{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7883/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7883","id":"gutenberg_7883","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7883","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Hagiographa -- Commentaries","Bible. Historical Books -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Tiffany Vergon, David King and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\nSECOND KINGS FROM CHAP. VIII, AND CHRONICLES, EZRA, AND NEHEMIAH\n\nESTHER, JOB, PROVERBS\nAND ECCLESIASTES\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nTHE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS\n\n\nTHE STORY OF HAZAEL (2 Kings viii. 9-15)\n\nIMPURE ZEAL (2 Kings x. 18-31)\n\nJEHOIADA AND JOASH (2 Kings xi. 1-16)\n\nMETHODICAL LIBERALITY (2 Kings xii. 4-15)\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF POWER (2 Kings xiii. 16)\n\nA KINGDOM'S EPITAPH (2 Kings xvii. 6-18)\n\nDIVIDED WORSHIP (2 Kings xvii. 33)\n\nHEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE (2 Kings xviii. 5, 6)\n\n'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED' (2 Kings xix. 20-22; 28-37)\n\nTHE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS (2 Kings xxii. 8-20)\n\nTHE END (2 Kings xxv. 1-12)\n\nTHE KING'S POTTERS (1 Chron. iv. 23)\n\nDAVID'S CHORISTERS (1 Chron. vi. 32, R.V. margin)\n\nDRILL AND ENTHUSIASM (1 Chron. xii. 33)\n\nDAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE (1 Chron. xxii. 6-16)\n\nDAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON (1 Chron. xxviii. 1-10)\n\nTHE WAVES OF TIME (1 Chron. xxix. 30)\n\n\nTHE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES\n\n\nTHE DUTY OF EVERY DAY (2 Chron. viii. 12-13, R.V.)\n\nCONTRASTED SERVICES (2 Chron. xii. 8)\n\nTHE SECRET OF VICTORY (2 Chron. xiii. 18)\n\nASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY (2 Chron. xiv.\n2-8)\n\nASA'S PRAYER (2 Chron. xiv. 11)\n\nTHE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS (2 Chron. xv. 15)\n\nJEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM (2 Chron. xvii. 1-10)\n\nAMASIAH (2 Chron. xvii. 16)\n\n'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES' (2 Chron. xix. 1-11)\n\nA STRANGE BATTLE (2 Chron. xx. 12)\n\nHOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST (2 Chron. xx. 20)\n\nJOASH (2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 17)\n\nGLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS (2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14)\n\nPRUDENCE AND FAITH (2 Chron. xxv. 9)\n\nJOTHAM (2 Chron. xxvii. 6)\n\nCOSTLY AND FATAL HELP (2 Chron. xxviii. 23)\n\nA GODLY REFORMATION (2 Chron. xxix. 1-11)\n\nSACRIFICE RENEWED (2 Chron. xxix. 18-31)\n\nA LOVING CALL TO REUNION (2 Chron. xxx. 1-13)\n\nA STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS (2 Chron. xxxii. 1)\n\nMANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE (2 Chron. xxxiii. 9-16)\n\nJOSIAH (2 Chron. xxxiv. 1-13)\n\nJOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW (2 Chron. xxxiv. 11-28)\n\nTHE FALL OF JUDAH (2 Chron. xxxvi. 11-21)\n\n\nEZRA\n\n\nTHE EVE OF THE RESTORATION (Ezra i. 1-11)\n\nALTAR AND TEMPLE (Ezra iii. 1-13)\n\nBUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES (Ezra iv. 1-5)\n\nTHE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP (Ezra vi. 14-22)\n\nGOD THE JOY-BRINGER (Ezra vi. 22)\n\nHEROIC FAITH (Ezra viii. 22, 23, 31, 32)\n\nTHE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS (Ezra viii. 29)\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH\n\n\nA REFORMER'S SCHOOLING (Neh. i. 1-11)\n\nTHE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS (Neh. i. 4)\n\n'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE' (Neh. iii. 28)\n\nDISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE (Neh. iv. 9-21)\n\nAN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST (Neh. v. 15)\n\nREADING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY (Neh. viii. 1-12)\n\nTHE JOY OF THE LORD (Neh. viii. 10)\n\nSABBATH OBSERVANCE (Neh. xiii. l5-22)\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF ESTHER\n\n\nTHE NET SPREAD (Esther iii. 1-11)\n\nESTHER'S VENTURE (Esther iv. 10-17; v. 1-3)\n\nMORDECAI AND ESTHER (Esther iv. 14)\n\nTHE NET BROKEN (Esther viii.3-8,15-17)\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF JOB\n\n\nSORROW THAT WORSHIPS (Job i. 21)\n\nTHE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE\n(Job v. 17-27)\n\nTWO KINDS OF HOPE (Job viii. 14; Romans v. 5)\n\nJOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER (Job xiv. 14; John xi. 25,26)\n\nKNOWLEDGE AND PEACE (Job xxii. 21)\n\nWHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE (Job xxii. 26-29)\n\n'THE END OF THE LORD' (Job xlii. 1-10)\n\n\nTHE PROVERBS\n\n\nA YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR (Proverbs i. 1-19)\n\nWISDOM'S CALL (Proverbs i. 20-33)\n\nTHE SECRET OF WELL-BEING (Proverbs iii. 1-10)\n\nTHE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM (Proverbs iii. 11-24)\n\nTHE TWO PATHS (Proverbs iv. 10-19)\n\nMONOTONY AND CRISES (Proverbs iv. 12)\n\nFROM DAWN TO NOON (Proverbs iv. 18; Matt. xiii. 43)\n\nKEEPING AND KEPT (Proverbs iv. 23; I Peter i. 5)\n\nTHE CORDS OF SIN (Proverbs v. 22)\n\nWISDOM'S GIFT (Proverbs viii. 21)\n\nWISDOM AND CHRIST (Proverbs viii. 30, 31)\n\nTHE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING (Proverbs\nx. 29)\n\nTHE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY (Proverbs\nxii. 1-15)\n\nTHE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR (Proverbs xiii. 7)\n\nTHE TILLAGE OF THE POOR (Proverbs xiii. 23)\n\nSIN THE MOCKER (Proverbs xiv. 9)\n\nHOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY (Prov. xiv. 13; John xv. 11)\n\nSATISFIED FROM SELF (Proverbs xiv. 14)\n\nWHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF\nME (Proverbs xvi. 2)\n\nA BUNDLE OF PROVERBS (Proverbs xvi. 22-33)\n\nTWO FORTRESSES (Proverbs xviii. 10, 11)\n\nA STRING OF PEARLS (Proverbs xx. 1-7)\n\nTHE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST (Proverbs xx. 4)\n\nBREAD AND GRAVEL (Proverbs xx. 17)\n\nA CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE (Proverbs xxiii. 15-23)\n\nTHE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE (Proverbs xxiii. 17, 18)\n\nTHE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKARD (Proverbs xxiii, 29-35)\n\nTHE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE (Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12)\n\nTHE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN (Proverbs xxiv. 30, 31)\n\nAN UNWALLED CITY (Proverbs xxv. 28)\n\nTHE WEIGHT OF SAND (Proverbs xxvii. 3)\n\nPORTRAIT OF A MATRON (Proverbs xxxi. 10-31)\n\n\nECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER\n\n\nWHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES (Eccles. i. 4; I John\nii. 17)\n\nTHE PAST AND THE FUTURE (Eccles. i. 9; I Peter iv. 2, 3)\n\nTWO VIEWS OF LIFE (Eccles. i. 13; Hebrews xii. 10)\n\n'A TIME TO PLANT' (Eccles. iii. 2)\n\nETERNITY IN THE HEART (Eccles. iii. 11)\n\nLESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK (Eccles. v. 1-12)\n\nNAKED OR CLOTHED? (Eccles. v. 15; Rev. xiv. 13)\n\nFINIS CORONAT OPUS (Eccles. vii. 8)\n\nMISUSED RESPITE (Eccles. viii. 11)\n\nFENCES AND SERPENTS (Eccles. x. 8)\n\nTHE WAY TO THE CITY (Eccles. x. 15)\n\nA NEW YEAR'S SERMON TO THE YOUNG (Eccles. xi. 9; xii. 1)\n\nTHE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER (Eccles. xii. 1-7, 13-14)\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS\n\n\nTHE STORY OF HAZAEL\n\n'So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of\nevery good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood\nbefore him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to\nthee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10. And Elisha said\nunto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the\nLord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 11. And he settled his\ncountenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.\n12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I\nknow the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their\nstrong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay\nwith the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women\nwith child. 13. And Hazael said. But what, is thy servant a dog, that\nhe should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath\nshewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 14. So he departed from\nElisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to\nthee? and he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.\n15. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and\ndipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and\nHazael reigned in his stead.'--2 KINGS viii. 9-15.\n\n\nThis is a strange, wild story. That Damascene monarchy burst into\nsudden power, warlike and commercial--for the two things went together\nin those days. As is usually the case, Hazael the successful soldier\nbecomes ambitious. His sword seems to be the real sceptre, and he will\nhave the dominion. Many years before this Elijah had anointed him to\nbe king over Syria. That had wrought upon him and stirred ambition in\nhim. Elijah's other appointments, coeval with his own, had already\ntaken effect, Jehu was king of Israel, Elisha was prophet, and he only\nhad not attained the dignity to which he had been designated.\n\nHe comes now with his message from the king of Damascus to Elisha. No\ndoubt he had been often contrasting his own vigour with the decrepit,\nnominal king, and many a time had thought of the anointing, and had\nnursed ambitious hopes, which gradually turned to dark resolves.\n\nHe hoped, no doubt, that Ben-hadad was mortally sick, and it must have\nbeen a cruel, crushing disappointment when he heard that there was\nnothing deadly in the illness. Another hope was gone from him. The\nthrone seemed further off than ever. I suppose that, at that instant,\nthere sprang in his heart the resolve that he would kill Ben-hadad.\nThe recoil of disappointment spurred Hazael to the resolution which he\nthen and there took. It had been gathering form, no doubt, through\nsome years, but now it became definite and settled. While his face\nglowed with the new determination, and his lips clenched themselves in\nthe firmness of his purpose, the even voice of the prophet went on,\n'howbeit he shall certainly die,' and the eye of the man of God\nsearched him till he turned away ashamed because aware that his inmost\nheart was read.\n\nThen there followed the prophet's weeping, and the solemn announcement\nof what Hazael would do when he had climbed to the throne. He shrank\nin real horror from the thought of such enormity of sin. 'Is thy\nservant a dog that he should do such a thing?' Elisha sternly answers:\n'The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' The\ncertainty is that in his character occasion will develop evil. The\ncertainty is that a course begun by such crime will be of a piece, and\nconsistent with itself.\n\nThis conversation with Elisha seems to have accelerated Hazael's\npurpose, as if the prediction were to his mind a justification of his\nmeans of fulfilling it.\n\nHow like Macbeth he is!--the successful soldier, stirred by\nsupernatural monitions of a greatness which he should achieve, and at\nlast a murderer.\n\nThis narrative opens to us some of the solemn, dark places of human\nlife, of men's hearts, of God's ways. Let us look at some of the\nlessons which lie here.\n\nI. Man's responsibility for the sin which God foresees.\n\nIt seems as if the prophet's words had much to do in exciting the\nambitious desires which led to the crime. Hazael's purpose of\nexecuting the deed is clearly known to the prophet. His ascending the\nthrone is part of the divine purpose. He could find excuses for his\nguilt, and fling the responsibility for firing his ambition on the\ndivine messenger. It may be asked--What sort of God is this who works\non the mind of a man by exciting promises, and having done so, and\nhaving it fixed in His purposes that the man is to do the crime, yet\ntreats it when done as guilt?\n\nBut now, whatever you may say, or whatever excuses Hazael might have\nfound for himself, here is just in its most naked form that which is\ntrue about all sin. God foresees it all. God puts men into\ncircumstances where they will fall, God presents to them things which\nthey will make temptations. God takes the consequences of their\nwrongdoing and works them into His great scheme. That is undeniable on\none side, and on the other it is as undeniable that God's foreseeing\nleaves men free. God's putting men into circumstances where they fall\nis not His tempting them. God's non-prevention of sin is not\npermission to sin. God's overruling the consequences of sin is not His\ncondoning of sin as part of the scheme of His providence.\n\nMan is free. Man is responsible. God hates sin. God foresees and\npermits sin.\n\nIt is all a terrible mystery, but the facts are as undeniable as the\nmystery of their co-existence is inscrutable.\n\nII. The slumbering possibilities of sin.\n\nHazael indignantly protests against the thought that he should do such\na thing. There is conscience left in him yet. His example suggests how\nlittle any of us know what it is in us to be or to do. We are all of\nus a mystery to ourselves. Slumbering powers lie in us. We are like\nquiescent volcanoes.\n\nSo much in us lies dormant, needing occasion for its development, like\nseeds that may sleep for centuries. That is true in regard to both the\ngood and the bad in us. Life reveals us to ourselves. We learn to know\nourselves by our actions, better than by mental self-inspection.\n\nAll sin is one in essence, and may pass into diverse forms according\nto circumstances. Of course characters differ, but the root of sin is\nin us all. We are largely good because not tempted, as a house may\nwell stand firm when there are no floods. By the nature of the case,\nthorough self-knowledge is impossible.\n\nSin has the power of blinding us to its presence. It comes in a cloud\nas the old gods were fabled to do. The lungs get accustomed to a\nvitiated atmosphere, and scarcely are conscious of oppression till\nthey cease to play.\n\nAll this should teach us--\n\nLessons of wary walking and humility. We are good because we have not\nbeen tried.\n\nLessons of charity and brotherly kindness. Every thief in the hulks,\nevery prostitute on the streets, is our brother and sister, and they\nprove their fraternity by their sin. 'Whatever man has done man may\ndo.' '_Nihil humanum alienum a me puto_.' 'Let him that is\nwithout sin cast the first stone.'\n\nIII. The fatal necessity by which sin repeats itself in aggravated\nforms.\n\nSee how Hazael is drifted into his worst crimes. His first one leads\non by fell necessity to others. A man who has done no sin is\nconceivable, but a man who has done only one is impossible. Did you\never see a dam bursting or breaking down? Through a little crack comes\none drop: will it stop there--the gap or the trickle? No! The drop has\nwidened the crack, it has softened the earth around, it has cleared\naway some impediments. So another and another follow ever more\nrapidly, until the water pours out in a flood and the retaining\nembankment is swept away.\n\nNo sin 'is dead, being alone.' The demon brings seven other devils\nworse than himself. The reason for that aggravation is plain.\n\nThere is, first, habit.\n\nThere is, second, growing inclination.\n\nThere is, third, weakened restraint.\n\nThere is, fourth, a craving for excitement to still conscience.\n\nThere is, fifth, the necessity of the man's position.\n\nThere is, sixth, the strange love of consistency which tones all life\ndown or up to one tint, as near as may be. There comes at last\ndespair.\n\nBut not merely does every sin tend to repeat itself and to draw others\nafter it. It tends to repeat itself in aggravated forms. There is\ngrowth, the law of increase as well as of perpetuity. The seed\nproduces 'some sixty and some an hundredfold.'\n\nAnd so the slaughtered soldiers and desolated homesteads of Israel\nwere the sequel of the cloth on Ben-hadad's face. The secret of much\nenormous crime is the kind of relief from conscience which is found in\ncommitting a yet greater sin. The Furies drive with whips of\nscorpions, and the poor wretch goes plunging and kicking deeper and\ndeeper in the mire, further and farther from the path. So you can\nnever say: 'I will only do this one wrong thing.'\n\nWe see here how powerless against sin are all restraints. The prophecy\ndid not prevent Hazael from his sins. The clear sense that they were\nsins did not prevent him. The horror-struck shudder of conscience did\nnot prevent him. It was soon gagged.\n\nHear, then, the conclusion of the whole matter. Christ reveals us to\nourselves. Christ breaks the chain of sin, makes a new beginning, cuts\noff the entail, reverses the irreversible, erases the indelible,\ncancels the irrevocable, forgives all the faultful past, and by the\npower of His love in the soul, works a mightier miracle than changing\nthe Ethiopian's skin; teaches them that are accustomed to evil to do\nwell, and though sins be as scarlet, makes them white as snow. He\ngives us a cleansed past and a bright future, and out of all our sins\nand wasted years makes pardoned sinners and glorified, perfected\nsaints.\n\n\n\nIMPURE ZEAL\n\n'And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab\nserved Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. 19. Now therefore\ncall unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his\npriests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to\nBaal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it\nin subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of\nBaal. 20. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they\nproclaimed it. 21. And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the\nworshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came\nnot. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was\nfull from one end to another. 22. And he said unto him that was over\nthe vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And\nhe brought them forth vestments. 23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the\nson of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers\nof Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the\nservants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only. 24. And when\nthey went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed\nfourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought\ninto your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for\nthe life of him. 25. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an\nend of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to\nthe captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they\nsmote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains\ncast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. 26. And they\nbrought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.\n27. And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of\nBaal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 28. Thus Jehu\ndestroyed Baal out of Israel. 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam\nthe son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after\nthem, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in\nDan. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in\nexecuting that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the\nhouse of Ahab according to all that was in Mine heart, thy children of\nthe fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 31. But Jehu\ntook no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his\nheart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made\nIsrael to sin.'--2 KINGS x. 18-31.\n\n\nThe details of this story of bloodshed need little elucidation. Jehu\nhad 'driven furiously' to some purpose. Secrecy and swiftness joined\nto unhesitating severity had crushed the dynasty of Ahab, which fell\nunlamented and unsupported, as if lightning-struck. The nobler\nelements had gathered to Jehu, as represented by the Rechabite,\nJehonadab, evidently a Jehovah worshipper, and closely associated with\nthe fierce soldier in this chapter. Jehu first secured his position,\nand then smote the Baal worship as heavily and conclusively as he had\ndone the royal family. He struck once, and struck no more; for the\nsingle blow pulverised.\n\nThe audacious pretext of an intention to outdo the fallen dynasty in\nBaal worship must have sounded strange to those who knew how his\nmassacre of Ahab's house had been represented by him as fulfilling\nJehovah's purpose, but it was not too gross to be believed. So we can\nfancy the joyous revival of hope with which from every corner of the\nland the Baal priests, prophets, and worshippers, recovered from their\nfright, came flocking to the great temple in Samaria, till it was like\na cup filled with wine from brim to brim. The worship cannot have\nnumbered many adherents if one temple could hold the bulk of them.\nProbably it had never been more than a court fashion, and, now that\nJezebel was dead, had lost ground. A token of royal favour was given\nto each of the crowd, in the gift of a vestment from the royal\nwardrobe. Then Jehu himself, accompanied by the ascetic Jehonadab,\nentered the court of the temple, a strangely assorted pair, and a\ncouple of very 'distinguished' converts. The Baal priests would thrill\nwith gratified pride when these two came to worship. The usual\nprecautions against the intrusion of non-worshippers were taken at\nJehu's command, but with a sinister meaning, undreamed of by the eager\nsearchers. That was a sifting for destruction, not for preservation.\nSo they all passed into the inner court to offer sacrifice.\n\nThe story gives a double picture in verse 24. Within are the jubilant\nworshippers; without, the grim company of their executioners, waiting\nthe signal to draw their swords and burst in on the unarmed mob. Jehu\ncarried his deception so far that he himself offered the burnt\noffering, with Jehonadab standing by, and then withdrew, followed, no\ndoubt, by grateful acclamations. A step or two brought him to the\n'eighty men without.' Two stern words, 'Go, smite them,' are enough.\nThey storm in, and 'the songs of the temple' are turned to 'howlings\nin that day.' The defenceless, surprised crowd, huddled together in\nthe dimly lighted shrine, were massacred to a man. The innermost\nsanctuary was then wrecked, corpses and statues thrown pell-mell into\nthe outer courts or beyond the precincts, fires lit to burn the\nabominations, and busy hands, always more ready for pillage and\ndestruction than for good work, pulled down the temple, the ruins of\nwhich were turned to base uses. The writer, picturing the wild scene,\nsums up with a touch of exultation: 'Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of\nIsrael'--where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the\nking, the god, and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible\ndeed.\n\nNow the main interest of this passage lies in its disclosure of the\nstrangely mingled character of Jehu, and in the fact that his bloody\nseverity was approved by God, and rewarded by the continuance of his\ndynasty for a longer time than any other on the throne of Israel.\n\nJehu was influenced by 'zeal for the Lord,' however much smoke mingled\nwith the flame. He acted under the conviction that he was God's\ninstrument, and at each new deed of blood asserted his fulfilment of\nprophecy. His profession to Jehonadab (ver. 16) was not hypocrisy nor\nostentation. The Rechabite sheikh was evidently a man of mark, and\napparently one of the leaders of those who had not 'bowed the knee to\nBaal'; and Jehu's disclosure of his animating motive was meant to\nsecure the alliance of that party through one of its chiefs. No doubt\nmany elements of selfishness and many stains mingled with Jehu's zeal.\nIt was much on the same level as the fanaticism of the immediate\nsuccessors of Mohammed; but, low as it was, look at its power. Jehu\nswept like a whirlwind, or like leaping fire among stubble, from\nRamoth to Jezreel, from Jezreel to Samaria, and nothing stood before\nhis fierce onset. Promptitude, decision, secrecy,--the qualities which\ncarry enterprises to success--marked his character; partly, no doubt,\nfrom natural temperament, for God chooses right instruments, but from\ntemperament heightened and invigorated by the conviction of being the\ninstrument whom God had chosen. We may learn how even a very imperfect\nform of this conviction gives irresistible force to a man, annihilates\nfear, draws the teeth of danger, and gathers up all one's faculties to\na point which can pierce any opposition. We may all recognise that God\nhas sent us on His errands; and if we cherish that conviction, we\nshall put away from us slothfulness and fear, and out of weakness\nshall be made strong.\n\nBut Jehu sets forth the possible imperfections of 'zeal for the Lord.'\nWe may defer for a moment the consideration of the morality of his\nslaughter of the royal house and the Baal worshippers, and point to\nthe taint of selfishness and to the leaven of deceit in his\nenthusiasm. We have not to analyse it. That is God's work. But clearly\nthe object which he had in view was not merely fulfilment of prophecy,\nbut securing the throne; and there was more passion, as well as\nselfish policy, in his massacres, than befitted a minister of the\ndivine justice, who should let no anger disturb the solemnity of his\nterrible task. Such dangers ever attend the path of the great men who\nfeel themselves to be sent by God. In our humbler lives they dog our\nsteps, and religious fervour needs ever to keep careful watch on\nitself, lest it should degenerate unconsciously into self-will, and\nshould allow the muddy stream of earth-born passion to darken its\ncrystal waters.\n\nMany a great name in the annals of the Church has fallen before that\ntemptation. We all need to remember that 'the wrath of man worketh not\nthe righteousness of God,' and to take heed lest we should be guided\nby our own stormy impatience of contradiction, and by a determination\nto have our own way, while we think ourselves the humble instruments\nof a divine purpose. There was a 'Zelotes' in the Apostolate; but the\ncoarse, sanguinary 'zeal' of his party must have needed much purifying\nbefore it learned what manner of spirit the zeal of a true disciple\nwas of.\n\nAnother point of interest is the divine emphatic approval of Jehu's\nbloody acts (ver. 30). The massacre of the Baal worshippers is not\nincluded in the acts which God declares to have been 'according to all\nthat was in Mine heart,' and it may be argued that it was not part of\nJehu's commission. Certainly the accompanying deceit was not 'right in\nGod's eyes,' but the slaughter in Baal's temple was the natural sequel\nof the civil revolution, and is most probably included in the deeds\napproved.\n\nPerhaps Elisha brought Jehu the message in verse 30. If so, what a\ncontrast between the two instruments of God's purposes! At all events,\nJehovah's approval was distinctly given. What then? There need be no\nhesitation in recognising the progressive character of Scripture\nmorality, as well as the growth of the revelation of the divine\ncharacter, of which the morality of each epoch is the reflection. The\nfull revelation of the God of love had to be preceded by the clear\nrevelation of the God of righteousness; and whilst the Old Testament\ndoes make known the love of God in many a gracious act and word, it\nespecially teaches His righteous condemnation of sin, without which\nHis love were mere facile indulgence and impunity. The slaughter of\nthat wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of\ndivine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was\nentitled to slay them. To that question believers in a divine\nprovidence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship\nand the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab's family were\nsufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in\nJehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God's was\nthe hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life\nand death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers.\nGranted that the 'long-suffering' which is 'not willing that any\nshould perish' speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice\nwhich smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is\npossible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a\nloose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at\nthe thought of the 'wrath of God,' and recoils from the contemplation\nof His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness\nof His love.\n\nFrom the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are\nnot made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation's\nhistory, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful\nsystem is to be crushed, there will be violence, at which easy-going\npeople, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their\nhands in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law\nthan Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love\nin the place of what was 'said to them of old time.' But let us, while\nwe obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men\nof old 'according to that which they had, and not according to that\nwhich they had not.' Jehu's bloody deeds are not held up for\nadmiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us\nif we obey our better law as faithfully!\n\nThe last point in the story is the imperfection of the obedience of\nJehu. He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves.\nThat shows the impurity of his 'zeal,' which flamed only against what\nit was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and\nolder idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be 'all in all, or not at\nall.' We may not 'compound for sins we are inclined to, by' zeal\nagainst those 'we have no mind to.' Our consciences are apt to have\ninsensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough\nto remove the grosser evils, and leave the less, but white ants will\neat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little\nuse if we keep the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Nothing but walking in\nthe law of the Lord 'with all the heart' will secure our walking\nsafely. 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' needs to be our daily\nprayer. 'One foot on sea and one on shore' is not the attitude in\nwhich steadfastness or progress is possible.\n\n\n\nJEHOIADA AND JOASH\n\n'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,\nshe arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the\ndaughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of\nAhaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain;\nand they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from\nAthaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the\nhouse of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4.\nAnd the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over\nhundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him\ninto the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an\noath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king's son.\n5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do;\nA third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers\nof the watch of the king's house; 6. And a third part shall be at the\ngate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall\nye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 7. And two\nparts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep\nthe watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8. And ye shall\ncompass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand:\nand he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with\nthe king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 9. And the captains over\nthe hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest\ncommanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the\nsabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to\nJehoiada the priest. 10, And to the captains over hundreds did the\npriest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple\nof the Lord. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in\nhis hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to\nthe left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 12.\nAnd he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and\ngave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and\nthey clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 13. And when\nAthaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to\nthe people into the temple of the Lord. 14. And when she looked,\nbehold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes\nand the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land\nrejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and\ncried, Treason, Treason. 15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded the\ncaptains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto\nthem, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her\nkill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in\nthe house of the Lord. 16. And they laid hands on her; and she went by\nthe way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there\nwas she slain.'--2 KINGS xi. 1-16.\n\n\nThe king of Judah has been killed, his alliance with the king of\nIsrael having involved him in the latter's fate. Jehu had also\nmurdered 'the brethren of Ahaziah,' forty-two in number. Next,\nAthaliah, the mother of Ahaziah and a daughter of Ahab, killed all the\nmales of the royal family, and planted herself on the throne. She had\nJezebel's force of character, unscrupulousness and disregard of human\nlife. She was a tigress of a woman, and, no doubt, her six years'\nusurpation was stained with blood and with the nameless abominations\nof Baal worship. Never had the kingdom of Judah been at a lower ebb.\nOne infant was all that was left of David's descendants. The whole\npromises of God seemed to depend for fulfilment on one little, feeble\nlife. The tree had been cut down, and there was but this one sucker\npushing forth a tiny shoot from 'the root of Jesse.'\n\nWe have in the passage, first, the six years of hiding in the temple.\nIt is a pathetic picture, that of the infant rescued by his brave aunt\nfrom the blood-bath, and stowed away in the storeroom where the mats\nand cushions which served for beds were kept when not in use, watched\nover by two loving and courageous women, and taught infantile lessons\nby the husband of his aunt, Jehoiada the high priest. Many must have\nbeen aware of his existence, and there must have been loyal guarding\nof the secret, or Athaliah's sword would have been reddened with the\nbaby's blood. Like the child Samuel, he had the Temple for his home,\nand his first impressions would be of daily sacrifices and white-robed\npriests. It was a better school for him than if he had been in the\npalace close by. The opening flower would have been soon besmirched\nthere, but in the holy calm of the Temple courts it unfolded\nunstained. A Christian home should breathe the same atmosphere as\nsurrounded Joash, and it, too, should be a temple, where holy peace\nrules, and where the first impressions printed on plastic little minds\nare of God and His service.\n\nWe have next the disclosure and coronation of the boy king. The\nnarrative here has to be supplemented from that in 2 Chron. xxiii.,\nwhich does not contradict that in this passage, as is often said, but\ncompletes it. It informs us that before the final scene in the Temple,\nJehoiada had in Jerusalem assembled a large force of Levites and of\nthe 'heads of the fathers' houses' from all the kingdom. That\nstatement implies that the revolution was mainly religious in its\nmotive, and was national in its extent. Obviously Jehoiada would have\nbeen courting destruction for Joash and himself unless he had made\nsure of a strong backing before he hoisted the standard of the house\nof David. There must, therefore, have been long preparation and much\nstir; and all the while the foreign woman was sitting in the palace,\nclose by the Temple, and not a whisper reached her. Evidently she had\nno party in Judah, and held her own only by her indomitable will and\nby the help of foreign troops. Anybody who remembers how the Austrians\nin Italy were shunned, will understand how Athaliah heard nothing of\nthe plot that was rapidly developing a stone's throw from her isolated\nthrone. Strange delusion, to covet such a seat, yet no stranger than\nmany another mistaking of serpents for fish, into which we fall!\n\nJehoiada's caution was as great as his daring. He does not appear to\nhave given the Levites and elders any inkling of his purpose till he\nhad them safe in the Temple, and then he opened his mind, swore them\nto stand by him, and 'showed them the king's son.' What a scene that\nwould be--the seven-year-old child there among all these strange men,\nthe joyful surprise flashing in their eyes, the exultation of the\nfaithful women that had watched him so lovingly, the stern facing of\nthe dangers ahead. Most of the assembly must have thought that none of\nDavid's house remained, and that thought would have had much to do\nwith their submitting to Athaliah's usurpation. Now that they saw the\ntrue heir, they could not hesitate to risk their lives to set him on\nhis throne. Show a man his true king, and many a tyranny submitted to\nbefore becomes at once intolerable. The boy Joash makes Athaliah look\nvery ugly.\n\nJehoiada's plans are somewhat difficult to understand, owing to our\nignorance of the details as to the usual arrangements of the guards of\nthe palace, but the general drift of them is plain enough. The main\nthing was to secure the person of the king, and, for that purpose, the\ntwo companies of priests who were relieved on the Sabbath were for\nonce kept on duty, and their numbers augmented by the company that\nwould, in the ordinary course, have relieved them. This augmented\nforce was so disposed as, first, to secure the Temple from attack;\nand, second, to 'compass the king'--in his chamber, that is. We learn\nfrom 2 Chronicles that it consisted of priests and Levites, and some\nwould see in that statement a tampering with the account in this\npassage, in the interests of a later conception of the sanctity of the\nTemple and of the priestly order. Our narrative is said to make the\nforeign mercenaries of the palace guard the persons referred to; but\nsurely that cannot be maintained in the face of the plain statement of\nverse 7, that they kept the watch of the Temple, for that was the\noffice of the priests. Besides, how should foreign soldiers have\nneeded to be armed from the Temple armoury? And is it probable on the\nface of it that the palace guard, who were Athaliah's men, and\ntherefore antagonistic to Joash, and Baal worshippers, should have\nbeen gained over to his side, or should have been the guards of the\nhouse of Jehovah? If, however, we understand that these guards were\nLevites, all is plain, and the arming of them with 'the spears and\nshields that had been king David's' becomes intelligible, and would\nrouse them to enthusiasm and daring.\n\nNot till all these dispositions for the boy king's safety, and for\npreventing an assault on the Temple, had been carried out, did the\nprudent Jehoiada venture to bring Joash out from his place of\nconcealment. Note that in verse 12 he is not called 'the king,' as in\nthe previous verses, but, as in verse 4, 'the king's son.' He was king\nby right, but not technically, till he had been presented to, and\naccepted by, the representatives of the people, had had 'the\ntestimony' placed in his hands, and been anointed by the high-priest.\nSo 'they _made_ him king.' The three parts of the ceremony were\nall significant. The delivering of 'the testimony' (the Book of the\nLaw--Deut. xvii 18, 19) taught him that he was no despot to rule by\nhis own pleasure and for his own glory, but the viceroy of the true\nKing of Judah, and himself subject to law. The people's making him\nking taught him and them that a true royalty rules over willing\nsubjects, and both guarded the rights of the nation and set limits to\nthe power of the ruler. The priest's anointing witnessed to the divine\nappointment of the monarch and the divine endowment with fitness for\nhis office. Would that these truths were more recognised and felt by\nall rulers! What a different thing the page of history would be!\n\nThe vigilance of the tigress had been eluded, and Athaliah had a rude\nawakening. But she had her mother's courage, and as soon as she heard\nin the palace the shouts, she dashed to the Temple, alone as she was,\nand fronted the crowd. The sight might have made the boldest quail.\nWho was that child standing in the royal place? Where had he come\nfrom? How had he been hidden all these years? What was all this frenzy\nof rejoicing, this blare of trumpets, these ranks of grim men with\nweapons in their hands? The stunning truth fell on her; but, though\nshe felt that all was lost, not a whit did she blench, but fronted\nthem all as proudly as ever. One cannot but admire the dauntless\nwoman, 'magnificent in sin.' But her cry of 'Treason! treason!'\nbrought none to her side. As she stood solitary there, she must have\nfelt that her day was over, and that nothing remained but to die like\na queen. Proudly as ever, she passed down the ranks and not a face\nlooked pity on her, nor a voice blessed her. She was reaping what she\nhad sown, and she who had killed without compunction the innocents who\nstood between her and her ambitions, was pitilessly slain, and all the\nland rejoiced at her death.\n\nSo ended the all but bloodless revolution which crushed Baal worship\nin Judah. It had been begun by Elijah and Elisha, but it was completed\nby a high priest. It was religious even more than political. It was a\nnational movement, though Jehoiada's courage and wisdom engineered it\nto its triumph. It teaches us how God watches over His purposes and\ntheir instruments when they seem nearest to failure, for one poor\ninfant was all that was left of the seed of David; and how, therefore,\nwe are never to despair, even in the darkest hour, of the fulfilment\nof His promises. It teaches us how much one brave, good man and woman\ncan do to change the whole face of things, and how often there needs\nbut one man to direct and voice the thoughts and acts of the silent\nmultitude, and to light a fire that consumes evil.\n\n\n\nMETHODICAL LIBERALITY\n\n'4. And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated\nthings that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of\nevery one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set\nat, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into\nthe house of the Lord, 5. Let the priests take it to them, every man\nof his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house,\nwheresoever any breach shall be found. 6. But it was so, that in the\nthree and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired\nthe breaches of the house. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada\nthe priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye\nnot the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of\nyour acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. 8.\nAnd the priests consented to receive no more money of the people,\nneither to repair the breaches of the house. 9. But Jehoiada the\npriest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it\nbeside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of\nthe Lord: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money\nthat was brought into the house of the Lord. 10. And it was so, when\nthey saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's\nscribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told\nthe money that was found in the house of the Lord. 11. And they gave\nthe money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that\nhad the oversight of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to\nthe carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of the Lord,\n12. And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed\nstone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all\nthat wast laid out for the house to repair it. 13. Howbeit there were\nnot made for the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers, basons,\ntrumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that\nwas brought into the house of the Lord: 14. But they gave that to the\nworkmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord. 15. Moreover\nthey reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the\nmoney to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.'--2 KINGS\nxii. 4-15.\n\n\n'The sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of\nGod,' says Chronicles. The dilapidation had not been complete, but had\nbeen extensive, as may be gathered from the large expenditure recorded\nin this passage for repairs, and the enumeration of the artisans\nemployed. No doubt Joash was guided by Jehoiada in setting about the\nrestoration, but the fact that he gives the orders, while the high\npriest is not mentioned, throws light on the relative position of the\ntwo authorities, and on the king's office as guardian of the Temple\nand official 'head of the church.' The story comes in refreshingly and\nstrangely among the bloody pages in which it is embedded, and it\nsuggests some lessons as to the virtue of plain common sense and\nbusiness principles applied to religious affairs. If 'the outward\nbusiness of the house of God' were always guided with as much\npractical reasonableness as Joash brought to bear on it, there would\nbe fewer failures or sarcastic critics.\n\nWe note, first, the true source of money for religious purposes. There\nwas a fixed amount for which 'each man is rated,' and that made the\nminimum, but there was also that which 'cometh into any man's heart to\nbring,' and that was infinitely more precious than the exacted tax.\nThe former was appropriate to the Old Testament, of which the\nanimating principle was law and the voice: 'Thou shalt' or 'Thou shalt\nnot.' The latter alone fits the New Testament, of which the animating\nprinciple is love and the voice: 'Though I have all boldness in Christ\nto enjoin thee ... yet for love's sake I rather beseech.' What\ndisasters and what stifling of the spirit of Christian liberality have\nmarred the Church for many centuries, and in many lands, because the\ngreat anachronism has prevailed of binding its growing limbs in Jewish\nswaddling bands, and degrading Christian giving into an assessment!\nAnd how shrunken the stream that is squeezed out by such a process,\ncompared with the abundant gush of the fountain of love opened in a\ngrateful, trusting heart!\n\nNext, we have the negligent, if not dishonest, officials. We do not\nknow how long Joash tried the experiment of letting the priests\nreceive the money and superintend the repairs; but probably the\nrestoration project was begun early in his reign, and if so, he gave\nthe experiment of trusting all to the officials, a fair, patient\ntrial, till the twenty-third year of his reign. Years gone and nothing\ndone, or at least nothing completed! We do not need to accuse them of\nintentional embezzlement, but certainly they were guilty of carelessly\nletting the money slip through their fingers, and a good deal of it\nstick to their hands. It is always the temptation of the clergy to\nthink of their own support as a first charge on the church, nor is it\nquite unheard of that the ministry should be less enthusiastic in\nreligious objects than the 'laity,' and should work the enthusiasm of\nthe latter for their own advantage. Human nature is the same in\nJerusalem in Joash's time, and to-day in Manchester, or New York, or\nPhiladelphia, and all men who live by the gifts of Christian people\nhave need to watch themselves, lest they, like Ezekiel's false\nshepherds, feed themselves and not the flock, and seek the wool and\nthe fat and not the good of the sheep.\n\nNext we have the application of businesslike methods to religious\nwork. It was clearly time to take the whole matter out of the priests'\nhands, and Joash is not afraid to assume a high tone with the\nculprits, and even with Jehoiada as their official head. He was in\nsome sense responsible for his subordinates, and probably, though his\nown hands were clean, he may have been too lax in looking after the\ndisposal of the funds. Note that while Joash rebuked the priests, and\ndetermined the new arrangements, it was Jehoiada who carried them out\nand provided the chest for receiving the contributions. The king\nwills, the high priest executes, the rank and file of the priests,\nhowever against the grain, consent. The arrangement for collecting the\ncontributions 'saved the faces' of the priests to some extent, for the\ngifts were handed to them, and by them put into the chest. But, of\ncourse, that was done at once, in the donor's presence. If changes\ninvolving loss of position are to work smoothly, it is wise to let the\ndeposed officials down as easily as may be.\n\nSimilar common sense is shown in the second step, the arrangement for\nascertaining the amounts given. The king's secretary and the\nhigh-priest (or a representative) jointly opened the chest, counted\nand bagged up the money. They checked each other, and prevented\nsuspicion on either side. No man who regards his own reputation will\nconsent to handle public money without some one to stand over him and\nsee what he does with it. One would be wise always to suspect people\nwho appeal for help 'for the Lord's work' and are too 'spiritual' to\nhave such worldly things as committees or auditors of their books.\nAccurate accounts are as essential to Christian work as spirituality\nor enthusiasm. The next stage was to hand over the money to the\n'contractors,' as we should call them; and there similar precautions\nwere taken against possible peculation on the part of the two\nofficials who had received the money, for it was apparently 'weighed\nout into the hands' of the overseers, who would thus be able to check\nwhat they received by what the secretary and the high-priest had taken\nfrom the chest, and would be responsible for the expenditure of the\namount which the two officials knew that they had received.\n\nBut all this system of checks seems to break down at the very point\nwhere it should have worked most searchingly, for 'they reckoned not\nwith the men, into whose hand they delivered the money' to pay the\nworkmen, 'for they dealt faithfully.' That last clause looks like a\nhit at the priests who had not dealt so, and contrasts the methods of\nplain business men of no pretensions, with those of men whose very\ncalling should have guaranteed their trustworthiness. The contrast has\nbeen repeated in times and places nearer home. But another suggestion\nmay also be made about this singular lapse into what looks like unwise\nconfidence. These overseers had proved their faithfulness and earned\nthe right to be trusted entirely, and the way to get the best out of a\nman, if he has any reliableness in him, is to trust him utterly, and\nto show him that you do. 'It is a shame to tell Arnold a lie; he\nalways believes us,' said the Rugby boys about their great\nhead-master. There is a time for using all precautions, and a time for\nusing none. Businesslike methods do not consist in spying at the heels\nof one's agents, but in picking the right men, and, having proved\nthem, giving them a free hand. And is not that what the great Lord and\nEmployer does with His servants, and is it not part of the reason why\nJesus gets more out of us than any one else can do, that He trusts us\nmore?\n\nOne more point may be noticed; namely, the order of precedence in\nwhich the necessary works were done. Not a coin went to provide the\nutensils for sacrifice till the Temple was completely repaired. After\nthey had 'set up the house of God in its state,' as Chronicles tells\nus, they took the balance of the funds to the king and Jehoiada, and\nspent that on 'vessels for the house.' A clear insight to discern what\nmost needs to be done, and a firm resolve to 'do the duty that lies\nnearest thee,' and to let everything else, however necessary, wait\ntill it is done, is a great part of Christian prudence, and goes far\nto make works or lives truly prosperous. 'First things first'!--it is\na maxim that carries us far and as right as far.\n\n\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF POWER\n\n'And Elisha said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow.\nAnd he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's\nhands.'--2 KINGS xiii. 16.\n\n\nThis is part of one of the strangest narratives in the Old Testament.\nElisha is on his deathbed, 'sick of the sickness' wherewith he 'should\ndie.' A very different scene, that close sick-chamber, from the open\nplain beyond Jordan from which Elijah had gone up; a very different\nway of passing from life by wasting sickness than by fiery chariot!\nBut God is as near His servant in the one place as in the other, and\nthe slow wasting away is as much His messenger as the sudden\napocalypse of the horsemen of fire. The king of Israel comes to the\nold prophet, and very significantly repeats over him his own\nexclamation over Elijah, 'My father! My father! the chariot of Israel\nand the horsemen thereof.' Elisha takes no notice of the grief and\nreverence expressed by the exclamation, but goes straight to his work,\nand what follows is remarkable indeed.\n\nHere is a prophet dying; and his last words are not edifying moral and\nreligious reflections, nor does he seem to be much concerned to leave\nwith the king his final protest against Israel's sin, but his thoughts\nare all of warfare, and his last effort is to stir up the sluggish\nyoung monarch to some of his own enthusiasm in the conflict with the\nenemy. It does not sound like an edifying deathbed. People might have\nsaid, 'Ah! secular and political affairs should be all out of a man's\nmind when he comes to his last moments.' But Elisha thought that to\nstick to his life's work till the last breath was out of him, and to\ndevote the last breath to stimulating successors who might catch up\nthe torch that dropped from his failing hands, was no unworthy end of\na prophet's life.\n\nSo there followed what perhaps is not very familiar to some of us,\nthat strange scene in which the dying man is far fuller of energy and\nvigour than the young king, and takes the upper hand of him, giving\nhim a series of curt, authoritative commands, each of which he\npunctiliously obeys. 'Take bow and arrow,' and he took them. Then the\nprophet lays his wasted hand for a moment on the strong, young hand,\nand having thus either in symbol or reality--never mind\nwhich--communicated power, he says to him, 'Fling open the casement\ntowards the quarter where the enemy's territory lies,' and he flings\nit open. 'Now, shoot,' and he shoots. Then the old man gathers himself\nup on his bed, and with a triumphant shout exclaims, 'The Lord's arrow\nof victory!... Thou shalt smite the Syrians till they be consumed.'\n\nThat is not all. There is a second stage. The promise is given; the\npossibility is opened before the king, and now all depends on the\nquestion whether he will rise to the height of the occasion. So the\nprophet says to him, 'Take the sheaf of arrows in your hand'; and he\ntakes them. And then he says, 'Now smite upon the ground.' It is a\ntest. If he had been roused and stirred by what had gone before; if he\nhad any earnestness of belief in the power that was communicated, and\nany eagerness of desire to realise the promises that had been given of\ncomplete victory, what would he have done? What would Elisha have done\nif he had had the quiver in his hand? This king smites three\nperfunctory taps on the floor, and having done what will satisfy the\nold man's whim, and what in decency he had to do, he stops, as if\nweary of the whole performance. So the prophet bursts out in\nindignation on his dying bed--'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six\ntimes; then hadst thou conquered utterly. Now thou shalt conquer but\nthrice.' A strange story; very far away from our atmosphere and\nlatitude! Yet are there not obviously in it great principles which may\nbe disentangled from their singular setting, and fully applied to us?\nI think so. Let us try and draw them from it.\n\nI. Here we have the power communicated.\n\nNow the story seems to indicate that it was only for a moment that the\nprophet's hands were laid on the king's hands, because, after they had\nbeen so laid, he is bidden to go to the window and fling it open, and\nthe bedridden man could not go there with him; then he is bidden to\ndraw the bow, and another hand upon his would have been a hindrance\nrather than a help. So it was but a momentary touch, a communication\nof power in reality or in symbol that the muscular young hand needed,\nand the wasted old one could give. And is that not a parable for us?\nWe, too, if we are Christian men and women, have a gospel of which the\nvery kernel is that there is to us a communication of power, and the\nvery name of that divine Spirit whom it is Christ's greatest work to\nsend flashing and flaming through the world, is the 'Spirit of Power.'\nAnd so the old promise that ye shall be clothed with strength from on\nhigh is the standing prerogative of the Christian Church. There is not\nmerely some partial communication, as when hand touched hand, but\nevery organ is vitalised and quickened; as in the case of the other\nmiracle of this prophet, when he stretched himself on the dead child\neye to eye, and mouth to mouth, and hand to hand; and each part\nreceived the vitalising influence. We have, if we are Christian\npeople, a Spirit given to us, and are 'strengthened with might by the\nSpirit in the inner man.'\n\nThat gift, that strength comes to us by contact, not with Elisha, but\nwith Elisha's Lord and Master. Christ's touch, when He was on earth,\nbrought sight to the blind, healing to the sick, vigour to the limbs\nof the lame, life to the dead. And you and I can have that touch, far\nmore truly, and far more mightily operative upon us than they had, who\nonly felt the contact of His finger, and only derived corporeal\nblessing. For we can draw near to Him, and in union with Him by faith\nand love and obedience, can have His Spirit in close contact with our\nspirits, and strengthening us for all service, and for every task.\nBrethren! that touch which gives strength is a real thing. It is no\nmere piece of mystical exaggeration when we speak of our spirits being\nin actual contact with Christ's Spirit. Many of us have no clear\nconception, and still less a firm realisation, of that closer than\ncorporeal contact, more real than bodily presence, and more intimate\nthan any possible physical union, which is the great gift of God in\nJesus Christ, and brings to us, if we will, life and strength\naccording to our need. I would that the popular Christianity of this\nday had a far larger infusion of the sound, mystical element that lies\nin the New Testament Christianity, and did not talk so exclusively\nabout a Christ that is for us as to have all but lost sight of the\nsecond stage of our relation to Christ, and lost a faith in a Christ\nthat is in us Brethren! He can lay His hand upon your spirit's hand.\nHe can flash light into your spirit's eye from His eye. He can put\nbreath and eloquence into your spirit's lips from His lips, and His\nheart beating against yours can transfuse--if I may so say--into you\nHis own life-blood, which cleanses from all sin, and fits for all\nconflict.\n\nThen, further, let me remind you that this power, which is bestowed on\ncondition of contact, is given before duties are commanded. This king,\nin our acted parable, first had the touch of Elisha's fingers, and\nthen received the command from Elisha's lips, 'Shoot!' So Jesus Christ\ngives before He commands, and commands nothing which He has not fitted\nus to perform. He is not 'an austere man, reaping where He did not\nsow, and gathering where He did not straw'; but He comes first to us\nsaying, 'I give thee Myself,' and then He looks us in the eyes and\nsays, 'Wilt thou not give Me thyself?' He bestows the strength first,\nand He commands the consequent duty afterwards.\n\nFurther, this strength communicated is realised in the effort to obey\nChrist's great commands. Joash felt nothing when the prophet's hand\nwas laid upon his but, perhaps, some tingling. But when he got the bow\nin his hand and drew the arrow to its head, the infused power\nstiffened his muscles and strengthened him to pull; and though he\ncould not distinguish between his own natural corporeal ability and\nthat which had been thus imparted to him, the two co-operated in the\none act, and it was when he drew his bow that he felt his strength.\n'Stretch forth thine hand,' said Christ to the lame man. But the very\ninfirmity to be dealt with was his inability to stretch it forth. At\nthe command he tried, and, to his wonder, the stiffened sinews\nrelaxed, and the joint that had been immovable had free play, and he\nstretched out his hand, and it was restored whole as the other. So He\ngives what He commands, and in obeying the command we realise and are\nconscious of the power. Elisha and Joash but act an illustration of\nthe great word of Paul: 'Work out your own salvation ... for it is God\nthat worketh in you.'\n\nII. And now, secondly, look at the perfected victory that is possible.\n\nWhen the arrows, by God's strength operating through Joash's arm, had\nbeen shot, the prophet says, 'The arrow of the Lord's victory! ...\nthou shalt smite ... till thou have consumed.' Yes, of course; if the\narrow is the Lord's arrow, and the strength is His strength, then the\nonly issue corresponding to the power is perfect victory. I would that\nChristian people realised more than they do practically in their lives\nthat while men's ideals and aims may be all unaccomplished, or but\npartially approximated to, since God is God, His nature is perfection,\nand nothing that He does can fall beneath His ideal and purpose in\ndoing it. All that comes from Him must correspond to Him from whom it\ncomes. He never leaves off till He has completed, nor can any one say\nabout any of His work, 'He began to build, and was not able to\nfinish.' So, Christian people! I would that we should rise to the\nheight of our prerogatives, and realise the fact that perfect victory\nis possible, regard being had to the power which 'teaches our hands to\nwar and our fingers to fight.' A great deal of not altogether\nprofitable jangling goes on at present in reference to the question of\nwhether absolute sinlessness is possible for a Christian man on earth.\nWhatever view we take upon that question, it ought not to hide from us\nthe fact which should loom very much more largely in our daily\noperative belief than it does with most of us, that in so far as the\npower which is given to us is concerned, perfect victory is within our\ngrasp, and is the only worthy and correspondent result to the perfect\npower which worketh in us. So there is no reason, as from any defect\nof the divine gift to the weakest of us, why our Christian lives\nshould have ups and downs, why there should be interruptions in our\ndevotion, fallings short in our consecration, contradictions in our\nconduct, slidings backward in our progress. There is no reason why, in\nour Christian year, there should be summer and winter; but according\nto the symbolical saying of one of the old prophets, 'The ploughman\nmay overtake the reaper, and he that treadeth out the grapes him that\nsoweth the seed.' In so far as our Christian life is concerned, the\nperfection of the power that is granted to us involves the possibility\nof perfection in the recipient.\n\nAnd the same thing is true in reference to a Christian man's work in\nthe world. God's Church has ample resources to overcome the evil of\nthe world. The fire is tremendous, but the Christian Church has\npossession of the floods that can extinguish the fire. If we utilised\nall that we have, we might 'smite till we had consumed,' and turned\nthe world into the Church of God. That is the ideal, the possibility,\nwhen we look at the Christian man as possessor of the communicated\npower of God. And then we turn to the reality, to our own consciences,\nto the state of our religious communities everywhere, and we see what\nseems to be blank contradiction of the possibility. Where is the\nexplanation?\n\nIII. That brings me to my last point, the partial victory that is\nactually won.\n\n'Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten\nthe Syrians till they were consumed. But now thou shalt conquer but\nthrice.' All God's promises and prophecies are conditional. There is\nno such thing as an unconditional promise of victory or of defeat;\nthere is always an 'if.' There is always man's freedom as a factor. It\nis strange. I suppose no thinking, metaphysical or theological, ever\nhas solved or ever will, that great paradox of the power of a finite\nwill to lift itself up in the face of, and antagonism to, an Infinite\nWill backed by infinite power, and to thwart its purposes. 'How often\n_would I_ have gathered ... and ye _would not.'_ Here is all\nthe power for a perfect victory, and yet the man that has it has to be\ncontented with a very partial one.\n\nIt is a solemn thought that the Church's unbelief can limit and hinder\nChrist's work in the world, and we have here another illustration of\nthat truth. You will find now and then in the newspapers,\nstories--they may be true or false--about caterpillars stopping a\ntrain. There is an old legend of that fabulous creature the remora, a\ntiny thing that fastened itself to the keel of a ship, and arrested it\nin mid-ocean. That is what we do with God and His purposes, and with\nHis power granted to us.\n\nA low expectation limits the power. This king did not believe, did not\nexpect, that he would conquer utterly, and so he did not. You believe\nthat you can do a thing, and in nine cases out of ten that goes\nnine-tenths of the way towards doing it. If we cast ourselves into our\nfight expecting victory, the expectation will realise itself in nine\ncases out of ten. And the man who in faith refuses to say 'that beast\nof a word--impossible!' will find that 'all things are possible to him\nthat believeth.' 'Expect great things of God,' and you will feel His\npower tingling to your very fingertips, and will be able to draw the\narrow to its head, and send it whizzing home to its mark.\n\nSmall desires block the power. Where there is an iron-bound coast\nrunning in one straight line, the whole ocean may dash itself on the\ncliffs at the base, but it enters not into the land; but where the\nshore opens itself out into some deep gulf far inland, and broad\nacross at the entrance, then the glad water rushes in and fills it\nall. Make room for God in your lives by your desires and you will get\nHim in the fullness of His power.\n\nThe use of our power increases our power. Joash had an unused quiver\nfull of arrows, and he only smote thrice. 'To him that hath shall be\ngiven, and from him that hath not shall be taken.' The reason why many\nof us professing Christians have so little of the strength of God in\nour lives is because we have made so little use of the strength that\nwe have. Stow away your seed-corn in a granary and do not let the air\ninto it, and weevils and rats will consume it. Sow it broadcast on the\nfields with liberal hand, and it will spring up, 'some thirty, some\nsixty, some an hundredfold.' Use increases strength in all regions,\nand unused organs atrophy and wither.\n\nSo, dear friends! if we will keep ourselves in contact with Christ,\nand tremulously sensitive to His touch, if we will expect power\naccording to our tasks and our needs, if we will desire more of His\ngrace, and if we will honestly and manfully use the strength that we\nhave, then He will 'teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight,'\nand will give us strength, 'so that a bow of brass is bent by' our\narms, and we shall be 'more than conquerors through Him that loved\nus.'\n\n\n\nA KINGDOM'S EPITAPH\n\n'In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and\ncarried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in\nHabor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7. For so\nit was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their\nGod, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under\nthe hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And\nwalked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from\nbefore the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they\nhad made. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that\nwere not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high\nplaces in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the\nfenced city. 10. And they set them up images and groves in every high\nhill, and under every green tree: 11. And there they burnt incense in\nall the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away\nbefore them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:\n12. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye\nshall not do this thing. 13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel,\nand against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying,\nTurn ye from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes,\naccording to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I\nsent to you by My servants the prophets. 14. Notwithstanding they\nwould not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their\nfathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. 15. And they\nrejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their\nfathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they\nfollowed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were\nround about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they\nshould not do like them. 16. And they left all the commandments of the\nLord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made\na grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17.\nAnd they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the\nfire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do\nevil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18. Therefore\nthe Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His\nsight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.'--2 KINGS\nxvii. 6-18.\n\n\nThe brevity of the account of the fall of Samaria in verse 6 contrasts\nwith the long enumeration of the sins which caused it, in the rest of\nthis passage. Modern critics assume that verses 7-23 are 'an\ninterpolation by the Deuteronomic writer,' apparently for no reason\nbut because they trace Israel's fall to its cause in idolatry. But\nsurely the bare notice in verse 6, immediately followed by verse 24,\ncannot have been all that the original historian had to say about so\ntragic an end of so large a part of the people of God. The whole\npurpose of the Old Testament history is not to chronicle events, but\nto declare God's dealings, and the fall of a kingdom was of little\nmoment, except as revealing the righteousness of God.\n\nThe main part of this passage, then, is the exposition of the causes\nof the national ruin. It is a _post mortem_ inquiry into the\ndiseases that killed a kingdom. At first sight, these verses seem a\nmere heaping together, not without some repetition, of one or two\ncharges; but, more closely looked at, they disclose a very striking\nprogress of thought. In the centre stands verse 13, telling of the\nmission of the prophets. Before it, verses 7-12, narrate Israel's sin,\nwhich culminates in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 11). After it,\nthe sins are reiterated with noticeable increase of emphasis, and\nagain culminate in provoking the Lord to anger (ver. 17). So we have\ntwo degrees of guilt--one before and one after the prophets' messages;\nand two kindlings of God's anger--one which led to the sending of the\nprophets, and one which led to the destruction of Israel. The lessons\nthat flow from this obvious progress of thought are plain.\n\nI. The less culpable apostasy before the prophets' warnings. The first\nwords of verse 7, rendered as in the Revised Version, give the purpose\nof all that follows; namely, to declare the causes of the calamity\njust told. Note that the first characteristic of Israel's sin was\nungrateful departure from God. There is a world of pathos and meaning\nin that 'their God,' which is enhanced by the allusion to the Egyptian\ndeliverance. All sins are attempts to break the chain which binds us\nto God--a chain woven of a thousand linked benefits. All practically\ndeny His possession of us, and ours of Him, and display the short\nmemory which ingratitude has. All have that other feature hinted at\nhere--the contrast, so absurd if it were not so sad, between the worth\nand power of the God who is left and the other gods who are preferred.\nThe essential meanness and folly of Israel are repeated by every heart\ndeparting from the living God.\n\nThe double origin of the idolatry is next set forth. It was in part\nimported and in part home-made. We have little conception of the\nstrength of faith and courage which were needed to keep the Jews from\nbecoming idolaters, surrounded as they were by such. But the same are\nneeded to-day to keep us from learning the ways of the world and\ngetting a snare to our souls. Now, as ever, walking with God means\nwalking in the opposite direction from the crowd, and that requires\nsome firm nerve. The home-made idolatry is gibbeted as being according\nto 'the statutes of the kings.' What right had they to prescribe their\nsubjects' religion? The influence of influential people, especially if\nexerted against the service of God, is hard to resist; but it is no\nexcuse for sin that it is fashionable.\n\nThe blindness of Israel to the consequences of their sin is hinted in\nthe reference to the fate of the nations whom they imitated. They had\nbeen cast out; would not their copyists learn the lesson? We, too,\nhave examples enough of what godless lives come to, if we had the\nsense to profit by them. The God who cast out the vile Canaanites and\nall the rest of the wicked crew before the sons of the desert has not\nchanged, and will treat Israel as He did them, if Israel come down to\ntheir level. Outward privileges make idolatry or any sin more sinful,\nand its punishment more severe.\n\nAnother characteristic of Israel's sin is its being done 'secretly.'\nOf the various meanings proposed for that word (ver. 9) the best seems\nto be that it refers to the attempt to combine the worship of God and\nof idols, of which the calf worship is an instance. Elijah had long\nago taunted the people with trying 'to hobble on both knees,' or on\n'two opinions' at once; and here the charge is of covering idolatry\nwith a cloak of Jehovah worship. A varnish of religion is convenient\nand cheap, and often effectual in deceiving ourselves as well as\nothers; but 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,' whatever his\ncloak may be; and the thing which we count most precious and long most\nfor is our god, whatever our professions of orthodox religion.\n\nThe idolatry is then described, in rapid touches, as universal.\nWherever there was a solitary watchman's tower among the pastures\nthere was a high place, and they were reared in every city. Images and\nAsherim deformed every hill-top and stood under every spreading tree.\nEverywhere incense loaded the heavy air with its foul fragrance. The\nold scenes of unnamable abomination, which had been so terribly\navenged, seemed to have come back, and to cry aloud for another\npurging by fire and sword.\n\nThe terrible upshot of all was 'to provoke the Lord to anger.' The New\nTestament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting that there is the\ncapacity of anger in the God whose name is love, and that sin calls it\nforth. The special characteristic of sin, by which it thus attracts\nthat lightning, is that it is disobedience. As in the first sin, so in\nall others, God has said, 'Ye shall not do this thing'; and we say,\n'Do it we will.' What can the end of that be but the anger of the\nLord? 'Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the\nchildren of disobedience.'\n\nII. Verse 13 gives the pleading of Jehovah. The mission of the\nprophets was God's reply to Israel's rebellion, and was equally the\nsign of His anger and of His love. The more sin abounds, the more does\nGod multiply means to draw back to Himself. The deafer the ears, the\nlouder the beseeching voice of His grieved and yet pitying love. His\nanger clothes itself in more stringent appeals and clearer revelations\nof Himself before it takes its slaughtering weapons in hand. The\ndarker the background of sin, the brighter the beams of His light show\nagainst it. Man's sin is made the occasion for a more glorious display\nof God's character and heart. It is on the storm-cloud that the sun\npaints the rainbow. Each successive stage in man's departure from God\nevoked a corresponding increase in the divine effort to attract him\nback, till 'last of all He sent unto them His Son.' In nature,\nattraction diminishes as distance increases; in the realms of grace,\nit grows with distance. The one desire of God's heart is that sinners\nwould return from their evil ways, and He presses on them the solemn\nthought of the abundant intimations of His will which have been given\nfrom of old, and are pealed again into all ears by living voices. His\nlaw for us is not merely an old story spoken centuries ago, but is\nvocal in our consciences to-day, and fresh as when Sinai flamed and\nthundered above the camp, and the trumpet thrilled each heart.\n\nIII. The heavier sin that followed the divine pleading. That divine\nvoice leaves no man as it finds him. If it does not sway him to\nobedience, it deepens his guilt, and makes him more obstinate. Like\nsome perverse ox in the yoke, he stiffens his neck, and stands the\nvery picture of brute obduracy. There is an awful alternative involved\nin our hearing of God's message, which never returns to Him void, but\never does something to the hearer, either softening or hardening,\neither scaling the eyes or adding another film on them, either being\nthe 'savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The mission of\nthe prophets changed forgetfulness of God's 'statutes' into\n'rejection' of them, and made idolatry self-conscious rebellion. Alas,\nthat men should make what is meant to be a bond to unite them to God\ninto a wedge to part them farther from Him! But how constantly that is\nthe effect of the gospel, and for the same reason as in Israel--that\nthey 'did not believe in the Lord their God'!\n\nThe miserable result on the sinners' own natures is described with\npregnant brevity in verse 15. 'They followed vanity, and became vain.'\nThe worshipper became like the thing worshipped, as is always the\ncase. The idol is vanity, utter emptiness and nonentity; and whoever\nworships nothingness will become in his own inmost life as empty and\nvain as it is. That is the retribution attendant on all trust in, and\nlonging after, the trifles of earth, that we come down to the level of\nwhat we set our hearts upon. We see the effects of that principle in\nthe moral degradation of idolaters. Gods lustful, cruel, capricious,\nmake men like themselves. We see it working upwards in Christianity,\nin which God becomes man that men may become like God, and of which\nthe whole law is put into one precept, which is sure to be kept, in\nthe measure of the reality of a man's religion. 'Be ye therefore\nimitators of God, as beloved children.'\n\nIn verses 16 and 17 the details of the idolatry follow the general\nstatement, as in verses 9 to 12, but with additions and with increased\nseverity of tone. We hear now of calves and star worship, and Baal,\nand burning children to Moloch, and divination and enchantment. The\ncatalogue is enlarged, and there is added to it the terrible\ndeclaration that Israel had 'sold themselves to do evil in the sight\nof the Lord.' The same thing was said by Elijah to Ahab--a noble\ninstance of courage. The sinner who steels himself against the divine\nremonstrance, does not merely go on in his old sins, but adds new\nones. Begin with the calves, and fancy that you are worshipping\nJehovah, and you will end with Baal and Moloch. Refuse to hear God's\npleadings, and you will sell your freedom, and become the lowest and\nonly real kind of slave--the bondsman of evil. When that point of\nentire abandonment to sin, which Paul calls being 'sold under sin,' is\nreached, as it may be reached, at all events by a nation, and\ncorruption has struck too deep to be cast out, once again the anger of\nthe Lord is provoked; but this time it comes in a different guise. The\narmies of the Assyrians, not the prophets, are its messengers now.\nIsrael had made itself like the nations whom God had used it to\ndestroy, and now it shall be destroyed as they were.\n\nTo be swept out of His sight is the fate of obstinate rejection of His\ncommandments and pleadings. Israel made itself the slave of evil, and\nwas made the captive of Assyria. Self-willed freedom, which does as it\nlikes, and heeds not God, ends in bondage, and is itself bondage.\nGod's anger against sin speaks pleadingly to us all, saying, 'Do not\nthis abominable thing that I hate.' Well for us if we hearken to His\nvoice when 'His anger is kindled but a little.' If we do not yield to\nHim, and cast away our idols, we shall become vain as they. Our evil\nwill be more fatal, and our obstinacy more criminal, because He\ncalled, and we refused. 'Who may abide the day of His coming? and who\nshall stand when He appeareth?' These captives, dragging their weary\nlimbs, with despair in their hearts, across the desert to a land of\nbondage, were but shadows, in the visible region of things, of the far\nmore doleful and dreary fate that sooner or later must fall on those\nwho would none of God's counsel, and despised all His reproof, but\ncling to their idol till they and it are destroyed together.\n\n\n\nDIVIDED WORSHIP\n\n'These nations feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'--2 KINGS\nxvii. 33.\n\n\nThe kingdom of Israel had come to its fated end. Its king and people\nhad been carried away captives in accordance with the cruel policy of\nthe great Eastern despotisms, which had so much to do with weakening\nthem by their very conquests. The land had lain desolate and\nuncultivated for many years, savage beasts had increased in the\nuntilled solitudes, even as weeds and nettles grew in the gardens and\nvineyards of Samaria. At last the king of Assyria resolved to people\nthe country; and for this purpose he sent a mixed multitude from the\ndifferent nationalities of his empire to the land of Israel. They were\nmen of five nationalities, most of them recently conquered. Israel had\nbeen deported to different parts of the Assyrian empire; men from\ndifferent parts of the empire were deported to the land of Israel.\nSuch cruel uprootings seemed to be wisdom, but were really a policy\nthat kept alive disaffection. It was the same mistake (and bore the\nsame fruits) as Austria pursued in sending Hungarian regiments to keep\ndown Venice, and Venetian-born soldiers to overawe Hungary.\n\nThese new settlers brought with them their national peculiarities, and\namong the rest, their gods. They knew nothing about the Jehovah whom\nthey supposed to be the local deity of Israel; and when they were\ntroubled by the wild beasts which had, of course, rapidly increased in\nthe land, they attributed it to their neglect of His worship, and sent\nan embassy to the king of Assyria telling that as they 'know not the\nmanners of the God of the land,' He has sent lions among them.\n\nThis is an instructive example of the heathen way of thinking. They\nhave their local deities. Each land, each valley, each mountain top,\nhas its own. They are ready to worship them all, for they have no real\nworship for any. Their reason for worship is to escape from harm, to\npay the tribute to which the god has a right on his own territory,\nlest he should make it the worse for them if they neglect it. 'The\nmild tolerance of heathendom' simply means the utter absence of\nreligion and an altogether inadequate notion of deity.\n\nSo the settlers have sent to them one of these schismatic priests who\nhad belonged to the extinct sanctuary at Beth-el, and he, apparently,\nnot having any truer notions of God or of worship than they had,\nnothing loth, teaches them the rites of the Israelite worship, which\nwas not like that of Judah, as is distinctly stated in the context.\nThis worship of Jehovah was, however, blended by them with their own\nnational idolatry. How contemptuously the historian enumerates the\nhard names of their gods and the rabble rout of them which each nation\nmade! 'The men of Babylon _made_ Succoth-benoth' (probably a\ndeity, though the name may mean booths for purposes of prostitution)\nand the others '_made_ Nergal and Ashima and Nibhaz and Tartak.'\nWhat names, and what a pantheon! 'They feared the Lord and served\ntheir own gods.'\n\nThis was the beginning of the Samaritan people, whom we find through\nthe rest of Scripture even down to the Acts of the Apostles, retaining\nsome trace of their heathen origin. Simon Magus bewitched them in his\nsorceries. They began as heathen, though in lapse of years they came\nto be pure monotheists, even more rigid than the Jews themselves, and\ntoday, if you went to Nablus, you would find the small remnant of\ntheir descendants adhering to Moses and the law, guarding their sacred\ncopy of the Pentateuch with unintelligent awe, and eating the Paschal\nLamb with wild rites. They have changed the object of their worship,\nbut one fears that it is little more real and deep than in old days,\n2500 years ago, when their forefathers 'feared the Lord and served\ntheir own gods.'\n\nNow I venture to take this verse as indicative of a tendency which\nbelongs to a great many more people than the confused mass of settlers\nthat were shot down on the hills of Israel by the king of Assyria. It\nis really a description of a great deal of what goes by the name of\nreligion amongst us.\n\nI. The Religion of Fear.\n\nThese people would never have thought about God if it had not been for\nthe lions. When they did think of Him it was only to tremble before\nHim. The reason for their trembling was that they did not know the\netiquette of His worship; that they thought of Him as having rights\nover them because they had come into His territory, which He would\nexact, or punish them for omitting. In a word, their notion of God was\nthat of a jealous, capricious tyrant, whose ways were inscrutable to\nthem, in whose territory they found themselves without their will, and\nwho needed to be propitiated if they would live in peace.\n\nAnd this is the thought which is most operative in many minds, though\nit is veiled in more seemly phrases, and which darkens and injures all\nthose on whom it lays hold. Need I spend time in showing you how,\npoint by point, this picture is a picture of many among us? How many\nof you think of God when you are ill, and forget Him when you are\nwell? How many of you pour out a prayer when you are in trouble, and\nforget all about Him and it when you are prosperous? How many of you\nsee God in your calamities and not in your joys? Why do people call\nsudden deaths and the like the 'visitation of God'? How many of us are\nlike Italian sailors who burn candles and shriek out to the Madonna\nwhen the storm catches them, and get drunk in the first wine-shop\nwhich they come to when they land! Is not many a man's thought of God,\n'I knew Thee that Thou wert an austere Man, and I was afraid'?\n\nThe popular religion is largely a religion of fear.\n\nThere is a fear which is right and noble. That is reverend, humble\nadoration at the sight or thought of God's great perfections. Angels\nveil their faces with their wings. Such awe has no thought of personal\nconsequences--is inseparable from all true knowledge of God; for all\ngreatness of character is perfected by love. Of such fear we are not\nnow speaking.\n\nTerror of God is deep in men's hearts.\n\nFear is the apprehension of personal evil from some person or thing.\nNow I believe that terror has its place in the human economy, and in\nreligion, as the sense of pain has. There is something in man's\nrelations to God to cause it.\n\nThe Bible sets forth 'the terror of the Lord,' that men may tremble\nbefore Him. Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake.' But that\nterror is only right when it proceeds from a sense of God's holiness\nand a consciousness of my own sinfulness. It is not right when it is a\nmere dread of a hard tyrant. That terror is only right when it leads\nto a joyful acceptance of God's revelation of His love in Christ.\n\nFear was never meant to be permanent, it is only the alarum-bell which\nrings to wake up the soul that sleeps on when in mortal peril. And it\nshould pass into penitence, faith, joy in Jesus. 'We have access with\nconfidence by the faith of Him.' The brightness is great and awful,\nbut go nearer, as you can in Jesus, and lo! there is love in the\nbrightness. You see it all tender and sweet. A heart and a hand are\nthere, and from the midst of it the Father's voice speaks, and says,\n'My son, give Me thine heart.'\n\nThe religion of fear is worthless. It produces no holiness, it does\nnothing for a man, it does not bind him to God. He is none the\nstronger for it. It paralyses so far as it does anything.\n\nIt is spasmodic and intermittent. It is impossible to keep it up, so\nit comes in fits and starts. When the morning comes men laugh at their\nterrors. It leads to wild endeavours to forget God--atheism--to\ninsensibility. He who begins by fearing when there was no need, ends\nby not fearing when he ought.\n\nII. The Religion of Form.\n\nThe Samaritans' whole worship was outward worship. They did the things\nwhich the Beth-el priest taught them to do, and that was all.\n\nAnd this again is a type, very common in our day. Religion must have\nforms. The forms often help to bring us the spirit. But we are always\nin danger of trusting to them too much.\n\nHow many of us have our Christianity only in outward seeming? The only\nthing that unites men to God is love.\n\nSo your external connection with God's worship is of no use at all\nunless you have that.\n\nChurch and chapel-goers are alike exposed to the danger of erecting\nthe forms of worship to a place in which they cannot be put without\nmarring the spirit of worship. Whether our worship be more or less\nsymbolic, whether we have a more or less elaborate ritual, whether we\nthink more or less of sacraments, whether we put hearing a sermon as\nmore or less prominent, or even if we follow the formless forms of the\nFriends, we are all tempted to substitute our forms for the spirit\nwhich alone is worship.\n\nIII. The Religion of Compromise or Worldliness.\n\nThey had God and they had gods. They liked the latter best. They gave\nGod formal worship, but they gave the others more active service.\n\nSuch a kind of religion is a type of much that we see around us; the\nattempt to be Christians and worldlings, the indecision under which\nmany men labour all their lives, being drawn one way by their\nconsciences, another by their inclinations.\n\nYou cannot unite the two. God requires all. He fills the heart, and\nclaims supreme control over all the nature. There cannot be two\nsupreme in the soul. It cannot be God and self. It must be God or\nself. You may look now one way and now another, but the way the heart\ngoes is the thing. Mr. Facing-both-ways does not really face both\nways. He only turns quickly round from one to the other.\n\nSuch divided religion is impossible in the nature of God--of the\nsoul--of religion.\n\nTo attempt it, then, is really to decide against God.\n\nIt is weak and unmanly to be thus vague and decided by circumstances.\nYou would have been a Mohammedan if you had been born in Turkey.\n\nYou ought to decide for God.\n\nHe claims, He deserves, He will reward and bless, your whole soul.\n\n'Choose you this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord be God, follow\nHim' If Baal or Succoth-benoth, then follow him. 'You cannot serve God\nand Mammon.' 'He that is not for us is against us.' Be one thing or\nthe other.\n\n\n\nHEZEKIAH, A PATTERN OF DEVOUT LIFE\n\n'Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel.... 6. He clave to the\nLord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His\ncommandments.'--2 KINGS xviii. 5,6.\n\n\nDevout people in all ages and stations are very much like each other.\nThe elements of godliness are always the same. This king of Israel,\nsomething like two thousand six hundred years ago, and the humblest\nChristian to-day have the family likeness on their faces. These words,\nwhich are an outline sketch of the king's character, are really a\nsketch of the religious life at all times and in all places. He\nrealised it; why may not we? He achieved it amid much ignorance; why\nshould not we amid our blaze of knowledge? He accomplished it amid the\ntemptations of a monarchy; why should not we in our humbler spheres?\n\nThere are four things set forth here as constituting a religious life.\nWe begin at the bottom with the foundation of everything. 'He trusted\nin the Lord God of Israel.' The Old Testament is just as emphatic in\ndeclaring that there is no religion without trust, and that trust is\nthe very nerve and life-blood of religion, as is the New. Only that in\nthe one half of the book our translators have chosen to use the word\n'trust,' and in the other half of the book they have chosen to use,\nfor the very same act, the word 'faith.' They have thus somewhat\nobscured the absolute identity which exists in the teaching of the Old\nand of the New Testament as regards the bond which unites men to God.\nThat union always was, and always will be, begun in the simple\nattitude and exercise of trust, and everything else will come out of\nthat, and without that nothing else will come.\n\nSo this king had a certain measure of knowledge about the character of\nGod, and that measure of knowledge led him to lean all his weight upon\nthe Lord. You and I know a great deal more about God and His ways and\npurposes than Hezekiah did, but we can make no better use of it than\nhe did--translate our knowledge into faith, and rely with simple,\nabsolute confidence on Him whose name we know in Christ more fully and\nblessedly than was possible to Hezekiah.\n\nAnd need I remind you of how, in this life of which the outline is\nhere given and the inmost secret is here disclosed, there were\nsignificant and magnificent instances of the power of humble trust to\nbring to an else helpless man all the blessings that he needs, and to\nput a crystal wall round about him that will preserve him from every\nevil, howsoever threatening it may seem?\n\n'It has come addressed to me, but it is meant for Thee. Vindicate\nThine own cause by delivering Thine own servant.' And so, 'when the\nmorning dawned, they were all dead men,' and faith rejoiced in a\nperfect deliverance. And you and I may get the same answer, in the\nmidst of all our trials, difficulties, toils, and conflicts, if only\nwe will go the same way to get it, and let our faith work, as\nHezekiah's worked, and take everything that troubles us to our Father\nin the heavens, and be quite sure that He is the God 'who daily bears\nour burdens.' Let us begin with the simple act of confidence in Him.\nThat is the foundation, and on that we may build everything besides.\n\nLet us see what this man further built upon it. The second story, if I\nmay so say, of the temple-fortress of his life, upon the foundation of\nfaith, was, 'He clave to the Lord.'\n\nThat is to say, the act of confidence must be followed and perfected\nby tenacious adherence with all the tendrils of a man's nature to the\nGod in whom he says that he trusts. The metaphor is a very forcible\none, so familiar in Scripture as that we are apt to overlook its\nemphasis. Let me recall one or two of the instances in which it is\nemployed about other matters which throw light on its force here.\n\nFirst of all, remember that sweet picture of the widow woman from Moab\nand the two daughters-in-law, one sent back, not reluctantly, to her\nhome; and the other persisting in keeping by Naomi's side, in spite of\ndifficulties and remonstrances. With kisses of real love Orpah went\nback, but she did go back, to her people and her gods, but 'Ruth clave\nunto her.' So should we cling to God, as Ruth flung her arms round\nNaomi, and twined her else lonely and desolate heart about her dear\nand only friend, for whose sweet sake she became a willing exile from\nkindred and country. Is that how we cleave to the Lord?\n\nMore sacred still are the lessons that are suggested by the fact that\nthis is the word employed to describe the blessed and holy union of\nman and woman in pure wedded life, and I suppose some allusion to that\nuse of the expression underlies its constant application to the\nrelation of the believing soul to Jehovah. For by trust the soul is\nwedded to Him, and so 'joined to the Lord' as to be 'one spirit.'\n\nOr if we do not care to go so deep as that, let us take the metaphor\nthat lies in the word itself, without reference to its Scriptural\napplications. As the limpet holds on to its rock, as the ivy clings to\nthe wall, as a shipwrecked sailor grasps the spar which keeps his head\nabove water, so a Christian man ought to hold on to God, with all his\nenergy, and with all parts of his nature. The metaphor implies\ntenacity; closeness of adhesion, in heart and will, in thought, in\ndesire, and in all the parts of our receptive humanity, all of which\ncan touch God and be touched by Him, and all of which are blessed only\nin the measure in which, yielding to Him, they are filled and steadied\nand glorified.\n\nAnd there is implied, too, not only tenacity of adherence, but\ntenacity in the face of obstacles. There must be resistance to all the\nforces which would detach, if there is to be union with God in the\nmidst of life in the world. Or, to recur for a moment to the figure\nthat I employed a moment ago, as the sailor clings to a spar, though\nthe waves dash round him, and his fingers get stiffened with cold and\ncramped with keeping the one position, and can scarcely hold on, but\nhe knows that it is life to cling and death to loosen, and so tightens\nhis grasp; thus have we to lay hold of God, and in spite of all\nobstacles, to keep hold of Him. Our grasp tends to slacken, and is\nfeeble at the best, even if there were nothing outside of us to make\nit difficult for us to get a good grip. But there are howling winds\nand battering waves blowing and beating on us, and making it hard to\nkeep our hold.\n\nDo not let us yield to these, but in spite of them all let our hearts\ntighten round Him, for it is only in His sweet, eternal, perfect love\nthat they can be at rest. And let our thoughts keep close to Him in\nspite of all distractions, for it is only in the measure in which His\nlight fills our minds and His truth occupies our thoughts that our\nthinking spirits will be at rest. And let our desires, as the\ntentacles of some shell-fish fasten upon the rock, and feel out\ntowards the ocean that is coming to it, let our desires go all out\ntowards Him until they touch that after which they feel, and curl\nround it in repose and in blessedness.\n\nThe whole secret of a joyful, strong, noble Christian life lies\nhere--that on the foundation of faith we should rear tenacious\nadherence to Him in spite of all obstacles. So it was a most\nencyclopaedic, though laconic, exhortation that that 'good man' sent\ndown from Jerusalem to encourage the first heathen converts gave, when\ninstead of all other instruction or advice, or inculcation of less\nimportant, and yet real, Christian duties, Barnabas exhorted them all\n'that with purpose of heart'--the full devotion of their inmost\nnatures--'they should cleave to the Lord.'\n\nThen the third stage, or the third story, in this building is that,\ncleaving to the Lord, 'he departed not from following Him.' The\nmetaphor of cleaving implies proximity and union; the metaphor of\nfollowing implies distance which is being diminished. These two are\nincongruous, and the very incongruity helps to give point to the\nrepresentation. The same two ideas of union and yet of pursuit are\nbrought still more closely together in other parts of Scripture. For\ninstance, there is a remarkable saying in one of the Psalms,\ntranslated in our Bible--'My soul followeth hard after Thee. Thy right\nhand upholdeth me,' where the expression 'followeth hard after' is a\nlame attempt at translating the perhaps impossible-to-be-translated\nfullness of the original, which reads 'My soul cleaveth after Thee.'\nIt is an incongruous combination of ideas, by its very incongruity and\nparadoxical form suggesting a profound truth--viz. that in all the\nconscious union and tenacious adherence to God which makes the\nChristian life, there is ever, also, a sense of distance which kindles\naspiration and leads to the effort after continual progress. However\nclose we may be to God, it is always possible to press closer. However\nfull may be the union, it may always be made fuller; and the cleaving\nspirit will always be longing for a closer contact and a more blessed\nsense of being in touch with God.\n\nSo, as we climb, new heights reveal themselves, and the further we\nadvance in the Christian life the more are we conscious of the\ninfinite depths that yet remain to be traversed. Hence arises one\ngreat element of the blessedness of being a Christian--namely, that we\nneed not fear ever coming to the end of the growth in holiness and the\nincrease of joy and power that are possible to us. So that weariness,\nand the sense of having reached the limits that are possible on a\ngiven path, which sooner or later fall upon men that live for anything\nbut God, can never be ours if we live for Him. But the oldest and most\nexperienced will have the same forward-looking glances of hope and\nforward-directed steps of strenuous effort as the youngest beginner on\nthe path; and a Paul will be able to say when he is 'Paul the aged,'\nand 'the time of his departure is at hand,' that he 'forgets the\nthings that are behind, and reaches forth unto the things that are\nbefore, while he presses towards the mark.' Let us be thankful for the\nendless progress which is possible to the Christian, and let us see to\nit that we are never paralysed into supposing that 'to-morrow must be\n_as_ this day,' but trust the infinite resources of our God, and\nbe sure that we growingly make our own the growing gifts which He\nbestows.\n\nAnd so, lastly, the fourth element in this analysis of a devout life\nis 'He kept the commandments of the Lord.' That is the outcome of them\nall. Faith, adhesion, aspiration, and progress, all vindicate their\nvalue and reality in the simple, homely way of practical obedience.\n\nLet us learn two things. One as to the worthlessness of all these\nothers, if they do not issue in this. Not that these inward emotions\nare ever to be despised, but that, if they are genuine in our hearts,\nthey cannot but manifest themselves in our lives. And so, dear\nChristian friends! do you not build upon your faith, on your adherence\nto God, on your aspirations after Him, unless you can bring into\ncourt, as witnesses for these, daily and hourly, your efforts after\nthe conformity of your will to His, in the great things and in the\nsmall. Then, and only then, may we be sure that our confidence is not\na delusion, and that it is to Him that we cleave when our feet tread\nin the paths of goodness.\n\nAnd on the other hand, let us learn that all attempts to be obedient\nto a divine will which do not begin with trust and cleaving to Him are\nvain. There is no other way to get that conformity of will except by\nthat union of spirit. All other attempts are beginning at the wrong\nend. You do not begin building your houses with the chimney-pots, but\nmany a man who seeks to obey without trusting does precisely commit\nthat fault. Let us be sure that the foundations are in, and then let\nus be sure that we do not stop half-way up, lest all that pass by\nshould mock and say, 'This man began to build and was not able to\nfinish.'\n\nHow many professing Christians' lives are half-finished and unroofed\nhouses, because they have not 'added to their faith'--that is, to\ntheir 'cleaving to the Lord'--endless aspiration and continual\nprogress, and to their aspiration and their progress the peaceable\nfruit of practical righteousness! If these things be in us and abound,\nthey mark us as devout men after God's pattern. And if we want to be\ndevout men after God's pattern, we must follow God's sequence, which\nbegins with trust and ends with obedience.\n\n\n\n'HE UTTERED HIS VOICE, THE EARTH MELTED'\n\n'Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the\nLord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me against\nSennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21. This is the word that\nthe Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion,\nhath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of\nJerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22. Whom hast thou reproached\nand blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and\nlifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel....\n28. Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine\nears, therefore I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy\nlips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. 29.\nAnd this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things\nas grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of\nthe same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards,\nand eat the fruits thereof. 30. And the remnant that is escaped of the\nhouse of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit\nupward. 31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they\nthat escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do\nthis. 32. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of\nAssyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there,\nnor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33. By the\nway that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into\nthis city, saith the Lord. 34. For I will defend this city, to save\nit, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake. 35. And it\ncame to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and\nsmote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five\nthousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were\nall dead corpses. 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and\nwent and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37. And it came to pass, as\nhe was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech\nand Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into\nthe land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.'--2\nKINGS xix. 20-22; 28-37.\n\n\nAt an earlier stage of the Assyrian invasion Hezekiah had sent to\nIsaiah, asking him to pray to his God for deliverance, and had\nreceived an explicit assurance that the invasion would be foiled. When\nthe second stage was reached, and Hezekiah was personally summoned to\nsurrender, by a letter which scoffed at Isaiah's promise, he himself\nprayed before the Lord. Isaiah does not seem to have been present, and\nmay not have known of the prayer. At all events, the answer was given\nto him to give to the king; and it is noteworthy that, as in the\nformer case, he does not himself come, but sends to Hezekiah. He did\ncome when he had to bring a message of death, and again when he had to\nrebuke (chap. xx.), but now he only sends. As the chosen speaker of\nJehovah's will, he was mightier than kings, and must not imperil the\ndignity of the message by the behaviour of the messenger. In a\nsentence, Hezekiah's prayer is answered, and then the prophet, in\nJehovah's name, bursts into a wonderful song of triumph over the\ndefeated invader. 'I have heard.' That is enough. Hezekiah's prayer\nhas, as it were, fired the fuse or pulled the trigger, and the\nexplosion follows, and the shot is sped. 'Whereas thou hast prayed,\n... I have heard,' is ever true, and God's hearing is God's acting in\nanswer. The methods of His response vary, the fact that He responds to\nthe cry of despair driven to faith by extremity of need does not vary.\n\nBut it is noteworthy that, with that brief, sufficient assurance,\nHezekiah, as it were, is put aside, and instead of three fighters in\nthe field, the king, with God to back him, and on the other side\nSennacherib, two only, appear. It is a duel between Jehovah and the\narrogant heathen who had despised Him. Jerusalem appears for a moment,\nin a magnificent piece of poetical scorn, as despising and making\ngestures of contempt at the baffled would-be conqueror, as Miriam and\nher maidens did by the Red Sea. The city is 'virgin,' as many a\nfortress in other lands has been named, because uncaptured. But she,\ntoo, passes out of sight, and Jehovah and Sennacherib stand opposed on\nthe field. God speaks now not 'concerning,' but to, him, and indicts\nhim for insane pride, which was really a denial of dependence on God,\nand passionate antagonism to Him, as manifested not only in his war\nagainst Jehovah's people, but also in the tone of his insolent\ndefiances of Hezekiah, in which he scoffed at the vain trust which the\nlatter was placing in his God, and paralleled Jehovah with the gods of\nthe nations whom he had already conquered (Isaiah xix. 12).\n\nThe designation of God, characteristic of Isaiah, as 'the Holy One of\nIsrael,' expresses at once His elevation above, and separation from,\nall mundane, creatural limitations, and His special relation to His\npeople, and both thoughts intensify Sennacherib's sin. The Highest,\nbefore whose transcendent height all human elevations sink to a\nuniform level, has so joined Israel to Himself that to touch it is to\nstrike at Him, and to vaunt one's self against it is to be arrogant\ntowards God. That mighty name has received wider extension now, but\nthe wider sweep does not bring diminished depth, and lowly souls who\ntake that name for their strong tower can still run into it and be\nsafe from 'the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,' and the\nstrongest foes.\n\nThere is tremendous scorn in the threat with which the divine address to\nSennacherib ends. The dreaded world-conqueror is no more in God's eyes\nthan a wild beast, which He can ring and lead as He will, and not even\nas formidable as that, but like a horse or a mule, that can easily be\nbridled and directed. What majestic assertion lies in these figures and\nin '_My_ hook' and '_My_ bridle!' How many conquerors and mighty men\nsince then have been so mastered, and their schemes balked! Sennacherib\nhad to return by 'the way that he came,' and to tramp back, foiled and\ndisappointed, over all the weary miles which he had trodden before with\nsuch insolent confidence of victory. A modern parallel is Napoleon's\nretreat from Moscow. But the same experience really befalls all who\norder life regardless of God. Their schemes may seem to succeed, but in\ndeepest truth they fail, and the schemers never reach their goal.\n\nIn verse 29 the prophet turns away abruptly and almost contemptuously\nfrom Sennacherib to speak comfortably to Jerusalem, addressing\nHezekiah first, but turning immediately to the people. The substance\nof his words to them is, first, the assurance that the Assyrian\ninvasion had limits of time set to it by God; and, second, that beyond\nit lay prosperous times, when the prophetic visions of a flourishing\nIsrael should be realised in fact. For two seed-times only field work\nwas to be impossible on account of the Assyrian occupation, but it was\nto foam itself away, like a winter torrent, before a third season for\nsowing came round.\n\nBut how could this sequence of events, which required time for its\nunfolding, be 'a sign'? We must somewhat modify our notions of a sign\nto understand the prophet. The Scripture usage does not only designate\nby that name a present event or thing which guarantees the truth of a\nprophecy, but it sometimes means an event, or sequence of events, in\nthe future, which, when they have come to pass in accordance with the\ndivine prediction of them, will shed back light on other divine words\nor acts, and demonstrate that they were of God. Thus Moses was given\nas a sign of his mission the worshipping in Mount Sinai, which was to\ntake place only after the Exodus. So with Isaiah's sign here. When the\nharvest of the third year was gathered in, then Israel would know that\nthe prophet had spoken from God when he had sung Sennacherib's defeat.\nFor the present, Hezekiah and Judah had to live by faith; but when the\ndeliverance was complete, and they were enjoying the fruits of their\nlabours and of God's salvation, then they could look back on the weary\nyears, and recognise more clearly than while these were slowly passing\nhow God had been in all the trouble, and had been carrying on His\npurposes of mercy through it all. And there will be a 'sign' for us in\nlike manner when we look back from eternity on the transitory\nconflicts of earthly life, and are satisfied with the harvest which He\nhas caused to spring from our poor sowings to the Spirit.\n\nThe definite promise of deliverance in verses 32-34 is addressed to\nJudah, and emphasises the completeness of the frustration of the\ninvader's efforts. There is a climax in the enumeration of the things\nthat he will not be allowed to do--he will not make his entry into the\ncity, nor even shoot an arrow there, nor even make preparation for a\nsiege. His whole design will be overturned, and as had already been\nsaid (ver. 28), he will retrace his steps a baffled man.\n\nNote the strong antithesis: 'He shall not come into this city, ... for\nI will defend this city.' Zion is impregnable because Jehovah defends\nit. Sennacherib can do nothing, for he is fighting against God. And if\nwe 'are come unto the city of the living God,' we can take the same\npromise for the strength of our lives. God saves Zion 'for His own\nsake,' for His name is concerned in its security, both because He has\ntaken it for His own and because He has pledged His word to guard it.\nIt would be a blot on His faithfulness, a slur on His power, if it\nshould be conquered while it remains true to Him, its King. His honour\nis involved in protecting us if we enter into the strong city of which\nthe builder and maker is God. And 'for David's sake,' too, He defends\nZion, because He had sworn to David to dwell there. But Zion's\nsecurity becomes an illusion if Zion breaks away from God. If it\nbecomes as Sodom, it shares Sodom's fate.\n\nIt is remarkable that neither in the song of triumph nor in the\nprophecy of deliverance is there allusion to the destruction of the\nAssyrian army. How the exultant taunts of the one and the definite\npromises of the other were to be fulfilled was not declared till the\nevent declared it. But faithful expectation had not long to wait, for\n'that night' the blow fell, and no second was needed. We are not told\nwhere the Assyrian army was, but clearly it was not before Jerusalem.\nNor do we learn what was the instrument of destruction wielded by the\n'angel of the Lord,' if there was any. The catastrophe may have been\nbrought about by a pestilence, but however effected, it was 'the act\nof God,' the fulfilment of His promise, the making bare of His arm.\n'By terrible things in righteousness' did He answer the prayer of\nHezekiah, and give to all humble souls who are oppressed and cry to\nHim a pledge that 'as they have heard, so' will they 'see, in the city\nof' their 'God.' How much more impressive is the stern, naked brevity\nof the Scriptural account than a more emotional expansion of it, like,\nfor instance, Byron's well-known, and in their way powerful lines,\nwould have been! To the writer of this book it seemed the most natural\nthing in the world that the foes of Zion should be annihilated by one\nblow of the divine hand. His business is to tell the facts; he leaves\ncommentary and wonder and triumph or terror to others.\n\nThere is but one touch of patriotic exultation apparent in the\nhalf-sarcastic and half-rejoicing accumulation of synonyms descriptive\nof Sennacherib's retreat. He 'departed, and went and returned.' It is\nlike the picture in Psalm xlviii., which probably refers to the same\nevents: 'They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and\nhasted away.'\n\nAbout twenty years elapsed between Sennacherib's retreat and his\nassassination. During all that time he 'dwelt at Nineveh,' so far as\nJudah was concerned. He had had enough of attacking it and its God.\nBut the notice of his death is introduced here, not only to complete\nthe narrative, but to point a lesson, which is suggested by the fact\nthat he was murdered 'as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch\nhis god.' Hezekiah had gone into the house of _his_ God with\nSennacherib's letter, and the dead corpses of an army showed what\nJehovah could do for His servant; Sennacherib was praying in the\ntemple of _his_ god, and his corpse lay stretched before his\nidol, an object lesson of the impotence of Nisroch and all his like to\nhear or help their worshippers.\n\n\n\nTHE REDISCOVERED LAW AND ITS EFFECTS\n\n'And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have\nfound the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Hilkiah gave\nthe book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9. And Shaphan the scribe came to\nthe king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have\ngathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it\ninto the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the\nhouse of the Lord. 10. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying,\nHilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book: and Shaphan read it\nbefore the king. 11. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the\nwords of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 12. And the\nking commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and\nAchbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a\nservant of the king's, saying, 13. Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me,\nand for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this\nbook that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled\nagainst us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of\nthis book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning\nus. 14. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan,\nand Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the\nson of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she\ndwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her. 15.\nAnd she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the\nman that sent you to me, 16. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring\nevil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the\nwords of the book which the king of Judah hath read: 17. Because they\nhave forsaken Me, and have burnt incense unto other gods, that they\nmight provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore\nMy wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be\nquenched. 18. But to the king of Judah, which sent you to enquire of\nthe Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,\nAs touching the words which thou hast heard; 19. Because thine heart\nwas tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou\nheardest what I speak against this place, and against the inhabitants\nthereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast\nrent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith\nthe Lord. 20. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers,\nand thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes\nshall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And\nthey brought the king word again.'--2 KINGS xxii. 8-20.\n\n\nWe get but a glimpse into a wild time of revolution and\ncounter-revolution in the brief notice that the 'servants of Amon,'\nJosiah's father, conspired and murdered him in his palace, but were\nthemselves killed by a popular rising, in which the 'people of the\nland made Josiah his son king in his stead,' and so no doubt balked\nthe conspirators' plans. Poor boy! he was only eight years old when he\nmade his first acquaintance with rebellion and bloodshed. There must\nhave been some wise heads and strong arms and loyal hearts round him,\nbut their names have perished. The name of David was still a spell in\nJudah, and guarded his childish descendant's royal rights. In the\neighteenth year of his reign, the twenty-sixth of his age, he felt\nhimself firm enough in the saddle to begin a work of religious\nreformation, and the first reward of his zeal was the finding of the\nbook of the law. Josiah, like the rest of us, gained fuller knowledge\nof God's will in the act of trying to do it so far as he knew it.\n'Light is sown for the upright.'\n\nI. We have, first, the discovery of the law. The important and\ncomplicated critical questions raised by the narrative cannot be\ndiscussed here, nor do they affect the broad lines of teaching in the\nincident. Nothing is more truthful-like than the statement that, in\ncourse of the repairs of the Temple, the book should be\nfound,--probably in the holiest place, to which the high priest would\nhave exclusive access. How it came to have been lost is a more\npuzzling question; but if we recall that seventy-five years had passed\nsince Hezekiah, and that these were almost entirely years of apostasy\nand of tumult, we shall not wonder that it was so. Unvalued things\neasily slip out of sight, and if the preservation of Scripture\ndepended on the estimation which some of us have of it, it would have\nbeen lost long ago. But the fact of the loss suggests the wonder of\nthe preservation. It would appear that this copy was the only one\nexisting,--at all events, the only one known. It alone transmitted the\nlaw to later days, like some slender thread of water that finds its\nway through the sand and brings the river down to broad plains beyond.\nThink of the millions of copies now, and the one dusty, forgotten roll\ntossing unregarded in the dilapidated Temple, and be thankful for the\nProvidence that has watched over the transmission. Let us take care,\ntoo, that the whole Scripture is not as much lost to us, though we\nhave half a dozen Bibles each, as the roll was to Josiah and his men.\n\nHilkiah's announcement to Shaphan has a ring of wonder and of awe in\nit. It sounds as if he had not known that such a book was anywhere in\nthe Temple. And it is noteworthy that not he, but Shaphan, is said to\nhave read it. Perhaps he could not,--though, if he did not, how did he\nknow what the book was? At all events, he and Shaphan seem to have\nfelt the importance of the find, and to have consulted what was to be\ndone. Observe how the latter goes cautiously to work, and at first\nonly says that he has received 'a book.' He gives it no name, but\nleaves it to tell its own story,--which it was then, and is still,\nwell able to do. Scripture is its own best credentials and witnesses\nwhence it comes. Again Shaphan is the reader, as it was natural that a\n'scribe' should be, and again the possibility is that Josiah could not\nread.\n\nII. One can easily picture the scene while the reader's voice went\nsteadily through the commandments, threatenings, and promises,--the\ndeepening eagerness of the king, the gradual shaping out before his\nconscience of God's ideal for him and his people, and the gradual\nwaking of the sense of sin in him, like a dormant serpent beginning to\nstir in the first spring sunshine.\n\nThe effect of God's law on the sinful heart is vividly pictured in\nJosiah's emotion. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin.' To many of us\nthat law, in spite of our outward knowledge of it, is as completely\nabsent from our consciousness as it had been from the most ignorant of\nJosiah's subjects; and if for once its searchlight were thrown into\nthe hidden corners of our hearts and lives, it would show up in\ndreadful clearness the skulking foes that are stealing to assail us,\nand the foul things that have made good their lodgment in our hearts\nand lives. It always makes an epoch in a life when it is really\nbrought to the standard of God's law; and it is well for us if, like\nJosiah, we rend our clothes, or rather 'our heart, and not our\ngarments,' and take home the conviction, 'I have sinned against the\nLord.'\n\nThe dread of punishment sprang up in the young king's heart, and\nthough that emotion is not the highest motive for seeking the Lord, it\nis not an unworthy one, and is meant to lead on to nobler ones than\nitself. There is too much unwillingness, in many modern conceptions of\nChrist's gospel, to recognise the place which the apprehension of\npersonal evil consequences from sin has in the initial stages of the\nprocess by which we are 'translated from the kingdom of darkness into\nthat of God's dear Son.'\n\nIII. The message to Huldah is remarkable. The persons sent with it\nshow its importance. The high priest, the royal secretary, and one of\nthe king's personal attendants, who was, no doubt, in his confidence,\nand two other influential men, one of whom, Ahikam, is known as\nJeremiah's staunch friend, would make some stir in 'the second\nquarter,' on their way to the modest house of the keeper of the\nwardrobe. The weight and number of the deputation did honour to the\nprophetess, as well as showed the king's anxiety as to the matter in\nhand. Jeremiah and Zephaniah were both living at this time, and we do\nnot know why Huldah was preferred. Perhaps she was more accessible.\nBut conjecture is idle. Enough that she was recognised as having, and\ndeclared herself to have, direct authoritative communications from\nGod.\n\nFor what did Josiah need to inquire of the Lord 'concerning the words\nof this book'? They were plain enough. Did he hope to have their\nsternness somewhat mollified by the words of a prophetess who might be\nmore amenable to entreaties or personal considerations than the\nunalterable page was? Evidently he recognised Huldah as speaking with\ndivine authority, and he might have known that two depositories of\nGod's voice could not contradict each other. But possibly his embassy\nsimply reflected his extreme perturbation and alarm, and like many\nanother man when God's law startles him into consciousness of sin, he\nbetook himself to one who was supposed to be in God's counsels, half\nhoping for a mitigated sentence, and half uncertain of what he really\nwished. He confusedly groped for some support or guide. But, confused\nas he was, his message to the prophetess implied repentance, eager\ndesire to know what to do, and humble docility. If dread of evil\nconsequences leads us to such a temper, we shall hear, as Josiah did,\nanswers of peace as authoritative and divine as were the threatenings\nthat brought us to our senses and our knees.\n\nIV. The answer which Josiah received falls into two parts, the former\nof which confirms the threatenings of evil to Jerusalem, while the\nlatter casts a gleam athwart the thundercloud, and promises Josiah\nescape from the national calamities. Observe the difference in the\ndesignation given him in the two parts. When the threatenings are\nconfirmed, his individuality is, as it were, sunk; for that part of\nthe message applies to any and every member of the nation, and\ntherefore he is simply called 'the man that sent you.' Any other man\nwould have received the same answer. But when his own fate is to be\ndisclosed, then he is 'the king of Judah, who sent you,' and is\ndescribed by the official position which set him apart from his\nsubjects.\n\nHuldah has but to confirm the dread predictions of evil which the roll\nhad contained. What else can a faithful messenger of God do than\nreiterate its threatenings? Vainly do men seek to induce the living\nprophet to soften down God's own warnings. Foolishly do they think\nthat the messenger or the messenger's Sender has any 'pleasure in the\ndeath of the wicked'; and as foolishly do they take the message to be\nunkind, for surely to warn that destruction waits the evildoer is\ngracious. The signal-man who waves the red flag to stop the train\nrushing to ruin is a friend. Huldah was serving Judah best by plain\nreiteration of the 'words of the book.'\n\nBut the second half of her message told that in wrath God remembered\nmercy. And that is for ever true. His thunderbolts do not strike\nindiscriminately, even when they smite a nation. Judah's corruption\nhad gone too far for recovery, and the carcase called for the\ngathering together of the vultures, but Josiah's penitence was not in\nvain. 'I have heard thee' is always said to the true penitent, and\neven if he is involved in widespread retribution, its strokes become\ndifferent to him. Josiah was assured that the evil should not come in\nhis days. But Huldah's promise seems contradicted by the circumstances\nof his death. It was a strange kind of being gathered to his grave in\npeace when he fell on the fatal field of Megiddo, and 'his servants\ncarried him in a chariot dead, ... and buried him in his own\nsepulchre' (2 Kings xxiii. 30). But the promise is fulfilled in its\nreal meaning by the fact that the threatenings which he was inquiring\nabout did not fall on Judah in his time, and so far as these were\nconcerned, he _did_ come to his grave in peace.\n\n\n\nTHE END\n\n'1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth\nmonth, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of\nBabylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched\nagainst it; and they built forts against it round about. 2. And the\ncity was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3. And on\nthe ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city,\nand there was no bread for the people of the land. 4. And the city was\nbroken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the\ngate, between two walls, which is by the king's garden; (now the\nChaldees were against the city round about;) and the king went the way\ntoward the plain. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the\nking, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were\nscattered from him. 6. So they took the king, and brought him up to\nthe king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7. And\nthey slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes\nof Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to\nBabylon. 8. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,\nwhich is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,\ncame Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of\nBabylon, unto Jerusalem: 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and\nthe king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great\nman's house burnt he with fire. 10. And all the army of the Chaldees,\nthat were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of\nJerusalem round about. 11. Now the rest of the people that were left\nin the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon,\nwith the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan, the captain of\nthe guard, carry away. 12. But the captain of the guard left of the\npoor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.'--2 KINGS xxv.\n1-12.\n\n\nEighteen months of long-drawn-out misery and daily increasing famine\npreceded the fall of the doomed city. The siege was a blockade. No\nassaults by the enemy, nor sorties by the inhabitants, are narrated,\nbut the former grimly and watchfully drew their net closer, and the\nlatter sat still in their despair. The passionless tone of the\nnarrative here is very remarkable. Not a word escapes the writer to\nshow his feelings, though he is telling his country's fall. We must\nturn to Lamentations for sighs and groans. There we have the emotions\nof devout hearts; here we have the calm record of God's judgment. It\nis all one long sentence, for in the Hebrew each verse begins with\n'and,' clause heaped on clause, as if each were a footstep of the\ndestroying angel in his slow, irresistible march.\n\nThe narrative falls into two principal parts--the fate of the king and\nthat of the city. It is unnecessary to dwell on the details. The\nconfusion of counsels, the party strife, the fierce hatred of God's\nprophet, the agony of famine, are all suppressed here, but painted\nwith terrible vividness in the Book of Jeremiah. At last the fatal day\ncame. On the north side a breach was made in the wall, and through it\nthe fierce besiegers poured--the 'princes of the king of Babylon,'\nwith their idolatrous and barbarous names, 'came in, and sat in the\nmiddle gate.' It was night. The sudden appearance of the conquerors in\nthe heart of the city shot panic into the feeble king and his 'men of\nwar' who had never struck one blow for deliverance; and they hurried\nunder cover of darkness, and hidden between two walls, down the ravine\nto the king's garden, once the scene of pleasure, but waste now, and\nthence, as best they could, round or over Olivet to the road to\nJericho. The king's flight by night had been foretold by Ezekiel far\naway in captivity (Ezek. xii. 12); and the same prophet received on\nthat very day a divine message announcing the fall of the city, and\nbidding him 'write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame\nday,' as that on which the king of Babylon 'drew close unto Jerusalem'\n(Ezek. xxiv. 1 _et seq._).\n\nDown the rocky road went the flying host, with 'their shaftless,\nbroken bows' closely followed by the avenging foe with 'red pursuing\nspear.' Where Israel had first set foot on its inheritance, the last\nking of David's line was captured and his monarchy shattered. The\nscene of the first victory, when Jericho fell before unarmed men\ntrusting in God, was the scene of the last defeat. The spot where the\ncovenant was renewed, and the reproach of Israel rolled away, was the\nspot where the broken covenant was finally avenged and abrogated. The\nend came back to the beginning, and the cradle was the coffin.\n\nAway up to Riblah, in the far north, under the shadow of Lebanon, the\ncaptive was dragged to meet the conqueror. The name of each is a\nprofession of belief. The one means 'Jehovah is righteousness'; the\nother, 'Nebo, protect the crown.' The idol seemed to have overcome,\nbut the defeat of the unbelieving confessor of the true God at the\nhands of the idolater is really the victory of the righteousness which\nthe name celebrated and the bearer of the name insulted. His murdered\nsons were the last sight which he saw before he was blinded, according\nto the ferocious practice of the East. It was ingenuity of cruelty to\nlet him see for so long, and then to give him that as the last thing\nseen, and therefore often remembered. Note how the enigma of Ezekiel's\nprophecy (Ezek. xii. 13) and its apparent contradiction of Jeremiah's\n(Jer. xxxii. 4; xxxiv. 3) are reconciled, and learn how easily the\nfact, when it comes, clears the riddles of prophecy, and how easily,\nprobably, the whole facts, if we knew them, would clear the\ndifficulties of Scripture history. The blinded king was harmless, but\naccording to Jewish tradition, was set to work in a mill (though that\nis probably only an application of Samson's story), and according to\nJeremiah (Jer. lii. 11), was kept in prison till his death. So ended\nthe monarchy of Judah.\n\nThe fate of the city was not settled for a month, during which, no\ndoubt, there was much consultation at Riblah whether to garrison or\ndestroy it. The king of Babylon did not go in person, but despatched a\nforce commanded by a high officer, to burn palace, Temple, the more\nimportant houses (the poorer people would probably be lodged in huts\nnot worth burning), and to raze the fortifications. In accordance with\nthe practice of the great Eastern despotisms, deportation followed\nvictory--a clever though cruel device for securing conquests. But some\nwere left behind; for the land, if deserted, would have fallen out of\ncultivation, and been profitless to Babylon. The bulk of the people of\nJerusalem, the fugitives who had joined the invaders during the siege,\nand the mass of the general population, were carried off, in such a\nlong string of misery as we may still see on the monuments, and a\nhandful left behind, too poor to plot, and stirred to diligence by\nnecessity. So ended the possession by Israel of its promised\ninheritance.\n\nNow this fall of Jerusalem is like an object-lesson to teach\neverlasting truth as to the retributive providence of God. What does\nit say?\n\nIt declares plainly what brings down God's judgments. The terms on\nwhich Israel prospered and held its land were obedience to God's law.\nWe cannot directly apply the principles of God's government of it to\nmodern nations. The present analogue of Israel is the Church, not the\nnation. But when all deductions have been made, it is still true that\na nation's religious attitude is a most potent factor in its\nprosperous development. It is not accidental that, on the whole,\nstagnant Europe and America are Roman Catholic, and the progressive\nparts Protestant. Nor was it causes independent of religion that\nscattered a decaying Christianity in the lands of the Eastern Church\nbefore the onslaught of wild Arabs, who, at all events, did believe in\nAllah. So there are abundant lessons for politics and sociology in the\nstory of Jerusalem's fall.\n\nBut these lessons have direct application to the individual and to the\nChristian Church. All departure from God is ruin. We slay ourselves by\nforsaking Him, and every sinner is a suicide. We live under a moral\ngovernment, and in a system of things so knit together as that even\nhere every transgression receives its just recompense--if not visibly\nand palpably in outward circumstances, yet really and punctually in\neffects on mind and heart, which are more solemn and awful. 'Behold\nthe righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked\nand the sinner.' Sin and sorrow are root and fruit.\n\nEspecially does that crash of Jerusalem's fall thunder the lesson to\nall churches that their life and prosperity are inseparably connected\nwith faithful obedience and turning away from all worldliness, which\nis idolatry. They stand in the place that was made empty by Israel's\nlater fall. Our very privileges call us to beware. 'Because of\nunbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.' That great\nseven-branched candlestick was removed out of its place, and all that\nis left of it is its sculptured image among the spoils on the\ntriumphal arch to its captor. Other lesser candlesticks have been\nremoved from their places, and Turkish oppression brings night where\nSardis and Laodicea once gave a feeble light. The warning is needed\nto-day; for worldliness is rampant in the Church. 'If God spared not\nthe natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' The fall\nof Jerusalem is not merely a tragic story from the past. It is a\nrevelation, for the present, of the everlasting truth, that the\nprofessing people of God deserve and receive the sorest chastisement,\nif they turn again to folly.\n\nFurther, we learn the method of present retribution. Nebuchadnezzar\nknew nothing of the purposes which he fulfilled. 'He meaneth not so,\nneither doth his heart think so.' He was but the 'axe' with which God\nhewed. Therefore, though he was God's tool, he was also responsible,\nand would be punished even for performing God's 'whole work upon\nJerusalem,' because of 'the glory of his high looks.' The retribution\nof disobedience, so far as that retribution is outward, needs no\n'miracle.' The ordinary operations of Providence amply suffice to\nbring it. If God wills to sting, He will 'hiss for the fly,' and it\nwill come. The ferocity and ambition of a grim and bloody despot,\nimpelled by vainglory and lust of cruel conquest, do God's work, and\nyet the doing is sin. The world is full of God's instruments, and He\nsends punishments by the ordinary play of motives and circumstances,\nwhich we best understand when we see behind all His mighty hand and\nsovereign will. The short-sighted view of history says 'Nebuchadnezzar\ncaptured Jerusalem B.C. so and so,' and then discourses about the\ntendencies of which Babylonia was exponent and creature. The deeper\nview says, God smote the disobedient city, as He had said, and\nNebuchadnezzar was 'the rod of His anger.'\n\nAgain, we learn the Divine reluctance to smite. More than four hundred\nyears had passed since Solomon began idolatry, and steadily, through\nall that time, a stream of prophecy of varying force and width had\nflowed, while smaller disasters had confirmed the prophets' voices.\n'Rising up early and sending' his servants, God had been in earnest in\nseeking to save Israel from itself. Men said then, 'Where is the\npromise of His coming?' and mocked His warnings and would none of His\nreproof; but at last the hour struck and the crash came. 'As a dream\nwhen one awaketh; so, O Lord! when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise\ntheir image.' His judgment seems to slumber, but its eyes are open,\nand it remains inactive, that His long-suffering may have free scope.\nAs long as His gaze can discern the possibility of repentance, He will\nnot strike; and when that is hopeless, He will not delay. The\nexplanation of the marvellous tolerance of evil which sometimes tries\nfaith and always evokes wonder, lies in the great words, which might\nwell be written over the chair of every teacher of history: 'The Lord\nis not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but\nis long-suffering to us-ward.' Alas, that that divine patience should\never be twisted into the ground of indurated disobedience! 'Because\nsentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the\nheart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.'\n\nGod's reluctance to punish is no reason for doubting that He will.\nJudgment is His 'strange work,' less congenial, if we may so\nparaphrase that strong word of the prophet's, than pure mercy, but it\nwill be done nevertheless. The tears over Jerusalem that witnessed\nChrist's sorrow did not blind the eyes like a flame of fire, nor stay\nthe outstretched hand of the Judge, when the time of her final fall\ncame. The longer the delay, the worse the ruin. The more protracted\nthe respite and the fuller it has been of entreaties to return, the\nmore terrible the punishment. 'Behold, therefore, the goodness and\nseverity of God: towards them which fell, severity; but toward thee,\ngoodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt\nbe cut off.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST BOOK OF CHRONICLES\n\n\nTHE KING'S POTTERS\n\n'There they dwelt with the king for his work.'--1 CHRON. iv. 23.\n\n\nIn these dry lists of names which abound in Chronicles, we now and\nthen come across points of interest, oases in the desert, which need\nbut to be pondered sympathetically to yield interesting suggestions.\nHere for example, buried in a dreary genealogical table, is a little\ntouch which repays meditating on. Among the members of the tribe of\nJudah were a hereditary caste of potters who lived in 'Netaim and\nGederah,' if we adhere to the Revised Version's text, or 'among\nplantations and hedges' if we prefer the margin. But they are also\ndescribed as dwelling 'with the king.' That can only mean on the royal\nestates, for the king himself resided in Jerusalem. He, however, held\nlarge domains in the territory of Judah, on some of which these\nceramic artists were settled down and followed their calling. They\nwere kept on the royal estates and kept in comfort, not needing to\ntill, but fed and cared for, that they might be free to mould, out of\ncommon clay, forms of beauty and 'vessels meet for the master's use.'\nSurely we may read into the brief statement of the text a meaning of\nwhich the writer of it never dreamt, and see in the description of\nthese forgotten artisans, a symbol of our Christian relations to our\nLord and of our life's work.\n\nI. We, too, dwell with the King.\n\nThe Davidic king was in Jerusalem, and the potters were 'among\nplantations and hedges,' yet in a real sense they 'dwelt with the\nking,' though some of them might never have seen his face or trod the\nstreets of the sacred city. Perhaps now and then he came to visit them\non his outlying domains, but they were always parts of his household.\nAnd have we, Christ's servants, not His gracious parting word: 'I am\nwith you always'? True, we are not beside Him in the great city, but\nHe is beside us in His outlying domains, and we may be with Him in His\nglory, if while we still outwardly live among the 'plantations and\nhedges' of this life, we dwell in spirit, by faith and aspiration,\nwith our risen and ascended Lord. If we so 'dwell with the King,' He\nwill dwell with us, and fill our humble abode with the radiance of His\npresence, 'making that place of His feet glorious.' That He should be\nwith us is supreme condescension, that we should be with Him is the\nperfection of exaltation. How low He stoops, how high we can rise! The\nvigour of our Christian life largely depends on our keeping vivid the\nconsciousness of our communion with Jesus and the sense of His real\npresence with us. How life's burdens would be lightened if we faced\nthem all in the strength of the felt nearness of our Lord! How\nimpossible it would be that we should ever feel the dreary sense of\nsolitude, if we felt that unseen, but most real, Presence wrapping us\nround! It is only when our faith in it has fallen asleep that any\nearthly good allures, or any earthly evil frightens us. To be sure, in\nour thrilling consciousness, that we dwell with Jesus is an\nimpenetrable cuirass that blunts the points of all arrows and keeps\nthe breast that wears it unwounded in the fray. The world has no\nvoices which can make themselves heard above that low sovereign\nwhisper: 'I am with you always, even to the end of the world'--and\nafter the end has come, then we shall be with Him.\n\nBut we find in this notice a hint that leads us in yet another\ndirection. They 'dwelt with the king' in the sense that they were\nhoused and cared for on his lands. And in like manner, the true\nconception of the Christian life is that each of us is 'a sojourner\nwith Thee,' set down on Christ's domains, and looked after by Him in\nregard to provision for outward wants. We have nothing in property,\nbut all is His and held by His gift and to be used for Him. The slave\nowns nothing. The patch of ground which he cultivates for his food and\nwhat grows on it, are his master's. These workmen were not slaves, but\nthey were not owners either. And we hold nothing as our own, if we are\ntrue to the terms on which it is given us to hold.\n\nSo if we rightly appreciate our position as dwelling on the King's\nlands, our delusion of possession will vanish, and we shall feel more\nkeenly the pressure of responsibility while we feel less keenly the\ngrip of anxiety. We are for the time being entrusted with a tiny piece\nof the royal estates. Let us not strut about as if we were owners, nor\nbe for ever afraid that we shall not have enough for our needs. One\nsometimes comes on a model village close to the gates of some ducal\npalace, and notes how the lordly owner's honour prompts its being kept\nup to a high standard of comfort and beauty. We may be sure that the\npotters were well lodged and looked after, and that care for their\npersonal wants was shifted from their shoulders to the king's. So\nshould ours be. He will not leave His servants to starve. They should\nnot dishonour Him and disturb themselves by worries and cares that\nwould be reasonable only if they had no Provider. He has said, 'All\nthings are given to Me of My Father,' and He gives us all that God has\ngiven Him.\n\nII. We dwell with the King for His work.\n\nThe king's potters had not to till the land nor do any work but to\nmould clay into vessels for use and beauty. For that purpose they had\ntheir huts and bits of ground assigned them. So with us, Christ has a\npurpose in His provision for us. We are set down on His domains, and\nwe enjoy His presence and providing in order that, set free from\ncarking cares and low ends, we may, with free and joyous hearts, yield\nourselves to His joyful service. The law of our life should be that we\nplease not ourselves, nor consult our own will in choosing our tasks,\nnor seek our own profit or gratification in doing them, but ever ask\nof Him: 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' and when the answer\ncomes, as come it will to all who ask with real desire to learn and\nwith real inclination to do His will, that we 'make haste and delay\nnot, but make haste to keep His commandments.' The spirit which should\nanimate our active lives is plainly enough taught us in that little\nword, they 'dwelt with the king for his work.'\n\nNor are we to forget that, in a very profound sense, dwelling with the\nKing must go before doing His work. Unless we are living continually\nunder the operation of the stimulus of communion with Jesus, we shall\nhave neither quickness of ear to know what He wishes us to do, nor any\nresolute concentration of ourselves on our Christ-appointed tasks. The\nspring of all noble living is communion with noble ideals, and\nfellowship with Jesus sets men agoing, as nothing else will, in\npractical lives of obedience to Jesus. Time given to silent, retired\nmeditation on that sweet, sacred bond that knits the believing soul to\nthe redeeming Lord is not lost with reference to active work for\nJesus. The meditative and the practical life are not antagonistic, but\ncomplementary, Mary and Martha are sisters, though sometimes they\ndiffer, and foolish people try to set them against each other.\n\nBut we must beware of a common misconception of what the King's work\nis. The royal potters did not make only things of beauty, but very\ncommon vessels designed for common and ignoble uses. There were\nvessels of dishonour dried in their kilns as well as vessels 'meet for\nthe master's use.' There is a usual and lamentable narrowing of the\nterm 'Christian work,' to certain conventional forms of service, which\nhas done and is doing an immense amount of harm. The King's work is\nfar wider in scope than teaching in Sunday-schools, or visiting the\nsick, or any similar acts that are usually labelled with the name. It\ncovers all the common duties of life. A shallow religion tickets some\nselected items with the name; a robuster, truer conception extends the\ndesignation to everything. It is not only when we are definitely\ntrying to bring others into touch with Jesus that we are doing Him\nservice, but we may be equally serving Him in everything. The\ndifference between the king's work and the poor potters' own lay not\nso much in the nature as in the motive of it, and whatever we do for\nChrist's sake and with a view to His will is work that He owns, while\na regard to self in our motive or in our end decisively strikes any\nservice tainted by it out of the category.\n\nWe are to hallow all our deeds by drawing the motive for them from the\nKing and by laying the fruits of them at His feet. Thus, and only\nthus, will the most 'secular' actions be sanctified and the narrowest\nlife be widened to contain a present Christ.\n\nThere are subsidiary motives which may legitimately blend with the\nsupreme one. The potters would be stimulated to work hard and with\ntheir utmost skill when they thought of how well they were paid in\nhouse and store for their work. We have ample reasons for dedicating\nour whole selves to Jesus when we think of His gift of Himself to us,\nof His wages beforehand, of His joyful presence with His eye ever on\nus, marking our purity of motive and our diligence.\n\nThere is a final thought that may well stimulate us to put all our\nskill and effort into our work. The potters' work went to Jerusalem.\nIt was for the king. What can be too good for him? He will see it,\ntherefore let us put our best into it. And we shall see it too, when\nwe too enter 'the city of the great King.' Jars that perhaps were\nwrought by these very workmen of whom we have been speaking turn up\nto-day in the excavations in Palestine. So much has perished and they\nremain, speaking symbols of the solemn truth that nothing human ever\ndies. Our 'works do follow us.' Let us so live that these may be\n'found unto praise and honour and glory' at the appearing of 'the\nKing.'\n\n\n\nDAVID'S CHORISTERS\n\n'They stood in their office, according to their order.'--1 CHRON. vi.\n32 (R.V. margin).\n\n\nThis brief note is buried in the catalogue of the singers appointed by\nDavid for 'the service of song in the house of the Lord.' The waves of\ntheir choral praise have long ages since ceased to eddy round the\n'tabernacle of the tent of meeting,' and all that is left of their\nmelodious companies is a dry list of names, in spite of which the dead\nowners of them are nameless. But the chronicler's description of them\nmay carry some lessons for us, for is not the Church of Christ a\nchoir, chosen to 'shew forth the praises of Him who has called us out\nof darkness into His marvellous light'? We take a permissible liberty\nwith this fragment, when we use it to point lessons that may help that\ngreat band of choristers who are charged with the office of making the\nname of Jesus ring through the world. Now, in making such a use of the\ntext, we may linger on each important word in it and find each\nfruitful in suggestions which we shall be the better for expanding in\nour own meditations.\n\nWe pause on the first word, which is rendered in the Authorised and\nRevised Versions 'waited,' and in the margin of the latter 'stood.'\nThe former rendering brings into prominence the mental attitude with\nwhich the singers held themselves ready to take their turns in the\nservice, the latter points rather to their bodily attitude as they\nfulfilled their office. We get a picture of the ranked files gathered\nround their three leaders, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan. These three names\nare familiar to us from the Psalter, but how all the ranks behind them\nhave fallen dim to us, and how their song has floated into inaudible\ndistance! They 'stood,' a melodious multitude, girt and attent on\ntheir song, or waiting their turn to fill the else silent air with the\nhigh praises of Jehovah, and glad when it came to their turn to open\ntheir lips in full-throated melody.\n\nNow may we not catch the spirit of that long vanished chorus, and find\nin the two possible renderings of this word a twofold example, the\nfaithful following of which would put new vigour into our service? We\nare called to a loftier office, and have heavenly harmonies entrusted\nto us to be made vocal by our lips, compared with which theirs were\npoor. 'They waited on' their office, and shall not we, in a higher\nfashion, wait on our ministry, and suffer no inferior claims to block\nour way or hamper our preparedness to discharge it? To let ourselves\nbe entangled with 'the affairs of this life,' or to 'drowse in idle\ncell,' sleepily letting summonses that should wake us to work sound\nunheeded and almost unheard, is flagrant despite done to our high\nvocation as Christians. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' but\nnot if in their waiting their eyes are straying everywhere but to\ntheir Master's pointing hand or directing eye. The world is full of\nvoices calling Christ's folk to help; but what a host of so-called\nChristians fail to hear these piteous and despairing cries, because\nthe noise of their own whims, fancies, and self-centred desires keeps\nbuzzing in their ears. A constant accompaniment of deafness is\nconstant noises in the head; and the Christians who are hardest of\nhearing when Christ calls are generally afflicted with noises which\nare probably the cause, and not merely an accompaniment, of their\ndeafness. For indeed it demands no little detachment of spirit from\nself and sense, from the world and its clamant suitors, if a Christian\nsoul is to be ready to mark the first signal of the great Conductor's\nbaton, and to answer the lightest whisper, intrusting it with a task\nfor Him, with its self-consecrating 'Here am I. Send me.'\n\nIt used to be said that they who watched for providences never wanted\nprovidences to watch for; it is equally true that they who are on the\nwatch for opportunities for service never fail to find them, and that\nears pricked to 'hear what God the Lord shall speak,' summoning to\nwork for Him, will not listen in vain. Paul saw in a vision 'a\n_man_ of Macedonia' begging for his help, and 'straightway' he\nconcluded that '_God_ had called' him to preach in Europe. Happy\nare these Christian workers who hear God's voice speaking through\nmen's needs, and recognise a divine imperative in human cries!\n\nMay we not see in the attitude of David's choristers as they sang,\nhints for our own discharge of the tasks of our Christian service?\nThere was a curse of old on him who did the work of the Lord\n'negligently,' and its weight falls still on workers and work. For who\ncan measure the harm done to the Christian life of the negligent\nworker, and who can expect any blessing to come either to him or to\nothers from such half-hearted seeming service? The devil's kingdom is\nnot to be cast down nor Christ's to be builded up by workers who put\nless than their whole selves, the entire weight of their bodies, into\ntheir toil. A pavior on the street brings down his rammer at every\nstroke with an accompanying exclamation expressing effort, and there\nis no place in Christ's service for dainty people who will not sweat\nat their task, and are in mortal fear of over-work. Strenuousness, the\ngathering together of all our powers, are implied in the attitude of\nHeman and his band as they 'stood' in their office. Idle revellers\nmight loll on their rose-strewn couches as they 'sing idle songs to\nthe sound of the viol and devise for themselves instruments of music,\nlike David,' but the austerer choir of the Temple despised ease, and\nstood ready for service and in the best bodily posture for song.