essence. What is\nthe difference between the Jew who thought that salvation was\ndeliverance from Rome, and the 'Christian' who thinks that it is\ndeliverance not from sin but from its punishment?\n\nWe have to think of a liberation from sin itself, not merely from its\npenalties. This thought has been often obscured by preachers, and often\nneglected by Christians, in whom selfishness and an imperfect\nunderstanding of the gospel have too often made salvation appear as\nmerely a means of escape from impending suffering. All deep knowledge of\nwhat _Sin_ is teaches us that it is its own punishment, and that the\nhell of hell is to be under the dominion of evil.\n\n3. God's people are His people.\n\nIsrael was _God's_ portion--and Joshua was but their leader for a time.\nBut the people of God are the people of Christ.\n\nThe way by which we become the people of Jesus is simply by faith in\nHim.\n\nIII. The usage of the name.\n\nIt was a common Jewish name, but seems to have been almost abandoned\nsince then by Jews from abhorrence, by Christians from reverence.\n\nThe Jewish fanatic who during the siege stalked through Jerusalem\nshrieking, 'Woe to the city', and, as he fell mortally wounded, added,\n'and to myself also,' was a Jesus. There is a Jesus in Colossians.\n\nWe find it as the usual appellation in the Gospels, as is natural. But\nin the Epistles it is comparatively rare alone.\n\nThe reason, of course, is that it brings mainly before us the human\npersonality of Jesus. So when used alone in later books it emphasises\nthis: 'This same Jesus shall so come'. 'We see Jesus, made a little,\netc.'\n\nFound in frequent use by two classes of religionists--_Unitarian_ and\n_Sentimental_.\n\nWe should seek to get all the blessing out of it, and to dwell, taught\nby it, on the thoughts of His true manhood, tempted, our brother, bone\nof our bone.\n\nWe should beware of confining our thoughts to what is taught us by that\nname. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Even with thoughts of His\nlovely human character let us blend thoughts of His Messianic office and\nof His divine nature. We shall not see all the beauty of Jesus unless we\nknow Him as the Christ, the Son of the Highest.\n\nAnd besides the name written on His vesture and his thigh, He bears a\nname which no man knoweth but Himself. Beyond our grasp is His\nuncommunicable name, His deep character, but near to us for our love and\nfor our faith is all we need to know. That name which He bore in His\nhumiliation He bears still in His glory, and the name which is above\nevery name, and at which every knee shall bow, is the name by which\nJewish mothers called their children, and through eternity we shall call\nHis name Jesus because He hath finally and fully saved us from our\nsins.\n\n\nTHE FIRST-FRUITS OF THE GENTILES\n\n     'Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod\n     the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,\n     2. Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have\n     seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. 3. When\n     Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all\n     Jerusalem with him. 4. And when he had gathered all the chief\n     priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them\n     where Christ should be born. 5. And they said unto him, In\n     Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6. And\n     thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the\n     princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall\n     rule my people Israel. 7. Then Herod, when he had privily called\n     the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star\n     appeared. 8. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search\n     diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring\n     me word again, that I may come and worship Him also. 9. When they\n     had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they\n     saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over\n     where the young child was. 10. When they saw the star, they\n     rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11. And when they were come into\n     the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell\n     down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures,\n     they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.\n     31. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return\n     to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.'--MATT.\n     ii. 1-12.\n\nMatthew's Gospel is the gospel of the King. It has a distinctly Jewish\ncolouring. All the more remarkable, therefore, is this narrative, which\nwe should rather have looked for in Luke, the evangelist who delights to\nemphasise the universality of Christ's work. But the gathering of the\nGentiles to the light of Israel was an essential part of true Judaism,\nand could not but be represented in the Gospel which set forth the\nglories of the King. There is something extremely striking and\nstimulating to the imagination in the vagueness of the description of\nthese Eastern pilgrims. Where they came from, how long they had been in\ntravelling, how many they were, what was their rank, whither they\nwent,--all these questions are left unsolved. They glide into the story,\npresent their silent adoration, and as silently steal away.' The\ntasteless mediaeval tradition knows all about them: they were three; they\nwere kings. It knows their names; and, if we choose to pay the fee, we\ncan see their bones to-day in the shrine behind the high altar in\nCologne Cathedral. How much more impressive is the indefiniteness of our\nnarrative! How much more the half sometimes is than the whole!\n\nI. We see here heathen wisdom led by God to the cradle of Christ. It is\nfutile to attempt to determine the nationality of the wise men. Possibly\nthey were Persian magi, whose astronomy was half astrology and wholly\nobservation, or they may have travelled from some place even deeper in\nthe mysterious East; but, in any case, they were led by God through\ntheir science, such as it was. The great lesson which they teach remains\nthe same, however subordinate questions about the nature of the star and\nthe like may be settled. The sign in the heavens and its explanation\nwere both of God, whether the one was a natural astronomical phenomenon\nor a supernatural light, and the other the conclusions of their science\nor the inbreathing of His wisdom. So they stand as representatives of\nthe great truth, that, outside the limits of the people of revelation,\nGod moved on hearts and led seeking souls to the light in divers\nmanners. These silent strangers at the cradle carry on the line of\nrecipients of divine messages outside of Israel which is headed by the\nmysterious Melchizedek, and includes that seer who saw a star arise out\nof Jacob, and which, in a wider sense, includes many a 'poet of their\nown' and many a patient seeker after truth. Human wisdom, as it is\ncalled, is God's gift. In itself, it is incomplete. It raises more\nquestions than it solves. Its highest function is to lead to Jesus. He\nis Lord of the sciences, as of all that belongs to man; and\nnotwithstanding all the appearances to the contrary at present, we may\nbe sure that the true scope of all knowledge, and its certain end, is to\nlead to the recognition of Him.\n\nMay we not see in these Magi, too, a type of the inmost meaning of\nheathen religions? These faiths have in them points of contact with\nChristianity. Besides their falsehoods and abhorrent dark cruelties and\nlustfulnesses, they enshrine confessions of wants which the King in the\ncradle alone can supply. Modern unbelieving teachers tell us that\nChristianity and they are alike products of man's own religious faculty.\nBut the truth is that they are confessions of need, and Christianity is\nthe supply of the need. At bottom, their language is the question of the\nwise men, 'Where is He?' Their sacrifices proclaim man's need of\nreconciliation. Their stories of the gods coming down in the likeness of\nmen, speak of his longing for a manifestation of God in the flesh. The\ncradle and the cross are Heaven's answer to their sad questions.\n\nII. The contrast of these Gentiles' joyful eagerness to worship the King\nof Israel, with the alarm of his own people at the whisper of his name,\nis a prelude of the tragedy of his rejection, and the passing over of\nthe kingdom to the Gentiles. Notice the bitter and scornful emphasis of\nthat 'Herod the _king_' coming twice in the story in immediate\nconnection with the mention of the true King. He was a usurper,\ncaricaturing the true Monarch. Like most kings who have had 'great'\ntacked to their names, his greatness consisted mainly in supreme\nwickedness. Fierce, lustful, cunning, he had ruled without mercy; and\nnow he was passing through the last stages of an old age without love,\nand ringed round by the fears born of his misdeeds. He trembles for his\nthrone, as well he may, when he hears of these strangers. Probably he\ndoes not suppose them mixed up with any attempt to unseat him, or he\nwould have made short work of them; unless, indeed, his craft led him to\ndissemble until he had sucked them dry and had used them to lead him to\nthe infant rival, after which he may have meant to murder them too. But\nhe recognises in their question the familiar tones of the Messianic\nhope, which he knew was ever lying like glowing embers in the breast of\nthe nation, ready to be blown into a flame. His creatures in the capital\nmight disown it, but he knew in his secret heart that he was a usurper,\nand that at any moment that smouldering hatred and hope might burn up\nhim and his upstart monarchy. An evil conscience is full of fears, and\nshrinks from the good news that the King of all is at hand. His coming\nshould be joy, as is that of the bursting spring or the rosy dawn; but\nour own sin makes the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and sends\nus cowering into our corners to escape these searching eyes.\n\nNor less tragic and perverted is the trouble which 'all Jerusalem'\nshared with Herod. The Magi had naturally made straight for the capital,\nexpecting to find the new-born King there, and His city jubilant at His\nbirth. But they traverse its streets only to meet none who know anything\nabout Him. They must have felt like men who see, gleaming from far on\nsome hill-side, a brightness which has all vanished when they reach the\nspot, or like some of our mission converts brought to our 'Christian\ncountry,' and seeing how little our people care for the Christ whom they\nhave learned to know. Their question indicates utter bewilderment at the\ncontrast between what they had seen in the East and what they found in\nJerusalem. They must have been still more perplexed if they observed the\neffect of their question. Nobody in Jerusalem knew anything about their\nKing. That was strange enough. But nobody wanted Him. That was stranger\nstill. A prophet had long ago called on 'Zion' to 'rejoice greatly'\nbecause 'thy King cometh'; but now anxiety and terror cloud all faces.\nIt was partly because self-interest bound many to Herod, and partly\nbecause they all feared that any outburst of Messianic hopes would lead\nto fresh cruelties inflicted by the relentless, trembling tyrant. So the\nMagi, who represented the eagerness of Gentile hearts grasping the new\nhopes, and claiming some share in Israel's Messiah, saw His own people\ncareless, and, if moved from their apathy, alarmed at the unwelcome\ntidings that the promise which had shone as a great light through dreary\ncenturies was at last on the eve of fulfilment. So the first page on the\ngospel history anticipates the sad issue: 'They shall come from the\neast, and from the west,' and you yourselves shall be thrust out.\n\nIII. Then followed the council of the theologians, with its solemn\nillustration of the difference between orthodoxy and life, and of the\nutter hollowness of mere knowledge, however accurate, of the letter of\nScripture. The questions as to the composition of this gathering of\nauthorities, and of the variations between the quotation of Micah in the\ntext and its form in the Hebrew, do not concern us now. We may remark on\nthe evident purpose of God to draw forth the distinct testimony of the\necclesiastical rulers to the place of Messiah's birth, and on the fact\nthat this, the most ancient interpretation of the prophecy, is vouched\nto us by existing Jewish sources as having been the traditional one\nuntil the exigencies of controversy with Christians pushed it aside\nNotice the different conduct of Herod, the Magi, and the scribes. The\nfirst is entangled in a ludicrous contradiction. He believes that\nMessiah is to be born in Bethlehem, and yet he determines to set himself\nagainst the carrying out of what he must, in some sense, believe to be\nGod's purpose. 'If this infant is God's Messiah, I will kill Him,' is\nsurely as strange a piece of policy gone mad as ever the world heard\nof. But it is perhaps not more insane than much of our own action, when\nwe set ourselves against what we know to be God's will, and consciously\nseek to thwart it. A child trying to stop a train by pushing against the\nlocomotive has as much chance of success. The scribes, again, are quite\nsure where Messiah is to be born; but they do not care to go and see if\nHe is born. These strangers, to whom the hope of Israel is new, may rush\naway, in their enthusiasm, to Bethlehem; but they, to whom it had lost\nall gloss, and become a commonplace, would take no such trouble. Does\nnot familiarity with the gospel produce much the same effect on many of\nus? Might not the joy and the devotion, however ignorant if compared\nwith our better knowledge of the letter, which mark converts from\nheathenism, shame the tepid zeal and unruffled composure of us, who have\nheard all about Christ, till it has become wearisome? Here on the very\nthreshold of the gospel story is the first instance of the lesson taught\nover and over again in it, namely, the worthlessness of head knowledge,\nand the constant temptation of substituting it for that submission of\nthe will and that trust of the heart, which alone make religion. The\nmost impenetrable armour against the gospel is the familiar and lifelong\nknowledge of the gospel.\n\nThe Magi, on their part, accept with implici confidence the information.\nThey have followed the star; they have now a more sure word, and they\nwill follow that. They were led by their science to contact with the\ntrue guide. He that is faithful in his use of the dimmest light will\nfind his light brighten. The office of science is not to lead to Christ\nby a road discovered by itself, but to lead to the Word of God which\nguides to Him. Not by accident, nor without profound meaning, did both\nmethods of direction unite to point these earnest seekers, who were\nready to follow every form of guidance, to the Monarch whom they sought.\n\nIV. Herod's crafty counsel need not detain us. We have already remarked\non its absurdity. If the child were not Messiah, he need not have been\nalarmed; if it were, his efforts were fruitless. But he does not see\nthis, and so plots and works underground in the approved fashion of\nkingcraft. His reason for questioning the Magi as to the time was, of\ncourse, to get an approximate age of the infant, that he might know how\nwidely to fling his net. He did it privately, so as to keep any inkling\nof his plot secret till he had secured the further information which he\nhoped to delude them into bringing. Like other students and recluses fed\nupon great thoughts, the Magi were very easily deceived. Good, simple\npeople, they were no match for Herod, and told him all without\nsuspicion, and set off to look for the child, quite convinced of his\ngood faith; while he, no doubt, breathed more freely when he had got\nthem out of Jerusalem, and congratulated himself on having done a good\nstroke of business in making them his spies. He was probably within a\nfew months of his death. The world was already beginning to slip from\nhim. But before he passed to his account, he too was brought within\nsight of the Christ, and summoned to yield his usurped dominion to the\ntrue King How different this old man's reception of the tidings of the\nnativity from Simeon's! His hostility, in its cruelty, its blundering\ncunning and its impotence, is a type of the relations of the world-power\nto Christ. 'The rulers take counsel together, ... against His anointed.\n... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.'\n\nV. We have next the discovery of the King. The reappearing star becomes\nthe guide to the humble house. It cannot have been an ordinary star, for\nno such could have pointed the precise house among all the homes of\nBethlehem. The burst of joy at its reappearance vividly suggests the\nperplexity of the recent days, and the support given by its welcome beam\nto the faith which had accepted, not perhaps without some misgivings\ncaused by the indifference of the teachers, the teaching of the\nprophecy. Surely that faith would be more than ever tried by the humble\npoverty in which they found the King. The great paradox of Christianity,\nthe manifestation of divinest power in uttermost weakness, was forced\nupon them in its most startling form. 'This child on His mother's lap,\nwith none to do Him homage, and in poverty which makes our costly gifts\nseem out of place,--this is the King, whose coming set stars ablaze and\ndrew us hither. Is this all?' Their Eastern religions were not\nunfamiliar with the idea of incarnation. Their Eastern monarchies were\nsplendid. They must have felt a shock at the contrast between what they\nexpected and what they found. They learned the lesson which all have to\nlearn, that Christ disappoints as well as fulfils the expectations of\nmen, that the mightiest power is robed in lowliness, and the highest\nmanifestation of God begins with a helpless infant on His mother's knee.\nThese wise men were not repelled. Our modern 'wise men are not all as\nwise as they.\n\nVI. Adoration and offering follow discovery. The 'worship' of the Magi\ncannot have been adoration in the strict sense. We attribute too much to\nthem if we suppose them aware of Christ's divinity. But it was clearly\nmore than mere reverence for an earthly King. It hovered on the\nborder-line, and meant an indefinite submission and homage to a\npartially discerned superiority, in which the presence of God was in\nsome sort special. The old mediaeval interpretation of the offered gold\nas signifying recognition of His kingship, the frankincense of His\ndeity, and the myrrh of His death, is so beautiful that one would fain\nwish it true. But it cannot pretend to be more than a fancy. We are on\nsurer ground when we see in the gifts the choicest products of the land\nof the Magi, and learn the lesson that the true recognition of Christ\nwill ever be attended by the spontaneous surrender to Him of our best.\nThese gifts would not be of much use to Mary. If there had been a\n'practical man' among the Magi, he might have said, 'What is the use of\ngiving such things to such a household?' And it would have been\ndifficult to have answered. But love does not calculate, and the impulse\nwhich leads to consecrate the best we have to Him is acceptable in His\nsight.\n\nThis earliest page in the gospel history is a prophecy of the latest.\nThese are the first-fruits of the Gentiles unto Christ. They bear 'in\ntheir hands a glass which showeth many more,' who at last will come like\nthem to the King of the whole earth. 'They shall bring gold and incense;\nand they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.' There were Gentiles\nat the cradle and at the cross. The Magi learned the lessons which the\nEast especially needed, of power in weakness, royalty in lowliness.\nIncarnation not in monstrous forms or with destructive attributes, but\nin feeble infancy which passes through the ordinary stages of\ndevelopment. The Greeks who sought to see Jesus when near the hour of\nHis death, learned the lesson for want of which their nation's culture\nrotted away, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it\nabideth alone' So these two groups, one at the beginning, the other at\nthe end, one from the mysterious East, the other from the progressive\nand cultured West, received each a half of the completed truth, the\ngospel of Incarnation and Sacrifice, and witness to the sufficiency of\nChrist for all human needs, and to the coming of the time when all the\nraces of men shall gather round the throne to which cradle and cross\nhave exalted Him, and shall recognise in Him the Prince of all the kings\nof the earth, and the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.\n\n\nTHE KING IN EXILE\n\n     'And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord\n     appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young\n     child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until\n     I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy\n     Him. 14. When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by\n     night, and departed into Egypt; 15. And was there until the death\n     of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord\n     by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My son. 16. Then\n     Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was\n     exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that\n     were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years\n     old and under, according to the time which he had diligently\n     enquired of the wise men. 17. Then was fulfilled that which was\n     spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18. In Rama was there a voice\n     heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping\n     for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.\n     19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth\n     to a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20. Saying, Arise, and take the\n     young child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for\n     they are dead which sought the young child's life. 21. And he\n     arose, and took the young child and His mother, and came into the\n     land of Israel. 22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in\n     Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither;\n     notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside\n     into the parts of Galilee: 23. And he came and dwelt in a city\n     called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the\n     prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.'--MATT. ii. 13-23.\n\nDelitzsch, in his _New Investigations into the Origin and Plan of the\nCanonical Gospels_, tries to show that Matthew is constructed on the\nplan of the Pentateuch. The analogy is somewhat strained, but there are\nsome striking points of correspondence. He regards Matthew i. to ii. 15\nas answering to Genesis. It begins with the 'genesis of Jesus,' and, as\nthe Old Testament book ends with the migration of Israel to Egypt, so\nthis section of the Gospel ends with the flight of the Holy Family to\nthe same land. The section from ii. 15 to the end of the Sermon on the\nMount answers to Exodus, and here the parallels are striking. The murder\nof the innocents at Bethlehem by Herod answers to Pharaoh's slaughter of\nHebrew children; the Exodus, to the return to Nazareth; the call of\nMoses at the bush, to the baptism of Jesus; the forty years in the\nwilderness, to the forty days' desert hunger and temptation; and the\ngiving of the law from Sinai, to the Sermon on the Mount, which contains\nthe new law for the kingdom of God. Without supposing that the\nevangelist moulded his Gospel on the plan of the Pentateuch, we cannot\nbut see that there is a real parallel between the beginnings of the\nnational life of Israel and the commencement of the life of Christ. Our\npresent text brings this parallel into great prominence. It is divided\ninto three sections, each of which has for its centre an Old Testament\nprophecy.\n\nI. We have first the flight into Egypt and the prophecy fulfilled\ntherein. The appearance of the angel seems to have followed immediately\non the departure of the Magi. They were succeeded by a loftier visitor\nfrom a more distant land, coming to lay richer gifts and a more absolute\nhomage at the infant's feet. The angel of the Lord, who had already\neased Joseph's honest and troubled heart by disclosing the secret of\nMary's child, comes again. To Mary he had appeared waking; her meek eyes\ncould look on him, and her obedient ears hear his voice. But Joseph, who\nstood on a lower spiritual level, needed the lower form of revelation by\ndream, which betokens less susceptibility in the recipient and less\nimportance in the communication. It is the only form appropriate to his\npower of receiving, and four times it is mentioned as granted to him.\nThe warning to the wise men was also conveyed in a dream. We can\nscarcely help recalling the similar prominence of dreams in the history\nof the earlier Joseph, whose life was moulded in order to bring Israel\ninto Egypt.\n\nThe angel speaks of 'the young child and His mother,' reversing the\norder of nature, as if he bowed before the infant, 'Lord of men as well\nas angels,' and would deepen the lesson which so many signs gathering\nround the cradle were teaching the silent Joseph,--that Mary and he were\nbut humble ministers of the child's. The partial instruction given, and\nthe darkness left lying over the future, are in accordance with the\nmethods of God's leading, which always gives light enough for the next\nduty, and never for the one after that. The prompt and precise obedience\nof Joseph to the heavenly vision is emphatically expressed by the verbal\nrepetition of the command in the account of its fulfilment. There was no\nhesitation, no reluctance, no delay. On the very night, as it appears,\nof the dream, he rose up; the simple preparations were quickly made; the\nwise men's gifts would help to sustain their modest wants, and before\nthe day broke they were on their road. How strangely blended in our\nLord's life, from the very dawning, are dignity and lowliness, glory and\nreproach! How soon His brows are crowned with thorns! The adoration of\nthe Magi witnesses to Him as the King of Israel and the hope of the\nworld. The flight of which that adoration was the direct cause witnesses\nno less clearly to Him as despised and rejected, tasting sorrow in His\nearliest food, and not having where to lay His head.\n\nBut the most important part of the story is the connection which Matthew\ndiscerns between it and Hosea's words. In their original place they are\nnot a prophecy at all, but simply a part of a tender historical _resume_\nof God's dealings with Israel, by which the prophet would touch his\ncontemporaries' hearts into penitence and trust. How, then, is the\nevangelist justified in regarding them as prophetic, and in looking on\nChrist's flight as their fulfilment? The answer is to be found in that\nanalogy between the national and the personal Israel which runs through\nall the Old Testament, and reaches its greatest clearness in the second\npart of Isaiah's prophecies. Jesus Christ was what Israel was destined\nand failed to be, the true Servant of God, His Anointed, His Son, the\nmedium of conveying His name to the world. The ideal of the nation was\nrealised in Him. His brief stay in Egypt served the very same purpose in\nHis life which their four hundred years there did in theirs,--it\nsheltered Him from enemies, and gave Him room to grow. Just as the\ninfant nation was unawares fostered in the very lap of the country which\nwas the symbol of the world hostile to God, so the infant Christ was\nguarded and grew there. The prophecy is a prophecy just because it is\nhistory; for the history was all a shadow of the future, and He is the\ntrue Israel and the Son of God. It would have been fulfilled quite as\nreally, that is to say, the parallel between Christ and the nation would\nhave been as fully carried out, if His place of refuge had been in some\nother land; but the precise outward identity helps to point the parallel\nto unobservant eyes. The great truth taught by it of the typical\nrelation between the nation and the Person is the key to large regions\nof Old Testament history and prophecy. Rightly, therefore, does Matthew\ncall our attention to this pregnant fact, and bid us see in the divine\nselection of the place where the young life of God manifest in the flesh\nwas sheltered, a fulfilment of prophecy. Egypt was the natural asylum of\nevery fugitive from Palestine, but a deeper reason bent the steps of the\nHoly Family to the shelter of its palms and temples.\n\nII. The slaughter of the innocents, and the prophecy fulfilled\ntherein.--Herod's fierce rage, enflamed by the dim suspicion that these\nwily Easterns have gone away laughing in their sleeves at having tricked\nhim, and by the dread that they may be stirring up armed defenders of\nthe infant King, is in full accord with all that we know of him. The\ncritics who find the story of the massacre 'unhistorical,' because\nJosephus does not mention it, must surely be very anxious to discredit\nthe evangelist, and very hard pressed for grounds to do so, or they\nwould not commit themselves to the extraordinary assumption that nothing\nis to be believed outside of the pages of Josephus. A splash or two of\n'blood of poor innocents,' more or less, found on the Idumean tyrant's\nbloody skirts, could be of little consequence in the eyes of those who\nknew what a long saturnalia of horrors his reign had been; and the\nnumber of the infants under two years old in such a tiny place as\nBethlehem would be small, so that their feeble wail might well fail to\nreach the ears even of contemporaries. But there is no reason for\nquestioning the simple truth of a story so like the frantic cruelty and\nsleepless suspicion of the grey-headed tyrant, who was stirred to more\nferocity as the shades of death gathered about him, and power slipped\nfrom his rotting hands. Of all the tragic pictures which Scripture gives\nof a godless old age, burning with unquenchable hatred to goodness and\ncondemned to failure in all its antagonism, none is touched with more\nlurid hues than this. What a contrast between the king _de jure_, the\ncradled infant; and the king _de facto_, going down to his loathsome\ndeath, which all but he longed for! He may well stand as a symbol of the\nfutility of all opposition to Christ the King.\n\nThe fate of these few infants is a strange one. In their brief lives\nthey have won immortal fame. They died for the Christ whom they never\nknew. These lambs were slain for the sake of the Lamb who lived while\n\n    'Little flowers of martyrdom,\n     Roses by the whirlwind shorn,'\n\nThat quotation, from Jeremiah xxxi. 16, requires a brief consideration.\nThe original is still less a prophecy than was the passage in Hosea. It\nis a highly imaginative and grandly weird personification of the mighty\nmother of three of the tribes, stirring in her tomb, and lifting up the\nshrill lamentation of Eastern grief over her children carried away to\ncaptivity. That hopeless wail from the grave by Bethlehem is heard as\nfar north as Ramah, beyond Jerusalem. Once again, says Matthew, the\nsame grief might have been imaginatively heard from the long-silent tomb\nso near the scene of this pitiful tragedy. And the second ancestral\nweeping was fuller of woe than the bitterness of that first lament; for\nthis bewailed the actual slaughter of innocents, and wept the miseries\nthat so soon gathered round the coming of the King, so long waited for.\nSeeing that the prophet's words do not describe a fact, but are a\npoetical personification to convey simply the idea of calamity, which\nmight make the dead mother weep, the word 'fulfilled' can obviously be\napplied to them only in a modified and somewhat elastic sense, and is\nsufficiently defended if we recognise in the slaughter of these children\na woe which, though small in itself, yet, when considered in reference\nto its inflicter, a usurping king of the Jews, and in reference to its\noccasion, the desire to slay the God-sent King, and in reference to its\ninnocent victims, and in reference to its place as first of the tragic\nseries of martyrdoms for Messiah, was heavy with a sorer burden of\nnational disaster, when seen by eyes made wise by death, than even the\ncaptivity which seemed to falsify the promises of God and the hopes of a\nthousand years.\n\nIII. The return to Nazareth, and the prophecy fulfilled therein.--They\nwho patiently wait for guidance, and move not till the cloud moves, are\nnever disappointed, nor left undirected. Joseph is a pattern of\nself-abnegating submission, and an example of its rewards. The angel\never comes again to those who have once obeyed him and continue to wait.\nThis third appearance is described in the same words as the former. His\ncoming was the appearance of a familiar presence His command begins by a\nverbal repetition of the former summons, 'Arise and take the young\nchild and His mother, and go,' and then passes to a singular allusion to\nthat command to Moses which was the first step towards the former\ncalling of God's son--the nation--out of Egypt. 'All the men are dead\nwhich sought thy life,' was the encouragement to Moses to go back. 'They\nare dead that sought the young child's life,' is the encouragement to\nJoseph. It sums up in one sentence the failure of the first attempt, and\nis like an epitaph cut on a tombstone for a man yet living,--a prophecy\nof the end of all succeeding efforts to crush Christ and thwart His\nwork. 'The dreaded infant's hand' is mightier than all mailed fists, or\nfingers that hold a pen. Christ lives and grows; Herod rots and dies.\n\nApparently Joseph's intention was to return to Bethlehem. He may have\nthought that Nazareth would scarcely satisfy the angel's injunction to\ngo to the 'Land of Israel,' or that David's city was the right home for\nDavid's heir. At all events, his perplexity appeals to Heaven for\ndirection; and, for the fourth time, his course is marked for him by a\ndream, whether through the instrumentality of the angel who knew the way\nto his couch so well, we are not told, Archelaus, Herod's son, who had\nreceived Judaea on the partition at his father's death, was a smaller\nHerod, as cruel and less able. There was more security in the obscurity\nof Nazareth, under the less sanguinary sway of Antipas, whose share of\nhis father's vices was his lust, rather than his ferocity. So, after so\nmany wanderings, and with such strange new experience and thoughts, the\nsilent, steadfast Joseph and the meek mother bring back their mysterious\ncharge and secret to the humble old home. Matthew does not seem to have\nknown that it had formerly been their home, but his account is no\ncontradiction of Luke's.\n\nAgain he is reminded of a prophecy, or perhaps, rather, of many\nprophecies, for he uses the plural 'prophets,' as if he were summing up\nthe tenor of more than one utterance. The words which he gives are not\nfound in any prophet. But we know that to call a man 'a Nazarene' was\nthe same thing as to call him lowly and despised. The scoff of the\nPharisee to Nicodemus's timid appeal on Christ's behalf, and the\nguileless Nathaniel's quest ion, show that. The fact that Christ by His\nresidence in Nazareth became known as the 'Nazarene,' and so shared in\nthe contempt attaching to all Galileans, and especially to the\ninhabitants of that village, is a kind of concentration of all the\nobscurity and ignominy of His lot. The name was nailed over His head on\nthe cross as a scornful _reductio ad absurdum_ of His claims to be King\nof Israel This explanation of the evangelist's meaning does not exclude\na reference in his mind to the prophecy in Isaiah xi. 1, where Messiah\nis called 'a branch' or more properly, 'a shoot' for which the Hebrew\nword is _netzer_. The name Nazareth is probably etymologically connected\nwith that word, and may have been given to the little village\ncontemptuously to express its insignificance. The meaning of the\nprophecy is that the offspring of David, who should come when the\nDavidic house was in the lowest depths of obscurity, like a tree of\nwhich only the stump is left, should not appear in royal pomp, or in a\nlofty condition, but as insignificant, feeble, and of no account. Such\nprophecy was fulfilled in the very fact that He was all His life known\nas 'of Nazareth' and the verbal assonance between that name, 'the shoot'\nand the word 'Nazarene' is a finger-post pointing to the meaning of the\nplace of abode chosen for Him. The mere fact of residence there, and the\nconsequent contempt, do not exhaust the prophecies to which reference is\nmade. These might have been fulfilled without such a literal and\nexternal fulfilment. But it serves, like the literal riding upon an ass,\nand many other instances in Christ's life, to lead dull apprehensions to\nperceive more plainly that He is the theme of all prophecy, and that in\nHis life the trivial is significant and nothing is accidental.\n\n\nTHE HERALD OF THE KING\n\n     'In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness\n     of Judaea, 2. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at\n     hand. 3. For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias,\n     saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the\n     way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 4. And the same John had\n     his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins;\n     and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5. Then went out to him\n     Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6.\n     And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7. But\n     when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his\n     baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned\n     you to flee from the wrath to come? 8. Bring forth therefore fruits\n     meet for repentance: 9. And think not to say within yourselves, We\n     have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of\n     these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10. And now also\n     the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree\n     which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the\n     fire, 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he\n     that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not\n     worthy to clean he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with\n     fire: 12. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His\n     floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up\n     the chaff with unquenchable fire.'--MATT. iii. 1-12.\n\nMatthew's Gospel is emphatically the Gospel of the kingdom. The keynote\nsounded in the story of the Magi dominates the whole. We have stood by\nthe cradle of the King, and seen the homage and the dread which\nsurrounded it. We have seen the usurper's hatred and the divine\nguardianship. Now we hear the voice of the herald of the King. This\nsection may be conveniently treated as falling into two parts: the\nfirst, from verse 1 to verse 6, a general outline of the Baptist's\nperson and work; the second, from verse 7 to end, a more detailed\naccount of his preaching.\n\nI. We have an outline sketch of the herald and of his work. The voice of\nprophecy had fallen silent for four hundred years. Now, when it is once\nmore heard, it sounds in exactly the same key as when it ceased. Its\nlast word had been the prediction of the day of the Lord, and of the\ncoming of Elijah once more. John was Elijah over again. There were the\nsame garb, the same isolation, the same fearlessness, the same grim,\ngaunt strength, the same fiery energy of rebuke which bearded kings in\nthe full fury of their self-will. Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel have their\ndoubles in John, Herod, and Herodias. The closing words of Malachi,\nwhich Matthew, singularly enough, does not quote, are the best\nexplication of the character and work of the Baptist. His portrait is\nflung on the canvas with the same startling abruptness with which Elijah\nis introduced. Matthew makes no allusion to his relationship to Jesus,\nhas nothing to say about his birth or long seclusion in the desert. He\ngives no hint that his vague expression 'in these days' covers thirty\nyears. John leaps, as it were, into the arena full grown and full armed.\nHis work is described by one word--'preaching'; out of which all modern\nassociations, which have too often made it a synonym for long-winded\ntediousness and toothless platitudes, must be removed. It means\nproclaiming, or acting as a herald, and implies the uplifted voice and\nthe brief, urgent message of one who runs before the chariot, and\nshouts, 'The king! the king!'\n\nHis message is summed up in two sentences, two blasts of the trumpet:\nthe call to repentance, and the rousing proclamation that the kingdom of\nheaven is at hand. In the former he but reproduces the tone of earlier\nprophecy, when he insists on a thorough change of disposition and a true\nsorrow for sin. But he advances far beyond his precursors in the latter,\nwhich is the reason for repentance. They had seen the vision of the\nkingdom and the King, 'but not nigh.' He has to peal into the drowsy\nears of a generation which had almost forgotten the ancient hope, that\nit was at the very threshold. Like some solitary stern crag which\ncatches the light of the sun yet unrisen but hastening upwards, long\nbefore the shadowed valleys, John flamed above his generation all aglow\nwith the light, as the witness that in another moment it would spring\nabove the eastern horizon. But he sees that this is no joyful message to\nthem. Nothing is more remarkable in his preaching than the sombre hues\nwith which his expectation of the day of the Lord is coloured. 'To what\npurpose is the day of the Lord to you? It is darkness and not light'; it\nis to be judgment, therefore repentance is the preparation.\n\nThe gleam and purity of lofty spiritual ideas are soon darkened, as a\nfilm forms on quicksilver after short exposure. John's contemporaries\nthought that the kingdom of heaven meant exclusive privileges, and their\nrule over the heathen. They had all but lost the thought that it meant\nfirst God's rule over their wills, and their harmony with the glad\nobedience of heaven. They had to be rudely shaken out of their\nself-complacency and taught that the livery of the King was purity, and\nthe preparation for His coming, penitence.\n\nThe next touch in this outline sketch is John's fulfilment of prophecy.\nMatthew probably knew that wonderfully touching and lowly answer of his\nto the deputation from the ecclesiastical authorities, which at once\nclaimed prophetic authority and disclaimed personal importance, 'I am\nthe voice of one crying in the wilderness.' The prophecy in its original\napplication refers to the preparation of a path in the desert, for\nJehovah coming to redeem His people from captivity. The use made of it\nby Matthew, and endorsed by all the evangelists, rests on the principle,\nwithout which we have no clue to the significance of the Old Testament,\nthat the history of Israel is prophetic, and that the bondage and\ndeliverance are types of the sorer captivity from which Christ redeems,\nand of the grander deliverance which He effects.\n\nOur evangelist gives a vivid picture of the asceticism of John, which\nwas one secret, as our Lord pointed out, of his hold on the people. The\nmore luxuriously self-indulgent men are, the more are they fascinated by\nreligious self-denial. A man 'clothed in soft raiment' would have drawn\nno crowds. A religious teacher must be clearly free from sensual\nappetites and love of ease, if he is to stir the multitude. John's rough\ngarb and coarse food were not assumed by him to create an impression. He\nwas no mere imitator of the old prophets, though he wore a robe like\nElijah's. His asceticism was the expression of his severe, solitary\nspirit, detached from the delights of sense, and even from the softer\nplay of loves, because the coming kingdom flamed ever before him, and\nthe age seemed to him to be rotting and ready for the fire. There is no\nneed to bring in irrelevant learning about Essenes to account for his\nmode of life. The thoughts which burned in him drove him into the\nwilderness. He who was possessed with them could not 'come eating and\ndrinking,' and might well seem to sense-bound wonderers as if some\ndemonic force, other than ordinary motives, tyrannised over him.\n\nThe last point in this brief _resume_ of John's work is the universal\nexcitement which it produced. He did not come out of the desert with his\nmessage. If men would hear it, they must go to him. And they went. All\nthe southern portion of the country seemed to empty itself into the\nwilderness. Sleeping national hopes revived, the awe of the coming\njudgment seized all classes. It was so long since a fiery soul had\nscattered flaming words, and religious teachers had for so many\ncenturies been mumbling the old well-worn formulas, and splitting hairs,\nthat it was an apocalypse to hear once more the accent of conviction\nfrom a man who really believed every word he said, and himself thrilled\nwith the solemn truths which he thundered. Wherever a religious teacher\nshows that he has John's qualities, as our Lord in His eulogium analysed\nthem--namely, unalterable resolution, like an iron pillar, and not like\na reed shaken with the wind, conspicuous superiority to considerations\nof ease and comfort, a direct vision of the unseen, and a message from\nGod, the crowds will go out to see him; and even if the enthusiasm be\nshallow and transient, some spasm of conviction will pass across many a\nconscience, and some will be pointed by him to the King.\n\nII. The second portion of this section is a more detailed account of\nJohn's preaching, which Matthew gives as addressed to the Pharisees and\nSadducees. We are not to suppose that at any time John had a\ncongregation exclusively made up of such; nor that these words were\naddressed to them only. What is emphasised is the fact that among the\ncrowds were many of both these parties, the religious aristocrats who\nrepresented two tendencies of mind bitterly antagonistic, and each\nunlikely to be drawn to the prophet. Self-righteous pedants who had\nturned religion into a jumble of petty precepts, and very superior\npersons who keenly appreciated the good things of this world, and were\ntoo enlightened to have much belief in anything, and too comfortable to\nbe enthusiasts, were not hopeful material. If they were drawn into the\ncurrent, it must have run strong indeed. These representatives of the\nhighest and coldest classes of the nation had the very same red-hot\nwords flung at them as the mob had. Luke tells us that the first words\nin this summary were spoken to the people. Both representations are\ntrue. All fared alike. So they should, and so they always will, if a\nreal prophet has to talk to them. John's salutation is excessively rough\nand rude. Honeyed words were not in his line; he had not lived in the\ndesert for all these years, and held converse with God and his own\nheart, without having learned that his business was to smite on\nconscience with a strong hand, and to tear away the masks which hid men\nfrom themselves. The whole spirit of the old prophets was revived in his\nbrusque, almost fierce, address to such very learned, religious, and\ndistinguished personages. Isaiah in his day had called their\npredecessors 'rulers of Sodom'; John was not scolding when he called his\nhearers 'ye offspring of vipers' but charging them with moral corruption\nand creeping earthliness.\n\nThe summary of his preaching is like a succession of lightning flashes.\nWe can but note in a word or two each flash as it flames and strikes.\nThe remarkable thing about his teaching is that, in his hands, the great\nhope of Israel became a message of terror, the proclamation of the\nimpending kingdom passed into a denunciation of 'the wrath to come,' set\nforth with a tremendous wealth of imagery as the axe lying at the root\nof the trees, the fan winnowing the wheat from the chaff, the destroying\nfire. That wrath was inseparable from the coming of the King; for His\nrighteous reign necessarily meant punishment of unrighteousness. So all\nthe older prophets had said, and John was but carrying on their\ntestimony. So Christ has said. No more terrible warnings of the certain\njudgment of evil which is involved in His merciful work, have ever been\ngiven, than fell from the lips into which grace was poured. We need\nto-day a clearer discernment of the truth which flamed before John's\neyes, that the full proclamation of the kingdom of heaven must include\nthe plain teaching of 'the wrath to come.'\n\nNext comes the urgent demand for reformation of life as the sign of real\nrepentance. John's exhortation does not touch the deepest ground for\nrepentance which is laid in the heart-softening love of God manifested\nin the sacrifice of His Son, but is based wholly on the certainty of\njudgment. So far, it is incomplete; but the demand for righteous living\nas the only test of religious emotion is fully Christian, and needed in\nthis generation as much as it ever was. All preachers and others\nconcerned in 'revivals' may well learn a lesson, and while they follow\nJohn in seeking to arouse torpid consciences by the terrors which are a\npart of the gospel, should not forget to demand, not merely an emotional\nrepentance, but the solid fruits which alone guarantee the worth of the\nemotion.\n\nThe next flash strikes the lofty structure of confidence in their\ndescent. John knows that every man in that listening crowd believes that\nhis birth secured him joy and dominion when Messiah came. So he wrenches\naway this shield against which his sharpest arrows were blunted. What a\nmurmur of angry denial must have met his contemptuous, audacious denial\nof their trusted privilege! The pebbles on the Jordan beach, or the\nloose rocks scattered so plentifully over the desert, could be made as\ngood sons of Abraham as they. A glimpse of the transference of the\nkingdom to the despised Gentiles passed across his vision. And in these\nfar-reaching words lay the anticipation, not only of the destruction of\nall Jewish exclusiveness, but of the miracles of quickening to be\nwrought on the stony hearts of those beyond its pale.\n\nOnce more with a new emblem the immediate beginning of the judgment is\nproclaimed, and its principles and issues are declared. The sharp axe\nlies at the roots of the tree, ready to be lifted and buried in its\nbark. The woodman's eye is looking over the forest; he marks with the\nfatal red line the worthless trees, and at once the swinging blows come\ndown, and the timber is carted away to be burned. The trees are men. The\njudgment is an individualising one, and all-embracing. Nothing but\nactual righteousness of life will endure. All else will be destroyed.\n\nThe coming of the kingdom implied the coming of the King. John knew that\nthe King was a man, and that He was at the door. So his sermon reaches\nits climax in the ringing proclamation of His advent. The first\nnoticeable feature in it is the utter humility of the dauntless prophet\nbefore the yet veiled Sovereign. All the fiery force, the righteous\nscorn and anger, the unflinching bravery, melt into meek submission. He\nknows the limits of his own power, and gladly recognises the infinite\nsuperiority of the coming One. He never moved from that lowly attitude.\nEven when his followers tried to stir up base jealousy in him at being\ndistanced by the Christ, who, as they suggested, owed His first\nrecognition to him, all that his immovable self-abnegation cared to\nanswer was, 'He must increase, but I must decrease.' He was glad 'to\nfade in the light of the Sun that he loved.' What a wealth of suppressed\nemotion and lowly love there is in the words so pathetic from the lips\nof the lonely ascetic, whom no home joys had ever cheered: 'He that\nhath the bride is the bridegroom.... My joy is fulfilled'!\n\nNote, too, the grand conception of the gifts of the King. John knew that\nhis baptism was, like the water in which he immersed, cold, and\nincapable of giving life. It symbolised, but did not effect, cleansing,\nany more than his preaching righteousness could produce righteousness.\nBut the King would come, bringing with Him the gift of a mighty Spirit,\nwhose quick energy, transforming dead matter into its own likeness,\nburning out the foul stains from character, and melting cold hearts into\nradiant warmth, should do all that his poor, cold, outward baptism only\nshadowed. Form and substance of this great promise gather up many Old\nTestament utterances. From of old, fire had been the emblem of the\ndivine nature, not only, nor chiefly, as destructive, but rather as\nlife-giving, cleansing, gladdening, fructifying, transforming. From of\nold, the promise of a divine Spirit poured out on all flesh had been\nconnected with the kingdom of Messiah; and John but reiterates the\nuniform voice of prophecy, even as he anticipates the crowning gift of\nthe gospel, in this saying.\n\nNote, further, the renewed prophecy of judgment. There is something very\nsolemn in the stern refrain at the end of each of three consecutive\nverses,--'with fire.' The first and the third refer to the destructive\nfire; the second, to the cleansing Spirit. But the fire that destroys is\nnot unconnected with that which purifies. And the very same divine\nflame, if welcomed and yielded to, works purity, and if repelled and\nscorned, consumes. The rustic simplicity of the figures of the\nhusbandman with his winnowing-shovel, the threshing-floor exposed to\nevery wind, the stored wheat, the rootless, lifeless, worthless chaff,\nand the fierce fire in some corner of the autumn field where it is\nutterly burned up--needs no comment. They add nothing but another vivid\npicture to the thoughts already dealt with. But the question arises as\nto the whole of the representation of judgment here: Does it look beyond\nthe present world? I see no reason for supposing that John was speaking\nabout anything but the sifting and destroying which would attend the\ncoming of the looked-for kingdom on earth. The principles which he laid\ndown are, no doubt, true for both worlds; but the application of them\nwhich his prophetic mission embraced, lies on this side of the grave.\n\nNote, further, the limitations in John's knowledge of the King. His\nprophecy unites, as contemporaneous, events which, in fact, are widely\nseparate,--the coming of Christ, and the judgments which He executes,\nwhether on Israel or in the final 'great day of the Lord.' There is no\nperspective in prophecy. The future is foreshortened, and great gulfs of\ncenturies are passed over, as, standing on a plain, we see it as\ncontinuous, though it may really be cleft by deep ravines. He did not\nknow 'what manner of time' the spirit which was in him did 'signify.' No\ndoubt his expectations were correct, in so far as Christ's coming really\nsifted and separated, and was the rising and the falling of many; but it\nwas not attended by such tokens as John inferred. Hence we can\nunderstand his doubts when in prison, and learn that a prophet was often\nmistaken as to the meaning of his message.\n\nAgain, while we have here a clear prediction of the Spirit as bestowed\nby Christ, we find no hint of His work as the sacrifice for sin, through\nwhom the guilt which no repentance and no outward baptism could touch\nwas taken away. The Gospel of John gives us later utterances of the\nBaptist's, by which we learn that he advanced beyond the point at which\nhe stood here. 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the\nworld,' was his message after Christ's baptism. It is the last, highest\nvoice of prophecy. The proclamation of a kingdom of heaven, of a king\nmighty and righteous, whose coming kindled a fire of judgment, and a\nblessed fire of purifying, into one or other of which all men must be\nplunged, contained elements of terror, as well as of hope. It needed\ncompletion by that later word.\n\nWhen John stretched out his forefinger, and with awe-struck voice bade\nhis hearers look at Jesus coming to him, prophecy had done its work. The\npromise had been gradually concentrated on the nation, the tribe, the\nhouse, and now it falls on the person. The dove narrows its circling\nflight till it lights on His head. The goal has been reached, too, in\nthe clear declaration of Messiah's work. He is King, Giver of the\nSpirit, Judge, but He is before all else the Sacrifice for the world's\nsins. Therefore he to whom it was given to utter that great saying was a\nprophet, and more than a prophet; and when he had spoken it, there was\nnothing more for him to do but to decrease. He was like the breeze\nbefore sunrise, which springs up, as crying 'The dawn! the dawn!' and\ndies away.\n\n\nTHE BAPTISM IN FIRE\n\n     'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.'--MATT.\n     iii. 11\n\nThere is no more pathetic figure in Scripture than that of the\nforerunner of our Lord. Lonely and ascetic, charged to light against all\nthe social order of which he was a part, seeing many of his disciples\nleave him for another master; then changing the free wilderness for a\nprison cell, and tortured by morbid doubts; finally murdered as the\nvictim of a profligate woman's hate and a profligate man's perverse\nsense of honour: he had indeed to bear 'the burden of the Lord.' But\nperhaps most pathetic of all is the combination in his character of\ngaunt strength and absolute humility. How he confronts these people whom\nhe had to rebuke, and yet how, in a moment, the flashing eye sinks in\nlowest self-abasement before 'Him that cometh after me'! How true,\namidst many temptations, he was to his own description of himself: 'I am\na voice'--nothing more. His sinewy arm was ever pointed to the 'Lamb of\nGod.' It is given to very few to know so clearly their limits, and to\nstill fewer--and these, men who keep very near God--to abide so\ncontentedly within them, and to acquiesce so thankfully in the\nbrightening glories of One whom self-importance and ambition would\nprompt to take for a rival and an enemy.\n\nThe words before us signalise at once John's lofty conception of the\nworth of his work, and his humble consciousness of its worthlessness as\ncompared with Christ's. 'I indeed baptize you with water, but He with\nfire.' As is the difference between the two elements, so is the\ndifference between His ministry and mine--the one effecting an outward\ncleansing, the other being an inward penetrating power, which shall\nsearch men through and through, and, burning, shall purge away dross and\nfilth. The text comes in the midst of a triple representation of our\nLord's work in its relation to his, each portion of which ends with the\nrefrain, 'the fire.' But these three fires have not the same effects.\nThe first and last destroy, the second cleanses. These are threatenings,\nbut this is altogether a promise. There is a fire that consumes the\nbarren tree and the light chaff that is whirled from the threshing-floor\nby the wind of His fan; but there is also a fire that, like the genial\nheat in some greenhouse, makes even the barren tree glow with blossom\nand loads its branches with precious fruit. His coming may kindle fire\nthat will destroy, but its merciful purpose is to plunge us into that\nfiery baptism of the Holy Ghost, whereof the result is cleansing and\nlife. Looking at the words before us, then, they lead us to think of\nthat emblem of the Spirit of God, of Christ as bestowing it, and of its\neffects on us. I venture to offer a few considerations now on each of\nthese points.\n\nI. The Holy Spirit is fire.\n\nIt would scarcely be necessary to spend any time in illustrating that\ntruth, but for the strange misapprehension of the words of our text\nwhich I believe to be not uncommon. People sometimes read them as if the\nfirst portion referred to those who trust in Christ, and who therefore\nreceive the blessings of His sanctifying energy, whilst the latter\nwords, on the other hand, were a threatening against unbelievers. Now,\nwhatever may be the meaning of the emblem in the preceding and\nsubsequent clauses, it can have but one meaning in our text itself--and\nthat is, the purifying influence of the Spirit of God. Baptism with the\nHoly Ghost is not one thing and baptism with fire another, but the\nformer is the reality of which the latter is the symbol.\n\nIt may be worth while to dwell briefly on the force of the emblem, which\nis often misunderstood. Fire, then, all over the world has been taken to\nrepresent the divine energy. Even in heathendom, side by side with the\nworship of light was the worship of fire. Even that cruel\nMoloch-worship, with all its abominations rested upon the notion that\nthe swift power and ruddy blaze of fire were symbols of glorious\nattributes. Though the thought was darkened and marred, wrongly\napprehended and ferociously worked out in ritual, it was a true thought\nfor all that. And Scripture has from the beginning used it. It would\ncarry us too far to enumerate the instances which might be adduced. But\nwe may quote a few. When the covenant was made between God and Abraham,\nupon which all the subsequent revelation reposed, the divine presence\nwas represented by a smoking furnace, and a lamp of fire that passed\nbetween the divided pieces of the sacrifice. When the great revelation\nof the divine Name was given to Moses, which prepared for the great\ndeliverance from Egypt, the sign of it was a thorn-bush--one of the many\ndotted over the desert--burning and unconsumed. Surely the ordinary\ninterpretation, which sees, in that undying flame, an emblem of Israel\nundestroyed in the furnace of bondage, is less natural than that which\nsees in it a sign having the same purpose and the same meaning as the\ndeep words, 'I am that I am.' The Name, the revelation proper, is\naccompanied by the sign which expresses in figure the very same\ntruth--the unwearied power, the undecaying life of the great\nself-existent God, who wills and does not change, who acts and does not\nfaint, who gives and is none the poorer, who fills the universe and is\nHimself the same, who burns and is not consumed--the 'I am.' Further, we\nremember how to Israel the pledge and sacramental seal of God's\nguardianship and guidance was the pillar which, in the fervid light of\nthe noonday sun, seemed to be but a column of wavering smoke, but which,\nwhen the darkness fell, glowed at the heart and blazed across the\nsleeping camp, a fiery guard. 'Who among us,' says the prophet, 'shall\ndwell with everlasting burnings?' The answer is a parallel to the\ndescription given in one of the Psalms in reply to the question, 'Lord,\nwho shall abide in Thy tabernacle?' From which parallelism, as well as\nfrom the whole tone of the passage, the conclusion is unavoidable that\nto Isaiah 'everlasting burnings' was a symbolic designation of God. And,\npassing by all other references, we remember that our Lord Himself used\nthe same emblem, as John does, with apparently the same meaning, when,\nyearning for the fulfilment of His work, He said,' I am come to send\nfire on earth--oh that it were already kindled!' The day of Pentecost\nteaches the same lesson by its fiery tongues; and the Seer in Patmos\nbeheld, burning before the throne, the sevenfold lamps of fire which are\n'the seven spirits of God.'\n\nThus, then, there is a continuous chain of symbolism according to which\nsome aspect of the divine nature, and especially of the Spirit of God,\nis set forth for us by fire. The question, then, comes to be--what is\nthat aspect? In answer, I would remind you that the attributes and\noffices of the Spirit of God are never in Scripture represented as being\ndestructive, and are only punitive, in so far as the convictions of sin,\nwhich He works in the heart, may be regarded as being punishments. The\nfire of God's _Spirit_, at all events, is not a wrathful energy,\nworking pain and death, but a merciful omnipotence, bringing light and\njoy and peace. The Spirit which is fire is a Spirit which giveth life.\nSo the symbol, in the special reference in the text, has nothing of\nterror or destruction but is full of hope and bright with promise.\n\nEven in its more general application to the divine nature, the same\nthing is to a large extent true. The common impression is the reverse of\nthis. The interpretation which most readers unconsciously supply to the\npassages of Scripture where God is spoken of as flaming fire, is that\nGod's terrible wrath is revealed in them. I am very far from denying\nthat the punitive and destructive side of the divine character is in the\nsymbol, but certainly that is not its exclusive meaning, nor does it\nseem to me to be its principal one. The emblem is employed over and over\nagain, in connections where it must mean chiefly the blessed and joyous\naspect of God's Name to men. It is unquestionably part of the felicity\nof the symbol that there should be in it this double force--for so is it\nthe fitter to show forth Him who, by the very same attributes, is the\nlife of those who love Him and the death of those who turn from Him.\nBut, still, though it is true that the bright and the awful aspects of\nthat Name are in themselves one, and that their difference arises from\nthe difference of the eyes which behold them, yet we are justified, I\nthink, in saying that this emblem of fire regards mainly the former of\nthese and not the latter. The principal ideas in it seem to be swift\nenergy and penetrating power, which cleanses and transforms. It is fire\nas the source of light and heat; it is fire, not so much as burning up\nwhat it seizes into ashes, but rather as laying hold upon cold dead\nmatter, making it sparkle and blaze, and turning it into the likeness of\nits own leaping brightness; it is fire as springing heavenwards, and\nbearing up earthly particles in its shooting spires; it is fire, as\nleast gross of visible things;--in a word, it is fire as life, and not\nas death, that is the symbol of God. It speaks of the might of His\ntransforming power, the melting, cleansing, vitalising influence of His\ncommunicated grace, the warmth of His conquering love. It has, indeed,\nan under side of possible judgment, punishment, and destruction, but it\nhas a face of blessing, of life-giving, of sanctifying power. And\ntherefore the Baptist spake glad tidings when he said, 'He shall baptize\nyou with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.'\n\nII. Christ plunges us into this divine fire.\n\nI presume that scarcely any one will deny that our version weakens the\nforce of John's words by translating '_with_ water, _with_ the Holy\nGhost,' instead of 'in water, in the Holy Ghost.' One of the most\naccurate of recent commentators,[2] for instance, in his remarks on this\nverse, says that the preposition here 'is to be understood in accordance\nwith the idea of baptism that is immersion, not as expressing the\ninstrument with which, but as meaning \"in,\" and expressing the element\nin which the immersion takes place.' I suppose that very few persons\nwould hesitate to agree with that statement. If it is correct, what a\ngrand idea is conveyed by that metaphor of the completeness of the\ncontact with the Spirit of God into which we are brought! How it\nrepresents all our being as flooded with that transforming power! But,\napart from the intensity communicated to the promise by such a figure,\nthere is another important matter brought distinctly before us by the\nwords, and that is Christ's personal agency in effecting this saturating\nof man's coldness with the fire from God. This testimony of John's is in\nfull accord with Christ's claims for Himself, and with the whole tenor\nof Scripture on the subject. He is the Lord of the Spirit. He is come to\nscatter that fire on the earth. He brings the ruddy gift from heaven to\nmortals, carrying it in the bruised reed of His humanity; and, in\npursuance of His merciful design, He is bound and suffers for our sakes,\nbut, loosed at last from the bands by which it was not possible that He\nshould be holden, and 'being by the right hand of God exalted, He hath\nshed forth this.' His mighty work opens the way for the life-giving\npower of the Spirit to dwell as an habitual principle, and not as a mere\noccasional gift, among men, sanctifying their characters from the\nfoundation, and not merely, as of old, bestowing special powers for\nspecial functions. He claims to send us the Comforter. We know but\nlittle of such high themes, but we can clearly see that, while there may\nbe many other reasons for the full bestowment of the Spirit of God\nhaving to be preceded by the gift of Christ, one reason must be that the\nmeasure of individual and subjective inspiration varies according to the\namount of objective revelation. The truth revealed is the condition and\nthe instrument of the Spirit's working. The sharper that sword of the\nSpirit is, the mightier will be His power. Hence, only when the\nrevelation of God is complete by the message of His Son, His life,\ndeath, resurrection, and ascension, was the full, permanent gift of the\nSpirit possible, not to make new revelations, but to unfold all that lay\nin the Word spoken once for all, in whom the whole Name of God is\ncontained.\n\n[2] Meyer.\n\nHowever that may be, the main thing for us, dear friends, is this--that\nChrist gives the Spirit. In and by Jesus, you and I are brought into\nreal contact with this cleansing fire. Without His work, it would never\nhave burned on earth; without our faith in His work it will never purify\nour souls. The Spirit of God is not a synonym for the moral influence\nwhich the principles of Christianity exert on men who believe them; but\nthese principles, the truths revealed in Jesus Christ, are the means by\nwhich the Spirit works its noblest work. Our acceptance of these truths,\nthen, our faith in Him whom these truths reveal, is absolutely essential\nto our possession of that cleansing power. The promise is of 'that\nSpirit which they that believe on Him should receive.' If we have no\nfaith in Jesus, then, however we may fancy that the gift of God can be\nours by other means, the stern answer comes to our fond delusions and\nmistaken efforts, 'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.' Oh!\nyou who are seeking for spiritual elevation, for intellectual\nenlightenment, for the fire of a noble enthusiasm, for the consecration\nof pure hearts, anywhere but in Christ your Lord, will you not listen to\nthe majestic and yet lowly voice, which blends in its tones grave and\nloving rebuke, gentle pity, wonder and sorrow at our blindness, earnest\nentreaty, and divine authority--'If thou knewest the gift of God, and\nwho it is that speaketh to thee, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He\nwould have given thee living water'?\n\nHere are we cold, foul, dark, dead: there is that fire of God able to\ncleanse, to enlighten, to give life. How is true contact to be effected\nbetween our great need and His all-sufficient energy? One voice brings\nthe answer for every Christian soul, '_I_ will send the Comforter.'\nBrethren, let us cleave to Him, and in humble faith ask Him to plunge us\ninto that fiery stream which, for all its fire, is yet a river of water\nof life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. '_He_\nshall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire.'\n\nIII. That fiery baptism quickens and cleanses.\n\nIn John's mind, the difference between the two baptisms, his and the\nChrist's, expresses accurately the difference between the two ministries\nand their effects. As has been truly and beautifully said, he is\nconscious of something 'cold and negative' in his own teaching, of which\nthe water of his baptism is a fit representation. His message is divine\nand true, but it is hard: 'Repent, do what you ought, wait for the\nKingdom and its King.' And, when his command has been obeyed, his\ndisciples come up out of Jordan, at the best but superficially cleansed,\nand needing that the process begun in them should be perfected by\nmightier powers than any which his message wields. They need more than\nthat outward washing--they need an inward cleansing; they need more than\nthe preaching of repentance and morality--they need a gift of life; they\nneed a new power poured into their souls, the fiery steam of which, as\nit rolls along, like a lava current through mountain forests, shall\nseize and burn every growth of evil in their natures. They need not\nwater, but Spirit; not water, but Fire. They need what shall be life to\ntheir truest life, and death to all the death within, that separates\nthem from the life of God.\n\nSo the two main effects expressed here are these: quickening and\ncleansing.\n\nFire gives warmth. We talk about ardent desires, warm hearts, the glow\nof love, the fire of enthusiasm, and even the flame of life. We draw the\ncontrast with cold natures, which are loveless and unemotional, hard to\nstir and quicken; we talk about thawing reserve, about an icy torpor,\nand so on. The same general strain of allusion is undoubtedly to be\ntraced in our text. Whatever more it means, it surely means this, that\nChrist comes to kindle in men's souls a blaze of enthusiastic, divine\nlove, such as the world never saw, and to set them aflame with fervent\nearnestness, which shall melt all their icy hardness of heart, and turn\ncold self-regard into self-forgetting consecration.\n\nHere, then, our text touches upon one of the very profoundest\ncharacteristics of Christianity considered as a power in human life. The\ncontrast between it and all other religions and systems of ethics lies,\namongst other things, in the stress which it lays upon love and on the\nearnestness which comes from love; whereas these are scarcely regarded\nas elements in virtue according to the world, and have certainly no\nplace at all in the world's notion of 'temperate religion.' Christ gives\nfervour by giving His Spirit. Christ gives fervour by bringing the\nwarmth of His own love to bear upon our hearts through the Spirit, and\nthat kindles ours. Where His great work for men is believed and trusted\nin, there, and there only, is there excited an intensity of consequent\naffection to Him which glows throughout the life. It is not enough to\nsay that Christianity is singular among religious and moral systems in\nexalting fervour into a virtue. Its peculiarity lies deeper--in its\nmethod of producing that fervour. It is kindled by that Spirit using as\nHis means the truth of the dying love of Christ. The secret of the\nGospel is not solved by saying that Christ excites love in our souls.\n_The_ question yet remains--how? There is but one answer to that. He\nloved us to the death. That truth laid on hearts by the Spirit, who\ntakes of Christ's and shows them to us, and that truth alone, makes\nfire burst from their coldness.\n\nHere is the power that produces that inner fervour without which virtue\nis a name and religion a yoke. Here is the contrast, not only to John's\nbaptism, but to all worldly religion, to all formalism and decent\ndeadness of external propriety. Here is the consecration of\nenthusiasm--not a lurid, sullen heat of ignorant fanaticism, but a\nliving glow of an enkindled nature, which flames because kindled by the\ninextinguishable blaze of His love who gave Himself for us. 'He shall\nbaptize you in fire.'\n\nThen, dear brethren, if we profess to have come into personal contact\nwith Jesus Christ, here is a sharp test for us, and a solemn rebuke to\nmuch of our lives. For a Christian to be cold is sin. Our coldness can\nonly come from our neglecting to stir up the gift that is in us. People\nreproach us with extravagant emotion: let us confess that we have never\ndeserved that reproach half as much as we ought. The world's ideal of\nreligion is decorous coldness--has not the world's ideal been our\npractice? We are afraid to be fervent, but our true danger is icy\ntorpor. We sit frost-bitten and almost dead among the snows, and all the\nwhile the gracious sunshine is pouring down, that is able to melt the\nwhite death that covers us, and to free us from the bonds that hold us\nprisoned in their benumbing clasp.\n\nNo evil is more marked among the Christian Churches of this day than\nprecisely the absence of this 'spirit of burning.' There is plenty of\nliberality and effort, there is much interest in religious questions,\nthere is genial tolerance and wide culture, there is a high standard of\nmorality, and, on the whole, a tolerable adherence to it--but there is\nlittle love, and little fervour. 'I have somewhat against thee, that\nthou hast left thy first love.'\n\nWhere is that Spirit which was poured out on Pentecost? Where are the\ncloven tongues of fire, where the flame which Christ died to light up?\nHas it burned down to grey ashes, or, like some house-fire, lit and left\nuntended, has it gone out after a little ineffectual crackling among the\nlighter pieces of wood and paper, without ever reaching the solid mass\nof obstinate coal? Where? The question is not difficult to answer. His\npromise remains faithful. He does send the Spirit, who is fire. But our\nsin, our negligence, our eager absorption with worldly cares, and our\nwithdrawal of mind and heart from the patient contemplation of His\ntruth, have gone far to quench the Spirit. Is it not so? Are our souls\non fire with the love of God, aglow with the ardour caught from Christ's\nlove? Does that love which fills our hearts coruscate and flame in our\nlives, making us lights in the darkness, as some firebrand caught up\nfrom the hearth will serve for a torch and blaze out into the night? 'He\nshall baptize with fire.'\n\n    'O Thou that earnest from above,\n       The pure celestial fire to impart,\n     Kindle a flame of sacred love\n       On the mean altar of my heart.'\n\nThen there is another thought expressed by this symbol, namely, that\nthis baptism gives cleansing as well as warmth, or rather gives\ncleansing by warmth. Fire purifies. That Spirit, which is fire,\nproduces holiness in heart and character, by this most chiefly among all\nHis manifold operations, that He excites the flame of love to God, which\nburns our souls clear with its white fervours. This is the Christian\nmethod of making men good,--first, know His love, then believe it, then\nlove Him back again, and then let that genial heat permeate all your\nlife, and it will woo forth everywhere blossoms of beauty and fruits of\nholiness, that shall clothe the pastures of the wilderness with\ngladness. Did you ever see a blast-furnace? How long would it take a\nman, think you, with hammer and chisel, or by chemical means, to get the\nbits of ore out from the stony matrix? But fling them into the great\ncylinder, and pile the fire and let the strong draught roar through the\nburning mass, and by evening you can run off a golden stream of pure and\nfluid metal, from which all the dross and rubbish is parted, which has\nbeen charmed out of all its sullen hardness, and will take the shape of\nany mould into which you like to run it. The fire has conquered, has\nmelted, has purified. So with us. Love 'shed abroad in our hearts by the\nHoly Ghost given unto us,' love that answers to Christ's, love that is\nfixed upon Him who is pure and separate from sinners, will purify us and\nsever us from our sins. Nothing else will. All other cleansing is\nsuperficial, like the water of John's baptism. Moralities and the\nexternals of religion will wash away the foulness which lies on the\nsurface, but stains that have sunk deep into the very substance of the\nsoul, and have dyed every thread in warp and woof to its centre, are not\nto be got rid of so. The awful words which our great dramatist puts into\nthe mouth of the queenly murderess are heavy with the weight of most\nsolemn truth. After all vain attempts to cleanse away the stains, we,\nlike her, have to say, 'There's the smell of the blood still--will\nthese hands ne'er be clean?' No, never; unless there be something\nmightier, more inward in its power, than the water with which we can\nwash them, some better gospel than 'Repent and reform.' God be thanked,\nthere is a mightier detergent than all these--even that divine Spirit\nwhich Christ gives, and that divine forgiveness which Christ brings.\nThere, and there alone, dear brethren, we can lose all the guilt of our\nfaultful past, and receive a new and better life which will mould our\nfuture into growing likeness to His great purity. Oh do not resist that\nmerciful searching fire, which is ready to penetrate our very bones and\nmarrow, and burn up the seeds of death which lurk in the inmost intents\nof the heart! Let Him plunge you into that gracious baptism, as we put\nsome poor piece of foul clay into the fire, and like it, as you glow you\nwill whiten, and all the spots will melt away before the conquering\ntongues of the cleansing flame. In that furnace, heated seven times\nhotter than any earthly power could achieve, they who walk live by the\npresence of the Son of Man, and nothing is consumed but the bonds that\nheld them. His Spirit is fire, and that Spirit of fire is, therefore,\nthe Spirit of holiness.\n\nBut take one warning word in conclusion. The alternative for every man\nis to be baptized in the fire or to be consumed by it. The symbol of\nwhich we have been speaking sets forth the double thought of purifying\nand destruction. Nothing which we have said as to the former in the\nleast weakens the completing truth that there is in it an under side of\npossible terror. One of the felicities of the emblem is its capacity to\nset forth this twofold idea. There is that in the divine nature which\nthe Bible calls wrath, the necessary displeasure and aversion of holy\nlove from sin and wrong-doers. There is in the divine procedure even\nnow and here, the manifestation of that aversion in punishment. 'The\nlight of Israel becomes a flaming fire.'\n\nI have no panorama of hell to exhibit, and I would speak with all\nreticence on matters so awful; but this much, at any rate, is clear,\nthat the very same revelation of God, thankfully accepted and submitted\nto, is the medium of cleansing and the source of joyful life, and,\nrejected, becomes the source of sorrow and the occasion of death. Every\nman sees that aspect of God's face which he has made himself fit to see.\nEvery gift of God is to men either a savour of life unto life, or a\nsavour of death unto death. Most chiefly is this so in regard to Christ\nand His gospel, who, though He came not to judge but to save, yet by\nreason of that very universal purpose of salvation, becomes a judge in\nthe act of saving, and a condemnation to those in whom, by their own\nfaults, that purpose is not fulfilled.\n\nThe same pillar of fire which gladdened the ranks of Israel as they\ncamped by the Red Sea, shone baleful and terrible to the Egyptian hosts.\nThe same Ark of the Covenant whose presence blessed the house of\nObed-edom, and hallowed Zion, and saved Jerusalem, smote the\nPhilistines, and struck down their bestial gods. Christ and His gospel\neven here hurt the men whom they do not save.\n\nAnd we have only to carry that process onwards into another world, and\nsuppose it made more energetic there, as it will be, to feel dimly in\nhow awful a sense it may be that the same fire which gives life may be\nthe occasion of death--and how profound a truth lies in the words--\n\n     'What maketh Heaven, that maketh Hell.'\n\nYes, verily; to be salted with fire or to be consumed by it, to be\nbaptized in it or to be cast into it, is the choice offered to us all;\nto thee, my brother, and to me. Israel made its choice, and in seventy\nyears, the Roman standards on Zion and the flames leaping round the\nTemple, interpreted John's words in one of their halves, while the\ngrowing energy of the fire that was lit on Pentecost fulfilled them in\nthe other. Many a nation and Church has made its choice since then. You\nhave to make yours. 'The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort\nit is.' Shall our work be gold, and silver, and precious stones which\nshall gleam and flash in the light, or wood, hay, and stubble which\nshall writhe for a moment in the blaze and perish? 'Our God is a\nconsuming fire.' Shall that be the ground of my confidence that I shall\none day be pure from all my sins, or shall it be the parent of my\nghastliest fear that I may be, like the chaff, destroyed by contact with\na holy love rejected, with a Saviour disbelieved, with a Spirit grieved\nand quenched? Choose which.\n\n\nTHE BAPTISM OF JESUS\n\n     'Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized\n     of him. 14. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized\n     of Thee, and comest Thou to me? 15. And Jesus answering said unto\n     him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all\n     righteousness. Then he suffered Him. 16. And Jesus, when He was\n     baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the\n     heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God\n     descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: 17. And lo a voice\n     from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well\n     pleased.'--MATT. iii. 13-17.\n\nWhen Jesus set out from Galilee to seek baptism from John, He took the\nfirst step on His path of public work; and it is noteworthy that He took\nit, apparently, from self-originated impulse, and not, as in the case of\nthe prophets of old, from obedience to a 'prophetic call.' 'The Word of\nthe Lord came to' them; His Messianic consciousness needed no external\nstimulus to kindle it into flame. What did He mean by seeking baptism?\nJohn recognised the incongruity of His submitting to a rite which\nprofessed repentance and promised cleansing. It does not follow that\nJohn recognised His Messianic character, but only that he knew His\nblameless life. The remonstrance witnesses at once to John's humble\nconsciousness of sin and to Jesus' acknowledged purity. Christ's answer\nhas a sound of authority, even in its gentle lowliness, and it confirms\nthe belief in His sinlessness by the absence of any reference to\nrepentance, and by regarding His baptism, not as a token of repented\ntransgression to be washed away, but as an act which completed the\nperfect circle of righteousness, which His life had hitherto drawn. He\nsubmitted to the appointed rite, because He would be one with His\nbrethren in all obedience. So, then, the principle underlying His\nbaptism is the principle underlying His incarnation, His life of\nobedience and identification of Himself with us, and His death. 'He also\nHimself likewise took part of' whatsoever His brethren were partakers\nof, and therefore He was 'numbered with the transgressors' in that,\nneeding no repentance, He submitted to the baptism of repentance, and\ncleansed the cleansing water by being plunged in it.\n\nWhat was the significance of the descent of the Spirit on Him? Matthew's\naccount implies that the appearance of the descending dove was to Jesus.\nJohn i. 32 states that it was also visible to John. The accompanying\nvoice is as if principally directed to John, according to Matthew, while\nMark and Luke represent it as addressed to Jesus. Both appearance and\nvoice were the tokens of the Father's approval, and acceptance of the\nSon's consecration of Himself to the Messianic work. The dove descending\non Him was the token that henceforward His manhood should be anointed\nwith the unbroken influences of the divine Spirit, and possess the\nunbroken consciousness of the Father's good pleasure, lying like\nsunshine on the stormy sea on which He had launched. How different the\nconception of the Spirit as a dove, which was Jesus' experience of it,\nfrom the Baptist's, which was that of fire! Jesus is in this incident,\nas in all, our pattern and example, teaching us that we too must yield\nourselves to do the Father's will, and must identify ourselves with\nsinners, if we are to help them and to have the Father's approval\nsounding in our hearts, and the dove of God nestling there, and teaching\nus, too, that gentleness is the divinest and strongest power to win men\nfrom evil and for God.\n\n\nTHE DOVE OF GOD\n\n     'He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon\n     Him.' MATT. iii. 16.