\n\nThe second important word of the text brings other thoughts no less\nvaluable and rich in practical counsel. The singers in the Temple\nstood in their 'office,' which was song. Their special work was\npraise. And that is the highest task of the Church. As a matter of\nfact, every period of quickened earnestness in the Church's life has\nbeen a period marked by a great outburst of Christian song. All\nintense emotion seeks expression in poetry, and music is the natural\nspeech of a vivid faith. Luther chanted the Marseillaise of the\nReformation, 'A safe stronghold our God is still,' and many another\nsweet strain blended strangely with the fiery and sometimes savage\nwords from his lips. The Scottish Reformation, grim in some of its\nfeatures as it was, had yet its 'Gude and Godly Ballads.' At the birth\nof Methodism, as round the cradle at Bethlehem, hovered as it were\nangel voices singing, 'Glory to God in the highest.' A flock of\nsinging birds let loose attends every revival of Christian life.\n\nThe Church's praise is the noblest expression of the Church's life.\nIts hymns go deeper than its creeds, touch hearts more to the quick,\nminister to the faith which they enshrine, and often draw others to\nsee the preciousness of the Christ whom they celebrate. How little we\nshould have known of Old Testament religion, notwithstanding law and\nprophets, if the Psalter had perished!\n\nAnd it is true, in a very deep sense, that we shall do more for Christ\nand men by voicing our own deep thankfulness for His great gifts and\nspeaking simply our valuation of, and our thankfulness for, what we\ndraw from Him than by any other form of so-called Christian work. We\ncan offend none by saying: 'We have found the Messias,' and are\nadoringly glad that we have. The most effectual way of moving other\nsouls to participate in our joy is to let our joy speak. 'If you wish\nme to weep,' your own tears must not be held back, and if you wish\nothers to know the preciousness of Christ, you must ring out His name\nwith fervour of emotion and the triumphant confidence. We are the\n'secretaries of God's praise,' as George Herbert has it, for we have\npossession of His greatest gift, and have learned to know Him in\nloftier fashion than Heman's choristers dreamed of, having seen 'the\nglory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' and tasted the sweetness of\nredeeming love. The Apocalyptic seer sets forth a great truth when he\ntells us that he first heard a new song from the lips of the\nrepresentatives of the Church, who could sing, 'Thou wast slain and\ndidst redeem us to God with Thy blood,' and then heard their adoration\nechoed from 'many angels round about the throne,' and finally heard\nthe song reverberated from every created thing in heaven and earth, in\nthe sea and all deep places. A praising Church has experiences of its\nown which angels cannot share, and it sets in motion the great sea of\npraise whose surges break in music and roll from every side of the\nuniverse in melodious thunder to the great white throne. Without our\nsong even angel voices would lack somewhat.\n\n  'God said, \"A praise is in Mine ear;\n  There is no doubt in it, no fear:\n  Clearer loves sound other ways:\n  I miss My little human praise.\"'\n\nThe song of the redeemed has in it a minor strain that gives a\nsweetness far more poignant than belongs to those who cannot say: 'Out\nof the depths I cried unto Thee.' 'The sweetest songs are those which\ntell of saddest thought,' and recount experiences of conquered sin and\nlife springing from death.\n\nBut it is also true that no kind of Christian service will be\neffectual, if it lacks the element of grateful praise as its motive\nand mainspring. Perhaps there would be fewer complaints of toiling all\nnight and wearily hauling in empty nets, if the nets were oftener let\ndown not only 'at Thy word' but with glad remembrance of the\nfishermen's debt to Jesus, and in the spirit of praise. When all our\nwork is a sacrifice of praise, it is pleasing to God and profitable to\nourselves and to others. If we would oftener bethink ourselves, and\nherald every deed with a silent dedication of it and of ourselves to\nHim who died for us, we should less often have to complain that we\nhave sowed much and brought back little. A pinch of incense cast into\nthe common domestic fire makes its flame sacrificial and fragrant.\n\nThe last important word of the text is also fertile in hints for us.\nThe singers stood in their office 'according to their order.' That\nlast expression may either refer to rotation of service or to\ndistribution of parts in the chorus. They did not sing in unison,\ngrand as the effect of such a song from a multitude sometimes is, but\nthey had their several parts. The harmonious complexity of a great\nchorus is the ideal for the Church. Paul puts the same thought in a\nsterner metaphor when he tells the Colossian Christians that he joys\n'beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ,'\nwhere he is evidently thinking of the Roman legion with its rigid\ndiscipline and its solid, irresistible, ranked weight. Division of\nfunction and consequent concordant action of different parts is the\nlesson taught by both metaphors, and by the many modern examples of\nthe immense results gained in machinery that almost simulates vital\naction, and by organisations for great purposes in which men combine.\nThe Church should be the highest example of such combination, for it\nis the shrine of the noblest life, even the life of its indwelling\nLord. Every member of it should have and know his place. Every\nChristian should know his part in the great chorus, for he has a part,\neven if it is only that of tinkling the triangle in the orchestra or\nbeating a drum. That division of function and concordance of action\napply to all forms of the Church's action, and are enforced most\nchiefly by the great Apostolic metaphor of the body and its members.\nPaul did not delight in 'uniformity.' Inferiors calling themselves his\nsuccessors have often aimed at enforcing it, but nature has been too\nstrong for them, and the hedge will grow its own way in spite of\npedants' shears. 'If the whole body were an eye, where the hearing?'\nThe monotony of a church in which uniformity was the ideal would be\nintolerable. The chorus has its parts, and the soprano cannot say to\nthe bass, 'I have no need of you,' nor the bass to the tenor, 'I have\nno need of thee.'\n\nSo let us see that we find our own place, and see that we fill it,\nsinging our own part lustily, and not being either confused or made\ndumb because another has other notes to sing than are written on our\nscore. Let us recognise unity made more melodious by diversity, the\nimportance of the humblest, and 'having gifts differing according to\nthe grace given unto us let us wait on our ministry,' and stand in our\noffice according to our order.\n\n\n\nDRILL AND ENTHUSIASM\n\n'[Men that] could keep rank, they were not of double heart.'--1 CHRON.\nxii. 33.\n\n\nThese words come from the muster-roll of the hastily raised army that\nbrought David up to Hebron and made him King. The catalogue abounds in\nbrief characterisations of the qualities of each tribe's contingent.\nFor example, Issachar had 'understanding of the times.' Our text is\nspoken of the warriors of Zebulon, who had left their hills and their\nflocks in the far north, and poured down from their seats by the blue\nwaters of Tiberias to gather round their king. They were not only like\ntheir brethren expert in war and fully equipped, but they had some\nmeasure of discipline too, a rare thing in the days when there were no\nstanding armies. They 'could keep rank,' could march together, had\nbeen drilled to some unanimity of step and action, could work and\nfight together, were an army, not a crowd, and not only so, but also\n'they were not of double heart.' Each man, and the whole body, had a\nbrave single resolve; they had one spirit animating the whole, and\nthat was to make David king, an enthusiastic loyalty which made them\nbrave, and a discipline which kept the courage from running to waste.\n\nI take, then, this text as bringing before us two very important\ncharacteristics which ought to be found in every Christian church, and\nwithout which no real prosperity and growth is possible. These two may\nbe put very briefly: organisation and enthusiastic devotion. These are\nboth important, but in very different degrees. Organisation without\nvalour is in a worse plight than valour without organisation. The one\nis fundamental, the other secondary. The one is the true cause, so far\nas men are concerned, of victory, the other is but the instrument by\nwhich the cause works. There have been many victories won by\nundisciplined valour, but disciplined cowardice and apathy come to no\ngood.\n\nThese two have been separated and made antagonistic, and churches are\nto be found which glory in the one, and others in the other. Some have\ngone in for order, and are like butterflies in a cabinet all ticketed\nand displayed in place, but a pin is run through their bodies and they\nare dead; and others have prided themselves on unfettered freedom, and\nbeen not an army, but a mob. The true relation, of course, is that\nlife should shape and inform organisation, and organisation should\npreserve, manifest and obey life. There must be body to hold spirit,\nthere must be spirit to keep body from rotting.\n\nI. Organisation.\n\nThis is not the strong point of Nonconformist churches. We pride\nourselves on our individualism, and that is all very well. We believe\nin direct access of each soul to Christ, that men must come to Him one\nby one, that religion is purely a personal matter, and the firmness\nwith which we hold this tends to make us weak in combined action. It\ncannot be truthfully denied that both in the relations of our churches\nto one another, and in the internal organisation of these, we are and\nhave been too loosely compacted, and have forgotten that two is more\nthan one _plus_ one, so that we are only helping to redress the\nbalance a little when we insist upon the importance of organisation in\nour churches.\n\nAnd first of all--remember the principles in subordination to which\nour organisation must be framed.\n\nWhat are we united by? Common love and faith to Christ, or rather\nChrist Himself. 'One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are\nbrethren.' So there must be nothing in our organisation which is\ninconsistent with Christ's supreme place among us, and with our\nindividual obedience to Him. There are to be no 'lords over God's\nheritage' in the Church of Christ. There are churches in which the\ntemptation to be such affects the official chiefly, and there are\nothers, with a different polity, in which it is chiefly a Diotrephes,\nwho loves to have pre-eminence. Character, zeal, social station, even\nwealth will always confer a certain influence, and their possessors\nwill be tempted to set up their own will or opinions as dominant in\nthe Church. Such men are sinning against the very bond of Christian\nunion. Organisation which is bought by investing one man with\nauthority, is too dearly purchased at the cost of individual\ndevelopment on the individual's own lines. A row of clipped yew-trees\nis not an inspiring sight.\n\nAnd yet again what are we organised for? Not merely for our own growth\nor spiritual advantage, but also, and more especially, for spreading\nfaith in Christ and advancing His glory. All our organisation, then,\nis but an arrangement for doing our work, and if it hinders that, it\nis cumbrous and must be cut away or modified, at all hazards.\nEcclesiastical martinets are still to be found, to whom drill is\nall-important, and who see no use in irregular valour, but they are a\ndiminishing number, and they may be recommended to ponder the old wise\nsaying: 'Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by\nthe strength of the ox.' If the one aim is a 'clean crib' the best way\nto secure that is to keep it empty; but if a harvest is the aim, there\nmust be cultivation, and one must accept the consequences of having a\nstrong team to plough. The end of drill is fighting. The parade-ground\nand its exercising is in order that a corps may be hurled against the\nenemy, or may stand unmoved, like a solid breakwater against a charge\nwhich it flings off in idle spray, and the end of the Church's\norganisation is that it may move _en masse_, without waste,\nagainst the enemy.\n\nBut a further guiding principle to shape Christian organisation is\nthat of the Church as the body of Christ. That requires that there\nshall be work for every member. Christ has endowed His members with\nvarying gifts, powers, opportunities, and has set them in diverse\ncircumstances, that each may give his own contribution to the general\nstock of work. Our theory is that each man has his own proper gift\nfrom God, 'one after this manner, and another after that.' But what is\nour practice? Take any congregation of Christian people in any of our\nchurches, and especially in the Free Churches of which I know most,\nand is there anything like this wide diversity of forms of service, to\nwhich each contributes? A handful of people do all the work, and the\nremainder are idlers. The same small section are in evidence always,\nand the rest are nowhere. There are but a few bits of coloured glass\nin a kaleidoscope, they take different patterns when the tube is\nturned, but they are always the same bits of glass.\n\nThere needs to be a far greater variety of forms of work for our\npeople and more workers in the field. There are too few wheels for the\nquantity of water in the river, and, partly for that reason, the\namount of water that runs waste over the sluice is deplorable. There\nis a danger in having too many spindles for the power available, but\nthe danger in modern church organisation is exactly the other way.\n\nEvery one should have his own work. In all living creatures,\ndifferentiation of organs increases as the creature rises in the scale\nof being, from the simple sac which does everything up to the human\nbody with a distinct function for every finger. It should not be\npossible for a lazy Christian to plead truly as his vindication that\n'no man had hired' him. It should be the Church's business to find\nwork for the unemployed.\n\nThe example in our text should enforce the necessity of united work.\nDavid's levies could keep rank. They did not let each man go at his\nown rate and by his own road, but kept together, shoulder to shoulder,\nwith equal stride. They were content to co-operate and be each a part\nof a greater whole. That keeping rank is a difficult problem in all\nsocieties, where individual judgments, weaknesses, wills, and\ncrotchets are at work, but it is apt to be especially difficult in\nChristian communities, where one may expect to find individual\ncharacteristics intensified, a luxuriant growth of personal\npeculiarities, an intense grip of partial aspects of the great truths\nand a corresponding dislike of other aspects of these, and of those\nwhose favourite truths they are. One would do nothing to clip that\ngrowth, but still Christians who have not learned to subordinate\nthemselves in and for united work are of little use to God or man.\nWhat does such united work require? Mainly the bridling of self, the\ncurbing of one's own will, not insisting on forcing one's opinions on\none's brother, not being careful of having one's place secured and\none's honour asserted. Without such virtues no association of man\ncould survive for a year. If the world managed its societies as the\nChurch manages its unity, they would collapse quickly. Indeed it is a\nstrong presumption in favour of Christianity that the Churches have\nnot killed it long ago. Vanity, pride, self-importance, masterfulness,\npettishness get full play among us. Diotrephes has many descendants\nto-day. A cotton mill, even if it were a co-operative one, could not\nwork long without going into bankruptcy, if there were no more power\nof working together than some Christian congregations have. A watch\nwould be a poor timekeeper, where every wheel tried to set the pace\nand be a mainspring, or sulked because the hands moved on the face in\nsight of all men, while it had to move round and fit into its brother\nwheel in the dark.\n\nSubordination is required as well as co-operation. For if there be\nharmonious co-operation in varying offices, there must be degrees and\nranks. The differences of power and gift make degrees, and in every\nsociety there will be leaders. Of course there is no commanding\nauthority in the Churches. Its leaders are brethren, whose most\nimperative highest word is, 'We beseech you.'\n\nOf course, too, these varieties and degrees do not mean real\nsuperiority or inferiority in the eye of God. From the highest point\nof view nothing is great or small, there is no higher or lower. The\nonly measure is quality, the only gauge is motive. 'Small service is\ntrue service while it lasts.' He that receiveth a prophet in the name\nof a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward. But yet there are, so\nfar as our work here is concerned, degrees and orders, and we need a\nhearty and ungrudging recognition of superiority wherever we find it.\nIf the 'brother of high degree' needs to be exhorted to beware of\narrogance and imposing his own will on his fellows, the 'brother of\nlow degree' needs not less to be exhorted to beware of letting envy\nand self-will hiss and snarl in his heart at those who are in higher\npositions than himself. If the chief of all needs to be reminded that\nin Christ's household preeminence means service, the lower no less\nneeds to be reminded that in Christ's household service means\npre-eminence.\n\nSo much, then, for organisation. It is perfectly reconcilable with\ndemocracy that is not mob-ocracy. In fact, democracy needs it most. If\nI may venture to speak to the members of the Free Churches, with which\nI am best acquainted, I would take upon myself to say that there is\nnothing which they need more than that they should show their polity\nto be capable of reconciling the freest development of the individual\nwith the most efficient organisation of the community. The object is\nwork for Christ, the bond of their fellowship is brotherly union with\nChrist. Many eyes are on them to-day, and the task is in their hands\nof showing that they can keep rank. The most perfect discipline in war\nin old times was found, not amongst the subjects of Eastern despots\nwho were not free enough to learn to submit, but amongst the republics\nof Greece, where men were all on a level in the city, and fell into\ntheir places in the camp, because they loved liberty enough to know\nthe worth of discipline, and so the slaves of Xerxes were scattered\nbefore the resistless onset of the phalanx of the free. The terrible\nlegion which moved 'altogether when it moved at all,' and could be\nlaunched at the foe like one javelin of steel, had for its units free\nmen and equals. There needs freedom for organisation. There needs\norganisation for freedom. Let us learn the lesson. 'God is not the\nauthor of confusion, but of order, in all churches of saints.'\n\nII. Enthusiastic devotion.\n\nThese men came to bring David up to Hebron with one single purpose in\ntheir hearts. They had no sidelong glances to their own self-interest,\nthey had no wavering loyalty, they had no trembling fears, so we may\ntake their spirit as expressing generally the deepest requirements for\nprosperity in a church.\n\nThe foundation of all prosperity is a passion of personal attachment\nto Christ our King.\n\nChrist is Christianity objective. Love to Christ is Christianity\nsubjective. The whole stress of Christian character is laid on this.\nIt is the mother of all grace and goodness, and in regard to the work\nof the Church, it is the ardour of a soul full of love to Jesus that\nconquers. The one thing in which all who have done much for Him have\nbeen alike in that single-hearted devotion.\n\nBut such love is the child of faith. It rests upon belief of truth,\nand is the response of man to God. Dwelling in the truth is the means\nof it. How our modern Christianity fails in this strong personal bond\nof familiar love!\n\nConsider its effect on the individual.\n\nIt will give tenacity of purpose, will brace to strenuous effort, will\nsubdue self, self-regard, self-importance, will subdue fear. It is the\ntrue anaesthetic. The soldier is unconscious of his wounds, while the\nglow of devotion is in his heart and the shout of the battle in his\nears. It will give fertility of resource and patience.\n\nConsider its effect on the community.\n\nIt will remove all difficulties in the way of discipline arising from\nvanity and self which can be subdued by no other means. That flame\nfuses all into one glowing mass like a stream that pours from the\nblast furnace. What a power a church would be which had this! It is\nitself victory. The men that go into battle with that one firm\nresolve, and care for nothing else, are sure to win. Think what one\nman can do who has resolved to sell his life dear!\n\nConsider the worthlessness of discipline without this.\n\nIt is a poor mechanical accuracy. How easy to have too much machinery!\nHow the French Revolution men swept the Austrian martinets before\nthem! David was half-smothered in Saul's armour. On the other hand,\nthis fervid flame needs control to make it last and work. Spirit and\nlaw are not incompatible. Valour may be disciplined, and the\ncombination is irresistible.\n\nAnd so here, till we exchange the close array of the battlefield for\nthe open ranks of the festal procession on the Coronation day, and lay\naside the helmet for the crown, the sword for the palm, the\nbreastplate for the robe of peace, and stand for ever before the\nthrone, in the peaceful ranks of 'the solemn troops and sweet\nsocieties' of the unwavering armies of the heavens who serve Him with\na perfect heart, and burn unconsumed with the ardours of an immortal\nand ever brightening love, let us see to it that we too are 'men that\ncan keep rank and are not of double heart.'\n\n\n\nDAVID'S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE\n\n'Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house\nfor the Lord God of Israel. 7. And David said to Solomon, My son, as\nfor me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord\nmy God: 8. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed\nblood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an\nhouse unto My name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth\nin My sight. 9. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a\nman of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round\nabout: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and\nquietness unto Israel in his days. 10. He shall build an house for My\nname; and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will\nestablish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. 11. Now, my\nson, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of\nthe Lord thy God as He hath said of thee. 12. Only the Lord give thee\nwisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that\nthou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God, 13. Then shalt thou\nprosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments\nwhich the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of\ngood courage; dread not, nor be dismayed. 14. Now, behold, in my\ntrouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand\ntalents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of\nbrass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and\nstone have I prepared and thou mayest add thereto. 15. Moreover, there\nare workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and\ntimber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. 16. Of\nthe gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number.\nArise, therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.'--1 CHRON.\nxxii. 6-16.\n\n\nThis passage falls into three parts. In verses 6-10 the old king tells\nof the divine prohibition which checked his longing to build the\nTemple; in verses 11-13 he encourages his more fortunate successor,\nand points him to the only source of strength for his happy task; in\nverses 14-16 he enumerates the preparations which he had made, the\npossession of which laid stringent obligations on Solomon.\n\nI. There is a tone of wistfulness in David's voice as he tells how his\nheart's desire had been prohibited. The account is substantially the\nsame as we have in 2 Samuel vii. 4-16, but it adds as the reason for\nthe prohibition David's warlike career. We may note the earnestness\nand the motive of the king's desire to build the Temple. 'It was in my\nheart'; that implies earnest longing and fixed purpose. He had brooded\nover the wish till it filled his mind, and was consolidated into a\nsettled resolve. Many a musing, solitary moment had fed the fire\nbefore it burned its way out in the words addressed to Nathan. So\nshould our whole souls be occupied with our parts in God's service,\nand so should our desires be strongly set towards carrying out what in\nsolitary meditation we have felt borne in on us as our duty.\n\nThe moving spring of David's design is beautifully suggested in the\nsimple words 'unto the name of the Lord my God.' David's religion was\neminently a personal bond between him and God. We may almost say that\nhe was the first to give utterance to that cry of the devout heart,\n'My God,' and to translate the generalities of the name 'the God of\nIsrael' into the individual appropriation expressed by the former\ndesignation. It occurs in many of the psalms attributed to him, and\nmay fairly be regarded as a characteristic of his ardent and\nindividualising devotion. The sense of a close, personal relation to\nGod naturally prompted the impulse to build His house. We must claim\nour own portion in the universal blessings shrined in His name before\nwe are moved to deeds of loving sacrifice. We must feel that Christ\n'loved me, and gave Himself for me,' before we are melted into\nanswering surrender.\n\nThe reason for the frustrating of David's desire, as here given, is\nhis career as a warrior king. Not only was it incongruous that hands\nwhich had been reddened with blood should rear the Temple, but the\nfact that his reign had been largely occupied with fighting for the\nexistence of the kingdom showed that the time for engaging in such a\nwork, which would task the national resources, had not yet come. We\nmay draw two valuable lessons from the prohibition. One is that it\nindicates the true character of the kingdom of God as a kingdom of\npeace, which is to be furthered, not by force, but in peace and\ngentleness. The other is that various epochs and men have different\nkinds of duties in relation to Christ's cause, some being called on to\nfight, and others to build, and that the one set of tasks may be as\nsacred and as necessary for the rearing of the Temple as the other.\nMilitant epochs are not usually times for building. The men who have\nto do destructive work are not usually blessed with the opportunity or\nthe power to carry out constructive work. Controversy has its sphere,\nbut it is mostly preliminary to true 'edification.' In the broadest\nview all the activity of the Church on earth is militant, and we have\nto wait for the coming of the true 'Prince of peace' to build up the\ntrue Temple in the land of peace, whence all foes have been cast out\nfor ever. To serve God in God's way, and to give up our cherished\nplans, is not easy; but David sets us an example of simple-hearted,\ncheerful acquiescence in a Providence that thwarted darling designs.\nThere is often much self-will in what looks like enthusiastic\nperseverance in some form of service.\n\nII. The charge to Solomon breathes no envy of his privilege, but\nearnest desire that he may be worthy of the honour which falls to him.\nPetitions and exhortations are closely blended in it, and, though the\nwork which Solomon is called to do is of an external sort, the\nqualifications laid down for it are spiritual and moral. However\n'secular' our work in connection with God's service may be, it will\nnot be rightly done unless the highest motives are brought to bear on\nit, and it is performed as worship. The basis of all successful work\nis God's presence with us, so David prays for that to be granted to\nSolomon as the beginning of all his fitness for his task.\n\nNext, David recalls to his son God's promise concerning him, that it\nmay hearten him to undertake and to carry on the great work. A\nconviction that our service is appointed for us by God is essential\nfor vigorous and successful Christian work. We must have, in some way\nor other, heard Him 'speak concerning us,' if we are to fling\nourselves with energy into it.\n\nThe petitions in verse 12 seem to stretch beyond the necessities of\nthe case, in so far as building the Temple is concerned. Wisdom and\nunderstanding, and a clear consciousness of the duty enjoined on him\nby God in reference to Israel, were surely more than that work\nrequired. But the qualifications for God's service, however the manner\nof service may be concerned with 'the outward business of the house of\nGod,' are always these which David asked for Solomon. The highest\nresult of true 'wisdom and understanding' given by God is keeping\nGod's law; and keeping it is the one condition on which we shall\nobtain and retain that presence of God with us which David prayed for\nSolomon, and without which they labour in vain that build. A life\nconformed to God's will is the absolutely indispensable condition of\nall prosperity in direct Christian effort. The noblest exercise of our\nwisdom and understanding is to obey every word that we hear proceeding\nout of the mouth of God.\n\nIII. There is something very pathetic in the old king's enumeration of\nthe treasures which, by the economies of a lifetime, he had amassed.\nThe amount stated is enormous, and probably there is some clerical\nerror in the numbers specified. Be that as it may, the sum was very\nlarge. It represented many an act of self-denial, many a resolute\nshearing off of superfluities and what might seem necessaries. It was\nthe visible token of long years of fixed attention to one object. And\nthat devotion was all the more noble because the result of it was\nnever to be seen by the man who exercised it.\n\nTherein David is but a very conspicuous example of a law which runs\nthrough all our work for God. None of us are privileged to perform\ncompleted tasks. 'One soweth and another reapeth.' We have to be\ncontent to do partial work, and to leave its completion to our\nsuccessors. There is but one Builder of whom it can be said that His\nhands 'have laid the foundation of this house; His hands shall also\nfinish it.' He who is the 'Alpha and Omega,' and He alone, begins and\ncompletes the work in which He has neither sharers nor predecessors\nnor successors. The rest of us do our little bit of the great work\nwhich lasts on through the ages, and, having inherited unfinished\ntasks, transmit them to those who come after us. It is privilege\nenough for any Christian to lay foundations on which coming days may\nbuild. We are like the workers on some great cathedral, which was\nbegun long before the present generation of masons were born, and will\nnot be finished until long after they have dropped trowel and mallet\nfrom their dead hands. Enough for us if we can lay one course of\nstones in that great structure. The greater our aims, the less share\nhas each man in their attainment. But the division of labour is the\nmultiplication of joy, and all who have shared in the toil will be\nunited in the final triumph. It would be poor work that was capable of\nbeing begun and perfected in a lifetime. The labourer that dug and\nlevelled the track and the engineer that drives the locomotive over it\nare partners. Solomon could not have built the Temple unless, through\nlong, apparently idle, years, David had been patiently gathering\ntogether the wealth which he bequeathed. So, if our work is but\npreparatory for that of those who come after, let us not think it of\nslight importance, and let us be sure that all who have had any\nportion in the toil shall share in the victory, that 'he that soweth\nand he that reapeth may rejoice together.'\n\n\n\nDAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON\n\n'And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the\ntribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king\nby course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the\nhundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of\nthe king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men,\nand with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem. 2. Then David the king\nstood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people:\nAs for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark\nof the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had\nmade ready for the building: 3. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not\nbuild an house for My name, because thou hast been a man of war, and\nhast shed blood. 4. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all\nthe house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for He hath\nchosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of\nmy father; and among the sons of my father He liked me to make me king\nover all Israel: 5. And of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me\nmany sons), he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of\nthe kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6. And He said unto me, Solomon\nthy son, he shall build My house and My courts: for I have chosen him\nto be My son, and I will be his father. 7. Moreover I will establish\nhis kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do My commandments and My\njudgments, as at this day. 8. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel\nthe congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and\nseek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may\npossess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your\nchildren after you for ever. 9. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou\nthe God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a\nwilling mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all\nthe imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found\nof thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever. 10.\nTake heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the\nsanctuary: be strong, and do it.'--1 CHRON. xxviii. 1-10.\n\n\nDavid had established an elaborate organisation of royal officials,\ndetails of which occupy the preceding chapters and interrupt the\ncourse of the narrative. The passage picks up again the thread dropped\nat chapter xxiii. 1. The list of the members of the assembly called in\nverse 1 is interesting as showing how he tried to amalgamate the old\nwith the new. The princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes,\nrepresented the primitive tribal organisation, and they receive\nprecedence in virtue of the antiquity of their office. Then come\nsuccessively David's immediate attendants, the military officials, the\nstewards of the royal estates, the 'officers' or eunuchs attached to\nthe palace, and the faithful 'mighty men' who had fought by the king's\nside in the old days. It was an assembly of officials and soldiers\nwhose adherence to Solomon it was all-important to secure, especially\nin regard to the project for building the Temple, which could not be\ncarried through without their active support. The passage comprises\nonly the beginning of the proceedings of this assembly of notables.\nThe end is told in the next chapter; namely, that the Temple-building\nscheme was unanimously and enthusiastically adopted, and large\ndonations given for it, and that Solomon's succession was accepted,\nand loyal submission offered by the assembly to him.\n\nDavid's address to this gathering is directed to secure these two\npoints. He begins by recalling his own intention to build the Temple\nand God's prohibition of it. The reason for that prohibition differs\nfrom that alleged by Nathan, but there is no contradiction between the\ntwo narratives, and the chronicler has already reported Nathan's words\n(chap. xvii. 3, etc.), so that the motive which is ascribed to many of\nthe variations in this book, a priestly desire to exalt Temple and\nritual, cannot have been at work here. Why should there not have been\na divine communication to David as well as Nathan's message? That\nhands reddened with blood, even though it had been shed in justifiable\nwar, were not fitted to build the Temple, was a thought so far in\nadvance of David's time, and flowing from so spiritual a conception of\nGod, that it may well have been breathed into David's spirit by a\ndivine voice. Sword in one hand and trowel in the other are\nincongruous, notwithstanding Nehemiah's example. The Temple of the God\nof peace cannot be built except by men of peace. That is true in the\nwidest and highest application. Jesus builds the true Temple.\nControversy and strife do not. And, on a lower level, the prohibition\nis for ever valid. Men do not atone for a doubtful past by building\nchurches, founding colleges, endowing religious or charitable\ninstitutions.\n\nThe speech next declares emphatically that the throne belongs to David\nand his descendants by real 'divine right,' and that God's choice is\nSolomon, who is to inherit both the promises and obligations of the\noffice, and, among the latter, that of building the Temple. The\nunspoken inference is that loyalty to Solomon would be obedience to\nJehovah. The connection between the true heavenly King and His earthly\nrepresentative is strongly expressed in the remarkable phrase: 'He\nhath chosen Solomon ... to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of\nJehovah,' which both consecrates and limits the rule of Solomon,\nmaking him but the viceroy of the true king of Israel. When Israel's\nkings remembered that, they flourished; when they forgot it, they\ndestroyed their kingdom and themselves. The principle is as true\nto-day, and it applies to all forms of influence, authority, and\ngifts. They are God's, and we are but stewards.\n\nThe address to the assembly ends with the exhortation to these leaders\nto 'observe,' and not merely to observe, but also to 'seek out' God's\ncommandments, and so to secure to the nation, whom they could guide,\npeaceful and prosperous days. It is not enough to do God's will as far\nas we know it; we must ever be endeavouring after clearer, deeper\ninsight into it. Would that these words were written over the doors of\nall Senate and Parliament houses! What a different England we should\nsee!\n\nBut Solomon was present as well as the notables, and it was well that,\nin their hearing, he should be reminded of his duties. David had\npreviously in private taught him these, but this public 'charge'\nbefore the chief men of the kingdom bound them more solemnly upon him,\nand summoned a cloud of witnesses against him if he fell below the\nhigh ideal. It is pitched on a lofty key of spiritual religion, for it\nlays 'Know thou the God of thy fathers' as the foundation of\neverything. That knowledge is no mere intellectual apprehension, but,\nas always in Scripture, personal acquaintanceship with a Person, which\ninvolves communion with Him and love towards Him. For us, too, it is\nthe seed of all strenuous discharge of our life's tasks, whether we\nare rulers or nobodies, and it means a much deeper experience than\nunderstanding or giving assent to a set of truths about God. We know\none another when we summer and winter with each other, and not unless\nwe love one another, and we know God on no other terms.\n\nAfter such knowledge comes an outward life of service. Active\nobedience is the expression of inward communion, love, and trust. The\nspring that moves the hands on the dial is love, and, if the hands do\nnot move, there is something wrong with the spring. Morality is the\ngarment of religion; religion is the animating principle of morality.\nFaith without works is dead, and works without faith are dead too.\n\nBut even when we 'know God' we have to make efforts to have our\nservice correspond with our knowledge, for we have wayward hearts and\nobstinate wills, which need to be stimulated, sometimes to be coerced\nand forcibly diverted from unworthy objects. Therefore the exhortation\nto serve God 'with a perfect heart and with a willing mind' is always\nneedful and often hard. Entire surrender and glad obedience are the\nChristian ideal, and continual effort to approximate to it will be\nours in the degree in which we 'know God.' There is no worse slavery\nthan that of the half-hearted Christian whose yoke is not padded with\nlove. Reluctant obedience is disobedience in God's sight.\n\nDavid solemnly reminds Solomon of those 'pure eyes and perfect\njudgment,' not to frighten, but to enforce the thought of the need for\nwhole-hearted and glad service, and of the worthlessness of external\nacts of apparent worship which have not such behind them. What a deal\nof seeming wheat would turn out to be chaff if that winnowing fan\nwhich is in Christ's hand were applied to it! How small our biggest\nheaps would become!\n\nThe solemn conditions of the continuance of God's favour and of the\nfulfilment of His promises are next plainly stated. God responds to\nour state of heart and mind. We determine His bearing to us. The\nseeker finds. If we move away from Him, He moves away from us. That is\nnot, thank God! all the truth, or what would become of any of us? But\nit is true, and in a very solemn sense God is to us what we make Him.\n'With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou\nwilt show Thyself froward.'\n\nThe charge ends with recalling the high honour and office to which\nJehovah had designated Solomon, and with exhortations to 'take heed'\nand to 'be strong, and do it.' It is well for a young man to begin\nlife with a high ideal of what he is called to be and do. But many of\nus have that, and miserably fail to realise it, for want of these two\ncharacteristics, which the sight of such an ideal ought to stamp on\nus. If we are to fulfil God's purposes with us, and to be such tools\nas He can use for building His true Temple, we must exercise\nself-control and 'take heed to our ways,' and we must brace ourselves\nagainst opposition and crush down our own timidity. It seems to be\ncommanding an impossibility to say to a weak creature like any one of\nus, 'Be strong,' but the impossible becomes a possibility when the\nexhortation takes the full Christian form: 'Be strong in the Lord, and\nin the power of His might.'\n\n\n\nTHE WAVES OF TIME\n\n'The times that went over him.'--1 CHRON. xxix. 30.\n\n\nThis is a fragment from the chronicler's close of his life of King\nDavid. He is referring in it to other written authorities in which\nthere are fuller particulars concerning his hero; and he says, 'the\nacts of David the King, first and last, behold they are written in the\nbook of Samuel the seer ... with all his reign and his might, and the\ntimes that went over him, and over all Israel, and over all the\nkingdoms of the countries.'\n\nNow I have ventured to isolate these words, because they seem to me to\nsuggest some very solemn and stimulating thoughts about the true\nnature of life. They refer, originally, to the strange vicissitudes\nand extremes of fortune and condition which characterised, so\ndramatically and remarkably, the life of King David. Shepherd-boy,\nsoldier, court favourite, outlaw, freebooter and all but brigand;\nrebel, king, fugitive, saint, sinner, psalmist, penitent--he lived a\nlife full of strongly marked alternations, and 'the times that went\nover him' were singularly separate and different from each other.\nThere are very few of us who have such chequered lives as his. But the\nprinciple which dictated the selection by the chronicler of this\nsomewhat strange phrase is true about the life of every man.\n\nI. Note, first, 'the times' which make up each life.\n\nNow, by the phrase here the writer does not merely mean the succession\nof moments, but he wishes to emphasise the view that these are epochs,\nsections of 'time,' each with its definite characteristics and its\nspecial opportunities, unlike the rest that lie on either side of it.\nThe great broad field of time is portioned out, like the strips of\npeasant allotments, which show a little bit here, with one kind of\ncrop upon it, bordered by another little morsel of ground bearing\nanother kind of crop. So the whole is patchy, and yet all harmonises\nin effect if we look at it from high enough up. Thus each life is made\nup of a series, not merely of successive moments, but of well-marked\nepochs, each of which has its own character, its own responsibilities,\nits own opportunities, in each of which there is some special work to\nbe done, some grace to be cultivated, some lesson to be learned, some\nsacrifice to be made; and if it is let slip it never comes back any\nmore. 'It might have been once, and we missed it, and lost it for\never.' The times pass over us, and every single portion has its own\nerrand to us. Unless we are wide awake we let it slip, and are the\npoorer to all eternity for not having had in our heads the eyes of the\nwise man which 'discern both time and judgment.' It is the same\nthought which is suggested by the well-known words of the cynical book\nof Ecclesiastes--'To every thing there is a season and a time'--an\nopportunity, and a definite period--'for every purpose that is under\nthe sun.' It is the same thought which is suggested by Paul's words,\n'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men. In due\nseason we shall reap if we faint not.' There is 'a time for weeping\nand a time for laughing, a time for building up and a time for casting\ndown.' It is the same thought of life, and its successive epochs of\nopportunity never returning, which finds expression in the threadbare\nlines about 'a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood,\nleads on to fortune,' and neglected, condemns the rest of a career to\nbe hemmed in among creeks and shallows.\n\nThrough all the variety of human occupations, each moment comes to us\nwith its own special mission, and yet, alas! to far too many of us the\nalternations do not suggest the question, what is it that I am hereby\ncalled upon to be or to do? what is the lesson that present\ncircumstances are meant to teach, and the grace that my present\ncondition is meant to force me to cultivate or exhibit? There is one\npoint, as it were, upon the road where we may catch a view far away\ninto the distance, and, if we are not on the lookout when we come\nthere, we shall never get that glimpse at any other point along the\npath. The old alchemists used to believe that there was what they\ncalled the 'moment of projection,' when, into the heaving molten mass\nin their crucible, if they dropped the magic powder, the whole would\nturn into gold; an instant later and there would be explosion and\ndeath; an instant earlier and there would be no effect. And so God's\nmoments come to us; every one of them--if we had eyes to see and hands\nto grasp--a crisis, affording opportunity for something for which all\neternity will not afford a second opportunity, if the moment be let\npass. 'The times went over him,' and your life and mine is parcelled\nout into seasons which have their special vocation for and message to\nus.\n\nHow solemn that makes our life! How it destroys the monotony that we\nsometimes complain of! How it heightens the low things and magnifies\nthe apparently small ones! And how it calls upon us for a sharpened\nattention, that we miss not any of the blessings and gifts which God\nis meaning to bestow upon us through the ministry of each moment! How\nit calls upon us for not only sharpened attention, but for a desire to\nknow the meaning of each of the hours and of every one of His\nprovidences! And how it bids us, as the only condition of\nunderstanding the times, so as to know what we ought to do, to keep\nour hearts in close union with Him, and ourselves ever standing, as\nbecomes servants, girded and ready for work; and with the question on\nour lips and in our hearts, 'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?\nand what wouldst Thou have me to do _now_?' The lesson of the day\nhas to be learned in a day, and at the moment when it is put in\npractice.\n\nII. Another thought suggested by this text is, the Power that moves\nthe times.\n\nAs far as my text represents--and it is not intended to go to the\nbottom of everything--these times flow on over a man, as a river\nmight. But is there any power that moves the stream? Unthinking and\nsense-bound men--and we are all such, in the measure in which we are\nunspiritual--are contented simply to accept the mechanical flow of the\nstream of time. We are all tempted not to look behind the moving\nscreen to see the force that turns the wheel on which the painted\nscene Is stretched. But, Oh! how dreary a thing it is if all that we\nhave to say about life is, 'The times pass over us,' like the blind\nrush of a stream, or the movement of the sea around our coasts, eating\naway here and depositing its spoils there, sometimes taking and\nsometimes giving, but all the work of mere eyeless and purposeless\nchance or of natural causes.\n\nOh, brethren! there is nothing more dismal or paralysing than the\ncontemplation of the flow of the times over our heads, unless we see\nin their flow something far more than that.\n\nIt is very beautiful to notice that this same phrase, or at least the\nessential part of it, is employed in one of the Psalms ascribed to\nDavid, with a very significant addition. He says, 'My times are _in\nThy hand_.' So, then, the passage of our epochs over us is not\nmerely the aimless flow of a stream, but the movement of a current\nwhich God directs. Therefore, if at any time it goes over our heads\nand seems to overwhelm us, we can look up through the transparent\nwater and say, '_Thy_ waves and _Thy_ billows have gone over\nme,' and so I die not of suffocation beneath them. God orders the\ntimes, and therefore, though, as the bitter ingenuity of Ecclesiastes,\non the lookout for proofs of the vanity of life, complained, in a\none-sided view, as an aggravation of man's lot, that there is a time\nfor everything, yet that aspect of change is not its deepest or\ntruest. True it is that sometimes birth and sometimes death, sometimes\njoy and sometimes sorrow, sometimes building up and sometimes casting\ndown, follow each other with monotonous uniformity of variety, and\nseem to reduce life to a perpetual heaping up of what is as painfully\nto be cast down the next moment, like the pitiless sport of the wind\namongst the sandhills of the desert. But the futility is only\napparent, and the changes are not meant to occasion 'man's misery' to\nbe 'great upon him,' as Ecclesiastes says they do. The diversity of\nthe 'times' comes from a unity of purpose; and all the various methods\nof the divine Providence exercised upon us have one unchanging\nintention. The meaning of all the 'times' is that they should bring us\nnearer to God, and fill us more full of His power and grace. The web\nis one, however various may be the pattern wrought upon the tapestry.\nThe resulting motion of the great machine is one, though there may be\na wheel turning from left to right here, and another one that fits\ninto it, turning from right to left there. The end of all the opposite\nmotions is straight progress. So the varying times do all tend to the\none great issue. Therefore let us seek to pursue, in all varying\ncircumstances, the one purpose which God has in them all, which the\nApostle states to be 'even your sanctification,' and let us understand\nhow summer and winter, springtime and harvest, tempest and fair\nweather, do all together make up the year, and ensure the springing of\nthe seed and the fruitfulness of the stalk.\n\nIII. Lastly, let me remind you, too, how eloquently the words of my\ntext suggest the transiency of all the 'times.'\n\nThey 'passed over him' as the wind through an archway, that whistles\nand comes not again. The old, old thought, so threadbare and yet\nalways so solemnising and pathetic, which we know so well that we\nforget it, and are so sure of that it has little effect on life, the\nold, old thought, 'this too will pass away,' underlies the phrase of\nmy text,\n\nHow blessed it is, brethren! to cherish that wholesome sense of the\ntransiency of things here below, only those who live under its\nhabitual power can fairly estimate. It is thought to be melancholy. We\nare told that it spoils joys and kills interest, and I know not what\nbeside. It spoils no joys that ought to be joys. It kills no interests\nthat are not on other grounds unworthy to be cherished. Contrariwise,\nthe more fully we are penetrated with the persistent conviction of the\ntransiency of the things seen and temporal, the greater they become,\nby a strange paradox. For then only are they seen in their true\nmagnitude and nobility, in their true solemnity and importance as\nhaving a bearing on the things that are eternal. Time is the\n'ceaseless lackey of eternity,' and the things that pass over us may\nbecome, like the waves of the sea, the means of bearing us to the\nunmoving shore. Oh! if only in the midst of joys and sorrows, of heavy\ntasks and corroding cares, of weary work and wounded spirits, we could\nfeel, 'but for a moment,' all would be different, and joy would come,\nand strength would come, and patience would come, and every grace\nwould come, in the train of the wholesome conviction that 'here we\nhave no continuing city.'\n\nCherish the thought. It will spoil nothing the spoiling of which will\nbe a loss. It will heighten everything the possession of which is a\ngain. It will teach us to trust in the darkness, and to believe in the\nlight. And when the times are dreariest, and frost binds the ground,\nwe shall say, 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?' The times\nroll over us, like the seas that break upon some isolated rock, and\nwhen the tide has fallen and the vain flood has subsided, the rock is\nthere. If the world helps us to God, we need not mind though it\npasses, and the fashion thereof.\n\nBut do not let us forget that this text in its connection may teach us\nanother thought. The transitory 'times that went over' Israel's king\nare all recorded imperishably on the pages here, and so, though\ncondensed into narrow space, the record of the fleeting moments lives\nfor ever, and 'the books shall be opened, and men shall be judged\naccording to their works.' We are writing an imperishable record by\nour fleeting deeds. Half a dozen pages carry all the story of that\nstormy life of Israel's king. It takes a thousand rose-trees to make a\nvial full of essence of roses. The record and issues of life will be\ncondensed into small compass, but the essence of it is eternal. We\nshall find it again, and have to drink as we have brewed when we get\nyonder. 'Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man\nsoweth that shall he also reap.' 'There is a time to sow,' and that is\nthe present life; 'and there is a time to gather the fruits' of our\nsowing, and that is the time when times have ended and eternity is\nhere.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES\n\n\nTHE DUTY OF EVERY DAY\n\n'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord ... Even after a\ncertain rate every day.'--(A.V.)\n\n'Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord, even as the duty\nof every day required it.'--2 Chron. viii. 12-13 (R. V.).\n\n\nThis is a description of the elaborate provision, in accordance with\nthe commandment of Moses, which Solomon made for the worship in his\nnew Temple. The writer is enlarging on the precise accordance of the\nritual with the regulations laid down in the law. He expresses, by the\nphrase which we have taken as our text, not only the accordance of the\nworship with the commandment, but its unbroken continuity, and also\nthe variety in it, according to the regulations for different days.\nFor the verse runs on, 'on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on\nthe solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the Feast of\nunleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and in the Feast of\nTabernacles.' There were, then, these characteristics in the ritual of\nSolomon's Temple, precise compliance with the Divine commandment,\nunbroken continuity, and beautiful flexibility and variety of method.\n\nBut passing altogether from the original application of the words, I\nventure to do now what I very seldom do, and that is, to take this\nverse as a kind of motto. 'Even according as the duty of every day\nrequired'; the phrase may suggest three thoughts: that each day has\nits own work, its own worship, and its own supplies, 'even as the duty\nof every day required.'\n\nEach day has its own work.\n\nOf course there is a great uniformity in our lives, and many of us who\nare set down to one continuous occupation can tell twelve months\nbefore what, in all probability, we shall be doing at each hour of\neach day in the week. But for all that, there is a certain individual\nphysiognomy about each new day as it comes to us; and the oldest, most\nhabitual, and therefore in some degree easiest and least stimulating,\nwork has its own special characteristics as it comes again to us day\nby day for the hundredth time.\n\nSo there are three pieces of practical wisdom that I would suggest,\nand one is--be content to take your work in little bits as it comes.\nThere is a great deal of practical wisdom in taking short views of\nthings, for although we have often to look ahead, yet it is better on\nthe whole that a man should, as far as he can, confine his\nanticipations to the day that is passing, and leave the day that is\ncoming to look after itself. Take short views and be content to let\neach day prescribe its tasks, and you have gone a long way to make all\nyour days quiet and peaceful. For it is far more the anticipation of\ndifficulties than the realisation of them that wears and wearies us.\nIf a man says to himself, 'This sorrow that I am carrying, or this\nwork that I have to do, is going to last for many days to come,' his\nheart will fail. If he said to himself, 'It will be no worse to-morrow\nthan it is at this moment, and I can live through it, for am I not\nliving through it at this moment, and getting power to endure or do at\nthis moment? and to-morrow will probably be like today,' things would\nnot be so difficult.\n\nYou remember the homely old parable of the clock on the stair that\ngave up ticking altogether because it began to calculate how many\nthousands of seconds there are in the year, and that twice that number\nof times it would have to wag backwards and forwards. The lesson that\nit learned was--tick one tick and never mind the next. You will be\nable to do it when the time to do it comes. Let us act 'as the duty of\nevery day requireth.' 'Sufficient for the day is the work thereof.'\n\nThen there is another piece of advice from this thought of each day\nhaving its own work, and that is--keep your ears open, and your eyes\ntoo, to learn the lesson of what the day's work is. There is generally\nabundance of direction for us if only we are content with the\none-step-at-a-time direction, which we get, and if another condition\nis fulfilled, if we try to suppress our own wishes and the noisy\nbabble of our own yelping inclinations, and take the whip to them\nuntil they cease their barking, that we may hear what God says. It is\nnot because He does not speak, but because we are too anxious to have\nour own way to listen quietly to His voice, that we make most of our\nblunders as to what the duty of every day requires. If we will be\nstill and listen, and stand in the attitude of the boy-prophet before\nthe glimmering lamp in the sacred place, saying, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy\nservant heareth,' we shall get sufficient instruction for our next\nstep.\n\nAnother piece of practical wisdom that I would suggest is that if\nevery day has its own work, we should buckle ourselves to do the day's\nwork before night falls and not leave any over for to-morrow, which\nwill be quite full enough. 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' was\nthe preaching of one of our sages, and it is wholesome advice. For\nwhen we do that duty, the doing of it has a wonderful power of opening\nup further steps, and showing us more clearly what is the next duty.\nOnly let us be sure of this, that no moment comes from God which has\nnot in it boundless possibilities; and that no moment comes from God\nwhich has not in it stringent obligations. We neither avail ourselves\nof the one, nor discharge the other, unless we come, morning by\nmorning, to the new day that is dawning upon us, with some fresh\nconsciousness of the large issues that may be wrapped in its unseen\nhours, and the great things for Him that we may do ere its evening\nfalls.\n\nEach day has its tasks, and if we do not do the tasks of each day in\nits day, we shall fling away life. If a man had L. 100,000 for a\nfortune, and turned it all into halfpence, and tossed them out of the\nwindow, he could soon get rid of his whole fortune. And if you fling\naway your moments or live without the consciousness of their solemn\npossibilities and mystic awfulness, you will find at the last that you\nhave made 'ducks and drakes' of your years, and have flung them away\nin moments without knowing what you were doing, and without\npossibility of recovery. 'Take care of the pence, the pounds will take\ncare of themselves.' Take care of the days, and the years will show a\nfair record.\n\nSecondly, we have here the suggestion that every day has its own\nworship.\n\nAs I remarked at the beginning of my observations, the chronicler\ndwells, with a certain kind of satisfaction, in accordance with the\ntone of his whole writings, upon the external ritual of the Temple;\nand points out its entire conformity with the divine precept, and the\nunbroken continuity of worship day after day, year in year out, and\nthe variation of the characteristics of that worship according as the\nday was more or less ritually important. From his words we may deduce\na very needful though obvious and commonplace lesson. What we want is\nevery-day religion, and that every-day religion is the only thing that\nwill enable us to do what the duty of every day requires. But that\nevery-day religion which will be our best ally, and power for the\ndischarge of the obligations that each moment brings with it, must\nhave its points of support, as it were, in special moments and methods\nof worship.\n\nSo, then, take that first thought: What we want is a religion that\nwill go all through our lives. A great many of you keep your religion\nwhere you keep your best clothes: putting it on on Sunday and locking\nit away on the Sunday night in a wardrobe because it is not the dress\nthat you go to work in. And some of you keep your religion in your\npew, and lock it up in the little box where you put your hymn-books\nand your Bibles, which you read only once a week, devoting yourselves\nto ledgers or novels and newspapers for the rest of your time. We want\na religion that will go all through our life; and if there is anything\nin our life that will not stand its presence, the sooner we get rid of\nthat element the better. A mountain road has generally a living\nbrooklet leaping and flashing by the side of it. So our lives will be\ndusty and dead and cold and poor and prosaic unless that river runs\nalong by the roadside and makes music for us as it flows. Take your\nreligion wherever you go. If you cannot take it in to any scenes or\ncompany, stop you outside.\n\nThere is nothing that will help a man to do his day's work so much as\nthe realisation of Christ's Presence. And that realisation, along with\nits certain results, devotion of heart to Him and submission of will\nto His commandment, and desire to shape our lives to be like His, will\nmake us masters of all circumstances and strong enough for the hardest\nwork that God can lay upon us.\n\nThere is nothing so sure to make life beautiful, and noble, and pure,\nand peaceful, and strong as this--the application to its monotonous\ntrifles of religious principles. If you do not do little things as\nChristian men and women, and under the influence of Christian\nprinciple, pray _what_ are you going to do under the influence of\nChristian principle? If you are keeping your religion to influence the\ncrises of your lives, and are content to let the trifles be ruled by\nthe devil or the world and yourselves, you will find out, when you\ncome to the end, that there were perhaps three or four crises in your\nexperience, and that all the rest of life was made of trifles, and\nthat when the crises came you could not lay your hand on the religious\nprinciple that would have enabled you to deal with them. The sword had\ngot so rusty in its scabbard because it had never been drawn for long\nyears, that it could not be readily drawn in the moment of sudden\nperil; and if you could have drawn it, you would have found its edge\nblunted. Use your religion on the trifles, or you will not be able to\nmake much of it in the crises. 'He that is faithful in that which is\nleast is faithful also in much.' The worship of every day is the\npreparation for the work of that day.\n\nFurther, that worship, that religion, wearing its common, modest suit\nof workaday clothes, must also, if there is to be any power in it,\nhave a certain variety in its methods. 'Solomon offered burnt\nofferings ... on the Sabbaths, on the new moons,' which had a little\nmore ceremonial than the Sabbaths, 'and on the solemn feasts three\ntimes in a year,' which had still more ceremonial than the new moons,\n'even in the Feast of unleavened bread, and in the Feast of weeks, and\nin the Feast of tabernacles.' These were spring-tides when the sea of\nworship rose beyond its usual level, and they kept it from stagnating.\nWe, too, if we wish to have this every-day religion running with any\nstrength of scour and current through our lives, will need to have\nmoments when it touches high-water mark, else it will not flush the\nfoulness out of our hearts and our lives.\n\nLastly, take the other suggestion, that every day has its own\nsupplies.\n\nThat does not lie in the text properly, but for the sake of\ncompleteness I add it. Every day has its own supplies. The manna fell\nevery day, and was gathered and consumed on the day on which it fell.\nGod gives us strength measured accurately by the needs of the day. You\nwill get as much as you require, and if ever you do not get as much as\nyou require, which is very often the case with Christian people, that\nis not because God did not send enough manna, but because their\n_omer_ was not ready to catch it as it fell. The day's supply is\nmeasured by the day's need. Suppose an Israelite had sat in his tent\nand said, 'I am not going out to gather,' would he have had any in his\nempty vessel? Certainly not. The manna lay all around the tent, but\neach man had to go out and gather it. God makes no mistakes in His\nweights and measures. He gives us each sufficient strength to do His\nwill and to walk in His ways; and if we do not do His will or walk in\nHis ways, or if we find our burden too heavy, our sorrows too sharp,\nour loneliness too dreary, our difficulties too great, it is not\nbecause 'the Lord's hand is shortened that it cannot' supply, but\nbecause our hands are so slack that they will not take the sufficiency\nwhich He gives. In the midst of abundance we are starving. We let the\nwater run idly through the open sluice instead of driving the wheels\nof life.\n\nMy friend! God's measure of supply is correct. If we were more\nfaithful and humble, and if we understood better and felt more how\ndeep is our need and how little is our strength, we should more\ncontinually be able to rejoice that He has given, and we have\nreceived, 'even as the duty of every day required.'\n\n\n\nCONTRASTED SERVICES\n\n'They shall be his servants: that they may know My service, and the\nservice of the kingdoms of the countries.'--2 Chron. xii. 8.\n\n\nRehoboam was a self-willed, godless king who, like some other kings,\nlearned nothing by experience. His kingdom was nearly wrecked at the\nvery beginning of his reign, and was saved much more by the folly of\nhis rival than by his own wisdom. Jeroboam's religious revolution\ndrove all the worshippers of God among the northern kingdom into\nflight. They might have endured the separate monarchy, but they could\nnot endure the separate Temple. So all priests and Levites in Israel,\nand all the adherents of the ancestral worship in the Temple at\nJerusalem, withdrew to the southern kingdom and added much to its\nstrength.\n\nRehoboam's narrow escape taught him neither moderation nor devotion,\nhis new strength turned his head. He forsook the law of the Lord. The\ndreary series, so often illustrated in the history of Israel, came\ninto operation. Prosperity produced irreligion; irreligion brought\nchastisement; chastisement brought repentance; repentance brought the\nremoval of the invader--and then, like a spring released, back went\nking and nation to their old sin.\n\nSo here--Rehoboam's sins take visible form in Sheshak's army. He has\nsown the dragon's teeth and they spring up armed men. Shemaiah the\nprophet, the first of the long series of noble men who curbed the\nviolence of Jewish monarchs, points the lesson of invasion in plain,\nblunt words: 'Ye have forsaken Me.' Then follow penitence and\nconfession--and the promise that Jerusalem shall not be destroyed, but\nat the same time they are to be left as vassals and tributaries of\nEgypt--an anomalous position for them--and the reason is given in\nthese words of our text.\n\nI. The contrasted Masters.\n\nJudah was too small to be independent of the powerful warlike states\nto its north and south, unless miraculously guarded and preserved. So\nit must either keep near God, and therefore free and safe from\ninvasion, or else, departing from God and following its own ways, fall\nunder alien dominion. Its experience was a type of that of universal\nhumanity. Man is not independent. His mass is not enough for him to do\nwithout a central orb round which he may revolve. He has a choice of\nthe form of service and the master that he will choose, but one or\nother must dominate his life and sway his motions. 'Ye cannot serve\nGod and Mammon'; ye must serve God _or_ Mammon. The solemn choice\nis presented to every man, but the misery of many lives is that they\ndrift along, making their election unawares, and infallibly choosing\nthe worse by the very act of lazily or weakly allowing accident to\ndetermine their lives. Not consciously and strongly to will the right,\nnot resolutely and with coercion of the vagrant self to will to take\nGod for our aim, is to choose the low, the wrong. Perhaps none, or\nvery few of us, would deliberately say 'I choose Mammon, having\ncarefully compared the claims of the opposite systems of life that\nsolicit me, and with open-eyed scrutiny measured their courses, their\ngoods and their ends.' But how many of us there are who have in effect\nmade that choice, and never have given one moment's clear, patient\nexamination of the grounds of our choice! The policy of drift is\nunworthy of a man and is sure to end in ruin.\n\nIt is not for me to attempt here to draw out the contrast between man's\nchief end and all other rival claimants of our lives. Each man must do\nthat for himself, and I venture to assert that the more thoroughly the\nprocess of comparison is carried out, and the more complete the analysis\nnot only of the rival claims and gifts, but of our capacities and needs,\nthe more sun-clear will be the truth of the old, well-worn answer:\n'Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' The old\nwoman by her solitary fireside who has learned that and practises it,\nhas chosen the better part which will last when many shining careers\nhave sunk into darkness, and many will-o'-the-wisps, which have been\npursued with immense acclamations, have danced away into the bog, and\nmany a man who has been envied and admired has had to sum up his\nsuccessful career in the sad words, 'I have played the fool and erred\nexceedingly.' I cannot pretend to conduct the investigation for you, but\nI can press on every one who does not wish to let accidents mould him,\nat least to recognise that there is a choice to be made, and to make it\ndeliberately and with eyes open to the facts of the case. It is a shabby\nway of ruining yourself to do it for want of thought. The rabble of\ncompetitors of God catch more souls by accident than of set purpose.\nMost men are godless because they have never fairly faced the question:\nwhat does my soul require in order to reach its highest blessedness and\nits noblest energy?\n\nII. The contrasted experience of the servants.\n\nJudah learned that the yoke of obedience to God's law was a world\nlighter than the grinding oppression of the Egyptian invader.\n\nGod's service is freedom; the world's is slavery.\n\nLiberty is unrestrained power to do what we ought. Man must be subject\nto law. The solemn imperative of duty is omnipresent and sovereign. To\ndo as we like is not freedom, but bondage to self, and that usually\nour worst self, which means crushing or coercing the better self. The\nchoice is to chain the beast in us or to clip the wings of the angel\nin us, and he is a fool who conceits himself free because he lets his\ninferior self have its full swing, and hustles his better self into\nbondage to clear the course for the other. There is but one\ndeliverance from the sway of self, and it is realised in the liberty\nwherewith Christ has made us free. To make self our master inevitably\nleads to setting beggars on horseback and princes walking. Passion,\nthe 'flesh' is terribly apt to usurp the throne within when once God\nis dethroned. Then indulgence feeds passion, and deeper draughts\nbecome necessary in order to produce the same effects, and cravings,\nonce allowed free play, grow in ravenousness, while their pabulum\nsteadily loses its power to satisfy. The experience of the undevout\nsensualist is but too faithful a type of that of all undevout livers,\nin the failure of delights to delight and of acquisitions to enrich,\nand in the bondage, often to nothing more worthy to be obeyed than\nmere habit, and in the hopeless incapacity to shake off the adamantine\nchains which they have themselves rivetted on their limbs. There are\nendless varieties in the forms which the service of self assumes,\nranging from gross animalism, naked and unashamed, up to refined and\ncultured godlessness, but they are one in their inmost character, one\nin their disabling the spirit from a free choice of its course, one in\nthe limitations which they impose on its aspirations and\npossibilities, one in the heavy yoke which they lay on their vassals.\nThe true liberty is realised only when for love's dear sake we\njoyously serve God, and from the highest motive enrol ourselves in the\nhousehold of the highest Person, and by the act become 'no more\nservants but sons.' Well may we all pray--\n\n  'Lord! bind me up, and let me lie\n  A prisoner to my liberty,\n  If such a state at all can be\n  As an imprisonment, serving Thee.'\n\nGod's service brings solid good, the world's is vain and empty.\n\nGod's service brings an approving conscience, a calm heart, strength\nand gladness. It is in full accord with our best selves. Tranquil joys\nattend on it. 'In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward,' and\nthat not merely bestowed after keeping, but realised and inherent in\nthe very act. On the other side, think of the stings of conscience,\nthe illusions on which those feed who will not eat of the heavenly\nfood, the husks of the swine-trough, the ashes for bread, that self\nand the world, in all their forms set before men. A pathetic character\nin modern fiction says, 'If you make believe very much it is nice.' It\ntakes a tremendous amount of make-believe to keep up an appetite for\nthe world's dainties or to find its meats palatable, after a little\nwhile. No sin ever yields the fruit it was expected to produce, or if\nit does it brings something which was not expected, and the bitter\ntang of the addition spoils the whole. It may be wisely adapted to\nsecure a given end, but that end is only a means to secure the real\nend, our substantial blessedness, and that is never attained but by\none course of life, the life of service of God. We may indeed win a\ngoodly garment, but the plague is in the stuff and, worn, it will burn\ninto the bones like fire. I read somewhere lately of thieves who had\nstolen a cask of wine, and had their debauch, but they sickened and\ndied. The cask was examined and a huge snake was found dead in it. Its\npoison had passed into the wine and killed the drinkers. That is how\nthe world serves those who swill its cup. 'What fruit had ye then in\nthose things whereof ye are _now_ ashamed?' The threatening\npronounced against Israel's disobedience enshrines an eternal truth:\n'Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with\ngladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore\nshalt thou serve thine enemies ... in hunger and in thirst, and in\nnakedness and in want of all things.'\n\nGod's service has final issues and the world's service has final\nissues.\n\nOnly fools try to blink the fact that all our doings have\nconsequences. And it augurs no less levity and insensibility to blink\nthe other fact that these consequences show no indications of being\nbroken short off at the end of our earthly life. Men die into another\nlife, as they have ever, dimly and with many foolish accompaniments,\nbelieved; and dead, they are the men that they have made themselves\nwhile living. Character is eternal, memory is eternal, death puts the\nstamp of perpetuity on what life has evolved. Nothing human ever dies.\nThe thought is too solemn to be vulgarised by pulpit rhetoric. Enough\nto say here that these two tremendous alternatives, Life and Death,\nexpress some little part of the eternal issues of our fleeting days.\nLooking fixedly into these two great symbols of the ultimate issues of\nthese contrasted services, we can dimly see, as in the one, a wonder\nof resplendent glories moving in a sphere 'as calm as it is bright,'\nso, in the other, whirling clouds and jets of vapour as in the crater\nof a volcano. One shuddering glance over the rim of it should suffice\nto warn from lingering near, lest the unsteady soil should crumble\nbeneath our feet.\n\nBut the true Lord of our lives loves us too well to let us experience\nall the bitter issues of our foolish rebellion against His authority,\nand yet He loves us too well not to let us taste something of them\nthat we may 'know and see that it is an evil thing _and a\nbitter_, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.' The experiences\nof the consequences of godless living are in some measure allowed to\nfall on us by God's love, lest we should persist in the evil and so\nbring down on ourselves still more fatal issues. It is mercy that here\nchastises the evildoer with whips, in hope of not having to chastise\nhim with scorpions. God desires to teach us, by the pains and\nheartaches of an undevout life, by disappointments, foiled plans,\nwrecked hopes, inner poverty, the difference between His service and\nthat of 'the kingdoms of the countries,' if haply He may not be forced\nto let the full flood of fatal results overwhelm us. It is best to be\ndrawn to serve Him by the cords of love, but it is possible to have\nthe beginnings of the desire so to serve roused by the far lower\nmotives of weariness and disgust at the world's wages, and by dread of\nwhat these may prove when they are paid in full. Self-interest may\nsicken a man of serving Mammon, and may be transformed into the\nself-surrender which makes God's service possible and blessed. The\nflight into the city of refuge may be quickened by the fear of the\npursuer, whose horse's hoofs are heard thundering on the road behind\nthe fugitive, and whose spear is all but felt a yard from his back,\nbut once within the shelter of the city wall, gratitude for\ndeliverance will fill his heart and 'perfect love will cast out fear.'\n\nThe king concerning whom our text was spoken had to suffer humiliation\nby the Egyptian invasion. His sufferings were meant to be educational,\nand when they in some measure effected their purpose, God curbed the\ninvader and granted some measure of deliverance. So is it with us, if,\nmoved by whatever impulse, we betake ourselves to Jesus to save us\nfrom the bitter fruits of our evil lives. The extreme severity of the\nresults of our sins does not fall on penitent, believing spirits, but\nsome do fall. As the Psalmist says: 'Thou wast a God that forgavest\nthem though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.' A profligate\ncourse of life may be forgiven, but health or fortune is ruined all\nthe same. In brief, the so-called 'natural' consequences are not\nremoved, though the sin which caused them is pardoned. Polluted\nmemories, indulged habits, defiled imaginations, are not got rid of,\nthough the sins that inflicted them are forgiven.\n\nIs it not, then, the part of wise men to lay to heart the lessons of\nexperience, and to let what we have learned of the bitter fruit of\ngodless living turn us away from such service, and draw us by merciful\nchastisement to yield ourselves to God, whom to serve accords with our\ndeepest needs and brings first fruits and pre-libations of blessedness\nand peace here, and fullness of joy with pleasures for evermore\nhereafter?\n\n\n\nTHE SECRET OF VICTORY\n\n'The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord\nGod of their fathers.'--2 CHRON. xiii. 18.\n\n\nThese words are the summing-up of the story of a strange old-world\nbattle between Jeroboam, the adventurer who rent the kingdom, and\nAbijah, the son of the foolish Rehoboam, whose unseasonable blustering\nhad played into the usurper's hands. The son was a wiser and better\nman than his father. It is characteristic of the ancient world, that\nbefore battle was joined Abijah made a long speech to the enemy,\nrecounting the ritual deficiencies of the Northern kingdom, and\nproudly contrasting the punctilious correctness of the Temple service\nwith the irregular cult set up by Jeroboam. He confidently pointed to\nthe priests 'with their trumpets' in his army as the visible sign that\n'God is with us at our head,' and while charging Israel with having\n'forsaken the Lord our God,' to whom he and his people had kept true,\nbesought them not to carry their rebellion to the extreme of fighting\nagainst their fathers' God, and assured them that no success could\nattend their weapons in such a strife. The passionate appeal had no\neffect, but while Abijah was orating, Jeroboam was carrying out a\nruse, and planting part of his troops behind Judah, so as to put them\nbetween two fires and draw a net round the outnumbered and\noutmanoeuvred enemy.\n\nAbijah and his men suddenly detected their desperate position, and did\nthe only wise thing. When, with a shock of surprise, they saw that\n'behold! the battle was before and behind them,' they 'cried unto the\nLord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.' The sharp, short cry\nfrom thousands of agitated men ringed round by foes, and the blare of\nthe trumpets were both prayers, and heartened the suppliants for their\nwhirlwind charge, before which the men of Israel, double in number as\nthey were, broke and fled. The defeat was thorough, and, for a while,\nRehoboam and his kingdom were 'brought under,' and a comparatively\nlong peace followed. Our text gathers up the lesson taught, not to\nJudah or Israel alone, by victory and defeat, when it declares that to\nrely upon the Lord is to prevail. It opens for us the secret of\nvictory, in that old far-off struggle and in to-day's conflicts.\n\nI. We note the faith of the fighters.\n\n'They relied,' says the chronicler, 'upon the Lord.' Now the word\nrendered 'relied' is one of several picturesque words by which the Old\nTestament, which we are sometimes told, with a great flourish of\nlearning, has no mention of 'faith,' expresses 'trust,' by metaphors\ndrawn from bodily actions which symbolise the spiritual act. The word\nhere literally signifies to lean on, as a feeble hand might on a\nstaff, or a tremulous arm on a strong one. And does not that picture\ncarry with it much insight into what the essence of Old Testament\n'trust' or New Testament 'faith' is? If we think of faith as leaning,\nwe shall not fall into that starved misconception of it which takes it\nto be nothing more than intellectual assent. We shall see there is a\nfar fuller pulse of feeling than that beating in it. A man who leans\non some support, does so because he knows that his own strength is\ninsufficient for his need. The consciousness of weakness is the\nbeginning of faith. He who has never despaired of himself has scarcely\ntrusted in God. Abijah's enemies were two to one of his own men. No\nwonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair\nshake their courage. And who of us can face life with its heavy\nduties, its thick-clustering dangers and temptations, its certain\nstruggles, its possible failures, and not feel the cold touch of dread\ngripping our hearts, though strong and brave? Surely he has had little\nexperience, or has learned little wisdom from the experience he has\nhad, who has yet to discover his own weakness. But the consciousness\nof weakness is by itself debilitating, and but increases the weakness\nof which it is painfully aware. There is no surer way to sap what\nstrength we have than to tell ourselves what poor creatures we are.\nThe purpose and end of self-contemplation which becomes aware of our\nown feebleness is to lead us to the contemplation of God, our immortal\nstrength. Abijah's assurance that 'God is with us at our head' rang\nout triumphantly. Faith has an upper and an under side: the under side\nis self-distrust; the upper, trust in God. He will never lean all his\nweight on a prop, who fancies that he can stand alone, or has other\nstays to hold him up.\n\nBut Abijah's example teaches us another lesson--that for a vigorous\nfaith, there must be obedience to all God's known will. True, thank\nGod! faith often springs in its power in a soul that is conscious but\nof sin, but a continuance in disobedience will inevitably kill faith.\nIt was because Abijah and his people had kept 'the charge of the Lord\nour God,' that they were sure that God was with them. We can only be\nsure of God to lean on when we are doing His will, and we shall do His\nwill only as we are sure that we lean on Him. Our trust in Him will be\nstrong and operative in the measure in which our lives are conformed\nto His commandments. Much elaborate dissertation has been devoted to\nexpounding what faith is, and the strong, vivid Scriptural conception\nof it has been woefully darkened and overlaid with cobwebs of\ntheology, but surely this eloquent metaphor of our text tells us more\nthan do many learned volumes. It bids us lean on God, rest the whole\nweight of our needs, our weaknesses, and our sins on Him. Like any\nhuman friend or helper, He is better pleased when we lean hard on Him\nthan when we gingerly put a finger on His arm, and lay no pressure on\nit, as we do when in ceremonial fashion we seem to accept another's\nsupport, and hold ourselves back from putting a weight on the offered\narm. We cannot rely too utterly on Him. We honour Him most when we\nrepose our whole selves on His strong arm.\n\nII. The increase of faith by sudden fear.\n\n'When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind\nthem.' The shock of seeing the flashing spears in the rear would make\nthe bravest hold their breath for one overwhelming moment, but the\nnext moment their faith in God surged back with tenfold force,\nincreased by the sudden new peril. The sharp collision of flint and\nsteel struck out a spark of faith. 'What time I am afraid, I will\ntrust in Thee,' said an expert in the genesis and growth of trust.\nPeril kills a feeble trust, but vivifies it, if strong. The\nrecognition of danger is meant to drive us to God. If each fresh\ndifficulty or danger makes us tighten our clasp of Him, and lean the\nharder on Him, it has done its highest service to us, and we have\nconquered it, and are the stronger because of it. The storm that makes\nthe traveller, fighting with the wind and the rain in his face, clasp\nhis cloak tighter round him, does him no harm. The purpose of our\ntrials is to drive us to God, and a fair-weather faith which had all\nbut fallen asleep is often roused to energy that works wonders, by the\nsudden dash of danger flung into and disturbing a life. It is wise\nseamanship to make a run to get snugly behind the breakwater when a\nsudden gale springs up.\n\nIII. The expression of faith in appeal to God.\n\nWhen the ambush was unmasked, the surrounded men of Judah 'cried unto\nthe Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets,' before they\nflung themselves on the enemy. We may be sure that their cry was short\nand sharp, and poignant with appeal to God. There would be no waste\nwords, nor perfunctory petitions without wings of desire, in that cry.\nShould we not look for the essential elements of prayer rather to such\ncries, pressed from burdened hearts by a keen sense of absolute\nhelplessness, and very careless of proprieties so long as they were\nshrill enough to pierce God's ear and touch His heart, than to the\nformal petitions of well-ordered worship? A single ejaculation flung\nheavenward in a moment of despair or agony is more precious in God's\nsight than a whole litany of half-hearted devotions.\n\nThe text puts in a striking form another lesson well worth learning,\nthat, in the greatest crises, no time is better spent than time used\nfor prayer. A rush on the enemy would not have served Abijah's purpose\nnearly so well as that moment's pause for crying to the Lord, before\nhis charge. Hands lifted to heaven are nerved to clutch the sword and\nstrike manfully. It is not only that Christ's soldiers are to fight\nand pray, but that they fight by praying. That is true in the small\nconflicts and antagonisms of the lives of each of us, and it is true\nin regard to the agelong battle against ignorance and sin. Christian's\nsword was named 'All-prayer.'\n\nThe priests, too, blew a prayer through their trumpets, for the\nordinance had appointed that 'when ye go to war ... then shall ye\nsound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before\nthe Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.' The\nclear, strident blare was not intended to hearten warriors, or to sing\ndefiance, but to remind God of His promises, and to bring Him on to\nthe battlefield, as He had said that He would be. The truest prayer is\nthat which but picks up the arrows of promise shot from heaven to\nearth, and casts them back from earth to heaven. He prays best who\nfills his mouth with God's words, turning every 'I will' of His into\n'Do Thou!'\n\nIV. The strength that comes through faith.\n\n'As the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam\nand all Israel before Abijah and Judah.' There is no such quickener of\nall a man's natural force as even the lowest forms of faith. He who\nthrows himself into any enterprise sure of success will often succeed\njust because he was sure he would. The world's history is full of\ninstances where men, with every odds against them, have plucked the\nflower safety out of the nettle danger, just because they trusted in\ntheir star, or their luck, or their destiny. We all know how a very\ncrude faith turned a horde of wild Arabs into a conquering army, that\nin a century dominated the world from Damascus to Seville. The truth\nthat is in 'Christian Science' is that many forms of disease yield to\nthe patient's firm persuasion of recovery. And from these and many\nother facts the natural power of faith is beginning to dawn on the\nmost matter-of-fact and unspiritual people. They are beginning to\nthink that perhaps Christ was right after all in saying 'All things\nare possible to him that believeth,' and that it is not such a blunder\nafter all to make faith the first step to all holiness and purity, and\nthe secret of victory in life's tussle. Leaving out of view for the\nmoment the supernatural effects of faith, which Christianity alleges\nare its constant consequences, it is clear that its natural effects\nare all in the direction of increasing the force of the trusting man.\nIt calms, it heartens for all work, effort, and struggle. It imparts\npatience, it brightens hope, it forbids discouragement, it rebukes and\ncures despondency. And besides all this, there is the supernatural\ncommunication of a strength not our own, which is the constant result\nof Christian faith. Christian faith knits the soul and the Saviour in\nso close a union, that all that is Christ's becomes the Christian's,\nand every believer may hear His Lover's voice whispering to him what\none of His servants once heard in an hour of despondency, 'My grace is\nsufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Faith\njoins us to the Lord, and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one\nspirit'; and that Lord has said to all His disciples, 'I give thee\nMyself, and in Myself all that is Mine.' We do not go to warfare at\nour own charges, but there will pass into and abide in our hearts the\nwarlike might of the true King and Captain of the Lord's host, and we\nshall hear the ring of His encouraging voice saying, 'Be of good\ncheer! I have overcome the world.'\n\n\n\nASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND VICTORY\n\n'And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his\nGod; 3. For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high\nplaces, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 4. And\ncommanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the\nlaw and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of\nJudah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before\nhim. 6. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest,\nand he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.\n7. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make\nabout them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet\nbefore us; because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought\nHim, and He hath given us rest on every side. So they built and\nprospered. 8. And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears,\nout of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare\nshields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these\nwere mighty men of valour.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 2-8.\n\n\nAsa was Rehoboam's grandson, and came to the throne when a young man.\nThe two preceding reigns had favoured idolatry, but the young king had\na will of his own, and inaugurated a religious revolution, with which\nand its happy results this passage deals.\n\nI. It first recounts the thorough clearance of idolatrous emblems and\nimages which Asa made. 'Strange altars,'--that is, those dedicated to\nother gods; 'high places,'--that is, where illegal sacrifice to\nJehovah was offered; 'pillars,'--that is, stone columns; and\n'Asherim,'--that is, trees or wooden poles, survivals of ancient\nstone- or tree-worship; 'sun-images,'--that is, probably, pillars\nconsecrated to Baal as sun-god, were all swept away. The enumeration\nvividly suggests the incongruous rabble of gods which had taken the\nplace of the one Lord. How vainly we try to make up for His absence\nfrom our hearts by a multitude of finite delights and helpers! Their\nmultiplicity proves the insufficiency of each and of all.\n\n1 Kings xv. 13 adds a detail which brings out still more clearly Asa's\nreforming zeal; for it tells us that he had to fight against the\ninfluence of his mother, who had been prominent in supporting\ndisgusting and immoral forms of worship, and who retained some\nauthority, of which her son was strong enough to take the extreme step\nof depriving her. Remembering the Eastern reverence for a mother, we\ncan estimate the effort which that required, and the resolution which\nit implied. But 1 Kings differs from our narrative in stating that the\n'high places' were not taken away--the explanation of the variation\nprobably being that the one account tells what Asa attempted and\ncommanded, and the other records the imperfect way in which his orders\nwere carried out. They would be obeyed in Jerusalem and its\nneighbourhood, but in many a secluded corner the old rites would be\nobserved.\n\nIt is vain to force religious revolutions. Laws which are not\nsupported by the national conscience will only be obeyed where\ndisobedience will involve penalties. If men's hearts cleave to Baal,\nthey will not be turned into Jehovah-worshippers by a king's commands.\nAsa could command Judah to 'seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to\ndo the law,' but he could not make them do it.\n\nII. The chronicler brings out strongly the truth which runs through\nhis whole book,--namely, the connection between honouring Jehovah and\nnational prosperity. He did not import that thought into his\nnarrative, but he insisted on it as moulding the history of Judah.\nModern critics charge him with writing with a bias, but he learned the\n'bias' from God's own declarations, and had it confirmed by\nobservation, reflection, and experience. The whole history of Israel\nand Judah was one long illustration of the truth which he is\nconstantly repeating. No doubt, the divine dealings with Israel\nbrought obedience and well-being into closer connection than exists\nnow; but in deepest truth the sure defence of our national prosperity\nis the same as theirs, and it is still the case that 'righteousness\nexalteth a nation.' 'The kingdom was quiet,' says the chronicler, 'and\nhe had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.' 1\nKings makes more of the standing enmity with the northern kingdom, and\nrecords scarcely anything of Asa's reign except the war which, as it\nsays, was between him and Baasha of Israel 'all their days.' But,\naccording to 2 Chronicles xvi. 1, Baasha did not proceed to war till\nAsa's thirty-sixth year, and the halcyon time of peace evidently\nfollowed immediately on the religious reformation at its very\nbeginning.\n\nAsa's experience embodies a truth which is substantially fulfilled in\nnations and in individuals; for obedience brings rest, often outward\ntranquillity, always inward calm. Note the heightened earnestness\nexpressed in the repetition of the expression 'We have sought the\nLord' in verse 7, and the grand assurance of His favour as the source\nof well-being in the clause which follows, 'and He hath given us rest\non every side.' That is always so, and will be so with us. If we seek\nHim with our whole hearts, keeping Him ever before us amid the\ndistractions of life, taking Him as our aim and desire, and ever\nstretching out the tendrils of our hearts to feel after Him and clasp\nHim, all around and within will be tranquil, and even in warfare we\nshall preserve unbroken peace.\n\nAsa teaches us, too, the right use of tranquillity. He clearly and\ngratefully recognised God's hand in it, and traced it not to his own\nwarlike skill or his people's prowess, but to Him. And he used the\ntime of repose to strengthen his defences, and exercise his soldiers\nagainst possible assaults. We do not yet dwell in the land of peace,\nwhere it is safe to be without bolts and bars, but have ever to be on\nthe watch for sudden attacks. Rest from war should give leisure for\nbuilding not only fortresses, but temples, as was the case with\nSolomon. The time comes when, as in many an ancient fortified city of\nEurope, the ramparts may be levelled, and flowers bloom where sentries\nwalked; but to-day we have to be on perpetual guard, and look to our\nfortifications, if we would not be overcome.\n\n\n\nASA'S PRAYER\n\n'And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing\nwith Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power:\nhelp us, O Lord our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go\nagainst this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail\nagainst Thee.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 11.\n\n\nThis King Asa, Rehoboam's grandson, had had a long reign of peace,\nwhich the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he\nhad rooted out idolatry from Judah, 'The land had rest, and he no war\n... because the Lord had given him rest.'\n\nBut there came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly\nover the land, and a great army--the numbers of which, from their\nimmense magnitude, seem to be erroneously given--came up against him.\nLike a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed\nnext. He set his troops in order, and then he fell down on his knees,\nand spoke to God.\n\nNow, it seems to me that this prayer contains the very essence of what\nought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions\nand threatening dangers and conflicts of life; and so I wish to run\nover it, and bring out the salient points of it, as typical of what\nought to be our disposition.\n\nI. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence.\n\nIt did not take much to convince Asa that he had 'no power.' His army,\naccording to the numbers given of the two hosts, was outnumbered two\nto one; and so it did not require much reflection to say, 'We have no\nmight.' But although perhaps not so sufficiently obvious to us, as\ntruly as in the case in our text, if we look fairly in the face our\nduties, our tasks, our dangers, the possibilities of life and its\ncertainties, the more humbly we think of our own capacity, the more\nwisely we shall think about God, and the more truly we shall estimate\nourselves. The world says, 'Self-reliance is the conquering virtue';\nJesus says to us, 'Self-distrust is the condition of all victory.' And\nthat does not mean any mere shuffling off of responsibility from our\nown shoulders, but it means looking the facts of our lives, and of our\nown characters, in the face. And if we will do that, however\napparently easy may be our course, and however richly endowed in mind,\nbody, or estate we may be, if we all do that honestly, we shall find\nthat we each are like 'the man with ten thousand' that has to meet\n'the King that comes against him with twenty thousand'; and we shall\nnot 'desire conditions of peace' with our enemy, for that is not what\nin this case we have to do, but we shall look about us, and not keep\nour eyes on the horizon, and on the levels of earth, but look up to\nsee if there is not there an Ally that we can bring into the field to\nredress the balance, and to make our ten as strong as the opposing\ntwenty. Zerah the Ethiopian, who was coming down on Asa, is said to\nhave had a million fighting-men at his back, but that is probably an\nerroneous figure, because Old Testament numbers are necessarily often\nunreliable. Asa had only half the number; so he said, 'What can I do?'\nAnd what _could_ he do? He did the only thing possible, he\n'grasped at God's skirts, and prayed,' and that made all the\ndifference.\n\nNow all that is true about the disproportion between the foes we have\nto face and fight and our own strength. It is eminently true about us\nChristian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You hear\npeople say, 'Look at the small number of professing Christians in this\ncountry, as compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the\nuse of their trying to convert the world?' Well, think of the\nassembled Christian people, for instance, of Manchester, on the most\ncharitable supposition, and the shallowest interpretation of that word\n'Christian.' What are they among so many? A mere handful. If the\nChristian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world\nby its own strength, we might well despair of success and stop\naltogether. 'We have no might.' The disproportion both numerically and\nin all things that the world estimates as strength (which are many of\nthem good things), is so great that we are in a worse case than Asa\nwas. It is not two to one; it is twenty to one, or an even greater\ndisproportion. But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of\nnon-effectives, mere camp followers, loosely attached, nominal\nChristians, have to be deducted from the muster-roll, and the few who\nare left are so feeble as well as few that they have more than enough\nto do in holding their own, to say nothing of dreaming of charging the\nwide-stretching lines of the enemy. So a profound self-distrust is our\nwisdom. But that should not paralyse us, but lead to something better,\nas it led Asa.\n\nII. Summoning God into the field should follow wholesome\nself-distrust.\n\nAsa uses a remarkable expression, which is, perhaps, scarcely\nreproduced adequately in our Authorised Version: 'It is nothing with\nThee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.' It\nis a strange phrase, but it seems most probable that the suggested\nrendering in the Revised Version is nearer the writer's meaning, which\nsays, 'Lord! there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and\nthem that have no power,' which to our ears is a somewhat cumbrous way\nof saying that God, and God only, can adjust the difference between\nthe mighty and the weak; can redress the balance, and by the laying of\nHis hand upon the feeble hand can make it strong as the mailed fist to\nwhich it is opposed. If we know ourselves to be hopelessly\noutnumbered, and send to God for reinforcements, He will clash His\nsword into the scale, and make it go down. Asa turns to God and says,\n'Thou only canst trim the scales and make the lighter of the two the\nheavier one by casting Thy might into it. So help us, O Lord our God!'\n\nOne man with God at his back is always in the majority; and, however\nmany there may be on the other side, 'there are more that be with us\nthan they that be with them.' _There_ is encouragement for people\nwho have to fight unpopular causes in the world, who have been\naccustomed to be in minorities all their days, in the midst of a\nwicked and perverse generation. Never mind about the numbers; bring\nGod into the field, and the little band, which is compared in another\nplace in these historical Books to 'two flocks of kids' fronting the\nenemy, that had flowed all over the land, is in the majority. 'God\nwith us'; then we are strong.\n\nThe consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why\npeople in the world are always patting each other on the back and\nsaying 'Be of good cheer, and rely upon yourself.' But the\nself-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more\nreliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness\nof need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always\nfind the lakes in the hollows, so you will always find the grace of\nGod coming into men's hearts to strengthen them and make them\nvictorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered\nestimate of one's self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and\nGod will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength bestowed.\nThe more I feel myself weak, the more I am meant not to fold my hands\nand say, 'I never can do that thing; it is of no use my trying to\nattempt it, I may as well give it up'; but to say, 'Lord I there is\nnone beside Thee that can set the balance right between the mighty and\nhim that hath no strength.' 'Help me, O Lord my God!' Just as those\nlittle hermit-crabs that you see upon the seashore, with soft bodies\nunprotected, make for the first empty shell they can find, and house\nin that and make it their fortress, our exposed natures, our\nunarmoured characters, our sense of weakness, ought to drive us to\nHim. As the unarmed population of a land invaded by the enemy pack\ntheir goods and hurry to the nearest fortified place, so when I say to\nmyself I have no strength, let me say, 'Thou art my Rock, my Strength,\nmy Fortress, and my Deliverer. My God, in whom I trust, my Buckler,\nand the Horn of my Salvation, and my high Tower.'\n\nNow, there is one more word about this matter, and that is, the way by\nwhich we summon God into the field. Asa prays, 'Help us, O Lord our\nGod! for we rest on Thee'; and the word that he employs for 'rest' is\nnot a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture.\nLet me illustrate it by a reference to another case where it is\nemployed. It is used in that tragical story of the death of Saul, when\nthe man that saw the last of him came to David and drew in a sentence\nthe pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted,\ndiscrowned, desperate monarch, _leaning on_ his spear. You can\nunderstand how hard he leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how\nheavily his whole languid, powerless weight pressed upon it. And that\nis the word that is used here. 'We lean on Thee' as the wounded Saul\nleaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith, my friend? Do\nyou lean upon God like that, laying your hand upon Him till every vein\non your hand stands out with the force and tension of the grasp? Or do\nyou lean lightly, as a man that does not feel much the need of a\nsupport? Lean hard if you wish God to come quickly. 'We rest on Thee;\nhelp us, O Lord!'\n\nIII. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning God\nby faith.\n\nIt is well when self-distrust leads to confidence, when, as Charles\nWesley has it in his great hymn:\n\n  '... I am weak,\n  But confident in self-despair.'\n\nBut that is not enough. It is better when self-distrust and confidence\nin God lead to courage, and as Asa goes on, 'Help us, for we rely on\nThee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.' Never mind though\nit is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are\nwell enough, but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want\nof faith in Christian people, both in regard to their own lives and in\nregard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading under\nmuch too respectable a name, and calls itself 'judicious caution' and\n'prudence.' There is little ever done by that, especially in the\nChristian course; and the old motto of one of the French republicans\nholds good; 'Dare! dare! always dare!' You have more on your side than\nyou have against you, and creeping prudence of calculation is not the\ntemper in which the battle is won. 'Dash' is not always precipitate\nand presumptuous. If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting\nthe dangers and difficulties that beset us, and be sure that He will\nhelp us.\n\nIV. And now the last point that I would notice is this--the\nall-powerful plea which God will answer.\n\n'Thou art my God, let not man prevail against Thee.' That prayer\ncovers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your God you\nwill not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made\nGod's cause yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not\nbe beaten.\n\n'Thou art our God.' 'It takes two to make a bargain,' and God and we\nhave both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but\nthere is an act of ours required too, and you must take the God that\nis given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His.\nAnd when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine,\nto all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. When I can say,\n'Thou art my God, and it is impossible that Thou wilt deny Thyself,'\nthen nothing can snap that bond; and 'neither life nor death, nor\nangels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things\nto come, nor height, nor depth, nor any _other_ creature' can do\nit. But there is a creature that can, and that is I. For I can\nseparate _myself_ from the love and the guardianship of God, and\nHe can say to a man, 'I am thy God,' and the man _not_ answer,\n'Thou art my God.'\n\nAnd then there is another plea here. 'Let not man prevail against\nThee.' What business had Asa to identify his little kingdom and his\nvictory with God's cause and God's conquest? Only this, that he had\nflung himself into God's arms, and because he had, and was trying to\ndo what God would have him do, he was quite sure that it was not Asa\nbut Jehovah that the million of Ethiopians were fighting against.\nPeople warn us against the fanaticism of taking for granted that our\ncause is God's cause. Well, we need the warning sometimes, but we may\nbe quite sure of this, that if we have made God's cause ours, He will\nmake our cause His, down to the minutest point in our daily lives.\n\nAnd then, if thus we say in the depths of our hearts, and live\naccordingly, 'There is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou,\nO God!' it will be with us as it was with Asa in the story before us,\n'the enemy fled, and could not recover themselves, for they were\ndestroyed before the Lord and before His hosts.'\n\n\n\nTHE SEARCH THAT ALWAYS FINDS\n\n'They ... sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of\nthem: and the Lord gave them rest round about.'--2 CHRON. xv. 15.\n\n\nThese words occur in one of the least familiar passages of the Old\nTestament. They describe an incident in the reign of Asa, who was the\ngrandson of Solomon's foolish son Rehoboam, and was consequently the\nthird king of Judah after the secession of the North. He had just won\na great victory, and was returning with his triumphant army to\nJerusalem, when there met him a prophet, unknown otherwise, who poured\nout fiery words, exhorting Asa and his people to cleave to God and to\ncast away their idols. Asa, encouraged by the prophetic words of this\nbold speaker for God, screwed himself up, and was able to induce also\nhis people, to effect a great religious reformation. He made a clean\nsweep of the idols, and gathered the sadly-dwindled nation together in\nJerusalem, where they renewed the covenant with the Lord God of their\nfathers. The text sums up their work and its result. 'They sought Him\nwith their whole heart, and He was found of them; and the Lord gave\nthem rest round about.' The words express in simplest form what should\nbe the chief desire of our hearts and occupation of our lives, and\nwhat will then be our peaceful experience. We shall best bring out\nthese points if we take the words just as they lie, and consider the\nseeking, the finding which certainly crowns that seeking, and the rest\nwhich ensues on finding God.\n\nI. The seeking.\n\nNow, of course, there is no doubt that what the chronicler meant to\ndescribe by the phrase, 'seeking the Lord,' was largely the mere\nexternal acts of ritual worship, the superficial turning from idols to\na purely external recognition of God as the God of Israel. But while\nthere may have been nothing deeper than a change in the nominal object\nof nominal worship, so far as many were concerned, no doubt a very\nreal turning of heart to God underlay the external change in many\nother cases, of which the destruction of idols and the renewed\nobservance of the form of Jehovah's worship were the consequence and\nsign. That turning of mind, will, and affection towards God must be\nours if we are to be among those wise and happy seekers who are sure\nto find that which--or rather Him whom--they seek and to rest in Him\nwhom they find. That search is not after a lost treasure, nor does it\nimply ignorance of where its object is to be found. We seek that which\nwe know, and which we may be assured of finding. Therefore there need\nbe no tremors of uncertainty in our quest, and the blessedness of the\nsearch is as real as, though different from, the blessedness of the\npossession which ends it. The famous saying which prefers the search\nafter, to the possession of truth, is more proud than wise; but the\ncomparison which it institutes is so far true that there is a joy in\nthe aspiration after and the efforts towards truth only less joyous\nthan that which attends its attainment. But truth divorced from God is\nfinite and may pall, become familiar and lose its radiance, like a\ngathered flower; and hence the preference for the search is\nintelligible though one-sided. But God does not pall, and the more we\nfind Him the more we delight in Him; the highest bliss is to find Him,\nthe next highest is to seek Him; and, since seeking and finding Him\nare never wholly separate, these kindred joys blend their lights in\nthe experience of all His children.\n\nBut our text lays emphasis on the whole-heartedness of the people's\nseeking of God. The search must be earnest and engaged in with the\nwhole energy of our whole being, if any blessing is to come from it.\nWhy! one reason why the great mass of professing Christians make so\nlittle of their religion is because they are only half-hearted in it.\nIf you divide a river into two streams the force of each is less than\nhalf the power of the original current; and the chances are that you\nwill make a stagnant marsh where there used to be a flowing stream.\n'All in all, or not at all,' is the rule for life, in all departments.\nIt is the rule in daily business. A man that puts only half himself in\nhis profession or trade, while the other half of his wits is gone\nwoolgathering and dreaming, is predestined from all eternity to fail.\nThe same is true about our religion. If you and I attend to it as a\nkind of by-occupation; if we give the balance of our time and the\nsuperfluity of our energy, after we have done a hard day's work--say,\nan hour upon a Sunday--to seeking God, and devote all the rest of the\nweek to seeking worldly prosperity, it is no wonder if our religion\nlanguishes, and is mainly a matter of forms, as it is with such hosts\nof people that call themselves Christians.\n\nOh! dear brethren, I do believe there is more unconscious unreality in\nthe average Christian man's endeavour to be a better Christian than\nthere is in almost anything else in the world:--\n\n  'One foot on sea, and one on shore,\n  To one thing constant never.'\n\nThat is why so many of us know nothing of a progressive strengthening\nof our faith, and an increasing conquest of ourselves, and a firmer\ngrasp of God, and a fuller realisation of the blessedness of walking\nin His ways.\n\n'They sought Him with all their heart.' That does not mean, remember,\nthat there are to be no other desires, for it is a great mistake to\npit religion against other things which are meant to be its\ninstruments and its helps. We are not required to seek nothing else in\norder to seek God wholly. He demands no impossible and fantastic\ndetachment of ourselves from the ordinary and legitimate occupations,\naffections, and duties of human life, but He does ask that the\ndominant desire after Him should be powerful enough to express itself\nthrough all our actions, and that we should seek for God in them, and\nfor them in God.\n\nWhilst thus we are to give the right interpretation to that\nwhole-heartedness in our seeking God, on which the text lays stress,\ndo not let us forget that the one token of it which the text specifies\nis, casting out our idols. There must be detachment if there is to be\nattachment. If some climbing plant, for instance, has twisted itself\nround the unprofitable thorns in the hedge, the gardener, before he\ncan get it to go up the support that it is meant to encircle, has\ncarefully to detach it from the stays to which it has wantonly clung,\ntaking care that in the process he does not break its tendrils and\ndestroy its power of growth. So, to train our souls to cleave to God,\nand to grow up round the great Stay that is provided for us, there is\nneeded, as an essential part of the process, the voluntary, conscious,\nconscientious, and constant guarding of ourselves from the vagrancies\nof our desires, which send out their shoots away from Him; and when\nthe objects of these become idols, then there is nothing for it but\nthat, like Asa and his people, we should hew them to pieces and make a\nbonfire of them; and then renew our covenant before God. I desire to\npress that upon you and upon myself. The heart must be emptied of\nbaser liquors, if the new wine of the Kingdom is to be poured into it.\n\nTrue it is, of course--and thank God for it!--that the most powerful\nagent in effecting that detachment of ourselves from lower things is\nour fruition of higher. It is when God comes into the temple that\nDagon falls on the threshold. It is when a new affection begins to\nspring in the heart that old loves are thrust out of it. But whilst\nthat is true, it is also true that the two processes run on\nsimultaneously; and that whilst, on the one hand, if we are ever to\novercome our love of the world it must be through the love of God, on\nthe other hand, if we are ever to be confirmed in a whole-hearted love\nof God, it must be through our conquest of our love of the world.\n'Unite my heart to fear Thy name' was the profound prayer of the old\nPsalmist; and the 'heart,' according to Old Testament usage, is the\ncentral fountain from which flow all the streams of conscious life. To\nseek Him with the whole heart is to engage the whole self in the\nquest, and that is the only kind of seeking which has the certainty of\nsuccess.\n\nII. The finding which crowns such seeking.\n\n'He was found of them.' Yes; anything is possible rather than that a\nwhole-hearted search after God should be a vain search. For there are,\nin that case, two seekers--God is seeking for us more truly than we\nare seeking for Him. And if the mother is seeking her child, and the\nchild its mother, it will be a very wide desert where they will not\nmeet. 'The Father seeketh such to worship Him,' that is--the divine\nactivity is going about the world, searching for the heart that turns\nto Him, and it cannot but be that they that seek Him shall find Him,\nor 'shall be found of Him.' Open the windows, and you cannot keep out\nthe sunshine; open your lungs and you cannot keep out the air. 'In Him\nwe live and move and have our being,' and if our desires turn, however\nblindly, to Him, and are accompanied with the appropriate action,\nheaven and earth are more likely to rush to ruin than such a searching\nto be frustrated of its aim.\n\nBrethren! is there anything else in the world of which you can say,\n'Seek, and ye shall find'? You, with white hairs on your heads, have\nyou found anything else in which the chase was sure to result in the\ncapture; in which capture was sure to yield all that the hunter had\nwished? There is only one direction for a man's desires and aims, in\nwhich disappointment is an impossibility. In all other regions the\nmost that can be promised is 'Seek, and _perhaps_ you will find';\nand, when you have found, perhaps you will feel that the prize was not\nworth the finding. Or it is, 'Seek, and _possibly_ you will find;\nand after you have found and kept for a little while, you will lose.'\nThough it may be\n\n  'Better to have loved and lost,\n  Than never to have loved at all,'\n\na treasure that slips out of our fingers is not the best treasure that\nwe can search for. But here the assurance is, 'Seek, and ye\n_shall_ find; and shall never lose. Find, and you shall always\npossess.'\n\nWhat would you think of a company of gold-seekers, hunting about in\nsome exhausted claim, for hypothetical grains, ragged, starving--and\nall the while in the next gully were lying lumps of gold for the\npicking up? And that figure fairly represents what people do and\nsuffer who seek for good and do not seek for God.\n\nIII. The rest which ensues on finding God.\n\n'The Lord gave them rest round about.' We believe that the Jewish\nnation was under special supernatural guidance, so that national\nadherence to the Law was always followed by external prosperity. That\nis not, of course, the case with us. But which is the better thing,\n'rest round about' or rest within? We have no immunity from toil or\nconflict. Seeking God does not cover our heads from the storm of\nexternal calamities, nor arm our hearts against the darts and daggers\nof many a pain, anxiety, and care, but disturbance around is a very\nsmall matter if there be a better thing, rest within.\n\nDo you remember who it was that said, 'In the world ye shall have\ntribulation ... but in Me ye shall have peace'? Then we have, as it\nwere, two abodes--one, as far as regards the life of sense, in the\nworld of sense--another, as far as regards the inmost self, which may,\nif we will, be in Christ. A vessel with an outer casing and a layer of\nair between it and the inner will keep its contents hot. So we may\nhave round us the very opposite of repose, and, if God so wills, let\nus not kick against His will; we may have conflict and stir and\nstrife, and yet a better rest than that of my text may be ours. 'Rest\nround about' is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is often bad, for\nit is the people that 'have no changes' who most usually 'do not fear\nGod.' But rest within, that is sure to come when a man has sought with\nall his desire for God, whom he has found in all His fullness, is only\ngood and best of all.\n\nWe all know, thank God! in worldly matters and in inferior degree, how\nblessed and restful it is when some strong affection is gratified,\nsome cherished desire fulfilled. Though these satisfactions are not\nperpetual, nor perfect, they may teach us what a depth of blessed and\ncalm repose, incapable of being broken by any storms or by any tasks,\nwill come to and abide with the man whose deepest love is satisfied in\nGod, and whose most ardent desires have found more than they sought\nfor in Him. Be sure of this, dear friends! that if we do thus seek,\nand thus find, it is not in the power of anything 'that is at enmity\nwith joy' utterly to 'abolish or destroy' the quietness of our hearts.\n'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' They who thus repose\nwill have peace in their hearts, even whilst tasks and temptations,\nchanges and sorrows, disturb their outward lives. 'In the world ye\nshall have tribulation.' Be it so; it may be borne with submission and\nthankfulness if in Christ we have peace.\n\nThus we may have the peace of God, rest in and from Him, entering into\nus, and in due time, by His gracious guidance and help, we shall enter\ninto eternal rest. Whilst to seek is to find Him, in a very deep and\nblessed sense, even in this life; in another aspect all our earthly\nlife may be regarded as seeking after Him, and the future as the true\nfinding of Him. That future will bring to those whose hearts have\nturned from the shows and vanities of time to God a possession of Him\nso much fuller than was experienced here that the lesser discoveries\nand enjoyments of Him which are experienced here, scarcely deserve in\ncomparison to be called by the same name. So my text may be taken, as\nin its first part, a description of the blessed life here--'They\nsought Him with all their heart'--and in its second, as a shadowy\nvision of the yet more blessed life hereafter, 'He was found of them,\nand the Lord gave them rest round about,' as well as within, in the\nland of peace, where sorrow and sighing, and toil and care, shall pass\nfrom memory; and they that warred against us shall be far away.\n\n\n\nJEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM\n\n'And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened\nhimself against Israel. 2. And he placed forces in all the fenced\ncities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the\ncities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3. And the Lord was\nwith Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father\nDavid, and sought not unto Baalim; 4. But sought to the Lord God of\nhis father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings\nof Israel. 5. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand;\nand all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and\nhonour in abundance. 6. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the\nLord: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.\n7. Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to\nBen-hail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to\nMichaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. 8. And with them he sent\nLevites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asabel, and\nShemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and\nTobadonijah, Levites: and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests. 9.\nAnd they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with\nthem, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught\nthe people. 10. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of\nthe lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war\nagainst Jehoshaphat.'--2 CHRON. xvii. 1-10.\n\n\nThe first point to be noted in this passage is that Jehoshaphat\nfollowed in the steps of Asa his father. Stress is laid on his\nadherence to the ancestral faith, 'the first ways of his father\nDavid,'--before his great fall,--and the paternal example, 'he sought\nto the God of his father.' Such carrying on of a predecessor's work is\nrare in the line of kings of Judah, where father and son were seldom\nof the same mind in religion. The principle of hereditary monarchy\nsecures peaceful succession, but not continuity of policy. Many a king\nof Judah had to say in his heart what Ecclesiastes puts into Solomon's\nmouth, 'I hated all my labour, ... seeing that I must leave it unto\nthe man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a\nwise man or a fool?'\n\nBut it is not only in kings' houses that that experience is realised.\nMany a home is saddened to-day because the children do not seek the\nGod of their fathers. 'Instead of the fathers' should 'come up thy\nchildren'; but, alas! grandmother Lois and mother Eunice do not always\nsee the boy who has known the Scriptures from a child grow up into a\nTimothy, in whom their unfeigned faith lives again. The neglect of\nreligious instruction in professedly Christian families, the\ninconsistent lives of parents or their too rigid restraints, or,\nsometimes, their too lax discipline, are to be blamed for many such\ncases. But there are many instances in which not the parents, but the\nchildren, are to be blamed. An earnest Sunday-school teacher may do\nmuch to lead the children of godly parents to their father's God.\nBlessed is the home where the golden chain of common faith binds\nhearts together, and family love is elevated and hallowed by common\nlove of God!\n\nJehoshaphat's religion was, further, resolutely held in the face of\nprevailing opposition. 'The Baalim' were popular; it was fashionable\nto worship them. They were numerous, and all varieties of taste could\nfind a Baal to please them. But this young king turned from the\ntempting ways that opened flower-strewn before him, and chose the\nnarrow road that led upwards. 'So did not I, because of the fear of\nGod,' might have been his motto. A similar determined setting of our\nfaces God-ward, in spite of the crowd of tempting false deities around\nus, must mark us, if we are to have any religion worth calling by the\nname. This king recoiled from the example of the neighbouring\nmonarchy, and walked 'not after the doings of Israel.' His seeking to\nGod was very practical, for it was not shown simply by professed\nbeliefs or by sentiment, but by ordering his life in obedience to\nGod's will. The test of real religion is, after all, a life unlike the\nlives of the men who do not share our faith, and moulded in accordance\nwith God's known will. It is vain to allege that we are seeking the\nLord unless we are walking in His commandments.\n\nProsperity followed godliness, in accordance with the divinely\nappointed connection between them which characterised the Old\nDispensation. 'Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament;\nadversity is the blessing of the New,' says Bacon. But the epigram is\ntoo neat to be entirely true, for the Book of Job and many a psalm\nshow that the eternal problem of suffering innocence was raised by\nfacts even in the old days, and in our days there are forms of\nwell-being which are the natural fruits of well-doing. Still, the\nconnection was closer in Judah than with us, and, in the case before\nus, the establishment of Jehoshaphat in the kingdom, his subjects'\nlove, which showed itself in voluntary gifts over and above the taxes\nimposed, and his wealth and honour, were the direct results of his\ntrue religion.\n\nA really devout man must be a propagandist. True faith cannot be hid\nnor be dumb. As certainly as light must radiate must faith strive to\ncommunicate itself. So the account of Jehoshaphat's efforts to spread\nthe worship of Jehovah follows the account of his personal godliness.\n'His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord.' There are two kinds\nof lifted-up hearts; one when pride, self-sufficiency, and\nforgetfulness of God, raise a man to a giddy height, from which God's\njudgments are sure to cast him down and break him in the fall; one\nwhen a lowly heart is raised to high courage and devotion, and 'set on\nhigh,' because it fears God's name. Such elevation is consistent with\nhumility. It fears no fall; it is an elevation above earthly desires\nand terrors, neither of which can reach it, so as to hinder the man\nfrom walking in 'the ways of the Lord.' This king was lifted to it by\nhis happy experience of the blessed effects of obedience. These\nencouraged him to vigorous efforts to spread the religion which had\nthus gladdened and brightened his own life. Is that the use we make of\nthe ease which God gives us?\n\nJehoshaphat had to destroy first, in order to build up. The 'high\nplaces and Asherim' had to be taken out of Judah before the true\nworship could be established there. So it is still. The Christian has\nto carry a sword in the one hand, and a trowel in the other. Many a\nrotten old building, the stones of which have been cemented in blood,\nhas to be swept away before the fair temple can be reared. The Devil\nis in possession of much of the world, and the lawful owner has to\ndispossess the 'squatter.' No one can suppose that society is\norganised on Christian principles even in so-called 'Christian\ncountries'; and there is much overturning work to be done before He\nwhose right it is to reign is really king over the whole earth. We,\ntoo, have our 'high places and Asherim' to root out.\n\nBut that destructive work is not to be done by force. Institutions can\nonly be swept away when public opinion has grown to see their evils.\nForcible reformations of manners, and, still more, of religion, never\nlast, but are sure to be followed by violent rebounds to the old\norder. So, side by side with the removal of idolatry, this king took\ncare to diffuse the knowledge of the true worship, by sending out a\nbody of influential commissioners to teach in Judah. That was a new\ndeparture of great importance. It presents several interesting\nfeatures. The composition of the staff of instructors is remarkable.\nThe principal men in it are five court officers, next to whom, and\nsubordinate, as is shown not only by the order of enumeration, but by\nthe phrase 'with them,' were nine Levites, and, last and lowest of\nall, two priests. We might have expected that priests should be the\nmost numerous and important members of such a body, and we are led to\nsuspect that the priesthood was so corrupted as to be careless about\nreligious reformation. A clerical order is not always the most ardent\nin religious revival. The commissioners were probably chosen, without\nregard to their being priests, Levites, or 'laymen,' because of their\nzeal in the worship of Jehovah; and the five 'princes' head the list\nin order to show the royal authority of the commission.\n\nAnother point is the emphasis with which their function of teaching is\nthrice mentioned in three verses. Apparently the bulk of the nation\nknew little or nothing of 'the law of the Lord,' either on its\nspiritual and moral or its ceremonial side; and Jehoshaphat's object\nwas to effect an enlightened, not a forcible and superficial, change.\nGod's way of influencing actions is to reveal Himself to the\nunderstanding and the heart, that these may move the will, and that\nmay shape the deeds. Wise men will imitate God's way. Jehoshaphat did\nnot issue royal commands, but sent out teachers. In chapter xix. we\nfind him despatching 'judges' in similar fashion throughout Judah.\nThey had the power to punish, but these teachers had only authority to\nexplain and to exhort.\n\nThe present writer accepts the chronicler's statement that the\nteachers had 'the Book of the Law' with them, though he recognises it\nas possible that that 'Book' was not identical with the complete\ncollection of documents which now bears the name. But, be that as it\nmay, the incident of our text is remarkable as being the only recorded\nsystematic and complete attempt to diffuse the remedy against idolatry\nthroughout the kingdom, as putting religious reformation on its only\nsure ground, and as hinting at deep and widespread ignorance among the\nmasses.\n\n'When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be\nat peace with him.' So Judah found. 'A terror of the Lord fell upon\nall the kingdoms' around. No doubt, the news filtered to them of how\nJehovah was exerting His might on the nation, and a certain\nindefinable awe of this so potent god, who was defeating the Baalim,\nmade them think that peace was the best policy. Each nation was\nsupposed to have its own god, and the national god was supposed to\nfight for his worshippers; so that war was a struggle of deities as\nwell as of men, and the stronger god won. Here was a god who had\nreconquered his territory, and had cast out usurpers. Prudence\ndictated keeping on good terms with him. But it never occurred to any\nof these peoples that their own gods were any less real than Judah's,\nor that Judah's God could ever become theirs.\n\n\n\nAMASIAH\n\n'Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the\nLord.'--1 CHRON. xvii, 16.\n\n\nThis is a scrap from the catalogue of Jehoshaphat's 'mighty men of\nvalour'; and is Amasiah's sole record. We see him for a moment and\nhear his eulogium and then oblivion swallows him up. We do not know\nwhat it was that he did to earn it. But what a fate, to live to all\ngenerations by that one sentence!\n\nI. Cheerful self-surrender the secret of all religion.\n\nThe words of our text contain a metaphor naturally drawn from the\nsacrificial system. It comes so easily to us that we scarcely\nrecognise the metaphorical element, but the clear recognition of it\ngives great additional energy to the words. Amasiah was both\nsacrificer and sacrifice. His offering was self-immolation. As in all\nlove, so in that noblest kind of it which clasps God, its perfect\nexpression is, 'I give Thee my living, loving self.' Nor is it only\nsacrifice and sacrificer that are seen in deepest truth in the\nexperience of the Christian life, but the reality of the Temple is\nalso there, for 'Ye also ... are built up a spiritual house, to be a\nholy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.' Only when God\ndwells in us, shall we have the nerve and the firmness of hand to take\nthe knife and 'slay before the Lord,' the awful Guest in the sanctuary\nwithin, the most precious of the children of our spirits.\n\nThe essence of the sacrifice of self is the sacrifice of will. In the\nChristian experience 'willingly offered' is almost tautology, for\nunwilling offerings are a contradiction and in fact there are no such\nthings. The quality of unwillingness destroys the character of the\noffering and robs it of all sacredness. Reluctant Christianity is not\nChristianity. That noun and that adjective can never be buckled\ntogether.\n\nThe submission of will and the consequent surrender of myself and my\npowers, opportunities, and possessions, so that I do all, enjoy all,\nuse all, and when need is, endure all with glad thankful reference to\nGod is only possible to me in the measure in which my will is made\nflexible by love, and such will-subduing love comes only when we 'know\nand believe the love that God hath to us.' There is the point at which\nnot a few moral and religious teachers go wrong and bewilder\nthemselves and their disciples. There, too, is the point at which\nChrist and the Gospel of salvation through faith in Him stand forth as\nemancipating humanity from the dreary round of efforts and vain\nattempts to work up the condition needful for achieving the height of\nself-surrender, which is seen to be indispensable to all true\nnobleness of living, but is felt to be beyond the reach of the\nordinary man. There, too, is the point at which many good people mar\ntheir lives as Christians. They waste their strength in trying to\nbring the jibbing horse up to the leap. They try to blow up a fire of\ndevotion and to make themselves priests to offer themselves, but all\nthe while the mutinous self recoils from the leap, and the fire burns\nsmokily, and their sacrifice is laid on the altar with little joy,\nbecause they have not been careful and wise enough to begin at the\nbeginning and to follow God's way of melting their wills, by love, the\nreflection of the Infinite love of God to them. God's priests offer\nthemselves because they offer their wills; they offer their wills\nbecause they love God; they love God because they know that God loves\nthem. That is the divine order. It is vain to try to accomplish the\nend by any other.\n\nII. This willing offering hallows all life.\n\nNo syllable is left to tell us what Amasiah did to win this praise.\nProbably the words enshrine some now forgotten memory of his cheerful\ncourage, some heroic feat on an unrecorded battlefield. Particulars\nare not given nor needed. Specific actions are unimportant; the spirit\nof a life can be told with very incomplete details, and it, not the\ndetails, is the important thing. Sometimes, as in many modern\nbiographies, one 'cannot see the wood for the trees,' and misses the\nmain drift and aim of a life in the chaos of a bewildering mass of\nnothings. How much more happy the lot of this man of whom we have only\nthe generalised expression of the text, unweighted and undisturbed by\npetty incidents! It takes tons of rose leaves to make a tiny phial of\notto of roses, but the fragrance is far more pungent in a drop of the\ndistillation than in armfuls of leaves. Every life shrinks into very\nsmall compass, and the centuries do not tolerate long biographies.\nShall we not seek to order our life so that Amasiah's epitaph may\nserve for us? It will be blessed if this--and nothing else--is known\nabout us, that we 'willingly offered ourselves to the Lord.' My\nfriend: will that be a true epitome of your life?\n\nIII. This willing offering is accepted by God.\n\nWe may hear a mightier voice behind the chronicler's, and the judgment\nof the Judge of all pronounced by His lips. It matters little what men\nsay of one another, but it matters everything what God says of us. We\nare but too apt to forget that He is now saying something as to each\nof us, and that we have not to wait for death to put a final period to\nour activities, before our lives become fit subjects for God's\njudgment, Moment by moment we are writing our own sentences. But while\nit is good for us to remember the continuous judgment of God on each\ndeed, it is not good to let dark thoughts of the principles of that\njudgment paralyse our activity or chill our confidence in His\nforgiving and accepting mercy. There is often a dark suspicion, like\nthat of the one-talented servant, which blackens God's fair fame as\nbeing 'an austere Man,' making demands rather than imparting power,\nand the effect of such an ugly conception of Him is to cut the nerve\nof service and bury the talent, carefully folded up, it may be, but\nnone the less earning nothing. 'If we call on Him as Father, who\nwithout respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,' let\nus be sure that it will be a Fatherly judgment that He will pass upon\nus and our offerings. There is a wonderful collection on His altar of\nwhat many people would think rubbish, just as many a mother has laid\naway among her treasures some worthless article which her child had\nonce given her--a weed plucked by the roadside in a long past summer\nday, some trifle of rare preciousness in the child's eyes, and of none\nin any others than her own. She opens her drawer and brings out the\npoor little thing, and her eyes fill and her heart fills as she looks.\nAnd does not God keep His children's gifts as lovingly, and set them\nin places of honour in the day when He 'makes up His jewels'? There\nare cups of cold water and widows' mites and much else that a\nsupercilious world would call 'trash' stored there. Thank God! He\naccepts imperfect service, faltering faith, partial consecration, a\nlittle love. Even our poor offering may be an 'odour of a sweet\nsmell,' ministering fragrance that is a delight to Him, if it is\noffered with the much incense of the great Sacrifice and through the\nmediation of the great High Priest.\n\nThe world forgot Amasiah, or never knew him, an obscure soldier in an\nobscure kingdom, but God did not forget, and here is his epitaph, and\nthis is his memorial to all generations. Men's chronicles have no room\nfor all the names that their wearers are eager to have inscribed on\ntheir crumbling and crowded pages, 'but the Lamb's Book of Life' has\nample space on its radiant pages for all who desire to set their names\nthere, and if ours are there, we need not envy the proudest whose\ntitles and deeds fill the most conspicuous pages in the world's\nrecords. 'Then shall every man have praise of Christ,' and he who wins\nthat guerdon needs nothing more, and can have nothing more to swell\nhis blessedness.\n\n\n\n'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES'\n\n'And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to\nJerusalem. 2. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet\nhim, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly,\nand love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from\nbefore the Lord. 3. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee,\nin that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast\nprepared thine heart to seek God. 4. And Jehoshaphat dwelt at\nJerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beer-sheba to\nmount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord God of their\nfathers. 5. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced\ncities of Judah, city by city. 6. And said to the judges, Take heed\nwhat ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with\nyou in the judgment. 7. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon\nyou; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our\nGod, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. 8. Moreover in\nJerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and\nof the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord,\nand for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. 9. And he\ncharged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord,\nfaithfully, and with a perfect heart. 10. And what cause soever shall\ncome to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood\nand blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye\nshall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord, and so\nwrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not\ntrespass. 11. And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all\nmatters of the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the\nhouse of Judah, for all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be\nofficers before you. Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the\ngood.'--2 CHRON. XIX. 1-11.\n\n\nJehoshaphat is distinguished by two measures for his people's good:\none, his sending out travelling preachers through the land (2 Chron.\nxvii. 7-9); another, this provision of local judges and a central\ncourt in Jerusalem. The former was begun as early as the third year of\nhis reign, but was probably interrupted, like other good things, by\nhis ill-omened alliance with Ahab. The prophet Jehu's plain speaking\nseems to have brought the king back to his better self, and its fruit\nwas his going 'among the people,' from south to north, as a\nmissionary, 'to bring them back to Jehovah.' The religious reformation\nwas accompanied by his setting judges throughout the land. Our modern\nway of distinguishing between religious and civil concerns is foreign\nto Eastern thought, and was especially out of the question in a\ntheocracy. Jehovah was the King of Judah; therefore the things that\nare Caesar's and the things that are God's coalesced, and these two\nobjects of Jehoshaphat's journeyings were pursued simultaneously. We\nhave travelled far from his simple institutions, and our course has\nnot been all progress. His supreme concern was to deal out even-handed\njustice between man and man; is not ours rather to give ample doses of\nlaw? To him the judicial function was a copy of God's, and its\nexercise a true act of worship, done in His fear, and modelled after\nHis pattern. The first impression made in one of our courts is\nscarcely that judge and counsel are engaged in worship.\n\nThere had been local judges before Jehoshaphat--elders in the\nvillages, the 'heads of the fathers' houses' in the tribes. We do not\nknow whether the great secession had flung the simple old machinery\nsomewhat out of gear, or whether Jehoshaphat's action was simply to\nsystematise and make universal the existing arrangements. But what\nconcerns us most is to note that all the charge which he gives to\nthese peasant magistrates bears on the religious aspect of their\nduties. They are to think themselves as acting for Jehovah and with\nJehovah. If they recognise the former, they may be confident of the\nlatter. They are to 'let the fear of Jehovah be upon you,' for that\nawe resting on a spirit will, like a burden or water-jar on a woman's\nshoulder, make the carriage upright and the steps firm. They are not\nonly to act for and with Jehovah, but to do like Him, avoiding\ninjustice, favouritism, and corruption, the plague-spots of Eastern\nlaw-courts. In such a state of society, the cases to be adjudicated\nwere mostly such as mother-wit, honesty and the fear of God could\nsolve; other times call for other qualifications. But still, let us\nlearn from this charge that even in our necessarily complicated legal\nsystems and political life, there is room and sore need for the\napplication of the same principles. What a different world it would be\nif our judges and representatives carried some tincture of\nJehoshaphat's simple and devout wisdom into their duties! Civic and\npolitical life ought to be as holy as that of cloister and cell. To\njudge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray. A\npolitician may be 'a priest of the Most High God.'\n\nAnd for us all the spirit of Jehoshaphat's charge is binding, and\nevery trivial and secular task is to be discharged for God, with God,\nin the fear of God. 'On the bells of the horses shall be Holiness unto\nJehovah.' If our religion does not drive the wheels of daily life, so\nmuch the worse for our life and our religion. But, above all, this\ncharge reminds us that the secret of right living is to imitate God.\nThese peasants were to find direction, as well as inspiration, in\ngazing on Jehovah's character, and trying to copy it. And we are to be\n'imitators of God, as beloved children,' though our best efforts may\nonly produce poor results. A masterpiece may be copied in some\nwretched little newspaper blotch, but the great artist will own it for\na copy, and correct it into complete likeness.\n\nThe second step was to establish a 'supreme court' in Jerusalem, which\nhad two divisions, ecclesiastical and civil, as we should say, the\nformer presided over by the chief priest, and the latter by 'the ruler\nof the house of Judah.' Murder cases and the graver questions\ninvolving interpretation of the law were sent up thither, while the\nvillage judges had probably to decide only points that shrewdness and\nintegrity could settle. But these superior judges, too, received\ncharges as to moral, rather than intellectual or learned\nqualifications. Religiously, uprightly, 'with a perfect heart,'\ncourageously, they were to act, 'and Jehovah be with the good!' That\nmay be a prayer, like the old invocation with which heralds sent\nknights to tilt at each other, and with which, in some legal\nproceedings, the pleas are begun, 'God defend the right!' But more\nprobably it is an assurance that God will guide the judges to favour\nthe good cause, if they on their parts will bring the aforesaid\nqualities to their decisions. And are not these qualities just such as\nwill, for the most part, give similar results to us, if in our various\nactivities we exercise them? And may we not see a sequence worth our\npractically putting to the proof in these characteristics enjoined on\nJehoshaphat's supreme court? Begin with 'the fear of the Lord'; that\nwill help us to 'faithfulness and a perfect heart'; and these again by\ntaking away occasions of ignoble fear, and knitting together the else\ntremulous and distracted nature, will make the fearful brave and the\nweak strong.\n\nBut another thought is suggested by Jehoshaphat's language. Note how\nthis court does not seem to have inflicted punishments, but to have\nhad only counsels and warnings to wield. It was a board of\nconciliation rather than a penal tribunal. Two things it had to do--to\npress upon the parties the weighty consideration that crimes against\nmen were sins against God, and that the criminal drew down wrath on\nthe community. This remarkable provision brings out strongly thoughts\nthat modern society will be the better for incorporating. The best way\nto deal with men is to get at their hearts and consciences. The deeper\naspect of civil crimes or wrongs to men should be pressed on the doer;\nnamely, that they are sins against God. Again, all such acts are sins\nagainst the mystical sacred bond of brotherhood. Again, the solidarity\nof a nation makes it inevitable that 'one sinner destroyeth much\ngood,' and pulls down with him, when God smites him, a multitude of\ninnocents. So finely woven is the web of the national life that, if a\nthread run in any part of it, a great rent gapes. If one member sins,\nall the members suffer with it. And lastly, the cruellest thing that\nwe can do is to be dumb when we see sin being committed. It is not\npublic men, judges and the like, alone, who are called on thus to warn\nevil-doers, but all of us in our degree. If we do not, we are guilty\nalong with a guilty nation; and it is only when, to the utmost of our\npower, we have warned our brethren as to national sins, that we can\nwash our hands in innocency, 'This do, and ye shall not be guilty.'\n\n\n\nA STRANGE BATTLE\n\n'We have no might against this great company that cometh against us;\nneither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.'--2 CHRON xx.\n12.\n\n\nA formidable combination of neighbouring nations, of which Moab and\nAmmon, the ancestral enemies of Judah, were the chief, was threatening\nJudah. Jehoshaphat, the king, was panic-stricken when he heard of the\nheavy war-cloud that was rolling on, ready to burst in thunder on his\nlittle kingdom. His first act was to muster the nation, not as a\nmilitary levy but as suppliants, 'to seek help of the Lord.' The enemy\nwas camping down by the banks of the Dead Sea, almost within striking\ndistance of Jerusalem. It seemed a time for fighting, not for praying,\nbut even at that critical moment, the king and the men, whom it might\nhave appeared that plain duty called to arms, were gathered in the\nTemple, and, hampered by their wives and children, were praying. Would\nthey not have done better if they had been sturdily marching through\nthe wilderness of Judah to front their foes? Our text is the close and\nthe climax of Jehoshaphat's prayer, and, as the event proved, it was\nthe most powerful weapon that could have been employed, for the rest\nof the chapter tells the strangest story of a campaign that was ever\nwritten. No sword was drawn. The army was marshalled, but Levites with\ntheir instruments of music, not fighters with their spears, led the\nvan, and as 'they began to sing and to praise,' sudden panic laid hold\non the invading force, who turned their arms against each other. So\nwhen Judah came to some rising ground, on which stood a watch-tower\ncommanding a view over the savage grimness of 'the wilderness,' it saw\na field of corpses, stark and stiff and silent. Three days were spent\nin securing the booty, and on the fourth, Jehoshaphat and his men\n'assembled themselves in the Valley of Blessing,' and thence returned\na joyous multitude praising God for the victory which had been won for\nthem without their having struck a blow. The whole story may yield\nlarge lessons, seasonable at all times. We deal with it, rather than\nwith the fragment of the narrative which we have taken as our text.\n\nI. We see here the confidence of despair.\n\nJehoshaphat's prayer had stayed itself on God's self-revelation in\nhistory, and on His gift of the land to their fathers. It had pleaded\nthat the enemy's hostility was a poor 'reward' for Israel's ancient\nforbearance, and now, with a burst of agony, it casts down before God,\nas it were, Judah's desperate plight as outnumbered by the swarm of\ninvaders and brought to their last shifts--'we have no might against\nthis great company ... neither know we what to do.' But the very depth\nof despair sets them to climb to the height of trust. That is a mighty\n'But,' which buckles into one sentence two such antitheses as confront\nus here. 'We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee'--blessed\nis the desperation which catches at God's hand; firm is the trust\nwhich leaps from despair!\n\nThe helplessness is always a fact, though most of us manage to get\nalong for the most part without discovering it. We are all outnumbered\nand overborne by the claims, duties, hindrances, sorrows, and\nentanglements of life. He is not the wisest of men who, facing all\nthat life may bring and take away, all that it must bring and take\naway, knows no quiver of nameless fear, but jauntily professes himself\nready for all that life can inflict. But there come moments in every\nlife when the false security in which shallow souls wrap themselves\nignobly is broken up, and then often a paroxysm of terror or misery\ngrips a man, for which he has no anodyne, and his despair is as\nunreasonable as his security. The meaning of all circumstances that\nforce our helplessness on us is to open to us Jehoshaphat's refuge in\nhis--'our eyes are upon Thee.' We need to be driven by the crowds of\nfoes and dangers around to look upwards. Our props are struck away\nthat we may cling to God. The tree has its lateral branches hewed off\nthat it may shoot up heavenward. When the valley is filled with mist\nand swathed in evening gloom, it is the time to lift our gaze to the\npeaks that glow in perpetual sunshine. Wise and happy shall we be if\nthe sense of helplessness begets in us the energy of a desperate\nfaith. For these two, distrust of self and glad confidence in God, are\nnot opposites, as naked distrust and trust are, but are complementary.\nHe does not turn his eyes to God who has not turned them on himself,\nand seen there nothing to which to cling, nothing on which to lean.\nAstronomers tell us that there are double stars revolving round one\naxis and forming a unity, of which the one is black and the other\nbrilliant. Self-distrust and trust in God are thus knit together and\nare really one.\n\nII. We see here the peaceful assurance of victory that attends on\nfaith.\n\nA flash of inspiration came to one of the Levitical singers who had,\nno doubt, been deeply moved and had unconsciously fitted himself for\nreceiving it. Divinely breathed confidence illuminated his waiting\nspirit, and a great message of encouragement poured from his lips. His\nwords heartened the host more than a hundred trumpets braying in their\nears. How much one man who has drunk in God's assurance of victory can\ndo to send a thrill of his own courage through more timorous hearts!\nCourage is no less contagious than panic. This Levite becomes the\ncommander of the army, and Jehoshaphat and his captains 'bow their\nheads' and accept his plan for to-morrow, hearing in his ringing\naccents a message from Jehovah. The instructions given and at once\naccepted are as unlike those of ordinary warfare as is the whole\nincident; for there is to be no sword drawn nor blow struck, but they\nare to 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.' They are told\nwhere to find the enemy and are bid to go forth in order of battle\nagainst them, and they are assured 'that the battle is not theirs, but\nGod's.' No wonder that the message was hailed as from heaven, and put\nnew heart into the host, or that, when the messenger's voice ceased,\nhis brother Levites broke into shrill praise as for a victory already\nwon. With what calm, triumphant hearts the camp would sleep that\nnight!\n\nMay we not take that inspired Levite's message as one to ourselves in\nthe midst of our many conflicts both in the outward life and in the\ninward? If we have truly grasped God's hands, and are fighting for\nwhat is accordant with His will, we have a right to feel that 'the\nbattle is not ours but God's,' and to be sure that therefore we shall\nconquer. Of course we are not to say to ourselves, 'God will fight for\nus, and we need not strike a blow,' Jehoshaphat's example does not fit\nour case in that respect, and we may thank God that it does not. We\nhave a better lot than to 'stand still and see the salvation of God,'\nfor we are honoured by being allowed to share the stress of conflict\nand the glow of battle as well as in the shout of victory. But even in\nthe struggles of outward life, and much more in those of our spiritual\nnature, every man who watches his own career will many a time have to\nrecognise God's hand, unaided by any act of his own, striking for him\nand giving him victory; and in the spiritual life every Christian man\nknows that his best moments have come from the initiation of the\nSpirit who 'bloweth where He listeth.' How often we have been\nsurprised by God's help; how often we have been quickened by God's\ninbreathed Spirit, and have been taught that the passivity of faith\ndraws to us greater blessings than the activity of effort! 'They also\nserve who only stand and wait,' and they also conquer who in quietness\nand confidence keep themselves still and let God work for them and in\nthem. The first great blessing of trust in God is that we may be at\npeace on the eve of battle, and the second is that in every battle it\nis, in truth, not we that fight, but God who fights for and in us.\n\nIII. We learn here the best preparation for the conflict.\n\nWhen the morning dawned, the array was set in order and the march\nbegun, and a strange array it was. In the van marched the Temple\nsingers singing words that are music to us still: 'Give thanks unto\nthe Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever,' and behind them came the\nranks of Judah, no doubt swelling the volume of melody, that startled\nthe wild creatures of the wilderness, and perhaps travelled through\nthe still morning as far as the camp of the enemy. The singers had no\narmour nor weapons. They were clad in 'the beauty of holiness,' the\npriestly dress, and for sword and spear they carried harps and\ntimbrels. Our best weapons are like their equipment.\n\nWe are most likely to conquer if we lift up the voice of thanks for\nvictory in advance, and go into the battle expecting to triumph,\nbecause we trust in God. The world's expectation of success is too\noften a dream, a will-o'-the-wisp that tempts to bogs where the\nbeguiled victim is choked, though even in the world it is often true;\n'screw your courage to the sticking point, and we'll not fail.' But\nfaith, that is the expectation of success based on God's help and\ninspiring to struggles for things dear to His heart, is wont to fulfil\nitself, and by bringing God into the fray, to secure the victory. A\nthankful heart not seldom brings into existence that for which it is\nthankful.\n\nIV. We see here the victory and the praise for it.\n\nThe panic that laid hold on the enemy, and turned their swords against\neach other, was more natural in an undisciplined horde such as these\nirregular levies of ancient times, than it would be in a modern army.\nOnce started, the infection would spread, so we need not wonder that\nby the time that Judah arrived on the field all was over. How often a\nlike experience attends us! We quiver with apprehension of troubles\nthat never attack us. We dread some impending battlefield, and when we\nreach it, Jehoshaphat's surprise is repeated, 'and, behold they were\ndead bodies, fallen to the earth.' Delivered from foes and fears,\nJudah's first impulse was to secure the booty, for they were keen\nafter wealth, and their 'faith' was not very pure or elevating. But\ntheir last act was worthier, and fitly ended the strange campaign.\nThey gathered in some wady among the grim cliffs of the wilderness of\nJudah, which broke the dreariness of that savage stretch of country\nwith perhaps verdure and a brook, and there they 'blessed the Lord.'\nThe chronicler gives a piece of popular etymology, in deriving the\nname, 'the valley of blessing,' from that morning's worship. Perhaps\nthe name was older than that, and was given from a feeling of the\ncontrast between the waste wilderness, which in its gaunt sterility\nseemed an accursed land, and the glen which with its trees and stream\nwas indeed a 'valley of blessing.' If so, the name would be doubly\nappropriate after that day's experience. Be that as it may, here we\nhave in vivid form the truth that all our struggles and fightings may\nend in a valley of blessing, which will ring with the praise of the\nGod who fights for us. If we begin our warfare with an appeal to God,\nand with prayerful acknowledgment of our own impotence, we shall end\nit with thankful acknowledgment that we are 'more than conquerors\nthrough Him that loved us' and fought for us, and our choral song of\npraise will echo through the true Valley of Blessing, where no sound\nof enemies shall ever break the settled stillness, and the host of the\nredeemed, like that army of Judah, shall bear 'psalteries and harps\nand trumpets,' and shall need spear and sword no more at all for ever.\n\n\n\nHOLDING FAST AND HELD FAST\n\n'As they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Believe in the Lord\nyour God, so shall ye be established.'--2 CHRON. xx. 20.\n\n\nCertainly no stronger army ever went forth to victory than these Jews,\nwho poured out of Jerusalem that morning with no weapon in all their\nranks, and having for their van, not their picked men, but singers who\n'praised the beauty of holiness,' and chanted the old hymn, 'Give\nthanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever.' That was all\nthat men had to do in the battle, for as the shrill song rose in the\nmorning air 'the Lord set liers in wait for the foe,' and they turned\ntheir swords against one another, so that when Jehoshaphat and his\ntroops came in sight of the enemy the battle was over and the field\nstrewn with corpses--so great and swift is the power of devout\nrecognition of God's goodness and trust in His enduring mercy, even in\nthe hour of extremest peril.\n\nThe exhortation in our text which is Jehoshaphat's final word to his\narmy, has, in the original, a beauty and emphasis that are incapable\nof being preserved in translation. There is a play of words which\ncannot be reproduced in another language, though the sentiment of it\nmay be explained. The two expressions for 'believing' and 'being\nestablished' are two varying forms of the same root-word; and although\nwe can only imitate the original clumsily in our language, we might\ntranslate in some such way as this: 'Hold fast by the Lord your God,\nand you will be held fast,' or 'stay yourselves on Him and you will be\nstable.' These attempts at reproducing the similarity of sound between\nthe two verbs in the two clauses of our text, rude as they are,\npreserve what is lost, so far as regards form, in the English\ntranslation, though that is correct as to the meaning of the command\nand promise. If we note this connection of the two clauses we just\ncome to the general principle which lies here, that the true source of\nsteadfastness in character and conduct, of victory over temptation,\nand of standing fast in slippery places, is simple reliance, or, to\nuse the New Testament word, 'faith,' 'Believe and ye shall be\nestablished.' Put out your hand and clasp Him, and He puts out His\nhand and steadies you. But all the steadfastness and strength come\nfrom the mighty Hand that is outstretched, not from the tremulous one\nthat grasps it.\n\nSo, then, keeping to the words of my text, let me suggest to you the\nlarge lessons that this saying teaches us, in regard to three things,\nwhich I may put as being the object, the nature, and the issues of\nfaith; or, in other words, to whom we are to cling, how we are to\ncling, and what the consequence of the clinging is.\n\nI. To whom we must cling.\n\n'Stay yourselves on the Lord your God,' Well, then, faith is not\nbelieving a number of theological articles, nor is it even accepting\nthe truth of the Gospel as it lies in Jesus Christ, but it is\naccepting the Christ whom the truth of the Gospel reveals to us. And,\nalthough we have to come to Him through the word that declares what He\nis, and what He has done for us, the act of believing on Him is\nsomething that lies beyond the mere understanding of, or giving\ncredence to, the message that tells us who He is and what He has done.\nA man may have not the ghost of a doubt or hesitation about one tittle\nof revealed truth, and if you were to cross-question him, could answer\nsatisfactorily all the questions of an orthodox inquisitor, and yet\nthere may not be one faintest flicker of faith in that man's whole\nbeing, for all the correctness of his creed, and the comprehensiveness\nof it, too. Trust is more than assent. If it is a Person on whom our\nfaith leans, then from that there follows clearly enough that the bond\nwhich binds us to Him must be something far warmer, far deeper, and\nfar more under the control of our own will than the mere consent or\nassent of our brains to a set of revealed truths. 'The Lord your God,'\nand not even the Bible that tells you about Him; 'the Lord your God,'\nand not even the revealed truths that manifest Him, but Him as\nrevealed by the truths--it is He that is the Object to which our faith\nclings.\n\nJehoshaphat, in the same breath in which he exhorted his people to\n'believe in the Lord, that they might be established,' also said,\n'Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.' The immediate reference,\nof course, was to the man who the day before had assured them of\nvictory. But the wider truth suggested is, that the only way to get to\nGod is through the word that speaks of Him, and which has come from\nthe lips either of prophets or of the Son who has spoken more, and\nmore sweetly and clearly, than all the prophets put together. If we\nare to believe God, we must believe the prophets that tell us of Him.\n\nAnd then there is another suggestion that may be made. The Object of\nfaith proposed to Judah is not only 'the Lord,' but 'the Lord\n_your_ God.' I do not say that there can be no faith without the\n'appropriating' action which takes the whole Godhead for mine, but I\ndoubt very much whether there is any. And it seems to me that to a\nvery large extent the difference between mere nominal, formal\nChristians and men who really are living by the power of faith in God\nas revealed in Jesus Christ, lies in that one little word, 'the Lord\nyour God.' That a man shall put out a grasping hand, and say, 'I take\nfor my own--for my very own--the universal blessing, I claim as my\npossession that God of the spirits of all flesh, I believe that He\ndoes stand in a real individualising relation to me, and I to Him,' is\nsurely of the very essence of faith. There is no presumption, but the\ntruest wisdom and lowliness in enclosing, if I may so say, a part of\nthis great common for ours, and putting a hedge about it, as it were,\nand saying, 'That is mine.' We shall not have understood the sweetness\nand the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ until we have pointed and\ncondensed the general declaration, 'He so loved the world,' into the\nindividualising and appropriating one, 'He loved me, and gave Himself\nfor me.' Oh! if we could only apply that process thoroughly to all the\nbroad glorious words and promises of Scripture, and feel that the\nwhole incidence of them was meant to fall upon us, one by one, and\nthat just as the sun, up in the heavens there, sends all his beams\ninto the tiniest daisy on the grass, as if there was nothing else in\nthe whole world, but only its little petals to be smoothed out and\nopened, I think our Christianity would be more real, and we should\nhave more blessings in our hands. God in Christ and I, the only two\nbeings in the universe, and all His fullness mine, and all my weakness\nsupported and supplemented by Him--that is the view that we should\nsometimes take. We should set ourselves apart from all mankind, and\nclaim Him as our very own, and so be filled with the fullness of God.\n\nThis, then, is the Object of faith, a Person who is all mine and all\nyours too. The beam of light that falls on my eye falls on yours, and\nno man makes a sunbeam the smaller because he sees by it; and in like\nmanner we may each possess the whole of God for our very own property.\n\nII. How we cling.\n\nThe metaphor, I suppose, is more eloquent than all explanations of it.\n'Believe in the Lord'; hold fast by Him with a tight grip, continually\nrenewed when it tends to slacken, as it surely will, and then you will\nbe established.\n\nWe might run out into any number of figurative illustrations. Look at\nthat little child beginning to learn to walk, how it fastens its\nlittle dimpled hands into its mother's apron, and so the tiny\ntottering feet get a kind of steadfastness into them. Look at that man\nlying at the door of the Temple, who never had walked since his\nmother's womb, and had lain there for forty years, with his poor weak\nankles all atrophied by reason of their disuse. 'He _held_ Peter\nand John.' Would not his grasp be tight? Would he not clasp their\nhands as his only stay? He had not become accustomed to the astounding\nmiracle of walking, nor learned to balance himself and accomplish the\nstill more astounding feat of standing steady. So he clutched at the\ntwo Apostles and was 'established.' Look at that man walking by a\nslippery path which he does not know, holding by the hand the guide\nwho is able to direct and keep him up. See this other in some wild\nstorm, with an arm round a steadfast tree-stem, to keep him from being\nblown over the precipice, how he clings like a limpet to a rock. And\nthat is how we are to hold on to God, with what would be despair if it\nwere not the perfection of confidence, with the clear sense that the\nonly thing between us and ruin is the strong Hand that we clasp.\n\nAnd what do we mean by clasping God? I mean making daily efforts to\nrivet our love on Him, and not to let the world, with all its delusive\nand cloying sweets, draw us away from Him. I mean continual and\nstrenuous efforts to fix our _thoughts_ upon Him, and not to\nallow the trivialities of life, or the claims of culture, or the\nnecessities of our daily position so to absorb our minds as that\nthoughts of God are comparative strangers there, except, perhaps,\nsometimes on a Sunday, and now and then at the sleepy end, or the\nhalf-awake beginning, of a day. I mean continually repeated and\nstrenuous efforts to cleave to Him by the submission of our\n_will_, letting Him 'do what seemeth Him good,' and not lifting\nourselves up against Him, or perking our own inclinations, desires,\nand fancies in His face, as if we would induce Him to take them for\nHis guides! And I mean that we should try to commit our _way_\nunto the Lord, 'to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.' The\nsubmissive will which cleaves to God's commandments, the waiting heart\nthat clings to His love, the regulated thoughts that embrace His\ntruth, and the childlike confidence that commits its path to\nHim--these are the elements of that steadfast adherence to the Lord\nwhich shall not be in vain.\n\nIII. The blessed effects of this clinging to God.\n\n'So shall ye be established.' That follows, as a matter of course. The\nonly way to make light things stable is to fasten them to something\nthat is stable. And the only way to put any kind of calmness and\nfixedness, and yet progress--stability in the midst of progress, and\nprogress in the midst of stability--into our lives, is by keeping firm\nhold of God. If we grasp His hand, then a calm serenity will be ours.\nIn the midst of changes, sorrows, losses, disappointments, we shall\nnot be blown about here and there by furious winds of fortune, nor\nwill the heavy currents of the river of life sweep us away. We shall\nhave a holdfast and a mooring. And although, like some light-ship\nanchored in the Channel, we may heave up and down with the waves, we\nshall keep in the same place, and be steadfast in the midst of\nmobility, and wholesomely mobile although anchored in the one spot\nwhere there is safety. As the issue of faith, of this throwing the\nresponsibility for ourselves upon God, there will be quietness of\nheart, and continuance and persistence in righteousness, and\nsteadfastness of purpose and continuity of advancement in the divine\nlife. 'The law of the Lord is in his heart,' says one of the Psalms,\n'none of his steps shall slide.' The man who walks holding God's hand\ncan put down a firm foot, even when he is walking in slippery places.\nThere will be decision, and strength, and persistence of continuous\nadvance, in a life that derives its impulse and its motive power from\ncommunion with God in Jesus Christ.\n\nThere will be victory, not indeed after the fashion of that in this\nstory before us. In it, of course, men had to do nothing but 'stand\nstill and see the salvation of God.' That is the law for us, in regard\nto the initial blessings of acceptance, and forgiveness, and the\ncommunication of the divine life from above. We have to be simple\nrecipients, and we have no co-operating share in that part of the work\nof our own salvation. But for the rest we have to help God. 'Work out\nyour own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh\nin you.' But none the less, 'This is the victory that over-cometh the\nworld, even our faith,' and if we give heed to Jehoshaphat's\ncommandment, and go out to battle as his people did, with the love and\ntrust of God in our hearts, then we shall come back as they did, laden\nwith spoil, and shall name the place which was the field of conflict\n'the valley of blessing,' and return to Jerusalem 'with psalteries,\nand harps, and trumpets,' and 'God will give us rest from all our\nenemies round about us.'\n\n\n\nJOASH\n\n'And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the\ndays of Jehoiada the priest.... 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada\ncame the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the\nking hearkened unto them.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 2, 17.\n\n\nHere we have the tragedy of a soul. Joash begins life well and for the\ngreater part of it remains faithful to his conscience and to his duty,\nand then, when outward circumstances change, he casts all behind him,\nforgets the past and commits moral suicide. It is the sad old story, a\nbright commencement, an early promise all scattered to the winds. It\nis a strange story, too. This seven-year-old king had been saved when\nhis father had been killed, and that true daughter of Jezebel, as well\nby nature as by blood, Athaliah, had murdered all his brothers and\nsisters, and made herself queen. He had been saved by the courage of a\nwoman who might worthily stand by the side of Deborah and other Jewish\nheroines. By this woman, who was his aunt, he was hidden and brought\nup in the Temple until, whilst yet a mere boy, he came to the throne,\nthe High Priest Jehoiada, the husband of his aunt, being his guardian\nduring his nonage. He reigns well till the lad of seven becomes a\nmature man of thirty or thereabouts, and then Jehoiada dies, full of\nyears and honours, and they fitly lay him among the kings of Judah, a\nworthy resting-place for one who had 'done good in Israel.' And now\nthe weakling on the throne is left alone without the strong arm to\nguide him and keep him right, and we read that 'the princes of Judah\ncame and made obeisance to him.' They take him on his weak side, and I\ndare say Jehoiada had been too true and too noble to do that, and\nthough we are not told what means they took to flatter and coax him,\nwe see very plainly what they were conspiring to do, for we read that\n'they left the house of the Lord their God, the God of their fathers,\nand served groves and idols,' the groves here mentioned being symbols\nof Ashtaroth the goddess of the Sidonians. And so all the past is\nwiped out and Joash takes his place amongst the apostates. The story\nhas solemn lessons.\n\nI. Note the change from loyal adhesion to apostasy.\n\nThe strong man on whom Joash used to lean was away, and the poor, weak\nking went just where the wicked princes led him. It was probably out\nof sheer imbecility that he passed from the worship of God to the\nacknowledgment and service of idols.\n\nThe first point that I would insist upon is a well-worn and familiar\none, as I am well aware, but I urge it upon you, and especially upon\nthe younger portion of my audience. It is this, that there is no\ntelling the amount of mischief that pure weakness of character may\nlead into. The worst men we come across in the Bible are not those who\nbegin with a deliberate intention of doing evil. They are weak\ncreatures, 'reeds shaken by the wind,' who have no power of resisting\nthe force of circumstances. It is a truth which every one's experience\nconfirms, that the mother of all possible badness is weakness, and\nthat, not only as Milton's Satan puts it, 'To be weak is to be\nmiserable,' but that weakness is wickedness sooner or later. The man\nwho does not bar the doors and windows of his senses and his soul\nagainst temptation, is sure to make shipwreck of his life and in the\nend to become 'a fool.' There is so much wickedness lying round us in\nthis world that any man who lets himself be shaped and coloured by\nthat with which he comes in contact, is sure to go to the bad in the\nlong run. Where a man lays himself open to the accidents of time and\ncircumstances, the majority of these influences will be contrary to\nwhat is right and good. Therefore, he must gather himself together and\nlearn to say 'No!' There is no foretelling the profound abysses into\nwhich a 'good, easy' nature, with plenty of high and pure impulses,\nperhaps, but which are written in water, may fall. 'Thou, therefore,\nyoung man! be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.' Learn to\nsay No! or else you will be sure to say Yes! in the wrong place, and\nthen down you will go, like this Joash whose goodness depended on\nJehoiada, and when he died, all the virtue that had characterised this\nlife hitherto was laid with him in the dust.\n\nLet us learn from this story in the next place, how little power of\ncontinuance there is in a merely traditional religion. Many of you\ncall yourselves Christian people mainly because other people do the\nsame. It is customary to respect and regard Christianity. You have\nbeen brought up in the midst of it. Our country is always considered a\nChristian land, and so, naturally, you tacitly accept the truth of a\nreligion which is so influential. The lowest phase of this attitude is\nthat which seeks some advantage from a church connection, like the\nfoolish man in the Old Testament who thought he would do well because\nhe had a Levite for his priest. Religion is the most personal thing\nabout a man. To become a Christian is the most personal act one can\nperform. It is a thing that a man has to do for himself, and however\nfriends and guides may help us in other matters, in trials and\nperplexities and difficulties, by their sympathy and experience, they\nare useless here. A man has here to act as if there were no other\nbeings in the universe but a solitary God and himself, and unless we\nhave ourselves done that act in the depths of our own personality, we\nhave not done it at all. If you young people are good, just because\nyou have pious parents who make you go to church or chapel on a\nSunday, and keep you out of mischief during the week, your goodness is\na sham. One great result of personal Christianity is to make a\nminister, a teacher, a guide, superfluous, and when such an one\nbecomes so, his work has been successful and not till then. Unless you\nput forth for yourself the hand of faith and for yourself yield up the\ndevotion and love of your own heart, your religion is nought.\n\nHowever much active effort about the outside of religion there may be,\nit is of itself useless. It is without bottom and without reality.\nHere we have Joash busy with the externals of worship and actually\ndeceiving himself thereby. It was a great deal easier to make that\nchest for contributions to a Temple Repairing Fund, and to get it well\nfilled, and to patch up the house of the Lord, than for him to get\ndown on his knees and pray, and he may have thought that to be busy\nabout the house of God was to be devout. So it may be with many\nSunday-school teachers and Church workers. Their religion may be as\nmerely superficial and as little personal as this man's was. It is not\nfor me to say so about A, B, or C. It is for you to ask of yourselves\nif it is so as to you. But I do say that there is nothing that masks\nhis own soul from a man more than setting him to do something for\nChristianity and God's Church, while in his inmost self he has not yet\nyielded himself to God.\n\nI look around and I see the devil slaying his thousands by setting\nthem to work in Christian associations and leaving them no time to\nthink about their own Christianity. My brother! if the cap fits, go\nhome and put it on.\n\nWe see in Joash's life for how long a time a man may go on in this\nself-delusion of external and barren service and never know it. Joash\ncame to the throne at the age of seven. Up till that age he had lived\nin the Temple in concealment. Until he was one and thirty he went on\nin a steady, upright course, never knowing that there was anything\nhollow in his life. Apparently, Jehoiada's long life of one hundred\nand thirty years extended over the greater part of Joash's reign,\nduring most of which he had Jehoiada to direct him and keep him right,\nand all this tragedy comes at the tag end of it.\n\nSo he went on apparently all right, like a tree that has become quite\nhollow, till during some storm it is blown down and falls with a\ncrash, and it is seen that for years it has been only the skin of a\ntree, bark outside, and inside--emptiness.\n\nII. We come now to the second stage in the later life of Joash: His\nresistance to the divine pleading.\n\n'And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served\ngroves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their\ntrespass, yet He sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the\nLord.' He sent with endless pity, with long-suffering patience. He\nwould not be put away, and as they increased the distance between Him\nand them, He increased His energies to bring them back. But they\nlifted themselves up, Joash and his princes, and with that strange,\nawful power of resisting the attraction of the divine pleading, and\nhardening their hearts against the divine patience--'they would not.'\nAnd then comes the affecting episode of the death of the high priest\nZechariah, who had succeeded to his father's place and likewise to his\nheroism, and who, with the Spirit of God upon him, stands up and\npointing out his wickedness, rebukes the fallen monarch for his\napostasy. Joash, doubtless stung to the quick by Zechariah's just\nreproaches, allowed the truculent princes to slay him in the court of\nthe Temple, even between the very shrine and the altar.\n\nWhat a picture we have here of the divine love which follows every\nwanderer with its pleadings and beseechings! It came to this man\nthrough the lips of a prophet. It comes to us all in daily blessings,\nsometimes in messages, like these poor words of mine. God will not let\nus ruin ourselves without pleading with us and wooing us to love Him\nand cling to Him. 'He rises up early' and daily sends us His messages,\nsometimes rebukes and voices in our conscience, sometimes sunset glows\nand starry heavens lifting our thoughts above this low earth,\nsometimes sorrows that are meant to 'drive us to His breast,' and\nabove all, the 'Gospel of our salvation' in Christ, ever, in such a\nland as ours, sounding in our ears.\n\nStill further, we see in Joash what a strange, awful strength of\nobstinate resistance, a character weak as regards its resistance to\nman, can put forth against God. He never attempted to say 'No!' to the\nprinces of Judah, but he could say it again and again to his Father in\nheaven. He could not but yield to the temptations which were level\nwith his eyes, and this poor creature, easily swayed by human\nallurements and influences, could gather himself together, standing,\nas it were, on his little pin point, and say to God, 'Thou dost call\nand I refuse.' What a paradox, and yet repetitions of it are sitting\nin these pews, only half aware that it is about them that I am\nspeaking!\n\nThe ever-deepening evil which began with forsaking the house of the\nLord and serving Ashtaroth, ends with Joash steeping his hands in\nblood. The murder of Zechariah was beyond the common count of crimes,\nfor it was a foul desecration of the Temple, an act of the blackest\ningratitude to the man who had saved his infant life, and put him on\nthe throne, an outrage on the claims of family connections, for Joash\nand Zechariah were probably blood relations. My brother! once get your\nfoot upon that steep incline of evil, once forsake the path of what is\ngood and right and true, and you are very much like a climber who\nmisses his footing up among the mountain peaks, and down he slides\ntill he reaches the edge of the precipice and then in an instant is\ndashed to pieces at the bottom. Once put your foot on that slippery\nslope and you know not where you may fall to.\n\nIII. Last comes the final scene: The retribution.\n\nWe have that picture of Zechariah, solemnly lifting up his eyes to\nheaven and committing his cause to God. 'The Lord look upon it and\nrequire it,' says the martyr priest in the spirit of the old Law. The\ndying appeal was soon answered in the invasion of the Syrian army, a\ncomparatively small company, into whose hands the Lord delivered a\nvery great host of the Israelites. The defeat was complete, and\npossibly Joash's 'great diseases,' of which the narrative speaks,\nrefer to wounds received in the fight. The end soon comes, for two of\nhis servants, neither of them Hebrews, one being the son of an\nAmmonitess and the other the son of a Moabitess, who were truer to his\nreligion than he had been, and resolved to revenge Zechariah's death,\nentered the room, of the wounded king in the fortress whither he had\nretired to hide himself after the fight, and 'slew him on his bed.'\nImagine the grim scene--the two men stealing in, the sick man there on\nthe bed helpless, the short ghastly struggle and the swift end. What\nan end for a life with such a beginning!\n\nNow I am not going to dwell on this retribution, inflicted on Joash,\nor on that which comes to us if we are like him, through a loud-voiced\nconscience, and a memory which, though it may be dulled and hushed to\nsleep at present, is sure to wake some day here or yonder. But I\nbeseech you to ask yourselves what your outlook is. 'Be not deceived,\nGod is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also\nreap.' Is that all? Zechariah said, 'The Lord look upon it and require\nit.' The great doctrine of retribution is true for ever. Yes; but our\nZechariah lifts up his eyes to heaven and he says, 'Father! forgive\nthem, for they know not what they do.' And so, dear brother! you and\nI, trusting to that dear Lord, may have all our apostasy forgiven, and\nbe brought near by the blood of Christ. Let us say with the Apostle\nPeter, 'Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of\neternal life.'\n\n\n\nGLAD GIVERS AND FAITHFUL WORKERS\n\n'And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the\nhouse of the Lord. 5. And he gathered together the priests and the\nLevites, and said to them, go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather\nof all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year,\nand see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it\nnot. 6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him,\nWhy hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and\nout of Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of Moses\nthe servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the\ntabernacle of witness' 7. For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman,\nhad broken up the house of God: and also all the dedicated things of\nthe house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. 8. And at the\nking's commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate\nof the house of the Lord. 9. And they made a proclamation through\nJudah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses\nthe servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. 10. And all the\nprinces and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the\nchest, until they had made an end. 11. Now it came to pass, that at\nwhat time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of\nthe Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's\nscribe and the high priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and\ntook it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day,\nand gathered money in abundance. 12. And the king and Jehoiada gave it\nto such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and\nhired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also\nsuch as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord. 13. So\nthe workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set\nthe house of God in his state, and strengthened it. 11. And when they\nhad finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king\nand Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the Lord,\neven vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels\nof gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of\nthe Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 4-14.\n\n\nJoash owed his life and his throne to the high-priest Jehoiada, who\nwas his uncle by marriage with the sister of Ahaziah, his father.\nRescued by his aunt when an infant, he 'was with them, hid in the\nhouse of God six years,' and, when seven years old, was made king by\nJehoiada's daring revolt against 'that wicked woman,' Athaliah.\nJehoiada's influence was naturally paramount, and was as wholesome as\nstrong. It is remarkable, however, that this impulse to repair the\nTemple seems to have originated with the king, not with the\nhigh-priest, though no doubt the spirit which conceived the impulse\nwas largely moulded by the latter. The king, whose childhood had found\na safe asylum in the Temple, might well desire its restoration, even\napart from considerations of religion.\n\nI. The story first brings into strong contrast the eager king, full of\nhis purpose, and the sluggards to whom he had to entrust its\nexecution. We can only guess the point in his reign at which Joash\nsummoned the priests to his help. It was after his marriage (ver. 3),\nand considerably before the twenty-third year of his reign, at which\ntime his patience was exhausted (2 Kings xii. 6). Some years were\napparently wasted by the dawdling sluggishness of the priests, who,\nfor some reason or other, did not go into the proposed restoration\nheartily. Joash seems to have suspected that they would push the work\nlanguidly; for there is a distinct tinge of suspicion and 'whipping\nup' in his injunction to 'hasten the matter.'\n\nThe first intention was to raise the funds by sending out the priests\nand Levites to collect locally the statutory half-shekel, as well as\nother contributions mentioned in 2 Kings xii. There we learn that each\ncollector was to go to 'his acquaintance.' The subscription was to be\nspread over some years, and for a while Joash waited quietly; but in\nthe twenty-third year of his reign (see 2 Kings), he could stand delay\nno longer. Whether the priests had been diligent in collecting or not,\nthey had done nothing towards repairing. Perhaps they found it\ndifficult to determine the proportion of the money which was needed\nfor the ordinary expenses of worship, and for the restoration fund;\nand, as the former included their own dues and support, they would not\nbe likely to set it down too low. Perhaps they did not much care to\ncarry out a scheme which had not begun with themselves; for priests\nare not usually eager to promote ecclesiastical renovations suggested\nby laymen. Perhaps they did not care as much about the renovation as\nthe king did, and smiled at his earnestness as a pious imagining.\nPossibly there was even deliberate embezzlement. But, at any rate,\nthere was half-heartedness, and that always means languid work, and\nthat always means failure. The earnest people are fretted continually\nby the indifferent. Every good scheme is held back, like a ship with a\nfoul bottom, by the barnacles that stick to its keel and bring down\nits speed. Professional ecclesiastics in all ages have succumbed to\nthe temptation of thinking that 'church property' was first of all to\nbe used for their advantage, and, secondarily, for behoof of God's\nhouse. Eager zeal has in all ages to be yoked to torpid indifference,\nand to drag its unwilling companion along, like two dogs in a leash.\nDirect opposition is easier to bear than apparent assistance which\ntries to slow down to half speed.\n\nJoash's command is imperative on all workers for God. 'See that ye\nhasten the matter,' for time is short, the fruit great, the evening\nshadows lengthening, the interests at stake all-important, and the\nLord of the harvest will soon come to count our sheaves. Whatever work\nmay be done without haste, God's cannot be, and a heavy curse falls on\nhim who 'does the work of the Lord negligently.' The runner who keeps\nwell on this side of fatigue, panting, and sweat, has little chance of\nthe crown.\n\nII. The next step is the withdrawal of the work from the sluggards.\nThey are relieved both of the collection and expenditure of the money.\nApparently (2 Kings xii. 9) the contributors handed their donations to\nthe doorkeepers, who put them into the chest with 'a hole in the lid\nof it,' in the sight of the donors. The arrangement was not flattering\nto the hierarchy, but as appearances were saved by Jehoiada's making\nthe chest (see 2 Kings) they had to submit with the best grace they\ncould. In our own times, we have seen the same thing often enough.\nWhen clergy have maladministered church property, Parliament has\nappointed ecclesiastical commissioners. Common sense prescribes taking\nslovenly work out of lazy hands. The more rigidly that principle is\ncarried out in the church and the nation, at whatever cost of\nindividual humiliation, the better for both. 'The tools to the hands\nthat can use them' is the ideal for both. God's dealings follow the\nsame law, both in withdrawing opportunities of service and in giving\nmore of such. The reward for work is more work, and the punishment for\nsloth is compulsory idleness.\n\nIII. We are next shown the glad givers. Probably suspicion had been\nexcited in others than the king, and had checked liberality. People\nwill not give freely if the expenses of the collectors' support\nswallow up the funds. It is hard to get help for a vague scheme, which\nunites two objects, and only gives the balance, after the first is\nprovided for, to the second and more important. So the whole nation,\nboth high and low, was glad when the new arrangement brought a clear\nissue, and secured the right appropriation of the money.\n\nNo doubt, too, Joash's earnestness kindled others. Chronicles speaks\nonly of the 'tax,'--that is, the half-shekel,--but Kings mentions two\nother sources, one of which is purely spontaneous gifts, and these are\nimplied by the tone of verse 10, which lays stress on the gladness of\nthe offerers. That is the incense which adds fragrance to our gifts.\nGrudging service is no service, and money given for ever so religious\na purpose, without gladness because of the opportunity of giving, is\nnot, in the deepest sense, given at all. Love is a longing to give to\nthe beloved, and whoever truly loves God will know no keener delight\nthan surrender for His dear sake. Pecuniary contributions for\nreligious purposes afford a rough but real test of the depth of a\nman's religion; but it is one available only for himself, since the\nmotive, and not the amount, is the determining element. We all need to\nbring our hearts more under the Influence of God's love to us, that\nour love to Him may be increased, and then to administer possessions,\nunder the impulse to glad giving which enkindled love will always\nexcite. Super-heated steam has most expansive power and driving force.\nThese glad givers may remind us not only of the one condition of\nacceptable giving, but also of the need for clear and worthy objects,\nand of obvious disinterestedness in those who seek for money to help\ngood causes. The smallest opening for suspicion that some of it sticks\nto the collector's fingers is fatal, as it should be.\n\nIV. Joash was evidently a business-like king. We next hear of the\nprecautions he took to secure the public confidence. There was a rough\nbut sufficient audit. When the chest grew heavy, and sounded full, two\nofficials received it at the 'king's office.' The Levites carried it\nthere, but were not allowed to handle the contents. The two tellers\nrepresented the king and the chief priest, and thus both the civil and\nreligious authorities were satisfied, and each officer was a check on\nthe other. Public money should never be handled by a man alone; and an\nhonest one will always wish, like Paul, to have a brother associated\nwith him, that no man may blame him in his administration of it. If we\ntake 'day by day' literally, we have a measure of the liberality which\nfilled the chest daily; but, more probably, the expression simply\nmeans 'from time to time,' when occasion required.\n\nV. The application of the money is next narrated. In this Jehoiada is\nassociated with Joash, the king probably desiring to smooth over any\nslight that might seem to have been put on the priests, as well as\nbeing still under the influence of the high-priest's strong character\nand early kindness. Together they passed over the results of the\ncontribution to the contractors, who in turn paid it in wages to the\nworkmen who repaired the fabric, such as masons and carpenters, and to\nother artisans who restored other details, such as brass and iron\nwork. The Second Book of Kings tells us that Joash's cautious\nprovision against misappropriation seems to have deserted him at this\nstage; for no account was required of the workmen, 'for they dealt\nfaithfully.' That is an indication of their goodwill. The humble\ncraftsmen were more reliable than the priests. They had, no doubt,\ngiven their half-shekel like others, and now they gladly gave their\nwork, and were not hirelings, though they were hired. We, too, have to\ngive our money and our labour; and if our hearts are right, we shall\ngive both with the same conscientious cheerfulness, and, if we are\npaid in coin for our work, will still do it for higher reasons and\nlooking for other wages. These Temple workmen may stand as patterns of\nwhat religion should do for those of us whose lot is to work with our\nhands,--and not less for others who have to toil with their brains,\nand the sweat of whose brow is inside their heads. A Christian workman\nshould be a 'faithful' workman, and will be so if he is full of faith.\n\nJoash knew when to trust and when to keep a sharp eye on men. His\nexperience with the priests had not soured him into suspecting\neverybody. Cynical disbelief in honesty is more foolish and hurtful to\nourselves than even excessive trust. These workmen wrought all the\nmore faithfully because they knew that they were trusted, and in nine\ncases out of ten men will try to live up to our valuation of them. The\nRugby boys used to say, 'It's a shame to tell Arnold a lie, he always\nbelieves us.' Better to be cheated once than to treat the nine as\nrogues,--better for them and better for ourselves.\n\n'Faithful' work is prosperous work. As verse 13 picturesquely says,\n'Healing went up upon the work'; and the Temple was restored to its\nold fair proportions, and stood strong as before. Where there is\nconscientious effort, God's blessing is not withheld. Labour 'in the\nLord' can never be empty labour, though even a prophet may often be\ntempted, in a moment of weary despondency, to complain, 'I have\nlaboured in vain.' We may not see the results, nor have the workmen's\njoy of beholding the building rise, course by course, under our hands,\nbut we shall see it one day, though now we have to work in the dark.\n\nThere seems a discrepancy between the statements in Chronicles and\nKings as to the source from which the cost of the sacrificial vessels\nwas defrayed, since, according to the former, it was from the\nrestoration fund, which is expressly denied by the latter. The\nexplanation seems reasonable, that, as Chronicles says, it was from\nthe balance remaining after all restoration charges were liquidated,\nthat this other expenditure was met. First, the whole amount was\nsacredly devoted to the purpose for which it had been asked, and then,\nwhen the honest overseers repaid the uncounted surplus, which they\nmight have kept, it was found sufficient to meet the extra cost of\nfurnishing. God blesses the faithful steward of his gifts with more\nthan enough for the immediate service, and the best use of the surplus\nis to do more with it for Him. 'God is able to make all grace abound\nunto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in every thing, may\nabound unto every good work, ... being enriched in every thing unto\nall liberality.'\n\n\n\nPRUDENCE AND FAITH\n\n'And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the\nhundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man\nof God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than\nthis.'--2 CHRON. xxv. 9.\n\n\nThe character of this Amaziah, one of the Kings of Judah, is summed up\nby the chronicler in a damning epigram: 'He did that which was right\nin the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.' He was one of\nyour half-and-half people, or, as Hosea says, 'a cake not turned,'\nburnt black on one side, and raw dough on the other. So when he came\nto the throne, in the buoyancy and insolence of youth, he immediately\nbegan to aim at conquests in the neighbouring little states; and in\norder to strengthen himself he hired 'a hundred thousand mighty men of\nvalour' out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. To seek help\nfrom Israel was, in a prophet's eyes, equivalent to flinging off help\nfrom God. So a man of God comes to him, and warns him that the Lord is\nnot with Israel, and that the alliance is not permissible for him.\nBut, instead of yielding to the prophet's advice, he parries it with\nthis misplaced question, 'But what shall we do for the hundred talents\nthat I have given to the army of Israel?' He does not care to ask\nwhether the counsel that he is receiving is right or wrong, or whether\nwhat he is intending to do is in conformity with, or in opposition to,\nthe will of God, but, passing by all such questions, at once he\nfastens on the lower consideration of expediency--'What is to become\nof me if I do as this prophet would have me do? What a heavy loss one\nhundred talents will be! It is too much to sacrifice to a scruple of\nthat sort. It cannot be done.'\n\nA great many of us may take a lesson from this man. There are two\nthings in my text--a misplaced question and a triumphant answer: 'What\nshall we do for the hundred talents?' 'The Lord is able to give thee\nmuch more than this.' Now, remarkably enough, both question and answer\nmay be either very right or very wrong, according as they are taken,\nand I purpose to look at those two aspects of each.\n\nI. A misplaced question.\n\nI call it misplaced because Amaziah's fault, and the fault of a great\nmany of us, was, not that he took consequences into account, but that\nhe took them into account at the wrong time. The question should have\ncome second, not first. Amaziah's first business should have been to\nsee clearly what was duty; and then, and not till then, the next\nbusiness should have been to consider consequences.\n\nConsider the right place and way of putting this question. Many of us\nmake shipwreck of our lives because, with our eyes shut, we determine\nupon some grand design, and fall under the condemnation of the man\nthat 'began to build, and was not able to finish.' He drew a great\nplan of a stately mansion; and then found that he had neither money in\nthe bank, nor stones in his quarry, to finish it, and so it stood--a\nruin. All through our Lord's life He was engaged rather in repressing\nvolunteers than in soliciting recruits, and He from time to time\npoured a douche of cold water upon swiftly effervescing desires to go\nafter Him. When the multitudes followed Him, He turned and said to\nthem, 'If you are counting on being My disciples, understand what it\nmeans: take up the cross and follow Me.' When an enthusiastic man, who\nhad not looked consequences in the face, came rushing to Him and said:\n'Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,' His answer to him\nwas another pull at the string of the shower bath: 'The Son of Man\nhath not where to lay His head.' When the two disciples came to him\nand said: 'Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the\nother on Thy left, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,' He said: 'Are\nye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized with\nthe baptism that I am baptized withal?' Look the facts in the face\nbefore you make your election. Jesus Christ will enlist no man under\nfalse pretences. Recruiting-sergeants tell country bumpkins or city\nlouts wonderful stories of what they will get if they take the\nshilling and put on the king's uniform; but Jesus Christ does not\nrecruit His soldiers in that fashion. If a man does not open his eyes\nto a clear vision of the consequences of his actions, his life will go\nto water in all directions. And there is no region in which such clear\ninsight into what is going to follow upon my determinations and the\npart that I take is more necessary than in the Christian life. It is\njust because in certain types of character, 'the word is received with\njoy,' and springs up immediately, that when 'the sun is risen with a\nburning heat'--that is, as Christ explains, when the pinch of\ndifficulty comes--'immediately they fall away,' and all their grand\nresolutions go to nothing. 'Lightly come, lightly go.' Let us face the\nfacts of what is involved, in the way of sacrifice, surrender, loss,\nif we determine to be on Christ's side; and then, when the anticipated\ndifficulties come, we shall neither be perplexed nor swept away, but\nbe able quietly to say, 'I discounted it all beforehand; I knew it was\ncoming.' The storm catches the ship that is carrying full sail and\nexpecting nothing but light and favourable breezes; while the captain\nthat looked into the weather quarter and saw the black cloud beginning\nto rise above the horizon, and took in his sails and made his vessel\nsnug and tight, rides out the gale. It is wisdom that becomes a man,\nto ask this question, if first of all he has asked, 'What ought I to\ndo?'\n\nBut we have here an instance of a right thing in a wrong place. It was\nright to ask the question, but wrong to ask it at that point. Amaziah\nthought nothing about duty. There sprang up in his mind at once the\ncowardly and ignoble thought: 'I cannot afford to do what is right,\nbecause it will cost me a hundred talents,' and that was his sin.\nConsequences may be, must be, faced in anticipation, or a man is a\nfool. He that allows the clearest perception of disagreeable\nconsequences, such as pain, loss of ease, loss of reputation, loss of\nmoney, or any other harmful results that may follow, to frighten him\nout of the road that he knows he ought to take, is a worse fool still,\nfor he is a coward and recreant to his own conscience.\n\nWe have to look into our own hearts for the most solemn and pressing\nillustrations of this sin, and I daresay we all of us can remember\nclear duties that we have neglected, because we did not like to face\nwhat would come from them. A man in business will say, 'I cannot\nafford to have such a high standard of morality; I shall be hopelessly\nrun over in the race with my competitors if I do not do as they do,'\nor he will say, 'I durst not take a stand as an out-and-out Christian;\nI shall lose connections, I shall lose position. People will laugh at\nme. What am I to do for the hundred talents?'\n\nBut we can find the same thing in Churches. I do not mean to enter\nupon controversial questions, but as an instance, I may remind you\nthat one great argument that our friends who believe in an Established\nChurch are always bringing forward, is just a modern form of Amaziah's\nquestion, 'What shall we do for the hundred talents? How could the\nChurch be maintained, how could its ministrations be continued, if its\nState-provided revenues were withdrawn or given up?' But it is not\nonly Anglicans who put the consideration of the consequences of\nobedience in the wrong place. All the Churches are but too apt to let\ntheir eyes wander from reading the plain precepts of the New Testament\nto looking for the damaging results to be expected from keeping them.\nDo we not sometimes hear, as answer to would-be reformers, 'We cannot\nafford to give up this, that, or the other practice? We should not be\nable to hold our ground, unless we did so-and-so and so-and-so.'\n\nBut not only individuals or Churches are guilty in this matter. The\nnation takes a leaf out of Amaziah's book, and puts aside many plain\nduties, for no better reason than that it would cost too much to do\nthem. 'What is the use of talking about suppressing the liquor traffic\nor housing the poor? Think of the cost.' The 'hundred talents' block\nthe way and bribe the national conscience. For instance, the opium\ntraffic; how is it defended? Some attempt is made to prove either that\nwe did not force it upon China, or that the talk about the evils of\nopium is missionary fanaticism, but the sheet-anchor is: 'How are we\never to raise the Indian revenue if we give up the traffic?' That is\nexactly Amaziah over again, come from the dead, and resurrected in a\nvery ugly shape.\n\nSo national policy and Church action, and--what is of far more\nimportance to you and me than either the one or the other,--our own\npersonal relation to Jesus Christ and discipleship to Him, have been\nhampered, and are being hampered, just by that persistent and unworthy\nattitude of looking at the consequences of doing plain duties, and\npermitting ourselves to be frightened from the duties because the\nconsequences are unwelcome to us.\n\nPrudence is all right, but when prudence takes command and presumes to\nguide conscience, then it is all wrong. In some courts of law and in\ncertain cases, the judge has an assessor sitting beside him, an expert\nabout some of the questions that are involved. Conscience is the\njudge, prudence the assessor. But if the assessor ventures up on the\njudgment-seat, and begins to give the decisions which it is not his\nbusiness to give--for _his_ only business is to give advice--then\nthe only thing to do with the assessor is to tell him to hold his\ntongue and let the judge speak. It is no answer to the prophet's\nprohibition to say, 'But what shall I do for the hundred talents?' A\nyet better answer than the prophet gave Amaziah would have been,\n'Never mind about the hundred talents; do what is right, and leave the\nrest to God.' However, that was not the answer.\n\nII. The triumphant answer.\n\n'The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.' Now, this answer,\nlike the question, may be right or wrong, according as it is taken. In\nwhat aspect is it wrong? In what sense is it not true? I suppose this\nprophet did not mean more than the undeniable truth that God was able\nto give Amaziah more than a hundred talents. He was not thinking of\nthe loftier meanings which we necessarily, as Christian people, at a\nlater stage of Revelation, and with a clearer vision of many things,\nattach to the words. He simply meant, 'You will very likely get more\nthan the hundred talents that you have lost, if you do what pleases\nGod.' He was speaking from the point of view of the Old Testament;\nthough even in the Old Testament we have instances enough that\nprosperity did not always attend righteousness. In the Old Testament\nwe find the Book of Job, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, and many a\npsalm, all of which were written in order to grapple with the\nquestion, 'How is it that God does not give the good man more than the\nhundred talents that he has lost for the sake of being good?' It is\nnot true, and it is a dangerous mistake to suggest that it is true,\nthat a man in this world never loses by being a good, honest,\nconsistent Christian. He often does lose a great deal, as far as this\nworld is concerned; and he has to make up his mind to lose it, and it\nwould be a very poor thing to say to him, 'Now, live like a Christian\nman, and if you are flinging away money or anything else because of\nyour Christianity, you will get it back.' No; you will not, in a good\nmany cases. Sometimes you will, and sometimes you will not. It does\nnot matter whether you do or do not.\n\nBut the sense in which the triumphant answer of the prophet is true is\na far higher one. 'The Lord is able to give thee much more than\nthis,'--what is 'more'? a thousand talents? No; the 'much more' that\nChristianity has educated us to understand is meant in the depths of\nsuch a promise as this is, first of all, character. Every man that\nsacrifices anything to convictions of duty gains more than he loses\nthereby, because he gains an inward nobleness and strength, to say\nnothing of the genial warmth of an approving conscience. And whilst\nthat is true in all regions of life, it is most especially true in\nregard to sacrifices made from Christian principle. No matter how\ndisastrous may be the results externally, the inward results of\nfaithfulness are so much greater and sweeter and nobler than all the\nexternal evil consequences that may follow, that it is 'good policy'\nfor a man to beggar himself for Christ's sake, for the sake of the\ndurable riches--which our Lord Himself explains to be synonymous with\nrighteousness--which will come thereby. He that wins strength and\nChrist-likeness of character by sacrificing for Christ has won far\nmore than he can ever lose.\n\nHe wins not only character, but a fuller capacity for a fuller\npossession of Jesus Christ Himself, and that is infinitely more than\nanything that any man has ever sacrificed for the sake of that dear\nLord. Do you remember when it was that there was granted to the\nApostle John the vision of the throned Christ, and that he felt laid\nupon him the touch of the vivifying Hand from Heaven? It was 'when I\nwas in Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.' He\nlost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible Christ. Do you\nremember who it was that said, 'I have suffered the loss of all\nthings, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ'? It was a\ngood bargain, Paul! The balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your\ncredit. Debit, 'all things'; credit, 'Christ.' 'The Lord is able to\ngive thee much more than this.'\n\nRemember the old prophecy: 'For brass I will bring gold; and for iron,\nsilver.' The brass and the iron may be worth something, but if we\nbarter them away and get instead gold and silver, we are gainers by\nthe transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon to\nrise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get 'the more than\nthis.' And listen to the New Testament variation of this man of God's\npromise, 'If thou wilt have treasure in heaven, go and sell all that\nthou hast, and follow Me.'\n\n\n\nJOTHAM\n\n'So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord\nhis God.'--2 CHRON. xxvii 6.\n\n\nThis King Jotham is one of the obscurer of the Jewish monarchs, and we\nknow next to nothing about him. The most memorable event in his reign\nis that 'in the year when King Uzziah,' his father, 'died,' and\nconsequently in Jotham's first year, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting in\nthe Temple on the empty throne, and had the lips which were to utter\nso many immortal words touched with fire from the altar. Whether it\nwere the effect of the prophet's words, or from other causes, the\nlittle that is told of him is good, and he is eulogised as having\nimitated his father's God-pleasing acts, and not having stained\nhimself by repeating his father's sin. The rest that we hear of him in\nChronicles is a mere sketch of campaigns, buildings, and victories,\nand then he and his reign are summed up in the words of our text,\nwhich is the analysis of the man and the disclosure of the secret of\nhis prosperity: 'He became mighty, because he prepared his ways'--and,\nmore than that, 'he prepared them before the Lord his God.'\n\nSo then, if we begin, as it were, at the bottom, as we ought to do, in\nstudying a character, taking the deepest thing first, and laying hold\nupon the seminal and germinal principle of the whole, this text\nreminds us that--The secret of true strength lies in the continual\nrecognition that life is lived 'Before the Lord our God.'\n\nNow to say, 'Walk thou _before_ Me,' the command given to\nAbraham, suggests a somewhat different modification of the idea from\nthe apparently parallel phrase, 'to walk _with_ God' which is\ndeclared to have been the life's habit of Enoch. The one expression\nsuggests simple companionship and communion; the other suggests rather\nthe vivid and continual realisation of the thought that we are 'ever\nin the great Taskmaster's eye.' To walk before God is to feel\nthrillingly and continually, and yet without being abased or crushed\nor discomposed, but rather being encouraged and quickened and calmed\nand ennobled and gladdened thereby: 'Thou God seest me.' It seems to\nme that one of the plainest pieces of Christian duty, and, alas! one\nof the most neglected of them, is the cultivation, definitely and\nconsciously, by effort and by self-discipline, of that consciousness\nas a present factor in all our lives, and an influencing motive in\neverything that we do. If once we could bring before the eye of our\nminds that great, blazing, white throne, and Him that sits upon it, we\nshould want nothing else to burn up the commonplaces of life, and to\nflash its insignificance into splendour and awfulness. We should want\nnothing else to lift us to a 'solemn scorn of ills,' and to deliver us\nfrom the false sweetnesses and fading delights that grow on the low\nlevels of a sense-bound life! Brethren! our whole life would be\ntransformed and glorified, and we should be different men and women if\nwe ordered our ways as '_before the Lord our God_.' What meanness\ncould live when we knew that it was seen by those pure Eyes? How we\nshould be ashamed of ourselves, of our complaints, of our murmurings,\nof our reluctance to do our duty, of our puerile regrets for vanished\nblessings, and of all the low cares and desires that beset and spoil\nour lives, if once this thought, 'before God,' were habitual with us,\nand we walked in it as in an atmosphere!\n\nWhy is it not? and might it not be? and if it might not, ought it not\nto be? And what are we to say to Him whom we profess to love as our\nSupreme Good, if all the day long the thought of Him seldom comes into\nour minds, and if any triviality, held near the eye, is large enough\nand bright enough to shut Him out from our sight? With deep ethical\nsignificance and accuracy was the command given to Abraham as the\nsole, all-sufficient direction for both inward and outward life: 'Walk\nbefore Me and (so) be thou perfect.' For indeed the full\nrealisation--adequate and constant and solid enough to be a motive--of\n'Thou God seest me,' would be found to contain practical directions in\nregard to all moral difficulties, and would unfailingly detect the\nevil, howsoever wrapped up, and would carry in itself not only motive\nbut impulse, not only law but power to fulfil it. The Master's eye\nmakes diligent servants. How schoolboys bend themselves over their\nslates and quicken their effort when the teacher is walking behind the\nbenches! And how a gang of idle labourers will buckle to the spade and\ntax their muscles in an altogether different fashion when the overseer\nappears upon the field! If we realised, as we should do, the presence\nin all our little daily life of that great, sovereign Lord, there\nwould be less skulking, less superficially performed tasks, less jerry\nwork put into our building; more of our strength cast into all our\nwork, and less of ourselves in any of it.\n\nRemember, too, how connected with this is another piece of effort\nneedful in the religious life, and suggested by the last words of this\ntext, 'Before the Lord _his_ God.' Cultivate the habit of\nnarrowing down the general truths of religion to their relation to\nyourselves. Do not be content with 'the Lord _our_ God,' or 'the\nLord the God of the whole earth,' but put a 'my' in, and realise not\nonly the presence of a divine Inspector, but the closeness of the\npersonal bond that unites to Him; and the individual responsibility,\nin all its width and depth and unshiftableness--if I may use such a\nword--which results therefrom. You cannot shake off or step out of the\ntasks that 'the Lord _your_ God' lays upon you. You and He are as\nif alone in the world. Make Him your God by choice, by your own\npersonal acceptance of His authority and dependence upon His power,\nand try to translate into daily life the great truth, 'Thou God seest\n_me_,' and bring it to bear upon the veriest trifles and smallest\ndetails.\n\nNow the text follows the order of observation, so to speak, and\nmentions the outward facts of Jotham's success before it goes deeper\nand accounts for them. We have reversed the process and dealt first\nwith the cause. The spring of all lay in his conscious recognition of\nhis relation to God and God's to him. From that, of course, followed\nthat he 'prepared,' according to the Authorised Version, or 'ordered,'\naccording to the Revised Version, 'his ways.' There is an alternative\nrendering of the word rendered 'prepared' or 'ordered' given in the\nmargin of the Authorised Version, which reads, 'established his ways.'\nBoth the ideas of ordering and establishing are contained in the word.\n\nNow that fact, that the same word means both these, conveys a piece of\npractical wisdom, which it will do us all good to note clearly and\ntake to heart. For it teaches us that whatever is 'ordered' is firm,\nand whatever is disorderly, haphazard, done without the exercise of\none's mind on the act, being chaotic, is necessarily short-lived.\n\nThe ordered life is the established life. The life of impulse, chance,\npassion, the life that is lived without choice and plan, without\nreflection and consideration of consequences, the following of nature,\nwhich some people tell us is the highest law, and which is woefully\nlikely to degenerate into following the _lower_ nature, which\nought not to be followed, but covered and kept under hatches--such a\nlife is sure to be a topsy-turvy life, which, being based upon the\nnarrowest point, must, by the laws of equilibrium, topple over sooner\nor later. If you would have your lives established, they must be\nordered. You must bring your brains to bear upon them, and you must\nbring more than brain, you must bring to bear on every part of them\nthe spiritual instincts that are quickened by contact with the thought\nof the All-seeing God, and let these have the ordering of them. Such\nlives, and only such, will endure 'when all that seems shall suffer\nshock.' 'He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'\n\nBut the lesson that is pressed upon us by this word, understood in the\nother meanings of 'prepared' or 'ordered,' is that all our 'ways,'\nthat is, our practical life, our acts, direction of mind, habits,\nshould be regulated by continual consciousness of, and reference to,\nthe All-discerning Eye that looks down upon us, and 'the God in whose\nhands our breath is, and whose are'--whether we make them so or\nnot--'all our ways.' To translate that into less picturesque, and less\nforcible, but more modern words, it is just this: You Christian people\nought to make it a point of duty to cultivate the habit of referring\neverything that you do to the will and judgment of God. Take Him into\naccount in everything great or small, and in nothing say, 'Thus I\nwill, thus I command. My will shall stand instead of all other\nreasons'; but say, 'Lord! by Thee and for Thee I try to do this'; and\nhaving done it, say, 'Lord! the seed is sown in Thy name; bless Thou\nthe springing thereof.' Works thus begun, continued and ended, will\nnever be put to confusion, and 'ways' thus ordered will be\nestablished. A path of righteousness like that can no more fail to be\na way of peace than can God's throne ever totter or fall. An ordered\nlife in which He is consulted, and which is all shaped at His bidding,\nand by His strength, and for His dear name, will 'stand four-square to\nall the winds that blow,' and, being founded upon a rock, will never\nfall.\n\nBut we may also note that in the strength of that thought, that we are\nbefore the Lord our God, we shall best establish our ways in the sense\nthat we shall keep on steadily and doggedly on the path. Well begun\nmay be half ended, but there is often a long dreary grind before it is\nwholly ended, and the last half of the march is the wearisome half.\nThe Bible has a great deal to say about the need of obstinate\npersistence on the right road. 'Ye did run well, what did hinder you?'\n'Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of\nreward.' 'We are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the\nbeginning of our confidence firm unto the end.' 'He that overcometh\nand keepeth My words unto the end, to him will I give authority.'\nLives which derive their impulse from communion with God will not come\nto a dead stop half-way on their road, like a motor the fuel of which\nfails; and it will be impossible for any man to 'endure unto the end'\nand so to be heir of the promise--'the same shall be saved,' unless he\ndraws his persistency from Him who 'fainteth not, neither is weary'\nand who 'reneweth strength to them that have no might' so that in all\nthe monotonous levels they shall 'walk and not faint,' and in all the\ncrises, demanding brief spurts of energy, 'they shall run and not be\nweary,' and at last 'shall mount up with wings as eagles.' A path\nordered and a path persisted in ought to be the path of every\nChristian man.\n\nThe text finally tells of the prosperity and growing power which\nattends such a course. 'Jotham became mighty.' That was simple outward\nblessing. His kingdom prospered, and, according to the theocratic\nconstitution of Judah, faithfulness to God and material well-being\nwent together. You cannot apply these words, of course, to the outward\nlives of Christians. It is no doubt true that 'Godliness _is_\nprofitable for all things,' but there are a great many other things\nbesides the godliness of the man that does them which determine\nwhether a man's undertakings shall prosper in the world's sense or\nnot. It would be a pitiable thing if the full revelation of God in\nChrist did not teach us Christians more about the meaning and the\nworth of outward success and inward prosperity than the Old Testament\ncould teach. I hope we have learned that lesson; at least, it is not\nthe fault of our lesson book if we have not. Although it is true that\nreligion does make the best of both worlds, it does not do so by\ntaking the world's estimate of what its best for to-day is, and giving\na religious man _that_. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it does\nnot, and whether it does or no depends on other considerations than\nthe reality of the man's devotion. Good men are often made better by\nbeing made sad and unsuccessful. And if they are not bettered by\nadversity, it is not the fault of the discipline but of the people who\nundergo it.\n\nBut though the husk of my text falls away--and we should thank God\nthat it has fallen away--the kernel of it is ever true. Whosoever will\nthus root his life in the living thought of a loving, divine Eye being\nperpetually upon him, and make that thought a motive for holiness and\nloving obedience and effort after service, will find that the true\nsuccess, the only success and the only strength that are worth a man's\nambition to desire or his effort to secure, will assuredly be his. He\nmay be voted a failure as regards the world's prizes. But a man that\n'orders his ways,' and perseveres in ways thus ordered, 'before the\nLord' will for reward get more power to order his ways, and a purer\nand more thrilling, less interrupted and more childlike vision of the\nFace that looks upon him. God's 'eyes behold the upright,' and the\nupright behold His eyes, and in the interchange of glances there is\npower; and in that power is the highest reward for ordered lives. We\nshall get power to do, power to bear, power to think aright, power to\nlove, power to will, power to behold, power to deny ourselves, 'power\nto become sons of God.' This is the success of life, when out of all\nits changes, and by reason of all its efforts, we realise more fully\nour filial possession of our Father, and our Father's changeless love\nto us. We shall become mighty with the might that is born of obedience\nand faith if we order our ways before the Lord our God. 'The path of\nthe just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the\nnoontide of the day.'\n\n\n\nCOSTLY AND FATAL HELP\n\n'He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he\nsaid, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will\nI sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of\nhim, and of all Israel.'--2 CHRON. xxviii. 23.\n\n\nAhaz came to the throne when a youth of twenty. From the beginning he\nreversed the policy of his father, and threw himself into the arms of\nthe heathen party. In a comparatively short reign of sixteen years he\nstamped out the worship of God, and nearly ruined the kingdom.\n\nHe did not plunge into idolatry for want of good advice. The greatest\nof the prophets stood beside him. Isaiah addressed to him\nremonstrances which might have made the most reckless pause, and\npromises which might have kindled hope and courage in the bosom of\ndespair. Hosea in the northern kingdom, Micah in Judah, and other less\nbrilliant names were amongst the stars which shone even in that dark\nnight. But their light was all in vain. The foolish lad had got the\nbit between his teeth, and, like many another young man, thought to\nshow his 'breadth' and his 'spirit' by neglecting his father's\ncounsellors, and abandoning his father's faith. He was ready to\nworship anything that called itself a god, always excepting Jehovah.\nHe welcomed Baal, Moloch, Rimmon, and many more with an indiscriminate\neagerness that would have been ludicrous if it had not been tragical.\nThe more he multiplied his gods the more he multiplied his sorrows,\nand the more he multiplied his sorrows the more he multiplied his\ngods.\n\nFrom all sides the invaders came. From north, northeast, east,\nsouth-east, south, they swarmed in upon him. They tore away the\nfringes of his kingdom; and hostile armies flaunted their banners\nbeneath the very walls of Jerusalem.\n\nAnd then, in his despair, like a scorpion in a circle of fire, he\ninflicted a deadly wound on himself by calling in the fatal help of\nAssyria. Nothing loth, that warlike power responded, scattered his\nless formidable foes, and then swallowed the prey which it had dragged\nfrom between the teeth of the Israelites and Syrians. The result of\nAhaz's frantic appeals to false gods and faithless men may still be\nread on the cuneiform inscriptions, where, amidst a long list of\nunknown tributary kings, stands, with a Philistine on one side of him\nand an Ammonite on the other, the shameful record, 'Ahaz of Judah.'\n\nThat was what came of forsaking the God of his fathers. It is a type\nof what always has come, and always must come, of a godless life. That\nis the point of view from which I wish to look at the story, and at\nthese words of my text which gather the whole spirit of it into one\nsentence.\n\nI. First, then, let me ask you to notice how this narrative\nillustrates for us the crowd of vain helpers to which a man has to\ntake when he turns his back upon God.\n\nIf we compare the narrative in our chapter with the parallel in the\nSecond Book of Kings, we get a very vivid picture of the strange\nmedley of idolatries which they introduced. Amongst Ahaz's new gods\nare, for instance, the golden calves of Israel and the ferocious\nMoloch of Ammon, to whom he sacrificed, passing through the fire at\nleast one of his own children. The ancient sacred places of the\nCanaanites, on every high hill and beneath every conspicuous tree,\nagain smoked with incense to half-forgotten local deities. In every\nopen space in Jerusalem he planted a brand-new altar with a brand-new\nworship attendant upon it. In the Temple, he brushed aside the altar\nthat Solomon had made and put up a new one, copied from one which he\nhad seen at Damascus. The importation of the Damascene altar, I\nsuppose, meant, as our text tells us, the importation of the Damascene\ngods along with it.\n\nSide by side with that multiplication of false deities went the almost\nentire neglect of the worship of Jehovah, until at last, as his reign\nadvanced and he floundered deeper into his troubles, the Temple was\nspoiled, everything in it that could be laid hands upon was sent to\nthe melting-pot, to pay the Assyrian tribute; and then the doors were\nshut, the lamps extinguished, the fire quenched on the cold altars,\nand the silent Temple left to the bats and--_the Shekinah_; for\nGod still abode in the deserted house.\n\nFurther, side by side with this appealing all round the horizon to\nwhatsoever obscene and foul shape seemed to promise some help, there\nwent the foolish appeal to the northern invaders to come and aid him,\nwhich they did, to his destruction. His whole career is that of a\ngodless and desperate man who will grasp at anything that offers\ndeliverance, and will worship any god or devil who will extricate him\nfrom his troubles.\n\nIs the breed extinct, think you? Is there any one among us who, if he\ncannot get what he wants by fair ways, will try to get it by foul? Do\nnone of you ever bow down to Satan for a slice of the kingdoms of this\nworld? Ahaz has still plenty of brothers and sisters in all our\nchurches and chapels.\n\nThis story illustrates for us what, alas! is only too true, both on\nthe broad scale, as to the generation in which we live, and on the\nnarrower field of our own individual lives. Look at the so-called\ncultured classes of Europe to-day; turning away, as so many of them\nare, from the Lord God of their fathers; what sort of gods are they\nworshipping instead? Scraps from Buddhism, the Vedas, any sacred books\nbut the Bible; quackeries, and charlatanism, arid dreams, and\nfragmentary philosophies all pieced together, to try and make up a\nwhole, instead of the old-fashioned whole that they have left behind\nthem. There are men and women in many congregations who, in modern\nfashion, are doing precisely the thing that Ahaz did--having abandoned\nChristianity, they are trying to make up for it by hastily stitching\ntogether shreds and patches that they have found in other systems.\n'The garment is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it,' and\na creed patched together so will never make a seamless whole which can\nbe trusted not to rend.\n\nBut look, further, how the same thing is true as to the individual\nlives of godless men.\n\nMany of us are trying to make up for not having the One by seeking to\nstay our hearts on the many. But no accumulation of insufficiencies\nwill ever make a sufficiency. You may fill the heaven all over with\nstars, bright and thickly set as those in the whitest spot in the\ngalaxy, and it will be night still. Day needs the sun, and the sun is\none, and when it comes the twinkling lights are forgotten. You cannot\nmake up for God by any extended series of creatures, any more than a\nrow of figures that stretched from here to _Sirius_ and back\nagain would approximate to infinitude.\n\nThe very fact of the multitude of helpers is a sign that none of them\nis sufficient. There is no end of 'cures' for toothache, that is to\nsay there is none. There is no end of helps for men that have\nabandoned God, that is to say, every one in turn when it is tried, and\nthe stress of the soul rests upon it, gives, and is found to be a\nbroken staff that pierces the hand that leans upon it.\n\nConsult your own experience. What is the meaning of the unrest and\ndistraction that mark the lives of most of the men in this generation?\nWhy is it that you hurry from business to pleasure, from pleasure to\nbusiness, until it is scarcely possible to get a quiet breathing time\nfor thought at all? Why is it but because one after another of your\ngods have proved insufficient, and so fresh altars must be built for\nfresh idolatries, and new experiments made, of which we can safely\nprophesy the result will be the old one. We have not got beyond St.\nAugustine's saying:--'Oh, God! my heart was made for Thee, and in Thee\nonly doth it find repose.' The many idols, though you multiply them\nbeyond count, all put together will never make the One God. You are\nseeking what you will never find. The many pearls that you seek will\nnever be enough for you. The true wealth is One, 'One pearl of great\nprice.'\n\nII. So notice again how this story teaches the heavy cost of these\nhelpers' help.\n\nAhaz had, as he thought, two strings to his bow. He had the gods of\nDamascus and of other lands on one hand, he had the king of Assyria on\nanother. They both of them exacted onerous terms before they would\nstir a foot to his aid. As for the northern conqueror, all the wealth\nof the king and of the princes and of the Temple was sent to Assyria\nas the price of his hurtful help. As for the gods, his helpers, one of\nhis sons at least went into the furnace to secure their favour; and\nwhat other sacrifices he may have made besides the sacrifice of his\nconscience and his soul, history does not tell us. These were\nconsiderable subsidies to have to be paid down before any aid was\ngranted.\n\nDo _you_ buy this world's help any cheaper, my brother? You get\nnothing for nothing in that market. It is a big price that you have to\npay before these mercenaries will come to fight on your side. Here is\na man that 'succeeds in life,' as we call it. What does it cost him?\nWell! it has cost him the suppression, the atrophy by disuse, of many\ncapacities in his soul which were far higher and nobler than those\nthat have been exercised in his success. It has cost him all his days;\nit has possibly cost him the dying out of generous sympathies and the\nstimulating of unwholesome selfishness. Ah! he has bought his\nprosperity very dear. Political economists have much to say about the\n'appreciation of gold.' I think if people would estimate what they pay\nfor it, in an immense majority of cases, in treasure that cannot be\nweighed and stamped, they would find it to be about the dearest thing\nin God's universe; and that there are few men who make worse bargains\nthan the men who give _themselves_ for worldly success, even when\nthey receive what they give themselves for.\n\nThere are some of you who know how much what you call enjoyment has\ncost you. Some of us have bought pleasure at the price of innocence,\nof moral dignity, of stained memories, of polluted imaginations, of an\nincapacity to rise above the flesh: and some of us have bought it at\nthe price of health. The world has a way of getting more out of you\nthan it gives to you.\n\nAt the best, if you are not Christian men and women, whether you are\nmen of business, votaries of pleasure, seekers after culture and\nrefinement or anything else, you have given Heaven to get earth. Is\nthat a good bargain? Is it much wiser than that of a horde of naked\nsavages that sell a great tract of fair country, with gold-bearing\nreefs in it, for a bottle of rum, and a yard or two of calico? What is\nthe difference? You have been fooled out of the inheritance which God\nmeant for you; and you have got for it transient satisfaction, and\npartial as it is transient. If you are not Christian people, you have\nto buy this world's wealth and goods at the price of God and of your\nown souls. And I ask you if that is an investment which recommends\nitself to your common sense. Oh! my brother; 'what shall it profit a\nman if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?' Answer the\nquestion.\n\nIII. Lastly, we may gather from this story an illustration of the\nfatal falsehood of the world's help.\n\nAhaz pauperised himself to buy the hireling swords of Assyria, and he\ngot them; but, as it says in the narrative, 'the king came unto him,\nand distressed him, but strengthened him not.' He helped Ahaz at\nfirst. He scattered the armies of which the king of Judah was afraid\nlike chaff, with his fierce and disciplined onset. And then, having\ndriven them off the bleeding prey, he put his own paw upon it, and\ngrowled 'Mine!' And where he struck his claws there was little more\nhope of life for the prostrate creature below him.\n\nAy! and that is what this world always does. In the case before us\nthere was providential guidance of the politics of the Eastern nations\nin order to bring about these results; and we do not look for anything\nof that sort. No! But there are natural laws at work today which are\nGod's laws, and which ensure the worthlessness of the help bought so\ndear.\n\nA godless life has at the best only partial satisfaction, and that\npartial satisfaction soon diminishes. 'Even in laughter the heart is\nsorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.'\n\nThat is the experience of all men, and I need not dwell upon the\nthreadbare commonplaces which have survived from generation to\ngeneration, because each generation in turn has found them so\npiteously true, about the incompleteness and the fleetingness of all\nthe joys and treasures of this life. The awful power of habit, if\nthere were no other reason, takes the edge off all gratification\nexcept in so far as God is in it. Nothing fully retains its power to\nsatisfy. Nothing has that power absolutely at any moment; but even\nwhat measure of it any of our possessions or pursuits may have for a\ntime, soon, or at all events by degrees, passes away. The greater part\nof life is but like drinking out of empty cups, and the cups drop from\nour hands. What one of our purest and peacefullest poets said in his\nhaste about all his kind is true in spirit of all godless lives:--\n\n  'We poets, in our youth, begin in gladness,\n  But thereof cometh, in the end, despondency and madness.'\n\n'Vanity of vanities! saith'--not the Preacher only, but the inmost\nheart of every godless man and woman--'vanity of vanities! all is\nvanity!'\n\nAnd do not forget that, partial and transient as these satisfactions\nof which I have been speaking are, they derive what power of helping\nand satisfying is in them only from the silence of our consciences,\nand our success in being able to shut out realities. One word, they\nsay, spoken too loud, brings down the avalanche, and beneath its\nwhite, cold death, the active form is motionless and the beating heart\nlies still. One word from conscience, one touch of an awakened\nreflectiveness, one glance at the end--the coffin and the shroud and\nwhat comes after these--slay your worldly satisfactions as surely as\nthat falling snow would crush some light-winged, gauzy butterfly that\nhad been dancing at the cliff's foot. Your jewellery is all imitation.\nIt is well enough for candle-light. Would you like to try the testing\nacid upon it? Here is a drop of it. 'Know thou that for all these\nthings God will bring thee into judgment.' Does it smoke? or does it\nstand the test? Here is another drop. 'This night thy soul shall be\nrequired of thee.' Does it stand that test? My brother! do not be\nafraid to take in all the facts of your earthly life, and do not\npretend to satisfy yourselves with satisfactions which dare not face\nrealities, and shrivel up at their presence.\n\nThese fatal helpers come as friends and allies, and they remain as\nmasters. Ahaz and a hundred other weak princes have tried the policy\nof sending for a strong foreign power to scatter their enemies, and it\nhas always turned out one way. The foreigner has come and he has\nstopped. The auxiliary has become the lord, and he that called him to\nhis aid becomes his tributary. Ay! and so it is with all the things of\nthis world. Here is some pleasant indulgence that I call to my help\nlightly and thoughtlessly. It is very agreeable and does what I wanted\nwith it, and I try it again. Still it answers to my call. And then\nafter a while I say, 'I am going to give that up,' and I cannot, I\nhave brought in a master when I thought I was only bringing in an ally\nthat I could dismiss when I liked. The sides of the pit are very\nslippery; it is gay travelling down them, but when the animal is\ntrapped at the bottom there is no possibility of getting up again. So\nsome of you, dear friends! have got masters in your delights, masters\nin your pursuits, masters in your habits. These are your gods, these\nare your tyrants, and you will find out that they are so, if ever, in\nyour own strength, you try to break away from them.\n\nSo let me plead with you. With some of you, perhaps, my voice, as a\nfamiliar voice, that in some measure, however undeservedly, you trust,\nmay have influence. Let me plead with you--do not run after these\nwill-o'-the-wisps that will only lure you into destruction, but follow\nthe light of life which is Jesus Christ Himself. Do not take these\ntyrants for your helpers, who will master you under pretence of aiding\nyou; and work their will of you instead of lightening your burden. The\nsame unwise and hopeless mode of life, which we have been describing\nthis evening by one symbolic illustration, as calling vain helpers to\nour aid, was presented by Ahaz's great contemporary Isaiah, in words\nwhich Ahaz himself may have heard, as 'striking a covenant with death,\nand making lies our refuge.' Some of us, alas! have been doing that\nall our lives. Let such hearken to the solemn words which may have\nrung in the ears of this unworthy king. 'Judgment also will I lay to\nthe line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep\naway the refuge of lies.' I come to you, dear friends! to press on\nyour acceptance the true Guide and Helper--even Jesus Christ your\nBrother, in whose single Self you will find all that you have vainly\nsought dispersed 'at sundry times and in divers manners'--among\ncreatures. Take Him for your Saviour by trusting your whole selves to\nHim. He is the Sacrifice by whose blood all our sins are washed away,\nand the Indweller, by whose Spirit all our spirits are ennobled and\ngladdened. I ask you to take Him for your Helper, who will never\ndeceive you; to call whom to our aid is to be secure and victorious\nfor ever. 'Behold! I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried\nstone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth\nshall not make haste.'\n\n\n\nA GODLY REFORMATION\n\n'Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he\nreigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was\nAbijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2. And he did that which was right\nin the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had\ndone. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first mouth, opened\nthe doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. 4. And he\nbrought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together\ninto the east street, 5. And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites;\nSanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of\nyour fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. 6.\nFor our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the\neyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away\ntheir faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.\n7. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the\nlamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered burnt-offerings in the\nholy place unto the God of Israel. 8. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord\nwas upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble,\nto astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. 9. For, lo,\nour fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons and our daughters\nand our wives are in captivity for this. 10. Now it is in mine heart\nto make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath\nmay turn away from us. 11. My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord\nhath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should\nminister unto Him, and burn incense.'--2 CHRON. xxix. 1-11.\n\n\nHezekiah, the best of the later kings, had the worst for his father,\nand another almost as bad for his son. His own piety was probably\ndeepened by the mad extravagance of his father's boundless idolatry,\nwhich brought the kingdom to the verge of ruin. Action and reaction\nare equal and contrary. Saints grown amidst fashionable and deep\ncorruption are generally strong, and reformers usually arise from the\nmidst of the systems which they overthrow. Hezekiah came to a\ntottering throne and an all but beggared nation, ringed around by\ntriumphant enemies. His brave young heart did not quail. He sought\n'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,' and of the two\npressing needs for Judah, political peace and religious purity, he\nbegan with the last. The Book of Kings tells at most length the civil\nhistory; the Book of Chronicles, as usual, lays most stress on the\necclesiastical. The two complete each other. The present passage gives\na beautiful picture of the vigorous, devout young king setting about\nthe work of reformation.\n\nWe may note, first, his prompt action. Joash had to whip up the\nreluctant priests with his 'See that ye hasten the matter!' Hezekiah\nlets no grass grow under his feet, but begins his reforms with his\nreign. 'The first month' (ver. 3) possibly, indeed, means the first\nmonth of the calendar, not of Hezekiah, who may have come to the\nthrone in the later part of the Jewish year; but, in any case, no time\nwas lost. The statement in verse 3 may be taken as a general\n_resume_ of what follows in detail, but this vigorous speech to\nthe priests was clearly among the new king's first acts. No doubt his\npurpose had slowly grown while his father was affronting Heaven with\nhis mania for idols. Such decisive, swift action does not come without\nprotracted, previous brooding. The hidden fires gather slowly in the\nsilent crater, however rapidly they burst out at last.\n\nWe can never begin good things too early, and when we come into new\npositions, it is always prudence as well as bravery to show our\ncolours unmistakably from the first. Many a young man, launched among\nfresh associations, has been ruined because of beginning with\ntemporising timidity. It is easier to take the right standing at first\nthan to shift to it afterwards. Hezekiah might have been excused if he\nhad thought that the wretched state of political affairs left by Ahaz\nneeded his first attention. Edomites on the east, Philistines on the\nwest and south, Syrians and Assyrians on the north, 'compassed him\nabout like bees,' and worldly prudence would have said, 'Look after\nthese enemies today, and the Temple tomorrow.' He was wiser than that,\nknowing that these were effects of the religious corruption, and so he\nwent at that first. It is useless trying to mend a nation's fortunes\nunless you mend its morals and religion.\n\nAnd there are some things which are best done quickly, both in\nindividual and national life. Leaving off bad habits by degrees is not\nhopeful. The only thing to be done is to break with them utterly and\nat once. One strong, swift blow, right through the heart, kills the\nwild beast. Slighter cuts may make him bleed to death, but he may kill\nyou first. The existing state was undeniably sinful. There was no need\nfor deliberation as to that. Therefore there was no reason for delay.\nLet us learn the lesson that, where conscience has no doubts, we\nshould have no dawdling. 'I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy\ncommandment.'\n\nNote, too, in Hezekiah's speech, the true order of religious\nreformation. The priests and Levites were not foremost in it, as\nindeed is only too often the case with ecclesiastics in all ages.\nProbably many of them had been content to serve Ahaz as priests of his\nmultiform idolatry. At all events, they needed 'sanctifying,' though\nno doubt the word is here used in reference to merely ceremonial\nuncleanness. Still the requirement that they should cleanse themselves\nbefore they cleansed the Temple has more than ceremonial significance.\nImpure hands are not fit for the work of religious reformation, though\nthey have often been employed in it. What was the weakness of the\nReformation but that the passions of princes and nobles were so soon\nand generally enlisted for it, and marred it? He that enters into the\nholy place, especially if his errand be to cleanse it, must have\n'clean hands, and a pure heart.' The hands that wielded the whip of\nsmall cords, and drove out the money-changers, were stainless, and\ntherefore strong. Some of us are very fond of trying to set churches\nto rights. Let us begin with ourselves, lest, like careless servants,\nwe leave dirty finger-marks where we have been 'cleaning.'\n\nThe next point in the speech is the profound and painful sense of\nexisting corruption. Note the long-drawn-out enumeration of evils in\nverses 6 and 7, starting with the general recognition of the fathers'\ntrespass, advancing to the more specific sin of forsaking Him and His\nhouse, and dwelling, finally, as with fascinated horror, on all the\ndetails of closed shrine and quenched lamps and cold altars. The\nhistorical truth of the picture is confirmed by the close of the\nprevious chapter, and its vividness shows how deeply Hezekiah had felt\nthe shame and sin of Ahaz. It is not easy to keep clear of the\ninfluence of prevailing corruptions of religion. Familiarity weakens\nabhorrence, and the stained embodiments of the ideal hide its purity\nfrom most eyes. But no man will be God's instrument to make society,\nthe church, or the home, better, unless he feels keenly the existing\nevils. We do not need to cherish a censorious spirit, but we do need\nto guard against an unthinking acquiescence in the present state of\nthings, and a self-complacent reluctance to admit their departure from\nthe divine purpose for the church. There is need to-day for a like\nprofound consciousness of evil, and like efforts after new purity. If\nwe individually lived nearer God, we should be less acclimatised to\nthe Church's imperfections. No doubt Hezekiah's clear sight of the\nsinfulness of the idolatry so universal round him was largely owing to\nIsaiah's influence. Eyes which have caught sight of the true King of\nIsrael, and of the pure light of His kingdom, will be purged to\ndiscern the sore need for purifying the Lord's house.\n\nThe clear insight into the national sin gives as clear understanding\nof the national suffering. Hezekiah speaks, in verses 8 and 9, as the\nLaw and the Prophets had been speaking for centuries, and as God's\nprovidence had been uttering in act all through the national history.\nBut so slow are men to learn familiar truths that Ahaz had grasped at\nidol after idol to rescue him; 'but they were the ruin of him, and of\nall Israel.' How difficult it is to hammer plain truths, even with the\nmallet of troubles, into men's heads! How blind we all are to the\ncausal connection between sin and sorrow! Hezekiah saw the iron link\nuniting them, and his whole policy was based upon that 'wherefore.' Of\ncourse, if we accept the Biblical statements as to the divine dealing\nwith Israel and Judah, obedience and disobedience were there followed\nby reward and suffering more certainly and directly than is now the\ncase in either national or individual life. But it still remains true\nthat it is a 'bitter' as well as an 'evil' thing to depart from the\nliving God. If we would find the cause of our own or of a nation's\nsorrows, we had better begin our search among our or its sins.\n\nThat phrase 'an astonishment, and an hissing' (ver. 8) is new. It\nappears for the first time in Micah (Micah vi. 16), and he, we know,\nexercised influence on Hezekiah (Jer. xxvi. 18, 19). Perhaps the king\nis here quoting the prophet.\n\nThe exposition of the sin and its fruit is followed by the king's\nresolve for himself, and, so far as may be, for his people. The phrase\n'it is in my heart' expresses fixed determination, not mere wish. It\nis used by David and of him, in reference to his resolve to build the\nTemple. 'To make a covenant' probably means to renew the covenant,\nmade long ago at Sinai, but broken by sin. The king has made up his\nmind, and announces his determination. He does not consult priests or\npeople, but expects their acquiescence. So, in the early days of\nChristianity, the 'conversion' of a king meant that of his people. Of\ncourse, the power of the kings of Israel and Judah to change the\nnational religion at their pleasure shows how slightly any religion\nhad penetrated, and how much, at the best, it was a matter of mere\nceremonial worship with the masses. People who worshipped Ahaz's\nrabble of gods and godlings to-day because he bade them, and\nHezekiah's God to-morrow, had little worship for either, and were much\nthe same through all changes.\n\nHezekiah was in earnest, and his resolve was none the less right\nbecause it was moved by a desire to turn away the fierce anger of the\nLord. Dread of sin's consequences and a desire to escape these is no\nunworthy motive, however some superfine moralists nowadays may call it\nso. It is becoming unfashionable to preach 'the terror of the Lord.'\nThe more is the pity, and the less is the likelihood of persuading\nmen. But, however kindled, the firm determination (which does not wait\nfor others to concur) that 'As for me, I will serve the Lord,' is the\ngrand thing for us all to imitate. That strong young heart showed\nitself kingly in its resolve, as it had shown itself sensitive to evil\nand tender in contemplating the widespread sorrow. If we would brace\nour feeble wills, and screw them to the sticking-point of immovable\ndetermination to make a covenant with God, let us meditate on our\ndepartures from Him, the Lover and Benefactor of our souls, and on the\ndreadfulness of His anger and the misery of those who forsake Him.\n\nOnce more the king turns to the priests. He began and he finishes with\nthem, as if he were not sure of their reliableness. His tone is\nkindly, 'My sons,' but yet monitory. They would not have been warned\nagainst 'negligence' unless they had obviously needed it, nor would\nthey have been stimulated to their duties by reminding them of their\nprerogatives, unless they had been apt to slight these. Officials,\nwhose business is concerned with the things of God, are often apt to\ndrop into an easy-going pace. Negligent work may suit unimportant\noffices, but is hideously inconsistent with the tasks and aims of\nGod's servants. If there is any work which has to be done 'with both\nhands, earnestly,' it is theirs. Unless we put all our strength into\nit, we shall get no good for ourselves or others out of it. The utmost\ntension of all powers, the utmost husbanding of every moment, is\nabsolutely demanded by the greatness of the task; and the voice of the\ngreat Master says to all His servants, 'My sons, be not now\nnegligent.' Ungirt loins and unlit lamps are fatal.\n\nWe should meditate, too, on the prerogatives and lofty offices to\nwhich Christ calls those who love Him; not to minister to\nself-complacency, as if we were so much better than other men, but to\ndeepen our sense of responsibility, and stir us to strenuous efforts\nto be what we are called to be. If Christian people thought more\nearnestly on what Jesus Christ means them to be to the world, they\nwould not so often counterwork His purpose and shirk their own duties.\nCrowns are heavy to wear. Gifts are calls to service. If we are chosen\nto be His ministers, we have solemn responsibilities. If we are to\nburn incense before Him, our censers need to be bright and free from\nstrange fire. If we are the lights of the world, our business is to\nshine.\n\n\n\nSACRIFICE RENEWED\n\n'Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed\nall the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt-offering, with all\nthe vessels thereof, and the shew-bread table, with all the vessels\nthereof. 19. Moreover, all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign\ndid cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified,\nand, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. 20. Then Hezekiah\nthe king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up\nto the house of the Lord. 21. And they brought seven bullocks, and\nseven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin-offering\nfor the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he\ncommanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar\nof the Lord. 22. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received\nthe blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had\nkilled the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed\nalso the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. 23. And\nthey brought forth the he goats for the sin-offering before the king\nand the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them. 24. And the\npriests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood\nupon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king\ncommanded that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be made\nfor all Israel. 25. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord\nwith cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the\ncommandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the\nprophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets. 26.\nAnd the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests\nwith the trumpets. 27. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the\nburnt-offering upon the altar. And when the burnt-offering began, the\nsong of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the\ninstruments ordained by David king of Israel. 28. And all the\ncongregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters\nsounded: and all this continued until the burnt-offering was finished.\n29. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that\nwere present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped. 30. Moreover,\nHezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing\npraises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer.\nAnd they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and\nworshipped. 31. Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have\nconsecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near, and bring sacrifices\nand thank-offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation\nbrought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a\nfree heart burnt offerings.--2 CHRON. xxix. 18-31.\n\n\nAhaz, Hezekiah's father, had wallowed in idolatry, worshipping any and\nevery god but Jehovah. He had shut up the Temple, defiled the sacred\nvessels, and 'made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.' And the\nresult was that he brought the kingdom very near ruin, was not allowed\nto be buried in the tombs of the kings, and left his son a heavy task\nto patch up the mischief he had wrought. Hezekiah began at the right\nend of his task. 'In the first year of his reign, in the first month,'\nhe set about restoring the worship of Jehovah. The relations with\nSyria and Damascus would come right if the relations with Judah's God\nwere right. 'First things first' was his motto, and perhaps he\ndiscerned the true sequence more accurately than some great political\npundits do nowadays. So neglected had the Temple been that a strong\nforce of priests and Levites took a fortnight to 'carry forth the\nfilthiness out of the holy place to the brook Kidron,' and to cleanse\nand ceremonially sanctify the sacred vessels. Then followed at once\nthe re-establishment of the Temple worship, which is narrated in the\npassage.\n\nThe first thing to be noted is that the whole movement back to Jehovah\nwas a one-man movement. It was Hezekiah's doing and his only. No\npriest is named as prominent in it, and the slowness of the whole\norder is especially branded in verse 34. No prophet is named; was\nthere any one prompting the king? Perhaps Isaiah did, though his\nchapter i. with its scathing repudiation of 'the burnt offerings of\nrams and the fat of fed beasts,' suggests that he did not think the\nrestoration of sacrifice so important as that the nation should 'cease\nto do evil and learn to do well.' The people acquiesced in the king's\nworship of Jehovah, as they had acquiesced in other kings' worship of\nBaal or Moloch or Hadad. When kings take to being religious reformers,\nthey make swift converts, but their work is as slight as it is speedy,\nand as short-lived as it is rapid. Manasseh was Hezekiah's successor,\nand swept away all his work after twenty-nine years, and apparently\nthe mass of his people followed him just as they had followed\nHezekiah. Religion must be a matter of personal conviction and\nindividual choice. Imposed from without, or adopted because other\npeople adopt it, it is worthless.\n\nAnother point to notice is that Hezekiah's reformation was mainly\ndirected to ritual, and does not seem to have included either theology\nor ethics. Was be quite right in his estimate of what was the first\nthing? Isaiah, in the passage already referred to, does not seem to\nthink so. To him, as to all the prophets, foul hands could not bring\nacceptable sacrifices, and worship was an abomination unless preceded\nby obedience to the command: 'Put away the evil of your doings from\nbefore Mine eyes.' The filth in the hearts of the men of Judah was\nmore 'rank, and smelt to heaven' more offensively, than that in the\nTemple, which took sixteen days to shovel into Kidron. No doubt\nceremonial bulked more largely in the days of the Old Covenant than it\ndoes in those of the New, and both the then stage of revelation and\nthe then spiritual stature of the recipients of revelation required\nthat it should do so. But the true religious reformers, the prophets,\nwere never weary of insisting that, even in those days, moral and\nspiritual reformation should come first, and that unless it did,\nritual worship, though it were nominally offered to Jehovah, was as\nabhorrent to Him as if it had been avowedly offered to Baal. Not a\nlittle so-called Christian worship today, judged by the same test, is\nas truly heathen superstition as if it had been paid to Mumbo-Jumbo.\n\nBut when all deductions have been made, the scene depicted in the\npassage is not only an affecting, but an instructive one. Strangely\nunlike our notions of worship, and to us almost repulsive, must have\nbeen the slaying of three hundred and seventy animals and the offering\nof them as burnt offerings. Try to picture the rivers of blood, the\ncontortions of the dumb brutes, the priests bedaubed with gore, the\nsmell of the burnt flesh, the blare of the trumpets, the shouts of the\nworshippers, the clashing cymbals, and realise what a world parts it\nfrom 'They went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding ...\nthese all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the\nwomen, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren'!\nSacrifice has been the essential feature in all religions before\nChrist. It has dropped out of worship wherever Christ has been\naccepted. Why? Because it spoke of a deep, permanent, universal need,\nand because Christ was recognised as having met the need. People who\ndeny the need, and people who deny that Jesus on the Cross has\nsatisfied it, may be invited to explain these two facts, written large\non the history of humanity.\n\nThat brings us to the most important aspect of Hezekiah's great\nsacrifice. It sets forth the stages by which men can approach to God.\nIt is symbolic of spiritual facts, and prophetic of Christ's work and\nof our way of coming to God through Him. The first requisite for\nJudah's return to Jehovah, whom they had forsaken, was the\npresentation of a 'sin offering.' The king and the congregation laid\ntheir hands on the heads of the goats, thereby, as it were,\ntransferring their own sinful personality to them. Thus laden with the\nnation's sins, they were slain, and in their death the nation, as it\nwere, bore the penalty of its sin. Representation and substitution\nwere dramatised in the sacrifice. The blood sprinkled on the altar\n(which had previously been 'sanctified' by sprinkling of blood, and so\nmade capable of presenting what touched it to Jehovah), made\n'atonement for all Israel.' We note in passing the emphasis of\n'Israel' here, extending the benefit of the sacrifice to the separated\ntribes of the Northern Kingdom, in a gush of yearning love and desire\nthat they, too, might be reconciled to Jehovah. And is not this the\nfirst step towards any man's reconciliation with God? Is not\n\n  'My faith would lay her hand\n  On that dear head of Thine,'\n\nthe true expression of the first requisite for us all? Jesus is the\nsin-offering for the world. In His death He bears the world's sin. His\nblood is presented to God, and if we have associated ourselves with\nHim by faith, that blood sprinkled on the altar covers all our sins.\n\nThen followed in this parabolic ceremonial the burnt offering. And\nthat is the second stage of our return to God, for it expresses the\nconsecration of our forgiven selves, as being consumed by the holy and\nblessed fire of a self-devotion, kindled by the 'unspeakable gift,'\nwhich fire, burning away all foulness, will make us tenfold ourselves.\nThat fire will burn up only our bonds, and we shall walk at liberty in\nit. And that burnt-offering will always be accompanied with 'the song\nof Jehovah,' and the joyful sound of the trumpets and 'the instruments\nof David.' The treasures of Christian poetry have always been inspired\nby the Cross, and the consequent rapture of self-surrender. Calvary is\nthe true fountain of song.\n\nThe last stage in Hezekiah's great sacrifice was 'thank-offerings,'\nbrought by 'as many as were of a willing heart.' And will not the\nself-devotion, kindled by the fire of love, speak in daily life by\npractical service, and the whole activities of the redeemed man be a\nlong thank-offering for the Lamb who 'bears away the sins of the\nworld'? And if we do not thus offer our whole lives to God, how shall\nwe profess to have taken the priceless benefit of Christ's death?\nHezekiah followed the order laid down in the Law, and it is the only\norder that leads to the goal. First, the atoning sacrifice of the\nslain Lamb; next, our identification with Him and it by faith; then\nthe burnt-offering of a surrendered self, with the song of praise\nsounding ever through it; and last, the life of service, offering all\nour works to God, and so reaching the perfection of life on earth and\nantedating the felicities of heaven.\n\n\n\nA LOVING CALL TO REUNION\n\n'And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to\nEphraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord\nat Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. 2. For\nthe king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation\nin Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. 3. For they\ncould not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified\nthemselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves\ntogether to Jerusalem. 4. And the thing pleased the king and all the\ncongregation. 5. So they established a decree to make proclamation\nthroughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should\ncome to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem:\nfor they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was\nwritten. 6. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his\nprinces throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the\ncommandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again\nunto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to\nthe remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of\nAssyria. 7. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren,\nwhich trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore\ngave them up to desolation, as ye see. 8. Now, be ye not stiffnecked,\nas your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter\ninto His sanctuary, which He hath sanctified for ever: and serve the\nLord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from\nyou. 9. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your\nchildren shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so\nthat they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is\ngracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if ye\nreturn unto Him. 10. So the posts passed from city to city through the\ncountry of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they laughed\nthem to scorn, and mocked them. 11. Nevertheless divers of Asher and\nManasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. 12.\nAlso in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the\ncommandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord.\n13. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of\nunleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation.'--2\nCHRON. xxx. 1-13.\n\n\nThe date of Hezekiah's passover is uncertain, for, while the immediate\nconnection of this narrative with the preceding account of his\ncleansing the Temple and restoring the sacrificial worship suggests\nthat the passover followed directly on those events, which took place\nat the beginning of the reign, the language employed in the message to\nthe northern tribes (vers. 6,7, 9) seems to imply the previous fall of\nthe kingdom of Israel, If so, this passover did not occur till after\n721 B.C., the date of the capture of Samaria, six years after\nHezekiah's accession.\n\nThe sending of messengers from Jerusalem on such an errand would\nscarcely have been possible if the northern kingdom had still been\nindependent. Perhaps its fall was thought by Hezekiah to open the door\nto drawing 'the remnant that were escaped' back to the ancient unity\nof worship, at all events, if not of polity. No doubt a large number\nhad been left in the northern territory, and Hezekiah may have hoped\nthat calamity had softened their enmity to his kingdom, and perhaps\ntouched them with longings for the old worship. At all events, like a\ngood man, he will stretch out a hand to the alienated brethren, now\nthat evil days have fallen on them. The hour of an enemy's calamity\nshould be our opportunity for seeking to help and proffering\nreconciliation. We may find that trouble inclines wanderers to come\nback to God.\n\nThe alteration of the time of keeping the passover from the thirteenth\nday of the first month to the same day of the second was in accordance\nwith the liberty granted in Numbers ix. 10, 11, to persons unclean by\ncontact with a dead body or 'in a journey afar off.' The decision to\nhave the passover was not taken in time to allow of the necessary\nremoval of uncleanness from the priests nor of the assembling of the\npeople, and therefore the permission to defer it for a month was taken\nadvantage of, in order to allow full time for the despatch of the\nmessengers and the journeys of the farthest northern tribes. It is to\nbe observed that Hezekiah took his subjects into counsel, since the\nstep intended was much too great for him to venture on of his own mere\nmotion. So the overtures went out clothed with the authority of the\nwhole kingdom of Judah. It was the voice of a nation that sought to\nwoo back the secessionists.\n\nThe messengers were instructed to supplement the official letters of\ninvitation with earnest entreaties as from the king, of which the gist\nis given in verses 6-9. With the skill born of intense desire to draw\nthe long-parted kingdoms together, the message touches on ancestral\nmemories, recent bitter experiences, yearnings for the captive\nkinsfolk, the instinct of self-preservation, and rises at last into\nthe clear light of full faith in, and insight into, God's infinite\nheart of pardoning pity.\n\nNote the very first words, 'Ye children of Israel,' and consider the\neffect of this frank recognition of the northern kingdom as part of\nthe undivided Israel. Such recognition might have been misunderstood\nor spurned when Samaria was gay and prosperous; but when its palaces\nwere desolate, the effect of the old name, recalling happier days,\nmust have been as if the elder brother had come out from the father's\nhouse and entreated the prodigal to come back to his place at the\nfireside. The battle would be more than half won if the appeal that\nwas couched in the very name of Israel was heeded.\n\nNote further how firmly and yet lovingly the sin of the northern\nkingdom is touched on. The name of Jehovah as the God of Abraham,\nIsaac, and Israel, recalls the ancient days when the undivided people\nworshipped Him, and the still more ancient, and, to hearers and\nspeakers alike, more sacred, days when the patriarchs received\nwondrous tokens that He was their God, and they were His people; while\nthe recurrence of 'Israel' as the name of Jacob adds force to its\nprevious use as the name of all His descendants. The possible\nrejection of the invitation, on the ground which the men of the north,\nlike the Samaritan woman, might have taken, that they were true to\ntheir fathers' worship, is cut away by the reminder that that worship\nwas an innovation, since the fathers of the present generation had\nbeen apostate from the God of _their_ fathers. The appeal to\nantiquity often lands men in a bog because it is not carried far\nenough back. 'The fathers' may lead astray, but if the antiquity to\nwhich we appeal is that of which the New Testament is the record, the\nmore conservative we are, the nearer the truth shall we be.\n\nAgain, the message touched on a chord that might easily have given a\njarring note; namely, the misfortunes of the kingdom. But it was done\nwith so delicate a hand, and so entirely without a trace of rejoicing\nin a neighbour's calamities, that no susceptibilities could be\nruffled, while yet the solemn lesson is unfalteringly pointed. 'He\ngave them up to desolation, as ye see.' Behind Assyria was Jehovah,\nand Israel's fall was not wholly explained by the disparity between\nits strength and the conquerors'. Under and through the play of\ncriminal ambition, cruelty, and earthly politics, the unseen Hand\nwrought; and the teaching of all the Old Testament history is\ncondensed into that one sad sentence, which points to facts as plain\nas tragical. In deepest truth it applies to each of us; for, if we\ntrespass against God, we draw down evil on our heads with both hands,\nand shall find that sin brings the worst desolation--that which sheds\ngloom over a godless soul.\n\nWe note further the deep true insight into God's character and ways\nexpressed in this message. There is a very striking variation in the\nthree designations of Jehovah as 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and\nIsrael' (ver. 6), 'the god of their [that is, the preceding\ngeneration] fathers' (ver. 7), and 'your God' (ver. 8). The relation\nwhich had subsisted from of old had not been broken by man's apostasy,\nJehovah still was, in a true sense, their God, even if His relation to\nthem only bound Him not to leave them unpunished. So their very\nsufferings proved them His, for 'What son is he whom the father\nchasteneth not?' But strong, sunny confidence in God shines from the\nwhole message, and reaches its climax in the closing assurance that He\nis merciful and gracious. The evil results of rebellion are not\nomitted, but they are not dwelt on. The true magnet to draw wanderers\nback to God is the loving proclamation of His love. Unless we are sure\nthat He has a heart tender with all pity, and 'open as day to melting\ncharity,' we shall not turn to Him with our hearts.\n\nThe message puts the response which it sought in a variety of ways;\nnamely, turning to Jehovah, not being stiff-necked, yielding selves to\nJehovah, entering into His sanctuary. More than outward participation\nin the passover ceremonial is involved. Submission of will,\nabandonment of former courses of action, docility of spirit ready to\nbe directed anywhere, the habit of abiding with God by communion--all\nthese, the standing characteristics of the religious life, are at\nleast suggested by the invitations here. We are all summoned thus to\nyield ourselves to God, and especially to do so by surrendering our\nwills to Him, and to 'enter into His sanctuary,' by keeping up such\ncommunion with Him as that, however and wherever occupied, we shall\nstill 'dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.'\n\nAnd the summons to return unto God is addressed to us all even more\nurgently than to Israel. God Himself invites us by the voice of His\nprovidences, by His voice within, and by the voice of Jesus Himself,\nwho is ever saying to each of us, by His death and passion, by His\nresurrection and ascension, 'Turn ye! turn ye! why will ye die?' and\nwho has more than endorsed Hezekiah's messengers' assurance that\n'Jehovah will not turn away His face from' us by His own gracious\npromise, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.'\n\nThe king's message met a mingled reception. Some mocked, some were\nmoved and accepted. So, alas! is it with the better message, which is\neither 'a savour of life unto life or of death unto death.' The same\nfire melts wax and hardens clay. May it be with all of us as it was in\nJudah--that we 'have one heart, to do the commandment' and to accept\nthe merciful summons to the great passover!\n\n\n\nA STRANGE REWARD FOR FAITHFULNESS\n\n'After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king\nof Assyria, came.'--2 CHRON. XXXII. 1.\n\n\nThe Revised Version gives a much more accurate and significant\nrendering of a part of these words. It reads: 'After these things and\n_this faithfulness_, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came.' What\nare 'these things' and 'this faithfulness'? The former are the whole\nof the events connected with the religious reformation in Judah, which\nKing Hezekiah inaugurated and carried through so brilliantly and\nsuccessfully. This 'faithfulness' directly refers to a word in a\ncouple of verses before the text: 'Thus did Hezekiah throughout all\nJudah; and he wrought that which was good and right and\n_faithfulness_ before the Lord his God.' And, after these things,\nthe re-establishment of religion and this 'faithfulness,' though\nHezekiah was perfect before God in all ritual observances and in\npractical righteousness, and though he was seeking the Lord his God\nwith all his heart, here is what came of it:--'After this faithfulness\ncame' not blessings or prosperity, but 'Sennacherib, king of Assyria'!\nThe chronicler not only tells this as singular, but one can feel that\nhe is staggered by it. There is a tone of perplexity and wonder in his\nvoice as he records that _this_ was what followed the faithful\nrighteousness and heart-devotion of the best king that ever sat on the\nthrone of Judah. I think that this royal martyr's experience is really\na mirror of the experience of devout men in all ages and a revelation\nof the great law and constant processes of the Divine Providence. And\nfrom that point of view I wish to speak now, not only on the words I\nhave read, but on what follows them.\n\nI. We have here the statement of the mystery.\n\nIt is the standing puzzle of the Old Testament, how good men come to\nbe troubled, and how bad men come to be prosperous. And although we\nChristian men and women are a great deal too apt to suppose that we\nhave outlived that rudimentary puzzle of the religious mind, yet I do\nnot think by any means that we have. For we hear men, when the rod\nfalls upon themselves, saying, 'What have I done that I should be\nsmitten thus?' or when their friends suffer, saying, 'What a\nmarvellous thing it is that such a good man as A, B, or C should have\nso much trouble!' or, when widespread calamities strike a community,\nstanding aghast at the broad and dark shadows that fall upon a nation\nor a continent, and wondering what the meaning of all this heaped\nmisery is, and why the world is thus allowed to run along its course\nsurrounded by an atmosphere made up of the breath of sighs, and\nswathed in clouds which are moist with tears.\n\nMy text gives us an illustration in the sharpest form of the mystery.\n'After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib came'--and he\nalways comes in one shape or another. For, to begin with, a good man's\ngoodness does not lift him out of the ordinary associations and\ncontingencies and laws of life. If he has inherited a diseased\nconstitution, his devotion will not make him a healthy man. If he has\nlittle common sense, his godliness will not make him prosper in\nworldly affairs. If he is tied to unfortunate connections, he will\nhave to suffer. If he happens to be in a decaying branch of business,\nhis prayers will not make him prosperous. If he falls in the way of\npoisonous gas from a sewer, his godliness will not exempt him from an\nattack of fever. So all round the horizon we see this: that the godly\nman is involved like any other man in the ordinary contingencies and\npossible evils of life. Then, have we to say that God has nothing to\ndo with these?\n\nAgain, Hezekiah's story teaches us how second causes are God's\ninstruments, and He is at the back of everything. There are two\nsources of our knowledge of the history of Judah in the time with\nwhich we are concerned. One is the Bible, the other is the Assyrian\nmonuments; and it is a most curious contrast to read the two\nnarratives of the same events, agreeing about the facts, but\ndisagreeing utterly in the spirit. Why? Because the one tells the\nstory from the world's point of view, and the other tells it from\nGod's point of view. So when you take the one narrative, it is simply\nthis: 'There was a conspiracy down in the south against the political\nsupremacy of Assyria, and a lot of little confederate kinglets\ngathered themselves; and Hezekiah, of Judah, was one, along with\nSo-and-So of such-and-such a petty land, and they leaned upon Egypt;\nand I, Sennacherib, came down among them, and they tumbled to pieces,\nand that is all.' Then the Bible comes in, and it says that God\nordered all those political complications, and that they were all the\nworking out of His purposes, and that 'the axe in His hand' as Isaiah\nhas it so picturesquely, was this proud king of Assyria, with his\nboastful mouth and vainglorious words.\n\nNow, that is the principle by which we have to estimate all the events\nthat befall us. There are two ways of looking at them. You may look at\nthem from the under side or from the top side. You may see them as\nthey appear to men who cannot look beyond their noses and only have\nconcern with the visible cranks and shafting, or you may look at them\nfrom the engine-room and take account of the invisible power that\ndrives them all. In the one case you will regard it as a mystery that\ngood men should have to suffer so; in the other case, you will say,\n'It is the Lord, let Him do'--even when He does it through Sennacherib\nand his like, 'let Him do what seemeth Him good.'\n\nThen there is another thing to be taken into account--that is, that\nthe better a man is, the more faithful he is and the more closely he\ncleaves to God, and seeks, like this king, to do, with all his heart,\nall his work in the service of the House of God and to seek his God,\nthe more sure is he to bring down upon himself certain forms of\ntrouble and trial. The rebellion which, from the Assyrian side of the\nriver, seemed to be a mere political revolt, from the Jordan side of\nthe river seemed to be closely connected with the religious\nreformation. And it was just because Hezekiah and his people came back\nto God that they rebelled against the King of Assyria and served him\nnot. If you provoke Sennacherib, Sennacherib will be down upon you\nvery quickly. That is to say, being translated, if you will live like\nChristian men and women and fling down the gage of battle to the world\nand to the evil that lies in every one of us, and say, 'No, I have\nnothing to do with you. My law is not your law, and, God helping me,\nmy practice shall not be your practice,' then you will find out that\nthe power that you have defied has a very long arm and a very tight\ngrasp, and you will have to make up your minds that, in some shape or\nother, the old law will be fulfilled about you. Through much\ntribulation we must enter the Kingdom.\n\nII. Now, secondly, my text and its context solve the mystery which it\nraises.\n\nThe chronicler, as I said, wishes us to notice the sequence, strange\nas it is, and to wonder at it for a moment, in order that we may be\nprepared the better to take in the grand explanation that follows. And\nthe explanation lies in the facts that ensue.\n\nDid Sennacherib come to destroy? By no means! Here were the results:\nfirst, a stirring to wholesome energy and activity. If annoyances and\ntroubles and sorrows, great or small, do nothing else for us, they\nwould be clear and simple gain if they woke us up, for the half of men\npass half of their lives half-asleep. And anybody that has ever come\nthrough a great sorrow and can remember what deep fountains were\nopened in his heart that he knew nothing about before, and how powers\nthat were all unsuspected by himself suddenly came to him, and how\nlife, instead of being a trivial succession of nothings, all at once\nbecame significant and solemn--any man who can remember that, will\nfeel that if there were nothing else that his troubles did for him\nthan to shake him out of torpor and rouse him to a tension of\nwholesome activity, so that he cried out:\n\n  'Call forth thy powers, my soul! and dare\n  The conflict of unequal war,'\n\nhe would have occasion to bless God for the roughest handling. The\ntropics are very pleasant for lazy people, but they sap the\nconstitution and make work impossible; and after a man has lived for a\nwhile in their perpetual summer, he begins to long for damp and mist\nand frost and east winds which bring bracing to the system and make\nhim fit to work. God takes us often into very ungenial climates, and\nthe vindication of it is that we may be set to active service. That\nwas the first good thing that Sennacherib's coming did.\n\nThe next was that his invasion increased dependence upon God. You will\nremember the story of the insolent taunts and vulgar vaunting by him\nand his servants, and the one answer that was given: 'Hezekiah, the\nking, and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, prayed and cried to\nGod.' Ah! dear brethren, any thing that drives us to His breast is\nblessing. We may call it evil when we speak from the point of view of\nthe foolish senses and the quivering heart, but if it blows us into\nHis arms, any wind, the roughest and the fiercest, is to be welcomed\nmore than lazy calms or gentle zephyrs. If, realising our own weakness\nand impotence, we are made to hang more completely upon Him, then let\nus be thankful for whatever has been the means of such a blessed\nissue. That was the second good thing that Sennacherib did.\n\nThe third good thing that he--not exactly did--but that was done\nthrough him, was that experience of God's delivering power was\nenriched. You remember the miracle of the destruction of the army. I\nneed not dilate upon it. A man who can look back and say, 'Thou hast\nbeen with me in six troubles,' need never be afraid of the seventh;\nand he who has hung upon that strong rope when he has been swinging\naway down in the darkness and asphyxiating atmosphere of the pit, and\nhas been drawn up into the sunshine again, will trust it for all\ncoming time. If there were no other explanation, the enlarged and\ndeepened experience of the realities of God's Gospel and of God's\ngrace, which are bought only by sorrow, would be a sufficient\nexplanation of any sorrow that any of us have ever had to carry.\n\n  'Well roars the storm to him who hears\n  A deeper voice across the storm.'\n\nThere are large tracts of Scripture which have no meaning, no\nblessedness to us until they have been interpreted to us by losses and\nsorrows. We never know the worth of the lighthouse until the November\ndarkness and the howling winds come down upon us, and then we\nappreciate its preciousness.\n\nSo, dear friends! the upshot of the whole is just that old teaching,\nthat if we realised what life is for, we should wonder less at the\nsorrows that are in it. For life is meant to make us partakers of His\nholiness, not to make us happy. Our happiness is a secondary purpose,\nnot out of view of the Divine love, but it is not the primary one. And\nthe direct intention and mission of sorrow, like the direct intention\nand mission of joy, are to further that great purpose, that we 'should\nbe partakers of His holiness.' 'Every branch in Me that beareth fruit,\nHe purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.'\n\nIII. Lastly, my text suggests a warning against letting prosperity\nundo adversity's work.\n\nHezekiah came bravely through his trials. They did exactly what God\nwanted them to do; they drove him to God, they forced him down upon\nhis knees. When Sennacherib's letter came, he took it to the Temple\nand spread it before God, and said, 'O Lord! it is Thy business. It is\naddressed to me, but it is meant for Thee; do Thou answer it.' And so\nhe received the help that he wanted. But he broke down after that. He\nwas 'exalted'; and the allies, his neighbours, that had not lifted a\nfinger to help him when he needed their help, sent him presents which\nwould have been a great deal more seasonable when he was struggling\nfor his life with Sennacherib. What 'came after (God's) faithfulness'?\nThis--'his heart was lifted up, and he rendered not according to the\nbenefit rendered to him.' Therefore the blow had to come down again. A\ngreat many people take refuge in archways when it rains, and run out\nas soon as it holds up, and a great many people take religion as an\numbrella, to put down when the sunshine comes. We cross the bridge and\nforget it, and when the leprosy is out of us we do not care to go back\nand give thanks. Sometimes too, we begin to think, 'After all, it was\nwe that killed Sennacherib's army, and not the angel.' And so, like\ndull scholars, we need the lesson repeated once, twice, thrice, 'here\na little and there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line.'\nThere is none of us that has so laid to heart our past difficulties\nand trials that it is safe for God to burn the rod as long as we are\nin this life.\n\nDear friends! do not let it be said of us, 'In vain have I smitten thy\nchildren. They have received no correction'; but rather let us keep\nclose to Him, and seek to learn the sweet and loving meaning of His\nsharpest strokes. Then the little book, 'written within and without\nwith lamentation and woe,' which we all in our turn have to absorb and\nmake our own, may be 'bitter in the mouth,' but will be 'sweet as\nhoney' thereafter.\n\n\n\nMANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE\n\n'So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and\nto do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the\nchildren of Israel. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his\npeople: but they would not hearken. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought\nupon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took\nManasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him\nto Babylon. 12. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord\nhis God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,\n13. And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his\nsupplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.\nThen Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God. 14. Now after this he\nbuilt a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in\nthe valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed\nabout Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of\nwar in all the fenced cities of Judah. 15. And he took away the\nstrange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the\naltars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in\nJerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16. And he repaired the\naltar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank\nofferings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.'--2\nCHRON. xxxiii. 9-16.\n\n\nThe story of Manasseh's sin and repentance may stand as a typical\nexample. Its historical authenticity is denied on the ground that it\nappears only in this Book of Chronicles. I must leave others to\ndiscuss that matter; my purpose is to bring out the teaching contained\nin the story.\n\nThe first point in it is the stern indictment against Manasseh and his\npeople. The experience which has saddened many a humbler home was\nrepeated in the royal house, where a Hezekiah was followed by a\nManasseh, who scorned all that his father had worshipped, and\nworshipped all that his father had loathed. Happily the father's eyes\nwere closed long before the idolatrous bias of his son could have\ndisclosed itself. Succeeding to the throne at twelve years of age, he\ncould not have begun his evil ways at once, and probably would have\nbeen preserved from them if his father had lived long enough to mould\nhis character. A child of twelve, flung on to a throne, was likely to\ncatch the infection of any sin that was in the atmosphere. The\nnarrative specifies two points in which, as he matured in years, and\nwas confirmed in his course of conduct, he went wrong: first, in his\nidolatry; and second, in his contempt of remonstrances and warnings.\nAs to the former, the preceding context gives a terrible picture. He\nwas smitten with a very delirium of idolatry, and wallowed in any and\nevery sort of false worship. No matter what strange god was presented,\nthere were hospitality, an altar, and an offering for him. Baal,\nMoloch, 'the host of heaven,' wizards, enchanters, anybody who\npretended to have any sort of black art, all were welcome, and the\nmore the better. No doubt, this eager acceptance of a miscellaneous\nmultitude of deities was partly reaction from the monotheism of the\nformer reign, but also it was the natural result of being surrounded\nby the worshippers of these various gods; and it was an unconscious\nconfession of the insufficiency of each and all of them to fill the\nvoid in the heart, and satisfy the needs of the spirit. There are\n'gods many, and lords many,' because they are insufficient; 'the Lord\nour God is one Lord,' because He, in His single Self, is more than all\nthese, and is enough for any and every man.\n\nWe may note, too, that at the beginning of the chapter Manasseh is\nsaid to have done '_like_ unto the abominations of the heathen,'\nwhile in verse 9 he is said to have done 'evil _more_ than did\nthe nations.' When a worshipper of Jehovah does _like_ the\nheathen, he does _worse_ than they. An apostate Christian is more\nguilty than one who has never 'tasted the good word of God,' and is\nlikely to push his sins to a more flagrant wickedness. 'The corruption\nof the best is the worst.' We cannot do what the world does without\nbeing more deeply guilty than they.\n\nThe narrative lays stress on the fact that the king's inclination to\nidolatry was agreeable to the people. The kings, who fought against\nit, had to resist the popular current, but at the least encouragement\nfrom those in high places the nation was ready to slide back. Rulers\nwho wish to lower the standard of morality or religion have an easy\ntask; but the people who follow their lead are not free from guilt,\nthough they can plead that they only followed. The second count in the\nindictment is the refusal of king and people to listen to God's\nremonstrances. 2 Kings, chap, xxi., gives the prophets' warnings at\ngreater length. 'They would not hearken'--can anything madder and\nsadder be said of any of us than that? Is it not the very sin of sins,\nand the climax of suicidal folly, that God should call and men stop\ntheir ears? And yet how many of us pay no more regard to His voice, in\nHis providences, in our own consciences, in history, in Scripture,\nand, most penetrating and beseeching of all, in Christ, than to idle\nwind whistling through an archway! Our own evil deeds stop our ears,\nand the stopped ears make further evil deeds more easy.\n\nThe second step in this typical story is merciful chastisement, meant\nto secure a hearing for God's voice. 2 Kings tells the threat, but not\nthe fulfilment; Chronicles tells the fulfilment, but not the threat.\nWe note how emphatically God's hand is recognised behind the political\ncomplications which brought the Assyrians to Jerusalem, and how\nparticularly it is stated that the invasion was not headed by\nEsarhaddon, but by his generals. The place of Manasseh's captivity\nalso is specified, not as Nineveh, as might have been expected, but as\nBabylon. These details, especially the last, look like genuine\nhistory. It is history which carries a lesson. Here is one conspicuous\ninstance of the divine method, which is working to-day as it did then.\nGod's hand is behind the secondary causes of events. Our sorrows and\n'misfortunes' are sent to us by Him, not hurled at us by human hands\nonly, or occurring by the working of impersonal laws. They are meant\nto make us bethink ourselves, and drop evil things from our hands and\nhearts. It is best to be guided by His eye, and not need 'bit and\nbridle'; but if we make ourselves stubborn as 'the mule, which has no\nunderstanding,' it is second best that we should taste the whip, that\nit may bring us to run in harness on the road which He wills. If we\nhabitually looked at calamities as His loving chastisement, intended\nto draw us to Himself, we should not have to stand perplexed so often\nat what we call the mysteries of His providence.\n\nThe next step in the story is the yielding of the sinful heart when\nsmitten. The worst affliction is an affliction wasted, which does us\nno good. And God has often to lament, 'In vain have I smitten your\nchildren; they received no correction.' Sorrow has in itself no power\nto effect the purpose for which it is sent; but all depends on how we\ntake it. It sometimes makes us hard, bitter, obstinate in clinging to\nevil. A heart that has been disciplined by it, and still is\nundisciplined, is like iron hammered on an anvil, and made the more\nclose-grained thereby. But this king took his chastisement wisely. An\naccepted sorrow is an angel in disguise, and nothing which drives us\nto God is a calamity. Manasseh praying was freer in his chains than\never he had been in his prosperity. Manasseh humbling himself greatly\nbefore God was higher than when, in the pride of his heart, he shut\nGod out from it.\n\nAffliction should clear our sight, that we may see ourselves as we\nare; and, if we do, there will be an end of high looks, and we shall\n'take the lowest room.' Thus humbled, we shall pray as the\nself-confident and outwardly prosperous cannot do. Sorrow has done its\nbest on us when, like some strong hand on our shoulders, it has\nbrought us to our knees. No affliction has yielded its full blessing\nto us unless it has thus set us by Manasseh's side.\n\nThe next step in the story is the loving answer to the humbled heart,\nand the restoration to the kingdom. 'He was entreated of him.' No\ndoubt, political circumstances brought about Manasseh's reinstatement,\nas they had brought about his captivity, but it was God that 'brought\nhim again to his kingdom.' We may not receive again lost good things,\nbut we may be quite sure that God never fails to hear the cry of the\nhumble, and that, if there is one voice that more surely reaches His\near and moves His heart than another, it is the voice of His chastened\nchildren, who cry to Him out of the depths, and there have learned\ntheir own sin and sore need. He will be entreated of them, and,\nwhether He gives back lost good or not, He will give Himself, in whom\nall good is comprehended. Manasseh's experience may be repeated in us.\n\nAnd the best part of it was, not that he received back his kingdom,\nbut that 'then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.' The name had\nbeen but a name to him, but now it had become a reality. Our\ntraditional, second-hand belief in God is superficial and largely\nunreal till it is deepened and vivified by experience. If we have\ncried to Him, and been lightened, then we have a ground of conviction\nthat cannot be shaken. Formerly we could at most say, 'I believe in\nGod,' or, 'I think there is a God,' but now we can say, 'I know,' and\nno criticism nor contradiction can shake that. Such knowledge is not\nthe knowledge won by the understanding alone, but it is acquaintance\nwith a living Person, like the knowledge which loving souls have of\neach other; and he who has that knowledge as the issue of his own\nexperience may smile at doubts and questionings, and say with the\nApostle of Love, 'We know that we are of God, ... and we know that the\nSon of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may\nknow Him that is true.' Then, if we have that knowledge, we shall\nlisten to the same Apostle's commandment, 'Keep yourselves from\nidols,' even as the issue of Manasseh's knowledge of God was that 'he\ntook away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the\nLord.'\n\n\n\nJOSIAH\n\n'Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in\nJerusalem one and thirty years. 2. And he did that which was right in\nthe sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and\ndeclined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 3. For in the\neighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek\nafter the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to\npurge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and\nthe carved images, and the molten images. 4. And they brake down the\naltars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high\nabove them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and\nthe molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and\nstrowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5.\nAnd he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed\nJudah and Jerusalem. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and\nEphraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round\nabout. 7. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and\nhad beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols\nthroughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8. Now in\nthe eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the\nhouse, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor\nof the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the\nhouse of the Lord his God. 9. And when they came to Hilkiah the high\npriest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of\nGod, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of\nManasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all\nJudah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem. 10. And they put\nit in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of\nthe Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of\nthe Lord, to repair and amend the house: 11. Even to the artificers\nand builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for\ncouplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had\ndestroyed. 12. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers\nof them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari;\nand Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it\nforward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments\nof musick. 13. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were\noverseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and\nof the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.'--2\nCHRON. xxxiv. 1-13.\n\n\nAnother boy king, even younger than his grandfather Manasseh had been\nat his accession, and another reversal of the father's religion! These\nvibrations from idolatry to Jehovah-worship, at the pleasure of the\nking, sadly tell how little the people cared whom they worshipped, and\nhow purely a matter of ceremonies and names both their idolatry and\ntheir Jehovah-worship were. The religion of the court was the religion\nof the nation, only idolatry was more congenial than the service of\nGod. How far the child monarch Josiah had a deeper sense of what that\nservice meant we cannot decide, but the little outline sketch of him\nin verses 2 and 3 is at least suggestive of his having it, and may\nwell stand as a fair portrait of early godliness.\n\nA child eight years old, who had been lifted on to the throne of a\nmurdered father, must have had a strong will and a love of goodness to\nhave resisted the corrupting influences of royalty in a land full of\nidols. Here again we see that, great as may be the power of\ncircumstances, they do not determine character; for it is always open\nto us either to determine whether we yield to them or resist them. The\nprevailing idolatry influenced the boy, but it influenced him to hate\nit with all his heart. So out of the nettle danger we may pluck the\nflower safety. The men who have smitten down some evil institution\nhave generally been brought up so as to feel its full force.\n\n'He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah'--that may mean\nsimply that he worshipped Jehovah by outward ceremonies, but it\nprobably means more; namely, that his life was pure and God-pleasing,\nor, as we should say, clean and moral, free from the foul vices which\nsolicit a young prince. 'He walked in the ways of David his\nfather'--not being one of the 'emancipated' youths who think it manly\nto throw off the restraints of their fathers' faith and morals. He\n'turned not aside to the right hand or to the left'--but marched right\nonwards on the road that conscience traced out for him, though\ntempting voices called to him from many a side-alley that seemed to\nlead to pleasant places. 'While he was yet young, he began to seek\nafter the God of David his father'--at the critical age of sixteen,\nwhen Easterns are older than we, in the flush of early manhood, he\nawoke to deeper experiences and felt the need for a closer touch of\nGod. A career thus begun will generally prelude a life pure,\nstrenuous, and blessed with a clearer and clearer vision of the God\nwho is always found of them that seek Him. Such a childhood,\nblossoming into such a boyhood, and flowering in such a manhood, is\npossible to every child among us. It will 'still bring forth fruit in\nold age.'\n\nThe two incidents which the passage narrates, the purging of the land\nand the repair of the Temple, are told in inverted order in 2 Kings,\nbut the order here is probably the more accurate, as dates are given,\nwhereas in 2 Kings, though the purging is related after the Temple\nrestoration, it is not said to have occurred after. But the order is\nof small consequence. What is important is the fiery energy of Josiah\nin the work of destruction of the idols. Here, there, everywhere, he\nflames and consumes. He darts a flash even into the desolate ruins of\nthe Israelitish kingdom, where the idols had survived their devotees\nand still bewitched the scanty fragments of Israel that remained. The\naltars of stone were thrown down, the wooden sun-pillars were cut to\npieces, the metal images were broken and ground to powder. A clean\nsweep was made.