\n\nThis Gospel of Matthew is emphatically the gospel of the Kingdom. It\nsets forth Jesus as the long-promised Messiah, the Son of David. And\nthis conception of Him and of His work, whilst it runs through the whole\nof the Gospel, is more obviously influential in shaping the selection of\nincidents and colouring the cast of the language, in the early portion.\nHence the genealogy with which the Gospel begins dwells with emphasis on\nHis royal descent from David. Hence the story of the wise men of the\nEast is given, who came to do their homage to the new-born King of the\nJews, whose innocent poverty and infancy are set in contrast with the\ncourt and character of the cruel Herod who had for an hour usurped the\ntitle. Hence, also, the mission of John the Baptist is all summed up in\nhis proclamation: 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' He is the herald\nthat runs before the chariot of the advancing Monarch, and shouts to a\nslumbering nation, 'The King! the King!'\n\nPreserving the same reference to the royal dignity of Jesus, we may look\nat His baptism as being His public assumption of His Messianic office,\nand at this descent of the Holy Spirit as the anointing or coronation of\nthe King. As His meek head rose, glistening from the waters of the\nbaptism, there fluttered down upon Him the gentle token of the manifest\ndesignation from the Heavens, which solemnly declared Him to be the Son\nof God, anointed Messias, King of Israel and of the world.\n\nSo in looking at this incident, I take simply two points of view, and\nconsider its bearing on Jesus, and on us.\n\nI. As to the former, we have here the Coronation of the King.\n\nWe need not spend time upon the question which we have no materials for\nanswering, viz.--What was the 'objective material reality' here? We do\nnot know enough about what constitutes 'objective material reality,' nor\nabout what are the laws of prophetic ecstasy and vision, to discuss such\na question as that. Nor is there any need to moot it. It does not matter\none rush whether bystanders would have seen anything or not. It does not\nmatter in the least whether there was any actual excitation of auditory\nor visual nerves. It does not matter whether there was anything which\npeople are contented to call _material_--a word which covers a depth of\nignorance. Enough for us that this was no fancy, born in a man's brain,\nbut an actual manifestation, whether through sense or apart from sense,\nto consciousness, of a divine outpouring and communication. Enough for\nus that the voice which spoke was God's, and that that which descended\nwas the Spirit of God. As to all other questions, they may be amusing\nand interesting, but they are insoluble, and therefore unimportant.\n\nWell, then, taking that point of view, the next question that arises is\nas to the purpose of this descent of the Spirit. Plainly, as I have\nsaid, it was the coronation and anointing of the Monarch. But a man is\nking before he is crowned. Coronation is the consequence and not the\ncause of his royalty. It is but the official and solemn announcement of\na previous fact. No additional power, no fresh authority, comes of the\ncrowning. And so the first purpose of this great fact is distinctly\nstated, in John's Gospel, as having been the solemn, divine pointing out\nof Messiah to the Baptist primarily, but in order that he might bear\nwitness of Him to others. The words which follow are a commentary on,\nand part of the explanation of, the descent of the Holy Spirit. They\nare God's finger, pointing to Jesus and saying, 'Arise, anoint Him, for\nthis is He.'\n\nBut it must be remembered always that this was neither the beginning of\nthat divine Spirit's operation upon Jesus, nor the beginning of His\nMessianic nature and consciousness; nor the beginning of His Sonship.\nThat day was not in deepest truth the 'day' on which the Son was\n'begotten.' Before the baptism there was the consciousness of\nMessiahship witnessed in these words, so singularly compacted of\nhumility and authority: 'Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us\nto fulfil all righteousness'; and before His baptism, and even before\nHis birth, that divine Spirit wrought His manhood, and ere the heavens\nopened, or the dove fluttered down upon His head, He from everlasting\nwas the Son in the bosom of the Father.\n\nSo we see here, I think, if we follow the lead of the Scriptural\nteaching, not the beginning of powers or communications, but an advance\nin these. Christ's baptism was an epoch in His human development,\ninasmuch as it was the public official assumption of His Messianic\noffice. He came from out of the sheltering obscurity of the Galilean\nvillage nestling among its hills. He had now put His foot upon the path,\nset with knives and hot ploughshares, along which He had to walk to the\nCross. Inasmuch as it was an epoch in His development (for His manhood\nwas capable of growth and maturing), and inasmuch as new tasks needed\nincrease of gifts, and inasmuch as His man's nature was subject to the\nconditions of time, and capable of expansion and increase of capacity,\ntherefore, I believe that when Christ rose from the waters of baptism,\nno new gift indeed was His, but such an advance in the communication to\nHis manhood of the sustaining Spirit, as fully equipped Him for the new\ncalls of His Messianic work.\n\nHis manhood needed, as ours does, the continual communication of the\ndivine Spirit, and His manhood, because it was sinless, was capable of a\ncomplete reception of that Spirit. Sinless though He knew Himself to be,\nas His own words declare, He yet bowed His head to the baptism of\nrepentance, which He needed not for Himself, just as He afterwards bowed\nHis head to a darker, a sadder baptism, which He had to be baptized\nwith, though it likewise He needed not for Himself, because in both the\none and the other He would make Himself one with His brethren. The\nSpirit of God had shaped His manhood ere His birth. The Spirit of God\nhad been abiding in His holy infancy and growing youth, but now it came\nin larger measure for new needs and His Messiah's work.\n\nSo, dear friends, we see in Christ, baptized with the Spirit of God, the\nrealised ideal of manhood, ever dependent, ever needing for its purity\nthat holy influence, and receiving at every pore that divine gift. What\na contrast to our limited partial reception, broken and interrupted so\noften! All the doors that are barred in our hearts by sin, all the\nwindows that are darkened in our souls by vice and self, in Him stood\nopen to the day, and brilliantly receptive of the illumination. And so\n'the Father giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.'\n\nNotice, too, the meaning of the symbol. Think of what John, with his\nincomplete though not inaccurate conceptions, expected in the Messiah\nwhom he proclaimed. To him the coming of the King was first and chiefly\na coming to judgment. There is nothing more remarkable than the aspect\nof terror which drapes the old hope of Israel as it comes from John's\nlips. He believes that the King is coming, that His coming is to be an\nawful thing. Judgment is to go before Him, He bears 'His fan in His\nhand,' and kindles 'unquenchable fire,' into which the leafy trees that\nhave no fruit upon them are to be flung, there to shrivel and crackle\nand disappear. This is what he expects at the worst, and at the best a\nbaptism in the Holy Ghost, from Messiah's hands, which, however, is\nlikewise to be fiery even whilst it quickens, and searching and\ndestructive even whilst it gladdens. When, then, his carpenter cousin is\ndesignated as Messiah, John sees two wonders: that this is the Christ,\nand that the Spirit which he had thought of as searching and consuming,\nshould come fluttering down upon His head in the likeness of a dove. Old\nTestament symbols and natural poetry unite in giving felicity to that\nemblem. 'The Spirit of God brooded on the face of the deep,' says\nGenesis; and the word employed describes accurately the action of the\nmother-bird, with her soft breast and outstretched wings quickening the\nlife that lies beneath. The dove was pure and allowed for sacrifice. All\nnations have made it the symbol of meekness, gentleness, faithfulness.\nAll these associations determined the form which the descending\nBenediction took.\n\nWhat then does it proclaim as to the character of the King? Purity is\nthe very foundation of His royalty. Meekness and gentleness are the very\nweapons of His conquest and the sceptre of His rule. The dove will\noutfly all Rome's eagles and all rapacious, unclean feeders, with their\nstrong wings, and curved talons, and sharp beaks. The lesson as to the\ntrue nature of the true Kingdom, which was taught of old when the\nprophet said 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, thy King cometh unto\nthee, meek, riding on an ass,' and not upon the warhorse of secular\nforce; the lesson which was taught unwittingly, as to the true nature of\nthe true Kingdom, when the scoffers, speaking a deeper truth than they\nunderstood, put upon His brow the crown of thorns, and forced into His\nhand the sceptre of reed, was taught here--the lesson that meekness\nconquers, and that His kingdom is founded in suffering, and wielded in\ngentleness. The lesson of the ancient psalm, which in rapture of\nprophetic vision beheld the coming of the Bridegroom, and said with\nstrange blending of images of war and of peace: 'Thine arrows are sharp\nin the heart of the King's enemies; in Thy majesty ride prosperously,\nbecause of meekness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible\nthings';--that same lesson was taught when the King was crowned, and in\nthe day of His coronation, that which fell upon His bowed, glistening\nhead, was the Dove from Heaven, the proclamation that meekness and\ngentleness are the garment of Omnipotence.\n\nII. Consider this incident as showing us the gifts of the King to His\nsubjects.\n\nChrist has nothing which He keeps to Himself. Christ received the Spirit\nthat He might diffuse it through the whole world. Whatsoever He has\nreceived of the Father He gives unto us. This conception of the gift\nthat Christ has to bestow upon men, as being the very life-spirit that\ndwelt in His manhood, and made and kept it pure, is the highest thought\nthat we can have of what the gospel does for us. You do not understand\nits meaning if you content yourself with thinking of it as simply the\nmeans of escape from wrath. You do not understand its meaning--though,\nblessed be God! that is the first part of its mercy to us--if you think\nof Christ's gift as only pardon by means of His sacrifice on the Cross.\nWe must rise higher than that; we must feel, if we would understand the\n'unspeakable gift,' that it is the gift of Himself to dwell within us by\nHis Spirit as the very spirit of our lives. Assimilation by reception of\na supernatural life from Him, is the teaching of Pentecost. Christ is\nour life; 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us\nfree from the law of sin and death.'\n\nTherefore, all Christian men are spoken of in the New Testament in the\nsame language which is used in reference to their Master. Is He the Son\nof God? They are sons through Him. Is He the High Priest? They are\npriests unto God. Is He the Light of the World? They are, in their\nplaces, kindled and derived lights. Is He the Christ, the Messias, the\nAnointed? 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One,' and He hath anointed\nus in Him. So that it is no arrogance, though it may be a questionably\nwise form of expression, when we say that the object of Christ's coming\nis to make us all Christs, God's anointed, and to make us so because He\nHimself in His Spirit dwells in us.\n\nChrist can do that. He can give this Spirit. That is the very thing that\nall other teachers cannot do. They can teach tricks of imitation, they\ncan galvanise men, for a little while, into some kind of copy of their\ncharacteristics. They can give them the principles which they themselves\nhave been living on, but to repeat and to continue the spirit of the\nTeacher is the very thing that cannot be done. 'Let a double portion\nfall upon me,' said Elisha; and Elijah, knowing the limits of the human\nrelationship between master and disciple, could only shake his head in\ndoubt and say, 'Thou askest a hard thing; perhaps thou wilt get it,\nperhaps thou wilt not, but it will not be I that will give it you.' But\nChrist says: 'I give My Spirit to you all.'\n\nAnd let us remember, too, how full of blessed teaching, of rebuke, and\nof instruction that symbol is, in reference to ourselves. To all of us\nthere is offered, if we like to have it, this dove-like Spirit. What\ndoes that mean? Let us for a moment dwell upon the various uses of the\nemblem, for they all carry important lessons. Our hearts are like that\nwild chaos which preceded the present ordered state of things. And over\nthe seething darkness, full of all formless horrors and half-discerned\ndead monstrosities, over all the chaos of disordered wills, rebellious\nappetites, stinging conscience, darkened perceptions, there will come,\nif we will (and we may will by His help, which is never far away from\nus), gently, but quickening us into life and reducing confusion into\norder, and flooding our cloudy night with light, that divine Spirit. The\ndove that brooded over Chaos and made it Cosmos, will brood over your\nnature, and re-create the whole. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new\ncreation.' 'The old things are passed away.' Creator Spirit! create a\nclean heart in me.\n\nAnd then again let me remind you that this emblem brings to us another\ncognate and yet distinct hope, inasmuch as the dove was the emblem of\npurity and clean for sacrifice. This is the characteristic of the\nscriptural doctrine of inspiration, by which it is distinguished from\nall heathen and secular conceptions of a similar sort, viz., that it\nputs the moral in the foreground, and that the Spirit, which is the\nSpirit of truth, and of wisdom and of power, is first and foremost the\nSpirit of holiness. So that if a man is not clean, no matter what his\ngifts, no matter what his wisdom, no matter what his intellectual force,\nno matter what his supernatural and miraculous power, he has not the\nSpirit of God in him. The Dove comes, and where it comes there is peace,\nthere is purity, there is sacrifice. If any man have not the Spirit of\nholiness he is none of Christ's.\n\nSo, brethren, remember that not in shining faculty, not in piercing\nvision into mystery, not in the eloquence of honeyed tongue, nor the\npower of a swift hand, not in any of the lesser and subordinate gifts\nwhich the world exclusively honours as inspiration, is the power of the\nindwelling Spirit to be manifested. If the Spirit of God is in you, it\nis making you clean.\n\nStill further, remember how, as for the King so for His subjects, the\nDove that crowns Him and that dwells in them is the Spirit of meekness\nand of gentleness. That is the true force. Light, which is silent, is\nmightier than all lightnings. The Spirit, which is the 'Spirit of love,'\nis therefore 'the Spirit of power.' The true type of Christian\ncharacter, which the gospel has brought into being, looks modest,\ninconspicuous and humdrum, by the side of the more brilliant and vulgar\nbeauties of the world's ideals. Just as the iridescent hues on a dove's\nneck, and the quiet blue of its plumage, look modest and Quaker-like\nbeside gaudy parroquets and other bedizened birds, so the Christian type\nof character, patient, meek, gentle, not self-asserting, seems pale and\nsober-tinted beside the world's heroes. But gentleness is the mightiest\nand will conquer at last. For Christ and Christ's followers go forth,\nthrough universal love to universal power.\n\nAnd the last suggestion that I offer to you about the significance of\nthis symbol is one that I freely admit to be fanciful, and yet it\nstrikes me as being very beautiful. Noah's dove came back to the ark\nwith one leaf in his beak. That was the prophecy and the foretaste of a\nwhole world of beauty and of verdure. The dove that comes to us, bearing\nwith it some leaf plucked from the tree of life, which is in the midst\nof the paradise of God, is the earnest of our inheritance until the day\nof redemption. All the gifts of that divine Spirit, gifts of holiness,\nof gentleness, of wisdom, of truth--all these are forecasts and\nanticipations of the perfectness of the heavens. To us, sailing over a\ndismal sea, the Spirit comes bearing with it a message that tells us of\nthe far-off land and the fair garden of God in which the blessed shall\nwalk.\n\nDear friends, remember the one condition on which is suspended our\npossession of the Spirit of God. It is that we shall have Christ for our\nvery own by our humble faith. If we are trusting in Him, He will come\nand put His Spirit within our hearts. Without Him these hearts are cages\nof unclean and hateful birds. But the meek presence of the dove of God\nwill drive out the obscene, twilight-loving creatures that build and\nscream there, and will fill our hearts with the tranquillity, the\npurity, the gentleness, the hope, which are 'the fruit of the Spirit.'\n\n\nTHE VICTORY OF THE KING\n\n     'Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be\n     tempted of the devil. 2. And when He had fasted forty days and\n     forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. 3. And when the tempter\n     came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these\n     stones be made bread. 4. But He answered and said, It is written,\n     Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that\n     proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5. Then the devil taketh Him up\n     into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6.\n     And saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down:\n     for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee:\n     and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou\n     dash Thy foot against a stone. 7. Jesus said unto him, It is\n     written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8. Again, the\n     devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth\n     Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9. And\n     saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt\n     fall down and worship me. 10. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee\n     hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy\n     God, and Him only shalt thou serve. 11. Then the devil leaveth Him,\n     and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.'--MATT. iv. 1-11.\n\nEvery word of the first verses of this narrative is full of meaning.\n'Then' marks the immediate connection, not only in time but in\ncausation, between the baptism and the temptation. The latter followed\nnecessarily on the former. 'Of the Spirit'--then God does lead His Son\ninto temptation. For us all, as for Christ, it is true that, though God\ndoes not tempt as wishing us to fall, He does so order our lives that\nthey carry us into places where the metal of our religion is tried. 'To\nbe tempted'--then a pure, sinless human nature is capable of temptation,\nand the King has to begin his career by a battle. 'Of the devil'--then\nthere is a dark kingdom of evil, and a personal head of it, the prince\nof darkness. He knows His rival, and yet He knows him but partially. He\nstrides out to meet him in desperate duel, as Goliath did the stripling\nwhom he despised; and both hosts pause and gaze. To a sinless nature no\ntemptation can arise from within, but must be presented from without.\n\nWe leave untouched the question as to the manner of this temptation,\nwhich remains equally real, whether we conceive that the tempter\nappeared in bodily form, and actually carried the body of our Lord from\nplace to place, or whether we suppose that, during it all, Christ sat\nsilent, and apparently alone in the wilderness. We only divert attention\nfrom the true importance of the incident by giving prominence to\npicturesque or questionable externals of it.\n\nI. The first assault and repulse, in the desert.\n\nUnlike John the Baptist, whose austere spirit was unfolded in the\ndesert, Jesus grew up among men, passing through and sanctifying\nchildhood and youth, home duties, and innocent pleasures. But ere He\nenters on His work, the need which every soul appointed to high and hard\ntasks has felt, namely, the need for seclusion and communion with God in\nsolitude, was felt by Him. As it had been for Moses and Elijah, the\nwilderness was His school; and as the collective Israel, so the personal\nSon of God, has to be led into the wilderness, that there God may 'speak\nto His heart.' So deep and rapt was the communion, that, for forty days,\nspirit so mastered flesh that the need and desire for food were\nsuspended. But when He touched earth again, the pinch of hunger began.\nAnalogous cases of the power of high emotion to hold physical wants in\nabeyance are sufficiently familiar to make so extreme an instance\nexplicable.\n\nWe have to distinguish in the first temptation between the sphere in\nwhich it moves, the act suggested, and the true nature of the act as\ndragged to light in Christ's answer. The sphere is that of the physical\nnature. Hunger has nothing to do with right or wrong. It asserts itself\nindependent of all considerations. In itself neutral, it may, like all\nphysical cravings, lead to sin. Most men are most tempted by fleshly\ndesires. Satan had tried the same bait before on the first Adam. It had\nanswered so well then, that he thinks himself wise in bringing it out\nonce more. Adam, in his garden, surrounded by all that sense needed, had\nyielded, and thereby had turned the garden into desert; Christ, in the\ndesert, pressed by hunger, does not yield, and thereby turns the desert\ninto a garden again. At the beginning of His course He is tempted by the\ninnocent desire to secure physical support; at its close He is tempted\nby the innocent desire to avoid physical pain. He overcomes both, and by\nHis victories in the wilderness so unlike the garden, and in Gethsemane,\nanother garden, so unlike the first, He brings 'a statelier Eden back to\nman.'\n\nThe act suggested seems not only innocent, but in accordance with His\ndignity. It was a strange anomaly for 'the Son of God,' on whose head\nthe dove had descended, and in whose ears the voice had sounded, to be\nat the point of starving. What more unbecoming than that one possessed\nof His mysterious closeness to God should be suffering from such ignoble\nnecessities? What more foolish than to continue to hunger, when a word\ncould spread a table in the wilderness? John had said that God could\nmake children of Abraham out of these stones. Could He not make bread\nout of them? The suggestion sounds benevolent, sensible, almost\nreligious. The need is real, the remedy possible and easy; the result\ndesirable as preserving valuable life, and putting an end to an anomaly,\nand the objections apparently _nil_. The bait is skilfully wound over\nthe barbed hook.\n\nChrist's answer tears it away, and discloses the sharp points. He will\nnot discuss with Satan whether He is Son of God or no. To the Jews He\nwas wont to answer, 'I say unto you'; to Satan He answers, 'It is\nwritten.' He puts honour on 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the word\nof God,' and sets us an example of how to wield it. The words quoted are\nfound in the account of Israel's miraculous sustenance in the desert by\nthe manna, and are applied by Christ to Himself, not as Son of God, but\nas simple man. They contain the great truth that God can feed men, in\ntheir physical life, by bread or without bread. When He does it by bread\nor other ordinary means, it is even then not the material substance in\nitself, but His will operating through it, which feeds. He can abolish\nall the outward means, and still keep a man alive. There is no reference\nto the truth which is sometimes forcibly inserted into this saying, that\nman has a higher than bodily life, and needs more than material bread to\nfeed the hunger of the soul. The whole scope of the words is to state\nthe law of physical nourishment as dependent at last on the divine will,\nand therefore equally capable of being accomplished with or without\nbread, by ordinary means or apart from these.\n\nThe bearing of the words on Christ's hunger is twofold: First, He will\nnot use His miraculous powers to provide food, for that would be to\ndistrust God, and so to cast off His filial dependence; second, He will\nnot separate Himself from His brethren, and provide for Himself by a way\nnot open to them, for that would really be to reverse the very purpose\nof His incarnation and to defeat His whole work. He has come to bear all\nman's burdens, and shall He begin by separating Himself from them?\nTherefore He answers in words which declare the law for 'man,' and\nthereby merges all that was distinctive in His position in a loving\nparticipation in our lot. If the Captain of our Salvation had begun by\nrefusing to share the privations of the rank and file, and had provided\ndainties for Himself, what would have become of His making common cause\nwith them? The temptation addressed to Christ's physical nature was, to\nput it roughly, 'Look out for yourself.' His answer was, 'As Son of God,\nI hold by My filial dependence. As man, I share My brethren's lot, and\nam content to live as they live.'\n\nII. The second assault and repulse, on the temple.\n\nWe need not touch on the questions as to whether our Lord's body was\nreally transported to the temple, and, if so, to what part of it. But we\nmay point out that there is nothing in the narrative to warrant the\nusual interpretation of this temptation, as being addressed to the\ndesire of recognition, and as equivalent to the suggestion that our Lord\nshould show Himself, by a stupendous miracle before the multitude, as\nthe Messiah. There is nothing about spectators, and no sign that the\ndread solitude wrapping these two was broken by others. We must seek\nfor the point of the second temptation in another direction.\n\nThe very locality chosen for it helps us to the right understanding of\nit. There were plenty of cliffs in the desert, down which a fall would\nhave been fatal. Why not choose one of them? The temple was God's house,\nthe fitting scene for an attempt to work disaster by the abuse of\nreligious ideas. The former temptation underlies this. That had sought\nto move Jesus to cast off His filial confidence; this seeks to pervert\nthat confidence, and through it to lead Him to cast off filial\nobedience. Therefore 'the Devil quotes Scripture for his purpose.' What\ncould be more religious than an act of daring based upon faith, which\nagain was based on a word which proceeded 'out of the mouth of God'? It\nis not in the suppression of certain words in the quotation that Satan's\nerror lies. The omitted words are not material. What did he hope to\naccomplish by this suggestion? If Jesus was, in bodily reality, standing\non the summit of the temple, the tempter, profoundly disbelieving the\npromise, may have thought that the leap would end his anxieties by the\ndeath of his rival. But, at any rate, he sought to lead His faith into\nwrong paths, and to incite to what was really sinful self-will under the\nguise of absolute trust.\n\nOur Lord's answer, again drawn from Deuteronomy, strips off the disguise\nfrom the action which seemed so trustful. He changes the plural verb of\nthe original passage into the singular, thus at once taking as His own\npersonal obligation the general command, and pointing a sharp arrow at\nHis foe, who was now knowingly or unknowingly so flagrantly breaking\nthat law. If God had bidden Jesus cast Himself down, to do it would have\nbeen right. As He had not, to do it was not faith, but self-will. To\ncast Himself into dangers needlessly, and then to trust God (whom He had\nnot consulted about going into them) to get Him out, was to 'tempt God.'\nTrue faith is ever accompanied with true docility. He had come to do His\nFather's will. A divine 'must' ruled His life. Was He to begin His\ncareer by throwing off His allegiance on pretext of trust? If the\nCaptain of our Salvation commences the campaign by rebellion, how can He\nlead the rank and file to that surrender of their own wills which is\nvictory?\n\nThe lessons for us from the second temptation are weighty. Faith may be\nperverted. It may even lead to abandoning filial submission. God's\npromised protection is available, not in paths of our own choosing, but\nonly where He has sent us. If we take the leap without His command, we\nshall fall mangled on the very temple pavement. It is when we are 'in\nthe way' which He has prescribed that 'the angels of God' whom He has\npromised 'meet' us. How many scandals in the falls of good men would\nhave been avoided, and how many mad enterprises would have been\nunattempted, and how much more clearly would the relations of filial\nfaith and filial obedience have been understood, if the teaching of this\nsecond temptation had been laid to heart!\n\nIII. The final assault and repulse, on the mountain.\n\nAgain the scene changes, because the stress of the temptation is\ndifferent. The 'exceeding high mountain' is not to be looked for in our\natlases. The manner in which all the glories of the world's kingdoms\nwere flashed in one dazzling panorama, like an instantaneous photograph,\nbefore Christ's eyes, is beyond our knowledge. We note that Satan has no\nmore to say about 'the Son of God.' He has been foiled in both his\nassaults on Christ in that character. If He stood firm in filial trust\nand in filial submission, there was no more to be done. So the tempter\ntries new weapons, and seeks to pervert the desire for that dominion\nover the world which was to be a consequence of the sonship. He has not\nbeen able to touch Him as Son; can he not spoil Him as King? They are\nrivals: can they not strike up a treaty? Jesus thinks that He is going\nto reign as God's viceroy; can He not be induced, as a much quicker way\nof getting to His end, to become Satan's? Such a scheme sounds very\nstupid; but Satan is very stupid, for all his wisdom, and the hopeless\nfolly of his proposal is typical of the absurdities which lie in all\nsins. There is an old play, the title of which would be coarse if it\nwere not so true, 'The Devil is an Ass.'\n\nHis boast, like all his wiles, is a little truth and a great lie. It is\ntrue that his servants do often manage to climb into thrones and other\nhigh places. It is true that beggars and worse than beggars on\nhorseback, and princes and better than princes walking, is often the\nrule. It is true that the crowned saints of the world might be counted\non the fingers. But, for all that, the Father of lies was like himself\nin this promise. He did not say that, if he gives a kingdom to one of\nhis servants, he takes it from another. He did not say that his gifts\nare shams, and fade away when the daylight comes. He did not say that\nhe and his are, after all, tools in God's hands.\n\nWhat was it that he thought he was appealing to in Christ? Ambition? He\nknew that Jesus was destined to be King of the earth, and he blunders to\nthe conclusion that His reign is to be such as he could help Him to. How\nimpossible it is for Satan to penetrate the depths of that loving heart!\nHow mole-blind evil is to the radiant light of goodness! How hate fails\nwhen it tries to fathom love! If all that Satan meant by 'the glory' of\nthe world had been Christ's, He would have been no nearer His heart's\ndesire.\n\nThe temptation was not only to fling away the ideal of His kingdom, but\nto reverse the means for its establishment. Neither temptation could\noriginate within Christ's heart, but both beset Him all His life. The\ncravings of His followers, the expectations of His race, the certainty\nof an enthusiastic response if He would put Himself at their head, and\nthe equal certainty of death if He would not, were always urging Him to\nthe very same thing.\n\n'There is nothing weaker,' says an old school-man, 'than the Devil\nstripped naked.' The mask is thrown off at last, and swift and smiting\ncomes the gesture and the word of abhorrence, 'Get thee hence,\nSatan,'--now revealed in thy true colours. Jesus still couches His\nrefusal in Scripture words, as if sheltering Himself behind their broad\nshield. It is safest to meet temptation, not by our own reasonings and\nthoughts, but by the words which cannot lie. As He had held unmoved, by\nHis filial trust and His filial submission, now He clings to the\nfoundation principle of all religion,--the exclusive worship and service\nof God. His kingdom is to be a kingdom of priests; therefore to begin it\nby such an act would be suicide. It is to be the victorious antagonist\nof Satan's kingdom, because it is to lead all men to worship God alone;\ntherefore enmity, not alliance, is to be between these two. Christ's\nlast words are not only His final refusal of all the baits, but the\nringing proclamation of war to the death, and that a war which will end\nin victory. The enemy's quiver is empty. He feels that he has met more\nthan his match, so he skulks from the field, beaten for the first time\nby having encountered a heart which all his fiery darts failed to\ninflame, and dimly foreseeing yet more utter defeat.\n\nThe last temptation teaches us both the nature of Christ's kingdom and\nthe means of its establishment. It is a rule over men's hearts and\nwills, swaying them to goodness and the exclusive worship and service of\nGod. That being so, the way to found it follows of course. It can only\nbe set up by suffering, utter self-sacrifice, gentleness, and goodness.\nChrist is King of all because He is servant of all. His cross is His\nthrone. His realm is of hearts softened, cleansed, made gladly obedient,\nand growingly like Himself. For such a king, weapons of force are\nimpossible, and for His subjects the same law holds. They have often\ntried to fight for Christ with the Devil's weapons, to make compliance\nwith him for ends which they thought good, to keep terms with evil, or\nto adopt worldly policy, craft, or force. They have never succeeded,\nand, thank God! they never will.\n\nThat duel was fought for us. There we all conquered, if we will hold\nfast by Him who conquered then, and thereby taught our 'hands to war'\nand our 'fingers to fight.' The strong man is bound. The spoiling of his\nhouse follows of course, and is but a question of time.\n\n\nTHE SPRINGING OF THE GREAT LIGHT\n\n     'Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He\n     departed into Galilee; 13. And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt\n     in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of\n     Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14. That it might be fulfilled which was\n     spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15. The land of Zabulon, and\n     the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,\n     Galilee of the Gentiles; 16. The people which sat in darkness saw\n     great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of\n     death light is sprung up.'--MATT. iv. 12-16.\n\nThough the narrative of the Temptation is immediately followed by the\nnotice of Jesus' return to Galilee, there was a space between wide\nenough to hold all that John's Gospel tells of the gathering of the\nfirst disciples, the brief stay in Galilee, the Jerusalem ministry, and\nthe journey through Samaria. John i. 43 refers to the same point of time\nas verses 12-16 of this chapter. It is rash to conclude Matthew's\nignorance from his silence, and it is plain, from his own words, that he\ndid not suppose that the return to Galilee followed the Temptation as\nclosely in time as it does in his narrative. For he does link the\nTemptation to the Baptism immediately, by '_Then_ was Jesus led up of\nthe Spirit' (verse 1), and so some interval of time must be allowed,\nduring which Jesus left the wilderness, and went to some place where He\ncould hear of John's imprisonment. A gap is necessary. Its extent is not\nindicated, nor are the reasons for silence as to its contents. But we\nmay as reasonably conjecture that Matthew's eagerness to get to his main\nsubject, the Galilean ministry, led him to regard the short visit to\nJerusalem as an episode from which little came, as put his silence down\nto a very improbable ignorance. The same explanation may account for the\nslight mention made of His 'leaving Nazareth,' of which Luke has given\nthe memorable story.\n\nJohn was silenced, and that moved Jesus to go back to Galilee and take\nup His ministry there. His reason has been thought to have been the wish\nto avoid a similar fate, but He was safer from Herod in Jerusalem than\nin Capernaum, within reach of the tyrant's arm, stretched out from\nTiberias close by, and the supposition is more probable, as well as more\nworthy, that a directly opposite motive impelled Him. The voice that had\ncried, 'After me cometh a greater than I,' was stifled in a dungeon. It\nwas fitting that He, of whom John had spoken, should at once stand\nforth. There must be no interval between the ringing proclamation by the\nherald and the appearance of the king, lest men should say that one more\nhope had been dashed, and one more prophet proved a dreamer. And is\nthere not a lesson for all times in the fact that when John is silenced,\nJesus begins to speak? Is not the quenching of a light kindled to bear\nwitness to the true Light, ever the occasion for that unkindled and\nunquenchable Light to burn the more brightly, though tear-dimmed eyes\noften fail to see it?\n\nThe choice of Capernaum as a residence suggested to Matthew Isaiah's\nprophecy, which he quotes freely, fusing into one sentence the\ngeographical terms, in verse 15, which, in the Hebrew, are the close of\none paragraph, and the prophecy in verse 16 which, in the Hebrew, begins\nanother. The territory of Zabulon lay in what is now called Lower\nGalilee, stretching right across from the northern end of the Sea of\nGennesaret to the coast of the Mediterranean, while that of Naphtali lay\nfurther north. 'The way of the sea' is here not the designation of\nanother district, but a specification of those named in the preceding\nclauses, and may be rendered 'towards the sea,' while 'beyond Jordan' is\nthe almost heathen territory on the east bank of the river, and 'Galilee\nof the Gentiles' is the general name for all three, the two tribal\nterritories and the trans-Jordanic district. These are all smelted into\none designation, 'the people which sat in darkness,' and thus the whole\nof verse 15 and the first clause of verse 16 make the nominative of the\nverb 'saw.' There is something very impressive in that long-drawn-out\naccumulation of geographical names, and in their being all massed in the\none sad description of their inert darkness, and then equally massed as\nseeing the great light that springs up. The intense pathos of that\ndescription and its sad truth to experience should not be unnoticed.\nThey sit in the dark--the attitude of listless languor and constrained\ninaction, too true an emblem of the paralysis which falls on all the\nhighest activities of the spirit, if the light from God has been\nquenched. It is only wild beasts that are active in the night. The lower\nparts of man's nature may work energetically in that darkness, but all\nthat makes his glory is torpid in it. Christ's light has been the great\nimpulse to progress. Races without it sit and do not march. But that is\nnot all, for the sad picture is sketched again with blacker shadows in\nthe next clause, which substitutes for 'darkness' the still more tragic\nwords, 'the region and shadow of death.' The realm of darkness is the\nregion of death. That dread figure is the lord of it, and, grimly\nenough, its very intensity of blackness has power to throw a shadow even\nthere where there is no light, and to deepen the gloom. The second\nclause advances on the first in another respect, for while the former\nspoke only of 'seeing' the light, the latter tells of the blessed\nsuddenness with which it 'sprung up.' The one clause speaks of the human\nperception, the other of the divine revelation which precedes it and\nmakes it possible.\n\nBut had Matthew any right to see in Jesus' Galilean ministry the\nfulfilment of a prophecy which, as spoken, was simply a promise that the\nnorthern parts of Israel which, by geographical position, had to bear\nthe first and worst brunt of Assyrian invasion, should have deliverance\nfrom the oppressor? Yes; for Isaiah's vision of the light rising on\nIsrael, crushed beneath foreign oppression, was based on a distinctly\nMessianic prediction. It was because Messiah should come that he\nexpected Assyria to be flung off and Israel to be set free, and he was\nright in the expectation, for though the Messiah did not come visibly\nthen, His coming was the guarantee, and in some sense the cause, of\nIsrael's deliverance. Nor was Matthew less right in seeing in that\nearlier deliverance but a germinant accomplishment of the prophecy,\nwhich, by its very transiency, outwardness, and incompleteness, pointed\nonwards to a better spring of the Light, and a fuller deliverance from\na murkier darkness and a more mortal death. 'The life was the light of\nmen,' the teacher of all knowledge of God, the source of all light of\ntrue joy, the giver of all light of white purity, and He has risen on a\nworld sitting in darkness that all men may walk in the light, and be\nchildren of the light.\n\n\nTHE EARLY WELCOME AND THE FIRST MINISTERS OF THE KING\n\n     'From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the\n     kingdom of heaven is at hand. 18. And Jesus, walking by the sea of\n     Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his\n     brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19. And\n     He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.\n     20. And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him. 21. And\n     going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of\n     Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father,\n     mending their nets: and He called them. 22. And they immediately\n     left the ship and their father, and followed Him. 23. And Jesus\n     went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching\n     the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and\n     all manner of disease among the people. 24. And His fame went\n     throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people\n     that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which\n     were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and\n     those that had the palsy; and He healed them. 25. And there\n     followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from\n     Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond\n     Jordan.'--MATT. iv. 17-25.\n\nIn these verses we have a summary of our Lord's early Galilean\nministry. The events are so presented and combined as to give an\nimpression as of a triumphal progress of the newly anointed monarch. He\nsweeps through the northern regions, everywhere exercising the twofold\noffice of teaching and healing, and everywhere followed by eager crowds.\nThis joyous burst of the new power, like some strong fountain leaping\ninto the sunshine, and this rush of popular enthusiasm, are meant to\nheighten the impression of the subsequent hostility of the people. The\nKing welcomed at first is crucified at last. It was 'roses, roses, all\nthe way' in these early days, but they withered soon. There are three\npoints in these verses: the King acting as His own herald; the King\ncalling His first servants; and the King wielding His power and welcomed\nby His subjects.\n\nI. In verse 17 we have a striking picture of the King as His own herald.\nThe word rendered 'preach' of course means, literally, to proclaim as a\nherald does. It is remarkable that this earliest phase of our Lord's\nteaching is described in the same words as John's preaching. The stern\nvoice was silenced. Instead of the free wilderness, John had now the\ngloomy walls of Machaeus for the bound of his activity. But Jesus takes\nup his message, though with a difference. The severe imagery of the axe,\nthe fan, the fire, is not repeated, as it would seem. Sterner words than\nJohn's could fall hot from the lips into which grace was poured; but the\ntime for these was not yet come. It may seem singular that Christ should\nhave spoken of the kingdom, and been silent concerning the King. But\nsuch silence was only of a piece with the reticence which marked His\nwhole teaching, and was a sign of His wise adaptation of His words to\nthe capacity of His hearers, as well as of His lowliness. He veiled His\nroyalty by deigning to be His own herald; by substituting the\nproclamation of the abstract, the kingdom, for the concrete, the King;\nby seeming to careless hearers to be but the continuer of the\nforerunner's message; by the simple, remote region which He chose for\nHis earliest work. The belief that the kingdom was at hand was equally\nnecessary, and repentance equally indispensable as preparation for it,\nwhoever the King might be. The same law of congruity between message and\nhearers, which He enjoined on His followers, when He bade them be\ncareful where they flung their pearls, and which governed His own\nfullest final revelations to His truest friends, when He said, 'I have\nyet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot carry them now,' moulded\nHis first words to the excited but ignorant crowds.\n\nII. The King's mandate summoning His servants. The call of the first\nfour disciples is so told as to make prominent these points: the\nbrotherhood of the two pairs; their occupation at the moment of their\ncall; the brief, authoritative word of Christ; His investiture of them\nwith new functions, which yet in some sense were the prolongation of the\nold; their unhesitating, instantaneous obedience and willing abandonment\nof their all. These points all help the impression of regal power, and\ndo something to explain the nature of the kingdom and the heart of the\nKing. Matthew does not seem to have known of the previous intercourse of\nthe four with Jesus, as recorded In John 1. His narrative, taken alone,\nwould lay stress on the strange influence wielded by Jesus over these\nbusy fishermen. But that influence is no less remarkable, and becomes\nmore explicable, on taking John's supplemental account into\nconsideration. It tells us that one brother of each pair--namely Andrew,\nand probably John--had sought Jesus on the Baptist's testimony, and in\nthat never-to-be-forgotten night had acquired the conviction that He was\nthe King of Israel. It tells us, too, that Andrew first found his own\nbrother, Simon; from which we may infer that the other one of the two\nnext found his brother James, and that each brought his own brother to\nJesus. The bond of discipleship was then riveted. But apparently, when\nJesus went up to Jerusalem on that first journey recorded only in John's\nGospel, the four went back to their fishing, and waited for His further\ncall. It came in the manner which Matthew describes. The background,\nwhich John enables us to fill in, shows us that their following was no\nsudden blind impulse, but the deliberate surrender of men who knew well\nwhat they were doing, though they had not fathomed the whole truth as to\nHis kingdom and their place in it. They knew, at any rate, that He was\nthe Messiah and that they were called by a voice, which they ought to\nobey, to be His soldiers and partisans. They could not but know that the\ncall meant danger, hardship, conflict. They rallied to the call, as\nsoldiers might when the commander honours them by reading out their\nnames, as picked for leaders of the storming-party.\n\nWas this the same incident which St. Luke narrates as following the\nfirst miraculous draught of fishes? That is one of the difficulties in\nharmonising the synoptic narratives which will always divide opinions.\nOn the whole, I incline to think it most natural to answer 'no.' The\nreasons would take us too far afield. But accepting that view, we may\nnote through how many stages Jesus led this group of His disciples\nbefore they were fully recognised as apostles. First there was their\nattachment to Him as disciples, which in no degree interfered with their\ntrade. Then came this call to more close attendance on Him, which,\nhowever, was probably still somewhat intermittent. Then followed the\ncall recorded by Luke, which finally tore them from their homes; and,\nlast of all, their appointment as apostles. At each stage they 'might\nhave had opportunity to have returned.' Their vocation in the kingdom\ndawns on them slowly. They and we are led on, by little and little and\nlittle, to posts and tasks of which we do not dream at the beginning.\nDuty opens before the docile heart bit by bit. Abram is led to Harran,\nand only there learns his ultimate destination. Obedience is rewarded by\nthe summons to more complete surrender, which is also fuller possession\nof Him for whom the surrender is made.\n\n'The word of a king is with power.' Christ's call is authoritative in\nits brevity. All duty lies in 'Come ye after Me.' He does not need to\nuse arguments. From the very first this meek and lowly man assumes a\ntone which on other lips we call arrogant. His style is royal. His mouth\nis autocratic. He knows that He has the right to command. And, strangely\nenough, the world admits the right, and finds nothing unworthy of His\nmeekness--a meekness of which He was fully conscious, which is another\nparadox--in this unconditional claim of absolute submission to his curt\norders. What is the explanation of this tone of authority? How comes it\nthat the kingdom which is liberty is, from its very foundation, an\nabsolute despotism? That same peremptory summons reaches beyond these\nfour fishermen to us all. They were the first to hear it, and continued\nto hold pre-eminence among the disciples, for they make up the first\ngroup of the three quaternions into which the list of the apostles is\nalways divided. But the very same voice speaks to us, and we are as\ntruly summoned by the King to be His servants and soldiers as were they.\n\nTheir prompt self-surrendering response is the witness of the power over\ntheir hearts which Jesus had won. The one pair of brothers left their\nnets floating in the water; the other left their father with the mesh\nand the twine in his old hands. It was not much wealth to leave. But he\nsurrenders much who surrenders all, however little that all may be; and\nhe surrenders nothing who keeps back anything. One sweet portion of\ntheir earthly happiness He left them to enjoy, heightened by\ndiscipleship, for each had his brother by his side, and natural\naffection was ennobled by common faith and service. If Zebedee was left,\nJohn still had James. True, Herod's sword cut their union asunder, and\nJames died first, and John last, of the twelve; but years of happy\nbrotherhood were to come before then. So both the surrender which\noutwardly gives up possessions or friends, and that which keeps them,\nsanctified by being held and used as for and from Him, were exemplified\nin the swift obedience of these four to the call of the King.\n\n'I will make you fishers of men.' That shows a kindly wish to make as\nlittle as may be of the change of occupation. Their old craft is to be\ntheirs still, only in nobler form. The patience, the brave facing of the\nstorm and the night, the observance of the indications which taught\nwhere to cast, the perseverance which toiled all night though not a fin\nglistened in the net, would all find place in their new career. Nor are\nthese words less royal than was the call. They contain profound hints as\nto the nature of the kingdom which could scarcely be apprehended at\nfirst. But this at least would be clear, that Jesus summoned them to\nservice, to gather in men out of the dreary waves of worldly care and\ntoil into a kingdom of stable rest, and that by summoning them to\nservice He endowed them with power. So He does still. All whom He\nsummons to follow Him are meant by Him to be fishers of men. It was not\nas apostles, but as simple disciples, that these four received this\ncharge and ability. The same command and fitness are given to all\nChristians. Following Christ, surrender, the obligation of effort to win\nothers, capacity to do so, belong to all the subjects of Christ's\nkingdom.\n\nIII. The triumphal progress of the King. Our evangelist evidently masses\ntogether without regard to chronological order the broad features of the\nearly Galilean ministry. He paints it as a time of joyful activity, of\nuniversal recognition, of swift and far-spreading fame. We do not\nexaggerate the impression of victorious publicity which they give, when\nwe call these closing verses the record of the King's triumphal progress\nthrough His dominions. Observe the reiterated use of 'all,'--all\nGalilee, all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, all Syria,\nall that were sick. Matthew labours to convey the feeling of universal\nstir and wide-reaching, 'full-throated' welcome. Observe, too, that the\nactivity of Christ is confined to Galilee, but the fame of Him crosses\nthe border into heathendom. The King stays on His own territory, but He\nconquers beyond the frontier. Syria and the mostly heathen Decapolis,\nand Peraea ('beyond Jordan'), are moved. The odour of the ointment not\nonly fills the house, but enriches the scentless outside air. The\nprophecy contained in the coming of the Magi is beginning to be\nfulfilled. From its first preaching, the kingdom is diffusive. Note,\ntoo, the contrast between John's ministry and Christ's, in that the\nformer stayed in one spot, and the crowds had to go out to him, while\nthe very genius of Christ's mission expressed itself in that this\nshepherd king sought the sad and sick, and 'went about in all Galilee.'\nObserve, too, that He teaches and preaches the good news of the kingdom,\nbefore He heals. John's proclamation of the kingdom had been so charged\nwith threatenings and mingled with fire that it could scarcely be called\na 'gospel'; but here that joyous word, used for the first time, is in\nplace. As the tidings came from Christ's lips, they were good tidings,\nand to proclaim them was His first task. The miracles of healing came\nsecond. They were not 'the bell before the sermon,' but the benediction\nafter it. They flowed from Christ in rich abundance. The eager\nreceptiveness of the people, ignorant as it was, was greater then than\never afterwards. Therefore the flow of miraculous power was more\nunimpeded. But it may be questioned whether we generally have an\nadequate notion of the immense number of Christ's miracles. Those\nrecorded are but a small proportion of those done. There were more\ngrapes in the vineyards of Eshcol than the messengers brought in\nevidence to the camp. Our Lord's miracles are told by units; they seem\nto have been wrought by scores. These early ones were not only\nattestations of His claim to be the King, but illustrations of the\nnature of His kingdom He had conquered and bound the strong man, and now\nHe was 'spoiling his house.' They were parables of His higher work on\nmen's souls, which He comes to cleanse from the oppression of demons,\nfrom the foamings of epilepsy, from impotence as to doing right. They\nwere tokens of the inexhaustible fountain of power, and of the swift and\nequally inexhaustible treasures of sympathy, which dwelt in Him. They\nwere His first trophies in His holy war, His first gifts to His\nsubjects.\n\nThus compassed with enthusiasm, and shedding on the wearied new hopes,\nand on the sick unwonted health, and stirring in sluggish souls some\naspirations that greatened and inspired, the King appeared. But no\nillusions deceived His calm prescience. From the beginning He knew the\npath which stretched before Him; and while the transient loyalty of the\nignorant shouted hosannas around His steps, He saw the cross at the end,\nand the sight did not make Him falter.\n\n\nTHE NEW SINAI\n\n     'And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He\n     was set, His disciples came unto Him: 2. And He opened his mouth,\n     and taught them, saying, 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for\n     theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4. Blessed are they that mourn:\n     for they shall be comforted. 5. Blessed are the meek: for they\n     shall inherit the earth. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and\n     thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7. Blessed\n     are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8. Blessed are the\n     pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9. Blessed are the\n     peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God, 10.\n     Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for\n     theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are ye, when men shall\n     revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil\n     against you falsely, for My sake. 12. Rejoice, and be exceeding\n     glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they\n     the prophets which were before you. 13. Ye are the salt of the\n     earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be\n     salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and\n     to be trodden under foot of men. 14. Ye are the light of the world.\n     A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15. Neither do men\n     light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick;\n     and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16. Let your\n     light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and\n     glorify your Father which is in heaven.'--MATT. v. 1-16.\n\nAn unnamed mountain somewhere on the Sea of Galilee is the Sinai of the\nnew covenant. The contrast between the savage desolation of the\nwilderness and the smiling beauty of the sunny slope near the haunts of\nmen symbolises the contrast in the genius of the two codes, given from\neach. There God came down in majesty, and the cloud hid Him from the\npeople's gaze; here Jesus sits amidst His followers, God with us. The\nKing proclaims the fundamental laws of His kingdom, and reveals much of\nits nature by the fact that He begins by describing the characteristics\nof its subjects, as well as by the fact that the description is cast in\nthe form of beatitudes.\n\nWe must leave unsettled the question as to the relation between the\nSermon on the Mount and the shorter edition of part of it given by Luke,\nonly pointing out that in this first part of Matthew's Gospel we are\nevidently presented with general summaries; as, for example, the summary\nof the Galilean ministry in the previous verses, and the grand\nprocession of miracles which follows in chapters viii. and ix. It is\ntherefore no violent supposition that here too the evangelist has\nbrought together, as specimens of our Lord's preaching, words which were\nnot all spoken at the same time. His description of the Galilean\nministry in ch. iv. 23, as 'teaching' and 'healing,' governs the\narrangement of his materials from chapter v. to the end of chapter ix.\nFirst comes the sermon, then the miracles follow.\n\nThe Beatitudes, as a whole, are a set of paradoxes to the 'mind of the\nflesh.' They were meant to tear away the foolish illusions of the\nmultitude as to the nature of the kingdom; and they must have disgusted\nand turned back many would-be sharers in it. They are like a dash of\ncold water on the fiery, impure enthusiasms which were eager for a\nkingdom of gross delights and vulgar conquest. And, no doubt, Jesus\nintended them to act like Gideon's test, and to sift out those whose\nappetite for carnal good was uppermost. But they were tests simply\nbecause they embodied everlasting truths as to the characters of His\nsubjects. Our narrow space allows of only the most superficial treatment\nof these deep words.\n\nI. The foundation of all is laid in poverty of spirit. The word rendered\n'poor' does not only signify one in a condition of want, but rather one\nwho is aware of the condition, and seeks relief. If we may refer to\nLatin words here, it is mendicus rather than _pauper_, a beggar rather\nthan a poor man, who is meant. So that to be poor in spirit is to be in\ninmost reality conscious of need, of emptiness, of dependence on God, of\ndemerit; the true estimate of self, as blind, evil, weak, is intended;\nthe characteristic tone of feeling pointed to is self-abnegation, like\nthat of the publican smiting his breast, or that of the\ndisease-weakened, hunger-tortured prodigal, or that of the once\nself-righteous Paul, 'O wretched man that I am!' People who do not like\nevangelical teaching sometimes say, 'Give me the Sermon on the Mount.'\nSo say I. Only let us take all of it; and if we do, we shall come, as we\nshall have frequent occasion to point out, in subsequent passages, to\nsomething uncommonly like the evangelical theology to which it is\nsometimes set up as antithetic. For Christ begins His portraiture of a\ncitizen of the kingdom with the consciousness of want and sin. All the\nrest of the morality of the Sermon is founded on this. It is the root of\nall that is heavenly and divine in character. So this teaching is dead\nagainst the modern pagan doctrine of self-reliance, and really embodies\nthe very principle for the supposed omission of which some folk like\nthis Sermon; namely, that our proud self-confidence must be broken down\nbefore God can do any good with us, or we can enter His kingdom.\n\nThe promises attached to the Beatitudes are in each case the results\nwhich flow from the quality, rather than the rewards arbitrarily given\nfor it. So here, the possession of the kingdom comes by consequence from\npoverty of spirit. Of course, such a kingdom as could be so inherited\nwas the opposite of that which the narrow and fleshly nationalism of the\nJews wanted, and these first words must have cooled many incipient\ndisciples. The 'kingdom of heaven' is the rule of God through Christ. It\nis present wherever wills bow to Him; it is future, as to complete\nrealisation, in the heaven from which it comes, and to which, like its\nKing, it belongs even while on earth. Obviously, its subjects can only\nbe those who feel their dependence, and in poverty of spirit have cast\noff self-will and self-reliance. 'Theirs is the kingdom' does not mean\n'they shall rule,' but 'of them shall be its subjects.' True, they shall\nrule in the perfected form of it; but the first, and in a real sense the\nonly, blessedness is to obey God; and that blessedness can only come\nwhen we have learned poverty of spirit, because we see ourselves as in\nneed of all things.\n\nII. Each Beatitude springs from the preceding, and all twined together\nmake an ornament of grace upon the neck, a chain of jewels. The second\nsounds a more violent paradox than even the first. Sorrowing is blessed.\nThis, of course, cannot mean mere sorrow as such. That may or may not\nbe a blessing. Grief makes men worse quite as often as it makes them\nbetter. Its waves often flow over us like the sea over marshes, leaving\nthem as salt and barren as it found them. Nor is sorrow always sure of\ncomfort. We must necessarily understand the word here so as to bring it\ninto harmony with the context, and link it with the former Beatitude as\nflowing from it, as well as with the succeeding. The only intelligible\nexplanation is that this sorrow arises from the contemplation of the\nsame facts concerning self as lead to poverty of spirit, and is, in\nfact, the emotional side of the same disposition. He who takes the true\nmeasure of himself cannot but sorrow over the frightful gulf between\nwhat he should and might be and what he is, for he knows that there is\nmore than misfortune or unavoidable creatural weakness at work. The grim\nreality of sin has to be reckoned in. Personal responsibility and guilt\nare facts. The soul that has once seen its own past as it is, and looked\nsteadily down into the depths of its own being, cannot choose but\n'mourn.' Such contrition underlies all moral progress. The ethical\nteaching of the Sermon on the Mount puts these two, poverty of spirit\nand tears for sin, at the foundation. Do its admirers lay that fact to\nheart? This is Christ's account of discipleship. We have to creep\nthrough a narrow gate, which we shall not pass but on our knees and\nleaving all our treasures outside. But once through, we are in a great\ntemple with far-reaching aisles and lofty roof. Such sorrow is sure of\ncomfort. Other sorrow is not. The comfort it needs is the assurance of\nforgiveness and cleansing, and that assurance has never been sought from\nthe King in vain. The comfort is filtered to us in drops here; it pours\nin a flood hereafter. Blessed the sorrow which leads to experience of\nthe tender touch of the hand that wipes away tears from the face, and\nplucks evil from the heart! Blessed the mourning, which prepares for the\nfestal garland and the oil of gladness and the robe of praise, instead\nof ashes on the head and sackcloth on the spirit!\n\nIII. Meekness here seems to be considered principally as exercised to\nmen, and it thus constitutes the first of the social virtues, which\nhenceforward alternate with those having exclusive reference to God. It\nis the grace which opposes patient gentleness to hatred, injury, or\nantagonism. The prominence given to it in Christ's teaching is one of\nthe peculiarities of Christian morals, and is a standing condemnation of\nmuch so-called Christianity. Pride and anger and self-assertion and\nretaliation flaunt in fine names, and are called manly virtues. Meekness\nis smiled at, or trampled on, and the men who exercise it are called\n'Quakers' and 'poor-spirited' and 'chicken-hearted' and the like. Social\nlife among us is in flagrant contradiction of this Beatitude; and as for\nnational life, all 'Christian nations' agree that to apply Christ's\nprecept to it would be absurd and suicidal. He said that the meek should\ninherit the earth; statesmen say that the only way to keep a country is\nto be armed to the teeth, and let no man insult its flag with impunity.\nThere does not seem much room for 'a spirited foreign policy' or for\n'proper regard to one's own dignity' inside this Beatitude, does there?\nBut notice that this meekness naturally follows the preceding\ndispositions. He who knows himself and has learned the depth of his own\nevil will not be swift to blaze up at slights or wrongs. The true\nmeekness is not mere natural disposition, but the direct outcome of\npoverty of spirit and the consequent sorrow. So, it is a test of their\nreality. Many a man will indulge in confessions of sin, and crackle up\nin sputtering heat of indignation at some slight or offence. If he\ndoes, his lowly words have had little meaning, and the benediction of\nthese promises will come scantily to his heart.\n\nDoes Christ mean merely to say that meek men will acquire landed\nproperly? Is there not a present inheritance of the earth by them,\nthough they may not own a foot of it? They have the world who enjoy it,\nwhom it helps nearer God, who see Him in it, to whom it is the field for\nservice and the means for growing character. But in the future the\nkingdom of heaven will be a kingdom of the earth, and the meek saints\nshall reign with the King who is meek and lowly of heart.\n\nIV. Righteousness is conformity to the will of God, or moral perfection.\nHunger and thirst are energetic metaphors for passionate desire, and\nimply that righteousness is the true nourishment of the Spirit. Every\nlonging of a noble spirit is blessed. Aspiration after the unreached is\nthe salt of all lofty life. It is better to be conscious of want than to\nbe content. There are hungers which are all unblessed, greedy appetites\nfor the swine's husks, which are misery when unsatisfied, and disgust\nwhen satiated. But we are meant to be righteous, and shall not in vain\ndesire to be so. God never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill them.\nSuch longings prophesy their fruition.\n\nNotice that this hunger follows the experience of the former Beatitudes.\nIt is the issue of poverty of spirit and of that blessed sorrow.\nObserve, too, that the desire after, and not the possession or\nachievement of, righteousness is blessed. Is not this the first hint of\nthe Christian teaching that we do not work out or win but receive it?\nGod gives it. Our attitude towards that gift should be earnest longing.\nSuch a blessed hungerer shall 'receive ... righteousness from the God of\nhis salvation.' The certainty that he will do so rests at last on the\nfaithfulness of God, who cannot but respond to all desires which He\ninspires. They are premonitions of His purposes, like rosy clouds that\nrun before the chariot of the sunrise. The desire to be righteous is\nalready righteousness in heart and will, and reveals the true bent of\nthe soul. Its realisation in life is a question of time. The progressive\nfulfilment here points to completeness in heaven, when we shall behold\nHis face in righteousness, and be satisfied when we awake in His\nlikeness.\n\nV. Again we have a grace which is exercised to men. Mercy is more than\nmeekness. That implied opposition, and was largely negative. This does\nnot regard the conduct of others at all, and is really love in exercise\nto the needy, especially the unworthy. It embraces pity, charitable\nforbearance, beneficence, and is revealed in acts, in words, in tears.\nIt is blessed in itself. A life of selfishness is hell; a life of mercy\nis sweet with some savour of heaven. It is the consequence of mercy\nreceived from God. Poverty of spirit, sorrow, hunger after righteousness\nbring deep experiences of God's gentle forbearance and bestowing love,\nand will make us like Him in proportion as they are real. Our\nmercifulness, then, is a reflection from His. His ought to be the\nmeasure and pattern of ours in depth, scope, extent of self-sacrifice,\nand freeness of its gifts. A stringent requirement!\n\nOur exercise of mercy is the condition of our receiving it. On the\nwhole, the world gives us back, as a mirror does, the reflection of our\nown faces; and merciful men generally get what they give. But that is a\nlaw with many exceptions, and Jesus means more than that. Merciful men\nget mercy from God--not, of course, that we deserve mercy by being\nmerciful. That is a contradiction in terms; for mercy is precisely that\nwhich we do not deserve. The place of mercy in this series shows that\nJesus regarded it as the consequence, not the cause, of our experience\nof God's mercy. But He teaches over and over again that a hard,\nunmerciful heart forfeits the divine mercy. It does so, because such a\ndisposition tends to obscure the very state of mind to which alone God's\nmercy can be given. Such a man must have forgotten his poverty and\nsorrow, his longings and their rich reward, and so must have, for the\ntime, passed from the place where he can take in God's gift. A life\ninconsistent with Christian motives will rob a Christian of Christian\nprivileges. The hand on his brother's throat destroys the servant's own\nforgiveness. He cannot be at once a rapacious creditor and a discharged\nbankrupt.\n\nVI. If detached from its connection, there is little blessedness in the\nnext Beatitude. What is the use of telling us how happy purity of heart\nwill make us? It only provokes the despairing question, 'And how am I to\nbe pure?' But when we set this word in its place here, it does bring\nhope. For it teaches that purity is the result of all that has gone\nbefore, and comes from that purifying which is the sure answer of God to\nour poverty, mourning, and longing. Such purity is plainly progressive,\nand as it increases, so does the vision of God grow. The more the\nglasses of the telescope are cleansed, the brighter does the great star\nshine to the gazer. 'No man hath seen God,' nor can see Him, either\namid the mists of earth or in the cloudless sky of heaven, if by seeing\nwe mean perceiving by sense, or full, direct comprehension by spirit.\nBut seeing Him is possible even now, if by it we understand the\nknowledge of His character, the assurance of His presence, the sense of\ncommunion with Him. Our earthly consciousness of God may become so\nclear, direct, real, and certain, that it deserves the name of vision.\nSuch blessed intuition of Him is the prerogative of those whose hearts\nChrist has cleansed, and whose inward eye is therefore able to behold\nGod, because it is like Him. 'Unless the eye were sunlike, how could it\nsee the sun?' We can blind ourselves to Him, by wallowing in filth.\nImpurity unfits for seeing purity. Swedenborg profoundly said that the\nwicked see only blackness where the sun is.\n\nLike all these Beatitudes, this has a double fulfilment, as the kingdom\nhas two stages of here and hereafter. Purity of heart is the condition\nof the vision of God in heaven. Without holiness, 'no man shall see the\nLord.' The sight makes us pure, and purity makes us see. Thus heaven\nwill be a state of ever-increasing, reciprocally acting sight and\nholiness. Like Him because we see Him, we shall see Him more because we\nhave assimilated what we see, as the sunshine opens the petals, and\ntints the flower with its own colours the more deeply, the wider it\nopens.\n\nVII. Once more we have the alternation of a grace exercised to men. If\nwe give due weight to the order of these Beatitudes, we shall feel that\nChrist's peacemaker must be something more than a mere composer of men's\nquarrels. For he has to be trained by all the preceding experiences, and\nhas to be emptied of self, penitent, hungering for and filled with\nrighteousness, and therefore pure in heart as well as, in regard to men,\nmeek and merciful, ere he can hope to fill this part. That\napprenticeship deepens the conception of the peace which Christ's\nsubjects are to diffuse. It is, first and chiefly, the peace which\nenters the soul that has traversed all these stages; that is to say, the\nChristian peacemaker is first to seek to bring about peace between men\nand God, by beseeching them to be reconciled to Him, and then\nafterwards, as a consequence of this, is to seek to diffuse through all\nhuman relations the blessed unity and amity which flow most surely from\nthe common possession of the peace of God. Of course, the relation which\nthe subjects of the true King bear to all wars and fightings, to all\ndiscord and strife, is not excluded, but is grounded on this deeper\nmeaning. The centuries that have passed since the words were spoken,\nhave not yet brought up the Christian conscience to the full perception\nof their meaning and obligation. Too many of us still believe that\n'great doors and effectual' can be blown open with gunpowder, and regard\nthis Beatitude as a counsel of perfection, rather than as one of the\nfundamental laws of the kingdom.\n\nThe Christian who moves thus among men seeking to diffuse everywhere the\npeace with God which fills his own soul, and the peace with all men\nwhich they only who have the higher peace can preserve unbroken in their\nquiet, meek hearts, will be more or less recognised as God-like by men,\nand will have in his own heart the witness that he is called by God His\nchild. He will bear visibly the image of his Father, and will hear the\nvoice that speaks to him too as unto a son.\n\nVIII. The last Beatitude crowns all the paradoxes of the series with\nwhat sounds to flesh as a stark contradiction. The persecuted are\nblessed. The previous seven sayings have perfected the portraiture of\nwhat a child of the kingdom is to be. This appends a calm prophecy,\nwhich must have shattered many a rosy dream among the listeners, of what\nhis reception by the world will certainly turn out. Jesus is not\nsummoning men to dominion, honour, and victory; but to scorn and\nsuffering. His own crown, He knew, was first to be twisted of thorns,\nand copies of it were to wound His followers' brows. Yet even that fate\nwas blessed; for to suffer for righteousness, which is to suffer for\nHim, brings elevation of spirit, a solemn joy, secret supplies of\nstrength, and sweet intimacies of communion else unknown. The noble army\nof martyrs rose before His thoughts as He spoke; and now, eighteen\nhundred years after, heaven is crowded with those who by axe and stake\nand gibbet have entered there. 'The glory dies not, and the grief is\npast.' They stoop from their thrones to witness to us that Christ is\ntrue, and that the light affliction has wrought an eternal weight of\nglory.\n\n\nTHE FIRST BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of\n     Heaven.'--MATT. v. 2.\n\n'Ye are not come unto the mount that burned with fire, nor unto the\nsound of a trumpet, and the voice of \"awful\" words.' With such\naccompaniments the old law was promulgated, but here, in this Sermon on\nthe Mount, as it is called, the laws of the Kingdom are proclaimed by\nthe King Himself; and He does not lay them down with the sternness of\nthose written on tables of stone. No rigid 'thou shalt' compels, no iron\n'thou shalt not' forbids; but each precept is linked with a blessing,\nand every characteristic that is required is enforced by the thought\nthat it contributes to our highest good. It fitted well Christ's\ncharacter and the lips 'into which grace is poured,' that He spake His\nlaws under the guise of these Beatitudes.\n\nThis, the first of them, is dead in the teeth of flesh and sense, a\nparadox to the men who judge good and evil by things external and\nvisible, but deeply, everlastingly, unconditionally, and inwardly true.\nAll that the world commends and pats on the back, Christ condemns, and\nall that the world shrinks from and dreads, Christ bids us make our own,\nand assures us that in it we shall find our true blessing. 'The poor in\nspirit,' they are the happy men.\n\nThe reason for the benediction is as foreign to law and earthly thoughts\nas is the benediction of which it is the reason--'for theirs is the\nKingdom of Heaven.' Poverty of spirit will not further earthly designs,\nnor be an instrument for what the world calls success and prosperity.\nBut it will give us something better than earth, it will give us heaven.\nDo you think that that _is_ better than earth, and should you be\ndisposed to acquiesce in the benediction of those who may lose the\nworld's gifts but are sure to have heaven's felicities?\n\nNow, I think I shall best deal with these words by considering, most\nsimply, the fundamental characteristic of a disciple of Jesus Christ,\nand the blessed issues of that character.\n\nI. First, then, the fundamental characteristic of Christ's disciples.\n\nNow it is to be noticed that Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount,\nwhich is much briefer than Matthew's, omits the words 'in spirit,' and\nso seems at first sight to be an encomium and benediction upon the\noutward condition of earthly poverty. Matthew, on the other hand, says\n'poor in spirit.' And the difference between the two evangelists has\ngiven occasion to some to maintain that one or the other of them\nmisunderstood Christ's meaning, and modified His expression either by\nomission or enlargement. But if you will notice another difference\nbetween the two forms of the saying in the two Gospels, you will, I\nthink, find an explanation of the one already referred to; for Matthew's\nBeatitudes are general statements, 'Blessed are'; and Luke's are\naddressed to the circle of the disciples, 'Blessed are ye.' And if we\nduly consider that difference, we shall see that the general statement\nnecessarily required the explanation which Matthew's version appends to\nit, in order to prevent the misunderstanding that our Lord was setting\nso much store by earthly conditions as to suppose that virtue and\nblessedness were uniformly attached to any of these. Jesus Christ was no\nvulgar demagogue flattering the poor and inveighing against the rich.\nLuke's 'ye poor' shows at once that Christ was not speaking about all\nthe poor in outward condition, but about a certain class of such. No\ndoubt the bulk of His disciples were poor men who had been drawn or\ndriven by their sense of need to open their hearts to Him. Outward\npoverty is a blessing if it drives men to God; it is not a blessing if,\nas is often the case, it drives men from Him; or if, as is still oftener\nthe case, it leaves men negligent of Him. So that Matthew's enlargement\nis identical in meaning with Luke's condensed form, regard being had to\nthe difference in the structure of the two Beatitudes.\n\nAnd so we come just to this question--What is this poverty of spirit? I\ndo not need to waste your time in saying what it is not. To me it seems\nto be a lowly and just estimate of ourselves, our character, our\nachievements, based upon a clear recognition of our own necessities,\nweaknesses, and sins.\n\nThe 'poor in spirit.'--I wonder if it would be very reasonable for a\nmoth that flits about the light, or a gnat that dances its hour in the\nsunbeam, to be proud because it had longer wings, or prettier markings\non them, than some of its fellows? Is it much more reasonable for us to\nplume ourselves on, and set much store by, anything that we are or have\ndone? Two or three plain questions, to which the answers are quite as\nplain, ought to rip up this swollen bladder of self-esteem which we are\nall apt to blow. 'What hast thou that thou hast not received?' Where did\nyou get it? How came you by it? How long is it going to last? Is it such\na very big thing after all? You have written a book; you are clever as\nan operator, an experimenter; you are a successful student. You have\nmade a pile of money; you have been prosperous in your earthly career,\nand can afford to look upon men that are failures and beneath you in\nsocial position with a smile of pity or of contempt, as the case may be.\nWell! I suppose the distance to the nearest fixed star is pretty much\nthe same from the top of one ant-hill in a wood as from the top of the\nnext one, though the one may be a foot higher than the other. I suppose\nthat we have all come out of nothing, and are anything, simply because\nGod is everything. If He were to withhold His upholding and inbreathing\npower from any of us for one moment, we should shrivel into nothingness\nlike a piece of paper calcined in the fire, and go back into that\nvacuity out of which His fiat, and His fiat alone, called us. And yet\nhere we are, setting great store, some of us, by our qualities or\nbelongings, and thinking ever so much of ourselves because we possess\nthem, and all the while we are but great emptinesses; and the things of\nwhich we are so proud are what God has poured into us.\n\nYou think that is all commonplace. Bring it into your lives, brethren;\napply it to your estimate of yourselves, and your expectations from\nother people, and you will be delivered from a large part of the\nannoyances and the miseries of your present.\n\nBut the deepest reason for a habitual and fixed lowly opinion of\nourselves lies in a sadder fact. We are not only recipient\nnothingnesses; we have something that is our own, and that is our will,\nand we have lifted it up against God. And if a man's position as a\ndependent creature should take all lofty looks and high spirit out of\nhim, his condition as a sinful man before God should lay him flat on his\nface in the presence of that Majesty; and should make him put his hand\non his lips and say, from behind the covering, 'Unclean! unclean!' Oh,\nbrethren, if we would only go down into the depths of our own hearts,\nevery one of us would find there more than enough to make all\nself-complacency and self-conceit utterly impossible, as it ought to be,\nfor us for ever. I have no wish, and God knows I have no need, to\nexaggerate about this matter; but we all know that if we were turned\ninside out, and every foul, creeping thing, and every blotch and spot\nupon these hearts of ours spread in the light, we could not face one\nanother; we could scarcely face ourselves. If you or I were set, as they\nused to set criminals, up in a pillory with a board hanging round our\nnecks, telling all the world what we were, and what we had done, there\nwould be no need for rotten eggs to be flung at us; we should abhor\nourselves. You know that is so. I know that it is so about myself, 'and\nheart answereth to heart as in a glass.' And are we the people to perk\nourselves up amongst our fellows, and say, 'I am rich and increased with\ngoods, and have need of nothing'? Do we not know that we are poor and\nmiserable and blind and naked? Oh, brethren, the proud old saying of the\nGreeks, 'Know thyself,' if it were followed out unflinchingly and\nhonestly by the purest saint this side heaven, would result in this\nprofound abnegation of all claims, in this poverty of spirit.\n\nSo little has the world been influenced by Christ's teaching that it\nuses 'poor-spirited creature' as a term of opprobrium and depreciation.\nIt ought to be the very opposite; for only the man who has been down\ninto the dungeons of his own character, and has cried unto God out of\nthe depths, will be able to make the house of his soul a fabric which\nmay be a temple of God, and with its shining apex may pierce the clouds\nand seem almost to touch the heavens. A great poet has told us that the\nthings which lead life to sovereign power are self-knowledge,\nself-reverence, and self-control. And in a noble sense it is true, but\nthe deepest self-knowledge will lead to self-abhorrence rather than to\nself-reverence; and self-control is only possible when, knowing our own\ninability to cope with our own evil, we cast ourselves on that Lamb of\nGod who beareth away the sin of the world, and ask Him to guide and to\nkeep us. The right attitude for us is, 'He did not so much as lift up\nhis eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful\nto me a sinner.' And then, sweeter than angels' voices fluttering down\namid the blue, there will come that gracious word, 'Blessed are the poor\nin spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.'\n\nII. Turn, now, to the blessed issues of this characteristic.\n\nChrist does not say 'joyful,' 'mirthful,' 'glad.' These are poor, vulgar\nwords by the side of the depth and calmness and permanence which are\ninvolved in that great word 'blessed.' It is far more than joy, which\nmay be turbulent and is often impure. It is far deeper than any gladness\nwhich has its sources in the outer world, and it abides when joys have\nvanished, and all the song-birds of the spring are silent in the winter\nof the soul. 'Blessed are the poor ... for theirs is the Kingdom of\nHeaven.'\n\nThe bulk of the remaining Beatitudes point onward to a future; this\ndeals with the present. It does not say '_shall be_,' but '_is_ the\nKingdom.' It is an all-comprehensive promise, holding the succeeding\nones within itself, for they are but diverse aspects--modified according\nto the necessities which they supply--of that one encyclopaedia of\nblessings, the possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nNow the Kingdom of Heaven (or of God) is a state in which the will of\nGod is absolutely and perfectly obeyed. It is capable of partial\nrealisation here, and is sure of complete fulfilment hereafter. To the\nearly hearers of these words the phrase would necessarily suggest the\nidea which bulked so large in prophecy and in Judaism, of the Messianic\nKingdom; and we may well lay hold of that thought to suggest the first\nof the elements of this blessedness. That poverty of spirit is blessed\nbecause it is an indispensable condition of becoming Christ's men and\nsubjects. I believe, dear friends, for my part, that the main reason why\nso many of us are not out-and-out Christian men and women, having\nentered really into that Kingdom which is obedience to God in Christ, is\nbecause we have a superficial knowledge, or no knowledge at all, of our\nown sinful condition, and of the gravity of that fact. Intellectually, I\ntake it that an under-estimate of the universality and of the awfulness\nof sin has a great deal to do in shaping all the maimed, imperfect,\npartial views of Christ, His character and nature, which afflict the\nworld. It is the mother of most of our heresies. And, practically, if\nyou do not feel any burden, you do not care to hear about One who will\ncarry it. If you have no sense of need, the message that there is a\nsupply will fall perfectly ineffectual upon your ears. If you have not\nrealised the truth that whatever else you may be, of which you might be\nproud--wise, clever, beautiful, accomplished, rich, prosperous--you have\nthis to take all the self-conceit out of you, that you are a sinful\nman--if you have not realised that, it will be no gospel to you that\nJesus Christ has died, the just for the unjust, and lives to cleanse us.