\n\nA dash of ferocity mingled with contempt appears in Josiah's\nscattering the 'dust' of the images on the graves of their\nworshippers, as if he said: 'There you lie together, pounded idols and\ndead worshippers, neither able to help the other!' The same feelings\nprompted digging up the skeletons of priests and burning the bones on\nthe very altars that they had served, thus defiling the altars and\nexecuting judgment on the priests. No doubt there were much violence\nand a strong strain of the 'wrath of man' in all this. Iconoclasts are\nwont to be 'violent'; and men without convictions, or who are\npartisans of what the iconoclasts are rooting out, are horrified at\ntheir want of 'moderation.' But though violence is always unchristian,\nindifference to rampant evils is not conspicuously more Christian,\nand, on the whole, you cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude\nor without using some force to compress the sinuous neck.\n\nThe restoration of the Temple comes after the cleansing of the land,\nin Chronicles, and naturally in the order of events, for the casting\nout of idols must always precede the building or repairing of the\nTemple of God. Destructive work is very poor unless it is for the\npurpose of clearing a space to build the Temple on. Happy the man or\nthe age which is able to do both! Josiah and Joash worked at restoring\nthe Temple in much the same fashion, but Josiah had a priesthood more\ninterested than Joash had.\n\nBut we may note one or two points in his restoration. He had put his\npersonal effort into the preparatory extirpation of idols, but he did\nnot need to do so now. He could work this time by deputy. And it is\nnoteworthy that he chose 'laymen' to carry out the restoration.\nPerhaps he knew how Joash had been balked by the knavery of the\npriests who were diligent in collecting money, but slow in spending it\non the Temple. At all events, he delegated the work to three\nhighly-placed officials, the secretary of state, the governor of\nJerusalem, and the official historian.\n\nIt appears that for some time a collection had been going on for\nTemple repairs; probably it had been begun six years before, when the\n'purging' of the land began. It had been carried on by the Levites,\nand had been contributed to even by 'the remnant of Israel' in the\nnorthern kingdom, who, in their forlorn weakness, had begun to feel\nthe drawings of ancient brotherhood and the tie of a common worship.\nThis fund was in the keeping of the high priest, and the three\ncommissioners were instructed to require it from him. Here 2 Kings is\nclearer than our passage, and shows that what the three officials had\nmainly to do was to get the money from Hilkiah, and to hand it over to\nthe superintendents of the works.\n\nThere are two remarkable points in the narrative; one is the\nobservation that 'the men did the work faithfully,' which comes in\nrather enigmatically here, but in 2 Kings is given as the reason why\nno accounts were kept. Not an example to be imitated, and the sure way\nto lead subordinates sooner or later to deal unfaithfully; but a\npleasant indication of the spirit animating all concerned.\n\nSurely these men worked 'as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That\nis what makes us work faithfully, whether we have any earthly overseer\nor audit or no. Another noteworthy matter is that not only were the\nsuperintendents of the work--the 'contractors,' as we might\nsay--Levites, but so were also the inferior superintendents, or, as we\nmight say, 'foremen.'\n\nAnd not only so, but they were those that 'were skilful with\ninstruments of music.' What were musicians doing there? Did the\nbuilding rise\n\n  'with the sound\n  Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet?'\n\nMay we not gather from this singular notice the great thought that for\nall rearing of the true Temple, harps of praise are no less necessary\nthan swords or trowels, and that we shall do no right work for God or\nman unless we do it as with melody in our hearts? Our lives must be\nfull of music if we are to lay even one stone in the Temple.\n\n\n\nJOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW\n\n'And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house\nof the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord\ngiven by Moses. 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the\nscribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And\nHilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan carried the book\nto the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that\nwas committed to thy servants, they do it. 17. And they have gathered\ntogether the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have\ndelivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the\nworkmen. 18. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah\nthe priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.\n19. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law,\nthat he rent his clothes. 20. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and\nAhikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the\nscribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying, 21. Go, enquire of\nthe Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah,\nconcerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath\nof the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not\nkept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this\nbook. 22. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to\nHuldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son\nof Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the\ncollege;) and they spake to her to that effect. 23. And she answered\nthem, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you\nto me. 24. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this\nplace, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are\nwritten in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: 25.\nBecause they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other\ngods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their\nhands; therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and\nshall not be quenched. 26. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you\nto enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord\nGod of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; 27. Because\nthine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when\nthou heardest His words against this place, and against the\ninhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before Me, and did rendst\nthy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith\nthe Lord. 28. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou\nshalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see\nall the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the\ninhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.'--2\nCHRON. xxxiv. 14-28.\n\n\nAbout one hundred years separated Hezekiah's restoration from\nJosiah's. Neither was more than a momentary arrest of the strong tide\nrunning in the opposite direction; and Josiah's was too near the edge\nof the cataract to last, or to avert the plunge. There is nothing more\ntragical than the working of the law which often sets the children's\nteeth on edge by reason of the fathers' eating of sour grapes.\n\nI. The first point in this passage is the discovery of the book of the\nLaw.\n\nThe book had been lost before it was found. For how long we do not\nknow, but the fact that it had been so carelessly kept is eloquent of\nthe indifference of priests and kings, its appointed guardians.\nLawbreakers have a direct interest in getting rid of lawbooks, just as\nshopkeepers who use short yardsticks and light weights are not anxious\nthe standards should be easily accessible. If we do not make God's law\nour guide, we shall wish to put it out of sight, that it may not be\nour accuser. What more sad or certain sign of evil can there be than\nthat we had rather not 'hear what God the Lord will speak'?\n\nThe straightforward story of our passage gives a most natural\nexplanation of the find. Hilkiah was likely to have had dark corners\ncleared out in preparation for repairs and in storing the\nsubscriptions, and many a mislaid thing would turn up. If it be\npossible that the book of the Law should have been neglected (and the\nreligious corruption of the last hundred years makes that only too\ncertain), its discovery in some dusty recess is very intelligible, and\nwould not have been doubted but for the exigencies of a theory.\n'Reading between the lines' is fascinating, but risky; for the reader\nis very likely unconsciously to do what Hilkiah is said to have\ndone--namely, to invent what he thinks he finds.\n\nAccepting the narrative as it stands, we may see in it a striking\ninstance of the indestructibleness of God's Word. His law is\nimperishable, and its written embodiment seems as if it, too, had a\ncharmed life. When we consider the perils attending the transmission\nof ancient manuscripts, the necessary scarcity of copies before the\ninvention of printing, the scattering of the Jewish people, it does\nappear as if a divine hand had guarded the venerable book. How came\nthis strange people, who never kept their Law, to swim through all\ntheir troubles, like Caesar with his commentaries between his teeth,\nbearing aloft and dry, the Word which they obeyed so badly? 'Write it\n... in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.'\nThe permanence of the written Word, the providence that has watched\nover it, the romantic history of its preservation through ages of\nneglect, and the imperishable gift to the world of an objective\nstandard of duty, remaining the same from age to age, are all\nsuggested by this reappearance of the forgotten Law.\n\nIt may suggest, too, that honest efforts after reformation are usually\nrewarded by clearer knowledge of God's will. If Hilkiah had not been\nbusy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book\nin its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the\ndiscovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not\nbelieve in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance\nof His sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment. It is not\nthe first time nor the last that the attempt to keep God's law has led\nto larger knowledge of the law. It is not the first time nor the last\nthat God has sent to His faithful servants an opportune gift. What the\nworld calls accidental coincidence deeper wisdom discerns to be the\ntouch of God's hand.\n\nAgain, the discovery reminds us that the true basis of all religious\nreform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but\nhe did not know till he heard the Law read how great the task was\nwhich he had taken in hand. That recovered book gave impulse and\ndirection to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of\nthe Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as\na symbol of the whole, Luther's finding the dusty Latin Bible among\nthe neglected convent books. The only reformation for an effete or\nsecularised church is in its return to the Bible. Faded flowers will\nlift up their heads when plunged in water. The old Bible, discovered\nand applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or\nmoribund Christianity.\n\nII. The next point here is the effect of the rediscovered Law. Shaphan\nwas closely connected with Josiah, as his office made him a confidant.\nIt is ordinarily taken for granted that he and the other persons named\nin this lesson formed a little knot of earnest Jehovah worshippers,\nfully sympathising with the Reformation, and that among them lay the\nauthorship of the book. But we know nothing about them except what is\ntold here and in the parallel in Kings. One of them, Ahikam, was a\nfriend and protector of Jeremiah, and Shaphan the scribe was the\nfather of another of Jeremiah's friends. They may all have been in\naccord with the king, or they may not.\n\nAt all events, Shaphan took the book to Josiah. We can picture the\nscene--the deepening awe of both men as the whole extent of the\nnation's departure from God became clearer and clearer, the tremulous\ntones of the reader, and the silent, fixed attention of the listener\nas the solemn threatenings came from Shaphan's reluctant, pallid lips.\nThere was enough in them to touch a harder heart than Josiah's. We\ncannot suppose that, knowing the history of the past, and being\nsufficiently enlightened to 'seek after the God of David his father,'\nhe did not know in a general way that sin meant sorrow, and national\ndisobedience national death. But we all have the faculty of blunting\nthe cutting edge of truth, especially if it has been familiar, so that\nsome novelty in the manner of its presentation, or even its repetition\nwithout novelty sometimes, may turn commonplace and impotent truth\ninto a mighty instrument to shake and melt.\n\nSo it seems to have been with Josiah. Whether new or old, the Word\nfound him as it had never done before. The venerable copy from which\nShaphan read, the coincidence of its discovery just then, the\ndishonour done to it for so long, may all have helped the impression.\nHowever it arose, it was made. If a man will give God's Word a fair\nhearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees.\nNo man rightly uses God's law who is not convinced by it of his sin,\nand impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes\nwere the passionate expression. Josiah was wise when he did not turn\nhis thoughts to other people's sins, but began with his own, even\nwhilst he included others. The first function of the law is to arouse\nthe knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that\npenitent knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely\nexternal. Unless we 'abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes,'\nScripture has not done its work on us, and all our reading of it is in\nvain. Nor is there any good reason why familiarity with it should\nweaken its power. But, alas! it too often does. How many of us would\nstand in awe of God's judgments if we heard them for the first time,\nbut listen to them unmoved, as to thunder without lightning, merely\nbecause wo know them so well! That is a reason for attending to them,\nnot for neglecting.\n\nJosiah's sense of sin led him to long for a further word from God; and\nso he called these attendants named in verse 20, and sent them to\n'enquire of the Lord ... concerning the words of the book.' What more\ndid he wish to know? The words were plain enough, and their\napplication to Israel and him indubitable. Clearly, he could only wish\nto know whether there was any possibility of averting the judgments,\nand, if so, what was the means. The awakened conscience instinctively\nfeels that threatenings cannot be God's last words to it, but must\nhave been given that they might not need to be fulfilled. We do not\nrightly sorrow for sin unless it quickens in us a desire for a word\nfrom God to tell us how to escape. The Law prepares for the Gospel,\nand is incomplete without it. 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die,'\ncannot be all which a God of pity and love has to say. A faint promise\nof life lies in the very fact of threatening death, faint indeed, but\nsufficient to awaken earnest desire for yet another word from the\nLord. We rightly use the solemn revelations of God's law when we are\ndriven by them to cry, 'What must I do to be saved?'\n\nIII. So we come to the last point, the double-edged message of the\nprophetess. Josiah does not seem to have told his messengers where to\ngo; but they knew, and went straight to a very unlikely person, the\nwife of an obscure man, only known as his father's son. Where was\nJeremiah of Anathoth? Perhaps not in the city at the time. There had\nbeen prophetesses in Israel before. Miriam, Deborah, the wife of\nIsaiah, are instances of 'your daughters' prophesying; and this\nembassy to Huldah is in full accord with the high position which women\nheld in that state, of which the framework was shaped by God Himself.\nIn Christ Jesus 'there is neither male nor female,' and Judaism\napproximated much more closely to that ideal than other lands did.\n\nHuldah's message has two parts: one the confirmation of the\nthreatenings of the Law; one the assurance to Josiah of acceptance of\nhis repentance and gracious promise of escape from the coming storm.\nThese two are precisely equivalent to the double aspect of the Gospel,\nwhich completes the Law, endorsing its sentence and pointing the way\nof escape.\n\nNote that the former part addresses Josiah as 'the man that sent you,'\nbut the latter names him. The embassy had probably not disclosed his\nname, and Huldah at first keeps up the veil, since the personality of\nthe sender had nothing to do with her answer; but when she comes to\nspeak of pardon and God's favour, there must be no vagueness in the\ndestination of the message, and the penitent heart must be tenderly\nbound up by a word from God straight to itself. The threatenings are\ngeneral, but each single soul that is sorry for sin may take as its\nvery own the promise of forgiveness. God's great 'Whosoever' is for me\nas certainly as if my name stood on the page.\n\nThe terrible message of the inevitableness of the destruction hanging\nover Jerusalem is precisely parallel with the burden of all Jeremiah's\nteaching. It was too late to avert the fall. The external judgments\nmust come now, for the emphasis of the prophecy is in its last words,\nit 'shall not be quenched.' But that did not mean that repentance was\ntoo late to alter the whole character of the punishment, which would\nbe fatherly chastisement if meekly accepted. So, too, Jeremiah taught,\nwhen he exhorted submission to the 'Chaldees.' It is never too late to\nseek mercy, though it may be too late to hope for averting the outward\nconsequences of sin.\n\nAs for Josiah, his penitence was accepted, and he was assured that he\nwould be gathered to his fathers. That expression, as is clear from\nthe places where it occurs, is not a synonym for either death or\nburial, from both of which it is distinguished, but is a dim promise\nof being united, beyond the grave, with the fathers, who, in some one\ncondition, which we may call a place, are gathered into a restful\ncompany, and wander no more as pilgrims and sojourners in this lonely\nand changeful life.\n\nJosiah died in battle. Was that going to his grave in peace? Surely\nyes! if, dying, he felt God's presence, and in the darkness saw a\ngreat light. He who thus dies, though it be in the thick of battle,\nand with his heart's blood pouring from an arrow-wound down on the\nfloor of the chariot, dies in peace, and into peace.\n\n\n\nTHE FALL OF JUDAH\n\n'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and\nreigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12. And he did that which was evil\nin the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before\nJeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. 13. And he\nalso rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by\nGod: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning\nunto the Lord God of Israel. 14. Moreover all the chief of the\npriests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the\nabominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which\nhe had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15. And the Lord God of their fathers\nsent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending;\nbecause He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place:\n16. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and\nmisused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His\npeople, till there was no remedy. 17. Therefore he brought upon them\nthe king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in\nthe house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or\nmaiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into\nhis hand. 18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and\nsmall, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures\nof the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19.\nAnd they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem,\nand burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the\ngoodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword\ncarried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his\nsons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. To fulfil the word\nof the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her\nsabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil\nthreescore and ten years.'--2 CHRON. xxxvi 11-21.\n\n\nBigness is not greatness, nor littleness smallness. Nebuchadnezzar's\nconquest of Judah was, in his eyes, one of the least important of his\nmany victories, but it is the only one of them which survives in the\nworld's memory and keeps his name as a household word. The Jews were a\nmere handful, and their country a narrow strip of land between the\ndesert and the sea; but little Judaea, like little Greece, has taught\nthe world. The tragedy of its fall has importance quite\ndisproportioned to its apparent magnitude. Our passage brings together\nJudah's sin and Judah's punishment, and we shall best gather the\nlessons of its fall by following the order of the text.\n\nConsider the sin. There is nothing more remarkable than the tone in\nwhich the chronicler, like all the Old Testament writers, deals with\nthe national sin. Patriotic historians make it a point of pride and\nduty to gloss over their country's faults, but these singular\nnarrators paint them as strongly as they can. Their love of their\ncountry impels them to 'make known to Israel its transgression and to\nJudah its sin.' There are tears in their eyes, as who can doubt? But\nthere is no faltering in their voices as they speak. A higher feeling\nthan misguided 'patriotism' moves them. Loyalty to Israel's God forces\nthem to deal honestly with Israel's sin. That is the highest kind of\nlove of country, and might well be commended to loudmouthed 'patriots'\nin modern lands.\n\nLook at the piled-up clauses of the long indictment of Judah in verses\n12 to 16. Slow, passionless, unsparing, the catalogue enumerates the\nwhole black list. It is like the long-drawn blast of the angel of\njudgment's trumpet. Any trace of heated emotion would have weakened\nthe impression. The nation's sin was so crimson as to need no\nheightening of colour. With like judicial calmness, with like\ncompleteness, omitting nothing, does 'the book,' which will one day be\nopened, set down every man's deeds, and he will be 'judged according\nto the things that are written in this book.' Some of us will find our\npage sad reading.\n\nBut the points brought out in this indictment are instructive. Judah's\nidolatry and 'trespass after all the abominations of the heathen' is,\nof course, prominent, but the spirit which led to their idolatry,\nrather than the idolatry itself, is dwelt on. Zedekiah's doing 'evil\nin the sight of the Lord' is regarded as aggravated by his not\nhumbling himself before Jeremiah, and the head and front of his\noffending is that 'he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from\nturning unto the Lord.' Similarly, the people's sin reaches its climax\nin their 'mocking' and 'scoffing' at the prophets and 'despising'\nGod's words by them. So then, an evil life has its roots in an\nalienated heart, and the source of all sin is an obstinate self-will.\nThat is the sulphur-spring from which nothing but unwholesome streams\ncan flow, and the greatest of all sins is refusing to hear God's voice\nwhen He speaks to us.\n\nFurther, this indictment brings out the patient love of God seeking,\nin spite of all their deafness, to find a way to the sinners' ears and\nhearts. In a bold transference to Him of men's ways, He is said to\nhave 'risen early' to send the prophets. Surely that means earnest\neffort. The depths of God's heart are disclosed when we are bidden to\nthink of His compassion as the motive for the prophet's messages and\nthreatenings. What a wonderful and heart-melting revelation of God's\nplacableness, wistful hoping against hope, and reluctance to abandon\nthe most indurated sinner, is given in that centuries-long conflict of\nthe patient God with treacherous Israel! That divine charity suffered\nlong and was kind, endured all things and hoped all things.\n\nConsider the punishment. The tragic details of the punishment are\nenumerated with the same completeness and suppression of emotion as\nthose of the sin. The fact that all these were divine judgments brings\nthe chronicler to the Psalmist's attitude. 'I was dumb, I opened not\nmy mouth because Thou didst it.' Sorrow and pity have their place, but\nthe awed recognition of God's hand outstretched in righteous\nretribution must come first. Modern sentimentalists, who are so\ntenderhearted as to be shocked at the Christian teachings of judgment,\nmight learn a lesson here.\n\nThe first point to note is that a time arrives when even God can hope\nfor no amendment and is driven to change His methods. His patience is\nnot exhausted, but man's obstinacy makes another treatment inevitable.\nGod lavished benefits and pleadings for long years in vain, till He\nsaw that there was 'no remedy.' Only then did He, as if reluctantly\nforced, do 'His work, His strange work.' Behold, therefore, the\n'goodness and severity' of God, goodness in His long delay, severity\nin the final blow, and learn that His purpose is the same though His\nmethods are opposite.\n\nTo the chronicler God is the true Actor in human affairs.\nNebuchadnezzar thought of his conquest as won by his own arm. Secular\nhistorians treat the fall of Zedekiah as simply the result of the\npolitical conditions of the time, and sometimes seem to think that it\ncould not be a divine judgment because it was brought about by natural\ncauses. But this old chronicler sees deeper, and to him, as to us, if\nwe are wise, 'the history of the world is the judgment of the world.'\nThe Nebuchadnezzars are God's axes with which He hews down fruitless\ntrees. They are responsible for their acts, but they are His\ninstruments, and it is His hand that wields them.\n\nThe iron band that binds sin and suffering is disclosed in Judah's\nfall. We cannot allege that the same close connection between\ngodlessness and national disaster is exemplified now as it was in\nIsrael. Nor can we contend that for individuals suffering is always\nthe fruit of sin. But it is still true that 'righteousness exalteth a\nnation,' and that 'by the soul only are the nations great,' in the\ntrue sense of the word. To depart from God is always 'a bitter and an\nevil thing' for communities and individuals, however sweet draughts of\noutward prosperity may for a time mask the bitterness. Not armies nor\nfleets, not ships, colonies and commerce, not millionaires and trusts,\nnot politicians and diplomatists, but the fear of the Lord and the\nkeeping of His commandments, are the true life of a nation. If\nChristian men lived up to the ideal set them by Jesus, 'Ye are the\nsalt of the land,' and sought more earnestly and wisely to leaven\ntheir nation, they would be doing more than any others to guarantee\nits perpetual prosperity.\n\nThe closing words of this chapter, not included in the passage, are\nsignificant. They are the first words of the Book of Ezra. Whoever put\nthem here perhaps wished to show a far-off dawn following the stormy\nsunset. He opens a 'door of hope' in 'the valley of trouble.' It is an\nOld Testament version of 'God hath not cast away His people whom He\nforeknew.' It throws a beam of light on the black last page of the\nchronicle, and reveals that God's chastisement was in love, that it\nwas meant for discipline, not for destruction, that it was\neducational, and that the rod was burned when the lesson had been\nlearned. It was learned, for the Captivity cured the nation of\nhankering after idolatry, and whatever defects it brought back from\nBabylon, it brought back a passionate abhorrence of all the gods of\nthe nations.\n\n\n\n\nEZRA\n\n\nTHE EVE OF THE RESTORATION\n\n'Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the\nLord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up\nthe spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation\nthroughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2.\nThus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me\nall the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a\nhouse at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of\nall His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem,\nwhich is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He\nis the God), which is in Jerusalem. 4. And whosoever remaineth in any\nplace where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with\nsilver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the\nfreewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. 5. Then\nrose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the\npriests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised,\nto go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. 6. And\nall they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of\nsilver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious\nthings, besides all that was willingly offered. 7. Also Cyrus the king\nbrought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which\nNebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in\nthe house of his gods; 8. Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring\nforth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto\nSheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9. And this is the number of them:\nthirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and\ntwenty knives, 10. Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second\nsort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. 11. All the\nvessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All\nthese did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were\nbrought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.'--EZRA i. 1-11.\n\n\nCyrus captured Babylon 538 B.C., and the 'first year' here is the\nfirst after that event. The predicted seventy years' captivity had\nnearly run out, having in part done their work on the exiles. Colours\nburned in on china are permanent; and the furnace of bondage had, at\nleast, effected this, that it fixed monotheism for ever in the inmost\nsubstance of the Jewish people. But the bulk of them seem to have had\nlittle of either religious or patriotic enthusiasm, and preferred\nBabylonia to Judea. We are here told of the beginning of the return of\na portion of the exiles--forty-two thousand, in round numbers.\n\n'The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.' That unveils the deepest\ncause of what fell into place, to the superficial observers, as one\namong many political events of similar complexion. We find among the\ninscriptions a cylinder written by order of Cyrus, which shows that he\nreversed the Babylonian policy of deporting conquered nations. 'All\ntheir peoples,' says he, in reference to a number of nations of whom\nhe found members in exile in Babylonia, 'I assembled and restored to\ntheir lands and the gods ... whom Nabonidos ... had brought into\nBabylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries' (Sayce, _Fresh\nLight from the Ancient Monuments_, p. 148). It was, then, part of a\nwider movement, which sent back Zerubbabel and his people to\nJerusalem, and began the rebuilding of the Temple. No doubt, Cyrus had\nseen that the old plan simply brought an element of possible rebellion\ninto the midst of the country, and acted on grounds of political\nprudence.\n\nBut our passage digs deeper to find the true cause. Cyrus was God's\ninstrument, and the statesman's insight was the result of God's\nillumination. The divine causality moves men, when they move\nthemselves. It was not only in the history of the chosen people that\nGod's purpose is wrought out by more or less conscious and willing\ninstruments. The principle laid down by the writer of this book is of\nuniversal application, and the true 'philosophy of history' must\nrecognise as underlying all other so-called causes and forces the one\nuncaused Cause, of whose purposes kings and politicians are the\nexecutants, even while they freely act according to their own\njudgments, and, it may be, in utter unconsciousness of Him. It\nconcerns our tranquillity and hopefulness, in the contemplation of the\nbewildering maze and often heart-breaking tragedy of mundane affairs,\nto hold fast by the conviction that God's unseen Hand moves the pieces\non the board, and presides over all the complications. The difference\nbetween 'sacred' and 'profane' history is not that one is under His\ndirect control, and the other is not. What was true of Cyrus and his\npolicy is as true of England. Would that politicians and all men\nrecognised the fact as clearly as this historian did!\n\nI. Cyrus's proclamation sounds as if he were a Jehovah-worshipper, but\nit is to be feared that his religion was of a very accommodating kind.\nIt used to be said that, as a Persian, he was a monotheist, and would\nconsequently be in sympathy with the Jews; but the same cylinder\nalready quoted shatters that idea, and shows him to have been a\npolytheist, ready to worship the gods of Babylon. He there ascribes\nhis conquest to 'Merodach, the great lord,' and distinctly calls\nhimself that god's 'worshipper.' Like other polytheists, he had room\nin his pantheon for the gods of other nations, and admitted into it\nthe deities of the conquered peoples.\n\nThe use of the name 'Jehovah' would, no doubt, be most simply\naccounted for by the supposition that Cyrus recognised the sole\ndivinity of the God of Israel; but that solution conflicts with all\nthat is known of him, and with his characterisation in Isaiah xlv. as\n'not knowing' Jehovah. More probably, his confession of Jehovah as the\nGod of heaven was consistent in his mind with a similar confession as\nto Bel-Merodach or the supreme god of any other of the conquered\nnations. There is, however no improbability in the supposition that\nthe prophecies concerning him in Isaiah xlv, may have been brought to\nhis knowledge, and be referred to in the proclamation as the 'charge'\ngiven to him to build Jehovah's Temple. But we must not exaggerate the\ndepth or exclusiveness of his belief in the God of the Jews.\n\nCyrus's profession of faith, then, is an example of official and\nskin-deep religion, of which public and individual life afford\nplentiful instances in all ages and faiths. If we are to take their\nown word for it, most great conquerors have been very religious men,\nand have asked a blessing over many a bloody feast. All religions are\nequally true to cynical politicians, who are ready to join in\nworshipping 'Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,' as may suit their policy. Nor is\nit only in high places that such loosely worn professions are found.\nPerhaps there is no region of life in which insincerity, which is\noften quite unconscious, is so rife as in regard to religious belief.\nBut unless my religion is everything, it is nothing. 'All in all, or\nnot at all,' is the requirement of the great Lover of souls. What a\nwinnowing of chaff from wheat there would be, if that test could\nvisibly separate the mass which is gathered on His threshing-floor,\nthe Church!\n\nCyrus's belief in Jehovah illustrates the attitude which was natural\nto a polytheist, and is so difficult for us to enter into. A vague\nbelief in One Supreme, above all other gods, and variously named by\ndifferent nations, is buried beneath mountains of myths about lesser\ngods, but sometimes comes to light in many pagan minds. This blind\ncreed, if creed it can be called, is joined with the recognition of\ndeities belonging to each nation, whose worship is to be co-extensive\nwith the race of which they are patrons, and who may be absorbed into\nthe pantheon of a conqueror, just as a vanquished king may be allowed\nan honourable captivity at the victor's capital. Thus Cyrus could in a\nsense worship Jehovah, the God of Israel, without thereby being\nrebellious to Merodach.\n\nThere are people, even among so-called Christians, who try the same\nimmoral and impossible division of what must in its very nature be\nwholly given to One Supreme. To 'serve God and mammon' is demonstrably\nan absurd attempt. The love and trust and obedience which are worthy\nof Him must be wholehearted, whole-souled, whole-willed. It is as\nimpossible to love God with part of one's self as it is for a husband\nto love his wife with half his heart, and another woman with the rest.\nTo divide love is to slay it. Cyrus had some kind of belief in\nJehovah; but his own words, so wonderfully recovered in the\ninscription already referred to, proved that he had not listened to\nthe command, 'Him only shalt thou serve.' That command grips us as\nclosely as it did the Jews, and is as truly broken by thousands\ncalling themselves Christians as by any idolaters.\n\nThe substance of the proclamation is a permission to return to any one\nwho wished to do so, a sanction of the rebuilding of the Temple, and\nan order to the native inhabitants to render help in money, goods, and\nbeasts. A further contribution towards the building was suggested as\n'a free-will offering.' The return, then, was not to be at the expense\nof the king, nor was any tax laid on for it; but neighbourly goodwill,\nborn of seventy years of association, was invoked, and, as we find,\nnot in vain. God had given the people favour in the eyes of those who\nhad carried them captive.\n\nII. The long years of residence in Babylonia had weakened the\nhomesickness which the first generation of captives had, no doubt,\npainfully experienced, and but a small part of them cared to avail\nthemselves of the opportunity of return. One reason is frankly given\nby Josephus: 'Many remained in Babylon, not wishing to leave their\npossessions behind them.' 'The heads of the fathers' houses [who may\nhave exercised some sort of government among the captives], the\npriests and Levites,' made the bulk of the emigrants; but in each\nclass it was only those 'whose spirit God had stirred up' (as he had\ndone Cyrus') that were devout or patriotic enough to face the wrench\nof removal and the difficulties of repeopling a wasted land. There was\nnothing to tempt any others, and the brave little band had need of all\ntheir fortitude. But no heart in which the flame of devotion burned,\nor in which were felt the drawings of that passionate love of the city\nand soil where God dwelt (which in the best days of the nation was\ninseparable from devotion), could remain behind. The departing\ncontingent, then, were the best part of the whole; and the lingerers\nwere held back by love of ease, faint-heartedness, love of wealth, and\nthe like ignoble motives.\n\nHow many of us have had great opportunities offered for service, which\nwe have let slip in like manner! To have doors opened which we are too\nlazy, too cowardly, too much afraid of self-denial, to enter, is the\ntragedy and the crime of many a life. It is easier to live among the\nlow levels of the plain of Babylon, than to take to the dangers and\nprivations of the weary tramp across the desert. The ruins of\nJerusalem are a much less comfortable abode than the well-furnished\nhouses which have to be left. Prudence says, 'Be content where you\nare, and let other people take the trouble of such mad schemes as\nrebuilding the Temple.' A thousand excuses sing in our ears, and we\nlet the moment in which alone some noble resolve is possible slide\npast us, and the rest of life is empty of another such. Neglected\nopportunities, unobeyed calls to high deeds, we all have in our lives.\nThe saddest of all words is, 'It might have been.' How much wiser,\nhappier, nobler, were the daring souls that rose to the occasion, and\nflung ease and wealth and companionship behind them, because they\nheard the divine command couched in the royal permission, and humbly\nanswered, 'Here am I; send me'!\n\nIII. The third point in the passage is singular--the inventory of the\nTemple vessels returned by Cyrus. As to its particulars, we need only\nnote that Sheshbazzar is the same as Zerubbabel; that the exact\ntranslation of some of the names of the vessels is doubtful; and that\nthe numbers given under each head do not correspond with the sum\ntotal, the discrepancy indicating error somewhere in the numbers.\n\nBut is not this dry enumeration a strange item to come in the\nforefront of the narrative of such an event? We might have expected\nsome kind of production of the enthusiasm of the returning exiles,\nsome account of how they were sent on their journey, something which\nwe should have felt worthier of the occasion than a list of bowls and\nnine-and-twenty knives. But it is of a piece with the whole of the\nfirst part of this Book of Ezra, which is mostly taken up with a\nsimilar catalogue of the members of the expedition. The list here\nindicates the pride and joy with which the long hidden and often\ndesecrated vessels were received. We can see the priests and Levites\ngazing at them as they were brought forth, their hearts, and perhaps\ntheir eyes, filling with sacred memories. The Lord had 'turned again\nthe captivity of Zion,' and these sacred vessels lay there, glittering\nbefore them, to assure them that they were not as 'them that dream.'\nSmall things become great when they are the witnesses of a great\nthing.\n\nWe must remember, too, how strong a hold the externals of worship had\non the devout Jew. His faith was much more tied to form than ours\nought to be, and the restoration of the sacrificial implements as a\npledge of the re-establishment of the Temple worship would seem the\nbeginning of a new epoch of closer relation to Jehovah. It is almost\nwithin the lifetime of living men that all Scotland was thrilled with\nemotion by the discovery, in a neglected chamber, of a chest in which\nlay, forgotten, the crown and sceptre of the Stuarts. A like wave of\nfeeling passed over the exiles as they had given back to their custody\nthese Temple vessels. Sacreder ones are given into our hands, to carry\nacross a more dangerous desert. Let us hear the charge, 'Be ye clean,\nthat bear the vessels of the Lord,' and see that we carry them,\nuntarnished and unlost, to 'the house of the Lord which is in\nJerusalem.'\n\n\n\nALTAR AND TEMPLE\n\n'And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were\nin the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to\nJerusalem. 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his\nbrethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his\nbrethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt\nofferings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of\nGod. 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them\nbecause of the people of those countries; and they offered burnt\nofferings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and\nevening. 4. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written,\nand offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the\ncustom, as the duty of every day required; 5. And afterward offered\nthe continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the\nset feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that\nwillingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. 6. From the first\nday of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the\nLord. But the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was not yet laid.\n7. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and\nmeat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to\nbring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the\ngrant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. 8. Now in the second year\nof their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second\nmonth, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of\nJozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the\nLevites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto\nJerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and\nupward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. 9. Then\nstood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the\nsons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of\nGod: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the\nLevites. 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple\nof the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and\nthe Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord,\nafter the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11. And they sang\ntogether by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord;\nbecause He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And\nall the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord,\nbecause the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12. But many\nof the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient\nmen, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house\nwas laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted\naloud for joy: 13. So that the people could not discern the noise of\nthe shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the\npeople shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar\noff.'--EZRA iii. 1-13.\n\n\nWhat an opportunity of 'picturesque' writing the author of this book\nhas missed by his silence about the incidents of the march across the\ndreary levels from Babylon to the verge of Syria! But the very silence\nis eloquent. It reveals the purpose of the book, which is to tell of\nthe re-establishment of the Temple and its worship. No doubt the tone\nof the whole is somewhat prosaic, and indicative of an age in which\nthe externals of worship bulked largely; but still the central point\nof the narrative was really the centre-point of the events. The\naustere simplicity of biblical history shows the real points of\nimportance better than more artistic elaboration would do.\n\nThis passage has two main incidents--the renewal of the sacrifices,\nand the beginning of rebuilding the Temple.\n\nThe date given in verse 1 is significant. The first day of the seventh\nmonth was the commencement of the great festival of tabernacles, the\nmost joyous feast of the year, crowded with reminiscences from the\nremote antiquity of the Exodus, and from the dedication of Solomon's\nTemple. How long had passed since Cyrus' decree had been issued we do\nnot know, nor whether his 'first year' was reckoned by the same\nchronology as the Jewish year, of which we here arrive at the seventh\nmonth. But the journey across the desert must have taken some months,\nand the previous preparations could not have been suddenly got\nthrough, so that there can have been but a short time between the\narrival in Judea and the gathering together 'as one man to Jerusalem.'\n\nThere was barely interval enough for the returning exiles to take\npossession of their ancestral fields before they were called to leave\nthem unguarded and hasten to the desolate city. Surely their glad and\nunanimous obedience to the summons, or, as it may even have been,\ntheir spontaneous assemblage unsummoned, is no small token of their\nardour of devotion, even if they were somewhat slavishly tied to\nexternals. It would take a good deal to draw a band of new settlers in\nour days to leave their lots and set to putting up a church before\nthey had built themselves houses.\n\nThe leaders of the band of returned exiles demand a brief notice. They\nare Jeshua, or Joshua, and Zerubbabel. In verse 2 the ecclesiastical\ndignitary comes first, but in verse 8 the civil. Similarly in Ezra ii.\n2, Zerubbabel precedes Jeshua. In Haggai, the priest is pre-eminent;\nin Zechariah the prince. The truth seems to be that each was supreme\nin his own department, and that they understood each other cordially,\nor, Zechariah says, 'the counsel of peace' was 'between them both.' It\nis sometimes bad for the people when priests and rulers lay their\nheads together; but it is even worse when they pull different ways,\nand subjects are torn in two by conflicting obligations.\n\nJeshua was the grandson of Seraiah, the unfortunate high-priest whose\neyes Nebuchadnezzar put out after the fall of Jerusalem. His son\nJozadak succeeded to the dignity, though there could be no sacrifices\nin Babylon, and after him his son Jeshua. He cannot have been a young\nman at the date of the return; but age had not dimmed his enthusiasm,\nand the high-priest was where he ought to have been, in the forefront\nof the returning exiles. His name recalls the other Joshua, likewise a\nleader from captivity and the desert; and, if we appreciate the\nsignificance attached to names in Scripture, we shall scarcely suppose\nit accidental that these two, who had similar work to do, bore the\nsame name as the solitary third, of whom they were pale shadows, the\ngreater Joshua, who brings His people from bondage into His own land\nof peace, and builds the Temple.\n\nZerubbabel ('Sown in Babylon') belonged to a collateral branch of the\nroyal family. The direct Davidic line through Solomon died with the\nwretched Zedekiah and Jeconiah, but the descendants of another son of\nDavid's, Nathan, still survived. Their representative was one\nSalathiel, who, on the failure of the direct line, was regarded as the\n'son of Jeconiah' (1 Chron. iii. 17). He seems to have had no son, and\nZerubbabel, who was really his nephew (1 Chron. iii. 19), was legally\nadopted as his son. In this makeshift fashion, some shadow of the\nancient royalty still presided over the restored people. We see\nZerubbabel better in Haggai and Zechariah than in Ezra, and can\ndiscern the outline of a strong, bold, prompt nature. He had a hard\ntask, and he did it like a man. Patient, yet vigorous, glowing with\nenthusiasm, yet clear-eyed, self-forgetful, and brave, he has had\nscant justice done him, and ought to be a very much more familiar and\nhonoured figure than he is. 'Who art thou, O great mountain? Before\nZerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.' Great mountains only become\nplains before men of strong wills and fixed faith.\n\nThere is something very pathetic in the picture of the assembled\npeople groping amid the ruins on the Temple hill, to find 'the bases,'\nthe half-obliterated outlines, of the foundations of the old altar of\nburnt offerings. What memories of Araunah's threshing-floor, and of\nthe hovering angel of destruction, and of the glories of Solomon's\ndedication, and of the long centuries during which the column of smoke\nhad gone up continually from that spot, and of the tragical day when\nthe fire was quenched, and of the fifty years of extinction, must have\nfilled their hearts! What a conflict of gladness and sorrow must have\ntroubled their spirits as the flame again shot upwards from the hearth\nof God, cold for so long!\n\nBut the reason for their so quickly rearing the altar is noteworthy.\nIt was because 'fear was upon them because of the people of the\ncountries.' The state of the Holy Land at the return must be clearly\ncomprehended. Samaria and the central district were in the hands of\nbitter enemies. Across Jordan in the east, down on the Philistine\nplain in the west, and in the south where Edom bore sway, eager\nenemies sulkily watched the small beginnings of a movement which they\nwere interested in thwarting. There was only the territory of Judah\nand Benjamin left free for the exiles, and they had reason for their\nfears; for their neighbours knew that if restitution was to be the\norder of the day, they would have to disgorge a good deal. What was\nthe defence against such foes which these frightened men thought most\nimpregnable? That altar!\n\nNo doubt, much superstition mingled with their religion. Haggai leaves\nus under no illusions as to their moral and spiritual condition. They\nwere no patterns of devoutness or of morality. But still, what they\ndid carries an eternal truth; and they were reverting to the original\nterms of Israel's tenure of their land when they acted on the\nconviction that their worship of Jehovah according to His commandment\nwas their surest way of finding shelter from all their enemies. There\nare differences plain enough between their condition and ours; but it\nis as true for us as ever it was for them, that our safety is in God,\nand that, if we want to find shelter from impending dangers, we shall\nbe wiser to betake ourselves to the altar and sit suppliant there than\nto make defences for ourselves. The ruined Jerusalem was better\nguarded by that altar than if its fallen walls had been rebuilt.\n\nThe whole ritual was restored, as the narrative tells with obvious\nsatisfaction in the enumeration. To us this punctilious attention to\nthe minutiae of sacrificial worship sounds trivial. But we equally err\nif we try to bring such externalities into the worship of the\nChristian Church, and if we are blind to their worth at an earlier\nstage.\n\nThere cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar\nwithout a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though\nthere be no house for His name. The order of events here teaches us\nwhat is essential for communion with God. It is the altar. Sacrifice\nlaid there is accepted, whether it stand on a bare hill-top, or have\nround it the courts of the Lord's house.\n\nThe second part of the passage narrates the laying of the foundations\nof the Temple. There had been contracts entered into with masons and\ncarpenters, and arrangements made with the Phoenicians for timber, as\nsoon as the exiles had returned; but of course some time elapsed\nbefore the stone and timber were sufficient to make a beginning with.\nNote in verse 7 the reference to Cyrus' grant as enabling the people\nto get these stores together. Whether the whole preparations, or only\nthe transport of cedar wood, is intended to be traced to the influence\nof that decree, there seems to be a tacit contrast, in the writer's\nmind, with the glorious days when no heathen king had to be consulted,\nand Hiram and Solomon worked together like brothers. Now, so fallen\nare we, that Tyre and Sidon will not look at us unless we bring Cyrus'\nrescript in our hands!\n\nIf the 'years' in verses 1 and 8 are calculated from the same\nbeginning, some seven months were spent in preparation, and then the\nfoundation was laid. Two things are noted--the humble attempt at\nmaking some kind of a display on the occasion, and the conflict of\nfeeling in the onlookers. They had managed to get some copies of the\nprescribed vestments; and the narrator emphasises the fact that the\npriests were 'in their apparel,' and that the Levites had cymbals, so\nthat some approach to the pomp of Solomon's dedication was possible.\nThey did their best to adhere to the ancient prescriptions, and it was\nno mere narrow love of ritual that influenced them. However we may\nbreathe a freer air of worship, we cannot but sympathise with that\nearnest attempt to do everything 'according to the order of David king\nof Israel.' Not only punctiliousness as to ritual, but the magnetism\nof glorious memories, prescribed the reproduction of that past. Rites\nlong proscribed become very sacred, and the downtrodden successors of\nmighty men will cling with firm grasp to what the greater fathers did.\n\nThe ancient strain which still rings from Christian lips, and bids\nfair to be as eternal as the mercies which it hymns, rose with strange\npathos from the lips of the crowd on the desolate Temple mountain,\nringed about by the waste solitudes of the city: 'For He is good, for\nHis mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.' It needed some faith to\nsing that song then, even with the glow of return upon them. What of\nall the weary years? What of the empty homesteads, and the surrounding\nenemies, and the brethren still in Babylon? No doubt some at least of\nthe rejoicing multitude had learned what the captivity was meant to\nteach, and had come to bless God, both for the long years of exile,\nwhich had burned away much dross, and for the incomplete work of\nrestoration, surrounded though they were with foes, and little as was\ntheir strength to fight. The trustful heart finds occasion for\nunmingled praise in the most mingled cup of joy and sorrow.\n\nThere can have been very few in that crowd who had seen the former\nTemple, and their memories of its splendour must have been very dim.\nBut partly remembrance and partly hearsay made the contrast of the\npast glories and the present poverty painful. Hence that pathetic and\nprofoundly significant incident of the blended shouts of the young and\ntears of the old. One can fancy that each sound jarred on the ears of\nthose who uttered the other. But each was wholly natural to the years\nof the two classes. Sad memories gather, like evening mists, round\naged lives, and the temptation of the old is unduly to exalt the past,\nand unduly to depreciate the present. Welcoming shouts for the new\nbefit young lips, and they care little about the ruins that have to be\ncarted off the ground for the foundations of the temple which they are\nto have a hand in building. However imperfect, it is better to them\nthan the old house where the fathers worshipped.\n\nBut each class should try to understand the other's feelings. The\nfriends of the old should not give a churlish welcome to the new, nor\nthose of the new forget the old. It is hard to blend the two, either\nin individual life or in a wider sphere of thought or act. The seniors\nthink the juniors revolutionary and irreverent; the juniors think the\nseniors fossils. It is possible to unite the shout of joy and the\nweeping. Unless a spirit of reverent regard for the past presides over\nthe progressive movements of this or any day, they will not lay a\nsolid foundation for the temple of the future. We want the old and the\nyoung to work side by side, if the work is to last and the sanctuary\nis to be ample enough to embrace all shades of character and\ntendencies of thought. If either the grey beards of Solomon's court or\nthe hot heads of Rehoboam's get the reins in their hands, they will\nupset the chariot. That mingled sound of weeping and joy from the\nTemple hill tells a more excellent way.\n\n\n\nBUILDING IN TROUBLOUS TIMES\n\n'Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the\nchildren of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of\nIsrael; 2. Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the\nfathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your\nGod, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of\nEsar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3. But\nZerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of\nIsrael, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an\nhouse unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord\nGod of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. 4.\nThen the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah,\nand troubled them in building, 5. And hired counsellors against them,\nto frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even\nuntil the reign of Darius king of Persia.'--EZRA iv. 1-5.\n\n\nOpposition began as soon as the foundations were laid, as is usually\nthe case with all great attempts to build God's house. It came from\nthe Samaritans, the mingled people who were partly descendants of the\nancient remnant of the northern kingdom, left behind after the removal\nby deportation of the bulk of its population, and partly the\ndescendants of successive layers of immigrants, planted in the empty\nterritory by successive Assyrian and Babylonian kings. Esar-haddon was\nthe first who had sent colonists, about one hundred and thirty years\nbefore the return. The writer calls the Samaritans 'the adversaries,'\nthough they began by offers of friendship and alliance. The name\nimplies that these offers were perfidious, and a move in the struggle.\n\nOne can easily understand that the Samaritans looked with suspicion on\nthe new arrivals, the ancient possessors of the land, coming under the\nauspices of the new dynasty, and likely to interfere with their\nposition if not reduced to inferiority or neutralised somehow. The\nproposal to unite in building the Temple was a political move; for, in\nold-world ideas, co-operation in Temple-building was incorporation in\nnational unity. The calculation, no doubt, was that if the returning\nexiles could be united with the much more numerous Samaritans, they\nwould soon be absorbed in them. The only chance for the smaller body\nwas to keep itself apart, and to run the risk of its isolation.\n\nThe insincere request was based on an untruth, for the Samaritans did\nnot worship Jehovah as the Jews, but along with their own gods (2\nKings xvii. 25-41). To divide His dominion with others was to dethrone\nHim altogether. It therefore became an act of faithfulness to Jehovah\nto reject the entangling alliance. To have accepted it would have been\ntantamount to frustrating the very purpose of the return, and\nconsenting to be muzzled about the sin of idolatry. But the chief\nlesson which exile had burned in on the Jewish mind was a loathing of\nidolatry, which is in remarkable contrast to the inclination to it\nthat had marked their previous history. So one answer only was\npossible, and it was given with unwelcome plainness of speech, which\nmight have been more courteous, and not less firm. It flatly denied\nany common ground; it claimed exclusive relation to 'our God,' which\nmeant, 'not yours'; it underscored the claim by reiterating that\nJehovah was the 'God of Israel'; it put forward the decree of Cyrus,\nas leaving no option but to confine the builders to the people whom it\nhad empowered to build.\n\nNow, it is easy to represent this as a piece of impolitic narrowness,\nand to say that its surly bigotry was rightly punished by the evils\nthat it brought down on the returning exiles. The temper of much\nflaccid Christianity at present delights to expand in a lazy and\nfoolish 'liberality,' which will welcome anybody to come and take a\nhand at the building, and accepts any profession of unity in worship.\nBut there is no surer way of taking the earnestness out of Christian\nwork and workers than drafting into it a mass of non-Christians,\nwhatever their motives may be. Cold water poured into a boiling pot\nwill soon stop its bubbling, and bring down its temperature. The\nchurches are clogged and impeded, and their whole tone lowered and\nchilled, by a mass of worldly men and women. Nothing is gained, and\nmuch is in danger of being lost, by obliterating the lines between the\nchurch and the world. The Jew who thought little of the difference\nbetween the Samaritan worship with its polytheism, and his own\nmonotheism, was in peril of dropping to the Samaritan level. The\nSamaritan who was accepted as a true worshipper of Jehovah, though he\nhad a bevy of other gods in addition, would have been confirmed in his\nbelief that the differences were unimportant. So both would have been\nharmed by what called itself 'liberality,' and was in reality\nindifference.\n\nNo doubt, Zerubbabel had counted the cost of faithfulness, and he soon\nhad to pay it. The would-be friends threw off the mask, and, as they\ncould not hinder by pretending to help, took a plainer way to stop\nprogress. All the weapons that Eastern subtlety and intrigue could use\nwere persistently employed to 'weaken the hands' of the builders, and\nthe most potent of all methods, bribery to Persian officials, was\nfreely used. The opponents triumphed, and the little community began\nto taste the bitterness of high hopes disappointed and noble\nenterprises frustrated. How differently things had turned out from the\nexpectations with which the company had set forth from Babylon! The\nrough awakening to realities disillusions us all when we come to turn\ndreams into facts. The beginning of laying the Temple foundations is\nput in 536 B.C.; the first year of Darius was 522. How soon after the\ncommencement of the work the Samaritan tricks succeeded we do not\nknow, but it must have been some time before the death of Cyrus in\n529. For weary years then the sanguine band had to wait idly, and no\ndoubt enthusiasm died out: they had enough to do in keeping themselves\nalive, and in holding their own amidst enemies. They needed, as we all\ndo, patience, and a willingness to wait for God's own time to fulfil\nHis own promise.\n\n\n\nTHE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP\n\n'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the\nprophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and\nthey builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God\nof Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and\nArtaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the\nthird day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign\nof Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and\nthe Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the\ndedication of this house of God with joy, 17. And offered at the\ndedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams,\nfour hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve\nhe-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18. And\nthey set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their\ncourses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is\nwritten in the book of Moses. 19. And the children of the captivity\nkept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20. For\nthe priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were\npure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity,\nand for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. 21. And the\nchildren of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all\nsuch as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the\nheathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat, 22. And\nkept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord\nhad made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto\nthem, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the\nGod of Israel.'--EZRA. vi. 14-22.\n\n\nThere are three events recorded in this passage,--the completion of\nthe Temple, its dedication, and the keeping of the passover some weeks\nthereafter. Four years intervene between the resumption of building\nand its successful finish, much of which time had been occupied by the\ninterference of the Persian governor, which compelled a reference to\nDarius, and resulted in his confirmation of Cyrus' charter. The king's\nstringent orders silenced opposition, and seem to have been loyally,\nhowever unwillingly, obeyed. About twenty-three years passed between\nthe return of the exiles and the completion of the Temple.\n\nI. The prosperous close of the long task (vers. 14, 15). The narrative\nenumerates three points in reference to the completion of the Temple\nwhich are very significant, and, taken together, set forth the\nstimulus and law and helps of work for God.\n\nIt is expressive of deep truth that first in order is named, as the\ncause of success, 'the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.'\n'Practical men,' no doubt, then as always, set little store by the two\nprophets' fiery words, and thought that a couple of masons would have\ndone more for the building than they did. The contempt for 'ideas' is\nthe mark of shallow and vulgar minds. Nothing is more practical than\nprinciples and motives which underlie and inform work, and these two\nprophets did more for building the Temple by their words than an army\nof labourers with their hands. 'There are diversities of operations,'\nand it is not given to every man to handle a trowel; but no good work\nwill be prosperously accomplished unless there be engaged in it\nprophets who rouse and rebuke and hearten, and toilers who by their\nwords are encouraged and saved from forgetting the sacred motives and\ngreat ends of their work in the monotony and multiplicity of details.\n\nStill more important is the next point mentioned. The work was done\n'according to the commandment of the God of Israel.' There is peculiar\nbeauty and pathos in that name, which is common in Ezra. It speaks of\nthe sense of unity in the nation, though but a fragment of it had come\nback. There was still an Israel, after all the dreary years, and in\nspite of present separation. God was still its God, though He had\nhidden His face for so long. An inextinguishable faith, wistful but\nassured, in His unalterable promise, throbs in that name, so little\nwarranted by a superficial view of circumstances, but so amply\nvindicated by a deeper insight. His 'commandment' is at once the\nwarrant and the standard for the work of building. In His service we\nare to be sure that He bids, and then to carry out His will whoever\nopposes.\n\nWe are to make certain that our building is 'according to the pattern\nshowed in the mount,' and, if so, to stick to it in every point. There\nis no room for more than one architect in rearing the temple. The\nworking drawings must come from Him. We are only His workmen. And\nthough we may know no more of the general plan of the structure than\nthe day-labourer who carries a hod does, we must be sure that we have\nHis orders for our little bit of work, and then we may be at rest even\nwhile we toil. They who build according to His commandment build for\neternity, and their work shall stand the trial by fire. That motive\nturns what without it were but 'wood, hay, stubble,' into 'gold and\nsilver and precious stones.'\n\nThe last point is that the work was done according to the commandment\nof the heathen kings. We need not discuss the chronological difficulty\narising from the mention of Artaxerxes here. The only king of that\nname who can be meant reigned fifty years after the events here\nnarrated. The mention of him here has been explained by 'the\nconsideration that he contributed to the maintenance, though not to\nthe building, of the Temple.' Whatever is the solution, the intention\nof the mention of the names of the friendly monarchs is plain. 'The\nking's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses; He\nturneth it whithersoever He will.' The wonderful providence,\nsurpassing all hopes, which gave the people 'favour in the eyes of\nthem that carried them captive,' animates the writer's thankfulness,\nwhile he recounts that miracle that the commandment of God was\nre-echoed by such lips. The repetition of the word in both clauses\nunderscores, as it were, the remarkable concurrence.\n\nII. The dedication of the Temple (vers. 16-18). How long the\ndedication was after the completion is not specified. The month Adar\nwas the last of the Jewish year, and corresponded nearly with our\nMarch. Probably the ceremonial of dedication followed immediately on\nthe completion of the building. Probably few, if any, of the aged men,\nwho had wept at the founding, survived to see the completion of the\nTemple. A new generation had no such sad contrasts of present\nlowliness and former glory to shade their gladness. So many dangers\nsurmounted, so many long years of toil interrupted and hope deferred,\ngave keener edge to joy in the fair result of them all.\n\nWe may cherish the expectation that our long tasks, and often\ndisappointments, will have like ending if they have been met and done\nin like spirit, having been stimulated by prophets and commanded by\nGod. It is not wholesome nor grateful to depreciate present blessings\nby contrasting them with vanished good. Let us take what God gives\nto-day, and not embitter it by remembering yesterday with vain regret.\nThere is a remembrance of the former more splendid Temple in the name\nof the new one, which is thrice repeated in the passage,--'this\nhouse.' But that phrase expresses gratitude quite as much as, or more\nthan, regret. The former house is gone, but there is still 'this\nhouse,' and it is as truly God's as the other was. Let us grasp the\nblessings we have, and be sure that in them is continued the substance\nof those we have lost.\n\nThe offerings were poor, if compared with Solomon's 'two and twenty\nthousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep' (1 Kings\nviii. 63), and no doubt the despisers of the 'day of small things,'\nwhom Zechariah had rebuked, would be at their depreciating work again.\nBut 'if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to\nthat a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.' The\nthankfulness of the offerers, not the number of their bullocks and\nrams, made the sacrifice well pleasing. But it would not have been so\nif the exiles' resources had been equal to the great King's. How many\ncattle had they in their stalls at home, not how many they brought to\nthe Temple, was the important question. The man who says, 'Oh! God\naccepts small offerings,' and gives a mite while he keeps talents,\nmight as well keep his mite too; for certainly God will not have it.\n\nA significant part of the offerings was the 'twelve he-goats,\naccording to the number of the tribes of Israel.' These spoke of the\nsame confidence as we have already noticed as being expressed by the\ndesignation of 'the God of Israel.' Possibly scattered members of all\nthe tribes had come back, and so there was a kind of skeleton\nframework of the nation present at the dedication; but, whether that\nbe so or not, that handful of people was not Israel. Thousands of\ntheir brethren still lingered in exile, and the hope of their return\nmust have been faint. Yet God's promise remained, and Israel was\nimmortal. The tribes were still twelve, and the sacrifices were still\ntheirs. A thrill of emotion must have touched many hearts as the\ntwelve goats were led up to the altar. So an Englishman feels as he\nlooks at the crosses on the Union Jack.\n\nBut there was more than patriotism in that sacrifice. It witnessed to\nunshaken faith. And there was still more expressed in it than the\nofferers dreamed; for it prophesied of that transformation of the\nnational into the spiritual Israel, in virtue of which the promises\nremain true, and are inherited by the Church of Christ in all lands.\n\nThe re-establishment of the Temple worship with the appointment of\npriests and Levites, according to the ancient ordinance, naturally\nfollowed on the dedication.\n\nIII. The celebration of the Passover (vers. 19-22). It took place on\nthe fourteenth day of the first month, and probably, therefore, very\nsoon after the dedication. They 'kept the feast, ... for the priests\nand Levites were purified together.' The zeal of the sacerdotal class\nin attending to the prescriptions for ceremonial purity made it\npossible that the feast should be observed. How much of real devotion,\nand how much of mere eagerness to secure their official position,\nmingled with this zeal, cannot be determined. Probably there was a\ntouch of both. Scrupulous observance of ritual is easy religion,\nespecially if one's position is improved by it. But the connection\npointed out by the writer is capable of wide applications. The true\npurity and earnestness of preachers and teachers of all degrees has\nmuch to do with their hearers' and scholars' participation in the\nblessings of the Gospel. If priests are not pure, they cannot kill the\npassover. Earnest teachers make earnest scholars. Foul hands cannot\ndispense the bread of life.\n\nThere is a slight deviation from the law in the ritual as here stated,\nsince it was prescribed that each householder should kill the passover\nlamb for his house. But from the time of Hezekiah the Levites seem to\nhave done it for the congregation (2 Chron. xxx. 17), and afterwards\nfor the priests also (2 Chron. xxxv. 11, 14).\n\nVerse 21 tells that not only the returned exiles, but also 'all such\nas had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the\nheathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel,' ate the\npassover. It may be questioned whether these latter were Israelites,\nthe descendants of the residue who had not been deported, but who had\nfallen into idolatry during the exile, or heathens of the mixed\npopulations who had been settled in the vacant country. The emphasis\nput on their turning to Israel and Israel's God seems to favour the\nlatter supposition. But in any case, the fact presents us with an\nillustration of the proper effect of the presence anywhere of a\ncompany of God's true worshippers. If we purify ourselves, and keep\nthe feast of the true passover with joy as well as purity, we shall\nnot want for outsiders who will separate themselves from the more\nsubtle and not less dangerous idolatries of modern life, to seek the\nLord God of Israel. If His Israel is what it ought to be, it will\nattract. A bit of scrap-iron in contact with a magnet is a magnet.\nThey who live in touch with Him who said, 'I will draw all men unto\nMe' will share His attractive power in the measure of their union with\nHim.\n\nThe week after the passover feast was, according to the ritual,\nobserved as the feast of unleavened bread. The narrative touches\nlightly on the ceremonial, and dwells in conclusion on the joy of the\nworshippers and its cause. They do well to be glad whom God makes\nglad. All other joy bears in it the seeds of death. It is, in one\naspect, the end of God's dealings, that we should be glad in Him. Wise\nmen will not regard that as a less noble end than making us pure; in\nfact, the two are united. The 'blessed God' is glad in our gladness\nwhen it is His gladness.\n\nNotice the exulting wonder with which God's miracle of mercy is\nreported in its source and its glorious result. The heart of the king\nwas turned to them, and no power but God's could have done that. The\nissue of that divine intervention was the completed Temple, in which\nonce more the God of that Israel which He had so marvellously restored\ndwelt in the midst of His people.\n\n\n\nGOD THE JOY-BRINGER\n\n'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made\nthem joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22.\n\n\nTwenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at\nlast, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by\nthe completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with\nthe magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them\n'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies;\nthey were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to darken their\nprospects and to sadden their hearts; and yet, when memories of the\nancient days came back, and once more they saw the sacrificial smoke\nrising from the long cold and ruined altar, they rejoiced in God, and\nthey kept the passover amid the ruins, as my text tells us, for the\n'seven days' of the statutory period 'with joy,' because, in spite of\nall, 'the Lord had made them joyful.'\n\nI think if we take this simple saying we get two or three thoughts,\nnot altogether irrelevant to universal experience, about the true and\nthe counterfeit gladnesses possible to us all.\n\nI. Look at that great and wonderful thought--God the joy-maker.\n\nWe do not often realise how glad God is when we are glad, and how\nworthy an object of much that He does is simply the prosperity and the\nblessedness of human hearts. The poorest creature that lives has a\nright to ask from God the satisfaction of its instincts, and every man\nhas a claim on God--because he is God's creature--to make him glad.\nGod honours all cheques legitimately drawn on Him, and answers all\nclaims, and regards Himself as occupied in a manner entirely congruous\nwith His magnificence and His infinitude, when He stoops to put some\nkind of vibrating gladness into the wings of a gnat that dances for an\nhour in the sunshine, and into the heart of a man that lives his time\nfor only a very little longer.\n\nGod is the Joy-maker. There are far more magnificent and sublime\nthoughts about Him than that; but I do not know that there is any that\nought to come nearer to our hearts, and to silence more of our\ngrumblings and of our distrust, than the belief that the gladness of\nHis children is an end contemplated by Him in all that He does.\nWhether we think it of small importance or no, He does not think it\nso, that all mankind should rejoice in Himself. And this is a\nmarvellous revelation to break out of the very heart of that\ncomparatively hard system of ancient Judaism. 'The Lord hath made them\njoyful.'\n\nTurning away from the immediate connection of these words, let me\nremind you of the great outlines of the divine provision for\ngladdening men's hearts. I was going to say that God had only one way\nof making us glad; and perhaps that is in the deepest sense true. That\nway is by putting Himself into us. He gives us Himself to make us\nglad; for nothing else will do it--or, at least, though there may be\nmany subordinate sources of joy, if there be in the innermost shrine\nof our spirits an empty place, where the Shekinah ought to shine, no\nother joys will suffice to settle and to rejoice the soul. The secret\nof all true human well-being is close communion with God; and when He\nlooks at the poorest of us, desiring to make us blessed, He can but\nsay, 'I will give Myself to that poor man; to that ignorant creature;\nto that wayward and prodigal child; to that harlot in her corruption;\nto that worldling in his narrow godlessness; I will give Myself, if\nthey will have Me.' And thus, and only thus, does He make us truly,\nperfectly, and for ever glad.\n\nBesides that, or rather as a sequel and consequence of that, there\ncome such other God-given blessings as these to which my text refers.\nWhat were the outward reasons for the restored exiles' gladness? 'The\nLord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king ... unto\nthem to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the\nGod of Israel.'\n\nSo, then, He pours into men's lives by His providences the secondary\nand lower gifts which men, according to changing circumstances, need;\nand He also satisfies the permanent physical necessities of all orders\nof beings to whom He has given life. He gives Himself for the spirit;\nHe gives whatever is contributory to any kind of gladness; and if we\nare wise we shall trace all to Him. He is the Joy-giver; and that man\nhas not yet understood either the sanctity of life or the full\nsweetness of its sweetest things unless he sees, written over every\none of them, the name of God, their giver. Your common mercies are His\nlove tokens, and they all come to us, just as the gifts of parents to\ntheir children do, with this on the fly-leaf, 'With a father's love.'\nWhatever comes to God's child with that inscription, surely it ought\nto kindle a thrill of gladness. That 'the king of Assyria's heart is\nturned'; shall we thank the king of Assyria? Yes and No! For it was\nGod who 'turned' it. Oh! to carry the quiet confidence of that thought\ninto all our daily life, and see His name written upon everything that\ncontributes to make us blessed. God is the true Source and Maker of\nevery joy.\n\nAnd by the side of that we must put this other thought--there are\nsources of joy with which He has nothing to do. There are people who\nare joyful--and there are some of them listening now--not because God\nmade them joyful, but because 'the world, the devil, and the flesh'\nhave given them ghastly caricatures of the true gladness. And these\nrival sources of blessedness, the existence of which my text suggests,\nare the enemies of all that is good and noble in us and in our joys.\nGod made these men joyful, and so their gladness was wholesome.\n\nII. Note the consequent obligation and wisdom of taking our God-given\njoys.\n\n'They kept the feast with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful.'\nThen it is our obligation to accept and use what it is His blessedness\nto give. Be sure you take Him. When He is waiting to pour all His love\ninto your heart, and all His sweetness into your sensitive spirit, to\ncalm your anxieties, to deepen your blessedness, to strengthen\neverything that is good in you, to be to you a stay in the midst of\ncrumbling prosperity, and a Light in the midst of gathering darkness,\nbe sure that you take the joy that waits your acceptance. Do not let\nit be said that, when the Lord Christ has come down from heaven, and\nlived upon earth, and gone back to heaven, and sent His Spirit to\ndwell in you, you lock the door against the entrance of the\njoy-bringing Messenger, and are sad and restless and discontented\nbecause you have shut out the God who desires to abide in your hearts.\n\n'They kept the feast with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful.'\nOh! how many Christian men and women there are, who in the midst of\nthe abundant and wonderful provision for continual cheerfulness and\nbuoyancy of spirit given to them in the promises of the Gospel, in the\ngifts of Christ, in the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, do yet go\nthrough life creeping and sad, burdened and anxious, perplexed and at\ntheir wits' end, just because they will not have the God who yearns to\ncome to them, or at least will not have Him in anything like the\nfullness and the completeness in which He desires to bestow Himself.\nIf God gives, surely we are bound to receive. It is an obligation upon\nChristian men and women, which they do not sufficiently realise, to be\nglad, and it is a commandment needing to be reiterated. 'Rejoice in\nthe Lord always; and again I say, rejoice.' Would that Christian\nexperience in this generation was more alive to the obligation and the\nblessedness of perpetual joy arising from perpetual communion with\nHim.\n\nFurther, another obligation is to recognise Him in all common mercies,\nbecause He is at the back of them all. Let them always proclaim Him to\nus. Oh! if we did not go through the world blinded to the real Power\nthat underlies all its motions, we should feel that everything was\nvocal to us of the loving-kindness of our Father in heaven. Link Him,\ndear friend! with everything that makes your heart glad; with\neverything pleasant that comes to you. There is nothing good or sweet\nbut it flows from Him. There is no common delight of flesh or sense,\nof sight or taste or smell, no little enjoyment that makes the moment\npass more brightly, no drop of oil that eases the friction of the\nwheels of life, but it may be elevated into greatness and nobleness,\nand will then first be understood in its true significance, if it is\nconnected with Him. God does not desire to be put away high up on a\npedestal above our lives, as if He regulated the great things and the\ntrifles regulated themselves; but He seeks to come, as air into the\nlungs, into every particle of the mass of life, and to fill it all\nwith His own purifying presence.\n\nRecognise Him in common joys. If, when we sit down to partake of them,\nwe would say to ourselves, 'The Lord has made us joyful,' all our home\ndelights, all our social pleasures, all our intellectual and all our\nsensuous ones--rest and food and drink and all other goods for the\nbody--they would all be felt to be great, as they indeed are. Enjoyed\nin Him, the smallest is great; without Him, the greatest is small.\n'The Lord made them joyful'; and what is large enough for Him to give\nought not to be too small for us to receive with recognition of His\nhand.\n\nAnother piece of wholesome counsel in this matter is--Be sure that you\nuse the joys which God does give. Many good people seem to think that\nit is somehow devout and becoming to pitch most of their songs in a\nminor key, and to be habitually talking about trials and\ndisappointments, and 'a desert land,' and 'Brief life is here our\nportion,' and so on, and so on. There are two ways in which you can\nlook at the world and at everything that befalls you. There is enough\nin everybody's life to make him sad if he sulkily selects these things\nto dwell upon. There is enough in everybody's life to make him\ncontinually glad if he wisely picks out these to think about. It\ndepends altogether on the angle at which you look at your life what\nyou see in it. For instance, you know how children do when they get a\nbit of a willow wand into their possession. They cut off rings of\nbark, and get the switch alternately white and black, white and black,\nand so on right away to the tip. Whether will you look at the white\nrings or the black ones? They are both there. But if you rightly look\nat the black you will find out that there is white below it, and it\nonly needs a very little stripping off of a film to make it into white\ntoo. Or, to put it into simpler words, no Christian man has the right\nto regard anything that God's Providence brings to him as such\nunmingled evil that it ought to make him sad. We are bound to 'rejoice\nin the Lord always.'\n\nI know how hard it is, but sure am I that it is possible for a man, if\nhe keeps near Jesus Christ, to reproduce Paul's paradox of being\n'sorrowful yet always rejoicing,' and even in the midst of darkness\nand losses and sorrows and blighted hopes and disappointed aims to\nrejoice in the Lord, and to 'keep the feast with gladness, because the\nLord has made him joyful.' Nor do we discharge our duty, unless side\nby side with the sorrow which is legitimate, which is blessed,\nstrengthening, purifying, calming, moderating, there is also 'joy\nunspeakable and full of glory.'\n\nAgain, be sure that you limit your delights to God-made joys. Too many\nof us have what parts of our nature recognise as satisfaction, and are\nglad to have, apart from Him. There is nothing sadder than the joys\nthat come into a life, and do not come from God. Oh! let us see to it\nthat we do not fill our cisterns with poisonous sewage when God is\nwaiting to fill them with the pure 'river of the water of life.' Do\nnot let us draw our blessedness from the world and its evils. Does my\njoy help me to come near to God? Does it interfere with my communion\nwith Him? Does it aid me in the consecration of myself? Does my\nconscience go with it when my conscience is most awake? Do I recognise\nHim as the Giver of the thing that is so blessed? If we can say Yes!\nto these questions, we can venture to believe that our blessedness\ncomes from God, and leads to God, however homely, however sensuous and\nmaterial may be its immediate occasion. But if not, then the less we\nhave to do with such sham gladness the better. 'Even in laughter the\nheart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' The\nalternative presented for the choice of each of us is whether we will\nhave surface joy and a centre of dark discontent, or surface sorrow\nand a centre of calm blessedness. The film of stagnant water on a pond\nfull of rottenness simulates the glories of the rainbow, in which pure\nsunshine falls upon the pure drops, but it is only painted corruption\nafter all, a sign of rotting; and if a man puts his lips to it it will\nkill him. Such is the joy which is apart from God. It is the\n'crackling of thorns under a pot'--the more fiercely they burn the\nsooner they are ashes. And, on the other hand, 'these things have I\nspoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy\nmight be full.'\n\nIt is not 'for seven days' that we 'keep the feast' if God has 'made\nus joyful,' but for all the rest of the days of time, and for the\nendless years of the calm gladnesses of the heavens.\n\n\n\nHEROIC FAITH\n\n'I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen\nto help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto\nthe king, saying, The hand of our God is upon them all for good that\nseek Him.... 23. So we fasted and besought our God for this.... 31.\nThe hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of\nthe enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. 32. And we came to\nJerusalem.'--EZRA viii. 22, 23, 31, 32.\n\n\nThe memory of Ezra the scribe has scarcely had fairplay among\nBible-reading people. True, neither his character nor the incidents of\nhis life reach the height of interest or of grandeur belonging to the\nearlier men and their times. He is no hero, or prophet; only a scribe;\nand there is a certain narrowness as well as a prosaic turn about his\nmind, and altogether one feels that he is a smaller man than the\nElijahs and Davids of the older days. But the homely garb of the\nscribe covered a very brave devout heart, and the story of his life\ndeserves to be more familiar to us than it is.\n\nThis scrap from the account of his preparations for the march from\nBabylon to Jerusalem gives us a glimpse of a high-toned faith, and a\nnoble strain of feeling. He and his company had a long weary journey\nof four months before them. They had had little experience of arms and\nwarfare, or of hardships and desert marches, in their Babylonian\nhomes. Their caravan was made unwieldy and feeble by the presence of a\nlarge proportion of women and children. They had much valuable\nproperty with them. The stony desert, which stretches unbroken from\nthe Euphrates to the uplands on the east of Jordan, was infested then\nas now by wild bands of marauders, who might easily swoop down on the\nencumbered march of Ezra and his men, and make a clean sweep of all\nwhich they had. And he knew that he had but to ask and have an escort\nfrom the king that would ensure their safety till they saw Jerusalem.\nArtaxerxes' surname, 'the long-handed,' may have described a physical\npeculiarity, but it also expressed the reach of his power; his arm\ncould reach these wandering plunderers, and if Ezra and his troop were\nvisibly under his protection, they could march secure. So it was not a\nsmall exercise of trust in a higher Hand that is told us here so\nsimply. It took some strength of principle to abstain from asking what\nit would have been so natural to ask, so easy to get, so comfortable\nto have. But, as he says, he remembered how confidently he has spoken\nof God's defence, and he feels that he must be true to his professed\ncreed, even if it deprives him of the king's guards. He halts his\nfollowers for three days at the last station before the desert, and\nthere, with fasting and prayer, they put themselves in God's hand; and\nthen the band, with their wives and little ones, and their\nsubstance,--a heavily-loaded and feeble caravan,--fling themselves\ninto the dangers of the long, dreary, robber-haunted march. Did not\nthe scribe's robe cover as brave a heart as ever beat beneath a\nbreastplate?\n\nThat symbolic phrase, 'the hand of our God,' as expressive of the\ndivine protection, occurs with remarkable frequency in the books of\nEzra and Nehemiah, and though not peculiar to them, is yet strikingly\ncharacteristic of them. It has a certain beauty and force of its own.\nThe hand is of course the seat of active power. It is on or over a man\nlike some great shield held aloft above him, below which there is safe\nhiding. So that great Hand bends itself over us, and we are secure\nbeneath its hollow. As a child sometimes carries a tender-winged\nbutterfly in the globe of its two hands that the bloom on the wings\nmay not be ruffled by fluttering, so He carries our feeble, unarmoured\nsouls enclosed in the covert of His Almighty hand. 'Who hath measured\nthe waters in the hollow of His hand?' 'Who hath gathered the wind in\nHis fists?' In that curved palm where all the seas lie as a very\nlittle thing, we are held; the grasp that keeps back the tempests from\ntheir wild rush, keeps us, too, from being smitten by their blast. As\na father may lay his own large muscular hand on his child's tiny\nfingers to help him, or as 'Elisha put his hands on the king's hands,'\nthat the contact might strengthen him to shoot the 'arrow of the\nLord's deliverance,' so the hand of our God is upon us to impart power\nas well as protection; and our 'bow abides in strength,' when 'the\narms of our hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of\nJacob.' That was Ezra's faith, and that should be ours.\n\nNote Ezra's sensitive shrinking from anything like inconsistency\nbetween his creed and his practice. It was easy to talk about God's\nprotection when he was safe behind the walls of Babylon; but now the\npinch had come. There was a real danger before him and his unwarlike\nfollowers. No doubt, too, there were plenty of people who would have\nbeen delighted to catch him tripping; and he felt that his cheeks\nwould have tingled with shame if they had been able to say, 'Ah! that\nis what all his fine professions come to, is it? He wants a convoy,\ndoes he? We thought as much. It is always so with these people who\ntalk in that style. They are just like the rest of us when the pinch\ncomes.' So, with a high and keen sense of what was required by his\navowed principles, he will have no guards for the road. _There_\nwas a man whose religion was at any rate not a fair-weather religion.\nIt did not go off in fine speeches about trusting to the protection of\nGod, spoken from behind the skirts of the king, or from the middle of\na phalanx of his soldiers. He clearly meant what he said, and believed\nevery word of it as a prose fact, which was solid enough to build\nconduct on.\n\nI am afraid a great many of us would rather have tried to reconcile\nour asking for a band of horsemen with our professed trust in God's\nhand; and there would have been plenty of excuses very ready about\nusing means as well as exercising faith, and not being called upon to\nabandon advantages, and not pushing a good principle to Quixotic\nlengths, and so on, and so on. But whatever truth there is in such\nconsiderations, at any rate we may well learn the lesson of this\nstory--to be true to our professed principles; to beware of making our\nreligion a matter of words; to live, when the time for putting them\ninto practice comes, by the maxims which we have been forward to\nproclaim when there was no risk in applying them; and to try sometimes\nto look at our lives with the eyes of people who do not share our\nfaith, that we may bring our actions up to the mark of what they\nexpect of us. If 'the Church' would oftener think of what 'the world'\nlooks for from it, it would seldomer have cause to be ashamed of the\nterrible gap between its words and its deeds.\n\nEspecially in regard to this matter of trust in an unseen Hand, and\nreliance on visible helps, we all need to be very rigid in our\nself-inspection. Faith in the good hand of God upon us for good should\noften lead to the abandonment, and always to the subordination, of\nmaterial aids. It is a question of detail, which each man must settle\nfor himself as each occasion arises, whether in any given case\nabandonment or subordination is our duty. This is not the place to\nenter on so large and difficult a question. But, at all events, let us\nremember, and try to work into our own lives, that principle which the\neasy-going Christianity of this day has honeycombed with so many\nexceptions, that it scarcely has any whole surface left at all; that\nthe absolute surrender and forsaking of external helps and goods is\nsometimes essential to the preservation and due expression of reliance\non God.\n\nThere is very little fear of any of us pushing that principle to\nQuixotic lengths. The danger is all the other way. So it is worth\nwhile to notice that we have here an instance of a man's being carried\nby a certain lofty enthusiasm further than the mere law of duty would\ntake him. There would have been no harm in Ezra's asking an escort,\nseeing that his whole enterprise was made possible by the king's\nsupport. He would not have been 'leaning on an arm of flesh' by\navailing himself of the royal troops, any more than when he used the\nroyal firman. But a true man often feels that he cannot do the things\nwhich he might without sin do. 'All things are lawful for me, but all\nthings are not expedient,' said Paul. The same Apostle eagerly\ncontended that he had a perfect right to money support from the\nGentile Churches; and then, in the next breath, flamed up into, 'I\nhave used none of these things, for it were better for me to die, than\nthat any man should make my glorying void.' A sensitive spirit, or one\nprofoundly stirred by religious emotion, will, like the apostle whose\nfeet were moved by love, far outrun the slower soul, whose steps are\nonly impelled by the thought of duty. Better that the cup should run\nover than that it should not be full. Where we delight to do His will,\nthere will often be more than a scrupulously regulated enough; and\nwhere there is not sometimes that 'more,' there will never be enough.\n\n  'Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore\n   Of nicely calculated less or more.'\n\nWhat shall we say of people who profess that God is their portion, and\nare as eager in the scramble for money as anybody? What kind of a\ncommentary will sharp-sighted, sharp-tongued observers have a right to\nmake on us, whose creed is so unlike theirs, while our lives are\nidentical? Do you believe, friends! that 'the hand of our God is upon\nall them for good that seek Him'? Then, do you not think that racing\nafter the prizes of this world, with flushed cheeks and labouring\nbreath, or longing, with a gnawing hunger of heart, for any earthly\ngood, or lamenting over the removal of creatural defences and joys, as\nif heaven were empty because some one's place here is, or as if God\nwere dead because dear ones die, may well be a shame to us, and a\ntaunt on the lips of our enemies? Let us learn again the lesson from\nthis old story,--that if our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it\ndemands and will produce, the abandonment sometimes and the\nsubordination always, of external helps and material good.\n\nNotice, too, Ezra's preparation for receiving the divine help. There,\nby the river Ahava, he halts his company like a prudent leader, to\nrepair omissions, and put the last touches to their organisation\nbefore facing the wilderness. But he has another purpose also. 'I\nproclaimed a fast there, to seek of God a right way for us.' There was\nno foolhardiness in his courage; he was well aware of all the possible\ndangers on the road; and whilst he is confident of the divine\nprotection, he knows that, in his own quiet, matter-of-fact words, it\nis given 'to all them that _seek_ Him.' So his faith not only\nimpels him to the renunciation of the Babylonian guard, but to earnest\nsupplication for the defence in which he is so confident. He is sure\nit will be given--so sure, that he will have no other shield; and yet\nhe fasts and prays that he and his company may receive it. He prays\nbecause he is sure that he will receive it, and does receive it\nbecause he prays and is sure.\n\nSo for us, the condition and preparation on and by which we are\nsheltered by that great Hand, is the faith that asks, and the asking\nof faith. We must forsake the earthly props, but we must also\nbelievingly desire to be upheld by the heavenly arms. We make God\nresponsible for our safety when we abandon other defence, and commit\nourselves to Him. With eyes open to our dangers, and full\nconsciousness of our own unarmed and unwarlike weakness, let us\nsolemnly commend ourselves to Him, rolling all our burden on His\nstrong arms, knowing that He is able to keep that which we have\ncommitted to Him. He will accept the trust, and set His guards about\nus. As the song of the returning exiles, which may have been sung by\nthe river Ahava, has it: 'My help cometh from the Lord. The Lord is\nthy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.'\n\nSo our story ends with the triumphant vindication of this Quixotic\nfaith. A flash of joyful feeling breaks through the simple narrative,\nas it tells how the words spoken before the king came true in the\nexperience of the weaponless pilgrims: 'The hand of our God _was_\nupon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such\nas lay in wait by the way; and we came to Jerusalem.' It was no rash\nventure that we made. He was all that we hoped and asked. Through all\nthe weary march He led us. From the wild, desert-born robbers, that\nwatched us from afar, ready to come down on us, from ambushes and\nhidden perils, He kept us, because we had none other help, and all our\nhope was in Him. The ventures of faith are ever rewarded. We cannot\nset our expectations from God too high. What we dare scarcely hope now\nwe shall one day remember. When we come to tell the completed story of\nour lives, we shall have to record the fulfilment of all God's\npromises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were built on\nthese. Here let us cry, 'Be Thy hand upon us.' Here let us trust, Thy\nhand will be upon us. Then we shall have to say, 'The hand of our God\nwas upon us,' and as we look from the watch-towers of the city, on the\ndesert that stretches to its very walls, and remember all the way by\nwhich He led us, we shall rejoice over His vindication of our poor\nfaith, and praise Him that 'not one thing hath failed of all the\nthings which the Lord our God spake concerning us.'\n\n\n\nTHE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS\n\n'Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them ... at Jerusalem, in the\nchambers of the house of the Lord.'--EZRA viii. 29.\n\n\nThe little band of Jews, seventeen hundred in number, returning from\nBabylon, had just started on that long pilgrimage, and made a brief\nhalt in order to get everything in order for their transit across the\ndesert; when their leader Ezra, taking count of his men, discovers\nthat amongst them there are none of the priests or Levites. He then\ntakes measures to reinforce his little army with a contingent of\nthese, and entrusts to their special care a very valuable treasure in\ngold, and silver, and sacred vessels, which had been given to them for\nuse in the house of the Lord. The words which I have taken as text are\na portion of the charge which he gave to those twelve priestly\nguardians of the precious things, that were to be used in worship when\nthey got back to the Temple. 'Watch and keep them, until ye weigh them\nin the chambers of the house of the Lord.'\n\nSo I think I may venture, without being unduly fanciful, to take these\nwords as a type of the injunctions which are given to us Christian\npeople; and to see in them a striking and picturesque representation\nof the duties that devolve upon us in the course of our journey across\nthe desert to the Temple-Home above.\n\nAnd to begin with, let me remind you, for a moment or two, what the\nprecious treasure is which is thus entrusted to our keeping and care.\nWe can scarcely, in such a connection and with such a metaphor, forget\nthe words of our Lord about a certain king that went to receive his\nkingdom, and to return; who called together his servants, and gave to\neach of them according to their several ability, with the injunction\nto trade upon that until he came. The same metaphor which our Master\nemployed lies in this story before us--in the one case, sacrificial\nvessels and sacred treasures; in the other case, the talents out of\nthe rich possessions of the departing king.\n\nNor can we forget either the other phase of the same figure which the\nApostle employs when he says to his 'own son' and substitute, Timothy:\n'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost\nwhich dwelleth in us,' nor that other word to the same Timothy, which\nsays: 'O Timothy! keep that which was committed to thy trust, and\navoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely\nso called.' In these quotations, the treasure, and the rich deposit,\nis the faith once delivered to the saints; the solemn message of love\nand peace in Jesus Christ, which was entrusted, first of all to those\npreachers, but as truly to every one of Christ's disciples.\n\nSo, then, the metaphor is capable of two applications. The first is to\nthe rich treasure and solemn trust of our own nature, of our own\nsouls; the faculties and capacities, precious beyond all count, rich\nbeyond all else that a man has ever received. Nothing that you have is\nhalf so much as that which you are. The possession of a soul that\nknows and loves, and can obey; that trusts and desires; that can yearn\nand reach out to Jesus Christ, and to God in Christ; of a conscience\nthat can yield to His command; and faculties of comprehending and\nunderstanding what comes to them from Jesus Christ--that is more than\nany other possession, treasure, or trust. That which you and I carry\nwith us--the infinite possibilities of these awful spirits of\nours--the tremendous faculties which are given to every human soul,\nand which, like a candle plunged into oxygen, are meant to burn far\nmore brightly under the stimulus of Christian faith and the possession\nof God's truth, are the rich deposit committed to our charge. You\npriests of the living God, you men and women, you say that you are\nChrist's, and therefore are consecrated to a nobler priesthood than\nany other--to you is given this solemn charge: 'That good thing which\nis committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in you.'\nThe precious treasure of your own natures, your own hearts, your own\nunderstandings, wills, consciences, desires--keep these, until they\nare weighed in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.\n\nAnd in like manner, taking the other aspect of the metaphor--we have\ngiven to us, in order that we may do something with it, that great\ndeposit and treasure of truth, which is all embodied and incarnated in\nJesus Christ our Lord. It is bestowed upon us that we may use it for\nourselves, and in order that we may carry it triumphantly all through\nthe world. Possession involves responsibility always. The word of\nsalvation is given to us. If we go tampering with it, by erroneous\napprehension, by unfair usage, by failing to apply it to our own daily\nlife; then it will fade and disappear from our grasp. It is given to\nus in order that we may keep it safe, and carry it high up across the\ndesert, as becomes the priests of the most high God.\n\nThe treasure is first--our own selves--with all that we are and may\nbe, under the stimulating and quickening influence of His grace and\nSpirit. The treasure is next--His great word of salvation, once\ndelivered unto the saints, and to be handed on, without diminution or\nalteration in its fair perspective and manifold harmonies, to the\ngenerations that are to come. So, think of yourselves as the priests\nof God, journeying through the wilderness, with the treasures of the\nTemple and the vessels of the sacrifice for your special deposit and\ncharge.\n\nFurther, I touch on the command, the guardianship that is here set\nforth. 'Watch ye, and keep them.' That is to say, I suppose, according\nto the ordinary idiom of the Old Testament, 'Watch, in order that you\nmay keep.' Or to translate it into other words: The treasure which is\ngiven into our hands requires, for its safe preservation, unceasing\nvigilance. Take the picture of my text: These Jews were four months,\naccording to the narrative, in travelling from their first station\nupon their journey to Jerusalem across the desert. There were enemies\nlying in wait for them by the way. With noble self-restraint and grand\nchivalry, the leader of the little band says: 'I was ashamed to\nrequire of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen, to help us\nagainst the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king,\nsaying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him;\nbut His power and His wrath is against all that forsake Him.' And so\nthey would not go to him, cap in hand, and ask him to give them a\nguard to take care of them; but 'We fasted and besought our God for\nthis; and He was intreated of us.'\n\nThus the little company, without arms, without protection, with\nnothing but a prayer and a trust to make them strong, flung themselves\ninto the pathless desert with all those precious things in their\npossession; and all the precaution which Ezra took was to lay hold of\nthe priests in the little party, and to say: 'Here! all through the\nmarch do you stick by these precious things. Whoever sleeps, do you\nwatch. Whoever is careless, be you vigilant. Take these for your\ncharge, and remember I weigh them here before we start, and they will\nbe all weighed again when we get there. So be alert.'\n\nAnd is not that exactly what Christ says to us? 'Watch; keep them; be\nvigilant, that ye may keep; and keep them, because they will be\nweighed and registered when you arrive there.'\n\nI cannot do more than touch upon two or three of the ways in which\nthis charge may be worked out, in its application for ourselves,\nbeginning with that first one which is implied in the words of the\ntext--_unslumbering vigilance_; then _trust_, like the trust\nwhich is glorified in the context, depending only on 'the good hand of\nour God upon us'; then _purity_, because, as Ezra said, 'Ye are\nholy unto the Lord. The vessels are holy also'; and therefore ye are\nthe fit persons to guard them. And besides these, there is, in our\nkeeping our trust, a method which does not apply to the incident\nbefore us; namely, _use_, in order to their preservation.\n\nThat is to say, first of all, no slumber; not a moment's relaxation;\nor some of those who lie in wait for us on the way will be down upon\nus, and some of the precious things will go. While all the rest of the\nwearied camp slept, the guardians of the treasure had to outwatch the\nstars. While others might straggle on the march, lingering here or\nthere, or resting on some patch of green, they had to close up round\ntheir precious charge; others might let their eyes wander from the\npath, they had ever to look to their charge. For them the journey had\na double burden, and unslumbering vigilance was their constant duty.\n\nWe likewise have unslumberingly and ceaselessly to watch over that\nwhich is committed to our charge. For, depend upon it, if for an\ninstant we turn away our heads, the thievish birds that flutter over\nus will be down upon the precious seed that is in our basket, or that\nwe have sown in the furrows, and it will be gone. Watch, that ye may\nkeep.\n\nAnd then, still further, see how in this story before us there are\nbrought out very picturesquely, and very simply, deeper lessons still.\nIt is not enough that a man shall be for ever keeping his eye upon his\nown character and his own faculties, and seeking sedulously to\ncultivate and improve them, as he that must give an account. There\nmust be another look than that. Ezra said, in effect, 'Not all the\ncohorts of Babylon can help us; and we do not want them. We have one\nstrong hand that will keep us safe'; and so he, and his men, with all\nthis mass of wealth, so tempting to the wild robbers that haunted the\nroad, flung themselves into the desert, knowing that all along it\nthere were, as he says, 'such as lay in wait for them.' His confidence\nwas: 'God will bring us all safe out to the end there; and we shall\ncarry every glittering piece of the precious things that we brought\nout of Babylon right into the Temple of Jerusalem.' Yet he says,\n'Watch ye and keep them.'\n\nWhat does that come to in reference to our religious experience? Why\nthis: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is\nGod that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His own good\npleasure.' You do not need these external helps. Fling yourself wholly\nupon His keeping hand, and also watch and keep yourselves. 'I know in\nwhom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have\ncommitted unto Him against that day,' is the complement of the other\nwords, 'That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the\nHoly Ghost.'\n\nSo guardianship is, first, unceasing vigilance; and then it is lowly\ntrust. And besides that, it is _punctilious purity_. 'I said unto\nthem, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy unto the Lord.\nWatch ye, and keep them.'\n\nIt was fitting that priests should carry the things that belonged to\nthe Temple. No other hands but consecrated hands had a right to touch\nthem. To none other guardianship but the guardianship of the\npossessors of a symbolic and ceremonial purity, could the vessels of a\nsymbolic and ceremonial worship be entrusted; and to none others but\nthe possessors of real and spiritual holiness can the treasures of the\ntrue Temple, of an inward and spiritual worship, be entrusted. 'Be ye\nclean that bear the vessels of the Lord,' said Isaiah using a kindred\nmetaphor. The only way to keep our treasure undiminished and\nuntarnished, is to keep ourselves pure and clean.\n\nAnd, lastly, we have to exercise a guardianship which not only means\nunslumbering vigilance, lowly trust, punctilious purity, but also\nrequires the constant use of the treasure.\n\n'Watch ye, and keep them.' Although the vessels which those priests\nbore through the desert were used for no service during all the weary\nmarch, they weighed just the same when they got to the end as at the\nbeginning; though, no doubt, even their fine gold had become dim and\ntarnished through disuse. But if we do not use the vessels that are\nentrusted to our care, _they_ will _not_ weigh the same. The\nman that wrapped up his talent in the napkin, and said, 'Lo, there\nthou hast that is thine,' was too sanguine. There was never an unused\ntalent rolled up in a handkerchief yet, but when it was taken out and\nput into the scales it was lighter than when it was committed to the\nkeeping of the earth. Gifts that are used fructify. Capacities that\nare strained to the uttermost increase. Service strengthens the power\nfor service; and just as the reward for work is more work, the way for\nmaking ourselves fit for bigger things is to do the things that are\nlying by us. The blacksmith's arm, the sailor's eye, the organs of any\npiece of handicraft, as we all know, are strengthened by exercise; and\nso it is in this higher region.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, take these four words--vigilance, trust,\npurity, exercise. 'Watch ye, and keep them, until they are weighed in\nthe chambers of the House of the Lord.'\n\nAnd, lastly, think of that weighing in the House of the Lord. Cannot\nyou see the picture of the little band when they finally reach the\ngoal of their pilgrimage; and three days after they arrived, as the\nnarrative tells us, went up into the Temple, and there, by number and\nby weight, rendered up their charge, and were clear of their\nresponsibility? 'And the first came and said, Lord, thy pound hath\ngained ten pounds. And he said, Well, thou good servant, because thou\nhast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten\ncities.'\n\nOh! how that thought of the day when they would empty out the rich\ntreasure upon the marble pavement, and clash the golden vessels into\nthe scales, must have filled their hearts with vigilance during all\nthe weary watches, when desert stars looked down upon the slumbering\nencampment, and they paced wakeful all the night. And how the thought,\ntoo, must have filled their hearts with joy, when they tried to\npicture to themselves the sigh of satisfaction, and the sense of\nrelief with which, after all the perils, their 'feet would stand\nwithin thy gates, O Jerusalem,' and they would be able to say, 'That\nwhich thou hast given us, we have kept, and nothing of it is lost.'\n\nA lifetime would be a small expenditure to secure that; and though it\ncannot be that you and I will meet the trial and the weighing of that\ngreat day without many failures and much loss, yet we may say: 'I know\nin whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep my\ndeposit--whether it be in the sense of that which I have committed\nunto Him, or in the sense of that which He has committed unto\nme--against that day.' We may hope that, by His gracious help and His\npitying acceptance, even such careless stewards and negligent watchers\nas we are, may lay ourselves down in peace at the last, saying, 'I\nhave kept the faith,' and may be awakened by the word, 'Well done!\ngood and faithful servant.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH\n\n\nA REFORMER'S SCHOOLING\n\n'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in\nthe month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the\npalace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men\nof Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which\nwere left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said\nunto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the\nprovince are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem\nalso is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. 4.\nAnd it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and\nwept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God\nof heaven, 5. And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the\ngreat and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that\nlove Him and observe His commandments: 6. Let Thine ear now be\nattentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of\nThy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the\nchildren of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children\nof Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: both I and my father's\nhouse have sinned. 7. We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and\nhave not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments,\nwhich Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses. 8. Remember, I beseech Thee,\nthe word that Thou commandedst Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye\ntransgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9. But if ye\nturn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were\nof you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I\ngather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I\nhave chosen to set My name there. 10. Now these are Thy servants and\nThy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power, and by Thy\nstrong hand. 11. O Lord, I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be\nattentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy\nservants, who desire to fear Thy name: and prosper, I pray Thee, Thy\nservant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I\nwas the king's cupbearer.'--NEH. i. 1-11.\n\n\nThe date of the completion of the Temple is 516 B.C.; that of\nNehemiah's arrival 445 B.C. The colony of returned exiles seems to\nhave made little progress during that long period. Its members settled\ndown, and much of their enthusiasm cooled, as we see from the reforms\nwhich Ezra had to inaugurate fourteen years before Nehemiah. The\nmajority of men, even if touched by spiritual fervour, find it hard to\nkeep on the high levels for long. Breathing is easier lower down. As\nis often the case, a brighter flame of zeal burned in the bosoms of\nsympathisers at a distance than in those of the actual workers, whose\ncontact with hard realities and petty details disenchanted them. Thus\nthe impulse to nobler action came, not from one of the colony, but\nfrom a Jew in the court of the Persian king.\n\nThis passage tells us how God prepared a man for a great work, and how\nthe man prepared himself.\n\nI. Sad tidings and their effect on a devout servant of God (vs. 1-4).\nThe time and place are precisely given. 'The month Chislev'\ncorresponds to the end of November and beginning of December. 'The\ntwentieth year' is that of Artaxerxes (Neh. ii. 1). 'Shushan,' or\nSusa, was the royal winter residence, and 'the palace' was 'a distinct\nquarter of the city, occupying an artificial eminence.' Note the\nabsence of the name of the king. Nehemiah is so familiar with his\ngreatness that he takes for granted that every reader can fill the\ngaps. But, though the omission shows how large a space the court\noccupied in his thoughts, a true Jewish heart beat below the\ncourtier's robe. That flexibility which enabled them to stand as\ntrusted servants of the kings of many lands, and yet that inflexible\nadherence to, and undying love of, Israel, has always been a national\ncharacteristic. We can think of this youthful cup-bearer as yearning\nfor one glimpse of the 'mountains round about Jerusalem' while he\nfilled his post in Shushan.\n\nHis longings were kindled into resolve by intercourse with a little\nparty of Jews from Judaea, among whom was his own brother. They had\nbeen to see how things went there, and the fact that one of them was a\nmember of Nehemiah's family seems to imply that the same sentiments\nbelonged to the whole household. Eager questions brought out sorrowful\nanswers. The condition of the 'remnant' was one of 'great affliction\nand reproach,' and the ground of the reproach was probably (Neh. ii.\n17; iv. 2-4) the still ruined fortifications.\n\nIt has been supposed that the breaking down of the walls and burning\nof the gates, mentioned in verse 3, were recent, and subsequent to the\nevents recorded in Ezra; but it is more probable that the project for\nrebuilding the defences, which had been stopped by superior orders\n(Ezra iv. 12-16), had not been resumed, and that the melancholy ruins\nwere those which had met the eyes of Zerubbabel nearly a hundred years\nbefore. Communication between Shushan and Jerusalem cannot have been\nso infrequent that the facts now borne in on Nehemiah might not have\nbeen known before. But the impression made by facts depends largely on\ntheir narrator, and not a little on the mood of the hearer. It was one\nthing to hear general statements, and another to sit with one's\nbrother, and see through his eyes the dismal failure of the 'remnant'\nto carry out the purpose of their return. So the story, whether fresh\nor repeated with fresh force, made a deep dint in the young\ncupbearer's heart, and changed his life's outlook. God prepares His\nservants for their work by laying on their souls a sorrowful\nrealisation of the miseries which other men regard, and they\nthemselves have often regarded, very lightly. The men who have been\nraised up to do great work for God and men, have always to begin by\ngreatly and sadly feeling the weight of the sins and sorrows which\nthey are destined to remove. No man will do worthy work at rebuilding\nthe walls who has not wept over the ruins.\n\nSo Nehemiah prepared himself for his work by brooding over the tidings\nwith tears, by fasting and by prayer. There is no other way of\npreparation. Without the sad sense of men's sorrows, there will be no\nearnestness in alleviating them, nor self-sacrificing devotion; and\nwithout much prayer there will be little consciousness of weakness or\ndependence on divine help.\n\nNote the grand and apparently immediate resolution to throw up\nbrilliant prospects and face a life of danger and suffering and toil.\nNehemiah was evidently a favourite with the king, and had the ball at\nhis foot. But the ruins on Zion were more attractive to him than the\nsplendours of Shushan, and he willingly flung away his chances of a\ngreat career to take his share of 'affliction and reproach.' He has\nnever had justice done him in popular estimation. He is not one of the\nwell-known biblical examples of heroic self-abandonment; but he did\njust what Moses did, and the eulogium of the Epistle to the Hebrews\nfits him as well as the lawgiver; for he too chose 'rather to suffer\nwith the people of God than to enjoy pleasures for a season.' So must\nwe all, in our several ways, do, if we would have a share in building\nthe walls of the city of God.\n\nII. The prayer (vs. 5-11). The course of thought in this prayer is\nvery instructive. It begins with solemnly laying before God His own\ngreat name, as the mightiest plea with Him, and the strongest\nencouragement to the suppliant. That commencement is no mere proper\ninvocation, conventionally regarded as the right way of beginning, but\nit expresses the petitioner's effort to lay hold on God's character as\nthe ground of his hope of answer. The terms employed remarkably blend\nwhat Nehemiah had learned from Persian religion and what from a better\nsource. He calls upon Jehovah, the great name which was the special\npossession of Israel. He also uses the characteristic Persian\ndesignation of 'the God of heaven,' and identifies the bearer of that\nname, not with the god to whom it was originally applied, but with\nIsrael's Jehovah. He takes the crown from the head of the false deity,\nand lays it at the feet of the God of his fathers. Whatsoever names\nfor the Supreme Excellence any tongues have coined, they all belong to\nour God, in so far as they are true and noble. The modern 'science of\ncomparative religion' yields many treasures which should be laid up in\nJehovah's Temple.\n\nBut the rest of the designations are taken from the Old Testament, as\nwas fitting. The prayer throughout is full of allusions and\nquotations, and shows how this cupbearer of Artaxerxes had fed his\nyoung soul on God's word, and drawn thence the true nourishment of\nhigh and holy thoughts and strenuous resolutions and self-sacrificing\ndeeds. Prayers which are cast in the mould of God's own revelation of\nHimself will not fail of answer. True prayer catches up the promises\nthat flutter down to us, and flings them up again like arrows.\n\nThe prayer here is all built, then, on that name of Jehovah, and on\nwhat the name involves, chiefly on the thought of God as keeping\ncovenant and mercy. He has bound Himself in solemn, irrefragable\ncompact, to a certain line of action. Men 'know where to have Him,' if\nwe may venture on the familiar expression. He has given us a chart of\nHis course, and He will adhere to it. Therefore we can go to Him with\nour prayers, so long as we keep these within the ample space of His\ncovenant, and ourselves within its terms, by loving obedience.\n\nThe petition that God's ears might be sharpened and His eyes open to\nthe prayer is cast in a familiar mould. It boldly transfers to Him not\nonly the semblance of man's form, but also the likeness of His\nprocesses of action. Hearing the cry for help precedes active\nintervention in the case of men's help, and the strong imagery of the\nprayer conceives of similar sequence in God. But the figure is\ntransparent, and the 'anthropomorphism' so plain that no mistakes can\narise in its interpretation.\n\nNote, too, the light touch with which the suppliant's relation to God\n('Thy servant') and his long-continued cry ('day and night') are but\njust brought in for a moment as pleas for a gracious hearing. The\nprayer is 'for Thy servants the children of Israel,' in which\ndesignation, as the next clauses show, the relation established by\nGod, and not the conduct of men, is pleaded as a reason for an answer.\n\nThe mention of that relation brings at once to Nehemiah's mind the\nterrible unfaithfulness to it which had marked, and still continued to\nmark, the whole nation. So lowly confession follows (vs. 6, 7).\nUnprofitable servants they had indeed been. The more loftily we think\nof our privileges, the more clearly should we discern our sins.\nNothing leads a true heart to such self-ashamed penitence as\nreflection on God's mercy. If a man thinks that God has taken him for\na servant, the thought should bow him with conscious unworthiness, not\nlift him in self-satisfaction. Nehemiah's confession not only sprung\nfrom the thought of Israel's vocation, so poorly fulfilled, but it\nalso laid the groundwork for further petitions. It is useless to ask\nGod to help us to repair the wastes if we do not cast out the sins\nwhich have made them. The beginning of all true healing of sorrow is\nconfession of sins. Many promising schemes for the alleviation of\nnational and other distresses have come to nothing because, unlike\nNehemiah's, they did not begin with prayer, or prayed for help without\nacknowledging sin.\n\nAnd the man who is to do work for God and to get God to bless his work\nmust not be content with acknowledging other people's sins, but must\nalways say, 'We have sinned,' and not seldom say, 'I have sinned.'\nThat penitent consciousness of evil is indispensible to all who would\nmake their fellows happier. God works with bruised reeds. The sense of\nindividual transgression gives wonderful tenderness, patience amid\ngainsaying, submission in failure, dependence on God in difficulty,\nand lowliness in success. Without it we shall do little for ourselves\nor for anybody else.\n\nThe prayer next reminds God of His own words (vs. 8,9), freely quoted\nand combined from several passages (Lev. xxvi. 33-45; Deut. iv. 25-31,\netc.). The application of these passages to the then condition of\nthings is at first sight somewhat loose, since part of the people were\nalready restored; and the purport of the prayer is not the restoration\nof the remainder, but the deliverance of those already in the land\nfrom their distresses. Still, the promise gives encouragement to the\nprayer and is powerful with God, inasmuch as it could not be said to\nhave been fulfilled by so incomplete a restoration as that as that at\npresent realised. What God does must be perfectly done; and His great\nword is not exhausted so long as any fuller accomplishment of it can\nbe imagined.\n\nThe reminder of the promise is clinched (v. 10) by the same appeal as\nformerly to the relation to Himself into which God had been pleased to\nbring the nation, with an added reference to former deeds, such as the\nExodus, in which His strong hand had delivered them. We are always\nsure of an answer if we ask God not to contradict Himself. Since He\nhas begun He will make an end. It will never be said of Him that He\n'began to build and was not able to finish.' His past is a mirror in\nwhich we can read His future. The return from Babylon is implied in\nthe Exodus.\n\nA reiteration of earlier words follows, with the addition that\nNehemiah now binds, as it were, his single prayer in a bundle with\nthose of the like-minded in Israel. He gathers single ears into a\nsheaf, which he brings as a 'wave-offering.' And then, in one humble\nlittle sentence at the end, he puts his only personal request. The\nmodesty of the man is lovely. His prayer has been all for the people.\nRemarkably enough, there is no definite petition in it. He never once\nsays right out what he so earnestly desires, and the absence of\nspecific requests might be laid hold of by sceptical critics as an\nargument against the genuineness of the prayer. But it is rather a\nsubtle trait, on which no forger would have been likely to hit.\nSometimes silence is the very result of entire occupation of mind with\na thought. He says nothing about the particular nature of his request,\njust because he is so full of it. But he does ask for favour in the\neyes of 'this man,' and that he may be prospered 'this day.'\n\nSo this was his morning prayer on that eventful day, which was to\nsettle his life's work. The certain days of solitary meditation on his\nnation's griefs had led to a resolution. He says nothing about his\nlong brooding, his slow decision, his conflicts with lower projects of\npersonal ambition. He 'burns his own smoke,' as we all should learn to\ndo. But he asks that the capricious and potent will of the king may be\ninclined to grant his request. If our morning supplication is 'Prosper\nThy servant this day,' and our purposes are for God's glory, we need\nnot fear facing anybody. However powerful Artaxerxes was, he was but\n'this man,' not God. The phrase does not indicate contempt or\nundervaluing of the solid reality of his absolute power over Nehemiah,\nbut simply expresses the conviction that the king, too, was a subject\nof God's, and that his heart was in the hand of Jehovah, to mould as\nHe would. The consciousness of dependence on God and the habit of\ncommunion with Him give a man a clear sight of the limitations of\nearthly dignities, and a modest boldness which is equally remote from\nrudeness and servility.\n\nThus prepared for whatever might be the issue of that eventful day,\nthe young cupbearer rose from his knees, drew a long breath, and went\nto his work. Well for us if we go to ours, whether it be a day of\ncrisis or of commonplace, in like fashion! Then we shall have like\ndefence and like calmness of heart.\n\n\n\nTHE CHURCH AND SOCIAL EVILS\n\n'It came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept,\nand mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of\nheaven.'--NEH. i. 4.\n\n\nNinety years had passed since the returning exiles had arrived at\nJerusalem. They had encountered many difficulties which had marred\ntheir progress and cooled their enthusiasm. The Temple, indeed, was\nrebuilt, but Jerusalem lay in ruins, and its walls remained as they\nhad been left, by Nebuchadnezzar's siege, some century and a half\nbefore. A little party of pious pilgrims had gone from Persia to the\ncity, and had come back to Shushan with a sad story of weakness and\ndespondency, affliction and hostility. One of the travellers had a\nbrother, a youth named Nehemiah, who was a cup-bearer in the court of\nthe Persian king. Living in a palace, and surrounded with luxury, his\nheart was with his brethren; and the ruins of Jerusalem were dearer to\nhim than the pomp of Shushan.\n\nMy text tells how the young cupbearer was affected by the tidings, and\nhow he wept and prayed before God. The accurate dates given in this\nbook show that this period of brooding contemplation of the miseries\nof his brethren lasted for four months. Then he took a great\nresolution, flung up brilliant prospects, identified himself with the\nafflicted colony, and asked for leave to go and share, and, if it\nmight be, to redress, the sorrows which had made so deep a dint upon\nhis heart.\n\nNow, I think that this vivid description, drawn by himself, of the\nemotions excited in Nehemiah by his countrymen's sorrows, which\ninfluenced his whole future, contains some very plain lessons for\nChristian people, the observance of which is every day becoming more\nimperative by reason of the drift of public opinion, and the new\nprominence which is being given to so-called 'social questions.' I\nwish to gather up one or two of these lessons for you now.\n\nI. First, then, note the plain Christian duty of sympathetic\ncontemplation of surrounding sorrows. Nehemiah might have made a great\nmany very good excuses for treating lightly the tidings that his\nbrother had brought him. He might have said: 'Jerusalem is a long way\noff. I have my own work to do; it is no part of my business to rebuild\nthe walls of Jerusalem. I am the King's cupbearer. They went with\ntheir eyes open, and experience has shown that the people who knew\nwhen they were well off, and stayed where they were, were a great deal\nwiser.' These were not his excuses. He let the tidings fill his heart,\nand burn there.\n\nNow, the first condition of sympathy is knowledge; and the second is\nattending to what we do know. Nehemiah had probably known, in a kind\nof vague way, for many a day how things were going in Palestine.\nCommunications between it and Persia were not so difficult but that\nthere would come plenty of Government despatches; and a man at\nheadquarters who had the ear of the monarch, was not likely to be\nignorant of what was going on in that part of his dominions. But there\nis all the difference between hearing vague general reports, and\nsitting and hearing your own brother tell you what he had seen with\nhis own eyes. So the impression which had existed before was all\ninoperative until it was kindled by attention to the facts which all\nthe time had been, in some degree, known.\n\nNow, how many of us are there that know--and don't know--what is going\non round about us in the slums and back courts of this city? How many\nof us are there who are habitually ignorant of what we actually know,\nbecause we never, as we say, 'give heed' to it. 'I did not think of\nthat,' is a very poor excuse about matters concerning which there is\nknowledge, whether there is thought or not. And so I want to press\nupon all you Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do\nknow, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark\nstaring facts around us.\n\nWhy! loads of people at present seem to think that the miseries, and\nhideous vices, and sodden immorality, and utter heathenism, which are\nfound down amongst the foundations of every civic community are as\nindispensable to progress as the noise of the wheels of a train is to\nits advancement, or as the bilge-water in a wooden ship is to keep its\nseams tight. So we prate about 'civilisation,' which means turning men\ninto cities. If agglomerating people into these great communities,\nwhich makes so awful a feature of modern life, be necessarily attended\nby such abominations as we live amongst and never think about, then,\nbetter that there had never been civilisation in such a sense at all.\nEvery consideration of communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ,\nof loyalty to His words, of a true sense of brotherhood and of lower\nthings--such as self-interest--every consideration demands that\nChristian people shall take to their hearts, in a fashion that the\nchurches have never done yet, 'the condition of England question,' and\nshall ask, 'Lord! what wouldst Thou have me to do?'\n\nI do not care to enter upon controversy raised by recent utterances,\nthe motive of which may be worthy of admiration, though the expression\ncannot be acquitted of the charge of exaggeration, to the effect that\nthe Christian churches as a whole have been careless of the condition\nof the people. It is not true in its absolute sense. I suppose that,\ntaking the country over, the majority of the members of, at all events\nthe Nonconformist churches and congregations, are in receipt of weekly\nwages or belong to the upper ranks of the working-classes, and that\nthe lever which has lifted them to these upper ranks has been God's\nGospel. I suppose it will be admitted that the past indifference with\nwhich we are charged belonged to the whole community, and that the new\nsense of responsibility which has marked, and blessedly marked, recent\nyears, is largely owing to political and other causes which have\nlately come into operation. I suppose it will not be denied that, to a\nvery large extent, any efforts which have been made in the past for\nthe social, intellectual, and moral, and religious elevation of the\npeople have had their impulse, and to a large extent their support,\nboth pecuniary and active, from Christian churches and individuals.\nAll that is perfectly true and, I believe, undeniable. But it is also\ntrue that there remains an enormous, shameful, dead mass of inertness\nin our churches, and that, unless we can break up that, the omens are\nbad, bad for society, worse for the church. If cholera is raging in\nthe slums, the suburbs will not escape. If the hovels are infected,\nthe mansions will have to pay their tribute to the disease. If we do\nnot recognise the brotherhood of the suffering and the sinful, in any\nother fashion--'Then,' as a great teacher told us a generation ago\nnow, and nobody paid any attention to him, 'then they will begin and\nshow you that they are your brethren by killing some of you.' And so\nself-preservation conjoins with loftier motives to make this\nsympathetic observation of the surrounding sorrows the plainest of\nChristian duties.\n\nII. Secondly, such a realisation of the dark facts is indispensable to\nall true work for alleviating them.\n\nThere is no way of helping men out by bearing what they bear. No man\nwill ever lighten a sorrow of which he has not himself felt the\npressure. Jesus Christ's Cross, to which we are ever appealing as the\nground of our redemption and the anchor of our hope, is these, thank\nGod! But it is more than these. It is the pattern for our lives, and\nit lays down, with stringent accuracy and completeness, the enduring\nconditions of helping the sinful and the sorrowful. The 'saviours of\nsociety' have still, in lower fashion, to be crucified. Jesus Christ\nwould never have been 'the Lamb of God that bore away the sins of the\nworld' unless He Himself had 'taken our infirmities and borne our\nsicknesses.' No work of any real use will be done except by those\nwhose hearts have bled with the feeling of the miseries which they set\nthemselves to cure.\n\nOh! we all want a far fuller realisation of that sympathetic spirit of\nthe pitying Christ, if we are ever to be of any use in the world, or\nto help the miseries of any of our brethren. Such a sorrowful and\nparticipating contemplation of men's sorrows springing from men's sins\nwill give tenderness to our words, will give patience, will soften our\nwhole bearing. Help that is flung to people, as you might fling a bone\nto a dog, hurts those whom it tries to help, and patronising help is\nhelp that does little good, and lecturing help does little more. You\nmust take blind beggars by the hand if you are going to make them see;\nand you must not be afraid to lay your white, clean fingers upon the\nfeculent masses of corruption in the leper's glistening whiteness if\nyou are going to make him whole. Go down in order to lift, and\nremember that without sympathy there is no sufficient help, and\nwithout communion with Christ there is no sufficient sympathy.\n\nIII. Thirdly, such realisation of surrounding sorrows should drive to\ncommunion with God.\n\nNehemiah wept and mourned, and that was well. But between his weeping\nand mourning and his practical work there had to be still another link\nof connection. 'He wept and mourned,' and because he was sad he turned\nto God, 'and I fasted and prayed certain days.' There he got at once\ncomfort for his sorrows, his sympathies, and deepening of his\nsympathies, and thence he drew inspiration that made him a hero and a\nmartyr. So all true service for the world must begin with close\ncommunion with God.\n\nThere was a book published several years since which made a great\nnoise in its little day, and called itself _The Service of Man_,\nwhich service it proposed to substitute for the effete conception of\nworship as the service of God. The service of man is, then, best done\nwhen it is the service of God. I suppose nowadays it is\n'old-fashioned' and 'narrow,' which is the sin of sins at present, but\nI for my part have very little faith in the persistence and wide\noperation of any philanthropic motives except the highest--namely,\ncompassion caught from Jesus Christ. I do not believe that you will\nget men, year in and year out, to devote themselves in any\nconsiderable numbers to the service of man unless you appeal to this\nhighest of motives. You may enlist a little corps--and God forbid that\nI should deny such a plain fact--of selecter spirits to do purely\nsecular alleviative work, with an entire ignoring of Christian\nmotives, but you will never get the army of workers that is needed to\ngrapple with the facts of our present condition, unless you touch the\nvery deepest springs of conduct, and these are to be found in\ncommunion with God. All the rest is surface drainage. Get down to the\nlove of God, and the love of men therefrom, and you have got an\nArtesian well which will bubble up unfailingly.\n\nAnd I have not much faith in remedies which ignore religion, and are\nbrought, without communion with God, as sufficient for the disease. I\ndo not want to say one word that might seem to depreciate what are\ngood and valid and noble efforts in their several spheres. There is no\nneed for antagonism--rather, Christian men are bound by every\nconsideration to help to the utmost of their power, even in the\nincomplete attempts that are made to grapple with social problems.\nThere is room enough for us all. But sure I am that until grapes and\nwaterbeds cure smallpox, and a spoonful of cold water puts out\nVesuvius, you will not cure the evils of the body politic by any\nlesser means than the application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nWe hear a great deal to-day about a 'social gospel,' and I am glad of\nthe conception, and of the favour which it receives. Only let us\nremember that the Gospel is social _second_, and individual\n_first_. And that if you get the love of God and obedience to\nJesus Christ into a man's heart it will be like putting gas into a\nballoon, it will go up, and the man will get out of the slums fast\nenough; and he will not be a slave to the vices of the world much\nlonger, and you will have done more for him and for the wide circle\nthat he may influence than by any other means. I do not want to\ndepreciate any helpers, but I say it is the work of the Christian\nchurch to carry to the world the only thing that will make men deeply\nand abidingly happy, because it will make them good.\n\nIV. And so, lastly, such sympathy should be the parent of a noble,\nself-sacrificing life. Look at the man in our text. He had the ball at\nhis feet. He had the _entree_ of a court, and the ear of a king.\nBrilliant prospects were opening before him, but his brethren's\nsufferings drew him, and with a noble resolution of self-sacrifice, he\nshut himself out from the former and went into the wilderness. He is\none of the Scripture characters that never have had due honour--a\nhero, a saint, a martyr, a reformer. He did, though in a smaller\nsphere, the very same thing that the writer of the Epistle to the\nHebrews magnified with his splendid eloquence, in reference to the\ngreat Lawgiver, 'And chose rather to suffer affliction with the people\nof God,' and to turn his back upon the dazzlements of a court, than to\n'enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,' whilst his brethren were\nsuffering.\n\nNow, dear friends! the letter of the example may be put aside; the\nspirit of it must be observed. If Christians are to do the work that\nthey can do, and that Christ has put them into this world that they\nmay do, there must be self-sacrifice with it. There is no shirking\nthat obligation, and there is no discharging our duty without it. You\nand I, in our several ways, are as much under the sway of that\nabsolute law, that 'if a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,\nit brings forth fruit,' as ever was Jesus Christ or His Apostles. I\nhave nothing to say about the manner of the sacrifice. It is no part\nof my business to prescribe to you details of duty. It is my business\nto insist on the principles which must regulate these, and of these\nprinciples in application to Christian service there is none more\nstringent than--'I will not offer unto my God burnt-offering of that\nwhich doth cost me nothing.'\n\nI am sure that, under God, the great remedy for social evils lies\nmainly here, that the bulk of professing Christians shall recognise\nand discharge their responsibilities. It is not ministers, city\nmissionaries, Bible-women, or any other paid people that can do the\nwork. It is by Christian men and by Christian women, and, if I might\nuse a very vulgar distinction which has a meaning in the present\nconnection, very specially by Christian ladies, taking their part in\nthe work amongst the degraded and the outcasts, that our sorest\ndifficulties and problems will be solved. If a church does not face\nthese, well, all I can say is, its light will go out; and the sooner\nthe better. 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are appointed to\ndeath, and say, Behold! I knew it not, shall not He that weigheth the\nhearts consider it, and shall He not render to every man according to\nhis work?' And, on the other hand, there are no blessings more rich,\nselect, sweet, and abiding, than are to be found in sharing the sorrow\nof the Man of Sorrows, and carrying the message of His pity and His\nredemption to an outcast world. 'If thou draw out thy soul to the\nhungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, the Lord shall satisfy thy\nsoul; and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and as a spring of water\nwhose waters fail not.'\n\n\n\n'OVER AGAINST HIS HOUSE'\n\n'The priests repaired every one over against his house.'--NEH. iii.\n28.\n\n\nThe condition of our great cities has lately been forced upon public\nattention, and all kinds of men have been offering their panaceas. I\nam not about to enter upon that discussion, but I am glad to seize the\nopportunity of saying one or two things which I think very much need\nto be said to individual Christian people about their duty in the\nmatter. 'Every man over against his house' is the principle I desire\nto commend to you as going a long way to solve the problem of how to\nsweeten the foul life of our modern cities.\n\nThe story from which my text is taken does not need to detain us long.\nNehemiah and his little band of exiles have come back to a ruined\nJerusalem. Their first care is to provide for their safety, and the\nfirst step is to know the exact extent of their defencelessness. So we\nhave the account of Nehemiah's midnight ride amongst the ruins of the\nbroken walls. And then we read of the co-operation of all classes in\nthe work of reconstruction. 'Many hands made light work.' Men and\nwomen, priests and nobles, goldsmiths, apothecaries, merchants, all\nseized trowel or spade, and wheeled and piled. One man puts up a long\nlength of wall, another can only manage a little bit; another\nundertakes the locks, bolts, and bars for the gates. Roughly and\nhastily the work is done. The result, of course, is very unlike the\nstately structures of Solomon's or of Herod's time, but it is enough\nfor shelter. We can imagine the sigh of relief with which the workers\nlooked upon the completed circle of their rude fortifications.\n\nThe principle of division of labour in our text is repeated several\ntimes in this list of the builders. It was a natural one; a man would\nwork all the better when he saw his own roof mutely appealing to be\ndefended, and thought of the dear ones that were there. But I take\nthese words mainly as suggesting some thoughts applicable to the\nduties of Christian people in view of the spiritual wants of our great\ncities.\n\nI. I need not do more than say a word or two about the ruins which\nneed repair. If I dwell rather upon the dark side than on the bright\nside of city life I shall not be understood, as forgetting that the\nvery causes which intensify the evil of a great city quicken the\ngood--the friction of multitudes and the impetus thereby given to all\nkinds of mental activity. Here amongst us there is much that is\nadmirable and noble--much public spirit, much wise and benevolent\nexpenditure of thought and toil for the general good, much conjoint\naction by men of different parties, earnest antagonism and earnest\nco-operation, and a free, bracing intellectual atmosphere, which\nstimulates activity. All that is true, though, on the other hand, it\nis not good to live always within hearing of the clatter of machinery\nand the strife of tongues; and the wisdom that is born of solitary\nmeditation and quiet thought is less frequently met with in cities\nthan is the cleverness that is born of intercourse with men, and\nnewspaper reading.\n\nBut there is a tragic other side to all that, which mostly we make up\nour minds to say little about and to forget. The indifference which\nhas made that ignorance possible, and has in its turn been fed by the\nignorance, is in some respects a more shocking phenomenon than the\nvicious life which it has allowed to rot and to reek unheeded.\n\nMost of us have got so familiarised with the evils that stare us in\nthe face every time we go out upon the pavements, that we have come to\nthink of them as being inseparable from our modern life, like the\nnoise of a carriage wheel from its rotation. And is it so then? Is it\nindeed inevitable that within a stone's throw of our churches and\nchapels there should be thousands of men and women that have never\nbeen inside a place of worship since they were christened; and have no\nmore religion than a horse? Must it be that the shining structure of\nour modern society, like an old Mexican temple, must be built upon a\nlayer of living men, flung in for a foundation? Can it not be helped\nthat there should be streets in our cities into which it is unfit for\na decent woman to go by day alone, and unsafe for a brave man to\nventure after nightfall? Must men and women huddle together in dens\nwhere decency is as impossible as it is for swine in a sty? Is it an\nindispensable part of our material progress and wonderful civilisation\nthat vice and crime and utter irreligion and hopeless squalor should\ngo with it? Can all that bilge water really not be pumped out of the\nship? If it be so, then I venture to say that, to a very large extent,\nprogress is a delusion, and that the simple life of agricultural\ncommunities is better than this unwholesome aggregation of men.\n\nThe beginning of Nehemiah's work of repair was that sad midnight ride\nround the ruined walls. So there is a solemn obligation laid on\nChristian people to acquaint themselves with the awful facts, and then\nto meditate on them, till sacred, Christ-like compassion, pressing\nagainst the flood-gates of the heart, flings them open, and lets out a\nstream of helpful pity and saving deeds.\n\nII. So much for my first point. My second is--the ruin is to be\nrepaired mainly by the old Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far be it from me\nto pit remedies against each other. The causes are complicated, and\nthe cure must be as manifold as the causes. For my own part I believe\nthat, in regard to the condition of the lowest of our outcast\npopulation, drink and lust have done it almost all, and that for all\nbut an infinitesimal portion of it, intemperance is directly or\nindirectly the cause. That has to be fought by the distinct preaching\nof abstinence, and by the invoking of legislative restrictions upon\nthe traffic. Wretched homes have to be dealt with by sanitary reform,\nwhich may require municipal and parliamentary action. Domestic\ndiscomfort has to be dealt with by teaching wives the principles of\ndomestic economy. The gracious influence of art and music, pictures\nand window-gardening, and the like, will lend their aid to soften and\nrefine. Coffee taverns, baths and wash-houses, workmen's clubs, and\nmany other agencies are doing real and good work. I for one say, 'God\nspeed to them all,' and willingly help them so far as I can.\n\nBut, as a Christian man, I believe that I know a thing that if lodged\nin a man's heart will do pretty nearly all which they aspire to do;\nand whilst I rejoice in the multiplied agencies for social elevation,\nI believe that I shall best serve my generation, and I believe that\nninety-nine out of a hundred of you will do so too, by trying to get\nmen to love and fear Jesus Christ the Saviour. If you can get His love\ninto a man's heart, that will produce new tastes and new inclinations,\nwhich will reform, and sweeten, and purify faster than anything else\ndoes.