\n\nBrethren, there is only one way into the true and full possession of\nChrist's salvation, and that is through poverty of spirit. It is the\nnarrow door, like the mere low slits in the wall which in ancient times\nwere the access to some wealth-adorned palace or stately\nstructure--narrow openings that a man had to stoop his lofty crest in\norder to enter. If you have never been down on your knees before God,\nfeeling what a wicked man or woman you are, I doubt hugely whether you\nwill ever stand with radiant face before God, and praise Him through\neternity for His mercy to you. If you wish to have Christ for yours, you\nmust begin, where He begins His Beatitudes, with poverty of spirit.\n\nIt is blessed because it invites the riches of God to come and make us\nwealthy. It draws towards itself communication of God's infinite self,\nwith all His quickening and cleansing and humbling powers. Grace is\nattracted by the sense of need, just as the lifted finger of the\nlightning rod brings down fire from heaven. The heights are barren; it\nis in the valleys that rivers run, and flowers bloom. 'God resisteth the\nproud, and giveth grace to the humble.' If we desire to have Him, who is\nthe one source of all blessedness, in our hearts, as a true possession,\nwe must open the door for His entrance by poverty of spirit. Desire\nbrings fulfilment; and they who know their wants, and only they, will\ntruly long that they may be supplied.\n\nThis poverty of spirit is blessed because it is its own reward. All\nself-esteem and self-complacency are like a hedgehog, as some one has\nsaid, 'rolled up the wrong way, tormenting itself with its prickles.'\nAnd the man that is always, or often, thinking how much above A, B, or C\nhe is, and how much A, B, or C ought to offer of incense to him, is sure\nto get more cuffs than compliments, more enmity than affection; and will\nbe sore all over with wounded vanities of all sorts. But if we have\nlearned ourselves, and have departed from these lofty thoughts, then to\nbe humble in spirit is to be wise, cheerful, contented, simple, restful\nin all circumstances. You remember John Bunyan's shepherd boy, down in\nthe valley of humiliation. _Heart's-ease_ grew there, and his song was,\n'He that is low need fear no fall.' If we have this true, deep-rooted\npoverty of spirit, we shall be below the tempest, which will go clean\nover our heads. The oaks catch the lightnings; the grass and the\nprimroses are unscorched. 'The day of the Lord shall be upon all high\nthings, and the loftiness of men shall be brought low.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, blessedness is not to be found outside us. We need\nnot ask 'who shall go up into the heavens, or who shall descend into the\ndeep,' to bring it. It is in thee, if at all. Christ teaches us that the\nsources of all true blessedness are within us; there or nowhere is\nEden. If we have the tempers and dispositions set forth in these\nBeatitudes, condition matters but very little. If the source of all\nblessedness is within us, the first step to it all is poverty of spirit.\n'Be ye clothed with humility.' The Master girt Himself with the\nservant's towel, and His disciples are to copy Him who said: 'Take My\nyoke upon you.... I am meek and lowly in heart ... and ye shall find\nrest'--and is not that blessedness?--'ye shall find rest unto your\nsouls.'\n\n\nTHE SECOND BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.'--MATT.\n     v. 4.\n\nAn ordinary superficial view of these so-called Beatitudes is that they\nare simply a collection of unrelated sayings. But they are a great deal\nmore than that. There is a vital connection and progress in them. The\njewels are not flung down in a heap; they are wreathed into a chain,\nwhich whosoever wears shall have 'an ornament of grace about his neck.'\nThey are an outgrowth from a common root; stages in the evolution of\nChristian character.\n\nNow, I tried to show in the former sermon how the root of them all is\nthe poverty of spirit which is spoken of in the preceding verse; and how\nit really does lie at the foundation of the highest type of human\ncharacter, and in its very self is sure of possessing the Kingdom of\nHeaven. And now I turn to the second of these Beatitudes. Like all the\nothers, it is a paradox, for it starts from a wholly different\nconception from the common one, of what is man's chief good. If the aims\nwhich usually engross us are really the true aims of life, then there is\nno meaning in this saying of our Lord, for then it had been better not\nto sorrow at all than to sorrow and be comforted. But if the true\npurpose for which we are all gifted with this solemn gift of life is\nthat we may become 'imitators of God as dear children,' then there are\nfew things for which men should be more thankful than the sacred sorrow,\nthan which there are few instruments more powerful for creating the type\nof character which we are set here to make our own. All lofty,\ndignified, serious thinkers and poets (who for the most of men are the\nbest teachers) had spoken this same thought as well as Christ. But He\nspeaks it with a difference all His own, which deepens incalculably its\nsolemnity, and sets the truth of the otherwise sentimental saying, which\nflies often in the face of human nature, upon immovable foundations.\n\nLet me ask you, then, to look with me, in the simplest possible way, at\nthe two thoughts of our text, as to who are the mourners that are\n'blessed,' and as to what is the consolation that they receive.\n\nI. The mourners who are blessed.\n\n'Blessed are they that mourn.' Ah! that is not a universal bliss. All\nmourners are _not_ blessed. It would be good news, indeed, to a world so\nfull of miseries that men sometimes think it were better not to be, and\nholding so many wrecked and broken hearts, if every sorrow had its\nbenediction. But just as we saw in the preceding discourse that the\npoverty which Christ pronounced blessed is not mere straitness of\ncircumstances, or lack of material wealth, so here the sorrow, round the\nhead of which He casts this halo of glory, is not that which springs\nfrom the mere alteration of external circumstances, or from any natural\ncauses. The influence of the first saying runs through all the\nBeatitudes, and since it is 'the poor in spirit' who are there\npronounced happy, so here we must go far deeper than mere outward\ncondition, in order to find the ground of the benediction pronounced.\nLet us be sure, to begin with, of this, that no condition, be it of\nwealth or woe, is absolutely and necessarily good, but that the seat of\nall true blessedness lies within, in the disposition which rightly meets\nthe conditions which God sends.\n\nSo I would say, first, that the mourners whom Christ pronounces\n'blessed' are those who are 'poor in spirit.' The mourning is the\nemotion which follows upon that poverty. The one is the recognition of\nthe true estimate of our own characters and failings; the other is the\nfeeling that follows upon that recognition. The one is the prophet's\nclear-sighted 'I am a man of unclean lips'; the other is the same\nprophet's contemporaneous wail, 'Woe is me, for I am undone!'\n\nAnd surely, brethren, if you and I have ever had anything like a glimpse\nof what we really are, and have brought ourselves into the light of\nGod's face, and have pondered upon our characters and our doings in\nthat--not 'fierce' but all-searching, 'light' that flashes from Him,\nthere can be no attitude, no disposition, more becoming the best, the\npurest, the noblest of us, than that 'Woe is me, for I am undone!'\n\nOh, dear friends, if--not as a theological term, but as a clinging,\npersonal fact--we realise what sin against God is, what must necessarily\ncome from it, what aggravations His gentleness, His graciousness, His\nconstant beneficence cause, how facilely we do the evil thing and then\nwipe our lips and say, 'We have done no harm,' we should be more\nfamiliar than we are with the depths of this experience of mourning for\nsin.\n\nI cannot too strongly urge upon you my own conviction--it may be worth\nlittle, but I am bound to speak it--that there are few things which the\nso-called Christianity of this day needs more than an intenser\nrealisation of the fact, and the gravity of the fact, of personal\nsinfulness. There lies the root of the shallowness of so much that calls\nitself Christianity in the world to-day. It is the source of almost all\nthe evils under which the Church is groaning. And sure I am that if\nmillions of the people that complacently put themselves down in the\ncensus as Christians could but once see themselves as they are, and\nconnect their conduct with God's thought about it, they would get shocks\nthat would sober them. And sure I am that if they do not thus see\nthemselves here and now, they will one day get shocks that will stupefy\nthem. And so, dear friends, I urge upon you, as I would upon myself, as\nthe foundation and first step towards all the sunny heights of\nGod-likeness and blessedness, to go down, down deep into the hidden\ncorners, and see how, like the elders of Israel whom the prophet beheld\nin the dark chamber, we worship creeping things, abominable things,\nlustful things, in the recesses within. And then we shall possess more\nof that poverty of spirit, and the conscious recognition of our own true\ncharacter will merge into the mourning which is altogether blessed.\n\nNow, note, again, how such sorrow will refine and ennoble character. How\ndifferent our claims upon other men would be if we possessed this sober,\nsaddened estimate of what we really are! How our petulance, and\narrogance, and insisting upon what is due to us of respect and homage\nand deference would all disappear! How much more rigid would be our\nguard upon ourselves, our own emotions, our own inclinations and tastes!\nHow much more lenient would be our judgment of the openly and\nconfessedly naughty ones, who have gone a little further in act, but not\nan inch further in essence, than we have done! How different our\nattitude to our fellows; and how lowly our attitude to God! Such sorrow\nwould sober us, would deliver us from our lusting after the gauds of\nearth, would make us serious and reflective, would bring us to that\n'sad, wise valour' which is the conquering characteristic of humanity.\n\nThere is nothing more contemptible than the lives which, for want of\nthis self-knowledge, foam away in idle mirth, and effervesce in what the\nworld calls 'high spirits.'\n\n    'There is no music in the life\n       That sounds with idiot laughter solely,\n     There's not a string attuned to mirth\n       But has its chords in melancholy.'\n\nSo said one whose reputation in English literature is mainly that of a\nhumorist. He had learned that the only noble humanity is that in which\nthe fountains of laughter and of tears lie so close together that their\nwaters intermingle. I beseech you not to confound the 'laughter of\nfools,' which is the 'crackling of thorns under the pot,' with the true,\nsolemn, ennobling gladness which lives along with this sorrow of my\ntext.\n\nFurther, such mourning infused into the sorrow that comes from external\ndisasters will make it blessed too. As I have said, there is nothing in\nany condition of life which necessarily and universally makes it\nblessed. Though poets and moralists and Christian people have talked a\ngreat deal, and beautifully and truly, about the sanctifying and\nsweetening influences of calamity, do not let us forget that there are\nperhaps as many people made worse by their sorrows as are made better by\nthem. There is such a thing as being made sullen, hard, selfish,\nnegligent of duty, resentful against God, hopeless, by the pressure of\nour calamities. Blessed be God, there is such a thing as being drawn to\nHim by them! Then they, too, come within the sweep of this benediction\nof the Master, and outward distress is glorified into the sorrow which\nis blessed. A drop or two of this tincture, the mourning which comes\nfrom poverty of spirit, slipped into the cup of affliction, clears and\nsweetens the waters, and makes them a tonic bitter. Brethren, if our\noutward losses and disappointments and pains help us to apprehend, and\nare accepted by us in the remembrance of, our own unworthiness, then\nthese, too, are God's sweet gifts to us.\n\nOne word more. This mourning is perfectly compatible with, and indeed is\nexperienced in its purest form only along with, the highest and purest\njoy. I have been speaking about the indispensable necessity of such\nsadness for all noble life. But let us remember, on the other hand, that\nno one has so much reason to be glad as he has who, in poverty of\nspirit, has clasped and possesses the wealth of the Kingdom. And if a\nman, side by side with this profound and saddened sense of his own\nsinfulness, has not a hold of the higher thing--Christ's righteousness\ngiven to penitence and faith--then his knowledge of his own unworthiness\nis still too shallow to inherit a benediction. There is no reason why,\nside by side in the Christian heart, there should not lie--there is\nevery reason why there should lie--these two emotions, not mutually\ndiscrepant and contradictory, but capable of being blended together--the\nmourning which is blessed, and the joy which is unspeakable and full of\nglory.\n\nII. And now a word or two with regard to the consolation which such\nmourning is sure to receive.\n\nIt is not true, whatever sentimentalists may say, that all sorrow is\ncomforted and therefore blessed. It may be forgotten. Pain may sting\nless; men may betake themselves to trivial, or false, unworthy, low\nalleviations, and fancy that they are comforted when they are only\ndiverted. But the sorrow meant in my text necessarily ensures for every\nman who possesses it the consolation which follows. That consolation is\nboth present and future.\n\nAs for the present, the mourning which is based, as our text bases it,\non poverty of spirit, will certainly bring after it the consolation of\nforgiveness arid of cleansing. Christ's gentle hand laid upon us, to\ncause our guilt to pass away, and the inveterate habits of inclination\ntowards evil to melt out of our nature, is His answer to His child's\ncry, 'Woe is me, for I am undone!' And anything is more probable than\nthat Christ, hearing a man thus complain of himself before Him, should\nfail to send His swift answer.\n\nAh, brethren! you will never know how deep and ineffably precious are\nthe consolations which Christ can give, unless you have learned despair\nof self, and have come helpless, hopeless, and yet confident, to that\ngreat Lord. Make your hearts empty, and He will fill them; recognise\nyour desperate condition, and He will lift you up. The deeper down we go\ninto the depths, the surer is the rebound and the higher the soaring to\nthe zenith. It is they who have poverty of spirit, and mourning based\nupon it, and only they, who pass into the sweetest, sacredest, secretest\nrecesses of Christ's heart, and there find all-sufficient consolation.\n\nIn like manner, that consolation will come in its noblest and most\nsufficing form to those who take their outward sorrows and link them\nwith this sense of their own ill-desert. Oh, dear friends, if I am\nspeaking to any one who to-day has a burdened heart, let such be sure of\nthis, that the way to consolation lies through submission; and that the\nway to submission lies through recognition of our own sin. If we will\nonly 'lie still, let Him strike home, and bless the rod,' the rod will\nblossom and bear fruit. The water of the cataract would not flash into\nrainbow tints against the sunshine, unless it had been dashed into spray\nagainst black rocks. And if we will but say with good old Dr. Watts,\n\n    'When His strokes are felt,\n      His strokes are fewer than our crimes,\n    And lighter than our guilt,'\n\nit will not be hard to bow down and say, 'Thy will be done,' and with\nsubmission consolation will be ours.\n\nIs there anything to say about that future consolation? Very little, for\nwe know very little. But 'God Himself shall wipe away all tears from\ntheir eyes.' The hope of that consolation is itself consolation, and\nthe hope becomes all the more bright when we know and measure the depths\nof our own evil. Earth needs to be darkened in order that the magic,\nethereal beauty of the glow in the western heavens may be truly seen.\nThe sorrow of earth is the background on which the light of heaven is\npainted.\n\nSo, dear friends, be sure of this, that the one thing which ought to\nmove a man to sadness is his own character. For all other causes of\ngrief are instruments for good. And be sure of this, too, that the one\nthing which can ensure consolation adequate to the grief is bringing the\ngrief to the Lord Christ and asking Him to deal with it. His first word\nof ministry ran parallel with these two Beatitudes. When He spoke them\nHe began with poverty of spirit, and passed to mourning and consolation,\nand when He opened His lips in the synagogue of Nazareth He began with,\n'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to\npreach good tidings unto the poor, to give unto them that mourn in Zion\na diadem for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise\nfor the spirit of heaviness.'\n\n\nTHE THIRD BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are the meek! for they shall inherit the earth,'--MATT, v.\n     5.\n\nThe originality of Christ's moral teaching lies not so much in the\nnovelty of His precepts as in the new relation in which He sets them,\nthe deepening which He gives them, the motives on which He bases them,\nand the power which He communicates to keep them. Others before Him had\npronounced a benediction on the meek, but our Lord means far more than\nthey did, and, both in His description of the character and in the\npromise which He attaches to it, He vindicates the uniqueness of His\nnotion of a perfect man.\n\nThe world's ideal is, on the whole, very different from His. It inclines\nto the more conspicuous and so-called heroic virtues; it prefers a\ngreat, flaring, yellow sunflower to the violet hiding among the grass,\nand making its presence known only by fragrance. 'Blessed are the\nstrong, who can hold their own,' says the world. 'Blessed are the meek,'\nsays Christ.\n\nThe Psalmist had said it before Him, and had attached verbally the same\npromise to the word. But our Lord means more than David did when he\nsaid, 'The meek shall inherit the earth.' I ask you to think with me\nnow, first, what this Christian meekness is; then, whence it issues; and\nthen, whither it leads.\n\nI. What Christian meekness is.\n\nNow, the ordinary use of the word is to describe an attitude, or more\nproperly a disposition, in regard to men, especially in regard to those\nwho depreciate, or wrong, or harm us. But the Christian conception of\nmeekness, whilst it includes that, goes far deeper; and, primarily, has\nreference to our attitude, or rather our disposition, towards God. And\nin that aspect, what is it? Meek endurance and meek obedience, the\naccepting of His dealings, of whatever complexion they are, and however\nthey may tear or desolate our hearts, without murmuring, without\nsulking, without rebellion or resistance, is the deepest conception of\nthe meekness which Christ pronounces blessed. When sorrow comes upon us,\nunless we have something more than natural strength bestowed upon us, we\nare all but certain, like fractious children when beaten, to kick and\nplunge and scream, or to take the infliction of the sorrow as being an\naffront and an injury. If we have any claim to this benediction, we must\nearn it by accepting our sorrows; then the accepted sorrow becomes a\nsolemn joy, or almost akin thereto. The ox that kicks against the goads\nonly does two things thereby; it does not get away from them, but it\nwounds its own hocks, and it drives the sharp points deeper into the\nragged wounds. Let Him strike, dear friend, for when He strikes He cuts\nclean; and there is no poison on the edge of His knife. Meekness towards\nGod is, first, patient endurance of His Will.\n\nAnd, in reference to Him, it is, next, unquestioning docility and\nobedience. Its seat is in the will. When the will is bowed, a man is far\non his road to perfection; and the meaning of all that God does with\nus--joys and sorrows, light and darkness, when His hand gives, and when\nHis hand withdraws, as when His authoritative voice commands, and the\nsweet impulses of His love graciously constrain--is that our wills may\nbe made plastic and flexible, like a piece of wrought leather, to every\ntouch of His hand. True meekness goes far deeper down than any attitude\ntowards men. It lays hold on the sovereign will of God as our supreme\ngood, and delights in absolutely and perfectly conforming itself\nthereto.\n\nAnd then there follows, as a matter of course, that which is usually the\nwhole significance of the word, the meekness which is displayed in our\nattitude towards men. The truly meek heart remains unprovoked amidst all\nprovocation. Most men are like dogs that answer bark for bark, and only\nmake night hideous and themselves hoarse thereby. But it is our business\nto meet evil with good; and the more we are depreciated, the more we are\nharmed, the more we are circled about by malice and by scorn, the more\npatiently and persistently to love on.\n\nAh, brethren, it is easy to say and hard to do thus; but it is a plain\nChristian duty. Old-fashioned people believe that the sun puts out the\nfire. I know not how that may be, but sure I am that the one thing that\nputs out the fire of antagonism and wrath and malice in those who\ndislike or would harm us is that we should persistently shine upon, and\nperchance overcome, evil with good. Provoked, we remain, if we are truly\nmeek, masters of ourselves and calm and equable, and so are blessed in\nourselves. Meekness makes no claims upon others. Plenty of people are\nsore all over with the irritation caused by not getting what they\nconsider due respect. They howl and whine because they are not\nappreciated. Do not expect much of men. Make no demands, if for no\nbetter reason than because the more you demand the less you will get;\nand the less you seem to think to be your due, the more likely you are\nto receive what you desire.\n\nBut that is a poor, shallow ground. The true exhortation is, 'Be ye\nimitators of God, as dear children.'\n\nAh, what a different world we should live in if the people that say,\n'Oh, the Sermon on the Mount is my religion,' really made it their\nreligion! How much friction would be taken out of all our lives; how all\nsociety would be revolutionised, and earth would become a Paradise!\n\nBut there is another thing to be taken into account in the description\nof meekness. That grace, as the example of our Lord shows, harmonises\nwith undaunted bravery and strenuous resistance to the evil in the\nworld. On our own personal account, there are to be no bounds to our\npatient acceptance of personal wrong; on the world's account, there are\nto be no bounds to our militant attitude against public evils. Only let\nus remember that 'the wrath of men worketh not the righteousness of\nGod.' If contending theologians, and angry philanthropists, and social\nreformers, that are ready to fly at each other's throats for the sacred\ncause of humanity, would only remember that there is no good to be done\nexcept in this spirit, there would be more likelihood of the errors and\nmiseries of mankind being redressed than, alas! there is to-day.\nGentleness is the strongest force in the world, and the soldiers of\nChrist are to be priests, and to fight the battles of the Kingdom,\nrobed, not in jingling, shining armour or with sharp swords, nor with\nfierce and eager bitterness of controversy, but in the meekness which\novercomes. You may take all the steam-hammers that ever were forged and\nbatter at an iceberg, and, except for the comparatively little heat that\nis developed by the blows and melts some smell portion, it will be ice\nstill, though pulverised instead of whole. But let it get into the\nsilent drift of the Arctic current, and let it move quietly down to the\nsouthward, then the sunbeams smite its coldness to death, and it is\ndissipated in the warm ocean. Meekness is conqueror. 'Be not overcome of\nevil, but overcome evil with good.'\n\nII. Notice whence this Christian meekness flows.\n\nYou observe the place which this Beatitude holds in the linked series of\nthese precious sayings. It follows upon 'poverty of spirit' and\n'mourning.' And it follows, too, upon the 'comfort' which the mourner is\npromised that he will receive. It is the conduct and disposition towards\nGod and man which follows from the inward experience described in the\ntwo former Beatitudes, which had relation only to ourselves.\n\nThe only thing that can be relied upon as an adequate cold water\n_douche_ to our sparks of anger, resentment, retaliation, and rebellion\nis that we shall have passed through the previous experiences, have\nlearned a just and lowly estimate of ourselves, have learned to come to\nGod with penitence in our hearts, and have been raised by His gracious\nhand from the dust where we lay at His feet, and been welcomed to His\nembrace. He who thus has learned himself, and has felt repentance, and\nhas received the comfort of forgiveness and cleansing, he, and he only,\nis the man who, under all provocation and in any and every circumstance,\ncan be absolutely trusted to live in the spirit of meekness.\n\nIf I have found out anything of my own sin, if my eyes have been filled\nwith tears and my heart with conscious unworthiness before Him, oh,\nthen, surely I shall not kick or murmur against discipline of which the\nmain purpose is to rid me of the evil which is slaying me; but rather I\nshall recognise in the sorrows that do fall upon me, in the losses and\ndisappointments and empty places in my life and heart, one way of God's\nfulfilling His great promise, 'From all your filthiness, and from all\nyour idols, I will cleanse you.' The man who has thus learned the\npurpose, the highest purpose, of sorrow, is not likely to remonstrate\nwith God for giving him too much of the cleansing medium.\n\nIn like manner, if we have, in any real way, received for our own the\ncomfort which God gives to the penitent heart, we shall be easily\npleased with anything that He sends. And if we have measured ourselves,\nnot against ourselves, but against His law, and have found out how much\nwe owe unto our Lord, it is not likely that we shall take our brother by\nthe throat and say, 'Pay me that thou owest.' If any treat me badly, try\nto rob me, harm me, sneer at me, or turn the cold shoulder to me, who am\nI that I should resent that? Oh, brethren, we need, for our right\nrelation to our fellows, a deeper conviction of our sinfulness before\nHim. Many of us are blessed with natural tendencies to meekness, but\nthese are insufficient. Many of us seek to cultivate this grace from\ntrue and right, though not the deepest, motives. Let us reinforce them\nby that which comes from the consideration of the place which this\nBeatitude holds in the wreathed chain, and remember that 'poverty of\nspirit' and 'mourning' must precede it.\n\nNow, _there_ is a sharp test for us Christian people. If I have learned\nmyself, and have penitently received God's pardon, I shall be meek with\nGod and with man. If I am not meek with God and with man, have I\nreceived God's pardon? One great reason why so many of you Christian\npeople have so little consciousness of God's forgiving mercy, as a\nconstant joy in your lives, is because you have so little obeyed the\ncommandment, 'Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love, as God hath\nforgiven and loved us.'\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note whither this meekness leads.\n\n'They shall inherit the earth.' The words are quoted, as I have already\nsaid, from one of the psalms, and in the Psalmist's mouth they had, I\nsuppose, especial reference to Israel's peaceful possession of the\npromised land, which in that Old Dispensation was made contingent on the\npeople's faithfulness. In that aspect, and looking at this Sermon on the\nMount as the programme of the King Himself, what a bucket of cold water\nsuch words as these must have poured on the hot Messianic expectations\nof the carnal Jew! Here was a King that did not expect to win back the\nland by armed rebellion against the Roman legions, but said, 'Be meek,\nand you will truly possess it, whether there is a Pilate in the\nprocurator's house at Caesarea or not.'\n\nBut for us the words have a double reference, as all the promises\nannexed to these Beatitudes have. They apply to the present; they apply\nto the future. And that is no mere looseness of interpretation, eking\nout an insufficient verification of them here upon earth by some dim\nhopes of a future fulfilment, but it flows from the plain fact that the\ngifts which a man receives on condition of his being a true disciple are\none and the same in essence, and only differ in degree, here and\nhereafter. Circumstances alter, no doubt, and there will be much in that\nheavenly state unlike that which we experience here. But the essence of\nChristian blessedness is the same in this world and in the furthest\nreach of the shining but dim eternity beyond. And so we take the double\nreference of these words to be inherent in the facts of the case, and\nnot to be a makeshift of interpretation.\n\nThere is a present inheritance of the earth which goes, as certainly as\nthe shadow with the sunshine, with the meekness spoken of in our text.\nNot literal, of course, for it is not true that this Christian grace\nhas in it any tendency whatever to draw to itself material good of any\nsort. The world in outward possession belongs to the strong men, to the\nmen of faculty, of force and push and ambition. If you want to get\nthrough a crowd, make your elbows as sharp, and your feet upon the toes\nof your neighbours as heavy as you can, and a road will be made for you;\nbut, in the majority of cases, the meek man on the edge of the crowd\nwill stop there.\n\nNor is it true that there would be any real blessedness, though the\nearth were ours in that outward sense. For you cannot measure happiness\nby the acre, nor does an outward condition of the most full-fed\nabundance, and of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and above the\ngnawings of care, ensure to any man even the shabby blessedness that the\nworld knows, to say nothing of the solid beatitude that Christ\nproclaims.\n\nSo we must go deeper than that for the meaning of 'inherit.' Whatever\nare our circumstances, it is true that this calm, equable, submissive\nacceptance of the divine will and obedience to it, and this loving and\nunresentful attitude towards men, bring with them necessarily a\npeacefulness of heart which gets the highest good out of the modicum of\nmaterial supplies which God's providence may send us. It used to be the\nidea that gods and beatified spirits were nourished, not by the gross,\nmaterial flesh of the sacrifices, but by a certain subtle aroma and\nessence that went up in the incense smoke. So Christ's meek men do live\nand thrive, and are blessed in a true possession of earthly good, even\nthough their outward portion of it may be very small. 'Better is a\nlittle that a righteous man hath than the riches of many wicked.'\n\nAnd, beyond that, there is a further fulfilment of this promise, upon\nwhich I venture to say but very little. It seems to me very probable\nthat our Lord's words here fall in with what appears to be a general\nstream of representation throughout Scripture, to the effect that the\nperfected form of the Kingdom of God is to be realised in this renovated\nearth, when it becomes the 'new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.'\nWhether that be so or no, at all events we may fairly gather from the\nwords the thought that in the ultimate state of assimilation and\nfellowship with God and Christ to which Christian people have a right to\nlook forward, there will be an external universe on which they will\nexercise their activities, and from which they will draw as yet\nunimagined delights.\n\nBut, at all events, dear brethren, we may be sure of this blessed\nthought, that they who meekly live, knowing and mourning their sin, and\nwho meekly take to their hearts as their only hope the comfort of\nChrist's pardon and cleansing, who are meekly recipient, meekly\nenduring, meekly obedient, shall have in their hearts, even here, a\nquiet fountain of peace which shall make the wilderness rejoice and\nblossom as the rose, and hereafter shall be crowned with the lordship of\nall. Meekness overcomes, 'and he that overcometh shall inherit all\nthings.'\n\n\nTHE FOURTH BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:\n     for they shall be filled.'--MATT. v. 6.\n\nTwo preliminary remarks will give us the point of view from which I\ndesire to consider these words now. First, we have seen, in previous\nsermons, that these paradoxes of the Christian life which we call the\nBeatitudes are a linked chain, or, rather, an outgrowth from a common\nroot. Each presupposes all the preceding. Now, of course, it is a\nmistake to expect uniformity in the process of building up character,\nand stages which are separable and successive in thought may be\nsimultaneous and coalesce in fact. But none the less is our Lord here\noutlining successive stages in the growth of a true Christian life. I\nshall have more to say about the place in the series which this\nBeatitude holds, but for the present I simply ask you to remember that\nit has a background and set of previous experiences, out of which it\nsprings, and that we shall not understand the depth of Christ's meaning\nif we isolate it from these and regard it as standing alone.\n\nThen, another consideration is the remarkable divergence in this\nBeatitude from the others. The 'meek,' the 'merciful,' the 'pure in\nheart' the 'peacemakers,' have all attained to certain characteristics.\nBut this is not a benediction pronounced upon those who have attained to\nrighteousness, but upon those who long after it. Desire, which has\nreached such a pitch as to be comparable to the physical craving of a\nhungry man for food or to the imperious thirst of parched throats, seems\na strange kind of blessedness; but it is better to long for a\nhigher--though it be unattained--good than to be content with a lower\nwhich is possessed. Better to climb, though the summit be far and the\npath be steep, than to browse amongst the herds in the fat valleys.\nAspiration is blessedness when it is worthily directed. Let us, then,\nlook at these two points of this Beatitude; this divine hunger of the\nsoul, and its satisfaction which is sure.\n\nI. Note, then, the hunger which is blessed.\n\nNow 'righteousness' has come to be a kind of theological term which\npeople use without attaching any very distinct meaning to it. And it\nwould be little improvement to substitute for 'righteousness' the\nabstraction of moral conformity to the will of God. Suppose we try to\nturn the words of my text into modern English, and instead of saying,\n'Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness,' say,\nBlessed are the men and women that long more than for anything else to\nbe good. Does not that sound a little more near our daily lives than the\nwell-worn and threadbare word of my text? Righteousness is neither more\nnor less than in spirit a will submitted to God, and in conduct the\npractice of whatsoever things are noble and lovely and of good report.\n\nThe production of such a character, the aiming after the perfection of\nspirit and of conduct, is the highest aim that a man can set before him.\nThere are plenty of other hungers of the soul that are legitimate. There\nare many of them that are bracing and ennobling and elevating. It is\nimpossible not to hunger for the supply of physical necessities. It is\ngood to long for love, for wisdom. It is better to long most to be good\nmen and women. For what are we here for? To enjoy? To work? To know?\nYes! But it is not conduct, and it is still less thought, and it is\nleast of all enjoyment, in any of its forms, which is the purpose of\nlife, and ought to be our aim here upon earth. We are here to learn to\n_be_; and the cultivation and production of characters that lie parallel\nwith the will of God is the Omega of all our life in the flesh. All\nthese other things, even the highest of them, the yearning desire\n\n    'To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,\n     Beyond the furthest bounds of human thought,'\n\nought to be subordinate to this further purpose of being good men and\nwomen. All these are scaffolding; the building is a character conformed\nto God's will and assimilated to Christ's likeness.\n\nThat commends itself as a statement of man's chief end to all reasonable\nand thoughtful men in their deepest and truest moments. And so, whilst\nwe must let our desires go out on the lower levels, and seek to draw to\nourselves the various gifts that are necessary for the various phases\nand sides of our being, here is one that a man's own conscience tells\nhim should stand clearly supreme and dominant--the hunger and thirst\nafter righteousness.\n\nStill further, notice how this desire, on which our Lord pronounces His\nbenediction, comes in a series. I know that all men have latent, and\nsometimes partially and fragmentarily operative in their lives and\nmanifest on the surface, sporadic desires after goodness. The existence\nof these draws the line between man and devil. And there is no soul on\nearth which has not sometimes felt the longing to be better than it is,\nto its own consciousness, to-day. But the yearning which our Lord\nblesses comes after, and is the result of, the previous characteristics\nwhich He has described. There must be the poverty of spirit which\nrecognises our own insufficiency and unworthiness; or, to put it into\nsimpler words, we must know ourselves to be sinners. There must be the\nmourning which follows upon that revelation of ourselves; the penitence\nwhich does not wash away sin, but which makes us capable of receiving\nforgiveness. There must be the comfort which comes from pardon received;\nand there must be the yielding of ourselves to the Supreme Will, which\nis the true root of all meekness, in the face of antagonism from\ncreatures and of opposition from circumstances. When thus a man's\nself-conceit is beaten out of him, and he knows how far he is from the\npossession of any real, deep righteousness of his own; and when,\nfurther, his heart has glowed with the consciousness of forgiveness; and\nwhen, further, his will has bowed itself before the Father in heaven,\nthen there will spring in his heart a hungering and thirsting, deeper\nfar and far more certain of fruition, than ever can be realised in\nanother heart, a stranger to such experiences. Brethren, if we are ever\nto possess the righteousness which is itself blessed, it must be because\nwe have the hunger and the thirst which are sharpened and accentuated by\nprofound discovery of our own evil, lowly penitence before God, and glad\nassurance of free and full forgiveness.\n\nThen note, still further, how that which is pronounced blessed is not\nthe realisation of a desire, but the desire itself. And that is so, not\nonly because, as I said, all noble aspiration is good, fulfilled or\nunfulfilled, and aim is of more importance than achievement, and what a\nman strongly wishes is often the revelation of his deepest self, and the\nprophecy of what he will be; but Christ puts the _desire_ for a certain\nquality here as in line with the _possession_ of a number of other\nqualities attained, because He would hint to us that such a\nrighteousness as shall satisfy the immortal hunger and thirst of our\nsouls is one to be received in answer to longing, and not to be\nmanufactured by our own efforts.\n\nIt is a gift; and the condition of receiving the gift is to wish it\nhonestly, earnestly, deeply, continually. The Psalmist had a glimpse of\nthe same truth when he crowned his description of the man who was fit to\nascend the hill of the Lord, and to stand in His holy place, with, 'he\nshall _receive_ the blessing from the Lord, and _righteousness_ from the\nGod of his salvation.'\n\nOf course, in saying that the first step towards the possession of this\ndivinely bestowed and divinely blessed righteousness is not effort but\nlonging, I do not forget that the retention of it, and the working of it\ninto our characters, and out in our conduct, must be the result of our\nown continual diligence. But it is effort based on faith; and it is\nmainly, as I believe, the effort to keep open the line of communication\nbetween us and God, the great Giver, which ensures our possession of\nthis gift of God. Dear friends, the righteousness that avails for us is\nnot of our making, but of God's giving, through Jesus Christ.\n\nSo, before I pass to the other thoughts of my text, may I pause here for\na moment? 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst'--think of the\npicture that that suggests--the ravenous desire of a starving man, the\nalmost fierce longing of a parched throat. Is that a picture of the\nintensity, of the depth, of our desires to be good? Do we professing\nChristian men and women long to be delivered from our evils and to be\nclothed in righteousness, with an honesty and an earnestness and a\ncontinuity of longing which would make such words as these of my text\nanything else, if applied to us, than the bitterest irony? Oh, one looks\nout over the Christian Church, and one looks--which is more to the\npurpose--into one's own heart, and contrasts the tepid, the lazy, the\noccasional, and, I am afraid, the only half-sincere wishes to be better,\nwith the unmistakable earnestness and reality of our longings to be\nrich, or wise, or prosperous, or famous, or happy in our domestic\nrelationships, and the like. Alas! alas! that the whole current of the\ngreat river of so many professing Christians' desires runs towards earth\nand creatures, and the tiniest little trickle is taken off, like a lade\nfor a mill, from the great stream, and directed towards higher things.\nIt is hunger and thirst after righteousness that is blessed. You and I\ncan tell whether our desires deserve such a name as that.\n\nII. And now, secondly, the satisfying of this divine hunger of the soul.\n\n'They shall be filled,' says our Lord. Now all these promises appended\nto the Beatitudes have a double reference--to the certainty of the\npresent, and to the perfection of the future. That there is such a\ndouble reference may be made very obvious if we notice that the first of\nthe promises, which includes them all, and of which the others are but\naspects and phases, is cast into the present tense, whilst the remainder\nstand in the future. 'Theirs _is_ the Kingdom of Heaven,' not _shall\nbe_--'they _shall be_ comforted,' they '_shall_ inherit the earth,' and\nso on. So, then, we are warranted, indeed we are obliged, to regard this\ngreat promise in the text as having two epochs of fulfilment--one\npartially here upon earth, one complete hereafter. And these two differ,\nnot in kind, but in degree.\n\nSo then, with regard even to the present, 'they shall be filled.' Should\nnot that be a gospel to the seeking spirit of man, who knows so well\nwhat it is to be crucified with the pangs of a vain desire, and to set\nhis heart upon that which never comes into his hands? There is one\nregion in which nothing is so impossible as that any desire should be in\nvain, or any wish should be unfulfilled, and it is the region into which\nChrist points us in these great words of my text. Turn away from earth,\nwhere fulfilled desires and unfulfilled are often equally disappointed\nones. Turn away from the questionable satisfactions which come to those\nwhose hearts go out in longing for love, wisdom, wealth, transitory\nfelicity; and be sure of this, that the one longing which never will be\ndisappointed, nor, when answered, will prove to have given us but ashes\ninstead of bread, is the longing to be like God and like Christ. That\ndesire alone is sure to be fulfilled, and, being fulfilled, is sure to\nbe blessed.\n\nIt is not true that all desires after righteousness are fulfilled. Those\nwhich spring up, as I have said, in men's hearts sporadically, and apart\nfrom the background of the experiences of my text, are not always, not\noften, even partially accomplished. There are in every land, no doubt,\nsouls that thirst after righteousness, as they are able to discern it.\nAnd we are sure of this, that no such effort and longing passes\nunnoticed by Him 'who hears the young ravens when they cry,' and is not\ndeaf to the prayer of men who long to be good. But the experience of the\nbulk of us, apart from Jesus Christ, is 'the things that I would not,\nthese I do, and the things that I would, these I do not.' The hunger\nand thirst after righteousness, imperfect as they are, which are felt\nat intervals by all men, do not avail to break the awful continuity of\ntheir conduct as evil in the sight of God and of their own consciences.\nAnd so, just because every man knows something of the sting of this\ndesire after righteousness, which yet remains for the most part\nunfulfilled, the world is full of sadness. 'Oh, wretched man that I am,\nwho shall deliver me from the body of this death?' comes to be the\nexpression of the noblest amongst us. Then this great Gospel comes to\nus, and the Nazarene confidently fronts a world dimly conscious of its\nneed, and sometimes miserable because it is bad, and says: 'Ho! every\none that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.... Come to Me, and drink.'\n\nWhat right had He to stand thus and promise that every desire after\ngoodness should be fulfilled in Him? He had the right, because He\nHimself had the power and the purpose to fulfil it. For this is the very\nheart of His Gospel: that He will give to every one who asks it that\nspirit of life which was His own, and which 'shall make us free from the\nlaw of sin and death.'\n\nThus, dear friends, we have to be content to take the place of\nrecipients, and to accept, not to work out for ourselves, this\nrighteousness for which, more or less feebly, and all of us too feebly,\nwe do sometimes long. Oh, believe me, away from Him you will never\nreceive into your characters a goodness that will satisfy yourselves.\nSiberian prisoners sometimes break their chains and escape for some\ndistance. They are generally taken back and again shut up in their\ncaptivity. If we are able, as we are in some measure, to break the\nbondage of evil in ourselves, we are not able to complete our\nemancipation by any skill, effort, or act of ours. We must be content to\nreceive the blessing. There is no loom of earth which can weave, and no\nneedle that man's hands can use which can stitch together, the pure\ngarment that befits a soul. We must be content to take the robe of\nrighteousness which Jesus Christ has wrought, and to strip off, by His\nhelp, the ancient self, splashed with the filth of the world, and\nspotted by the flesh: and to 'put on the new man,' which Christ, and\nChrist alone, bestows.\n\nAs for the future fulfilment of this promise--desire will live in\nheaven, desire will dilate the spirit, the dilated spirit will be\ncapable of fuller gifts of God-likeness, and increased capacity will\nensure increased reception. Thus, through eternity, in blessed\nalternation, we shall experience the desire that brings new gifts and\nthe satisfying that produces new desires.\n\nDear friends, all that I have been trying to say in this sermon is\ngathered up into the one word--'that I may be found in Him, not having\nmy own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the\nrighteousness which is of God by faith.'\n\n\nTHE FIFTH BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.'--MATT. v.\n     7.\n\nTHE divine simplicity of the Beatitudes covers a divine depth, both in\nregard to the single precepts and to the sequence of the whole. I have\nalready pointed out that the first of the series Is to be regarded as\nthe root and germ of all the subsequent ones. If for a moment we set it\naside and consider only the fruits which are successively developed from\nit, we shall see that the remaining members of the sequence are arranged\nin pairs, of which each contains, first, a characteristic more inward\nand relating to the deep things of individual religion; and, second, a\ncharacteristic which has its field of action in our relations to men.\nFor example, the 'mourners' and the 'meek' are paired. Those who 'hunger\nand thirst after righteousness' and the 'merciful' are paired. 'The pure\nin heart' and 'the peacemakers' are paired.\n\nNow that sequence can scarcely be accidental. It is the application in\ndetail of the great principle which our Lord endorsed in its Old\nTestament form when He said that the first great commandment, the love\nof God, had a companion consequent on and like unto it, the love of our\nneighbour. Religion without beneficence, and beneficence without\nreligion, are equally maimed. The one is a root without fruit, and the\nother a fruit without a root. The selectest emotions, the lowliest\nfaith, the loftiest aspirations, the deepest consciousness of one's own\nunworthiness--these priceless elements of personal religion--are of\nlittle worth unless there are inseparably linked with them meekness,\nmercifulness, and peacemaking. 'What God hath joined together, let not\nman put asunder.' If any Christian people have neglected the service of\nman for the worship of God, they are flying in the face of Christ's\nteaching. If any antagonists of Christianity attack it on the ground\nthat it fosters such neglect, they mistake the system that they\ncriticise, and are judging it by the imperfect practice of the disciples\ninstead of by the perfect precepts of the Master.\n\nSo, then, here we have a characteristic lodged in the very heart of this\nseries of Beatitudes which refers wholly to our demeanour to one\nanother. My remarks now will, therefore, be of a very homely,\ncommonplace, and practical kind.\n\nI. Note the characteristic on which our Lord here pours out His\nblessing--Mercy.\n\nNow, like all the other members of this sequence, with the exception,\nperhaps, of the last, this quality refers to disposition much rather\nthan to action. Conduct is included, of course; but conduct only\nsecondarily. Jesus Christ always puts conduct second, as all wise and\ngreat teachers do. 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.' That is\nthe keynote of all noble morality. And none has ever carried it out more\nthoroughly than has the morality of the Gospel. It is a poor translation\nand limitation of this great word which puts in the foreground merely\nmerciful actions. The mercifulness of my text is, first and foremost, a\ncertain habitual way of looking at and feeling towards men, especially\nto men in suffering and need, and most especially to men who have proved\nthemselves bad and blameworthy. It is implied that a rigid retribution\nwould lead to severer methods of judgment and of action.\n\nTherefore the first characteristic of the merciful man is that he is\nmerciful in his judgments; not making the worst of people, no Devil's\nAdvocate in his estimates of his fellows; but, endlessly, and, as the\nworld calls it, foolishly and incredibly, gentle in his censures, and\never ready to take the charitable--which is generally the\ntruer--construction of acts and motives. That is a very threadbare\nthought, brother, but the way to invest commonplace with startling power\nis to bring it into immediate connection with our own life and conduct.\nAnd if you will try to walk by this threadbare commonplace for a week,\nI am mistaken if you do not find out that it has teeth to bite and a\nfirm grip to lay upon you. Threadbare truth is not effete until it is\nobeyed, and when we try to obey it, it ceases to be commonplace.\n\nAgain, I may remind you that this mercifulness, which is primarily an\ninward emotion, and a way, as I said, of thinking of, and of looking at,\nunworthy people, must necessarily, of course, find its manifestation in\nour outward conduct. And there will be, what I need not dilate upon, a\nreadiness to help, to give, to forgive not only offences against society\nand morality, but offences against ourselves.\n\nI need not dwell longer upon this first part of my subject. I wished\nmainly to emphasise that to begin with action, in our understanding of\nmercifulness, is a mistake; and that we must clear our hearts of\nantipathies, and antagonisms, and cynical suspicions, if we would\ninherit the blessings of our text.\n\nBefore I go further, I would point out the connection between this\nincumbent duty of mercifulness and the preceding virtue of meekness. It\nis hard enough to bear 'the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy\ntakes,' without one spot of red in the cheek, one perturbation or flush\nof anger in the heart; and to do that might task us all to the utmost.\nBut that is not all that Christ's ethics require of us. It is not\nsufficient to exercise the passive virtue of meekness; there must be the\nactive one of mercifulness. And to call for that is to lay an additional\nweight upon our consciences, and to strain and stretch still further the\nobligation under which we come. We have not done what the worst men and\nour most malicious enemies have a right to receive from us when we say,\nwith the cowardly insincerity of the world, 'I can forgive but I cannot\nforget.' That is no forgiveness, and that is no mercifulness It is not\nenough to stand still, unresisting. There must be a hand of helpfulness\nstretched out, and a gush of pity and mercifulness in the heart, if we\nare to do what our Master has done for us all, and what our Master\nrequires us to do for one another. Mercifulness is the active side of\nthe passive meekness.\n\nFurther, in a word, I would note here another thing, and that is--what a\nsad, stern, true view of the condition of men in the world results from\nnoticing that the only three qualities in regard to our relation to them\nwhich Christ sets in this sevenfold tiara of diamonds are meekness in\nthe face of hatred and injustice; mercifulness in the face of weakness\nand wickedness; peacemaking in the face of hostility and wrangling. What\na world in which we have to live, where the crowning graces are those\nwhich presuppose such vices as do these! Ah! dear friends, 'as sheep in\nthe midst of wolves' is true to-day. And the one conquering power is\npatient gentleness, which recompenses all evil with good, and is the\nsole means of transforming and thus overcoming it.\n\nPeople talk a great deal, and a good deal of it very insincerely, about\ntheir admiration for these precepts gathered together in this chapter.\nIf they would try to live them for a fortnight, they would perhaps pause\na little longer than some of them do before they said, as do people that\ndetest the theology of the New Testament, 'The Sermon on the Mount is\n_my_ religion.' Is it? It does not look very like it. At all events, if\nit is, it is a religion behind which practice most wofully limps.\n\nII. Let me ask you to look at what I have already in part referred\nto--the place in this series which Mercifulness holds.\n\nNow, of course, I know, and nothing that I say now is to be taken for a\nmoment as questioning or underestimating it, that, altogether apart from\nreligion, there is interwoven into the structure of human nature that\nsentiment of mercifulness which our Lord here crowns with His\nbenediction. But it is not that natural, instinctive sentiment--which is\npartially unreliable, and has little power apart from the reinforcement\nof higher thoughts to carry itself consistently through life--that our\nLord is here speaking about; but it is a mercifulness which is more than\nan instinct, more than a sentiment, more than the natural answer of the\nhuman heart to the sight of compassion and distress, which is, in fact,\nthe product of all that has preceded it in this linked chain of\ncharacteristics and their blessings.\n\nAnd so I ask you to recall these. 'Poor in spirit,' 'mourning,' 'meek,'\n'hungering and thirsting after righteousness'--these are the springs\nthat feed the flow of this river; and if it be not fed from them, but\nfrom the surface-waters of human sentiment and instinct, it will dry up\nlong before it has availed to refresh barren places, and to cool thirsty\nlips. And note also the preceding promises, 'theirs is the kingdom of\nheaven'; 'they shall be comforted'; 'they shall inherit the earth; 'they\nshall be filled.' These are experiences which, again, are another\ncollection of the head-waters of this stream.\n\nThat is to say, the true, lasting, reliable, conquering mercifulness has\na double source. The consciousness of our own weakness, the sadness that\ncreeps over the heart when it makes the discovery of its own sin, the\nbowed submission primarily to the will of God, and secondarily to the\nantagonisms which, in subservience to that will, we may meet in life,\nand the yearning desire for a fuller righteousness and a more lustrous\npurity in our own lives and characters--these are the experiences which\nwill make a man gentle in his judgment of his brother, and full of\nmelting charity in all his dealings with him. If I know how dark my own\nnature is, how prone to uncommitted evils, how little I have to thank\nmyself for the virtues that I have practised, which are largely due to\nmy exemption from temptation and to my opportunities, and how little I\nhave in my own self that I can venture to bring to the stern judgment\nwhich I am tempted to apply to other people, then the words of censure\nwill falter on my tongue, and the bitter construction of my brother's\nconduct and character will be muffled in silence. 'Except as to open\noutbreakings,' said one of the very saintliest of men, 'I want nothing\nof what Judas and Cain had.' If we feel this, we shall ask ourselves,\n'Who art thou that judgest another man's servant?' and the condemnation\nof others will stick in our throats when we try to utter it.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, if I, through these paths of self-knowledge, and\nlowly estimate of self, and penitent confession of sin, and flexibility\nof will to God, and yearning, as for my highest food and good, after a\nrighteousness which I feel I do not possess, have come into the position\nin which my poverty is, by His gift, made rich, and the tears are wiped\naway from off my face by His gracious hand, and a full possession of\nlarge blessings bestowed on my humble will, and the righteousness for\nwhich I long imparted to me, shall I not have learned how divine a thing\nit is to give to the unworthy, and so be impelled to communicate what I\nhave already received? 'Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved\nchildren; and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.' They only are\ndeeply, through and through, universally and always merciful who have\nreceived mercy. The light is reflected at the same angle as it falls,\nand the only way by which there can come from our faces and lives a\nglory that shall lighten many dark hearts, and make sunshine in many a\nshady place, is that these hearts shall have turned full to the very\nfountain itself of heavenly radiance, and so 'have received of the Lord\nthat which also' they 'deliver' unto men.\n\nAnd so, brethren, there are two plain, practical exhortations from these\nthoughts. One is, let us Christian people learn the fruits of God's\nmercy, and be sure of this, that our own mercifulness in regard to men\nis an accurate measure of the amount of the divine mercy which we have\nreceived. The other is, let all of us learn the root of man's mercy to\nmen. There is plenty, of a sort, of philanthropy and beneficent and\nbenevolent work and feeling to-day, entirely apart from all perception\nof, and all faith in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in so far as the\nindividuals who exercise that beneficence are concerned. I, for my part,\nam narrow enough to believe that the streams of non-Christian\ncharitableness, which run in our land and in other lands to-day, have\nbeen fed from Christ's fountain, though the supply has come underground,\nand bursts into light apparently unconnected with its source. If there\nhad been no New Testament there would have been very little of the\nbeneficence which flouts the New Testament to-day. Historically, it is\nthe great truths, which we conveniently summarise as being evangelical\nChristianity, that have been mother to the new charity that, since\nChrist, has been breathed over the world. I, for my part, believe that\nif you strike out the doctrine of universal sinfulness, if you cover\nover the Cross of Christ, if you do not find in it the manifestation of\na God who is endlessly merciful to the most unworthy, you have destroyed\nthe basis on which true and operative benevolence will rest. So then,\ndear brethren, let us all seek to get a humbler and a truer conception\nof what we ourselves are, and a loftier and truer faith of what God in\nChrist is; and then to remember that if we have these, we are bound to,\nand we shall, show that we have them, by making that which is the anchor\nof our hope the pattern of our lives.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the requital, 'They shall obtain mercy.'\n\nNow, it is a wretched weakening of that great thought to suppose that it\nmeans that if A. is merciful to B., B. will be merciful to A.\nThat is sometimes true, and sometimes it is not. It does not so very\nmuch matter whether it is true or not; that is not what Jesus Christ\nmeans. All these Beatitudes are God's gifts, and this is God's gift too.\nIt is His mercy which the merciful man obtains.\n\nBut you say: 'Have you not just been telling us that this sense and\nexperience of God's mercy must precede my mercy, and now you say that my\nmercy must precede God's?' No; I do not say that it must precede it; I\ndo say that my mercifulness is, as it were, lodged between the segments\nof a golden circle, and has on one side the experience of the divine\nmercy which quickens mine by thankfulness and imitation; on the other\nside, the larger experience of the divine mercy which follows upon my\nwalking after the example of my Lord.\n\nThis is only one case of the broad general principle, 'to him that hath\nshall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even that\nwhich he hath.' Salvation is no such irreversible gift as that once\nbestowed a man can go on anyhow and it will continue; but it is given in\nsuch a fashion as that, for its retention, and still more for its\nincrease, there must be a certain line of feeling and of action.\n\nOur Lord does not mean to say, of course, that this one isolated member\nof a series carries with it the whole power of bringing down upon a man\nthe blessings which are only due to the combination of the whole series,\nbut that it stands as one of that linked band which shall receive the\nblessing from on high. And the blessing here is stated in accordance\nwith the particular Grace in question, according to that great law of\nretaliation which brings life unto life and death unto death.\n\nNo man who, having received the mercy of God, lives harsh, hard,\nself-absorbed, implacable, and uncommunicative, will keep that mercy in\nany vivid consciousness or to any blessed issue. The servant took his\nfellow-servant by the throat, and said, 'Pay me that thou owest,' and\nhis master said, 'Deliver him to the tormentors until he pay the\nuttermost farthing.' You receive your salvation as a free gift; you keep\nit by feelings and conduct correspondent to the gift.\n\nThough benevolence which has an eye to self is no benevolence, it is\nperfectly legitimate, and indeed absolutely necessary, that whilst the\nmotive for mercifulness is mercy received, the encouragement to\nmercifulness should be mercy still to be given. 'Walk in love, as Christ\nalso hath loved us'; and when you think of your own unworthiness, and of\nthe great gifts which a gracious God has given, let these impel you to\nmove amongst men as copies of God, and be sure that you deepen your\nspiritual life, not only by meditation and by faith, but by practical\nwork, and by showing towards all men mercy like the mercy which God has\nbestowed upon you.\n\n\nTHE SIXTH BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'--MATT. v.\n     8.\n\nAT first hearing one scarcely knows whether the character described in\nthis great saying, or the promise held out, is the more inaccessible to\nmen. 'The pure in heart': who may they be? Is there one of us that can\nimagine himself possessed of a character fitting him for the vision of\nGod, or such as to make him bear with delight that dazzling blaze? 'They\nshall see God,' whom 'no man hath seen at any time, nor can see.' Surely\nthe requirement is impossible, and the promise not less so. But does\nJesus Christ mock us with demands that cannot be satisfied, and dangle\nbefore us hopes that can never be realised? There have been many\nmoralists and would-be teachers who have done that. What would be the\nuse of saying to a man lying on a battlefield sore wounded, and with\nboth legs shot off, 'If you will only get up and run, you will be safe'?\nWhat would be the use of telling men how blessed they would be if they\nwere the opposite of what they are? But that is not Christ's way.\n\nThese words, lofty and remote as they seem, are in truth amongst the\nmost hopeful and radiant that ever came from even His lips. For they\noffer the realisation of an apparently impossible character, they\npromise the possession of an apparently impossible vision; and they\nsoothe fears, and tell us that the sight from which, were it possible,\nwe should sometimes fain shrink, is the source of our purest gladness.\nSo there are three things, it seems to me, worth our notice in these\ngreat words--How hearts can be made pure; how the pure heart can see\nGod; and how the sight can be simple blessedness.\n\nI. How hearts can be made pure.\n\nNow, the key which has unlocked for us, in previous sermons, the\ntreasures of meaning in these Beatitudes, is especially necessary here.\nFor, as I have said, if you take this to be a mere isolated saying, it\nbecomes a mockery and a pain. But if you connect it, as our Lord would\nhave us connect it, with all the preceding links of this wreathed chain\ndescribing the characteristics of a devout soul, then it assumes an\naltogether different appearance. 'The pure in heart' are they who have\nexercised and received the previous qualifications and bestowments from\nGod. That is to say, there must precede all such purity as is capable of\nthe divine vision, the poverty of spirit which recognises its true\ncondition, the mourning which rightly feels the gravity and awfulness of\nthat condition, the desire for its opposite, which will never be the\n'hunger and thirst' of a soul, except it is preceded by a profound sense\nof sin and the penitence that ensues thereupon.\n\nBut when these things have gone before, and when they have been\naccompanied, as they surely will be, with the results that flow from\nthem without an interval of time--viz. enrichment with possession of the\nkingdom, the comforting and drying of the tears of penitence, and the\npossession of a righteousness bestowed because it is desired, and not\nwon because it is worked for--then, and only then, will the heart be\npurged and defecated from its evils and its self-regard, and its eyes\nopened and couched and strengthened to behold undazzled the eternal\nlight of God. The word of my text, standing alone, ministers despair.\nRegarded where Christ set it, as one of the series of characteristics\nwhich He has been describing, it kindles the brightest and surest hope.\n\n'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' No; but\nGod can change them; and the implication of my text, regarded in its due\nrelation to these other Beatitudes, is just that the requisite purity is\nnot of man's working, but is God's gift. The same truth which here\nresults from the study of the place of our text in this series is\ncondensed into a briefer, but substantially equivalent, form in the\nsaying of another part of the New Testament, about 'purifying their\nhearts by faith.'\n\nDear brethren, we come back to the old truth--all a man's hope of, and\neffort after, reformation and self-improvement must begin with the\nconsciousness of sin, the lament over it, the longing for divine\ngoodness, the opening of the heart for the reception thereof; and only\nthen can we rise to these serene heights of purity of heart. This, and\nthis alone, is the way by which 'a clean thing' can be brought 'out of\nan unclean one.' and men stained and foul with evil, and bound under the\nchains of that which is the mother of all evil, the undue making\nthemselves the centres of their lives, can be washed and cleansed and\nemancipated, and God be made the end and the aim, the motive and the\ngoal, the power and the reward, of all their work. Righteousness is a\ngift to begin with, and it is a gift bestowed on condition of\n'repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.' We all have\nlongings after purity, suppressed, dashed, contradicted a thousand times\nin our lives day by day, but there they are; and the only way by which\nthey can be fully satisfied is when we go with our foul hands, empty as\nwell as foul, and lift them up to God, and say, 'Give what Thou\ncommandest, even the clean heart, and we shall be clean.'\n\nBut then, do not let us forget, either, that this gift bestowed not once\nand for ever, but continuously if there be continuous desire, is to be\nutilised, appropriated, worked into our characters, and worked out in\nour lives, by our own efforts, as well as by our own faith. 'Having,\ntherefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from\nall filthiniess of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of\nthe Lord.' 'Every man that hath this' gift bestowed, 'purifieth\n_himself_ even as He is pure.' He that brings to us the gift of\nregeneration, by which we receive the new nature which is free from sin,\ncalls to each of us as He presents to us the basin with the cleansing\nwater, 'Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings; ...\ncease to do evil, learn to do well.' 'What God hath joined together let\nnot man put asunder,' viz. the act of faith by which we receive, the act\nof diligence by which we use, the purifying power.\n\nII. Note how the pure heart sees God.\n\nOne is tempted to plunge into mystical depths when speaking upon such a\ntext as this, but I wish to resist the temptation now, and to deal with\nit in a plain, practical fashion. Of course I need not remind you, or\ndo more than simply remind you, that the matter in question here is no\nperception by sense of Him who is invisible, nor is it, either, an\nadequate and direct knowledge and comprehension of Him who is infinite,\nand whom a man can no more comprehend than he can stretch his short arms\nround the flaming orb of the central sun. But still, there is a relation\nto God possible for sinful men when they have been purified through the\nfaith that is in Jesus Christ, which is so direct, so immediate, that it\ndeserves the name of vision; and which, as I believe, is the ground of a\nfirmer certitude, and of a no less clear apprehension, than is the sense\nfrom which the name is borrowed. For the illusions of sense have no\nplace in the sight which the pure heart has of its Father, God.\n\nOnly, remember that here, and in the interpretation of all such\nScriptural words, we have ever to be guided and governed by the great\nprinciple which our Lord laid down, under very solemn circumstances,\nwhen He said: 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' Jesus Christ,\nwhose name from eternity is the Word, is, from eternity to eternity,\nthat which the name indicates--viz. the revealing activity of the\neternal God. And, as I believe, wherever there have been kindled in\nmen's hearts, either by the contemplation of nature and providence, or\nby the intuitions of their own spirits, any glints or glimpses of a God,\nthere has been the operation of 'the Light that lighteth every man that\ncometh into the world.' And far beyond the limits of historical\nRevelation within Israel, as recorded in Scripture, that Eternal Word\nhas been unveiling, as men's dim eyes were capable of perceiving it, the\nlight of the knowledge of the glory of God. But for us who stand in the\nfull blaze of that historical manifestation in the character and work of\nJesus Christ our Saviour, our vision of God is neither more nor less\nthan the apprehension and the realisation of Christ as 'God manifest in\nthe flesh.'\n\nWhether you call it the vision of God, or whether you call it communion\nwith God in Jesus Christ, or whether you fall back upon the other\nmetaphor of God dwelling in us and we dwelling in God, it all comes to\nthe same thing, the consciousness of His presence, the realisation of\nHis character, the blessed assurance of loving relations with Him, and\nthe communion in mind, heart, will, and conduct, with God who has come\nnear to us all in Jesus Christ.\n\nNow, I need not remind you, I suppose, that for such a realisation and\nactive, real communion, purity of heart is indispensable. That is no\narbitrary requirement, but inherent, as we all know, in the very nature\nof the case. If we think of what He is, we shall feel that only the pure\nin heart can really pass into loving fellowship with Him. 'How can two\nwalk together except they be agreed?' And if we reflect upon the history\nof our own feelings and realisation of God's presence with us, we shall\nsee that impurity always drew a membrane over the eye of our souls, or\ncast a mist of invisibility over the heavens. The smallest sin hides God\nfrom us. A very, very little grain of dye stuff will darken miles of a\nriver, and make it incapable of reflecting the blue sky and the\nsparkling stars. The least evil done and loved blurs and blots, if it\ndoes not eclipse, for us the doers the very Sun of Righteousness\nHimself. No sinful men can walk in the midst of that fiery furnace and\nnot be consumed. 'The pure in heart'--and only they--'shall see God.'\n\nNor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this, as in all these\nBeatitudes, the germinal fulfilment in the present life is not to be\nparted off by a great gap from the perfect fulfilment in the life which\nis to come. And so I do not dwell so much on the differences, great and\nwonderful as these must necessarily be, between the manner of\napprehension and communion with God which it is reserved for heaven to\nbestow upon us, and the manner of those which we may enjoy here; but I\nrather would point to the blessed thought that in essence they are one,\nhowever in degree they may be different. No doubt, changed\ncircumstances, new capacities, the withdrawal of time and sense, the\ndropping away of the veil of flesh, which is the barrier between us and\nthe unseen order of things in which 'we live and move and have our\nbeing,' will induce changes and progresses in the manner and in the\ndegree of that vision about which it would be folly for us to speak. If\nthere were anything here with which we could compare the state of the\nblessed in heaven, in so far as it differs from their state on earth, we\ncould form some conception of these differences; but if there were\nanything here with which we could compare it, it would be less glorious\nthan it is. It is well that we should have to say, 'Eye hath not seen,\nnor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things\nthat God hath prepared.' So let us be thankful that 'it doth not yet\nappear what we shall be'; and let us never allow our ignorance of the\nmanner to make us doubt or neglect the fact, seeing that we know 'that\nwhen He shall appear ... we shall see Him as He is.'\n\nIII. Lastly, notice how this sight brings blessedness.\n\nThere is nothing else that will 'satisfy the eye with seeing.' The\nvision of God, even in that incipient and imperfect form which is\npossible upon earth, is the one thing that will calm our distractions,\nthat will supply our needs, that will lift our lives to a level of\nserene power and blessedness, unattainable by any other way. Such a\nsight will dim all the dazzling illusions of earth, as, when the sun\nleaps into the heavens, the stars hide their faces and faint into\ninvisibility. It will make us lords of ourselves, masters of the world,\nkings over time and sense and the universe. Everything will be different\nwhen 'earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with\nGod.' That is what is possible for a Christian holding fast by Jesus\nChrist, and in Him having communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit.\n\nBrethren, I venture to say no word about the blessedness of that future.\nHeaven's golden gates keep their secret well. Even the purest joys of\nearth, about which poets have sung for untold centuries, after all\nsinging need to be tasted before they are conceived of; and all our\nimaginings about the blessedness yonder is but like what a chrysalis\nmight dream in its tomb as to the life of the radiant winged creature\nwhich it would one day become. Let us be content to be ignorant, and\nbelieve with confidence that we shall find that the vision of God is the\nheaven of heavens.\n\nWe shall owe that eternal vision to the eternal Revealer; for, as I\nbelieve, Scripture teaches us that it is only in Him that the glorified\nsaints see the Father, as it is only in Him that here on earth we have\nthe vision of God. That sight is not, like the bodily sense to which it\nis compared, a far-off perception of an ungrasped brightness, but it is\nthe actual possession of what we behold. We see God when we have God.\nWhen we have God we have enough.\n\nBut I dare not close without one other word. There _is_ a vision of God\npossible to an impure heart, in which there is no blessedness. There\ncomes a day in which 'they shall call upon the rocks to fall and cover\nthem from the face of Him that sits upon the throne.' The alternative is\nbefore each of us, dear friends--either 'every eye shall see Him, and\nthey also which pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail\nbecause of Him'; or, 'I shall behold Thy face in righteousness. I shall\nbe satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' If we cry, 'Create a\nclean heart in me, O God!' He will answer, 'I will give you a new heart,\nand take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a\nheart of flesh, and I will pour clean water upon you, and ye shall be\nclean.'\n\n\nTHE SEVENTH BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children\n     of God.' MATT. v. 9.\n\nThis is the last Beatitude descriptive of the character of the\nChristian. There follows one more, which describes his reception by the\nworld. But this one sets the top stone, the shining apex, upon the whole\ntemple-structure which the previous Beatitudes had been gradually\nbuilding up. You may remember that I have pointed out in previous\nsermons how all these various traits of the Christian life are deduced\nfrom the root of poverty of spirit. You may also remember how I have had\noccasion to show that if we consider that first Beatitude, 'Blessed are\nthe poor in spirit,' as the root and mother of all the rest, the\nremainder are so arranged as that we have alternately a grace which\nregards mainly the man himself and his relations to God, and one which\nalso includes his relations to man.\n\nNow there are three of these which look out into the world, and these\nthree are consummated by this one of my text. These are 'the meek,'\nwhich describes a man's attitude to opposition and hatred; 'the\nmerciful,' which describes his indulgence in judgment and his\npitifulness in action; and 'the peacemakers.' For Christian people are\nnot merely to bear injuries and to recompense them with pity and with\nlove, but they are actively to try to bring about a wholesomer and purer\nstate of humanity, and to breathe the peace of God, which passes\nunderstanding, over all the janglings and struggles of this world.\n\nSo, I think, if we give a due depth of significance to that name\n'peacemaker,' we shall find that this grace worthily completes the whole\nlinked series, and is the very jewel which clasps the whole chain of\nChristian and Christ-like characteristics.\n\nI. How are Christ's peacemakers made?\n\nNow there are certain people whose natural disposition has in it a fine\nelement, which diffuses soothing and concord all around them. I dare say\nwe all have known such--perhaps some good woman, without any very\nshining gifts of intellect, who yet dwelt in such peace of heart herself\nthat conflict and jangling were rebuked in her presence. And there are\nother people who love peace, and seek after it in the cowardly fashion\nof letting things alone; whose 'peacemaking' has no nobler source than\nhatred of trouble, and a wish to let sleeping dogs lie. These, instead\nof being peacemakers, are war-makers, for they are laying up materials\nfor a tremendous explosion some day.\n\nBut it is a very different temper that Jesus Christ has in view here,\nand I need only ask you to do again what we have had occasion to do in\nthe previous sermons of this series--to link this characteristic with\nthose that go before it, of which it is regarded as being the bright and\nconsummate flower and final outcome. No man can bring to others that\nwhich he does not possess. Vainly will he whose own heart is torn by\ncontending passions, whose own life is full of animosities and\nunreconciled outstanding causes of alienation and divergence between him\nand God, between him and duty, between him and himself, ever seek to\nshed any deep or real peace amongst men. He may superficially solder\nsome external quarrels, but that is not all that Jesus Christ means. His\npeacemakers are created by having passed through all the previous\nexperiences which the preceding verses bring out. They have learned the\npoverty of their own spirits. They have wept tears, if not real and\nliteral, yet those which are far more agonising--tears of spirit and\nconscience--when they have thought of their own demerits and foulnesses.\nThey have bowed in humble submission to the will of God, and even to\nthat will as expressed by the antagonisms of man. They have yearned\nafter the possession of a fuller and nobler righteousness than they have\nattained. They have learned to judge others with a gentle judgment\nbecause they know how much they themselves need it, and to extend to\nothers a helping hand because they are aware of their own impotence and\nneed of succour. They have been led through all these, often painful,\nexperiences into a purity of heart which has been blessed by some\nmeasure of vision of God; and, having thus been equipped and prepared,\nthey are fit to go out into the world and say, in the presence of all\nits tempests, 'Peace! be still.' Something of the miracle-working energy\nof the Master whom they serve will be shed upon those who serve Him.\n\nBrethren, the peacemaker who is worthy of the name must have gone\nthrough these deep spiritual experiences. I do not say that they are to\ncome in regular stages, separable from each other. That is not the way\nin which a character mounts towards God. It does so not by a flight of\nsteps, at distinctly different elevations, but rather by an ascending\nslope. And, although these various Christian graces which precede that\nof my text are separable in thought, and are linked in the fashion that\nour Lord sets forth in experience, they may be, and often are,\ncontemporaneous.\n\nBut whether separated from one another in time or not, whether this\nlife-preparation, of which the previous verses give us the outline, has\nbeen realised drop by drop, or whether it has been all flooded on to the\nsoul at once, as it quite possibly has, in some fashion or other it must\nprecede our being the sort of peacemakers that Christ desires and\nblesses.\n\nThere is only one more point that I would make here before I go on, and\nthat is, that it is well to notice that the climax of Christian\ncharacter, according to Jesus Christ Himself, is found in our relations\nto men, and not in our relation to God. Worship of heart and spirit,\ndevout emotions of the sacredest, sweetest, most hallowed and hallowing\nsort, are absolutely indispensable, as I have tried to show you. But\nequally, if not more, important is it for us to remember that the purest\ncommunion with God, and the selectest emotional experiences of the\nChristian life, are meant to be the bases of active service; and that,\nif such service does not follow these, there is good reason for\nsupposing that these are spurious, and worth very little. The service of\nman is the outcome of the love of God. He who begins with poverty of\nspirit is perfected when, forgetting himself, and coming down from the\nmountain-top, where the Shekinah cloud of the Glory and the audible\nvoice are, he plunges into the struggles of the multitude below, and\nfrees the devil-ridden boy from the demon that possesses him. Begin by\nall means with poverty of spirit, or you will never get to\nthis--'Blessed are the peacemakers.' But see to it that poverty of\nspirit leads to the meekness, the mercifulness, the peace-bringing\ninfluence which Christ has pronounced blessed.\n\nII. What is the peace which Christ's peacemakers bring?\n\nThis is a very favourite text with people that know very little of the\ndepths of Christianity. They fancy that it appeals to common sense and\nmen's natural consciences, apart altogether from minutenesses of\ndoctrine or of Christian experience. They are very much mistaken. No\ndoubt there is a surface of truth, but only a surface, in the\napplication that is generally given to these words of our text, as if it\nmeant nothing more than 'he is a good man that goes about and tries to\nmake contending people give up their quarrels, and produces a healing\natmosphere of tranquillity wherever he goes.' That is perfectly true,\nbut there is a great deal more in the text than that. If we consider the\nScriptural usage of this great word 'peace,' and all the ground that it\ncovers in human experience; if we remember that it enters as an element\ninto Christ's own name, the 'Peace-Bringer,' the 'Prince of Peace'; and\nif we notice, as I have already done, the place which this Beatitude\noccupies in the series, we shall be obliged to look for some far deeper\nmeaning before we can understand the sweep of our Lord's intention here.\n\nI do not think that I am going one inch too far, or forcing meanings\ninto His words which they are not intended to bear, when I say that the\nfirst characteristic of the peace, which His disciples have been passed\nthrough their apprenticeship in order to fit them to bring, is the peace\nof reconciliation with God. The cause of all the other fightings in the\nworld is that men's relation to the Father in heaven is disturbed, and\nthat, whilst there flow out from Him only amity and love, these are met\nby us with antagonism often, with opposition of will often, with\nalienation of heart often, and with indifference and forgetfulness\nalmost uniformly. So the first thing to be done to make men at peace\nwith one another and with themselves is to rectify their relation to\nGod, and bring peace there.\n\nWe often hear in these days complaints of Christian Churches and\nChristian people because they do not fling themselves, with sufficient\nenergy to please the censors, into movements which are intended to bring\nabout happier relations in society. The longest way round is sometimes\nthe shortest way home. It does not belong to all of us Christians, and I\ndoubt whether it belongs to the Christian Church as such at all, to\nfling itself into the movements to which I have referred. But if a man\ngo and carry to men the great message of a reconciled and a reconciling\nGod manifest in Jesus Christ, and bringing peace between men and God, he\nwill have done more to sweeten society and put an end to hostility than\nI think he will be likely to do by any other method. Christian men and\nwomen, whatever else you and I are here for, we are here mainly that we\nmay preach, by lip and life, the great message that in Christ is our\npeace, and that God 'was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.'\n\nWe are not to leave out, of course, that which is so often taken as\nbeing the sole meaning of the great word of my text. There is much that\nwe are all bound to do to carry the tranquillising and soothing\ninfluences of Gospel principles and of Christ's example into the\nlittlenesses of daily life. Any fool can stick a lucifer match into a\nhaystack and make a blaze. It is easy to promote strife. There is a\nmalicious love of it in us all; and ill-natured gossip has a great deal\nto do in bringing it about. But it takes something more to put the fire\nout than it did to light it, and there is no nobler office for\nChristians than to seek to damp down all these devil's flames of envy\nand jealousy and mutual animosity. We have to do it, first, by making\nvery sure that we do not answer scorn with scorn, gibes with gibes, hate\nwith hate, but 'seek to overcome evil with good.' It takes two to make a\nquarrel, and your most hostile antagonist cannot break the peace unless\nyou help him. If you are resolved to keep it, kept it will be.\n\nMay I say another word? I think that our text, though it goes a good\ndeal deeper, does also very plainly tell us Christian folk what is our\nduty in relation to literal warfare. There is no need for me to discuss\nhere the question as to whether actual fighting with armies and swords\nis ever legitimate or not. It is a curious kind of Christian duty\ncertainly, if it ever gets to be one. And when one thinks of the\nmilitarism that is crushing Europe and driving her ignorant classes to\nwild schemes of revolution; and when one thinks of the hell of\nbattlefields, of the miseries of the wounded, of mourning widows, of\nruined peaceful peasants, of the devil's passions that war sets loose,\nsome of us find it extremely hard to believe that all that is ever in\naccordance with the mind of Christ. But whether you agree with me in\nthat or no, surely my text points to the duty of the Christian Church to\ntake up a very much more decisive position in reference to the military\nspirit than, alas! it ever has done. Certainly it does seem to be not\nvery obviously in accordance with Christ's teachings that men-of-war\nshould be launched with a religious service, or that _Te Deums_ should\nbe sung because thousands have been killed. It certainly does seem to be\nsomething like a satire on European Christianity that one of the chief\nlessons we have taught the East is that we have instructed the Japanese\nhow to use Western weapons to fight their enemies. Surely, surely, if\nChristian churches laid to heart as they ought these plain words of the\nMaster, they would bring their united influence to bear against that\ndemon of war, and that pinchbeck, spurious glory which is connected with\nit. 'Blessed are the peacemakers': let us try to earn the benediction.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the issue of this peacemaking.\n\n'They shall be called the sons of God.' Called? By whom? Christ does not\nsay, but it should not be difficult to ascertain. It seems to me that to\nsuppose that it is by men degrades this promise, instead of making it\nthe climax of the whole series. Besides, it is not true that if a\nChristian man lives as I have been trying to describe, protesting\nagainst certain evils, trying to diffuse an atmosphere of peace round\nabout him; and, above all, seeking to make known the Name of the great\nPeacemaker, men will generally call him a 'son of God.' The next verse\nbut one tells us what they will call him. 'Blessed are ye when men shall\nrevile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you\nfalsely for My sake.' They are a great deal more likely to have stones\nand rotten eggs flung at them than to be pelted with bouquets of scented\nroses of popular approval. No! no! it is not man's judgment that is\nmeant here. It matters very little what men call us. It matters\neverything what God calls us. It is He who will call them 'sons of God.'\nSo the Apostle John thought that Christ meant, for he very beautifully\nand touchingly quotes this passage when he says, 'Beloved! behold what\nmanner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be\ncalled the sons of God.'\n\nGod's calling is a recognition of men for what they are. God owns the\nman that lives in the fashion that we have been trying to outline--God\nowns him for His child; manifestly a son, because he has the Father's\nlikeness. 'Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children, and\nwalk in love.' God in Christ is the first Peacemaker, and they who go\nabout the world proclaiming His peace and making peace, bear the image\nof the heavenly, and are owned by God as His sons.\n\nWhat does that owning mean? Well, it means a great deal which has yet to\nbe disclosed, but it means this, too, that the whisper of the Voice\nwhich owns us for children will be heard by ourselves. The Spirit which\ncries, 'Abba, Father!' will open our ears to hear Him say, 'Thou art My\nbeloved Son.' Or, to put it into plain English, there is no surer way by\nwhich we can come to the calm, happy, continual consciousness of being\nthe children of God than by this living like Him, to spread the peace\nof God over all hearts.\n\nI have said in former sermons that all these promises, which are but the\nnatural outcome of the characteristics to which they are attached, have\na double reference, being fulfilled in germ here, and in maturity\nhereafter. Like the rest, this one has that double reference. For the\nconsciousness, here and now, that we are the children of God is but, as\nit were, the morning twilight of what shall hereafter be an typesetting\nmeridian sunshine. What depths of divine assimilation, what mysteries of\ncalm, peaceful, filial fellowship, what riches beyond count of divine\ninheritance, lie in the name of son, the possession of these alone can\ntell. For the same Apostle, whose comment upon these words we have\nalready quoted, goes on to say, 'It doth not yet appear what we shall\nbe.'\n\nOnly we have one assurance, wide enough for all anticipation, and firm\nenough for solid hope: 'If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and\njoint-heirs with Christ.' He must make us sons before we can be called\nsons of God. He must give us peace with God, with ourselves, with men,\nwith circumstances, before we can go forth effectually to bring peace to\nothers. If He has given us these good things, He has bound us to spread\nthem. Let us do so. And if our peace ever is spoken in vain as regards\nothers, it will come back to us again; and we shall be kept in perfect\npeace, even in the midst of strife, until we enter at last into the city\nof peace and serve the King of Peace for ever.\n\n\nTHE EIGHTH BEATITUDE\n\n     'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for\n      theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'--MATT. v. 10.\n\nWe have seen the description of the true subjects of the kingdom growing\ninto form and completeness before our eyes in the preceding verses,\nwhich tell us what they are in their own consciousness, what they are in\ntheir longings, what they become in inward nature by God's gift of\npurity, how they move among men as angels of God, meek, merciful,\npeace-bringing. Is anything more needed for complete portraiture, any\nadded touch to the picture? Yes--what the world is to them, what are its\nwages for such work, what its perception of such characters. Their\nrelations to it are those of peace-bringers, reconcilers; its to them\nare those of hostility and dislike. Blessed are the persecuted for\nrighteousness' sake.\n\nI take these words to be as universal and permanent in their application\nas any which have preceded them. This characteristic is, like all the\nothers, the result of those which go before it and presupposes their\ncontinuous operation. The benediction which is attached is not an\narbitrary promise, but stands in as close a relation of consequence to\nthe characteristic as do the others. And it is marked out as the last in\nthe series by being a repetition of the first, to express the idea of\ncompleteness, a rounded whole; to suggest that all the others are but\nelements of this, and that the initial blessing given to the poor in\nspirit is identical with that which is the reward of the highest\nChristian character, the one possessing implicitly what the other has in\nfull development.\n\n1. The world's recompense to the peace-bringers.\n\nIt may be thought that this clause, at all events, has reference to\nspecial epochs only, and especially to the first founding of\nChristianity. Such a reference, of course, there is. And very\nremarkable is it how clearly and honestly Christ always warned would-be\ndisciples of what they would earn in this world by following Him.\n\nBut He seems to take especial pains to show that He here proclaims a\nprinciple of equal generality with the others, by separating the\napplication of it to His immediate hearers which follows in the next\nverse, from the universal statement in the text. Their individual\nexperience was but to illustrate the general rule, not to exhaust it.\nAnd you remember how frequently the same thought is set forth in\nScripture in the most perfectly general terms.\n\n1. Notice that antagonism is inevitable between a true Christian and the\nworld.\n\nTake the character as it is sketched in verses preceding. Point by point\nit is alien from the sympathies and habits of irreligious men. The\nprinciples are different, the practices are different.\n\nA true Christian ought to be a standing rebuke to the world, an\nincarnate conscience.\n\nThere are but two ways of ending that antagonism: either by bringing the\nworld up to Christian character, or letting Christian character down to\nthe world.\n\n2. The certain and uniform result is opposition and dislike--persecution\nin its reality.\n\nDarkness hateth light.\n\nSome will, no doubt, be touched; there is that in all men which\nacknowledges how awful goodness is. But the loftier character is not\nloved by the lower which if loves.\n\nAristides 'the Just.' Christ Himself.\n\nAs to practice--a righteous life will not make a man 'popular.' And as\nfor 'opinions'--earnest religious opinions of any sort are distasteful.\nNot the profession of them, but the reality of them--especially those\nwhich seem in any way new or strange--make the average man angrily\nintolerant of an earnest Christianity which takes its creed seriously\nand insists on testing conventional life by it. Indolence,\nself-complacency, and inborn conservatism join forces in resenting the\npresence of such inconvenient enthusiasts, who upset everything and want\nto 'turn the world upside down.'\n\n    'The moping owl doth to the moon complain\n     Of such as, wandering near her ivy tower.\n     Molest her ancient, solitary reign.'\n\nThe seeds of the persecuting temper are in human nature, and they\ngerminate in the storms which Christianity brings with it.\n\n3. The phases vary according to circumstances.\n\nWe have not to look for the more severe and gross kinds of persecution.\n\nThe tendency of the age is to visit no man with penalties for his\nbelief, but to allow the utmost freedom of thought.\n\nThe effect of Christianity upon popular morality has been to bring men\nup towards the standard of Christ's righteousness.\n\nThe long proclamation of Christian truth in England has the effect of\nmaking mere profession of it a perfectly safe and even proper thing.\n\nBut the antagonism remains at bottom the same.\n\nLet a man earnestly accept even the creeds of established religion and\nlive by them, and he will find that out. Let him seek to proclaim and\nenforce some of those truths of Christianity whose bearing upon social\nand economical and ecclesiastical questions is but partially understood.\nLet him set up and stick to a high standard of Christian morality and\nsee what comes of it, in business, say, or in social life.\n\n'All that will live godly will suffer persecution.'\n\n4. The present forms are perhaps not less hard to bear than the old\nones.\n\nThey are, no doubt, very small in contrast with the lions in the arena\nor the fires of Smithfield. The curled lip, the civil scorn, the\nalienation of some whose good opinion we would fain have, or, if we\nstand in some public position, the poisonous slanders of the press, and\nthe contumacious epithets, are trivial but very real tokens of dislike.\nWe have the assassin's tongue instead of the assassin's dagger. But yet\nsuch things may call for as much heroism as braving a rack, and the\nspirit that shoots out the tongue may be as bad as the spirit that\nyelled, _'Christianos ad leones.'_\n\n5. The great reason why professing Christians now know so little about\npersecution is because there is so little real antagonism. 'If ye were\nof the world, the world would love his own.' The Church has leavened the\nworld, but the world has also leavened the Church; and it seems agreed\nby common consent that there is to be no fanatical goodness of the early\nprimitive pattern. Of course, then, there will be no persecution, where\nreligion goes in silver slippers, and you find Christian men running\nneck and neck with others, and no man can tell which is which.\n\nThen, again, many escape by avoiding plain Christian duty, shutting\nthemselves up in their own little coteries.\n\n(a) Let us be sure that we never flinch from our Christian character to\nbuy anybody's good opinion.\n\nIt is not for us to lower our flags to whoever fires across our bows. Do\nyou never feel it an effort to avow your principles? Do you never feel\nthat they are being smiled away in society? Are you not flattered by\nbeing shown that this religion of yours is the one thing that stands\nbetween you and cordial reception by these people?\n\n(b) Let us be sure that it is righteousness and Christ which are the\ngrounds of anything of the sort we have to bear, and not our own faults\nof temper and character.\n\n(c) Let us be sure that we are not persecutors our selves.\n\nTo be so is inherent in human nature.\n\nMen have often been both confessors and inquisitors. The spirit of\ncensorious judgment, of fierce hate, of impatient intolerance, has\noften disgraced Christian men. It is for us to be only and always meek,\nmerciful peace-bringers; and if men will not accept truth, to seek to\nwin and woo them, not to be angry.\n\nIt is very hard to be both firm and tolerant, not letting the foolish\nheart expand into a lazy glow of benevolence to all beliefs, and so\nperilling one's own, nor letting intense adherence to our own\nconvictions darken into impotent wrath against their harshest opponents.\nBut let us remember that as God is our great example of mercy, so Christ\nis our great example of patience, both under the world's unbelief and\nthe world's persecution.\n\nII. God's Gift to the persecuted.\n\n'The kingdom of heaven.'\n\nThis last promise is the same as the first--to express completeness, a\nrounded whole. All the others are but elements of this.\n\nThat highest reward given to the perfectest saint is but the fuller\npossession of what is given in germ to the humblest and sinfullest at\nthe very first. The poor in spirit gets it at the beginning.\n\nIt is not implied by this promise that a Christian man's blessedness\ndepends on the accident of some other person's behaviour to him, or that\nmartyrs have a place which none others can reach. But theirs is the\nkingdom of heaven as a natural result of the character which brings\nabout persecution, and as a natural result of the development of that\ncharacter which persecution brings about. This promise, like all the\nothers, has its twofold fulfilment.\n\nThere is a present recompense.\n\nPersecution is the result of a character which brings Christians into\nthe kingdom. Theirs is the kingdom--they are subjects. To them it is\ngiven to enter.\n\nPersecution makes the present consciousness of the possession of the\nkingdom more vivid and joyous. It brings the enforced sense of a\nvocation separate from the hostile world's. As Thomas Fuller puts it\nsomewhere, in troublous times the Church builds high, just as the men do\nin cities where there is little room to expand on the ground level.\n\nPersecution brightens and solidifies hope, and thus may become\ninfinitely sweet and blessed. How often it has been given to the martyr,\nas it was given to Stephen, to see heaven opened and Jesus standing at\nthe right hand of God, as if risen to His feet to uphold as well as to\nreceive His servant. Paul and Silas made the prison walls ring with\ntheir praises, though their backs were livid with wales and stained with\nblood. And we, in our far smaller trials for Christ's sake, may have the\nsame more conscious possession of the kingdom and brightened hope of yet\nfuller possession of it.\n\nThere is a future recompense in the perfect kingdom, where men are\nrewarded according to their capacities. And if the way in which we have\nmet the world's evil has been right, then that will have made us fit for\na fuller possession.\n\nIn closing we recur to the thought of all these Beatitudes as a chain\nand the beginning of all as being penitence and faith.\n\nMany a poor man, or many a little child, may have a higher place in\nheaven than some who have died at the stake for their Lord, for not our\nhistory, but our character, determines our place there, and all the\nfulness of the kingdom belongs to every one who with penitent heart\ncomes to God in Christ, and then by slow degrees from that root brings\nforth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.\n\nHere is Jesus' ideal of character--poor in spirit, mourning, meek,\nhungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart,\npeacemakers, persecuted for righteousness' sake. To be these is to be\nblessed. And here is Jesus' ideal of what, over and above the inherent\nblessedness of such a character, constitutes the true blessedness of a\nsoul--the possession of the kingdom of heaven, comfort from God, the\ninheritance of the earth of which the inheritor may not own a yard, full\nsatisfaction of the longing after righteousness, the obtaining of mercy\nfrom God, the name of sons of God, and, last as first, the possession of\nthe kingdom of heaven. Is Jesus' ideal yours? Do you believe that such a\ncharacter is the highest that a man can attain, that in itself it is\ntruly blessed, and will bring about results in contrast with which all\nbaser-born joys are coarse and false? Happy will you be if you so\nbelieve, and if so believing you make the ideal which He paints your\naim, and therefore secure the blessedness which He attaches to it as\nyour exceeding great reward.\n\n\nSALT WITHOUT SAVOUR\n\n     'Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his\n     savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for\n     nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of\n     men.'--MATT. v. 13.\n\nThese words must have seemed ridiculously presumptuous when they were\nfirst spoken, and they have too often seemed mere mockery and irony in\nthe ages since. A Galilean peasant, with a few of his rude countrymen\nwho had gathered round him, stands up there on the mountain, and says to\nthem, 'You, a handful, are the people who are to keep the world from\nrotting, and to bring it to all its best light.' Strange when we think\nthat Christ believed that these men were able to do these grand\nfunctions because they drew their power from Himself! Stranger still to\nthink that, notwithstanding all the miserable inconsistencies of the\nprofessing Church ever since, yet, on the whole, the experience of\nhistory has verified these words! And although some wise men may curl\ntheir lips with a sneer as they say about us Christians, '_Ye_ are the\nsalt of the earth!' yet the most progressive, and the most enlightened,\nand the most moral portion of humanity has derived its impulse to\nprogress, its enlightenment as to the loftiest truths, and the purest\nportion of its morality, from the men who received their power to impart\nthese from Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I have to say two or three things now, which I\nhope will be plain and earnest and searching, about the function of the\nChristian Church, and of each individual member of it, as set forth in\nthese words; about the solemn possibility that the qualification for\nthat function may go away from a man; about the grave question as to\nwhether such a loss can ever be repaired; and about the certain end of\nthe saltless salt.\n\nI. First, then, as to the high task of Christ's disciples as here set\nforth.\n\n'Ye are the salt of the earth'! The metaphor wants very little\nexplanation, however much enforcement it may require. It involves two\nthings: a grave judgment as to the actual state of society, and a lofty\nclaim as to what Christ's followers are able to do to it.\n\nA grave judgment as to the actual state of society--it is corrupt and\ntending to corruption. You do not salt a living thing. You salt a dead\none that it may not be a rotting one. And, Christ says by implication\nhere, what He says plainly more than once in other places:--'Human\nsociety, without My influence, is a carcass that is rotting away and\ndisintegrating; and you, faithful handful, who have partially\napprehended the meaning of My mission, and have caught something of the\nspirit of My life, you are to be rubbed into that rotting mass to\nsweeten it, to arrest decomposition, to stay corruption, to give flavour\nto its insipidity, and to save it from falling to pieces of its own\nwickedness. Ye are the _salt_ of the earth.'\n\nNow, it is not merely because we are the bearers of a truth that will do\nall this that we are thus spoken of, but we Christian men are to do it\nby the influence of conduct and character.\n\nThere are two or three thoughts suggested by this metaphor. The chief\none is that of our power, and therefore our obligation, to arrest the\ncorruption round us, by our own purity. The presence of a good man\nhinders the devil from having elbow-room to do his work. Do you and I\nexercise a repressive influence (if we do not do anything better), so\nthat evil and low-toned life is ashamed to show itself in our presence,\nand skulks back as do wrong-doers from the bull's-eye of a policeman's\nlantern? It is not a high function, but it is a very necessary one, and\nit is one that all Christian men and women ought to discharge--that of\nrebuking and hindering the operation of corruption, even if they have\nnot the power to breathe a better spirit into the dead mass.\n\nBut the example of Christian men is not only repressive. It ought to\ntempt forth all that is best and purest and highest in the people with\nwhom they come in contact. Every man who does right helps to make public\nopinion in favour of doing right; and every man who lowers the standard\nof morality in his own life helps to lower it in the community of which\nhe is a part. And so in a thousand ways that I have no need to dwell\nupon here, the men that have Christ in their hearts and something of\nChrist's conduct and character repeated in theirs are to be the\npreserving and purifying influence in the midst of this corrupt world.\n\nThere are two other points that I name, and do not enlarge upon. The\nfirst of them is--salt does its work by being brought into close contact\nwith the substance upon which it is to work. And so we, brought into\ncontact as we are with much evil and wickedness, by many common\nrelations of friendship, of kindred, of business, of proximity, of\ncitizenship, and the like,--we are not to seek to withdraw ourselves\nfrom contact with the evil. The only way by which the salt can purify is\nby being rubbed into the corrupted thing.\n\nAnd once more, salt does its work silently, inconspicuously, gradually.\n'Ye are the light of the world,' says Christ in the next verse. Light is\nfar-reaching and brilliant, flashing that it may be seen. That is one\nside of Christian work, the side that most of us like best, the\nconspicuous kind of it. Ay! but there is a very much humbler, and, as I\nfancy, a very much more useful, kind of work that we have all to do. We\nshall never be the 'light of the world,' except on condition of being\n'the salt of the earth.' You have to play the humble, inconspicuous,\nsilent part of checking corruption by a pure example before you can\naspire to play the other part of raying out light into the darkness, and\nso drawing men to Christ Himself.\n\nNow, brethren, why do I repeat all these common, threadbare platitudes,\nas I know they are? Simply in order to plant upon them this one question\nto the heart and conscience of you Christian men and women:--Is there\nanything in your life that makes this text, in its application to you,\nother else than the bitterest mockery?\n\nII. The grave possibility of the salt losing its savour.\n\nThere is no need for asking the question whether such loss is a physical\nfact or not, whether in the natural realm it is possible for any forms\nof matter that have saline taste to lose it by any cause. That does not\nat all concern us. The point is that it is possible for us, who call\nourselves--and are--Christians, to lose our penetrating pungency, which\nstays corruption; to lose all that distinguishes us from the men that we\nare to better.\n\nNow I think that nobody can look upon the present condition of\nprofessing Christendom; or, in a narrower aspect, upon the present\ncondition of English Christianity; or in a still narrower, nobody can\nlook round upon this congregation; or in the narrowest view, none of us\ncan look into our own hearts--without feeling that this saying comes\nperilously near being true of us. And I beg you, dear Christian friends,\nwhile I try to dwell on this point, to ask yourselves this\nquestion--Lord, is it I? and not to be thinking of other people whom you\nmay suppose the cap will fit.\n\nThere is, then, manifest on every side--first of all, the obliteration\nof the distinction between the salt and the mass into which it is\ninserted, or to put it into other words, Christian men and women swallow\ndown bodily, and practise thoroughly, the maxims of the world, as to\nlife, as to what is pleasant and what is desirable, and as to the\napplication of morality to business. There is not a hair of difference\nin that respect between hundreds and thousands of professing Christian\nmen, and the irreligious man that has his office up the same staircase.\nI know, of course, that there are in every communion saintly men and\nwomen who are labouring to keep themselves unspotted from the world, but\nI know too that in every communion there are those, whose religion has\nnext to no influence on their general conduct, and does not even keep\nthem from corruption, to say nothing of making them sources of purifying\ninfluence. You cannot lay the flattering unction to your souls that the\nreason why there is so little difference between the Church and the\nworld to-day is because the world has grown so much better. I know that\nto a large extent the principles of Christian ethics have permeated the\nconsciousness of a country like this, and have found their way even\namongst people who make no profession at all of being Christians. Thank\nGod for it; but that does not explain it all.\n\nIf you take a red-hot ball out of a furnace and lay it down upon a\nfrosty moor, two processes will go on--the ball will lose heat and the\nsurrounding atmosphere will gain it. There are two ways by which you\nequalise the temperature of a hotter and a colder body: the one is by\nthe hot one getting cold, and the other is by the cold one getting hot.\nIf you are not heating the world, the world is freezing you. Every man\ninfluences all men round him, and receives influences from them, and if\nthere be not more exports than imports, if there be not more influences\nand mightier influences raying out from him than are coming into him, he\nis a poor creature, and at the mercy of circumstances. 'Men must either\nbe hammers or anvil';--must either give blows or receive them. I am\nafraid that a great many of us who call ourselves Christians get a great\ndeal more harm from the world than we ever dream of doing good to it.\nRemember this, 'you are the salt of the earth,' and if you do not salt\nthe world, the world will rot you.\n\nIs there any difference between your ideal of happiness and the\nirreligious one? Is there any difference between your notion of what is\npleasure, and the irreligious one? Is there any difference in your\napplication of the rules of morality to daily life, any difference in\nyour general way of looking at things from the way of the ungodly world?\nYes, or No? Is the salt being infected by the carcass, or is it\npurifying the corruption? Answer the question, brother, as before God\nand your own conscience.\n\nThen there is another thing. There can be no doubt but that all round\nand shared by us, there are instances of the cooling of the fervour of\nChristian devotion. That is the reason for the small distinction in\ncharacter and conduct between the world and the Church to-day. An Arctic\nclimate will not grow tropical fruits, and if the heat have been let\ndown, as it has been let down, you cannot expect the glories of\ncharacter and the pure unworldliness of conduct that you would have had\nat a higher temperature. Nor is there any doubt but that the present\ntemperature is, with some of us, a distinct _loss_ of heat. It was\nnot always so low. The thermometer has gone down.\n\nThere are, no doubt, some among us who had once a far more vigorous\nChristian life than they have to-day; who were once far more aflame with\nthe love of God than they are now. And although I know, of course, that\nas years go on emotion will become less vivid, and feeling may give\nplace to principle, yet I know no reason why, as years go on, fervour\nshould become less, or the warmth of our love to our Master should\ndecline. There will be less spluttering and crackling when the fire\nburns up; there may be fewer flames; but there will be a hotter glow of\nruddy, unflaming heat. That is what ought to be in our Christian\nexperience.\n\nNor can there be any doubt, I think, but that the partial obliteration\nof the distinction between the Church and the world, and the decay of\nthe fervour of devotion which leads to it, are both to be traced to a\nyet deeper cause, and that is the loss or diminution of actual\nfellowship with Jesus Christ. It was that which made these early\ndisciples 'salt.' It was that which made them 'light.' It is that, and\nthat alone, which makes devotion burn fervid, and which makes characters\nglow with the strange saintliness that rebukes iniquity, and works for\nthe purifying of the world. And so I would remind you that fellowship\nwith Jesus Christ is no vague exercise of the mind but is to be\ncultivated by three things, which I fear me are becoming less and less\nhabitual amongst professing Christians:--Meditation, the study of the\nBible, private prayer. If you have not these--and you know best whether\nyou have them or not--no power in heaven or earth can prevent you from\nlosing the savour that makes you salt.\n\nIII. Now I come to the next point, and that is the solemn question: Is\nthere a possibility of re-salting the saltless salt, of restoring the\nlost savour?\n\n'Wherewithal shall it be salted?' says the Master. That is plain enough,\nbut do not let us push it too far. If the Church is meant for the\npurifying of the world, and the Church itself needs purifying, is there\nany power in the world that will do it? If the army joins the rebels, is\nthere any force that will bring back the army to submission? Our Lord is\nspeaking about ordinary means and agencies. He is saying in effect, if\nthe one thing that is intended to preserve the meat loses its power, is\nthere anything lying about that will salt that? So far, then, the answer\nseems to be--No.\n\nBut Christ has no intention that these words should be pushed to the\nextreme of asserting that if salt loses its savour, if a man loses the\npungency of his Christian life, he cannot win it back, by going again to\nthe source from which he received it at first. There is no such\nimplication in these words. There is no obstacle in the way of a\npenitent returning to the fountain of all power and purity, nor of the\nfull restoration of the lost savour, if a man will only bring about a\nfull reunion of himself with the source of the savour.\n\nDear brethren, the message is to each of us; the same pleading words,\nwhich the Apocalyptic seer heard from Heaven, come to you and me:\n'Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do\nthe first works.' And all the savour and the sweetness that flow from\nfellowship with Jesus Christ will come back to us in larger measure than\never, if we will come back to the Lord. Repentance and returning will\nbring back the saltness to the salt, and the brilliancy to the light.\n\nIV. But one last word warns us what is the certain end of the saltless\nsalt.\n\nAs the other Evangelist puts it: 'It is neither good for the land nor\nfor the dunghill.' You cannot put it upon the soil; there is no\nfertilising virtue in it. You cannot even fling it into the\nrubbish-heap; it will do mischief there. Pitch it out into the road; it\nwill stop a cranny somewhere between the stones when once it is well\ntrodden down by men's heels. That is all it is fit for. God has no use\nfor it, man has no use for it. If it has failed in doing the only thing\nit was created for, it has failed altogether. Like a knife that will not\ncut, or a lamp that will not burn, which may have a beautiful handle, or\na beautiful stem, and may be highly artistic and decorated; but the\nquestion is, Does it cut, does it burn? If not, it is a failure\naltogether, and in this world there is no room for failures. The poorest\nliving thing of the lowest type will jostle the dead thing out of the\nway. And so, for the salt that has lost its savour, there is only one\nthing to be done with it--cast it out, and tread it under foot.\n\nYes; where are the Churches of Asia Minor, the patriarchates of\nAlexandria, of Antioch, of Constantinople; the whole of that early\nSyrian, Palestinian Christianity: where are they? Where is the Church of\nNorth Africa, the Church of Augustine? 'Trodden under foot of men!' Over\nthe archway of a mosque in Damascus you can read the half-obliterated\ninscription--'Thy Kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting Kingdom,' and\nabove it--'There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet!' The\nsalt has lost his savour, and been cast out.\n\nAnd does any one believe that the Churches of Christendom are eternal in\ntheir present shape? I see everywhere the signs of disintegration in the\nexisting embodiments and organisations that set forth Christian life.\nAnd I am sure of this, that in the days that are coming to us, the storm\nin which we are already caught, all dead branches will be whirled out of\nthe tree. So much the better for the tree! And a great deal that calls\nitself organised Christianity will have to go down because there is not\nvitality enough in it to stand. For you know it is low vitality that\ncatches all the diseases that are going; and it is out of the sick\nsheep's eyeholes that the ravens peck the eyes. And it will be the\nfeeble types of spiritual life, the inconsistent Christianities of our\nchurches, that will yield the crop of apostates and heretics and\nrenegades, and that will fall before temptation.\n\nBrethren, remember this: Unless you go back close to your Lord, you will\ngo further away from Him. The deadness will deepen, the coldness will\nbecome icier and icier; you will lose more and more of the life, and\nshow less and less of the likeness, and purity, of Jesus Christ until\nyou come to this--I pray God that none of us come to it--'Thou hast a\nname that thou livest, and art dead.' Dead!\n\nMy brother, let us return unto the Lord our God, and keep nearer Him\nthan we ever have done, and bring our hearts more under the influence of\nHis grace, and cultivate the habit of communion with Him; and pray and\ntrust, and leave ourselves in His hands, that His power may come into\nus, and that we in the beauty of our characters, and the purity of our\nlives, and the elevation of our spirits, may witness to all men that we\nhave been with Christ; and may, in some measure, check the corruption\nthat is in the world through lust.\n\n\nTHE LAMP AND THE BUSHEL\n\n     'Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill\n     cannot be hid. 15. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under\n     a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that\n     are in the house. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they\n     may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in\n     heaven.'--Matt. v. 14-16.\n\nThe conception of the office of Christ's disciples contained in these\nwords is a still bolder one than that expressed by the preceding\nmetaphor, which we considered in the last sermon. 'Ye are the salt of\nthe earth' implied superior moral purity and power to arrest corruption.\n'Ye are the light of the world' implies superior spiritual illumination,\nand power to scatter ignorance.\n\nThat is not all the meaning of the words, but that is certainly in them.\nSo then, our Lord here gives His solemn judgment that the world, without\nHim and those who have learned from Him, is in a state of darkness; and\nthat His followers have that to impart which will bring certitude and\nclearness of knowledge, together with purity and joy and all the other\nblessed things which are 'the fruit of the light.'\n\nThat high claim is illustrated by a very homely metaphor. In every\nhumble house from which His peasant-followers came, there would be a\nlamp--some earthen saucer with a little oil in it, in which a wick\nfloated, a rude stand to put it upon, a meal-chest or a flour-bin, and a\nhumble pallet on which to lie. These simple pieces of furniture are\ntaken to point this solemn lesson. 'When you light your lamp you put it\non the stand, do you not? You light it in order that it may give light;\nyou do not put it under the meal-measure or the bed. So I have kindled\nyou that you may shine, and put you where you are that you may give\nlight.'\n\nAnd the same thought, with a slightly different turn in the application,\nlies in that other metaphor, which is enclosed in the middle of this\nparable about the light: 'a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.'\nWhere they stood on the mountain, no doubt they could see some village\nperched upon a ridge for safety, with its white walls gleaming in the\nstrong Syrian sunlight; a landmark for many a mile round. So says\nChrist: 'The City which I found, the true Jerusalem, like its prototype\nin the Psalm, is to be conspicuous for situation, that it may be the joy\nof the whole earth.'\n\nI take all this somewhat long text now because all the parts of it hold\nso closely together, and converge upon the one solemn exhortation with\nwhich it closes, and which I desire to lay upon your hearts and\nconsciences, 'Let your light so shine before men.' I make no pretensions\nto anything like an artificial arrangement of my remarks, but simply\nfollow the words in the order in which they lie before us.\n\nI. First, just a word about the great conception of a Christian man's\noffice which is set forth in that metaphor, 'Ye are the light of the\nworld.'\n\nThat expression is wide, 'generic,' as they say. Then in the unfolding\nof this little parable our Lord goes on to explain what kind of a light\nit is to which He would compare His people--the light of a lamp kindled.\nNow that is the first point that I wish to deal with. Christian men\nindividually, and the Christian Church as a whole, shine by derived\nlight. There is but One who is light in Himself. He who said, 'I am the\nlight of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness,'\nwas comparing Himself to the sunshine, whereas when He said to us, 'Ye\nare the light of the world; men do not light a lamp and put it under a\nbushel,' He was comparing us to the kindled light of the lamp, which had\na beginning and will have an end.\n\nBefore, and independent of, His historical manifestation in the flesh,\nthe Eternal Word of God, who from the beginning was the Life, was also\nthe light of men; and all the light of reason and of conscience, all\nwhich guides and illumines, comes from that one source, the Everlasting\nWord, by whom all things came to be and consist. 'He was the true light\nwhich lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' And further, the\nhistoric Christ, the Incarnate Word, is the source for men of all true\nrevelation of God and themselves, and of the relations between them; the\nIncarnate Ideal of humanity, the Perfect Pattern of conduct, who alone\nsheds beams of certainty on the darkness of life, who has left a long\ntrail of light as He has passed into the dim regions beyond the grave.\nIn both these senses He is the light, and we gather our radiance from\nHim.\n\nWe shall be 'light' if we are 'in the Lord.' It is by union with Jesus\nChrist that we partake of His illumination. A sunbeam has no more power\nto shine if it be severed from the sun than a man has to give light in\nthis dark world if He be parted from Jesus Christ. Cut the current and\nthe electric light dies; slacken the engine and the electric arc becomes\ndim, quicken it and it burns bright. So the condition of my being light\nis my keeping unbroken my communication with Jesus Christ; and every\nvariation in the extent to which I receive into my heart the influx of\nHis power and of His love is correctly measured and represented by the\ngreater or the lesser brilliancy of the light with which I reflect His\nradiance. Ye were some time darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.'\nKeep near to Him, and a firm hold of His hand, and then you will be\nlight.\n\nAnd now I need not dwell for more than a moment or two upon what I have\nalready said is included in this conception of the Christian man as\nbeing light. There are two sides to it: one is that all Christian people\nwho have learned to know Jesus Christ and have been truly taught of Him,\ndo possess a certitude and clearness of knowledge which make them the\nlights of the world. We advance no claims to any illumination as to\nother than moral or religious truth. We leave all the other fields\nuncontested. We bow humbly with confessed ignorance and with unfeigned\ngratitude and admiration before those who have laboured in them, as\nbefore our teachers, but if we are true to our Master, and true to the\nposition in which He has placed us, we shall not be ashamed to say that\nwe believe ourselves to know the truth, in so far as men can ever know\nit, about the all-important subject of God and man, and the bond between\nthem.\n\nTo-day there is need, I think, that Christian men and women should not\nbe reasoned or sophisticated or cowed out of their confidence that they\nhave the light because they do know God. It is proclaimed as the\nultimate word of modern thought that we stand in the presence of a power\nwhich certainly is, but of which we can know nothing except that it is\naltogether different from ourselves, and that it ever tempts us to\nbelieve that we can know it, and ever repels us into despair. Our answer\nis Yes! we could have told you that long ago, though not altogether in\nyour sense; you have got hold of half a truth, and here is the whole of\nit:--'No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him!' (a Gospel of\ndespair, verified by the last words of modern thinkers), 'the only\nbegotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared\nHim.'\n\nChristian men and women, 'Ye are the light of the world.' Darkness in\nyourselves, ignorant about many things, ungifted with lofty talent, you\nhave possession of the deepest truth; do not be ashamed to stand up and\nsay, even in the presence of Mars' Hill, with all its Stoics and\nEpicureans:--'Whom ye ignorantly'--alas! not 'worship'--'Whom ye\nignorantly speak of, Him declare we unto you.'\n\nAnd then there is the other side, which I only name, moral purity. Light\nis the emblem of purity as well as the emblem of knowledge, and if we\nare Christians we have within us, by virtue of our possession of an\nindwelling Christ, a power which teaches and enables us to practise a\nmorality high above the theories and doings of the world. But upon this\nthere is the less need to dwell, as it was involved in our consideration\nof the previous figure of the salt.\n\nII. And now the next point that I would make is this, following the\nwords before us--the certainty that if we are light we shall shine.\n\nThe nature and property of light is to radiate. It cannot choose but\nshine; and in like manner the little village perched upon a hill there,\nglittering and twinkling in the sunlight, cannot choose but be seen. So,\nsays Christ, 'If you have Christian character in you, if you have Me in\nyou, such is the nature of the Christian life that it will certainly\nmanifest itself.' Let us dwell upon that for a moment or two. Take two\nthoughts: All earnest Christian conviction will demand expression; and\nall deep experience of the purifying power of Christ upon character will\nshow itself in conduct.\n\nAll earnest conviction will demand expression. Everything that a man\nbelieves has a tendency to convert its believer into its apostle. That\nis not so in regard to common every-day truths, nor in regard even to\ntruths of science, but it is so in regard to all moral truth. For\nexample, if a man gets a vivid and intense conviction of the evils of\nintemperance and the blessings of abstinence, look what a fiery\nvehemence of propagandism is at once set to work. And so all round the\nhorizon of moral truth which is intended to affect conduct; it is of\nsuch a sort that a man cannot get it into brain and heart without\ncausing him before long to say--'This thing has mastered me, and turned\nme into its slave; and I must speak according to my convictions.'\n\nThat experience works most mightily in regard to Christian truth, as the\nhighest. What shall we say, then, of the condition of Christian men and\nwomen if they have not such an instinctive need of utterance? Do you\never feel this in your heart:--'Thy word shut up in my bones was like a\nfire. I was weary of forbearing, and I could not stay'? Professing\nChristians, do you know anything of the longing to speak your deepest\nconvictions, the feeling that the fire within you is burning through all\nenvelopings, and will be out? What shall we say of the men that have it\nnot? God forbid I should say there is no fire, but I do say that if the\nfountain never rises into the sunlight above the dead level of the pool,\nthere can be very little pressure at the main; that if a man has not the\nlonging to speak his religious convictions, those convictions must be\nvery hesitating and very feeble; that if you never felt 'I must say to\nsomebody I have found the Messias,' you have not found Him in any very\ndeep sense, and that if the light that is in you can be buried under a\nbushel, it is not much of a light after all, and needs a great deal of\nfeeding and trimming before it can be what it ought to be.\n\nOn the other hand, all deep experience of the purifying power of Christ\nupon character will show itself in conduct. It is all very well for\npeople to profess that they have received the forgiveness of sins and\nthe inner sanctification of God's Spirit. If you have, let us see it,\nand let us see it in the commonest, pettiest affairs of daily life. The\ncommunication between the inmost experience and the outermost conduct is\nsuch as that if there be any real revolution deep down, it will manifest\nitself in the daily life. I make all allowance for the loss of power in\ntransmission, for the loss of power in friction. I am glad to believe\nthat you and I, and all our imperfect brethren, are a great deal better\nin heart than we ever manage to show ourselves to be in life. Thank God\nfor the consolation that may come out of that thought--but\nnotwithstanding I press on you my point that, making all such allowance,\nand setting up no impossible standard of absolute identity between duty\nand conduct in this present life, yet, on the whole, if we are Christian\npeople with any deep central experience of the cleansing power and\ninfluence of Christ and His grace, we shall show it in life and in\nconduct. Or, to put it into the graphic and plain image of my text, If\nwe are light we shall shine.\n\nIII. Again, and very briefly, this obligation of giving light is still\nfurther enforced by the thought that that was Christ's very purpose in\nall that He has done with us and for us.\n\nThe homely figure here implies that _He_ has not kindled the lamp to put\nit under the bushel, but that _His_ purpose in lighting it was that it\nmight give light. God has made us partakers of His grace, and has given\nto us to be light in the Lord, for this among other purposes, that we\nshould impart that light to others. No creature is so small that it has\nnot the right to expect that its happiness and welfare shall be regarded\nby God as an end in His dealings with it; but no creature is so great\nthat it has the right to expect that its happiness or well-being shall\nbe regarded by God and itself as God's only end in His dealings with it.\nHe gives us His grace, His pardon, His love, the quickening of His\nSpirit by our union with Jesus Christ; He gives us our knowledge of Him,\nand our likeness to Him--what for? 'For my own salvation, for my\nhappiness and well-being,' you say. Certainly, blessed be His name for\nHis love and goodness! But is that all His purpose? Paul did not think\nso when he said, 'God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness\nhath shined into our hearts that we might give to others the light of\nthe knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' And\nChrist did not think so when He said, 'Men do not light a candle and put\nit under a bushel, but that it may give light to all that are in the\nhouse.' 'Heaven doth with us as we with torches do: not light them for\nthemselves.' The purpose of God is that we may shine. The lamp is\nkindled not to illumine itself, but that it may 'give light to all that\nare in the house.'\n\nConsider again, that whilst all these things are true, there is yet a\nsolemn possibility that men--even good men--may stifle and smother and\nshroud their light. You can do, and I am afraid a very large number of\nyou do do, this; by two ways. You can bury the light of a holy character\nunder a whole mountain of inconsistencies. If one were to be fanciful,\none might say that the bushel or meal-chest meant material well-being,\nand the bed, indolence and love of ease. I wonder how many of us\nChristian men and women have buried their light under the flour-bin and\nthe bed, so interpreted? How many of us have drowned our consecration\nand devotion in foul waters of worldly lusts, and have let the love of\nearth's goods, of wealth and pleasure and creature love, come like a\npoisonous atmosphere round the lamp of our Christian character, making\nit burn dim and blue?\n\nAnd we can bury the light of the Word under cowardly and sheepish and\nindifferent silence. I wonder how many of us have done that? Like\nblue-ribbon men that button their great-coats over their blue ribbons\nwhen they go into company where they are afraid to show them, there are\nmany Christian people that are devout Christians at the Communion Table,\nbut would be ashamed to say they were so in the miscellaneous company of\na railway carriage or a _table d'hote_. There are professing Christians\nwho have gone through life in their relationships to their fathers,\nsisters, wives, children, friends, kindred, their servants and\ndependants, and have never spoken a loving word for their Master. That\nis a sinful hiding of your light under the bushel and the bed.\n\nIV. And so the last word, into which all this converges, is the plain\nduty: If you are light, shine!\n\n'Let your light so shine before men,' nays the text, 'that they may see\nyour good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.' In the next\nchapter our Lord says: 'Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to\nbe seen of them. Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love\nto pray standing in the synagogues that they may be seen of men.' What\nis the difference between the two sets of men and the two kinds of\nconduct? The motive makes the difference for one thing, and for another\nthing, 'Let your light so shine' does not mean 'take precautions that\nyour goodness may come out into public,' but it means 'Shine!' You find\nthe light, and the world will find the eyes, no fear of that! You do not\nneed to seek 'to be seen of men,' but you do need to shine that men may\nsee.\n\nThe lighthouse keeper takes no pains that the ships tossing away out at\nsea may behold the beam that shines from his lamp; all that he does is\nto feed it and tend it. And that is all that you and I have to do--tend\nthe light, and do not, like cowards, cover it up. Modestly, but yet\nbravely, carry out your Christianity, and men will see it. Do not be as\na dark lantern, burning with the slides down and illuminating nothing\nand nobody. Live your Christianity, and it will be beheld.\n\nAnd remember, candles are not lit to be looked at. Candles are lit that\nsomething else may be seen by them. Men may see God through your words,\nthrough your conduct, who never would have beheld Him otherwise, because\nHis beams are too bright for their dim eyes. And it is an awful thing to\nthink that the world always--_always_--takes its conception of\nChristianity from the Church, and neither from the Bible nor from\nChrist; and that it is you and your like, you inconsistent Christians,\nyou people that say your sins are forgiven and yet are doing the old\nsins day by day which you say are pardoned, you low-toned, unpraying,\nworldly Christian men, who have no elevation of character and no\nself-restraint of life and no purity of conduct above the men in your\nown profession and in your own circumstances all round you--it is you\nthat are hindering the coming of Christ's Kingdom, it is you that are\nthe standing disgraces of the Church, and the weaknesses and diseases of\nChristendom. I speak strongly, not half as strongly as the facts of the\ncase would warrant; but I lay it upon all your consciences as professing\nChristian people to see to it that no longer your frivolities, or\ndoubtful commercial practices, or low, unspiritual tone of life, your\nself-indulgence in household arrangements, and a dozen other things that\nI might name--that no longer do they mar the clearness of your testimony\nfor your Master, and disturb with envious streaks of darkness the light\nthat shines from His followers.\n\nHow effectual such a witness may be none who have not seen its power can\nsuppose. Example does tell. A holy life curbs evil, ashamed to show\nitself in that pure presence. A good man or woman reveals the ugliness\nof evil by showing the beauty of holiness. More converts would be made\nby a Christ-like Church than by many sermons. Oh! if you professing\nChristians knew your power and would use it, if you would come closer to\nChrist, and catch more of the light from His face, you might walk among\nmen like very angels, and at your bright presence darkness would flee\naway, ignorance would grow wise, impurity be abashed, and sorrow\ncomforted.\n\nBe not content, I pray you, till your own hearts are fully illumined by\nChrist, having no part dark--and then live as remembering that you have\nbeen made light that you may shine. 'Arise, shine, for thy light is\ncome, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.'\n\n\nTHE NEW FORM OF THE OLD LAW\n\n     'Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am\n     not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18. For verily I say unto you,\n     Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise\n     pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19. Whosoever therefore\n     shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men\n     so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but\n     whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great\n     in the kingdom of heaven. 20. For I say unto you, That except your\n     righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and\n     Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.\n     21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt\n     not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the\n     judgment: 22. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his\n     brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and\n     whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the\n     council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of\n     hell-fire. 23. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and\n     there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24.\n     Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be\n     reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25.\n     Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with\n     him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and\n     the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into\n     prison. 26. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out\n     thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.'--MATT. v.\n     17-26.\n\nThis passage falls naturally into two parts--the former extending from\nverse 17 to 20 inclusive; the latter, from verse 21 to the end. In the\nformer, the King of the true kingdom lays down the general principles of\nthe relation between its laws and the earlier revelation of the divine\nwill; in the latter, He exemplifies this relation in one case, which is\nfollowed, in the remainder of the chapter, by three other illustrative\nexamples.\n\nI. The King laying down the law of His kingdom in its relation to the\nolder law of God.\n\nThe four verses included in this section give a regular sequence of\nthought: verse 17 declaring our Lord's personal relation to the former\nrevelation as fulfilling it; verse 18 basing that statement of the\npurpose of His coming on the essential permanence of the old law; verses\n19 and 20 deducing thence the relation of His disciples to that law, and\nthat in such a way that verse 19 corresponds to verse 18, and affirms\nthat this permanent law is binding in its minutest details on His\nsubjects, while verse 20 corresponds to verse 17, and requires their\ndeepened righteousness as answering to His fulfilment of the law.\n\nThe first thing that strikes one in looking at these verses is their\nauthoritative tone. There may, even thus early in Christ's career, have\nbeen some murmurs that He was taking up a position of antagonism to\nMosaism, which may account for the 'think not' which introduces the\nsection. But however that may be, the swift transition from the\nBeatitudes to speak of Himself and of the meaning of His work is all of\na piece with His whole manner; for certainly never did religious teacher\nopen his mouth, who spoke so perpetually about Himself as did the meek\nJesus. 'I came' declares that He is 'the coming One,' and is really a\nclaim to have voluntarily appeared among men, as well as to be the\nlong-expected Messiah. With absolute decisiveness He states the purpose\nof His coming. He knows the meaning of His own work, which so few of us\ndo, and it is safe to take His own account of what He intends, as it so\nseldom is. His opening declaration is singularly composed of blended\nhumility and majesty. Its humility lies in His placing Himself, as it\nwere, in line with previous messengers, and representing Himself as\ncarrying on the sequence of divine revelation. It would not have been\nhumble for anybody but Him to say that, but it was so for Him. Its\nmajesty lies in His claim to 'fulfil' all former utterances from God.\nHis fulfilment of the law properly so called is twofold: first, in His\nown proper person and life, He completes obedience to it, realises its\nideal; second, in His exposition of it, both by lip and life, He deepens\nand intensifies its meaning, changing it from a letter which regulates\nthe actions, to a spirit which moves the inward man.\n\nSo these first words point to the peculiarity of His coming as being His\nown act, and make two daring assertions, as to His character, which He\nclaims to be sinless, and as to His teaching, which he claims to be an\nadvance upon all the former divine revelation. As to the former, He\nspeaks here as He did to John, 'thus it becometh us to fulfil all\nrighteousness.' No trace of consciousness of sin or defect appears in\nany words or acts of His. The calmest conviction that He was perfectly\nrighteous is always manifest. How comes it that we are not repelled by\nsuch a tone? We do not usually admire self-complacent religious\nteachers. Why has nobody ever given Christ the lie, or pointed to His\nunconsciousness of faults as itself the gravest fault? Strange inaugural\ndiscourse for a humble sage and saint to assert his own immaculate\nperfection, stranger still that a listening world has said, 'Amen!'\nNote, too, the royal style here. In this part of the 'Sermon' our Lord\ntwice uses the phrase, 'I say unto you,' which He once introduces with\nHis characteristic 'verily.' Once He employs it to give solemnity to the\nasseveration which stretches forward to the end of this solid-seeming\nworld, and once He introduces by it the stringent demand for His\nfollowers' loftier righteousness. His unsupported word is given us as\nour surest light in the dark future, His bare command as the most\nimperative authority. This style goes kingly; it calls for absolute\ncredence and unhesitating submission. When He speaks, even if we have\nnothing but His word, it is ours neither 'to make reply' nor 'to reason\nwhy,' but simply to believe, and swiftly to do. Rabbis might split hairs\nand quote other rabbis by the hour; philosophers may argue and base\ntheir teachings on elaborate demonstrations; moralists may seek to sway\nthe conscience through reason; legislators to appeal to fear and hope.\nHe speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast. There is\nnothing else in the world the least like the superb and mysterious\nauthority with which He fronts the world, and, as Fountain of knowledge\nand Source of obligation, summons us all to submit and believe, by that\n'Verily, I say unto you.'\n\nVerse 18. Next we have to notice the exuberant testimony to the\npermanence of the law. Not the smallest of its letters, not even the\nlittle marks which distinguished some of them, or the flourishes at the\ntop of some of them, should pass,--as we might say, not even the stroke\nacross a written 't,' which shows that it is not 'l.' The law shall last\nas long as the world. It shall last till it be accomplished. And what\nthen? The righteousness which it requires can never be so realised that\nwe shall not need to realise it any more, and in the new heavens\nrighteousness dwelleth. But in a very real sense law shall cease when\nfulfilled. There is no law to him who can say, 'Thy law is within my\nheart.' When law has become both 'law and impulse,' it has ceased to be\nlaw, in so far as it no longer stands over against the doer as an\nexternal constraint.\n\nVerse 19. On this permanence of the law Christ builds its imperative\nauthority in His kingdom. Obviously, the 'kingdom of heaven' in verse 19\nmeans the earthly form of that kingdom. The King republishes, as it\nwere, the old code, and adopts it as the basis of His law. He thus\nassumes the absolute right of determining precedence and dignity in that\nkingdom. The sovereign is the 'fountain of honour,' whose word ennobles.\nObserve the merciful accuracy of the language. The breach of the\ncommandments either in theory or in practice does not exclude from the\nkingdom, for it is, while realised on earth, a kingdom of sinful men\naiming after holiness; but the smallest deflection from the law of\nright, in theory or in practice, does lower a man's standing therein,\ninasmuch as it makes him less capable of that conformity to the King,\nand consequent nearness to Him, which determines greatness and smallness\nthere. Dignity in the kingdom depends on Christ-likeness, and\nChrist-likeness depends on fulfilling, as He did, all righteousness.\nSmall flaws are most dangerous because least noticeable. More Christian\nmen lose their chance of promotion in the kingdom by a multitude of\nlittle sins than by single great ones.\n\nVerse 20. As the King has Himself by His perfect obedience fulfilled the\nlaw, His subjects likewise must, in their obedience, transcend the\nrighteousness of those who best knew and most punctiliously kept it. The\nscribes and Pharisees are not here regarded as hypocrites, but taken as\ntypes of the highest conformity with the law which the old dispensation\nafforded. The new kingdom demands a higher, namely a more spiritual and\ninward righteousness, one corresponding to the profounder meaning which\nthe King gives to the old commandment. And this loftier fulfilment is\nnot merely the condition of dignity in, but of entrance at all into, the\nkingdom. Inward holiness is the essence of the character of all its\nsubjects. How that holiness is to be ours is not here told, except in so\nfar as it is hinted by the fact that it is regarded as the issue of the\nKing's fulfilling the law. These last words would have been terrible and\nexcluding if they had stood alone. When they follow 'I am come to\nfulfil,' they are a veiled gospel, implying that by His fulfilment the\nrighteousness of the law is fulfilled in us.\n\nII. We have an illustrative example in the case of the old commandment\nagainst murder. This part of the passage falls into three\ndivisions--each occupying two verses. First we have the deepening and\nexpansion of the commandment. This part begins with the royal style\nagain. 'What was said to them of old' is left in its full authority.\n'But I say unto you' represents Jesus as possessing co-ordinate\nauthority with that law, of which the speaker is unnamed, perhaps\nbecause the same Word of God which now spoke in Him had spoken it. We\nneed but refer here to the Jewish courts and Sanhedrim, and to that\nvalley of Hinnom, where the offal of Jerusalem and the corpses of\ncriminals were burned, nor need we discuss the precise force of 'Raca'\nand 'thou fool.' The main points to be observed are, the distinct\nextension of the conception of 'killing' to embrace malevolent anger,\nwhether it find vent or is kept close in the heart; the clear\nrecognition that, whilst the emotion which is the source of the overt\nact is of the same nature as the act, and that therefore he who 'hateth\nhis brother is a murderer,' there are degrees in criminality, according\nas the anger remains unexpressed, or finds utterance in more or less\nbitter and contemptuous language; that consequently there are degrees in\nthe severity of the punishment which is administered by no earthly\ntribunal; and that, finally, this stern sentence has hidden in it the\npossibility of forgiveness, inasmuch as the consequence of the sin is\nliability to punishment, but not necessarily suffering of it. The old\nlaw had no such mitigation of its sentence.\n\nVerses 23, 24. The second part of this illustrative example intensifies\nthe command by putting obedience to it before acts of external worship.\nThe language is vividly picturesque. We see a worshipper standing at the\nvery altar while the priest is offering his sacrifice. In that sacred\nmoment, while he is confessing his sins, a flash across his memory shows\nhim a brother offended,--rightly or wrongly it matters not. The solemn\nsacrifice is to pause while he seeks the offended one, and, whatever the\nother man's reception of his advances may be, he cleanses his own bosom\nof its perilous stuff; then he may come back and go on with the\ninterrupted worship. Nothing could put in a clearer light the prime\nimportance of the command than this setting aside of sacred religious\nacts for its sake. 'Obedience is better than sacrifice.' And the little\nword 'therefore,' at the beginning of verse 23, points to the terrible\npenalties as the reason for this urgency. If such destruction may light\non the angry man, nothing should come between him and the conquest of\nhis anger. Such self-conquest, which will often seem like degradation,\nis more acceptable service to the King, and truer worship, than all\nwords or ceremonial acts. Deep truths as to the relations between\nworship, strictly so called, and life, lie in these words, which may\nwell be taken to heart by those whose altar is Calvary, and their gift\nthe thank-offering of themselves.\n\nVerses 25, 26. The third part is a further exhortation to the same\nswiftness in casting out anger from the heart, thrown into a parabolic\nform. When you quarrel with a man, says Christ in effect, prudence\nenjoins to make it up as soon as possible, before he sets the law in\nmotion. If once he, as plaintiff, has brought you before the judge, the\nlaw will go on mechanically through the stages of trial, condemnation,\nsurrender to the prison authorities, and confinement till the last\nfarthing has been paid. So, if you are conscious that you have an\nadversary,--and any man that you hate is your adversary, for he will\nappear against you at that solemn judgment to come,--agree with him,\nput away the anger out of your heart at once. In the special case in\nhand, the 'adversary' is the man with whom we are angry. In the general\napplication of the precept to the whole series of offences against the\nlaw, the adversary may be regarded as the law itself. In either\ninterpretation, the stages of appearing before the judge and so on up\ntill the shutting up in prison are the stages of the judgment before the\ntribunal, not of earth, but of the kingdom of heaven. They point to the\nsame dread realities as are presented in the previous verses under the\nimagery of the Jewish courts and the foul fires of the valley of Hinnom.\nChrist closes the grave parable with His solemn 'Verily I say unto\nthee'--as looking on the future judgment, and telling us what His eyes\nsaw. The words have no bearing on the question of the duration of the\nimprisonment, for He does not tell us whether the last farthing could\never be paid or not; but they do teach this lesson, that, if once we\nfall under the punishments of the kingdom, there is no end to them until\nthe last tittle of the consequences of our breach of its law has been\npaid. To delay obedience, and still more to delay abandoning\ndisobedience, is madness, in view of the storm that may at any moment\nburst on the heads of the rebels.\n\nThus He deepens and fulfils one precept of the old law by extending the\nsweep of its prohibition from acts to thoughts, by setting obedience to\nit above sacrifice and worship, and by picturing in solemn tones of\nparabolic warning the consequences of having the disobeyed precept as\nour unreconciled adversary. In this one case we have a specimen of His\nmode of dealing with the whole law, every jot of which He expanded in\nHis teaching, and perfectly observed in His life.\n\nA gospel is hidden even in these warnings, for it is distinctly taught\nthat the offended law may cease to be our adversary, and that we may be\nreconciled with it, ere yet it has accused us to the judge. It was not\nyet time to proclaim that the King 'fulfilled' the law, not only by\nlife, but by death, and that therefore all His believing subjects 'are\njustified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the\nlaw,' as well as endowed with the righteousness by which they fulfil\nthat law in deeper reality, and fairer completeness, than did those 'of\nold time,' who loved it most.\n\n\n'SWEAR NOT AT ALL'\n\n     'Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time,\n     Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord\n     thine oaths: 34. But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by\n     heaven; for it is God's throne: 35. Nor by the earth; for it is His\n     footstool; neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great\n     King. 36. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst\n     not make one hair white or black. 37. But let your communication\n     be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of\n     evil.'--MATT. v. 33-37.\n\nIn His treatment of the sixth and seventh commandments, Jesus deepened\nthem by bringing the inner man of feeling and desire under their\ncontrol. In His treatment of the old commandments as to oaths, He\nexpands them by extending the prohibitions from one kind of oath to all\nkinds. The movement in the former case is downwards and inwards; in the\nlatter it is outwards, the compass sweeping a wider circle. Perjury, a\nfalse oath, was all that had been forbidden. He forbids all. We may note\nthat the forms of colloquial swearing, which our Lord specifies, are not\nto be taken as an exhaustive enumeration of what is forbidden. They are\nin the nature of a parenthesis, and the sentence runs on continuously\nwithout them--'Swear not at all ... but let your communication be Yea,\nyea; Nay, nay.' The reason appended is equally universal, for it\nsuggests the deep thought that 'whatsoever is more than these' that is\nto say, any form of speech that seeks to strengthen a simple, grave\nasseveration by such oaths as He has just quoted, 'cometh of evil'\ninasmuch as it springs from, and reveals, the melancholy fact that his\nbare word is not felt binding by a man, and is not accepted as\nconclusive by others. If lies were not so common, oaths would be\nneedless. And oaths increase the evil from which they come, by\nconfirming the notion that there is no sin in a lie unless it is sworn\nto.\n\nThe oaths specified are all colloquial, which were and are continually\nand offensively mingled with common speech in the East. Nowhere are\nthere such habitual liars, and nowhere are there so many oaths. Every\ntraveller there knows that, and sees how true is Christ's filiation of\nthe custom of swearing from the custom of falsehood. But these poisonous\nweeds of speech not only tended to degrade plain veracity in the popular\nmind, but were themselves parents of immoral evasions, for it was the\nteaching of some Rabbis, at all events, that an oath 'by heaven' or 'by\nearth' or 'by Jerusalem' or 'by my head' did not bind. That further\nrelaxation of the obligation of truthfulness was grounded on the words\nquoted in verse 33, for, said the immoral quibblers, 'it is \"thine oaths\nto the Lord\" that thou \"shalt perform,\" and for these others you may do\nas you like' Therefore our Lord insists that every oath, even these\nmutilated, colloquial ones which avoid His name, is in essence an appeal\nto God, and has no sense unless it is. To swear such a truncated oath,\nthen, has the still further condemnation that it is certainly an\nirreverence, and probably a quibble, and meant to be broken. It must be\nfully admitted that there is little in common between such pieces of\nsenseless profanity as these oaths, or the modern equivalents which\npollute so many lips to-day, and the oath administered in a court of\njustice, and it may further be allowed weight that Jesus does not\nspecifically prohibit the oath 'by the Lord,' but it is difficult to see\nhow the principles on which He condemns are to be kept from touching\neven judicial oaths. For they, too, are administered on the ground of\nthe false idea that they add to the obligation of veracity, and give a\nguarantee of truthfulness which a simple affirmation does not give. Nor\ncan any one, who knows the perfunctory formality and indifference with\nwhich such oaths are administered and taken, and what a farce 'kissing\nthe book' has become, doubt that even judicial oaths tend to weaken the\npopular conception of the sin of a lie and the reliance to be placed\nupon the simple 'Yea, yea; Nay, nay.'\n\n\nNON-RESISTANCE\n\n     'Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a\n     tooth for a tooth: 39. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil:\n     but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the\n     other also. 40. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take\n     away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41. And whosoever shall\n     compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42. Give to him that\n     asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou\n     away.'--MATT. v. 38-42.\n\nThe old law directed judges to inflict penalties precisely equivalent to\noffences--'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth' (Exod. xxi. 24),\nbut that direction was not for the guidance of individuals. It was\nsuited for the stage of civilisation in which it was given, and probably\nwas then a restriction, rather than a sanction, of the wild law of\nretaliation. Jesus sweeps it away entirely, and goes much further than\neven its abrogation. For He forbids not only retaliation but even\nresistance. It is unfortunate that in this, as in so many instances,\ncontroversy as to the range of Christ's words has so largely hustled\nobedience to them out of the field, that the first thought suggested to\na modern reader by the command 'Resist not evil' (or, an evil man) is\napt to be, Is the Quaker doctrine of uniform non-resistance right or\nwrong, instead of, Do I obey this precept? If we first try to understand\nits meaning, we shall be in a position to consider whether it has\nlimits, springing from its own deepest significance, or not. What, then,\nis it not to resist? Our Lord gives three concrete illustrations of what\nHe enjoins, the first of which refers to insults such as contumelious\nblows on the cheek, which are perhaps the hardest not to meet with a\nflash of anger and a returning stroke; the second of which refers to\nassaults on property, such as an attempt at legal robbery of a man's\nundergarment; the third of which refers to forced labour, such as\nimpressing a peasant to carry military or official baggage or\ndocuments--a form of oppression only too well known under Roman rule in\nChrist's days. In regard to all three cases, He bids His disciples\nsubmit to the indignity, yield the coat, and go the mile. But such\nyielding without resistance is not to be all. The other cheek is to be\ngiven to the smiter; the more costly and ample outer garment is to be\nyielded up; the load is to be carried for two miles. The disciple is to\nmeet evil with a manifestation, not of anger, hatred, or intent to\ninflict retribution, but of readiness to submit to more. It is a hard\nlesson, but clearly here, as always, the chief stress is to be laid, not\non the outward action, but on the disposition, and on the action mainly\nas the outcome and exhibition of that. If the cheek is turned, or the\ncloak yielded, or the second mile trudged with a lowering brow, and hate\nor anger boiling in the heart, the commandment is broken. If the inner\nman rises in hot indignation against the evil and its doer, he is\nresisting evil more harmfully to himself than is many a man who makes\nhis adversary's cheeks tingle before his own have ceased to be reddened.\nWe have to get down into the depths of the soul, before we understand\nthe meaning of non-resistance. It would have been better if the eager\ncontroversy about the breadth of this commandment had oftener become a\nstudy of its depth, and if, instead of asking, 'Are we ever warranted in\nresisting?' men had asked, 'What in its full meaning is non-resistance?'\nThe truest answer is that it is a form of Love,--love in the face of\ninsults, wrongs, and domineering tyranny, such as are illustrated in\nChrist's examples. This article of Christ's New Law comes last but one\nin the series of instances in which His transfiguring touch is laid on\nthe Old Law, and the last of the series is that to which He has been\nsteadily advancing from the first--namely, the great Commandment of\nLove. This precept stands immediately before that, and prepares for it.\nIt is, as suffused with the light of the sun that is all but risen,\n'Resist not evil,' for 'Love beareth all things.'\n\nIt is but a shallow stream that is worried into foam and made angry and\nnoisy by the stones in its bed; a deep river flows smooth and silent\nabove them. Nothing will enable us to meet 'evil' with a patient\nyielding love which does not bring the faintest tinge of anger even into\nthe cheek reddened by a rude hand, but the 'love of God shed abroad in\nthe heart,' and when that love fills a man, 'out of him will flow a\nriver of living water,' which will bury evil below its clear, gentle\nabundance, and, perchance, wash it of its foulness. The 'quality of'\nthis non-resistance 'is twice blessed,' 'it blesseth him that gives and\nhim that takes.' For the disciple who submits in love, there is the gain\nof freedom from the perturbations of passion, and of steadfast abiding\nin the peace of a great charity, the deliverance from the temptation of\ndescending to the level of the wrong-doer, and of losing hold of God and\nall high visions. The tempest-ruffled sea mirrors no stars by night, nor\nis blued by day. If we are to have real communion with God, we must not\nflush with indignation at evil, nor pant with desire to shoot the arrow\nback to him that aimed it at us. And in regard to the evil-doer, the\nmost effectual resistance is, in many cases, not to resist. There is\nsomething hid away somewhere in most men's hearts which makes them\nashamed of smiting the offered left cheek, and then ashamed of having\nsmitten the right one. 'It is a shame to hit him, since he does not\ndefend himself,' comes into many a ruffian's mind. The safest way to\ntravel in savage countries is to show oneself quite unarmed. He that\nmeets evil with evil is 'overcome of evil'; he that meets it with\npatient love is likely in most cases to 'overcome evil with good.' And\neven if he fails, he has, at all events, used the only weapon that has\nany chance of beating down the evil, and it is better to be defeated\nwhen fighting hate with love than to be victorious when fighting it with\nitself, or demanding an eye for an eye.\n\nBut, if we take the right view of this precept, its limitations are in\nitself. Since it is love confronting, and seeking to transform evil into\nits own likeness, it may sometimes be obliged by its own self not to\nyield. If turning the other cheek would but make the assaulter more\nangry, or if yielding the cloak would but make the legal robber more\ngreedy, or if going the second mile would but make the press-gang more\nsevere and exacting, resistance becomes a form of love and a duty for\nthe sake of the wrong-doer. It may also become a duty for the sake of\nothers, who are also objects of love, such as helpless persons who\notherwise would be exposed to evil, or society as a whole. But while\nclearly that limit is prescribed by the very nature of the precept, the\nresistance which it permits must have love to the culprit or to others\nas its motive, and not be tainted by the least suspicion of passion or\nvengeance. Would that professing Christians would try more to purge\ntheir own hearts, and bring this solemn precept into their daily lives,\ninstead of discussing whether there are cases in which it does not\napply! There are great tracts in the lives of all of us to which it\nshould apply and is not applied; and we had better seek to bring these\nunder its dominion first, and then it will be time enough to debate as\nto whether any circumstances are outside its dominion or not.\n\n\nTHE LAW OF LOVE\n\n     'Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy\n     neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44. But I say unto you, Love your\n     enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,\n     and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;\n     45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:\n     for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and\n     sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46. For if ye love them\n     which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the\n     same? 47. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than\n     others! do not even the publicans so? 48. Be ye therefore perfect,\n     even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.'--MATT. v.\n     43-48.\n\nThe last of the five instances of our Lord's extending and deepening and\nspiritualising the old law is also the climax of them. We may either\ncall it the highest or the deepest, according to our point of view. His\ntransfiguring touch invests all the commandments with which He has been\ndealing with new inwardness, sweep, and spirituality, and finally He\nproclaims the supreme, all-including commandment of universal love. 'It\nhath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour'--that comes from Lev.\nxix. 18; but where does 'and hate thine enemy' come from? Not from\nScripture, but in the passage in Leviticus 'neighbour' is co-extensive\nwith 'children of thy people,' and the hatred and contempt of all men\noutside Israel which grew upon the Jews found a foothold there. 'Who is\nmy neighbour?' was apparently a well-discussed question in the schools\nof the Rabbis, and, whether any of these teachers ever committed\nthemselves to plainly formulating the principle or not, practically the\nduty of love was restricted to a narrow circle, and the rest of the wide\nworld left out in the cold. But not only was the circumference of love's\ncircle drawn in, but to hate an enemy was elevated almost into a duty.\nIt is the worst form of retaliation. 'An eye for an eye' is bad enough,\nbut hate for hate plunges men far deeper in the devil's mire. To flash\nback from the mirror of the heart the hostile looks which are flung at\nus, is our natural impulse; but why should we always leave it to the\nother man to pitch the keynote of our relations with him? Why should we\necho only his tones? Cannot we leave his discord to die into silence and\nreply to it by something more musical? Two thunder-clouds may cast\nlightnings at each other, but they waste themselves in the process.\nBetter to shine meekly and victoriously on as the moon does on piled\nmasses of darkness till it silvers them with its quiet light. So Jesus\nbids us do. We are to suppress the natural inclination to pay back in\nthe enemy's own coin, to 'give him as good as he gave us,' to 'show\nproper spirit,' and all the other fine phrases with which the world\nwhitewashes hatred and revenge. We are not only to allow no stirring of\nmalice in our feelings, but we are to let kindly emotions bear fruit in\nwords blessing the cursers, and in deeds of goodness, and, highest of\nall, in prayers for those whose hate is bitterest, being founded on\nreligion, and who are carrying it into action in persecution. We cannot\nhate a man if we pray for him; we cannot pray for him if we hate him.\nOur weakness often feels it so hard not to hate our enemies, that our\nonly way to get strength to keep this highest, hardest commandment is to\nbegin by trying to pray for the foe, and then we gradually feel the\ninfernal fires dying down in our temper, and come to be able to meet his\nevil with good, and his curses with blessings. It is a difficult lesson\nthat Jesus sets us. It is a blessed possibility that Jesus opens for\nus, that our kindly emotions towards men need not be at the mercy of\ntheirs to us. It is a fair ideal that He paints, which, if Christians\ndeliberately and continuously took it for their aim to realise, would\nrevolutionise society, and make the fellowship of man with man a\ncontinual joy. Think of what any community, great or small, would be, if\nenmity were met by love only and always. Its fire would die for want of\nfuel. If the hater found no answering hate increasing his hate, he would\noften come to answer love with love. There is an old legend spread\nthrough many lands, which tells how a princess who had been changed by\nenchantment into a loathly serpent, was set free by being thrice kissed\nby a knight, who thereby won a fair bride with whom he lived in love and\njoy. The only way to change the serpent of hate into the fair form of a\nfriend is to kiss it out of its enchantment.