\n\nThey tell us that Nonconformist ministers are never seen in the slums;\nwell, that is a libel! But I should like to ask why it is that the\nRoman Catholic priest is seen there more than the Nonconformist\nminister? Because the one man's congregation is there, and the other\nman's is not--which, being translated into other words, is this: the\nreligion of Jesus Christ mostly keeps people out of the slums, and\ncertainly it will take a man out of them if once it gets into his\nheart, more certainly and quickly than anything else will.\n\nSo, dear friends! if we have in our hearts and in our hands this great\nmessage of God's love, we have in our possession the germ out of which\nall things that are lovely and of good report will grow. It will\npurify, elevate, and sweeten society, because it will make individuals\npure and strong, and homes holy and happy. We do not need to draw\ncomparisons between this and other means of reparation, and still less\nto feel any antagonism to them or the benevolent men who work them;\nbut we should fix it in our minds that the principles of Christ's\nGospel adhered to by individuals, and therefore by communities, would\nhave rendered such a condition of things impossible, and that the true\nrepair of the ruin wrought by evil and ignorance, in the single soul,\nin the family, the city, the nation, the world, is to be found in\nbuilding anew on the One Foundation which God has laid, even Jesus\nChrist, the Living Stone, whose pure life passes into all that are\ngrounded and founded on Him.\n\nIII. Lastly, this remedy is to be applied by the individual action of\nChristian men and women on the people nearest them.\n\n'The priests repaired every one over against his house.' We are always\ntempted, in the face of large disasters, to look for heroic and large\nremedies, and to invoke corporate action of some sort, which is a\ngreat deal easier for most of us than the personal effort that is\nrequired. When a great scandal and danger like this of the condition\nof the lower layers of our civic population is presented before men,\nfor one man that says, 'What can _I_ do?' there are twenty who\nsay, 'Somebody should do something. Government should do something.\nThe Corporation should do something. This, that, or the other\naggregate of men should do something.' And the individual calmly and\ncomfortably slips his neck out of the collar and leaves it on the\nshoulders of these abstractions.\n\nAs I have said, there are plenty of things that need to be done by\nthese somebodies. But what they do (they will be a long time in doing\nit), when they do get to work will only touch the fringe of the\nquestion, and the substance and the centre of it you can set to work\nupon this very day if you like, and not wait for anybody either to set\nyou the example or to show you the way.\n\nIf you want to do people good you can; but you must pay the price for\nit. That price is personal sacrifice and effort. The example of Jesus\nChrist is the all-instructive one in the case. People talk about Him\nbeing their Pattern, but they often forget that whatever more there\nwas in Christ's Cross and Passion there was this in it:--the\nexemplification for all time of the one law by which any reformation\ncan be wrought on men--that a sympathising man shall give himself to\ndo it, and that by personal influence alone men will be drawn and won\nfrom out of the darkness and filth. A loving heart and a sympathetic\nword, the exhibition of a Christian life and conduct, the fact of\ngoing down into the midst of evil and trying to lift men out of it,\nare the old-fashioned and only magnets by which men are drawn to purer\nand higher life. That is God's way of saving the world--by the action\nof single souls on single souls. Masses of men can neither save nor be\nsaved. Not in groups, but one by one, particle by particle, soul by\nsoul, Christ draws men to Himself, and He does His work in the world\nthrough single souls on fire with His love, and tender with pity\nlearned of Him.\n\nSo, dear friends! do not think that any organisation, any corporate\nactivity, any substitution of vicarious service, will solve the\nproblem. It will not. There is only one way of doing it, the old way\nthat we must tread if we are going to do anything for God and our\nfellows: 'The priests repaired every one over against his house.'\n\nLet me briefly point out some very plain and obvious things which bear\nupon this matter of individual action. Let me remind you that if you\nare a Christian man you have in your possession the thing which will\ncure the world's woe, and possession involves responsibility. What\nwould you think of a man that had a specific for some pestilence that\nwas raging in a city, and was contented to keep it for his own use, or\nat most for his family's use, when his brethren were dying by the\nthousand, and their corpses polluting the air? And what shall we say\nof men and women who call themselves Christians, who have some faith\nin that great Lord and His mighty sacrifice; who know that the men\nthey meet with every day of their lives are dying for want of it, and\nwho yet themselves do absolutely nothing to spread His name, and to\nheal men's hurts? What shall we say? God forbid that we should say\nthey are not Christians! but God forbid that anybody should flatter\nthem with the notion that they are anything but most inconsistent\nChristians!\n\nStill further, need I remind you that if we have found anything in\nJesus Christ which has been peace and rest for ourselves, Christ has\nthereby called us to this work? He has found and saved us, not only\nfor our own personal good. That, of course, is the prime purpose of\nour salvation, but not its exclusive purpose. He has saved us, too, in\norder that the Word may be spread through us to those beyond. 'The\nKingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three\nmeasures of meal until the whole was leavened,' and every little bit\nof the dough, as it received into itself the leaven, and was\ntransformed, became a medium for transmitting the transformation to\nthe next particle beyond it and so the whole was at last permeated by\nthe power. We get the grace for ourselves that we may pass it on; and\nas the Apostle says: 'God hath shined into our hearts that we might\ngive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of\nJesus Christ.'\n\nAnd you can do it, you Christian men and women, every one of you, and\npreach Him to somebody. The possession of His love gives the\ncommission; ay! and it gives the power. There is nothing so mighty as\nthe confession of personal experience. Do not you think that when that\nfirst of Christian converts, and first of Christian preachers went to\nhis brother, all full of what he had discovered, his simple saying,\n'We have found the Messias,' was a better sermon than a far more\nelaborate proclamation would have been? My brother! if you have found\nHim, you can say so; and if you can say so, and your character and\nyour life confirm the words of your lips, you will have done more to\nspread His name than much eloquence and many an orator. All can preach\nwho can say, 'We have found the Christ.'\n\nThe last word I have to say is this: there is no other body that can\ndo it but you. They say:--'What an awful thing it is that there are no\nchurches or chapels in these outcast districts!' If there were they\nwould be what the churches and chapels are now--half empty. Bricks and\nmortar built up into ecclesiastical forms are not the way to\nevangelise this or any other country. It is a very easy thing to build\nchurches and chapels. It is not such an easy thing--I believe it is an\nimpossible thing (and that the sooner the Christian church gives up\nthe attempt the better)--to get the godless classes into any church or\nchapel. Conducted on the principles upon which churches and chapels\nmust needs at present be conducted, they are for another class\naltogether; and we had better recognise it, because then we shall feel\nthat no multiplication of buildings like this in which we now are, for\ninstance, is any direct contribution to the evangelisation of the\nwaste spots of the country, except in so far as from a centre like\nthis there ought to go out much influence which will originate direct\nmissionary action in places and fashions adapted to the outlying\ncommunity.\n\nProfessional work is not what we want. Any man, be he minister,\nclergyman, Bible-reader, city missionary, who goes among our godless\npopulation with the suspicion of pay about him is the weaker for that.\nWhat is needed besides is that ladies and gentlemen that are a little\nhigher up in the social scale than these poor creatures, should go to\nthem themselves; and excavate and work. Preach, if you like, in the\ntechnical sense; have meetings, I suppose, necessarily; but the\npersonal contact is the thing, the familiar talk, the simple\nexhibition of a loving Christian heart, and the unconventional\nproclamation in free conversation of the broad message of the love of\nGod in Jesus Christ. Why, if all the people in this chapel who can do\nthat would do it, and keep on doing it, who can tell what an influence\nwould come from some hundreds of new workers for Christ? And why\nshould the existence of a church in which the workers are as numerous\nas the Christians be an Utopian dream? It is simply the dream that\nperhaps a church might be conceived to exist, all the members of which\nhad found out their plainest, most imperative duty, and were really\ntrying to do it.\n\nNo carelessness, no indolence, no plea of timidity or business shift\nthe obligation from your shoulders if you are a Christian. It is your\nbusiness, and no paid agents can represent you. You cannot buy\nyourselves substitutes in Christ's army, as they used to do in the\nmilitia, by a guinea subscription. We are thankful for the money,\nbecause there are kinds of work to be done that unpaid effort will not\ndo. But men ask for your money; Jesus Christ asks for yourself, for\nyour work, and will not let you off as having done your duty because\nyou have paid your subscription. No doubt there are some of you who,\nfrom various circumstances, cannot yourselves do work amongst the\nmasses of the outcast population. Well, but you have got people by\nyour side whom you can help. The question which I wish to ask of my\nChristian brethren and sisters now is this: Is there a man, woman, or\nchild living to whom you ever spoke a word about Jesus Christ? Is\nthere? If not, do not you think it is time that you began?\n\nThere are people in your houses, people that sit by you in your\ncounting-house, on your college benches, who work by your side in mill\nor factory or warehouse, who cross your path in a hundred ways, and\nGod has given them to you that you may bring them to Him. Do you set\nyourself, dear brother, to work and try to bring them. Oh! if you\nlived nearer Jesus Christ you would catch the sacred fire from Him;\nand like a bit of cold iron lying beside a magnet, touching Him, you\nwould yourselves become magnetic and draw men out of their evil and up\nto God.\n\nLet me commend to you the old pattern: 'The priests repaired every one\nover against his house'; and beseech you to take the trowel and spade,\nor anything that comes handiest, and build, in the bit nearest you,\nsome living stones on the true Foundation.\n\n\n\nDISCOURAGEMENTS AND COURAGE\n\n'Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against\nthem day and night, because of them. 10. And Judah said, The strength\nof the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so\nthat we are not able to build the wall. 11. And our adversaries said,\nThey shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among\nthem, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 12. And it came to\npass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us\nten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be\nupon you. 13. Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and\non the higher places, I even set the people after their families with\ntheir swords, their spears, and their bows. 14. And I looked and rose\nup, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of\nthe people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is\ngreat and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your\ndaughters, your wives, and your houses. 15. And it came to pass, when\nour enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their\ncounsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one\nunto his work. 16. And it came to pass from that time forth, that the\nhalf of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them\nheld both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons;\nand the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17. They which\nbuilded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that\nladed, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with\nthe other hand held a weapon. 18. For the builders, every one had his\nsword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the\ntrumpet was by me. 19. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers,\nand to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are\nseparated upon the wall, one far from another. 20. In what place\ntherefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us:\nour God shall fight for us. 21. So we laboured in the work: and half\nof them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars\nappeared.'--Neh. iv. 9-21.\n\n\nCommon hatred has a wonderful power of uniting former foes.\nSamaritans, wild Arabs of the desert, Ammonites, and inhabitants of\nAshdod in the Philistine plain would have been brought together for no\nnoble work, but mischief and malice fused them for a time into one.\nGod's work is attacked from all sides. Herod and Pilate can shake\nhands over their joint antagonism.\n\nThis passage paints vividly the discouragements which are apt to dog\nall good work, and the courage which refuses to be discouraged, and\nconquers by bold persistence. The first verse (v. 9) may stand as a\nsummary of the whole, though it refers to the preceding, not to the\nfollowing, verses. The true way to meet opposition is twofold--prayer\nand prudent watchfulness. 'Pray to God, and keep your powder dry,' is\nnot a bad compendium of the duty of a Christian soldier. The union of\nappeal to God with the full use of common sense, watchfulness, and\nprudence, would dissipate many hindrances to successful service.\n\nI. In verses 10-12 Nehemiah tells, in his simple way, of the\ndifficulties from three several quarters which threatened to stop his\nwork. He had trouble from the workmen, from the enemies, and from the\nmass of Jews not resident in Jerusalem. The enthusiasm of the builders\nhad cooled, and the magnitude of their task began to frighten them.\nVerse 6 tells us that the wall was completed 'unto the half of it';\nthat is, to one-half the height, and half-way through is just the\ncritical time in all protracted work. The fervour of beginning has\npassed; the animation from seeing the end at hand has not sprung up.\nThere is a dreary stretch in the centre, where it takes much faith and\nself-command to plod on unfainting. Half-way to Australia from England\nis the region of sickening calms. It is easier to work in the fresh\nmorning or in the cool evening than at midday. So in every great\nmovement there are short-winded people who sit down and pant very\nsoon, and their prudence croaks out undeniable facts. No doubt\nstrength does become exhausted; no doubt there is 'much rubbish'\n(literally 'dust'). What then? The conclusion drawn is not so\nunquestionable as the premises. 'We cannot build the wall' Why not?\nHave you not built half of it? And was not the first half more\nembarrassed by rubbish than the second will be?\n\nIt is a great piece of Christian duty to recognise difficulties, and\nnot be cowed by them. The true inference from the facts would have\nbeen, 'so that we must put all our strength into the work, and trust\nin our God to help us.' We may not be responsible for discouragements\nsuggesting themselves, but we are responsible for letting them become\ndissuasives. Our one question should be, Has God appointed the work?\nIf so, it has to be done, however little our strength, and however\nmountainous the accumulations of rubbish.\n\nThe second part in the trio was taken by the enemies--Sanballat and\nTobiah and the rest. They laid their plans for a sudden swoop down on\nJerusalem, and calculated that, if they could surprise the builders at\ntheir work, they would have no weapons to show fight with, and so\nwould be easily despatched. Killing the builders was but a means; the\ndesired end is significantly put last (v. 11), as being the stopping\nof the abhorred work. But killing the workmen does not cause the work\nto cease when it is God's work, as the history of the Church in all\nages shows. Conspirators should hold their tongues. It was not a\nhopeful way of beginning an attack, of which the essence was secrecy\nand suddenness, to talk about it. 'A bird of the air carries the\nmatter.'\n\nThe third voice is that of the Jews in other parts of the land, and\nespecially those living on the borders of Samaria, next door to\nSanballat. Verse 12 is probably best taken as in the Revised Version,\nwhich makes 'Ye must return to us' the imperative and often-repeated\nsummons from these to the contingents from their respective places of\nabode, who had gone up to Jerusalem to help in building. Alarms of\ninvasion made the scattered villagers wish to have all their men\ncapable of bearing arms back again to defend their own homes. It was a\nmost natural demand, but in this case, as so often, audacity is truest\nprudence; and in all high causes there come times when men have to\ntrust their homes and dear ones to God's protection. The necessity is\nheartrending, and we may well pray that we may not be exposed to it;\nbut if it clearly arises, a devout man can have no doubt of his duty.\nHow many American citizens had to face it in the great Civil War! And\nhow character is ennobled by even so severe a sacrifice!\n\nII. The calm heroism of Nehemiah and his wise action in the emergency\nare told in verses 13-15. He made a demonstration in force, which at\nonce showed that the scheme of a surprise was blown to pieces. It is\ndifficult to make out the exact localities in which he planted his\nmen. 'The lower places behind the wall' probably means the points at\nwhich the new fortifications were lowest, which would be the most\nexposed to assault; and the 'higher places' (Auth. Ver.), or 'open\nplaces' (Rev. Ver.), describes the same places from another point of\nview. They afforded room for posting troops because they were without\nbuildings. At any rate, the walls were manned, and the enemy would\nhave to deal, not with unarmed labourers, but with prepared soldiers.\nThe work was stopped, and trowel and spade exchanged for sword and\nspear. 'And I looked,' says Nehemiah. His careful eye travelled over\nthe lines, and, seeing all in order, he cheered the little army with\nringing words. He had prayed (Neh. i. 5) to 'the great and terrible\nGod,' and now he bids his men remember Him, and thence draw strength\nand courage. The only real antagonist of fear is faith. If we can\ngrasp God, we shall not dread Sanballat and his crew. Unless we do,\nthe world is full of dangers which it is not folly to fear.\n\nNote, too, that the people are animated for the fight by reminding\nthem of the dear ones whose lives and honour hung on the issue.\nNothing is said about fighting for God and His Temple and city, but\nthe motives adduced are not less sacred. Family love is God's best of\nearthly gifts, and, though it is sometimes duty to 'forget thine own\npeople, and thy father's house,' as we have just seen, nothing short\nof these highest obligations can supersede the sweet one of straining\nevery nerve for the well-being of dear ones in the hallowed circle of\nhome.\n\nSo the plan of a sudden rush came to nothing. It does not appear that\nthe enemy was in sight; but the news of the demonstration soon reached\nthem, and was effectual. Prompt preparation against possible dangers\nis often the means of turning them aside. Watchfulness is\nindispensable to vigour of Christian character and efficiency of work.\nSuspicion is hateful and weakening; but a man who tries to serve God\nin such a world as this had need to be like the living creatures in\nthe Revelation, having 'eyes all over.' 'Blessed is the man that [in\nthat sense] feareth always.'\n\nThe upshot of the alarm is very beautifully told: 'We returned all of\nus to the wall, every one unto his work.' No time was wasted in\njubilation. The work was the main thing, and the moment the\ninterruption was ended, back to it they all went. It is a fine\nillustration of persistent discharge of duty, and of that most\nvaluable quality, the ability and inclination to keep up the main\npurpose of a life continuous through interruptions, like a stream of\nsweet water running through a bog.\n\nIII. The remainder of the passage tells us of the standing\narrangements made in consequence of the alarm (vs. 16-21). First we\nhear what Nehemiah did with his own special 'servants,' whether these\nwere slaves who had accompanied him from Shushan (as Stanley\nsupposes), or his body-guard as a Persian official. He divided them\ninto two parts--one to work, one to watch. But he did not carry out\nthis plan with the mass of the people, probably because it would have\ntoo largely diminished the number of builders. So he armed them all.\nThe labourers who carried stones, mortar, and the like, could do their\nwork after a fashion with one hand, and so they had a weapon in the\nother. If they worked in pairs, that would be all the easier. The\nactual builders needed both hands, and so they had swords stuck in\ntheir girdles. No doubt such arrangements hindered progress, but they\nwere necessary. The lesson often drawn from them is no doubt true,\nthat God's workers must be prepared for warfare as well as building.\nThere have been epochs in which that necessity was realised in a very\nsad manner; and the Church on earth will always have to be the Church\nmilitant. But it is well to remember that building is the end, and\nfighting is but the means. The trowel, not the sword, is the natural\ninstrument. Controversy is second best--a necessity, no doubt, but an\nunwelcome one, and only permissible as a subsidiary help to doing the\ntrue work, rearing the walls of the city of God.\n\n'He that soundeth the trumpet was by me.' The gallant leader was\neverywhere, animating by his presence. He meant to be in the thick of\nthe fight, if it should come. And so he kept the trumpeter by his\nside, and gave orders that when he sounded all should hurry to the\nplace; for there the enemy would be, and Nehemiah would be where they\nwere. 'The work is great and large, and we are separated ... one far\nfrom another.' How naturally the words lend themselves to the old\nlesson so often drawn from them! God's servants are widely parted, by\ndistance, by time, and, alas! by less justifiable causes. Unless they\ndraw together they will be overwhelmed, taken in detail, and crushed.\nThey must rally to help each other against the common foe.\n\nThank God! the longing for manifest Christian unity is deeper to-day\nthan ever it was. But much remains to be done before it is adequately\nfulfilled in the recognition of the common bond of brotherhood, which\nbinds us all in one family, if we have one Father. English and\nAmerican Christians are bound to seek the tightening of the bonds\nbetween them and to set themselves against politicians who may seek to\nkeep apart those who both in the flesh and in the spirit are brothers.\nAll Christians have one great Captain; and He will be in the forefront\nof every battle. His clear trumpet-call should gather all His servants\nto His side.\n\nThe closing verse tells again how Nehemiah's immediate dependants\ndivided work and watching, and adds to the picture the continuousness\nof their toil from the first grey of morning till darkness showed the\nstars and ended another day of toil. Happy they who thus 'from morn\ntill noon, from noon till dewy eve,' labour in the work of the Lord!\nFor them, every new morning will dawn with new strength, and every\nevening be calm with the consciousness of 'something attempted,\nsomething done.'\n\n\n\nAN ANCIENT NONCONFORMIST\n\n'... So did not I, because of the fear of God.'--Neh. v. 15.\n\n\nI do not suppose that the ordinary Bible-reader knows very much about\nNehemiah. He is one of the neglected great men of Scripture. He was no\nprophet, he had no glowing words, he had no lofty visions, he had no\nspecial commission, he did not live in the heroic age. There was a\ncertain harshness and dryness; a tendency towards what, when it was\nmore fully developed, became Pharisaism, in the man, which somewhat\ncovers the essential nobleness of his character. But he was brave,\ncautious, circumspect, disinterested; and he had Jerusalem in his\nheart.\n\nThe words that I have read are a little fragment of his autobiography\nwhich deal with a prosaic enough matter, but carry in them large\nprinciples. When he was appointed governor of the little colony of\nreturned exiles in Palestine, he found that his predecessors, like\nTurkish pashas and Chinese mandarins to-day, had been in the habit of\n'squeezing' the people of their Government, and that they had\nrequisitioned sufficient supplies of provisions to keep the governor's\ntable well spread. It was the custom. Nobody would have wondered if\nNehemiah had conformed to it; but he felt that he must have his hands\nclean. Why did he not do what everybody else had done in like\ncircumstances? His answer is beautifully simple: 'Because of the fear\nof God.' His religion went down into the little duties of common life,\nand imposed upon him a standard far above the maxims that were\nprevalent round about him. And so, if you will take these words, and\ndisengage them from the small matter concerning which they were\noriginally spoken, I think you will find in them thoughts as to the\nattitude which we should take to prevalent practices, the motive which\nshould impel us to a sturdy non-compliance, and the power which will\nenable us to walk on a solitary road. 'So did not I, because of the\nfear of God.' Now, then, these are my three points:--\n\nI. The attitude to prevalent practices.\n\nNehemiah would not conform. And unless you can say 'No!' and do it\nvery often, your life will be shattered from the beginning. That\nnon-compliance with customary maxims and practices is the beginning,\nor, at least, one of the foundation-stones, of all nobleness and\nstrength, of all blessedness and power. Of course it is utterly\nimpossible for a man to denude himself of the influences that are\nbrought to bear upon him by the circumstances in which he lives, and\nthe trend of opinion, and the maxims and practices of the world, in\nthe corner, and at the time, in which his lot is cast. But, on the\nother hand, be sure of this, that unless you are in a very deep and\nnot at all a technical sense of the word, 'Nonconformists,' you will\ncome to no good. None! It is so easy to do as others do, partly\nbecause of laziness, partly because of cowardice, partly because of\nthe instinctive imitation which is in us all. Men are gregarious. One\ngreat teacher has drawn an illustration from a flock of sheep, and\nsays that if we hold up a stick, and the first of the flock jumps over\nit, and then if we take away the stick, all the rest of the flock will\njump when they come to the point where the first did so. A great many\nof us adopt our creeds and opinions, and shape our lives for no better\nreason than because people round us are thinking in a certain\ndirection, and living in a certain way. It saves a great deal of\ntrouble, and it gratifies a certain strange instinct that is in us\nall, and it avoids dangers and conflicts that we should, when we are\nat Rome, do as the Romans do. 'So did not I, because of the fear of\nGod.'\n\nNow, brethren! I ask you to take this plain principle of the necessity\nof non-compliance (which I suppose I do not need to do much to\nestablish, because, theoretically, we most of us admit it), and apply\nit all round the circumference of your lives. Apply it to your\nopinions. There is no tyranny like the tyranny of a majority in a\ndemocratic country like ours. It is quite as harsh as the tyranny of\nthe old-fashioned despots. Unless you resolve steadfastly to see with\nyour own eyes, to use your own brains, to stand on your own feet, to\nbe a voice and not an echo, you will be helplessly enslaved by the\nfashion of the hour, and the opinions that prevail.\n\n'What everybody says'--perhaps--'is true.' What most people say, at\nany given time, is very likely to be false. Truth has always lived\nwith minorities, so do not let the current of widespread opinion sweep\nyou away, but try to have a mind of your own, and not to be\nbrow-beaten or overborne because the majority of the people round\nabout you are giving utterance, and it may be unmeasured utterance, to\nany opinions.\n\nNow, there is one direction in which I wish to urge that\nespecially--and now I speak mainly to the young men in my\ncongregation--and that is, in regard to the attitude that so many\namongst us are taking to Christian truth. If you have honestly thought\nout the subject to the best of your ability, and have come to\nconclusions diverse from those which men like me hold dearer than\ntheir lives, that is another matter. But I know that very widely there\nis spread to-day the fashion of unbelief. So many influential men,\nleaders of opinion, teachers and preachers, are giving up the\nold-fashioned Evangelical faith, that it takes a strong man to say\nthat he sticks by it. It is a poor reason to give for your attitude,\nthat unbelief is in the air, and nobody believes those old doctrines\nnow. That may be. There are currents of opinion that are transitory,\nand that is one of them, depend upon it. But at all events do not be\nfooled out of your faith, as some of you are tending to be, for no\nbetter reason than because other people have given it up. An iceberg\nlowers the temperature all round it, and the iceberg of unbelief is\namongst us to-day, and it has chilled a great many people who could\nnot tell why they have lost the fervour of their faith.\n\nOn the other hand, let me remind you that a mere traditional religion,\nwhich is only orthodox because other people are so, and has not\nverified its beliefs by personal experience, is quite as deleterious\nas an imitative unbelief. Doubtless, I speak to some who plume\nthemselves on 'never having been affected by these currents of popular\nopinion,' but whose unblemished and unquestioned orthodoxy has no more\nvitality in it than the other people's heterodoxy. The one man has\nsaid, 'What is everywhere always, and by all believed, I believe'; and\nthe other man has said, 'What the select spirits of this day\ndisbelieve, I disbelieve,' and the belief of one and the unbelief of\nthe other are equally worthless, and really identical.\n\nBut it is not only, nor mainly, in reference to opinion that I would\nurge upon you this nonconformity with prevalent practices as the\nmeasure of most that is noble in us. I dare not talk to you as if I\nknew much about the details of Manchester commercial life, but I can\nsay this much, that it is no excuse for shady practices in your trade\nto say, 'It is the custom of the trade, and everybody does it.'\nNehemiah might have said: 'There never was a governor yet but took his\nforty shekels a day's worth'--about L. 1,800 of our money--'of\nprovisions from these poor people, and I am not going to give it up\nbecause of a scruple. It is the custom, and because it is the custom I\ncan do it.' I am not going into details. It is commonly understood\nthat preachers know nothing about business; that may be true, or it\nmay not. But this, I am sure, is a word in season for some of my\nfriends this evening--do not hide behind the trade. Come out into the\nopen, and deal with the questions of morality involved in your\ncommercial life, as you will have to deal with them hereafter, by\nyourself. Never mind about other people. 'Oh,' but you say, 'that\ninvolves loss.' Very likely! Nehemiah was a poorer man because he fed\nall these one hundred and fifty Jews at his table, but he did not mind\nthat. It may involve loss, but you will keep God, and that is gain.\n\nTurn this searchlight in another direction. I see a number of young\npeople in my congregation at this moment, young men who are perhaps\njust beginning their career in this city, and who possibly have been\nstartled when they heard the kind of talk that was going on at the\nnext desk, or from the man that sits beside them on the benches at\nCollege. Do not be tempted to follow that multitude to do evil. Unless\nyou are prepared to say 'No!' to a great deal that will be pushed into\nyour face in this great city, as sure as you are living you will make\nshipwreck of your lives. Do you think that in the forty years and more\nthat I have stood here I have not seen successive generations of young\nmen come into Manchester? I could people many of these pews with the\nfaces of such, who came here buoyant, full of hope, full of high\nresolves, and with a mother's benediction hanging over their heads,\nand who got into a bad set, and had not the strength to say 'No,' and\nthey went down and down and down, and then presently somebody asked,\n'Where is so-and-so?' 'Oh! his health broke down, and he has gone home\nto die.' 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth'--and he\nmade shipwreck of prospects and of life, because he did not pull\nhimself together when the temptation came, and say, 'So did not I,\nbecause of the fear of God.'\n\nII. Now let me ask you to turn with me to the second thought that my\ntext suggests to me; that is,\n\nThe motive that impels to this sturdy non-compliance.\n\nNehemiah puts it in Old Testament phraseology, 'the fear of God'; the\nNew Testament equivalent is 'the love of Christ.' And if you want to\ntake the power and the life out of both phrases, in order to find a\nmodern conventional equivalent, you will say 'religion.' I prefer the\nold-fashioned language. 'The love of Christ' impels to this\nnon-compliance. Now, my point is this, that Jesus Christ requires from\neach of us that we shall abstain, restrict ourselves, refuse to do a\ngreat many things that are being done round us.\n\nI need not remind you of how continually He spoke about taking up the\ncross. I need not do more than just remind you of His parable of the\ntwo ways, but ask you, whilst you think of it, to note that all the\ncharacteristics of each of the ways which He sets forth are given by\nHim as reasons for refusing the one and walking in the other. For\nexample, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate, for strait is the\ngate'--that is a reason for going in; 'and narrow is the way'--that is\na reason for going in; 'and few there be that find it'--that is a\nreason for going in. 'Wide is the gate'--that is a reason for stopping\nout; 'and broad is the way'--that is a reason for stopping out; 'and\nmany there be that go in thereat'--that is a reason for stopping out.\nIs not that what I said, that the minority is generally right and the\nmajority wrong? Just because there are so many people on the path,\nsuspect it, and expect that the path with fewer travellers is probably\nthe better and the higher.\n\nBut to pass from that, what did Jesus Christ mean by His continual\ncontrast between His disciples and the world? What did He mean by 'the\nworld'? This fair universe, with all its possibilities of help and\nblessing, and all its educational influences? By no means. He meant by\n'the world' the aggregate of things and men considered as separate\nfrom God. And when He applied the term to men only, He meant by it\nvery much what we mean when we talk about society. Society is not\norganised on Christian principles; we all know that, and until it is,\nif a man is going to be a Christian he must not conform to the world.\n'Know ye not that whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of\nGod.'\n\nI would press upon you, dear friends! that our Christianity is nothing\nunless it leads us to a standard, and a course of conduct in\nconformity with that standard, which will be in diametrical opposition\nto a great deal of what is patted on the back, and petted and praised\nby society. Now, there is an easy-going kind of Christianity which\ndoes not recognise that, and which is in great favour with many people\nto-day, and is called 'liberality' and 'breadth,' and 'conciliating\nand commending Christianity to outsiders,' and I know not what\nbesides. Well, Christ's words seem to me to come down like a hammer\nupon that sort of thing. Depend upon it, 'the world'--I mean by that\nthe aggregate of godless men organised as they are in society--does\nnot think much of these trimmers. It may dislike an out-and-out\nChristian, but it knows him when it sees him, and it has a kind of\nhostile respect for him which the other people will never get. You\nremember the story of the man that was seeking for a coachman, and\nwhose question to each applicant was, 'How near can you drive to the\nedge of a precipice?' He took the man who said: 'I would keep away\nfrom it as far as I could.' And the so-called Christian people that\nseem to be bent on showing how much their lives can be made to\nassimilate to the lives of men that have no sympathy with their\ncreeds, are like the rash Jehus that tried to go as near the edge as\nthey could. But the consistent Christian will keep as far away from it\nas he can. There are some of us who seem as if we were most anxious to\nshow that we, whose creed is absolutely inconsistent with the world's\npractices, can live lives which are all but identical with these\npractices. Jesus Christ says, through the lips of His Apostle, what He\noften said in other language by His own lips when He was here on\nearth: 'Be ye not conformed to the world.'\n\nSurely such a command as that, just because it involves difficulty,\nself-restraint, self-denial, and sometimes self-crucifixion, ought to\nappeal, and does appeal, to all that is noble in humanity, in a\nfashion that that smooth, easy-going gospel of living on the level of\nthe people round us never can do. For remember that Christ's\ncommandment not to be conformed to the world is the consequence of His\ncommandment to be conformed to Himself. 'Thus did not I' comes second;\n'This one thing I do' comes first. You will misunderstand the whole\ngenius of the Gospel if you suppose that, as a law of life, it is\nperpetually pulling men short up, and saying: Don't, don't, don't!\nThere is a Christianity of that sort which is mainly prohibition and\nrestriction, but it is not Christ's Christianity. He begins by\nenjoining: 'This do in remembrance of Me,' and the man that has\naccepted that commandment must necessarily say, as he looks out on the\nworld, and its practices: 'So did not I, because of the fear of God.'\n\nIII. And now one last word--my text not only suggests the motive which\nimpels to this non-compliance, but also the power which enables us to\nexercise it.\n\n'The fear of God,' or, taking the New Testament equivalent, 'the love\nof Christ,' makes it possible for a man, with all his weakness and\ndependence on surroundings, with all his instinctive desire to be like\nthe folk that are near him, to take that brave attitude, and to refuse\nto be one of the crowd that runs after evil and lies. I have no time\nto dwell upon this aspect of my subject, as I should be glad to have\ndone. Let me sum up in a sentence or two what I would have said.\nChrist will enable you to take this necessary attitude because, in\nHimself He gives you the Example which it is always safe to follow.\nThe instinct of imitation is planted in us for a good end, and because\nit is in us, examples of nobility appeal to us. And because it is in\nus Jesus Christ has lived the life that it is possible for, and\ntherefore incumbent on, us to live. It is safe to imitate Him, and it\nis easy not to do as men do, if once our main idea is to do as Christ\ndid.\n\nHe makes it possible for us, because He gives the strongest possible\nmotive for the life that He prescribes. As the Apostle puts it, 'Ye\nare bought with a price, be not the servants of men.' There is nothing\nthat will so deliver us from the tyranny of majorities, and of what we\ncall general opinion and ordinary custom, as to feel that we belong to\nHim because He died for us. Men become very insignificant when Christ\nspeaks, and the charter of our freedom from them lies in our\nredemption by the blood of Jesus Christ.\n\nJesus Christ being our Redeemer is our Judge, and moment by moment He\nis estimating our conduct, and judging our actions as they are done.\n'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you or of man's\njudgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.' Never mind what the people\nround you say; you do not take your orders from them, and you do not\nanswer to them. Like some official abroad, appointed by the Crown, you\ndo not report to the local authorities; you report to headquarters,\nand what He thinks about you is the only important thing. So 'the fear\nof man which bringeth a snare' dwindles down into very minute\ndimensions when we think of the Pattern, the Redeemer and the Judge to\nwhom we give account.\n\nAnd so, dear friends! if we will only open our hearts, by quiet humble\nfaith, for the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives, then we shall be\nable to resist, to refuse compliance, to stand firm, though alone. The\nservant of Christ is the master of all men. 'All things are yours,\nwhether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas--all are yours, and ye are\nChrist's.'\n\n\n\nREADING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY\n\n'And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the\nstreet that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the\nscribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had\ncommanded to Israel. 2. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the\ncongregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with\nunderstanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3. And he read\ntherein before the street that was before the water gate, from the\nmorning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that\ncould understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto\nthe book of the law. 4. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of\nwood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood\nMattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and\nMaaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand Pedaiah, and\nMishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and\nMeshullam. 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people;\n(for he was above all the people); and when he opened it, all the\npeople stood up: 6. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all\nthe people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they\nbowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the\nground. 7. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jemin, Akkub,\nShabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan,\nPelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and\nthe people stood in their place. 8. So they read in the book in the\nlaw of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to\nunderstand the reading. 9. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirashatha, and\nEzra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people,\nsaid unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God;\nmourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the\nwords of the law. 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the\nfat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing\nis prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry;\nfor the joy of the Lord is your strength. 11. So the Levites stilled\nall the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither\nbe ye grieved. 12. And all the people went their way to eat, and to\ndrink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had\nunderstood the words that were declared unto them.'--Neh. viii. 1-12.\n\n\nThe wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, which\nwas the sixth month. The events recorded in this passage took place on\nthe first day of the seventh month. The year is not given, but the\nnatural inference is that it was the same as that of the finishing of\nthe wall; namely, the twentieth of Artaxerxes. If so, the completion\nof the fortifications to which Nehemiah had set himself, was\nimmediately followed by this reading of the law, in which Ezra takes\nthe lead. The two men stand in a similar relative position to that of\nZerubbabel and Joshua, the one representing the civil and the other\nthe religious authority.\n\nAccording to Ezra vii. 9, Ezra had gone to Jerusalem about thirteen\nyears before Nehemiah, and had had a weary time of fighting against\nthe corruptions which had crept in among the returned captives. The\narrival of Nehemiah would be hailed as bringing fresh, young\nenthusiasm, none the less welcome and powerful because it had the\nking's authority entrusted to it. Evidently the two men thoroughly\nunderstood one another, and pulled together heartily. We heard nothing\nabout Ezra while the wall was being built. But now he is the principal\nfigure, and Nehemiah is barely mentioned. The reasons for Ezra's\ntaking the prominent part in the reading of the law are given in the\ntwo titles by which he is designated in two successive verses (vers.\n1,2). He was 'the scribe' and also 'the priest,' and in both\ncapacities was the natural person for such a work.\n\nThe seventh month was the festival month of the year, its first day\nbeing that of the Feast of trumpets, and the great Feast of\ntabernacles as well as the solemn day of atonement occurring in it.\nPossibly, the prospect of the coming of the times for these\ncelebrations may have led to the people's wish to hear the law, that\nthey might duly observe the appointed ceremonial. At all events, the\nfirst thing to note is that it was in consequence of the people's wish\nthat the law was read in their hearing. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah\noriginated the gathering together. They obeyed a popular impulse which\nthey had not created. We must not, indeed, give the multitude credit\nfor much more than the wish to have their ceremonial right. But there\nwas at least that wish, and possibly something deeper and more\nspiritual. The walls were completed; but the true defence of Israel\nwas in God, and the condition of His defending was Israel's obedience\nto His law. The people were, in some measure, beginning to realise\nthat condition with new clearness, in consequence of the new fervour\nwhich Nehemiah had brought.\n\nIt is singular that, during his thirteen years of residence, Ezra is\nnot recorded to have promulgated the law, though it lay at the basis\nof the drastic reforms which he was able to carry through. Probably he\nhad not been silent, but the solemn public recitation of the law was\nfelt to be appropriate on occasion of completing the wall. Whether the\npeople had heard it before, or, as seems implied, it was strange to\nthem, their desire to hear it may stand as a pattern for us of that\nearnest wish to know God's will which is never cherished in vain. He\nwho does not intend to obey does not wish to know the law. If we have\nno longing to know what the will of the Lord is, we may be very sure\nthat we prefer our own to His. If we desire to know it, we shall\ndesire to understand the Book which contains so much of it. Any true\nreligion in the heart will make us eager to perceive, and willing to\nbe guided by, the will of God, revealed mainly in Scripture, in the\nPerson, works, and words of Jesus, and also in waiting hearts by the\nSpirit, and in those things which the world calls 'circumstances' and\nfaith names 'providences.'\n\nII. Verses 2-8 appear to tell the same incidents twice over--first,\nmore generally in verses 2 and 8, and then more minutely. Such\nexpanded repetition is characteristic of the Old Testament historical\nstyle. It is somewhat difficult to make sure of the real\ncircumstances. Clearly enough there was a solemn assembly of men,\nwomen, and children in a great open space outside one of the gates,\nand there, from dawn till noon, the law was read and explained. But\nwhether Ezra read it all, while the Levites named in verse 7 explained\nor paraphrased or translated it, or whether they all read in turns, or\nwhether there were a number of groups, each of which had a teacher who\nboth read and expounded, is hard to determine. At all events, Ezra was\nthe principal figure, and began the reading.\n\nIt was a picturesque scene. The sun, rising over the slopes of Olivet,\nwould fall on the gathered crowd, if the water-gate was, as is\nprobable, on the east or south-east side of the city. Beneath the\nfresh fortifications probably, which would act as a sounding-board for\nthe reader, was set up a scaffold high above the crowd, large enough\nto hold Ezra and thirteen supporters--principal men, no doubt--seven\non one side of him and six on the other. Probably a name has dropped\nout, and the numbers were equal. There, in the morning light, with the\nnew walls for a background, stood Ezra on his rostrum, and amid\nreverent silence, lifted high the sacred roll. A common impulse swayed\nthe crowd, and brought them all to their feet--token at once of\nrespect and obedient attention. Probably many of them had never seen a\nsacred roll. To them all it was comparatively unfamiliar. No wonder\nthat, as Ezra's voice rose in prayer, the whole assembly fell on their\nfaces in adoration, and every lip responded 'Amen! amen!'\n\nMuch superstition may have mingled with the reverence. No doubt, there\nwas then what we are often solemnly warned against now, bibliolatry.\nBut in this time of critical investigation it is not the divine\nelement in Scripture which is likely to be exaggerated; and few are\nlikely to go wrong in the direction of paying too much reverence to\nthe Book in which, as is still believed, God has revealed His will and\nHimself. While welcoming all investigations which throw light on its\norigin or its meaning, and perfectly recognising the human element in\nit, we should learn the lesson taught by that waiting crowd prone on\ntheir faces, and blessing God for His word. Such attitude must ever\nprecede reading it, if we are to read aright.\n\nHour after hour the recitation went on. We must let the question of\nthe precise form of the events remain undetermined. It is somewhat\nsingular that thirteen names are enumerated as of the men who stood by\nEzra, and thirteen as those of the readers or expounders. It may be\nthe case that the former number is complete, though uneven, and that\nthere was some reason unknown for dividing the audience into just so\nmany sections. The second set of thirteen was not composed of the same\nmen as the first. They seem to have been Levites, whose office of\nassisting at the menial parts of the sacrifices was now elevated into\nthat of setting forth the law. Probably the portions read were such as\nbore especially on ritual, though the tears of the listeners are\nsufficient proof that they had heard some things that went deeper than\nthat.\n\nThe word rendered 'distinctly' in the Revised Version (margin,\n_with_ an _interpretation_) is ambiguous, and may either\nmean that the Levites explained or that they translated the words. The\nformer is the more probable, as there is no reason to suppose that the\naudience, most of whom had been born in the land, were ignorant of\nHebrew. But if the ritual had been irregularly observed, and the\ncircle of ideas in the law become unfamiliar, many explanations would\nbe necessary. It strikes one as touching and strange that such an\nassembly should be needed after so many centuries of national\nexistence. It sums up in one vivid picture the sin and suffering of\nthe nation. To observe that law had been the condition of their\nprosperity. To bind it on their hearts should have been their delight\nand would have been their life; and here, after all these generations,\nthe best of the nation are assembled, so ignorant of it that they\ncannot even understand it when they hear it. Absorption with worldly\nthings has an awful power of dulling spiritual apprehension. Neglect\nof God's law weakens the power of understanding it.\n\nThis scene was in the truest sense a 'revival.' We may learn the true\nway of bringing men back to God; namely, the faithful exposition and\nenforcement of God's will and word. We may learn, too, what should be\nthe aim of public teachers of religion; namely, first and foremost,\nthe clear setting forth of God's truth. Their first business is to\n'give the sense, so that they understand the reading'; and that, not\nfor merely intellectual purposes, but that, like the crowd outside the\nwater-gate on that hot noonday, men may be moved to penitence, and\nthen lifted to the joy of the Lord.\n\nThe first day of the seventh month was the Feast of trumpets; and when\nthe reading was over, and its effects of tears and sorrow for\ndisobedience were seen, the preachers changed their tone, to bring\nconsolation and exhort to gladness. Nehemiah had taken no part in\nreading the law, as Ezra the priest and his Levites were more\nappropriately set to that. But he joins them in exhorting the people\nto dry their tears, and go joyfully to the feast. These exhortations\ncontain many thoughts universally applicable. They teach that even\nthose who are most conscious of sin and breaches of God's law should\nweep indeed, but should swiftly pass from tears to joy. They do not\nteach how that passage is to be effected; and in so far they are\nimperfect, and need to be supplemented by the New Testament teaching\nof forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But in their\nclear discernment that sorrow is not meant to be a permanent\ncharacteristic of religion, and that gladness is a more acceptable\noffering than tears, they teach a valuable lesson, needed always by\nmen who fancy that they must atone for their sins by their own\nsadness, and that religion is gloomy, harsh, and crabbed.\n\nFurther, these exhortations to festal gladness breathe the\ncharacteristic Old Testament tone of wholesome enjoyment of material\ngood as a part of religion. The way of looking at eating and drinking\nand the like, as capable of being made acts of worship, has been too\noften forgotten by two kinds of men--saints who have sought sanctity\nin asceticism; and sensualists who have taken deep draughts of such\npleasures without calling on the name of the Lord, and so have failed\nto find His gifts a cup of salvation. It is possible to 'eat and drink\nand see God' as the elders of Israel did on Sinai.\n\nFurther, the plain duty of remembering the needy while we enjoy God's\ngifts is beautifully enjoined here. The principle underlying the\ncommandment to 'send portions to them for whom nothing is\nprovided'--that is, for whom no feast has been dressed--is that all\ngifts are held in trust, that nothing is bestowed on us for our own\ngood only, but that we are in all things stewards. The law extends to\nthe smallest and to the greatest possessions. We have no right to\nfeast on anything unless we share it, whether it be festal dainties or\nthe bread that came down from heaven. To divide our portion with\nothers is the way to make our portion greater as well as sweeter.\n\nFurther, 'the joy of the Lord is your strength.' By _strength_\nhere seems to be meant a _stronghold_. If we fix our desires on\nGod, and have trained our hearts to find sweeter delights in communion\nwith Him than in any earthly good, our religion will have lifted us\nabove mists and clouds into clear air above, where sorrows and changes\nwill have little power to affect us. If we are to rejoice in the Lord,\nit will be possible for us to 'rejoice always,' and that joy will be\nas a refuge from all the ills that flesh is heir to. Dwelling in God,\nwe shall dwell safely, and be far from the fear of evil.\n\n\n\nTHE JOY OF THE LORD\n\n'The joy of the Lord is your strength.'--Neh. viii. 10.\n\n\nJudaism, in its formal and ceremonial aspect, was a religion of\ngladness. The feast was the great act of worship. It is not to be\nwondered at, that Christianity, the perfecting of that ancient system,\nhas been less markedly felt to be a religion of joy; for it brings\nwith it far deeper and more solemn views about man in his nature,\ncondition, responsibilities, destinies, than ever prevailed before,\nunder any system of worship. And yet all deep religion ought to be\njoyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be so.\n\nHere, in the incident before us, there has come a time in Nehemiah's\ngreat enterprise, when the law, long forgotten, long broken by the\ncaptives, is now to be established again as the rule of the\nnewly-founded commonwealth. Naturally enough there comes a remembrance\nof many sins in the past history of the people; and tears not\nunnaturally mingle with the thankfulness that again they are a nation,\nhaving a divine worship and a divine law in their midst. The leader of\nthem, knowing for one thing that if the spirits of his people once\nbegan to flag, they could not face nor conquer the difficulties of\ntheir position, said to them, 'This day is holy unto the Lord: this\nfeast that we are keeping is a day of devout worship; therefore mourn\nnot, nor weep: go your way; eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send\nportions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; neither be ye sorry,\nfor the joy of the Lord is your strength.' You will make nothing of it\nby indulgence in lamentation and in mourning. You will have no more\npower for obedience, you will not be fit for your work, if you fall\ninto a desponding state. Be thankful and glad; and remember that the\npurest worship is the worship of God-fixed joy, 'the joy of the Lord\nis your strength.' And that is as true, brethren! with regard to us,\nas it ever was in these old times; and we, I think, need the lesson\ncontained in this saying of Nehemiah's, because of some prevalent\ntendencies amongst us, no less than these Jews did. Take some simple\nthoughts suggested by this text which are both important in themselves\nand needful to be made emphatic because so often forgotten in the\nordinary type of Christian character. They are these. Religious Joy is\nthe natural result of faith. It is a Christian duty. It is an\nimportant element in Christian strength.\n\nI. Joy in the Lord is the natural result of Christian Faith.\n\nThere is a natural adaptation or provision in the Gospel, both by what\nit brings to us and by what it takes away from us, to make a calm, and\nsettled, and deep gladness, the prevalent temper of the Christian\nspirit. In what it gives us, I say, and in what it takes away from us.\nIt gives us what we call well a sense of acceptance with God, it gives\nus God for the rest of our spirits, it gives us the communion with Him\nwhich in proportion as it is real, will be still, and in proportion as\nit is still, will be all bright and joyful. It takes away from us the\nfear that lies before us, the strifes that lie within us, the\ndesperate conflict that is waged between a man's conscience and his\ninclinations, between his will and his passions, which tears the heart\nasunder, and always makes sorrow and tumult wherever it comes. It\ntakes away the sense of sin. It gives us, instead of the torpid\nconscience, or the angrily-stinging conscience--a conscience all calm\nfrom its accusations, with all the sting drawn out of it:--for quiet\npeace lies in the heart of the man that is trusting in the Lord. The\nGospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in God; joy, because\nevery function of the spiritual nature has found now its haven and its\nobject; joy, because health has come, and the healthy working of the\nbody or of the spirit is itself a gladness; joy, because the dim\nfuture is painted (where it is painted at all) with shapes of light\nand beauty, and because the very vagueness of these is an element in\nthe greatness of its revelation. The joy that is in Christ is deep and\nabiding. Faith in Him naturally works gladness.\n\nI do not forget that, on the other side, it is equally true that the\nChristian faith has as marked and almost as strong an adaptation to\nproduce a solemn _sorrow_--solemn, manly, noble, and strong. 'As\nsorrowful, yet always rejoicing,' is the rule of the Christian life.\nIf we think of what our faith does; of the light that it casts upon\nour condition, upon our nature, upon our responsibilities, upon our\nsins, and upon our destinies, we can easily see how, if gladness be\none part of its operation, no less really and truly is sadness\nanother. Brethren! all great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them,\nwhich not unfrequently merges into a still sorrow. There is nothing\nmore contemptible in itself, and there is no more sure mark of a\ntrivial nature and a trivial round of occupations, than unshaded\ngladness, that rests on no deep foundations of quiet, patient grief;\ngrief, because I know what I am and what I ought to be; grief, because\nI have learnt the 'exceeding sinfulness of sin'; grief, because,\nlooking out upon the world, I see, as other men do not see, hell-fire\nburning at the back of the mirth and the laughter, and know what it is\nthat men are hurrying to! Do you remember who it was that stood by the\nside of the one poor dumb man, whose tongue He was going to loose, and\nlooking up to heaven, _sighed_ before He could say, 'Be opened'?\nDo you remember that of Him it is said, 'God hath anointed Thee with\nthe oil of gladness above Thy fellows'; and also, 'a Man of sorrows,\nand acquainted with grief'? And do you not think that both these\ncharacteristics are to be repeated in the operations of His Gospel\nupon every heart that receives it? And if, by the hopes it breathes\ninto us, by the fears that it takes away from us, by the union with\nGod that it accomplishes for us, by the fellowship that it implants in\nus, it indeed anoints us all 'with the oil of gladness'; yet, on the\nother hand, by the sense of mine own sin that it teaches me; by the\nconflict with weakness which it makes to be the law of my life; by the\nclear vision which it gives me of 'the law of my members warring\nagainst the law of my mind, and bringing me into subjection'; by the\nintensity which it breathes into all my nature, and by the thoughts\nthat it presents of what sin leads to, and what the world at present\nis, the Gospel, wheresoever it comes, will infuse a wise, valiant\nsadness as the very foundation of character. Yes, joy, but sorrow too!\nthe joy of the Lord, but sorrow as we look on our own sin and the\nworld's woe! the head anointed with the oil of gladness, but also\ncrowned with thorns!\n\nThese two are not contradictory. These two states of mind, both of\nthem the natural operations of any deep faith, may co-exist and blend\ninto one another, so as that the gladness is sobered, and chastened,\nand made manly and noble; and that the sorrow is like some\nthundercloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that pierce into its\ndeepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow\nsprings from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash\nagainst each other, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference,\nbut they blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep\ndown beneath the cold snow, with its white desolation and its barren\ndeath, you will find the budding of the early spring flowers and the\nfresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water;\njust as, in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea, there may be\nwelling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a\ndeeper depth than the great ocean around it, and pours its sweet\nstreams along the surface of the salt waste. Gladness, because I love,\nfor love _is_ gladness; gladness, because I trust, for trust\n_is_ gladness; gladness, because I obey, for obedience is a meat\nthat others know not of, and light comes when we do His will! But\nsorrow, because still I am wrestling with sin; sorrow, because still I\nhave not perfect fellowship; sorrow, because mine eye, purified by my\nliving with God, sees earth, and sin, and life, and death, and the\ngenerations of men, and the darkness beyond, in some measure as God\nsees them! And yet, the sorrow is surface, and the joy is central; the\nsorrow springs from circumstance, and the gladness from the essence of\nthe thing;--and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the gladness\nis perennial. For the Christian life is all like one of those sweet\nspring showers in early April, when the rain-drops weave for us a mist\nthat hides the sunshine; and yet the hidden sun is in every sparkling\ndrop, and they are all saturated and steeped in its light. 'The joy of\nthe Lord' is the natural result and offspring of all Christian faith.\n\nII. And now, secondly, the 'joy of the Lord' or rejoicing in God, is a\nmatter of Christian duty.\n\nIt is a commandment here, and it is a command in the New Testament as\nwell. 'Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'\nI need not quote to you the frequent repetitions of the same\ninjunction which the Apostle Paul gives us, 'Rejoice in the Lord\nalways, and again I say, Rejoice'; 'Rejoice evermore,' and the like.\nThe fact that this joy is enjoined us suggests to us a thought or two,\nworth looking at.\n\nYou may say with truth, 'My emotions of joy and sorrow are not under\nmy own control: I cannot help being glad and sad as circumstances\ndictate.' But yet here it lies, a commandment. It is a duty, a thing\nthat the Apostle enjoins; in which, of course, is implied, that\nsomehow or other it is to a large extent within one's own power, and\nthat even the indulgence in this emotion, and the degree to which a\nChristian life shall be a cheerful life, is dependent in a large\nmeasure on our own volitions, and stands on the same footing as our\nobedience to God's other commandments.\n\nWe _can_ to a very great extent control even our own emotions;\nbut then, besides, we can do more than that. It may be quite true,\nthat you cannot help feeling sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful\nthoughts, and glad in the presence of thoughts that naturally kindle\ngladness. But I will tell you what you can do or refrain from\ndoing--you can either go and stand in the light, or you can go and\nstand in the shadow. You can either fix your attention upon, and make\nthe predominant subject of your religious contemplations, a truth\nwhich shall make you glad and strong, or a half-truth, which shall\nmake you sorrowful, and therefore weak. Your meditations may either\ncentre mainly upon your own selves, your faults and failings, and the\nlike; or they may centre mainly upon God and His love, Christ and His\ngrace, the Holy Spirit and His communion. You may either fill your\nsoul with joyful thoughts, or though a true Christian, a real, devout,\nGod-accepted believer, you may be so misapprehending the nature of the\nGospel, and your relation to it, its promises and precepts, its duties\nand predictions, as that the prevalent tinge and cast of your religion\nshall be solemn and almost gloomy, and not lighted up and irradiated\nwith the felt sense of God's presence--with the strong, healthy\nconsciousness that you are a forgiven and justified man, and that you\nare going to be a glorified one.\n\nAnd thus far (and it is a long way) by the selection or the rejection\nof the appropriate and proper subjects which shall make the main\nportion of our religious contemplation, and shall be the food of our\ndevout thoughts, we can determine the complexion of our religious\nlife. Just as you inject colouring matter into the fibres of some\nanatomical preparation; so a Christian may, as it were, inject into\nall the veins of his religious character and life, either the bright\ntints of gladness or the dark ones of self-despondency; and the result\nwill be according to the thing that he has put into them. If your\nthoughts are chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is\nfor you, then you will have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they\nare bent ever on yourself and your own unbelief, then you will always\nbe sad. You can make your choice.\n\nChristian men, the joy of the Lord is a duty. It is so because, as we\nhave seen, it is the natural effect of faith, because we can do much\nto regulate our emotions directly, and much more to determine them by\ndetermining what set of thoughts shall engage us. A wise and strong\nfaith is our duty. To keep our emotional nature well under control of\nreason and will is our duty. To lose thoughts of ourselves in God's\ntruth about Himself is our duty. If we do these things, we cannot fail\nto have Christ's joy remaining in us, and making ours full. If we have\nnot that blessed possession abiding with us, which He lived and died\nto give us, there is something wrong in us somewhere.\n\nIt seems to me that this is a truth which we have great need, my\nfriends, to lay to heart. It is of no great consequence that we should\npractically confute the impotent old sneer about religion as being a\ngloomy thing. One does not need to mind much what some people say on\nthat matter. The world would call 'the joy of the Lord' gloom, just as\nmuch as it calls 'godly sorrow' gloom. But we are losing for ourselves\na power and an energy of which we have no conception, unless we feel\nthat joy is a duty, and unless we believe that not to be joyful in the\nLord is, therefore, more than a misfortune, it is a fault.\n\nI do not forget that the comparative absence of this happy, peaceful\nsense of acceptance, harmony, oneness with God, springs sometimes from\ntemperament, and depends on our natural disposition. Of course the\nnatural character determines to a large extent the perspective of our\nconceptions of Christian truth, and the colouring of our inner\nreligious life. I do not mean to say, for a moment, that there is one\nuniform type to which all must be conformed, or they sin. There is\nindeed one type, the perfect manhood of Jesus, but it is all\ncomprehensive, and each variety of our fragmentary manhood finds its\nown perfecting, and not its transmutation to another fashion of man,\nin being conformed to Him. Some of us are naturally fainthearted,\ntimid, sceptical of any success, grave, melancholy, or hard to stir to\nany emotion. To such there will be an added difficulty in making quiet\nconfident joy any very familiar guest in their home or in their place\nof prayer. But even such should remember that the 'powers of the world\nto come,' the energies of the Gospel, are given to us for the very\nexpress purpose of overcoming, as well as of hallowing, natural\ndispositions. If it be our duty to rejoice in the Lord, it is no\nsufficient excuse to urge for not responding to the reiterated call,\n'I myself am disposed to sadness.'\n\nWhilst making all allowances for the diversities of character, which\nwill always operate to diversify the cast of the inner life in each\nindividual, we think that, in the great majority of instances, there\nare two things, both faults, which have a great deal more to do with\nthe absence of joy from much Christian experience, than any\nunfortunate natural tendency to the dark side of things. The one is,\nan actual deficiency in the depth and reality of our faith; and the\nother is, a misapprehension of the position which we have a right to\ntake and are bound to take.\n\nThere is an actual deficiency in our faith. Oh, brethren! it is not to\nbe wondered at that Christians do not find that the Lord with them is\nthe Lord their strength and joy, as well as the Lord 'their\nrighteousness'; when the amount of their fellowship with Him is so\nsmall, and the depth of it so shallow, as we usually find it. The\nfirst true vision that a sinful soul has of God, the imperfect\nbeginnings of religion, usually are accompanied with intense\nself-abhorrence, and sorrowing tears of penitence. A further closer\nvision of the love of God in Jesus Christ brings with it 'joy and\npeace in believing.' But the prolongation of these throughout life\nrequires the steadfast continuousness of gaze towards Him. It is only\nwhere there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy.\nLet us search our own hearts. If there is but little heat around the\nbulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks a low\ndegree. If there is but small faith, there will not be much gladness.\nThe road into Giant Despair's castle is through doubt, which doubt\ncomes from an absence, a sinful absence, in our own experience, of the\nfelt presence of God, and the felt force of the verities of His\nGospel.\n\nBut then, besides that, there is another fault: not a fault in the\nsense of crime or sin, but a fault (and a great one) in the sense of\nerror and misapprehension. We as Christians do not take the position\nwhich we have a right to take and that we are bound to take. Men\nventure themselves upon God's word as they do on doubtful ice, timidly\nputting a light foot out, to feel if it will bear them, and always\nhaving the tacit fear, 'Now, it is going to crack!' You must cast\nyourselves on God's Gospel with all your weight, without any hanging\nback, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that\nit will _give_--that the firm, pure floor will give, and let you\nthrough into the water! A Christian shrink from saying what the\nApostle said, 'I _know_ in whom I have believed, and am persuaded\nthat He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that\nday'! A Christian fancy that salvation is a future thing, and forget\nthat it is a present thing! A Christian tremble to profess 'assurance\nof hope,' forgetting that there is no hope strong enough to bear the\nstress of a life's sorrows, which is not a conviction certain as one's\nown existence! Brethren! understand that the Gospel is a Gospel which\nbrings a present salvation; and try to feel that it is not\npresumption, but simply acting out the very fundamental principle of\nit, when you are not afraid to say, 'I _know_ that my Redeemer is\nyonder, and I _know_ that He loves me!' Try to feel, I say, that\nby faith you have a right to take that position, 'Now, we _know_\nthat we are the sons of God'; that you have a right to claim for\nyourselves, and that you are falling beneath the loftiness of the gift\nthat is given to you unless you do claim for yourselves, the place of\nsons, accepted, loved, sure to be glorified at God's right hand. Am I\nteaching presumption? am I teaching carelessness, or a dispensing with\nself-examination? No, but I am saying this: If a man have once felt,\nand feel, in however small and feeble a degree, and depressed by\nwhatsoever sense of daily transgressions, if he feel, faint like the\nfirst movement of an imprisoned bird in its egg, the feeble pulse of\nan almost imperceptible and fluttering faith beat--then that man has a\nright to say, 'God is mine!'\n\nAs one of our great teachers, little remembered now said, 'Let me take\nmy personal salvation for granted'--and what? and 'be idle?' No; 'and\n_work_ from it.' Ay, brethren! a Christian is not to be for ever\nasking himself, 'Am I a Christian?' He is not to be for ever looking\ninto himself for marks and signs that he is. He _is_ to look into\nhimself to discover sins, that he may by God's help cast them out, to\ndiscover sins that shall teach him to say with greater thankfulness,\n'What a redemption this is which I possess!' but he is to base his\nconvictions that he is God's child upon something other than his own\ncharacteristics and the feebleness of his own strength. He is to have\n'joy in the Lord' whatever may be his sorrow from outward things. And\nI believe that if Christian people would lay that thought to heart,\nthey would understand better how the natural operation of the Gospel\nis to make them glad, and how rejoicing in the Lord is a Christian\nduty.\n\nIII. And now with regard to the other thought that still remains to be\nconsidered, namely, that rejoicing in the Lord is a source of\nstrength,--I have already anticipated, fragmentarily, nearly all that\nI could have said here in a more systematic form. All gladness has\nsomething to do with our efficiency; for it is the prerogative of man\nthat his force comes from his mind, and not from his body. That old\nsong about a sad heart tiring in a mile, is as true in regard to the\nGospel, and the works of Christian people, as in any other case. If we\nhave hearts full of light, and souls at rest in Christ, and the wealth\nand blessedness of a tranquil gladness lying there, and filling our\nbeing; work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrow will be\nbearable, trials will not be so very hard, and above all temptations\nwe shall be lifted, and set upon a rock. If the soul is full, and full\nof joy, what side of it will be exposed to the assault of any\ntemptation? If the appeal be to fear, the gladness that is there is an\nanswer. If the appeal be to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any\nsort, there is no need for any more-the heart is _full_. And so\nthe gladness which rests in Christ will be a gladness which will fit\nus for all service and for all endurance, which will be unbroken by\nany sorrow, and, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible,\nimpenetrable, in its crystalline purity will stand before the tempted\nheart, and will repel all the 'fiery darts of the wicked.'\n\n'The joy of the Lord is your strength,' my brother! Nothing else is.\nNo vehement resolutions, no sense of his own sinfulness, nor even\ncontrite remembrance of past failures, ever yet made a man strong. It\nmade him weak that he might become strong, and when it had done that\nit had done its work. For strength there must be hope, for strength\nthere must be joy. If the arm is to smite with vigour, it must smite\nat the bidding of a calm and light heart. Christian work is of such a\nsort as that the most dangerous opponent to it is simple despondency\nand simple sorrow. 'The joy of the Lord is your strength.'\n\nWell, then! there are two questions: How comes it that so much of the\nworld's joy is weakness? and how comes it that so much of the world's\nnotion of religion is gloom and sadness? Answer them for yourselves,\nand remember: you are weak unless you are glad; you are not glad and\nstrong unless your faith and hope are fixed in Christ, and unless you\nare working from and not towards the sense of pardon, from and not\ntowards the conviction of acceptance with God!\n\n\n\nSABBATH OBSERVANCE\n\n'In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the\nsabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine,\ngrapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into\nJerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day\nwherein they sold victuals. 16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein,\nwhich brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath\nunto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17. Then I contended\nwith the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this\nthat ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18. Did not your fathers\nthus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this\ncity? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath,\n19. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be\ndark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut,\nand charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and\nsome of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be\nbrought in on the sabbath day. 20. So the merchants and sellers of all\nkind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 21. Then I\ntestified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the\nwall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth\ncame they no more on the sabbath. 22. And I commanded the Levites that\nthey should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the\ngates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning\nthis also, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy\nmercy.'--NEH. xiii. 15-22.\n\n\nMany religious and moral reformations depend for their vitality on one\nman, and droop if his influence be withdrawn. It was so with\nNehemiah's work. He toiled for twelve years in Jerusalem, and then\nreturned for 'certain days' to the king at Babylon. The length of his\nabsence is not given; but it was long enough to let much of his work\nbe undone, and to give him much trouble to restore it to the condition\nin which he had left it. This last chapter of his book is but a sad\nclose for a record which began with such high hope, and tells of such\nstrenuous, self-sacrificing effort. The last page of many a reformer's\nhistory has been, like Nehemiah's, a sad account of efforts to stem\nthe ebbing tide of enthusiasm and the flowing tide of worldliness. The\nheavy stone is rolled a little way up hill, and, as soon as one strong\nhand is withdrawn, down it tumbles again to its old place. The\nevanescence of great men's work makes much of the tragedy of history.\n\nOur passage is particularly concerned with Nehemiah's efforts to\nenforce Sabbath observance. The rest of the chapter is occupied with\nsimilar efforts to set right other irregularities of a ceremonial\ncharacter, such as the exclusion of Gentiles from the Temple, the\nexaction of the 'portions of the Levites,' and the like. The passage\nfalls into three parts--the abuse (vs. 15, 16), the vigorous remedies\n(vs. 17-22), and the prayer (v. 22).\n\nI. The abuse consisted in Sabbath work and trading. Nehemiah found, on\nhis return, that the people 'in Judaea'--that is, in the country\ndistricts--carried on their farm labour and also brought their produce\nto market to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. So he 'testified against them\nin the day wherein they sold victuals'; that is, probably meaning that\nhe warned them either in person or by messengers before taking further\nsteps. Not only did Jews break the sacred day, but they let heathen do\nso too. The narrative tells, with a kind of horror, the many\naggravations of this piece of wickedness. 'They'--Gentiles with whom\ncontact defiled--'sold on the Sabbath'--the day of rest--'to the\nchildren of Judah'--God's people--'in Jerusalem'--the Holy City. It\nwas a many-barrelled crime. Tyre was far from Jerusalem, and one does\nnot see how fish could have been brought in good condition. Perhaps\ntheir perishableness was the excuse for allowing their sale on the\nSabbath, as is sometimes the case in fishing-villages even in\nSabbath-keeping Scotland. Such was the abuse with which Nehemiah\nstruggled.\n\nIt is easy to pooh-pooh his crusade against Sabbath labour as mere\nscrupulousness about externals. But it is a blunder and an injustice\nto a noble character if we forget that the stage of revelation at\nwhich he stood necessarily made him more dependent on externals than\nChristians are or should be. But his vindication does not need such\nconsiderations. He had a truer insight into what active men needed for\nvigorous working days, and what devout men needed for healthy\nreligion, than many moderns who smile at his eagerness about 'mere\nexternalisms.'\n\nIt is easy to ridicule the Jewish Sabbath and 'the Puritan Sunday.' No\ndoubt there have been and are well-meant but mistaken efforts to\ninsist on too rigid observance. No doubt it has been often forgotten\nby good people that the Christian Lord's Day is not the Jewish\nSabbath. Of course the religious observance of the day is not a fit\nsubject for legislation. But the need for a seventh day of rest is\nimpressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and devout hearts\nwill joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and service.\nThe vigour of religious life demands special seasons set apart for\nworship. Unless there be such reservoirs along the road, there will be\nbut a thin trickle of a brook by the way. It is all very well to talk\nabout religion diffused through the life, but it will not be so\ndiffused unless it is concentrated at certain times.\n\nThey are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and\nrelax the stringency of the prohibition of labour. If once the idea\nthat Sunday is a day of amusement take root, the amusement of some\nwill require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend\nto extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule. There\nnever was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of\nmodern life demands Sunday rest more than ever. If a railway car is\nrun continually it will wear out sooner than if it were laid aside for\na day or two occasionally; and if it is run at express speed it will\nneed the rest more. We are all going at top speed; and there would be\nmore breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some\npeople think they are promoting the public good by destroying--a\nseventh day of rest.\n\nOur great trading centres in England have the same foreign element to\ncomplicate matters as Nehemiah had to deal with. The Tyrian\nfishmongers knew and cared nothing for Israel's Jehovah or Sabbath,\nand their presence would increase the tendency to disregard the day.\nSo with us, foreigners of many nationalities, but alike in their\ndisregard of our religious observances, leaven the society, and help\nto mould the opinions and practices, of our great cities. That is a\nvery real source of danger in regard to Sabbath observance and many\nother things; and Christian people should be on their guard against\nit.\n\nII. The vigorous remedies applied by Nehemiah were administered first\nto the rulers. He sent for the nobles, and laid the blame at their\ndoors. 'Ye profane the day,' said he. Men in authority are responsible\nfor crimes which they could check, but prefer to wink at. Nehemiah\nseems to trace all the national calamities to the breach of the\nSabbath; but of course he is simply laying stress on the sin about\nwhich he is speaking, as any man who sets himself earnestly to work to\nfight any form of evil is apt to do. Then the men who are not in\nearnest cry out about 'exaggeration.' Many other sins besides\nSabbath-breaking had a share in sending Israel into captivity; and if\nNehemiah had been fighting with idolatrous tendencies he would have\nisolated idolatry as the cause of its calamities, just as, when\nfighting against Sabbath-breaking, he emphasises that sin.\n\nNehemiah was governor for the Persian king, and so had a right to rate\nthese nobles. In this day the people have the same right, and there\nare many social sins for which they should arraign civic and other\nauthorities. Christian principles unflinchingly insisted on by\nChristian people, and brought to bear, by ballot-boxes and other\npersuasive ways, on what stands for conscience in some high places,\nwould make a wonderful difference on many of the abominations of our\ncities. Go to the 'nobles' first, and lay the burden on the backs that\nought to carry it.\n\nThen Nehemiah took practical measures by shutting the city gates on\nthe eve of the Sabbath, and putting some of his own servants as a\nwatch. The thing seems to have been done without any notice; so when\nthe country folk came in, as usual, on the Sabbath, they could not get\ninto the city, and camped outside, making a visible temptation to the\ncitizens, to slip out and do a little business, if they could manage\nto elude the guards. Once or twice this happened; and then Nehemiah\nhimself seems to have taken them in hand, with a very plain and\nsufficiently emphatic warning: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on\nyou.'\n\nOf course, 'from that time they came no more on the Sabbath,' as was\nnatural after such a volley. A man with a good strong will is apt to\nget his own way, even when he is not clothed with the authority of a\ngovernor. Then Nehemiah strengthened the guard, or perhaps withdrew\nhis own servants and substituted for them Levites, whose official\nposition would put them in full sympathy with his efforts. That\npriestly guard would be inflexible, and with its appointment the abuse\nappears to have been crushed.\n\nThe example of Nehemiah's enforcing Sabbath observance is not to be\ntaken as a pattern for Christian communities, without many\nlimitations. But it appears to the present writer that it is perfectly\nlegitimate for the civil power to insist upon, and if necessary to\nenforce, the observance of Sunday as a day of rest; and that, since\nlegitimate, it is for the well-being of the community that it should\ndo so. Tyrians might believe anything they chose, and use the day of\nrest as they thought proper, so long as they did not sell fish on it.\nWe do not interfere with religious convictions when we enjoin Sunday\nobservance. Nehemiah's argument has sometimes to be used, even about\nsuch a matter: 'If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you.'\n\nThe methods adopted may yield suggestions for all who would aim at\nreforming abuses or public immoralities. One most necessary step is to\ncut off, as far as possible, opportunities for the sin. There will be\nno trade if you shut the gates the night before. There will be little\ndrunkenness if there are no liquor shops. It is quite true that people\ncannot be made virtuous by legislation, but it is also true that they\nmay be saved from temptations to become vicious by it.\n\nAnother hint comes from Nehemiah's vigorous word to the country folk\noutside the wall. There is need for very strong determination and much\nsanctified obstinacy in fighting popular abuses. They die hard. It is\npermissible to invoke the aid of the lawful authority. But a man with\nstrong convictions and earnest purpose will be able to impress his\nconvictions on a mass, even if he have no guards at his back. The one\nthing needful for Christian reformers is, not the power to appeal to\nforce, but the force which they can carry within them. And it is\nbetter when the traders love the Sabbath too well to wish to drive\nbargains on it, than when they are hindered from doing as they wish by\nNehemiah's strong will or formidable threats.\n\nOnce more, the guard of Levites may suggest that the execution of\nmeasures for the reformation of manners or morals is best entrusted to\nthose who are in sympathy with them. Levites made faithful watchmen.\nMany a promising measure for reformation has come to nothing because\ncommitted to the hands of functionaries who did not care for its\nsuccess. The instruments are almost as important as the measures which\nthey carry out.\n\nIII. Nehemiah's prayer occurs thrice in this chapter, at the close of\neach section recounting his reforming acts. In the first instance (v.\n14) it is most full, and puts very plainly the merit of good deeds as\na plea with God. The same thing is implied in its form in verse 22.\nBut while, no doubt, the tone of the prayer is startling to us, and is\nnot such as should be offered now by Christians, it but echoes the\nprinciple of retribution which underlies the law. 'This do, and thou\nshalt live,' was the very foundation of Nehemiah's form of God's\nrevelation. We do not plead our own merits, because we are not under\nthe law, but under grace, and the principle underlying the gospel is\nlife by impartation of unmerited mercy and divine life. But the law of\nretribution still remains valid for Christians in so far as that God\nwill never forget any of their works, and will give them full\nrecompense for their work of faith and labour of love. Eternal life\nhere and hereafter is wholly the gift of God; but that fact does not\nexclude the notion of 'the recompense of reward' from the Christian\nconception of the future. It becomes not us to present our good deeds\nbefore the Judge, since they are stained and imperfect, and the\ngoodness in them is His gift. But it becomes Him to crown them with\nHis gracious approbation, and to proportion the cities ruled in that\nfuture world to the talents faithfully used here. We need not be\nafraid of obscuring the truth that we are saved 'not of works, lest\nany man should boast,' though we insist that a Christian man is\nrewarded according to his works.\n\nNehemiah had no false notion of his own goodness; for, while he asked\nfor recompense for these good deeds of his, he could not but add,\n'Spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy.' He who asks to be\n'spared' must know himself in peril of destruction; and he who invokes\n'mercy' must think that, if he were dealt with according to justice,\nhe would be in evil case. So the consciousness of weakness and sin is\nan integral part of this prayer, and that takes all the apparent\nself-righteousness out of the previous petition. However worthy of and\nsure of reward a Christian man's acts of love and efforts for the\nspread of God's honour may be, the doer of them must still be 'looking\nfor the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF ESTHER\n\n\nTHE NET SPREAD\n\n'After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of\nHammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all\nthe princes that were with him. 2. And all the king's servants, that\nwere in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had\nso commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him\nreverence. 3. Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate,\nsaid unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? 4.\nNow it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened\nnot unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters\nwould stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5. And when Haman\nsaw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman\nfull of wrath. 6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone;\nfor they had showed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought\nto destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of\nAhasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 7. In the first month, that\nis, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast\nPur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to\nmonth, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. 8. And Haman\nsaid unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad\nand dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom;\nand their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the\nking's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them.\n9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be\ndestroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands\nof those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the\nking's treasuries. 10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and\ngave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.\n11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the\npeople also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.'--ESTHER iii.\n1-11.\n\n\nThe stage of this passage is filled by three strongly marked and\nstrongly contrasted figures: Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus; a sturdy\nnonconformist, an arrogant and vindictive minister of state, and a\ndespotic and careless king. These three are the visible persons, but\nbehind them is an unseen and unnamed Presence, the God of Israel, who\nstill protects His exiled people.\n\nWe note, first, the sturdy nonconformist. 'The reverence' which the\nking had commanded his servants to show to Haman was not simply a sign\nof respect, but an act of worship. Eastern adulation regarded a\nmonarch as in some sense a god, and we know that divine honours were\nin later times paid to Roman emperors, and many Christians martyred\nfor refusing to render them. The command indicates that Ahasuerus\ndesired Haman to be regarded as his representative, and possessing at\nleast some reflection of godhead from him. European ambassadors to\nEastern courts have often refused to prostrate themselves before the\nmonarch on the ground of its being degradation to their dignity; but\nMordecai stood erect while the crowd of servants lay flat on their\nfaces, as the great man passed through the gate, because he would have\nno share in an act of worship to any but Jehovah. He might have\ncompromised with conscience, and found some plausible excuses if he\nhad wished. He could have put his own private interpretation on the\nprostration, and said to himself, 'I have nothing to do with the\nmeaning that others attach to bowing before Haman. I mean by it only\ndue honour to the second man in the kingdom.' But the monotheism of\nhis race was too deeply ingrained in him, and so he kept 'a stiff\nbackbone' and 'bowed not down.'\n\nThat his refusal was based on religious scruples is the natural\ninference from his having told his fellow-porters that he was a Jew.\nThat fact would explain his attitude, but would also isolate him still\nmore. His obstinacy piqued them, and they reported his contumacy to\nthe great man, thus at once gratifying personal dislike, racial\nhatred, and religious antagonism, and recommending themselves to Haman\nas solicitous for his dignity. We too are sometimes placed in\ncircumstances where we are tempted to take part in what may be called\nconstructive idolatry. There arise, in our necessary co-operation with\nthose who do not share in our faith, occasions when we are expected to\nunite in acts which we are thought very straitlaced for refusing to\ndo, but which, conscience tells us, cannot be done without practical\ndisloyalty to Jesus Christ. Whenever that inner voice says 'Don't,' we\nmust disregard the persistent solicitations of others, and be ready to\nbe singular, and run any risk rather than comply. 'So did not I,\nbecause of the fear of God,' has to be our motto, whatever\nfellow-servants may say. The gate of Ahasuerus's palace was not a\nfavourable soil for the growth of a devout soul, but flowers can bloom\non dunghills, and there have been 'saints' in 'Caesar's household.'\n\nHaman is a sharp contrast to Mordecai. He is the type of the unworthy\ncharacters that climb or crawl to power in a despotic monarchy,\nvindictive, arrogant, cunning, totally oblivious of the good of the\nsubjects, using his position for his own advantage, and ferociously\ncruel. He had naturally not noticed the one erect figure among the\ncrowd of abject ones, but the insignificant Jew became important when\npointed out. If he had bowed, he would have been one more nobody, but\nhis not bowing made him somebody who had to be crushed. The childish\nburst of passion is very characteristic, and not less true to life is\nthe extension of the anger and thirst for vengeance to 'all the Jews\nthat were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.' They were 'the\npeople of Mordecai,' and that was enough. 'He thought scorn to lay\nhands on Mordecai alone.' What a perverted notion of personal dignity\nwhich thought the sacrifice of the one offender beneath it, and could\nonly be satisfied by a blood-bath into which a nation should be\nplunged! Such an extreme of frantic lust for murder is only possible\nin such a state as Ahasuerus's Persia, but the prostitution of public\nposition to personal ends, and the adoption of political measures at\nthe bidding of wounded vanity, and to gratify blind hatred of a race,\nis possible still, and it becomes all Christian men to use their\ninfluence that the public acts of their nation shall be clear of that\ntaint.\n\nHaman was as superstitious as cruel, and so he sought for auguries\nfrom heaven for his hellish purpose, and cast the lot to find the\nfavourable day for bringing it about. He is not the only one who has\nsought divine approval for wicked public acts. Religion has been used\nto varnish many a crime, and _Te Deums_ sung for many a victory\nwhich was little better than Haman's plot.\n\nThe crafty denunciation of the Jews to the king is a good specimen of\nthe way in which a despot is hoodwinked by his favourites, and made\ntheir tool. It was no doubt true that the Jews' laws were 'diverse\nfrom those of every people,' but it was not true that they did not\n'keep the king's laws,' except in so far as these required worship of\nother gods. In all their long dispersion they have been remarkable for\ntwo things,--their tenacious adherence to the Law, so far as possible\nin exile, and their obedience to the law of the country of their\nsojourn. No doubt, the exiles in Persian territory presented the same\ncharacteristics. But Haman has had many followers in resenting the\ndistinctiveness of the Jew, and charging on them crimes of which they\nwere innocent. From Mordecai onwards it has been so, and Europe is\nto-day disgraced by a crusade against them less excusable than\nHaman's. Hatred still masks itself under the disguise of political\nexpediency, and says, 'It is not for the king's profit to suffer\nthem.'\n\nBut the true half of the charge was a eulogium, for it implied that\nthe scattered exiles were faithful to God's laws, and were marked off\nby their lives. That ought to be true of professing Christians. They\nshould obviously be living by other principles than the world adopts.\nThe enemy's charge 'shall turn unto you for a testimony.' Happy shall\nwe be if observers are prompted to say of us that 'our laws are\ndiverse' from those of ungodly men around us!\n\nThe great bribe which Haman offered to the king is variously estimated\nas equal to from three to four millions sterling. He, no doubt,\nreckoned on making more than that out of the confiscation of Jewish\nproperty. That such an offer should have been made by the chief\nminister to the king, and that for such a purpose, reveals a depth of\ncorruption which would be incredible if similar horrors were not\nrecorded of other Eastern despots. But with Turkey still astonishing\nthe world, no one can call Haman's offer too atrocious to be true.\n\nAhasuerus is the vain-glorious king known to us as Xerxes. His conduct\nin the affair corresponds well enough with his known character. The\nlives of thousands of law-abiding subjects are tossed to the favourite\nwithout inquiry or hesitation. He does not even ask the name of the\n'certain people,' much less require proof of the charge against them.\nThe insanity of weakening his empire by killing so many of its\ninhabitants does not strike him, nor does he ever seem to think that\nhe has duties to those under his rule. Careless of the sanctity of\nhuman life, too indolent to take trouble to see things with his own\neyes, apparently without the rudiments of the idea of justice, he\nwallowed in a sty of self-indulgence, and, while greedy of adulation\nand the semblance of power, let the reality slip from his hands into\nthose of the favourite, who played on his vices as on an instrument,\nand pulled the strings that moved the puppet. We do not produce kings\nof that sort nowadays, but King Demos has his own vices, and is as\neasily blinded and swayed as Ahasuerus. In every form of government,\nmonarchy or republic, there will be would-be leaders, who seek to gain\ninfluence and carry their objects by tickling vanity, operating on\nvices, calumniating innocent men, and the other arts of the demagogue.\nWhere the power is in the hands of the people, the people is very apt\nto take its responsibilities as lightly as Ahasuerus did his, and to\nlet itself be led blindfold by men with personal ends to serve, and\nhiding them under the veil of eager desire for the public good.\nChristians should 'play the citizen as it becomes the gospel of\nChrist,' and take care that they are not beguiled into national\nenmities and public injustice by the specious talk of modern Hamans.\n\n\n\nESTHER'S VENTURE\n\n'Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto\nMordecai: 11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's\nprovinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come\nunto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one\nlaw of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall\nhold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been\ncalled to come in unto the king these thirty days. 12. And they told\nto Mordecai Esther's words. 13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer\nEsther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's\nhouse, more than all the Jews. 14. For if thou altogether holdest thy\npeace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise\nto the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall\nbe destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for\nsuch a time as this? 15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this\nanswer, 16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in\nShushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days,\nnight or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I\ngo in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I\nperish, I perish. 17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to\nall that Esther had commanded him. 'Now it came to pass on the third\nday, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner\ncourt of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king\nsat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of\nthe house. 2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen\nstanding in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the\nking held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So\nEsther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. 3. Then said the\nking unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request?\nit shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.'-ESTHER iv.\n10-17; v. 1-3.\n\n\nPatriotism is more evident than religion in the Book of Esther. To\nturn to it after the fervours of prophets and the continual\nrecognition of God in history which marks the other historical books,\nis like coming down from heaven to earth, as Ewald says. But that\ndifference in tone probably accurately represents the difference\nbetween the saints and heroes of an earlier age and the Jews in\nPersia, in whom national feeling was stronger than devotion. The\npicture of their characteristics deducible from this Book shows many\nof the traits which have marked them ever since,--accommodating\nflexibility, strangely united with unbending tenacity; a capacity for\nsecuring the favour of influential people, and willingness to stretch\nconscience in securing it; reticence and diplomacy; and, beneath all,\nunquenchable devotion to Israel, which burns alike in the politic\nMordecai and the lovely Esther.\n\nThere is not much audible religion in either, but in this lesson\nMordecai impressively enforces his assurance that Israel cannot\nperish, and his belief in Providence setting people in their places\nfor great unselfish ends; and Esther is ready to die, if need be, in\ntrying to save her people, and thinks that fasting and prayer will\nhelp her in her daring attempt. These two cousins, unlike in so much,\nwere alike in their devotion to Israel; and though they said little\nabout their religion, they acted it, which is better.\n\nIt is very like Jews that the relationship between Mordecai and Esther\nshould have been kept dark. Nobody but one or two trusted servants\nknew that the porter was the queen's cousin, and probably her Jewish\nbirth was also unknown. Secrecy is, no doubt, the armour of oppressed\nnations; but it is peculiarly agreeable to the descendants of Jacob,\nwho was a master of the art. There must have been wonderful\nself-command on both sides to keep such a secret, and true affection,\nto preserve intercourse through apparent indifference.\n\nOur passage begins in the middle of Esther's conversation with the\nconfidential go-between, who told her of the insane decree for the\ndestruction of the Jews, and of Mordecai's request that she should\nappeal to the king. She reminds him of what he knew well enough, the\nlaw that unsummoned intruders into the presence are liable to death;\nand adds what, of course, he did not know, that she had not been\nsummoned for a month. We need not dwell on this ridiculously arrogant\nlaw, but may remark that the substantial accuracy of the statement is\nconfirmed by classical and other authors, and may pause for a moment\nto note the glimpse given here of the delirium of self-importance in\nwhich these Persian kings lived, and to see in it no small cause of\ntheir vices and disasters. What chance of knowing facts or of living a\nwholesome life had a man shut off thus from all but lickspittles and\nslaves? No wonder that the victims of such dignity beat the sea with\nrods, when it was rude enough to wreck their ships! No wonder that\nthey wallowed in sensuality, and lost pith and manhood! No wonder that\nGreece crushed their unwieldy armies and fleets!\n\nAnd what a glimpse into their heart-emptiness and degradation of\nsacred ties is given in the fact that Esther the queen had not seen\nAhasuerus for a month, though living in the same palace, and his\nfavourite wife! No doubt, the experiences of exile had something to do\nin later ages with the decided preference of the Jew for monogamy.\n\nBut, passing from this, we need only observe how clearly Esther sees\nand how calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following\nhis counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply\nputs the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. 'This\nis how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?' That is\npoor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to\nthe mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers\nand that which dares them are not often found together in due\nproportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young\nqueen with her clear eyes saw, and with her brave heart was ready to\nface, peril to her life. Unless we fully realise difficulties and\ndangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at\nour fingers' ends at the first rude assault of these. So let us count\nthe cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have\ncounted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good\nguides. Either alone is a bad one.\n\nMordecai's grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons\nwhich always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others' good. His\nwords are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do\nnot name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a\npsalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his\npagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to\nthe lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more\ndefinitely use the sacred name.\n\nIt is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimise\nEsther's peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her\nlife in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he\nwould have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a\ncourse which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and\nquenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai's years of care over and pride\nin his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would\nperish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he\nexercised in urging her to her course.\n\nHis first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send\nher to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the\ncommon ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction;\nand, on the other, there were possible success and escape. It may seem\nunlikely that the general massacre should include the favourite queen,\nand especially as her nationality was apparently a secret. But when a\nmob has once tasted blood, its appetite is great and its scent keen,\nand there are always informers at hand to point to hidden victims. The\nargument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national\nand social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to\nriot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion, in some form or\nother. How many good men's sons have been swept away by the\nimmoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which\nthere is not 'one dead,' the victim of drink and dissipation! How the\ngodliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around!\nAt the very lowest, self-preservation should enlist all good men in a\nsacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. If\nsmallpox breaks out in the slums, it will come uptown into the grand\nhouses, and the outcasts will prove that they are the rich man's\nbrethren by infecting him, and perhaps killing him.\n\nMordecai goes back to the same argument in the later part of his\nanswer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father's\nhouse. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The\ndestruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common\ntragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The\nunfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will\nhave a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many\napplications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does\nalways bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more\nshort-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of\nbeneficence from regard to self.\n\nBut higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai\nis sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come\nit will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly\nbecause he trusted God's ancient promises, and believed in the\nindestructibility of the nation which a divine hand protected. How\ndoes such a confidence agree with fear of 'destruction'? The two parts\nof Mordecai's message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the\nthreatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster\nIsrael as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed.\n\nHow did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther's\nhelp? If he was certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her\nor himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God's\npurposes and absolute reliance on these stimulate, and do not\nparalyse, devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure\nthat a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in\nthe line of God's purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to\ncarry it out. Since some men are to be honoured to be His instruments,\nshall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble\nambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who\nbelieve that their work helps forward what is dear to God's heart may\nwell do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful\nto keep on the safe side in doing it. The honour is more than the\ndanger. 'Here am I; take me,' should be the Christian feeling about\nall such work.\n\nThe last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice\nfor others' good is the thought of God's purpose in giving Esther her\nposition. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of\nall endowments of position, possessions, or capacities, is God. His\npurpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver.\nDignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His\ngreat designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that\nshe might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she\nmight serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by\ncapacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men\nare stewards, and God gives His servants their 'talents,' not for\nselfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the\nprofits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention\nof all which we have, carries a solemn lesson for us all.\n\nThe fair young heroine's soul rose to the occasion, and responded with\na swift determination to her older cousin's lofty words. Her pathetic\nrequest for the prayers of the people for whose sake she was facing\ndeath was surely more than superstition. Little as she says about her\nfaith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares\ndeath in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid,\ndemonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many\nprofessions.\n\n'If I perish, I perish!' Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter\nthat grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which\nbound the young heart to life, so bright and desirable as was assured\nto her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear\nsight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher\nstrain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the\nsame stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah's daughter; and the same\nfire burned in her,--utter devotion to Israel because entire\nconsecration to Israel's God. Religion and patriotism were to her\ninseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people's\nweal and her God's will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her\nyoung radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises\nits subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be\nwrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may\nilluminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the\nlovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or\ndeath at the will of a sensual tyrant.\n\nThe scene there need not detain us. We can fancy Esther's beating\nheart putting fire in her cheek, and her subdued excitement making her\nbeauty more splendid as she stood. What a contrast between her and the\narrogant king on his throne! He was a voluptuary, ruined morally by\nunchecked licence,--a monster, as he could hardly help being, of lust,\nself will, and caprice. She was at that moment an incarnation of\nself-sacrifice and pure enthusiasm. The blind world thought that he\nwas the greater; but how ludicrous his condescension, how vulgar his\npomp, how coarse his kindness, how gross his prodigal promises by the\nside of the heroine of faith, whose life he held in his capricious\nhand!\n\nHow amazed the king would have been if he had been told that one of\nhis chief titles to be remembered would be that moment's interview!\nAhasuerus is the type of swollen self-indulgence, which always\ndegrades and coarsens; Esther is the type of self-sacrifice which as\nuniformly refines, elevates, and arrays with new beauty and power. If\nwe would reach the highest nobleness possible to us, we must stand\nwith Esther at the gate, and not envy or imitate Ahasuerus on his\ngaudy throne. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that\nloseth his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall find it.'\n\n\n\nMORDECAI AND ESTHER\n\n'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall\nthere enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another\nplace; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who\nknoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as\nthis?'--ESTHER iv. 14.\n\n\nAll Christians are agreed in holding the principles which underlie our\nmissionary operations. They all believe that the world is a fallen\nworld, that without Christ the fallen world is a lost world, that the\npreaching of the Gospel is the way to bring Christ to those who need\nHim, that to the Church is committed the ministry of reconciliation.\n\nThese are the grand truths from which the grand missionary enterprise\nhas sprung. It is not my intention to enlarge on them now. But in this\nand in all cases, there are secondary motives besides, and inferior to\nthose which are derived from the real fundamental principles. We are\nstimulated to action not only because we hold certain great\nprinciples, but because they are reinforced by certain subordinate\nconsiderations.\n\nIt is the duty of all Christians to promote the missionary cause on\nthe lofty grounds already referred to. Besides that, it may be in a\nspecial way our duty for some additional reasons drawn from\npeculiarities in our condition. Circumstances do not make duties, but\nthey may bring a special weight of obligation on us to do them. Times\nagain do not make duties, but they too make a thing a special duty\nnow. The consideration of consequences may not decide us in matters of\nconscience, but it may allowably come in to deter us from what is on\nhigher grounds a sin to be avoided, or a good deed to be done. Success\nor failure is an alternative that must not be thought of when we are\nasking ourselves, 'Ought I to do this?' but when we have answered that\nquestion, we may go to work with a lighter heart and a firmer hand if\nwe are sure that we are not going to fail.\n\nAll these are inferior considerations which do not avail to determine\nduty and do not go deep enough to constitute the real foundation of\nour obligation. They are considerations which can scarcely be shut\nout, and should be taken in determining the weight of our obligation,\nin shaping the selection of our duties, in stimulating the zeal and\nsedulousness with which we do what we know to be right.\n\nTo a consideration of some of these secondary reasons for energy in\nthe work of missions I ask your attention. The verse which I have\nselected for my text is spoken by Mordecai to Esther, when urging her\nto her perilous patriotism. It singularly blends the statesman and the\nbeliever. He sees that if she selfishly refuses to identify herself\nwith her people, in their calamity, the wave that sweeps them away\nwill not be stayed outside her royal dwelling; he knows too much of\ncourts to think that she can stand against that burst of popular fury\nshould it break out. But he looks on as a devout man believing God's\npromises, and seeing past all instruments; he warns her that\n'deliverance and enlargement shall arise.' He is no fatalist; he\nbelieves in man's work, therefore he urges her to let herself be the\ninstrument by which God's work shall be done. He is no atheist; he\nbelieves in God's sovereign power and unchangeable faithfulness,\ntherefore he looks without dismay to the possibility of her failure.\nHe knows that if she is idle, all the evil will come on her head, who\nhas been unfaithful, and that in spite of that God's faithfulness\nshall not be made of none effect. He believes that she has been raised\nto her position for God's sake, for her brethren's sake, not her own.\n\n'Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as\nthis?' There speaks the devout statesman, the court-experienced\nbeliever. He has seen favourites tended and tossed aside, viziers\npowerful and beheaded, kings half deified and deserted in their utmost\nneed. Sitting at the gate there, he has seen generations of Hamans go\nout and in; he has seen the craft, the cruelty, the lusts which have\nbeen the apparent causes of the puppets' rise and fall, and he has\nlooked beyond it all and believed in a Hand that pulled the wires, in\na King of Kings who raiseth up one and setteth down another. So he\nbelieves that his Esther has come to the kingdom by God's appointment,\nto do God's work at God's time. And these convictions keep him calm\nand stir her.\n\nWe may find here a series of considerations having a special bearing\non this missionary work. To them I ask your attention.\n\nI. God gives us our position that we may use it for His cause, for the\nspread of the Gospel.\n\nIn most general terms.\n\n(a) No man has anything for his own sake--no man liveth to himself. We\ncome to the kingdom for others. Here we touch the foundation of all\nauthority; we learn the awful burden of all talents, the dreadful\nweight of every gift.\n\n(b) No man receives the Gospel for his own sake. We are not\nnon-conductors, but stand all linked hand in hand. We are members of\nthe body that the blood may flow freely through us. For no loftier\nreason did God light the candle than that it might give light. We are\nbeacons kindled to transmit, till every sister light flashes back the\nray.\n\n(c) We especially have received a position in the world for the\nconversion of the world. Our national character and position unite\nthat of the Jew in his two stages--we are set to be the 'light of the\nworld,' and we are 'tribes of the wandering foot.' Our history, all,\nhas tended to this function, our local position, our laws, our\ncommerce. We are citizens of a nation which 'as a nest has found the\nriches' of the peoples. In every land our people dwell.\n\nThink of our colonies. Think that we are brought into contact with\nheathen, whether we will or not. We cannot help influencing them.\n'Through you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles.'\nThink of our sailors. Why this position? What is plainer than that all\nthis is in order that the Gospel might be spread? God has ever let the\nGospel follow in the tracks made for it by commercial law.\n\nThis object does not exclude others. Our language, our literature, our\nother rich spiritual treasures, we hold them all that we may impart.\nBut remember that all these other good things that England has will\nspread themselves with little effort, people will be glad to get them.\nBut the Gospel will not be spread so. It must be taken to those who do\nnot want it. It must be held forth with outstretched hands to 'a\ndisobedient and gainsaying people.' It is found of them that seek it\nnot.\n\nLike the Lord we must go to the wanderers, we must find them as they\nlie panting and thirsty in the wild wilderness. Therefore Christian\nmen must make special earnest efforts or the work will not be done.\nThey must be as the 'dew that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for\nthe sons of men.'\n\nAnd again, such action does not involve approval of the means by which\nsuch a position has become ours. Mordecai knew what vile passions had\nbeen at work to put Esther there, and did not forget poor Vashti, and\nwe have no need to hide conviction that England's place has often been\nwon by wrong, been kept by violence and fraud, that, as she has strode\nto empire, her foot has trodden on many a venerable throne unjustly\nthrown down, and her skirts have been dabbled with 'the blood of poor\ninnocents,' splashed there with her armed hoof. Be it so!--Still!\n'Thou makest the wrath of man to praise Thee.' Still--'we are debtors\nboth to the Greek and barbarian,' and all the more debtors because of\nills inflicted. God has laid on us a solemn responsibility. Over all\nthe dust of base intrigues, and the smoke of bloody battles, and the\nhubbub of busy commerce, His hand has been working, and though we have\nbeen sinful, He has given us a place and a power, mighty and awful. We\nhave received these not for our own glory, not that we should boast of\nour dominion, not that we should gather tribute of gain and glory from\nsubject peoples, not even that we should carry to them the great\nthough lesser blessings of language, united order, peaceful commerce,\nsway over brute nature, but that we should give them what will make\nthem men--Christ.\n\nWe have a work to do, an awful work. To us all as Christians, to us\nespecially as citizens of this land and members of this race, to us\nand to our brethren across the Atlantic the message comes, by our\nhistory, our manners, etc., as plainly as if it were written in every\nwave that beats around our coast. 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the\nLord.'\n\nII. God lays upon us special missionary work by the special\ncharacteristics of the times.\n\n'Such a time as this!' Was there ever such a time?\n\nLook at the condition of heathenism. It is everywhere tottering. 'The\nidols are on the beasts, Bel boweth down.' The grim gods sit half\nfamished already. There is a crack in every temple wall.\nMahommedanism, Buddhism, Brahminism--they are none of them\nprogressive. They are none of them vital. Think how only the Gospel\noutleaps space and time. How all these systems are of time and\ndevoured by it, as Saturn eats his own children. They are of the\nthings that can be shaken, and their being shaken makes more certain\nthe remaining of the things that cannot be shaken.\n\nLook at the fields open. India, China, Japan, Africa, in a word, 'The\nfield is the world' in a degree in which it never was before. 'Such a\ntime'--a time of seething, and we can determine the cosmos; a plastic\ntime, and we can mould it; it is a deluge, push the ark boldly out and\nransom some.\n\nIII. If we neglect the voice of God's providence, harm comes on us.\n\nThe gifts unimproved are apt to be lost. One knows not all the\nconditions on which England holds her sway, nor do we fathom the\nstrange way in which spiritual characteristics are inwrought with\nmaterial interests. But we believe in a providential government of the\nworld, and of this we may be very sure, that all advantages not used\nfor God are held by a very precarious tenure.\n\nThe fact is that selfishness is the ruin of any people. When you have\na 'Christian' nation not using their position for God's glory, they\nare using it for their own sakes; and that indicates a state of mind\nwhich will lead to numberless other evils in their relation to men,\nmany of which have a direct tendency to rob them of their advantages.\nFor instance, a selfish nation will never hold conquests with a firm\ngrasp. If we do not bind subject peoples to us by benefits, we shall\nrepel them by hatreds. Think of India and its lessons, or of South\nAfrica and its. We have seen the tide of material prosperity ebb away\nfrom many a nation and land, and I for my part believe in the Hand of\nGod in history, and believe that the tide follows the motions of the\nheavens.\n\nThe history of the Jewish people is not an exception to the laws of\nGod's government of the world, but a specimen of it. They who were\nmade a hearth in which the embers of divine truth were kept in a dark\nworld, when they began to think that they had the truth in order that\nthey might be different from other people, and forgot that they were\ndifferent from others in order that they might first preserve and then\nimpart the truth to all, lost the light and heat of it, stiffened into\nformal hypocrisy and malice and all uncharitableness, and then the\nRoman sword smote their national life in twain.\n\nWhatever is not used for God becomes a snare first, then injures the\npossessors, and tends to destroy the possessors. The march of\nProvidence goes on. Its purposes will be effected. Whatever stands in\nthe way will be mowed remorselessly down, if need be. Helps that have\nbecome hindrances will go. The kingdoms of this world will have to\nfall; and if we are not helping and hasting the coming of the Lord we\nshall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The chariot rolls\non. For men and for nations there is only the choice of yoking\nthemselves to the car, and finding themselves borne along rather than\nbearing it, and partaking the triumph, or of being crushed beneath its\nawful wheels as they bound along their certain road, bearing Him who\nrides 'forth prosperously because of truth and meekness and\nrighteousness.'\n\nIV. Though we be unfaithful, God's purpose of mercy to the world shall\nbe accomplished.\n\n'Deliverance and enlargement shall arise from another place.' So it is\ncertain that God from eternity has willed that all flesh should see\nHis salvation. He loves the heathen better than we do. Christ has died\nnot for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. God hath\nmade of one blood all nations of men. The race is one in its need. The\nrace is one in its goal. The Gospel is fit for all men. The Gospel is\npreached to all men. The Gospel shall yet be received by a world, and\nfrom every corner of a believing earth will rise one roll of praise to\none Father, and the race shall be one in its hopes, one in its Lord,\none in faith, one in baptism, one in one God and Father of us all.\nThat grand unity shall certainly come. That true unity and fraternity\nshall be realised. The blissful wave of the knowledge of the Lord\nshall cover and hide and flow rejoicingly over all national\ndistinctions. 'In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and\nwith Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.'\n\nThis is as certain as the efficacy of a Saviour's blood can make it,\nas certain as the universal adaptation and design of a preached Gospel\ncan make it, as certain as the oneness of human nature can make it, as\ncertain as the power of a Comforter who shall convince the world of\nsin, of righteousness, and judgment can make it, as certain as the\nmisery of man can make it, as certain as the promises of God who\ncannot lie can make it, as certain as His faithfulness who hangs the\nrainbow in the heavens and enters into an everlasting covenant with\nall the earth can make it.\n\nAnd this accumulation of certainties does not depend on the\nfaithfulness of men. In the width of that mighty result the failure of\nsome single agent may be eliminated. Nay, more, though all men failed,\nGod hath instruments, and will use them Himself, if need were.\n\nOnly we may share the triumph and partake of the blessed result.\nDecide for yourself, what share you will have in that marvellous day.\nLet your work be such as that it shall abide. Stonehenge, cathedrals,\ntemples stand when all else has passed away. Work for God abides and\noutlasts everything beside, and the smallest service for Him is only\nmade to flash forth light by the glorifying and revealing fires of\nthat awful day which will burn up the wood, the hay, and the stubble,\nand flow with beautifying brightness and be flashed back with double\nsplendour from 'the gold, the silver, and the precious stones,' the\nabiding workmanship of devout hearts in that everlasting tabernacle\nwhich shall not be taken down, the ransomed souls builded together,\nransomed by our preaching, and 'builded up together for a temple of\nGod by the Spirit.'\n\n\n\nTHE NET BROKEN\n\n'And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his\nfeet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman\nthe Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 4.\nThen the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther\narose, and stood before the king, 5. And said, If it please the king,\nand if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right\nbefore the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to\nreverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the\nAgagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the\nking's provinces: 6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall\ncome unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my\nkindred? 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to\nMordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and\nhim they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon\nthe Jews. 8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the\nking's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which\nis written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no\nman reverse. 15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king\nin royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold,\nand with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan\nrejoiced and was glad. 16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy,\nand honour. 17. And in every province, and in every city,\nwhithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had\njoy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of\nthe land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon\nthem.'--ESTHER viii. 3-8,15-17.\n\n\nThe spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the\nthree persons appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but\nacts unseen through them all.\n\nI. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of\nthe sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl\nwho had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and\nwas lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the 'fierce light\nthat beats upon a throne,' like some flower culled in a shady nook and\nset in a king's bosom, was true to her childhood's protector and to\nher people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the\nrapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of\nHadassah ('myrtle') well befits her, for she is clothed with\nunostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides\ntwine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman's courage which\nis always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding\nof her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an\naudience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in\nliterature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger\nwithout shrinking, and front it without heroics: 'If I perish, I\nperish!'\n\nThe danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a\ndespot's love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage\nto-day, and to-morrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life\ndear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she\nventured, uninvited, into the king's presence. The womanly courage\nthat risks life for love's sake is nobler than the soldier's that\nfeels the lust of battle maddening him.\n\nEsther's words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what\nseems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is\nused by her in her former requests (chap. v. 8; vii. 3). But she adds\na variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the\nking's feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to\nhis estimate of what was fitting. 'If the thing seem right before the\nking,' appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the\nmonarch's arbitrary will; 'and I be pleasing in his eyes,' drew him by\nthe charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for\nthe plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman.\nIt was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be\nreversed without hurting the king's dignity. And then with fine tact,\nas well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her\npersonal influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by\nappeals to his justice or royal duty, but to his love for her, which\nsurely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say that it was a low\nmotive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to\nkeep one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahasuerus's fault\nthat such a reason had more weight with him than nobler ones. It was\nnot Esther's that she used her power over him to carry her point. She\nused the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be efficacious.\nThe purpose for which she used them is her justification.\n\nEsther may well teach her sisters to-day to be brave and gentle, to\nuse their influence over men for high purposes of public good, to be\nthe inspirers of their husbands, lovers, brothers, for all noble\nthinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own, to\nbe the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to\ntheir early associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish\nsympathy with their nation so deep that they cannot 'endure to see the\nevil that shall come unto them' without using all their womanly\ninfluence to avert it.\n\nII. Ahasuerus plays a sorry part beside Esther. He knows no law but\nhis own will, and that is moved, not by conscience or reason, but by\nignoble passions and sensual desires. He tosses his subjects' lives as\ntrivial gifts to any who ask for them. Haman's wife knew that he had\nonly to 'speak to the king,' and Mordecai would be hanged; Haman had\nno difficulty in securing the royal mandate for the murder of all the\nJews. Sated with the indulgence of low desires, he let all power slip\nfrom his idle hands, and his manhood was rotted away by wallowing in\nthe pigsty of voluptuousness. But he was tenacious of the semblance of\nauthority, and demanded the appearance of abject submission from the\n'servants' who were his masters. He yielded to Esther's prayer as\nlightly as to Haman's plot. Whether the Jews were wiped out or not\nmattered nothing to him, so long as he had no trouble in the affair.\n\nTo shift all responsibility off his own shoulders on to somebody\nelse's was his one aim. He was as untrue to his duty when he gave his\nsignet to Mordecai, and bade him and Esther do as they liked, as when\nhe had given it to Haman. And with all this slothful indifference to\nhis duty, he was sensitive to etiquette, and its cobwebs held him whom\nthe cords of his royal obligations could not hold. It mattered not to\nhim that the edict which he allowed Mordecai to promulgate practically\nlit the flames of civil war. He had washed his hands of the whole\nbusiness.\n\nIt is a hideous picture of an Eastern despot, and has been said to be\nunhistorical and unbelievable. But the world has seen many examples of\nrulers whom the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power has\ncorrupted in like fashion. And others than rulers may take the warning\nthat to live to self is the mother of all sins and crimes; that no man\ncan safely make his own will and his own passions his guides; that\nthere is no slavery so abject as that of the man who is tyrannised by\nhis lower nature; that there is a temptation besetting us all to take\nthe advantages and neglect the duties of our position, and that to\nyield to it is sure to end in moral ruin. We are all kings, even if\nour kingdom be only our own selves, and we shall rule wisely only if\nwe rule as God's viceroys, and think more of duty than of delight.\n\nIII. Mordecai is a kind of duplicate of Joseph, and embodies valuable\nlessons. Contented acceptance of obscurity and neglect of his\nservices, faithfulness to his people and his God in the foul\natmosphere of such a court, wise reticence, patient discharge of small\nduties, undoubting hope when things looked blackest fed by stedfast\nfaith in God, unchangedness of character and purpose when lifted to\nsupreme dignity, the use of influence and place, not for himself, but\nfor his people,--all these are traits which may be imitated in any\nlife. We should be the same men, whether we sit unnoticed among the\nlackeys at the gate, or are bearing the brunt of the hatred of\npowerful foes, or are clothed 'in royal apparel of blue and white, and\nwith a great crown of gold.' These gauds were nothing to Mordecai, and\nearthly honours should never turn our heads. He valued power because\nit enabled him to save his brethren, and we should cultivate the same\nspirit. The political world, with its fierce struggles for personal\nends, its often disregard of the public good, and its use of place and\npower for 'making a pile' or helping relations up, would be much the\nbetter for some infusion of the spirit of Mordecai.\n\nIV. But we must not look only at the visible persons and forces. This\nbook of Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods\nover it all, and is the real spring that moves the movers that are\nseen. It is all a lesson of how God works out His purposes through men\nthat seem to themselves to be working out theirs. The king's criminal\nabandonment to lust and luxury, Haman's meanly personal pique,\nEsther's beauty, the fall of the favourite, the long past services of\nMordecai, even the king's sleepless night, are all threads in the web,\nand God is the weaver. The story raises the whole question of the\nstanding miracle of the co-existence and co-operation of the divine\nand the human. Man is free and responsible, God is sovereign and\nall-pervading. He 'makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the\nremainder thereof He girdeth Himself.' To-day, as then, He is working\nout His deep designs through men whom He has raised up, though they\nhave not known Him. Amid the clash of contending interests and worldly\npassions His solemn purpose steadily advances to its end, like the\nirresistible ocean current, which persists through all storms that\nagitate the surface, and draws them into the drift of its silent\ntrend. Ahasuerus, Haman, Esther, Mordecai, are His instruments, and\nyet each of them is the doer of his or her deed, and has to answer to\nHim for it.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF JOB\n\n\nSORROW THAT WORSHIPS\n\n'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return\nthither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the\nname of the Lord.'--JOB i. 21.\n\n\nThis book of Job wrestles with the problem of the meaning of the\nmystery of sorrow. Whether history or a parable, its worth is the\nsame, as tortured hearts have felt for countless centuries, and will\nfeel to the end. Perhaps no picture that was ever painted is grander\nand more touching than that of the man of Uz, in the antique wealth\nand happiness of his brighter days, rich, joyful, with his children\nround him, living in men's honour, and walking upright before God.\nThen come the dramatic completeness and suddenness of his great\ntrials. One day strips him of all, and stripped of all he rises to a\nloftier dignity, for there is a majesty as well as an isolation in his\nsorrow.\n\nHow many spirits tossed by afflictions have found peace in these\nwords! How many quivering lips have tried to utter their grave, calm\naccents! To how many of us are they hallowed by memories of times when\nthey stood between us and despair!\n\nThey seem to me to say everything that can be said about our trials\nand losses, to set forth the whole truth of the facts, and to present\nthe whole series of feelings with which good men may and should be\nexercised.\n\nI. The vindication of sorrow.\n\nHe 'rent his clothes'--the signs and tokens of inward desolation and\nloss.\n\nIt is worth our while to stay for one moment with the thought that we\nare meant to feel grief. God sends sorrows in order that they may\npain. Sorrow has its manifold uses in our lives and on our hearts. It\nis natural. That is enough. God set the fountain of tears in our\nsouls. We are bidden not to 'despise the chastening of the Lord.' It\nis they who are 'exercised' thereby to whom the chastisement is\nblessed.\n\nIt is sanctioned by Christ. He wept. He bade the women of Jerusalem\nweep for themselves and for their children.\n\nReligion does not destroy the natural emotions--sorrow as little as\nany other. It guides, controls, curbs, comforts, and brings blessings\nout of it. So do not aim at an impossible stoicism, but permit nature\nto have its way, and look at the picture of this manly sorrow of\nJob's--calm, silent, unless when stung by the undeserved reproaches of\nthese three 'orthodox liars for God,' and going to God and\nworshipping.\n\nII. The recognition of loss and sorrow as the law of life.\n\n'Naked came I out of my mother's womb.'\n\nWe need not dwell on the figure 'mother,' suggesting the grave as the\nkindly mother's bosom that gathers us all in, and the thought that\nperhaps gleams forth that death, too, is a kind of birth.\n\nBut the truth picturesquely set forth is just the old and simple\none--that all possessions are transient.\n\nThe naked self gets clothed and lapped round with possessions, but\nthey are all outside of it, apart from its individuality. It has been\nwithout them. It will be without them. Death at the end will rob us of\nthem all.\n\nThe inevitable law of loss is fixed and certain. We are losing\nsomething every moment--not only possessions, but all our dearest ties\nare knit but for a time, and sure to be snapped. They go, and then\nafter a while we go.\n\nThe independence of each soul of all its possessions and relations is\nas certain as the loss of them. They may go and we are made naked, but\nstill we exist all the same. We have to learn the hard lesson which\nsounds so unfeeling, that we can live on in spite of all losses.\nNothing, no one, is necessary to us.\n\nAll this is very cold and miserable; it is the standing point of law\nand necessity. An atheist could say it. It is the beginning of the\nChristian contemplation of life, but only the beginning.\n\nIII. The recognition of God in the law.\n\n'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' That is a step far\nbeyond the former. To bring in the thought of _the Lord_ makes a\nworld of difference.\n\nThe tendency is to look only at the second cause. In Job's case there\nwere two classes of agencies, men, Chaldeans and Sabeans, and natural\ncauses, fire and wind, but he did not stop with these.\n\nThe grand corrective of that tendency lies in the full theistic idea,\nthat God is the sole cause of all. The immanence of Deity in all\nthings and events is our refuge from the soul-crushing tyranny of the\nreign of law.\n\nThat devout recognition of God in law is eminently to be made in\nregard to death, as Job does in the text: 'The number of his months is\nwith Thee.' Death is not any more nor any less under His control than\nall other human incidents are. It has no special sanctity, nor\nabnormally close connection with His will, but it no more is exempt\nfrom such connection than all the other events of life. The connection\nis real. He opens the gate of the grave and no man shuts. He shuts,\nand no man opens.\n\nJob did not forget the Lord's gifts even while he was writhing under\nthe stroke of His withdrawings. Alas! that it should so often need\nsorrow to bear into our hearts that we owe all to Him, but even then,\nif not before, it is well to remember how much good we have received\nof the Lord, and the remembrance should not be 'a sorrow's crown of\nsorrow,' but a thankful one.\n\nIV. The thankful resignation to God's loving administration of the\nlaw.\n\nThe preceding words might be said with mere submission to an\nirresistible power, but this last sentence climbs to the highest of\nthe true Christian idea. It recognises in loss and sorrow a reason for\npraise.\n\nWhy?\n\nBecause we may be sure that all loss is for our good.\n\nBecause we may be sure that all loss is from a loving God. In loss of\ndear ones, _our_ gain is in drawing nearer to God, in being\ntaught more to long for heaven. In our relation to them, a loftier\nlove, a hallowing of all the past. _Their_ gain is in their\nentrance to heaven, and all the glory that they have reached.\n\nThis blessing of God for loss is not inconsistent with sorrow, but\nanticipates the future when we shall know all and bless Him for all.\n\n\n\nTHE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE\n\n'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not\nthou the chastening of the Almighty: 18. For He maketh sore, and\nbindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole. 19. He shall\ndeliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch\nthee. 20. In famine He shall redeem thee from death: and in war from\nthe power of the sword. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the\ntongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.\n22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be\nafraid of the beasts of the earth. 23. For thou shalt be in league\nwith the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at\npeace with thee. 24. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be\nin peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 25.\nThou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring\nas the grass of the earth. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full\nage, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. 27. Lo this, we\nhave searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy\ngood.'--JOB v. 17-27.\n\n\nThe close of the Book of Job shows that his friends' speeches were\ndefective, and in part erroneous. They all proceeded on the assumption\nthat suffering was the fruit of sin--a principle which, though true in\ngeneral, is not to be unconditionally applied to specific cases. They\nall forgot that good men might be exposed to it, not as punishment,\nnor even as correction, but as trial, to 'know what was in their\nhearts.'\n\nEliphaz is the best of the three friends, and his speeches embody much\npermanent truth, and rise, as in this passage, to a high level of\nliterary and artistic beauty. There are few lovelier passages in\nScripture than this glowing description of the prosperity of the man\nwho accepts God's chastisements; and, on the whole, the picture is\ntrue. But the underlying belief in the uniform coincidence of inward\ngoodness and outward good needs to be modified by the deeper teaching\nof the New Testament before it can be regarded as covering all the\nfacts of life.\n\nEliphaz is gathering up, in our passage, the threads of his speech. He\nbases upon all that he has been saying the exhortation to Job to be\nthankful for his sorrows. With a grand paradox, he declares the man\nwho is afflicted to be happy. And therein he strikes an eternally true\nnote. It is good to be made to drink a cup of sorrow. Flesh calls pain\nevil, but spirit knows it to be good. The list of our blessings is not\nonly written in bright inks, but many are inscribed in black. And the\nreason why the sad heart should be a happy heart is because, as\nEliphaz believed, sadness is God's fatherly correction, intended to\nbetter the subject of it. 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' says\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews, in full accord with Eliphaz.\n\nBut his well-meant and true words flew wide of their mark, for two\nreasons. They were chillingly didactic, and it is vinegar upon nitre\nto stand over an agonised soul and preach platitudes in an\nunsympathetic voice. And they assumed unusual sin in Job as the\nexplanation of his unparalleled pains, while the prologue tells us\nthat his sufferings were not fruits of his sin, but trials of his\nrighteousness. He was horrified at Job's words, which seemed to him\nfull of rebellion and irreverence; and he made no allowance for the\nwild cries of an agonised heart when he solemnly warned the sufferer\nagainst 'despising' God's chastening. A more sympathetic ear would\nhave detected the accent of faith in the groans.\n\nThe collocation, in verse 18, of making sore and binding up, does not\nmerely express sequence, but also purpose. The wounding is in order to\nhealing. The wounds are merciful surgery; and their intention is\nhealth, like the cuts that lay open an ulcer, or the scratches for\nvaccination. The view of suffering in these two verses is not\ncomplete, but it goes far toward completeness in tracing it to God, in\nasserting its disciplinary intention, in pointing to the divine\nhealing which is meant to follow, and in exhorting to submission. We\nmay recall the beautiful expansion of that exhortation in Hebrews,\nwhere 'faint not' is added to 'despise not,' so including the two\nopposite and yet closely connected forms of misuse of sorrow,\naccording as we stiffen our wills against it, and try to make light of\nit, or yield so utterly to it as to collapse. Either extreme equally\nmisses the corrective purpose of the grief.\n\nOn this general statement follows a charming picture of the\nblessedness which attends the man who has taken his chastisement\nrightly. After the thunderstorm come sunshine and blue, and the song\nof birds. But, lovely as it is, and capable of application in many\npoints to the life of every man who trustfully yields to God's will,\nit must not be taken as a literally and absolutely true statement of\nGod's dealings with His children. If so regarded, it would hopelessly\nbe shattered against facts; for the world is full of instances of\nsaintly men and women who have not experienced in their outward lives\nsuch sunny calm and prosperity stretching to old age as are here\npromised. Eliphaz is not meant to be the interpreter of the mysteries\nof Providence, and his solution is decisively rejected at the close.\nBut still there is much in this picture which finds fulfilment in all\ndevout lives in a higher sense than his intended meaning.\n\nThe first point is that the devout soul is exempt from calamities\nwhich assail those around it. These are such as are ordinarily in\nScripture recognised as God's judgments upon a people. Famine and war\ndevastate, but the devout soul abides in peace, and is satisfied. Now\nit is not true that faith and submission make a wall round a man, so\nthat he escapes from such calamities. In the supernatural system of\nthe Old Testament such exemptions were more usual than with us, though\nthis very Book of Job and many a psalm show that devout hearts had\neven then to wrestle with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked\nand the indiscriminate fall of widespread calamities on the good and\nbad.\n\nBut in its deepest sense (which, however, is not Eliphaz's sense) the\nfaithful man is saved from the evils which he, in common with his\nfaithless neighbour, experiences. Two men are smitten down by the same\ndisease, or lie dying on a battlefield, shattered by the same shell,\nand the one receives the fulfilment of the promise, 'there shall no\nevil touch thee,' and the other does not. For the evil in the evil is\nall sucked out of it, and the poison is wiped off the arrow which\nstrikes him who is united to God by faith and submission. Two women\nare grinding at the same millstone, and the same blow kills them both;\nbut the one is delivered, and the other is not. They who pass through\nan evil, and are not drawn away from God by it, but brought nearer to\nHim, are hid from its power. To die may be our deliverance from death.\n\nEliphaz's promises rise still higher in verses 22 and 23, in which is\nset forth a truth that in its deepest meaning is of universal\napplication. The wild beasts of the earth and the stones of the field\nwill be in league with the man who submits to God's will. Of course\nthe beasts come into view as destructive, and the stones as injuring\nthe fertility of the fields. There is, probably, allusion to the story\nof Paradise and the Fall. Man's relation to nature was disturbed by\nsin; it will be rectified by his return to God. Such a doctrine of the\neffects of sin in perverting man's relation to creatures runs all\nthrough Scripture, and is not to be put aside as mere symbolism.\n\nBut the large truth underlying the words here is that, if we are\nservants of God, we are masters of everything. 'All things work\ntogether for good to them that love God.' All things serve the soul\nthat serves God; as, on the other hand, all are against him that does\nnot, and 'the stars in their courses fight against' those who fight\nagainst Him. All things are ours, if we are Christ's. The many\nmediaeval legends of saints attended by animals, from St. Jerome\nand his lion downwards to St. Francis preaching to the birds, echo the\nthoughts here. A gentle, pure soul, living in amity with dumb\ncreatures, has wonderful power to attract them. They who are at peace\nwith God can scarcely be at war with any of God's creatures.\nGentleness is stronger than iron bands. 'Cords of love' draw most\nsurely.