\n\nNo doubt, partial anticipations of this precept may be found, buried\nunder much ethical rubbish, elsewhere than in the Sermon on the Mount,\nand more plainly in Old Testament teaching, and in Rabbinical sayings;\nbut Christ's 'originality' as a moral teacher lies not so much in the\nabsolute novelty of His commandments, as in the perspective in which He\nsets them, and in the motives on which He bases them, and most of all in\nHis being more than a teacher, namely, the Giver of power to fulfil what\nHe enjoins. Christian ethics not merely recognises the duty of love to\nmen, but sets it as the foundation of all other duties. It is root and\ntrunk, all others are but the branches into which it ramifies. Christian\nethics not merely recognises the duty, but takes a man by the hand,\nleads him up to his Father God, and says: There, that is your pattern,\nand a child who loves his Father will try to copy his ways and be made\nlike Him by his love. So Morality passes into Religion, and through the\ntransition receives power beyond its own. The perfection of worship is\nimitation, and when men 'call Him Father' whom they adore, imitation\nbecomes the natural action of a child who loves.\n\nA dew-drop and a planet are both spheres, moulded by the same law of\ngravitation. The tiny round of our little drops of love may be not all\nunlike the colossal completeness of that Love, which owns the sun as\n'His sun,' and rays down light and distils rain over the broad world.\nGod loves all men apart altogether from any regard to character,\ntherefore He gives to all men all the good gifts that they can receive\napart from character, and if evil men do not get His best gifts, it is\nnot because He withholds, but because they cannot take. There are human\nlove-gifts which cannot be bestowed on enemies or evil persons. It is\nnot possible, nor fit, that a Christian should feel to such as he does\nto those who share his faith and sympathies; but it is possible, and\ntherefore incumbent, that he should not only negatively clear his heart\nof malice and hatred, but that he should positively exercise such active\nbeneficence as they will receive. That is God's way, and it should be\nHis children's.\n\nThe thought of the divine pattern naturally brings up the contrast\nbetween it and that which goes by the name of love among men. Just\nbecause Christians are to take God as their example of love, they must\ntranscend human examples. Here again Jesus strikes the note with which\nHe began His teaching of His disciples' 'righteousness'; but very\nsignificantly He does not now point to Pharisees, but to publicans, as\nthose who were to be surpassed. The former, no doubt, were models of\n'righteousness' after a rigid, whitewashed-sepulchre sort, but the\nlatter had bigger hearts, and, bad as they were and were reputed to be,\nthey loved better than the others. Jesus is glad to see and point to\neven imperfect sparks of goodness in a justly condemned class. No doubt,\npublicans in their own homes, with wife and children round them, let\ntheir hearts out, and could be tender and gentle, however gruff and\nharsh in public. When Jesus says '_even_ the publicans,' He is not\nspeaking in contempt, but in recognition of the love that did find some\nsoil to grow on, even in that rocky ground. But is not the bringing in\nof the 'reward' as a motive a woful downcome? and is love that loves for\nthe sake of reward, love at all? The criticism and questions forget that\nthe true motive has just been set forth, and that the thought of\n'reward' comes in, only as secondary encouragement to a duty which is\nbased upon another ground. To love because we shall gain something,\neither in this world or in the next, is not love but long-sighted\nselfishness; but to be helped in our endeavours to widen our love so as\nto take in all men, by the vision of the reward, is not selfishness but\na legitimate strengthening of our weakness. Especially is that so, in\nview of the fact that 'the reward' contemplated is nothing else than the\ngrowth of likeness to the Father in heaven, and the increase of filial\nconsciousness, and the clearer, deeper cry, 'Abba, Father.' If longing\nfor, and having regard to, that 'recompense of reward' is selfishness,\nand if the teaching which permits it is immoral, may God send the world\nmore of such selfishness and of teachers of it!\n\nBut the reference to the shrunken love-streams that flow among men\npasses again swiftly to the former thought of likeness to God as the\ngreat pattern. Like a bird glancing downwards for a moment to earth, and\nthen up again and away into the blue, our Lord's words re-soar, and\nsettle at last by the throne of God. The command, 'Be ye perfect, even\nas your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' may be intended to refer\nonly to the immediately preceding section, but one is inclined to regard\nit rather as the summing up of the whole of the preceding series of\ncommandments from verse 20 onwards. The sum of religion is to imitate\nthe God whom we worship. The ideal which draws us to aim at its\nrealisation must be absolutely perfect, however imperfect may be all our\nattempts to reproduce it. We sometimes hear it said that to set up\nperfection as our goal is to smite effort dead and to enthrone despair.\nBut to set up an incomplete ideal is the surest way to take the heart\nout of effort after it. It is the Christian's prerogative to have ever\ngleaming before him an unattained aim, to which he is progressively\napproximating, and which, unreached, beckons, feeds hope of endless\napproach, and guarantees immortality.\n\n\nTRUMPETS AND STREET CORNERS\n\n     'Take heed that ye do nob your alms before men, to be seen of them:\n     otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2.\n     Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet\n     before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the\n     streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you,\n     They have their reward. 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy\n     left hand know what thy right hand doeth; 4. That thine alms may be\n     in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, Himself shall\n     reward thee openly. 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as\n     the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the\n     synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be\n     seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.'--MATT.\n     vi. 1-5.\n\nOur Lord follows His exposition of the deepened sense which the old law\nassumes in His kingdom, by a warning against the most subtle foes of\ntrue righteousness. He first gives the warning in general terms in verse\n1, and then flashes its light into three dark corners, and shows how\nhankering after men's praise corrupts the beneficence which is our duty\nto our neighbour, the devotion which is our duty to God, and the\nabstinence which is our duty to ourselves. We deal now with the two\nformer.\n\nWe have first the general warning, given out like the text of a sermon,\nor the musical phrase which underlies the various harmonies of some\nconcerto. The first word implies that the evil is a subtle and seducing\none. 'Take heed' as of something which may steal into and mar the\nnoblest lives. The serpent lies coiled under the leaves, and may sting\nand poison the unwary hand. The generality of the warning, and the\nlogical propriety of the whole section, require the adoption of the\nreading of the Revised Version, namely, 'righteousness.' The thing to be\ntaken heed of is not the doing it 'before men,' which will often be\nobligatory, often necessary, and never in itself wrong, but the doing it\n'to be seen of them.' Not the number of spectators, but the furtive\nglance of our eyes to see if they are looking at us, makes the sin. We\nare to let our good works shine, that men may glorify our Father. Pious\nsouls are to shine, and yet to be hid,--a paradox which can be easily\nsolved by the obedient. If our motive is to make God's glory more\nvisible, we shall not be seeking to be ourselves admired. The\nharp-string's swift vibrations, as it gives out its note, make it\nunseen.\n\nThe reason for the warning goes on two principles: one that\nrighteousness is to be rewarded, over and above its own inherent\nblessedness; another, that the prospect of the reward is a legitimate\nstimulus, over and above the prime reason for righteousness, namely,\nthat it is righteous. The New Testament morality is not good enough for\nsome very superfine people, who are pleased to call it selfish because\nit lets a martyr brace himself in the fire by the vision of the crown\nathwart the smoke. Somehow or other, however, that selfish morality gets\nitself put in practice, and turns out more unselfish people than its\nassailants manage to produce. Perhaps the motive which they attack may\nbe part of the reason.\n\nThe mingling of regard for man's approbation with apparently righteous\nacts absolutely disqualifies them for receiving God's reward, for it\nchanges their whole character, and they are no longer what they seem.\nCharity given from that motive is not charity, nor prayer offered from\nit devotion.\n\nI. The general warning is applied to three cases, of which we have to\ndeal with two. Our Lord speaks first of ostentatious almsgiving. Note\nthat we are not to take 'blowing the trumpets' as actual fact. Nobody\nwould do that in a synagogue. The meaning of all attempts, however\nconcealed, to draw attention to one's beneficence, is just what the\near-splitting blast would be; and the incongruity of startling the\nworshippers with the harsh notes is like the incongruity of doing good\nand trying to attract notice. I think Christ's ear catches the screech\nof the brazen abomination in a good many of the ways of raising and\ngiving money, which find favour in the Church to-day. This is an\nadvertising age, and flowers that used to blush unseen are forced now\nunder glass for exhibition. No one needs to blow his own trumpet\nnowadays. We have improved on the ruder methods of the Pharisees, and\nnewspapers and collectors will blow lustily and loud for us, and defend\nthe noise on the ground that a good example stimulates others. Perhaps\nso, though it may be a question what it stimulates to, and whether B's\ngift, drawn from him in imitation or emulation of A's, is any liker\nChrist's idea of gifts than was A's, given that B might hear of it. To\na very large extent, the money getting and giving arrangements of the\nmodern Church are neither more nor less than the attempt to draw\nChrist's chariot with the devil's traces. Christ condemned ostentation.\nHis followers too often try to make use of it. 'They have their reward.'\nObserve that _have_ means _have received in full_, and note the emphasis\nof that _their_. It is all the reward that they will ever get, and all\nthat they are capable of. The pure and lasting crown, which is a fuller\npossession of God Himself, has no charms for them, and could not be\ngiven. And what a poor thing it is which they seek--the praise of men, a\nbreath, as unsubstantial and short-lived as the blast of the trumpet\nwhich they blew before their selfish benevolence. Their charity was no\ncharity, for what they did was not to give, but to buy. Their gift was a\nspeculation. They invested in charity, and looked for a profit of\npraise. How can they get God's reward? True benevolence will even hide\nthe giving right hand from the idle left, and, as far as may be, will\ndismiss the deed from the doer's consciousness. Such alms, given wholly\nout of pity and desire to be like the all-giving Father, can be\nrewarded, and will be, with that richer acquaintance with Him and more\ncomplete victory over self, which is the heaven of heaven and the\nforetaste of it now.\n\nIn its coarsest forms, this ostentation is out and out hypocrisy, which\nconsciously assumes a virtue which it has not. But far more common and\ndangerous is the subtle, unconscious mingling of it with real\ncharity--the eye wandering from the poor, whom the hand is helping, to\nthe bystanders--and it is this mingling which we have therefore to take\nmost heed to avoid. One drop of this sour stuff will curdle whole\ngallons of the milk of human kindness. The hypocrisy which hoodwinks\nourselves is more common and perilous than that which blinds others.\n\nII. We need not dwell at length on the second application of the general\nwarning--to prayer; as the words are almost, and the thoughts entirely,\nidentical with those of the former verses. If there be any action of the\nspirit which requires the complete exclusion of thoughts of men, it is\nprayer, which is the communion of the soul alone with God. It is as\nimpossible to pray, and at the same time to think of men, as to look up\nand down at once. If we think of prayer, as formalists in all times have\ndone, as so many words, then it will not seem incongruous to choose the\nplaces where men are thickest for 'saying our prayers,' and we shall do\nit with all the more spirit if we have spectators. That accounts for a\ngreat deal of the 'devotion' in Mohammedan and Roman Catholic countries\nwhich travellers with no love for Protestant Christianity are so fond of\npraising. But if we think of prayer as Christ did, as being the yearning\nof the soul to God, we shall feel that the inmost chamber and the closed\ndoor are its fitting accompaniments. Of course, our Lord is not\nforbidding united prayer; for each of the assembled worshippers may be\nholding communion with God, which is none the less solitary though\nshared by others, and none the less united though in it each is alone\nwith God.\n\nIII. Our Lord passes for a time from the more immediate subject of\nostentation to add other teaching about prayer, which still farther\nunfolds its true conception. Another corruption arising from the error\nof thinking that prayer is an outward act, is 'vain repetition,'\ncharacteristic of all heathen religion, and resting upon a profound\ndisbelief in the loving willingness of God to help. Of course, earnest,\nreiterated prayer is not vain repetition. Jesus is not here condemning\nHis own agony in Gethsemane when He thrice 'said the same words.' The\npersistence in prayer, which is the child of faith, is no relation to\nthe parrot-like repetition which is the child of disbelief, nor does the\ncondemnation of the one touch the other. The frenzied priests who\nyelled, 'O Baal, hear us!' all the long day; the Buddhists who repeat\nthe sacred invocation till they are stupefied; the poor devotee who\nthinks merit is proportioned to the number of Paternosters and Aves, are\nall instances of this gross mechanical conception of prayer. Are there\nno similar superstitions nearer home? Are there no ministers or\ncongregations that we ever heard of, who have a regulation length for\ntheir prayers, and would scarcely think they had prayed at all if their\ndevotions were as short as most of the prayers in the Bible? Are we in\nno danger of believing what Christ here tells us is pure\nheathenism--that many words may move God?\n\nThe only real remedy against such degradation of the very idea of prayer\nlies in the deeper conceptions of God and of it which Christ here gives.\nHe knows our needs before we ask. Then what is prayer for? Not to inform\nHim, nor to move Him, unwilling, to have mercy, as if, like some proud\nprince, He required a certain amount of recognition of His greatness as\nthe price of His favours, but to fit our own hearts by conscious need\nand true desire and dependence, to receive the gifts which He is ever\nwilling to give, but we are not always fit to receive. As St. Augustine\nhas it, the empty vessel is by prayer carried to the full fountain.\n\n\nSOLITARY PRAYER\n\n     'Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to\n     thy Father which is in secret,'--MATT. vi. 6.\n\nAn old heathen who had come to a certain extent under the influence of\nChrist, called prayer 'the flight of the solitary to the Solitary.'\nThere is a deep truth in that, though not all the truth.\n\nPrayer is not only the most intensely individual act that a man can\nperform, but it is also the highest social act. Christ came not to carry\nsolitary souls by a solitary pathway to heaven, but to set the solitary\nin families and to rear up a church. Of that church the highest function\nis united worship.\n\nNo one is likely to fall into the mistake of supposing that this passage\nbefore us condemns praying in the synagogues, or even, if need were, at\nthe street corners. It does not, of course, interdict social public\nprayer, though it enjoins solitary secret communion with the solitary,\nsecret God.\n\nI. What is the practice here enjoined?\n\nSince 'that they may be seen of men' constitutes the evil, we may fairly\nsay that Christ is not here prescribing the place where, but the spirit\nin which, we ought to pray; that what He condemns is not the fact of\npraying where we can be seen, but of picking out the place in order that\nwe may be seen; that, in a word, the contrast here is between\nostentation and sincerity. A man that has sidelong looks at the\npassers-by in his devotions has not much devotion.\n\nBut then, as a material help to this, we need solitude and secrecy; they\nare not indispensable, but almost so. And in that solitude what is to be\nour occupation? One word answers the question--Communion. We are to be\nalone that we may more fully and thrillingly feel that we are with God.\nThat communion will have an intellectual element in which we try to rise\nto perception of the high truths as to God, or in meditation gaze on\nHim, and a petitionary element in which we ask for the communication of\nHis grace according to our needs.\n\nII. What is the special worth of such a habit?\n\n1. The truths that we profess to believe are in their nature such as can\nonly be vividly realised by such an exercise. They are all matters of\nfaith, not of sense. God is a spirit, and is felt near by none but still\nand waiting spirits. Our religion has to do with the Unseen, the Solemn,\nthe Profound, the Remote. These are not to be fully felt hastily. They\nare like mountains that grow on us as we gaze, like a fair scene that we\nmust be alone in, rightly to feel. They must be allowed to saturate the\nsoul. The eye must be slowly accustomed to the light.\n\n2. The pressure of the world can only be resisted by such an exercise.\n\nOur business as Christians is to keep ourselves free from it.\n\n3. The tone and balance of our own minds can only be preserved and\nrestored thus. Solitude is the mother-country of the strong. 'I was left\nalone, and I saw this great vision.' We get hot and fevered, interested\nand absorbed, and we need solitude as a counterpoise.\n\n4. What is the connection of this with other kinds of worship and with\nour life's work? It has a function of its own.\n\nThese cannot be substituted for it--public worship, reading Christian\nbooks, bring a different class of feelings altogether into play.\n\nThey are not to be excluded by it. They find their true foundation in\nit. A tree's branches stretch to the same circumference as its roots.\n\n5. What is the special need of this precept for this age?\n\nIt is neglected in our modern life. The evils of our modern\nChristianity, the low tone of religion, the small grasp of Christian\ntruth, the irreligious cast of religious work.\n\nThe thought of being alone with God will be a joy--or a terror.\n\n\nTHE STRUCTURE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER\n\n     'After this manner therefore pray ye.'--MATT. vi. 9.\n\n'After this manner' may or may not imply that Christ meant this prayer\nto be a form, but He certainly meant it for a model. And they who drink\nin its spirit, and pray, seeking God's glory before their own\nsatisfaction, and, while trustfully asking from His hand their daily\nbread, rise quickly to implore the supply of their spiritual hunger, do\npray after this manner,' whether they use these words or no.\n\nAll begins with the recognition of the Fatherhood of God. The clear and\nfixed contemplation of God is the beginning of all true prayer, and that\ncontemplation does not fasten on His remote and partially intelligible\nattributes, nor strive to climb to behold Him as in Himself, but grasps\nHim as related to us. The Fatherhood of God implies His communication of\nlife, His tenderness, and our kindred. This is the prayer of the\nchildren of the kingdom, and can only be truly offered by those who, by\nfaith in the Son, have received the adoption of sons. It gathers all\nsuch into a family, so delivering their prayer from selfish absorption\nin their own joys or needs. As our Father 'in Heaven,' He is lifted\nclear above earth's limitations, changes, and imperfections. So\nchildlike familiarity is sublimed into reverence, our hearts are drawn\nupward, and freed from the oppressive and narrowing attachment to earth\nand sense.\n\nThe perfect sevenfold petitions of the prayer fall into two halves,\ncorresponding roughly to the first and second tables of the decalogue.\nThe first half consists of three petitions, which refer to God and His\nkingdom. They are three, in accordance with the symbolism of numbers\nwhich, in the Old Testament, always regards three as the sacred number\nof completeness and of divinity. The second half consists of four\npetitions, which refer to ourselves. They are four--the number which\nsymbolises the creature. The lessons taught by the order in which these\ntwo halves occur do not need to be dwelt upon. God first and man second,\nHis glory before our wants--that is the true order. For how few of us is\nit the spontaneous order! Do we first rise to God, and only secondly\ndescend to ourselves?\n\nNote, too, the sequence in each of these halves. In the first we may say\nthat we begin from above and come down, or from within and come\noutwards. In the second, the process is the opposite. We begin on the\nlowest level with our external needs, and go upwards and inwards to\nremoval of sin, exemption from temptation, and complete deliverance from\nevil. The first half gives us the beginning, middle, and end of God's\npurposes for the world. The recognition of His name is the basis of His\nkingdom, and His kingdom is the sphere in which alone His will is done.\nThe second half, in like manner, gives us the beginning, middle, and end\nof His dealings with the individual, the common mercies of daily bread,\nforgiveness, guidance, protection in conflict, and final deliverance.\n\nThe 'name' of God is His revealed character. He hallows it when He so\nacts as to make His holiness manifest. We hallow it when we regard it as\nthe holy thing which it is. That petition is first, because the\nknowledge of God as He is self-revealed is the deepest want of men, and\nthe spread of that knowledge and reverence is the way by which His\nkingdom comes.\n\nGod's kingdom is His rule over men's hearts. Christ began His ministry\nby proclaiming its near approach, and in effect brought it to earth. But\nit spreads slowly in the individual heart, and in the world. Therefore,\nthis second petition is ever in place, until the consummation. God's\nrule is established through the hallowing of His name; for it is a rule\nwhich works on men through their understandings, and seeks no ignorant\nsubmission.\n\nThe sum of this first half is, 'Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on\nearth.' Obedience to that will is the end of God's self-revelation. It\nmakes all the difference whether we begin with the thought of the name\nor of the will. In the latter case, religion will be slavish and\nsubmission sullen. There is no more horrible and paralysing conception\nof God than that of mere sovereign will. But if we think of Him as\ndesiring that we should know His name, and as gathering all its\nsyllables into the one perfect 'Word of God'; then we are sure that His\nwill must be intelligible and good. Obedience becomes delight, and the\nsurrender of our wills to His the glad expression of love. He who begins\nwith 'Thy will be done' is a slave, and never really does the will at\nall; he who begins with 'Our Father, hallowed be Thy name,' is a son,\nand his will, gladly yielding, is free in surrender, strong in\nself-abnegation, and restful in putting the reins into God's hands.\n\nThe two halves make a whole. The second, which deals with our needs,\nstarts with the cry for bread, and climbs up slowly through the ills of\nlife, from bodily hunger to trespasses and human unkindness and personal\nweakness, and a world of temptation, and the double evil of sin and of\nsorrow, and so regains at last the starting-point of the first half,\nHeaven and God. The probable meaning of the difficult word rendered\n'daily' seems to be 'sufficient for our need.' The lessons of the\npetition are that God's children have a claim for the supply of their\nwants, since He is bound, as a faithful Creator, not to send mouths\nwithout sending meat to fill them, but that our desires should be\nlimited to our actual necessities, and our cravings, as well as our\nefforts for the bread that perishes, made into prayers. Such a prayer\nrightly used would put an end to much wicked luxury among Christians,\nand to many questionable ways of getting wealth. 'Bless my cheating, my\nsharp practice, my half lies!' If we dare not pray this prayer over what\nwe do in 'earning our living,' we had better ask ourselves whether we\nare not rather earning our death.\n\nSin is debt Incurred to God. So Christ taught in the previous chapter by\nHis parable of agreeing with the adversary; and in the other parables\nof the two debtors (Luke vii. 41) and of the unmerciful servant (Matt.\nxviii. 23). As universal as the need for bread is the need for pardon.\nIt is the first want of the spiritual nature, but it is a constantly\nrecurring want, as this petition teaches us. Forgiveness is the\ncancelling of a debt; but we must not forget that it is a Father's\nforgiveness, and therefore does not merely, or even chiefly, imply the\nremoval of penalty, but much rather the unimpeded flow of the Father's\nlove, and consequently the removal of the miserable consciousness of\nseparation from Him. The appended comparison 'as we have forgiven' does\nnot mean that our forgiveness is the reason for God's forgiveness of us.\nThe ground of our pardon is Christ's work, the condition of it our\nfaith; but, as we saw in considering the Beatitudes, the condition on\nwhich the children of the kingdom can retain the blessing of the divine\npardon is their imitation of it.\n\nThe next petition is the expression of conscious weakness. The forgiven\nman, though in his deepest soul hating sin, is still surrounded with\nsparks which may fire the combustibles in his heart. If we ask not to be\nled into temptation, because we want a smooth and easy road, we are\nwrong. If we do so from self-distrust and fear lest we fall, then it is\nallowable. But perhaps we may draw a distinction between being tempted\nand being led into temptation. The former may mean the presentation of\nan inducement to do evil which we cannot hope to escape, and which it is\nnot well that we should escape. The latter may mean the further step of\nembracing or being entangled in it by consenting to it. We do not need\nto dread the entrance into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for if the\nLord be with us we shall pass through it. Our prayer may mean, lead us,\nnot into, but through, the trial. It is the plaint of conscious\nweakness, the recognition of God as ordering our path, the cry of a\nheart which desires holiness most of all, and which trusts in God's\nupholding hand in the hour of trial.\n\n'Deliver us from evil' is a petition which, in its width, fits the close\nof the prayer better than does the translation of the Revised Version.\nThere seems an echo of the words in Paul's noble confidence while the\nheadsman's axe was so near, 'The Lord will deliver me from every evil\nwork.' Entire exemption from evil of every sort, whether sin or sorrow,\nis the true end of our prayers, as it is the crown of God's purpose.\nNothing less can satisfy our yearnings; nothing less can fulfil the\ndivine desire for us. Nothing less should be the goal of our faith and\nhope. To the height of meek assurance, and the reaching out of our souls\nin desire which is the pledge of its own fulfilment, Christ would have\nus attain on the wings of prayer. _They_ can have no narrower bonds\nto the horizon of their hopes, nor any lesser blessing for the\nsatisfaction of their longings, whose prayer begins with 'Our Father\nwhich art in heaven'; for where the Father is, the child must wish to\nbe, and some day will be, to go out no more.\n\n\n'OUR FATHER'\n\n     'Our Father which art in heaven.'--Matt. vi. 9.\n\nThe words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their\ndepth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and\nthe savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom\nall their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look\nsteadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when\nwe bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns\nfrom them the lesson of divine love and a mighty helper; the reverent,\nloving contemplation of the profoundest souls, and the experience of all\nthe ages discern ever new depths in them and feel that much remains\nunlearned. 'They did all eat and were filled, men, women, and\nchildren--and they took up of fragments that were left five baskets\nfull.'\n\nThis is especially true about the Lord's Prayer. We teach it to our\nchildren, and its divine simplicity becomes their lisping tongues and\nlittle folded hands. But the more we ponder it, and try to make it the\nmodel of our prayers, the more wonderful does its fulness of meaning\nappear, the more hard does it become to pray 'after this manner.' There\nis everything in it: the loftiest revelation of God in His relations to\nus and in His purposes with the world; the setting forth of all our\nrelations to Him, to His purposes, and to one another; the grandest\nvision of the future for mankind; the care for the smallest wants of\neach day.\n\nAs a theology, it smites into fragments all false, unworthy human\nthoughts of God. As an exposition of religion, the man who has drunk in\nits spirit has ceased from self-will and sin. As a foundation of social\nmorals it lays deep the only basis for true human brotherhood, and he\nwho lives in its atmosphere will live in charity and helpfulness with\nall mankind. As a guide for personal life, it gives us authoritatively\nthe order and relative worth of all human desires, and with these the\norder and subordination of our pursuits and life's aims. As a prayer it\nis all comprehensive and intended to be so, holding within the perfect\nseven of its petitions, all for which we should come to God, and resting\nthem all on His divine name, and closing them all with a chorus of\nthanksgiving. As a prophecy it opens the loftiest vision, beyond which\nnone is possible, of the final transformation of this world into the\nkingdom in which God's will shall be perfectly done, and of the final\ndeliverance from, all evil of the struggling, sinning, sorrowing souls\nof His children.\n\nI desire to try in a series of sermons to set forth what little I can\nsee of the depth and comprehensiveness of this model of all prayer, and\nof its ever fresh applicability to the wants and difficulties of our\ndays as of all days. But before dealing with that great invocation of\nthe divine name on which all rests, a word or two must be said touching\nthe introductory clause.\n\n'After this manner pray ye.' The question which is usually made\nprominent in thinking of these words is really a very subordinate one.\nDid Christ intend to establish a form, or only to give an example?\nChurchmen say, a form; Dissenters generally say, an example. But it\nwould be better for both Churchmen and Dissenters to try to realise for\nthemselves what 'this manner' is.\n\nUnquestionably, whether our Lord is giving us a form or not, His chief\nobject was not to prescribe words. To pray is not to repeat petitions,\nand His commandment has for its chief meaning a much deeper one than\nthat He was giving us either a form which we are to incorporate verbally\nwith our prayers, or an outline according to which our spoken\nsupplications are to be shaped. Whether in addition to this we are to\nregard the very words as to be used by us, will be determined by each\nman and church according as he regards the use of set forms in prayer as\nbeing the true and noblest manner of prayer. Such use is certainly not\ninconsistent with the utmost spirituality, but the habitual use of\nforms, especially their exclusive use, seems to many of us to be\ndangerous, regard being had to the tendency of human nature to rest in\nthem. And it is not without significance that this very prayer of our\nLord's, which was given as the corrective of vain repetitions and idle,\nheathenish chattering of forms of prayer, has itself come to be the\nsaddest instance in all Christendom of these very faults, while the\nbeads slip through the fingers of the mechanical repeater of muttered\nPaternosters. Instead of wrangling about this subordinate question, let\nus try to pray after this manner. We shall find it hard, but blessed. Be\nsure that every prayer not after this manner is after a wrong manner.\n\nThis prayer helps to reverse our foolish desire to make earth foremost.\nThe true end of prayer is to get our wills harmonised with His, not to\nbend His to ours. Surely if self-denial and submission be the very heart\nof Christianity, that should be most expressed in prayer which is the\nvery sanctuary of religion. The prayers that are to be offered after\nthis manner will not be passionate, petulant pleadings or prescriptions\nto God to do this or that, but in them God and His glory will be first,\nI second, and through Him and as He wills.\n\nAh, brethren! this is an awful requirement of Christ's. Who dare take\nsuch holy words into his lips? It is a hard matter to pray as Christ\ntaught us. The prayer seems to move in a height of unapproachable\nelevation, and the air there is too thin and pure for our gross lungs.\nFor be it remembered, we are not praying after this manner unless our\nlives in some sort repeat and confirm our prayers. Do our hearts seek\nfirst the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Are our energies given\nto this, as their noblest aim, to hallow God's name; or does the very\nblood in our hearts throb hot, passionate desires for worldly things,\nand God's name and kingdom and will seem dreamy and far-off objects\nwhich kindle no desire in our souls and rule no effort of our lives,\nlike suns far away which shed little light upon the earth and sway not\nits rolling tides, that are obedient to the nearer but borrowed light of\nthe changeful moon? If so, no matter whether we use this form or not, we\nare not praying after this manner.\n\nLook, now, at this first clause, which is the basis of all.\n\nI. The divine Name which is the ground and object of all our prayers. It\nis not merely a formula of address, like the superscription on a letter,\nbut the reality of His character as revealed before us. There is\ninseparable from all prayer the effort to conceive worthily of Him to\nwhom we speak; to raise our souls to that height.\n\nHow much of our prayer, even while truest, fails here! We may be\ndistinctly conscious of our wants; our wishes may be right, and our\nconfidence may be firm that God will give us what we ask; yet how often\nthere is no vivid thought of Him filling the mind! How often our prayers\nare offered to a mere name! How seldom through the cloud-wrack beneath\nHis feet do we see His face!\n\nThis absorbed contemplation is the necessary preliminary of all real\nprayer, and there is a truth in the thought that such losing of self in\ngazing on God is the highest form of prayer. We should feel as some\npeasant come to court who stands on the threshold of the\npresence-chamber, and forgetting his grievances and his embassy, gazes\nentranced on the splendour and benignity of his sovereign.\n\nLook, then, at this Name: what it expresses. It is not new. The Jews\ndimly had it, and even Greek and other paganisms knew of a 'father of\nGods and men.' The name of Father carries with it primarily the idea of\nthe Source of life ('we also are His offspring'), and also, secondarily,\nthat of loving care.\n\nHow wonderful, how beautiful, that that earthly relation should find its\ndeepest reality in God! God be thanked that, 'like as a father pitieth\nhis children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.'\n\nBut the true Christian idea of God's fatherhood is more than all this.\nThis is a prayer for disciples, for those who alone can really pray. All\nmen are God's children because all draw their life from Him, were made\nin His image, and are objects of His love. But there is a fatherhood and\na sonship which are not universal, and for which another birth is\nnecessary. Its conditions are plainly laid down by the Evangelist: 'To\nas many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God,'\nand by the Apostle, 'Ye are the children of God through faith in Christ\nJesus.'\n\nWe are made sons through Jesus. We are made sons by faith.\n\nAnd now, how should this Fatherhood affect our prayers? We shall come\nwith hope and familiar confidence, for 'your heavenly Father knoweth\nwhat things ye have need of.' Does a father love to have his children\nabout him? Does a child shrink from telling its wishes to a father? Also\nwe must bend our wills to His--to a Father.\n\nContrast that conception with the ideas of God which we are all tempted\nto cherish, the slavish one which dwells upon the gulf between God and\nman, with the cold deity of 'natural religion,' with the Epicurean\nnotion of Him which divorces Him from all living interest in His\ncreation.\n\nContrast it with the ghastly image which our consciences and our fears\nframe, the heathen notion of an avenger and cruel. We do not need to\nseek to avert His anger. This mighty word shatters all cowering terror\nand abject prostration.\n\nAnd it is a vow as well as an Invocation, binding us to supreme love to\nHim, to obedience to Him, to moral conformity with Him. Be ye perfect as\nyour Father which is in heaven is perfect. The noblest prayer is 'Abba,\nFather.'\n\nII. The loftiness and perfectness of that divine Name.\n\n'In heaven.' Not fact, but symbol, to express His exaltation above the\nearth, and so suggesting all ideas of remoteness from creatures, from\nearth's limitations and conditions, changes and imperfection, and\nshowing the gulf between man and God.\n\n1. The thought that He is in heaven deepens our reverence, love casting\nout fear, but making us more lowly. It leads to familiar yet\nawe-stricken approach.\n\n2. It exalts the preciousness of the Fatherhood, as being free from all\nweakness and all change. It reveals a better Father than we can know\nhere; one not narrow of view, infirm of purpose, weak in tenderness,\nbounded in power. As the heavens stretch calm and serene above us, far\nfrom all our trouble and noise, unvexed, pitying, and dropping rain and\ndew on earth, so is He.\n\n3. It draws our hearts and hopes to our Father's home.\n\n4. It delivers us from worship of the visible and from worship by means\nof the visible. So the Name guards against placing stress on externals\nand secondary forms, places, times of worship.\n\nIII. The Community of Brotherhood of the Worshippers.\n\n_Our_ Father.\n\n1. All true enjoyment of blessings depends on our being willing to share\nthem. To keep for ourselves is to lose. We enter by faith into a great\ncommunity.\n\n2. The effect of this on our prayers: to destroy their selfishness. We\nbow to Him of whom the whole family is named.\n\n3. Effect on our lives.\n\nDare we rise from our knees to plan and plot for ourselves? How we are\ntempted to forget our brotherhood in personal animosities, vanity, and\nself-interest, competing with others! Our differences of ideas arising\nfrom differences of race, training, occupation, country, fling us apart.\nOur differences of wealth and position alienate us. Our differences of\nconception of Christianity often separate and embitter us. But do these\nnot crumble when we say '_Our_ Father'?\n\nThink of the generations who have gone to the grave saying this prayer.\nWhat a prophecy of the heaven, where all shall be gathered and each feel\nhis sense of Fatherhood increased by his brethren!\n\nAnd this is the only possible basis for true fraternity among men.\n\nOpinion? Men are not thinking machines.\n\nInterest? Men are not ruled by calculations, and such union is the\ndestruction of true unity.\n\nCommon aims?--shallow.\n\nNation or race?--artificial and not capable of universality.\n\nThere is no brotherhood but that which rests on God's Fatherhood,\nChrist's Sonship. For the world Christ has come, therefore we are no\nmore 'strangers and foreigners.'\n\nTherefore, listening to His voice, and trusting in Him who has made us\nheirs together with Him, let us lift up our voices, 'Our Father,' and\ntherein proclaim that God who loves every soul of man, who knows each\nman's wants, who bends over him in pitying tenderness, who can neither\ndie nor change, and who will gather into His eternal home all His\nprodigal children and keep them blessed by His side for evermore.\n\n\n'HALLOWED BE THY NAME'\n\n     'Hallowed be Thy name.'--Matt. vi. 9.\n\nName is character so far as revealed.\n\nI. What is meaning of Petition?\n\nHallowed means to make holy; or to show as holy; or to regard as holy.\nThe second of these is God's hallowing of His Name. The third is men's.\n\nThe prayer asks that God would so act as to show the holiness of His\ncharacter, and that men, one and all, may see the holiness of His\ncharacter.\n\ni.e. Hallowed by divine self-revelation.\n\nHallowed by human recognition.\n\nHallowed by human adoration and appropriate sentiments.\n\nHallowed by human action.\n\nII. On what it rests:\n\nOn the Fatherhood of God.\n\nOn the confidence that God wills that His Name should be known. In\nother words, the petition rests on the assurance of God's fatherly love,\nwhich cannot but will that His children should know their Father as He\nis.\n\nOn the fact that men need the knowledge of the Name.\n\nOn the conviction that men cannot attain it for themselves.\n\nThat Christ is the great means of His hallowing His Name.\n\nHis finished work does not render this prayer unnecessary.\n\n'I have declared Thy name, and will declare it.'\n\nThat this is to be issue of all. A grand prophecy.\n\nIII. Why put first.\n\nSingular, that so remote a petition should stand at beginning. We should\nbegin not with ourselves, but with God; not with temporal wants, not\neven with our own spiritual ones.\n\nWe begin not with men, but with God.\n\nIt is God's glory even more than men's knowledge of Him that the\npetition contemplates. And though the two things coincide, which of them\nis foremost in our minds makes an infinite difference.\n\nThen in regard to God, we first ask not that His law may be kept, but\nthat His nature may be known.\n\nThe place of this petition in the prayer is explained by considerations\nwhich suggest very important thoughts for ourselves and all men.\n\nThat true knowledge of God is the deepest and fundamental necessity for\nall men.\n\nThat the knowledge will affect their whole scheme of thought and life.\n\nThat the most important of all questions is, How does a man think of\nGod?\n\nThat the Inward comes before the Outward.\n\nThat knowledge is the guide of emotions and of practical life, as set\nforth here in the order of petitions.\n\nThis sequence of petitions corrects many errors into which we are apt to\nfall.\n\n(a) That religion is chiefly to give us forgiveness.\n\n(b) That accurate knowledge of God and His will matters comparatively\nlittle if we have devout emotions and experiences.\n\n(c) That plans for the reformation of men should begin with the\nexterior, leaving theological subtleties to themselves.\n\nBut this is not a theological subtlety.\n\n'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' is a maxim for social reformation as\nwell as for individual life.\n\nIV. To what practical life this prayer binds us.\n\nFollowing in our estimates, aims, and practice the sequence which it\nprescribes. Desiring for world most of all that it may hallow the Name.\n\nSeeking for ourselves to hallow it.\n\nSeeking for ourselves that we may be the means of others doing so.\n\nThe ever-present remembrance, that the name of God is blasphemed or\nhallowed, that God is glorified or disgraced, by us.\n\nThat to be like His name is true way to commend it. Do you know this\nname?\n\n\n'THY KINGDOM COME'\n\n     'Thy kingdom come.--MATT. vi. 10.\n\n'The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad'; 'The Lord reigneth, let the\npeople tremble,' was the burden of Jewish psalmist and prophet from the\nfirst to the last. They have no doubt of His present dominion. Neither\nman's forgetfulness and man's rebellion, nor all the dark crosses and\nwoes of the world, can disturb their conviction that He is then and for\never the sole Lord.\n\nThe kingdom is come, then. Yet John the Baptist broke the slumbers of\nthat degenerate people with the trumpet-call, 'Repent, for the kingdom\nis at hand.' It is not come, then--but coming. And the Master said, 'If\nI by the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is\ncome nigh unto you.' It is come, then, in Him. This prayer throws it\nforward again into the future, and far down on the stream of prophecy;\nwe hear borne up to us through the darkness the shouts that shall hail a\nfuture day when here on earth the kingdoms of this world shall become\nthe kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It is a kingdom, then, that\nhas ever been, and yet has stages of progress, a kingdom that was\nestablished in Jesus; a kingdom that has a past, a present, and a future\non earth. It is after this world that the words are said, 'Come, ye\nblessed, enter into the kingdom.' It is a kingdom, then, manifested on\nearth, and yet a kingdom into which death, who keeps the keys of all\nsecrets, admits us.\n\nOnce more--the kingdom of God is within you. 'The kingdom of God is\nrighteousness, and peace, and joy.' But there is beyond earth to be a\nmanifestation of the kingdom in a more perfect form. It is 'the kingdom\nof heaven,' not only because the King is 'Our Father which art in\nheaven,' but because we cannot completely come into it, or it into us,\ntill we pass out of earth by death, and enter through that gate into the\ncity. He has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.\n\nIt is a dominion, then, over heart and soul, having its realm within,\nstanding not so much in outward institutions as in inner experiences;\nand yet a kingdom which, though like leaven hid, shall like leaven be\nseen in its effects; though like a seed buried deep, shall like a seed\nblossom into a mighty tree; though it cometh not with observation, yet\nis like to the lightning that flashes with a kind of omnipresence in its\nrapid course from end to end, everywhere at once; which though it be\nwithin, yet clearly is meant to rule over all outward acts, and one day\nto have all kings bowing down before it.\n\nThese are the varieties with which the one thought of the kingdom of\nGod, or of heaven, is presented in Scripture. It is eternal yet revealed\nin time, ever here but ever coming, ever coming but never come on earth,\nbut entered when we go yonder, ruling us man by man, inward, spiritual,\nunseen, and yet moulding nations and institutions, outward and visible,\ncompelling sight and filling all the earth.\n\nBut these varieties are not contradictions, still less are they the\neffects of a vague and imperfect notion which means anything or\neverything according to the fancy of the writer. The conception is clear\nand well defined. The kingdom of God is an organised community which is\nsubject to the will of the personal God. The elements of subordination\nand society are both there. On the one hand there is the Ruler, on the\nother there is the mass of subjects. The whole of the varieties in the\nuse of the term can be all reconciled in the one simple central notion,\nbut we cannot afford to lose sight of any of them if we would understand\nwhat is meant by this prayer.\n\nLet us take these thoughts which I have suggested, as expressing the\nScriptural meaning of this phrase, and by their help try to ascertain\nwhat this prayer suggests.\n\nI. God reigns, yet we pray for the coming of His kingdom.\n\nThat is to acknowledge that the world has departed from Him. It is at\nonce to separate ourselves from those who see in it no signs of\ndeparture and rebellion. It is to confess that, Lord as He is whether\nmen believe it or no, whether men will it or no, yet that the relation\nof common subordination as to a supreme Lord which we hold with all\ncreatures is not all that we are fit for, not all that we should be.\nThat dominion which the psalmist saw making the sea and the fulness\nthereof rejoice, which is at once the control and the upholding, the\nsustaining and the commanding, of all orders of being, is not the whole\nof the dominion which can be exercised over man. The rule, which we\nshare with the trees of the field and the tribes of life, is not all;\nand the unwilling control which the thought of an overruling Providence\ndemands that we shall believe that God exercises over all the workings\nof men--that is not enough. And the terrible bending of men into\nunconscious instruments, by which He that sitteth in the heavens laughs\nat princes' and rulers' counsel, speaking to the tyrant as the rod of\nHis anger, using men as the axe with which He hews, and the staff in His\nhand, and then casting away the tool into the fire--that is not the\nkingdom that men are made to be. Something more, even the loving,\nwilling submission of heart and life to Him is possible, is needed,\nunless, indeed, it is true that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast.\nEnough for them that He feedeth them when they cry; enough for them that\nled they know not how, and fed by they know not whom, they live they\nknow not why, do they know not what, and die they know not when. But 'be\nye not as the horse or the mule which have no understanding'; it is our\nprerogative to be led by His eye speaking to the heart, not by His\nbridle appealing to the sense; to do Him loyal service, to understand\nHis purposes, to sympathise with them, and sympathising to execute. This\nour prayer gives us the clear distinction, then, between mere blind\nobedience and the true goal of man. The kingdom is other and better than\nthe creature-wide dominion.\n\nAnd then, this prayer reposes on the confession that that higher, better\nform of obedience is not yet attained. In a word, it can only be prayed\naright by a man who feels that the world has gone away from God and His\ncommandments. We separate ourselves by it from all who think that this\npresent state is the natural condition of men, the order into which they\nwere born, the kind of world which God intended; and we assert, in sight\nof all the evils and sore sorrows that fill the world, that this is not\nGod's intention. People tell us that the doctrine of a fall, an earth\nwhich has departed from God, a race which has rebelled, is a gloomy and\ndark one, covering the face of life with sackcloth. But it seems to me\nthat instead of being so, it is the only conviction that can make a man\nbear to see the world as it is. Brethren, which of these two is the\ngloomy--the creed that says, Look at all these men dying--in dumb\nignorance, living in brutal sin; look at blood, rapine, lies,\nbattlefields, broken hearts, hopes that never set to fruit but died in\nthe bud, the stream of sad groans, and sadder curses, and wild mirth,\nsaddest of all. Look at it all, coming to pass on this fair earth amid\nthe pomp of sunsets and the calm beauty of autumn, and beneath the cold\nstars, in a world where the noblest creature is the saddest, and accept\nfor explanation that it is the necessary road for the perfecting of the\ncreature; that it is all for the best, that it is exactly what God meant\nthe world to be;--or the creed which sees the same things and says:\n'This is not what God intended: an enemy hath done this'? Sin hath\nentered into the world, and death by sin.\n\nThe Christian doctrine does not make the facts, but only the Christian\ndoctrine can explain them. It seems to me that if I believed that life\nas I see it in the world, and as I feel it in myself, is life as God\nmeant it to be, I should either go mad or be a wise man, not a fool, if\nI were to look up at the unpitying stars that could sing for joy over\nsuch a creation, and say, _There is no God_. It is a refuge from such\npossible horrors, not an aggravation of them, which this prayer teaches\nus when it teaches us to pray for a kingdom yet to come, from which men\nhave departed, and in departing have worked for themselves all this woe\nand ruin.\n\nII. The kingdom for the coming of which we pray is established already.\n\nChrist has established it. His name is King of kings and Lord of lords.\nHe is Prince of all the kings of the earth. He is crowned with glory and\nhonour. By Him, that is to say, it becomes possible for men to serve God\nwith the energies of their will, and by Him it becomes possible for men\nto take the pardon which God gives in Him. He founds the kingdom, and He\nexercises the dominion. On an eternal relation and on an historical fact\nthat dominion of His is grounded,--on an eternal relation inasmuch as\nHe, the everlasting Word of God, has from the beginning been the Lord\nand King of the world; on an historical fact inasmuch as that eternal\nWord has been manifested on earth, and tasted death for every man.\nChrist founds the kingdom, for He by His Incarnation and Sacrifice sets\nforth the weightiest motives for service; He opens the path to return;\nHe brings God's forgiveness to men, and so shall rule over them for\never--a King and Priest upon His throne: the Prince of all the kings of\nthe earth, both because He has from everlasting been the anointed King,\nand because in time He has been, and will for ever be, the faithful and\ntrue witness, and the first begotten from the dead. The foundation is\nthus laid, the dominion established, the kingdom is come; but we are to\npray for its perfecting as the one hope of the world.\n\nThen let us remember that we are thus guarded from the error that is\nalways rife, of looking for some new thing as the one deliverance for\nearth. It is sad to mark how undying that tendency is. Age after age,\nmen have had the heartache of seeing hopes blasted, and fair schemes for\nthe regeneration of the world knocked to pieces about the ears of their\nprojectors, and yet they hope on. Every period, as every man, has its\ntimes of credulity, its firm conviction that it has found the one thing\nneedful, and the shout of Eureka goes ever up. Alas, alas! time after\ntime the old experience is repeated, and the gratulations die down into\ngloomy silence. Yet men hope on. What a strange testimony at once of the\nfutility of all the past attempts, and of the indestructible conviction\nthat men have of the certainty that the world will be better and\nbrighter some day, that undying expectation is! It is sorrowful and yet\nennobling to think of the persistency of the expectation, and the\ndisappointment of it.\n\nGod forbid that I should say a word to seem to disparage it! Not so. I\nsay the expectations are of God, and if men give them false shapes, and\nscarcely understand them when they utter them, that does not in any\ndegree make the expectation less noble or less true. But what I wish to\nurge is this, that the Christian attitude towards all such hopes should\nnot be unsympathising. Rather we are bound to say 'yes, it is so, and we\nknow how.' We are bound to proclaim that it is not any new thing that we\nexpect, but only the working out of the old. God be thanked that it is\nnot! The evils are not new, they have been from the beginning; and God\nhas surely not been so cruel to the world as to leave it till now in the\ndark. Our hopes are not set on any new, untried remedy. This bridge\nacross the Infinite for us is not a frail plank on which no one has yet\nwalked, and which may crack and break when the timid foot of the first\npassenger is on the centre, but it is a tried structure upon which ages\nhave walked.\n\nThen if I have any hearers who are fancying that the gospel is worn out,\nany who are glowing with the anticipation of great new things, who\nscarcely know how, but believe that somehow, the ills that have in all\nages cursed humanity are to be exorcised by some new methods of social\norganisation or the like--I pray them to ponder this prayer and to\nreceive its lesson. Do not say, you are but adding one more to the Babel\nof opinions which confound us. Not so. We are not arguing for an\nopinion, we are proclaiming a fact. We are not ventilating a nostrum, we\nare preaching a divine revelation, a divine revealer. We are not setting\nforth our notion of the evil, and our idea of what may be a remedy. We\nare telling men God's word about both. We are preaching an old, old\ntruth: not man's opinion, but God's act; not man's device, but Christ's\npower. We proclaim that the kingdom of God is nigh you, and while a\nBabel, as you say, of private opinions, of passionate complaints, of\ndespairing cries afflicts the silence, one serene voice rises, 'Come\nunto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,' and after that sole\nvoice rings out the twofold choral anthem--of praise, 'Rejoice, O earth,\nfor thy King is come'; and of prayer, 'Thy kingdom come.'\n\nIII. We pray for the coming of a kingdom which is inward and spiritual.\n\nI do not mean to weary you with any proofs that this is so. The whole\nlanguage of Christ, the whole tenor of Scripture, the common sense of\nthe case, the testimony of our own souls as to what we want most,\nconfirm this. But it is enough to note the admitted fact; to enforce the\nthought that thus the kingdom assumes a purely individual character, and\nthat thus its power over individuals is the pledge of its power over\nmasses, and is its way of exercising universal sway. 'We have all of us\none human heart, and therefore what the kingdom can do and has done for\nme or for any oilier man, it can do for all.\n\nLet me remind you of two or three consequences that flow from this\nthought.\n\n1. Lessons for politicians, for all men, as to the true way to cure the\nevils of the world: Not by external arrangements; not by better laws;\nnot by education; not by progress in arts; not by trade, etc.\n\nYou must go deeper than these 'pills to cure an earthquake'--it is the\nsoul, the individual will that is diseased; and the one cure for the\nworld's evil is that it should be right with God; and that loyal, hearty\nobedience by Christ should be in it.\n\n2. Lessons for Christian men as to hasty externalising of the kingdom:\n\n_Theocracies_, State Churches, and the like.\n\n3. We pray for a kingdom that will be external. If spirit, then body; if\nindividuals, then communities.\n\nIt is to be all-comprehensive governing:--institutions, arts, sciences.\nAll spheres of human life are capable of sanctification and will receive\nit. A prophet had a vision of a day when the very bells of the horses\nshould bear the same inscription of 'holiness to the Lord' as was\nengraved on the High Priest's mitre, and when every pot and pan in the\nkitchens of Jerusalem should be sacred as the vessels of the Temple.\n\nThe fault of Christians in losing sight of this--how all the aspects are\nreconciled--and how this must be the completion--the point to which all\ntends; how clearly maimed the gospel would be if such were not the goal.\n\nSo much, then, the prayer assumes:--the certainty that the world is\nwrong; the certainty that the kingdom is the only thing to set it right;\nthe certainty that it can set it all right; the certainty that it will.\n\n4. We pray for a kingdom to come which cannot be fully realised on this\nside the grave. Large as are the capabilities of this scene, they are\nnot large enough for the full display of all the blessedness that lies\nin that kingdom. And so it is not all a mistake when men say, 'Ah, this\nworld can never do for us'; it is not all an unhealthy dream that says,\n'I am weary of this; let me die.'\n\nThink of the chorus of voices that present this prayer--the unconscious\ncries that have gone up; the voices of sorrow and want. The cry hath\nentered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth; the creature groaneth\nand travaileth; all men unconsciously pray this prayer when they weep\nand when they hope. Christian men pray it when they mourn their\nrebellious wilfulness and when they feel the weight of all this anarchic\nworld, or when their work in bringing it back to its King seems almost\nvain, the souls underneath the altar pray it when they cry, 'How long, O\nLord, how long?'\n\nAnd ah, dear friends--there should come a sadder, humbler cry from us,\neach feeling his own sinful heart. To me the glory of that coming, and\nthe life from the dead which it shall be to the world, will be as\nnothing unless I know the King and trust Him. Let us each re-echo the\ncry of that dying thief, which He cannot refuse to answer, 'Lord,\nremember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.'\n\n\n'THY WILL BE DONE'\n\n     'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 10.\n\nIt makes all the difference whether the thought of the name, or that of\nthe will, of God be the prominent one. If men begin with the will, then\ntheir religion will be slavish, a dull, sullen resignation, or a\npainful, weary round of unwelcome duties and reluctant abstainings. The\nwill of an unknown God will be in their thoughts a dark and tyrannous\nnecessity, a mysterious, inscrutable force, which rules by virtue of\nbeing stronger, and demands only obedience. There is no more horrible\nconception of God than that which makes Him merely or mainly sovereign\nwill.\n\nBut when we think first of God as desiring that His name should be\nknown, and to that end mirroring Himself in all the great and beautiful,\nthe ordered whole of creation, and energising through all the\ncomplexities of human affairs, and gathering the scattered syllables of\nHis name into one full and articulate utterance in the Word of God, then\nour thoughts of His will become reverent and loving; we are sure that\nthe will of the self-revealing God must be intelligible, we are sure\nthat the will of the loving God must be good. Then our obedience becomes\ndifferent, and instead of being slavish is filial; instead of being\nreluctant submission to a mightier force, is glad conformity to the\nfountain of love and goodness; instead of being sullen resignation, is\ntrustful reliance; instead of being painful execution of unwelcome\nduties, is spontaneous expression in acts which are easy of the\nindwelling love. He who begins with 'Thy will be done' is a slave, and\nnever really does the will at all; he who begins with 'Our Father,\nhallowed,' is a son, and obeys from the heart.\n\nThis, then, is one reason for the order in which the clauses of the\nprayer follow each other, perhaps the chief reason.\n\nLet us consider--\n\nI. Obedience is here set forth as the end of all divine revelation.\n\nII. As the issue in man of all religious thought and emotion.\n\nIII. As the sum of all Christ's and our desires for men.\n\nIV. As the bond which unites all creation into one.\n\nI. Obedience to the will of God is the end of all divine revelation.\n\nGod's name is made known before His will is proclaimed. That order\nsuggests as to God's will--\n\n1. That it is not mere naked omnipotent authority.\n\n2. That it is not inscrutable.\n\n3. That its scope and direction are to be determined by His name. All\nthese thoughts are included in this, that it is the will of a loving,\ngood God, the will of a Father.\n\nHow that destroys all harsh, awful ideas such as those of a stony fate,\nor a cold necessity, or an omnipotent tyrant, or an inscrutable\nsovereign.\n\nHow Christianity has been affected by these ideas--extreme Calvinism,\nfor instance; but it is more profitable to think how the tendency to\nthem lies in us all.\n\nII. Obedience is the issue of all religion.\n\nThe knowledge of the name, and the hallowing of it must go first. Note--\n\n1. How inward the nature of obedience is. This sequence of petitions\nshifts the centre from without to within, from actions to dispositions.\n\n2. How nothing is obedience that is not cheerful and loving. Not\nconstrained, not sullen, not task-work.\n\n3. How naturally dominant over all life the principles of God's truth\nare. Let them be known, and all the rest will follow. They have power to\ncontrol all acts, great and small.\n\n4. How impossible practical righteousness is without religion. The Name\nis the true basis of morality. We hear a great deal about life rather\nthan creed; the Gospel is both. The one foundation of theoretical and\npractical morals is the will of God.\n\n5. How maimed and spurious is religion without practical obedience.\n\nReligion in the form of thought and of emotion is intended to influence\nlife.\n\nThe ultimate result of God's revelation of Himself and of God's kingdom\namong men is the conformity of our life and actions with the Will of\nGod. That is the test of our religion. Character and conduct are all\nimportant. Here is a lesson for us all as to what the final issue of\nreligious profession ought to be. Knowledge of God, true reverent\nthoughts of Him, submission in spirit to His kingdom--all these have for\ntheir final sphere the full sanctification of the nature and the free,\nspontaneous obedience of the life. We are all tempted to separate\nbetween our consciousness and emotions of a religious nature, and our\ndaily life. Many a man is a good Christian in his heart, with real\nreligious feeling, but when you get him into the field of the world he\nis full of sins. There must always be a disproportion in this world\nbetween convictions, resolutions, and actions; we imperfectly live out\nour principles; the force of gravity pulls down the arrow, and however\ntrue the bow and careful the aim and strong the hand, its course will be\na curve, not a straight line.\n\nOur machinery does not work in vacuo, and the force of friction and\natmosphere opposes it and brings it to a standstill. This must be; but\nthe discrepancy may be indefinitely lessened, and this prayer is a\nprophecy and kindles a hope.\n\nIII. Obedience is the sum of all Christ's desires for the world.\n\nThis is the last loftiest petition, beyond that there is nothing, for if\nour wills are conformed to God's, then we are perfect and blessed.\n\n1. The loftiest dignity of man is to obey. We have will: God has will.\nOurs is evidently meant to submit, His to rule. He only is what he ought\nto be whose whole soul bows to the divine command.\n\n2. The will submitted to God is free, strong, restful. He does not\ndesire that it should be crushed or absorbed, but freely acting in\nobedience. That will is truly free which is delivered from bondage, and\nthe burden of sin and evil. Submission to God strengthens the will. Sin\noverbears it, as we all know. Obedience braces and nerves it. Submission\nto God makes it restful. It is the conflict of self-will which troubles\nus. Peace is to will as God does; so He flows through us, and He is 'the\nliving will that shall endure.'\n\n3. The results of obedience will be perfect blessedness.\n\nGod's will is only for our good. His will for men and nations observed\nwould change the face of the world.\n\nThen this prayer includes everything that ardent lovers of their kind\nwould desire.\n\nHow Christianity reforms from within, giving new life and letting that\nwork on laws and institutions. Here is a lesson for all social reformers\nand for Christian men to see to it that they, for the world, try to\nspread the knowledge of His name, and for themselves, seek to be\nharmonised with His will.\n\nBut this petition sets forth an apparently unattainable example as our\npattern of obedience. 'As in heaven,' refers perhaps to the visible\nuniverse, which has always left on thoughtful minds the impression of\nbeauty and order, and is the great revelation in nature of the\nomnipotent will of God. There clouds float on in peacefulness obeying\nHim, there stars burn and planets roll on their mighty revolutions.\n'These all continue this day, according to Thine ordinance.'\n\nBut that is by no means the exhaustive idea of this clause. We should\nnot desire, were it possible, that men should be lowered to the level of\nthe stars, doing a will which they know not, and swayed by a force which\nthey have no eyes to discern. The obedience, the only true obedience, is\nthat of spiritual beings who know God and can turn themselves to\ncontemplate the will which rules their currents, as the sea looks up to\nthe moon that sways its tides. So the reference is obviously to higher\norders of beings, either higher by creation as angels, or higher because\nthey have died, and are glorious saints before the Throne.\n\nThis petition, then, is a revelation as well. For the doing of God's\nwill there must be spiritual beings, like ourselves. If our doing it\nlike them is the highest last desire which He who came to do that will\ncan form for us, and is the ultimate goal which, if reached, the world's\nhistory would be crowned, then these spiritual beings must do it\nperfectly. Their obedience must be complete. There can be no\ninterruption to it from sin, no effort in it because of weakness, no\nresistance because of temptation, no flaw because of ignorance, no pause\nbecause of weariness, no pain because of rebellious will. Their\nobedience must be free, constant, spontaneous, happy. It must cover all\ntheir lives. Their whole being must be a sacrifice and service to the\nGod whom they behold, and their life must be a life of activity. It is\nnot the knowledge that floods the perfect spirits in heaven that is\nproposed for our example, nor their blessedness, but their service. So\nthe thoughts of those who regard that heavenly existence only as\nidleness are corrected, and we are taught that, while we know little as\nto that future life, the conformity to the will of God, which in its\npresent partial attainment is the secret of the purest blessedness, in\nits perfection will be the heaven of heaven.\n\nThen again, there is here the grand idea that the whole creation will be\nbound into a unity by obedience to one will. We and they now form one\nwhole, because now we serve the one Lord. And there comes a time when\nthere shall be one Lord and His name one; when the omnipresent energy of\nHis will in the physical universe shall be but a faint shadow of the\nuniversal dominion of His loving will in all His creatures. Then indeed\nit will be true, 'Thou doest according to Thy will in the armies of\nheaven and the inhabitants of earth.'\n\nWhat glorious harmonies will sound then, when all co-operate with God\nand with one another, and one purpose, and one will, and one love fills\nthe whole creation!\n\nThe petition has a bearing of this upon the dreams of moralists and\nreformers. They were true, they shall be more than fulfilled. Earth will\nbe no longer separated from heaven, but united with it, and from one\nextremity of creation to another will be no creature which does not obey\nand rejoice.\n\n\nTHE CRY FOR BREAD\n\n     'Give us this day our daily bread.'--MATT. vi. 11.\n\nWhat a contrast there is between the two consecutive petitions, Thy will\nbe done, and Give us this day! The one is so comprehensive, the other so\nnarrow; the one loses self in the wide prospect of an obedient world,\nthe other is engrossed with personal wants; the one rises to such a\nlofty, ideal height, the other is dragged down to the lowest animal\nwants.\n\nAnd yet this apparent bathos is apparent only, and the fact that so\nnarrow and earthly a petition has its place in the pattern of all prayer\nis full of instruction. No less instructive is the place which it has. A\nsingle word about that place may constitute a fitting introduction to\nour remarks now. We have already seen how the former petitions\nconstitute together a great whole. That first part of the prayer\nexpresses the desires which should ever be foremost in a good man's\nsoul--those which have to do with God, and point to the advancement of\nHis glory. It begins, as I said, with the inward, and advances to the\noutward, as must ever be the law of progress in the sanctifying of human\nsouls and life. It begins with heaven and brings heaven down to earth,\nthat earth may become like heaven, and both 'according well may make one\nmusic.' Then, in the second part of the prayer we come to individual\nwants. These have their legitimate place in our approaches to God.\nPrayer is not merely communion with God, not merely reverent\ncontemplation of His fatherly and holy name, though that should always\nbe first and chiefest in it. It is not merely the expression of absorbed\ncontemplation, but of a nature that desires and is dependent. Nor is it\nonly the utterance of world-wide desires, and the expression of a being\nthat has conquered self. The perfection of man is not to have no\ndesires, or to be petrified or absorbed into a state without a will and\nwithout a wish, still less to be elevated into a condition of absolute\npossession of all he seeks, without a want. And the perfection of prayer\nis not that it should be the utterance of that impossible emotion,\n'disinterested love' to God, but that it should be the recognition of\nour dependence on God, the expression of our many wants, and the frank\ntelling Him, with wills submitted, or rather conformed, to His, what we\nneed. To pray is to adore; to pray is also to ask. We have to say Our\nFather, and we have also to say, Give us, being sure that if we, being\nevil, know how to give good gifts to our children, much more does He\nknow how to give good things to them that ask Him.\n\nSo much for the general considerations applicable to the whole of this\nsecond part.\n\nAs to the connection of its several petitions with each other, it may be\nnoticed that it is the exact opposite of the former part. That began\nwith the highest and came downwards; this begins with the lowest and\ngoes upwards. That began with the inward and worked outwards; this\nbegins with the outward and passes inwards. That set forth the heavenly\norder in its gradual self-revelation, working the transformation of\nearth; this sets forth the earthly order in its gradual appropriation of\nHeaven's gifts. The former declares, that foremost in importance and in\nGod's order are the spiritual blessings which come from knowledge of\nHis name; the latter, beginning with the prayer for bread, and thence\nadvancing to deeper necessities, reminds us, that in the order of time\nthe least important is still the condition of all the rest. The loftiest\npinnacles looking out to the morning sky must have their foundations\nrooted in common earth. 'That was not first which is spiritual, but that\nwhich is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual.' This order,\nthen, is in symmetrical opposition to that of the previous part. There\nis a rhythmical correspondence in inverted movement, like the expansion\nand contraction of the heart, or the rise and fall of a fountain.\n\nIt is worth noticing how these two opposed halves make one whole; and as\nthe former begins with contemplation of the fatherly greatness in the\nheavens, so the latter part, starting with the cry for bread, climbs\nslowly up through all the ills of life, and passing from want to\ntrespass, human unkindness and hatred, and again to personal weakness\nand a tempting world, and the evil of sin and the evil of sorrow,\nreaches once more after cries and tears the point from which all began,\nand rises to heaven and God. The doxology comes circling round to the\ninvocation, and the prayer, which has winged its weary way through all\nweltering floods of human sorrow and want, comes back like Noah's dove,\nwith peace born of its flight, to its home in God, and ends where it\nbegan. They whose prayer and whose lives start with 'Our Father which\nart in Heaven,' will end with the confidence and the praise, 'Thine is\nthe kingdom and the honour.'\n\nNow looking at this petition in itself, I note--\n\nI. The prayer for Bread.\n\nThis contains first an important lesson as to what may be legitimately\nthe subject of our prayers.\n\nThe Lord by this juxtaposition condemns the overstrained and fantastic\nspiritualism which tramples down earthly wants and condemns desires\nrooted in our physical nature as sin. It is a wonderful testimony from\nJesus of the worth of common gifts, that the desire for them should here\nstand beside that great one for the doing of God's will. There is\nnothing here of the false asceticism which undervalues the life which\nnow is, nothing of the morbid tone of feeling which despises and\ncondemns as sinful the due appreciation of and desire for the blessings\nof this life. To give predominance to material wants and earthly good is\nheathen and unchristian, therefore the petition for these follows the\nothers. But to despise them and pretend to be indifferent to them is\nheathen and unchristian too; therefore the prayer for them finds its\nplace among the others. So the right understanding of this prayer is a\nbarrier against the opposite evils of a false sensuousness which forgets\nthe spirit that is in the flesh, and of a false spirituality which\nforgets the flesh that is around the spirit. He who made us desire truth\nin the inward parts, made us also to desire our daily bread, and we\nobserve His order when we do both, and seek the Kingdom of God, not\nexclusively, but first.\n\nAnd not only is this petition the vindication of a healthy naturalism,\nbut it also shows us that we may rightly make prayers of our desires for\nearthly things.\n\nWe sometimes hear it said that we have only a right to ask God for such\ngifts as holiness and conformity to His will. This has a truth, a great\ntruth, in it. But it may be overstrained. We are to subdue our wishes,\nwe are to be more anxious for our soul's health than for our bodily\nwants. We are to present our desires concerning all things in this life,\nwith an implied 'if it be Thy will,' but while all that is true, we are\nalso to ask Him for these lower blessings. Our prayers should include\nall which we desire, all which we need. Our desires should be such as we\ncan turn into prayers. If we dare not ask God for a thing, do not let us\nseek for it. But whatever we do want, let us go to Him for it, and be\nsure that He does not wish lip homage and fine-sounding petitions for\nthings for which we do not really care, but that He does desire that we\nshould be frank with Him, making a prayer of every wish, and seeing that\nwe have neither wishes which we dare not make prayers, nor prayers which\nare not really wishes. Let our supplications cover all the ground of our\ndaily wants, and be true to our own souls. If any man lack anything, let\nhim ask of God, who giveth to all men life and breath and all things.\n\nThen still further--the prayer is the recognition of God as the Giver of\ndaily bread.\n\n'Thou openest Thine hand,' says the old psalm, 'and satisfiest the\ndesire of every living thing.' There is no part of the divine dealings\nof which the Bible speaks more frequently and more lovingly than His\nsupply of all creatures' wants. It is a grand thought, 'Who feedeth the\nyoung ravens when they cry, who maketh the grass to grow on the\nmountains. The eyes of all wait upon Thee.' There is a magnificent verse\nin the 104th Psalm, which regards even the roar of the lion prowling for\nits prey in midnight forests as a cry to God--'The young lions seek\ntheir meat from God.' As Luther says somewhere in his rough prose--'Even\nto feed the sparrows God spends more than the revenues of the French\nking would buy.' And that universal bounty applies truly to those whose\nlot is 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.' For us it is\ntrue. God feeds _us_. 'Thou givest meat to them that fear Thee, Thou\nwilt ever be mindful of Thy covenant.' In giving us our daily bread, His\nhand is hid under second causes, but these should not mask the truth\nfrom us.\n\nGod is the life of nature. His will is the power whose orderly working\nwe call nature's laws. Force is the sign manual of God. There would be\nno harvest, no growth, unless to each seed God gave a body as it hath\npleased Him. The existence of bread is the effect of His work. 'He hath\nnot left Himself without witness in that He giveth rain from heaven and\nfruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' as Paul\nsaid to the rough farmer folk of Lycaonia.\n\nThe distribution of the bread is of God.\n\nBy second causes, our work and other means.\n\nBe it so. Here is a steam engine, in one room away at one end of your\nmill; here is a spindle whirring five hundred yards off. What then? Who\nthinks that that bit of belting moves the drum round which it turns, or\nthat the cog-wheel that carries the motion originates it? The motion\nhere has force at the other end, the effect here has its cause in God.\n\nThe nourishment by bread is of God.\n\n'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out\nof the mouth of God.'\n\nThe reason why any natural substance has properties is by reason of\npresent will of God; they reside not in itself, but in Him.\n\nAll this we say that we believe when we pray this prayer.\n\nHow much it conflicts with our modern habit of putting God as far away\nfrom daily life as we can!\n\nThe prayer is the consecration of our work for bread.\n\nThe indirect way by which it is answered is a great blessing, and it\npledges us to labour.\n\n_Orare est laborare._ Not, as it is sometimes quoted, as if toil was to\ndo instead of prayer, but that active life may be consecrated to God,\nand all our efforts which terminate in gaining bread for ourselves and\nfor those we love may become prayer, and be offered to God.\n\nHow can we pray for God to give us our daily bread, and then go to seek\nit by means which we dare not avow or defend in our prayers? Bless my\ncheating, bless my sharp practice, bless my half-heartedness. It is no\npart of my business to apply principles to details of conduct, but it is\nmy business to say--take this prayer for a test, and if you dare not pray\nit over what you do in earning your living, ask yourself whether you are\nnot rather earning your _death_.\n\nThen the prayer is a pledge of thankful recognition of God in our\nblessings.\n\nAh! dear friends, are we not all guilty in this? How utterly heathenish\nis our oblivion of God in our daily life! How far we have come from that\ntemper which recognises Him in all joys, and begins every new day with\nHim! Daily mercies demand daily songs of praise. His love wakens us\nmorning by morning. It follows us all the day long with its fatherly\nbenefits. It reveals itself anew every time He spreads our table, every\ntime He gives us teaching or joy. And our thanksgiving and consciousness\nof His presence should be as constant as are His gifts. 'My voice shalt\nthou hear in the morning.' 'They walk all the day long in the light of\nThy countenance.' 'I will both lay me down in peace and sleep.' 'They\nate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.'\n\nII. The union with our brethren in our prayer.\n\n'Give _us_.' The struggle for existence is represented by many as the\nvery law of human life. The fight for bread is the great antagonist of\nbrotherly regard for our fellows. Trade is said to be warfare; and then\nothers starting from that conception that one man's gains are some other\nman's losses, proclaim with undoubted truth on these premises 'property\nis robbery.' But surely this clause of our prayer teaches us a more\nexcellent way. We are not to be like stiff-necked men who fight with one\nanother for the drop of brackish water caught in the corner of a sail,\nbut we are to be as children bowing down together before a great Father,\nall sitting at His table where nothing wants, and where even the pet\ndogs below it eat of the crumbs.\n\nThe main thing is to note how our Lord teaches us here to identify\nourselves with others, to make common cause with them in our petition\nfor bread. He who rightly enters into the meaning of this prayer, and\nfeels the unity which it supposes, can scarcely regard his possessions\nas given to himself alone, or to be held without regard to other people.\nWe are all one in need; high and low, rich and poor, we all hang on God\nfor the same supplies. We are all one in reception of His gifts. Is it\nbecoming in one who is a member of such a whole, to clasp his portion in\nboth his hands and carry it off to a corner where he gnaws it by\nhimself? That is how wolves feast, with one foot on their bone and a\nwatchful eye all round for thieves, not how men, brethren, should feast.\n\nI am not here to deal with economical questions, or to apply principles\nto details, but surely one may say that this petition contemplates as\npossible a better state of things than 'each for himself,' whether God\nis for us all or no, and that it does teach that at all events a man is\npart of a whole which has a claim on his possessions. 'Neither said any\nman that aught which he possessed was his own.'\n\nThe Christian doctrine of property does not seem to be communism. You\nhave your property. It is your own. You have the power, and as far as\nlaw is concerned, the right, to do with it none but selfish acts. You\nhave it, but you are not an owner--only a steward. You have it, but you\nhold it not for your own sake, but as a trustee. You have it as a member\nof a family, a great community. You have it that you may dispense to\nothers, you have it that you may help to multiply the bonds of affection\nto benefactors and of love to the great Giver.\n\nAnd this liberality is founded, according to this petition, in our\ncommon relation to God. We do not want charity--we want justice. The\nneedy cannot enforce their claims, but their cry enters into the ears of\nthe Lord, and what is withheld from them is 'kept back by fraud.' The\nBible always puts benevolence and liberality on the ground of their\nbeing a debt. 'Withhold not good from him to whom it is due.'\n\nSo how, beside this prayer, does it look to see two men who have united\nin it, the one being Dives clothed and faring sumptuously, and the other\nLazarus with scraps for his food and dogs for his doctors? There is many\na contrast like that to-day. All I have to say is--that such contrasts\nare not meant as the product of Christianity and civilisation and\ncommerce for eighteen hundred years, and that one chief way of ending\nthem is that we shall learn to feel and live the true communism which\ntraces all a man's possessions to God, and feels that he has received\nthem as a member of a community for the blessing of all, even as Christ\ntaught when He bid us say, 'Give us our daily bread.'\n\nIII. The prayer for bread for to-day.\n\nThis carries with it precious truths as to the manner of the divine\ngifts and the limit of our cares and anxieties.\n\nGod gives not all at once, but continuously, and in portions sufficient\nfor the day.\n\nAs with the manna fresh gathered every morning, so all our gifts from\nHim are given according to the present exigencies.\n\nNote the beauty and blessedness of this method of supplying our wants.