\n\nPeace and prosperity in home and possessions are the next blessings\npromised (ver. 24). 'Thou shalt visit [look over] thy household, and\nshalt miss nothing.' No cattle have strayed or been devoured by evil\nbeasts, or stolen, as all Job's had been. Alas! Eliphaz knew nothing\nabout commercial crises, and the great system of credit by which one\nscoundrel's fall may bring down hundreds of good men and patient\nwidows, who look over their possessions and find nothing but worthless\nshares. Yet even for those who find all at once that the herd is cut\noff from the stall, their tabernacle may still be in peace, and though\nthe fold be empty they may miss nothing, if in the empty place they\nfind God. That is what Christians may make out of the words; but it is\nnot what was originally meant by them.\n\nIn like manner the next blessing, that of a numerous posterity, does\nnot depend on moral or religious condition, as Eliphaz would make out,\nand in modern days is not always regarded as a blessing. But note the\nsingular heartlessness betrayed in telling Job, all whose flocks and\nherds had been carried off, and his children laid dead in their\nfestival chamber, that abundant possessions and offspring were the\ntoken of God's favour. The speaker seems serenely unconscious that he\nwas saying anything that could drive a knife into the tortured man. He\nis so carried along on the waves of his own eloquence, and so absorbed\nin stringing together the elements of an artistic whole, that he\nforgets the very sorrows which he came to comfort. There are not a few\npious exhorters of bleeding hearts who are chargeable with the same\nsin. The only hand that will bind up without hurting is a hand that is\nsympathetic to the finger-tips. No eloquence or poetic beauty or\npresentation of undeniable truths will do as substitutes for that.\n\nThe last blessing promised is that which the Old Testament places so\nhigh in the list of good things--long life. The lovely metaphor in\nwhich that promise is couched has become familiar to us all. The ripe\ncorn gathered into a sheaf at harvest-time suggests festival rather\nthan sadness. It speaks of growth accomplished, of fruit matured, of\nthe ministries of sun and rain received and used, and of a joyful\ngathering into the great storehouse. There is no reference in the\nspeech to the uses of the sheaf after it is harvested, but we can\nscarcely avoid following its history a little farther than the 'grave'\nwhich to Eliphaz seems the garner. Are all these matured powers to\nhave no field for action? Were all these miracles of vegetation set in\nmotion only in order to grow a crop which should be reaped, and there\nan end? What is to be done with the precious fruit which has taken so\nlong time and so much cultivation to grow? Surely it is not the\nintention of the Lord of the harvest to let it rot when it has been\ngathered. Surely we are grown here and ripened and carried hence for\nsomething.\n\nBut that is not in our passage. This, however, may be drawn from\nit--that maturity does not depend on length of days; and, however\nEliphaz meant to promise long life, the reality is that the devout\nsoul may reckon on complete life, whether it be long or short. God\nwill not call His children home till their schooling is done; and,\nhowever green and young the corn may seem to our eyes, He knows which\nheads in the great harvest-field are ready for removal, and gathers\nonly these. The child whose little coffin may be carried under a boy's\narm may be ripe for harvesting. Not length of days, but likeness to\nGod, makes maturity; and if we die according to the will of God, it\ncannot but be that we shall come to our grave in a full age, whatever\nbe the number of years carved on our tombstones.\n\nThe speech ends with a somewhat self-complacent exhortation to the\npoor, tortured man: 'We have searched it, so it is.' We wise men\npledge our wisdom and our reputation that this is true. Great is\nauthority. An ounce of sympathy would have done more to commend the\ndoctrine than a ton of dogmatic self-confidence. 'Hear it, and know\nthou it for thyself.' Take it into thy mind. Take it into thy mind and\nheart, and take it for thy good. It was a frosty ending, exasperating\nin its air of patronage, of superior wisdom, and in its lack of any\nnote of feeling. So, of course, it set Job's impatience alight, and\nhis next speech is more desperate than his former. When will\nwell-meaning comforters learn not to rub salt into wounds while they\nseem to be dressing them?\n\n\n\nTWO KINDS OF HOPE\n\n'Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's\nweb.'--JOB viii. 14.\n\n'And hope maketh not ashamed.'--ROMANS v. 5.\n\n\nThese two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of\nJob's friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with\npartial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the\nungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the\nsplendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which\nthe well-worn platitude is draped. The spider's web stretched\nglittering in the dewy morning on the plants, shaking its threaded\ntears in the wind, the flag in the dry bed of a nullah withering while\nyet green, the wall on which leaning a man will fall, are vivid\nillustrations of hopes that collapse and fail. But my other text has\nto do with hopes that do not fail. Paul thinks that he knows of hope\nthat maketh not ashamed, that is, which never disappoints. Bildad was\nright if he was thinking, as he was, of hopes fixed on earth; the\nApostle was right, for he was thinking of hopes set on God. It is a\ncommonplace that 'hope springs immortal in the human breast'; it is\nequally a commonplace that hopes are disappointed. What is the\nconclusion from these two universal experiences? Is it the cynical one\nthat it is all illusion, or is it that somewhere there must be an\nobject on which hope may twine its tendrils without fear? God has\ngiven the faculty, and we may be sure that it is not given to be for\never balked. We must hope. Our hope may be our worst enemy; it may and\nshould be our purest joy.\n\nLet us then simply consider these two sorts of hope, the earthly and\nthe heavenly, in their working in the three great realms of life,\ndeath, and eternity.\n\nI. In life.\n\nThe faculty is inseparable from man's consciousness of immortality and\nof an indefinitely expansible nature which ever makes him discontented\nwith the present. It has great purposes to perform in strengthening\nhim for work, in helping him over sorrows, in making him buoyant and\nelastic, in painting for him the walls of the dungeon, and hiding for\nhim the weight of the fetters.\n\nBut for what did he receive this great gift? Mainly that he might pass\nbeyond the temporal and hold converse with the skies. Its true sphere\nis the unseen future which is at God's right hand.\n\nWe may run a series of antitheses, _e.g._--\n\nEarthly hope is so uncertain that its larger part is often fear.\n\nHeavenly hope is fixed and sure. It is as certain as history.\n\nEarthly hope realised is always less blessed than we expected. How\nuniversal the experience that there is little to choose between a\ngratified and a frustrated hope! The wonders inside the caravan are\nnever so wonderful as the canvas pictures outside.\n\nHeavenly hopes ever surpass the most rapturous anticipation. 'The half\nhath not been told.'\n\nEarthly hopes are necessarily short-winged. They are settled one way\nor another, and sink hull down below our horizon.\n\nHeavenly hope sets its object far off, and because a lifetime only\nattains it in part, it blesses a lifetime and outlasts it.\n\nII. Hope in death.\n\nThat last hour ends for us all alike our earthly joys and relations.\nThe slow years slip away, and each bears with it hopes that have been\noutlived, whether fulfilled or disappointed. One by one the lights\nthat we kindle in our hall flicker out, and death quenches the last of\nthem. But there is one light that burns on clear through the article\nof death, like the lamp in the magician's tomb. 'The righteous hath\nhope in his death.' We can each settle for ourselves whether we shall\ncarry that radiant angel with her white wings into the great darkness,\nor shall sadly part with her before we part with life. To the earthly\nsoul that last earthly hour is a black wall beyond which it cannot\nlook. To the God-trusting soul the darkness is peopled with\nbright-faced hopes.\n\nIII. Hope in eternity.\n\nIt is not for our tongues to speak of what must, in the natural\nworking out of consequences, be the ultimate condition of a soul which\nhas not set its hopes on the God who alone is the right Object of the\nblessed but yet awful capacity of hoping, when all the fleeting\nobjects which it sought as solace and mask of its own true poverty are\nclean gone from its grasp. Dante's tremendous words are more than\nenough to move wholesome horror in any thinking soul: 'Leave hope\nbehind, all ye who enter here.' They are said to be unfeeling, grim,\nand mediaeval, incredible in this enlightened age; but is there any\nway out of them, if we take into account what our nature is moulded to\nneed and cling to, and what 'godless' men have done with it?\n\nBut let us turn to the brighter of these texts. 'Hope maketh not\nashamed.' There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power,\npurity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out\nafter completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that\ncalm state where time will be no more, 'to-morrow shall be as this day\nand much more abundant,' and the angel Hope, who kept us company\nthrough all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only\nhaving laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but\nretaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders\nwhich gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh.\n\n\n\nJOB'S QUESTION, JESUS' ANSWER\n\n'If a man die, shall he live again?'--JOB xiv. 14.\n\n'... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me,\nthough he were dead, yet shall he live: 26. And whosoever liveth and\nbelieveth in Me shall never die.'--JOHN xi. 25, 26.\n\n\nJob's question waited long for an answer. Weary centuries rolled away;\nbut at last the doubting, almost despairing, cry put into the mouth of\nthe man of sorrows of the Old Testament is answered by the Man of\nSorrows of the New. The answer in words is this second text which may\nalmost be supposed to allude to the ancient question. The answer, in\nfact, is the resurrection of Christ. Apart from this answer there is\nnone.\n\nSo we may take these two texts to help us to grasp more clearly and\nfeel more profoundly what the world owes to that great fact which we\nare naturally led to think of to-day.\n\nI. The ancient and ever returning question.\n\nThe Book of Job is probably a late part of the Old Testament. It deals\nwith problems which indicate some advance in religious thought. Solemn\nand magnificent, and for the most part sad; it is like a Titan\nstruggling with large problems, and seldom attaining to positive\nconclusions in which the heart or the head can rest in peace. Here all\nJob's mind is clouded with a doubt. He has just given utterance to an\nintense longing for a life beyond the grave. His abode in Sheol is\nthought of as in some sense a breach in the continuity of his\nconsciousness, but even that would be tolerable, if only he could be\nsure that, after many days, God would remember him. Then that longing\ngives way before the torturing question of the text, which dashes\naside the tremulous hope with its insistent interrogation. It is not\ndenial, but it is a doubt which palsies hope. But though he has no\ncertainty, he cannot part with the possibility, and so goes on to\nimagine how blessed it would be if his longing were fulfilled. He\nthinks that such a renewed life would be like the 'release' of a\nsentry who had long stood on guard; he thinks of it as his swift,\njoyous 'answer' to God's summons, which would draw him out from the\nsad crowd of pale shadows and bring him back to warmth and reality.\nHis hope takes a more daring flight still, and he thinks of God as\nyearning for His creature, as His creature yearns for Him, and having\n'a desire to the work of His hands,' as if His heaven would be\nincomplete without His servant. But the rapture and the vision pass,\nand the rest of the chapter is all clouded over, and the devout hope\nloses its light. Once again it gathers brightness in the twenty-first\nchapter, where the possibility flashes out starlike, that 'after my\nskin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God.'\n\nThese fluctuations of hope and doubt reveal to us the attitude of\ndevout souls in Israel at a late era of the national life. And if they\nshow us their high-water mark, we need not suppose that similar souls\noutside the Old Testament circle had solid certainty where these had\nbut a variable hope. We know how large a development the doctrine of a\nfuture life had in Assyria and in Egypt, and I suppose we are entitled\nto say that men have always had the idea of a future. They have always\nhad the thought, sometimes as a fear, sometimes as a hope, but never\nas a certainty. It has lacked not only certainty but distinctness. It\nhas lacked solidity also, the power to hold its own and sustain itself\nagainst the weighty pressure of intrusive things seen and temporal.\n\nBut we need not go to the ends of the earth or to past generations for\nexamples of a doubting, superficial hold of the truth that man lives\nthrough death and after it. We have only to look around us, and, alas!\nwe have only to look within us. This age is asking the question again,\nand answering it in many tones, sometimes of indifferent disregard,\nsometimes flaunting a stark negative without reasoned foundation,\nsometimes with affirmatives with as little reason as these negatives.\nThe modern world is caught in the rush and whirl of life, has its own\nsorrows to front, its own battles to fight, and large sections of it\nhave never come as near an answer to Job's question as Job did.\n\nII. Christ's all-sufficing answer.\n\nHe gave it there, by the grave of Lazarus, to that weeping sister, but\nHe spoke these great words of calm assurance to all the world. One\ncannot but note the difference between His attitude in the presence of\nthe great Mystery and that of all other teachers. How calmly,\ncertainly, and confidently He speaks!\n\nMark that Jesus, even at that hour of agony, turns Martha's thoughts\nto Himself. What He is is the all-important thing for her to know. If\nshe understands Him, life and death will have no insoluble problems\nnor any hopelessness for her. 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.'\nShe had risen in her grief to a lofty height in believing that 'even\nnow'--at this moment when help is vain and hope is dead--'whatsoever\nthou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee,' but Jesus offers to her\na loftier conception of Him when He lays a sovereign hand on\nresurrection and life, and discloses that both inhere in Him, and from\nHim flow to all who shall possess them. He claims to have in Himself\nthe fountain of life, in all possible senses of the word, as well as\nin the special sense relevant at that sad hour. Further, He tells\nMartha that by faith in Him any and all may possess that life. And\nthen He majestically goes on to declare that the life which He gives\nis immune from, and untouched by, death. The believer shall live\nthough he dies, the living believer shall never die. It is clear that,\nin these two great statements, to die is used in two different\nmeanings, referring in the former case to the physical fact, and in\nthe latter carrying a heavier weight of significance, namely the\npregnant sense which it usually has in this Gospel, of separation from\nGod and consequently from the true life of the soul. Physical death is\nnot the termination of human life. The grim fact touches only the\nsurface life, and has nothing to do with the essential, personal\nbeing. He that believes on Jesus, and he only, truly lives, and his\nunion with Jesus secures his possession of that eternal life, which\nvictoriously persists through the apparent, superficial change which\nmen call death. Nothing dies but the death which surrounds the\nfaithful soul. For it to die is to live more fully, more triumphantly,\nmore blessedly. So though the act of physical death remains, its whole\ncharacter is changed. Hence the New Testament euphemisms for death are\nmuch more than euphemisms. Men christen it by names which drape its\nugliness, because they fear it so much, but Faith can play with\nLeviathan, because it fears it not at all. Hence such names as\n'sleep,' 'exodus,' are tokens of the victory won for all believers by\nJesus. He will show Martha the hope for all His followers which begins\nto dawn even in the calling of her brother back from the grip of\ndeath. And He shows us the great truth that His being the 'Life'\nnecessarily involved His being also the 'Resurrection,' for His\nlife-communicating work could not be accomplished till His\nall-quickening vitality had flowed over into, and flooded with its own\nconquering tides, not only the spirit which believes but its humble\ncompanion, the soul, and its yet humbler, the body. A bodily life is\nessential to perfect manhood, and Jesus will not stay His hand till\nevery believer is full-summed in all his powers, and is perfect in\nbody, soul, and spirit, after the image of Him who redeemed Him.\n\nIII. The pledge for the truth of the answer.\n\nThe words of Jesus are only words. These precious words, spoken to\nthat one weeping sister in a little Jewish village, and which have\nbrought hope to millions ever since, are as baseless as all the other\ndreams and longings of the heart, unless Jesus confirms them by fact.\nIf He did not rise from the dead, they are but another of the noble,\nexalted, but futile delusions of which the world has many others. If\nChrist be not risen, His words of consolation are swelling words of\nemptiness; His whole claims are ended, and the age-old question which\nJob asked is unanswered still, and will always remain unanswered. If\nChrist be not risen, the hopeless colloquy between Jehovah and the\nprophet sums up all that can be said of the future life: 'Son of man,\ncan these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, Thou knowest!'\n\nBut Christ's resurrection is a fact which, taken in connection with\nHis words while on earth, endorses these and establishes His claims to\nbe the Declarer of the name of God, the Saviour of the world. It gives\nus demonstration of the continuity of life through and after death.\nTaken along with His ascension, which is but, so to speak, the\nprolongation of the point into a line, it declares that a glorified\nbody and an abode in a heavenly home are waiting for all who by faith\nbecome here partakers in Jesus and are quickened by sharing in His\nlife.\n\nSo in despite of sense and doubt and fear, notwithstanding teachers\nwho, like the supercilious philosophers on Mars Hill, mock when they\nhear of a resurrection from the dead, we should rejoice in the great\nlight which has shined into the region of the shadow of death, we\nshould clasp His divine and most faithful answer to that old,\ndespairing question, as the anchor of our souls, and lift up our\nhearts in thanksgiving in the triumphant challenge, 'O death! where is\nthy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?'\n\n\n\nKNOWLEDGE AND PEACE\n\n'Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall\ncome unto thee.'--JOB xxii. 21.\n\n\nIn the sense in which the speaker meant them, these words are not\ntrue. They mean little more than 'It pays to be religious.' What kind\nof notion of acquaintance with God Eliphaz may have had, one scarcely\nknows, but at any rate, the whole meaning of the text on his lips is\npoor and selfish.\n\nThe peace promised is evidently only outward tranquillity and freedom\nfrom trouble, and the good that is to come to Job is plainly mere\nworldly prosperity. This strain of thought is expressed even more\nclearly in that extraordinary bit of bathos, which with solemn irony\nthe great dramatist who wrote this book makes this Eliphaz utter\nimmediately after the text, 'The Almighty shall be thy defence\nand--thou shalt have plenty of silver!' It has not been left for\ncommercial Englishmen to recommend religion on the ground that it\nproduces successful merchants and makes the best of both worlds.\n\nThese friends of Job's all err in believing that suffering is always\nand only the measure of sin, and that you can tell a man's great guilt\nby observing his great sorrows. And so they have two main subjects on\nwhich they preach at their poor friend, pouring vitriol into his\nwounds: first, how wicked he must be to be so haunted by sorrows;\nsecond, how surely he will be delivered if he will only be religious\nafter their pattern, that is, speak platitudes of conventional\ndevotion and say, I submit.\n\nThis is the meaning of our text as it stands. But we may surely find a\nhigher sense in which it is true and take that to heart.\n\nI. What is acquainting oneself with God?\n\nThe first thing to note is that this acquaintance depends on us. So\nthen there must have been a previous objective manifestation on His\npart. Of course there must be a God to know, and there must be a way\nof knowing Him. For us Jesus Christ is the Revealer. What men know of\nGod apart from Him is dim, shadowy, indistinct; it lacks certainty,\nand so is not knowledge. I venture to say that there is nothing\nbetween cultivated men and the loss of certain knowledge of God and\nconviction of His Being, but the historical revelation of Jesus\nChrist. The Christ reveals the inmost character of God, and that not\nin words but in deeds. Without Him no man knows God; 'No man knoweth\nthe Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.'\n\nSo then the objective revelation having been made, we must on our part\nembrace that revelation as ours. The act of so accepting begins with\nthe familiar act of faith, which includes both an exercise of the\nunderstanding, as it embraces the facts of Christ's revelation of the\nFather, and of the will as it casts itself upon and submits to Him.\nBut that exercise of faith is but the point which has to be drawn out\ninto a golden line, woven into the whole length of a life. And it is\nin the continuity of that line that the average Christian so sadly\nfails, and because of that failure his acquaintance with God is so\ndistant. How little time or thought we give to the character of God as\nrevealed in Jesus Christ! We must be on intimate terms with Him. To\nknow God, as to know a man, we must 'live with' Him, must summer and\nwinter with Him, must bring Him into the pettinesses of daily life,\nmust let our love set to Him, must be in sympathy with Him, our wills\nbeing tuned to make harmony with His, our whole nature being in accord\nwith His. That is work more than enough for a lifetime, enough to task\nit, enough to bless it.\n\nII. The peace of acquaintance with God.\n\nEliphaz meant nothing more than mere earthly tranquillity and\nexemption from trouble, but his words are true in a far loftier\nregion.\n\nKnowledge of God as He really is brings peace, because His heart is\nfull of love. We do but need to know the actual state of the heart of\nGod towards us to be lapped and folded in peace that nothing outside\nof God and ourselves can destroy. If we lived under the constant\nbenediction of the deepest truth in the universe, 'God is love,' our\npeace would be full. That is enough, if we believe it to bring peace.\nThe thought of God which alarms and terrifies cannot be a true\nthought. But, alas! in proportion as we know ourselves, it becomes\ndifficult to believe that God is love. The stings of conscience hiss\nprophecies to us of that in God which cannot but be antagonistic to\nthat in us which conscience condemns. Only when our thought of God is\ndrawn from the revelation of Him in Jesus Christ, does it become\npossible for any man to grasp in one act of his consciousness the\nconviction, I am a sinner, and the conquering conviction, God is Love,\nand only Love to me. So the old exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with\nGod and be at peace,' comes to be in Christian language: 'Behold God\nin Jesus, and thou shalt possess the peace of God to keep thy heart\nand mind.'\n\nKnowledge of God gives peace, because in it we find the satisfaction\nof our whole nature. Thereby we are freed from the unrest of\ntumultuous passions and storms of self-will. The internecine war\nbetween the better and the worse selves within ceases to rage, and\nwhen we have become God's friends, that in us which is meant to rule\nrules, and that in us which is meant to serve serves, and the inner\nkingdom is no longer torn asunder but is harmonised with itself.\n\nKnowledge of God brings peace amid all changes, for he who has God for\nhis continual Companion draws little of his supplies from without, and\ncan be tranquil when the seas roar and are troubled and the mountains\nare cast into the midst of the sea. He bears all his treasures with\nhim, and need fear no loss of any real good. And at last the angel of\npeace will lead us through the momentary darkness and guide us, after\na passing shadow on our path, into 'the land of peace wherein we\ntrusted,' while yet in the land of warfare. Jesus still whispers the\nancient salutation with which He greeted the company in the upper room\non the evening of the day of resurrection, as He comes to His servants\nhere, and it will be His welcome to them when He receives them above.\n\nIII. The true good from acquaintance with God.\n\nAs we have already said, Eliphaz was only thinking, on Old Testament\nlines, that prosperity in material things was the theocratic reward of\nallegiance to Jehovah. He was rubbing vitriol into Job's sores, and\navowedly regarding him as a fear-inspiring instance of the converse\nprinciple. But we have a better meaning breathed into his words, since\nJesus has taught us what is the true good for a man all the days of\nhis life. Acquaintance with God is, not merely procures, good. To know\nHim, to clasp Him to our hearts as our Friend, our Infinite Lover, our\nSource of all peace and joy, to mould our wills to His and let Him\ndominate our whole selves, to seek our wellbeing in Him alone--what\nelse or more can a soul need to be filled with all good? Acquaintance\nwith God brings Him in all His sufficiency to inhabit else empty\nhearts. It changes the worst, according to the judgment of sense, into\nthe best, transforming sorrow into loving discipline, interpreting its\nmeaning, fitting us to 'bear it, and securing to us its blessings. To\nhim that is a friend of God,\n\n  'All is right that seems most wrong\n  If it be His sweet will.'\n\nTo be acquainted with God is the quintessence of good. 'This is life\neternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou\nhast sent.'\n\n\n\nWHAT LIFE MAY BE MADE\n\n'For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift\nup thy face unto God. 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He\nshall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. 28. Thou shalt also\ndecree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light\nshall shine upon thy ways. 29. When men are cast down, then thou shalt\nsay, ... lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.'--JOB xxii.\n26-29.\n\n\nThese words are a fragment of one of the speeches of Job's friends, in\nwhich the speaker has been harping on the old theme that affliction is\nthe consequence and evidence of sin. He has much ado to square his\ntheory with facts, and especially with the fact which brought him to\nJob's dunghill. But he gets over the difficulty by the simple method\nof assuming that, since his theory must be true, there must be unknown\nfacts which vindicate it in Job's case; and since affliction is a sign\nof sin, Job's afflictions are proof that he has been a sinner. So he\ncharges him with grossest crimes, without a shadow of other reason;\nand after having poured this oil of vitriol into his wounds by way of\nconsolation, he advises him to be good, on the decidedly low and\nselfish ground that it will pay.\n\nHis often-quoted exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with God, and be at\npeace: thereby good shall come unto thee,' is, in his meaning of it,\nan undisguised appeal to purely selfish considerations, and its\npromise is not in accordance with facts. Whether that saying is noble\nand true or ignoble and false, depends on the meanings attached to\n'peace' and 'good.' A similar flaw mars the words of our text, as\nunderstood by the speaker. But they can be raised to a higher level\nthan that on which he placed them, and regarded as describing the\nsweet and wonderful prerogatives of the devout life. So understood,\nthey may rebuke and stimulate and encourage us to make our lives\nconformed to the ideal here.\n\nI. I note, first, that life may be full of delight and confidence in\nGod.\n\n'Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty, and shalt lift up\nthy face unto God.' Now when we 'delight' in a thing or a person, we\nrecognise that that thing, or person, fits into a cleft in our hearts,\nand corresponds to some need in our natures. We not only recognise its\ngood, sweetness, and adaptation to ourselves, but we actually possess\nin real fruition the sweetness that we recognise, and the good which\nwe apprehend in it. And so these things, the recognition of the\nsupreme sweetness and all-perfect adaptation and sufficiency of God to\nall that I need; the suppression of tastes and desires which may\nconflict with that sweetness, and the actual enjoyment and fruition of\nthe sweetness and preciousness which I apprehend--these things are the\nvery heart of a man's religion. Without delight in God, there is no\nreal religion.\n\nThe bulk of men are so sunken and embruted in animal tastes and\nsensuous desires and fleeting delights, that they have no care for the\npure and calm joys which come to those who live near God. But above\nthese stand the men, of whom there are a good many amongst us, whose\nreligion is a matter of fear or of duty or of effort. And above them\nthere stand the men who serve because they trust God, but whose\nreligion is seeking rather than finding, and either from deficient\nconsecration or from false conceptions of Him and of their relation to\nHim, is overshadowed by an unnatural and unwholesome gloom. And all\nthese kinds of religion, the religion of fear, of duty, of effort, of\nseeking, and of doubt fighting with faith, are at the best wofully\nimperfect, and are, some of them, radically erroneous types of the\nreligious life. He is the truly devout man who not only knows God to\nbe great and holy, but feels Him to be sweet and sufficient; who not\nonly fears, but loves; who not only seeks and longs, but possesses;\nor, in one word, true religion is delighting in God.\n\nSo herein is supplied a very sharp test for us. Do our tastes and\ninclinations set towards Him, and is He better to us than anything\nbeside? Is God to me my dearest faith, the very home of my heart, to\nwhich I instinctively turn? Is the brightness of my day the light of\nHis face? Is He the gladness of my joy? Is my Christianity a\nmill-horse round of service that I am not glad to render? Do I worship\nbecause I think it is duty, and are my prayers compulsory and\nmechanical; or do I worship because my heart goes out to Him? And is\nmy life calm and sweet because I 'delight in the Lord'?\n\nThe next words of my text will help us to answer. 'Thou shalt lift up\nthy face unto God.' That is a clear enough metaphor to express frank\nconfidence of approach to Him. The head hangs down in the\nconsciousness of demerit and sin. 'Mine iniquities have taken hold\nupon me,' wailed the Psalmist, 'so that I am not able to look up.' But\nit is possible for men to go into God's presence with a sense of\npeace, and to hold up their heads before their Judge and look Him in\nthe eyes and not be afraid. And unless we have that confidence in Him,\nnot because of our merits, but because of His certain love, there will\nbe no 'delight in the Lord.' And there will be no such confidence in\nHim unless we have 'access with confidence by faith' in that Christ\nwho has taken away our sins, and prepared the way for us into the\nFather's presence, and by whose death and sacrifice, and by it alone,\nwe sinful men, with open face and uplifted foreheads, can stand to\nreceive upon our visage the full beams of His light, and expatiate and\nbe glad therein. There is no religion worth naming, of which the\ninmost characteristic is not delight in God. There is no 'delighting\nin God' possible for sinful men unless they can come to Him with frank\nconfidence, and there is no such confidence possible for us unless we\napprehend by faith, and thereby make our own, the great work of Jesus\nChrist our Lord.\n\nII. So, secondly, note, such a life of delighting in God will be\nblessed by the frankest intercourse with Him.\n\n'Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou\nshalt pay thy vows.' These are three stages of this blessed communion\nthat is possible for men. And note, prayer is not regarded in this\naspect as duty, nor is it even dwelt upon as privilege, but as being\nthe natural outcome and issue of that delighting in God and confident\naccess to Him which have preceded. That is to say, if a man really has\nset his heart on God, and knows that in Him is all that he needs,\nthen, of course, he will tell Him everything. As surely as the\nsunshine draws out the odours from the opening petals of the flowers,\nwill the warmth of the felt divine light and love draw from our hearts\nthe sweet confidence, which it is impossible not to give to Him in\nwhom we delight.\n\nIf you have to be driven to prayer by a sense of duty, and if there be\nno impulse in your heart whispering ever to you, 'Tell your Love about\nit!' you have much need to examine into the reality, and certainly\ninto the depth of your religion. For as surely as instinctive impulse,\nwhich needs no spurring from conscience or will, leads us to breathe\nour confidences to those that we love best, and makes us restless\nwhilst we have a secret hid from them, so surely will a true love to\nGod make it the most natural thing in the world to put all our\ncircumstances, wants, and feeling into the shape of prayers. They may\nbe in briefest words. They may scarcely be vocalised at all, but there\nwill be, if there be a true love to Him, an instinctive turning to Him\nin every circumstance; and the single-worded cry, if it be no more,\nfor help is sufficient. The arrow may be shot towards Heaven, though\nit be but slender and short, and it will reach its goal.\n\nFor my text goes on to the second stage, 'He shall hear thee.' That\nwas not true as Eliphaz meant it. But it is true if we remember the\npreceding conditions. The fundamental passage, which I suppose\nunderlies part, at least, of our text, is that great word in the\npsalm, 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the\ndesires of thine heart.' Does that mean that if a man loves God he may\nget everything he wants? Yes! and No! If it is supposed to mean that\nour religion is a kind of key to God's storehouse, enabling us to go\nin there and rifle it at our pleasure, then it is not true; if it\nmeans that a man who delights himself in God will have his supreme\ndesire set upon God, and so will be sure to get it, then it is true.\nFulfil the conditions and you are sure of the promise. If our prayer\nin its deepest essence be 'Not my will, but Thine,' it will be\nanswered. When the desires of our heart are for God, and for\nconformity to His will, as they will be when we 'delight ourselves in\nHim,' then we get our heart's desires. There is no promise of our\nbeing able to impose our wills upon God, which would be a calamity,\nand not a blessing, but a promise that they who make Him their joy and\ntheir desire will never be defrauded of their desire nor robbed of\ntheir joy.\n\nAnd so the third stage of this frank intercourse comes. 'Thou shalt\npay thy vows.' All life may become a thank-offering to God for the\nbenefits that have flowed unceasing from His hands. First a prayer,\nthen the answer, then the rendered thank-offering. Thus, in swift\nalternation and reciprocity, is carried on the commerce between Heaven\nand earth, between man and God. The desires rise to Heaven, but Heaven\ncomes down to earth first; and prayer is not the initial stage, but\nthe second, in the process. God first gives His promise, and the best\nprayer is the catching up of God's promise and tossing it back again\nwhence it came. Then comes the second downward motion, which is the\nanswer to prayer, in blessing, and on it follows, finally, the\nreflection upwards, in thankful surrender and service, of the love\nthat has descended on us, in answer to our desires. So like sunbeams\nfrom a mirror, or heat from polished metal, backwards and forwards, in\ncontinual alternation and reciprocation of influence and of love,\nflash and travel bright gleams between the soul and God. 'Truth\nsprings out of the earth, and righteousness looks down from Heaven.\nOur God shall give that which is good, and the earth shall yield her\nincrease.' Is there any other life of which such alternation is the\nprivilege and the joy?\n\nIII. Then thirdly, such a life will neither know failure nor darkness.\n\n'Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto\nthee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways.' Then is my will to be\nomnipotent, and am I to be delivered from the experiences of\ndisappointments and failures and frustrated plans that are common to\nall humanity, and an essential part of its discipline, because I am a\nChristian man? Eliphaz may have meant that, but we know something far\nnobler. Again, I say, remember the conditions precedent. First of all,\nthere must be the delight in God, and the desire towards Him, the\nsubmission of the will to Him, and the waiting before Him for\nguidance. I decree a thing--if I am a true Christian, and in the\nmeasure in which I am--only when I am quite sure that God has decreed\nit. And it is only His decrees, registered in the chancery of my will,\nof which I may be certain that they shall be established. There will\nbe no failures to the man whose life's purpose is to serve God, and to\ngrow like Him; but if our purpose is anything less than that, or if we\ngo arbitrarily and self-willedly resolving and saying, 'Thus I will;\nthus I command; let my will stand instead of all reason,' we shall\nhave our contemptuous 'decrees' disestablished many a time. If we run\nour heads against stone walls in that fashion, the walls will stand,\nand our heads will be broken. To serve Him and to fall into the line\nof His purpose, and to determine nothing, nor obstinately want\nanything until we are sure that it is His will--that is the secret of\nnever failing in what we undertake.\n\nWe must understand a little more deeply than we are apt to do what is\nmeant by 'success,' before we predict unfailing success for any man.\nBut if we have obeyed the commandment from the psalm already quoted,\nwhich may be again alluded to in the words of my text--'Commit thy way\nunto the Lord; trust also in Him'--we shall inherit the ancient\npromise, 'and He shall bring it to pass.' 'All things work together\nfor good to them that love God,' and in the measure of our love to Him\nare our discernment and realisation of what is truly good. Religion\ngives no screen to keep the weather off us, but it gives us an insight\ninto the truth that storms and rain are good for the only crop that is\nworth growing here. If we understand what we are here for, we shall be\nvery slow to call sorrow evil, and to crown joy with the exclusive\ntitle of blessing and good; and we shall have a deeper canon of\ninterpretation for the words of my text than he who is represented as\nspeaking them ever dreamed of.\n\nSo with the promise of light to shine upon our paths. It is 'the light\nwhich never was on sea or land,' and not the material light which\nsense-bound eyes can see. That may all go. But if we have God in our\nhearts, there will be a light upon our way 'which knows no\nvariableness, neither shadow of turning.' The Arctic winter, sunless\nthough it be, has a bright heaven radiant with myriad stars, and\nflashing with strange lights born of no material or visible orb. And\nso you and I, if we delight ourselves 'in the Lord,' will have an\nunsetting sun to light our paths; 'and at eventide,' and in the\nmirkest midnight, 'there will be light' in the darkness.\n\nIV. Lastly, such a life will be always hopeful, and finally crowned\nwith deliverance.\n\n'When they'--that is, the ways that he has been speaking about--'when\nthey are cast down, thou shalt say, Lifting up.' That is an\nexclamation or a prayer, and we might simply render, 'thou shalt say,\nUp!' Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come\nwhen the path plunges downwards into some 'valley of the shadow of\ndeath.' But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. He will\nin his heart say 'Up!' even while sense says 'Down!' either as\nexpressing indomitable confidence and good cheer in the face of\ndepressing circumstances, or as pouring out a prayer to Him who 'has\nshowed him great and sore troubles' that He would 'bring him up again\nfrom the depths of the earth.' The devout life is largely independent\nof circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by a quiet certainty that\nthe general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge\nhopefully down an occasional dip in the road.\n\nSuch an obstinate hopefulness and cheery confidence are the natural\nresult of the experiences already described in the text. If we delight\nin God, hold communion with Him and have known Him as answering\nprayer, prospering our purposes and illuminating our paths, how shall\nwe not hope? Nothing need depress nor perturb those whose joys and\ntreasures are safe above the region of change and loss. If our riches\nare there where neither moth, rust, nor thieves can reach, our hearts\nwill be there also, and an inward voice will keep singing, 'Lift up\nyour heart.' It is the prerogative of experience to light up the\nfuture. It is the privilege of Christian experience to make hope\ncertainty. If we live the life outlined in these verses we shall be\nable to bring June into December, and feel the future warmth whilst\nour bones are chilled with the present cold. 'When the paths are made\nlow, thou shalt say, Up!'\n\nAnd the end will vindicate such confidence. For the issue of all will\nbe, 'He will save the humble person'; namely, the man who is of the\ncharacter described, and who is 'lowly of eyes' in conscious\nunworthiness, even while he lifts up his face to God in confidence in\nhis Father's love. The 'saving' meant here is, of course, temporary\nand temporal deliverance from passing outward peril. But we may\npermissibly give it wider and deeper meaning. Continuous partial\ndeliverances lead on to and bring about final full salvation.\n\nWe read that into the words, of course. But nothing less than a\ncomplete and conclusive deliverance can be the legitimate end of the\nexperience of the Christian life here. Absurdity can no further go\nthan to suppose that a soul which has delighted itself in God, and\nlooked in His face with frank confidence, and poured out his desires\nto Him, and been the recipient of numberless answers, and the seat of\nnumberless thank-offerings, has travelled along life's common way in\ncheerful godliness, has had the light of heaven shining on the path,\nand has found an immortal hope springing as the natural result of\npresent experience, shall at the last be frustrated of all, and lie\ndown in unconscious sleep, which is nothingness. If that were the end\nof a Christian life, then 'the pillared firmament were rottenness, and\nearth's base built on stubble.' No, no! A heaven of endless\nblessedness and close communion with God is the only possible ending\nto the facts of the devout life on earth.\n\nWe have such a life offered to us all and made possible through faith\nin Jesus Christ, in whom we may delight ourselves in the Lord, by whom\nwe have 'access with confidence,' who is Himself the light of our\nhope, the answer of our prayers, the joy of our hearts, and who will\n'deliver us from every evil work' as we travel along the road; 'and\nsave us' at last 'into His heavenly kingdom,' where we shall be joined\nto the Delight of our souls, and drink for evermore of the fountain of\nlife.\n\n\n\n'THE END OF THE LORD'\n\n'Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 2. I know that Thou canst do\nevery thing, and that no thought can he withholden from Thee. 3. Who\nis he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered\nthat I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.\n4. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: I will demand of Thee, and\ndeclare Thou unto me. 5. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the\near: but now mine eye seeth Thee. 6. Wherefore I abhor myself, and\nrepent in dust and ashes. 7. And it was so, that after the Lord had\nspoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My\nwrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye\nhave not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath.\n8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go\nto My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and\nMy servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal\nwith you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of Me the thing\nwhich is right, like My servant Job. 9. So Eliphaz the Temanite and\nBildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according\nas the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. 10. And the\nLord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also\nthe Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.'--JOB xlii. 1-10.\n\n\nThe close of the Book of Job must be taken in connection with its\nprologue, in order to get the full view of its solution of the mystery\nof pain and suffering. Indeed the prologue is more completely the\nsolution than the ending is; for it shows the purpose of Job's trials\nas being, not his punishment, but his testing. The whole theory that\nindividual sorrows were the result of individual sins, in the support\nof which Job's friends poured out so many eloquent and heartless\ncommonplaces, is discredited from the beginning. The magnificent\nprologue shows the source and purpose of sorrow. The epilogue in this\nlast chapter shows the effect of it in a good man's character, and\nafterwards in his life.\n\nSo we have the grim thing lighted up, as it were, at the two ends.\nSuffering comes with the mission of trying what stuff a man is made\nof, and it leads to closer knowledge of God, which is blessed; to\nlowlier self-estimation, which is also blessed; and to renewed outward\nblessings, which hide the old scars and gladden the tortured heart.\n\nJob's final word to God is in beautiful contrast with much of his\nformer unmeasured utterances. It breathes lowliness, submission, and\ncontented acquiescence in a providence partially understood. It does\nnot put into Job's mouth a solution of the problem, but shows how its\npressure is lightened by getting closer to God. Each verse presents a\ndistinct element of thought and feeling.\n\nFirst comes, remarkably enough, not what might have been expected,\nnamely, a recognition of God's righteousness, which had been the\nattribute impugned by Job's hasty words, but of His omnipotence. God\n'can do everything,' and none of His 'thoughts' or purposes can be\n'restrained' (Rev. Ver.). There had been frequent recognitions of that\nattribute in the earlier speeches, but these had lacked the element of\nsubmission, and been complaint rather than adoration. Now, the same\nconviction has different companions in Job's mind, and so has\ndifferent effects, and is really different in itself. The Titan on his\nrock, with the vulture tearing at his liver, sullenly recognised\nJove's power, but was a rebel still. Such had been Job's earlier\nattitude, but now that thought comes to him along with submission, and\nso is blessed. Its recurrence here, as in a very real sense a new\nconviction, teaches us how old beliefs may flash out into new\nsignificance when seen from a fresh point of view, and how the very\nsame thought of God may be an argument for arraigning and for\nvindicating His providence.\n\nThe prominence given, both in the magnificent chapters in which God\nanswers Job out of the whirlwind and in this final confession, to\npower instead of goodness, rests upon the unspoken principle that 'the\ndivine nature is not a segment, but a circle. Any one divine attribute\nimplies all others. Omnipotence cannot exist apart from righteousness'\n(Davidson's _Job_, Cambridge Bible for Schools). A mere naked\nomnipotence is not God. If we rightly understand His power, we can\nrest upon it as a Hand sustaining, not crushing, us. 'He doeth all\nthings well' is a conviction as closely connected with 'I know that\nThou canst do all things' as light is with heat.\n\nThe second step in Job's confession is the acknowledgment of the\nincompleteness of his and all men's materials and capacities for\njudging God's providence. Verse 3 begins with quoting God's rebuke\n(Job xxxviii 2). It had cut deep, and now Job makes it his own\nconfession. We should thus appropriate as our own God's merciful\nindictments, and when He asks, 'Who is it?' should answer with\nlowliness, 'Lord, it is I.' Job had been a critic; he is a worshipper.\nHe had tried to fathom the bottomless, and been angry because his\nshort measuring-line had not reached the depths. But now he\nacknowledges that he had been talking about what passed his\ncomprehension, and also that his words had been foolish in their\nrashness.\n\nIs then the solution of the whole only that old commonplace of the\nunsearchableness of the divine judgments? Not altogether; for the\nprologue gives, if not a complete, yet a real, key to them. But still,\nafter all partial solutions, there remains the inscrutable element in\nthem. The mystery of pain and suffering is still a mystery; and while\ngeneral principles, taught us even more clearly in the New Testament\nthan in this book, do lighten the 'weight of all this unintelligible\nworld,' we have still to take Job's language as the last word on the\nmatter, and say, 'How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways\npast finding out!'\n\nFor individuals, and on the wider field of the world, God's way is in\nthe sea; but that does not bewilder those who also know that it is\nalso in the sanctuary. Job's confession as to his rash speeches is the\nbest estimate of many elaborate attempts to 'vindicate the ways of God\nto man.' It is better to trust than to criticise, better to wait than\nto seek prematurely to understand.\n\nVerse 4, like verse 3, quotes the words of God (Job xxxviii. 3; xl.\n7). They yield a good meaning, if regarded as a repetition of God's\nchallenge, for the purpose of disclaiming any such presumptuous\ncontest. But they are perhaps better understood as expressing Job's\nlonging, in his new condition of humility, for fuller light, and his\nnew recognition of the way to pierce to a deeper understanding of the\nmystery, by illumination from God granted in answer to his prayer. He\nhad tried to solve his problem by much, and sometimes barely reverent,\nthinking. He had racked brain and heart in the effort, but he has\nlearned a more excellent way, as the Psalmist had, who said, 'When I\nthought, in order to know this, it was too painful for me, until I\nwent into the sanctuary of God; then understood I.' Prayer will do\nmore for clearing mysteries than speculation, however acute, and it\nwill change the aspect of the mysteries which it does not clear from\nbeing awful to being solemn--veils covering depths of love, not clouds\nobscuring the sun.\n\nThe centre of all Job's confession is in verse 5, which contrasts his\nformer and present knowledge of God, as being mere hearsay before, and\neyesight now. A clearer understanding, but still more, a sense of His\nnearness, and an acquaintance at first hand, are implied in the bold\nwords, which must not be interpreted of any outward revelation to\nsense, but of the direct, full, thrilling consciousness of God which\nmakes all men's words about Him seem poor. That change was the master\ntransformation in Job's case, as it is for us all. Get closer to God,\nrealise His presence, live beneath His eye and with your eyes fixed on\nHim, and ancient puzzles will puzzle no longer, and wounds will cease\nto smart, and instead of angry expostulation or bewildered attempts at\nconstruing His dealings, there will come submission, and with\nsubmission, peace.\n\nThe cure for questionings of His providence is experience of His\nnearness, and blessedness therein. Things that loomed large dwindle,\nand dangers melt away. The landscape is the same in shadow and\nsunshine; but when the sun comes out, even snow and ice sparkle, and\ntender beauty starts into visibility in grim things. So, if we see\nGod, the black places of life are lighted; and we cease to feel the\npressure of many difficulties of speculation and practice, both as\nregards His general providence and His revelation in law and gospel.\n\nThe end of the whole matter is Job's retractation of his words and his\nrepentance. 'I abhor' has no object expressed, and is better taken as\nreferring to the previous speeches than to 'myself.' He means thereby\nto withdraw them all. The next clause, 'I repent in dust and ashes,'\ncarries the confession a step farther. He recognises guilt in his rash\nspeeches, and bows before his God confessing his sin. Where are his\nassertions of innocence gone? One sight of God has scattered them, as\nit ever does. A man who has learned his own sinfulness will find few\ndifficulties and no occasions for complaint in God's dealings with\nhim. If we would see aright the meaning of our sorrows, we must look\nat them on our knees. Get near to God in heart-knowledge of Him, and\nthat will teach our sinfulness, and the two knowledges will combine to\nexplain much of the meaning of sorrow, and to make the unexplained\nresidue not hard to endure.\n\nThe epilogue in prose which follows Job's confession, tells of the\ndivine estimate of the three friends, of Job's sacrifice for them, and\nof his renewed outward prosperity. The men who had tried to vindicate\nGod's righteousness are charged with not having spoken that which is\nright; the man who has passionately impugned it is declared to have\nthus spoken. No doubt, Eliphaz and his colleagues had said a great\nmany most excellent, pious things, and Job as many wild and untrue\nones. But their foundation principle was not a true representation of\nGod's providence, since it was the uniform connection of sin with\nsorrow, and the accurate proportion which these bore to each other.\n\nJob, on the other hand, had spoken truth in his denials of these\nprinciples, and in his longings to have the righteousness of God set\nin clear relation to his own afflictions. We must remember, too, that\nthe friends were talking commonplaces learned by rote, while Job's\nwords came scalding hot from his heart. Most excellent truth may be so\nspoken as to be wrong; and it is so, if spoken heartlessly, regardless\nof sympathy, and flung at sufferers like a stone, rather than laid on\ntheir hearts as a balm. God lets a true heart dare much in speech; for\nHe knows that the sputter and foam prove that 'the heart's deeps boil\nin earnest.'\n\nJob is put in the place of intercessor for the three--a profound\nhumiliation for them and an honour for him. They obeyed at once,\nshowing that they have learned their lesson, as well as Job his. An\nincidental lesson from that final picture of the sufferer become the\npriest requiting accusations with intercession, is the duty of\ncherishing kind feelings and doing kind acts to those who say hard\nthings of us. It would be harder for some of us to offer sacrifices\nfor our Eliphazes than to argue with them. And yet another is that\nsorrow has for one of its purposes to make the heart more tender, both\nfor the sorrows and the faults of others.\n\nNote, too, that it was 'when Job prayed for his friends' that the Lord\nturned his captivity. That is a proverbial expression, bearing\nwitness, probably, to the deep traces left by the Exodus, for\nreversing calamity. The turning-point was not merely the confession,\nbut the act, of beneficence. So, in ministering to others, one's own\ngriefs may be soothed.\n\nThe restoration of outward good in double measure is not meant as the\nstatement of a universal law of Providence, and still less as a\nsolution of the problem of the book. But it is putting the truth that\nsorrows, rightly borne, yield peaceable fruit at the last, in the form\nappropriate to the stage of revelation which the whole book\nrepresents; that is, one in which the doctrine of immortality, though\nit sometimes rises before Job's mind as an aspiration of faith, is not\nset in full light.\n\nTo us, living in the blaze of light which Jesus Christ has let into\nthe darkness of the future, the 'end of the Lord' is that heaven\nshould crown the sorrows of His children on earth. We can speak of\nlight, transitory affliction working out an eternal weight of glory.\nThe book of Job is expressing substantially the same expectation, when\nit paints the calm after the storm and the restoration in double\nportion of vanished blessings. Many desolate yet trusting sufferers\nknow how little such an issue is possible for their grief, but if they\nhave more of God in clearer sight of Him, they will find empty places\nin their hearts and homes filled.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PROVERBS\n\n\nA YOUNG MAN'S BEST COUNSELLOR\n\n'The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; 2. To know\nwisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; 3. To\nreceive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;\n4. To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and\ndiscretion, 5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a\nman of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: 6. To understand\na proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their\ndark sayings. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:\nbut fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8. My son, hear the\ninstruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 9.\nFor they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about\nthy neck. 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 11. If\nthey say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily\nfor the innocent without cause: 12. Let us swallow them up alive as\nthe grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13. We shall\nfind all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14.\nCast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: 15. My son, walk\nnot thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: 16.\nFor their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17. (Surely\nin vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird:) 18. And they lay\nwait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. 19.\nSo are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away\nthe life of the owners thereof.'--PROV. i. 1-19.\n\n\nThis passage contains the general introduction to the book of\nProverbs. It falls into three parts--a statement of the purpose of the\nbook (vs. 1-6); a summary of its foundation principles, and of the\nteachings to which men ought to listen (vs. 7-9); and an antithetic\nstatement of the voices to which they should be deaf (vs. 10-19).\n\nI. The aim of the book is stated to be twofold--to enable men,\nespecially the young, to 'know wisdom,' and to help them to 'discern\nthe words of understanding'; that is, to familiarise, by the study of\nthe book, with the characteristics of wise teachings, so that there\nmay be no mistaking seducing words of folly for these. These two aims\nare expanded in the remaining verses, the latter of them being resumed\nin verse 6, while the former occupies the other verses.\n\nWe note how emphatically the field in which this wisdom is to be\nexercised is declared to be the moral conduct of life. 'Righteousness\nand judgment and equity' are 'wise dealing,' and the end of true\nwisdom is to practise these. The wider horizon of modern science and\nspeculation includes much in the notion of wisdom which has no bearing\non conduct. But the intellectual progress (and conceit) of to-day will\nbe none the worse for the reminder that a man may take in knowledge\ntill he is ignorant, and that, however enriched with science and\nphilosophy, if he does not practise righteousness, he is a fool.\n\nWe note also the special destination of the book--for the young.\nYouth, by reason of hot blood and inexperience, needs such portable\nmedicines as are packed in these proverbs, many of them the\ncondensation into a vivid sentence of world-wide truths. There are few\nbetter guides for a young man than this book of homely sagacity, which\nis wisdom about the world without being tainted by the bad sort of\nworldly wisdom. But unfortunately those who need it most relish it\nleast, and we have for the most part to rediscover its truths for\nourselves by our own, often bitter, experience.\n\nWe note, further, the clear statement of the way by which incipient\n'wisdom' will grow, and of the certainty of its growth if it is real.\nIt is the 'wise man' who will 'increase in learning,' the 'man of\nunderstanding' who 'attains unto sound counsels.' The treasures are\nthrown away on him who has no heart for them. You may lavish wisdom on\nthe 'fool,' and it will run off him like water off a rock, fertilising\nnothing, and stopping outside him.\n\nThe Bible would not have met all our needs, nor gone with us into all\nregions of our experience, if it had not had this book of shrewd,\npractical common-sense. Christianity is the perfection of common\nsense. 'Godliness hath promise of the life which now is.' The wisdom\nof the serpent, which Jesus enjoins, has none of the serpent's venom\nin it. It is no sign of spirituality of mind to be above such mundane\nconsiderations as this book urges. If we hold our heads too high to\nlook to our road and our feet, we are sure to fall into a pit.\n\nII. Verses 7-9 may be regarded as a summary statement of the principle\non which the whole book is based, and of the duty which it enjoins.\nThe principle is that true wisdom is based on religion, and the duty\nis to listen to parental instruction. 'My son,' is the address of a\nteacher to his disciples, rather than of a father to his child. The\ncharacteristic Old Testament designation of religion as 'the fear of\nJehovah' corresponds to the Old Testament revelation of Him as the\nHoly One,--that is, as Him who is infinitely separated from creatural\nbeing and limitations. Therefore is He 'to be had in reverence of all'\nwho would be 'about Him'; that fear of reverential awe in which no\nslavish dread mingles, and which is perfectly consistent with\naspiration, trust, and love. The Old Testament reveals Him as separate\nfrom men; the New Testament reveals Him as united to men in the divine\nman, Christ Jesus. Therefore its keynote is the designation of\nreligion as 'the love of God'; but that name is no contradiction of\nthe earlier, but the completion of it.\n\nThat fear is the beginning or basis of wisdom, because wisdom is\nconceived of as God's gift, and the surest way to get it is to 'ask of\nGod' (Jas. i. 5). Religion is, further, the foundation of wisdom,\ninasmuch as irreligion is the supreme folly of creatures so dependent\non God, and so hungering after Him in the depths of their being, as we\nare. In whatever directions a godless man may be wise, in the most\nimportant matter of all, his relations to God, he is unwise, and the\nepitaph for all such is 'Thou fool!'\n\nFurther, religion is the fountain of wisdom, in the sense of the word\nin which this book uses it, since it opens out into principles of\naction, motives, and communicated powers, which lead to right\napprehension and willing discharge of the duties of life. Godless men\nmay be scientists, philosophers, encyclopaedias of knowledge, but for\nwant of religion, they blunder in the direction of their lives, and\nlack wisdom enough to keep them from wrecking the ship on the rocks.\n\nThe Israelitish parent was enjoined to teach his or her children the\nlaw of the Lord. Here the children are enjoined to listen to the\ninstruction. Reverence for traditional wisdom was characteristic of\nthat state of society, and since a divine revelation stood at the\nbeginning of the nation's history, it was not unreasonable to look\nback for light. Nowadays, a belief's being our fathers' is with many a\nreason for not making it ours. But perhaps that is no more rational\nthan the blind adherence to the old with which this emancipated\ngeneration reproaches its predecessors. Possibly there are some 'old\nlamps' better than the new ones now hawked about the streets by so\nmany loud-voiced vendors. The youth of this day have much need of the\nexhortation to listen to the 'instruction' (by which is meant, not\nonly teaching by word, but discipline by act) of their fathers, and to\nthe gentler voice of the mother telling of law in accents of love.\nThese precepts obeyed will be fairer ornaments than jewelled necklaces\nand wreathed chaplets.\n\nIII. On one side of the young man are those who would point him to the\nfear of Jehovah; on the other are seducing whispers, tempting him to\nsin. That is the position in which we all stand. It is not enough to\nlisten to the nobler voice. We have resolutely to stop our ears to the\nbaser, which is often the louder. Facile yielding to the cunning\ninducements which strew every path, and especially that of the young,\nis fatal. If we cannot say 'No' to the base, we shall not say 'Yes' to\nthe noble voice. To be weak is generally to be wicked; for in this\nworld the tempters are more numerous, and to sense and flesh, more\npotent than those who invite to good.\n\nThe example selected of such enticers is not of the kind that most of\nus are in danger from. But the sort of inducements held out are in all\ncases substantially the same. 'Precious substance' of one sort or\nanother is dangled before dazzled eyes; jovial companionship draws\nyoung hearts. The right or wrong of the thing is not mentioned, and\neven murder and robbery are presented as rather pleasant excitement,\nand worth doing for the sake of what is got thereby. Are the desirable\nconsequences so sure? Is there no chance of being caught red-handed,\nand stoned then and there, as a murderer? The tempters are discreetly\nsilent about that possibility, as all tempters are. Sin always\ndeceives, and its baits artfully hide the hook; but the cruel barb is\nthere, below the gay silk and coloured dressing, and it--not the false\nappearance of food which lured the fish--is what sticks in the\nbleeding mouth.\n\nThe teacher goes on, in verses 15 to 19, to supply the truth which the\ntempters tried to ignore. He does so in three weighty sentences, which\nstrip the tinsel off the temptation, and show its real ugliness. The\nflowery way to which they coax is a way of 'evil'; that should be\nenough to settle the question. The first thing to ask about any course\nis not whether it is agreeable or disagreeable, but Is it right or\nwrong? Verse 17 is ambiguous, but probably the 'net' means the\ntempters' speech in verses 11 to 14, and the 'bird' is the young man\nsupposed to be addressed. The sense will then be, 'Surely you are not\nfoolish enough to fly right into the meshes, and to go with your eyes\nopen into so transparent sin!'\n\nVerse 18 points to the grim possibility already referred to, that the\nwould-be murderers will be caught and executed. But its lesson is\nwider than that one case, and declares the great solemn truth that all\nsin is suicide. Who ever breaks God's law slays himself.\n\nWhat is true about 'covetousness,' as verse 19 tells, is true about\nall kinds of sin--that it takes away the life of those who yield to\nit, even though it may also fill their purses, or in other ways may\ngratify their desires. Surely it is folly to pursue a course which,\nhowever it may succeed in its immediate aims, brings real death, by\nseparation from God, along with it. He is not a very wise man who ties\nhis gold round him when the ship founders. He is not parted from his\ntreasure certainly, but it helps to sink him. We may get what we want\nby sinning, but we get also what we did not want or reckon on--that\nis, eternal death. 'This their way is their folly.' Yet, strange to\ntell, their posterity 'approve their sayings,' and follow their\ndoings.\n\n\n\nWISDOM'S CALL\n\n'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She\ncrieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates:\nin the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple\nones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their\nscorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof:\nbehold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words\nunto you. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched\nout my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my\ncounsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your\ncalamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh\nas desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when\ndistress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon\nme, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall\nnot find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the\nfear of the Lord: 30. They would none of my counsel; they despised all\nmy reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own\nway, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of\nthe simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy\nthem. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall\nbe quiet from fear of evil.'--PROVERBS i. 20-33.\n\n\nOur passage begins with a striking picture. A fair and queenly woman\nstands in the crowded resorts of men, and lifts up a voice of sweet\nentreaty--authoritative as well as sweet. Her name is Wisdom. The word\nis in the plural in the Hebrew, as if to teach that in this serene and\nlovely form all manifold wisdoms are gathered and made one. Who then\nis she? It is easy to say 'a poetical personification,' but that does\nnot add much to our understanding. It is clear that this book means\nmuch more by Wisdom than a human quality merely; for august and divine\nattributes are given to her, and she is the co-eternal associate of\nGod Himself. Dwelling in His bosom, she thence comes forth to inspire\nall human good deeds, to plead evermore with men, to enrich those who\nlisten to her with choicest gifts. Intellectual clearness, moral\ngoodness, religious devotion, are all combined in the idea of Wisdom\nas belonging to men.\n\nThe divine source of all, and the correspondence between the human and\nthe divine nature, are taught in the residence of this personified\nWisdom with God before she dwelt with men. The whole of the manifold\nrevelations, by which God makes known any part of His will to men, are\nher voice. Especially the call contained in the Old Testament\nrevelation is the summons of Wisdom. But whether the writer of this\nbook had any inkling of deeper truth still, or not, we cannot but\nconnect the incomplete personification of divine Wisdom here with its\ncomplete incarnation in a Person who is 'the power of God and the\nwisdom of God,' and who embodies the lineaments of the grand picture\nof a Wisdom crying in the streets, even while it is true of Him that\n'He does not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the\nstreets'; for the crying, which is denied to be His, is ostentatious\nand noisy, and the crying which is asserted to be hers is the plain,\nclear, universal appeal of divine love as well as wisdom. The light of\nChrist 'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'\n\nThe call of Wisdom in this passage begins with remonstrance and plain\nspeech, giving their right names to men who neglect her voice. The\nfirst step in delivering men from evil--that is, from foolish--courses\nis to put very clearly before them the true character of their acts,\nand still more of their inclinations. Gracious offers and rich\npromises come after; but the initial message of Wisdom to such men as\nwe are must be the accusation of folly. 'When she is come, she will\nconvict the world of sin.'\n\nThe three designations of men in verse 22 are probably arranged so as\nto make a climax. First come 'the simple,' or, as the word means,\n'open.' There is a _sancta simplicitas_, a holy ignorance of\nevil, which is sister to the highest wisdom. It is well to be ignorant\nas well as 'innocent of much transgression'; and there is no more\nmistaken and usually insincere excuse for going into foul places than\nthe plea that it is best to know the evil and so choose the good. That\nknowledge comes surely and soon enough without our seeking it. But\nthere is a fatal simplicity, open-eared, like Eve, to the Tempter's\nwhisper, which believes the false promises of sin, and as Bunyan has\ntaught us, is companion of sloth and presumption.\n\nNext come 'scorners,' who mock at good. A man must have gone a long\nway down hill before he begins to gibe at virtue and godliness. But\nthe descent is steep, though the distance is long; and the 'simple'\nwho begins to do what is wrong will come to sneer at what is right.\n\nThen last comes the 'fool,' the name which, in Proverbs, is shorthand\nfor mental stupidity, moral obstinacy, and dogged godlessness,--a foul\ncompound, but one which is realised oftener than we think. A great\nmany very superior intellects, cultivated ladies and gentlemen,\nuniversity graduates, and the like, would be unceremoniously set down\nby divine wisdom as fools; and surely if account is taken of the whole\ncompass and duration of our being, and of all our relations to things\nand persons seen and unseen, nothing can be more stupid than\ngodlessness, however cultured. The word literally means coarse or\nthick, and may suggest the idea of stolid insensibility as the last\nstage in the downward progress.\n\nBut note that the charge is directed, not against deeds, but\ndispositions. Perverted love and perverted hatred underlie acts. The\nsimple love simplicity, preferring to be unwarned against evil; the\nscorner finds delight in letting his rank tongue blossom into speech;\nand the false direction given to love gives a fatal twist to its\ncorresponding hate, so that the fool detests 'knowledge' as a thief\nthe policeman's lantern. You cannot love what you should loathe,\nwithout loathing what you should love. Inner longings and revulsions\nsettle character and acts.\n\nVerse 23 passes into entreaty; for it is vain to rouse conscience by\nplain speech, unless something is offered to make better life\npossible. The divine Wisdom comes with a rod, but also with gifts; but\nif the rod is kissed, the rewards are possessed. The relation of\nclauses in verse 23 is that the first is the condition of the\nfulfilment of the second and third. If we turn at her reproof, two\ngreat gifts will be bestowed. Her spirit within will make us quick to\nhear and receive her words sounding without. Whatever other good\nfollows on yielding to the call of divine Wisdom (and the remaining\nearly chapters of Proverbs magnificently detail the many rich gifts\nthat do follow), chief of all are spirits swift to hear and docile to\nobey her voice, and then actual communications to purged ears. Outward\nrevelation without prepared hearts is water spilt upon rock. Prepared\nhearts without a message to them would be but multiplication of vain\nlongings; and God never stultifies Himself, or gives mouths without\nsending meat to fill them. To the submissive spirit, there will not\nlack either disposition to hear or clear utterance of His will.\n\nBut now comes a pause. Wisdom has made her offers in the crowded\nstreets, and amid all the noise and bustle her voice has rung out.\nWhat is the result? Nothing. Not a head has been turned, nor an eye\nlifted. The bustle goes on as before. 'They bought, they sold,' as if\nno voice had spoken. So, after the disappointed waiting of Wisdom, her\nvoice peals out again, but this time with severity in its tones. Note\nhow, in verses 24 and 25, the sin of sins against the pleading Wisdom\nof God is represented as being simple indifference. 'Ye refused,' 'no\nman regarded,' 'set at nought,' 'would none of'--these are the things\nwhich bring down the heavy judgments. It does not need violent\nopposition or black crime to wreck a soul. Simply doing nothing when\nGod speaks is enough to effect destruction. There is no need to lift\nup angry arms in hostility. If we keep them hanging listless by our\nsides, it is sufficient. The gift escapes us, if we simply keep our\nhands shut or held behind our backs. Alas, for ears which have not\nheard, for seeing eyes which have not seen because they loved evil\nsimplicity and hated knowledge!\n\nThen note the terrible retribution. That is an awful picture of the\nmocking laughter of Wisdom, accompanying the rush of the whirlwind and\nthe groans of anguish and shrieks of terror. It is even more solemn\nand dreadful than the parallel representations in Psalm ii., for there\nthe laughter indicates God's knowledge that the schemes of opponents\nare vain, but here it figures pleasure in calamities. Of course it is\nto be remembered that the Wisdom thus represented is not to be\nidentified with God; but still the imagery is startling, and needs to\nbe taken along with declarations that God has 'no pleasure in the\ndeath of the sinner,' and to be interpreted as indicating, with daring\nanthropomorphism, the inevitable character of the 'destruction,' and\nthe uselessness of appeals to the Wisdom once despised. But we\njoyfully remember that the Incarnate Wisdom, fairer than the ancient\npersonification, wept over the city which He knew must perish.\n\nVerses 28-31 carry on the picture of too late repentance and\ninevitable retribution. They who let Wisdom cry, and paid no heed,\nshall cry to her in their turn, and be unnoticed. They whom she vainly\nsought shall vainly seek for her. Actions have their consequences,\nwhich are not annihilated because the doers do not like them. Thoughts\nhave theirs; for the foolish not only eat of the fruit of their ways\nor doings, but are filled with their own devices or counsels.\n'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' That inexorable\nlaw works, deaf to all cries, in the field of earthly life, both as\nregards condition and character; and that field of its operation is\nall that the writer of this book has in view. He is not denying the\npossibility of forgiveness, nor the efficacy of repentance, nor is he\nasserting that a penitent soul ever seeks God in vain; but he is\ndeclaring that it is too late to cry out for deliverance from\nconsequences of folly when the consequences have us in their grip, and\nthat wishes for deliverance are vain, though sighs of repentance are\nnot. We cannot reap where we have not sowed. We must reap what we\nhave. If we are such sluggards that we will 'not plough in winter by\nreason of the cold,' we shall 'beg in harvest and have nothing.'\n\nBut though the writer had probably only this life in view, Jesus\nChrist has extended the teaching to the next, when He has told of\nthose who will seek to enter in and not be able. The experience of the\nfruits of their godlessness will make godless men wish to escape\neating the fruits--and that wish shall be vain. It is not for us to\nenlarge on such words, but it is for us all to lay them to heart, and\nto take heed that we listen now to the beseeching call of the heavenly\nWisdom in its tenderest and noblest form, as it appeared in Christ,\nthe Incarnate Word.\n\nVerses 32 and 33 generalise the preceding promises and warnings in a\ngreat antithesis. 'The backsliding [or, turning away] of the simple\nslays them.' There is allusion to Wisdom's call in verse 23. The\nsimple had turned, but in the wrong direction--away from and not\ntowards her. To turn away from heavenly Wisdom is to set one's face\ntoward destruction. It cannot be too earnestly reiterated that we must\nmake our choice of one of two directions for ourselves--either towards\nGod, to seek whom is life, to find whom is heaven; or away from Him,\nto turn our backs on whom is to embrace unrest, and to be separate\nfrom whom is death. 'The security of fools,' by which is meant, not\ntheir safety, but their fancy that they are safe, 'destroys them.' No\nman is in such danger as the careless man of the world who thinks that\nhe is all right. A traveller along the edge of a precipice in the\nnight, who goes on as if he walked a broad road and takes no heed to\nhis footing, will soon repent his rashness at the bottom, mangled and\nbruised. A man who in this changing world fancies that he sits as a\nking, and sees no sorrow, will have a rude wakening. A moment's heed\nsaves hours of pain.\n\nThe alternative to this suicidal folly is in listening to Wisdom's\ncall. Whoever does that will 'dwell safely,' not in fancied but real\nsecurity; and in his quiet heart there need be no unrest from feared\nevils, for he will have hold of a charm which turns evils into good,\nand with such a guide he cannot go astray, nor with such a\ndefender be wounded to death, nor with such a companion ever be\nsolitary. If Christ be our Light, we shall not walk in darkness. If He\nbe our Wisdom, we shall not err. If He be our Life, we shall never see\ndeath. If He is our Good, we shall fear no evil.\n\n\n\nTHE SECRET OF WELL-BEING\n\n'My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments.\n2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to\nthee. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy\nneck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4. So shalt thou find\nfavour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 5. Trust in\nthe Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own\nunderstanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct\nthy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart\nfrom evil. 8. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy\nbones. 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits\nof all thine increase: 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty,\nand thy presses shall burst out with new wine.'--PROVERBS iii. 1-10.\n\n\nThe first ten verses of this passage form a series of five couplets,\nwhich enforce on the young various phases of goodness by their\ntendency to secure happiness or blessedness of various sorts. The\nunderlying axiom is that, in a world ruled by a good Being, obedience\nmust lead to well-being; but while that is in the general true,\nexceptions do occur, and good men do encounter evil times. Therefore\nthe glowing promises of these verses are followed by two verses which\ndeal with the explanation of good men's afflictions, as being results\nand tokens of God's fatherly love.\n\nThe first couplet is general in character. It inculcates obedience to\nthe precepts of the teacher, and gives as reason the assurance that\nthereby long life and peace will be secured. True to the Old Testament\nconception of revelation as a law, the teacher sets obedience in the\nforefront. He is sure that his teaching contains the sufficient guide\nfor conduct, and coincides with the divine will. He calls, in the\nfirst instance, for inward willing acceptance of His commandments; for\nit is the heart, not primarily the hands, which he desires should\n'keep' them. The mother of all graces of conduct is the bowing of the\nwill to divine authority. The will is the man, and where it ceases to\nlift itself up in self-sacrificing and self-determining rebellion, and\ndissolves into running waters of submission, these will flow through\nthe life and make it pure. To obey self is sin, to obey God is\nrighteousness. The issues of such obedience are 'length of days ...\nand peace.'\n\nEven if we allow for the difference between the Old and the New\nTestaments, it remains true that a life conformed to God's will tends\nto longevity, and that many forms of sin do shorten men's days.\nPassion and indulged appetites eat away the very flesh, and many a\nman's 'bones are full of the sin of his youth.' The profligate has\nusually 'a short life,' whether he succeeds in making it 'merry' or\nnot.\n\n'Peace' is a wide word, including all well-being. Ease-loving\nOrientals, especially when living in warlike times, naturally used the\nphrase as a shorthand expression for all good. Busy Westerns, torn by\nthe distractions and rapid movement of modern life, echo the sigh for\nrepose which breathes in the word. 'There is no joy but calm,' and the\nsure way to deepest peace is to give up self-will and live in\nobedience.\n\nThe second couplet deals with our relations to one another, and puts\nforward the two virtues of 'loving-kindness and truth'--that is truth,\nor faithfulness--as all-inclusive. They are the two which are often\njointly ascribed to God, especially in the Psalms. Our attitude to one\nanother should be moulded in God's to us all. The tiniest crystal has\nthe same facets and angles as the largest. The giant hexagonal pillars\nof basalt, like our Scottish Staffa, are identical in form with the\nmicroscopic crystals of the same substance. God is our Pattern;\ngoodness is likeness to Him.\n\nThese graces are to be bound about the neck, perhaps as an ornament,\nbut more probably as a yoke by which the harnessed ox draws its\nburden. If we have them, they will fit us to bear one another's\nburdens, and will lead to all human duties to our fellows.\n\nThese graces are also to be written on the 'table of the heart'; that\nis, are to be objects of habitual meditation with aspiration. If so,\nthey will come to sight in life. He who practises them will 'find\nfavour with God and man,' for God looks with complacency on those who\ndisplay the right attitude to men; and men for the most part treat us\nas we treat them. There are surly natures which are not won by\nkindness, like black tarns among the hills, that are gloomy even in\nsunshine, and requite evil for good; but the most of men reflect our\nfeelings to them.\n\n'Good understanding' is another result. It is 'found' when it is\nattributed to us, so that the expression substantially means that the\npossessors of these graces will win the reputation of being really\nwise, not only in the fallible judgment of men, but before the pure\neyes of the all-seeing God. Really wise policy coincides with\nloving-kindness and truth.\n\nThe remaining couplets refer to our relations to God. The New\nTestament is significantly anticipated in the pre-eminence given to\ntrust; that is, faith. Nor less significant and profound is the\nassociation of self-distrust with trust in the Lord. The two things\nare inseparable. They are but the under and upper sides of one thing,\nor like the two growths that come from a seed--one striking downwards\nbecomes the root; one piercing upwards becomes the stalk. The double\nattitude of trust and distrust finds expression in acknowledging Him\nin all our ways; that is, ordering our conduct under a constant\nconsciousness of His presence, in accordance with His will, and in\ndependence on His help.\n\nSuch a relation to God will certainly, and with no exceptions, issue\nin His 'directing our paths,' by which is meant that He will be not\nonly our Guide, but also our Roadmaker, showing us the way and\nclearing obstacles from it. Calm certitude follows on willingness to\naccept God's will, and whoever seeks only to go where God sends him\nwill neither be left doubtful whither he should go, nor find his road\nblocked.\n\nThe fourth couplet is, in its first part, in inverted parallelism with\nthe third; for it begins with self-distrust, and proceeds thence to\n'fear of the Lord,' which corresponds to, and is, in fact, but one\nphase of, trust in Him. It is the reverent awe which has no torment,\nand is then purest when faith is strongest. It necessarily leads to\ndeparting from evil. Morality has its roots in religion. There is no\nsuch magnet to draw men from sin as the happy fear of God, which is\nlikewise faith. Whoever separates devoutness from purity of life, this\nteacher does not. He knows nothing of religion which permits\nassociation with iniquity. Such conduct will tend to physical\nwell-being, and in a deeper sense will secure soundness of life.\nGodlessness is the true sickness. He only is healthy who has a\nhealthy, because healed, soul.\n\nThe fifth couplet appears at first as being a drop to a lower region.\nA regulation of the Mosaic law may strike some as out of place here.\nBut it is to be remembered that our modern distinction of ceremonial\nand moral law was non-existent for Israel, and that the command has a\nwider application than to Jewish tithes. To 'honour God with our\nsubstance' is not necessarily to give it away for religious purposes,\nbut to use it devoutly and as He approves.\n\nChristianity has more to say about the distribution, as well as the\nacquisition, of wealth, than professing Christians, especially in\ncommercial communities, practically recognise. This precept grips us\ntight, and is much more than a ceremonial regulation. Many causes\nbesides the devout use of property tend to wealth in our highly\nartificial state of society. The world tries to get it by shrewdness,\nunscrupulousness, and by many other vices which are elevated to the\nrank of virtues; but he who honours the Lord in getting and spending\nwill generally have as much as his true needs and regulated desires\nrequire.\n\n\n\nTHE GIFTS OF HEAVENLY WISDOM\n\n'My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of\nHis correction: 12. For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a\nfather the son in whom he delighteth. 13. Happy is the man that\nfindeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. 14. For the\nmerchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the\ngain thereof than fine gold. 15. She is more precious than rubies: and\nall the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 16.\nLength of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and\nhonour. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are\npeace. 18. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and\nhappy is every one that retaineth her. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath\nfounded the earth; by understanding hath He established the heavens.\n20. By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop\ndown the dew. 21. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep\nsound wisdom and discretion: 22. So shall they be life unto thy soul,\nand grace to thy neck. 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and\nthy foot shall not stumble. 24. When thou liest down, thou shalt not\nbe afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be\nsweet.'--PROVERBS iii. 11-24.\n\n\nThe repetition of the words 'my son' at the beginning of this passage\nmarks a new section, which extends to verse 20, inclusively, another\nsection being similarly marked as commencing in verse 21. The fatherly\ncounsels of these early chapters are largely reiterations of the same\nideas, being line upon line. 'To write the same things to you, to me\nindeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.' Many strokes drive\nthe nail home. Exhortations to get Wisdom, based upon the blessings\nshe brings, are the staple of the whole. If we look carefully at the\nsection (vers. 11-20), we find in it a central core (vers. 13-18),\nsetting forth the blessings which Wisdom gives, preceded by two\nverses, inculcating the right acceptance of God's chastisements which\nare one chief means of attaining Wisdom, and followed by two verses\n(vers. 19, 20), which exalt her as being divine as well as human. So\nthe portraiture of her working in humanity is framed by a prologue and\nepilogue, setting forth two aspects of her relation to God; namely,\nthat she is imparted by Him through the discipline of trouble, and\nthat she dwells in His bosom and is the agent of His creative work.\n\nThe prologue, then, points to sorrow and trouble, rightly accepted, as\none chief means by which we acquire heavenly Wisdom. Note the profound\ninsight into the meaning of sorrows. They are 'instruction' and\n'reproof.' The thought of the Book of Job is here fully incorporated\nand assimilated. Griefs and pains are not tokens of anger, nor\npunishments of sin, but love-gifts meant to help to the acquisition of\nwisdom. They do not come because the sufferers are wicked, but in\norder to make them good or better. Tempests are meant to blow us into\nport. The lights are lowered in the theatre that fairer scenes may\nbecome visible on the thin screen between us and eternity. Other\nsupports are struck away that we may lean hard on God. The voice of\nall experience of earthly loss and bitterness is, 'Wisdom is the\nprincipal thing; therefore get Wisdom.' God himself becomes our\nSchoolmaster, and through the voice of the human teacher we hear His\ndeeper tones saying, 'My son, despise not the chastening.'\n\nNote, too, the assurance that all discipline is the fruit of Fatherly\nlove. How many sad hearts in all ages these few words have calmed and\nbraced! How sharp a test of our childlike spirit our acceptance of\nthem, when our own hearts are sore, is! How deep the peace which they\nbring when really believed! How far they go to solve the mystery of\npain, and turn darkness into a solemn light!\n\nNote, further, that the words 'despise' and 'be weary' both imply\nrather rejection with loathing, and thus express unsubmissive\nimpatience which gets no good from discipline. The beautiful rendering\nof the Septuagint, which has been made familiar by its adoption in\nHebrews, makes the two words express two opposite faults. They\n'despise' who steel their wills against the rod, and make as if they\ndid not feel the pain; they 'faint' who collapse beneath the blows,\nwhich they feel so much that they lose sight of their purpose. Dogged\ninsensibility and utter prostration are equally harmful. He who meets\nlife's teachings, which are a Father's correction, with either, has\nlittle prospect of getting Wisdom.\n\nThen follows the main part of this section (vers. 13-18),--the praise\nof Wisdom as in herself most precious, and as bestowing highest good.\n'The man that findeth Wisdom' reminds us of the peasant in Christ's\nparable, who found treasure hidden in a field, and the 'merchandise'\nin verse 14, of the trader seeking goodly pearls. But the finding in\nverse 13 is not like the rustic's in the parable, who was seeking\nnothing when a chance stroke of his plough or kick of his heel laid\nbare the glittering gold. It is the finding which rewards seeking. The\nfigure of acquiring by trading, like that of the pearl-merchant in the\ncompanion parable, implies pains, effort, willingness to part with\nsomething in order to attain.\n\nThe nature of the price is not here in question. We know who has said,\n'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.' We buy heavenly\nWisdom when we surrender ourselves. The price is desire to possess,\nand willingness to accept as an undeserved, unearned gift. But that\ndoes not come into view in our lesson. Only this is strongly put in\nit--that this heavenly Wisdom outshines all jewels, outweighs all\nwealth, and is indeed the only true riches. 'Rubies' is probably\nrather to be taken as 'corals,' which seem to have been very highly\nprized by the Jews, and, no doubt, found their way to them from the\nIndian Ocean via the Red Sea. The word rendered 'things thou canst\ndesire' is better taken as meaning 'jewels.'\n\nThis noble and conclusive depreciation of material wealth in\ncomparison with Wisdom, which is not merely intellectual, but rests on\nthe fear of the Lord, and is goodness as well as understanding, never\nneeded preaching with more emphasis than in our day, when more and\nmore the commercial spirit invades every region of life, and rich men\nare the aristocrats and envied types of success. When will England and\nAmerica believe the religion which they profess, and adjust their\nestimates of the best things accordingly? How many so-called Christian\nparents would think their son mad if he said, 'I do not care about\ngetting rich; my goal is to be wise with God's Wisdom'? How few of us\norder our lives on the footing of this old teacher's lesson, and act\nout the belief that Wisdom is more than wealth! The man who heaps\nmillions together, and masses it, fails in life, however a vulgar\nworld and a nominal church may admire and glorify him. The man who\nwins Wisdom succeeds, however bare may be his cupboard, and however\npeople may pity him for having failed in life, because he has not\ndrawn prizes in the Devil's lottery. His blank is a prize, and their\nprizes are blanks. This decisive subordination of material to\nspiritual good is too plainly duty and common sense to need being\ndwelt upon; but, alas! like a great many other most obvious, accepted\ntruths, it is disregarded as universally as believed.\n\nThe inseparable accompaniments of Wisdom are next eloquently\ndescribed. The picture is the poetical clothing of the idea that all\nmaterial good will come to him who despises it all and clasps Wisdom\nto his heart. Some things flow from Wisdom possessed as usual\nconsequences; some are inseparable from her. The gift in her right\nhand is length of days; that in her left, which, by its position, is\nsuggested as inferior to the former, is wealth and honour--two goods\nwhich will attend the long life. No doubt such promises are to be\ntaken with limitations; but there need be no doubt that, on the whole,\nloyal devotion to and real possession of heavenly Wisdom do tend in\nthe direction of lengthening lives, which are by it delivered from\nvices and anxieties which cut many a career short, and of gathering\nround silver hairs reverence and troops of friends.\n\nThese are the usual consequences, and may be fairly brought into view\nas secondary encouragements to seek Wisdom. But if she is sought for\nthe sake of getting these attendant blessings, she will not be found.\nShe must be loved for herself, not for her dowry, or she will not be\nwon. At the same time, the overstrained and fantastic morality, which\nstigmatises regard to the blessed results of a religious life as\nselfishness, finds no support in Scripture, as it has none in common\nsense. Would there were more of such selfishness!\n\nSometimes Wisdom's hands do not hold these outward gifts. But the\nconnection between her and the next blessings spoken of is\ninseparable. Her ways are pleasantness and peace. 'In keeping'--not\n_for_ keeping--'her commandments is great reward.' Inward delight\nand deep tranquillity of heart attend every step taken in obedience to\nWisdom. The course of conduct so prescribed will often involve painful\ncrucifying of the lower nature, but its pleasure far outweighs its\npain. It will often be strewn with sharp flints, or may even have\nred-hot ploughshares laid on it, as in old ordeal trials; but still it\nwill be pleasant to the true self. Sin is a blunder as well as a\ncrime, and enlightened self-interest would point out the same course\nas the highest law of Wisdom. In reality, duty and delight are\nco-extensive. They are two names for one thing--one taken from\nconsideration of its obligation; the other, from observation of its\nissues. 'Calm pleasures there abide.' The only complete peace, which\nfills and quiets the whole man, comes from obeying Wisdom, or what is\nthe same thing, from following Christ. There is no other way of\nbringing all our nature into accord with itself, ending the war\nbetween conscience and inclination, between flesh and spirit. There is\nno other way of bringing us into amity with all circumstances, so that\nfortunate or adverse shall be recognised as good, and nothing be able\nto agitate us very much. Peace with ourselves, the world, and God, is\nalways the consequence of listening to Wisdom.\n\nThe whole fair picture is summed up in verse 18: 'She is a tree of\nlife to them that lay hold upon her.' This is a distinct allusion to\nthe narrative of Genesis. The flaming sword of the cherub guard is\nsheathed, and access to the tree, which gives immortal life to those\nwho eat, is open to us. Mark how that great word 'life' is here\ngathering to itself at least the beginnings of higher conceptions than\nthose of simple existence. It is swelling like a bud, and preparing to\nopen and disclose the perfect flower, the life which stands in the\nknowledge of God and the Christ whom He has sent. Jesus, the incarnate\nWisdom, is Himself 'the Tree of Life in the midst of the paradise of\nGod.' The condition of access to it is 'laying hold' by the\noutstretched hand of faith, and keeping hold with holy obstinacy of\ngrip, in spite of all temptations to slack our grasp. That retaining\nis the condition of true blessedness.\n\nVerses 19 and 20 invest the idea of Wisdom with still loftier\nsublimity, since they declare that it is an attribute of God Himself\nby which creation came into being. The meaning of the writer is\ninadequately grasped if we take it to be only that creation shows\nGod's Wisdom. This personified Wisdom dwells with God, is the agent of\ncreation, comes with invitations to men, may be possessed by them, and\nshowers blessings on them. The planet Neptune was divined before it\nwas discovered, by reason of perturbations in the movements of the\nexterior members of the system, unaccountable unless some great globe\nof light, hitherto unseen, were swaying them in their orbits. Do we\nnot see here like influence streaming from the unrisen light of\nChrist? Personification prepares for Incarnation. There is One who has\nbeen with the Father from the beginning, by whom all things came into\nbeing, whose voice sounds to all, who is the Tree of Life, whom we may\nall possess, and with whose own peace we may be peaceful and blessed\nfor evermore.\n\nVerses 21-24 belong to the next section of the great discourse or\nhymn. They add little to the preceding. But we may observe the earnest\nexhortation to let wisdom and understanding be ever in sight. Eyes are\napt to stray and clouds to hide the sun. Effort is needed to\ncounteract the tendency to slide out of consciousness, which our\nweakness imposes on the most certain and important truths. A Wisdom\nwhich we do not think about is as good or as bad as non-existent for\nus. One prime condition of healthy spiritual life is the habit of\nmeditation, thereby renewing our gaze upon the facts of God's\nrevelation and the bearing of these on our conduct.\n\nThe blessings flowing from Wisdom are again dilated on, from a\nsomewhat different point of view. She is the giver of life. And then\nshe adorns the life she gives. One has seen homely faces so refined\nand glorified by the fair soul that shone through them as to be, 'as\nit were, the face of an angel.' Gracefulness should be the outward\ntoken of inward grace. Some good people forget that they are bound to\n'adorn the doctrine.' But they who have drunk most deeply of the\nfountain of Wisdom will find that, like the fabled spring, its waters\nconfer strange loveliness. Lives spent in communion with Jesus will be\nlovely, however homely their surroundings, and however vulgar eyes,\ntaught only to admire staring colours, may find them dull. The world\nsaw 'no beauty that they should desire Him,' in Him whom holy souls\nand heavenly angels and the divine Father deemed 'fairer than the sons\nof men'!\n\nSafety and firm footing in active life will be ours if we walk in\nWisdom's ways. He who follows Christ's footsteps will tread surely,\nand not fear foes. Quiet repose in hours of rest will be his. A day\nfilled with happy service will be followed by a night full of calm\nslumber, 'Whether we sleep or wake, we live' with Him; and, if we do\nboth, sleeping and waking will be blessed, and our lives will move on\ngently to the time when days and nights shall melt into one, and there\nwill be no need for repose; for there will be no work that wearies and\nno hands that droop. The last lying down in the grave will be attended\nwith no terrors. The last sleep there shall be sweet; for it will\nreally be awaking to the full possession of the personal Wisdom, who\nis our Christ, our Life in death, our Heaven in heaven.\n\n\n\nTHE TWO PATHS\n\n'Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life\nshall be many. 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led\nthee in right paths. 12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be\nstraitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13. Take\nfast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy\nlife. 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way\nof evil men. 15. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass\naway. 16. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and\ntheir sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. 17. For\nthey eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. 18.\nBut the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more\nand more unto the perfect day. 19. The way of the wicked is as\ndarkness; they know not at what they stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 10-19.\n\n\nThis passage includes much more than temperance or any other single\nvirtue. It is a perfectly general exhortation to that practical wisdom\nwhich walks in the path of righteousness. The principles laid down\nhere are true in regard to drunkenness and abstinence, but they are\nintended to receive a wider application, and to that wider application\nwe must first look. The theme is the old, familiar one of the two\npaths, and the aim is to recommend the better way by setting forth the\ncontrasted effects of walking in it and in the other.\n\nThe general call to listen in verse 10 is characteristically enforced\nby the Old Testament assurance that obedience prolongs life. That is a\nNew Testament truth as well; for there is nothing more certain than\nthat a life in conformity with God's will, which is the same thing as\na life in conformity with physical laws, tends to longevity. The\nexperience of any doctor will show that. Here in England we have\nstatistics which prove that total abstainers are a long-lived people,\nand some insurance offices construct their tables accordingly.\n\nAfter that general call to listen comes, in verse 11, the description\nof the path in which long life is to be found. It is 'the way of\nWisdom'--that is, that which Wisdom prescribes, and in which therefore\nit is wise to walk. It is always foolish to do wrong. The rough title\nof an old play is _The Devil is an Ass_, and if that is not true\nabout him, it is absolutely true about those who listen to his lies.\nSin is the stupidest thing in the universe, for it ignores the\nplainest facts, and never gets what it flings away so much to secure.\n\nAnother aspect of the path is presented in the designation 'paths of\nuprightness,' which seems to be equivalent to those which belong to,\nor perhaps which consist of, uprightness. The idea of straightness or\nevenness is the primary meaning of the word, and is, of course,\nappropriate to the image of a path. In the moral view, it suggests how\nmuch more simple and easy a course of rectitude is than one of sin.\nThe one goes straight and unswerving to its end; the other is crooked,\ndevious, intricate, and wanders from the true goal. A crooked road is\na long road, and an up-and-down road is a tiring road. Wisdom's way is\nstraight, level, and steadily approaches its aim.\n\nIn verse 13 the image of the path is dropped for the moment, and the\npicture of the way of uprightness and its travellers is translated\ninto the plain exhortation to keep fast hold of 'instruction,' which\nis substantially equivalent to the queenly Wisdom of these early\nchapters of Proverbs. The earnestness of the repeated exhortations\nimplies the strength of the forces that tend to sweep us, especially\nthose of us who are young, from our grasp of that Wisdom. Hands become\nslack, and many a good gift drops from nerveless fingers; thieves\nabound who will filch away 'instruction,' if we do not resolutely hold\ntight by it. Who would walk through the slums of a city holding jewels\nwith a careless grasp, and never looking at them? How many would he\nhave left if he did? We do not need to do anything to lose\ninstruction. If we will only do nothing to keep it, the world and our\nown hearts will make sure that we lose it. And if we lose it, we lose\nourselves; for 'she is thy life,' and the mere bodily life, that is\nlived without her, is not worth calling the life of a man.\n\nVerses 14 to 17 give the picture of the other path, in terrible\ncontrast with the preceding. It is noteworthy that, while in the\nformer the designation was the 'path of uprightness' or of 'wisdom,'\nand the description therefore was mainly of the characteristics of the\npath, here the designation is 'the path of the _wicked_,' and the\ndescription is mainly of the travellers on it. Righteousness was dealt\nwith, as it were, in the abstract; but wickedness is too awful and\ndark to be painted thus, and is only set forth in the concrete, as\nseen in its doers. Now, it is significant that the first exhortation\nhere is of a negative character. In contrast with the reiterated\nexhortations to keep wisdom, here are reiterated counsels to steer\nclear of evil. It is all about us, and we have to make a strong effort\nto keep it at arm's-length. 'Whom resist' is imperative. True,\nnegative virtue is incomplete, but there will be no positive virtue\nwithout it. We must be accustomed to say 'No,' or we shall come to\nlittle good. An outer belt of firs is sometimes planted round a centre\nof more tender and valuable wood to shelter the young trees; so we\nhave to make a fence of abstinences round our plantation of positive\nvirtues. The decalogue is mostly prohibitions. 'So did _not_ I,\nbecause of the fear of God' must be our motto. In this light, entire\nabstinence from intoxicants is seen to be part of the 'way of Wisdom.'\nIt is one, and, in the present state of England and America, perhaps\nthe most important, of the ways by which we can 'turn from' the path\nof the wicked and 'pass on.'\n\nThe picture of the wicked in verses 16 and 17 is that of very grossly\ncriminal sinners. They are only content when they have done harm, and\ndelight in making others as bad as themselves. But, diabolical as such\na disposition is, one sees it only too often in full operation. How\nmany a drunkard or impure man finds a fiendish pleasure in getting\nhold of some innocent lad, and 'putting him up to a thing or two,'\nwhich means teaching him the vices from which the teacher has ceased\nto get much pleasure, and which he has to spice with the condiment of\nseeing an unaccustomed sinner's eagerness! Such people infest our\nstreets, and there is only one way for a young man to be safe from\nthem,--'avoid, pass not by, turn from, and pass on.' The reference to\n'bread' and 'wine' in verse 17 seems simply to mean that the wicked\nmen's living is won by their 'wickedness,' which procures bread, and\nby their 'violence,' which brings them wine. It is the way by which\nthese are obtained that is culpable. We may contrast this foul source\nof a degraded living with verse 13, where 'instruction' is set forth\nas 'the life' of the upright.\n\nVerses 18 and 19 bring more closely together the two paths, and set\nthem in final, forcible contrast. The phrase 'the perfect day' might\nbe rendered, vividly though clumsily, 'the steady of the day'--that\nis, noon, when the sun seems to stand still in the meridian. So the\nimage compares the path of the just to the growing brightness of\nmorning dawn, becoming more and more fervid and lustrous, till the\nclimax of an Eastern midday. No more sublime figure of the continuous\nprogress in goodness, brightness, and joy, which is the best reward of\nwalking in the paths of uprightness, can be imagined; and it is as\ntrue as it is sublime. Blessed they who in the morning of their days\nbegin to walk in the way of wisdom; for, in most cases, years will\nstrengthen their uprightness, and to that progress there will be no\ntermination, nor will the midday sun have to decline westward to\ndiminishing splendour or dismal setting, but that noontide glory will\nbe enhanced, and made eternal in a new heaven. The brighter the light,\nthe darker the shadow. That blaze of growing glory, possible for us\nall, makes the tragic gloom to which evil men condemn themselves the\nthicker and more doleful, as some dungeon in an Eastern prison seems\npitch dark to one coming in from the blaze outside. 'How great is that\ndarkness!' It is the darkness of sin, of ignorance, of sorrow, and\nwhat adds deeper gloom to it is that every soul that sits in that\nshadow of death might have been shining, a sun, in the spacious heaven\nof God's love.\n\n\n\nMONOTONY AND CRISES\n\n'When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou\nrunnest, thou shalt not stumble.'--PROVERBS iv. 12.\n\n\nThe old metaphor likening life to a path has many felicities in it. It\nsuggests constant change, it suggests continuous progress in one\ndirection, and that all our days are linked together, and are not\nisolated fragments; and it suggests an aim and an end. So we find it\nperpetually in this Book of Proverbs. Here the 'way' has a specific\ndesignation, 'the way of Wisdom'--that is to say, the way which Wisdom\nteaches, and the way on which Wisdom accompanies us, and the way which\nleads to Wisdom. Now, these two clauses of my text are not merely an\ninstance of the peculiar feature of Hebrew poetry called parallelism,\nin which two clauses, substantially the same, occur, but with a little\npleasing difference. 'When thou goest'--that is, the monotonous tramp,\ntramp, tramp of slow walking along the path of an uneventful daily\nlife, the humdrum 'one foot up and another foot down' which makes the\nmost of our days. 'When thou runnest'--that points to the crises, the\nsudden spurts, the necessarily brief bursts of more than usual energy\nand effort and difficulty. And about both of them, the humdrum and the\nexciting, the monotonous and the startling, the promise comes that if\nwe walk in the path of Wisdom we shall not get disgusted with the one\nand we shall not be overwhelmed by the other. 'When thou walkest, thy\nsteps shall not be straitened; when thou runnest, thou shalt not\nstumble.'\n\nBut before I deal with these two clauses specifically, let me recall\nto you the condition, and the sole condition, upon which either of\nthem can be fulfilled in our daily lives. The book from which my text\nis taken is probably one of the very latest in the Old Testament, and\nyou catch in it a very significant and marvellous development of the\nOld Testament thought. For there rises up, out of these early chapters\nof the Book of Proverbs, that august and serene figure of the queenly\nWisdom, which is more than a personification and is less than a person\nand a prophecy. It means more than the wise man that spoke it saw; it\nmeans for us Christ, 'the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.' And so\ninstead of keeping ourselves merely to the word of the Book of\nProverbs, we must grasp the thing that shines through the word, and\nrealise that the writer's visions can only become realities when the\nserene and august Wisdom that he saw shimmering through the darkness\ntook to itself a human Form, and 'the Word became flesh, and dwelt\namong us.'\n\nWith that heightening of the meaning of the phrase, 'the path of\nWisdom' assumes a heightened meaning too, for it is the path of the\npersonal Wisdom, the Incarnate Wisdom, Christ Himself. And what does\nit _then_ come to be to obey this command to walk in the way of\nWisdom? Put it into three sentences. Let the Christ who is not only\nwise, but Wisdom, choose your path, and be sure that by the submission\nof your will all your paths are His, and not only yours. Make His path\nyours by following in His steps, and do in your place what you think\nChrist would have done if He had been there. Keep company with Him on\nthe road. If we will do these three things--if we will say to Him,\n'Lord, when Thou sayest go, I go; when Thou biddest me come, I come; I\nam Thy slave, and I rejoice in the bondage more than in all licentious\nliberty, and what Thou biddest me do, I do'--if you will further say,\n'As Thou art, so am I in the world'--and if you will further say,\n'Leave me not alone, and let me cling to Thee on the road, as a little\nchild holds on by her mother's skirt or her father's hand,' then, and\nonly then, will you walk in the path of Wisdom.\n\nNow, then, these three things--submission of will, conformity of\nconduct, closeness of companionship--these three things being\nunderstood, let us look for a moment at the blessings that this text\npromises, and first at the promise for long uneventful stretches of\nour daily life. That, of course, is mainly the largest proportion of\nall our lives. Perhaps nine-tenths at least of all our days and years\nfall under the terms of this first promise, 'When thou walkest.' For\nmany miles there comes nothing particular, nothing at all exciting,\nnothing new, nothing to break the plod, plod, plod along the road.\nEverything is as it was yesterday, and the day before that, and as it\nwill be to-morrow, and the day after that, in all probability. 'The\ntrivial round, the common task' make up by far the largest percentage\nof our lives. It is as in wine, the immense proportion of it is\nnothing but water, and only a small proportion of alcohol is diffused\nthrough the great mass of the tamer liquid.\n\nNow, then, if Jesus Christ is not to help us in the monotony of our\ndaily lives, what, in the name of common sense, is His help good for?\nIf it is not true that He will be with us, not only in the moments of\ncrisis, but in the long commonplace hours, we may as well have no\nChrist at all, for all that I can see. Unless the trivial is His\nfield, there is very little field for Him, in your life or mine. And\nso it should come to all of us who have to take up this daily burden\nof small, monotonous, constantly recurring, and therefore often\nwearisome, duties, as even a more blessed promise than the other one,\nthat 'when thou walkest, thy steps shall not be straitened.'\n\nI remember hearing of a man that got so disgusted with having to dress\nand undress himself every day that he committed suicide to escape from\nthe necessity. That is a very extreme form of the feeling that comes\nover us all sometimes, when we wake in a morning and look before us\nalong the stretch of dead level, which is a great deal more wearisome\nwhen it lasts long than are the cheerful vicissitudes of up hill and\ndown dale. We all know the deadening influence of a habit. We all know\nthe sense of disgust that comes over us at times, and of utter\nweariness, just because we have been doing the same things day after\nday for so long. I know only one infallible way of preventing the\ncommon from becoming commonplace, of preventing the small from\nbecoming trivial, of preventing the familiar from becoming\ncontemptible, and it is to link it all to Jesus Christ, and to say,\n'For Thy sake, and unto Thee, I do this'; then, not only will the\nrough places become plain, and the crooked things straight, and not\nonly will the mountains be brought low, but the valleys of the\ncommonplace will be exalted. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened.' 'I\nwill make his feet as hind's feet,' says one of the old prophets. What\na picture of light, buoyant, graceful movement that is! And each of us\nmay have that, instead of the grind, grind, grind! tramp, tramp,\ntramp! along the level and commonplace road of our daily lives, if we\nwill. Walk in the path of Christ, with Christ, towards Christ, and\n'thy steps shall not be straitened.'\n\nNow, there is another aspect of this same promise--viz. if we thus are\nin the path of Incarnate Wisdom, we shall not feel the restrictions of\nthe road to be restraints. 'Thy steps shall not be straitened';\nalthough there is a wall on either side, and the road is the narrow\nway that leads to life, it is broad enough for the sober man, because\nhe goes in a straight line, and does not need half the road to roll\nabout in. The limits which love imposes, and the limits which love\naccepts, are not narrowing. 'I will walk at liberty, for--I do as I\nlike.' No! that is slavery; but, 'I will walk at liberty, for I keep\nThy precepts'; and I do not want to go vagrantising at large, but\nlimit myself thankfully to the way which Thou dost mark out. 'Thy\nsteps shall not be straitened.' So much for the first of these\npromises.\n\nNow what about the other one? 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not\nstumble.'\n\nAs I have said, the former promise applies to the hours and the years\nof life. The latter applies to but a few moments of each man's life.\nCast your thoughts back over your own days, and however changeful,\neventful, perhaps adventurous, and as we people call it, romantic,\nsome parts of our lives may have been, yet for all that you can put\nthe turning-points, the crises that have called for great efforts, and\nthe gathering of yourselves up, and the calling forth of all your\npowers to do and to dare, you can put them all inside of a week, in\nmost cases. 'When thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.' The greater\nthe speed, the greater the risk of stumbling over some obstacle in the\nway. We all know how many men there are that do very well in the\nuneventful commonplaces of life, but bring them face to face with some\ngreat difficulty or some great trial, and there is a dismal failure.\nJesus Christ is ready to make us fit for anything in the way of\ndifficulty, in the way of trial, that can come storming upon us from\nout of the dark. And He will make us so fit if we follow the\ninjunctions to which I have already been referring. Without His help\nit is almost certain that when we have to run, our ankles will give,\nor there will be a stone in the road that we never thought of, and the\nexcitement will sweep us away from principle, and we shall lose our\nhold on Him; and then it is all up with us.\n\nThere is a wonderful saying in one of the prophets, which uses this\nsame metaphor of my text with a difference, where it speaks of the\ndivine guidance of Israel as being like that of a horse in the\nwilderness. Fancy the poor, nervous, tremulous creature trying to keep\nits footing upon the smooth granite slabs of Sinai. Travellers dare\nnot take their horses on mountain journeys, because they are highly\nnervous and are not sure-footed enough. And, so says the old prophet,\nthat gracious Hand will be laid on the bridle, and hold the nervous\ncreature's head up as it goes sliding over the slippery rocks, and so\nHe will bring it down to rest in the valley. 'Now unto Him that is\nable to keep us from stumbling,' as is the true rendering, 'and to\npresent us faultless ... be glory.' Trust Him, keep near Him, let Him\nchoose your way, and try to be like Him in it; and whatever great\noccasions may arise in your lives, either of sorrow or of duty, you\nwill be equal to them.\n\nBut remember the virtue that comes out victorious in the crisis must\nhave been nourished and cultivated in the humdrum moments. For it is\nno time to make one's first acquaintance with Jesus Christ when the\neyeballs of some ravenous wild beast are staring into ours, and its\nmouth is open to swallow us. Unless He has kept our feet from being\nstraitened in the quiet walk, He will not be able to keep us from\nstumbling in the vehement run.\n\nOne word more. This same distinction is drawn by one of the prophets,\nwho adds another clause to it. Isaiah, or the author of the second\nportion of the book which goes by his name, puts in wonderful\nconnection the two thoughts of my text with analogous thoughts in\nregard to God, when he says, 'Hast thou not known, hast thou not\nheard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of\nthe earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?' and immediately goes on to\nsay, 'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They\nshall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' So it is\nfrom God, the unfainting and the unwearied, that the strength comes\nwhich makes our steps buoyant with energy amidst the commonplace, and\nsteadfast and established at the crises of our lives. But before these\ntwo great promises is put another one: 'They shall mount up with wings\nas eagles,' and therefore both the other become possible. That is to\nsay, fellowship with God in the heavens, which is made possible on\nearth by communion with Christ, is the condition both of the unwearied\nrunning and of unfainting walking. If we will keep in the path of\nChrist, He will take care of the commonplace dreary tracts and of the\nbrief moments of strain and effort, and will bring us at last where He\nhas gone, if, looking unto Him, we 'run with patience the race,' and\nwalk with cheerfulness the road, 'that is set before us.'\n\n\n\nFROM DAWN TO NOON\n\n'The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and\nmore unto the perfect day.'--PROVERBS iv. 18.\n\n'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of\ntheir father.--MATT. xiii. 43.\n\n\nThe metaphor common to both these texts is not infrequent throughout\nScripture. In one of the oldest parts of the Old Testament, Deborah's\ntriumphal song, we find, 'Let all them that love Thee be as the sun\nwhen he goeth forth in his might.' In one of the latest parts of the\nOld Testament, Daniel's prophecy, we read, 'They that be wise shall\nshine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to\nrighteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' Then in the New\nTestament we have Christ's comparison of His servants to light, and\nthe great promise which I have read as my second text. The upshot of\nthem all is this--the most radiant thing on earth is the character of\na good man. The world calls men of genius and intellectual force its\nlights. The divine estimate, which is the true one, confers the name\non righteousness.\n\nBut my first text follows out another analogy; not only brightness,\nbut progressive brightness, is the characteristic of the righteous\nman.\n\nWe are to think of the strong Eastern sun, whose blinding light\nsteadily increases till the noontide. 'The perfect day' is a somewhat\nunfortunate translation. What is meant is the point of time at which\nthe day culminates, and for a moment, the sun seems to stand steady,\nup in those southern lands, in the very zenith, raying down 'the\narrows that fly by noonday.' The text does not go any further, it does\nnot talk about the sad diminution of the afternoon. The parallel does\nnot hold; though, if we consult appearance and sense alone, it seems\nto hold only too well. For, sadder than the setting of the suns, which\nrise again to-morrow, is the sinking into darkness of death, from\nwhich there seems to be no emerging. But my second text comes in to\ntell us that death is but as the shadow of eclipse which passes, and\nwith it pass obscuring clouds and envious mists, and 'then shall the\nrighteous blaze forth like the sun in their Heavenly Father's\nkingdom.'\n\nAnd so the two texts speak to us of the progressive brightness, and\nthe ultimate, which is also the progressive, radiance of the\nrighteous.\n\nI. In looking at them together, then, I would notice, first, what a\nChristian life is meant to be.\n\nI must not linger on the lovely thoughts that are suggested by that\nattractive metaphor of life. It must be enough, for our present\npurpose, to say that the light of the Christian life, like its type in\nthe heavens, may be analysed into three beams--purity, knowledge,\nblessedness. And these three, blended together, make the pure\nwhiteness of a Christian soul.\n\nBut what I wish rather to dwell upon is the other thought, the\nintention that every Christian life should be a life of increasing\nlustre, uninterrupted, and the natural result of increasing communion\nwith, and conformity to, the very fountain itself of heavenly\nradiance.\n\nRemember how emphatically, in all sorts of ways, progress is laid down\nin Scripture as the mark of a religious life. There is the emblem of\nmy text. There is our Lord's beautiful one of vegetable growth: 'First\nthe blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.' There is the\nother metaphor of the stages of human life, 'babes in Christ,' young\nmen in Him, old men and fathers. There is the metaphor of the growth\nof the body. There is the metaphor of the gradual building up of a\nstructure. We are to 'edify ourselves together,' and to 'build\nourselves up on our most holy faith.' There is the other emblem of a\nrace--continual advance as the result of continual exertion, and the\nuse of the powers bestowed upon us.\n\nAnd so in all these ways, and in many others that I need not now touch\nupon, Scripture lays it down as a rule that life in the highest\nregion, like life in the lowest, is marked by continual growth. It is\nso in regard to all other things. Continuity in any kind of practice\ngives increasing power in the art. The artisan, the blacksmith with\nhis hammer, the skilled artificer at his trade, the student at his\nsubject, the good man in his course of life, and the bad man in his,\ndo equally show that use becomes second nature. And so, in passing,\nlet me say what incalculable importance there is in our getting habit,\nwith all its mystical power to mould life, on the side of\nrighteousness, and of becoming accustomed to do good, and so being\nunfamiliar with evil.\n\nLet me remind you, too, how this intention of continuous growth is\nmarked by the gifts that are bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. He\ngives us--and it is by no means the least of the gifts that He\nbestows--an absolutely unattainable aim as the object of our efforts.\nFor He bids us not only be 'perfect, as our Father in Heaven is\nperfect,' but He bids us be entirely conformed to His own Self. The\nmisery of men is that they pursue aims so narrow and so shabby that\nthey can be attained, and are therefore left behind, to sink hull down\non the backward horizon. But to have before us an aim which is\nabsolutely unreachable, instead of being, as ignorant people say, an\noccasion of despair and of idleness, is, on the contrary, the very\nsalt of life. It keeps us young, it makes hope immortal, it\nemancipates from lower pursuits, it diminishes the weight of sorrows,\nit administers an anaesthetic to every pain. If you want to keep\nlife fresh, seek for that which you can never fully find.\n\nChrist gives us infinite powers to reach that unattainable aim, for He\ngives us access to all His own fullness, and there is more in His\nstorehouses than we can ever take, not to say more than we can ever\nhope to exhaust. And therefore, because of the aim that is set before\nus, and because of the powers that are bestowed upon us to reach it,\nthere is stamped upon every Christian life unmistakably as God's\npurpose and ideal concerning it, that it should for ever and for ever\nbe growing nearer and nearer, as some ascending spiral that ever\ncircles closer and closer, and yet never absolutely unites with the\ngreat central Perfection which is Himself.\n\nSo, brethren, for every one of us, if we are Christian people at all,\n'this is the will of God, even your perfection.'\n\nII. Consider the sad contrast of too many Christian lives.\n\nI would not speak in terms that might seem to be reproach and\nscolding. The matter is far too serious, the disease far too\nwidespread, to need or to warrant any exaggeration. But, dear\nbrethren, there are many so-called and, in a fashion, really Christian\npeople to whom Christ and His work are mainly, if not exclusively, the\nmeans of escaping the consequences of sin--a kind of 'fire-escape.'\nAnd to very many it comes as a new thought, in so far as their\npractical lives are concerned, that these ought to be lives of\nsteadily increasing deliverance from the love and the power of sin,\nand steadily increasing appropriation and manifestation of Christ's\ngranted righteousness. There are, I think, many of us from whom the\nvery notion of progress has faded away. I am sure there are some of us\nwho were a great deal farther on on the path of the Christian life\nyears ago, when we first felt that Christ was anything to us, than we\nare to-day. 'When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need\nthat one teach you which be the first principles of the oracles of\nGod.'\n\nThere is an old saying of one of the prophets that a child would die a\nhundred years old, which in a very sad sense is true about very many\nfolk within the pale of the Christian Church who are seventy-year-old\nbabes still, and will die so. Suns 'growing brighter and brighter\nuntil the noonday!' Ah! there are many of us who are a great deal more\nlike those strange variable stars that sometimes burst out in the\nheavens into a great blaze, that brings them up to the brightness of\nstars of the first magnitude, for a day or two; and then they dwindle\nuntil they become little specks of light that the telescope can hardly\nsee.\n\nAnd there are hosts of us who are instances, if not of arrested, at\nany rate of unsymmetrical, development. The head, perhaps, is\ncultivated; the intellectual apprehension of Christianity increases,\nwhile the emotional, and the moral, and the practical part of it are\nall neglected. Or the converse may be the case; and we may be full of\ngush and of good emotion, and of fervour when we come to worship or to\npray, and our lives may not be a hair the better for it all. Or there\nmay be a disproportion because of an exclusive attention to conduct\nand the practical side of Christianity, while the rational side of it,\nwhich should be the basis of all, and the emotional side of it, which\nshould be the driving power of all, are comparatively neglected.\n\nSo, dear brethren! what with interruptions, what with growing by fits\nand starts, and long, dreary winters like the Arctic winters, coming\nin between the two or three days of rapid, and therefore brief and\nunwholesome, development, we must all, I think, take to heart the\ncondemnation suggested by this text when we compare the reality of our\nlives with the divine intention concerning them. Let us ask ourselves,\n'Have I more command over myself than I had twenty years ago? Do I\nlive nearer Jesus Christ today than I did yesterday? Have I more of\nHis Spirit in me? Am I growing? Would the people that know me best say\nthat I am growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour?'\nAstronomers tell us that there are dark suns, that have burnt\nthemselves out, and are wandering unseen through the skies. I wonder\nif there are any extinguished suns of that sort listening to me at\nthis moment.\n\nIII. How the divine purpose concerning us may be realised by us.\n\nNow the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_ of this, the one means which\nincludes all other, is laid down by Jesus Christ Himself in another\nmetaphor when He said, 'Abide in Me, and I in you; so shall ye bring\nforth much fruit.' Our path will brighten, not because of any radiance\nin ourselves, but in proportion as we draw nearer and nearer to the\nFountain of heavenly radiance.\n\nThe planets that move round the sun, further away than we are on\nearth, get less of its light and heat; and those that circle around it\nwithin the limits of our orbit, get proportionately more. The nearer\nwe are to Him, the more we shall shine. The sun shines by its own\nlight, drawn indeed from the shrinkage of its mass, so that it gives\naway its very life in warming and illuminating its subject-worlds. But\nwe shine only by reflected light, and therefore the nearer we keep to\nHim the more shall we be radiant.\n\nThat keeping in touch with Jesus Christ is mainly to be secured by the\ndirection of thought, and love, and trust to Him. If we follow close\nupon Him we shall not walk in darkness. It is to be secured and\nmaintained very largely by what I am afraid is much neglected by\nChristian people of all sorts nowadays, and that is the devotional use\nof their Bibles. That is the food by which we grow. It is to be secured\nand maintained still more largely by that which I, again, am afraid is\nbut very imperfectly attained to by Christian people now, and that is,\nthe habit of prayer. It is to be secured and maintained, again, by the\nhonest conforming of our lives, day by day, to the present amount of our\nknowledge of Him and of His will. Whosoever will make all his life the\nmanifestation of his belief, and turn all his creed into principles of\naction, will grow both in the comprehensiveness, and in the depths of\nhis Christian character. 'Ye are the light in the Lord.' Keep in Him,\nand you will become brighter and brighter. So shall we 'go from strength\nto strength, till we appear before God in Zion.'\n\nIV. Lastly, what brighter rising will follow the earthly setting?\n\nMy second text comes in here. Beauty, intellect, power, goodness; all\ngo down into the dark. The sun sets, and there is left a sad and\nfading glow in the darkening pensive sky, which may recall the\nvanished light for a little while to a few faithful hearts, but\nsteadily passes into the ashen grey of forgetfulness.\n\nBut 'then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun, in their\nHeavenly Father's kingdom.' The momentary setting is but apparent. And\nere it is well accomplished, a new sun swims into the 'ampler ether,\nthe diviner air' of that future life, 'and with new spangled beams,\nflames in the forehead of the morning sky.'\n\nThe reason for that inherent brightness suggested in our second text\nis that the soul of the righteous man passes from earth into a region\nout of which we 'gather all things that offend, and them that do\niniquity.' There are other reasons for it, but that is the one which\nour Lord dwells on. Or, to put it into modern scientific language,\nenvironment corresponds to character. So, when the clouds have rolled\naway, and no more mists from the undrained swamps of selfishness and\nsin and animal nature rise up to hide the radiance, there shall be a\nfuller flood of light poured from the re-created sun.\n\nThat brightness thus promised has for its highest and most blessed\ncharacter that it is conformity to the Lord Himself. For, as you may\nremember, the last use of this emblem that we find in Scripture refers\nnot to the servant but to the Master, whom His beloved disciple in\nApocalyptic vision saw, with His 'countenance as the sun shining in\nhis strength.' Thus 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He\nis.' And therefore that radiance of the sainted dead is progressive,\ntoo. For it has an infinite fulness to draw upon, and the soul that is\njoined to Jesus Christ, and derives its lustre from Him, cannot die\nuntil it has outgrown Jesus and emptied God. The sun will one day be a\ndark, cold ball. We shall outlast it.\n\nBut, brethren, remember that it is only those who here on earth have\nprogressively appropriated the brightness that Christ bestows who have\na right to reckon on that better rising. It is contrary to all\nprobability to believe that the passage from life can change the\ningrained direction and set of a man's nature. We know nothing that\nwarrants us in affirming that death can revolutionise character. Do\nnot trust your future to such a dim peradventure. Here is a plain\ntruth. They who on earth are as 'the shining light that shineth more\nand more unto the perfect day,' shall, beyond the shadow of eclipse,\nshine on as the sun does, behind the opaque, intervening body, all\nunconscious of what looks to mortal eyes on earth an eclipse, and\n'shall blaze out like the sun in their Heavenly Father's kingdom.' For\nall that we know and are taught by experience, religious and moral\ndistinctions are eternal. 'He that is righteous, let him be righteous\nstill; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.'\n\n\n\nKEEPING AND KEPT\n\n'Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of\nlife.'--PROVERBS iv. 23.\n\n'Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'--1 PETER 1.\n5.\n\n\nThe former of these texts imposes a stringent duty, the latter\npromises divine help to perform it. The relation between them is that\nbetween the Law and the Gospel. The Law commands, the Gospel gives\npower to obey. The Law pays no attention to man's weakness, and points\nno finger to the source of strength. Its office is to set clearly\nforth what we ought to be, not to aid us in becoming so. 'Here is your\nduty, do it' is, doubtless, a needful message, but it is a chilly one,\nand it may well be doubted if it ever rouses a soul to right action.\nMoralists have hammered away at preaching self-restraint and a close\nwatch over the fountain of actions within from the beginning, but\ntheir exhortations have little effect unless they can add to their icy\ninjunctions the warmth of the promise of our second text, and point to\na divine Keeper who will make duty possible. We must be kept by God,\nif we are ever to succeed in keeping our wayward hearts.\n\nI. Without our guarding our hearts, no noble life is possible.\n\nThe Old Testament psychology differs from our popular allocation of\ncertain faculties to bodily organs. We use head and heart, roughly\nspeaking, as being respectively the seats of thought and of emotion.\nBut the Old Testament locates in the heart the centre of personal\nbeing. It is not merely the home of the affections, but the seat of\nwill, moral purpose. As this text says, 'the issues of life' flow from\nit in all the multitudinous variety of their forms. The stream parts\ninto many heads, but it has one fountain. To the Hebrew thinkers the\nheart was the indivisible, central unity which manifested itself in\nthe whole of the outward life. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is\nhe.' The heart is the man. And that personal centre has a moral\ncharacter which comes to light in, and gives unity and character to,\nall his deeds.\n\nThat solemn thought that every one of us has a definite moral\ncharacter, and that our deeds are not an accidental set of outward\nactions but flow from an inner fountain, needs to be driven home to\nour consciences, for most of the actions of most men are done so\nmechanically, and reflected on so little by the doers, that the\nconviction of their having any moral character at all, or of our\nincurring any responsibility for them, is almost extinct in us, unless\nwhen something startles conscience into protest.\n\nIt is this shrouded inner self to which supreme care is to be\ndirected. All noble ethical teaching concurs in this--that a man who\nseeks to be right must keep, in the sense both of watching and of\nguarding, his inner self. Conduct is more easily regulated than\ncharacter--and less worth regulating. It avails little to plant\nwatchers on the stream half way to the sea. Control must be exercised\nat the source, if it is to be effectual. The counsel of our first text\nis a commonplace of all wholesome moral teaching since the beginning\nof the world. The phrase 'with all diligence' is literally 'above all\nguarding,' and energetically expresses the supremacy of this keeping.\nIt should be the foremost, all-pervading aim of every wise man who\nwould not let his life run to waste. It may be turned into more modern\nlanguage, meaning just what this ancient sage meant, if we put it as,\n'Guard thy character with more carefulness than thou dost thy most\nprecious possessions, for it needs continual watchfulness, and,\nuntended, will go to rack and ruin.' The exhortation finds a response\nin every heart, and may seem too familiar and trite to bear dwelling\non, but we may be allowed to touch lightly on one or two of the plain\nreasons which enforce it on every man who is not what Proverbs very\nunpolitely calls 'a fool.'\n\nThat guarding is plainly imposed as necessary, by the very\nconstitution of our manhood. Our nature is evidently not a republic,\nbut a monarchy. It is full of blind impulses, and hungry desires,\nwhich take no heed of any law but their own satisfaction. If the reins\nare thrown on the necks of these untamed horses, they will drag the\nman to destruction. They are only safe when they are curbed and\nbitted, and held well in. Then there are tastes and inclinations which\nneed guidance and are plainly meant to be subordinate. The will is to\ngovern all the lower self, and conscience is to govern the will.\nUnmistakably there are parts of every man's nature which are meant to\nserve, and parts which are appointed to rule, and to let the servants\nusurp the place of the rulers is to bring about as wild a confusion\nwithin as the Ecclesiast lamented that he had seen in the anarchic\ntimes when he wrote--princes walking and beggars on horseback. As\nGeorge Herbert has it--\n\n  'Give not thy humours way;\n  God gave them to thee under lock and key.'\n\nThen, further, that guarding is plainly imperative, because there is\nan outer world which appeals to our needs and desires, irrespective\naltogether of right and wrong and of the moral consequences of\ngratifying these. Put a loaf before a starving man and his impulse\nwill be to clutch and devour it, without regard to whether it is his\nor no. Show any of our animal propensities its appropriate food, and\nit asks no questions as to right or wrong, but is stirred to grasp its\nnatural food. And even the higher and nobler parts of our nature are\nbut too apt to seek their gratification without having the license of\nconscience for doing so, and sometimes in defiance of its plain\nprohibitions. It is never safe to trust the guidance of life to\ntastes, inclinations, or to anything but clear reason, set in motion\nby calm will, and acting under the approbation of 'the Lord Chief\nJustice, Conscience.'\n\nBut again, seeing that the world has more evil than good in it, the\nkeeping of the heart will always consist rather in repelling\nsolicitations to yielding to evil. In short, the power and the habit\nof sternly saying 'No' to the whole crowd of tempters is always the\nmain secret of a noble life. 'He that hath no rule over his own spirit\nis like a city broken down and without walls.'\n\nII. There is no effectual guarding unless God guards.\n\nThe counsel in Proverbs is not mere toothless moral commonplace, but\nis associated, in the preceding chapter, with fatherly advice to 'let\nthine heart keep my commandments' and to 'trust in the Lord with all\nthine heart.' The heart that so trusts will be safely guarded, and\nonly such a heart will be. The inherent weakness of all attempts at\nself-keeping is that keeper and kept being one and the same\npersonality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to\neffect it. If in the very garrison are traitors, how shall the\nfortress be defended? If, then, we are to exercise an effectual guard\nover our characters and control over our natures, we must have an\noutward standard of right and wrong which shall not be deflected by\nvariations in our temperature. We need a fixed light to steer towards,\nwhich is stable on the stable shore, and is not tossing up and down on\nour decks. We shall cleanse our way only when we 'take heed thereto,\naccording to Thy word.' For even God's viceroy within, the sovereign\nconscience, can be warped, perverted, silenced, and is not immune from\nthe spreading infection of evil. When it turns to God, as a mirror to\nthe sun, it is irradiated and flashes bright illumination into dark\ncorners, but its power depends on its being thus lit by radiations\nfrom the very Light of Life. And if we are ever to have a coercive\npower over the rebellious powers within, we must have God's power\nbreathed into us, giving grip and energy to all the good within,\nquickening every lofty desire, satisfying every aspiration that feels\nafter Him, cowing all our evil and being the very self of ourselves.\n\nWe need an outward motive which will stimulate and stir to effort. Our\nwills are lamed for good, and the world has strong charms that appeal\nto us. And if we are not to yield to these, there must be somewhere a\nstronger motive than any that the sorceress world has in its stores,\nthat shall constrainingly draw us to ways that, because they tend\nupward, and yield no pabulum for the lower self, are difficult for\nsluggish feet. To the writer of this Book of Proverbs the name of God\nbore in it such a motive. To us the name of Jesus, which is Love,\nbears a yet mightier appeal, and the motive which lies in His death\nfor us is strong enough, and it alone is strong enough, to fire our\nwhole selves with enthusiastic, grateful love, which will burn up our\nsloth, and sweep our evil out of our hearts, and make us swift and\nglad to do all that may please Him. If there must be fresh\nreinforcements thrown into the town of Mansoul, as there must be if it\nis not to be captured, there is one sure way of securing these. Our\nsecond text tells us whence the relieving force must come. If we are\nto keep our hearts with all diligence, we must be 'kept by the power\nof God,' and that power is not merely to make diversion outside the\nbeleaguered fortress which may force the besiegers to retreat and give\nup their effort, but is to enter in and possess the soul which it\nwills to defend. It is when the enemy sees that new succours have, in\nsome mysterious way, been introduced, that he gives up his siege. It\nis God in us that is our security.\n\nIII. There is no keeping by God without faith.\n\nPeter was an expert in such matters, for he had had a bitter\nexperience to teach him how soon and surely self-confidence became\nself-despair. 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,' was\nsaid but a few hours before he denied Jesus. His faith failed, and\nthen the divine guard that was keeping his soul passed thence, and,\nleft alone, he fell.\n\nThat divine Power is exerted for our keeping on condition of our\ntrusting ourselves to Him and trusting Him for ourselves. And that\ncondition is no arbitrary one, but is prescribed by the very nature of\ndivine help and of human faith. If God could keep our souls without\nour trust in Him He would. He does so keep them as far as is possible,\nbut for all the choicer blessings of His giving, and especially for\nthat of keeping us free from the domination of our lower selves, there\nmust be in us faith if there is to be in God help. The hand that lays\nhold on God in Christ must be stretched out and must grasp His warm,\ngentle, and strong hand, if the tingling touch of it is to infuse\nstrength. If the relieving force is victoriously to enter our hearts,\nwe must throw open the gates and welcome it. Faith is but the open\ndoor for God's entrance. It has no efficacy in itself any more than a\ndoor has, but all its blessedness depends on what it admits into the\nhidden chambers of the heart.\n\nI reiterate what I have tried to show in these poor words. There is no\nnoble life without our guarding our hearts; there is no effectual\nguarding unless God guards; there is no divine guarding unless through\nour faith. It is vain to preach self-governing and self-keeping.\nUnless we can tell the beleaguered heart, 'The Lord is thy Keeper; He\nwill keep thee from all evil; He will keep thy soul,' we only add one\nmore impossible command to a man's burden. And we do not apprehend nor\nexperience the divine keeping in its most blessed and fullest reality,\nunless we find it in Jesus, who is 'able to keep us from falling, and\nto present us faultless before the presence of His glory with\nexceeding joy.'\n\n\n\nTHE CORDS OF SIN\n\n'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be\nholden with the cords of his sins.'--PROVERBS v. 22.\n\n\nIn Hosea's tender picture of the divine training of Israel which,\nalas! failed of its effect, we read, 'I drew them with cords of a\nman,' which is further explained as being 'with bands of love.' The\nmetaphor in the prophet's mind is probably that of a child being\n'taught to go' and upheld in its first tottering steps by\nleading-strings. God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield to the\ndrawing. But if these gentle, attractive influences, which ever are\nraying out from Him, are resisted, another set of cords, not now\nsustaining and attracting, but hampering and fettering, twine\nthemselves round the rebellious life, and the man is like a wild\ncreature snared in the hunter's toils, enmeshed in a net, and with its\nonce free limbs restrained. The choice is open to us all, whether we\nwill let God draw us to Himself with the sweet manlike cords of His\neducative and forbearing love, or, flinging off these, which only\nfoolish self-will construes into limitations, shall condemn ourselves\nto be prisoned within the narrow room of our own sins. We may choose\nwhich condition shall be ours, but one or other of them must be ours.\nWe may either be drawn by the silken cord of God's love or we may be\n'holden by the cords' of our sins.\n\nIn both clauses of our text evil deeds done are regarded as having a\nstrange, solemn life apart from the doer of them, by which they become\ninfluential factors in his subsequent life. Their issues on others may\nbe important, but their issues on him are the most important of all.\nThe recoil of the gun on the shoulder of him who fired it is certain,\nwhether the cartridge that flew from its muzzle wounded anything or\nnot. 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked'--they ring him round,\na grim company to whom he has given an independent being, and who have\nnow 'taken' him prisoner and laid violent hands on him. A long since\nforgotten novel told of the fate of 'a modern Prometheus,' who made\nand put life into a dreadful creature in man's shape, that became the\ncurse of its creator's life. That tragedy is repeated over and over\nagain. We have not done with our evil deeds when we have done them,\nbut they, in a very terrible sense, begin to be when they are done. We\nsow the seeds broadcast, and the seed springs up dragon's teeth.\n\nThe view of human experience set forth, especially in the second\nclause of this text, directs our gaze into dark places, into which it\nis not pleasant to look, and many of you will accuse me of preaching\ngloomily if I try to turn a reflective eye inwards upon them, but no\none will be able to accuse me of not preaching truly. It is impossible\nto enumerate all the cords that make up the net in which our own evil\ndoings hold us meshed, but let me point out some of these.\n\nI. Our evil deeds become evil habits.\n\nWe all know that anything once done becomes easier to do again. That\nis true about both good and bad actions, but 'ill weeds grow apace,'\nand it is infinitely easier to form a bad habit than a good one. The\nyoung shoot is green and flexible at first, but it soon becomes woody\nand grows high and strikes deep. We can all verify the statement of\nour text by recalling the tremors of conscience, the self-disgust, the\ndread of discovery which accompanied the first commission of some evil\ndeed, and the silence of undisturbed, almost unconscious facility,\nthat accompanied later repetitions of it. Sins of sense and animal\npassion afford the most conspicuous instances of this, but it is by no\nmeans confined to these. We have but to look steadily at our own lives\nto be aware of the working of this solemn law in them, however clear\nwe may be of the grosser forms of evil deeds. For us all it is true\nthat custom presses on us 'with a weight, heavy as frost and deep\nalmost as life,' and that it is as hard for the Ethiopian to change\nhis skin or the leopard his spots as for those who 'are accustomed to\ndo evil' to 'do good.'\n\nBut experience teaches not only that evil deeds quickly consolidate\ninto evil habits, but that as the habit grips us faster, the poor\npleasure for the sake of which the acts are done diminishes. The zest\nwhich partially concealed the bitter taste of the once eagerly\nswallowed morsel is all but gone, but the morsel is still sought and\nswallowed. Impulses wax as motives wane, the victim is like an ox\ntempted on the road to the slaughter-house at first by succulent\nfodder held before it, and at last driven into it by pricking goads\nand heavy blows. Many a man is so completely wrapped in the net which\nhis own evil deeds have made for him, that he commits the sin once\nmore, not because he finds any pleasure in it, but for no better\nreason than that he has already committed it often, and the habit is\nhis master.\n\nThere are many forms of evil which compel us to repeat them for other\nreasons than the force of habit. For instance, a fraudulent\nbook-keeper has to go on making false entries in his employer's books\nin order to hide his peculations. Whoever steps on to the steeply\nsloping road to which self-pleasing invites us, soon finds that he is\non an inclined plane well greased, and that compulsion is on him to go\non, though he may recoil from the descent, and be shudderingly aware\nof what the end must be. Let no man say, 'I will do this doubtful\nthing once only, and never again.' Sin is like an octopus, and if the\nloathly thing gets the tip of one slender filament round a man, it\nwill envelop him altogether and drag him down to the cruel beak.\n\nLet us then remember how swiftly deeds become habits, and how the\nfetters, which were silken at first, rapidly are exchanged for iron\nchains, and how the craving increases as fast as the pleasure from\ngratifying it diminishes. Let us remember that there are many kinds of\nevil which seem to force their own repetition, in order to escape\ntheir consequences and to hide the sin. Let us remember that no man\ncan venture to say, 'This once only will I do this thing.' Let us\nremember that acts become habits with dreadful swiftness, and let us\nbeware that we do not forge chains of darkness for ourselves out of\nour own godless deeds.\n\nII. Our evil deeds imprison us for good.