\nIt gives to each moment its own special character, it gives to each the\nglory of having in it a fresh gift of God. It binds all together in one\nlong line of brightness made up of an infinite number of points, each a\nseparate act of divine love, each a glittering sign of His presence. It\nbrings God very near to all life. It draws us closer to Him, by giving\nus at each moment opportunity and need for feeling our dependence upon\nHim, by bringing us once again to His throne that our wants may be\nsupplied. And as each moment, so each day, comes with its new duties and\nits new wants. Yesterday's food nourishes us not to-day. To-day's\nstrength must come from this day's God and His new supplies. And thus\nthe monotony of life is somewhat broken, and there come to us all the\nfresh vigour and the new hope of each returning day, and the merciful\nwall of the night's slumber is built up between us and yesterday with\nits tasks and its weariness. And fresh elastic hopes, along with renewed\ndependence on God, should waken us morning by morning, as we look into\nthe unknown hours and say, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'\n\nThen, again, let us learn not to try to abrogate this wise ordinance by\nonward-looking anxieties. We have to exercise forethought, and not to\npossess it is to be a poor creature, below the ant and the bee. No man\nis in a favourable position for intellectual or moral growth who has not\nsome certainty in his life, and a reasonable prospect of such perpetuity\nas is compatible with this changeful state. But that is a very different\nthing from the careful, anxious forebodings in which we are all so prone\nto indulge. These are profitless and harmful, robbing us of strength and\ncontributing nothing to our wisdom or to our security. They are contrary\nto this law of the divine dealings that we shall get our rations as we\nneed them, no sooner; that the path will be opened when we come to it,\nnot till then. God knows the line of march, and will issue our route\neach morning. God looks after the commissariat and saves us the trouble\nof carrying it.\n\nLet us try not to be 'over-inquisitive to cast the fashion of uncertain\nevils,' nor magnify trouble in the fog of our own thoughts, but limit\nour cares to to-day, and let to-morrow alone, for our God will be in it\nas He has been in the past. He will never take us where He will not go\nwith us. Each day will have its own brightness, as each place its own\nrainbow. If we are led into dry lands, there will be a fountain opened\nin the desert, and He will feed us by His ravens ere we shall want.\nBread shall be given and water made sure. To-morrow shall be as this\nday. Then let the veil still hang, nor try to lift it with the hand of\nforecasting thought, nor be over-careful to make the future sure by\nearthly means, but let present blessings be parents of bright hopes.\nRemember Him who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. In Him\nthe past is unwept for and the future sure. Accept the merciful\nlimitations on His gifts, and let them be the limitations which you set\nto your own desires while you pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'\n\nIV. The prayer for bread suited to our needs.\n\n'_Daily_ bread' clearly cannot be the right rendering, for after 'this\nday' that would be weak repetition.\n\nThe word is difficult, for it only occurs here and there in Luke.\n\nIt may be rendered 'for the coming (day),' but that can scarcely be\nsupposed to be our Lord's meaning, when His precept to take no thought\nfor the morrow is remembered. A more satisfactory rendering is,\n'sufficient for our subsistence,' the bread which we need to sustain us.\n\nSuch a petition points to desires limited by our necessities. What we\nshould wish, and what we have a right to ask from God, is what we\n_need_--no more and no less.\n\nThis does not reduce us all to one level, but leaves Him to settle what\nwe do want. How different this prayer in the mouth of a king and of a\npauper! But it does rebuke immoderate and unbridled desires. God does\nnot limit us to mere naked necessaries--He giveth liberally, and means\nlife to be beautiful and adorned. That which is over and above bread is\nto a large extent that which makes life graceful and refined, and I have\nno wish to preach a crusade against it; but I have just as little\nhesitation in declaring what it is not left to pulpit moralists to say,\nthat the falsely luxurious style of living among us looks very strange\nby the side of this petition. So much luxury which does not mean\nrefinement; so much ostentatious expenditure which does not represent\nincreased culture or pleasure or anything but a resolve to be on a level\nwith somebody else; so much which is so ludicrously unlike the poor\nlittle shrimp of a man or woman that sits in the centre of it all!\n\n'Plain living and high thinking are no more.'\n\n'My riches consist not in the abundance of my possessions, but in the\nfewness of my wants.'\n\n'The less a man needs, the nearer is he to the gods.'\n\nSo, what a lesson for us all in this age, where everyone of us is\ntempted to adopt a scale of what is necessary very far beyond the truth.\n\nYoung and old--dare, if need be, to be poor. 'Having food and raiment,\nlet us therewith be content.'\n\nWe cannot all become rich, but let us learn to bring down our desires\nto, and bound them by, our true wants.\n\nChrist has taught us here to put this petition after these loftier ones,\nand He has taught us to pass quickly by it to the more noble and higher\nneeds of the soul. Do we treat it thus, making it a secondary element in\nour wishes? If so, then our days will be blessed, each filled with fresh\ngifts from God, and each leading us to Him who is the true Bread that\ncame down from Heaven.\n\n\n'FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS'\n\n     'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.'--MATT. vi. 12.\n\nThe sequence of the petitions in the second half of the Lord's Prayer\nsuggests that every man who needs to pray for daily bread needs also to\npray for daily forgiveness. The supplication for the supply of our\nbodily needs precedes the others, because it deals with a need which is\nfundamental indeed, but of less importance than those which prompt the\nsubsequent petitions. God made us to need bread, we have made ourselves\nto need pardon. The answer to the later petition is as certain as that\nto the earlier. He who gives meat will not withhold forgiveness. _Give_\nand _forgive_ refer to our deepest wants, but how many who feel the one\nare all unconscious of the other!\n\nI. The consciousness of sin, of which this petition is the expression.\n\n'Debt' and 'duty' are one word. 'Owe' and 'ought' are one word. Duty is\nwhat is due. Ought is what we owe--to some one or other. We are under\nobligations all round, which conscience tells us that we have not\nfulfilled. The unfulfilled obligation or duty becomes a debt. We divide\nour obligations into duties to God, our neighbours, and ourselves; but\nthe division is superficial, for whatever we owe to ourselves or to men,\nwe owe also to God, and the non-fulfilment of our obligations to Him is\nsin. 'No man liveth to himself, ... we live unto God.' Our consciences\naccuse us of undone duties to ourselves, the indulgence of evil tempers,\na slack hand over ourselves, a careless husbandry which leaves furrows\nfull of weeds, failure to bend the bow to the uttermost, to keep the\nmirror bright. It accuses us of undone duties to our neighbours,\nunkindness, neglect of opportunities of service, and many another ugly\nfault. Duties undone are debts not only to ourselves or to our fellows,\nbut to God. The great Over-lord reckons offences against His vassals as\ncrimes against Himself.\n\nThat graver aspect of our faults as being sins may seem a gloomy\nthought, but it is really one full of blessing, for it lodges the true\npower of remission of our burdensome debts in the hands of the one true\ncreditor, whom the prayer has taught us to call 'Our Father.'\n\nThat consciousness of sin should be as universal as the sense of bodily\nhunger; but, alas! it is too often dormant. It is especially needful to\ntry to awake it in this generation, when the natural tendency of the\nheart to ignore it is strengthened by talk of heredity and environment,\nand by the disposition to think of sin with pity rather than\nreprobation. Men are apt to regard a consciousness of sin as morbid.\nThey will acknowledge failure or imperfection, but there is little\nrealisation of sin, and therefore little sense of the need for a\ndeliverer. If men are ever to be brought to a saving grip of Jesus\nChrist, they must have learned a far more heart-piercing consciousness\nof their sin than this morally relaxed age possesses.\n\nII. The cry to which that consciousness gives voice.\n\nWe often ask for forgiveness; have we any definite notion of what we are\nasking for? When we forgive one another, he who forgives puts away\nalienation of heart, every cloud of suspicion from his mind, and his\nfeeling and his conduct are as if there had never been a jar or an\noffence, or are more tender and loving because of the offence that is\nnow forgiven. He who is forgiven has, on his part, a deeper shame for\nthe offence, which looks far darker now, when it is blotted out, than it\ndid before forgiveness. Both are eager to show love, not in order to\nerase the past, but because the past is erased.\n\nWhen a father forgives his child, does that merely or chiefly mean that\nhe spares the rod; or does it not much rather mean that he lets his love\nflow out to the little culprit, undammed back by the child's fault? And\nwhen God forgives He does so, not so much as a judge but rather as the\nFather. It is the father's heart that the child craves when it cries for\npardon. The remission of punishment is an element, but by no means the\nchief element, in man's forgiveness, and that is still more true as to\nGod's. There are present, and for the most part outward, consequences of\na forgiven man's sin which are not averted by forgiveness, and which it\nis for his good that he should not escape. But when the assurance of\nGod's unhindered love rests on a pardoned soul, those consequences of\nits sins which it has to reap cease to be penal and become educative,\ncease to be the expressions only of God's hatred of evil, and become\nexpressions of His love to the forgiven evil-doer. 'I will be his\nFather, and he shall be My son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten\nhim with the rod of men ... but My mercy shall not depart from him.'\n\nIII. The startling addition to the cry.\n\n'_As_ we forgive.' Is, then, our poor forgiveness the measure or\ncondition of God's? At first sight that addition seems to impose a limit\non His pardon which might well plunge us into despair. But reflection on\nthe words brings to light more comforting, though solemnly warning,\nthoughts.\n\nWe learn that our human forgiveness is the faint reflection of the light\nof His. We have a right to infer His gentleness, forbearance, and\nforgiveness from the existence of such gracious qualities in ourselves.\nGod is all that is good in men. 'Whatsoever things are reverend,\nwhatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are lovely--all\nthese are in Him, and all as they are seen in men are from Him. 'He that\nformed the eye, shall not He see?' We forgive, and will not He?\n\nIn a very real sense our forgiving is the condition of our being\nforgiven. We are accustomed to hear that faith and repentance are\nconditions of receiving the divine forgiveness. But the very same\ndisposition which, when directed to God, produces faith and repentance,\nwhen directed to men, produces a forgiving temper. A deep sense of my\nown unworthiness, and of having no ground of right to stand on, will\nsurely lead me to be lenient and placable to others. We cannot cut our\nlives into halves, and be inwardly filled with contrition, and outwardly\nfull of assertion of our rights. We cannot plead with God to do for us\nwhat we will not do for others. Our prayer for forgiveness must, if it\nis real, influence our whole behaviour; and if it is not real, it will\nnot be answered.\n\nThe possession of God's forgiveness will make us forgiving. 'Forgiving\none another, even as also God in Christ hath forgiven you. Be ye\ntherefore imitators of God, as beloved children.'\n\nOur continuous possession and conscious enjoyment of God's forgiveness\nwill be contingent on our forgivingness. He who took his fellow-servant\nby the throat and half choked him in his determination to exact the last\nfarthing of his debt was, by the act, cancelling his own discharge and\npiling up a mountain of debt, against himself. Our consciousness of\nforgiveness will be most clear and satisfying when we are forgiving\nthose who trespass against us. We shall pardon most spontaneously and\nfully when our hearts are warm with the beams of God's pardon.\n\n\n'LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION'\n\n     'And lead us not into temptation.'--MATT. vi. 13.\n\nThe petition of the previous clause has to do with the past, this with\nthe future; the one is the confession of sin, the other the supplication\nwhich comes from the consciousness of weakness. The best man needs both.\nForgiveness does not break the bonds of evil by which we are held. But\nforgiveness increases our consciousness of weakness, and in the new\ndesire which comes from it to walk in holiness, we are first rightly\naware of the strength and frequency of inducements to sin. A man may by\nmere natural conscience know something of what temptation is, but only\nhe understands its strength who resists it.\n\nThe sense of forgiveness and the new desires and love thereby developed,\nlead to the falling of the mask from the deceitful forms that gleam\naround us. He who is forgiven has his eyesight purged, and can see that\nthese are not what they seem, but demons that lure us to our\ndestruction. It is true that the sign of the Cross compels the foul\nthing to appear in its own true form. 'Then started up in his own shape\nthe fiend.' The love which comes from forgiveness and the new sympathies\nwhich it engenders are the Ithuriel's spear. What a wonderful change\npasses upon the siren tempters when we believe that Christ has pardoned\nus, and have learned to love Him! Then the fishtail is seen below the\nsunlit waters.\n\nForgiveness is one of the chief means of teaching us our sin. The\nremoval of all dread of personal consequences, which it effects, leaves\nus free to contemplate with calmed hearts the moral character of our\nactions. The revelation of God's love which is made in forgiveness\nquickens our consciences as well as purges them, and our standard of\npurity is raised. The effort to live rightly, which is the sure result\nof God's love believed, first teaches us thoroughly how wrong we are. We\nknow the strength of the current when we try to pull against it.\nLooking to God as our Father, our blackness shows blacker against the\nradiant purity of His white light.\n\nForgiveness does not at once and wholly annihilate the tendency to\ntransgress. True, the belief that God has forgiven supplies the\nstrongest motives for holiness, and the new life which comes to every\nman who so believes will by degrees conquer all the lingering garrisons\nof the Philistines which hold scattered strong-posts in the land. But\nthough this be so, still the purifying process is a slow and gradual\none, and evil may be forced out of the heart while yet it is in the\nblood. The central will may be cleansed while yet habits continue to be\nstrong, and the power of resistance, new-born as it is, may be weak in\nact though omnipotent in nature. All sin leaves some tendency to\nrecurrence. The path which one avalanche has hollowed lies ready for\nanother. It is true, on the one side, that no purity is so bright and no\nobedience so steadfast as that of the man who has been cleansed and\nreclaimed from rebellion. But it is also true that, on the road to that\nultimate purity, a pardoned man has to struggle daily with the bitter\nrelics of his old self, to wage war against evils the force of which he\nnever knew till he tried to resist them, against sins which were all\nsleek, and velvety, and purring, as long as he fondled and stroked them,\nbut which flash out sharp claws when he would fling them from their dens\nin his heart. Forgiveness does not at once conquer sin, and forgiveness\nleads to deeper consciousness of sin. Hence the order of petitions here.\nFollowing on the prayer for pardon, comes that for shelter from and in\ntemptation which arises from deep consciousness of our own weakness and\nliability to fall.\n\nTemptation has two parts in it--the circumstances which lead to sin, the\ndesire which is addressed by them. There must be tinder as well as\nspark, if there is to be flame. Fire falling on water or upon bare rock\nwill kindle nothing. God sends the one, we make the other.\n\nThe Prayer:--\n\nI. Expresses our recognition of God as ordering all circumstances.\n\nThere is the general faith that His Providence orders our lot, and the\nspecific that God orders and brings about temptations.\n\nTo tempt is to present inducements to sin, but a secondary significance\nis to do so maliciously, and with desire that we should fall. It is in\nthis secondary sense that James denies that God tempts any man. We tempt\nourselves, or evil tempts us. But God does tempt in so far as He\npresents outward circumstances which become occasions of falling or of\nstanding, as we take them. He sends temptations, He sends trials, and\nthe two only differ in name, and in what is implied in the word, of the\ndisposition of the sender. Christ was led into the wilderness by the\nSpirit to be tempted. If God does not in malice tempt, still He does in\nmercy try. God sends trials; we make them temptations.\n\nII. Implies that our chiefest wish is holiness, our greatest dread sin.\n\nThis is the only negative petition.\n\nWhat would be _our_ deprecatory prayers? Lead us not into sorrow, loss,\npoverty, disease, death?\n\nHow we fill our prayers with womanish shriekings and fears!\n\nThis petition can come only from a man whose will is resigned and fixed\non God. One thing he fears, and that is to sin.\n\nThe one thing to be desired is not outward well-being, but inward\ncharacter.\n\nThink of our lives: what do we dread most?\n\nIII. Expresses our self-distrust.\n\nIt is from consciousness of our weakness that we pray thus. The language\nat first sight seems to breathe only a wish to be exempt from\ntemptation. If that were its meaning, it were contrary to Christ's\nteaching and to the whole tenor of Scripture. But such a wish _is_\nincluded in it, and corresponds to one tone of mind, and to what ought\nalways to be our feeling. We rightly shrink from temptation because we\nknow our own weakness. That is the only allowable ground; if we do it\nfrom indolence, or dread of trouble, we are wrong. If flesh shrinks from\npain, we are 'carnal and walk as men.' If we desire simply to have a\nsmooth path, then we have yet to learn what our Master meant when He\nsaid, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation.' His servants should\n'count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations.'\n\nBut if we rightly understand our own weakness, we shall dread to meet\nthe enemy, because we know how often circumstances make all the\ndifference between saint and sinner.\n\nIV. Expresses our reliance on God if temptation comes.\n\nI take to be 'tempted' as being presentation of inducement to sin. I\ntake to 'enter into temptation' as the further step of consenting to it.\n\nPerhaps there may be hovering in the words of the petition a\nhalf-conscious allusion to a captive being led into a prison.\n\nWhat we should chiefly desire is that God would lead us not _into_, but\n_through_ and _out of_, temptation. To pray simply for exemption from\ntrial is--\n\n1. To ask what is impossible.\n\nAll scenes of life, all stages, both sexes, all relations, all\nprofessions, are and ever will be full of inducements to sin.\n\nWhether any given circumstance will tempt you or not depends on what you\nare. If there is nothing adhesive on you, it will not stick.\n\n2. To ask what would not be for our good.\n\nEffect of conquered temptation on the Christian life.\n\nEffect on character. The old belief that the strength of a slain enemy\npassed into his slayer is true in regard to a Christian's overcome\ntemptations.\n\nEffect on grasp of truth.\n\nEffect on consciousness of relation to God.\n\nEffect on Future.\n\nSo then we ought to desire not so much exemption from temptation, as\nstrength in it.\n\nAnd He will always be at our side to grant us this.\n\nWe should seek not freedom from furnace, but His presence in it; not to\nbe guided away from the dark valley, but through it. His prayer is our\nmodel; His life is our pattern, who was tempted 'though He were the\nSon'; His strength is our hope. He is 'able to succour them that are\ntempted.'\n\nWe identify ourselves in such a prayer with all who have sinned, and\nknowing that we are men of like passions, and that we may fall like\nthem, we cry 'lead _us_ not.'\n\nHe who offers this prayer from such motives will best and most willingly\nmeet temptation when it comes. The soldier who goes into the field with\ncareful circumspection, knowing the enemy's strength and his own\nweakness, is the most likely to conquer. It is the presumptuous men,\nconfident in their own strength, who are sure to get beaten.\n\n\n'DELIVER US FROM EVIL'\n\n     'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13.\n\nThe two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining\nsilently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where\nstorms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one\nis so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture\nof human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half!\nHunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which\nincludes them all--evil. Forgiveness and defence and deliverance--what\nsorrows these presuppose! Each step of these latter supplications seems\nto carry us deeper into the shadow and the darkness, each to present a\ndarker aspect of what human life really is; and now that we have reached\nthe last, we have an all-comprehensive cry which holds within its\nmeaning every ill that flesh is heir to.\n\nBut seeing that we have to do with a prayer, we have also to do with a\nprophecy. We know that if we ask anything according to His will, He\nheareth us, and therefore the sadder the want which is expressed, the\nfuller of hope is the prayer. This petition gives a dark picture of\nhuman wants, but whatsoever thing we pray about or against, we thereby\nprofess to believe to be contrary to God's will, and to be certain of\nremoval by Him; and when our Lord commanded us to say 'Our Father, ...\ndeliver us from evil,' He gave us the lively hope that all which is\nincluded in that terribly wide word should be swept away, and that He\nwould break every yoke and let His oppressed go free. The whole sum of\nhuman sorrow is gathered into one petition, that we may all feel that\nevery item of it is capable of attenuation and extinction; and so our\nprayer, in the very clause which seems to sound the lowest depth, really\nrises to the loftiest height, and the words which sound likest a wail\nover all the misery that is done under the sun, have in them the notes\nof triumph. 'The sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest\nthought.' The most jubilant and confident prayer is that which feels\nmost keenly the burden of evil, and 'falling with its weight of sins\n'upon the great world's altar-stairs,' cries to God for deliverance.\n\nConsider, then:--\n\nI. The width of this petition.\n\nWhat is evil?\n\nWell, we leave God to decide what it is, but also we have no reason that\nI can see for limiting the impressive width of the word. It is a\nprofound insight into the nature of evil which, in our own language and\nin other tongues, uses one word to express both what we call sin, and\nwhat we call sorrow. And I know not why we should suppose that our Lord\ndoes not include both of these here. There is what we call physical\nevil, pain, sorrow, meaning thereby whatever wars against our well-being\nand happiness. There is what we call moral evil, sin, meaning thereby\nwhatever wars against our purity. Both are evil. Men's consciences tell\nthem so of the one. Men's sensibilities tell them so of the other.\n\nYou cannot sophisticate a man into believing that he is not suffering\nwhen his flesh is racked or his heart wounded. It is evil to be in pain.\nIt is evil to carry a heavy heart. It is evil to be stripped of what we\nhave long been accustomed to lean upon. It is evil to be crushed down by\nloss and want. It is evil to stand by the black hole that swallows the\ncoffin that holds the light of our eyes. It is evil to have the arrows\nof calumny or hate sticking in our quivering spirits. It is evil to be\nbattered with the shocks of change and doom in the world, to have to\ntoil at ungrateful tasks beyond our strength. The life which turns the\nchild's rounded features into the thin face lined and wrinkled, and the\nchild's elastic run into the slow, heavy tread, is after all a life\nwhich in its outward aspects is a life of evil.\n\nAnd many a man who has had little sympathy with what seem to him the\nhazy platitudes of the rest of the prayer, learns to pray this clause,\nand is always ready to pray it. For we may be sure of this, that they\nwho make the world their all are they who feel its evils most keenly.\nFrom how many lips unused to prayer are cries every hour going up in\nthis sorrowful world which really mean, 'deliver us from evil'!\n\nBut it is not only these external evils which the prayer includes. It\nmeans every kind of sin, all dominion of what is contrary to God's will.\n\nAnd the petition is 'deliver,' pull us out, drag us from. It is a cry\nfor the _entire_ emancipation or _utter_ extinction of evil in its\neffect upon us.\n\nSo this petition in its clear recognition of evil sets forth man's\ncondition distinctly, and is opposed to that false stoicism which tries\nto argue men out of their senses, and convince them that the fire which\nburns them is only a painted fire. Christianity has nothing in common\nwith that insensibility to suffering which it is sometimes supposed to\nteach. Christ wept, and bade the daughters of Jerusalem weep also.\n\nChristianity has deep words to say about evil and pain as being salutary\nand for our good, and about submission to God's will as being better\nthan wild wishes to be delivered now and at once from all pain and\nsorrow. But it begins with full admission that evil is evil, and all its\nteachings presuppose that. Job was tormented by the well-meaning\nplatitudes of his friends, who lifted up their hands in holy horror that\nhe did not lie on his dunghill, as if it had been a bed of roses; and\nJob, who felt all the sorrow of his losses and ground out many a wrong\nsaying between his teeth, was justified because he had held by the truth\nthat his senses taught him, that pain was bitter and bad, and by the\nother which his faith taught him, that God must be good. He could not\nreconcile them. We can in part; but our Lord has taught us in this\nprayer that it is not to be done by denying or sophisticating facts.\nThen let us use this prayer in all its breadth, and feel that it covers\nall which makes our hearts heavy, and all which makes our consciences\nsore.\n\n'From all evil and mischief--plague, pestilence, and famine, as well as\nenvy, hatred, and hypocrisy--from sin, from the crafts and assaults of\nthe devil,--Good Lord, deliver us.' 'In all time of our tribulation; in\nall time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of\njudgment,--Good Lord, deliver us.'\n\nII. The unity and source of the evil.\n\nThe singular number suggests that all evil, multiform as it seems, is at\nbottom one. It is a great weltering coil, but wilderness and tangle as\nit appears, there is a tap root from which it all comes, like a\nclose-clinging mass of ivy which is choking the life out of an elm-tree.\nIf that root were grubbed up, all would fall. It is like some huge sea\nmonster 'floating many a rood,' but there is only one life in it. The\nhydra has a hundred heads, but one heart. And the place in the prayer in\nwhich this clause comes suggests what that is--sin.\n\nThat place implies that all human sorrows and sufferings are\nconsequences of human evil. And that is true inasmuch as many of them\nare distinctly and naturally its results. Disease is often the result of\ndissipation, poverty of indolence, friendlessness of selfishness. How\nmany of the miseries of our great cities, how many of the miseries of\nnations, result from criminal neglect and injustice! 'Man's inhumanity\nto man makes countless thousands mourn.' Ah! if all men were saying from\nthe heart, 'Thy will be done,' how many of their griefs would be at an\nend! And it is true that sorrows are the consequences of sin inasmuch as\nsuffering has been introduced by God into the world because of sin. He\nhas been forced by our rebellion to use judgments, and that to bring us\nback.\n\nAnd it is true that sorrows are the consequences of sin inasmuch as the\nsting is taken out of them when our sins are forgiven and we love God.\nThen they so change their characters as scarcely to deserve to be called\nby their old name, and the paradox, 'sorrowful yet always rejoicing,'\nbecomes a sober fact of experience.\n\nIII. The divine opposition to evil.\n\nThis prayer implies that all evil is contrary to His will. The one kind\nis so, absolutely and always. The other is a method to which He has had\nrecourse, but not that which, if things had gone right, He would have\nadopted.\n\nSo this prayer breathes confidence that God will overcome both kinds.\n\nHow much there is to make us believe that evil is eternal.\n\nHow apt we are to fall into despair, to lose heart for ourselves and our\nfellows; to say that it has always been so, and it always will be so.\n\nFor all social reformers here is encouragement.\n\nFor ourselves, when we seem to do so little in setting ourselves right,\nhere is confidence.\n\nBut it must be _God_ who conquers the world's evil.\n\nOur most potent weapon in the struggle with our own and the world's evil\nis the earnest offering of this petition.\n\nThink of the failure of godless schemes; how often we have been on the\nverge of political and other millenniums.\n\nOnly the God, who cures sin, can cure the world's ills.\n\nWe are not to substitute praying for working. God may answer our prayer\nby setting us to work.\n\nRemember that you pledge yourselves to work for your fellows by that\n_Us_, and to try to reduce, were it by ever so little, the sum of human\nmisery.\n\nIV. The manner of God's deliverance from evil. God delivers us by\nChrist, that is the sum of all.\n\nHe delivers us from sin by His answers to the previous petitions.\n\nHe delivers us from suffering by teaching us how to bear it, and by\nshowing us the meaning of it. The evil in evil is taken away. There\nshines a brightness round about the devouring fire (Ezek. i. 4). 'All\nthings work together for good.'\n\nFinally, He delivers by taking us to Himself.\n\nThis prayer goes beyond present experience. It is the yearning for full\nredemption. It is the last which is answered. But there lies in it a not\nindistinct prophecy of that great and blessed time when we shall be like\nHim, and delivered from all evil.\n\nFor ourselves and for the world it carries the assurance that neither\nsorrow nor sin shall be permitted to deform for ever the face of this\nfair creation; but that the day comes when God's name being everywhere\nhallowed, and His will done on earth, and His kingdom set up, and all\nour wants supplied, and all our sins forgiven, and all temptations taken\nout of the way, evil of every kind shall be scourged out of God's\nuniverse, and 'the ransomed of the Lord shall return with joy upon their\nheads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'\n\nThen shall this mighty prayer be answered, the prayer of God's children\nin all ages, the prayer which He offers before the Throne who on earth\nprayed, 'Not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that\nThou shouldest keep them from the evil'; the prayer which the\nwhite-robed souls offer when they cry, 'How long, O Lord, how long?' the\nprayer which, all unconsciously, the sobs, and cries, and sorrows of six\nthousand years have been offering; the prayer which is every hour being\nanswered in hourly mercies, and multitudes of forgivenesses and gracious\nguiding; the prayer which has been steadily tending towards its\nfulfilment, through all the ages during which God's name has been\ngrowing in men's love, and His will more and more obeyed, and His\nkingdom more and more fully come; the prayer which will be at last\ncompletely realised when all His children shall stand before His Throne\nhappy and good, and the noise of earth's evil shall sound only in the\near of memory, like the murmur of some far-off sea heard from the sacred\nmountain, or the remembrance of the tempest when all the winds are\nstill.\n\nIf our prayer is, 'Deliver us from evil,' our life's experience will be\nthat 'He delivered us from so great a death and will deliver,' our dying\nword will be thanksgiving to 'the angel who delivered us from all evil,'\nand our death will bring the full deliverance for which while here we\npray, and admit us into that region of unmingled good and blessing and\npurity, whose distant brightness we, tossing on the unquiet sea, behold\nfrom afar and long to possess. 'After this manner pray ye,' and to you\nthe promise will be blessedly fulfilled, 'Because he hath set his love\nupon Me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high, because\nhe hath known My name' (Ps. xci. 14).\n\n\n'THINE IS THE KINGDOM'\n\n     'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.\n     Amen.' MATT. vi. 13.\n\nThere is no reason to suppose that this doxology was spoken by Christ.\nIt does not occur in any of the oldest and most authoritative\nmanuscripts of Matthew's Gospel. It does not seem to have been known to\nthe earliest Christian writers. Long association has for us intertwined\nthe words inextricably with our Lord's Prayer, and it is a wound to\nreverential feeling to strike out what so many generations have used in\ntheir common supplications. No doubt this doxology is appropriate as a\nconclusion, and serves to give an aspect of completeness. It sounds cold\nand cheerless to end our prayer with 'evil.' But the question is not one\nof feeling or of our notions of fitness, but purely one of criticism,\nand the only evidence which has any right to be heard in settling the\ntext of the New Testament is dead against this clause. If we regard that\nevidence, we are obliged to say that the doxology has no business here.\nHow it stands here is a question which may be answered satisfactorily.\nWhen the Lord's Prayer came to be used in public worship, it was natural\nto append to it a doxology, just as in chanting the psalms it became the\nhabit to repeat at the end of each the Gloria. This doxology, originally\nwritten on the margin of the gospel, would gradually creep into the\ntext, and once there, was naturally retained.\n\nIt does not follow that, because Christ did not speak it, we ought not\nto use it. It should not be in the Bible, but it may well be in our\nprayers. If we think that our Lord gave us a pattern rather than a form,\nwe are quite justified in extending that pattern by any additions which\nharmonise with its spirit. If we think He gave us a form to be repeated\n_verbatim_, then we ought not to add to it this doxology.\n\nAt first sight it seems as if the prayer without it were incomplete. It\ncontains loving desires, lowly dependence, humble penitence, earnest\nwishes for cleansing, but there appears none of that rapturous praise\nwhich is also an element in all true devotion. And this may have been\none reason for the addition of the doxology. But I think that that\nabsence of praise and joy is only apparent; the first clause of the\nprayer expresses the highest form of both. The doxology, if you will\nthink of it, adds nothing to the contemplation of the divine character\nwhich the prayer has already taught us. It is only a repetition at the\nclose of what we had at the beginning, and its conception, lofty and\ngrand as it is, falls beneath that of 'Our Father.' We might almost say\nthat the doxology is incongruous with the prayer as presenting a less\nblessed, spiritual, distinctively Christian thought of God. That would\nbe going too far, but I cannot but feel a certain change in tone, a\ndropping from the loftiest elevation down to the celebration of the\nlower aspects of the divine. 'Kingdom, power, and glory' are grand, but\nthey do not reach the height of ascription of praise which sounds in the\nvery first words of the prayer.\n\nProperly speaking, too, this doxology is not a part of the prayer. It\nexpresses two things: the devout contemplation of God which the whole\ncourse of the petitions has excited in the soul--and in that aspect it\nis the Church's echo to the Lord's Prayer; and the confidence with which\nwe pray--and in that aspect it is rather the utterance of meditative\nreflection asking of itself its reasons for hope and stirring itself up\nto lay hold on God.\n\nNotice, then--\n\nI. The meaning of the doxology.\n\nKingdom, power, and glory correspond to kingdom, will, and hallowing in\nthe first part. The order is not the same, but it is still substantially\nidentical.\n\n'Thine the kingdom.' All earthly things, the whole fates of men here,\nare ruled by Him. The prayer asked that it might be so; here we declare\nthat it is so already, not, of course, in the deepest sense, but that\neven now and here He rules with authority. 'Thy kingdom is an\neverlasting kingdom,' and this conviction is inseparable from our\nChristianity. How hard it is to believe it at all times, from what we\nsee around us! The temptation is to think that the kingdom is men's, or\nbelongs to blind fate, or chance, and our own evil hearts ever suggest\nthat the kingdom is our own. Satan said, 'All is mine, and I will give\nit Thee.'\n\nThe affairs of the world seem so far from God, we are so tempted to\nbelieve that He is remote from it, that nations and their rulers and the\nfield of politics are void of Him. We see craft and force and villainy\nruling, we see kingdoms far from any perception that society is for man\nand from God. We see _Dei gratia_ on our coins, and 'by the grace of the\nDevil' for real motto. We see long tracks of godless crime and mean\nintrigue, and here and there a divine gleam falling from some heroic\ndeed of sacrifice. We see king and priest playing into each other's\nhands, and the people destroyed, whatever be the feud. But we are to\nbelieve that the world is the kingdom of God; to learn whence comes all\nhuman rule, and to be sure that even here and now 'Thy kingdom is an\neverlasting kingdom.'\n\n'Thine the Power.' Not merely has He authority over, but He works indeed\nthrough all--the whole world and all creatures are the field of the ever\npresent energy of God. That is a simple truth, deep but clear, that all\npower comes from Him. He is the cause of all changes, physical and all\nother. Force is the garment of the present God, and among men all power\nis from Him. His will is the creative word.\n\n'Thine the Glory.' God's glory is the praise which comes from the\naccomplishment of His purpose and will. This is the end of all Creation\nand Manifestation. The thought of Scripture is that all things are for\nthe greater glory of God. It may be a most cold-blooded and cruel\ndoctrine, or it may be a most blessed one. All depends on what is our\nconception of the character of the God whose self-revelation is His\nglory.\n\nAn almighty Devil is the God of many people. But we have learned to say\n'Our Father,' and hence this thought is blessed. Unless we had so\nlearned, the thought that His end was His glory would make Him a selfish\ntyrant. But since we know Him to be our Father, we know that His Glory\nis the revelation of His Love, His Fatherhood; that when we say that He\ndoes all things for His own glory, we say that He does all things that\nmen may know His character as it is, and 'to know Him is life eternal.'\n\n'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory': whatsoever we may\nhave lost and suffered in the past; whatsoever fiery baptism and strife\nof arms or of principles we may yet have to go through; whatsoever\nshocks of loss and sorrow may strike upon our own hearts; whatsoever\nuntraversed seas our nation or our race may have to embark upon, One\nabides, the same One remains ours and is ever with us. We may have to\nface storm and cloud, and 'neither sun nor stars may appear'; we may\nhave to fling out the best anchors we can find, if haply they may hold\non anything, and may wearily 'wish for the day.' But 'the Lord sitteth\nupon the flood,' and in the thickest of the night, when we lift our\nwearied eyes, we shall see Him coming to us across the storm, and the\nsurges smoothing themselves to rest for His pavement, and the waves\nsubside into their caves at His voice.\n\n'Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory.' Then the world and\nwe shall be guided right and kept safe, and whatsoever is true and good\nshall rule, and the weak cause shall be the conquering, and all false\nfame shall fade like morning mist, and every honest desire and effort\nfor man's blessedness shall have eternal honour. God is King; God is\nmighty; God's name shall have glory; then for us there is Hope\ninvincible in spite of all evil. Courage to stand by His truth and His\nwill, endless patience and endless charity, are our fitting robes, the\nlivery of our King. Because He is our Father, He will deliver us and our\nbrethren from all evil, and by His all-powerful Love will found His\nuniversal kingdom and get the glory due unto His name, the glory of\nloving and being loved by all His children.\n\nII. The force of the doxology in its place here.\n\nIt reminds us that the ground of our confidence is in God's own\ncharacter. We do not need to make ourselves worthy to receive. We cannot\nmove Him, but He is self-moved, and so we do not need to be afraid. Nor\nis our prayer to be an attempt to bend His will.\n\nOur confidence digs deep down to build on the rock of the ever-living\nGod, whose 'is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.' We\nflee to Him for a refuge against ourselves. We bring nothing. We look to\nHis own character, which will always be the same, and to His past, which\nis the type and prophecy for all His future. He is His own reason, His\nown motive, His own end.\n\nWhen we ground our prayers on Him, then we touch ground, and in whatever\nweltering sea of trouble we may be buffeted, we have found the bottom\nand can stand firm.\n\nBut the 'Amen' which closes the doxology is not the empty form which it\nhas now become. It means not only, So may it be! but also, So will it\nbe! It is not only the last breathing of desire, but also the expression\nof assured expectancy and confidence; not merely be it so, but confident\nexpression of assurance that it will be so.\n\nHow much of our prayer flies off into empty air because there is no\nexpectation in it! How much which has no certainty of being answered in\nit! How much which is followed by no marking of the future to discern\nthe answer! We should stand praying like some Grecian statue of an\narcher, with hand extended and lips parted and eye following the arrow\nof our prayer on its flight till it touches the mark. We have a right\nto be confident that we shall be heard. We should apply the Amen to all\nthe petitions of the prayer. So it becomes a prophecy, and the Christian\nman is to live in the calm expectation that all the petitions will be\naccomplished. For the world they will be, for us they may be. It is for\neach of us to decide for ourselves whether they will be answered in and\nfor us.\n\nThe place of the doxology here suggests that all prayer should lead to\nthankful contemplation of God's character.\n\nWe have seen how the prayer begins with contemplation, and then passes\ninto supplication. Thus all prayer should end as it began. It has a\ncircular motion, and starting from the highest heavens and coming down\nto earth, is thither drawn again and rests at the throne of God, whence\nit set out, like the strong Spirits before His throne who veil their\nfaces while they gaze upon the glory, and then fly forth to help human\nsorrows and satisfy human hearts, and then on unwearied pinions winging\ntheir way to their first station, meekly sink their wings of flight, and\nveil their faces again with their wings. The rivers that flow through\nbroad lands, bringing blessing and doing humble service in drinking-cup\nand domestic vessel, came in soft rain from heaven, and though their\nbright waves are browned with soil and made opaque with many a stain,\nyet their work done, they rest in the great ocean, and thence are drawn\nup once more to the clouds of heaven. So with our prayers; they ought to\nstart from the contemplation of our God, and they ought to return\nthither again.\n\nAnd as this is the last word of our prayers, so may we not say that it\nrepresents the perpetual form of fellowship with God? Prayers for bread,\nand pardon, and help, and deliverance, are for the wilderness. Prayers\nfor the hallowing of His name, and the coming of His kingdom, and the\ndoing of His will, are out of date when they are fulfilled; but for ever\nthis voice shall rise before His throne, and that last new song, which\nshall ring with might as of thunder and sweetness as of many harps from\nthe thousand times ten thousand, shall be but the expansion and the\ndeepening of the praise of earth. Then 'every creature which is in\nheaven, and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea, shall be\nheard saying, \"Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him\nthat sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.\"'\n\nSo we finish these meditations. I have felt all along how poorly my\nwords served me to say even what I saw, and how poorly my vision saw\ninto the clear depths of the divine prayer. But I hope that they may\nhave helped you half as much as they have myself, to feel more strongly\nhow all-comprehensive it is. I said at the beginning, and I repeat with\nmore emphasis now, that there is everything in this prayer--God's\nrelations to man, man's to God and his fellows, the foundation stones of\nChristian theology, of Christian morals, of Christian society, of\nChristian politics. There is help for the smallest wants and light for\ndaily duties; there is strength for the hour of death and the day of\njudgment. There is the revelation of the timeless depths of our Father's\nheart; there is the prophecy of the furthest future for ourselves and\nour brethren. No man can exhaust it. Every age may find in its simple\nsyllables lessons for their new perplexities and duties. It will not be\noutgrown in heaven. But, thank God, we do not need to exhaust its\nmeaning in order to use it aright. Jesus interprets our prayers, and\nmany a dumb yearning, and many a broken sob, and many a passionate\nfragment of a cry, and many an ignorant desire that may appear to us\nvery unlike His pattern for all ages, will be accepted by Him. He\ninspires, presents and answers every prayer offered through Him to the\nFather in heaven. He counts the poorest prayer to be 'after this\nmanner,' if it comes from a heart seeking the Father, owning its sin,\nlonging dimly for deliverance and purity, and hoping through its tears\nin the great and loving tenderness of the Father in heaven who has sent\nHis Son, that through Him we might cry Abba, Father.\n\n\nFASTING\n\n     'Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad\n     countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear\n     unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.\n     17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy\n     face; 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy\n     Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret,\n     shall reward thee openly.'--MATT. vi. 16-18.\n\nFasting has gone out of fashion now, but in Christ's time it went along\nwith almsgiving and prayers, as a recognised expression of a religious\nlife. The step from expression to ostentation is a short one, and the\ntriple repetition here of almost the same words in regard to each of the\nthree corruptions of religion, witnesses to our Lord's estimate of their\ncommonness. We are exposed to them just as the Pharisees of His day\nwere. If there is less fasting now than then, Christians still need to\ntake care that they do not get up a certain 'sad countenance' for the\nsake of being seen of men, and because such is understood to be the\nproper thing for a religious man. They have to take care, too, not to\nparade the feelings, of which fasting used to be the expression, as, for\ninstance, a sense of their own sinfulness, and sorrow for the nation's\nor the world's sins and sorrows. There are deep and sorrowful emotions\nin every real Christian heart, but the less the world is called in to\nsee them, the purer and more blessed and purifying they will be. The man\nwho has a sidelong eye to spectators in expressing his Christian (or any\nother) emotion, is very near being a hypocrite. Expressing emotion with\nreference to bystanders, is separated by a very thin line from feigning\nemotion. The sidelong glance will soon become a fixed gaze, seeing\nnothing else, and the purpose of fasting will slip out of sight. The man\nwho only wishes to attract attention easily succeeds in that shabby aim,\nand has his reward, but misses all the true results, which are only\ncapable of being realised when he who fasts is thinking of nothing but\nhis own sin and his forgiving God.\n\n\nTWO KINDS OF TREASURE\n\n     'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and\n     rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20.\n     But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 19-20.\n\nThe connection with the previous part is twofold.\n\nThe warning against hypocritical fastings and formalism leads to the\nwarning against worldly-mindedness and avarice. For what\nworldly-mindedness is greater than that which prostitutes even religious\nacts to worldly advantage, and is laying up treasure of men's good\nopinion on earth even while it shams to be praying to God? And there is\na close connection which the history of every age has illustrated\nbetween formal religious profession and the love of money, which is the\nvice of the Church. Again, the promise of rewarding openly naturally\nleads on to the positive exhortation to make that reward our great\nobject.\n\nThe connection with what follows is remarkable. The injunction and\nprohibition of the text refer to two species of the same genus, one the\nvice of avarice, the other the vice of anxiety.\n\nI. The Two Treasures.\n\nThese are--on earth, all things which a man can possess;--in heaven,\nprimarily God Himself, the reward which has been spoken of in previous\nverses, viz. God's love and approbation, a holy character, and all those\nspiritual and personal graces, beauties, perfections and joys which come\nto the good man from above.\n\nThis command and prohibition require of Christ's disciples--\n\n1. A rectification of their judgment as to what is the true good of man.\n\n(a) Sense and flesh tend to make us think the visible and material the\nbest.\n\n(b) Our peculiar position here in a great commercial centre powerfully\nreinforces this tendency.\n\n(c) The prevailing current of this age is all in the same direction.\nThe growth of luxury, the increase of wealth, and set of thought,\nthreaten us with a period when not only religious thought will fail, but\nwhen all faith, enthusiasm, all poetry and philosophy, the very\nconception of God and duty, all idealism, all that is unseen, will be\nscouted among men. Naturalism does not fulfil its own boast of dealing\nwith facts; there are more facts than can be seen. So the first thing is\nto settle it in our minds, in opposition to our own selves and to\nprevailing tendencies, that truth is better than money, that pure\naffections and moderate desires and a heart set on God are richer wealth\nthan all external possessions.\n\n2. Desire that follows the corrected judgment. It is one thing to know\nall this, another to wrench our wishes loose from earth.\n\n3. A practical life that obeys the impulse of the desire. Christ's\ncommand and prohibition here do not refer only to a certain course of\naction, but to a certain motive and purpose in action, and to actions\ndrawn from these. If we obey Christ we shall lead lives obviously\ndifferent from those which are based upon an estimate which we are to\nreject; but the main thing is to live and work with an eye to the\neternal, not the temporal, results of our doings. We are to administer\nour lives as God does His providence, using the temporal only as means\nto an end, the eternal. We are to live to be God-like, to love God, and\nbe loved by Him.\n\nThere is here the idea of which we are somewhat too much afraid, that\nour life on earth adds to the rewards of blessedness in heaven. The idea\nof reward is emphatically and often inculcated in Scripture, however\nmuch a mistaken jealousy for 'the doctrines of Grace' may be chary of\nit. We need only recall such words as 'They shall walk with Me in white,\nfor they are worthy'; or, 'Laying up in store for themselves a good\nfoundation'; or, 'Thou shalt have treasure in heaven.' If people would\nonly think of heaven less carnally, and would regard it as the\nperfection of holiness, there would be no difficulty in the notion of\nreward. Men get there what they have made themselves fit for here.\n'Their works do follow them.'\n\nII. The foes of the earthly, which are powerless against the heavenly.\n\nThe imagery implies a comparatively simple state of society and\nprimitive treasures. Moths gnaw rich garments. Rust, or more properly\ncorruption, would get into a man's barns and vineyards, hay-crops and\nfruits. Thieves would steal the hoard that he had laid by, for want of\nbetter investment. Or to generalise, corruption, the natural process of\nwearing away, natural enemies proper to each kind of possession, human\nagency which takes away all external possessions--these multifarious\nagents co-operate to render impossible the permanent possession of any\n'treasure on earth.'\n\nOn the other hand, what a man has laid up in heaven, and what he is\npartially here, have no tendency to grow old. Men never weary of God,\nnever find Him failing, never exhaust truth, never drink the love of God\nto the dregs, never find purity palling upon the taste, 'Age cannot\nwither, nor custom stale, \"their\" infinite variety.'\n\n'Treasure in heaven' has no enemies which destroy it. Every earthly\npossession has its own foes, every earthly joy has its own destructive\nopposite; but nothing touches this treasure in heaven.\n\nIt has nothing to fear from men. Nobody can take it out of a man's soul\nbut himself. The inmost circle of our life is inviolable. It is\nincorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not away, for it all comes from\nthe eternal God and our eternal union to Him. He is our portion for\never.\n\nIII. The madness of fastening the heart down to earth.\n\nThe heart must be in heaven in order to find its true home. It is\nunnatural, contrary to the constitution of the 'heart' that it should be\nfettered to earth.\n\nIf it is, it will be restless and unsatisfied.\n\nIf it is, it will be at the mercy of all these enemies.\n\nIf it is, what will happen when the man is no longer on earth? 'What\nshall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'\n\n\nHEARTS AND TREASURES\n\n     'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be\n     also.'--MATT. vi. 21.\n\n'Your treasure' is probably not the same as your neighbour's. It is\nyours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. For what our\nLord means here by 'treasure' is not merely money, or material good, but\nwhatever each man thinks best, that which he most eagerly strives to\nattain, that which he most dreads to lose, that which, if he has, he\nthinks he will be blessed, that which, if he has it not, he knows he is\ndiscontented.\n\nNow, if that is the meaning of 'treasure,' then this great saying of nay\ntext is, as a matter of course, true. For what in each case makes the\ntreasure is precisely the going out of the heart to grapple it, and it\nis just because the heart is there that a thing is the treasure.\n\nNow, I need not do more than remind you, I suppose, that in Scripture\n'heart' means a great deal more than it does in our modern usage, for we\nemploy it as an expression for the affections, whereas the Bible takes\nit as including the whole inner man. For instance, we read, 'As a man\n_thinketh_ in his heart, so is he'; and of 'the thoughts and intents of\nthe heart.' So then the affections, as with us, but also thoughts,\npurposes, volitions, are all included in the word; and as one passage of\nScripture says, 'Out of it are the issues of life.' It is the central\nreservoir, the central personality, the indivisible unit of the\nthinking, willing, feeling, loving person which I call 'myself.' So what\nChrist says is that where a man's treasure lies, not merely his\naffections will twine round it, but his whole self will be, as it were,\nimplicated and intertwisted with it, so as that what befalls it will\nbefall him.\n\nNow, further, notice that this saying, so obviously true, is introduced\nby a 'for,' and that it is the broad basis on which rest the obligation\nand the wisdom of the double counsel which has preceded, on the one\nhand, the warning against choosing perishable and uncertain good for our\ntreasure, and mixing ourselves up with that, and on the other the loving\ncounsel to choose for ourselves the wealth which is perpetual,\nunprecarious, and certain.\n\nSo I think we may look at these words from a threefold point of view,\nand see in them a mirror that will show us ourselves, a dissuasive and a\npersuasive. Let us take these three aspects.\n\nI. Here, then, is a mirror that a man may hold up before himself, and\nfind out something about himself by it.\n\nFor, like other general statements of the same sort, you can turn this\nsaying round about, and take it the other way, and not only say, as the\ntext says, 'where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,' but,\n'where your heart is, there is your treasure.' A man's real god is the\nthing that he counts best, and for which he works most earnestly, and\nwhich, as I said, he most longs to have, and trembles to think he will\nlose. That is his god, and his treasure, whatever his professions may\nbe. Where your heart is, there is your treasure.\n\nNow, of course, for the larger part of the lives of all of us, there are\ncertain lines laid down by our circumstances, our trades, our various\nduties, on which the train of our thoughts and efforts must run. But the\nquestion is, When I am set free from the constraint of my daily\navocations and pressing duties, and am at liberty to go as I like, where\ndo I go? When the weight is taken off the sapling in the nursery garden,\nwhich has been hung on it to turn it into a weeping-tree, its elastic\nstem springs to the erect position. Where do I spring to when the\nweights are taken off? The mother bird will hover over her nest. Where\nher treasure is, there is her maternal instinct. The needle follows the\ndrawing of the pole-star; the sunflower turns to the sun. 'Being let go,\nthey went to their own company.' Where do _you_ go? The reins laid upon\nthe horse's neck, it will trot straight home to its stable; 'the ox\nknoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,' and our instincts are\nnot less sure than theirs. You go 'home' when you are left to\nyourselves; where do you go?\n\nWe call ourselves Christians. If our treasure is in Christ, our hearts\nwill turn to Him. And what does that mean? 'Hearts,' as I said, mean\nthoughts. Now, can you and I say, 'In the multitude of my thoughts\nwithin me, Thy comforts delight my soul'? Does there come stealing into\nmy mind often and often the blessed contemplation of my wealth in Jesus\nChrist? The river of thought brings down, in its continual flow, much\nmire and sand. Does it bring any gold? Do I think about Christ, and find\nit to be my refreshment to do so? An old mystic said, 'If I can tell how\noften I have thought of God to-day, I have not thought of Him often\nenough.' 'Where your treasure is, there will your thoughts be also.'\n\nThe heart means love. Where do my affections turn when I am set free?\nThe heart means the will. Is my will all saturated with, and so made\npliant by, the will and commandment of Jesus Christ? If He is my\ntreasure, then thoughts, affection, obedience will all turn to Him, and\nthe current of my being, whatever may be the surface-ripple--ay, or the\nsurface-storm--will be ever sliding surely, though it may be silently,\ntowards Himself. Ah! brethren, if we would be honest with ourselves and\nlook into this mirror, we should have cause to be ashamed, some of us,\nof our very profession of being Christians, and all of us to feel that\nwe have far too much heaped up for ourselves other treasures and\nforgotten our true wealth, and we should all have to pray, 'Unite my\nheart to fear Thy name.' The Assyrians had a superstition that a demon,\nif he saw his own reflection in a mirror, would fly. I think if some of\nus professing Christians saw ourselves, as the looking-glass of my text\nmight give us to see ourselves, we should shudderingly depart from that\nself, and seek to have a better self formed within us. 'Where your\ntreasure is, there will your heart be also.'\n\nII. Now let me ask you to look at this saying, in the connection in\nwhich our Lord adduced it, as being a dissuasive.\n\nHe applies it to both branches of His previous advice. He had just said,\n'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth\ncorrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.' These are very\nprimitive methods of depriving men of their treasures, arguing a\ncomparatively simple state of society. The moth is that which destroys\nwealth in garments, which was a great part of ancient Eastern wealth.\nRust rather means corrosion, or corruption, and applies to the other\ngreat kind of primitive wealth, in food and the stores of the harvest.\nAnd the thieves who dig through the mud wall of the house, and carry\naway the owners' little hoard of gold and silver, point also to a\nprimitive condition of society. But whatever may be the special force of\nthese different words, they suggest to us this, that all that is here\nhas its own particular and special enemy which wars against its\npermanence. There are _bacteria_ of all sorts, every vegetable has its\nown kind. Every growth has to fear the gnawing of some foe. And so every\ntreasure that I can gather into my heart, excepting one, is threatened\nby some kind of danger.\n\nNo man can have lived as long in a great commercial community, as some\nof us have done, without knowing that there are a great many besides\nprofessional and so-called thieves in it, that take away the gold and\nsilver. How many instances I can look back upon, of lords of the\nexchange and magnates of trade, who carved their names, as they thought,\nin imperishable marble on the doors of their warehouses, and then became\nbankrupt and fugitive, and were lost sight of. We all know the\nuncertainty of riches.\n\nAnd are the other kinds of treasure that we cleave to more reliable?\nHave they not their moths and their rusts? Is it pleasure? Well, I say\nnothing about the diseases that fill the bones of many a young man who\nflings himself into dissipation; but I remind you of just this one\nthing, that all that pleasure tends to become flat, stale, and\nunprofitable. That which the poet said of his own class, that it 'begins\nin gladness, and thereof cometh in the end despondency and madness,' is\ntrue of every delight of sense, ay! and of more than sense, of taste\nand of intellect. As the Book of Proverbs has it, 'the end of that mirth\nis heaviness.'\n\nBrethren, the moth and the rust claim as their prey all treasures except\none. Is it love-pure, blessed, soul-filling, soul-resting as it is? Yes,\nand on a hundred walls in any city there hangs, and in a thousand hearts\nthere hangs, that great picture where the feeble form of Love is trying\nto repel from entrance into the rose-covered portal of the home the\ninevitable and mighty shrouded form of Death. Is it culture? 'Whether\nthere be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall\nvanish away.' The last illuminator and teacher, which is Death,\nantiquates and brushes aside, as of no use in the new conditions, most\nof the knowledge which men, wisely in a measure, but foolishly if\nexclusively, have sought to acquire for themselves here below.\n\nAnd when the moth and the rust come, and the separating, bony fingers of\nthe skeleton Death filch away at last your treasure, what about you who\nare wrapped up with it, implicated in it; so grown into it, and it into\nyou, that to wrench you from it opens your veins, and you bleed to\ndeath? There is a pathetic inscription in one of the rural churches of\nthis country, in which two parents record the death of their only child,\nand add, 'All our hopes were in this frail bark, and the shipwreck is\ntotal.' I have heard of a man that might have been saved from a\nfoundering ship, but he lashed his money-bags round him, and he sank\nalong with them. 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be\nalso,' pierced by all the wounds, gnawed by all the moths, rotted by all\nthe corruption that affects it, and when the thief, the last great thief\nof all, comes, you will only have to say, 'They have taken away my\ngods, and what have I more?' And the answer out of the waste places of\nan echoing universe will be, 'Nothing! Nothing!'\n\nIII. Now, lastly, let me show you the persuasive in my text.\n\n'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,' therefore, says\nChrist, 'lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth\nnor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and\nsteal.' If my treasure is in heaven it is secure. And oh! brethren, we\nneed for our blessedness, we need for our rest, we need for our peace\nand joy, to know that the thing which we count best shall never be taken\naway from us, and we cannot have that certainty in regard to any\ntreasure except the treasure that is in God. All outward things which we\nsay we possess are incompletely possessed, because they remain outside\nus. However intertwined with them, we are separate from them, and we are\njust so much intertwined with them that the separation from them is\nagony, even if it is not death. What we need is to be so incorporated\nwith, and infused into, what is our treasure, that we are quite sure\nthat as long as we last it will last, and that nothing can rend it from\nus. 'I bear all my goods with me,' said the old heathen. We should be\nable to say more than that. I carry all my good in me, because my good\nis God, who is in the heavens, and though in the heavens, dwells in the\nhearts that love Him. Then in all changes, 'life, or death, or things\npresent or things to come, height or depth, or any other creature,' we\ncan afford to smile on, and say: 'You cannot take my wealth from me, for\nI am in God, and God is in me.'\n\nFurther, if our hearts are in heaven, then heaven will be in our hearts,\nand here we shall know the joy and the peace that come from 'sitting in\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus,' even whilst on earth. There is no\nblessedness, no stable repose, no victorious independence of the buffets\nand blows of life, except this, that my heart is lifted above them all,\nand, I was going to say, is inhaled and sucked into the life of Jesus\nChrist. Then if my heart is where my treasure is, and He is my\ntreasure,' my life is hid with Christ in God.' If my heart is in heaven,\nheaven is in my heart.\n\nFurther, my text is a promise as well as a statement of a present fact.\nWhere your treasure now is there will your whole self one day be. A man\nwho has by God's grace, through faith and love and the wise use of\nthings temporal, chosen God his chief good, and possessed in some degree\nthe good which he has chosen, even Jesus Christ in his heart, that man\nbears in himself the pledge and the foretaste of eternal life. So the\nold psalmist found out, who lived in a time when that future world was\nshrouded in far thicker clouds of darkness than it is to us, for when he\nhad risen to the height of saying, 'My flesh and my heart faileth, but\nGod is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,' he immediately\nsprang to this assurance--an assurance of faith before it was a fact\ncertified by Revelation--'Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel, and\nafterwards receive me to glory.' The possession of Christ for our\ntreasure, which possession always follows on our estimating Him as such,\nand desiring to have Him, that possession bears in its bosom the germ of\nthe assurance that, whatever befalls my physical life, I shall not be\nless immortal than my treasure, and that where my heart to-day, by\naspiration and desire and faith and love, has built its nest, thither I\nshall follow in His own time. They that have laid up treasure in heaven\nwill at last be brought to the enjoyment of the treasure that they have\nlaid up, and to the possession of 'the inheritance that is incorruptible\nand undefiled, and that fadeth not away.'\n\n\nANXIOUS CARE\n\n     'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 25. Therefore I say unto you. Take\n     no thought for your life.'--Matt. vi. 24-25.\n\nForesight and foreboding are two very different things. It is not that\nthe one is the exaggeration of the other, but the one is opposed to the\nother. The more a man looks forward in the exercise of foresight, the\nless he does so in the exercise of foreboding. And the more he is\ntortured by anxious thoughts about a possible future, the less clear\nvision has he of a likely future, and the less power to influence it.\nWhen Christ here, therefore, enjoins the abstinence from thought for our\nlife and for the future, it is not for the sake of getting away from the\npressure of a very unpleasant command that we say, He does not mean to\nprevent the exercise of wise and provident foresight and preparation for\nwhat is to come. When this English version of ours was made, the phrase\n'taking thought' meant solicitous anxiety, and that is the true\nrendering and proper meaning of the original. The idea is, therefore,\nthat here there is forbidden for a Christian, not the careful\npreparation for what is likely to come, not the foresight of the storm\nand taking in sail while yet there is time, but the constant occupation\nand distraction of the heart with gazing forward, and fearing and being\nweakened thereby; or to come back to words already used, foresight is\ncommanded, and, _therefore_, foreboding is forbidden. My object now\nis to endeavour to gather together by their link of connection, the\nwhole of those precepts which follow my text to the close of the\nchapter; and to try to set before you, in the order in which they stand,\nand in their organic connection with each other, the reasons which\nChrist gives for the absence of anxious care from our minds.\n\nI mass them all into three. If you notice, the whole section, to the end\nof the chapter, is divided into three parts, by the threefold repetition\nof the injunction, 'Take no thought.' 'Take no thought for your life,\nwhat ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what\nye shall put on.' The reason for the command as given in this first\nsection follows:--Is not the life more than meat, and the body than\nraiment?' The expansion of that thought runs on to the close of the\nthirtieth verse. Then there follows another division or section of the\nwhole, marked by the repetition of the command, 'Take no\nthought,'--saying, 'What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,\nWherewithal shall we be clothed?' The reason given for the command in\nthis second section is--'(for after all these things do the Gentiles\nseek): for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these\nthings. But seek ye first the kingdom of God.' And then follows a third\nsection, marked by the third repetition of the command, 'Take no\nthought--for the morrow.' The reason given for the command in this third\nsection is--'for the morrow shall take thought for the things of\nitself.'\n\nNow if we try to generalise the lessons that lie in these three great\ndivisions of the section, we get, I think, first,--anxious thought is\ncontrary to all the lessons of nature, which show it to be unnecessary.\nThat is the first, the longest section. Then, secondly, anxious thought\nis contrary to all the lessons of revelation or religion, which show it\nto be heathenish. And lastly, anxious thought is contrary to the whole\nscheme of Providence, which shows it to be futile. You do not _need_ to\nbe anxious. It is _wicked_ to be anxious. It is _of no use_ to be\nanxious. These are the three points,--anxious care is contrary to the\nlessons of Nature; contrary to the great principles of the Gospel; and\ncontrary to the scheme of Providence. Let us try now simply to follow\nthe course of thought in our Lord's illustration of these three\nprinciples.\n\nI. The first is the consideration of the teaching of Nature. 'Take no\nthought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor\nyet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,\nand the body than raiment?' And then comes the illustration of the fowls\nof the air and the lilies of the field.\n\nThe whole of these verses fall into these general thoughts: You are\nobliged to trust God for your body, for its structure, for its form, for\nits habitudes, and for the length of your being; you are obliged to\ntrust Him for the foundation--trust Him for the superstructure. You are\nobliged to trust Him, whether you will or not, for the greater--trust\nHim gladly for the less. You cannot help being dependent. After all your\nanxiety, it is only directed to the providing of the things that are\nneedful for the life; the life itself, though it is a natural thing,\ncomes direct from God's hand; and all that you can do, with all your\ncarking cares, and laborious days, and sleepless nights, is but to adorn\na little more beautifully or a little less beautifully, the allotted\nspan--but to feed a little more delicately or a little less delicately,\nthe body which God has given you. What is the use of being careful for\nfood and raiment, when down below these necessities there lies the awful\nquestion--for the answer to which you have to hang helpless, in\nimplicit, powerless dependence upon God,--Shall I live, or shall I die?\nshall I have a body instinct with vitality, or a body crumbling amidst\nthe clods of the valley? After all your work, your anxiety gets but such\na little way down; like some passing shower of rain, that only softens\nan inch of the hard-baked surface of the soil, and has no power to\nfructify the seed that lies feet below the reach of its useless\nmoisture. Anxious care is foolish; for far beyond the region within\nwhich your anxieties move, there is the greater region in which there\nmust be entire dependence upon God. 'Is not the life more than meat? Is\nnot the body more than raiment?' You _must_ trust Him for these;\nyou may as well trust Him for all the rest.\n\nThen, again, there comes up this other thought: Not only are you\ncompelled to exercise unanxious dependence in regard to a matter which\nyou cannot influence--the life of the body--and that is the greater;\nbut, still further, _God gives you that_. Very well: God gives you\nthe greater; and God's great gifts are always inclusive of God's little\ngifts. When He bestows a thing, He bestows all the consequences of the\nthing as well. When He gives a life, He swears by the gift, that He will\ngive what is needful to sustain it. God does not stop half way in any of\nHis bestowments. He gives royally and liberally, honestly and\nsincerely, logically and completely. When He bestows a life, therefore,\nyou may be quite sure that He is not going to stultify His own gift by\nretaining unbestowed anything that is wanted for its blessing and its\npower. You have had to trust Him for the greater; trust Him for the\nless. He has given you the greater--no doubt He will give you the less.\n'The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment.' 'Which of you,\nby taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye\nthought for raiment?'\n\nThen there is another thought. Look at God's ways of doing with all His\ncreatures. The animate and the inanimate creation are appealed to, the\nfowls of the air and the lilies of the field, the one in reference to\nfood and the other in reference to clothing, which are the two great\nwants already spoken of by Christ in the previous verses. I am not going\nto linger at all on the exquisite beauty of these illustrations. Every\nsensitive heart and pure eye dwell upon them with delight. The 'fowls of\nthe air,' the lilies of the field,' 'they toil not, neither do they\nspin'; and then, with what an eye for the beauty of God's\nuniverse,--'Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of\nthese!' Now, what is the force of this consideration? It is\nthis--_There_ is a specimen, in an inferior creation, of the divine care\nwhich _you_ can _trust_, you men who are 'better than they.' And not\nonly that:--_There_ is an instance, not only of God's giving things that\nare necessary, but of God's giving more, lavishing beauty upon the\nflowers of the field. I do not think that we sufficiently dwell upon the\nmoral and spiritual uses of beauty in God's universe. That everywhere\nHis loving, wooing hand should touch the flower into grace, and deck all\nbarren places with glory and with fairness--what does that reveal to us\nabout Him? It says to us, He does not give scantily: it is not the mere\nmeasure of what is wanted, absolutely needed, to support a bare\nexistence, that God bestows. He 'taketh pleasure in the prosperity of\nHis servants.' Joy, and love, and beauty, belong to Him; and the smile\nupon His face that comes from the contemplation of His own fairness\nflung out into His glorious creation, is a prophecy of the gladness that\ncomes into His heart from His own holiness and more ethereal beauty\nadorning the spiritual creatures whom He has made to flash back His\nlikeness. The flowers of the field are so clothed that we may learn the\nlesson that it is a fair Spirit, and a loving Spirit, and a bountiful\nSpirit, and a royal Heart, that presides over the bestowments of\ncreation, and allots gifts to men.\n\nBut notice further, how much of the force of what Christ says here\ndepends on the consideration of the inferiority of these creatures who\nare thus blessed; and also notice what are the particulars of that\ninferiority. We read that verse, 'They sow not, neither do they reap,\nnor gather into barns,' as if it marked out a particular in which their\nfree and untoilsome lives were superior to ours. It is the very\nopposite. It is part of the characteristics that mark them as lower than\nwe, that they have not to work for the future. They reap not, they sow\nnot, they gather not;--are ye not much better than they? Better in this,\namongst other things, that God has given us the privilege of influencing\nthe future by our faithful toil, by the sweat of our brow and the labour\nof our hands. These creatures labour not, and yet they are fed. And the\nlesson for us is--much more may we, whom God has blessed with the power\nof work, and gifted with force to mould the future, be sure that He will\nbless the exercise of the prerogative by which He exalts us above\ninferior creatures, and makes us capable of toil. You can influence\nto-morrow. What you can influence by work, fret not about, for you _can_\nwork. What you cannot influence by work, fret not about, for it is vain.\n'They toil not, neither do they spin.' You are lifted above them because\nGod has given you hands that can grasp the tool or the pen. Man's crown\nof glory, as well as man's curse and punishment, is, 'In the sweat of\nthy brow shalt thou eat bread.' So learn what you have to do with that\ngreat power of anticipation. It is meant to be the guide of wise work.\nIt is meant to be the support for far-reaching, strenuous action. It is\nmeant to elevate us above mere living from hand to mouth; to ennoble our\nwhole being by leading to and directing toil that is blessed because\nthere is no anxiety in it, labour that will be successful since it is\naccording to the will of that God who has endowed us with the power of\nputting it forth.\n\nThen there comes another inferiority. 'Your heavenly Father feedeth\nthem.' They cannot say '_Father!_' and yet they are fed. You are above\nthem by the prerogative of toil. You are above them by the nearer\nrelation which you sustain to your Father in heaven. He is their Maker,\nand lavishes His goodness upon them: He is your Father, and He will not\nforget His child. They cannot trust: you can. They might be anxious, if\nthey could look forward, for they know not the hand that feeds them; but\nyou can turn round, and recognise the source of all blessings. So,\ndoubly ought you to be guarded from care by the lesson of that free\njoyful Nature that lies round about you, and to say, 'I have no fear of\nfamine, nor of poverty, nor of want; for He feedeth the ravens when they\ncry. There is no reason for distrust. Shame on me if I am anxious, for\nevery lily of the field blows its beauty, and every bird of the air\ncarols its song without sorrowful foreboding, and yet there is no\nFather in heaven to them!'\n\nAnd the last Inferiority is this; 'To-day it is, and to-morrow it is\ncast into the oven.' Their little life is thus blessed and brightened.\nOh, how much greater will be the mercies that belong to them who have a\nlonger life upon earth, and who never die! The lesson is not--These are\nthe plebeians in God's universe, and you are the aristocracy, and you\nmay trust Him; but it is--They, by their inferior place, have lesser and\nlower wants, wants but for a bounded being, wants that stretch not\nbeyond earthly existence, and that for a brief span. They are blessed in\nthe present, for the oven to-morrow saddens not the blossoming to-day.\nYou have nobler necessities and higher longings, wants that belong to a\nsoul that never dies, to a nature which may glow with the consciousness\nthat God is your Father, wants which 'look before and after,' therefore,\nyou are 'better than they'; and 'shall He not much more clothe you, O ye\nof little faith?'\n\nII. And now, in the second place, there is here another general line of\nconsiderations tending to dispel all anxious care--the thought that it\nis contrary to all the lessons of Religion, or Revelation, which show it\nto be heathenish.\n\nThere are three clauses devoted to the illustration of this thought:\n'After all these things do the Gentiles seek'; 'your heavenly Father\nknoweth that ye have need of all these things'; 'seek ye first the\nkingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be\nadded unto you.'\n\nThe first clause contains the principle, that solicitude for the future\nis at bottom heathen worldly-mindedness. The heathen tendency in us all\nleads to an overestimate of material good, and it is a question of\ncircumstances whether that shall show itself in heaping up earthly\ntreasures, or in anxious care. These are the same plant, only the one is\ngrowing in the tropics of sunny prosperity, and the other in the arctic\nzone of chill penury. The one is the sin of the worldly-minded rich man,\nthe other is the sin of the worldly-minded poor man. The character is\nthe same in both, turned inside out! And, therefore, the words, 'ye\ncannot serve God and Mammon,' stand in this chapter in the centre\nbetween our Lord's warning against laying up treasures on earth, and His\nwarning against being full of cares for earth. He would show us thereby\nthat these two apparently opposite states of mind in reality spring from\nthat one root, and are equally, though differently, 'serving Mammon.' We\ndo not sufficiently reflect upon that. We say, perhaps, this intense\nsolicitude of ours is a matter of temperament, or of circumstances. So\nit may be: but the Gospel was sent to help us to cure worldly\ntemperaments, and to master circumstances. But _the_ reason why we are\ntroubled and careful about the things of this life lies here, that our\nhearts have taken an earthly direction, that we are at bottom heathenish\nin our lives and in our desires. It is the very characteristic of the\nGentile (that is to say, of the heathen) that earth should bound his\nhorizon. It is the very characteristic of the worldly man that all his\nanxieties on the one hand, and all his joys on the other, should be\n'cribbed, cabined and confined' within the narrow sphere of the visible.\nWhen a Christian is living in the foreboding of some earthly sorrow\ncoming down upon him, and is feeling as if there would be nothing left\nif some earthly treasure were swept away, is that not, in the very root\nof it, idolatry--worldly-mindedness? Is it not clean contrary to all\nour profession that for us 'there is none upon earth that we desire\nbesides Thee'? Anxious care rests upon a basis of heathen\nworldly-mindedness.\n\nAnxious care rests upon a basis, too, of heathen misunderstanding of the\ncharacter of God. 'Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of\nall these things.' The heathen thought of God is that He is far removed\nfrom our perplexities, either ignorant of our struggles, or\nunsympathising with them. The Christian has the double armour against\nanxiety--the name of the Father, and the conviction that the Father's\nknowledge is co-extensive with the Father's love. He who calls us His\nchildren thoroughly understands what His children want. And so, anxiety\nis contrary to the very name by which we have learned to call God, and\nto the pledge of pitying care and perfect knowledge of our frame which\nlies in the words 'our Father.' Our Father is the name of God, and our\nFather intensely cares for us, and lovingly does all things for us.\n\nAnd then, still further, Christ points out here, not only what is\nthe real root of this solicitous care--something very like\nworldly-mindedness, heathen worldly-mindedness; but He points out what\nis the one counterpoise of it--'seek first the kingdom of God.' It is of\nno use only to tell men that they ought to trust, that the birds of the\nair might teach them to trust, that the flowers of the field might\npreach resignation and confidence to them. It is of no use to attempt to\nscold them into trust, by telling them that distrust is heathenish. You\nmust fill the heart with a supreme and transcendent desire after the\none supreme object, and then there will be no room or leisure left for\nanxious care after the lesser. Have inwrought into your being, Christian\nman, the opposite of that heathen over-regard for earthly things. 'Seek\nfirst the kingdom of God.' Let all your spirit be stretching itself out\ntowards that divine and blessed reality, longing to be a subject of that\nkingdom, and a possessor of that righteousness; and 'the cares that\ninfest the day' will steal away from out of the sacred pavilion of your\nbelieving spirit. Fill your heart with desires after what is worthy of\ndesire; and the greater having entered in, all lesser objects will rank\nthemselves in the right place, and the 'glory that excelleth' will\noutshine the seducing brightness of the paltry present. Oh! it is want\nof love, it is want of earnest desire, it is want of firm conviction\nthat God, God only, God by Himself, is enough for me, that makes me\ncareful and troubled. And therefore, if I could only attain unto that\nsublime and calm height of perfect conviction, that He is sufficient for\nme, that He is with me for ever,--the satisfying object of my desires\nand the glorious reward of my searchings,--let life and death come as\nthey may, let riches, poverty, health, sickness, all the antitheses of\nhuman circumstances storm down upon me in quick alternation, yet in them\nall I shall be content and peaceful. God is beside me, and His presence\nbrings in its train whatsoever things I need. You cannot cast out the\nsin of foreboding thoughts by any power short of the entrance of Christ\nand His love. The blessings of faith and felt communion leave no room\nnor leisure for anxiety.\n\nIII. Finally, Christ here tells us, that thought for the morrow is\ncontrary to all the scheme of Providence, which shows it to be vain.\n'The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto\nthe day is the evil thereof.'\n\nI interpret these two clauses as meaning this: To-morrow has anxieties\nenough of its own, alter and in spite of all the anxieties about it\nto-day by which you try to free it from care when it comes. _Every_\nday--every day will have its evil, have it to the end. And every day\nwill have evil enough to task all the strength that a man has to cope\nwith it. So that it just comes to this: Anxiety,--it is all vain. After\nall your careful watching for the corner of the heaven where the cloud\nis to come from, there will be a cloud, and it will rise somewhere, but\nyou never know beforehand from what quarter. The morrow shall have its\nown anxieties. After all your fortifying of the castle of your life,\nthere will be some little postern left unguarded, some little weak place\nin the wall left uncommanded by a battery; and there, where you never\nlooked for him, the inevitable invader will come in. After all the\nplunging of the hero in the fabled waters that made him invulnerable,\nthere was the little spot on the heel, and the arrow found its way\n_there_? There is nothing certain to happen, says the proverb, but\nthe unforeseen. To-morrow _will have_ its cares, spite of anything\nthat anxiety and foreboding can do. It is God's law of Providence that a\nman shall be disciplined by sorrow; and to try to escape from that law\nby any forecasting prudence, is utterly hopeless, and madness.\n\nAnd what does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of\nits sorrows; but, ah! it empties to-day of its strength. It does not\nenable you to escape the evil, it makes you unfit to cope with it when\nit comes. It does not bless to-morrow, but it robs to-day. For every\nday has its own burden. Sufficient for each day is the evil which\nproperly belongs to it. Do not add to-morrow's to to-day's. Do not drag\nthe future into the present. The present has enough to do with its own\nproper concerns. We have always strength to bear the evil when it comes.\nWe have not strength to bear the foreboding of it. 'As thy day, thy\nstrength shall be.' In strict proportion to the existing exigencies will\nbe the God-given power; but if you cram and condense to-day's sorrows by\nexperience, and to-morrow's sorrows by anticipation, into the narrow\nround of the one four-and-twenty hours, there is no promise that 'as\n_that_ day thy strength shall be.' God gives us (His name be\npraised!)--God gives us power to bear all the sorrows of His making; but\nHe does not give us power to bear the sorrows of our own making, which\nthe anticipation of sorrow most assuredly is.\n\nThen: contrary to the lessons of Nature, contrary to the teachings of\nReligion, contrary to the scheme of Providence; weakening your strength,\ndistracting your mind, sucking the sunshine out of every landscape, and\ncasting a shadow over all the beauty--the curse of our lives is that\nheathenish, blind, useless, faithless, needless anxiety in which we do\nindulge. Look forward, my brother, for God has given you that royal and\nwonderful gift of dwelling in the future, and bringing all its glories\naround your present. Look forward, not for life, but for heaven; not for\nfood and raiment, but for the righteousness after which it is blessed to\nhunger and thirst, and wherewith it is blessed to be clothed. Not for\nearth, but for heaven, let your forecasting gift of prophecy come into\nplay. Fill the present with quiet faith, with patient waiting, with\nhonest work, with wise reading of God's lessons of nature, of\nprovidence, and of grace, all of which say to us, Live in God's future,\nthat the present may be bright: work in the present, that the future may\nbe certain! _They_ may well look around in expectation, sunny and\nunclouded, of a blessed time to come, whose hearts are already 'fixed,\ntrusting in the Lord.' He to whom there are a present Christ, and a\npresent Spirit, and a present Father, and a present forgiveness, and a\npresent redemption, may well live expatiating in all the glorious\ndistance of the unknown to come, sending out (if I may use such a\nfigure) from his placid heart over all the weltering waters of this\nlower world, the peaceful seeking dove, his meek hope, that shall come\nback again from its flight with some palm-branch broken from the trees\nof Paradise between its bill. And he that has no such present has a\nfuture dark, chaotic, a heaving, destructive ocean; and over it there\ngoes for ever--black-pinioned, winging its solitary and hopeless\nflight--the raven of his anxious thoughts, which finds no place to rest,\nand comes back again to the desolate ark with its foreboding croak of\nevil in the present and evil in the future. Live in Christ, 'the same\nyesterday, and to-day, and for ever'; and _His_ presence shall make all\n_your_ past, present, and future--memory, enjoyment, and hope--to be\nbright and beautiful, because all are centred in Him.\n\n\nJUDGING, ASKING, AND GIVING\n\n     'Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2. For with what judgment ye\n     judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall\n     be measured to you again. 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that\n     is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in\n     thine own eye? 4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull\n     out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own\n     eye! 5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own\n     eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of\n     thy brother's eye. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,\n     neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them\n     under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 7. Ask, and it shall\n     be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be\n     opened unto you: 8. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he\n     that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.\n     9. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he\n     give him a stone? 10. Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a\n     serpent? 11. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts\n     unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in\n     heaven give good things to them that ask Him? 12. Therefore all\n     things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so\n     to them: for this is the law and the prophets.'--MATT. vii. 1-12.\n\nI. How can we help 'judging,' and why should we not 'judge'? The power\nof seeing into character is to be coveted and cultivated, and the\nabsence of it makes simpletons, not saints. Quite true: but seeing into\ncharacter is not what Jesus is condemning here. The 'judging' of which\nHe speaks sees motes in a brother's eye. That is to say, it is\none-sided, and fixes on faults, which it magnifies, passing by virtues.\nCarrion flies that buzz with a sickening hum of satisfaction over sores,\nand prefer corruption to soundness, are as good judges of meat as such\ncritics are of character. That Mephistophelean spirit of detraction has\nwide scope in this day. Literature and politics, as well as social life\nwith its rivalries, are infested by it, and it finds its way into the\nchurch and threatens us all. The race of fault-finders we have always\nwith us, blind as moles to beauties and goodness, but lynx-eyed for\nfailings, and finding meat and drink in proclaiming them in tones of\naffected sorrow. How flagrant a breach of the laws of the kingdom this\ntemper implies, and how grave an evil it is, though thought little of,\nor even admired as cleverness and a mark of a very superior person,\nChrist shows us by this earnest warning, embedded among His fundamental\nmoral teachings.\n\nHe points out first how certainly that disposition provokes retaliation.\nWho is the Judge that judges us as we do others? Perhaps it is best to\nsay that both the divine and the human estimates are included in the\npurposely undefined expression. Certainly both are included in fact. For\na carping spirit of eager fault-finding necessarily tinges people's\nfeelings towards its possessor, and he cannot complain if the severe\ntests which he applied to others are used on his own conduct. A cynical\ncritic cannot expect his victims to be profoundly attached to him, or\nready to be lenient to his failings. If he chooses to fight with a\ntomahawk, he will be scalped some day, and the bystanders will not\nlament profusely. But a more righteous tribunal than that of his victims\ncondemns him. For in God's eyes the man who covers not his neighbour's\nfaults with the mantle of charity has not his own blotted out by divine\nforgiveness.\n\nThis spirit is always accompanied by ignorance of one's own faults,\nwhich makes him who indulges in it ludicrous. So our Lord would seem to\nintend by the figure of the mote and the beam. It takes a great deal of\nclose peering to see a mote; but the censorious man sees only the mote,\nand sees it out of scale. No matter how bright the eye, though it be\nclear as a hawk's, its beauty is of no moment to him. The mote\nmagnified, and nothing but the mote, is his object; and he calls this\none-sided exaggeration 'criticism,' and prides himself on the accuracy\nof his judgment. He makes just the opposite mistake in his estimate of\nhis own faults, if he sees them at all. We look at our neighbour's\nerrors with a microscope, and at our own through the wrong end of a\ntelescope. We see neither in their real magnitude, and the former\nmistake is sure to lead to the latter. We have two sets of weights and\nmeasures: one for home use, the other for foreign. Every vice has two\nnames; and we call it by its flattering and minimising one when we\ncommit it, and by its ugly one when our neighbour does it. Everybody can\nsee the hump on his friend's shoulders, but it takes some effort to see\nour own. David was angry enough at the man who stole his neighbour's ewe\nlamb, but quite unaware that he was guilty of a meaner, crueller theft.\nThe mote can be seen; but the beam, big though it is, needs to be\n'considered.' So it often escapes notice, and will surely do so, if we\nare yielding to the temptation of harsh judgment of others. Every one\nmay be aware of faults of his own very much bigger than any that he can\nsee in another, for each of us may fathom the depth of our own\nsinfulness in motive and unspoken, unacted thought, while we can see\nonly the surface acts of others.\n\nOur Lord points out, in verse 4, a still more subtle form of this harsh\njudgment, when it assumes the appearance of solicitude for the\nimprovement of others, and He thus teaches us that all honest desire to\nhelp in the moral reformation of our neighbours must be preceded by\nearnest efforts at mending our own conduct. If we have grave faults of\nour own undetected and unconquered, we are incapable either of judging\nor of helping our brethren. Such efforts will be hypocritical, for they\npretend to come from genuine zeal for righteousness and care for\nanother's good, whereas their real root is simply censorious\nexaggeration of a neighbour's faults; they imply that the person\naffected with such a tender care for another's eyes has his own in good\ncondition. A blind guide is bad enough, but a blind oculist is a still\nmore ridiculous anomaly. Note, too, that the result of clearing our own\nvision is beautifully put as being, not ability to see, but ability to\ncure, our fellows. It is only the experience of the pain of casting out\na darling evil, and the consciousness of God's pitying mercy as given\nto us, that makes the eye keen enough, and the hand steady and gentle\nenough, to pull out the mote. It is a delicate operation, and one which\na clumsy operator may make very painful, and useless, after all. A rough\nfinger or a harsh spirit makes success impossible.\n\nII. Verse 6 comes in singular juxtaposition with the preceding warning\nagainst uncharitable judgments. Christ's calling men dogs and swine does\nnot sound like obeying His own precept. But the very shock which the\nwords give at first hearing is part of their value. There are men whom\nJesus, for all His gentleness, has to estimate thus. His pitying eyes\nwere not blind to truth. It was no breach of infinite charity in Him to\nsee facts, and to give them their right names; and His previous precept\ndoes not bid us shut our eyes, or give up the use of common sense. This\nverse limits the application of the preceding one, and inculcates\nprudence, tact, and discernment of character, as no less essential to\nHis servants than the sweet charity, slow to suspect and sorrowful to\nexpose a brother's fault. The fact that His gentle lips used such words\nmay well make us shudder as we think of the deforming of human nature\ninto pure animalism which some men achieve, and which is possible for\nall.\n\nThe inculcation of discretion in the presentation of the truth may\neasily be exaggerated into a doctrine of reserve which is more\nJesuitical than Christian. Even when guarded and limited, it may seem\nscarcely in harmony with the commission to preach the gospel to every\ncreature, or with the sublime confidence that God's word finds something\nto appeal to in every heart, and has power to subdue the animal in every\nman. But the divergence is only apparent. The most expansive zeal is to\nbe guided by prudence, and the most enthusiastic confidence in the\nuniversal power of the gospel does not take leave of common sense. There\nare people who will certainly be repelled, and perhaps stirred to\nfurious antagonism to the gospel and its messengers, if they are not\napproached with discretion. It is bad to hide the treasure in a napkin;\nit is quite as bad to fling it down before some people without\npreparation. Jesus Himself locked His lips before Herod, although the\ncurious ruler asked many questions; and we have sometimes to remember\nthat there are people who 'will not hear the word,' and who must first\n'be won without the word.' Heavy rains run off hard-baked earth. It must\nfirst be softened by a gentle drizzle. Luther once told this fable: 'The\nlion made a great feast, and he invited all the beasts, and among the\nrest, a sow. When all manner of costly dishes were set before the\nguests, the sow asked, \"Have you no bran?\" Even so, said he, we\npreachers set forth the most dainty dishes,--the forgiveness of sins,\nand the grace of God; but they turn up their snouts, and grub for\nguilders.'\n\nThis precept is one side of the truth. The other is the adaptation of\nthe gospel to all men, and the obligation on us to preach it to all. We\ncan only tell most men's disposition towards it by offering it to them,\nand we are not to be in a hurry to conclude that men are dogs and swine.\n\nIII. It may be a question whether, in verse 8, the emphasis is to be\nlaid on 'every one' or on 'that asketh,' or, in other words, whether the\nsaying is an assurance that the universal law will be followed in our\ncase, or a statement of the universal condition without which no\nreceiving is possible, and, least of all, the receiving of the gifts of\nthe kingdom by its subjects. In either case, this verse gives the reason\nfor the preceding exhortation. Then follows the tender illustration in\nwhich the dim-sighted love of earthly fathers is taken as a parable of\nthe all-wise tenderness and desire to bestow which move the hand of the\ngiving God. There is some resemblance between an Eastern loaf and a\nstone, and some between a fish and a serpent. However imperfect a\nfather's love, he will neither be cruel enough to cheat his unsuspecting\nchild with what looks like an answer to his wish but is useless or\nhurtful, nor foolish enough to make a mistake. All human relationships\nare in some measure marred by the faults of those who sustain them. What\na solemn attestation of universal sinfulness is in these words of\nChrist's, and how calmly He separates Himself by His sinlessness from\nus! I do not know that there is anywhere a stronger scriptural proof of\nthese two truths than this one incidental clause, 'ye, being evil.' I\nwonder whether the people who pit the Sermon on the Mount against\nevangelical Christianity are ready to take this part of it into their\ncreeds. It is noteworthy, also, that the emphasis is laid, not on the\nearthly father's willingness, but on his knowing how to give good gifts.\nOur Lord seems to think that He need not assure us of the plain truth\nthat of course our Father in heaven is willing, just because He is our\nFather, to give us all good; but He heartens us with the assurance that\nHis love is wisdom, and that He cannot make any mistakes. There are no\nstones mingled with our bread, nor any serpents among the fish. He gives\ngood, and nothing but good.\n\nIV. The great precept which closes the section is not only to be taken\nas an inference from the immediately preceding context, but as the\nsumming up of all the duties to our neighbours, in which Christ has\nbeen laying down the law of the kingdom from Matthew v. 17. This general\nreference of the 'therefore' is confirmed by the subsequent clause,\n'this is the law and the prophets'; the summing up of the whole past\nrevelation of the divine will, and therefore in accordance with our\nLord's previous exposition of the relation between His new law and that\nformer one. As Luther puts it in his vigorous, homely way, 'With these\nwords He now closes His instructions given in these three chapters, and\nties it all up in a little bundle.'\n\nBut a connection may also be traced with the preceding paragraph. There\nour desires were treated as securing God's corresponding gifts. Here our\ndesires, when turned to men, are regarded, not as securing their\ncorresponding conduct, but as obliging us to action. By taking our\nwishes as the rule of our dealings with others, we shall be like God,\nwho in regard to His best gifts takes our wishes as the rule of His\ndealings with us. Our desires sent heavenward procure blessings for us;\nsent earthward, they prescribe our blessing of others. That is a\nstartling turn to give to our claims on our fellows. It rests on the\nprinciple that every man has equal rights, therefore we ought not to\nlook for anything from others which we are not prepared to extend to\nothers. A. should give B. whatever A. thinks B. should give him. Our\nerror is in making ourselves our own centre, and thinking more of our\nclaims on others than of our obligations to them. Christ teaches us that\nthese are one. Such a principle applied to our lives would wonderfully\npull down our expectations and lift up our obligations. It is really but\nanother way of putting the law of loving our neighbours as ourselves. If\nobserved, it would revolutionise society. Nothing short of it is the law\nof the kingdom, and the duty of all who call themselves Christ's\nsubjects.\n\nThis is the inmost meaning, says Jesus, of the law and the prophets. All\nformer revelations of the divine will in regard to men's relations to\nmen are summed in this. Of course, this does not mean, as some people\nwould like to make it mean, that morality is to take the place of\nreligion, but simply that all the precepts touching conduct to men are\ngathered up, for the subjects of the kingdom, in this one. 'Love worketh\nno ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'\n\n\nOUR KNOCKING\n\n     'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,\n     and it shall be opened unto you.'--MATT, vii. 7.\n\nIn the letter to the church at Laodicea, we read, 'Behold, I stand at\nthe door and knock.' The image is there employed to set forth the\ntenderness and patience of the exalted Christ, who condescends to sue\nfor entrance into every human heart, and comes in with His hands full of\nblessing. Now, it is very striking, I think, that the same symbol is\nemployed in this text in reference to _our_ duty. There is such a thing\nas our knocking at some door for entrance and blessing. What is that\nknocking?\n\nThe answer which is popularly given, I suppose, is that all these three\ninjunctions in our text, 'Ask--seek--knock,' are but diverse aspects of\nthe one exhortation to prayerfulness. And that may, perhaps, exhaust\ntheir meaning; but I am rather disposed to think that it is possible to\ntrace a difference and a climax in them. _To ask_ is obviously to apply\nto a person who can give, and that is prayer. _To seek_ is not, as I\nthink, quite the same thing, but rather expresses the idea of effort,\nthe personal effort which ought to accompany and will accompany all real\nprayer. And _to knock_ possibly adds to the conception of prayer and of\neffort, the idea, as common to both of them, of a certain persistency\nand continuity born of earnestness. So that we have here, as I think, a\nthreefold statement of the conditions under which certain great\nblessings are given, and a threefold exhortation as to our Christian\nduty.\n\nI. In considering these words I would first inquire to whom such\nexhortations are rightly addressed.\n\nNow, it is to be remembered that these words occur in that great\ndiscourse of our Lord's which is called the Sermon on the Mount. And for\nthe right understanding of that great embodiment of Christian morality,\nand of its relations to the whole body of Christian truth, it is, I\nthink, very needful to remember that the Sermon on the Mount is\naddressed to Christ's disciples, that it is the promulgation of the laws\nof the kingdom by the King for His subjects; that it presupposes\ndiscipleship and entrance into the kingdom, and has not a word to say\nabout the method of entrance. So that, though very many of its\nexhortations are but the republication in nobler form of the common laws\nof morality which are binding upon all men, and may be addressed to all\nmen, the form in which they appear in that Sermon, the connection in\nwhich they stand, the height to which they are elevated, and the\nmotives by which they are enforced, all limit their application to men\nwho are truly followers and disciples of Jesus Christ. And this\nconsideration especially bears on these words of our text.\n\nThe first exhortation which Christianity addresses to a man is not\n'ask.' The first duty that a man has to discharge in regard to Christ\nand His grace, and the revelation that is in Him, is neither to seek nor\nto knock, but it is to take and to open. Christ knocks first, and when\nHe knocks we should say, 'Come in, Thou blessed of the Lord.'\n\nTo bid a man pray, when he should be exhorted to believe, is to darken\nthe clearness of the divine counsel, and to narrow the fulness of the\ndivine grace. God does not wait to be asked for His mercy and His\npardon. Like the dew on the grass, He 'tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth\nfor the sons of men.' Before we call, He answers; and to say to people,\n'Pray!' 'Seek!' 'Knock!' when the one thing to say is 'Take the gifts\nthat God sent you before you asked for them,' is folly, and has often\nled to a course of painful and profitless struggling, which was all\nunnecessary and wide of the mark. It is like telling a man to pray for\nrain when the reservoirs at his side are full, and every flower is\nbending its chalice, charged with the blessing. It is needless to tell a\nman to seek for the treasure that is lying there at his side, and to\nwhich he has only to turn his eyes and stretch out his hands. It is\nfolly to exhort a man to beat at a door that is standing wide open. The\ndoor of God's grace is thus wide open, and the treasure of God's mercy\nhas come down, and the rain of God's forgiving love has dropped upon all\nof us, and made the wilderness to rejoice.\n\nAnd so my message to some of you, dear brethren, is to say that you\nhave nothing whatever to do, primarily, with this text. You have neither\nto ask, nor to seek, nor to knock, but to listen to Him, whose gentle\nhand knocks at your hearts, and to open the door and let Him come in\nwith His grace and mercy.\n\nII. And now, in the next place, let me ask you to consider in what\nregion of life these promises are true.\n\nThey sound at first as if they were dead in the teeth of the facts of\nlife. Is there any region of experience in which to ask is to receive,\nto seek is to find, and in which every door flies open at our touch? If\nthere be, it is not in the ordinary work-a-day world in which you and I\nlive, where we all have to put up with a great many bitter\ndisappointments and refused requests, where we have all searched long\nand sorely for some things that we have not found, and the search has\naged and saddened us.\n\nIt seems to be perfectly certain that the distinct purpose which our\nLord here has in view, is to assert that the law of His Kingdom is the\ndirect opposite of the law of earthly life, and that the sad discrepancy\nbetween desire and possession, between wish and fact, is done away with\nfor His followers. 'Be it unto thee even as thou wilt,' is the charter\nof His Kingdom.\n\nNow, dear brethren, it does not want much wisdom to know that that would\nbe a very questionable blessing indeed, if it were taken to apply to the\noutward circumstances of our lives. There are a good many people, in all\nages, and there are some people in this day, who set themselves up for\nvery lofty and spiritual Christians who have made deep discoveries as\nto the power of prayer, and who seem to understand by it just exactly\nthis, that if a man will only pray for what he wishes instead of working\nfor it, he will get what he wishes. And I make bold to say that all\nforms of so-called higher experience which involve anything like that\nthought are, instead of being an exaltation, a degradation, of the very\nidea of Christian prayer. For the meaning of prayer is not that I shall\nforce my will upon God, but that I shall bend my will to His.\n\nThere is one region, and one only, in which it is true, absolutely,\nunconditionally, without limitation, and always, that what we ask we\nget, what we seek we find, and that the door at which we knock shall be\nopened unto us; and that is not the region of outward, questionable, and\nchangeful good.\n\nWhy, the very context of these words shows us that. It dwells upon the\ndiscrimination of an earthly father in answering his child's requests;\nand says: 'he knows how to give good gifts,' and 'so will your heavenly\nFather.' And it takes an illustration which we may extend in that same\ndirection when it says, 'If a child ask a loaf, will the father give him\na stone? or if he ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent?' We may\nturn the question and say: If the child ask for a serpent because he\nfancies that it is a fish, will his father give him that? Or if he cast\nhis eye upon a thing which he imagines to be a loaf when it is only a\nstone, will his father let him break his teeth upon that? Surely no! He\nknows how to give good gifts, and an essential condition of that divine\nknowledge of how to give good gifts is the knowledge of how to refuse\nmistaken and foolish wishes.\n\nSo let us be thankful that His divine providence does not spoil His\nchildren, and make them, as all spoiled children are, a curse and a\nmisery to themselves and to everybody round about them; but He\ndisciplines them by a gracious 'No' as well as by a frank, glad 'Yes,'\nand often refuses the petition and grants the deeper-lying meaning of\nthe same.\n\nTherefore, I say that the region in which this great and liberal charter\nof entire response to our desires has force is simply and only the\nspiritual region in which the highest good is. You may grow as Christian\nmen just as fast and just as far as you choose. A fuller knowledge of\nGod's truth, a more entire conformity to Christ's pattern, a deeper\ncommunion with God--they are all possible for every one of us in any\nmeasure to which we choose to set our expectations, and to shape our\ndesires and our actions. 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.' The\nstretch of the jaws determines the size of the portion that is put into\nthem; and He Himself who is the only real limit of His gifts, in His\nendless fulness, always imparts to you and me just as much of Himself as\nwe like and wish to take. 'Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are\nstraitened in yourselves.'\n\nAnd oh! brethren, what a solemn light such thoughts as that throw on the\nlow attainments of our average Christianity! So many of us, like\nGideon's fleece, dry in the midst of the dew that comes down from\nheaven! So many of us in the midst of the blessed sunshine of His grace,\nstanding like deep gorges on a mountain in cold shadow! How much you\nhave lying at hand; how little of it you take for your own!\n\nSuppose one of those old Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century had\nbeen led into some of those rich Mexican treasure-houses, where all\nround him were massive bars of gold and gleaming diamonds and precious\nstones, and had come out from the abundance with sixpence-worth in His\npalm, when he might have loaded himself with ingots of pure and\npriceless metal. That is what some of you do, when Jesus Christ puts the\nkey of His storehouse in your hands and says to you, 'Go in and help\nyourselves,' You stop as soon as you are within the threshold. You do\nlittle more than take some insignificant corner nibbled off the great\nsolid mass of riches that might belong to you, and bear that away. The\nonly conclusion is that you do not care much about His wealth. Dear\nbrethren, you professing Christian people that are listening to me, if\nlife is scant in your veins, if your faith is, as it is with many of\nyou, all but dead, if your Christian character is very little better\nthan the character of the people round you, if your religion does not\ngive you any happiness, nor do other people much good, if your love is\nso cold that it has almost expired, and your hopes dim, there is no\ncreature in heaven or earth or hell that is to blame for it but\nyourselves. 'Ye have not because ye ask not; ye ask and have not because\nye ask amiss.'\n\nIII. And that brings me to the last question, namely, on what conditions\nthese promises depend.\n\n'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it\nshall be opened.' I said at the beginning of these remarks that I traced\na difference between these three commands, and I take that difference\nfor granted now as the basis of the few words I have to say. The first\ncondition is--desires presented to Him who can grant them. To ask\nimplies the will of a person that will hear and respond and has the\npower to bestow. That Person is God in Christ. Go and ask Him. We all\nknow that prayer is essential, and so I do not need to dwell upon it; go\nand ask Him, and you will get what you need.\n\nDo you ever pray, you professing Christian people? I do not mean with\nyour mouths, but with your hearts; do you ever pray to be made less\nworldly? Do you ever wish to be so? Do you ever really desire that your\nlove of this present should be diminished? Have you any appetite for\nrighteousness? Does it seem to you to be a good thing that you should\nhave less pleasure in the present and more joys in the future? Would you\nlike to be a devouter Christian than you are? I very much question it\nabout many of you. I am not hitting at individuals, but I am speaking\nabout the average type of professing Christians in this generation.\n\nIf you desire it you will ask it. Is there any place in any of your\nrooms where there is a little bit of carpet worn white by your knees? Or\ndo you pray when you are half asleep at night, and before you are well\nawake in the morning, and scramble through a prayer as the necessary\npreliminary to going to the work that really interests you, the work of\nyour trade or business? 'Ask, and ye shall receive.'\n\nThe second condition is effort. 'Seek, and ye shall find.' There are a\ngreat many things in this world that cannot be given to a wish. There\nare a great many things in the Kingdom of Grace that Jesus Christ cannot\ngive to a mere wish. There must be my own personal effort if I am to\nsecure that which I desire. That is the reason why so many prayers seem\nto go unanswered. Think of the thousands of supplications that will go\nup in churches and chapels to-day for spiritual blessings. How comes it\nthat such an enormous proportion of these prayers will never be answered\nat all? Well, if a man stand at the butts and shoot his arrow at a\ntarget, and does not care enough for its fate to stand there long enough\nto see whether it hits the bull's eye, the probability is that it will\nnever reach its aim. And if men pray, and pray, and pray, in public, and\nthen come out of their churches and chapels and not only forget all\nabout their prayers but never expect an answer to them, and do nothing\nin their lives in accordance therewith, is there any wonder that they\nare not answered? Men repeat the Lord's Prayer every morning, and ask\nGod day by day 'lead us not into temptation,' and then go out into daily\nlife, and are willing to fling themselves into temptation, and go\nthrough the very thick of the fire of it, if there is a ten pound note\non the other side of the flame. And men ask God that He will help them\nto 'grow in grace' and Christian character, and seldom do a single thing\nthat they know will promote that growth. All such prayer is vain and\nunresponded to. With prayer there must go effort.\n\nAnd then, lastly, the third condition is continuity or persistence.\n'Knock, and it shall be opened unto you,' 'Then there is such a thing as\na delay in these answers that you have been speaking about,' you say.\nNo! there is no delay, but there is such a thing as the beginning of a\nlong task; and therefore there is such a thing as the necessity for\npersistent and continuous perseverance even in the offering of the\ndesires, which to express is to have satisfied; and in putting forth of\nthe efforts in which to seek is to find. ''Tis a lifelong task ere the\nlump be leavened.' Eternal life is a gift, but the building of a\nChristian character is the result of patient, continuous, well-directed\nefforts to the appropriation and employment of the gift that we have\nreceived. 'Forty-and-six years was this temple in building,' they said,\nand it was not finished then. It will take more than forty-and-six years\nto build up in my poor heart, full of rubbish and of evil, a temple to\nthe Holy Ghost.\n\nI need not insist upon the virtue of perseverance; that is a commonplace\nwritten on the head of all copybooks, but let me remind you that in the\nChristian life, as much as in any other, that virtue is needful, and\nunless a man is content to do as Abraham Lincoln said, 'Keep pegging\naway' at the duties of Christian life with continual effort, there is no\npromise and no possibility that that man shall grow in grace.\n\nNow, two last words: one is, we want nothing more for the largest and\nmost blessed possession of the true riches and eternal joys of the\nkingdom than the application to our Christian life of the very same\nqualities, virtues, excellences, which we need for the successful\nprosecution of our daily business. Dear brethren, draw for yourselves\nthe contrast between the eagerness with which you pursue that, and the\ntepidity with which you pursue this. You know that effort and\nperseverance are wanted there, and you do not grudge them; they are\nwanted just as much here. Do you put them forth? Some of you are all\nfire in the one place, and are all frost in the other. You Christian men\nand women, give the kingdom as much as you give the world, and you will\nbe strong and growing Christians; but if you will not, do not wonder\nthat you are so feeble as you are.\n\nAnd the last remark I make is--this great symbol of my text which is\nused in reference to our Lord's condescending beseechings for the\nentrance into our hearts, and is also used, as we have seen, in\nreference to our own continuity of prayerful effort, is used in another\nand very solemn application, in words of His 'Many will seek to enter\nin, and shall not be able, when once the Master of the house is risen\nup, and hath shut to the door; and will begin to stand without and to\nknock at the door, saying, Lord! Lord! open to us; and He'--He who said\n'Knock, and it shall be opened'--'He shall answer and say to you, I know\nyou not whence ye are.' That you may escape that repulse, oh my friend!\ndo you open your heart now to the knocking Christ, and then, then, and\nnot till then, 'Ask!' that you may be filled with the treasures of His\nlove, 'seek!' that you may find the rich provision He has laid up for us\nall, 'knock!' that door after door in the many mansions of the Father's\nHouse may be opened unto you; until at last an entrance is ministered\nabundantly into the everlasting kingdom, and you go in with the King to\nthe eternal feast.\n\n\nTHE TWO PATHS\n\n     'Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is\n     the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in\n     thereat: 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,\n     which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'--MATT.\n     vii. 13-14.\n\nA frank statement of the hardships and difficulties involved in a course\nof conduct does not seem a very likely way to induce men to adopt it,\nbut it often proves so. There is something in human nature which\nresponds to the bracing tonic of the exhortation: 'By doing thus you\nwill have to face many hardships and many difficulties which you may\navoid by leaving it alone; but do it, because it is best in the long\nrun, being right from the beginning.' So the story of the martyrs' fires\nhas lighted many a man to the faith for which the martyr was burned.\nMany a youth has been led to take the shilling and enlist by reading\naccounts of wounds and battles and sufferings.\n\nOur Lord will have no soldiers in His army on false pretences. They\nshall know exactly what they have to reckon on if they take service with\nHim. And thus, in the solemn and familiar words of my text, He enjoins\neach of us to become His disciples; and that not only because--as is\nsometimes supposed--of the blessing that lies at the end for His\nservants, but because of the very things on the road to the end which,\nat first sight, seemed difficulties. For you will observe that in my\ntext the exhortation, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate,' is followed by\ntwo clauses, each of which begins with a 'for'; the one being a\ndescription of the road that is to be shunned; the other, an account of\nthe path that is to be followed. In each description there are four\ncontrasted particulars: the gate, strait or wide; the road, narrow or\nbroad; the travellers, many or few; and the ends, life or destruction.\n\nNow, people generally read these words as if our Lord was saying,\n'_Though_ the one path is narrow and rugged and steep and unfrequented,\nyet walk on it, because it leads to life; and _though_ the other\npresents the opposite of all these characteristics, yet avoid it,\nbecause pleasant and popular as it is, its end is destruction.' But that\nis not what He says. All four things are reasons for avoiding the one\nand following the other; which, being turned into plain English, is just\nthis, that we ought to be Christian people precisely because there are\ndifficulties and pains and sacrifices in being so, which we may ignobly\nshirk if we like. It is not, _Though_ the road be narrow it leads to\nlife, therefore enter it; but _Because_ it is narrow, and leads to life,\ntherefore blessed are the feet that are set upon it.\n\nLet us, then, look at these four characteristics, and note how they all\nenforce the merciful summons which our Lord is addressing to each of us,\nas truly as He did to the hearers gathered around Him on the mountain:\n'Enter ye in at the strait gate.'\n\nI. The gates.\n\nThe gate is in view here merely as a means of access to the road, and\nthe metaphor simply comes to this, that it is more difficult to be a\nChristian man than not to be one, and therefore you ought to be one.\n\nNow, what makes a Christian? We do not need to go further than this\nSermon on the Mount for answer. The two first of our Lord's Beatitudes,\nas they are called, are 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' and 'Blessed\nare they that mourn.' These two carry the conditions of entrance on the\nChristian life. There must be consciousness of our own emptiness,\nweakness, and need; there must be penitent recognition of our own\nill-desert and lamentation over that. These two things, the\nconsciousness of emptiness, and the sorrow for sin, make--I was going to\nsay--the two door-posts of the narrow gate through which a man has to\npress. It is too narrow for any of his dignities or honours. A camel\ncannot go through the eye of a needle, not only because of its own bulk,\nbut because of the burdens which flap on either side of it, and catch\nagainst the jambs. All my self-confidence, and reputation, and\nrighteousness, will be rubbed off when I try to press through that\nnarrow aperture. You may find on a lonely moor low, contracted openings\nthat lead into tortuous passages--the approaches to some of the ancient\n'Picts' houses,' where a feeble folk dwelt, and secured themselves from\ntheir enemies. The only way to get into them is to go down upon your\nknees; and the only way to get into this road--the way of\nrighteousness--is by taking the same attitude. No man can enter\nunless--like that German Emperor whom a Pope kept standing in the snow\nfor three days outside the gate of Canossa--he is stripped of\neverything, down to the hair-shirt of penitence. And that is not easy.\nNaaman wanted to be healed as a great man in the court of Damascus. He\nhad to strip himself of his offices, and dignities, and pride, and to\ncome down to the level of any other leper. You and I, dear brother, have\nto go through the same process of stripping ourselves of all the\nadventitious accretions that have clung to us, and to know ourselves\nnaked and helpless, before we can pass through the gate.\n\nFurther, we have to go in one by one. Two cannot pass the turnstile at\nthe same time. We have to enter singly, as we shall have to pass through\nthe other 'dark gates, across the wild which no man knows,' at the end\nof life.\n\nBecause it is strait, it is a great deal easier to stop outside, as so\nmany of those to whom I speak are doing. For that, you have nothing to\ndo but to drift and let things drift. No decision nor effort is needed;\nno coming out of yourselves. It is all as easy as it is for a wild\nanimal to enter in between the broadly extending palisades that converge\nas they come nearer the trap, so that the creature is snared before he\nknows. The gate is wide: that is the sure condemnation of it. It is\nalways easy to begin bad and unworthy things, of all sorts. And there is\nnothing easier than to keep in the negative position which so many of my\naudience, I fear me, are in, of not being a Christian.\n\nBut, on the other side, it is not so hard as it looks to go in, and it\nis not so easy as it seems to stop out. For there are two men in every\nman--a better and a worse; and what pleases the one disgusts the other.\nThe choice which each of us has to make is whether we shall do the\nthings that are easiest to our worst self, or those that are easiest to\nour best self. For in either case there will be difficulties; in either\ncase there will be antagonisms.\n\nBut it is good for us to make the effort, apart altogether from the end.\nIf there were no life eternal at the far end of the road which at this\nend has the narrow gate, it would contribute to all that is noblest and\nbest in our characters, and to the repression of all that is ignoble and\nworst, that we should take that lowly position which Christ requires,\nand by the heroism of a self-abandoning faith, fling ourselves into His\narms.\n\nRemember, too, that the strait gate, by reason of its very straitness,\nis in the noblest sense wide. If there were anything else required of a\nman than simply self-distrust and reliance on Jesus Christ, then this\ngreat Gospel that I am feebly trying to preach would be a more\nsectional and narrower thing than it is. But its glory is that it\nrequires nothing which any man is unable to bring, that it has no\ninvitation for sections, classes, grades of culture or intelligence or\nmorality, but that in its great cosmopolitanism and universality it\ncomes to every man; because it treats all as on one level, and requires\nfrom each only what all can bring--knowledge of themselves as sinners,\nand humble trust in Jesus Christ as a Saviour. It is narrow because\nthere is no room for sin or self-righteousness to go in; it is wide as\nthe world, and, like the capacious portals of some vast cathedral, ample\nenough to receive without hustling, and to accommodate without\ninconvenience, every soul of man.\n\nII. Notice the contrast of the two roads, which, in like manner, points\nthe exhortation to choose the better.\n\nThe one is broad; the other is narrow. Which, being turned into plain\nEnglish, is just this--that the Christian course has limitations which\ndo not hamper the godless man; and that on the path of godlessness or\nChristlessness there is a deceptive appearance of freedom and\nindependence which attracts many.\n\n'Narrow is the road.' Yes, if you are to be a Christian, you must have\nyour whole life concentrated on, and consecrated to, one thing; and,\njust as the vagrant rays of sunshine have to be collected into a focus\nbefore they burn, so the wandering manifoldnesses of our aims and\npurposes have all to be brought to a point, 'This one thing I do,' and\nwhatsoever we do we have to do it as in God, and for God, and by God,\nand with God. Therefore the road is narrow because, being directed to\none aim, it has to exclude great tracts on either side, in which people\nthat have a less absorbing and lofty purpose wander and expatiate at\nwill. As on some narrow path in Eastern lands, with high, prickly-pear\nhedges on either side, and vineyards stretching beyond them, with\nluscious grapes in abundance, a traveller has to keep on the road,\nwithin the prickly fences, dusty though it may be, and though his\nthirsty lips may be cracking.\n\nI remember once going to that strange island-fortress off the Normandy\ncoast, which stands on an isolated rock in the midst of a wide bay. One\nnarrow causeway leads across the sands. Does a traveller complain of\nhaving to keep it? It is safety and life, for on either side stretches\nthe tremulous sand, on which, if a foot is planted, the pedestrian is\nengulfed. So the narrow way on which we have to journey is a highway\ncast up, on which no evil will befall us, while on each hand away out\nto the horizon lie the treacherous quicksands. Narrowness is sometimes\nsafety. If the road is narrow it is the better guide, and they who\ntravel along it travel safely. Restrictions and limitations are of the\nessence of all nobleness and virtue. 'So did not I because of the fear\nof the Lord.'\n\nSet side by side with that the competing path. Wide? Yes! 'Do as you\nlike'--that is sufficiently wide. And even where that gospel of the\nanimal has not become the guide to a man, there are many occupations,\npursuits, recreations which men who lack the supreme concentration and\nconsecration that come through over mastering love to Jesus Christ who\nhas redeemed them, may legitimately in their own estimation do, but\nwhich no Christian man should do.\n\nBut, as I said before about the gates, it is not so easy as it looks to\nwalk the broad road, nor so hard as it seems to tread the narrow one.\nFor 'her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace';\nand, on the other hand, licentiousness and liberty are not the same\nthing, and true freedom is not to do as you like, but to like to do as\nyou ought. Besides, the path which looks attractive, and tempts to the\nindulgence of many appetites and habits which a Christian man must\nrigidly subdue, does not continue so attractive. Earthly pleasures have\na strange knack of losing their charm, and, at the same time, increasing\ntheir hold, with familiarity. Many a man who has plunged into some kind\nof dissipation because of the titillation of his senses which he found\nin it, discovers that the titillation diminishes and the tyranny grows;\nand that when he thought that he had bought a joy, he has sold himself\nslave to a master.\n\nSo, dear friends, and especially you young people, let me beseech you\nto be suspicious of courses of conduct which come to you with the\nwhisper, 'pleasant, sweet.' If you have two things before you, one of\nwhich is easy and the other hard, ninety times out of a hundred it will\nbe safe for you to choose the hard one, and the odd ten times it will be\nat least as well for you to choose it. 'Thus we travel to the stars.' As\none of our poets has it, 'the path of duty is the way of glory,' and\nthose that 'scorn delights and live laborious days,' and listen not to\nthe voices that say 'Come and enjoy this,' but to the sterner voice that\nsays 'Come and bear this'--these will\n\n    'Find the stubborn thistles bursting\n       Into glossy purples that outredden\n     All voluptuous garden roses.'\n\nSo, because the road is narrow, therefore choose it. Because the other\npath is wide, I beseech you to avoid it.\n\nIII. Note the travellers.\n\nOn the one road there are 'few,' on the other, by comparison,'many.'\nThat was true in Christ's time, and although the world is better since,\nand many feet have trodden the narrow way, and have found that it leads\nto life, yet I am afraid it is so still.\n\nNow, did you ever think, or do you believe, that the fact of a course of\nconduct, or of an opinion, being the conduct or the opinion of a\nmajority, is _pro tanto_ against it? 'What _every_body says must be\ntrue,' says the old proverb, and I do not dispute it. What _most_\npeople say is, I think, most often false. And that is true about\nconduct, as well as about opinion. It is very unsafe to take the general\nsense of a community for your direction. It is unsafe in regard to\nmatters of opinion, it is even more unsafe in regard to matters of\nconduct. That there are many on a road is no sign that the road is a\nright one; but it is rather an argument the other way; looking at the\ngregariousness of human nature, and how much people like to save\nthemselves the trouble of thinking and decision, and to run in ruts;\njust as a cab-driver will get upon the tram-lines when he can, because\nhis vehicle runs easier there. So the fact that, if you are going to be\nChrist-like Christians, you will be in the minority, is a reason for\nbeing such.\n\nYou young men in warehouses, and all of you in your different spheres\nand circles, do not be afraid of being singular. And remember that Jesus\nChrist, and one man with Him, though it is _Athanasius contra\nmundum_, are always in the majority.\n\nNow that is good, bracing teaching, apart altogether from Christianity.\nBut I wish to bring it to bear especially in that direction. And so I\nwould remind you that after all, the solitude in which a man may have to\nwalk, if he sets Christ before him, and tries to follow Him with His\ncross upon his shoulders, is only an apparent solitude. For, look, whose\nfootsteps are these on my path, not without spots of blood, where the\ntender feet have trod upon thorns and briars? There has been Somebody\nhere before me. Who? 'Let him take up his cross and follow _Me_.'\nAnd if we follow Him, the solitude will be like that in which the two\nsad disciples walked on the Resurrection day, when a third came and\njoined Himself to them. So a second will come to each of us, if we are\nalone, and our hearts will burn within us. Nor shall we need to wait\ntill the repose of the evening and the breaking of bread, before we know\nthat 'it is the Lord'; nor, known and recognised, will He vanish from\nour sides.\n\nDear brethren, because 'few there be that go in thereat,' and walk\nthereon, I beseech _you_ to go in through the door of faith, and to\nwalk in the way of Christ, who has left us an ensample that we should\nfollow in His steps. If of thee it can be said, as the great Puritan\npoet said of one virgin pure, that thou\n\n    '--Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green,\n     And with those few art eminently seen\n     That labour up the hill of heavenly truth,'--\n\nhis assurance to her will be applicable to thee, and\n\n    '--Thou, when the Bridegroom, with His feastful friends,\n     Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night,\n     Hast gained thy entrance.'\n\nIV. That leads me to the last point--viz. the contrasted ends of these\ntwo paths.\n\nChrist assumes the right to speak decisively and authoritatively with\nregard to the ultimate issues of human conduct, in a way which, as I\nbelieve, marks His divinity, and which no man can venture upon without\npresumption. Of the one path He declares without hesitation that it\nleads to life; of the other He affirms uncompromisingly that it 'leads\nto destruction.' Now, I dare not dwell upon these solemn thoughts with\nany enfeebling expansion by my own words, but I beseech you to lay them\nto heart--only take the simple remark, as a commentary and an exposition\nof the solemn meaning of these issues, that life does not mean mere\ncontinuous existence, but, as it generally does upon His lips, means\nthat which alone He recognises as being the true life of such a creature\nas man--viz. existence in union with Himself, the Source of life; and\nthat, conversely, destruction does not mean merely the cessation of\nbeing, or what we call the destruction of consciousness and the\nannihilation of a soul, but that it means the continued consciousness of\na soul rent away from Him in whom alone is life, and which therefore has\nmade shipwreck of everything, and has destroyed itself.\n\nThere are the issues, then, before us, and I dare not blur the clear\ndistinction which Jesus Christ draws. I listen to Him, and accept His\nword, and I press upon you, dear brethren, that the main thing about a\nroad is, after all, where it leads us; and I ask you to remember that\nyour life-path--as I try to remember that mine--is tending to one or\nother of these two issues. The one path may be, and is, rough and steep\nthough its delights are nobler, more poignant, and more permanent than\nany that can be found elsewhere. Steadily climbing like some mountain\nrailway, it reaches at last the short tunnel on the summit level, and\nthen dashes out into the blinding blaze of a new sunshine. The other\ngoes merrily enough, at first, downhill, but at last it comes to the\nedge of the abyss, and there _it_ stops, but the traveller does\nnot. He goes over; and nobody can see the darkness into which he falls.\n\nDear friends, Christ says, 'I am the Way.' Do you go to Him and cry,\n'See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way\neverlasting.'\n\n\nTHE TWO HOUSES\n\n     'Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth\n     them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon\n     a rock.... 25. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine,\n     and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which\n     built his house upon the sand.'--Matt. vii. 24, 25.\n\nOur Lord closes the so-called Sermon on the Mount, which is really the\nKing's proclamation of the law of His Kingdom, with three pairs of\ncontrasts, all meant to sway us to obedience. The first is that of the\ntwo ways: one broad, and leading down to abysses of destruction; the\nother narrow, and leading up to shining heights of life. The second is\nthat of the two trees, one good and one bad, each bearing fruit\naccording to its nature; by which our Lord would teach us that conduct\nis the outcome and revelation of character, and the test of being a\nfollower of His. The third is that of our text, the two houses on the\ntwo foundations, and their fate before the one storm; by which our Lord\nwould teach us that the only foundation on which can be built a life\nthat will stand the blast of final judgment is His sayings and Himself.\n\nNow, there are many very important and profound links of connection and\nrelation between these three contrasted pictures, but I only point to\none thing here, and that is that in all of them Jesus Christ most\ndecisively divides all His hearers--for it is about them that He is\nspeaking--into two classes: either on the broad road or on the narrow,\nnot a foot in each; either the good tree or the bad; either the house\non the sand or the house on the rock. Such a sharp division is said\nnowadays to be narrow, and to be contradicted by the facts of life, in\nwhich the great mass of men are neither very white nor very black, but a\nkind of neutral grey. Yes, they are--on the surface. But if you go down\nto the bottom, and grasp the life in its inmost principles and essential\nnature, I fancy that Jesus Christ's narrowness is true to fact. At all\nevents, there it is.\n\nNow, following out the imagery of our text, I wish to bring before you\nthe two foundations, the two houses, the one storm, the two endings.\n\nI. The two foundations: Rock, Sand.\n\nNow, to build on the Rock, Jesus Christ Himself explains to us as being\nthe same thing as to hear and do His sayings. The one representation is\nplain fact, the other is metaphor which points precisely in the same\ndirection. It is scarcely a digression if I pause for a moment, and\npoint you to the singular and unique attitude which this Carpenter's Son\nof Nazareth takes up here, fronting the whole race with that\n'whosoever,' and alleging that _His_ sayings are an infallible law\nfor conduct, and that _He_ has the right absolutely to command\nevery man, woman, and child of the sons and daughters of Adam. And the\nstrange thing is that the best men have admitted His claim, have\nrecognised that He had the right, and have seen that His precepts are\nthe very ideal of human conduct, and, if they have ventured to criticise\nat all, their criticism has only been that the precepts are too good to\nbe obeyed, and contemplate an ideal that is unreachable in human\nsociety. Be that as it may, there stands the fact that this Man, in this\nSermon on the Mount, which so many people say has no doctrinal teaching\nin it, assumes an attitude which nothing can warrant and nothing explain\nexcept the full-toned belief that in Him we have God manifest in the\nflesh.\n\nBut what I desire to point to now is the significance of this demand\nthat He makes, that we shall take His sayings as the foundation of our\nlives. The metaphor is a very plain one, by which the principles that\nunderlie or dominate and mould our conduct are regarded as the\nfoundation upon which we build the structure of our lives. But the\nSermon on the Mount is not all of these 'sayings of Mine.' It is\nfashionable in certain quarters to-day to isolate these precepts, and to\nregard them as being the part of Christian Revelation by which men who\nset little store by theological subtleties, and reject the mysteries of\nthe Incarnation and the Atonement, may still abide. But I would have you\nnotice that it is absurd to isolate this Sermon on the Mount, or to deal\nwith it as if it were the very centre of the Christian Revelation. It is\nnothing of the sort. Beautiful as it is, wonderful as it is as a high\nideal of human conduct, it is a law still, though it is a perfect law;\nand it has all the impotences and all the deficiencies that attach to a\nlaw, if you take it and rend it out of its place, and insist upon\ndealing with it as if it stood alone. There is not a word in it that\ntells you how to keep its precepts. There is no power in it, or raying\nfrom it, to make a man obey any one of its commandments. It comes\nradiant and beautiful, but imperative, and just because no man keeps it\nto the full, its very beauty becomes menacing, and it stands there over\nagainst us, showing us what we ought to be, and, by consequence, what we\nare not. And is that all that Jesus Christ came into the world to do?\nGod forbid! If He had only spoken this Sermon on the Mount--which some\nof you take for the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_ of Christianity as far as\nyou are concerned--He would not have been different in essence from\nother teachers,--though high above them in degree,--who speak to us of\nthe shining heights of duty that we are to scale, but leave us\ngrovelling in the mire.\n\nThe Sermon on the Mount, with its stringent requirements, absolutely\ndemands to be completed by other thoughts and other 'sayings of Mine.'\nAnd so I remind you, not only that there are other 'sayings of Mine' to\nbe kept than it, but also that there is no keeping of it without keeping\nother sayings first. For the highest of Christ's commandments is\n'Believe also in Me,' and you have to take Him as your Redeemer and\nSaviour from death before you will ever thoroughly accept Him as your\nGuide and Pattern for life. We must first draw near to Him in humble\npenitence and lowly faith, and then there comes into our hearts a power\nwhich makes it possible and delightsome to keep even the loftiest, and\nin other aspects the hardest, of 'those sayings of Mine.' So, brethren,\nthe obedience of which this text speaks is second, and the building of\nourselves on Jesus Christ Himself, by faith in Him, is first. Only when\nwe build on Him as our Saviour shall we build our lives upon Him in\nobedience to His commands.\n\n'Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried corner-stone,\na sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste'; and long\nafter the prophet said that, the Apostle catches up the same thought\nwhen he says, 'Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid. Let\nevery man take heed how he buildeth thereon.' Jesus Christ is the\nfoundation of our lives, if we have any true life at all. He ought to be\nthe foundation of all our thinking. His word should be the absolute\ntruth, His life the final all-satisfying, perfect revelation of God, to\nour hearts. 'In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'\nThe facts of His Incarnation, earthly life, Death, Resurrection,\nAscension, and present Sovereignty--these facts, with the truths that\nare deduced from them, and the great glimpses which they afford into the\nheart of God and the depths of things, are the foundations of all true\nthinking on moral and social and religious questions, and on not a few\nother questions besides. Christ in His Revelation gives us the ultimate\ntruth on which we have to build.\n\nHe is also the foundation of all our hope, the foundation of all our\nsecurity, the foundation of all our effort and aspiration. His Cross\ngoes before the nations and leads them, His Cross stands by the\nindividual, and anodynes the sense of guilt, and breaks the bondage and\ncaptivity of sin, and stirs to all lofty emotions and holy living, and\nmoves ever in the van like the pillar of cloud and fire, the Pattern of\nour lives and the Guide of our pilgrimage. It is Christ Himself who is\nthe foundation, and His death and sacrifice which are the sure basis of\nour hope, safety, and blessedness; and it is only because He Himself is\nthe Foundation, and what He has done for us is the basis of hope and\nblessedness, that He has the right to come to us and say, 'Take My\ncommandments as the foundation on which you build your lives.'\n\nThe Rock of Ages cleft for us, is the Rock on which we build if we are\nChristians; the other man built his house upon the sand. That is to say,\nshifting inclinations, short-lived appetites, transitory aims, varying\njudgments of men, the fashions of the day in morality, the changing\njudgments of our own consciences--these are the things on which men\nbuild, if they are not building upon Jesus Christ. Like a vessel that\nhas a raw hand at the helm, you sometimes head one way, and then the\npuff of wind that fills your sails dies down, or the sails that were\nflat as a board belly out a little, or you are caught in some current,\nand round goes the bowsprit on another tack altogether. How many of us\nare pursuing the objects which we pursued five-and-twenty years ago, if\nwe have numbered so many years? What has become of aims that were\neverything to us then? We have won some of them, and they have turned\nout not half as good as we thought they would be. The hare is never so\nbig when it is in the bag as when it is hurrying across the fields. We\nhave missed some of them, and we scarcely remember that we once wanted\nthem. We have outlived a great many, and they lie away behind us, hull\ndown on the horizon, and we are making for some other point that, in\nlike manner, if we reach it, will be left behind and be lost. There is\nnothing that lasts but God and Christ, and the people that build their\nlives upon them.\n\nI press upon all your hearts that one simple thought--what an absurdity\nit is for us to choose for our life's object anything that is\nshorter-lived than ourselves!--and how long-lived you are you know. They\ntell us that sand makes a very good foundation under certain\ncircumstances. I believe it does, but what if the water gets in? What\nabout it then? But in regard to all these transitory aims and\nshort-lived purposes on which some of you are building your lives, there\nis a certainty that the water will come in some day. So, friend, dig\ndeeper down, even to the Eternal Rock. That is the only foundation on\nwhich an immortal man or woman like you is wise to build your life. Are\nyou doing it?\n\nII. Let me say a word, in the next place, about the two houses.\n\nThe one is built upon the rock. That just means, of course--and I need\nnot enlarge upon that--a life which is based upon, and shaped after, the\ncommandments of Jesus Christ, His Pattern and Example. And that life\nwill stand. Now, of course, the ideal would be that the whole of His\nsayings should enter into the whole of our lives, that no commandment of\nthat dear Lord should be left unobeyed, and that no action of ours\nshould be unaffected by His known will. That is the ideal, and for us\nthe task of wisdom is daily to draw nearer and nearer to that ideal, and\nto bring the whole of our lives more and more under the sway and\nsanctifying influence of the whole sum of Christ's precepts. Of course,\non the other side, the life that is built on the sand is the life which\nis not thus regulated by Christ's will and known commandments.\n\nBut I desire rather to bring out, in a word or two, some of the lessons\nthat may be gathered from this general metaphor of a man's life as a\nhouse. And the first that I would suggest is this:--Have you ever\nthought of your life as being a whole, with a definite moral\ncharacteristic stamped upon it? I look upon the men and women that I\ncome across in the world, and I cannot help seeing that a great many of\nthem have never got into their heads the idea that their life is a\nwhole. A house? No. A cartload of bricks, tumbled down at random, would\nbe a better metaphor. A chain? No! A heap of links not linked. Many of\nyou live from hand to mouth. Many of you have such unity in your life as\ncomes from the pressure of the external circumstances of your trade or\nprofession. But for anything like the living consciousness that life is\na whole, with a definite moral character for which you are responsible,\nit has never dawned upon your mind. And so you go on haphazard, never\nbringing reflection to bear upon the trend and drift of your days; doing\nwhat you must do because your occupation is this, that, or the other\nthing; doing what you incline to do in the matter of recreation; now and\nthen sporadically, and for a minute or two, bringing conscience to bear,\nand being very uncomfortable sometimes when you do. But as for\nrecognising the mystic solemnity of all these days of yours in that they\nare welded together, and are all tending to one end, and that each\npassing moment contributes its infinitesimal share to the awful solemn\nwhole--that has seldom entered your minds, and for a great many of you\nit has never had any effect in restraining or stimulating or regulating\nyour conduct.\n\nThen there is another consideration which this metaphor suggests--viz.\nthat the house is built up by slow degrees, brick upon brick, course by\ncourse, day by day, and moment by moment. It is slow work, but certain\nwork. 'Let every man take heed how he buildeth,' and never despise the\nlittle things. Very small bricks make a large house.\n\nThen there is another consideration that I would suggest, and that is,\nyou have to live in the house that you build. Your deeds make the house\nthat Christ is here speaking of. Like the chrysalis that spins out of\nits own entrails the cocoon in which it lies, so are you spinning, to\nvary the metaphor, what you lodge in, until you eat your way through it,\nand pass into the next stage of being. Our deeds seem transient, but\nalthough we are building on the sand we are building for Eternity,\nbecause, though the deeds are transient in appearance, they abide.\n\nThey abide in memory. Some of you know how true that is. Black memories\nhaunt some of us, and there could be for some no worse hell than that\nGod should say, 'Son, remember.' You have to live in the house that you\nbuild. The deeds abide in habit. They abide in limiting and determining\nwhat we can be and do in the future; and in a hundred other ways that I\nmust not touch upon. Only, I bring to you this question, and I pray God\nthat you may listen to it and answer it: What are you building? A shop?\nThat is a noble ambition, is it not? A pleasure-house? That is worse. A\nprison? Some of you are rearing for your incarceration a jail where you\nwill be tied and held by the cords of your sins, and whence you will be\nunable to break out. Or are you building a temple? If you are building\non Christ it is all right. Only take heed _what_ you build on that\nfoundation.\n\nIII. Now let me say a word, in the next place, about the storm.\n\nI need not dwell upon the picturesque force of our Lord's description,\nso true to the sudden inundations of Eastern lands, and as true to the\nsudden floods of Northern countries when the snows melt. The house is\nattacked on all sides. From above, the rain comes down to beat on the\nroof, the wind rages round the walls, the flood comes swirling round the\neaves from beneath, and if the house stands upon a cliff, the polished\nrock turns the flood off innocuous, but if it stands upon sand, the\nfurious rush of waters eats a way beneath and undermines the whole.\n\nBut you will notice that the description of the storm is repeated in\nboth cases, and is _verbatim_ the same in each. And the lesson from that\nis just this--let no Christian man fancy that he is not going to be\njudged according to his works, for he is. The storm that comes, which I\ntake distinctly to mean the final judgment which falls upon all men,\nbeats against the house that is built upon the rock. For every one of\nus, Christian or not Christian, 'must all appear before the Judgment\nSeat of Christ, that we may receive according to the deeds done in the\nbody.' Christian people, do not fancy that the great doctrine of\nforgiveness of sins and acceptance in the Beloved, means that you have\nnot to stand His judgment according to your works. According to the\nother metaphor of the Apostle, working out the same idea with some\nchanges in figure, the Christian man who builds 'upon the foundation\ngold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,' has his 'work tried\nby fire.' So all of us have to face that prospect, and I beseech you to\nface it wisely. A sensible builder calculates the strain to which his\nwork will be exposed before he begins to put it up. Or if he does not\nthere will befall it the same fate that years ago befell that\nunfortunate Tay Bridge, where, by reason of girders too feeble, and\npiers not solid enough, and rivets left out where they should have been\nput in, one December night the whole thing went over into the water\nbelow. You have to stand the hurtling black storm. Take into account the\nstrain which your building will have to resist, and build accordingly.\n\nIV. And now, lastly, one word about the two endings.\n\n'It stood'; 'it fell'; that is all. A life of obedience to Christ is\nstable, a life not based on Christ vanishes; and these two statements\nare true because whatsoever a man does for himself, apart from God in\nChrist, he is sowing to corruption, and he will reap corruption. As I\nsaid, nothing lasts but God, and what is done according to the will of\nGod. And when the storm comes, whether the builder was a Christian man\nor not, all which was not thus built on Christ will be swept away, as\nthe flimsy habitation of Eastern people, made of bamboos and oiled\npaper, are whirled away before the typhoon. All that was not built upon\nChrist--and much of you Christian people's lives is not built on\nChrist--will have to go.\n\nAnd what about the builders? 'If any man's work abide he will receive a\nreward.' 'Their works do follow them.' 'If any man's work is burned, he\nhimself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.' And if any man has reared a\nstructure of a life ignoring Jesus Christ, and with no connection with\nHim, then house and builder will perish together.\n\nJesus Christ does not speak in my text about the righteousness or the\nunrighteousness of these two courses of conduct. He does not say, 'a\n_good_ man does so-and-so, or a _bad_ man does the other thing,' but he\nsays: A _wise_ man builds his house on the Rock, and a _foolish_ man\nbuilds his on the sand. To live by faith and obedience is supreme\nwisdom. Every life which is not built upon Christ is the perfection of\nfolly.\n\n\nTHE CHRIST OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT\n\n     'And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the\n     people were astonished at His doctrine: 29. For He taught them as\n     one having authority, and not as the scribes.'--MATT. vii. 28-29.\n\nIt appears, then, from these words, that the first impression made on\nthe masses by the Sermon on the Mount was not so much an appreciation of\nits high morality, as a feeling of the personal authority with which\nChrist spoke. Had the scribes, then, no authority? They ruled the whole\nlife of the nation with tyrannical power. They sat in Moses' seat, and\nclaimed all manner of sway and control. And yet when people listened to\nJesus, they heard something ringing in His voice that they missed in the\nrabbis. They only set themselves up, in their highest claims, as being\ncommentators upon, and the expositors of, the Law. Their language was\n'Moses commanded'; 'Rabbi _this_ said _so-and-so_; Rabbi _that_ said\n_such-and-such_.' But as even the crowd that listened to Him detected,\nJesus Christ, in these great laws of His kingdom, adduced no authority\nbut His own; stood forth as a Legislator, not as a commentator; and\ncommanded, and prohibited, and repealed, and promised, on His own bare\nword. That is a characteristic of all Christ's teaching; and, as we see\nfrom my text, to the apprehension of the first auditors, it was deeply\nstamped on the Sermon on the Mount.\n\nI purpose to turn to that Sermon now, and try if we can make out the\npoints in it which impressed these people, who first heard it, with the\nsense that they were in the presence of an autocratic Voice that had a\nright to speak, and which did speak, with absolute and unexampled\nauthority.\n\nAnd I do that the more readily because I dare say you have all heard\npeople that said 'Oh! I do not care about the dogmas of Christianity;\ngive me the Sermon on the Mount and its sublime morality; that is\nChristianity enough for me.' Well, I should be disposed to say so pretty\nnearly too, if you will take _all_ the Sermon on the Mount, and not go\npicking and choosing bits out of it. For I am sure that if you will take\nthe whole of its teaching you will find yourself next door to, if not in\nthe very inmost chamber of, the mysticism of the Gospel of John and the\ntheology of Paul.\n\nI. I ask you, then, to note that the Sermon claims for Jesus Christ the\nauthority of supremacy above all former revelation and revealers.\n\n'Think not,' says He, 'that I am come to destroy the law or the\nprophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.' And then He goes on,\nin five cases, to illustrate, in a very remarkable way, the authority\nthat He claimed over the former Law, moulding it according to His will.\n\nNow I do not propose to do more than suggest, in a sentence, two points\nthat I think of importance. Observe that remarkable form of speech, 'I\nam come.' May we not fairly say that it implies that He existed before\nbirth, and that His appearance among men was the result of His own act?\nDoes it not imply that He was not merely born, but _came_, choosing to\nbe born just as He chose to die? In what sense can we understand the\nApostle's view that it was an infinite and stupendous act of\ncondescension in Christ to 'be found in fashion as a man,' unless we\nbelieve that by His own will and act He came forth from the Father and\nentered into the world, just as by His own will and act He left the\nworld and went unto the Father?\n\nBut I do not dwell upon that, nor upon another very important\nconsideration. Why was it that Jesus Christ, at the very beginning of\nHis mission, felt Himself bound to disclaim any intention of destroying\nthe law or the prophets? Must not the people have begun to feel that\nthere was something revolutionary and novel about His teaching, and that\nit was threatening to disturb what had been consecrated by ages? So that\nit was needful that He should begin His career with this disclaimer of\nthe intention of destruction. Strange for a divine messenger, if He\nsimply stood as one in the line and sequence of divine revelation, to\nbegin His work by saying, 'Now, I do not mean to annihilate all that is\nbehind Me!' The question arises how anybody should have supposed that He\ndid, and why it should ever have been needful for Him to say that He did\nnot.\n\nBut I pass by all that, and ask you to think how much lies in these\nwords of our Lord: 'I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.' They imply\na claim that His life was a complete embodiment of God's law. Here is a\nman beginning His ministry as a religious teacher, with the assertion,\nstupendous, and, upon any other lips but His, insane arrogance, that He\nhad come to do everything which God demanded, and to set forth before\nthe world a living Pattern of the whole obedience of a human nature to\nthe whole law of God. Who is He that said that? And how do we account\nfor the fact that nineteen centuries have passed, and, excepting in the\ncase of here and there a bitter foe whose hostility had robbed him of\nhis common sense, no lip has ventured to say that He claimed too much\nfor Himself when He said, 'I am come to fulfil the law'; or that He\nfalsely read the facts of His own experience and consciousness when He\ndeclared, 'I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.'\n\nStill further, here our Lord claims specifically and expressly to fulfil\nnot only law but prophets. That is to say, He sets Himself forth as the\nReality which had filled the imaginations and the hearts of a whole\nnation for centuries; as the living Reality which had been meant by all\nthose lofty words of seers and prophets in the past. He declares that\nall those rapturous forecastings, all those dim anticipations, all those\ntriumphant promises, were not left to swing _in vacuo_, or to float\nabout unfulfilled, but that He stood there, the actual Realisation of\nthem all; and in Him, wrapped up as in a seed, the Kingdom of Heaven was\namong men.\n\nAnd still further, He claims not only personal purity and completeness,\nand the fulfilment of all prior and prophetic anticipation, but also He\nclaims to have, and He exercises, the power of moulding, expanding,\ninterpreting, and in some cases brushing aside, laws which He and they\nalike knew to be the laws of God. I do not need to specify in detail the\ninstances which are contained in this Sermon on the Mount. But I simply\nask you to consider the formula with which our Lord introduces each of\nHis references to that subject. 'Ye have heard that it hath been said to\nthem of old time' so-and-so,--and then follows a command of the Mosaic\nlaw; but '_I_ say unto you' so-and-so,--and then follows a deepening or\na modification or a repeal, of statutes acknowledged by Him and His\nhearers to be divine. He certainly claims to speak with the same right\nand authority as the old Law did. He as certainly claims to speak with\nincomparably higher authority than Moses did, for the latter never\nprofessed to give precepts of his own. He was not the Lawgiver, as he is\noften called, but only the messenger of the Lawgiver. But Christ is\nHimself the fountain of the laws of His Kingdom. Nor only so, but He\nputs Himself without apology or explanation in front of Moses and\nasserts power to modify, to set aside, or to re-enact with new\nstringency, the precepts of the divine law.\n\nOne supposition alone accounts for Christ's attitude to law and prophets\nin this Sermon, and that is that the Eternal Wisdom and Personal Word of\nGod, which at sundry times and in 'divers manners' spake to the old\nworld by Moses, itself at last, in human form and personal guise, came\nhere on earth and spake to us men. It is the same Voice that breathed\nthrough the prophets of old, and that spake on the lips of the Christ of\nNazareth; the same Eternal Word who manifested Himself in a 'fiery law'\non Sinai, and in words of no less majesty and of deepened gentleness,\nwhen He gathered the people round about Him, and said to them, 'It hath\nbeen said to them of old time, ... but _I_ say unto you ...'\n\nHere is the sum and climax of all revelation, the last word of the\ndivine mind and will and heart, to the world. Moses and Elias stand\nbeside Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, witnesses of His superiority\nand servants at His feet, and they vanish into mist and darkness, and\nleave there, erect, white-robed, solitary, the unique figure of the One\nLawgiver and the perfect Revealer of God to men.\n\nAnd this is the authority which struck even on the unsusceptible hearts\nof the listening crowds.\n\nII. Still further, let me ask you to consider how, in this same great\nSermon, He claims the authority of One who is unique in His relation to\nthe Father.\n\nYou will find that in it there occurs very frequently the expression,\n'_your_ Father which is in Heaven'; or sometimes with the\nvariation,'_thy_ Father which is in Heaven,' or, 'which seeth in\nsecret.' But you will also find that whilst our Lord speaks about '_My_\nFather which is in Heaven,' He never says '_our_ Father'; excepting in\nthe exception which proves the rule when He is putting into the lips of\nHis disciples the great formula of prayer which we call the 'Lord's\nPrayer'; and there speaking as through their consciousness, and teaching\nthem their lesson, He says '_Our_ Father,' not as if He Himself were\npraying, but as if He were telling them how to pray. But when He speaks\nout of His own consciousness He speaks of '_My_ Father' and '_your_\nFather,' never of '_our_ Father.'\n\nAnd that corresponds with other phenomena in Scripture in our Lord's own\nlanguage where you find that always He draws this broad distinction. He\nnever associates Himself with us in His Sonship. He ever asserts that He\nis _the_ Son of God. Even when He wishes to speak with the utmost\ntenderness, He bids the weeping Mary hear the message, 'I go unto My\nFather and your Father.' This doctrine is thought by many to be one of\nthose which they get rid of by professing the Christianity of the Sermon\non the Mount. But it is there as plainly as in other parts of Scripture.\nIf we accept all which it teaches, we cannot escape from the belief that\nHe is the only begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father; and also\nthat through Him and in Him we, too, may receive the adoption of sons.\n\nDear friends, I press this upon you as no mere piece of hard theological\ndoctrine, but as containing in it the very essentials of all spiritual\nlife for each of us, that all our spiritual life must come by\nparticipation in Christ, and that we enter into an altogether new and\nblessed relation to God when, laying our humble and penitent hands on\nthe head of that dear Sacrifice that died on the Cross for as, we\nthrough Him cease to be children of wrath and become heirs of God. 'To\nas many as received Him, to them gave He authority to become the\nchildren of God, even to them that believe in His name,' but His Sonship\nstands unique and unapproachable, though it is the foundation from which\nflows all the sonship of the whole family in heaven and in earth. Moses\nand the prophets, teachers and guides, Apostles and Helpers, they are\nall but the servants of the family; this is the Son through whom we\nreceive the adoption of sons.\n\nIII. We have in this great discourse the authority of One who is\nabsolute Lord and Master over men.\n\n'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the\nKingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! have we\nnot prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?'\n'Whoso heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him\nto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.'\n\nJesus Christ here comes before the whole race, and claims an absolute\nsubmission. His word is to control, with authoritative and\nall-comprehensive scrutiny and power, every aim of our lives, and every\naction. In His name we may be strong, in His name we may cast out\ndevils, in His name we may do many wonderful works. If we build upon Him\nwe build upon a rock; if we build anywhere else we build upon the sand.\n\nStrange, outrageous claims for a _man_ to make! 'Give me the Sermon on\nthe Mount, and keep your doctrinal theology,' say people. But I want to\nknow what kind of morality it is that is all traceable up to this--'Do\nas I bid you, My will is your law; My smile is your reward; to obey Me\nis perfection.' I think that takes you a good long way into 'theology.'\nI think that the Man who said that--and you all know that He said\nit--must he either a good deal more or a good deal less than a perfect\nman. If He is only that He is not that; for if He is only that, He has\nno business to tell me to obey Him. He has no business to substitute His\nwill for every other law; and you have no business--and it will be at\nthe peril of your manhood if you do--to take any man, the Man Christ or\nany other, as an absolute example and pattern and master.\n\nMy brethren, Christ's claim to absolute obedience rests upon His divine\nnature and on His redeeming work. He has delivered us from our enemies,\nand therefore He commands us. He has given Himself for us, and therefore\nHe has a right to say, 'Give yourselves to Me.' He is God manifest in\nthe flesh, and therefore absolute power becomes His lips, and utter\nsubmission is our dignity. To say to Him 'Lord, Lord,' carries us whole\nuniverses beyond saying to Him, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'\n\nIV. And now, lastly, we have in this great discourse the authority of\nour Lord set forth as being the authority of Him who is to be the Judge\nof the world.\n\n'Then will _I_ profess unto you I never knew you; depart from _Me_, ye\nthat work iniquity.' He, the meek, the humble, who never claimed for\nHimself anything except what His consciousness compelled Him to assert,\nwho desired only that men should know Him for what He was, because it\nwas their life so to know Him, here declares that the whole world is to\nbe judged by Him, that He has such knowledge of men as will pierce\nbeneath the surface of professions and will be undazzled by the most\nstupendous miracles, and beneath the eloquent words of many a preacher\nand the wonderful works of many a so-called Christian philanthropist,\nwill see the hidden rottenness that they never saw, and, tearing down\nthe veil, will reveal men at the last to themselves.