\n\nThe tragedy of human life is that we weave for ourselves manacles that\nfetter us from following and securing the one good for which we are\nmade. Our evil past holds us in a firm grip. The cords which confine\nour limbs are of our own spinning. What but ourselves is the reason\nwhy so many of us do not yield to God's merciful drawings of us to\nHimself? We have riveted the chains and twined the net that holds us\ncaptive, by our own acts. It is we ourselves who have paralysed our\nwills, so that we see the light of God but as a faint gleam far away,\nand dare not move to follow the gleam. It is we who have smothered or\nsilenced our conscience and perverted our tastes, and done violence to\nall in us that 'thirsteth for God, even the living God.' Alas! how\nmany of us have let some strong evil habit gain such a grip of us that\nit has overborne our higher impulses, and silenced the voice within us\nthat cries out for the living God! We are kept back from Him by our\nworse selves, and whoever lets that which is lowest in him keep him\nfrom following after God, who is his 'being's end and aim,' is caught\nand prisoned by the cords woven and knitted out of his sins. Are there\nnone of us who know, when they are honest with themselves, that they\nwould have been true Christians long since, had it not been for one\ndarling evil that they cannot make up their minds to cast off? Wills\ndisabled from strongly willing the good, consciences silenced as when\nthe tongue is taken out of a bell-buoy on a shoal, tastes perverted\nand set seeking amid the transitory treasures of earth for what God\nonly can give them, these are the 'cords' out of which are knotted the\nnets that hold so many of us captive, and hinder our feet from\nfollowing after God, even the living God, in following and possessing\nwhom is the only liberty of soul, the one real joy of life.\n\nIII. Our evil deeds work their own punishment.\n\nI do not venture to speak of the issues beyond the grave. It is not\nfor a man to press these on his brethren. But even from the standpoint\nof this Book of Proverbs, it is certain that 'the righteous shall be\nrecompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.'\nProbably it was the earthly consequences of wrongdoing that were in\nthe mind of the proverb-maker. And we are not to let our Christian\nenlightenment as to the future rob us of the certainty, written large\non human life here and now, that with whatever apparent exceptions in\nregard to prosperous sin and tried righteousness, it is yet true that\n'every transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of\nreward.' Life is full of consequences of evil-doing. Even here and now\nwe reap as we have sown. Every sin is a mistake, even if we confine\nour view to the consequences sought for in this life by it, and the\nconsequences actually encountered. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.'\nTrue, we believe that there is a future reaping so complete that it\nmakes the partial harvests gathered here seem of small account. But\nthe framer of this proverb, who had little knowledge of that future,\nhad seen enough in the meditative survey of this present to make him\nsure that the consequences of evil-doing were certain, and in a very\ntrue sense, penal. And leaving out of sight all that lies in the dark\nbeyond, surely if we sum up the lamed aspirations, the perverted\ntastes, the ossifying of noble emotions, the destruction of the\nbalance of the nature, the blinding of the eye of the soul, the\nlowering and narrowing of the whole nature, and many another wound to\nthe best in man that come as the sure issue of evil deeds, we do not\nneed to doubt that every sinful man is miserably 'holden with the\ncords of his sin.' Life is the time for sowing, but it is a time for\nreaping too, and we do not need to wait for death to experience the\ntruth of the solemn warning that 'he who soweth to the flesh shall of\nthe flesh reap corruption.' Let us, then, do no deeds without asking\nourselves, What will the harvest be? and if from any deeds that we\nhave done we have to reap sorrow or inward darkness, let us be\nthankful that by experience our Father is teaching us how bitter as\nwell as evil a thing it is to forsake Him, and cast off His fear from\nour wayward spirits.\n\nIV. The cords can be loosened.\n\nBitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly\nto be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net\nand the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression\nwhich hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast\noff himself. The desperate problem that fronts every effort at\nself-emendation has two bristling impossibilities in it: one, how to\nannihilate the past; one, how to extirpate the evil that is part of my\nvery self, and yet to keep the self entire. The very terms of the\nproblem show it to be insoluble, and the climax of all honest efforts\nat making a clean thing of an unclean by means within reach of the\nunclean thing itself, is the despairing cry, 'O wretched man that I\nam! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?'\n\nBut to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralysed beyond\nwrithing, and indifferent, because hopeless, or because they have come\nto like their captivity, comes one whose name is 'the Breaker,' whose\nmission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid\non the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the\nlimbs and sets the bondsman free. Many tongues praise Jesus for many\ngreat gifts, but His proper work, and that peculiar to Himself alone,\nis His work on the sin and the sins of the world. He deals with that\nwhich no man can deal with for himself or by his own power. He can\ncancel our past, so that it shall not govern our future. He can give\nnew power to fight the old habits. He can give a new life which owes\nnothing to the former self, and is free from taint from it. He can\nbreak the entail of sin, the 'law of the spirit of life in Christ\nJesus' can make any of us, even him who is most tied and bound by the\nchain of his sins, 'free from the law of sin and death.' We cannot\nbreak the chains that fetter us, and our own struggles, like the\nplungings of a wild beast caught in the toils, but draw the bonds\ntighter. But the chains that cannot be broken can be melted, and it\nmay befall each of us as it befell the three Hebrews in the furnace,\nwhen the king 'was astonished' and asked, 'Did not we cast three men\nbound into the midst of the fire?' and wonderingly declared, 'Lo, I\nsee four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and the aspect of\nthe fourth is like a son of the gods.'\n\n\n\nWISDOM'S GIFT\n\n'That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance.'--PROVERBS\nviii. 21.\n\n\nThe word here rendered 'substance' is peculiar. Indeed, it is used in\na unique construction in this passage. It means 'being' or\n'existence,' and seems to have been laid hold of by the Hebrew\nthinkers, from whom the books commonly called 'the Wisdom Books' come,\nas one of their almost technical expressions. 'Substance' may be used\nin our translation in its philosophical meaning as the supposed\nreality underlying appearances, but if we observe that in the parallel\nfollowing clause we find 'treasures,' it seems more likely that in the\ntext, it is to be taken in its secondary, and much debased meaning of\nwealth, material possessions. But the prize held out here to the\nlovers of heavenly wisdom is much more than worldly good. In deepest\ntruth, the being which is theirs is God Himself. They who love and\nseek the wisdom of this book possess Him, and in possessing Him become\npossessed of their own true being. They are owners and lords of\nthemselves, and have in their hearts a fountain of life, because they\nhave God dwelling with and in them.\n\nI. The quest which always finds.\n\n'Those who love wisdom' might be a Hebrew translation of\n'philosopher,' and possibly the Jewish teachers of wisdom were\ninfluenced by Greece, but their conception of wisdom has a deeper\nsource than the Greek had, and what they meant by loving it was a\nwidely different attitude of mind and heart from that of the Greek\nphilosopher. It could never be said of the disciples of a Plato that\ntheir quest was sure to end in finding what they sought. Many a man\nthen, and many a man since, and many a man to-day, has 'followed\nknowledge, like a sinking star,' and has only caught a glimmer of a\nfar-off and dubious light. There is only one search which is certain\nalways to find what it seeks, and that is the search which knows where\nthe object of it is, and seeks not as for something the locality of\nwhich is unknown, but as for that which the place of which is certain.\nThe manifold voices of human aims cry, 'Who will show us any good?'\nThe seeker who is sure to find is he who prays, 'Lord, lift Thou up\nthe light of Thy countenance upon us.' The heart that truly and\nsupremely affects God is never condemned to seek in vain. The Wisdom\nof this book herself is presented as proclaiming, 'They that seek me\nearnestly shall find me,' and humble souls in every age since then\nhave set to their seal that the word is true to their experience. For\nthere are two seekers in every such case, God and man. 'The Father\nseeketh such to worship Him,' and His love goes through the world,\nyearning and searching for hearts that will turn to Him. The shepherd\nseeks for the lost sheep, and lays it on his shoulders to bear it back\nto the fold. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the seeking love of\nGod. And the human seeker finds God, or rather is found by God, for no\naspiration after Him is vain, no longing unresponded to, no effort to\nfind Him unresponded to. We have as much of God as we wish, as much as\nour desires have fitted us to receive. The all-penetrating atmosphere\nenters every chink open to it, and no seeking soul has ever had to\nsay, 'I sought Him but found Him not.'\n\nIs there any other quest of which the same can be said? Are not all\npaths of human effort strewed with the skeletons of men who have\nfretted and toiled away their lives in vain attempts to grasp aims\nthat have eluded their grip? Do we not all know the sickness of\ndisappointed effort, or the sadder sickness of successful effort,\nwhich has secured the apparent good and found it not so good after\nall? The Christian life is, amid all the failures of human effort, the\nonly life in which the seeking after good is but a little less blessed\nthan the finding of it is, and in which it is always true that 'he\nthat seeketh findeth.' Nor does such finding deaden the spirit of\nseeking, for in every finding there is a fresh discovery of new depths\nin God, and a consequent quickening of desire to press further into\nthe abyss of His Being, so that aspiration and fruition ever beget\neach other, and the upward, Godward progress of the soul is eternal.\n\nII. The finding that is always blessed.\n\nWe have seen that being is the gift promised to the lovers of wisdom,\nand that the promise may either be referred to the possession of God,\nwho is the fountain of all being, or to the true possession of\nourselves, which is a consequence of our possession of Him. In either\naspect, that possession is blessedness. If we have God, we have real\nlife. We truly own ourselves when we have God. We really live when God\nlives in us, the life of our lives. We are ourselves, when we have\nceased to be ourselves, and have taken God to be the Self of\nourselves.\n\nSuch a life, God-possessing, brings the one good which corresponds to\nour whole nature. All other good is fragmentary, and being fragmentary\nis inadequate, as men's restless search after various forms of good\nbut too sadly proves. Why does the merchantman wander over sea and\nland seeking for many goodly pearls? Because he has not found one of\ngreat price, but tries to make up by their number for the\ninsufficiency of each. But the soul is made, not to find its wealth in\nthe manifold but in the one, and no aggregation of incompletenesses\nwill make up completeness, nor any number of partial satisfactions of\nthis and the other appetite or desire make a man feel that he has\nenough and more than enough. We must have all good in one Person, if\nwe are ever to know the rest of full satisfaction. It will be fatal to\nour blessedness if we have to resort to a hundred different sources\nfor different supplies. The true blessedness is simple and yet\ninfinitely complex, for it comes from possessing the one Person in\nwhom dwell for us all forms of good, whether good be understood as\nintellectual or moral or emotional. That which cannot be everything to\nthe soul that seeks is scarcely worth the seeking, and certainly is\nnot wisely proposed as the object of a life's search, for such a life\nwill be a failure if it fails to find its object, and scarcely less\ntragically, though perhaps less conspicuously, a failure if it finds\nit. All other good is but apparent; God is the one real object that\nmeets all man's desires and needs, and makes him blessed with real\nblessedness, and fills the cup of life with the draught that slakes\nthirst and satisfies the thirstiest.\n\nIII. The blessedness that always lasts.\n\nHe who finds God, as every one of us may find Him, in Christ, has\nfound a Good that cannot change, pass, or grow stale. His blessedness\nwill always last, as long as he keeps fast hold of that which he has,\nand lets no man take his crown.\n\nFor the Christian's good is the only one that does not intend to grow\nold and pall. We can never exhaust God. We need never grow weary of\nHim. Possession robs other wealth of its glamour, and other pleasures\nof their poignant sweetness. We grow weary of most good things, and\nthose which we have long had, we generally find get somewhat faded and\nstale. Habit is a fatal enemy to enjoyment. But it only adds to the\njoy which springs from the possession of God in Christ. Swedenborg\nsaid that the oldest angels look the youngest, and they who have\nlongest experience of the joy of fellowship with God are they who\nenjoy each instance of it most. We can never drink the chalice of His\nlove to the dregs, and it will be fresh and sparkling as long as we\nhave lips that can absorb it. He keeps the good wine till the last.\n\nThe Christian's good is the only good which cannot be taken away. Loss\nand change beggars the millionaire sometimes, and the possibility of\nloss shadows all earthly good with pale foreboding. Everything that is\noutside the substance of the soul can be withdrawn, but the possession\nof God in Christ is so intimate and inward, so interwoven with the\nvery deepest roots of the Christian's personal being, that it cannot\nbe taken out from these by any shocks of time or change. There is but\none hand that can end that possession and that is his own. He can\nwithdraw himself from God, by giving himself over to sin and the\nworld. He can empty the shrine and compel the indwelling deity to say,\nas the legend told was heard in the Temple the night before Roman\nsoldiers desecrated the Holy of Holies: Let us depart. But besides\nhimself, 'neither things present, nor things to come, nor height nor\ndepth, nor any other creature' has power to take away that faithful\nGod to whom a poor soul clings, and in whom whoso thus clings finds\nits unchangeable good.\n\nThe Christian's good is the only one from which we cannot be taken. A\ngrim psalm paints for us the life and end of men 'who trust in the\nmultitude of their possessions,' and whose 'inward thought is that\nthey have founded families that will last.' It tells how 'this their\nway is folly,' and yet is approved with acclamations by the crowd. It\nlets us see the founder of a family, the possessor of broad acres,\ngoing down to the grave, carrying nothing away, stripped of his glory\nand with Death for his shepherd, who has driven his flock from\npleasant pastures here into the dreariness of Sheol. But that shepherd\nhas a double office. Some he separates from all their possessions,\nhopes, and joys. Some he, stern though his aspect and harsh though his\nguidance, leads up to the green pastures of God, and as the last\nmessenger of the love of God in Christ, unites the souls that found\nGod amid the distractions of earth with the God whom they will know\nbetter and possess more fully and blessedly, amid the unending\nfelicities and progressive blessednesses of Heaven.\n\n\n\nWISDOM AND CHRIST\n\n'Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his\ndelight, rejoicing always before him; 31. Rejoicing in the habitable\npart of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of\nmen.'--PROVERBS viii. 30, 31.\n\n\nThere is a singular difference between the two portions of this Book\nof Proverbs. The bulk of it, beginning with chapter x., contains a\ncollection of isolated maxims which may be described as the product of\nsanctified common sense. They are shrewd and homely, but not\nremarkably spiritual or elevated. To these is prefixed this\nintroductory portion, continuous, lofty in style, and in its\npersonification of divine wisdom, rising to great sublimity both of\nthought and of expression. It seems as if the main body of the book\nhad been fitted with an introduction by another hand than that of the\ncompilers of the various sets of proverbial sayings. It is apparently\ndue to an intellectual movement, perhaps not uninfluenced by Greek\nthought, and chronologically the latest of the elements composing the\nOld Testament scriptures. In place of the lyric fervour of prophets,\nand the devout intuition of psalmists, we have the praise of Wisdom.\nBut that noble portrait is no copy of the Greek conception, but\ncontains features peculiar to itself. She stands opposed to blatant,\nmeretricious Folly, and seeks to draw men to herself by lofty motives\nand offering pure delights. She is not a person, but she is a\npersonification of an aspect of the divine nature, and seeing that she\nis held forth as willing to bestow herself on men, that queenly figure\nshadows the great truth of God's self-communication as being the end\nand climax of all His revelation.\n\nWe are on the wrong tack when we look for more or less complete\nresemblances between the 'Wisdom' of Proverbs and the 'Sophia' of\nGreek thinkers. It is much rather an anticipation, imperfect but real,\nof Jesus than a pale reflection of Greek thought. The way for the\nperfect revelation of God in the incarnation was prepared by prophet\nand psalmist. Was it not also prepared by this vision of a Wisdom\nwhich was always with God, and yet had its delights with the sons of\nmen, and whilst 'rejoicing always before Him,' yet rejoiced in the\nhabitable parts of the earth?\n\nLet us then look, however imperfect our gaze may be, at the\nself-revelation in Proverbs of the personified divine Wisdom, and\ncompare it with the revelation of the incarnate divine Word.\n\nI. The Self-revelation of Wisdom.\n\nThe words translated in Authorised Version, 'As one brought up with\nhim,' are rendered in Revised Version, 'as a master workman,' and seem\nintended to represent Wisdom--that is, of course, the divine\nWisdom--as having been God's agent in the creative act. In the\npreceding context, she triumphantly proclaims her existence before His\n'works of old,' and that she was with God, 'or ever the earth was.'\nBefore the everlasting mountains she was, before fountains flashed in\nthe light and refreshed the earth, her waters flowed. But that\npresence is not all, Wisdom was the divine agent in creation. That\nthought goes beyond the ancient one: 'He spake and it was done.'\nGenesis regards the divine command as the cause of creatural being.\nGod said, 'Let there be--and there was': the forthputting of His will\nwas the impulse to which creatures sprang into existence at response.\nThat is a great thought, but the meditative thinker in our text has\npondered over the facts of creation, and notwithstanding all their\napparent incompletenesses and errors, has risen to the conclusion that\nthey can all be vindicated as 'very good.' To him, this wonderful\nuniverse is not only the product of a sovereign will, but of one\nguided in its operations by all-seeing Wisdom.\n\nThen the relation of this divine Wisdom to God is represented as being\na continual delight and a childlike rejoicing in Him, or as the word\nliterally means, a 'sporting' in Him. Whatever energy of creative\naction is suggested by the preceding figure of a 'master workman,'\nthat energy had no effort. To the divine Wisdom creation was an easy\ntask. She was not so occupied with it as to interrupt her delight in\ncontemplating God, and her task gave her infinite satisfaction, for\nshe 'rejoiced always' before Him, and she rejoiced in His habitable\nearth. The writer does not shrink from ascribing to the agent of\ncreation something like the glow of satisfaction that we feel over a\npiece of well-done work, the poet's or the painter's rapture as he\nsees his thoughts bodied forth in melody or glowing on canvas.\n\nBut there is a greater thought than these here, for the writer adds,\n'and my delight was with the sons of men.' It is noteworthy that the\nsame word is used in the preceding verse. The 'delight of the heavenly\nWisdom in God' is not unlike that directed to man. 'The sons of men'\nare the last, noblest work of Creation, and on them, as the shining\napex, her delight settles. The words describe not only what was true\nwhen man came into being, as the utmost possible climax of creatural\nexcellence, but are the revelation of what still remains true.\n\nOne cannot but feel how in all this most striking disclosure of the\ndepths of God, a deeper mystery is on the verge of revelation. There\nis here, as we have said, a personification, but there seems to be a\nPerson shining through, or dimly discerned moving behind, the curtain.\nWisdom is the agent of creation. She creates with ease, and in\ncreating delights in God as well as in her work, which calls for no\neffort in doing, and done, is all very good. She delights most of all\nin the sons of men, and that delight is permanent. Does not this\nunknown Jewish thinker, too, belong, as well as prophet and psalmist,\nto those who went before crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh in the\nname of the Lord? Let us turn to the New Testament and find an answer\nto the question.\n\nII. The higher revelation of the divine Word.\n\nThere can be no doubt that the New Testament is committed to the\nteaching that the Eternal Word of God, who was incarnate in Jesus, was\nthe agent of creation. John, in his profound prologue to the Gospel,\nutters the deepest truths in brief sentences of monosyllables, and\nutters them without a trace of feeling that they needed proof. To him\nthey are axiomatic and self evident. 'All things were made by Him.'\nThe words are the words of a child; the thought takes a flight beyond\nthe furthest reach of the mind of men. Paul, too, adds his Amen when\nhe proclaims that 'All things have been created through Him and unto\nHim, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold\ntogether.' The writer of Hebrews declares a Son 'through whom also He\nmade the worlds, and who upholds all things by the word of His power'\nand does not scruple at transferring to Jesus the grand poetry of the\nPsalmist who hymned 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the\nfoundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.'\nWe speak of things too deep for us when we speak of persons in the\nGodhead, but yet we know that the Eternal Word, which was from the\nbeginning, was made flesh and dwelt among us. The personified Wisdom\nof Proverbs is the personal Word of John's prologue. John almost\nquotes the former when he says 'the same was in the beginning with\nGod.' for his word recalls the grand declaration, 'The Lord possessed\nme in the beginning of His way ... I was set up in the beginning or\never the earth was.' Then there are two beginnings, one lost in the\ndepths of timeless being, one, the commencement of creative activity,\nand that Word was with God in the remotest, as in the nearer,\nbeginning.\n\nBut the ancient vision of the Jewish thinker anticipated the perfect\nrevelation of the New Testament still further, in its thought of an\nunbroken communion between the personified Wisdom and God. That dim\nthought of perfect communion and interchange of delights flashes into\nwondrous clearness when we think of Him who spake of 'the glory which\nI had with Thee before the foundation of the world,' and calmly\ndeclared: 'Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' Into\nthat depth of mutual love we cannot look, and our eyes are too\ndim-sighted to bear the blaze of that flashing interchange of glory,\nbut we shall rob the earthly life of Jesus of its pathos and saving\npower, if we do not recognise that in Him the personification of\nProverbs has become a person, and that when He became flesh, He not\nonly took on Him the garment of mortality, but laid aside 'the visible\nrobes of His imperial majesty,' and that His being found in fashion as\na man was humbling Himself beyond all humiliation that afterwards was\nHis.\n\nBut still further, the Gospel reality fills out and completes the\npersonification of Proverbs in that it shows us a divine person who so\nturned to 'the sons of men' that He took on Him their nature and\nHimself bore their sicknesses. The Jewish writer had great thoughts of\nthe divine condescension, and was sure that God's love still rested on\nmen, sinful as they were, but not even he could foresee the miracle of\nlong-suffering love in the Incarnate Jesus, and he had no power of\ninsight into the depths of the heart of God, that enabled him to\nforesee the sufferings and death of Jesus. Till that supreme\nself-sacrifice was a fact, it was inconceivable. Alas, now that it is\na fact, to how many hearts that need it most is it still incredible.\nBut passing all anticipation as it is, it is the root of all joy, the\nground of all hope, and to millions of sinful souls it is their only\nrefuge, and their sovereign example and pattern of life.\n\nThe Jewish thinker had a glimpse of a divine wisdom which delighted in\nman, but he did not dream of the divine stooping to share in man's\nsorrows, or of its so loving humanity as to take on itself its\nlimitations, not only to pity these as God's images, but to take part\nof the same and to die. That man should minister to the divine delight\nis wonderful, but that God should participate in man's grief passes\nwonder. Thereby a new tenderness is given to the ancient\npersonification, and the august form of the divine Wisdom softens and\nmelts into the yet more august and tender likeness of the divine Love.\nNor is there only an adumbration of the redeeming love of Jesus as He\ndwells among us here, but we have to remember that Jesus delights in\nthe sons of men when they love Him back again. All the sweet mysteries\nof our loving communion with Him, and of His joy in our faith, love,\nand obedience, all the secret treasures of His self-impartation to,\nand abiding in, souls that open themselves to His entrance, are\nsuggested in that thought. We can minister to the joy of Jesus, and\nwhen He is welcomed into any heart, and any man's love answers His, He\nsees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied.\n\nIII. The call of the personal Word to each of us.\n\nThe Wisdom of Proverbs is portrayed in her queenly dignity, as calling\nmen to herself, and promising them the satisfaction of all their\nneeds. She describes herself that the description may draw men to her.\nThe self-revelation of God is His mightiest means of attracting men to\nHim. We but need to know Him as He really is, in order to love Him and\ncling to Him. A fairer form than hers has drawn near to us, and calls\nus with tenderer invitations and better promises. The divine Wisdom\nhas become Man with 'sweet human hands and lips and eyes.' Such was\nHis delight in the sons of men that He emptied Himself of His glory,\nand finished a greater work than that over which he presided when the\nmountains were settled and the hills brought forth. Now He calls us,\nand His summons is tenderer, and gives promise of loftier blessings\nthan the call of Wisdom was and did. She called to the simple, 'Come\neat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.' He\ninvites us: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,' and\nHe furnishes a table for us, and calls us to eat of the bread which is\nHis body broken for us, and to drink of the wine which is His blood\nshed for many for the remission of sins. She promises 'riches and\nhonour, yea, durable riches and righteousness.' His voice vibrates\nwith sympathy, and calls the weary and heavy laden, of whom she\nscarcely thinks, and offers to them a gift, which may seem humble\nenough beside her more dazzling offers of fruit, better than gold and\nrevenues, better than choice silver, but which come closer to\nuniversal wants, the gift of rest, which is really what all men long\nfor, and none but they who take His yoke upon them possess. 'See that\nye refuse not Him that speaketh,' for if they escaped not when they\nrefused her that spake through the Jewish thinker's lips of old, 'much\nmore shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that beseecheth us\nfrom heaven.' Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and it\nis in Him crucified that our weakness and our folly are made strong\nand wise, and Wisdom's ancient promise is fulfilled: 'Whoso findeth me\nfindeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.'\n\n\n\nTHE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING\n\n'The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall\nbe to the workers of iniquity.'--PROVERBS x. 29.\n\n\nYou observe that the words 'shall be,' in the last clause, are a\nsupplement. They are quite unnecessary, and in fact they rather hinder\nthe sense. They destroy the completeness of the antithesis between the\ntwo halves of the verse. If you leave them out, and suppose that the\n'way of the Lord' is what is spoken of in both clauses, you get a far\ndeeper and fuller meaning. 'The way of the Lord is strength to the\nupright; but destruction to the workers of iniquity.' It is the same\nway which is strength to one man and ruin to another, and the moral\nnature of the man determines which it shall be to him. That is a\npenetrating word, which goes deep down. The unknown thinkers, to whose\nkeen insight into the facts of human life we are indebted for this\nBook of Proverbs, had pondered for many an hour over the perplexed and\ncomplicated fates of men, and they crystallised their reflections at\nlast in this thought. They have in it struck upon a principle which\nexplains a great many things, and teaches us a great many solemn\nlessons. Let us try to get a hold of what is meant, and then to look\nat some applications and illustrations of the principle.\n\nI. First, then, let me just try to put clearly the meaning and bearing\nof these words. 'The way of the Lord' means, sometimes in the Old\nTestament and sometimes in the New, religion, considered as the way in\nwhich God desires a man to walk. So we read in the New Testament of\n'the way' as the designation of the profession and practice of\nChristianity; and 'the way of the Lord' is often used in the Psalms\nfor the path which He traces for man by His sovereign will.\n\nBut that, of course, is not the meaning here. Here it means, not the\nroad in which God prescribes that we should walk, but that road in\nwhich He Himself walks; or, in other words, the sum of the divine\naction, the solemn footsteps of God through creation, providence, and\nhistory. 'His goings forth are from everlasting.' 'His way is in the\nsea.' 'His way is in the sanctuary.' Modern language has a whole set\nof phrases which mean the same thing as the Jew meant by 'the way of\nthe Lord,' only that God is left out. They talk about the 'current of\nevents,' 'the general tendency of things,' 'the laws of human\naffairs,' and so on. I, for my part, prefer the old-fashioned\n'Hebraism.' To many modern thinkers the whole drift and tendency of\nhuman affairs affords no sign of a person directing these. They hear\nthe clashing and grinding of opposing forces, the thunder as of\nfalling avalanches, and the moaning as of a homeless wind, but they\nhear the sounds of no footfalls echoing down the ages. This ancient\nteacher had keener ears. Well for us if we share his faith, and see in\nall the else distracting mysteries of life and history, 'the way of\nthe Lord!'\n\nBut not only does the expression point to the operation of a personal\ndivine Will in human affairs, but it conceives of that operation as\none, a uniform and consistent whole. However complicated, and\nsometimes apparently contradictory, the individual events were, there\nwas a unity in them, and they all converged on one result. The writer\ndoes not speak of 'ways,' but of 'the way,' as a grand unity. It is\nall one continuous, connected, consistent mode of operation from\nbeginning to end.\n\nThe author of this proverb believed something more about the way of\nthe Lord. He believed that although it is higher than our way, still,\na man can know something about it; and that whatever may be\nenigmatical, and sometimes almost heart-breaking, in it, one thing is\nsure--that as we have been taught of late years in another dialect, it\n'makes for righteousness.' 'Clouds and darkness are round about Him,'\nbut the Old Testament writers never falter in the conviction, which\nwas the soul of all their heroism and the life blood of their\nreligion, that in the hearts of the clouds and darkness, 'Justice and\njudgment are the foundations of His throne.' The way of the Lord, says\nthis old thinker, _is_ hard to understand, very complicated, full\nof all manner of perplexities and difficulties, and yet on the whole\nthe clear drift and tendency of the whole thing is discernible, and it\nis this: it is all on the side of good. Everything that is good, and\neverything that does good, is an ally of God's, and may be sure of the\ndivine favour and of the divine blessing resting upon it.\n\nAnd just because that is so clear, the other side is as true; the same\nway, the same set of facts, the same continuous stream of tendency,\nwhich is all with and for every form of good, is all against every\nform of evil. Or, as one of the Psalmists puts the same idea, 'The\neyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto\ntheir cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.' The\nsame eye that beams in lambent love on 'the righteous' burns terribly\nto the evil doer. 'The face of the Lord' means the side of the divine\nnature which is turned to us, and is manifested by His self-revealing\nactivity, so that the expression comes near in meaning to 'the way of\nthe Lord,' and the thought in both cases is the same, that by the\neternal law of His being, God's actions must all be for the good and\nagainst the evil.\n\n_They_ do not change, but a man's character determines which\naspect of them he sees and has to experience. God's way has a bright\nside and a dark. You may take which you like. You can lay hold of the\nthing by whichever handle you choose. On the one side it is convex, on\nthe other concave. You can approach it from either side, as you\nplease. 'The way of the Lord' must touch _your_ 'way.' Your cannot\nalter that necessity. Your path must either run parallel in the same\ndirection with His, and then all His power will be an impulse to bear\nyou onward; or it must run in the opposite direction, and then all His\npower will be for your ruin, and the collision with it will crush you\nas a ship is crushed like an egg-shell, when it strikes an iceberg.\nYou can choose which of these shall befall you.\n\nAnd there is a still more striking beauty about the saying, if we give\nthe full literal meaning to the word 'strength.' It is used by our\ntranslators, I suppose, in a somewhat archaic and peculiar\nsignification, namely, that of a stronghold. At all events the Hebrew\nmeans a fortress, a place where men may live safe and secure; and if\nwe take that meaning, the passage gains greatly in force and beauty.\nThis 'way of the Lord' is like a castle for the shelter of the\nshelterless good man, and behind those strong bulwarks he dwells\nimpregnable and safe. Just as a fortress is a security to the\ngarrison, and a frowning menace to the besiegers or enemies, so the\n'name of the Lord is a strong tower,' and the 'way of the Lord' is a\nfortress. If you choose to take shelter within it, its massive walls\nare your security and your joy. If you do not, they frown down grimly\nupon you, a menace and a terror. How differently, eight hundred years\nago, Normans and Saxons looked at the square towers that were built\nall over England to bridle the inhabitants! To the one they were the\nsign of the security of their dominion; to the other they were the\nsign of their slavery and submission. Torture and prison-houses they\nmight become; frowning portents they necessarily were. 'The way of the\nLord' is a castle fortress to the man that does good, and to the man\nthat does evil it is a threatening prison, which may become a hell of\ntorture. It is 'ruin to the workers of iniquity.' I pray you, settle\nfor yourself which of these it is to be to you.\n\nII. And now let me say a word or two by way of application, or\nillustration, of these principles that are here.\n\nFirst, let me remind you how the order of the universe is such that\nrighteousness is life and sin is death. This universe and the fortunes\nof men are complicated and strange. It is hard to trace any laws,\nexcept purely physical ones, at work. Still, on the whole, things do\nwork so that goodness is blessedness, and badness is ruin. That is, of\ncourse, not always true in regard of outward things, but even about\nthem it is more often and obviously true than we sometimes recognise.\nHence all nations have their proverbs, embodying the generalised\nexperience of centuries, and asserting that, on the whole, 'honesty is\nthe best policy,' and that it is always a blunder to do wrong. What\nmodern phraseology calls 'laws of nature,' the Bible calls 'the way of\nthe Lord'; and the manner in which these help a man who conforms to\nthem, and hurt or kill him if he does not, is an illustration on a\nlower level of the principle of our text. This tremendous congeries of\npowers in the midst of which we live does not care whether we go with\nit or against it, only if we do the one we shall prosper, and if we do\nthe other we shall very likely be made an end of. Try to stop a train,\nand it will run over you and murder you; get into it, and it will\ncarry you smoothly along. Our lives are surrounded with powers, which\nwill carry our messages and be our slaves if we know how to command\nnature by obeying it, or will impassively strike us dead if we do not.\n\nAgain, in our physical life, as a rule, virtue makes strength, sin\nbrings punishment. 'Riotous living' makes diseased bodies. Sins in the\nflesh are avenged in the flesh, and there is no need for a miracle to\nbring it about that he who sows to the flesh shall 'of the flesh reap\ncorruption.' God entrusts the punishment of the breach of the laws of\ntemperance and morality in the body to the 'natural' operation of such\nbreach. The inevitable connection between sins against the body and\ndisease in the body, is an instance of the way of the Lord--the same\nset of principles and facts--being strength to one man and destruction\nto another. Hundreds of young men in Manchester--some of whom are\nlistening to me now, no doubt--are killing themselves, or at least are\nruining their health, by flying in the face of the plain laws of\npurity and self-control. They think that they must 'have their fling,'\nand 'obey their instincts,' and so on. Well, if they must, then\nanother 'must' will insist upon coming into play--and they must reap\nas they have sown, and drink as they have brewed, and the grim saying\nof this book about profligate young men will be fulfilled in many of\nthem. 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth, which shall\nlie down with him in the grave.' Be not deceived, God is not mocked,\nand His way avenges bodily transgressions by bodily sufferings.\n\nAnd then, in higher regions, on the whole, goodness makes blessedness,\nand evil brings ruin. All the powers of God's universe, and all the\ntenderness of God's heart are on the side of the man that does right.\nThe stars in their courses fight against the man that fights against\nHim; and on the other side, in yielding thyself to the will of God and\nfollowing the dictates of His commandments, 'Thou shalt make a league\nwith the beasts of the field, and the stones of the field shall be at\npeace with thee.' All things serve the soul that serves God, and all\nwar against him who wars against his Maker. The way of the Lord cannot\nbut further and help all who love and serve Him. For them all things\nmust work together for good. By the very laws of God's own being,\nwhich necessarily shape all His actions, the whole 'stream of tendency\nwithout us makes for righteousness.' In the one course of life we go\nwith the stream of divine activity which pours from the throne of God.\nIn the other we are like men trying to row a boat _up_ Niagara.\nAll the rush of the mighty torrent will batter us back. Our work will\nbe doomed to destruction, and ourselves to shame. For ever and ever to\nbe good is to be well. An eternal truth lies in the facts that the\nsame word 'good' means pleasant and right, and that sin and sorrow are\nboth called 'evil.' All sin is self-inflicted sorrow, and every 'rogue\nis a roundabout fool.' So ask yourselves the question: 'Is my life in\nharmony with, or opposed to, these omnipotent laws which rule the\nwhole field of life?'\n\nStill further, this same fact of the two-fold aspect and operation of\nthe one way of the Lord will be made yet more evident in the future.\nIt becomes us to speak very reverently and reticently about the\nmatter, but I can conceive it possible that the one manifestation of\nGod in a future life may be in substance the same, and yet that it may\nproduce opposite effects upon oppositely disposed souls. According to\nthe old mystical illustration, the same heat that melts wax hardens\nclay, and the same apocalypse of the divine nature in another world\nmay to one man be life and joy, and to another man may be terror and\ndespair. I do not dwell upon that; it is far too awful a thing for us\nto speak about to one another, but it is worth your taking to heart\nwhen you are indulging in easy anticipations that of course God is\nmerciful and will bless and save everybody after he dies. Perhaps--I\ndo not go any further than a perhaps--perhaps God cannot, and perhaps\nif a man has got himself into such a condition as it is possible for a\nman to get into, perhaps, like light upon a diseased eye, the purest\nbeam may be the most exquisite pain, and the natural instinct may be\nto 'call upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them' and cover\nthem up in a more genial darkness from that Face, to see which should\nbe life and blessedness.\n\nPeople speak of future rewards and punishments as if they were given\nand inflicted by simple and divine volition, and did not stand in any\nnecessary connection with holiness on the one hand or with sin on the\nother. I do not deny that some portion of both bliss and sorrow may be\nof such a character. But there is a very important and wide region in\nwhich our actions here must automatically bring consequences hereafter\nof joy or sorrow, without any special retributive action of God's.\n\nWe have only to keep in view one or two things about the future which\nwe know to be true, and we shall see this. Suppose a man with his\nmemory of all his past life perfect, and his conscience stimulated to\ngreater sensitiveness and clearer judgment, and all opportunities\nended of gratifying tastes and appetites, whose food is in this world,\nwhile yet the soul has become dependent on them for ease and comfort,\nWhat more is needed to make a hell? And the supposition is but the\nstatement of a fact. We seem to forget much; but when the waters are\ndrained off all the lost things will be found at the bottom.\nConscience gets dulled and sophisticated here. But the icy cold of\ndeath will wake it up, and the new position will give new insight into\nthe true character of our actions. You see how often a man at the end\nof life has his eyes cleared to see his faults. But how much more will\nthat be the case hereafter! When the rush of passion is past, and you\nare far enough from your life to view it as a whole, holding it at\narm's length, you will see better what it looks like. There is nothing\nimprobable in supposing that inclinations and tastes which have been\nnourished for a lifetime may survive the possibility of indulging them\nin another life, as they often do in this; and what can be worse than\nsuch a thirst for one drop of water, which never can be tasted more?\nThese things are certain, and no more is needed to make sin produce,\nby necessary consequence, misery, and ruin; while similarly, goodness\nbrings joy, peace, and blessing.\n\nBut again, the self-revelation of God has this same double aspect.\n\n'The way of the Lord' may mean His process by which He reveals His\ncharacter. Every truth concerning Him may be either a joy or a terror\nto men. All His 'attributes' are builded into 'a strong tower, into\nwhich the righteous runneth, and is safe,' or else they are builded\ninto a prison and torture-house. So the thought of God may either be a\nhappy and strengthening one, or an unwelcome one. 'I remembered God,\nand was troubled' says one Psalmist. What an awful confession--that\nthe thought of God disturbed him! The thought of God to some of us is\na very unwelcome one, as unwelcome as the thought of a detective to a\ncompany of thieves. Is not that dreadful? Music is a torture to some\nears: and there are people who have so alienated their hearts and\nwills from God that the Name which should be 'their dearest faith' is\nnot only their 'ghastliest doubt,' but their greatest pain. O\nbrethren, the thought of God and all that wonderful complex of mighty\nattributes and beauties which make His Name should be our delight, the\nkey to all treasures, the end of all sorrows, our light in darkness,\nour life in death, our all in all. It is either that to us, or it is\nsomething that we would fain forget. Which is it to you?\n\nEspecially the Gospel has this double aspect. Our text speaks of the\ndistinction between the righteous and evil doers; but how to pass from\nthe one class to the other, it does not tell us. The Gospel is the\nanswer to that question. It tells us that though we are all 'workers\nof iniquity,' and must, therefore, if such a text as this were the\nlast word to be spoken on the matter, share in the ruin which smites\nthe opponent of the divine will, we may pass from that class; and by\nsimple faith in Him who died on the Cross for all workers of iniquity,\nmay become of those righteous on whose side God works in all His way,\nwho have all His attributes drawn up like an embattled army in their\ndefence, and have His mighty name for their refuge.\n\nAs the very crown of the ways of God, the work of Christ and the\nrecord of it in the Gospel have most eminently this double aspect. God\nmeant nothing but the salvation of the whole world when He sent us\nthis Gospel. His 'way' therein was pure, unmingled, universal love. We\ncan make that great message untroubled blessing by simply accepting\nit. Nothing more is needed but to take God at His word, and to close\nwith His sincere and earnest invitation. Then Christ's work becomes\nthe fortress in which we are guarded from sin and guilt, from the\narrows of conscience, and the fiery darts of temptation. But if not\naccepted, then it is not passive, it is not nothing. If rejected, it\ndoes more harm to a man than anything else can, just because, if\naccepted, it would have done him more good. The brighter the light,\nthe darker the shadow. The pillar which symbolised the presence of God\nsent down influences on either side; to the trembling crowd of the\nIsraelites on the one hand, to the pursuing ranks of the Egyptians on\nthe other; and though the pillar was one, opposite effects streamed\nfrom it, and it was 'a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light\nby night to these.' Everything depends on which side of the pillar you\nchoose to see. The ark of God, which brought dismay and death among\nfalse gods and their worshippers, brought blessing into the humble\nhouse of Obed Edom, the man of Gath, with whom it rested for three\nmonths before it was set in its place in the city of David. That which\nis meant to be the savour of life unto life must either be that or the\nsavour of death unto death.\n\nJesus Christ is _something_ to each of us. For you who have heard\nHis name ever since you were children, your relation to Him settles\nyour condition and your prospects, and moulds your character. Either\nHe is for you the tried corner-stone, the sure foundation, on which\nwhosoever builds will not be confounded, or He is the stone of\nstumbling, against which whosoever stumbles will be broken, and which\nwill crush to powder whomsoever it falls upon, 'This Child is set for\nthe rise' or for the fall of all who hear His name. He leaves no man\nat the level at which He found him, but either lifts him up nearer to\nGod, and purity and joy, or sinks him into an ever-descending pit of\ndarkening separation from all these. Which is He to you? Something He\nmust be--your strength or your ruin. If you commit your souls to Him\nin humble faith, He will be your peace, your life, your Heaven. If you\nturn from His offered grace, He will be your pain, your death, your\ntorture. 'What maketh Heaven, that maketh hell.' Which do you choose\nHim to be?\n\n\n\nTHE MANY-SIDED CONTRAST OF WISDOM AND FOLLY\n\n'Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof\nis brutish. 2. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord: but a man of\nwicked devices will he condemn. 3. A man shall not be established by\nwickedness; but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. 4. A\nvirtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed\nis as rottenness in his bones. 5. The thoughts of the righteous are\nright: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. 6. The words of the\nwicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright\nshall deliver them. 7. The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the\nhouse of the righteous shall stand. 8. A man shall be commended\naccording to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be\ndespised. 9. He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than\nhe that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread. 10. A righteous man\nregardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked\nare cruel. 11. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread:\nbut he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. 12. The\nwicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous\nyieldeth fruit. 13. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his\nlips: but the just shall come out of trouble. 14. A man shall be\nsatisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth; and the recompence of a\nman's hands shall be rendered unto him. 15. The way of a fool is right\nin his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is\nwise.'--PROVERBS xii. 1-15.\n\n\nThe verses of the present passage are a specimen of the main body of\nthe Book of Proverbs. They are not a building, but a heap. The stones\nseldom have any mortar between them, and connection or progress is for\nthe most part sought in vain. But one great antithesis runs through\nthe whole--the contrast of wisdom or righteousness with folly or\nwickedness. The compiler or author is never weary of setting out that\nopposition in all possible lights. It is, in his view, the one\ndifference worth noting between men, and it determines their whole\ncharacter and fortunes. The book traverses with keen observation all\nthe realm of life, and everywhere finds confirmation of its great\nprinciple that goodness is wisdom and sin folly.\n\nThere is something extremely impressive in this continual reiteration\nof that contrast. As we read, we feel as if, after all, there were\nnothing in the world but it and its results. That profound sense of\nthe existence and far-reaching scope of the division of men into two\nclasses is not the least of the benefits which a thoughtful study of\nProverbs brings to us. In this lesson it is useless to attempt to\nclassify the verses. Slight traces of grouping appear here and there;\nbut, on the whole, we have a set of miscellaneous aphorisms turning on\nthe great contrast, and setting in various lights the characters and\nfates of the righteous and the wicked.\n\nThe first mark of difference is the opposite feeling about discipline.\nIf a man is wise, he will love 'knowledge'; and if he loves knowledge,\nhe will love the means to it, and therefore will not kick against\ncorrection. That is another view of trials from the one which\ninculcates devout submission to a Father. It regards only the benefits\nto ourselves. If we want to be taught anything, we shall not flinch\nfrom the rod. There must be pains undergone in order to win knowledge\nof any sort, and the man who rebels against these shows that he had\nrather be comfortable and ignorant than wise. A pupil who will not\nstand having his exercises corrected will not learn his faults. On the\nother hand, hating reproof is 'brutish' in the most literal sense; for\nit is the characteristic of animals that they do not understand the\npurpose of pain, and never advance because they do not. Men can grow\nbecause they can submit to discipline; beasts cannot improve because,\nexcept partially and in a few cases, they cannot accept correction.\n\nThe first proverb deals with wisdom or goodness in its inner source;\nnamely, a docile disposition. The two next deal with its consequences.\nIt secures God's favour, while its opposite is condemned; and then, as\na consequence of this, the good man is established and the wicked\nswept away. The manifestations of God's favour and its opposite are\nnot to be thrown forward to a future life. Continuously the sunshine\nof divine love falls on the one man, and already the other is\ncondemned. It needs some strength of faith to look through the shows\nof prosperity often attending plain wickedness, and believe that it is\nalways a blunder to do wrong.\n\nBut a moderate experience of life will supply many instances of\nprosperous villainy in trade and politics which melted away like mist.\nThe shore is strewn with wrecks, dashed to pieces because\nrighteousness did not steer. Every exchange gives examples in plenty.\nHow many seemingly solid structures built on wrong every man has seen\nin his lifetime crumble like the cloud masses which the wind piles in\nthe sky and then dissipates! The root of the righteous is in God, and\ntherefore he is firm. The contrast is like that of Psalm i.--between\nthe tree with strong roots and waving greenery, and the chaff,\nrootless, and therefore whirled out of the threshing-floor.\n\nThe universal contrast is next applied to women; and in accordance\nwith the subordinate position they held in old days, the bearing of\nher goodness is principally regarded as affecting her husband. That\ndoes not cover the whole ground, of course. But wherever there is a\ntrue marriage, the wife will not think that woman's rights are\ninfringed because one chief issue of her beauty of virtue is the\nhonour and joy it reflects upon him who has her heart. 'A virtuous\nwoman' is not only one who possesses the one virtue to which the\nphrase has been so miserably confined, but who is 'a woman of\nstrength'--no doll or plaything, but\n\n  'A perfect woman, nobly planned\n  To warn, to comfort, and command.'\n\nThe gnawing misery of being fastened like two dogs in a leash to one\nwho 'causes shame' is vividly portrayed by that strong figure, that\nshe is like 'rottenness in his bones,' eating away strength, and\ninflicting disfigurement and torture.\n\nThen come a pair of verses describing the inward and outward work of\nthe two kinds of men as these affect others. The former verses dealt\nwith their effects on the actors; the present, with their bearing on\nothers. Inwardly, the good man has thoughts which scrupulously keep\nthe balance true and are just to his fellows, while the wicked plans\nto deceive for his own profit. When thoughts are translated into\nspeech, deceit bears fruit in words which are like ambushes of\nmurderers, laying traps to destroy, while the righteous man's words\nare like angels of deliverance to the unsuspecting who are ready to\nfall into the snare. Selfishness, which is the root of wickedness,\nwill be cruelty and injustice when necessary for its ends. The man who\nis wise because God is his centre and aim will be merciful and\nhelpful. The basis of philanthropy is religion. The solemn importance\nattached to speech is observable. Words can slay as truly as swords.\nNow that the press has multiplied the power of speech, and the world\nis buzzing with the clatter of tongues, we all need to lay to heart\nthe responsibilities and magic power of spoken and printed words, and\n'to set a watch on the door of our lips.'\n\nThen follow a couple of verses dealing with the consequences to men\nthemselves of their contrasted characters. The first of these (verse\n7) recurs to the thought of verse 3, but with a difference. Not only\nthe righteous himself, but his house, shall be established. The\nsolidarity of the family and the entail of goodness are strongly\ninsisted on in the Old Testament, though limitations are fully\nrecognised. If a good man's son continues his father's character, he\nwill prolong his father's blessings; and in normal conditions, a\nparent's wisdom passes on to his children. Something is wrong when, as\nis so often the case, it does not; and it is not always the children's\nfault.\n\nThe overthrow of the wicked is set in striking contrast with their\nplots to overthrow others. Their mischief comes back, like an\nAustralian boomerang, to the hand that flings it; and contrariwise,\ndelivering others is a sure way of establishing one's self. Exceptions\nthere are, for the world-scheme is too complicated to be condensed\ninto a formula; but all proverbs speak of the average usual results of\nvirtue and vice, and those of this book do the same. Verse 8 asserts\nthat, on the whole, honour attends goodness, and contempt wickedness.\nOf course, companions in dissipation extol each other's vices, and\nlaunch the old threadbare sneers at goodness. But if wisdom were not\nset uppermost in men's secret judgment, there would be no hypocrites,\nand their existence proves the truth of the proverb.\n\nVerse 9 seems suggested by 'despised' in verse 8. There are two kinds\nof contempt--one which brands sin deservedly, one which vulgarly\ndespises everybody who is not rich. A man need not mind, though his\nmodest household is treated with contempt, if quiet righteousness\nreigns in it. It is better to be contented with little, and humble in\na lowly place, than to be proud and hungry, as many were in the\nwriter's time and since. A foolish world set on wealth may despise,\nbut its contempt breaks no bones. Self-conceit is poor diet.\n\nThis seems to be the first of a little cluster of proverbs bearing on\ndomestic life. It prefers modest mediocrity of station, such as Agur\ndesired. Its successor shows how the contrasted qualities come out in\nthe two men's relation to their domestic animals. Goodness sweeps a\nwide circle touching the throne of God and the stall of the cattle. It\nwas not Coleridge who found out that 'He prayeth best who loveth best'\nbut this old proverb-maker; and he could speak the thought without the\npoet's exaggeration, which robs his expression of it of half its\nvalue. The original says 'knoweth the soul' which may indeed mean,\n'regardeth the life' but rather seems to suggest sympathetic interest\nin leading to an understanding of the dumb creature, which must\nprecede all wise care for its well-being. It is a part of religion to\ntry to enter into the mysterious feelings of our humble dependants in\nfarmyard and stable. On the other hand, for want of such sympathetic\ninterest, even when the 'wicked' means to be kind, he does harm; or\nthe word rendered 'tender mercies' may here mean the feelings\n(literally, 'bowels') which, in their intense selfishness, are cruel\neven to animals.\n\nVerse 11 has no connection with the preceding, unless the link is\ncommon reference to home life and business. It contrasts the sure\nresults of honest industry with the folly of speculation. The Revised\nVersion margin 'vain things' is better than the text 'vain persons,'\nwhich would give no antithesis to the patient tilling of the first\nclause. That verse would make an admirable motto to be stretched\nacross the Stock Exchange, and like places on both sides of the\nAtlantic. How many ruined homes and heart-broken wives witness in\nAmerica and England to its truth! The vulgar English proverb, 'What\ncomes over the Devil's back goes under his belly,' says the same\nthing. The only way to get honest wealth is to work for it. Gambling\nin all its forms is rank folly.\n\nSo the next proverb (verse 12) continues the same thought, and puts it\nin a somewhat difficult phrase. It goes a little deeper than the\nformer, showing that the covetousness which follows after vain things,\nis really wicked lusting for unrighteous gain. 'The net of evildoers'\nis better taken as in the margin (Rev. Ver.) 'prey' or 'spoil,' and\nthe meaning seems to be as just stated. Such hankering for riches, no\nmatter how obtained, or such envying of the booty which admittedly has\nbeen won by roguery, is a mark of the wicked. How many professing\nchurch members have known that feeling in thinking of the millions of\nsome railway king! Would they like the proverb to be applied to them?\n\nThe contrast to this is 'the root of the righteous yields fruit,' or\n'shoots forth,' We have heard (verse 3) that it shall never be moved,\nbeing fixed in God; now we are told that it will produce all that is\nneedful. A life rooted in God will unfold into all necessary good,\nwhich will be better than the spoil of the wicked. There are two ways\nof getting on--to struggle and fight and trample down rivals; one, to\nkeep near God and wait for him. 'Ye fight and war; ye have not,\nbecause ye ask not.'\n\nThe next two proverbs have in common a reference to the effect of\nspeech upon the speaker. 'In the transgression of the lips is an evil\nsnare'; that is, sinful words ensnare their utterer, and whoever else\nhe harms, he himself is harmed most. The reflex influence on character\nof our utterances is not present to us, as it should be. They leave\nstains on lips and heart. Thoughts expressed are more definite and\npermanent thereby. A vicious thought clothed in speech has new power\nover the speaker. If we would escape from that danger, we must\n_be_ righteous, and _speak_ righteousness; and then the same\ncause will deepen our convictions of 'whatsoever things are lovely and\nof good report.'\n\nVerse 14 insists on this opposite side of the truth. Good words will\nbring forth fruit, which will satisfy the speaker, because, whatever\neffects his words may have on others, they will leave strengthened\ngoodness and love of it in himself. 'If the house be worthy, your\npeace shall rest upon it; if not, it shall return to you again.' That\nreaction of words on oneself is but one case of the universal law of\nconsequences coming back on us. We are the architects of our own\ndestinies. Every deed has an immortal life, and returns, either like a\nraven or a dove, to the man who sent it out on its flight. It comes\nback either croaking with blood on its beak, or cooing with an olive\nbranch in its mouth. All life is at once sowing and reaping. A harvest\ncomes in which retribution will be even more entire and accurate.\n\nThe last proverb of the passage gives a familiar antithesis, and\npartially returns to the thought of verse 1. The fool has no standard\nof conduct but his own notions, and is absurdly complacent as to all\nhis doings. The wise seeks better guidance than his own, and is\ndocile, because he is not so ridiculously sure of his infallibility.\nNo type of weak wickedness is more abominable to the proverbialist\nthan that of pert self-conceit, which knows so little that it thinks\nit knows everything, and is 'as untameable as a fly.' But in the\nwisest sense, it is true that a mark of folly is\nself-opinionativeness; that a man who has himself for teacher has a\nfool for scholar; that the test of wisdom is willingness to be taught;\nand, especially, that to bring a docile, humble spirit to the Source\nof all wisdom, and to ask counsel of God, is the beginning of true\ninsight, and that the self-sufficiency which is the essence of sin, is\nnever more fatal than when it is ignorant of guilt, and therefore\nspurns a Saviour.\n\n\n\nTHE POOR RICH AND THE RICH POOR\n\n'There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is that\nmaketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.'--PROVERBS xiii. 7.\n\n\nTwo singularly-contrasted characters are set in opposition here. One,\nthat of a man who lives like a millionaire and is a pauper; another,\nthat of a man who lives like a pauper and is rich. The latter\ncharacter, that of a man who hides and hoards his wealth, was,\nperhaps, more common in the days when this collection of Proverbs was\nput together, because in all ill-governed countries, to show wealth is\na short way to get rid of it. But they have their modern\nrepresentatives. We who live in a commercial community have seen many\na blown-out bubble soaring and glittering, and then collapsing into a\ndrop of soapsuds, and on the other hand, we are always hearing of\nnotes and bank-books being found stowed away in some wretched hovel\nwhere a miser has died.\n\nNow, I do not suppose that the author of this proverb attached any\nkind of moral to it in his own mind. It is simply a jotting of an\nobservation drawn from a wide experience; and if he meant to teach any\nlesson by it, I suppose it was nothing more than that in regard to\nmoney, as to other things, we should avoid extremes, and should try to\nshow what we are, and to be what we seem. But whilst thus I do not\ntake it that there is any kind of moral or religious lesson in the\nwriter's mind, I may venture, perhaps, to take this saying as being a\npicturesque illustration, putting in vivid fashion certain great\ntruths which apply in all regions of life, and which find their\nhighest application in regard to Christianity, and our relation to\nJesus Christ. There, too, 'there is that maketh himself rich, and yet\nhath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet'--or one\nmight, perhaps, say _therefore_--'hath great riches.' It is from\nthat point of view that I wish to look at the words at this time. I\nmust begin with recalling to your mind,\n\nI. Our universal poverty.\n\nWhatever a man may think about himself, however he may estimate\nhimself and conceit himself, there stand out two salient facts, the\nfact of universal dependence, and the fact of universal sinfulness,\nwhich ought to bear into every heart the consciousness of this\npoverty. A word or two about each of these two facts.\n\nFirst, the fact of universal dependence. Now, wise men and deep\nthinkers have found a very hard problem in the question of how it is\npossible that there should be an infinite God and a finite universe\nstanding, as it were, over against Him. I am not going to trouble you\nwith the all-but-just-succeeding answers to that great problem which\nthe various systems of thinking have given. These lie apart from my\npresent purpose. But what I would point out is that, whatever else may\nbe dark and difficult about the co-existence of these two, the\ninfinite God and the finite universe, this at least is sun-clear, that\nthe creature depends absolutely for everything on that infinite\nCreator. People talk sometimes, and we are all too apt to think, as if\nGod had made the world and left it. And we are all too apt to think\nthat, however we may owe the origination of our own personal existence\nto a divine act, the act was done when we began to be, and the life\nwas given as a gift that could be separated from the Bestower. But\nthat is not the state of the case at all. The real fact is that life\nis only continued because of the continued operation on every living\nthing, just as being is only continued by reason of the continued\noperation on every existing thing, of the Divine Power. 'In Him we\nlive,' and the life is the result of the perpetual impartation from\nHimself 'in whom all things consist,' according to the profound word\nof the Apostle. Their being depends on their union with Him. If it\nwere possible to cut a sunbeam in two, so that the further half of it\nshould be separated from its vital union with the great central fire\nfrom which it rushed long, long ago, that further half would pale into\ndarkness. And if you cut the connection between God and the creature,\nthe creature shrivels into nothing. By Him the spring buds around us\nunfold themselves; by Him all things are. So, at the very foundation\nof our being there lies absolute dependence.\n\nIn like manner, all that we call faculties, capacities, and the like,\nare, in a far deeper sense than the conventional use of the word\n'gift' implies, bestowments from Him. The Old Testament goes to the\nroot of the matter when, speaking of the artistic and aesthetic skill\nof the workers in the fine arts in the Tabernacle, it says, 'the\nSpirit of the Lord' taught Bezaleel; and when, even in regard to the\nbrute strength of Samson--surely the strangest hero of faith that ever\nexisted--it says that when 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,'\ninto his giant hands there was infused the strength by which he tore\nthe lion's jaws asunder. In like manner, all the faculties that men\npossess they have simply because He has given them. 'What hast thou\nthat thou hast not received? If thou hast received, why dost thou\nboast thyself?' So there is a great psalm that gathers everything that\nmakes up human life, and traces it all to God, when it says, 'They\nshall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house,' for from\nGod comes all that sustains us; 'Thou shalt make them drink of the\nriver of Thy pleasures,' for from God comes all that gladdens us;\n'with Thee is the fountain of life,' for from Him flow all the tiny\nstreams that make the life of all that live; 'in Thy light shall we\nsee light,' for every power of perceiving, and all grace and lustre of\npurity, owe their source to Him. As well, then, might the pitcher\nboast itself of the sparkling water that it only holds, as well might\nthe earthen jar plume itself on the treasure that has been deposited\nin it, as we make ourselves rich because of the riches that we have\nreceived. 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the\nmighty man glory in his strength. Let not the rich man glory in his\nriches; but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'\n\nThen, turn for a moment to the second of the facts on which this\nuniversal poverty depends, and that is the fact of universal\nsinfulness. Ah! there is one thing that is our own--\n\n  'If any power we have, it is to will.'\n\nWe have that strange faculty, which nobody has ever thoroughly\nexplained yet, but which we all know to exist, of wrenching ourselves\nso far away from God, 'in whom we live and move and have our being,'\nthat we can make our thoughts and ways, not merely lower than, but\ncontradictory of, and antagonistic to, His thoughts, and His ways.\nConscience tells us, and we all know it, that we are the causes of our\nown actions, though from Him come the powers by which we do them. The\nelectricity comes from the central powerstation, but it depends on us\nwhat sort of wheels we make it drive, and what kind of work we set it\nto do. Make all allowances you like for circumstances--what they call\nnowadays 'environment,' by which formidable word some people seem to\nthink that they have explained away a great many difficulties--make\nall allowances you like for inheritance--what they now call\n'heredity,' by which other magic word people seem to think that they\nmay largely obliterate the sense of responsibility and sin--allow as\nmuch as you like, in reason, for these, and there remains the\nindestructible consciousness in every man, 'I did it, and it was my\nfault that I did it; and the moral guilt remains.'\n\nSo, then, there are these two things, universal dependence and\nuniversal sinfulness, and on them is built the declaration of\nuniversal poverty. Duty is debt. Everybody knows that the two words\ncome from the same root. What we ought is what we owe. We all owe an\nobedience which none of us has rendered. Ten thousand talents is the\ndebt and--'they had nothing to pay.' We are like bankrupts that begin\nbusiness with a borrowed capital, by reason of our absolute\ndependence; and so manage their concerns as to find themselves\ninextricably entangled in a labyrinth of obligations which they cannot\ndischarge. We are all paupers. And so I come to the second point, and\nthat is--\n\nII. The poor rich man.\n\n'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing.' That\ndescribes accurately the type of man of whom there are thousands; of\nwhom there are dozens listening to me at this moment; who ignores\ndependence and is not conscious of sin, and so struts about in\nself-complacent satisfaction with himself, and knows nothing of his\ntrue condition. There is nothing more tragic--and so it would be seen\nto be if it were not so common--than that a man, laden, as we each of\nus are, with a burden of evil that we cannot get rid of, should yet\nconceit himself to possess merits, virtues, graces, that ought to\nsecure for him the admiration of his fellows, or, at least, to exempt\nhim from their censure, and which he thinks, when he thinks about it\nat all, may perhaps secure for him the approbation of God. 'The\ndeceitfulness of sin' is one of its mightiest powers. There is nothing\nthat so blinds a man to the real moral character of actions as that\nobstinate self-complacency which approves of a thing because it is\nmine. You condemn in other people the very things you do yourself. You\nsee all their ugliness in them; you do not recognise it when it is\nyour deed. Many of you have never ventured upon a careful examination\nand appraisement of your own moral and religious character. You durst\nnot, for you are afraid that it would turn out badly. So, like some\ninsolvent who has not the courage to face the facts, you take refuge\nin defective bookkeeping, and think that that is as good as being\nsolvent. Then you have far too low a standard, and one of the main\nreasons why you have so low a standard is just because the sins that\nyou do have dulled your consciences, and like the Styrian peasants\nthat eat arsenic, the poison does not poison you, and you do not feel\nyourself any the worse for it. Dear brethren! these are very rude\nthings for me to say to you. I am saying them to myself as much as to\nyou, and I would to God that you would listen to them, not because I\nsay them, but because they are true. The great bulk of us know our own\nmoral characters just as little as we know the sound of our own\nvoices. I suppose if you could hear yourself speak you would say, 'I\nnever knew that my voice sounded like that.' And I am quite sure that\nmany of you, if the curtain could be drawn aside which is largely\nwoven out of the black yarn of your own evil thoughts, and you could\nsee yourselves as in a mirror, you would say, 'I had no notion that I\nlooked like that.' 'There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath\nnothing.'\n\nAy! and more than that. The making of yourself rich is the sure way to\nprevent yourself from ever being so. We see that in all other regions\nof life. If a student says to himself, 'Oh! I know all that subject,'\nthe chances are that he will not get it up any more; and the further\nchance is that he will be 'ploughed' when the examination-day comes.\nIf the artist stands before the picture, and says to himself, 'Well\ndone, that is the realisation of my ideal!' he will paint no more\nanything worth looking at. And in any department, when a man says 'Lo!\nI have attained,' then he ceases to advance.\n\nNow, bring all that to bear upon religion, upon Christ and His\nsalvation, upon our own spiritual and religious and moral condition.\nThe sense of imperfection is the salt of approximation to perfection.\nAnd the man that says 'I am rich' is condemning himself to poverty and\npauperism. If you do not know your need, you will not go to look for\nthe supply of it. If you fancy yourselves to be quite well, though a\nmortal disease has gripped you, you will take no medicine, nor have\nrecourse to any physician. If you think that you have enough good to\nshow for man's judgment and for God's, and have not been convinced of\nyour dependence and your sinfulness, then Jesus Christ will be very\nlittle to you, and His great work as the Redeemer and Saviour of His\npeople from their sins will be nothing to you. And so you will condemn\nyourselves to have nothing unto the very end.\n\nI believe that this generation needs few things more than it needs a\ndeepened consciousness of the reality of sin and of the depth and\ndamnable nature of it. It is because people feel so little of the\nburden of their transgression that they care so little for that gentle\nHand that lifts away their burden. It is because from much of popular\nreligion--and, alas! that I should have to say it, from much of\npopular preaching--there has vanished the deep wholesome sense of\npoverty, that, from so much of popular religion, and preaching too,\nthere has faded away the central light of the Gospel, the proclamation\nof the Cross by which is taken away the sin of the whole world.\n\nSo, lastly, my text brings before us--\n\nIII. The rich poor man.\n\n'There is that maketh himself poor and yet'--or, as varied, the\nexpression is, 'therefore hath great riches.' Jesus Christ has lifted\nthe thoughts in my text into the very region into which I am trying to\nbring them, when in the first of all the Beatitudes, as they are\ncalled, 'He opened His mouth and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit,\nfor theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Poor, and therefore an owner of\na kingdom! Now I need not, at this stage of my sermon, insist upon the\nfact that that consciousness of poverty is the only fitting attitude\nfor any of us to take up in view of the two facts with which I\nstarted, the fact of our dependence and the fact of our sinfulness.\nWhat absurdity it seems for a man about whom these two things are\ntrue, that, as I said, he began with a borrowed capital, and has only\nincurred greater debts in his transactions, there should be any\nfoothold left in his own estimation on which he can stand and claim to\nbe anything but the pauper that he is. Oh! brethren, of all the\nhallucinations that we put upon ourselves in trying to believe that\nthings are as we wish, there is none more subtle, more obstinate, more\ndeeply dangerous than this, that a man full of evil should be so\nignorant of his evil as to say, like that Pharisee in our Lord's\nparable, 'I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I give tithes\n... I pray ... I am this, that, and the other thing; not like that\nwretched publican over there.' Yes, this is the fit attitude for\nus,--'He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven.'\n\nThen let me remind you that this wholesome recognition of facts about\nourselves as they are is the sure way to possess the wealth. Of\ncourse, it is possible for a man by some mighty influence or other\nbrought to bear upon him, to see himself as God sees him, and then, if\nthere is nothing more than that, he is tortured with 'the sorrow that\nworketh death.' Judas 'went out and hanged himself'; Peter 'went out\nand wept bitterly.' The one was sent 'to his own place,' wherever that\nwas; the other was sent foremost of the Twelve. If you see your\npoverty, let self-distrust be the nadir, the lowest point, and let\nfaith be the complementary high point, the zenith. The rebound from\nself-distrust to trust in Christ is that which makes the consciousness\nof poverty the condition of receiving wealth.\n\nAnd what wealth it is!--the wealth of a peaceful conscience, of a\nquiet heart, of lofty aims, of a pure mind, of strength according to\nour need, of an immortal hope, of a treasure in the heavens that\nfaileth not, 'where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt; where thieves\ndo not break through nor steal.' Blessed be God! the more we have the\nriches of glory in Christ Jesus, the more shall we feel that we have\nnothing, and that all is His, and none of it ours. And so, as the\nrivers run in the valleys, and the high mountain-tops are dry and\nbarren, the grace which makes us rich will run in the low ground of\nour conscious humiliation and nothingness.\n\nDear brother! do you estimate yourself as you are? Have you taken\nstock of yourself? Have you got away from the hallucination of\npossessing wealth? Has your sense of need led you to cease from trust\nin yourself, and to put all your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you taken\nthe wealth which He freely gives to all who sue _in forma\npauperis_? He does not ask you to bring anything but debts and\nsins, emptiness and weakness, and penitent faith. He will strengthen\nthe weakness, fill the emptiness, forgive the sins, cancel the debts,\nand make you 'rich toward God.' I beseech you to listen to Him,\nspeaking from heaven, and taking up the strain of this text: 'Because\nthou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of\nnothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and\npoor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in\nthe fire, that thou mayest be rich.' And then you will be of those\nblessed poor ones who are 'rich through faith, and heirs of the\nKingdom.'\n\n\n\nTHE TILLAGE OF THE POOR\n\n'Much food is in the tillage of the poor.'--PROVERBS xiii. 23.\n\n\nPalestine was a land of small peasant proprietors, and the institution\nof the Jubilee was intended to prevent the acquisition of large\nestates by any Israelite. The consequence, as intended, was a level of\nmodest prosperity. It was 'the tillage of the poor,' the careful,\ndiligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to\nlook after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the\nproverb of our text arose. It preserves the picture of the economical\nconditions in which it originated, and it is capable of, and is\nintended to have, an application to all forms and fields of work. In\nall it is true that the bulk of the harvested results are due, not to\nthe large labours of the few, but to the minute, unnoticed toils of\nthe many. Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such\nproduces large crops. Spade husbandry gets most out of the ground. The\nlabourer's allotment of half an acre is generally more prolific than\nthe average of the squire's estate. Much may be made of slender gifts,\nsmall resources, and limited opportunities if carefully cultivated, as\nthey should be, and as their very slenderness should stimulate their\nbeing.\n\nOne of the psalms accuses 'the children of Ephraim' because, 'being\narmed and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle.' That\nsaying deduces obligation from equipment, and preaches a stringent\ncode of duty to those who are in any direction largely gifted. Power\nto its last particle is duty, and not small is the crime of those who,\nwith great capacities, have small desire to use them, and leave the\nbrunt of the battle to half-trained soldiers, badly armed.\n\nBut the imagery of the fight is not sufficient to include all aspects\nof Christian effort. The peaceful toil of the 'husbandman that\nlabours' stands, in one of Paul's letters, side by side with the\nheroism of the 'man that warreth.' Our text gives us the former image,\nand so supplements that other.\n\nIt completes the lesson of the psalm in another respect, as insisting\non the importance, not of the well endowed, but of the slenderly\nfurnished, who are immensely in the majority. This text is a message\nto ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence.\n\nI. It teaches, first, the responsibility of small gifts.\n\nIt is no mere accident that in our Lord's great parable He represents\nthe man with the _one_ talent as the hider of his gift. There is\na certain pleasure in doing what we can do, or fancy we can do, well.\nThere is a certain pleasure in the exercise of any kind of gift, be it\nof body or mind; but when we know that we are but very slightly gifted\nby Him, there is a temptation to say, 'Oh! it does not matter much\nwhether I contribute my share to this, that, or the other work or no.\nI am but a poor man. My half-crown will make but a small difference in\nthe total. I am possessed of very little leisure. The few minutes that\nI can spare for individual cultivation, or for benevolent work, will\nnot matter at all. I am only an insignificant unit; nobody pays any\nattention to my opinion. It does not in the least signify whether I\nmake my influence felt in regard of social, religious, or political\nquestions, and the like. I can leave all that to the more influential\nmen. My littleness at least has the prerogative of immunity. My little\nfinger would produce such a slight impact on the scale that it is\nindifferent whether I apply it or not. It is a good deal easier for me\nto wrap up my talent--which, after all, is only a threepenny bit, and\nnot a talent--and put it away and do nothing.'\n\nYes, but then you forget, dear friend! that responsibility does not\ndiminish with the size of the gifts, but that there is as great\nresponsibility for the use of the smallest as for the use of the\nlargest, and that although it does not matter very much to anybody but\nyourself what you do, it matters all the world to you.\n\nBut then, besides that, my text tells us that it does matter whether\nthe poor man sets himself to make the most of his little patch of\nground or not. 'There is much food in the tillage of the poor.' The\nslenderly endowed are the immense majority. There is a genius or two\nhere and there, dotted along the line of the world's and the Church's\nhistory. The great men and wise men and mighty men and wealthy men may\nbe counted by units, but the men that are not very much of anything\nare to be counted by millions. And unless we can find some stringent\nlaw of responsibility that applies to them, the bulk of the human race\nwill be under no obligation to do anything either for God or for their\nfellows, or for themselves. If I am absolved from the task of bringing\nmy weight to bear on the side of right because my weight is\ninfinitesimal, and I am only one in a million, suppose all the million\nwere to plead the same excuse; what then? Then there would not be any\nweight on the side of the right at all. The barns in Palestine were\nnot filled by farming on a great scale like that pursued away out on\nthe western prairies, where one man will own, and his servants will\nplough a furrow for miles long, but they were filled by the small\nindustries of the owners of tiny patches.\n\nThe 'tillage of the poor,' meaning thereby not the mendicant, but the\npeasant owner of a little plot, yielded the bulk of the 'food.' The\nwholesome old proverb, 'many littles make a mickle,' is as true about\nthe influence brought to bear in the world to arrest evil and to\nsweeten corruption as it is about anything besides. Christ has a great\ndeal more need of the cultivation of the small patches that He gives\nto the most of us than He has even of the cultivation of the large\nestates that He bestows on a few. Responsibility is not to be measured\nby amount of gift, but is equally stringent, entire, and absolute\nwhatsoever be the magnitude of the endowments from which it arises.\n\nLet me remind you, too, how the same virtues and excellences can be\npractised in the administering of the smallest as in that of the\ngreatest gifts. Men say--I dare say some of you have said--'Oh! if I\nwere eloquent like So-and-so; rich like somebody else; a man of weight\nand importance like some other, how I would consecrate my powers to\nthe Master! But I am slow of speech, or nobody minds me, or I have but\nvery little that I can give.' Yes! 'He that is faithful in that which\nis least is faithful also in much.' If you do not utilise the capacity\npossessed, to increase the estate would only be to increase the crop\nof weeds from its uncultivated clods. We never palm off a greater\ndeception on ourselves than when we try to hoodwink conscience by\npleading bounded gifts as an excuse for boundless indolence, and to\npersuade ourselves that if we could do more we should be less inclined\nto do nothing. The most largely endowed has no more obligation and no\nfairer field than the most slenderly gifted lies under and possesses.\n\nAll service coming from the same motive and tending to the same end is\nthe same with God. Not the magnitude of the act, but the motive\nthereof, determines the whole character of the life of which it is a\npart. The same graces of obedience, consecration, quick sympathy,\nself-denying effort may be cultivated and manifested in the spending\nof a halfpenny as in the administration of millions. The smallest\nrainbow in the tiniest drop that hangs from some sooty eave and\ncatches the sunlight has precisely the same lines, in the same order,\nas the great arch that strides across half the sky. If you go to the\nGiant's Causeway, or to the other end of it amongst the Scotch\nHebrides, you will find the hexagonal basaltic pillars all of\nidentically the same pattern and shape, whether their height be\nmeasured by feet or by tenths of an inch. Big or little, they obey\nexactly the same law. There is 'much food in the tillage of the poor.'\n\nII. But now, note, again, how there must be a diligent cultivation of\nthe small gifts.\n\nThe inventor of this proverb had looked carefully and sympathetically\nat the way in which the little peasant proprietors worked; and he saw\nin that a pattern for all life. It is not always the case, of course,\nthat a little holding means good husbandry, but it is generally so;\nand you will find few waste corners and few unweeded patches on the\nground of a man whose whole ground is measured by rods instead of by\nmiles. There will usually be little waste time, and few neglected\nopportunities of working in the case of the peasant whose subsistence,\nwith that of his family, depends on the diligent and wise cropping of\nthe little patch that does belong to him.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren! if you and I have to take our place in the\nranks of the one-talented men, the commonplace run of ordinary people,\nthe more reason for us to enlarge our gifts by a sedulous diligence,\nby an unwearied perseverance, by a keen look-out for all opportunities\nof service, and above all by a prayerful dependence upon Him from whom\nalone comes the power to toil, and who alone gives the increase. The\nless we are conscious of large gifts the more we should be bowed in\ndependence on Him from whom cometh 'every good and perfect gift'; and\nwho gives according to His wisdom; and the more earnestly should we\nuse that slender possession which God may have given us. Industry\napplied to small natural capacity will do far more than larger power\nrusted away by sloth. You all know that it is so in regard of daily\nlife, and common business, and the acquisition of mundane sciences and\narts. It is just as true in regard to the Christian race, and to the\nChristian Church's work of witness.\n\nWho are they who have done the most in this world for God and for men?\nThe largely endowed men? 'Not many wise, not many mighty, not many\nnoble are called.' The coral insect is microscopic, but it will build\nup from the profoundest depth of the ocean a reef against which the\nwhole Pacific may dash in vain. It is the small gifts that, after all,\nare the important ones. So let us cultivate them the more earnestly\nthe more humbly we think of our own capacity. 'Play well thy part;\nthere all the honour lies.' God, who has builded up some of the\ntowering Alps out of mica-flakes, builds up His Church out of\ninfinitesimally small particles--slenderly endowed men touched by the\nconsecration of His love.\n\nIII. Lastly, let me remind you of the harvest reaped from these\nslender gifts when sedulously tilled.\n\nTwo great results of such conscientious cultivation and use of small\nresources and opportunities may be suggested as included in that\nabundant 'food' of which the text speaks.\n\nThe faithfully used faculty increases. 'To him that hath shall be\ngiven.' 'Oh! if I had a wider sphere how I would flame in it, and fill\nit!' Then twinkle your best in your little sphere, and that will bring\na wider one some time or other. For, as a rule, and in the general,\nthough with exceptions, opportunities come to the man that can use\nthem; and roughly, but yet substantially, men are set in this world\nwhere they can shine to the most advantage to God. Fill your place;\nand if you, like Paul, have borne witness for the Master in little\nJerusalem, He will not keep you there, but carry you to bear witness\nfor Him in imperial Rome itself.\n\nThe old fable of the man who told his children to dig all over the\nfield and they would find treasure, has its true application in regard\nto Christian effort and faithful stewardship of the gifts bestowed\nupon us. The sons found no gold, but they improved the field, and\nsecured its bearing golden harvests, and they strengthened their own\nmuscles, which was better than gold. So if we want larger endowments\nlet us honestly use what we possess, and use will make growth.\n\nThe other issue, about which I need not say more than a word, is that\nthe final reward of all faithful service--'Enter thou into the joy of\nthy Lord' is said, not to the brilliant, but to the 'faithful'\nservant. In that great parable, which is the very text-book of this\nwhole subject of gifts and responsibilities and recompense, the men\nwho were entrusted with unequal sums used these unequal sums with\nequal diligence, as is manifest by the fact that they realised an\nequal rate of increase. He that got two talents made two more out of\nthem, and he that had five did no more; for he, too, but doubled his\ncapital. So, because the poorer servant with his two, and the richer\nwith his ten, had equally cultivated their diversely-measured estates,\nthey were identical in reward; and to each of them the same thing is\nsaid: 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' It matters little whether\nwe copy some great picture upon a canvas as big as the side of a\nhouse, or upon a thumbnail; the main thing is that we copy it. If we\ntruly employ whatsoever gifts God has given to us, then we shall be\naccepted according to that we have, and not according to that we have\nnot.\n\n\n\nSIN THE MOCKER\n\n'Fools make a mock at sin; but among the righteous there is\nfavour.'--Proverbs xiv, 9.\n\n\nThe wisdom of this Book of Proverbs is not simply intellectual, but it\nhas its roots in reverence and obedience to God, and for its\naccompaniment, righteousness. The wise man is the good man, and the\ngood man is the godly man. And as is wisdom, so its opposite, folly,\nis not only intellectual feebleness--the bad man is a fool, and the\ngodless is a bad man. The greatest amount of brain-power cultivated to\nthe highest degree does not make a man wise, and about many a student\nand thinker God pronounces the sentence 'Thou fool!'\n\nThat does not mean that all sin is ignorance, as we sometimes hear it\nsaid with a great show of tolerant profundity. There is some ignorance\nin all sin, but the essence of sin is the aversion of the will from a\nlaw and from a Person, not the defect of the understanding. So far\nfrom all sin being but ignorance, and therefore blameless, there is no\nsin without knowledge, and the measure of ignorance is the measure of\nblamelessness; unless the ignorance be itself, as it often is,\ncriminal. Ignorance is one thing, folly is another.\n\nOne more remark by way of introduction must be made on the language of\nour text. The margin of the Revised Version correctly turns it\ncompletely round, and for 'the foolish make a mock at guilt,' would\nread, 'guilt mocketh at the foolish.' In the original the verb in our\ntext is in the singular, and the only singular noun to go with it is\n'guilt.' The thought then here is, that sin tempts men into its\nclutches, and then gibes and taunts them. It is a solemn and painful\nsubject, but perhaps this text rightly pondered may help to save some\nof us from hearing the mocking laugh which echoes through the empty\nchambers of many an empty soul.\n\nI. Sin mocks us by its broken promises.\n\nThe object immediately sought by any wrong act may be attained. In\nsins of sense, the appetite is gratified; in other sins, the desire\nthat urged to them attains its end. But what then? The temptation lay\nin the imagination that, the wrong thing being done, an inward good\nwould result, and it does not; for even if the immediate object be\nsecured, other results, all unforeseen, force themselves on us which\nspoil the hoped for good. The sickle cuts down tares as well as wheat,\nand the reaper's hands are filled with poisonous growths as well as\nwith corn. There is a revulsion of feeling from the thing that before\nthe sin was done attracted. The hideous story of the sin of David's\nson, Amnon, puts in ugliest shape the universal experience of men who\nare tempted to sin and are victims of the revulsion that follows--He\n'hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was\ngreater than the love wherewith he had loved her.' Conscience, which\nwas overpowered and unheard amid the loud cries of desire, speaks. We\nfind out the narrow limits of satisfaction. The satisfied appetite has\nno further driving power, but lies down to sleep off its debauch, and\nceases to be a factor for the time. Inward discord, the schism between\nduty and inclination, sets up strife in the very sanctuary of the\nsoul. We are dimly conscious of the evil done as robbing us of power\nto do right. We cannot pray, and would be glad to forget God. And a\nself thus racked, impoverished, and weakened, is what a man gains by\nthe sin that promised him so much and hid so much from him.\n\nOr if these consequences are in any measure silenced and stifled, a\nstill more melancholy mockery betrays him, in the continuance of the\nillusion that he is happy and all is well, when all the while he is\ndriving headlong to destruction. Many a man orders his life so that it\nis like a ship that sails with huzzas and bedizened with flags while a\nfavouring breeze fills its sails, but comes back to port battered and\nall but waterlogged, with its canvas 'lean, rent, and beggared by the\nstrumpet wind.' It is always a mistake to try to buy happiness by\ndoing wrong. The price is rigorously demanded, but the _quid pro\nquo_ is not given, or if it seems to be so, there is something else\ngiven too, which takes all the savour out of the composite whole. The\n'Folly' of the earlier half of this book woos men by her sweet\ninvitations, and promises the sweetness of stolen waters and the\npleasantness of bread eaten in secret, but she hides the fact, which\nthe listener to her seducing voice has to find out for himself after\nhe has drunk of the stolen waters and tasted the maddening\npleasantness of her bread eaten in secret, that 'her guests are in the\ndepths of Sheol.' The temptations that seek to win us to do wrong and\ndazzle us by fair visions are but 'juggling fiends that keep the word\nof promise to the ear, and break it to the hope.'\n\nII. Sin mocks fools by making them its slaves.\n\nThere is not only a revulsion of feeling from the evil thing done that\nwas so tempting before, but there is a dreadful change in the voice of\nthe temptress. Before her victim had done the sin, she whispered hints\nof how little a thing it was. 'Don't make such a mountain of a\nmolehill. It is a very small matter. You can easily give it up when\nyou like.' But when the deed is done, then her mocking laugh rings\nout, 'I have got you now and you cannot get away.' The prey is seduced\ninto the trap by a carefully prepared bait, and as soon as its\nhesitating foot steps on to the slippery floor, down falls the door\nand escape is impossible, We are tempted to sin by the delusion that\nwe are shaking off restraints that fetter our manhood, and that it is\nspirited to do as we like, and as soon as we have sinned we discover\nthat we were pleasing not ourselves but a taskmaster, and that while\nthe voice said, 'Show yourself a man, beyond these petty,\nold-fashioned maxims'; the meaning of it was, 'Become my slave.'\n\nSin grows in accordance with an awful necessity, so that it is never\nin a sinner's power to promise himself 'It is only this one time that\nI will do the wrong thing. Let me have one lapse and I will abjure the\nevil for ever after.' We have to reckon with the tremendous power of\nhabit, and to bethink ourselves that a man may never commit a given\nsin, but that if he has committed it once, it is all but impossible\nthat he will stop there. The incline is too slippery and the ice too\nsmooth to risk a foot on it. Habit dominates, outward circumstances\npress, there springs up a need for repeating the draught, and for its\nbeing more highly spiced. Sin begets sin as fast as the green flies\nwhich infest rose-bushes. One has heard of slavers on the African\ncoast speaking negroes fair, and tempting them on board by wonderful\npromises, but once the poor creatures are in the ship, then on with\nthe hatches and, if need be, the chains.\n\nIII. Sin mocks fools by unforeseen consequences.\n\nThese are carefully concealed or madly disregarded, while we are in\nthe stage of merely being tempted, but when we have done the evil,\nthey are unmasked, like a battery against a detachment that has been\ntrapped. The previous denial that anything will come of the sin, and\nthe subsequent proclamation that this ugly issue has come of it, are\nboth parts of sin's mockery, and one knows not which is the more\nfiendish, the laugh with which she promises impunity or that with\nwhich she tells of the certainty of retribution. We may be mocked, but\n'God is not mocked. Whatever a man soweth, that'--and not some other\ngrowth--'shall he also reap.' We dwell in an all-related order of\nthings, in which no act but has its appropriate consequences, and in\nwhich it is only fools who say to themselves, 'I did not think it\nwould matter much.' Each act of ours is at once sowing and reaping; a\nsowing, inasmuch as it sets in motion a train the issues of which may\nnot be realised by us till the act has long been forgotten; a reaping,\ninasmuch as what we are and do to-day is the product of what we were\nand did in a forgotten past. We are what we are, because we were long\nago what we were. As in these composite photographs, which are\nproduced by laying one individual likeness on another, our present\nselves have our past selves preserved in them. We do not need to bring\nin a divine Judge into human life in order to be sure that, by the\nplay of the natural laws of cause and effect, 'every transgression and\ndisobedience receives its just recompense of reward.' Given the world\nas it is, and the continuous identity of a man, and you have all that\nis needed for an Iliad of woes flowing from every life that makes\nterms with sin. If we gather into one dismal pile the weakening of\npower for good, the strengthening of impulses to evil, the inward\npoverty, the unrest, the gnawings of conscience or its silence, the\nslavery under evil often loathed even while it is being obeyed, the\ndreary sense of inability to mend oneself, and often the wreck of\noutward life which dog our sins like sleuth-hounds, surely we shall\nnot need to imagine a future tribunal in order to be sure that sin is\na murderess, or to hear her laugh as she mocks her helpless victims.\n\nBut as surely as there are in this present world experiences which\nmust be regarded as consequences of sin, so surely do they all assume\na more dreadful character and take on the office of prophets of a\nfuture. If man lives beyond the grave, there is nothing to suggest\nthat he will there put off character as he puts off the bodily life.\nHe will be there what he has made himself here. Only he will be so\nmore intensely, more completely. The judgments of earth foretell and\nforeshadow a judgment beyond earth.\n\nThere is but one more word that I would say, and it is this. Jesus has\ncome to set the captives of sin free from its mockery, its tyranny,\nits worst consequences. He breaks the power of past evil to domineer\nover us. He gives us a new life within, which has no heritage of evil\nto pervert it, no memories of evil to discourage it, no bias towards\nevil to lead it astray. As for the sins that we have done, He is ready\nto forgive, to seal to us God's forgiveness, and to take from our own\nself-condemnation all its bitterness and much of its hopelessness. For\nthe past, His blood has taken away its guilt and power. For the future\nit sets us free from the mockery of our sin, and assures us of a\nfuture which will not be weakened or pained by remembrances of a\nsinful past. Sin mocks at fools, but they who have Christ for their\nRedeemer, their Righteousness, and their Life can smile at her\nimpotent rage, and mock at her and her impotent attempts to terrify\nthem and assert her lost power with vain threats.\n\n\n\nHOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY\n\n'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is\nheaviness.'--PROVERBS xiv. 13.\n\n'These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and\nthat your joy may be fulfilled.'--JOHN xv. 11 (R.V.).\n\n\nA poet, who used to be more fashionable than he is now, pronounces\n'happiness' to be our being's end and aim. That is not true, except\nunder great limitations and with many explanations. It may be regarded\nas God's end, but it is ruinous to make it man's aim. It is by no\nmeans the highest conception of the Gospel to say that it makes men\nhappy, however true it may be. The highest is that it makes them good.\nI put these two texts together, not only because they bring out the\ncontrast between the laughter which is hollow and fleeting and the joy\nwhich is perfect and perpetual, but also because they suggest to us\nthe difference in kind and object between earthly and heavenly joys;\nwhich difference underlies the other between the boisterous laughter\nin which is no mirth and no continuance and the joy which is deep and\nabiding.\n\nIn the comparison which I desire to make between these two texts we\nmust begin with that which is deepest, and consider--\n\nI. The respective objects of earthly and heavenly joy.\n\nOur Lord's wonderful words suggest that they who accept His sayings,\nthat they who have His word abiding in them, have in a very deep sense\nHis joy implanted in their hearts, to brighten and elevate their joys\nas the sunshine flashes into silver the ripples of the lake. What then\nwere the sources of the calm joys of 'the Man of Sorrows'? Surely His\nwas the perfect instance of 'rejoicing in the Lord always'--an\nunbroken communion with the Father. The consciousness that the divine\npleasure ever rested on Him, and that all His thoughts, emotions,\npurposes, and acts were in perfect harmony with the perfect will of\nthe perfect God, filled His humanity up to the very brim with gladness\nwhich the world could not take away, and which remains for us for ever\nas a type to which all our gladness must be conformed if it is to be\nworthy of Him and of us. As one of the Psalmists says, God is to be\n'the gladness of our joy.' It is in Him, gazed upon by the faith and\nlove of an obedient spirit, sought after by aspiration and possessed\ninwardly in peaceful communion, confirmed by union with Him in the\nacts of daily obedience, that the true joy of every human life is to\nbe realised. They who have drunk of this deep fountain of gladness\nwill not express their joy in boisterous laughter, which is the\nhollower the louder it is, and the less lasting the more noisy, but\nwill manifest itself 'in the depth and not the tumult of the soul.'\n\nNor must we forget that 'My joy' co-existed with a profound experience\nof sorrow to which no human sorrow was ever like. Let us not forget\nthat, while His joy filled His soul to the brim, He was 'acquainted\nwith grief'; and let us not wonder if the strange surface\ncontradiction is repeated in ourselves. It is more Christlike to have\ninexpressibly deep joy with surface sorrow, than to have a shallow\nlaughter masking a hurtful sorrow.\n\nWe have to set the sources of earthly gladness side by side with those\nof Christ's joy to be aware of a contrast. His sprang from within, the\nworld's is drawn from without. His came from union with the Father,\nthe world's largely depends on ignoring God. His needed no supplies\nfrom the gratifications ministered by sense, and so independent of the\npresence or absence of such; the world's need the constant\ncontributions of outward good, and when these are cut off they droop\nand die. He who depends on outward circumstances for his joy is the\nslave of externals and the sport of time and chance.\n\nII. The Christian's joy is full, the world's partial.\n\nAll human joys touch but part of our nature, the divine fills and\nsatisfies all. In the former there is always some portion of us\nunsatisfied, like the deep pits on the moon's surface into which no\nlight shines, and which show black on the silver face. No human joys\nwait to still conscience, which sits at the banquet like the skeleton\nthat Egyptian feasters set at their tables. The old story told of a\nmagician's palace blazing with lighted windows, but there was always\none dark;--what shrouded figure sat behind it? Is there not always a\nsurly 'elder brother' who will not come in however the musicians may\npipe and the servants dance? Appetite may be satisfied, but what of\nconscience, and reason, and the higher aspirations of the soul? The\nlaughter that echoes through the soul is the hollower the louder it\nis, and reverberates most through empty spaces.\n\nBut when Christ's joy remains in us our joy will be full. Its flowing\ntide will rush into and placidly occupy all the else oozy shallows of\nour hearts, even into the narrowest crannies its penetrating waters\nwill pass, and everywhere will bring a flashing surface that will\nreflect in our hearts the calm blue above. We need nothing else if we\nhave Christ and His joy within us. If we have everything else, we need\nHis joy within us, else ours will never be full.\n\nIII. The heavenly joys are perpetual, the earthly joys transient.\n\nMany of our earthly joys die in the very act of being enjoyed. Those\nwhich depend on the gratification of some appetite expire in fruition,\nand at each recurrence are less and less complete. The influence of\nhabit works in two ways to rob all such joys of their power to\nminister to us--it increases the appetite and decreases the power of\nthe object to satisfy. Some are followed by swift revulsion and\nremorse; all soon become stale; some are followed by quick remorse;\nsome are necessarily left behind as we go on in life. To the old man\nthe pleasures of youth are but like children's toys long since\noutgrown and left behind. All are at the mercy of externals. Those\nwhich we have not left we have to leave. The saddest lives are those\nof pleasure-seekers, and the saddest deaths are those of the men who\nsought for joy where it was not to be found, and sought for their\ngratification in a world which leaves them, and which they have to\nleave.\n\nThere is a realm where abide 'fullness of joy and pleasures for ever\nmore.' Surely they order their lives most wisely who look for their\njoys to nothing that earth holds, and have taken for their own the\nancient vow: 'Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall\nfruit be in the vine.... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in\nthe God of my salvation.' If 'My joy' abides in us in its calm and\nchangeless depth, our joy will be 'full' whatever our circumstances\nmay be; and we shall hear at last the welcome: 'Enter thou into the\njoy of thy Lord.'\n\n\n\nSATISFIED FROM SELF\n\n'... A good man shall be satisfied from himself.'--PROVERBS xiv. 14.\n\n\nAt first sight this saying strikes one as somewhat unlike the ordinary\nScripture tone, and savouring rather of a Stoical self-complacency;\nbut we recall parallel sayings, such as Christ's words, 'The water\nthat I shall give him shall be in him a well of water'; and the\nApostle's, 'Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone.' We further\nnote that the text has an antithetic parallel in the preceding clause,\nwhere the picture is drawn of 'a backslider in heart,' as 'filled with\nhis own ways'; so that both clauses set forth the familiar but solemn\nthought that a man's deeds react upon the doer, and apart from all\nthoughts of divine judgment, themselves bring certain retribution. To\ngrasp the inwardness of this saying we must note that--\n\nI. Goodness comes from godliness.\n\nThere is no more striking proof that most men are bad than the notion\nwhich they have of what is good. The word has been degraded to mean in\ncommon speech little more than amiability, and is applied with little\ndiscrimination to characters of which little more can be said than\nthat they are facile and indulgent of evil. 'A good fellow' may be a\nvery bad man. At the highest the epithet connotes merely more or less\nadmirable motives and more or less admirable deeds as their results,\nwhilst often its use is no more than a piece of unmeaning politeness.\nThat was what the young ruler meant by addressing Christ as 'Good\nMaster'; and Christ's answer to him set him, and should set us, on\nasking ourselves why we call very ordinary men and very ordinary\nactions 'good.' The scriptural notion is immensely deeper, and the\nscriptural employment of the word is immensely more restricted. It is\nmore inward: it means that motives should be right before it calls any\naction good; it means that our central and all-influencing motive\nshould be love to God and regard to His will. That is the Old\nTestament point of view as well as the New. Or to put it in other\nwords, the 'good man' of the Bible is a man in whom outward\nrighteousness flows from inward devotion and love to God. These two\nelements make up the character: godliness is an inseparable part of\ngoodness, is the inseparable foundation of goodness, and the sole\ncondition on which it is possible. But from this conception follows,\nthat a man may be truly called good, although not perfect. He may be\nso and yet have many failures. The direction of his aspirations, not\nthe degree to which these are fulfilled, determines his character, and\nhis right to be reckoned a good man. Why was David called 'a man after\nGod's own heart,' notwithstanding his frightful fall? Was it not\nbecause that sin was contrary to the main direction of his life, and\nbecause he had struggled to his feet again, and with tears and\nself-abasement, yet with unconquerable desire and hope, 'pressed\ntoward the mark for the prize of his high calling'? David in the Old\nTestament and Peter in the New bid us be of good cheer, and warn us\nagainst the too common error of thinking that goodness means\nperfection. 'The new moon with a ragged edge' is even in its\nimperfections beautiful, and in its thinnest circlet prophesies the\nperfect round.\n\nRemembering this inseparable connection between godliness and goodness\nwe further note that--\n\nII. Godliness brings satisfaction.\n\nThere is a grim contrast between the two halves of this verse. The\nformer shows us the backslider in heart as filled 'with his own ways.'\nHe gets weary with satiety; with his doings he 'will be sick of them';\nand the things which at first delighted will finally disgust and be\ndone without zest. There is nothing sadder than the gloomy faces often\nseen in the world's festivals. But, on the other hand, the godly man\nwill be satisfied from within. This is no Stoical proclamation of\nself-sufficingness. Self by itself satisfies no man, but self, become\nthe abiding-place of God, does satisfy. A man alone is like 'the chaff\nwhich the wind driveth away'; but, rooted in God, he is 'like a tree\nplanted by the rivers of water, whose leaf does not wither.' He has\nfound all that he needs. God is no longer without him but within; and\nhe who can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' has\nwithin him the secret of peace and the source of satisfaction which\ncan never say 'I thirst.' Such an inward self, in which God dwells and\nthrough which His sweet presence manifests itself in the renewed\nnature, sets man free from all dependence for blessedness on\nexternals. We hang on them and are in despair if we lose them, because\nwe have not the life of God within us. He who has such an indwelling,\nand he only, can truly say, 'All my possessions I carry with me.' Take\nhim and strip from him, film after film, possessions, reputation,\nfriends; hack him limb from limb, and as long as there is body enough\nleft to keep life in him, he can say, 'I have all and abound.' 'Ye\ntook joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have\nyour own selves for a better possession.'\n\nIII. Godly goodness brings inward satisfaction.\n\nNo man is satisfied with himself until he has subjugated himself. What\nmakes men restless and discontented is their tossing, anarchical\ndesires. To live by impulse, or passion, or by anything but love to\nGod, is to make ourselves our own tormentors. It is always true that\nhe 'who loveth his life shall lose it,' and loses it by the very act\nof loving it. Most men's lives are like the troubled sea, 'which\ncannot rest,' and whose tossing surges, alas! 'cast up mire and dirt,'\nfor their restless lives bring to the surface much that was meant to\nlie undisturbed in the depths.\n\nBut he who has subdued himself is like some still lake which 'heareth\nnot the loud winds when they call,' and mirrors the silent heavens on\nits calm surface. But further, goodness brings satisfaction, because,\nas the Psalmist says, 'in keeping Thy commandments there is great\nreward.' There is a glow accompanying even partial obedience which\ndiffuses itself with grateful warmth through the whole being of a man.\nAnd such goodness tends to the preservation of health of soul as\nnatural, simple living to the health of the body. And that general\nsense of well-being brings with it a satisfaction compared with which\nall the feverish bliss of the voluptuary is poor indeed.\n\nBut we must not forget that satisfaction from one's self is not\nsatisfaction _with_ one's self. There will always be the\nimperfection which will always prevent self-righteousness. The good\nman after the Bible pattern most deeply knows his faults, and in that\nvery consciousness is there a deep joy. To be ever aspiring onwards,\nand to know that our aspiration is no vain dream, this is joy. Still\nto press 'toward the mark,' still to have 'the yet untroubled world\nwhich gleams before us as we move,' and to know that we shall attain\nif we follow on, this is the highest bliss. Not the accomplishment of\nour ideal, but the cherishing of it, is the true delight of life.\n\nSuch self-satisfying goodness comes only through Christ. He makes it\npossible for us to love God and to trust Him. Only when we know 'the\nlove wherewith He has loved us,' shall we love with a love which will\nbe the motive power of our lives. He makes it possible to live outward\nlives of obedience, which, imperfect as it is, has 'great reward.' He\nmakes it possible for us to attain the yet unattained, and to be sure\nthat we 'shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' He has\nsaid, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water\nspringing up unto everlasting life.' Only when we can say, 'I live,\nyet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' will it be true of us in its\nfullest sense, 'A good man shall be satisfied from himself.'\n\n\n\nWHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF ME\n\n'All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord\nweigheth the spirits.'--PROVERBS xvi. 2.\n\n\n'All the ways of a man'--then there is no such thing as being\nconscious of having gone wrong, and having got into miry and foul\nways? Of course there is; and equally of course a broad statement such\nas this of my text is not to be pressed into literal accuracy, but is\na simple, general assertion of what we all know to be true, that we\nhave a strange power of blinding ourselves as to what is wrong in\nourselves and in our actions. Part of the cure for that lies in the\nthought in the second clause of the text--'But the Lord weigheth the\nspirits.' He weighs them in a balance, or as a man might take up\nsomething and poise it on his palm, moving his hand up and down till\nhis muscles by their resistance gave him some inkling of its weight.\nBut what is it that God weighs? 'The spirits.' We too often content\nourselves with looking at our ways; God looks at ourselves. He takes\nthe inner man into account, estimates actions by motives, and so very\noften differs from our judgment of ourselves and of one another.\n\nNow so far the verse of my text carries me, and as a rule we have to\nkeep ourselves within the limits of each verse in reading this Book of\nProverbs, for two adjoining verses have very seldom anything to do\nwith each other. But in the present case they have, for here is what\nfollows: 'Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts' (about\nthyself and everything else) 'shall be established.' That is to say,\nsince we make such terrible blunders about the moral character of our\nown works, and since side by side with these erroneous estimates there\nis God's absolutely correct and all-penetrating one, common sense\nsays: 'Put yourself into His hands, and then it will be all right.' So\nwe consider now these very well-worn and familiar thoughts as to our\nstrange blunders about ourselves, as to the contemporaneous divine\nestimate, which is absolutely correct, and as to the practical issues\nthat come from two facts.\n\nI. Our strange power of blinding ourselves.\n\nIt is difficult to make so threadbare a commonplace at all impressive.\nBut yet if we would only take this thought, 'All the ways of a\nman'--that is me--'are right in his own eyes'--that is, my eyes--and\napply it directly to our own personal experience and thoughts of\nourselves, we should find that, like every other commonplace of\nmorality and religion, the apparently toothless generality has sharp\nenough teeth, and that the trite truth flashes up into strange beauty,\nand has power to purify and guide our lives. Some one says that\n'recognised truths lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by\nside with exploded errors.' And I am afraid that that is true of this\nthought, that we cannot truly estimate ourselves.\n\n'All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.' For to begin with,\nwe all know that there is nothing that we so habitually neglect as the\nbringing of conscience to bear right through all our lives. Sometimes\nit is because there is a temptation that appeals very strongly,\nperhaps to sense, perhaps to some strong inclination which has been\nstrengthened by indulgence. And when the craving arises, that is no\ntime to begin asking, 'Is it right, or is it wrong to yield?' That\nquestion stands small chance of being wisely considered at a moment\nwhen, under the goading of roused desire, a man is like a mad bull\nwhen it charges. It drops its head and shuts its eyes, and goes right\nforward, and no matter whether it smashes its horns against an iron\ngate, and damages them and itself, or not, on it will go. So when\ngreat temptations rise--and we all know such times in our lives--we\nare in no condition to discuss that question with ourselves. Sometimes\nthe craving is so vehement that if we could not get this thing that we\nwant without putting our hands through the sulphurous smoke of the\nbottomless pit, we should thrust them out to grasp it. But in regard\nto the smaller commonplace matters of daily life, too, we all know\nthat there are whole regions of our lives which seem to us to be so\nsmall that it is hardly worth while summoning the august thought of\n'right or wrong?' to decide them. Yes, and a thousand smugglers that\ngo across a frontier, each with a little package of contraband goods\nthat does not pay any duty, make a large aggregate at the year's end.\nIt is the trifles of life that shape life, and it is to them that we\nso frequently fail in applying, honestly and rigidly, the test, 'Is\nthis right or wrong?' 'He that is faithful in that which is least,'\nand conscientious down to the smallest things, 'is faithful also in\nmuch.' The legal maxim has it, 'The law does not care about the very\nsmallest matters.' What that precisely means, as a legal maxim, I do\nnot profess to know, but it is rank heresy in regard to conduct and\nmorality. Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after\nthemselves. Get the habit of bringing conscience to bear on little\nthings, or you will never be able to bring it to bear when great\ntemptations come and the crises emerge in your lives. Thus, by reason\nof that deficiency in the habitual application of conscience to bur\nlives, we slide through, and take for granted that all our ways are\nright in our eyes.\n\nThen there is another thing: we not only neglect the rigid application\nof conscience to all our lives, but we have a double standard, and the\nnotion of right and wrong which we apply to our neighbours is very\ndifferent from that which we apply to ourselves. No wonder that the\ncriminal is acquitted, and goes away from the tribunal 'without a\nstain on his character,' when he is his own judge and jury. 'All the\nways of a man are right in his own eyes,' but the very same 'ways'\nthat you allow to pass muster and condone in yourselves, you visit\nwith sharp and unfailing censure in others. That strange\nself-complacency which we have, which is perfectly undisturbed by the\nmost general confessions of sinfulness, and only shies when it is\nbrought up to particular details of faults, we all know is very deep\nin ourselves.\n\nThen there is another thing to be remembered, and that is--the\nenormous and the tragical influence of habit in dulling the mirror of\nour souls, on which our deeds are reflected in their true image. There\nare places in Europe where the peasantry have become so accustomed to\nminute and constantly repeated doses of arsenic that it is actually a\nminister of health to them, and what would poison you is food for\nthem. We all know that we may sit in a hall like this, packed full and\nsteaming, while the condensed breath is running down the windows, and\nnever be aware of the foulness of the odours and the air. But when we\ngo out and feel the sweet, pure breath of the unpolluted atmosphere,\nthen we know how habit has dulled the lungs. And so habit dulls the\nconscience. According to the old saying, the man that began by\ncarrying a calf can carry an ox at the end, and feel no burden. What\nwe are accustomed to do we scarcely ever recognise to be wrong, and it\nis these things which pass because they are habitual that do more to\nwreck lives than occasional outbursts of far worse evils, according to\nthe world's estimate of them. Habit dulls the eye.\n\nYes; and more than that, the conscience needs educating just as much\nas any other faculty. A man says, 'My conscience acquits me'; then the\nquestion is, 'And what sort of a conscience have you got, if it\nacquits you?' All that your conscience says is, 'It is right to do\nwhat is right, it is wrong to do what is wrong.' But for the\nexplanation of what is wrong and what is right you have to go\nsomewhere else than to your consciences. You have to go to your\nreason, and your judgment, and your common sense, and a hundred other\nsources. And then, when you have found out what is right and what is\nwrong, you will hear the voice saying, 'Do that, and do not do this.'\nEvery one of us has faults that we know nothing about, and that we\nbring up to the tribunal of our consciences, and wipe our mouths and\nsay, 'We have done no harm.' 'I thought within myself that I verily\nought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.'\n'They think that they do God service.' Many things that seem to us\nvirtues are vices.\n\nAnd as for the individual so for the community. The perception of what\nis right and what is wrong needs long educating. When I was a boy the\nwhole Christian Church of America, with one voice, declared that\n'slavery was a patriarchal institution appointed by God.' The\nChristian Church of to-day has not awakened either to the sin of war\nor of drink. And I have not the smallest doubt that there are hosts of\nthings which public opinion, and Christian public opinion, regards\nto-day as perfectly allowable and innocent, and, perhaps, even\npraiseworthy, and over which it will ask God's blessing, at which, in\na hundred years our descendants will hold up their hands in wonder,\nand say, 'How did good people--and good people they no doubt\nwere--tolerate such a condition of things for a moment?' 'All a man's\nways are right in his own eyes,' and he needs a great deal of teaching\nbefore he comes to understand what, according to God's will, really,\nis right and what is wrong.\n\nNow let me turn for a moment to the contrasted picture, with which I\ncan only deal in a sentence or two.\n\nII. The divine estimate.\n\nI have already pointed out the two emphatic thoughts that lie in that\nclause, 'God weigheth,' and 'weigheth the spirits.' I need not repeat\nwhat I said, in the introduction to these remarks, upon this subject.\nJust let us take with us these two thoughts, that the same actions\nwhich we sometimes test, in our very defective and loaded balances,\nhave also to go into the infallible scales, and that the actions go\nwith their interpretation in their motive. 'God weighs the spirits.'\nHe reads what we do by His knowledge of what we are. We reveal to one\nanother what we are by what we do, and, as is a commonplace, none of\nus can penetrate, except very superficially and often inaccurately, to\nthe motives that actuate. But the motive is three-fourths of the\naction. God does not go from without, as it were, inwards; from our\nactions to estimate our characters; but He starts with the character\nand the motive--the habitual character and the occasional motive--and\nby these He reads the deed. He weighs, ponders, penetrates to the\nheart of the thing, and He weighs the spirits.\n\nSo on the one hand, 'I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in\nunbelief,' and many a deed which the world would condemn, and in which\nwe onlookers would see evil, God does not wholly condemn, because He,\nbeing the Inlooker as well as the Onlooker, sees the albeit mistaken\nyet pure motives that underlay it. So it is conceivable that the\ninquisitor, and the heretic that he sent to the stake, may stand side\nby side in God's estimate; the one if he were actuated by pure zeal\nfor the truth, the other because he was actuated by self-sacrifice in\nloyalty to his Lord. And, on the other hand, many a deed that goes\nflaunting through the world in 'purple and fine linen' will be\nstripped of its gauds, and stand naked and ugly before the eyes of\n'Him with whom we have to do.' He 'weighs the spirits.'\n\nLastly, a word about--\n\nIII. The practical issues of these thoughts.\n\n'Commit thy works unto the Lord'--that is to say, do not be too sure\nthat you are right because you do not think you are wrong. We should\nbe very distrustful of our own judgments of ourselves, especially when\nthat judgment permits us to do certain things. 'I know nothing against\nmyself,' said the Apostle, 'yet am I not hereby justified.' And again,\nstill more emphatically, he lays down the principle that I would have\nliked to have enlarged upon if I had had time. 'Happy is he that\ncondemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth.' You may have\nmade the glove too easy by stretching. It is possible that you may\nthink that something is permissible and right which a wiser and more\nrigid and Christlike judgment of yourself would have taught you was\nwrong. Look under the stones for the reptiles, and remember the\nprayer, 'Cleanse thou me from secret faults,' and distrust a\npermitting and easy conscience.\n\nThen, again, let us seek the divine strengthening and illumination. We\nhave to seek that in some very plain ways. Seek it by prayer. There is\nnothing so powerful in stripping off from our besetting sins their\ndisguises and masks as to go to God with the honest petition: 'Search\nme ... and try me ... and see if there be any wicked way in me, and\nlead me in the way everlasting.' Brethren! if we will do that, we\nshall get answers that will startle us, that will humble us, but that\nwill be blessed beyond all other blessedness, and will bring to light\nthe 'hidden things of darkness.' Then, after they are brought to light\nand cast out, 'then shall every man have praise of God.'\n\nWe ought to keep ourselves in very close union with Jesus Christ,\nbecause if we cling to Him in simple faith, He will come into our\nhearts, and we shall be saved from walking in darkness, and have the\nlight of life shining down upon our deeds. Christ is the conscience of\nthe Christian man's conscience, who, by His voice in the hearts that\nwait upon Him, says, 'Do this,' and they do it. It is when He is in\nour spirits that our estimate of ourselves is set right, and that we\nhear the voice saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it'; and not\nmerely do we hear the voice, but we get help to our feet in running in\nthe way of His commandments, with enlarged and confirmed hearts.\nBrethren! for the discovery of our faults, which we ought all to long\nfor, and for the conquest of these discovered faults, which, if we are\nChristians, we do long for, our confidence is in Him. And if you trust\nHim, 'the blood of Christ will cleanse'--because it comes into our\nlife's blood--'from all sin.'\n\nAnd the last thing that I would say is this. We must punctiliously\nobey every dictate that speaks in our own consciences, especially when\nit urges us to unwelcome duties or restrains us from too welcome sins.\n'To him that hath shall be given'--and the sure way to condemn\nourselves to utter blindness as to our true selves is to pay no\nattention to the glimmers of light that we have, whilst, on the other\nhand, the sure way to be led into fuller illumination is to follow\nfaithfully whatsoever sparkles of light may shine upon our hearts. 'Do\nthe duty that lies nearest thee.' Put thy trust in Jesus Christ.\nDistrust thine own approbation or condonation of thine actions, and\never turn to Him and say, 'Show me what to do, and make me willing and\nfit to do it.' Then there will be little contrariety between your\nestimate of your ways and God's judgments of your spirits.\n\n\n\nA BUNDLE OF PROVERBS\n\n'Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the\ninstruction of fools is folly. 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his\nmouth, and addeth learning to his lips. 24. Pleasant words are as an\nhoneycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 25. There is a\nway that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of\ndeath. 26. He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth\ncraveth it of him. 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips\nthere is as a burning fire. 28. A froward man soweth strife: and a\nwhisperer separateth chief friends. 29. A violent man enticeth his\nneighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. 30. He\nshutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he\nbringeth evil to pass. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it\nbe found in the way of righteousness. 32. He that is slow to anger is\nbetter than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that\ntaketh a city. 33. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole\ndisposing thereof is of the Lord.'--PROVERBS xvi. 22-33.\n\n\nA slight thread of connection may be traced in some of the proverbs in\nthis passage. Verse 22, with its praise of 'Wisdom,' introduces one\ninstance of Wisdom's excellence in verse 23, and that again, with its\nreference to speech, leads on to verse 24 and its commendation of\n'pleasant words.' Similarly, verses 27-30 give four pictures of vice,\nthree of them beginning with 'a man.' We may note, too, that, starting\nwith verse 26, every verse till verse 30 refers to some work of 'the\nmouth' or 'lips.'\n\nThe passage begins with one phase of the contrast between Wisdom and\nFolly, which this book is never weary of emphasising and underscoring.\nWe shall miss the force of its most characteristic teaching unless we\nkeep well in mind that the two opposites of Wisdom and Folly do not\nrefer only or chiefly to intellectual distinctions. The very basis of\n'Wisdom,' as this book conceives it, is the 'fear of the Lord,'\nwithout which the man of biggest, clearest brain, and most richly\nstored mind, is, in its judgment, 'a fool.' Such 'understanding,'\nwhich apprehends and rightly deals with the deepest fact of life, our\nrelation to God and to His law, is a 'well-spring of life.' The figure\nspeaks still more eloquently to Easterns than to us. In those hot\nlands the cool spring, bursting through the baked rocks or burning\nsand, makes the difference between barrenness and fertility, the death\nof all green things and life. So where true Wisdom is deep in a heart,\nit will come flashing up into sunshine, and will quicken the seeds of\nall good as it flows through the deeds. 'Everything liveth\nwhithersoever the river cometh.' Productiveness, refreshment, the\nbeauty of the sparkling wavelets, the music of their ripples against\nthe stones, and all the other blessings and delights of a perpetual\nfountain, have better things corresponding to them in the life of the\nman who is wise with the true Wisdom which begins with the fear of\nGod. Just as _it_ is active in the life, so is Folly. But its\nactivity is not blessing and gladdening, but punitive. For all sin\nautomatically works its own chastisement, and the curse of Folly is\nthat, while it corrects, it prevents the 'fool' from profiting by the\ncorrection. Since it punishes itself, one might expect that it would\ncure itself, but experience shows that, while it wields a rod, its\nsubjects 'receive no correction.' That insensibility is the paradox\nand the Nemesis of 'Folly.'\n\nThe Old Testament ethics are remarkable for their solemn sense of the\nimportance of words, and Proverbs shares in that sense to the full. In\nsome aspects, speech is a more perfect self-revelation than act. So\nthe outflow of the fountain in words comes next. Wise heart makes wise\nspeech. That may be looked at in two ways. It may point to the\nutterance by word as the most precious, and incumbent on its\npossessor, of all the ways of manifesting Wisdom; or it may point to\nthe only source of real 'learning,'--namely, a wise heart. In the\nformer view, it teaches us our solemn obligation not to hide our light\nunder a bushel, but to speak boldly and lovingly all the truth which\nGod has taught us. A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are bound to\ngive voice to our 'Wisdom.' In the other aspect, it reminds us that\nthere is a better way of getting Wisdom than by many books,--namely,\nby filling our hearts, through communion with God, with His own will.\nThen, whether we have worldly 'learning' or no, we shall be able to\ninstruct many, and lead them to the light which has shone on us.\n\nThere are many kinds of pleasant words, some of which are not like\n'honey,' but like poison hid in jam. Insincere compliments, flatteries\nwhen rebukes would be fitting, and all the brood of civil\nconventionalities, are not the words meant here. Truly pleasant ones\nare those which come from true Wisdom, and may often have a surface of\nbitterness like the prophet's roll, but have a core of sweetness. It\nis a great thing to be able to speak necessary and unwelcome truths\nwith lips into which grace is poured. A spoonful of honey catches more\nflies than a hogshead of vinegar.\n\nVerse 25 has no connection with its context. It teaches two solemn\ntruths, according to the possible double meaning of 'right.' If that\nword means ethically right, then the saying sets forth the terrible\npossibility of conscience being wrongly instructed, and sanctioning\ngross sin. If it means only _straight_, or level--that is,\nsuccessful and easy--the saying enforces the not less solemn truth\nthat sin deceives as to its results, and that the path of wrong-doing,\nwhich is flowery and smooth at first, grows rapidly thorny, and goes\nfast downhill, and ends at last in a _cul-de-sac,_ of which death\nis the only outlet. We are not to trust our own consciences, except as\nenlightened by God's Word. We are not to listen to sin's lies, but to\nfix it well in our minds that there is only one way which leads to\nlife and peace, the narrow way of faith and obedience.\n\nThe Revised Version's rendering of verse 26 gives the right idea. 'The\nappetite,' or hunger, 'of the labourer labours for him' (that is, the\nneed of food is the mainspring of work), and it lightens the work to\nwhich it impels. So hunger is a blessing. That is true in regard to\nthe body. The manifold material industries of men are, at bottom,\nprompted by the need to earn something to eat. The craving which\ndrives to such results is a thing to be thankful for. It is better to\nlive where toil is needful to sustain life than in lazy lands where an\nhour's work will provide food for a week. But the saying reaches to\nspiritual desires, and anticipates the beatitude on those who 'hunger\nand thirst after righteousness.' Happy they who feel that craving, and\nare driven by it to the labour for the bread which comes down from\nheaven! 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath\nsent.'\n\nThe next three proverbs (vs. 27-29) give three pictures of different\ntypes of bad men. First, we have 'the worthless man' (Rev. Ver.),\nliterally 'a man of Belial,' which last word probably means\nworthlessness. His work is 'digging evil'; his words are like\nscorching fire. To dig evil seems to have a wider sense than has\ndigging a pit for others (Ps. vii. 15), which is usually taken as a\nparallel. The man is not merely malicious toward others, but his whole\nactivity goes to further evil. It is the material in which he delights\nto work. What mistaken spade husbandry it is to spend labour on such a\nsoil! What can it grow but thistles and poisonous plants? His words\nare as bad as his deeds. No honey drops from _his_ lips, but\nscorching fire, which burns up not only reputations but tries to\nconsume all that is good. As James says, such a tongue is 'set on fire\nof hell.' The picture is that of a man bad through and through. But\nthere may be indefinitely close approximations to it, and no man can\nsay, 'Thus far will I go in evil ways, and no further.'\n\nThe second picture is of a more specific kind. The 'froward man' here\nseems to be the same as the slanderer in the next clause. He utters\nperverse things, and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are\npeople whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower's\nbasket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them\nbroadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be,\nbut often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and\nalienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm\nas a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people's faults is not\ninnocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief he was\nsetting agoing.\n\nIn verse 29 another type of evil-doer is outlined--the opposite, in\nsome respects, of the preceding. The slanderer works secretly; this\nmischief-maker goes the plain way to work. He uses physical force or\n'violence.' But how does that fit in with 'enticeth'? It may be that\nthe enticement of his victim into a place suitable for robbing or\nmurder is meant, but more probably there is here the same combination\nof force and craft as in chapter i. 10-14. Criminals have a wicked\ndelight in tempting innocent people to join their gangs. A lawless\ndesperado is a hotbed of infection.\n\nVerse 30 draws a portrait of a bad man. It is a bit of homely\nphysiognomical observation. A man with a trick of closing his eyes has\nsomething working in his head; and, if he is one of these types of\nmen, one may be sure that he is brewing mischief. Compressed lips mean\nconcentrated effort, or fixed resolve, or suppressed feeling, and in\nany of these cases are as a danger signal, warning that the man is at\nwork on some evil deed.\n\nTwo sayings follow, which contrast goodness with the evils just\ndescribed. The 'if' in verse 31 weakens the strong assertion of the\nproverb. 'The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way\nof righteousness.' That is but putting into picturesque form the Old\nTestament promise of long life to the righteous--a promise which is\nnot repeated in the new dispensation, but which is still often\nrealised. 'Whom the gods love, die young,' is a heathen proverb; but\nthere is a natural tendency in the manner of life which Christianity\nproduces to prolong a man's days. A heart at peace, because stayed on\nGod, passions held well in hand, an avoidance of excesses which eat\naway strength, do tend to length of life, and the opposites of these\ndo tend to shorten it. How many young men go home from our great\ncities every year, with their 'bones full of the iniquities of their\nyouth,' to die!\n\nIf we are to tread the way of righteousness, and so come to 'reverence\nand the silver hair,' we must govern ourselves. So the next proverb\nextols the ruler of his own spirit as 'more than conquerors,' whose\ntriumphs are won in such vulgar fields as battles and sieges, Our\nsorest fights and our noblest victories are within.\n\n  'Unless above himself he can\n  Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!'\n\nVerse 31 takes the casting of the lot as one instance of the\nlimitation of all human effort, in all which we can but use the\nappropriate means, while the whole issue must be left in God's hands.\nThe Jewish law did not enjoin the lot, but its use seems to have been\nfrequent. The proverb presents in the sharpest relief a principle\nwhich is true of all our activity. The old proverb-maker knew nothing\nof chance. To him there were but two real moving forces in the\nworld--man and God. To the one belonged sowing the seed, doing his\npart, whether casting the lot or toiling at his task. His force was\nreal, but derived and limited. Efforts and attempts are ours; results\nare God's. We sow; He 'gives it a body as it pleases Him.' Nothing\nhappens by accident. Man's little province is bounded on all sides by\nGod's, and the two touch. There is no neutral territory between, where\ngodless chance rules.\n\n\n\nTWO FORTRESSES\n\n'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into\nit, and is safe. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as\nan high wall in his own conceit'--PROVERBS xviii. 10,11.\n\n\nThe mere reading of these two verses shows that, contrary to the usual\nrule in the Book of Proverbs, they have a bearing on each other. They\nare intended to suggest a very strong contrast, and that contrast is\neven more emphatic in the original than in our translation; because,\nas the margin of your Bibles will tell you, the last word of the\nformer verse might be more correctly rendered, 'the righteous runneth\ninto it, and is _set on high._' It is the same word which is\nemployed in the next verse--'a high wall.'\n\nSo we have 'the strong tower' and 'the strong city'; the man lifted up\nabove danger on the battlements of the one, and the man fancying\nhimself to be high above it (and only fancying himself) in the\nimaginary safety of the other.\n\nI. Consider then, first, the two fortresses.\n\nOne need only name them side by side to feel the full force of the\nintended contrast. On the one hand, the name of the Lord with all its\ndepths and glories, with its blaze of lustrous purity, and infinitudes\nof inexhaustible power; and on the other, 'the rich man's wealth.'\nWhat contempt is expressed in putting the two side by side! It is as\nif the author had said, 'Look on this picture and on that!' Two\nfortresses! Yes! The one is like Gibraltar, inexpugnable on its rock,\nand the other is like a painted castle on the stage; flimsy canvas\nthat you could put your foot through--solidity by the side of\nnothingness. For even the poor appearance of solidity is an illusion,\nas our text says with bitter emphasis--'a high wall _in his own\nconceit_.'\n\n'The name of the Lord,' of course, is the Biblical expression for the\nwhole character of God, as He has made it known to us, or in other\nwords, for God Himself, as He has been pleased to reveal Himself to\nmankind. The syllables of that name are all the deeds by which He has\ntaught us what He is; every act of power, of wisdom, of tenderness, of\ngrace that has manifested these qualities and led us to believe that\nthey are all infinite. In the name, in its narrower sense, the name of\nJehovah, there is much of 'the name' in its wider sense. For that name\n'Jehovah,' both by its signification and by the circumstances under\nwhich it was originally employed, tells us a great deal about God. It\ntells us, for instance, by virtue of its signification, that He is\nself-existent, depending upon no other creature. 'I AM THAT I AM!' No\nother being can say that. All the rest of us have to say, 'I am that\nwhich God made me.' Circumstances and a hundred other things have made\nme; God finds the law of His being and the fountain of His being\nwithin Himself.\n\n  'He sits on no precarious throne,\n  Nor borrows leave to be.'\n\nHis name proclaims Him to be self-existent, and as self-existent,\neternal; and as eternal, changeless; and as self-existent, eternal,\nchangeless, infinite in all the qualities by which He makes Himself\nknown. This boundless Being, all full of wisdom, power, and\ntenderness, with whom we can enter into relations of amity and\nconcord, surely He is 'a strong tower into which we may run and be\nsafe.'\n\nBut far beyond even the sweep of that great name, Jehovah, is the\nknowledge of God's deepest heart and character which we learn in Him\nwho said, 'I have declared Thy name unto My brethren, and will declare\nit.' Christ in His life and death, in His meekness, sweetness,\ngentleness, calm wisdom, infinite patience, attractiveness; yearning\nover sinful hearts, weeping over rebels, in the graciousness of His\nlife, in the sacredness and the power of His Cross, is the Revealer to\nour hearts of the heart of God. If I may so say, He has builded 'the\nstrong tower' broader, has expanded its area and widened its gate, and\nlifted its summit yet nearer the heavens, and made the name of God a\nwider name and a mightier name, and a name of surer defence and\nblessing than ever it was before.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren! it all comes to this, the name that is 'the\nstrong tower' is the name 'My Father!' a Father of infinite tenderness\nand wisdom and power. Oh! where can the child rest more quietly than\non the mother's breast, where can the child be safer than in the\ncircle of the father's arms? 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower.'\n\nNow turn to the other for a moment: 'The rich man's wealth is' (with\ngreat emphasis on the next little word) '_his_ strong city, and\nas a high wall in his own conceit.' Of course we have not to deal here\nonly with wealth in the shape of money, but all external and material\ngoods, the whole mass of the 'things seen and temporal,' are gathered\ntogether here in this phrase.\n\nMen use their imaginations in very strange fashion, and make, or fancy\nthey make, for themselves out of the things of the present life a\ndefence and a strength. Like some poor lunatic, out upon a moor, that\nfancies himself ensconced in a castle; like some barbarous tribes\nbehind their stockades or crowding at the back of a little turf wall,\nor in some old tumble-down fort that the first shot will bring\nrattling down about their ears, fancying themselves perfectly secure\nand defended--so do men deal with these outward things that are given\nthem for another purpose altogether: they make of them defences and\nfortresses.\n\nIt is difficult for a man to have them and not to trust them. So Jesus\nsaid to His disciples once: 'How hardly shall they that have riches\nenter into the Kingdom'; and when they were astonished at His words,\nHe repeated them with the significant variation, 'How hard is it for\nthem that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God.' So He\nwould teach that the misuse and not the possession of wealth is the\nbarrier, but so, too, He would warn us that, nine times out of ten,\nthe possession of them in more than a very modest measure, tempts a\nman into confidence in them.\n\nThe illusion is one that besets us all. We are all tempted to make a\ndefence of the things that we can see and handle. Is it not strange,\nand is it not sad, that most of us just turn the truth round about and\nsuppose that the real defence is the imaginary, and that the imaginary\none is the real? How many men are there in this chapel who, if they\nspoke out of their deepest convictions, would say: 'Oh yes! the\npromises of God are all very well, but I would rather have the cash\ndown. I suppose that I may trust that He will provide bread and water,\nand all the things that I need, but I would rather have a good solid\nbalance at the banker's.' How many of you would rather honestly, and\nat the bottom of your hearts, have that than God's word for your\ndefence? How many of you think that to trust in a living God is but\ngrasping at a very airy and unsubstantial kind of support; and that\nthe real solid defence is the defence made of the things that you can\nsee?\n\nMy brother! it is exactly the opposite way. Turn it clean round, and\nyou get the truth. The unsubstantial shadows are the material things\nthat you can see and handle; illusory as a dream, and as little able\nto ward off the blows of fate as a soap bubble. The real is the unseen\nbeyond--'the things that _are_,' and He who alone really is, and\nin His boundless and absolute Being is our only defence.\n\nIn one aspect or another, that false imagination with which my last\ntext deals is the besetting sin of Manchester. Not the rich man only,\nbut the poor man just as much, is in danger of it. The poor man who\nthinks that everything would be right if only he were rich, and the\nrich man who thinks that everything is right because he _is_\nrich, are exactly the same man. The circumstances differ, but the one\nman is but the other turned inside out. And all round about us we see\nthe fierce fight to get more and more of these things, the tight grip\nof them when we have got them, the overestimate of the value of them,\nthe contempt for the people who have less of them than ourselves. Our\naristocracy is an aristocracy of wealth; in some respects, one by no\nmeans to be despised, because there often go a great many good\nqualities to the making and the stewardship of wealth; but still it is\nan evil that men should be so largely estimated by their money as they\nare here. It is not a sound state of opinion which has made 'what is\nhe _worth_?' mean 'how much of _it_ has he?' We are taught\nhere to look upon the prizes of life as being mainly wealth. To win\nthat is 'success'--'prosperity'--and it is very hard for us all not to\nbe influenced by the prevailing tone.\n\nI would urge you, young men, especially to lay this to heart--that of\nall delusions that can beset you in your course, none will work more\ndisastrously than the notion that the _summum bonum_, the shield\nand stay of a man, is the 'abundance of the things that he possesses.'\nI fancy I see more listless, discontented, unhappy faces looking out\nof carriages than I see upon the pavement. And I am sure of this, at\nany rate, that all which is noble and sweet and good in life can be\nwrought out and possessed upon as much bread and water as will keep\nbody and soul together, and as much furniture as will enable a man to\nsit at his meal and lie down at night. And as for the rest, it has\nmany advantages and blessings, but oh! it is all illusory as a defence\nagainst the evils that will come, sooner or later, to every life.\n\nII. Consider next how to get into the true Refuge.\n\n'The righteous runneth into it and is safe,' says my text. You may get\ninto the illusory one very easily. Imagination will take you there.\nThere is no difficulty at all about that. And yet the way by which a\nman makes this world his defence may teach you a lesson as to how you\ncan make God your defence. How _does_ a man make this world his\ndefence? By trusting to it. He that says to the fine gold, 'Thou art\nmy confidence,' has made it his fortress--and that is how you will\nmake God your fortress--by trusting to _Him_. The very same\nemotion, the very same act of mind, heart, and will, may be turned\neither upwards or downwards, as you can turn the beam from a lantern\nwhich way you please. Direct it earthwards, and you 'trust in the\nuncertainty of riches.' Flash it heavenwards, and you 'trust in the\nliving God.'\n\nAnd that same lesson is taught by the words of our text, 'The\nrighteous runneth into it.' I do not dwell upon the word 'righteous.'\nThat is the Old Testament point of view, which could not conceive it\npossible that any man could have deep and close communion with God,\nexcept on condition of a pure character. I will not speak of that at\npresent, but point to the picturesque metaphor, which will tell us a\ngreat deal more about what faith is than many a philosophical\ndissertation. Many a man who would be perplexed by a theologian's talk\nwill understand this: 'The righteous runneth into the name of the\nLord.'\n\nThe metaphor brings out the idea of eager haste in betaking oneself to\nthe shelter, as when an invading army comes into a country, and the\nunarmed peasants take their portable belongings and their cattle, and\ncatch up their children in their arms, and set their wives upon their\nmules, and make all haste to some fortified place; or as when the\nmanslayer in Israel fled to the city of refuge, or as when Lot hurried\nfor his life out of Sodom. There would be no dawdling then; but with\nevery muscle strained, men would run into the stronghold, counting\nevery minute a year till they were inside its walls, and heard the\nheavy door close between them and the pursuer. No matter how rough the\nroad, or how overpowering the heat--no time to stop to gather flowers,\nor even diamonds on the road, when a moment's delay might mean the\nenemy's sword in your heart!