\n\nThat is no human function, that is no work that belongs to a mere\nteacher, pattern, martyr, sage, philosopher, or saint. That is a divine\nwork; and the authority of Him whose final word to each of us will\nsettle beyond appeal our fate, and reveal beyond cavil our character, is\na divine authority. He has a right to command because He is going to\njudge; and the lips that declare the law are the lips that will read the\nsentence.\n\nSo, my brethren, do you take the whole Christ for yours, the Son of God,\nthe crown and end of revelation, the sinless and the perfect, who died\non the Cross for our salvation, and loves and pities, and is ready to\nhelp every one of us; who, therefore, commands us with an absolute\nauthority, and who one day comes to be our Judge? If you turn to Him and\nask Him, 'Art Thou He that should come?' let Him speak for Himself, and\nHe will answer you: 'I that speak unto thee am He.' When He asks each of\nus, as He does now, 'Whom sayest thou that I am?' oh that we may all\nanswer, with the assent of our understandings, with the love of our\nhearts, with the submission of our wills, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son\nof the living God.'\n\n\nTHE TOUCH THAT CLEANSES\n\n     'When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed\n     Him. 1. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying,\n     Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. 3. And Jesus put\n     forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; he thou clean. And\n     immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4. And Jesus saith unto him,\n     See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest,\n     and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto\n     them.'--MATT. viii. 14.\n\nTHE great collection of Jesus' sayings, which we call the Sermon on the\nMount, is followed by a similar collection of Jesus' doings, which we\ncall miracles. It is significant that Matthew puts the words first and\nthe works second, as if to teach us the relative importance of the two.\nSome one has said that miracles are 'the bell rung before the sermon,'\nbut Matthew thinks that the sermon comes first. He masses together nine\nmiracles (the raising of Jairus' daughter and the healing of the woman\nwith the bloody issue being so closely connected that they may be\nregarded as one) which are divided into three groups of three each, and\nare separated by three sections of more general character, like three\nlandings in a broad flight of stairs, or three breaks in a procession\n(ch. viii. 18-22; ix. 9-17, 35-38).\n\nThe first triplet comprises miracles of bodily healing, and shows Jesus\nas the great physician, curing leprosy, palsy, and fever, three types of\ndisease which have their analogues in the moral world. The cure of the\nleper comes first, apparently not from chronological reasons, but\nbecause leprosy had been made by the Old Testament legislation the\nsymbol of sin. The story is found in all the Synoptic Gospels, with\nslight variations, which make more impressive their verbal identity in\nreporting the leper's appeal and the Lord's answer.\n\nA leper had to keep apart from men and was shunned by them, but this one\nventured to mingle with the 'great multitudes' that 'followed' Jesus,\ntill he reached His side. He must have known something of Christ to have\napproached Him with a flicker of long-absent hope in his heart. No doubt\nhe had heard of some of the earlier miracles; and no doubt the crowd\nrecoiled from him so that he could easily reach Jesus. When he got there\nhe worshipped, or, as Luke puts it, 'fell on his face,' and made his\nappeal. It would be all the more piteous, because it was spoken in that\nfeeble, hoarse voice characteristic of leprosy, and it was in itself\nmost pathetic. The poor creature has won his way to a surprising\nconfidence, dashed with a yet more surprising diffidence and doubt. He\nis sure of the power, but not of the willingness, of this wonderful\nhealer. 'Thou canst,' does not make him confident, because it is\nweakened by 'If Thou wilt.' Faith, desire, humility, and submissiveness\nare beautifully smelted together in the wistful words, which are all the\nmore prevalent a prayer, because they do not venture to take the form of\nprayer. To tell Jesus that His will was all that was needed to heal him\nwas, as it were, to throw the responsibility for this continued misery\non Him who could so easily deliver, if He only willed to do it. But the\nhope which gleamed before his poor eyes was only a gleam, obscured by\nhis ignorance of Jesus' disposition towards him. The lowly acquiescence,\nwith which he leaves Jesus to decide whether he is to be freed from his\nhorrible, living death, is very beautiful, and speaks of a patient,\ndisciplined spirit, as well as of a profound insight into our Lord's\nauthority. The leper does cling to the hope that Jesus does will to heal\nhim, but he will not rebel if he is left shut up in his prison-house.\nSurely in such a blending of trust, yearning, and acceptance of that\nWill, whatever it involved, there was the germ of discipleship. Surely\nthere was, at least, the beginning of a living union with Jesus, which\nwould heal more than the leprosy of the flesh.\n\nMark gives the precious addition to the narrative, of a glimpse into the\nheart of Jesus, when he tells us that, 'moved with compassion,' He 'put\nforth His hand and touched him.' Swift and, we may almost say,\ninstinctive was the outgoing of pity from the heart, which was so\npitiful because it was so pure, and laid on itself every man's sorrow\nbecause it carried no burden of its own sin or self-regard. That touch\nhad deep meaning, but it was not done for the sake of a meaning. It was\nthe spontaneous expression of love, and revealed the delicate quickness\nof perception of another's feelings which flows from love only. The\nleper had almost forgotten what the touch of a hand felt like. He had\nlived, ever since his disease was manifest, apart from others, had\nperhaps lost the embraces of wife and children, had walked alone in\ncrowds, and had a heart-chilling circle cleared round him everywhere.\nBut now this Man stretches His hand across the dreary gulf, and lets him\nfeel once more the sweetness of a warm and gentle touch. It was half\nthe cure; it was the complete clearing away of the last film of the\ncloud of doubt as to the will of Jesus. It answered the 'if' by\nsomething that spoke louder than any word. And, though it was not meant\nfor anything but the silent voice of pity and love, we do not rob it of\nits beautiful spontaneity when we see, in the touch of that pure hand on\nthe rotting feculence of leprosy, a parable of the Incarnation, in which\nHe lays hold on our flesh of sin and is yet without sin--contracts no\ndefilement by contact, but by touching cleanses the foulness on which He\nlays His white fingers. By that touch He proclaimed Himself the priest,\nto whom the Law gave the office of laying his hand on the leper.\n\nBut the great word accompanying the touch is majestic in its brevity and\nabsolute claim to absolute power. Jesus accepts the leper's lofty\nconception of His omnipotent will, as He always accepted the highest\nconceptions that any formed of His person or authority. The sovereign\nutterance, 'I will,' claims possession of the divine prerogative of\naffecting dead matter by the mere outgoing of His volition. Not only is\nit true of Him that 'He spake and it was done,' but He willed and it was\ndone; and these are the hall-marks of divine power. Neither the touch of\nHis hand nor the word of His lips cleansed the leper, but simply the\nexercise of His will, of which word and touch were but audible and\nvisible tokens for sense to grasp. The form of the poor husky croak for\nhelp determined the form of the answer, and the correspondence is marked\nby all the evangelists as a striking instance of Christ's loving way of\nechoing our petitions in His replies, and moulding His gifts to match\nour desires. Thunder in heaven wakes echoes on earth, but more wonderful\nis it that the thin voice of our supplications, when we scarcely dare to\nshape them into prayers, should wake a voice from the throne, which,\nthough it is mighty as 'the voice of many waters' and sweet as that of\n'harpers harping with their harps,' deigns to echo our poor cries.\n\nThe prohibition to speak of the cure till the priests had pronounced it\nreal and complete is more stringent in Mark, who also tells how utterly\nit was disregarded. Its reason was obviously the wish to comply with the\nlaw, and also the wish to get the official seal to the cure. Jesus did\ndesire the miracle to be known, but not till it was authoritatively\ncertified by the priest whose business it was to pronounce a sufferer\nclean. It was for the leper's advantage, too, that he should have the\nofficial certificate, since he would not be restored to society without\nit. One does not wonder that the prohibition was disregarded in the\nuncontrollable delight and wonder at such an experience. The leper was\neloquent, as we all can be, when our hearts are engaged, and his\nblessing refused to be hid. Alas, how many of us, who profess to have\nbeen cleansed from a worse defilement, find no such impulse to speak\nwelling up in ourselves! Alas, how superfluous is the injunction to\nhundreds of Christ's disciples: 'See thou say nothing to any man'!\n\n\nTHE FAITH WHICH CHRIST PRAISES\n\n     'The centurion answered and said: Lord, I am not worthy that Thou\n     shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my\n     servant shall be healed. 9. For I am a man under authority, having\n     soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go! and he goeth; and to\n     another, Come I and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this; and he\n     doeth it.'--MATT. viii. 8-9.\n\nThis miracle of the healing of the centurion's servant is the second of\nthe great series which Matthew gives us. It is perhaps not accidental\nthat both the first and the second miracles in his collection point out\nour Lord's relation to outcasts from Israel. The first of them deals\nwith a leper, the second with the prayer of a heathen. And so they both\ncontribute to the great purpose of Matthew's Gospel, the bringing out of\nthe nature of the kingdom and the glory of the King.\n\nMy object now is to deal with the whole of the incident of which I have\nread the most important part. We have in the story three things: the man\nand his faith; Christ's eulogium upon the faith, and declaration of its\nplace in His kingdom; and the answer to the faith. Look, then, at these\nthree in succession.\n\nI. We consider, first, the man and his faith.\n\nHe was a heathen and a Gentile. The Herod, who then ruled over Galilee,\nhad a little army, officered by Romans, of whom probably this centurion\nwas one; the commander, perhaps, of some small garrison of a hundred\nmen, the sixtieth part of a legion, which was stationed in Capernaum. If\nwe look at all the features of his character which come out in the\nstory, we get a very lovable picture of a much more tender heart than\nmight have been supposed to beat under the armour of a mercenary soldier\nset to overawe a sullen people. 'He loveth our nation,' say the elders\nof the Jews,--not certainly because of their amiability, but because of\nthe revelation which they possessed. Like a great many others in that\nstrange, restless era when our Lord came, this man seems to have become\ntired of the hollowness of heathenism, and to have been groping for the\nlight. His military service brought him into contact with Judaism and\nits monotheism, and his heart sprang to that as the thing he had been\nseeking. 'He hath built us a synagogue,' thereby expressing his adhesion\nto, or at least his lofty estimate of, the worship which was there\ncarried on. Just as, if an English officer in India were, in some little\nvillage or other, to repair a ruined temple, he would win the hearts of\nall the people, because they would think he was coming over to\nBrahminism; so this soldier was felt to be nearer to the Jews than his\nofficial position might have suggested.\n\nThen, there was in him a beautiful human kindliness, which neither the\nrough military life, nor that carelessness about a slave--which is one\nof the worst fruits of slavery, had been able to sour or destroy. He was\ntenderly anxious about his servant, who, according to Luke's expression,\nwas 'dear to him.' Then we get as the crown of all the beauty of his\ncharacter, the lowliness of spirit which the 'little brief authority' in\nwhich he 'was dressed' had not puffed up. 'I am not worthy that Thou\nshouldest come under my roof.' That lowliness is emphasised in Luke's\nversion of the story, which is more detailed and particularly accurate\nthan Matthew's summary account. By it we learn that he did not venture\nto come himself, but sent His messengers to Jesus. If we take Matthew's\nversion, there is another lovely trait. He does not ask Christ to do\nanything. He simply spreads the necessity before Him, in the confidence\nthat His pitying love lies so near the surface that it was sure to flow\nforth, even at that light touch. He will not prescribe, he tells the\nstory, and leaves all to Him. Christ's answer, 'I will come and heal\nhim,' throbs with the consciousness of power, and is gentle with\ntenderness, quick to interpret unspoken wishes, and not slow to answer,\nunless it is for the wisher's good to be refused. When He was asked to\ngo, because the asker considered that His presence was necessary for His\npower to have effect, He refused; when He is not asked to go, He\nvolunteers to do so. He is moved to apparently opposite actions by the\nsame motive, the good of the petitioner, whose weak faith He strengthens\nby refusal, whose strong faith He confirms by acquiescence. And that is\nthe law of His conduct always, and you and I may trust it absolutely, He\nmay give, or retain ungiven, what we desire; in either case, He will be\nacting in order that our trust in Him may be deepened.\n\nThat brings us to the remarkable and unique conception of our Lord's\nmanner of working and power to which this centurion gives utterance. 'I\nalso' (for the true text of Matthew has that 'also,' as the Revised\nVersion shows), 'I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under\nme, and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; to another, Come, and he\ncometh; to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. Speak thou with a word\nonly and my servant shall be healed.' A centurion was likely to\nunderstand the power of a word of command. His whole training had taught\nhim the omnipotence of the uttered will of the authoritative general,\nand although he was but an officer over a poor sixtieth part of a\nlegion, yet in some limited measure the same power lay in him, and his\nword could secure unhesitating submission. One good thing about the\ndevilish trade of war is that it teaches the might of authority and the\nvirtue of absolute obedience. And even his profession, with all its\nroughness and wickedness, had taught the centurion this precious lesson,\na jewel that he had found in a dunghill, the lesson that, given the\nauthoritative lip, a word is omnipotent. The commander speaks and the\nlegion goes, though it be to dash itself to death.\n\nSo he turns to Christ. Does he mean to parallel or to contrast his\nsubordination and Christ's position? The 'also,' which, as I remarked,\nthe Revised Version has rightly replaced in the text here, is in favour\nof the former supposition, that he means to parallel Christ's position\nwith his own. And it is much more natural to suppose that a heathen man,\nwith little knowledge of Christ and of the depths of the divine\nrevelation in the past, should have attained to the conception of Jesus\nas possessing a real but subordinate and derived authority, than to\nsuppose that he had grasped, at that early stage, the truth which\nChrist's nearest friends took long years to understand, and which some\nof them do not understand yet, viz. that Christ possessed as His own the\npower which He wielded.\n\nBut if we take this point of view, and consider that the centurion's\nconception falls beneath the lofty Christian ideal of Christ's power in\nthe universe, as it is set forth to us in the New Testament, even then\nHis words set forth a truth. For if we believe on the one hand in the\ndivinity of our Lord and Saviour, we also believe that 'the Son is\nsubject to the Father' and listen to His own words when He says, 'All\npower is _given_ unto Me in heaven and in earth.' So that whatever\ndifference there may be between His relation to the power which He\nwields and that of a prophet or miracle-worker, who derives his power\nfrom Him, this is true, that Christ's power, too, is a power given to\nHim. But the other side is one that I desire to emphasise in a few\nwords, viz. that the centurion's conception falls short of the truth,\ninasmuch as, if we believe in Christ's witness to Himself, we must\nbelieve that the power which acted through His word, dwelt in Him, in an\naltogether different relation to His person from that in which an\nanalogous power may have dwelt in any other man. 'He spake and it was\ndone, He commanded and it stood fast.' Diseases fled at His word. 'By\nthe breath of His mouth He slew' these enemies of men. He rebuked the\nstorm, and the howling of the wind and the dashing of the waves were\nless loud than His calm voice. He flung a word into the depths of the\ngrave, strangely speaking to, and yet more strangely heard by, the dull\ncold ear of death, and Lazarus, dazzled, stumbles out into the light.\nWho is this, that commandeth the waves, and the seas, and the\nsicknesses, and they obey Him? My brother, I pray that you and I, in\nthese days of hesitation, when many a truth is clouded by doubt, may be\nable to answer with the full assent and consent of understanding and\nheart, 'this is God manifest in the flesh.'\n\nAnd remember that this prerogative of dealing with physical nature, by\nthe bare forth-putting of His word, is not only a doctrine of\nChristianity, but that more and more physical investigation is coming to\nthe unifying of all forces in one, and to the resolving of that one into\nthe force of a will, and that all that will, as the Christian scheme\nteaches us, is lodged in Jesus Christ. His lip speaks, and it is power.\nHe moves in nature, in providence, in history, in grace, because in Him\nabides now in the form of a man, that same everlasting Word which was\nwith the Father, and by whom all things were made. The centurion bows\nbefore the Commander, and the Christ says, 'as Captain of the Lord's\nhost am I now come.' Such, then, is the faith of this soldier taught him\nby the Legion.\n\nII. Now a word next as to our Lord's eulogium on his faith.\n\nJesus Christ accepts and endorses the centurion's estimate of Him, as He\nalways accepts the highest place offered Him. No one ever proffered to\nJesus Christ honours that He put by. No one ever brought to Him a trust\nwhich He said was either excessive or misdirected. 'Speak the word and\nmy servant shall be healed,' said the centurion. Contrast Christ's\nacceptance of this confidence in his power with Elijah's 'Am I a God, to\nkill and to make alive, that they send this man to me to recover him of\nhis leprosy?' Or contrast it with Peter's 'Why look ye so earnestly on\nus, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to\nwalk?' Christ takes as His due all the honour, love, and trust, which\nany man can give Him--either an exorbitant appetite for adulation, or\nthe manifestation of conscious divinity.\n\n'And He marvelled.' Twice we read in Scripture that Christ\nwondered--once at this heathen's faith, so strongly grown, with so few\nadvantages of culture; once at Jewish unbelief, so feeble and fruitless,\nafter so much expenditure of patience and care. But passing from that,\nnotice how much lies in these sad and yet astonished words of His:\n'Verily I say unto you, I have not _found_ so great faith, no, not in\nIsrael.' Then, He came _seeking_ faith from this people whom God had\ncared for during centuries. The one fruit that He desired was trust in\nHim. That is what He is seeking for in us--not lives of profession, not\northodoxy of conception, not even fruits in work, but before all this,\nand productive of all that is good in any of them, He desires to find in\nour hearts the child's trust that casts itself wholly on His Omnipotent\nword, and is sure of an answer. This man's faith was great, great in the\nrapidity of its growth, great in the difficulties which it had overcome,\ngreat in the clearness of its conception, great in the firmness of its\naffiance, great in the humility with which it was accompanied. Such a\nfaith He seeks as the thirsty traveller seeks grapes in the wilderness,\nand when He finds it growing in our hearts, then He is satisfied and\nglad.\n\nStill further, there is brought out the dignity of faith as being not\nonly the great desire of Christ's heart for each of us, but also as\nbeing the one means of admission into the kingdom. 'I say unto you, many\nshall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham\nand Isaac and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the children of the\nKingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' Strange that Matthew's,\nthe Jewish gospel, should record that saying. Strange that Luke's, the\nuniversal human gospel, should omit it. But it was relevant to Matthew's\ngreat purpose to make very plain this truth--which the nation were\nforgetting, and which was gall and wormwood to them,--that hereditary\ndescent and outward privileges had no power to open the door of Christ's\nKingdom to any man, and that the one thing which had, was the one thing\nwhich the centurion possessed and the Jews did not, a simple trust in\nthat divine Lord.\n\nMy brethren, there are many of us who attach precisely the same value as\nthese Jews did, in slightly different forms, to external connection with\nreligion and religious institutions. What blunts the sharpest words that\ncome from pulpits, and prevents them from getting to hearts and\nconsciences, is just that pestilent old Jewish error, that because men\nhave always had a kind of outward hold on the Kingdom, therefore they do\nnot need the teaching that the publicans and the harlots want.\n\nMy dear friend, nothing binds a man to Christ but trust. Nothing opens\nthe doors of His Kingdom, either here on earth or yonder, but reliance\nupon Him. And although you were steeped to the eye-brows in religious\nprivileges, and high in place in His church, it would avail nothing. The\nKingdom of Christ is a Kingdom into which faith, and faith only, admits\na man. Therefore from the furthest corners of the world Christ's sad\nprescience saw the Gentiles flocking, and the Jews who trusted in\nexternals, cast out.\n\nI need not dwell on the two halves of the picture here, the radiant glow\nof the one, the tragic darkness of the other. The feast expresses\nabundance, joy, rest, companionship. 'They shall come' says Christ; then\nHe is there, and sitting at the head of the table; and the Master's\nwelcome makes the feast. On the other hand, that which is without the\nbanqueting hall is dark. That darkness is but the making visible of the\nnature of the men. Hell comes out of a man before it surrounds him. They\n'were sometime darkness,' and now they are in the darkness. I say no\nmore about that, I dare not; but I pray you to remember that the lips\nwhich said this 'spake that He did know'; and to take heed lest,\nspeculating and arguing, and sometimes quarrelling, about the nature and\nthe duration of future retribution, we should lose our sense of the\nawfulness and certainty of the fact.\n\nIII. So one word lastly as to the answer that faith brings.\n\n'Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.' He heals\nat a distance, and shapes His gift by the man's desire. The form of the\nvase that is dipped into the sea settles the quantity and the shape of\nthe water that is taken out. There is a wide truth in that, on which I\ndo not now enlarge. The measure of my faith is the measure of my\npossession of Christ. He puts the key of the treasure-house into our\nhands and says, 'Go in, and take as much as you like'; and some of us\ncome out with a halfpenny as all that we care to bring away. You are\nstarving, some of you, whilst you are sitting in a granary bursting with\nplenty. Suppose a proclamation were made, 'There will be given away gold\nto anybody that likes to come. Let them bring a purse, and it will be\nfilled.' How large a purse do you think you would like to take? A sack,\nI should think. Christ says that to you; and you bring a tiny thing like\nwhat they keep sovereigns in, that will scarcely hold a farthing, with\nsuch a narrow throat is it provided, and so small its interior\naccommodation. 'Ye have not because ye ask not.' 'Open thy mouth wide\nand I will fill it.'\n\n\nSWIFT HEALING AND IMMEDIATE SERVICE\n\n     'And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's\n     mother laid, and sick of a fever. 15. And He touched her hand, and\n     the fever left her: and she arose and ministered unto them.'--MATT.\n     viii. 14-15.\n\nOther accounts give a few additional points.\n\nMark:--\n\nThat the house was that of Peter and Andrew.\n\nThat Christ went with James and John.\n\nThat He was told of the sickness.\n\nThat He lifted her up.\n\nLuke, physician-like, diagnoses the fever as 'great.' He also tells us\nthat the sick woman's friends _besought_ Jesus and did not merely 'tell'\nHim of her. May we infer that to His ear the telling of His servants'\nwoes is a prayer for His help? He does not mention Christ's touch,\nwhich Mark here and elsewhere delights to record, and which Matthew also\nspecifies. He fixes attention on the all-powerful word which was the\nvehicle of Christ's healing might.\n\nBoth evangelists put this miracle in its chronological order, from which\nit appears that it was done on the Sabbath day, which explains our verse\n16, 'when the _even_ was come.'\n\nI. The scene of the miracle.\n\nThe domestic privacy of the great event seems to have struck the\nevangelists. It stands between the narrative of Christ's public work in\nthe synagogue, and the story of the eager crowds who came round the\ndoors. So it gives us a glimpse of the uniformity of that life of\nblessing as being the same in public and in private.\n\nAgain, it suggests the characteristic absence of all ostentation in His\nworks. We can scarcely suppose this miracle done for the sake of showing\nHis divinity. It was pure goodness and sympathy which moved Him.\n\nIt occurred in a household of His disciples. There, too, sorrow will\ncome. But there, if they tell Him of it, His help will not be far away.\nThis is one of the few miracles wrought on one of His more immediate\nfollowers. The Resurrection of Lazarus, so like this in many respects,\nis the only other.\n\nThis scene of the healing Christ in His disciples' household suggests\nthe whole subject of the effect on domestic life of Christianity, or\nmore truly of Christ Himself. It is scarcely too much to say that the\nhome, as many of us blessedly know, is the creation of Christ. Cana of\nGalilee--The household at Bethany.\n\nII. The time.\n\nAfter His long day's toil--the unwearied mercy. On the Sabbath--the Lord\nof the Sabbath.\n\nIII. The person.\n\nThe woman. How Christianity embodies the true emancipation of women.\nThey are participants in an equal gift, honoured by admission to equal\nservice.\n\nIV. The effect.\n\n'She ministered'; testimony of the completeness of the cure. Which\ncompleteness is also real in the spiritual region.\n\nHow the basis of all our service must be His healing. Ours second, not\nfirst.\n\nHow the end of His healing is our service. We are bound to render it: He\ndesires it. How each one's character and circumstances determine his\nservice. How common duties may be sanctified. He accepts our service\nwhatever it be.\n\nThe Sabbath. The services of love come before ritual observance, in\nJesus and in the cured woman.\n\n\nTHE HEALING CHRIST\n\n     'Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.'--MATT.\n     viii. 17.\n\nYou will remember, probably, that in our Old Testament translation of\nthese words they are made to refer to man's mental and spiritual evils:\n'He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows.' Our evangelist takes them\nto refer, certainly not exclusively, but in part, to men's corporeal\nevils--'our infirmities' (bodily weaknesses, that is) 'and our\nsicknesses.' He was distinctly justified in so doing, both by the\nmeaning of the original words, which are perfectly general and capable\nof either application, and by the true and deep view of the\ncomprehensiveness of our Lord's mission and purpose. Christ is the\nantagonist of all the evils that affect man's life, whether his\ncorporeal or his spiritual; and no less true is it that, in His deep\nsympathy, 'He bare our sicknesses' than that, in the mystery of His\natoning death, 'He was wounded for our transgressions.'\n\nIt is, therefore, this point of view of Christ, as the Healer, which I\ndesire to bring before you now.\n\nI. First, I ask you to look at the plain facts as to our Lord's ministry\nwhich are contained in these words:--'Himself took our infirmities, and\nbare our sicknesses.'\n\nNow, there are two points that I desire to emphasise very briefly. One\nis the prominence in Christ's life which is given to His healing energy.\nWe are accustomed to think of His cures as miracles. We are accustomed\nto think of them in that aspect as evidences of His mission, or as\ndifficulties and stumbling-blocks, as the case may be. But I ask you to\nput away all such thoughts for a minute, and think about the miracles\nsimply as being cures. Remember how enormous a proportion of our Lord's\ntime and pains and sympathy and thoughts was directed to that one\npurpose of healing people of their bodily infirmities. We may almost say\nthat to an outsider He would look a great deal liker a man who, as the\nApostle Peter painted Him in one of his earliest addresses, 'went about\ndoing good and healing,' than as a teacher of divine wisdom, to say\nnothing of an incarnation of the divine nature. His miracles of healing\nwere certainly the most conspicuous part of His life's work.\n\nAnd then, remember, that whilst the great proportion of our Lord's\nmiracles are miracles of healing, we are sure that the whole of the\nrecorded miraculous works of our Lord are the smallest fraction of what\nHe really did. You remember how there crop up, here and there, in the\nGospels, general _resumes_ of our Lord's work, of such a kind as\nthis:--'And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,\nand preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of\nsickness and all manner of disease among the people. And they brought\nunto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and\ntorments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which\nwere lunatic, and those that had the palsy and He healed them.' Or,\nagain:--'And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of\nGalilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great\nmultitudes came unto Him, having those that were lame, blind, dumb,\nmaimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He\nhealed them.' Now these are but specimens of the occasional\ngeneralisations which we find in the Gospels, which warrant us in saying\nthat, according to the New Testament record, Christ's works of healing\nwere to be numbered, not by tens, but by hundreds, and perhaps by\nthousands.\n\nThat is the first fact calling for notice. The words of our text suggest\na second thought as to the cost at which these cures were wrought.\n'Himself took and bare' does not mean only 'took away.' It includes\nthat, as a consequence, but it points to something before the removal of\nthe sicknesses. It points to the fact that Christ in some real sense\nendured the loads which He removed. Of course, His cross is the highest\nexemplification of the great law which runs through His whole life, that\nHe identifies Himself with all the evil which He takes away, and is able\nto take it away only because He identifies Himself with it. But whilst\nthe cross is the highest exemplification of this, every miracle of mercy\nwhich He wrought is an illustration of the same principle in its\nappropriate fashion, and upon a lower level. And although we cannot say\nthat the physical sufferings which He alleviated were physically laid\nupon Him, yet we can say that He so identified Himself with all\nsufferers by His swift sympathy as that He bore, and therefore bore\naway, the diseases as well as the sins of the men for whose healing He\nlived, and for whose redemption He died.\n\nThe proof of this crops up now and then. What did it mean that, when He\nstood beside one poor sufferer, before He could utter from His\nauthoritative lips the divine word of power, 'Ephphatha, be opened,' the\nsame lips had to shape themselves for the utterance of an altogether\nhuman and brotherly sigh? Did it not mean that the condition of His\nhealing power was sympathy, that He must bring Himself to feel the\nburden that He will roll away? That sigh proves that His cures were the\nworks, not without cost to the doer, of a sympathising heart, and not\nthe mere passionless acts of a miracle-monger.\n\nIn like manner, what meant that strange tempest of agitation that swept\nacross the pacific ocean of His nature ere He stood by the grave of\nLazarus? Why that being 'troubled in Himself' before He raised him?\nWherefore the tears that heralded the restoration of the man to life?\nThey could not be shed for the loss that was so soon to be repaired.\nThey can only have been the emotion and tears of One who saw, as massed\nin one black whole, the entire sorrows that affected physical humanity,\nand rose in a holy passion of indignation and of sorrow at the sight of\nthat enemy, Death, with whose beginnings He had wrestled in many a\nmiracle of restoration, and whose sceptre He was now about to pluck from\nhis bony clutch. Therefore I say that Christ the healer bore, and\nthereby bore away, the sicknesses and the infirmities of men.\n\nAmidst mountains of rubbish and chaff, the Rabbis have a grain of wheat\nin their legend which tells us that Messias is to come as a leper, and\nto be found sitting amongst the lepers at the city's gate; which is a\npicturesque and symbolical way of declaring the same truth that I am now\ninsisting upon, the participation by the Redeemer in all burdens and\nsorrows of body and of spirit which He takes away.\n\nII. And now with these facts--for I take them to be such--for the basis\nof our thoughts, let me ask you to turn, in the second place, to some\nplain practical conclusions that come from them.\n\nThe first of these that I would suggest is the lesson as to the proper\nsweep and sphere of Christian beneficence. As I said in my introductory\nremarks, we do not rightly measure the whole circumference of Christ's\nwork unless we regard it as covering and including all forms of human\nevil. He is the antagonist of everything that is antagonistic to\nman--pain, misery, sickness, death itself. All these are excrescences on\nthe divine design, transient accompaniments of disordered relations\nbetween God and man. And this great physician of souls fights the\ndisease and does not neglect the symptoms; deals with the central evil\nand is not so absorbed with that as to omit from His view or His\ntreatment the merely superficial manifestations of it.\n\nSo that if Christian people, individually and as Churches, are justly\nexposed, in any measure, to the sarcasm which is freely cast upon them,\nthat they neglect the temporal well-being of men in order to attend\nexclusively to their spiritual wants, they have not learned the example\nof such partial treatment from their Master; nor have they taken in the\nsignificance and the power of His life in its relation to human sorrow.\nAll that makes the heart bleed Christ comes to take away. 'All the ills\nthat _flesh_ is heir to,' as well as those which each spirit, by\nrebellion, brings upon itself--are the foes with whom Christ has left\nHis Church in the world in order to wage incessant warfare. If we\nChristians, oppressed with the sense of the depth and central nature of\nthe evil of man's sin, have so devoted ourselves to preaching and\nevangelising, that we are, in any measure, rightly chargeable with\nneglecting hospitals and infirmaries and other forms of relief for\ntemporal necessities, just in that proportion have we departed from our\nMaster's spirit. But I do not, for my part, much believe, either in the\ngood faith of the accusers or in the applicability of the charge which\nmen, who never do anything for the religious improvement of their\nfellows, are apt to bring against us. My little experience, I think,\nteaches me that the folk who say to us 'Do not waste your money on\nBibles and missionaries, give it to hospitals and schools,' are not\nusually the people that 'waste their money' on either; and that the\nlargest portion of all the work that is done in England to-day, for the\ntemporal well-being of men, comes from the Christians who also do work\nfor their spiritual well-being.\n\nBut let us learn the lesson, if we need it, from our enemies and our\ncritics; and see to it that the more we feel the lofty and transcendent\nimportance of carrying Christ's salvation to men's souls, the more we\nendeavour, likewise, to live amongst them as He did, the embodiment of\npity, wide-eyed and comprehensive, for every evil that racks their\nhearts and every pain that tortures their nerves. As a fact, hospitals\nare found within the limits of Christianity, and not outside it; and so\nfar, Christendom, though it is largely professing Christendom only, has\nlearned that it follows a Christ who is the Saviour of the body and the\nPhysician of the soul.\n\nIn the next place, another practical lesson which I would draw from this\nis, as to the sole conditions upon which any form of Christian help can\nbe rendered. The condition for the elevation of men is that the lever\nwhich lifts them must have its point below them. That is to say, you\nhave to go down if you would heave up. You have to go amongst if you\nwould deliver; you have to make your own, by a sympathy which you have\nlearned of your Master, the sorrows and the sins of humanity, if you\nwould effectually remedy them. A guinea to an hospital is not your\ncontribution to the Christ-like relief of human suffering. It wants, and\nHe wants, your heart, your sympathy. Think for a moment of the universe\nof anguish that may lie within the narrow limits of one human body--that\nawful mystery of pain which holds in its red-hot pincers hundreds and\nthousands of men and women in this city at this moment. Try to imagine\nthe mass of bodily agony, an enormous percentage of which is utterly\ninnocent, and a still larger percentage of it perfectly remediable,\nwhich at this hour, whilst we sit here, is torturing mankind. And oh!\nbrethren, do not let any thought of the transcendent importance of\nChrist's gospel, and what it does to men's hearts, make us careless\nabout these real, though lesser, evils which lie beside us, and which we\ncan remedy and help.\n\nOnly, remember the condition of help for them all. The newspapers went\ninto raptures some years since, and wisely, over a Roman Catholic priest\nwho shut himself up in a little island with a colony of lepers. Some\nProtestant martyrs have done the same before him, without any chorus of\nnewspaper praise. Whoever did it had penetrated to the secret of\nChristian help--identification with the evil. If we would take away any\nmisery or sin, we must act like that doctor who shut himself up in the\nwards of an hospital, and kept a diary of the symptoms of his disease,\ntill the pen dropped from his fingers and the film came over his eyes.\nAre we ready to do anything like that for our brethren? Until we are, we\nhave yet to learn and to practise the pattern which He has set, 'Who,\nthough He was rich, for our sins became poor': and who, 'forasmuch as\nthe children were partakers of flesh and blood, Himself likewise'--in\ntheir own fashion of weakness, and weariness, and sorrow, and pain, and\nultimately death--'took part of the same.' 'He bore our sicknesses,'\ntherefore He bore them away, and, in so doing, taught us the law of\nChristian help.\n\nAnd lastly, let me not pass from this subject without leaving on your\nhearts, dear friends, the other thought, of the connection and the\nrelative importance of these two hemispheres of Christ's work. The\nsicknesses are symbols of the sins; the removal of the bodily pain and\ndisease is a prophecy and a visible parable proclaiming the removal of\nall the harassment and abnormal action that afflict intellect, will, or\nspirit. Christ Himself has taught us to regard His miracles of healing\nas the making visible, in the outward sphere, of the analogous miracles\nof healing in the spiritual realm. And although I have been saying a\ngreat deal about the preciousness and the sacredness of the curative\ninfluences which flow from Christ, and deal with outward diseases and\nevils, let us not forget that a sound body is of small worth as compared\nwith a sound mind; that the body is the servant of the spirit, meant\nmainly to do its behests, bring it knowledge, and express its will; and\nthat high above, and pointed to by, the lower, though precious work of\nhealing men's sicknesses, towers that work which we all of us need, and\nthe robustest of us, perhaps, need most, the healing of our sick souls\nand their deliverance from death.\n\nEvery one of these manifold miracles which the Saviour wrought may be\ntaken as parabolical. You and I grope in darkness as the blind. You and\nI have ears deaf to hear, and lips dumb to speak, the praises and the\nlove and the word of God. We are lame in the powers of mind and spirit\nto run in the way of His commandments, and to walk unfainting in the\npaths of duty. The fever of hot, passionate, foolish desires burns in\nthe veins of us all with its poison. The paralysis of a will that is\nslothful to good infests and hinders us all. But there comes to us that\ngreat hope and promise that Christ has the Spirit of the Lord upon Him\nto bring liberty to the captive, sight to the blind, hearing to the\ndeaf, healing to the fevered, vigour to the palsied, activity to the\nlame. Only let us set our trust in Him, carry our weaknesses to Him,\nacknowledge our sins to Him, seek the touch of His healing and\nquickening hand, and the miracle shall be wrought.\n\nThe old-fashioned surgery used to believe in the transfusion of blood\nfrom a sound to a diseased person, and the consequent expulsion of\ndisease. That is the fact about our relation to Christ. Put your arm\nside by side with His by simple faith in Him. Come into contact with\nHim, and the blood of Jesus Christ, the 'law of the spirit of life that\nwas in Him,' will pass into the veins of your spirits, and make you\nwhole of whatsoever disease you have. 'Then shall the eyes of the blind\nbe opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the\nlame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.' And so\nshall you begin that course of healing and purifying, which will know no\npause nor natural termination until, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit,\nyou reach the land 'where the inhabitant thereof shall no more say, I am\nsick,'--'and there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any\nmore pain.'\n\n\nCHRIST REPRESSING RASH DISCIPLESHIP\n\n     'And a certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will\n     follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. 20. And Jesus saith unto him,\n     The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the\n      Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.'--MATT. viii. 19-20.\n\nOur Lord was just on the point of leaving Capernaum for the other side\nof the lake. His intended departure from the city, in which He had spent\nso long a time, and wrought so many miracles, produced precisely\nopposite effects on two of the crowd around Him, both of whom seem to\nhave been, in the loose sense of the word, disciples. One was this\nscribe, whom the prospect of losing the Master from his side, hurried\ninto a too lightly formed and too confidently expressed undertaking. The\nother presented exactly the opposite fault. That other man in the crowd,\nat the prospect of losing sight of the Christ, began to think that there\nwere imperative duties at home which would prevent his following the\nMaster, and said, 'Suffer me first to go and bury my father.' A sacred\nobligation, and one which Christ would not have desired him to suspend,\nunless there had been something more behind it!\n\nThese two men, then, represent the two opposite poles of weakness, the\none too swift, the other too slow, to take a decisive step. And Christ's\ntreatment of them is, in like manner, a representation of the two\nopposite methods which He adopts for curing opposite diseases, and\nbringing both back to the same state of health. He stimulates the too\nsluggish, He represses the too willing (if such a paradox may be\nallowed). His treatment is at once spur and bridle. To the one man He\nadministers a sobering representation of what he is undertaking with so\nlight a heart; to the other He gives the commandment that sounds so\nstern: 'Leave the highest duty, if you cannot do it without conflicting\nwith your higher to Me.'\n\nAnd so I think that Matthew's arrangement of this pair of companion\npictures is to be preferred to that which we find in Luke, who\nlocalises the incident in a different part of our Lord's ministry, and\non a different occasion. I deal now only with the first of these two\ncontrasted pictures, and consider the lightly-made vow, and Christ's\nsobering treatment of it.\n\nI. The too lightly uttered vow.\n\nThere is a certain almost jaunty air of self-complacence about the man\nand his facile promise. What he promised was no more than what Christ\nrequires from each of us, no more than what Christ was infinitely glad\nto have laid at His feet. And he promised it with absolute sincerity,\nmeaning every word that he said, and believing that he could fulfil it\nall. What was the fault? There were three: taking counsel of a\ntransitory feeling; making a vow with a very slight knowledge of what it\nmeant; and relying with foolish confidence on his own strength.\n\nVows which rest on no firmer foundation than these are sure to sink and\ntopple over into ruin. Discipleship which is the result of mere emotion\nmust be evanescent, for all emotion is so. Effervescence cannot last,\nand when the cause ceases the effect ceases too. Discipleship which\nenlists in Christ's army, in ignorance of the hard marching and fighting\nwhich have to be gone through, will very soon be skulking in the rear or\ndeserting the flag altogether. Discipleship which offers faithful\nfollowing because it relies on its own fervour and force will, sooner or\nlater, feel its unthinkingly undertaken obligations too heavy, and be\nglad to shake off the yoke which it was so eager to put on.\n\nThese three things, singly or combined, are the explanations, as they\nare the causes, of half the stagnant Christianity that chokes our\nchurches. Men have vowed, and did not know what they were vowing,\npledging themselves, in a moment of excitement, to what after years\ndiscover to them to be a hard and uncongenial course of life. They have\nbeen carried into the position of professed disciples on the top of a\nwave of emotion which has long since broken and retreated, leaving them\nstranded and motionless in a place where they have no business to be.\nEvery community of professing Christians is weakened, and its vitality\nis lowered, by the presence and influence of members who have said, 'I\nwill follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,' but whose vow was but a\nflash in the pan, and never meant anything. They did not know what they\nwere saying. They had not stopped to think why they were saying it,\nstill less did they take the advice of the Master to count their forces\nbefore they went into the battle, and see whether their ten thousand\ncould meet him that would come against them with twenty thousand.\n\nI do not suppose that much of our modern religionism is in great danger\nfrom too fervid emotion. That, certainly, is not the side on which our\naverage Christianity is defective. No feeling can be too fervid which\nhas been kindled by profound contemplation and hearty acceptance of\nChrist's redeeming love. The facts to which sound religious emotion\nlooks, warrant, and the work in the Christian life which it has to do,\nneeds that it shall be at white-heat, if it is to be worthy of its\nobject and equal to its tasks. But there very often is emotion which is\ntoo fervid for the convictions which are presumed to kindle it, and\nwhich burns itself out quickly because it neither comes from principle\nnor leads to action. No resolution to follow Christ can be too\nenthusiastic, nor any renunciation for His sake too absolute, to\ncorrespond to His supreme authority. But there may very easily be brave\nwords much too great for the real determination which is in them. A\nhalf-empty bottle makes more noise, if you shake it, than a full one. We\ncannot estimate the hindrances of the Christian life too lightly; if we\ndo so knowing them, and thinking little of them because we think so\njoyfully of Christ our helper. But there may very easily be a\npresumptuous contempt of these, which is only the result of ignorance\nand self-confidence, and will soon be abased into dread of them, and\nprobably end in desertion of Him.\n\nA sadly large number of professing Christians may see their own faces in\nthis mirror. How many of us are exactly like this man? Long, long ago we\nvowed to follow Christ. Have we advanced a yard on the Christian course\nsince then, or do we stand very much at the same point as on that\nfar-off day? Some of us, who spent no breath in saying what we were\ngoing to do, but used it in the prayer, 'Draw me, and I will run after\nThee,' have followed the Captain. Some of us have been like clumsy\nrecruits, who have only been marking time all the while, one foot up and\nthe other down, but always in the same place. That is the kind of\nadvance that the lightly formed resolution--formed in ignorance of what\nit involved, and in foolish confidence in the resolver's strength--is\ntoo apt to lead to. Is it not so in all life? No caravan ever starts\nfrom a port on the coast to go up-country, but there is a percentage of\ndeserters in the first week. There are always, in every good work,\nadherents, easily moved, pushing themselves into the front, full of\nresolves in the beginning, and then, when the tug comes, they drop out\nof the ranks and leave the quiet ones, that did not say, 'I am going to\ndo it,' but thought to themselves, 'I should uncommonly like to _try_\nwhether I can.' to bear the burden and heat of the march. A sad, wise,\nself-distrustful valour is the temper that wins.\n\nLet us see to it, dear brethren, not that our fervour be less--I do not\nknow how the fervour of some of you could be less and keep alive at\nall--but that our principle be more; not that our resolutions be less\nnoble, but that they be more deeply engrained. You can light a fire of\nthe chips and paper in an instant, and the flimsier the material the\nmore quickly it will crackle; it takes a longer time to get coals in a\nblaze, and they will last longer. Be your resolves slow to begin and\nnever-ending,' especially when you say, as we are all bound to say,\n'Lord! I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.'\n\nII. Note our Lord's treatment of this too lightly uttered vow.\n\nIt is wonderfully gentle and lenient. He speaks no rebuke. He does not\nreject the proffered devotion. He does not even say that there was\nanything defective in it, but simply answers by a quiet statement of\nwhat the vow was pledging the rash utterer to do. Christ's words are a\ndouche of cold water to condense the steam which was so noisily\nescaping, to turn the vaporous enthusiasm into something more solid,\nwith the particles nearer each other. His object was not to repel, but\nto turn an ignorant, somewhat bragging vow into a calm, humble\ndetermination, with a silent 'God helping me' for its foundation. To\nrepel is sometimes the way to attract. Jesus Christ would not have any\none coming after Him on a misunderstanding of where he is going, or\nwhat he will have to do. It shall be all fair and above board, and the\ndifficulties and sacrifices and necessary restrictions and\ninconveniences shall all be stated. He does not need to hide from His\nrecruits the black side of the war for which He seeks to enlist them,\nbut He tells it all to them to begin with, and then waits--and He only\nknows how longingly He waits--for their repeating, with full knowledge\nand humble determination, the vow that sprang so lightly to their lips\nwhen they did not understand what they were saying. Of course our Lord's\nwords had literal truth, and their original intention was to bring\nclearly before this man the hard fact that following Jesus meant\nhomelessness. It is as if He had said, 'You are ready to follow Me\nwherever I go--are you? You will have to go far, and to be always going.\nCreatures have their burrows and their roosting-places, but I, the Lord\nof creatures, the Son of Man, whose kingdom prophets proclaimed, am\nhouseless in My own realm, and My followers must share My wandering\nlife. Are you ready for that?' Jesus was homeless. He was born in a\nhired stable, cradled in a manger, owed shelter to faithful friends, was\nburied in a borrowed grave; He had 'not where to lay His head,' living\nor dying. And His servants, in literal truth, had to tramp after Him,\nthrough the length and breadth of the land. And if this man was meaning\nto follow Him whithersoever He went, he had not before him a little\npleasure-journey across the lake, to come back again in a day or two,\nbut he was enlisting for a term of service, that extended over a life.\n\nBut then, beyond that, there is a deeper lesson here. 'The Son of Man'\non our Lord's lips not only expressed His dignity as Messiah, but His\nrelation to the whole race of men; and declared that He was what we\nnowadays call ideal manhood. And that is the point, as I take it, of the\ncontrast between the restful lives of the lower creatures, who all have\na place fitted to them, where they curl themselves up, and go to sleep,\nand are comfortable, and the higher life of men, which is homeless in\nthe deepest sense. 'The Son of Man,' He in whom the whole essence of\nhumanity is, as it were, concentrated; and who, in His own person,\npresents the very type and perfection of manhood, cannot but be\nhomeless.\n\nAh, yes I man's prerogative is unrest, and he should recognise it as a\nblessing. It is the condition of all noble life; it is the condition of\nall growth. 'The foxes have holes,' and the fox's hole fits it, and\ntherefore the hole of the fox to-day is what it was in the beginning,\nand ever shall be. Man has no such abode, therefore he grows. Man is\nblessed with that great 'discourse that looks before and after,' and his\nthoughts wander through eternity, and therefore he is capable of endless\nadvance, and if he is in the path where his Maker has meant him to be,\nsure of endless growth. The more a man gets like a beast, the more has\nhe of the beast's lot of happy contentment in this world. And the more\nhe gets like a man, like the 'Son of Man,' the more has he to realise\nthat he is a pilgrim and a sojourner, as all his fathers were.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, because disciples must follow the Son of Man who\nis the King, and whose life is the perfect mirror of manhood, restless\nhomelessness is our lot, if we are His disciples. Ay! and it is our\nblessing. It is better to sleep beneath the stars than beneath golden\ncanopies, and to lay the head upon a stone than upon a lace pillow, if\nthe ladder is at our side and the face of God above it. Better be out in\nthe fields, a homeless stranger with the Lord, than huddling together\nand perfectly comfortable in houses of clay that perish before the\nmoth.\n\nDo not let us repine; let us be thankful that we cannot, if we are\nChrist's, but be strangers here; for all the bitterness and pain of\nunrest and homelessness pass away, and all sweetness and gladness is\nbreathed into them, when we can say, 'I am a sojourner and a stranger\n_with Thee_,' and when in our unrest we are 'following the Lamb\nwhithersoever He goeth.'\n\n\nCHRIST STIMULATING SLUGGISH DISCIPLESHIP\n\n     'And another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first\n     to go and bury my father. 22. But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me;\n     and let the dead bury their dead.'--MATT. viii. 21-22.\n\nThe very first words of these verses, 'And another of His disciples,'\nshow us that the incident recorded in them is only half of a whole. We\nhave already considered the other half, and supplement our former\nremarks by a glance at the remaining portion now. The two men, whose\ntreatment by Christ is narrated, are the antipodes of each other. The\nformer is a type of well-meaning, lightly formed, and so, probably,\nswiftly abandoned purposes. This man is one of the people who always see\nsomething else to be done first, when any plain duty comes before them.\nSluggish, hesitating, keenly conscious of other possibilities and\ndemands, he needs precisely the opposite treatment from his\nlight-hearted and light-purposed brother. Some plants want putting into\na cold house to be checked, some into a greenhouse to be forwarded.\nDiversity of treatment, even when it amounts to opposition of treatment,\ncomes from the same single purpose. And so here the spur is applied,\nwhilst in the former incident it was the rein that was needed.\n\nI. Note, then, first of all, this apparently most laudable and\nreasonable request.\n\n'Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.' Nature says 'Go,' and\nreligion enjoins it, and everything seems to say that it is the right\nthing for a man to do. The man was perfectly sincere in his petition,\nand perfectly sincere in the implied promise that, as soon as the\nfuneral was over, he would come back. He meant it, out and out. If he\nhad not, he would have received different treatment; and if he had not,\nhe would have ceased to be the valuable example and lesson that he is to\nus. So we have here a disciple quite sincere, who believes himself to\nhave already obeyed in spirit and only to be hindered from obeying in\noutward act by an imperative duty that even a barbarian would know to be\nimperative.\n\nAnd yet Jesus Christ read him better than he read himself; and by His\nanswer lets us see that the tone of mind into which we are all tempted\nto drop, and which is the characteristic natural tendency of some of us,\nthat of being hindered from doing the plain thing that lies before us,\nbecause something else crops up, which we also think is imperative upon\nus, is full of danger, and may be the cover of a great deal of\nself-deception; and, at any rate, is not in consonance with Christ's\nsupreme and pressing and immediate claims.\n\nThe temper which says, 'Suffer me first to go and bury my father,' is\nfull of danger. One never knows but that, after he has got his father\nburied, there will be something else turning up equally important.\nThere was the will to be read afterwards, and if he was, as probably he\nwas, the eldest son, he would most likely be the executor. There would\nbe all sorts of affairs to settle up before he might feel that it was\nhis duty to leave everything and follow the Master.\n\nAnd so it always is. 'Suffer me _first_, and when we get to the top of\nthat hill, there is another one beyond. And so we go on from step to\nstep, getting ready to do the duties that we know are most imperative\nupon us, by sweeping preliminaries out of the way, and so we go on until\nour dying day, when somebody else buries us. Like some backwoodsman in\nthe American forests who should say to himself, 'Now, I will not sow a\ngrain of wheat until I have cleared all the land that belongs to me. I\nwill do that first and then begin to reap,' he would be a great deal\nwiser if he cleared and sowed a little bit first, and lived upon it, and\nthen cleared a little bit more. Mark the plain lesson that comes out of\nthis incident, that the habit, for it is a habit with some of us, of\nputting other pressing duties forward, before we attend to the highest\nclaims of Christ, is full of danger, because there will be no end to\nthem if we once admit the principle. And this is true not only in regard\nto Christianity, but in regard to everything that is worth doing in this\nworld. Whenever some great and noble task presents itself with its\nsolemn call for consecration, some dwarf of an apparent duty thrusts\nitself in between and perks up in our faces with its demand, 'Attend to\nme first, and then I will let you go on to that other.'\n\nBut morally, this plea, however sincerely urged, is more or less\nunconscious self-deception. The person who says 'Suffer me first' is\nusually hoodwinking conscience, and covering over, if not a\ndetermination not to do, at least a reluctance to determine to do, the\npostponed duty. And although we may think ourselves quite resolved in\nspirit, and only needing the fitting vacant space to show that we are\nready to act, in the majority of cases the man who says 'Suffer me\nfirst' means, though he often does not know it, 'I do not think I will\ndo it, after all, even then.' Now there are a great many good people\nwho, when urged to some of the plain duties of discipleship--such as\nChristian work, Christian beneficence, the consecration of themselves to\nthe service of their Master--have always something else very important,\nand of immediate, pressing urgency, that has to be done first. And then\nand then, ay? and then,--something else, and then--something else. And\nso some of you go on, and will go on, unless by God's grace you shake\noff the evil habit, to the end of your days, fancying yourselves\ndisciples, and yet all the while delaying really to follow the Master\nuntil the close. And 'all your yesterdays will be but lighting you, with\nunfulfilled purposes, to dusty death.'\n\nII. Now look at the apparently harsh and unreasonable refusal of this\nreasonable request.\n\nIt is extremely unlike Jesus Christ in substance and in tone. It is\nunlike Him to put any barrier in the way of a son's yielding to the\nimpulses of his heart and attending to the last duties to his father. It\nis extremely unlike Him to couch His refusal in words that sound, at\nfirst hearing, so harsh and contemptuous, and that seem to say, 'Let the\ndead world go as it will; never you mind it, do you not go after it at\nall or care about it.'\n\nBut if we remember that it is Jesus Christ, who came to bring life into\nthe dead world, who says this, then, I think, we shall understand better\nwhat He means. I do not need to explain, I suppose, that by the one\n'dead' here is meant the physical and natural 'dead,' and by the other\nthe morally and religiously 'dead'; and that what Christ says, in the\npicturesque way that He so often affected in order to bring great truths\nhome in concrete form to sluggish understandings, is in effect, 'Nay!\nFor the men in the world that are separated from God, and so are dead in\ntheir selfhood and their sin, burying other dead people is appropriate\nwork. But your business, as living by Me, is to carry life, and let the\nburying alone, to be done by the dead people that can do nothing else.'\n\nNow the spirit of our Lord's answer may be put thus:--It must always be\nChrist first, and every one else second; and it must therefore sometimes\nbe Christ _only_, and no one else. 'Let me bury my father and then I\nwill come.' 'No,' says Christ; 'first your duty to Me': first in order\nand time, because first in order of importance. And this is His habitual\ntone, 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of\nMe.'\n\nDid you ever think of what a strange claim that is for a _man_ to make\nupon others? This Jesus Christ comes to you and me, and to every man,\nand says, 'I demand, and I have a right to demand, thy supreme affection\nand thy first obedience. All other relations are subordinate to thy\nrelation to Me. All other persons ought to be less dear to thee than I\nam. No other duty can be so imperative as the duty of following Me.'\nWhat right has He to speak thus to us? On what does such a tremendous\nclaim rest? Who is it that fronts humanity and says, 'He that loveth\nfather or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me'? He had a right to\nsay it, because He is more than they, and has done more than they,\nbecause He is the Son of God manifest in the flesh, and because on the\nCross He has died for all men. Therefore all other claims dwindle and\nsink into nothingness before His. Therefore His will is supreme, and our\nrelation to Him is the dominant fact in our whole moral and religious\ncharacter. He must be first, whoever comes second, and between the first\nand the second there is a great gulf fixed.\n\nRemember that this postponing of all other duties, relationships, and\nclaims to Christ's claims and relationships, and to our duties to Him,\nlifts them up, and does not lower them; exalts, and does not degrade,\nthe earthly affections. They are nobler and loftier, being second, than\nwhen perversely, and, in the literal sense, _preposterously_, they\nassume to be first. The little hills in the foreground are never so\ngreen and fair as when they are looked at in connection with the great\nwhite Alps that tower behind them; and all earthly loves and\nrelationships catch a tinge of more ethereal beauty, and are lifted into\na loftier region, when they are rigidly subordinated to our love to Him.\nBeing second, they are more than when they bragged that they were first.\n\nAgain, if it must be Christ first, and everybody and everything besides\nsecond, then to carry that out, it will often have to be Christ only,\nand no one else. There will come in every man's life the need for a\nsharp decision between conflicting allegiances. Life is full of harsh\nalternatives, and it is of no use to kick against the pricks. The\ndivine order is Jesus first and all things second. But we sometimes\nbreak that order, and then it comes to be, 'Very well, then, if you\ncannot keep the lower in their right places, you must learn to do\nwithout them altogether; and if you will not have Him first and them\nsecond, you must not have them at all.' 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck\nit out,' it would be far better for thee to keep it without offence. 'If\nthine hand offend thee,' put it down on the block, and take the cleaver\nin the other hand, and off with it, it would be better for thee to go\ninto life whole than maimed, but it is better to go into life maimed,\nthan to go into destruction whole. The abandonment of the father's bier\nis second best; but it is sometimes imperative. When you find a taste, a\npursuit, a study, an occupation, a recreation coming between you and\nJesus Christ--when you do not know how it is, but, somehow or other, the\nsky that was blue a minute or two ago has a doleful veil of grey\ncreeping all over it, be sure that something or other which ought to be\nunder has got topmost, and you will have to get rid of it in order to\ncome right again. If this man would certainly have come back had Jesus\nlet him go, he would have been let go; but because Jesus knew that he\nwould not come back, therefore He said, 'You must deny your natural\naffection, because it is coming between you and Me.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, when we find that earthly duties, pursuits,\noccupations of any kind, affections, pure and beautiful as in themselves\nthey may be, are hindering our following the Master, then, if they are\nthings of which we can denude ourselves, though it be at a distinct\nsacrifice, we are bound to do so; or else we are not loving the Master\nmore than all besides.\n\nLet me remind you in closing of the variation in this story which the\nevangelist Luke gives us. He interprets Christ's commandment, 'Follow\nMe,' and expands it into 'preach the Gospel,' which was involved in it.\nThere are many of you who are busily engaged in legitimate occupations,\nand devoting yourselves in various degrees to various forms of\nbeneficence touching the secular condition of the people around us. May\nI hint to such, 'Let the dead bury their dead; preach thou the gospel?'\nA Christian man's first business is to witness for Jesus Christ, and no\namount of diligence in legitimate occupations or in work for the good\nof others will absolve him from the charge of having turned duties\nupside down, if he says, 'I cannot witness for Jesus Christ, for I am so\nbusy about these other things.' This command has a special application\nto us ministers. There are hosts of admirable things that we are tempted\nto engage in nowadays, with the enlarged opportunities that we have of\ninfluencing men, socially, politically, intellectually, and it wants\nrigid concentration for us to keep out of the paths which might hinder\nour usefulness, or, at all events, dissipate our strength. Let us hear\nthat ringing voice ringing always in our ears, 'Preach thou the gospel\nof the kingdom.'\n\n\nTHE PEACE-BRINGER IN THE NATURAL WORLD\n\n     'And when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him.\n     24. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch\n     that the ship was covered with the waves; but He was asleep. 25.\n     And His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save\n     us: we perish. 26. And He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye\n     of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea,\n     and there was a great calm. 27. But the men marvelled, saying, What\n     manner of man la this, that even the winds and the sea obey\n     him!'--MATT. viii. 23-27.\n\nThe second group of miracles in these chapters shows us Christ as the\nPrince of Peace, and that in three regions--the material, the\nsuperhuman, and the moral. He stills the tempest, casts out demons, and\nforgives sins, thus quieting nature, spirit, and conscience.\n\nMountain-girdled lakes are exposed to sudden storms from the wind\nsweeping down the glens. Such a one comes roaring down as the little\nboat, probably belonging to James and John, is labouring across the six\nor seven miles to the eastern side. Matthew describes the boat as it\nwould appear from shore, as being 'covered' and lost to sight by the\nbreaking waves. Mark, who is Peter's mouthpiece, describes the desperate\nplight as one on board knew it, and says the boat was 'filling.' It must\nhave been a serious gale which frightened a crew who had spent all their\nlives on the lake.\n\nNote Christ's sleep in the storm. His calm slumber is contrasted with\nthe hurly-burly of the tempest and the alarm of the crew. It was the\nsleep of physical exhaustion after a hard day's work. He was too tired\nto keep awake, or to be disturbed by the tumult. His fatigue is a sign\nof His true manhood, of His toil up to the very edge of His strength; a\ncharacteristic of His life of service, which we do not make as prominent\nin our thoughts as we should. It is also a sign of His calm conscience\nand pure heart. Jonah slept through the storm because his conscience was\nstupefied; but Christ, as a tired child laying its head on its mother's\nlap.\n\nThat sleep may have a symbolical meaning for us. Though Christ is\npresent, the storm comes, and He sleeps through it. Lazarus dies, and He\nmakes no sign of sympathy. Peter lies in prison, and not till the\nhammers of the carpenters putting up the gibbet for to-morrow are heard,\ndoes deliverance come. He delays His help, that He may try our faith and\nquicken our prayers. The boat may be covered with the waves, and He\nsleeps on, but He will wake before it sinks. He sleeps, but He never\nover-sleeps, and there are no too-lates with Him.\n\nNote next the awaking cry of fear. The broken abruptness of their appeal\nreveals the urgency of the case in the experienced eyes of these\nfishermen. Their summons is a curious mixture of fear and faith. 'Save\nus' is the language of faith; 'we perish' is that of fear. That strange\nblending of opposites is often repeated by us. The office of faith is to\nsuppress fear. But the origin of faith is often in fear, and we are\ndriven to trust just because we are so much afraid. A faith which does\nnot wholly suppress fear may still be most real; and the highest faith\nhas ever the consciousness that unless Christ help, and that speedily,\nwe perish.\n\nSo note next the gentle remonstrance. There is something very majestic\nin the tranquillity of our Lord's awaking, and, if we follow Matthew's\norder, in His addressing Himself first to the disciples' weakness, and\nletting the storm rage on. It can do no harm, and for the present may\nblow as it listeth, while He gives the trembling disciples a lesson.\nObserve how lovingly our Lord meets an imperfect faith. He has no rebuke\nfor their rude awaking of Him. He does not find fault with them for\nbeing 'fearful,' but for being 'so fearful' as to let fear cover faith,\njust as the waves were doing the boat. He pityingly recognises the\nstruggle in their souls, and their possession of some spark of faith\nwhich He would fain blow into a flame. He shows them and us the reason\nfor overwhelming fear as being a deficiency in faith. And He casts all\ninto the form of a question, thus softening rebuke, and calming their\nterrors by the appeal to their common sense. Fear is irrational if we\ncan exercise faith. It is mere bravado to say 'I will not be afraid,'\nfor this awful universe is full of occasions for just terror; but it is\nthe voice of sober reason which says 'I will trust, and not be afraid.'\nChrist answers His own question in the act of putting it,--ye are of\nlittle faith, that is why ye are so fearful.\n\nNote, next, the word that calms the storm. Christ yields to the cry of\nan imperfect faith, and so strengthens it. If He did not, what would\nbecome of any of us? He does not quench the dimly burning wick, but\ntends it and feeds it with oil--by His inward gifts and by His answers\nto prayer--till it burns up clear and smokeless, a faith without fear.\nEven smoke needs but a higher temperature to flame; and fear which is\nmingled with faith needs but a little more heat to be converted into\nradiance of trust. That is precisely what Christ does by this miracle.\nHis royal word is all-powerful. We see Him rising in the stern of the\nfishing-boat, and sending His voice into the howling darkness, and wind\nand waves cower at His feet like dogs that know their master. As in the\nhealing of the centurion's servant, we have the token of divinity in\nthat His bare word is able to produce effects in the natural realm. As\nHe lay asleep He showed the weakness of manhood; but He woke to manifest\nthe power of indwelling divinity. So it is always in His life, where,\nside by side with the signs of humiliation and participation in man's\nweakness, we ever have tokens of His divinity breaking through the veil.\nAll this power is put forth at the cry of timid men. The storm was meant\nto move to terror; terror was meant to evoke the miracle--the result was\ncomplete and immediate. No after-swell disturbed the placid waters when\nthe wind dropped. There had been 'a great tempest,' and now there was 'a\ngreat calm,' as the fishermen floated peacefully to their landing-place\nbeneath the shadow of the hills. The wilder the tempest, the profounder\nthe subsequent repose.\n\nAll this is a true symbol of our individual lives, as well as of the\nhistory of the Church. Storms will come, and He may seem to be heedless.\nHe is ever awakened by our cry, which needs not to be pure faith in\norder to bring the answer, but may be strangely intertwined of faith and\nfear. 'The Lord will help ... and that right early,' and the peace that\nHe brings is peace indeed. So it may be with us amid the struggles of\nlife. So may it be with us when the voyage on this storm-tossed sea of\ntime is done! 'They cry unto the Lord in their trouble. He maketh the\nstorm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad\nbecause they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.'\n\n\nTHE PEACE-BRINGER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD\n\n     'And when He was come to the other side into the country of the\n     Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of\n     the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.\n     29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with\n     Thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us\n     before the time? 30. And there was a good way off from them an herd\n     of many swine feeding. 31. So the devils besought Him, saying, If\n     Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32.\n     And He said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went\n     into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran\n     violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the\n     waters. 33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into\n     the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the\n     possessed of the devils. 34. And, behold, the whole city came out\n     to meet Jesus: and when they saw Him, they besought Him that He\n     would depart out of their coasts.'--MATT. viii. 28-34.\n\nMatthew keeps to chronological order in the first and second miracles of\nthe second triplet, but probably His reason for bringing them together\nwas rather similarity in their contents than proximity in their time.\nFor one cannot but feel that the stilling of the storm, which manifested\nJesus as the Peace-bringer in the realm of the Natural, is fitly\nfollowed by the casting out of demons, which showed Him as the Lord of\nstill wider and darker realms, and the Peace-bringer to spirits tortured\nand torn by a mysterious tyranny. His meek power sways all creatures;\nHis 'word runneth very swiftly.' Winds and seas and demons hearken and\nobey. Cheap ridicule has been plentifully flung at this miracle, and\nsome defenders of the Gospels have tried to explain it away, and have\nalmost apologised for it, but, while it raises difficult problems in its\ndetails, the total effect of it is to present a sublime conception of\nJesus and of His absolute, universal authority. The conception is\nheightened in sublimity when the two adjacent miracles are contemplated\nin connection.\n\nThere is singular variation in the readings of the name of the scene of\nthe miracle in the three evangelists. According to the reading of the\nAuthorised Version, Matthew locates it in the 'country of the\nGergesenes'; Mark and Luke, in the 'country of the Gadarenes'; whereas\nthe Revised Version, following the general consensus of textual critics,\nreads 'Gadarenes' in Matthew and 'Gerasenes' in Mark and Luke. Now,\nGadara is over six miles from the lake, and the deep gorge of a river\nlies between, so that it is out of the question as the scene of the\nmiracle. But the only Gerasa known, till lately, is even more\nimpossible, for it is far to the east of the lake. But some years since,\nThomson found ruins bearing the name of Khersa or Gersa, 'at the only\nportion of that coast on which the steep hills come down to the shore'\n(Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 459). This is probably\nthe site of the miracle, and may have been included in the territory\ndependent on Gadara, and so have been rightly described as in 'the\ncountry of the Gadarenes.'\n\nMatthew again abbreviates, omitting many of the most striking and solemn\nfeatures of the narrative as given by the other two evangelists, and he\nalso diverges from them in mentioning two demoniacs instead of one. That\nis not contradiction, for if there were two, there was one, but it is\ndivergence, due to more accurate information. Whether they were meant so\nor no, the abbreviations have the striking result that Jesus speaks but\none word, the permissive 'Go,' and that thus His simple presence is the\npotent spell before which the demons cower and flee. They know Him as\n'the Son of God'; a name which, on their lips, must be taken in its full\nsignificance. If demoniacal possession is a fact, there is no difficulty\nin accounting for the name here given to Jesus, nor for the sudden\nchange from the fierce purpose of barring an intruder's path to abject\nsubmission. If it is not a fact, to make a plausible explanation of\neither circumstance will be a task needing many contortions, as is seen\nby the attempts to achieve it. For example, we are told that the\ndemoniacs were afraid of Jesus, because He 'was not afraid of them,' and\nthey knew Him, because 'men with shattered reason also felt the spell,\nwhile the wise and the strong-minded often used their intellect, under\nthe force of passion or prejudice, to resist the force of truth.'\nPossibly the last clause goes as far to explain some critics'\nnon-recognition of demoniacal possession as the first does to explain\nthe demoniacs' recognition of Jesus!\n\nTo the demonic nature Christ's coming brought torture, as the sunbeam,\nwhich gives life to many, also gives death to ugly creatures that crawl\nand swarm in the dark. Turn up a stone, and the creeping things hurry\nout of the penetrating glare so unwelcome. 'What maketh heaven, that\nmaketh hell,' and the same presence is life or death, joy or agony. The\ndear perception of divine purity and the shuddering recoil of impotent\nhatred from it are surely of the very essence of the demonic nature, and\nevery man, who looks into the depths of his own spirit, knows that the\npossibilities of such a state are in him.\n\nOur Lord discriminated between healing the sick and casting out demons.\nHe distinguished between forms of disease due to possession and the same\ndiseases when dissociated from it, as, for example, cases of dumbness.\nHis whole attitude, both in His actual dealing with the possessed and in\nHis referring to the subject, gave His complete adhesion to the reality\nof the awful thing. It is vain to say that He humoured the delusions of\ninsanity in order to cure them. That theory does not adequately explain\nany of the facts and does not touch some of them. It is perilous to try\nto weaken the force of the narrative by saying that the evangelists were\nunder the influence of popular notions (which are quietly assumed to\nhave been wrong), and hence that their prepossessions coloured their\nrepresentations. If the mirror was so distorted, what reliance can be\nplaced on any part of its reflection of Jesus? There can be no doubt\nthat the Gospel narrative asserts and assumes the reality of demoniacal\npossession, and if the representation that Jesus also assumed it is due\nto the evangelists, what trust can be reposed in authorities which\nmisrepresent Him in such a matter? On the other hand, if they do not\nmisrepresent Him, and He blundered, confounding mere insanity with\npossession by a demon, what reliance can be reposed in Him as our\nTeacher of the Unseen World? The issues involved are very grave and\nfar-reaching, and raillery or sarcasm is out of place.\n\nBut the question is pertinent: By what right do we allege that\ndemoniacal possession is an exploded figment and an impossibility? Do we\nknow ourselves or our fellows so thoroughly as to be warranted in\ndenying that deep down in the mysterious 'subliminal consciousness'\nthere is a gate through which spiritual beings may come into contact\nwith human personalities? He would be bold, to the verge of presumption\nor somewhat further, who should take up such a position. And have we any\nbetter right to assume that we know so much of the universe as to be\nsure that there are no evil spirits there, who can come into contact\nwith human spirits and wield an alien tyranny over them? The Christian\nattitude is not that of such far-reaching denial which outruns our\nknowledge, but that of calm belief that Jesus is the head of all\nprincipality and power, and that to Him all are subject. It is taken for\ngranted that the supposed possession is insanity. But may it not rather\nbe that to-day some of the supposed insanity is possession? Be that as\nit may--and perhaps those who have the widest experience of 'lunatics'\nwould be the least ready to dismiss the possibility,--Jesus recognised\nthe reality that there were souls oppressed by a real personality, which\nhad settled itself in the house of life, and none of us has wide and\ndeep enough knowledge to contradict Him. Might it not be better to\naccept His witness in this, as in other matters beyond our ken, as true,\nand to ponder it?\n\nThe demons' petition, according to the Received Text, takes the form,\n'Suffer us to go,' while the reading adopted by most modern editors is\n'Send us.' The former reading seems to be taken from Luke (viii. 32),\nwhile Mark has 'Send' (not the same word as now read in Matthew). But\nMark goes on to say, not that Jesus sent them, but that He 'suffered\nthem' or 'gave them leave' (the same word as in Matthew, according to\nthe Received Text). Thus, Jesus' part in the transaction is simply\npermissive, and the one word which He speaks is authoritative indeed in\nits curtness, and means simply 'away,' or 'begone.' It casts them out\nbut does not send them in. He did not send them into the herd, but out\nof the men, and did not prevent their entrance into the swine. It should\nfurther be noted that nothing in the narrative suggests that the\ndestruction of the herd was designed even by the demons, much less by\nJesus. The maddened brutes rushed straight before them, not knowing why\nor where; the steep slope was in front, and the sea was at its foot, and\ntheir terrified, short gallop ended there. The last thing the demons\nwould have done would have been to banish themselves, as the death of\nthe swine did banish them, from their new shelter. There is no need,\nthen, to invent justifications for Christ's destroying the herd, for He\ndid not destroy it. No doubt, keeping swine was a breach of Jewish law;\nno doubt the two demoniacs and the bystanders would be more convinced of\nthe reality of the exorcism by the fate of the swine, but these\napologies are needless.\n\nThe narrative suggests some affinity between the demoniac and the animal\nnature, and though it is easy to ridicule, it is impossible to disprove,\nthe suggestion. We know too little about either to do that, and what we\ncannot disprove it is somewhat venturesome hardily to deny. There are\ndepths in the one nature, which we cannot fathom though its possessors\nare close to us; the other is removed from our investigation altogether.\nWhere we are so utterly ignorant we had better neither affirm nor deny.\nBut we may take a homiletical use out of that apparent affinity, and\nrecognise that a spirit in rebellion against God necessarily gravitates\ndownwards, and becomes more or less bestialised.\n\nNo wonder that the swineherds fled, but, surely, it is a wonder that\neagerness to be rid of Jesus was the sole result of the miracle. Perhaps\nthe reason was the loss of the swine, which would bulk largest in their\nkeepers' excited story; perhaps the reason was a fear that He would find\nout and rebuke other instances of breach of strict Jewish propriety,\nperhaps it was simply the shrinking from any close contact with the\nheavenly, or apparently supernatural, which is so instinctive in us, and\nwitnesses to a dormant consciousness of discord with Heaven. 'Depart\nfrom me, for I am a sinful man,' is the cry of the roused conscience.\nAnd, alas! it has power to send away Him whom we need, and who comes to\nus, just because we are sinful, and just that He may deliver us from our\nsin.\n\n\nEND OF VOL. I","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St. Matthew Chapters I to VIII","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":250639}