\n\nNow that metaphor is frequently used to express the resolved and swift\nact by which, recognising in Jesus Christ, who declares the name of\nthe Lord, our hiding-place, we shelter ourselves in Him, and rest\nsecure. One of the picturesque words by which the Old Testament\nexpresses 'trust' means literally 'to flee to a refuge.' The Old\nTestament _trust_ is the New Testament _faith_, even as the\nOld Testament '_Name of the Lord_' answers to the New Testament\n'_Name of Jesus_.' And so we run into this sure hiding-place and\nstrong fortress of the name of the Lord, when we betake ourselves to\nJesus and put our trust in Him as our defence.\n\nSuch a faith--the trust of mind, heart, and will--laying hold of the\nname of the Lord, makes us 'righteous,' and so capable of 'dwelling\nwith the devouring fire' of God's perfect purity. The Old Testament\npoint of view was righteousness, in order to abiding in God. The New\nTestament begins, as it were, at an earlier stage in the religious\nlife, and tells us how to get the righteousness, without which, it\nholds as strongly as the Old Testament, 'no man shall see the Lord.'\nIt shows us that our faith, by which we run into that fortress, fits\nus to enter the fortress, because it makes us partakers of Christ's\npurity.\n\nSo my earnest question to you all is--Have you 'fled for refuge to lay\nhold' on that Saviour in whom God has set His name? Like Lot out of\nSodom, like the manslayer to the city of refuge, like the unwarlike\npeasants to the baron's tower, before the border thieves, have you\ngone thither for shelter from all the sorrows and guilt and dangers\nthat are marching terrible against you? Can you take up as yours the\nold grand words of exuberant trust in which the Psalmist heaps\ntogether the names of the Lord, as if walking about the city of his\ndefence, and telling the towers thereof, 'The Lord is my rock, and my\nfortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;\nmy buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower'? If you\nhave, then 'because you have made the Lord your refuge, there shall no\nevil befall you.'\n\nIII. So we have, lastly, what comes of sheltering in these two\nrefuges.\n\nAs to the former of them, I said at the beginning of these remarks\nthat the words 'is safe' were more accurately as well as picturesquely\nrendered by 'is set aloft.' They remind us of the psalm which has many\npoints of resemblance with this text, and which gives the very same\nthought when it says, 'I will set him on high, because he hath known\nMy name.' The fugitive is taken within the safe walls of the strong\ntower, and is set up high on the battlements, looking down upon the\nbaffled pursuers, and far beyond the reach of their arrows. To stand\nupon that tower lifts a man above the region where temptations fly,\nabove the region where sorrow strikes; lifts him above sin and guilt\nand condemnation and fear, and calumny and slander, and sickness, and\nseparation and loneliness and death; 'and all the ills that flesh is\nheir to.'\n\nOr, as one of the old Puritan commentators has it: 'The tower is so\ndeep that no pioneer can undermine it, so thick that no cannon can\nbreach it, so high that no ladder can scale it.' 'The righteous\nrunneth into it,' and is perched up there; and can look down like Lear\nfrom his cliff, and all the troubles that afflict the lower levels\nshall 'show scarce so gross as beetles' from the height where he\nstands, safe and high, hidden in the name of the Lord.\n\nI say little about the other side. Brethren! the world in any of its\nforms, the good things of this life in any shape, whether that of\nmoney or any other, can do a great deal for us. They can keep a great\nmany inconveniences from us, they can keep a great many cares and\npains and sorrows from us. I was going to say, to carry out the\nmetaphor, they can keep the rifle-bullets from us. But, ah! when the\nbig siege-guns get into position and begin to play; when the great\ntrials that every life must have, sooner or later, come to open fire\nat us, then the defence that anything in this outer world can give\ncomes rattling about our ears very quickly. It is like the pasteboard\nhelmet which looked as good as if it had been steel, and did admirably\nas long as no sword struck it.\n\nThere is only one thing that will keep us peaceful and unharmed, and\nthat is to trust our poor shelterless lives and sinful souls to the\nSaviour who has died for us. In Him we find the hiding-place, in which\nsecure, as beneath the shadow of a great rock, dreaded evils will pass\nus by, as impotent to hurt as savages before a castle fortified by\nmodern skill. All the bitterness of outward calamities will be taken\nfrom them before they reach us. Their arrows will still wound, but He\nwill have wiped the poison off before He lets them be shot at us. The\nforce of temptation will be weakened, for if we live near Him we shall\nhave other tastes and desires. The bony fingers of the skeleton Death,\nwho drags men from all other homes, will not dislodge us from our\nfortress-dwelling. Hid in Him we shall neither fear going down to the\ngrave, nor coming up from it, nor judgment, nor eternity. Then, I\nbeseech you, make no delay. Escape! flee for your life! A growing host\nof evil marches swift against you. Take Christ for your defence and\ncry to Him,\n\n  'Lo! from sin and grief and shame,\n  Hide me, Jesus! in Thy name.'\n\n\n\nA STRING OF PEARLS\n\n'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived\nthereby is not wise. 2. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a\nlion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. 3. It\nis an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be\nmeddling. 4. The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold;\ntherefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5. Counsel in the\nheart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw\nit out. 6. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a\nfaithful man who can find? 7. The just man walketh in his integrity:\nhis children are blessed after him.'--PROVERBS xx. 1-7.\n\n\nThe connection between the verses of this passage is only in their\ncommon purpose to set forth some details of a righteous life, and to\nbrand the opposite vices. A slight affinity may be doubtfully traced\nin one or two adjacent proverbs, but that is all.\n\nFirst comes temperance, enforced by the picture of a drunkard. Wine\nand strong drink are, as it were, personified, and their effects on\nmen are painted as their own characters. And an ugly picture it is,\nwhich should hang in the gallery of every young man and woman. 'Wine\nis a mocker.' Intemperance delights in scoffing at all pure, lofty,\nsacred things. It is the ally of wild profanity, which sends up its\ntipsy and clumsy ridicule against Heaven itself. If a man wants to\nlose his sense of reverence, his susceptibility for what is noble, let\nhim take to drink, and the thing is done. If he would fain keep these\nfresh and quick, let him eschew what is sure to deaden them. Of course\nthere are other roads to the same end, but there is no other end to\nthis road. Nobody ever knew a drunkard who did not scoff at things\nthat should be reverenced, and that because he knew that he was acting\nin defiance of them.\n\n'A brawler,' or, as Delitzsch renders it, 'boisterous'--look into a\nliquor-store if you want to verify that, or listen to a drunken party\ncoming back from an excursion and making night hideous with their\nbellowings, or go to any police court on a Monday morning. We in\nEngland are familiar with the combination on police charge-sheets,\n'drunk and disorderly.' So does the old proverb-maker seem to have\nbeen. Drink takes off the brake, and every impulse has its own way,\nand makes as much noise as it can.\n\nThe word rendered in Authorised Version 'is deceived,' and in Revised\nVersion 'erreth,' is literally 'staggers' or 'reels,' and it is more\ngraphic to keep that meaning. There is a world of quiet irony in the\nunexpectedly gentle close of the sentence, 'is not wise.' How much\nstronger the assertion might have been! Look at the drunkard as he\nstaggers along, scoffing at everything purer and higher than himself,\nand ready to fight with his own shadow, and incapable of self-control.\nHe has made himself the ugly spectacle you see. Will anybody call\n_him_ wise?\n\nThe next proverb applies directly to a state of things which most\nnations have outgrown. Kings who can give full scope to their anger,\nand who inspire mainly terror, are anomalies in civilised countries\nnow. The proverb warns that it is no trifle to rouse the lion from his\nlair, and that when he begins to growl there is danger. The man who\nstirs him 'forfeits his own life,' or, at all events, imperils it.\n\nThe word rendered 'sins' has for its original meaning 'misses,' and\nseems to be so used here, as also in Proverbs viii. 36. 'Against' is a\nsupplement. The maxim inculcates the wisdom of avoiding conduct which\nmight rouse an anger so sure to destroy its object. And that is a good\nmaxim for ordinary times in all lands, monarchies or republics. For\nthere is in constitutional kingdoms and in republics an uncrowned\nmonarch, to the full as irresponsible, as easily provoked, and as\nrelentless in hunting its opponents to destruction, as any old-world\ntyrant. Its name is Public Opinion. It is not well to provoke it. If a\nman does, let him well understand that he takes his life, or what is\nsometimes dearer than life, in his hand. Not only self-preservation,\nwhich the proverb and Scripture recognise as a legitimate motive, but\nhigher considerations, dictate compliance with the ruling forces of\nour times, as far as may be. Conscience only has the right to limit\nthis precept, and to say, 'Let the brute roar, and never mind if you\n_do_ forfeit your life. It is your duty to say \"No,\" though all\nthe world should be saying \"Yes.\"'\n\nA slight thread of connection may be established between the second\nand third proverbs. The latter, like the former, commends peacefulness\nand condemns pugnacity. Men talk of 'glory' as the warrior's meed, and\nthe so-called Christian world has not got beyond the semi-barbarous\nstage which regards 'honour' as mainly secured by fighting. But this\nancient proverb-maker had learned a better conception of what 'honour'\nor 'glory' was, and where it grew.\n\n  'Peace hath her victories\n  No less renowned than war,'\n\nsaid Milton. But our proverb goes farther than 'no less,' and gives\n_greater_ glory to the man who never takes up arms, or who lays\nthem down. The saying is true, not only about warfare, but in all\nregions of life. Fighting is generally wasted time. Controversialists\nof all sorts, porcupine-like people, who go through the world all\nsharp quills sticking out to pierce, are less to be admired than\npeace-loving souls. Any fool can 'show his teeth,' as the word for\n'quarrelling' means. But it takes a wise man, and a man whose spirit\nhas been made meek by dwelling near God in Christ, to withhold the\nangry word, the quick retort. It is generally best to let the glove\nflung down lie where it is. There are better things to do than to\nsquabble.\n\nVerse 4 is a parable as well as a proverb. If a man sits by the\nfireside because the north wind is blowing, when he ought to be out in\nthe field holding the plough with frost-nipped fingers, he will beg\n(or, perhaps, _seek for a crop_) in harvest, and will find\nnothing, when others are rejoicing in the slow result of winter\nshowers and of their toilsome hours. So, in all life, if the fitting\nmoments for preparation are neglected, late repentance avails nothing.\nThe student who dawdles when he should be working, will be sure to\nfail when the examination comes on. It is useless to begin ploughing\nwhen your neighbours are driving their reaping machines into the\nfields. 'There is a time to sow, and a time to reap.' The law is\ninexorable for this life, and not less certainly so for the life to\ncome. The virgins who cried in vain, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' and\nwere answered, 'Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now!' are sisters\nof the man who was hindered from ploughing because it was cold, and\nasked in vain for bread when harvest time had come. 'To-day, if ye\nwill to hear His voice, harden not your hearts.'\n\nThe next proverb is a piece of shrewd common sense. It sets before us\ntwo men, one reticent, and the other skilful in worming out designs\nwhich he wishes to penetrate. The former is like a deep draw-well; the\nlatter is like a man who lets down a bucket into it, and winds it up\nfull. 'Still waters are deep.' The faculty of reading men may be\nabused to bad ends, but is worth cultivating, and may be allied to\nhigh aims, and serve to help in accomplishing these. It may aid good\nmen in detecting evil, in knowing how to present God's truth to hearts\nthat need it, in pouring comfort into closely shut spirits. Not only\nastute business men or politicians need it, but all who would help\ntheir fellows to love God and serve Him--preachers, teachers, and the\nlike. And there would be more happy homes if parents and children\ntried to understand one another. We seldom dislike a man when we come\nto know him thoroughly. We cannot help him till we do.\n\nThe proverb in verse 6 is susceptible of different renderings in the\nfirst clause. Delitzsch and others would translate, 'Almost every man\nmeets a man who is gracious to him.' The contrast will then be between\npartial 'grace' or kindness, and thoroughgoing reliableness or\ntrustworthiness. The rendering of the Authorised and Revised Versions,\non the other hand, makes the contrast between talk and reality,\nprofessions of goodwill and acts which come up to these. In either\ncase, the saying is the bitter fruit of experience. Even charity,\nwhich 'believeth all things,' cannot but admit that soft words are\nmore abundant than deeds which verify them. It is no breach of the law\nof love to open one's eyes to facts, and so to save oneself from\ntaking paper money for gold, except at a heavy discount. Perhaps the\nreticence, noted in the previous proverb, led to the thought of a\nloose-tongued profession of kindliness as a contrast. Neither the one\nnor the other is admirable. The practical conclusion from the facts in\nthis proverb is double--do not take much heed of men's eulogiums on\ntheir own benevolence; do not trumpet your own praises. Caution and\nmodesty are parts of Christian perfection.\n\nThe last saying points to the hereditary goodness which sometimes, for\nour comfort, we do see, as well as to the halo from a saintly parent\nwhich often surrounds his children. Note that there may be more than\nmere succession in time conveyed by the expression 'after him.' It may\nmean following in his footsteps. Such children are blessed, both in\nmen's benedictions and in their own peaceful hearts. Weighty\nresponsibilities lie upon the children of parents who have transmitted\nto them a revered name. A Christian's children are doubly bound to\ncontinue the parental tradition, and are doubly criminal if they\ndepart from it. There is no sadder sight than that of a godly father\nwailing over an ungodly son, unless it be that of the ungodly son who\nmakes him wail. Absalom hanging by his curls in the oak-tree, and\nDavid groaning, 'My son, my son!' touch all hearts. Alas that the\ntragedy should be so often repeated in our homes to-day!\n\n\n\nTHE SLUGGARD IN HARVEST\n\n'The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he\nbeg in harvest, and have nothing.'--PROVERBS xx. 4.\n\n\nLike all the sayings of this book, this is simply a piece of plain,\npractical common sense, intended to inculcate the lesson that men\nshould diligently seize the opportunity whilst it is theirs. The\nsluggard is one of the pet aversions of the Book of Proverbs, which,\nunlike most other manuals of Eastern wisdom, has a profound reverence\nfor honest work.\n\nHe is a great drone, for he prefers the chimney-corner to the field,\neven although it cannot have been very cold if the weather was open\nenough to admit of ploughing. And he is a great fool, too, for he buys\nhis comfort at a very dear price, as do all men who live for to-day,\nand let to-morrow look out for itself.\n\nBut like most of the other sayings of this book, my text contains\nprinciples which are true in the highest regions of human life, for\nthe laws which rule up there are not different from those which\nregulate the motions of its lower phases. Religion recognises the same\npractical common-sense principles that daily business does. I venture\nto take this as my text now, in addressing young people, because they\nhave special need of, and special facilities for, the wisdom which it\nenjoins; and because the words only want to be turned with their faces\nheavenwards in order to enforce the great appeal, the only one which\nit is worth my while to make, and worth your while to come here to\nlisten to; the appeal to each of you, 'I beseech you, by the mercies\nof God, that ye yield yourselves to God' _now_.\n\nMy object, then, will be perhaps best accomplished if I simply ask you\nto look, first, at the principles involved in this quaint proverb;\nand, secondly, to apply them in one or two directions.\n\nI. First, then, let us try to bring out the principles which are\ncrystallised in this picturesque saying.\n\nThe first thought evidently is: present conduct determines future\nconditions. Life is a series of epochs, each of which has its destined\nwork, and that being done, all is well; and that being left undone,\nall is ill.\n\nNow, of course, in regard to many of the accidents of a man's\ncondition, his conduct is only one, and by no means the most powerful,\nof the factors which settle them. The position which a man fills, the\ntasks which he has to perform, and the whole host of things which make\nup the externals of his life, depend upon far other conditions than\nany that he brings to them. But yet on the whole it is true that what\na man does, and is, settles how he fares. And this is the mystical\nimportance and awful solemnity of the most undistinguished moments and\nmost trivial acts of this awful life of ours, that each of them has an\ninfluence on all that comes after, and may deflect our whole course\ninto altogether different paths. It is not only the moments that we\nvulgarly and blindly call great which settle our condition, but it is\nthe accumulation of the tiny ones; the small deeds, the unnoticed\nacts, which make up so large a portion of every man's life. It is\nthese, after all, that are the most powerful in settling what we shall\nbe. There come to each of us supreme moments in our lives. Yes! and if\nin all the subordinate and insignificant moments we have not been\ngetting ready for them, but have been nurturing dispositions and\nacquiring habits, and cultivating ways of acting and thinking which\ncondemn us to fail beneath the requirements of the supreme moment,\nthen it passes us by, and we gain nothing from it. Tiny mica flakes\nhave built up the Matterhorn, and the minute acts of life after all,\nby their multiplicity, make up life to be what it is. 'Sand is heavy,'\nsays this wise book of Proverbs. The aggregation of the minutest\ngrains, singly so light that they would not affect the most delicate\nbalance, weighs upon us with a weight 'heavy as frost, and deep almost\nas life.' The mystic significance of the trivialities of life is that\nin them we largely make destiny, and that in them we wholly make\ncharacter.\n\nAnd now, whilst this is true about all life, it is especially true\nabout youth. You have facilities for moulding your being which some of\nus older men would give a great deal to have again for a moment, with\nour present knowledge and bitter experience. The lava that has\nsolidified into hard rock with us is yet molten and plastic with you.\nYou can, I was going to say, be anything you make up your minds to;\nand, within reasonable limits, the bold saying is true. 'Ask what thou\nwilt and it shall be given to thee' is what nature and Providence,\nalmost as really as grace and Christ, say to every young man and\nwoman, because you are the arbiters, not wholly, indeed, of your\ndestiny, and are the architects, altogether, of your character, which\nis more.\n\nAnd so I desire to lay upon your hearts this threadbare old truth,\nbecause you are living in the ploughing time, and the harvest is\nmonths ahead. Whilst it is true that every day is the child of all the\nyesterdays, and the parent of all the to-morrows, it is also true that\nlife has its predominant colouring, varying at different epochs, and\nthat for you, though you are largely inheriting, even now, the results\nof your past, brief as it is, still more largely is the future, the\nplastic future, in your hands, to be shaped into such forms as you\nwill. 'The child is father of the man,' and the youth has the blessed\nprerogative of standing before the mouldable to-morrow, and possessing\na nature still capable of being cast into an almost infinite variety\nof form.\n\nBut then, not only do you stand with special advantages for making\nyourselves what you will, but you specially need to be reminded of the\nterrible importance and significance of each moment. For this is the\nvery irony of human life, that we seldom awake to the sense of its\nimportance till it is nearly ended, and that the period when\nreflection would avail the most is precisely the period when it is the\nleast strong and habitual. What is the use of an old man like me\nthinking about what he could make of life if he had it to do over\nagain, as compared with the advantage of your doing it? Yet I dare say\nthat for once that you think thus, my contemporaries do it fifty\ntimes. So, not to abate one jot of your buoyancy, not to cast any\nshadow over joys and hopes, but to lift you to a sense of the blessed\npossibilities of your position, I want to lay this principle of my\ntext upon your consciences, and to beseech you to try to keep it\noperatively in mind--you are making yourselves, and settling your\ndestiny, by every day of your plastic youth.\n\nThere is another principle as clear in my text--viz., the easy road is\ngenerally the wrong one. The sluggard was warmer at the fireside than\nhe would be in the field with his plough in the north wind, and so he\nstopped there. There are always obstacles in the way of noble life. It\nis always easier, as flesh judges, to live ignobly than to live as\nJesus Christ would have us live. 'Endure hardness' is the commandment\nto all who would be soldiers of any great cause, and would not fling\naway their lives in low self-indulgence. If a man is going to be\nanything worth being, or to do anything worth doing, he must start\nwith, and adhere to this, 'to scorn delights and live laborious days.'\nAnd only then has he a chance of rising above the fat dull weed that\nrots in Lethe's stream, and of living anything like the life that it\nbecomes him to live.\n\nBe sure of this, dear young friends, that self-denial and rigid\nself-control, in its two forms, of stopping your ears to the\nattractions of lower pleasures, and of cheerily encountering\ndifficulties, is an indispensable condition of any life which shall at\nthe last yield a harvest worth the gathering, and not destined to be\n\n  'Cast as rubbish to the void,\n  When God hath made the pile complete.'\n\nNever allow yourselves to be turned away from the plain path of duty\nby any difficulties. Never allow yourselves to be guided in your\nchoice of a road by the consideration that the turf is smooth, and the\nflowers by the side of it sweet. Remember, the sluggard would have\nbeen warmer, with a wholesome warmth, at the ploughtail than cowering\nin the chimney corner. And the things that seem to be difficulties and\nhardships only need to be fronted to yield, like the east wind in its\nseason, good results in bracing and hardening. Fix it in your minds\nthat nothing worth doing is done but at the cost of difficulty and\ntoil.\n\nThat is a lesson that this generation wants, even more than some that\nhave lived. I suppose it is one of the temptations of older men to\nlook askance upon the amusements of younger ones, but I cannot help\nlifting up here one word of earnest appeal to the young men and women\nof this congregation, and beseeching them, as they value the nobleness\nof their own lives, and their power of doing any real good, to beware\nof what seems to me the altogether extravagant and excessive love, and\nfollowing after, of mere amusement which characterises this day to so\nlarge an extent. Better toil than such devotion to mere relaxation.\n\nThe last principle here is that the season let slip is gone for ever.\nWhether my text, in its second picture, intends us to think of the\nsluggard when the harvest came as 'begging' from his neighbours; or\nwhether, as is possibly the construction of the Hebrew, it simply\nmeans to describe him as going out into his field, and looking at it,\nand asking for the harvest and seeing nothing there but weeds, the\nlesson it conveys is the same--the old, old lesson, so threadbare that\nI should be almost ashamed of taking up your time with it unless I\nbelieved that you did not lay it to heart as you should. Opportunity\nis bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. Life is full of\ntragic _might-have-beens_. No regret, no remorse, no\nself-accusation, no clear recognition that I was a fool will avail one\njot. The time for ploughing is past; you cannot stick the share into\nthe ground when you should be wielding the sickle. 'Too late' is the\nsaddest of human words. And, my brother, as the stages of our lives\nroll on, unless each is filled as it passes with the discharge of the\nduties, and the appropriation of the benefits which it brings, then,\nto all eternity, that moment will never return, and the sluggard may\nbeg in harvest, that he may have the chance to plough once more, and\nhave none. The student that has spent the term in indolence, perhaps\ndissipation, has no time to get up his subject when he is in the\nexamination-room, with the paper before him. And life, and nature, and\nGod's law, which is the Christian expression for the heathen one of\n_nature_, are stern taskmasters, and demand that the duty shall\nbe done in its season or left undone for ever.\n\nII. In the second place, let me, just in a few words, carry the lamp\nof these principles of my text and flash its rays upon one or two\nsubjects.\n\nLet me say a word, first, about the lowest sphere to which my text\napplies. I referred at the beginning of this discourse to this proverb\nas simply an inculcation of the duty of honest work, and of the\nnecessity of being wide awake to opportunities in our daily work. Now,\nthe most of you young men, and many of you young women, are destined\nfor ordinary trades, professions, walks in commerce; and I do not\nsuppose it to be beneath the dignity of the pulpit to say this: Do not\ntrust to any way of getting on by dodges or speculation, or favour, or\nanything but downright hard work. Don't shirk difficulties, don't try\nto put the weight of the work upon some colleague or other, that you\nmay have an easier life of it. Set your backs to your tasks, and\nremember that 'in all labour there is profit'; and whether the profit\ncomes to you in the shape of advancement, position, promotion in your\noffices, partnerships perhaps, wealth, and the like, or no, the profit\nlies in the work. Honest toil is the key to pleasure.\n\nThen, let me apply the text in a somewhat higher direction. Carry\nthese principles with you in the cultivation of that important part of\nyourself--your intellects. What would some of us old students give if\nwe had the flexibility, the power of assimilating new truth, the\nretentive memories, that you young people have? Some of you, perhaps,\nare students by profession; I should like all of you to make a\nconscience of making the best of your brains, as God has given them to\nyou, a trust. 'The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold.'\nThe dawdler will read no books that tax his intellect, therefore shall\nhe beg in harvest and have nothing. Amidst all the flood of feeble,\nfoolish, flaccid literature with which we are afflicted at this day, I\nwonder how many of you young men and women ever set yourselves to some\ngreat book or subject that you cannot understand without effort.\nUnless you do you are not faithful stewards of the supreme gift of God\nto you of that great faculty which apprehends and lives upon truth. So\nremember the sluggard by his fireside; and do you get out with your\nplough.\n\nAgain I say, apply these principles to a higher work still--that of\nthe formation of character. Nothing will come to you noble, great,\nelevating, in that direction, unless it is sought, and sought with\ntoil.\n\n  'In woods, in waves, in wars, she wont to dwell,\n  And will be found with peril and with pain;\n  Before her gate high Heaven did sweat ordain,\n  And wakeful watches ever to abide.'\n\nWisdom and truth, and all their elevating effects upon human\ncharacter, require absolutely for their acquirement effort and toil.\nYou have the opportunity still. As I said a moment ago--you may mould\nyourselves into noble forms. But in the making of character we have to\nwork as a painter in fresco does, with a swift brush on the plaster\nwhile it is wet. It sets and hardens in an hour. And men drift into\nhabits which become tyrannies and dominant before they know where they\nare. Don't let yourselves be shaped by accident, by circumstance.\nRemember that you can build yourselves up into forms of beauty by the\nhelp of the grace of God, and that for such building there must be the\ndiligent labour and the wise clutching at opportunity and\nunderstanding of the times which my text suggests.\n\nAnd, lastly, let these principles applied to religion teach us the\nwisdom and necessity of beginning the Christian life at the earliest\nmoment. I am by no means prepared to say that the extreme tragedy of\nmy text can ever be wrought out in regard to the religious experience\nof any man here on earth, for I believe that at any moment in his\ncareer, however faultful and stained his past has been, and however\nlong and obstinate has been his continuance in evil, a man may turn\nhimself to Jesus Christ, and beg, and not in vain, nor ever find\n'nothing' there.\n\nBut whilst all that is quite true, I want you, dear young friends, to\nlay this to heart, that if you do not yield yourselves to Jesus Christ\nnow, in your early days, and take Him for your Saviour, and rest your\nsouls upon Him, and then take Him for your Captain and Commander, for\nyour Pattern and Example, for your Companion and your Aim, you will\nlose what you can never make up by any future course. You lose years\nof blessedness, of peaceful society with Him, of illumination and\ninspiration. You lose all the sweetness of the days which you spend\naway from Him. And if at the end you did come to Him, you would have\none regret, deep and permanent, that you had not gone to Him before.\nIf you put off, as some of you are putting off, what you know you\nought to do--namely, give your hearts to Jesus Christ and become\nHis--think of what you are laying up for yourselves thereby. You get\nmuch that it would be gain to lose--bitter memories, defiled\nimaginations, stings of conscience, habits that it will be very hard\nto break, and the sense of having wasted the best part of your lives,\nand having but the fag end to bring to Him. And if you put off, as\nsome of you are disposed to do, think of the risk you run. It is very\nunlikely that susceptibilities will remain if they are trifled with.\nYou remember that Felix trembled once, and sent for Paul often; but we\nnever hear that he trembled any more. And it is quite possible, and\nquite likely, more likely than not, that you will never be as near\nbeing a Christian again as you are now, if you turn away from the\nimpressions that are made upon you at this moment, and stifle the\nhalf-formed resolution.\n\nBut there is a more solemn thought still. This life as a whole is to\nthe future life as the ploughing time is to the harvest, and there are\nawful words in Scripture which seem to point in the same direction in\nreference to the irrevocable and irreversible issue of neglected\nopportunities on earth, as this proverb does in regard to the\nploughing and harvests of this life.\n\nI dare not conceal what seems to me the New Testament confirmation and\ndeepening of the solemn words of our text, 'He shall beg in harvest\nand have nothing,' by the Master's words, 'Many shall say to me in\nthat day, Lord! Lord I and I will say, I never knew you.' The five\nvirgins who rubbed their sleepy eyes and asked for oil when the master\nwas at hand got none, and when they besought, 'Lord! Lord! open to\nus,' all the answer was, 'Too late! too late! ye cannot enter now.'\nNow, while it is called day, harden not your hearts.\n\n\n\nBREAD AND GRAVEL\n\n'\"Bread of deceit\" is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall\nbe filled with gravel.'--PROVERBS xx. 17.\n\n\n'Bread of deceit' is a somewhat ambiguous phrase, which may mean\neither of two things, and perhaps means both. It may either mean any\ngood obtained by deceit, or good which deceives in its possession. In\nthe former signification it would appear to have reference primarily\nto unjustly gotten gain, while in the latter it has a wider meaning\nand applies to all the worthless treasures and lying delights of life.\nThe metaphor is full of homely vigour, and the contrast between the\nsweet bread and the gravel that fills the mouth and breaks the teeth,\ncarries a solemn lesson which is perpetually insisted upon in this\nbook of Proverbs, and confirmed in every man's experience.\n\nI. The first lesson here taught is the perpetuity of the most\ntransient actions.\n\nWe are tempted to think that a deed done is done with, and to grasp at\nmomentary pleasure, and ignore its abiding consequences. But of all\nthe delusions by which men are blinded to the true solemnity of life\nnone is more fatal than that which ignores the solemn 'afterwards'\nthat has to be taken into account. For, whatever issues in outward\nlife our actions may have, they have all a very real influence on\ntheir doers; each of them tends to modify character, to form habits,\nto drag after itself a whole trail of consequences. Each strikes\ninwards and works outwards. The whole of a life may be set forth in\nthe pregnant figure, 'A sower went forth to sow,' and 'Whatsoever a\nman soweth, that shall he also reap.' The seed may lie long dormant,\nbut the green shoots will appear in due time, and pass through all the\nstages of 'first the blade, and then the ear, and after that the full\ncorn in the ear.' The sower has to become the reaper, and the reaper\nhas to eat of the bread made from the product of the long past sowing.\nShall _we_ have to reap a harvest of poisonous tares, or of\nwholesome wheat? 'If 'twere done when 'tis done, 'twere well it were\ndone quickly'; but since it begins to do when 'tis done, it were often\nbetter that it were not done at all. A momentary pause to ask\nourselves when tempted to evil, 'And what then?' would burst not a few\nof the painted bubbles after which we often chase.\n\nIs there any reason to suppose that these permanent consequences of\nour transient actions are confined in their operation to this life?\nDoes not such a present, which is mainly the continuous result of the\nwhole past, seem at least to prophesy and guarantee a similar future?\nMost of us, I suppose, believe in the life continuous through and\nafter death retributive in a greater degree than life here. Whatever\nchanges may be involved in the laying aside of the 'earthly house of\nthis tabernacle,' it seems folly to suppose that in it we lay aside\nthe consequences of our past inwrought into our very selves. Surely\nwisdom suggests that we try to take into view the whole scope of our\nactions, and to carry our vision as far as the consequences reach. We\nshould all be wiser and better if we thought more of the 'afterwards,'\nwhether in its partial form in the present, or in its solemn\ncompletion in the future beyond.\n\nII. The bitterness of what is sweet and wrong.\n\nThere is no need to deny that 'bread of deceit is sweet to a man.'\nThere is a certain pleasure in a lie, and the taste of the bread\npurchased by it is not embittered because it has been bought by\ndeceit. If we succeed in getting the good which any strong desire\nhungers after, the gratification of the desire ministers pleasure. If\na man is hungry, it matters not to his hunger how he has procured the\nbread which he devours. And so with all forms of good which appeal to\nsense. The sweetness of the thing desired and obtained is more subtle,\nbut not less real, if it nourishes some inclination or taste of a\nhigher nature. But such sweetness in its very essence is momentary,\nand even, whilst being masticated, 'bread of deceit' turns into\ngravel; and a mouthful of it breaks the teeth, excoriates the gums,\ninterferes with breathing, and ministers no nourishment. The metaphor\nhas but too familiar illustrations in the experience of us all. How\noften have we flattered ourselves with the thought, 'If I could but\nget this or that, how happy I should be'? How often when we got it\nhave we been as happy as we expected? We had forgotten the voice of\nconscience, which may be overborne for a moment, but begins to speak\nmore threateningly when its prohibitions have been neglected; we had\nforgotten that there is no satisfying our hungry desires with 'bread\nof deceit,' but that they grow much faster than it can be presented to\nthem; we had forgotten the evil that was strengthened in us when it\nhas been fed; we had forgotten that the remembrance of past delights\noften becomes a present sorrow and shame; we had forgotten avenging\nconsequences of many sorts which follow surely in the train of sweet\nsatisfactions which are wrong.\n\nSo, even in this life nothing keeps its sweetness which is wrong, and\nnothing which is sweet and wrong avoids a _tang_ of intensest\nbitterness 'afterwards.' And all that bitterness will be increased in\nanother world, if there is another, when God gives us to read the book\nof our lives which we ourselves have written. Many a page that records\npast sweetness will then be felt to be written, 'within and without,'\nwith lamentation and woe.\n\nAll bitterness of what is sweet and wrong makes it certain that sin is\nthe stupidest, as well as the wickedest, thing that a man can do.\n\nIII. The abiding sweetness of true bread.\n\nIn a subordinate sense, the true bread may be taken as meaning our own\ndeeds inspired by love of God and approved by conscience. They may\noften be painful to do, but the pain merges into calm pleasure, and\nconscience whispers a foretaste of heaven's 'Well done! good and\nfaithful servant.' The roll may be bitter to the lips, but, eaten,\nbecomes sweet as honey; whereas the world's bread is sweet at first\nbut bitter at last. The highest wisdom and the most exacting\nconscience absolutely coincide in that which they prescribe, and\nScripture has the warrant of universal experience in proclaiming that\nsin in its subtler and more refined forms, as well as in its grosser,\nis a gigantic mistake, and the true wisdom and reasonable regard for\none's own interest alike point in the same direction,--to a life based\non the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as being the life which\nyields the happiest results today and perpetual bliss hereafter. But\nlet us not forget that in the highest sense Christ Himself is the\n'true bread that cometh down from heaven.' He may be bitter at first,\nbeing eaten with tears of penitence and painful efforts at conquering\nsin, but even in the first bitterness there is sweetness beyond all\nthe earth can give. He 'spreads a table before us in the presence of\nour enemies,' and the bread which He gives tastes as the manna of old\ndid, like wafers made of honey. Only perverted appetites loathe this\nlight bread and prefer the strong-favoured leeks and garlics of Egypt.\nThey who sit at the table in the wilderness will finally sit at the\ntable prepared in the kingdom of the heavens.\n\n\n\nA CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE\n\n'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.\n16. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17.\nLet not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord\nall the day long. 18. For surely there is an end; and thine\nexpectation shall not be cut off. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise,\nand guide thine heart in the way. 20. Be not among winebibbers; among\nriotous eaters of flesh: 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall\ncome to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22.\nHearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother\nwhen she is old. 23. Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and\ninstruction, and understanding.'--PROVERBS xxiii. 15-23.\n\n\nThe precepts of this passage may be said to sum up the teaching of the\nwhole Book of Proverbs. The essentials of moral character are\nsubstantially the same in all ages, and these ancient advices fit very\nclose to the young lives of this generation. The gospel has, no doubt,\nraised the standard of morals, and, in many respects, altered the\nconception and perspective of virtues; but its great distinction lies,\nnot so much in the novelty of its commandments as in the new motives\nand powers to obey them. Reverence for parents and teachers, the\nhabitual 'fear of the Lord,' temperance, eager efforts to win and\nretain 'the truth,' have always been recognised as duties; but there\nis a long weary distance between recognition and practice, and he who\ndraws inspiration from Jesus Christ will have strength to traverse it,\nand to do and be what he knows that he should.\n\nThe passage may be broken up into four parts, which, taken together,\nare a young life's directory of conduct which is certain to lead to\npeace.\n\nI. There is, first, an appeal to filial affection, and an unveiling of\npaternal sympathy (verses 15, 16). The paternal tone characteristic of\nthe Book of Proverbs is most probably regarded as that of a teacher\naddressing his disciples as his children. But the glimpse of the\nteacher's heart here given may well apply to parents too, and ought to\nbe true of all who can influence other and especially young hearts.\nLittle power attends advices which are not sweetened by manifest love.\nMany a son has been kept back from evil by thinking, 'What would my\nmother say?' and many a sound admonition has been nothing but sound,\nbecause the tone of it betrayed that the giver did not much care\nwhether it was taken or not.\n\nA true teacher must have his heart engaged in his lessons, and must\nimpress his scholars with the conviction that their failure drives a\nknife into it, and their acceptance of them brings him purest joy. On\nthe other hand, the disciple, and still more the child, must have a\nsingularly cold nature who does not respond to loving solicitude and\ndoes not care whether he wounds or gladdens the heart which pours out\nits love and solicitude over him. May we not see shining through this\nloving appeal a truth in reference to the heart of the great Father\nand Teacher, who, in the depths of His divine blessedness, has no\ngreater joy than that His children should walk in the truth? God's\nheart is glad when man's is wise.\n\nNote, also, the wide general expression for goodness--a wise heart,\nlips speaking right things. The former is source, the latter stream.\nOnly a pure fountain will send forth sweet waters. 'If thy heart\nbecome wise' is the more correct rendering, implying that there is no\ninborn wisdom, but that it must be made ours by effort. We _are_\nfoolish; we _become_ wise.\n\nWhat the writer means by wisdom he will tell us presently. Here he\nlets us see that it is a good to be attained by appropriate means. It\nis the foundation of 'right' speech. Nothing is more remarkable than\nthe solemn importance which Scripture attaches to words, even more, we\nmight almost say than to deeds, therein reversing the usual estimate\nof their relative value. Putting aside the cases of insincerity,\nfalsehood, and the like, a man's speech is a truer transcript of\nhimself than his deeds, because less hindered and limited by\nexternals. The most precious wine drips from the grapes by their own\nweight in the vat, without a turn of the screw. 'By thy words thou\nshalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.' 'God's\ngreat gift of speech abused' is one of the commonest, least\nconsidered, and most deadly sins.\n\nII. We have next the one broad precept with its sure reward, which\nunderlies all goodness (verses 17, 18). The supplement 'be thou,' in\nthe second clause of verse 17, obscures the close connection of\nclauses. It is better to regard the verb of the first clause as\ncontinued in the second. Thus the one precept is set forth negatively\nand positively: 'Strive not after [that is, seek not to imitate or be\nassociated with] sinners, but after the fear of the Lord.' The heart\nso striving becomes wise. So, then, wisdom is not the result of\ncultivating the intellect, but of educating the desires and\naspirations. It is moral and religious, rather than simply\nintellectual. The magnificent personification of Wisdom at the\nbeginning of the book influences the subsequent parts, and the key to\nunderstanding that great conception is, 'The fear of the Lord is the\nbeginning of Wisdom.' The Greek goddess of Wisdom, noble as she is, is\nof the earth earthy when contrasted with that sovereign figure. Pallas\nAthene, with her clear eyes and shining armour, is poor beside the\nWisdom of the Book of Proverbs, who dwelt with God 'or ever the earth\nwas,' and comes to men with loving voice and hands laden with the\ngifts of 'durable riches and righteousness.'\n\nHe is the wise man who fears God with the fear which has no torment\nand is compact of love and reverence. He is on the way to become wise\nwhose seeking heart turns away from evil and evil men, and feels after\nGod, as the vine tendrils after a stay, or as the sunflower turns to\nthe light. For such wholehearted desire after the one supreme good\nthere must be resolute averting of desire from 'sinners.' In this\nworld full of evil there will be no vigorous longing for good and God,\nunless there be determined abstention from the opposite. We have but a\nlimited quantity of energy, and if it is frittered away on\nmultifarious creatures, none will be left to consecrate to God. There\nare lakes which discharge their waters at both ends, sending one\nstream east to the Atlantic and one west to the Pacific; but the heart\ncannot direct its issues of life in that fashion. They must be banked\nup if they are to run deep and strong. 'All the current of my being'\nmust 'set to thee' if my tiny trickle is to reach the great ocean, to\nbe lost in which is blessedness.\n\nAnd such energy of desire and direction is not to be occasional, but\n'all the day long.' It is possible to make life an unbroken seeking\nafter and communion with God, even while plunged in common tasks and\nsmall cares. It is possible to approximate indefinitely to that ideal\nof continually 'dwelling in the house of the Lord'; and without some\nsuch approximation there will be little realising of the Lord, sought\nby fits and starts, and then forgotten in the hurry of business or\npleasure. A photographic plate exposed for hours will receive the\npicture of far-off stars which would never show on one exposed for a\nfew minutes.\n\nThe writer is sure that such desires will be satisfied, and in verse\n18 says so. The 'reward' (Rev. Ver.) of which he is sure is the\noutcome of the life of such seekers after God. It does not necessarily\nrefer to the future after death, though that may be included in it.\nBut what is meant is that no seeking after the fear of the Lord shall\nbe in vain. There is a tacit emphasis on 'thy,' contrasting the sure\nfulfilment of hopes set on God with the as sure 'cutting of' of those\nmistakenly fixed upon creatures and vanities. Psalm xxxvii. 38, has\nthe same word here rendered 'reward' and declares that 'the future [or\nreward] of the wicked shall be cut off.' The great fulfilment of this\nassurance is reserved for the life beyond; but even here among all\ndisappointments and hopes of which fulfilment is so often\ndisappointment also, it remains true that the one striving which\ncannot be fruitless is striving for more of God, and the one hope\nwhich is sure to be realised, and is better when realised than\nexpected, is the hope set on Him. Surely, then, the certainty that if\nwe delight ourselves in God He will give us the desires of our hearts,\nis a good argument, and should be with us an operative motive for\ndirecting desire and effort away from earth and towards Him.\n\nIII. Special precepts as to the control of the animal nature follow in\nverses 19-21. First, note that general one of verse 19, 'Guide thine\nheart in the way.' In most general terms, the necessity of\nself-government is laid down. There is a 'way' in which we should be\ncontent to travel. It is a definite path, and feet have to be kept\nfrom straying aside to wide wastes on either hand. Limitation, the\nfirm suppression of appetites, the coercing of these if they seek to\ndraw aside, are implied in the very conception of 'the way.' And a man\nmust take the upper hand of himself, and, after all other guidance,\nmust be his own guide; for God guides us by enabling us to guide\nourselves.\n\nTemperance in the wider sense of the word is prominent among the\nvirtues flowing from fear of the Lord, and is the most elementary\ninstance of 'guiding the heart.' Other forms of self-restraint in\nregard to animal appetites are spoken of in the context, but here the\ntwo of drunkenness and gluttony are bracketed together. They are\nsimilarly coupled in Deuteronomy xxi. 20, in the formula of accusation\nwhich parents are to bring against a degenerate son. Allusion to that\npassage is probable here, especially as the other crime mentioned in\nit--namely, refusal to 'hear' parental reproof--is warned against in\nverse 22. The picture, then, here is that of a prodigal son, and we\nhave echoes of it in the great parable which paints first riotous\nliving, and then poverty and misery.\n\nDrunkenness had obviously not reached the dimensions of a national\ncurse in the date when this lesson was written. We should not put\nover-eating side by side with it. But its ruinous consequences were\nplain then, and the bitter experience of England and America repeats\non a larger scale the old lesson that the most productive source of\npoverty, wretchedness, rags, and vice, is drink. Judges and social\nreformers of all sorts concur in that now, though it has taken fifty\nyears to hammer it into the public conscience. Perhaps in another\nfifty or so society may have succeeded in drawing the not very obscure\ninference that total abstinence and prohibition are wise. At any rate,\nthey who seek after the fear of the Lord should draw it, and act on\nit.\n\nIV. The last part is in verses 22 and 23. The appeal to filial duty\ncannot here refer to disciple and teacher, but to child and parents.\nIt does not stand as an isolated precept, but as underscoring the\nimportant one which follows. But a word must be spared for it. The\nhabits of ancient days gave a place to the father and mother which\nmodern family life woefully lacks, and suffers in many ways for want\nof. Many a parent in these days of slack control and precocious\nindependence might say, 'If I be a father, where is mine honour?'\nThere was perhaps not enough of confidence between parent and child in\nformer days, and authority on the one hand and submission on the other\ntoo much took the place of love; but nowadays the danger is all the\nother way--and it is a very real danger.\n\nBut the main point here is the earnest exhortation of verse 23, which,\nlike that to the fear of the Lord, sums up all duty in one. The\n'truth' is, like 'wisdom,' moral and religious, and not merely\nintellectual. 'Wisdom' is subjective, the quality or characteristic of\nthe devout soul; 'truth' is objective, and may also be defined as the\ndeclared will of God. The possession of truth is wisdom. 'The entrance\nof Thy words giveth light.' It makes wise the simple. There is, then,\nsuch a thing as 'the truth' accessible to us. We can know it, and are\nnot to be for ever groping amid more or less likely guesses, but may\nrest in the certitude that we have hold of foundation facts. For us,\nthe truth is incarnate in Jesus, as He has solemnly asserted. That\ntruth we shall, if we are wise, 'buy,' by shunning no effort,\nsacrifice, or trouble needed to secure it.\n\nIn the lower meanings of the word, our passage should fire us all, and\nespecially the young, to strain every muscle of the soul in order to\nmake truth for the intellect our own. The exhortation is needed in\nthis day of adoration of money and material good. Nobler and wiser far\nthe young man who lays himself out to know than he who is engrossed\nwith the hungry desire to have! But in the highest region of truth,\nthe buying is 'without money and without price,' and all that we can\ngive in exchange is ourselves. We buy the truth when we know that we\ncannot earn it, and forsaking self-trust and self-pleasing, consent to\nreceive it as a free gift. 'Sell it not,'--let no material good or\nadvantage, no ease, slothfulness, or worldly success, tempt you to\ncast it away; for its 'fruit is better than gold,' and its 'revenue\nthan choice silver.' We shall make a bad bargain if we sell it for\nanything beneath the stars; for 'wisdom is better than rubies,' and he\nhas been cheated in the transaction who has given up 'the truth' and\ngot instead 'the whole world.'\n\n\n\nTHE AFTERWARDS AND OUR HOPE\n\n'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely\nthere is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off.'--PROVERBS\nxxiii. 17, 18.\n\n\nThe Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal,\nbut now and then the mists lift and a wider horizon is disclosed. Our\ntext is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not\nonly as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a\nvery striking way. 'Surely there is an end,' says our Authorised\nVersion, substituting in the margin, for end, 'reward.' The latter\nword is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither 'end'\nnor 'reward' conveys the precise idea. The word so translated\nliterally means 'something that comes after.' So it is the very\nopposite of 'end', it is really that which lies beyond the end--the\n'sequel,' or the 'future'--as the margin of the Revised Version gives\nalternatively, or, more simply still, the afterwards. Surely there is\nan afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify\none aspect of that afterwards: 'Thine expectation'--or, better,\nbecause more simply, thy hope--shall not be cut off. And then, upon\nthese two convictions that there is, if I might so say, an afterclap,\nand that it is the time and the sphere in which the fairest hopes that\na man can paint to himself shall be surpassed by the reality, it\nbuilds the plain partial exhortation: 'Be thou in the fear of the Lord\nall the day long.'\n\nSo then, we have three things here, the certainty of the afterwards,\nthe immortality of hope consequent thereon, and the bearing of these\nfacts on the present.\n\nI. The certainty of the hereafter.\n\nNow, this Book of Proverbs, as I have said in the great collection of\npopular sayings which makes the bulk of it, has no enthusiasm, no\npoetry, no mysticism. It has religion, and it has a very pure and\nlofty morality, but, for the most part, it deals with maxims of\nworldly prudence, and sometimes with cynical ones, and represents, on\nthe whole, the wisdom of the market-place, and the 'man in the\nstreet.' But now and then, as I have said, we hear strains of a higher\nmood. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to\npoint only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it\nwould be teaching us simply the very much needed lessons that even in\nthis life, 'Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' But it\nseems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other\nplaces in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life\nbeyond the grave. I need not trouble you with quoting parallel\npassages which are sown thinly up and down the book, but I venture to\ntake the words in the wider sense to which I have referred.\n\nNow, the question comes to be, where did the coiners of Proverbs,\nwhose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential\nmorality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty\nexperience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third\nPsalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard\nto a future life, where the Psalmist finds himself so completely\nblessed and well in present fellowship with God, that he must needs\npostulate its eternal continuance, and just because he has made God\nthe portion of his heart, and is holding fellowship with Him, is sure\nthat nothing can intervene to break that sweet communion. They did not\nget it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the\nresurrection of Jesus Christ, which has made that future life far more\nthan an inference for us, but they got it from thinking over the facts\nof this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from the\nstandpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they\nrepresent to us the impression that is made upon a man's mind, if he\nhas the 'eye that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality,' that is made\nby the facts of this earthly life--viz. that it is so full of\nonward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and\nyet wonderfully and hopefully. Incomplete and fragmentary in itself,\nthat there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to\nvindicate, the life that now is. And that aspect of fragmentary\nincompleteness is what I would insist upon for a moment now.\n\nYou sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of them has, in its\nouter gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for\nchimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that\nexternal wall says that the row is half built, and there are some more\ntenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live\nhere, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it,\ntoo, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the\nbookseller's catalogue, a book put down 'volume one; all that is\npublished.' That is our present life--volume one, all that is\npublished. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. Volume\ntwo is due, and will come, and it will be the continuation of volume\none.\n\nWhat is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face\nof the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find\nin our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the\nfact that, whilst 'foxes have holes' where they curl themselves up,\nand they are at rest, 'and the birds of the air have roosting-places,'\nwhere they tuck their heads beneath their wings and sleep, the 'son of\nman' hath not where to lay his head, but looks round upon the earth\nand says, 'The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy. I am a stranger on\nthe earth.' What is the meaning of it? Here is the meaning of it:\n'Surely there is a hereafter.'\n\nWhat is the meaning of the fact that lodged in men's natures there\nlies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not\nas though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through\nEternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath\nthe stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this:\nSurely there is a hereafter. The man that wrote the book of\nEcclesiastes, in his sceptical moment ere he had attained to his last\nconclusion, says, in a verse that is mistranslated in our rendering,\n'He hath set Eternity in their hearts, therefore the misery of man is\ngreat upon him.' That is true, because the root of all our unrest and\ndissatisfaction is that we need God, and God in Eternity, in order\nthat we may be at rest. But whilst on the one hand 'therefore the\nmisery of man is great upon him,' on the other hand, because Eternity\nis in our hearts, therefore there is the answer to the longings, the\nadequate sphere for the capacities in that great future, and in the\nGod that fills it. You go into the quarries left by reason of some\ngreat convulsion or disaster, by forgotten races, and you will find\nthere half excavated and rounded pillars still adhering to the matrix\nof the rock from which they were being hewn. Such unfinished abortions\nare all human lives if, when Death drops its curtain, there is an end.\n\nBut, brethren, God does not so clumsily disproportion His creatures\nand their place. God does not so cruelly put into men longings that\nhave no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that\nthere should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter.\nEvery human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity\nfor progress. Every human life, up to the very end, has been educated\nand trained, and that, surely, for something. There may be masters in\nworkshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the\nyears that are needed, and then turn round and say, 'I have no work\nfor you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else.' That is not\nhow God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work\nto do. Surely there is a hereafter,\n\nBut that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not\nonly a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent\non the present, and the outcome of it. The analogy of our earthly life\navails here. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the\nyesterdays and to-day are the parent of tomorrow. The past, our past,\nhas made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present\nis making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of\nthis life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we\nwere. There may be much on the surface changed, there will be much\ntaken away, thank God! dropped, necessarily, by the cessation of the\ncorporeal frame, and the connection into which it brings us with\nthings of sense. There will be much added, God only knows how much,\nbut the core of the man will remain untouched. 'We all are changed by\nstill degrees,' and suddenly at last 'All but the basis of the evil.'\nAnd so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and, 'what a\nman soweth, that shall he also reap.' Oh that they were wise, that\nthey understood this, that they would consider their afterward!\n\nII. Now, secondly, my text suggests the immortality of hope. 'Thine\nexpectation'--or rather, as I said, 'thy hope'--'shall not be cut\noff.' This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful\nsaying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, 'The\nrighteous hath hope in his death.' Ah! we all know how swiftly, as\nyears increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we\napproach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the\npossibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if\nthere is no afterwards, the dying man's hopes must necessarily die\nbefore he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a\ncave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you\nmay write over it Dante's grim word: 'All hope abandon, ye who enter\nhere.' But let in that thought, 'surely there is an afterwards,' and\nthe enclosed cave becomes a rock-passage, in which one can see the\narch of light at the far end of the tunnel; and as one passes through\nthe gloom, the eye can travel on to the pale radiance beyond, and\nanticipate the ampler ether, the diviner air, 'the brighter\nconstellations burning, mellow moons and happy stars,' that await us\nthere. 'The righteous hath hope in his death.' 'Thine expectation\nshall not be cut off.'\n\nBut, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a\ncondition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality.\nHere, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a\nfulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal\nlarger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted\nout and scaled. And I suppose that, on the whole, perhaps as much pain\nas pleasure comes from the hopes which are illusions far more often\nthan they are realities. They serve their purpose in whirling us along\nthe path of life and in stimulating effort, but they do not do much\nmore.\n\nBut there does come a time, if you believe that there is an\nafterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible\ngood for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of\nthe reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and\nwe shall have to say 'the half was not told to us.'\n\nAnd, further, if that afterwards is of the sort that we, through Jesus\nChrist and His resurrection and glory, know to be, then all through\nthe timeless eternity hope will be our guide. For after each fresh\ninflux of blessedness and knowledge we shall have to say 'it doth not\nyet appear what we shall be.' 'Thus now abideth'--and not only now,\nbut then and eternally--'these three--faith, hope, and charity,' and\nhope will never be cut off through all the stretch of that great\nafterwards.\n\nIII. And now, finally, notice the bearing of all this on the daily\npresent.\n\n'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.' The conviction of\nthe hereafter, and the blessed vision of hopes fulfilled, are not the\nonly reasons for that exhortation. A great deal of harm has been done,\nI am afraid, by well-meaning preachers who have drawn the bulk of\ntheir strongest arguments to persuade men to Christian faith from the\nthought of a future life. Why, if there were no future, it would be\njust as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to 'be in the\nfear of the Lord all the day long.' But seeing that there is that\nfuture, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet\nsubsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to 'be in\nthe fear of the Lord all the day long,' which being turned into\nChristian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with,\nand love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\n\nSurely, surely the very climax and bad eminence of folly is shutting\nthe eyes to that future that we all have to face; and to live here, as\nsome of you are doing, ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining,\nand confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things\npresent and visible. For to live so, as our text enjoins, is the sure\nway, and the only way, to make these great hopes realities for\nourselves.\n\nBrethren, that afterwards has two sides to it. The prophet Malachi, in\nalmost his last words, has a magnificent apocalypse of what he calls\n'the day of the Lord,' which he sets forth as having a double aspect.\nOn the one hand, it is lurid as a furnace, and burns up the wicked\nroot and branch. I saw a forest fire this last autumn, and the great\npine-trees stood there for a moment pyramids of flame, and then came\ndown with a crash. So that hereafter will be to godless men. And on\nthe other side, that 'day of the Lord' in the prophet's vision was\nradiant with the freshness and dew and beauty of morning, and the Sun\nof Righteousness arose with healing in his wings. Which of the two is\nit going to be to us? We have all to face it. We cannot alter that\nfact, but we can settle how we shall face it. It will be to either the\nfulfilment of blessed hope, the 'appearance of the glory of the great\nGod and our Saviour,' or else, as is said in this same Book of\nProverbs: 'The hope of the godless' shall be like one of those water\nplants, the papyrus or the flag, which, when the water is taken away,\n'withereth up before any other herb.' It is for us to determine\nwhether the afterwards that we must enter upon shall be the land in\nwhich our hopes shall blossom and fruit, and blossom again immortally,\nor whether we shall leave behind us, with all the rest that we would\nfain keep, the possibility of anticipating any good. 'Surely there is\nan afterwards,' and if thou wilt 'be in the fear of the Lord all the\nday long,' then for evermore 'thy hope shall not be cut off.'\n\n\n\nTHE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKYARD\n\n'Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath\nbabbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30.\nThey that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31.\nLook not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour\nin the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32. At the last it biteth\nlike a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33. Thine eyes shall\nbehold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34.\nYea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or\nas he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35. They have stricken me,\nshalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it\nnot: when shall I awake! I will seek it yet again.'--PROVERBS xxiii.\n29-35.\n\n\nThis vivid picture of the effects of drunkenness leaves its sinfulness\nand its wider consequences out of sight, and fixes attention on the\nsorry spectacle which a man makes of himself in body and mind when he\n'puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains.' Disgust and\nridicule are both expressed. The writer would warn his 'son' by\nimpressing the ugliness and ludicrousness of drunkenness. The argument\nis legitimate, though not the highest.\n\nThe vehement questions poured out on each other's heels in verse 29\nare hot with both loathing and grim laughter. The two words rendered\n'woe' and 'sorrow' are unmeaning exclamations, very like each other in\nsound, and imitating the senseless noises of the drunkard. They\nexpress discomfort as a dog might express it. They are howls rather\nthan words. That is one of the prerogatives won by drunkenness,--to\ncome down to the beasts' level, and to lose the power of articulate\nspeech. The quarrelsomeness which goes along with certain stages of\nintoxication, and the unmeaning maudlin misery and whimpering into\nwhich it generally passes, are next coupled together.\n\nThen come a pair of effects on the body. The tipsy man cannot take\ncare of himself, and reeling against obstacles, or falling over them,\nwounds himself, and does not know where the scratches and blood came\nfrom. 'Redness of eyes' is, perhaps, rather 'darkness,' meaning\nthereby dim sight, or possibly 'black eyes,' as we say,--a frequent\naccompaniment of drunkenness, and corresponding to the wounds in the\nprevious clause. It is a hideous picture, and one that should be\nburned in on the imagination of every young man and woman. The\nliquor-sodden, miserable wrecks that are found in thousands in our\ngreat cities, of whom this is a picture, were, most of them, in\nSunday-schools in their day. The next generation of such poor\ncreatures are, many of them, in Sunday-schools now, and may be reading\nthis passage to-day.\n\nThe answer to these questions has a touch of irony in it. The people\nwho win as their possessions these six precious things have to sit up\nlate to earn them. What a noble cause in which to sacrifice sleep, and\nturn night into day! And they pride themselves on being connoisseurs\nin the several vintages; they 'know a good glass of wine when they see\nit.' What a noble field for investigation! What a worthy use of the\nfaculties of comparison and judgment! And how desirable the prizes won\nby such trained taste and delicate discrimination!\n\nIn verses 31 and 32 weighty warning and dehortation follow, based in\npart on the preceding picture. The writer thinks that the only way of\nsure escape from the danger is to turn away even the eyes from the\ntemptation. He is not contented with saying 'taste not,' but he goes\nthe whole length of 'look not'; and that because the very sparkle and\ncolour may attract. 'When it is red' might perhaps better be rendered\n'when it reddens itself,' suggesting the play of colour, as if put\nforth by the wine itself. The word rendered in the Authorised Version\nand Revised Version 'colour' is literally 'eye,' and probably means\nthe beaded bubbles winking on the surface. 'Moveth itself aright'\n(Authorised Version) is not so near the meaning as 'goeth down\nsmoothly' (Revised Version). The whole paints the attractiveness to\nsense of the wine-cup in colour, effervescence, and taste.\n\nAnd then comes in, with startling abruptness, the end of all this\nfascination,--a serpent's bite and a basilisk's sting. The kind of\npoisonous snake meant in the last clause of verse 32 is doubtful, but\ncertainly is one much more formidable than an adder. The serpent's\nlithe gracefulness and painted skin hide a fatal poison; and so the\nattractive wine-cup is sure to ruin those who look on it. The evil\nconsequences are pursued in more detail in what follows.\n\nBut here we must note two points. The advice given is to keep entirely\naway from the temptation. 'Look not' is safe policy in regard of many\nof the snares for young lives that abound in our modern society. It is\nnot at all needful to 'see life,' or to know the secrets of\nwickedness, in order to be wise and good. 'Simple concerning evil' is\na happier state than to have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge.\nMany a young man has been ruined, body and soul, by a prurient\ncuriosity to know what sort of life dissipated men and women led, or\nwhat sort of books they were against which he was warned, or what kind\nof a place a theatre was, and so on. Eyes are greedy, and there is a\nvery quick telephone from them to the desires. 'The lust of the eye'\nsoon fans the 'lust of the flesh' into a glow. There are plenty of\ndepths of Satan gaping for young feet; and on the whole, it is safer\nand happier not to know them, and so not to have defiling memories,\nnor run the risk of falling into fatal sins. Whether the writer of\nthis stern picture of a drunkard was a total abstainer or not, the\nspirit of his counsel not to 'look on the wine' is in full accord with\nthat practice. It is very clear that if a man is a total abstainer, he\ncan never be a drunkard. As much cannot be said of the moderate man.\n\nNote too, how in all regions of life, the ultimate results of any\nconduct are the important ones. Consequences are hard to calculate,\nand they do not afford a good guidance for action. But there are many\nlines of conduct of which the consequences are not hard to calculate,\nbut absolutely certain. It is childish to take a course because of a\nmoment's gratification at the beginning, to be followed by protracted\ndiscomfort afterwards. To live for present satisfaction of desires,\nand to shut one's eyes tight against known and assured results of an\nopposite sort, cannot be the part of a sensible man, to say nothing of\na religious one. So moralists have been preaching ever since there was\nsuch a thing as temptation in the world; and men have assented to the\ncommon sense of the teaching, and then have gone straight away and\ndone the exact opposite.\n\n'What shall the end be?' ought to be the question at every beginning.\nIf we would cultivate the habit of holding present satisfactions in\nsuspense, and of giving no weight to present advantages until we saw\nright along the road to the end of the journey, there would be fewer\nfailures, and fewer weary, disenchanted old men and women, to lament\nthat the harvest they had to reap and feed on was so bitter. There are\nother and higher reasons against any kind of fleshly indulgence than\nthat at the last it bites like a serpent, and with a worse poison than\nserpent's sting ever darted; but that is a reason, and young hearts,\nwhich are by their very youth blessedly unused to look forward, will\nbe all the happier to-day, and all the surer of to-morrow's good, if\nthey will learn to say, 'And afterwards--what?'\n\nThe passage passes to a renewed description of the effects of\nintoxication, in which the disgusting and the ludicrous aspects of it\nare both made prominent. Verse 33 seems to describe the excited\nimagination of the drunkard, whose senses are no longer under his\ncontrol, but play him tricks that make him a laughingstock to sober\npeople. One might almost take the verse to be a description of\ndelirium tremens. 'Strange things' are seen, and perverse things (that\nis, unreal, or ridiculous) are stammered out. The writer has a keen\nsense of the humiliation to a man of being thus the fool of his own\nbewildered senses, and as keen a one of the absurd spectacle he\npresents; and he warns his 'son' against coming down to such a depth\nof degradation.\n\nIt may be questioned whether the boasted quickening and brightening\neffects of alcohol are not always, in a less degree, that same\nbeguiling of sense and exciting of imagination which, in their extreme\nform, make a man such a pitiable and ridiculous sight. It is better to\nbe dull and see things as they are, than to be brilliant and see\nthings larger, brighter, or any way other than they are, because we\nsee them through a mist. Imagination set agoing by such stimulus, will\nnot work to as much purpose as if aroused by truth. God's world, seen\nby sober eyes, is better than rosy dreams of it. If we need to draw\nour inspiration from alcohol, we had better remain uninspired. If we\ndesire to know the naked truth of things, the less we have to do with\nstrong drink the better. Clear eyesight and self-command are in some\ndegree impaired by it always. The earlier stages are supposed to be\nexhilaration, increased brilliancy of fancy and imagination, expanded\ngood-fellowship, and so on. The latter stages are these in our\npassage, when strange things dance before cheated eyes, and strange\nwords speak themselves out of lips which their owner no longer\ncontrols. Is that a condition to be sought after? If not, do not get\non to the road that leads to it.\n\nVerse 34 adds another disgusting and ridiculous trait. A man who\nshould try to lie down and go to sleep in the heart of the sea or on\nthe masthead of a ship would be a manifest fool, and would not keep\nlife in him for long. One has seen drunken men laying themselves down\nto sleep in places as exposed and as ridiculous as these; and one\nknows the look of the heavy lump of insensibility lying helpless on\npublic roads, or on railway tracks, or anywhere where the fancy took\nhim. The point of the verse seems to be the drunken man's utter loss\nof sense of fitness, and complete incapacity to take care of himself.\nHe cannot estimate dangers. The very instinct of self-preservation has\nforsaken him. There he lies, though as sure to be drowned as if he\nwere in the depth of the sea, though on as uncomfortable a bed as if\nhe were rocking on a masthead, where he could not balance himself.\n\nThe torpor of verse 34 follows on the unnatural excitement of verse\n33, as, in fact, the bursts of uncontrolled energy in which the man\nsees and says strange things, are succeeded by a collapse. One moment\nraging in excitement caused by imaginary sights, the next huddled\ntogether in sleep like death,--what a sight the man is! The teacher\nhere would have his 'son' consider that he may come to that, if he\nlooks on the wine-cup. '_Thou_ shalt be' so and so. It is very\nimpolite, but very necessary, to press home the individual application\nof pictures like this, and to bid bright young men and women look at\nthe wretched creatures they may see hanging about liquor shops, and\nremember that they may come to be such as these.\n\nVerse 35 finishes the picture. The tipsy man's soliloquy puts the\ncopestone on his degradation. He has been beaten, and never felt it.\nApparently he is beginning to stir in his sleep, though not fully\nawake; and the first thing he discovers when he begins to feel himself\nover is that he has been beaten and wounded, and remembers nothing\nabout it. A degrading anaesthetic is drink. Better to bear all ills\nthan to drown them by drowning consciousness. There is no blow which a\nman cannot bear better if he holds fast by God's hand and keeps\nhimself fully exposed to the stroke, than if he sought a cowardly\nalleviation of it, softer the drunkard's fashion.\n\nBut the pains of his beating and the discomforts of his waking do not\ndeter the drunkard. 'When shall I awake?' He is not fully awake yet,\nso as to be able to get up and go for another drink. He is in the\nstage of feeling sorry for himself, and examining his bruises, but he\nwishes he were able to shake off the remaining drowsiness, that he\nmight 'seek yet again' for his curse. The tyranny of desire, which\nwakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the\nenfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields\nat once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard's\nlife. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the\ncraving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether.\nDoctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical\ndisease. Yes; but it is a disease manufactured by the patient, and he\nis responsible for getting himself into such a state.\n\nThis tragic picture proves that there were many originals of it in the\ndays when it was painted. Probably there are far more, in proportion\nto population, in our times. The warning it peals out was never more\nneeded than now. Would that all preachers, parents, and children laid\nit to heart and took the advice not even to 'look upon the wine'!\n\n\nTHE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE\n\n'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those\nthat are ready to be slain; 12. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it\nnot; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that\nkeepeth thy soul, doth not he render to every man according to his\nworks?'--PROVERBS xxiv. 11, 12.\n\n\nWhat is called the missionary spirit is nothing else than the\nChristian church working in a particular direction. If a man has a\nconviction, the health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he\nhas learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a\nduty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak\nwhat he believes. On these common grounds rests the whole obligation\nof Christ's followers to speak the Gospel which they have received;\nonly the obligation presses on them with greater force because of the\nhigher worth of the word and the deeper misery of men without it. The\ntext contains nothing specially bearing on Christian missions, but it\ndeals with the fault which besets us all in our relations and in life:\nand the wholesome truths which it utters apply to our duties in regard\nto Christian missions because they apply to our duties in regard to\nevery misery within our reach. They speak of the murderous cruelty and\nblack sin of negligence to save any whom we can help from any sort of\nmisery which threatens them. They appear to me to suggest four\nthoughts which I would now deal with:--\n\nI. The crime of negligence.\n\nNot to use any power is a sin; to omit to do anything that we can do\nis a crime: to withhold a help that we can render is to participate in\nthe authorship of all the misery that we have failed to relieve. He\nwho neglects to save a life, kills. There are more murderers than\nthose who lift violent hands with malice aforethought against a hated\nlife. Rulers or communities who leave people uncared for to die, who\nsuffer swarming millions to live where the air is poison and the light\nis murky, and first the soul and then the body, are dwarfed and die;\nthe incompetent men in high places, and the indolent ones in low,\nwhose selfishness brings, and whose blundering blindness allows to\ncontinue, the conditions that are fatal to life--on these the guilt of\nblood lies. Violence slays its thousands, but supine negligence slays\nits tens of thousands.\n\nAnd when we pass from these merely physical conditions to think of the\nworld and of the Church in the world, where shall we find words\nweighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the\nunthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ's\nprofessed followers? There is nothing which the ordinary type of\nChristian, so called, more needs than to be aroused to a living sense\nof personal responsibility for all the unalleviated misery of the\nworld. For every one who has laid the sorrows of humanity on his\nheart, and has felt them in any measure as his own, there are a\nhundred to whom these make no appeal and give no pang. Within ear-shot\nof our churches and chapels there are squalid aggregations of stunted\nand festering manhood, of whom it is only too true that they are\n'drawn unto death' and 'ready to be slain,' and yet it would be an\nexaggeration to say that the bulk of our congregations cast even a\nlanguid eye of compassion upon those, to say nothing of stretching out\na hand to help. It needs to be dinned, far more than it is at present,\ninto every professing Christian that each of us has an obligation\nwhich cannot be ignored or shuffled off, to acquaint ourselves with\nthe glaring facts that force themselves upon all thoughtful men, and\nthat the measure of our power is the measure of our obligation. The\nquestion, Has the church done its best to deliver these? needs to be\nsharpened to the point of 'Have I done my best?' And the vision of\nmultitudes perishing in the slums of a great city needs to be expanded\ninto the vision of dim millions perishing in the wide world.\n\nII. The excuse of negligence.\n\nThe shuffling plea, 'Behold we knew it not,' is a cowardly lie. It\nadmits the responsibility to knowledge and pretends an ignorance which\nit knows to be partly a false excuse, and in so far as it is true, to\nbe our own fault. We are bound to know, and the most ignorant of us\ndoes know, and cannot help knowing, enough to condemn our negligence.\nHow many of us have ever tried to find out how the pariahs of\ncivilisation live who live beside us? Our ignorance so far as it is\nreal is the result of a sinful indolence. And there is a sadder form\nof it in an ignorance which is the result of familiarity. We all know\nhow custom dulls our impressions. It is well that it should be so, for\na surgeon would be fit for little if he trembled and was shaken at the\nsight of the tumour he had to work to remove, as we should be; but his\nfamiliarity with misery does not harden him, because he seeks to\nremove the suffering with which he has become familiar. But that same\nfamiliarity does harden and injure the whole nature of the onlooker\nwho does nothing to alleviate it. Then there is an ignorance of other\nsuffering which is the result of selfish absorption in one's own\nconcerns. The man who is caring for himself only, and whose thoughts\nand feelings all flow in the direction of his own success, may see\nspread before him the most poignant sorrows without feeling one throb\nof brotherly compassion and without even being aware of what his eyes\nsee. So, in so far as the excuse 'we knew it not' is true, it is no\nexcuse, but an indictment. It lays bare the true reason of the\ncriminal negligence as being a yet more criminal callousness as to the\nwoe and loss in which such crowds of men whom we ought to recognise as\nbrethren are sunken.\n\nIII. The condemnation of negligence.\n\nThe great example of God is put forward in the text as the contrast to\nall this selfish negligence. Note the twofold description of Him given\nhere, 'He that pondereth the heart,' and 'He that keepeth thy soul.'\nThe former of these presents to us God's sedulous watching of the\nhearts of men, in contrast to our indolent and superficial looks; and\nin this divine attitude we find the awful condemnation of our\ndisregard of our fellows. God 'takes pain,' so to speak, to see after\nHis children. Are they not bound to look lovingly on each other? God\nseeks to know them. Are they not bound to know one another? Lofty\ndisregard of human suffering is not _God's_ way. Is it ours? He\n'looks down from the height of His sanctuary to hear the crying of the\nprisoner.' Should not we stoop from our mole-hill to see it? God has\nnot too many concerns on His hands to mark the obscurest sorrow and be\nready to help it. And shall we plead that we are too busy with petty\npersonal concerns to take interest in helping the sorrows and fighting\nagainst the sins of the world?\n\nNo less eloquently does the other name which is here applied to God\nrebuke our negligence. 'He preserveth thy soul.' By His divine care\nand communication of life, we live; and surely the soul thus preserved\nis thereby bound to be a minister of preservation to all that are\n'ready to be slain.' The strongest motive for seeking to save others\nis that God has saved us. Thus this name for God touches closely upon\nthe great Christian thought, 'Christ has given Himself for me.' And in\nthat thought we find the true condemnation of a Christianity which has\nnot caught from Him the enthusiasm for self-surrender, and the passion\nfor saving the outcast and forlorn. If to be a Christian is to imitate\nChrist, then the name has little application to those who see 'them\nthat are drawn to death,' and turn from them unconcerned and\nunconscious of responsibility.\n\nIV. The judgment of negligence.\n\n'Doth not He render to every man according to his works?' There is\nsuch a judgment both in the present and in the future for Christian\nmen as for others. And not only what they do, but what they\ninconsistently fail to do, comes into the category of their works, and\ninfluences their position. It does so in the present, for no man can\ncherish such a maimed Christian life as makes such negligence possible\nwithout robbing himself of much that would tend to his own growth in\ngrace and likeness to Jesus Christ. The unfaithful servant is poorer\nby the pound hidden in the napkin which might all the while have been\nlaid out at interest with the money-changers, which would have\nincreased the income whilst the lord was absent. We rob ourselves of\nblessed sympathies and of the still more blessed joy of service, and\nof the yet more blessed joy of successful effort, by our indolence and\nour negligence. Let us not forget that our works do follow us in this\nlife as in the life to come, and that it is here as well as hereafter,\nthat he that goeth forth with a full basket and scatters the precious\nseed with weeping, and yet with joy, shall doubtless come again\nbringing his sheaves with him. And if we stretch our view to take in\nthe life beyond, what gladness can match that of the man who shall\nenter there with some who will be his joy and crown of rejoicing in\nthat day, and of whom he shall be able to say, 'Behold I and the\nchildren whom Thou hast given me!'\n\nI venture earnestly to appeal to all my hearers for more faithful\ndischarge of this duty. I pray you to open your ears to hear, and your\neyes to see, and your hearts to feel, and last of all, your hands to\nhelp, the miseries of the world. Solemn duties wait upon great\nprivileges. It is an awful trust to have Christ and His gospel\ncommitted to our care. We get it because from One who lived no life of\nluxurious ease, but felt all the woes of humanity which He redeemed,\nand forbore not to deliver us from death, though at the cost of His\nown. We get it for no life of silken indolence or selfish disregard of\nthe sorrows of our brethren. If there is one tear we could have dried\nand didn't, or one wound we could have healed and didn't, that is a\nsin; if we could have lightened the great heap of sorrow by one grain\nand didn't, that is a sin; and if there be one soul that perishes\nwhich we might have saved and didn't, the negligence is not merely the\nomission of a duty, but the doing of a deed which will be 'rendered to\nus according to our works.'\n\n\n\nTHE SLUGGARD'S GARDEN\n\n'I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man\nvoid of understanding; 31. And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns,\nand nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof\nwas broken down.'--PROVERBS xxiv. 30, 31.\n\n\nThis picture of the sluggard's garden seems to be intended as a\nparable. No doubt its direct simple meaning is full of homely wisdom\nin full accord with the whole tone of the Book of Proverbs; but we\nshall scarcely do justice to this saying of the wise if we do not see\nin 'the ground grown over with thorns,' and 'the stone wall thereof\nbroken down,' an apologue of the condition of a soul whose owner has\nneglected to cultivate and tend it.\n\nI. Note first who the slothful man is.\n\nThe first plain meaning of the word is to be kept in view. The whole\nBook of Proverbs brands laziness as the most prolific source of\npoverty. Honest toil is to it the law of life. It is never weary of\nreiterating 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; and it\ncondemns all swift modes of getting riches without labour. No doubt\nthe primitive simplicity of life as set forth in this book seems far\nbehind the many ingenuities by which in our days the law is evaded.\nHow much of Stock Exchange speculation and 'Company promoters'\ngambling would survive the application of the homely old law?\n\nBut it is truer in the inward life than in the outward that 'the hand\nof the diligent maketh rich.' After all, the differences between men\nwho truly 'succeed' and the human failures, which are so frequent, are\nmore moral than intellectual. It has been said that genius is, after\nall, 'the capacity for taking infinite pains'; and although that is an\nexaggerated statement, and an incomplete analysis, there is a great\ntruth in it, and it is the homely virtue of hard work which tells in\nthe long run, and without which the most brilliant talents effect but\nlittle. However gifted a man may be, he will be a failure if he has\nnot learned the great secret of dogged persistence in often unwelcomed\ntoil. No character worth building up is built without continuous\neffort. If a man does not labour to be good, he will surely become\nbad. It is an old axiom that no man attains superlative wickedness all\nat once, and most certainly no man leaps to the height of the goodness\npossible to his nature by one spring. He has laboriously, and step by\nstep, to climb the hill. Progress in moral character is secured by\nlong-continued walking upwards, not by a jump.\n\nWe note that in our text 'the slothful' is paralleled by 'the man void\nof understanding'; and the parallel suggests the stupidity in such a\nworld as this of letting ourselves develop according to whims, or\ninclinations, or passions; and also teaches that 'understanding' is\nmeant to be rigidly and continuously brought to bear on actions as\ndirector and restrainer. If the ship is not to be wrecked on the rocks\nor to founder at sea, Wisdom's hand must hold the helm. Diligence\nalone is not enough unless directed by 'understanding.'\n\nII. What comes of sloth.\n\nThe description of the sluggard's garden brings into view two things,\nthe abundant, because unchecked, growth of profitless weeds, and the\nbroken down stone wall. Both of these results are but too sadly and\nevidently true in regard to every life where rigid and continuous\ncontrol has not been exercised. It is a familiar experience known,\nalas! to too many of us, that evil things, of which the seeds are in\nus all, grow up unchecked if there be not constant supervision and\nself-command. If we do not carefully cultivate our little plot of\ngarden ground, it will soon be overgrown by weeds. 'Ill weeds grow\napace' as the homely wisdom of common experience crystallises into a\nsignificant proverb. And Jesus has taught the sadder truth that\n'thorns spring up and choke the word and it becometh unfruitful.' In\nthe slothful man's soul evil will drive out good as surely as in the\nstruggle for existence the thorns and nettles will cover the face of\nthe slothful man's garden. In country places we sometimes come across\na ruined house with what was a garden round it, and here and there\nstill springs up a flower seeking for air and light in the midst of a\nsmothering mass of weeds. _They_ needed no kindly gardener's hand\nto make them grow luxuriantly; can barely put out a pale petal unless\ncared for and guarded.\n\nBut not only is there this unchecked growth, but 'the stone wall\nthereof was broken down.' The soul was unfenced. The solemn imperative\nof duty ceases to restrain or to impel in proportion as a man yields\nslothfully to the baser impulses of his nature. Nothing is hindered\nfrom going out of, nor for coming into, an unfenced soul, and he that\n'hath no rule over his own spirit,' but is like a 'city broken down\nwithout walls,' is certain sooner or later to let much go forth from\nthat spirit that should have bean rigidly shut up, and to let many an\nenemy come in that will capture the city. It is not yet safe to let\nany of the fortifications fall into disrepair, and they can only be\nkept in their massive strength by continuous vigilance.\n\nIII. How sloth excuses itself.\n\nOur text is followed at the distance of one verse with what seemed to\nbe the words of the sluggard in answer to the attempt to awake him:\n'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands\nto sleep.' They are a quotation from an earlier chapter (ch. vi.)\nwhere 'His Laziness' is sent to 'consider the ways of the ant and be\nwise.' They are a drowsy petition which does not dispute the wisdom of\nthe call to awake, but simply craves for a little more luxurious\nlaziness from which he has unwillingly been aroused. And is it not\ntrue that we admit too late the force of the summons and yet shrink\nfrom answering it? Do we not cheat ourselves and try to deceive God\nwith the promise that we will set about amendment soon? This indolent\nsleeper asks only for a _little_: 'A little sleep, a little\nslumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.' Do we not all know\nthat mood of mind which confesses our slothfulness and promises to be\nwide awake tomorrow but would fain bargain to be left undisturbed\ntoday? The call 'Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead!'\nrings from Christ's lips in the ears of every man, and he who answers,\n'I will presently, but must sleep a little longer,' may seem to\nhimself to have complied with the call, but has really refused it. The\n'little more' generally becomes _much_ more; and the answer\n'presently' alas! too often becomes the answer 'never.' When a man is\nroused so as to be half awake, the only safety for him is\n_immediately_ to rise and clothe himself; the head that drowsily\ndroops back on the pillow after he has heard the morning's call, is\nlikely to lie there long. Now, not 'by-and-by' is the time to shake\noff the bonds of sloth to cultivate our garden.\n\nIV. How sloth ends.\n\nThe sleeper's slumber is dramatically represented as being awakened by\narmed robbers who bring a grim awakening. 'Poverty' and 'want' break\nin on his 'folding hands to sleep.' That is true as regards the\noutward life, where indulgence in literal slothfulness brings want,\nand the whole drift of things executes on the sluggard the sentence\nthat if 'any man will not work, neither shall he eat.'\n\nBut the picture is more sadly and fatally true concerning the man who\nhas made his earthly life 'a little sleep' as concerns heavenly\nthings, and in spite of his beseechings, is roused to life and\nconsciousness of himself and of God by death. That man's 'poverty' in\nhis lack of all that is counted as wealth in the world of realities to\nwhich he goes will indeed come as a robber. I would press upon you all\nthe plain question, Is this fatal slothfulness characteristic of me?\nIt may co-exist with, and indeed is often the consequence of vehement\nenergy and continuous work to secure wealth, or wisdom, or material\ngood; and the contrast between a man who is all eagerness in regard to\nthe things that don't matter, and all carelessness in regard to the\nthings that do, is the tragedy of life amongst us. My friend! if\n_your_ garden has been suffered by you to be overgrown with\nweeds, be sure of this, that one day you will be awakened from the\nslumber that you would fain continue, and will find yourself in a life\nwhere your 'poverty' will come as a robber and your want of all which\n_there_ is counted treasure 'as an armed man.'\n\nOne word more. Christ's parable of the sower may be brought into\nrelationship with this parable. He sows the true seed in our hearts,\nbut when sown, it, too, has to be cared for and tended. If it is sown\nin the sluggard's garden, it will bring forth few ears, and the tares\nwill choke the wheat.\n\n\n\nAN UNWALLED CITY\n\n'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is\nbroken down, and without walls.'--PROVERBS xxv. 28.\n\n\nThe text gives us a picture of a state of society when an unwalled\ncity is no place for men to dwell in. In the Europe of today there are\nstill fortified places, but for the most part, battlements are turned\ninto promenades; the gateways are gateless; the sweet flowers blooming\nwhere armed feet used to tread; and men live securely without bolts\nand bars. But their spirits cannot yet afford to raise their defences\nand fling themselves open to all comers.\n\nWe may see here three points: the city defenceless, or human nature as\nit is; the city defended, human nature as it may be in Christ; the\ncity needing no defence, human nature as it will be in heaven.\n\nI. The city defenceless, or human nature as it is.\n\nHere we are in a state of warfare which calls for constant shutting\nout of enemies. Temptations are everywhere; our foes compass us like\nbees; evils of many sorts seduce. We can picture to ourselves some\nlittle garrison holding a lonely outpost against lurking savages ready\nto attack if ever the defenders slacken their vigilance for a moment.\nAnd that is the truer picture of human nature as it is than the one by\nwhich most men are deluded. Life is not a playground, but an arena of\ngrim, earnest fighting. No man does right in his sleep; no man does\nright without a struggle.\n\nThe need for continual vigilance and self-control comes from the very\nmake of our souls, for our nature is not a democracy, but a kingdom.\nIn us all there are passions, desires, affections, all of which may\nlead to vice or to virtue: and all of which evidently call out for\ndirection, for cultivation, and often for repression. Then there are\npeculiarities of individual character which need watching lest they\nbecome excessive and sinful. Further, there are qualities which need\ncareful cultivation and stimulus to bring them into due proportion. We\neach of us receive, as it were, an undeveloped self, and have\nentrusted to us potential germs which come to nothing, or shoot up\nwith a luxuriance that stifles unless we exercise a controlling power.\nBesides all this, we all carry in us tendencies which are positively,\nand only, sinful. There would be no temptation if there were no such.\n\nBut the slightest inspection of our own selves clearly points out, not\nonly what in us needs to be controlled, but that in us which is\n_meant_ to control. The will is regal; conscience is meant to\ngovern the will, and its voice is but the echo of God's law.\n\nBut, while all this is true, it is too sadly true that the\naccomplishment of this ideal is impossible in our own strength. Our\nown sad experience tells us that we cannot govern ourselves; and our\nobservations of our brethren but too surely indicate that they too are\nthe prey of rebellious, anarchical powers within, and of temptations,\nagainst the rush of which they and we are as powerless as a voyager in\na bark-canoe, caught in the fatal drift of Niagara. Conscience has a\nvoice, but no hands; it can speak, but if its voice fails, it cannot\nhold us back. From its chair it can bid the waves breaking at our feet\nroll back, as the Saxon king did, but their tossing surges are deaf.\nAs helpless as the mud walls of some Indian hill-fort against modern\nartillery, is the defence, in one's own strength, of one's own self\nagainst the world. We would gladly admit that the feeblest may do much\nto 'keep himself unspotted from the world'; but we must, if we\nrecognise facts, confess that the strongest cannot do all. No man can\nalone completely control his own nature; no man, unenlightened by God,\nhas a clear, full view of duty, nor a clear view of himself. Always\nthere is some unguarded place:\n\n  'Unless above himself he can\n  Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!'\n\nbut no man can so lift himself so as that self will not drag him down.\nThe walls are broken down and the troops of the spoilers sack the\ncity.\n\nII. The defended city, or human nature as it may be in Christ.\n\nIf our previous remarks are true, they give us material for judging\nhow far the counsels of some very popular moral teachers should be\nfollowed. It is a very old advice, 'know thyself; and it is a very\nmodern one that\n\n  'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control\n  Lead life to sovereign power.'\n\nBut if these counsels are taken absolutely and without reference to\nChrist and His work, they are 'counsels of despair,' demanding what we\ncannot give, and promising what they cannot bestow. When we know\nChrist, we shall know ourselves; when He is the self of ourselves,\nthen, and only then, shall we reverence and can we control the inner\nman. The city of Mansoul will then be defended when 'the peace of God\nkeeps our hearts and minds in Jesus.'\n\nHe who submits himself to Christ is lord of himself as none else are.\nHe has a light within which teaches him what is sin. He has a love\nwithin which puts out the flame of temptation, as the sun does a coal\nfire. He has a motive to resist; he has power for resistance; he has\nhope in resisting. Only thus are the walls broken down rebuilded. And\nas Christ builds our city on firmer foundations, He will appear in His\nglory, and will 'lay the windows in agates, and all thy borders in\nprecious stones.' The sure way to bring our ruined earth, 'without\nform and void,' into a cosmos of light and beauty, is to open our\nspirit for the Spirit of God to 'brood upon the face of the waters.'\nOtherwise the attempts to rule over our own spirit will surely fail;\nbut if we let Christ rule over our spirit, then it will rule itself.\n\nBut let us ever remember that he who thus submits to Christ, and can\ntruly say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in _me_,' still\nneeds defence. The strife does not thereby cease; the enemies still\nswarm; sin is not removed. There will be war to the end, and war for\never; but He will 'keep our heads in the day of battle'; and though\noften we may be driven from the walls, and outposts may be lost, and\ngaping breaches made, yet the citadel shall be safe. If only we see to\nit that '_He_ is the glory in the midst of us,' He will be 'a\nwall of fire round about us.' Our nature as it may be in Christ is a\nwalled city as needing defence, and as possessing the defence which it\nneeds.\n\nIII. The city defenceless, and needing no defence; that is, human\nnature as it will be hereafter.\n\n'The gates shall not be shut day nor night,' for 'every thing that\ndefileth' is without. We know but little of that future, what we know\nwill, surely, be theirs who here have been 'guarded by the power of\nGod, through faith, unto salvation.' That salvation will bring with it\nthe end for the need of guardianship; though it leaves untouched the\nblessed dependence, we shall stand secure when it is impossible to\nfall. And that impossibility will be realised, partly, as we know,\nfrom change in surroundings, partly from the dropping away of flesh,\npartly from the entire harmony of our souls with the will of God. Our\nignorance of that future is great, but our knowledge of it is greater,\nand our certainty of it is greatest of all.\n\nThis is what we may become. Dear friends! toil no longer at the\nendless, hopeless task of ruling those turbulent souls of yours; you\ncan never rebuild the walls already fallen. Give up toiling to attain\ncalmness, peace, self-command. Let Christ do all for you, and let Him\nin to dwell in you and be all to you. Builded on the true Rock, we\nshall stand stately and safe amid the din of war. He will watch over\nus and dwell in us, and we shall be as 'a city set on a hill,'\nimpregnable, a virgin city. So may it be with each of us while strife\nshall last, and hereafter we may quietly hope to be as a city without\nwalls, and needing none; for they that hated us shall be far away, for\nbetween us and them is 'a great gulf fixed,' so that they cannot cross\nit to disturb us any more; and we shall dwell in the city of God, of\nwhich the name is Salem, the city of peace, whose King is Himself, its\nDefender and its Rock, its Fortress and its high Tower.\n\n\n\nTHE WEIGHT OF SAND\n\n'The sand is weighty.'--PROVERBS, xxvii. 3.\n\n\nThis Book of Proverbs has a very wholesome horror of the character\nwhich it calls 'a fool'; meaning thereby, not so much intellectual\nfeebleness as moral and religious obliquity, which are the stupidest\nthings that a man can be guilty of. My text comes from a very\npicturesque and vivid description, by way of comparison, of the fatal\neffects of such a man's passion. The proverb-maker compares two heavy\nthings, stones and sand, and says that they are feathers in comparison\nwith the immense lead-like weight of such a man's wrath.\n\nNow I have nothing more to do with the immediate application of my\ntext. I want to make a parable out of it. What is lighter than a grain\nof sand? What is heavier than a bagful of it? As the grains fall one\nby one, how easily they can be blown away! Let them gather, and they\nbury temples, and crush the solid masonry of pyramids. 'Sand is\nweighty.' The accumulation of light things is overwhelmingly\nponderous. Are there any such things in our lives? If there are, what\nought we to do? So you get the point of view from which I want to look\nat the words of our text.\n\nI. The first suggestion that I make is that they remind us of the\nsupreme importance of trifles.\n\nIf trivial acts are unimportant, what signifies the life of man? For\nninety-nine and a half per cent. of every man's life is made up of\nthese light nothings; and unless there is potential greatness in them,\nand they are of importance, then life is all 'a tale told by an idiot,\nfull of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Small things make life;\nand if are small, then _it_ is so too.\n\nBut remember, too, that the supreme importance of so-called trivial\nactions is seen in this, that there may be every bit as much of the\nnoblest things that belong to humanity condensed in, and brought to\nbear upon, the veriest trifle that a man can do, as on the greatest\nthings that he can perform. We are very poor judges of what is great\nand what is little. We have a very vulgar estimate that noise and\nnotoriety and the securing of, not _great_ but 'big,' results of\na material kind make the deeds by which they are secured, great ones.\nAnd we think that it is the quiet things, those that do not tell\noutside at all, that are the small ones.\n\nWell! here is a picture for you. Half-a-dozen shabby, travel-stained\nJews, sitting by a river-side upon the grass, talking to a handful of\nwomen outside the gates of a great city. Years before that, there had\nbeen what the world calls a great event, almost on the same ground--a\nsanguinary fight, that had settled the emperorship of the then\ncivilised world, for a time. I want to know whether the first\npreaching of the Gospel in Europe by the Apostle Paul, or the battle\nof Philippi, was the great event, and which of the two was the little\none. I vote for the Jews on the grass, and let all the noise of the\nfight, though it reverberated through the world for a bit, die away,\nas 'a little dust that rises up, and is lightly laid again.' Not the\nnoisy events are the great ones; and as much true greatness may be\nmanifested in a poor woman stitching in her garret as in some of the\nthings that have rung through the world and excited all manner of\nvulgar applause. Trifles may be, and often are, the great things in\nlife.\n\nAnd then remember, too, how the most trivial actions have a strange\nknack of all at once leading on to large results, beyond what could\nhave been expected. A man shifts his seat in a railway carriage, from\nsome passing whim, and five minutes afterwards there comes a\ncollision, and the bench where he had been sitting is splintered up,\nand the place where he is sitting is untouched, and the accidental\nmove has saved his life. According to the old story a boy, failing in\napplying for a situation, stoops down in the courtyard and picks up a\npin, and the millionaire sees him through the window, and it makes his\nfortune. We cannot tell what may come of anything; and since we do not\nknow the far end of our deeds, let us be quite sure that we have got\nthe near end of them right. Whatever may be the issue, let us look\nafter the motive, and then all will be right. Small seeds grow to be\ngreat trees, and in this strange and inexplicable network of things\nwhich men call circumstances, and Christians call Providence, the only\nthing certain is that 'great' and 'small' all but cease to be a\ntenable, and certainly altogether cease to be an important\ndistinction.\n\nThen another thing which I would have you remember is, that it is\nthese trivial actions which, in their accumulated force, make\ncharacter. Men are not made by crises. The crises reveal what we have\nmade ourselves by the trifles. The way in which we do the little\nthings forms the character according to which we shall act when the\ngreat things come. If the crew of a man-of-war were not exercised at\nboat and fire drill during many a calm day, when all was safe, what\nwould become of them when tempests were raging, or flames breaking\nthrough the bulk-heads? It is no time to learn drill then. And we must\nmake our characters by the way in which, day out and day in, we do\nlittle things, and find in them fields for the great virtues which\nwill enable us to front the crises of our fate unblenching, and to\nmaster whatsoever difficulties come in our path. Geologists nowadays\ndistrust, for the most part, theories which have to invoke great\nforces in order to mould the face of a country. They tell us that the\nvalley, with its deep sides and wide opening to the sky, may have been\nmade by the slow operation of a tiny brooklet that trickles now down\nat its base, and by erosion of the atmosphere. So we shape\nourselves--and that is a great thing--by the way we do small things.\n\nTherefore, I say to you, dear friends! think solemnly and reverently\nof this awful life of ours. Clear your minds of the notion that\nanything is small which offers to you the alternative of being done in\na right way or in a wrong; and recognise this as a fact--'sand is\nweighty,' trifles are of supreme importance.\n\nII. Now, secondly, let me ask you to take this saying as suggesting\nthe overwhelming weight of small sins.\n\nThat is only an application in one direction of the general principle\nthat I have been trying to lay down; but it is one of such great\nimportance that I wish to deal with it separately. And my point is\nthis, that the accumulated pressure upon a man of a multitude of\nperfectly trivial faults and transgressions makes up a tremendous\naggregate that weighs upon him with awful ponderousness.\n\nLet me remind you, to begin with, that, properly speaking, the words\n'great' and 'small' should not be applied in reference to things about\nwhich 'right' or 'wrong' are the proper words to employ. Or, to put it\ninto plainer language, it is as absurd to talk about the 'size' of a\nsin, as it is to take the superficial area of a picture as a test of\nits greatness. The magnitude of a transgression does not depend on the\ngreatness of the act which transgresses--according to human\nstandards--but on the intensity with which the sinful element is\nworking in it. For acts make crimes, but motives make sins. If you\ntake a bit of prussic acid, and bruise it down, every little\nmicroscopic fragment will have the poisonous principle in it; and it\nis very irrelevant to ask whether it is as big as a mountain or small\nas a grain of dust, it is poison all the same. So to talk about\nmagnitude in regard to sins, is rather to introduce a foreign\nconsideration. But still, recognising that there is a reality in the\ndistinction that people make between great sins and small ones, though\nit is a superficial distinction, and does not go down to the bottom of\nthings, let us deal with it now.\n\nI say, then, that small sins, by reason of their numerousness, have a\nterrible accumulative power. They are like the green flies on our\nrose-bushes, or the microbes that our medical friends talk so much\nabout nowadays. Like them, their power of mischief does not in the\nleast degree depend on their magnitude, and like them, they have a\ntremendous capacity of reproduction. It would be easier to find a man\nthat had not done any one sin than to find out a man that had only\ndone it once. And it would be easier to find a man that had done no\nevil than a man who had not been obliged to make the second edition of\nhis sin an enlarged one. For this is the present Nemesis of all evil,\nthat it requires repetition, partly to still conscience, partly to\nsatisfy excited tastes and desires; so that animal indulgence in drink\nand the like is a type of what goes on in the inner life of every man,\nin so far as the second dose has to be stronger than the first in\norder to produce an equivalent effect; and so on _ad infinitum_.\n\nAnd then remember that all our evil doings, however insignificant they\nmay be, have a strange affinity with one another, so that you will\nfind that to go wrong in one direction almost inevitably leads to a\nwhole series of consequential transgressions of one sort or another.\nYou remember the old story about the soldier that was smuggled into a\nfortress concealed in a hay cart, and opened the gates of a virgin\ncitadel to his allies outside. Every evil thing, great or small, that\nwe admit into our lives, still more into our hearts, is charged with\nthe same errand as he had:--' Set wide the door when you are inside,\nand let us all come in after you.' 'He taketh with him seven other\nspirits worse than himself, and they dwell there.' 'None of them,'\nsays one of the prophets, describing the doleful creatures that haunt\nthe ruins of a deserted city, 'shall by any means want its mate,' and\nthe satyrs of the islands and of the woods join together! and hold\nhigh carnival in the city. And so, brethren! our little transgressions\nopen the door for great ones, and every sin makes us more accessible\nto the assaults of every other.\n\nSo let me remind you how here, in these little unnumbered acts of\ntrivial transgression which scarcely produce any effect on conscience\nor on memory, but make up so large a portion of so many of our lives,\nlies one of the most powerful instruments for making us what we are.\nIf we indulge in slight acts of transgression be sure of this, that we\nshall pass from them to far greater ones. For one man that leaps or\nfalls all at once into sin which the world calls gross, there are a\nthousand that slide into it. The storm only blows down the trees whose\nhearts have been eaten out and their roots loosened. And when you see\na man having a reputation for wisdom and honour all at once coming\ncrash down and disclosing his baseness, be sure that he began with\nsmall deflections from the path of right. The evil works underground;\nand if we yield to little temptations, when great ones come we shall\nfall their victims.\n\nLet me remind you, too, that there is another sense in which 'sand is\nweighty.' You may as well be crushed under a sandhill as under a\nmountain of marble. It matters not which. The accumulated weight of\nthe one is as great as that of the other. And I wish to lay upon the\nconsciences of all that are listening to me now this thought, that an\noverwhelming weight of guilt results from the accumulation of little\nsins. Dear friends! I do not desire to preach a gospel of fear, but I\ncannot help feeling that, very largely, in this day, the ministration\nof the Christian Church is defective in that it does not give\nsufficient, though sad and sympathetic, prominence to the plain\nteaching of Christ and of the New Testament as to future retribution\nfor present sin. We shall 'every one of us give account of himself to\nGod'; and if the account is long enough it will foot up to an enormous\nsum, though each item may be only halfpence. The weight of a lifetime\nof little sins will be enough to crush a man down with guilt and\nresponsibility when he stands before that Judge. That is all true, and\nyou know it, and I beseech you, take it to your hearts, 'Sand is\nweighty.' Little sins have to be accounted for, and may crush.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, let me ask you to consider one or two of the\nplain, practical issues of such thoughts as these.\n\nAnd, first, I would say that these considerations set in a very clear\nlight the absolute necessity for all-round and ever-wakeful\nwatchfulness over ourselves. A man in the tropics does not say,\n'Mosquitoes are so small that it does not matter if two or three of\nthem get inside my bed-curtains.' He takes care that not one is there\nbefore he lays himself down to sleep. There seems to be nothing more\nsad than the complacent, easy-going way in which men allow themselves\nto keep their higher moral principles and their more rigid\nself-examination for the 'great' things, as they suppose, and let the\nlittle things often take care of themselves. What would you think of\nthe captain of a steamer who in calm weather sailed by rule of thumb,\nonly getting out his sextant when storms began to blow? And what about\na man that lets the myriad trivialities that make up a day pass in and\nout of his heart as they will, and never arrests any of them at the\ngate with a 'How camest thou in hither?' 'Look after the pence, and\nthe pounds will look after themselves.' Look after your trivial acts,\nand, take my word for it, the great ones will be as they ought to be.\n\nAgain, may not this thought somehow take down our easy-going and\nself-complacent estimate of ourselves? I have no doubt that there are\na number of people in my audience just now who have been more or less\nconsciously saying to themselves whilst I have been going on, 'What\nhave _I_ to do with all this talk about sin, sin, sin? I am a\ndecent kind of a man. I do all the duties of my daily life, and nobody\ncan say that the white of my eyes is black. I have done no great\ntransgressions. What is it all about? It has nothing to do with me.'\n\nWell, my friend! it has this to do with you--that in your life there\nare a whole host of things which only a very superficial estimate\nhinders you from recognising to be what they are--small deeds, but\ngreat sins. Is it a small thing to go, as some of you do go on from\nyear to year, with your conduct and your thoughts and your loves and\nyour desires utterly unaffected by the fact that there is a God in\nheaven, and that Jesus Christ died for you? Is that a small thing? It\nmanifests itself in a great many insignificant actions. That I grant\nyou; and you are a most respectable man, and you keep the commandments\nas well as you can. But 'the God in whose hand thy breath is, and\nwhose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.' I say that that is\nnot a small sin.\n\nSo, dear brethren! I beseech you judge yourselves by this standard. I\ncharge none of you with gross iniquities. I know nothing about that.\nBut I do appeal to you all, as I do to myself, whether we must not\nrecognise the fact that an accumulated multitude of transgressions\nwhich are only superficially small, in their aggregate weigh upon us\nwith 'a weight heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.'\n\nLast of all, this being the case, should we not all turn ourselves\nwith lowly hearts, with recognition of our transgressions,\nacknowledging that whether it be five hundred or fifty pence that we\nowe, we have nothing to pay, and betake ourselves to Him who alone can\ndeliver us from the habit and power of these small accumulated faults,\nand who alone can lift the burden of guilt and responsibility from off\nour shoulders? If you irrigate the sand it becomes fruitful soil.\nChrist brings to us the river of the water of life; the inspiring, the\nquickening, the fructifying power of the new life that He bestows, and\nthe sand may become soil, and the wilderness blossom as the rose. A\nheavy burden lies on our shoulders. Ah! yes! but 'Behold the Lamb of\nGod that beareth away the sins of the world!' What was it that crushed\nHim down beneath the olives of Gethsemane? What was it that made Him\ncry, 'My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?' I know no answer but one,\nfor which the world's gratitude is all too small. 'The Lord hath laid\non Him the iniquity of us all.'\n\n'Sand is weighty,' but Christ has borne the burden, 'Cast thy burden\nupon the Lord,' and it will drop from your emancipated shoulders, and\nthey will henceforth bear only the light burden of His love.\n\n\n\nPORTRAIT OF A MATRON\n\n'Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11.\nThe heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall\nhave no need of spoil. 12. She will do him good, and not evil, all the\ndays of her life. 13. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh\nwillingly with her hands. 14. She is like the merchants' ships; she\nbringeth her food from afar. 15. She riseth also while it is yet\nnight, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.\n16. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her\nhands she planteth a vineyard. 17. She girdeth her loins with\nstrength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18. She perceiveth that her\nmerchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19. She layeth\nher hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20. She\nstretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands\nto the needy. 21. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for\nall her household are clothed with scarlet. 22. She maketh herself\ncoverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23. Her\nhusband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the\nland. 24. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth\ngirdles unto the merchant. 25. Strength and honour are her clothing;\nand she shall rejoice in time to come. 26. She openeth her mouth with\nwisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27. She looketh well\nto the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.\n28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and\nhe praiseth her. 29. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou\nexcellest them all. 30. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a\nwoman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the\nfruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the\ngates.'-PROVERBS xxxi 10-31.\n\n\nThis description of a good 'house-mother' attests the honourable\nposition of woman in Israel. It would have been impossible in Eastern\ncountries, where she was regarded only as a plaything and a better\nsort of slave. The picture is about equally far removed from old-world\nand from modern ideas of her place. This 'virtuous woman' is neither a\ndoll nor a graduate nor a public character. Her kingdom is the home.\nHer works 'praise her in the gates'; but it is her husband, and not\nshe, that 'sits' there among the elders. There is no sentiment or\nlight of wedded love in the picture. It is neither the ideal woman nor\nwife that is painted, but the ideal head of a household, on whose\nmanagement, as much as on her husband's work, its well-being depends.\n\nThere is plenty of room for modern ideals by the side of this old one,\nbut they are very incomplete without it. If we take the 'oracle which\nhis mother taught' King Lemuel to include this picture, the artist is\na woman, and her motive may be to sketch the sort of wife her son\nshould choose. In any case, it is significant that the book which\nbegan with the magnificent picture of Wisdom as a fair woman, and hung\nbeside it the ugly likeness of Folly, should end with this charming\nportrait. It is an acrostic, and the fetters of alphabetic sequence\nare not favourable to progress or continuity of thought.\n\nBut I venture to suggest a certain advance in the representation which\nremoves the apparent disjointed character and needless repetition.\nThere are, first, three verses forming a kind of prologue or\nintroduction (vers. 10-12). Then follows the picture proper, which is\nbrought into unity if we suppose that it describes the growing\nmaterial success of the diligent housekeeper, beginning with her own\nwilling work, and gradually extending till she and her family are well\nto do and among the magnates of her town (vers. 13-29), Then follow\ntwo verses of epilogue or conclusion (vers. 30, 31).\n\nThe rendering 'virtuous' is unsatisfactory; for what is meant is not\nmoral excellence, either in the wider sense or in the narrower to\nwhich, in reference to woman, that great word has been unfortunately\nnarrowed. Our colloquialism 'a woman of faculty' would fairly convey\nthe idea, which is that of ability and general capacity. We have said\nthat there was no light of wedded love in the picture. That is true of\nthe main body of it; but no deeper, terser expression of the inmost\nblessedness of happy marriage was ever spoken than in the quiet words,\n'The heart of her husband trusteth in her,' with the repose of\nsatisfaction, with the tranquillity of perfect assurance. The bond\nuniting husband and wife in a true marriage is not unlike that uniting\nus with God. Happy are they who by their trust in one another and the\npeaceful joys which it brings are led to united trust in a yet deeper\nlove, mirrored to them in their own! True, the picture here is mainly\nthat of confidence that the wife is no squanderer of her husband's\ngoods, but the sweet thought goes far beyond the immediate\napplication. So with the other general feature in verse 12. A true\nwife is a fountain of good, and good only, all the days of her\nlife--ay, and beyond them too, when her remembrance shines like the\ncalm west after a cloudless sunset. This being, as it were, the\noverture, next follows the main body of the piece.\n\nIt starts with a description of diligence in a comparatively humble\nsphere. Note that in verse 13 the woman is working alone. She toils\n'willingly,' or, as the literal rendering is, 'with the pleasure of\nher hands.' There is no profit in unwilling work. Love makes toil\ndelightful, and delighted toil is successful. Throughout its pages the\nBible reverences diligence. It is the condition of prosperity in\nmaterial and spiritual things. Vainly do men and women try to dodge\nthe law which makes the 'sweat of the brow' the indispensable\nrequisite for 'eating bread.' When commerce becomes speculation, which\nis the polite name for gambling, which, again, is a synonym for\nstealing, it may yield much more dainty fare than bread to some for a\ntime, but is sure to bring want sooner or later to individuals and\ncommunities. The foundation of this good woman's fortune was that she\nworked with a will. There is no other foundation, either for fortune\nor any other good, or for self-respect, or for progress in knowledge\nor goodness or religion.\n\nThen her horizon widened, and she saw a way of increasing her store.\n'She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.'\nShe looks afield, and sees opportunities for profitable exchange.\nPromptly she avails herself of these, and is at work while it is yet\ndark. She has a household now, and does not neglect their comfort, any\nmore than she does their employment. Their food and their tasks are\nboth set them in the early morning, and their mistress is up as soon\nas they. Her toil brings in wealth, and so verse 16 shows another step\nin advance. 'She considereth a field, and buyeth it,' and has made\nmoney enough to stock it with vines, and so add a new source of\nrevenue, and acquire a new position as owning land.\n\nBut prosperity does not make her relax her efforts so we are told\nagain in verses 17-19 of her abridging the hours of sleep, and toiling\nwith wool and flax, which would be useless tautology if there were not\nsome new circumstances to account for the repetition. Encouraged by\nsuccess, she 'girdeth her loins with strength,' and, since she sees\nthat 'her merchandise is profitable,' she is the more induced to\nlabour. She still works with her own hands (ver. 19). But the hands\nthat are busy with distaff and spindle are also stretched out with\nalms in the open palm, and are extended in readiness to help the\nneedy. A woman made unfeeling by wealth is a monster. Prosperity often\nleads men to niggardliness in charitable gifts; but if it does the\nsame for a woman, it is doubly cursed. Pity and charity have their\nhome in women's hearts. If they are so busy holding the distaff or the\npen that they become hard and insensible to the cry of misery, they\nhave lost their glory.\n\nThen follow a series of verses describing how increased wealth brings\ngood to her household and herself. The advantages are of a purely\nmaterial sort, Her children are 'clothed with scarlet,' which was not\nonly the name of the dye, but of the stuff. Evidently thick material\nonly was dyed of that hue, and so was fit for winter clothing, even if\nthe weather was so severe for Palestine that snow fell. Her house was\nfurnished with 'carpets,' or rather 'cushions' or 'pillows,' which are\nmore important pieces of furniture where people recline on divans than\nwhere they sit on chairs. Her own costume is that of a rich woman.\n'Purple and fine linen' are tokens of wealth, and she is woman enough\nto like to wear these. There is nothing unbecoming in assuming the\nstyle of living appropriate to one's position. Her children and\nherself thus share in the advantages of her industry; and the husband,\nwho does not appear to have much business of his own, gets his share\nin that he sits among the wealthy and honoured inhabitants of the\ntown, 'in the gates,' the chief place of meeting for business and\ngossip.\n\nVerse 24 recurs to the subject of the woman's diligence. She has got\ninto a 'shipping business,' making for the export trade with the\n'merchants'--literally, 'Canaanites' or Phoenicians, the great traders\nof the East, from whom, no doubt, she got the 'purple' of her clothing\nin exchange for her manufacture. But she had a better dress than any\nwoven in looms or bought with goods. 'Strength and dignity' clothe\nher. 'She laugheth at the time to come'; that is, she is able to look\nforward without dread of poverty, because she has realised a competent\nsum. Such looking forward may be like that of the rich man in the\nparable, a piece of presumption, but it may also be compatible with\ndevout recognition of God's providence. As in verse 20, beneficence\nwas coupled with diligence, so in verse 26 gentler qualities are\nblended with strength and dignity, and calm anticipation of the\nfuture.\n\nA glimpse into 'the very pulse' of the woman's nature is given. A true\nwoman's strength is always gentle, and her dignity attractive and\ngracious. Prosperity has not turned her head. 'Wisdom,' the\nheaven-descended virgin, the deep music of whose call we heard\nsounding in the earlier chapters of Proverbs, dwells with this very\npractical woman. The collocation points the lesson that heavenly\nWisdom has a field for its display in the common duties of a busy\nlife, does not dwell in hermitages, or cloisters, or studies, but may\nguide and inspire a careful housekeeper in her task of wisely keeping\nher husband's goods together. The old legend of the descending deity\nwho took service as a goat-herd, is true of the heavenly Wisdom, which\nwill come and live in kitchens and shops.\n\nBut the ideal woman has not only wisdom in act and word, but 'the law\nof kindness is on her tongue.' Prosperity should not rob her of her\ngracious demeanour. Her words should be glowing with the calm flame of\nlove which stoops to lowly and undeserving objects. If wealth leads to\npresumptuous reckoning on the future, and because we have 'much goods\nlaid up for many years,' we see no other use of leisure than to eat\nand drink and be merry, we fatally mistake our happiness and our duty.\nBut if gentle compassion and helpfulness are on our lips and in our\nhearts and deeds, prosperity will be blessed.\n\nNor does this ideal woman relax in her diligence, though she has\nprospered. Verse 27 seems very needless repetition of what has been\nabundantly said already, unless we suppose, as before, new\ncircumstances to account for the reintroduction of a former\ncharacteristic. These are, as it seems to me, the increased wealth of\nthe heroine, which might have led her to relax her watchfulness. Some\nslacking off might have been expected and excused; but at the end, as\nat the beginning, she looks after her household and is herself\ndiligent. The picture refers only to outward things. But we may\nremember that the same law applies to all, and that any good, either\nof worldly wealth or of intellectual, moral, or religious kind, is\nonly preserved by the continuous exercise of the same energies which\nwon it at first.\n\nVerses 28 and 29 give the eulogium pronounced by children and husband.\nThe former 'rise up' as in reverence; the latter declares her\nsuperiority to all women, with the hyperbolical language natural to\nlove. Happy the man who, after long years of wedded life, can repeat\nthe estimate of his early love with the calm certitude born of\nexperience!\n\nThe epilogue in verses 30 and 31 is not the continuation of the\nhusband's speech. It at once points the lesson from the whole picture\nfor King Lemuel, and unveils the root of the excellences described.\nBeauty is skin deep. Let young men look deeper than a fair face. Let\nyoung women seek for that beauty which does not fade. The fear of the\nLord lies at the bottom of all goodness that will last through the\ntear and wear of wedded life, and of all domestic diligence which is\nnot mere sordid selfishness or slavish toil. The narrow arena of\ndomestic life affords a fit theatre for the exercise of the highest\ngifts and graces; and the woman who has made a home bright, and has\nwon and kept a husband's love and children's reverence, may let who\nwill grasp at the more conspicuous prizes which women are so eager\nafter nowadays. She has chosen the better part, which shall not be\ntaken from her. She shall receive 'of the fruit of her hands' both now\nand hereafter, if the fear of the Lord has been the root from which\nthat fruit has grown; and 'her works shall praise her in the gate,'\nthough she sits quietly in her home. It is well when our deeds are the\ntrumpeters of our fame, and when to tell them is to praise us.\n\nThe whole passage is the hallowing of domestic life, a directory for\nwives and mothers, a beautiful ideal of how noble a thing a busy\nmother's life may be, an exhibition to young men of what they should\nseek, and of young women of what they should aim at. It were well for\nthe next generation if the young women of this one were as solicitous\nto make cages as nets, to cultivate qualities which would keep love in\nthe home as to cultivate attractions which lure him to their feet.\n\n\n\n\nECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER\n\n\nWHAT PASSES AND WHAT ABIDES\n\n'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the\nearth abideth for ever.'--ECCLES. i. 4.\n\n'And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth\nthe will of God abideth for ever.'--1 JOHN ii. 17.\n\n\nA great river may run through more than one kingdom, and bear more\nthan one name, but its flow is unbroken. The river of time runs\ncontinuously, taking no heed of dates and calendars. The importance\nthat we attach to the beginnings or endings of years and centuries is\na sentimental illusion, but even an illusion that rouses us to a\nconsciousness of the stealthy gliding of the river may do us good, and\nwe need all the helps we can find to wise retrospect and sober\nanticipation. So we must let the season colour our thoughts, even\nwhilst we feel that in yielding to that impulse we are imagining what\nhas no reality in the passing from the last day of one century to the\nfirst day of another.\n\nI do not mean to discuss in this sermon either the old century or the\nnew in their wider social and other aspects. That has been done\nabundantly. We shall best do our parts in making the days, and the\nyears, and the century what they should be, if we let the truths that\ncome from these combined texts sink into and influence our individual\nlives. I have put them together, because they are so strikingly\nantithetical, both true, and yet looking at the same facts from\nopposite points of view, But the antithesis is not really so complete\nas it sounds at first hearing, because what the Preacher means by 'the\nearth' that 'abideth for ever' is not quite the same as what the\nApostle means by the 'world' that 'passes' and the 'generations' that\ncome and go are not exactly the same as the men that 'abide for ever.'\nBut still the antithesis is real and impressive. The bitter melancholy\nof the Preacher saw but the surface; the joyous faith of the Apostle\nwent a great deal deeper, and putting the two sets of thoughts and\nways of looking at man and his dwelling-place together, we get lessons\nthat may well shape our individual lives.\n\nSo let me ask you to look, in the first place, at--\n\nI. The sad and superficial teaching of the Preacher.\n\nNow in reading this Book of Ecclesiastes--which I am afraid a great\nmany people do not read at all--we have always to remember that the\nwild things and the bitter things which the Preacher is saying so\nabundantly through its course do not represent his ultimate\nconvictions, but thoughts that he took up in his progress from error\nto truth. His first word is: 'All is vanity!' That conviction had been\nset vibrating in his heart, as it is set vibrating in the heart of\nevery man who does as he did, viz., seeks for solid good away from\nGod. That is his starting-point. It is not true. All is not vanity,\nexcept to some _blase_ cynic, made cynical by the failure of\nhis voluptuousness, and to whom 'all things here are out of joint,'\nand everything looks yellow because his own biliary system is out of\norder. That is the beginning of the book, and there are hosts of other\nthings in the course of it as one-sided, as cynically bitter, and\ntherefore superficial. But the end of it is: 'Let us hear the\nconclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep His commandments:\nfor this is the whole duty of man.' In his journey from the one point\nto the other my text is the first step, 'One generation goeth, and\nanother cometh: the earth abideth for ever.'\n\nHe looks out upon humanity, and sees that in one aspect the world is\nfull of births, and in another full of deaths. Coffins and cradles\nseem the main furniture, and he hears the tramp, tramp, tramp of the\ngenerations passing over a soil honeycombed with tombs, and therefore\nringing hollow to their tread. All depends on the point of view. The\nstrange history of humanity is like a piece of shot silk; hold it at\none angle, and you see dark purple, hold at another, and you see\nbright golden tints. Look from one point of view, and it seems a long\nhistory of vanishing generations. Look to the rear of the procession,\nand it seems a buoyant spectacle of eager, young faces pressing\nforwards on the march, and of strong feet treading the new road. But\nyet the total effect of that endless procession is to impress on the\nobserver the transiency of humanity. And that wholesome thought is\nmade more poignant still by the comparison which the writer here draws\nbetween the fleeting generations and the abiding earth. Man is the\nlord of earth, and can mould it to his purpose, but it remains and he\npasses. He is but a lodger in an old house that has had generations of\ntenants, each of whom has said for a while, 'It is mine'; and they all\nhave drifted away, and the house stands. The Alps, over which Hannibal\nstormed, over which the Goths poured down on the fertile plains of\nLombardy, through whose passes mediaeval emperors led their forces,\nover whose summits Napoleon brought his men, through whose bowels this\ngeneration has burrowed its tunnels, stand the same, and smile the\nsame amid their snows, at the transient creatures that have crawled\nacross them. The primrose on the rock blooms in the same place year\nafter year, and nature and it are faithful to their covenant, but the\npoet's eyes that fell upon them are sealed with dust. Generations have\ngone, the transient flower remains. 'One generation cometh and another\ngoeth,' and the tragedy is made more tragical because the stage stands\nunaltered, and 'the earth abides for ever.' That is what sense has to\nsay--'the foolish senses'--and that is all that sense has to say. Is\nit all that can be said? If it is, then the Preacher's bitter\nconclusion is true, and 'all is vanity and chasing after wind.'\n\nHe immediately proceeds to draw from this undeniable, but, as I\nmaintain, partial fact, the broad conclusion which cannot be rebutted,\nif you accept what he has said in my text as being the sufficient and\ncomplete account of man and his dwelling-place. If, says he, it is\ntrue that one generation comes and another goes, and the earth abides\nfor ever, and if that is all that has to be said, then all things are\nfull of labour. There is immense activity, and there is no progress;\nit is all rotary motion round and round and round, and the same\nobjects reappear duly and punctually as the wheel revolves, and life\nis futile. Yes; so it is unless there is something more to be said,\nand the life that is thus futile is also, as it seems to me,\ninexplicable if you believe in God at all. If man, being what he is,\nis wholly subject to that law of mutation and decay, then not only is\nhe made 'a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,'\nbut he is also inferior to that persistent, old mother-earth from\nwhose bosom he has come. If all that you have to say of him is, 'Dust\nthou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' then life is futile, and\nGod is not vindicated for having produced it.\n\nAnd there is another consequence that follows, if this is all that we\nhave got to say. If the cynical wisdom of Ecclesiastes is the ultimate\nword, then I do not assert that morality is destroyed, because right\nand wrong are not dependent either upon the belief in a God, or on the\nbelief in immortality. But I do say that to declare that the fleeting,\ntransient life of earth is all does strike a staggering blow at all\nnoble ethics and paralyses a great deal of the highest forms of human\nactivity, and that, as has historically been the case, so on the large\nscale, and, speaking generally, it will be the case, that the man\nwhose creed is only 'To-morrow we die' will very speedily draw the\nconclusion, 'Let us eat and drink,' and sensuous delights and the\nlower side of his nature will become dominant.\n\nSo, then, the Preacher had not got at the bottom of all things, either\nin his initial conviction that all was vanity, or in that which he\nlaid down as the first step towards establishing that, that man passes\nand the earth abides. There is more to be said; the sad, superficial\nteaching of the Preacher needs to be supplemented.\n\nNow turn for a moment to what does supplement it.\n\nII. The joyous and profounder teaching of the Apostle.\n\nThe cynic never sees the depths; that is reserved for the mystical eye\nof the lover. So John says: 'No, no; that is not all. Here is the true\nstate of affairs: \"The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but\nhe that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.\"' The doctrine of the\npassing generations and the abiding earth is fronted squarely in my\nsecond text by the not contradictory, but complementary doctrine of\nthe passing world and the abiding men. I do not suppose that John had\nthis verse of Ecclesiastes in his mind, for the word 'abide' is one of\nhis favourite expressions, and is always cropping up. But even though\nhe had not, we find in his utterance the necessary correction to the\nfirst text. As I have said, and now need not do more than repeat in a\nsentence, the antithesis is not so complete as it seems. John's\n'world' is not the Preacher's 'earth,' but he means thereby, as we all\nknow, the aggregate of created things, including men, considered apart\nfrom God, and in so far as it includes voluntary agents set in\nopposition to God and the will of God. He means the earth rent away\nfrom God, and turned to be what it was not meant to be, a minister of\nevil, and he means men, in so far as they have parted themselves from\nGod and make up an alien, if not a positively antagonistic company.\n\nPerhaps he was referring, in the words of our text, to the break-up of\nthe existing order of things which he discerned as impending and\nalready begun to take effect in consequence of the coming of Jesus\nChrist, the shining of the true Light. For you may remember that in a\nprevious part of the epistle he uses precisely the same expression,\nwith a significant variation. Here, in our text, he says, 'The world\npasseth away'; there he says, 'The darkness has passed and the true\nlight now shineth.' He sees a process installed and going on, in which\nthe whole solid-seeming fabric of a godless society is being dissolved\nand melted away. And says he, in the midst of all this change there is\none who stands unchanged, the man that does God's will.\n\nBut just for a moment we may take the lower point of view, and see\nhere a flat contradiction of the Preacher. He said, 'Men go, and the\nworld abides.' 'No,' says John; 'your own psalmists might have taught\nyou better: \"As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be\nchanged.\"' The world, the earth, which seems so solid and permanent,\nis all the while in perpetual flux, as our later science has taught\nus, in a sense of which neither Preacher nor Apostle could dream. For\njust as from the beginning forces were at work which out of the\nfire-mist shaped sun and planets, so the same forces, continuing in\noperation, are tending towards the end of the system which they began;\nand a contracting sun and a diminished light and a lowered temperature\nand the narrower orbits in which the planets shall revolve, prophesy\nthat 'the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' and that all things\nwhich have been made must one day cease to be. Nature is the true\nPenelope's web, ever being woven and ever being unravelled, and in the\nmost purely physical and scientific sense the world is passing away.\nBut then, because you and I belong, in a segment of our being, to that\nwhich thus is passing away, we come under the same laws, and all that\nhas been born must die. So the generations come, and in their very\ncoming bear the prophecy of their going. But, on the other hand, there\nis an inner nucleus of our being, of which the material is but the\ntransient envelope and periphery, which holds nought of the material,\nbut of the spiritual, and that 'abides for ever.'\n\nBut let us lift the thought rather into the region of the true\nantithesis which John was contemplating, which is not so much the\ncrumbling away of the material, and the endurance of the spiritual, as\nthe essential transiency of everything that is antagonism to the will\nof God, and the essential eternity of everything which is in\nconformity with that will. And so, says he, 'The world is passing, and\nthe lust thereof.' The desires that grasp it perish with it, or\nperhaps, more truly still, the object of the desire perishes, and with\nit the possibility of their gratification ceases, but the desire\nitself remains. But what of the man whose life has been devoted to the\nthings seen and temporal, when he finds himself in a condition of\nbeing where none of these have accompanied him? Nothing to slake his\nlusts, if he be a sensualist. No money-bags, ledgers, or cheque-books\nif he be a plutocrat or a capitalist or a miser. No books or\ndictionaries if he be a mere student. Nothing of his vocations if he\nlived for 'the world.' But yet the appetite is abiding. Will that not\nbe a thirst that cannot be slaked?\n\n'The world is passing and the lust thereof,' and all that is\nantagonistic to God, or separated from Him, is essentially as 'a\nvapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away,'\nwhereas the man who does the will of God abideth for ever, in that he\nis steadfast in the midst of change.\n\n  'His hand the good man fastens on the skies,\n  And lets earth roll, nor heeds its idle whirl.'\n\nHe shall 'abide for ever,' in the sense that his work is perpetual. In\none very deep and solemn sense, nothing human ever dies, but in\nanother all that is not running in the same direction as, and borne\nalong by the impulse of, the will of God, is destined to be\nneutralised and brought to nothing at last. There may be a row of\nfigures as long as to reach from here to the fixed stars, but if there\nis not in front of them the significant digit, which comes from\nobedience to the will of God, all is but a string of ciphers, and\ntheir net result is nothing. And he 'abideth for ever,' in the most\nblessed and profound sense, in that through his faith, which has\nkindled his love, and his love which has set in motion his practical\nobedience, he becomes participant of the very eternity of the living\nGod. 'This is eternal life,' not merely to know, but 'to do the will'\nof our Father. Nothing else will last, and nothing else will prosper,\nany more than a bit of driftwood can stem Niagara. Unite yourself with\nthe will of God, and you abide.\n\nAnd now let me, as briefly as I can, throw together--\n\nIII. The plain, practical lessons that come from both these texts.\n\nMay I say, without seeming to be morbid or unpractical, one lesson is\nthat we should cultivate a sense of the transiency of this outward\nlife? One of our old authors says somewhere, that it is wholesome to\nsmell at a piece of turf from a churchyard. I know that much harm has\nbeen done by representing Christianity as mainly a scheme which is to\nsecure man a peaceful death, and that many morbid forms of piety have\ngiven far too large a place to the contemplation of skulls and\ncross-bones. But for all that, the remembrance of death present in our\nlives will often lay a cool hand upon a throbbing brow; and, like a\nbit of ice used by a skilful physician, will bring down the\ntemperature, and stay the too tumultuous beating of the heart. 'So\nteach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.'\nIt will minister energy, and lead us to say, like our Lord, 'We must\nwork the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh.'\n\nLet me say again--a very plain, practical lesson is to dig deep down\nfor our foundations below the rubbish that has accumulated. If a man\nwishes to build a house in Rome or in Jerusalem he has to go fifty or\nsixty feet down, through potsherds and broken tiles and triturated\nmarbles, and the dust of ancient palaces and temples. We have to drive\na shaft clear down through all the superficial strata, and to lay the\nfirst stones on the Rock of Ages. Do not build on that which quivers\nand shakes beneath you. Do not try to make your life's path across the\nweeds, or as they call it in Egypt, the 'sudd,' that floats on the\nsurface of the Nile, compacted for many a mile, and yet only a film on\nthe surface of the river, to be swept away some day. Build on God.\n\nAnd the last lesson is, let us see to it that our wills are in harmony\nwith His, and the work of our hands His work. We can do that will in\nall the secularities of our daily life. The difference between the\nwork that shrivels up and disappears and the work that abides is not\nso much in its external character, or in the materials on which it is\nexpended, as in the motive from which it comes. So that, if I might so\nsay, if two women are sitting at the same millstone face to face, and\nturning round the same handle, one of them for one half the\ncircumference, and the other for the other, and grinding out the same\ncorn, the one's work may be 'gold, silver, precious stones,' which\nshall abide the trying fire; and the other's may be 'wood, hay,\nstubble,' which shall be burnt up. 'He that doeth the will of God\nabideth for ever.'\n\nSo let us set ourselves, dear friends! to our several tasks for this\ncoming year. Never mind about the century, it will take care of\nitself. Do your little work in your little corner, and be sure of\nthis, that amidst changes you will stand unchanged, amidst tumults you\nmay stand calm, in death you will be entering on a fuller life, and\nthat what to others is the end will be to you the beginning. 'If any\nman's work abide, he shall receive a reward,' and he himself shall\nabide with the abiding God.\n\nThe bitter cynic said half the truth when he said, 'One generation\ngoeth, and another cometh; but the earth abides.' The mystic Apostle\nsaw the truth steadily, and saw it whole when he said, 'Lo! the world\npasseth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God\nabideth for ever.'\n\n\n\nTHE PAST AND THE FUTURE\n\n'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall he; and that which\nis done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under\nthe sun.'--ECCLES. i. 9.\n\n'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to\nthe lusts of men, but to the will of God. 3. For the time past of our\nlife may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.'--l\nPETER iv. 2, 3.\n\n\nIf you will look at these two passages carefully you will, I think,\nsee that they imply two different, and in some respects contradictory,\nthoughts about the future in its relation to the past. The first of\nthem is the somewhat exaggerated utterance of a dreary and depressing\nphilosophy, which tells us that, as in the outer world, so in regard\nto man's life, there is an enormous activity and no advance, that it\nis all moving round like the scenes in some circular panorama, that\nafter it has gone the round back it comes again, that it is the same\nthing over and over again, that life is a treadmill, so to speak, with\nan immense deal of working of muscles; but it all comes to nothing\nover again. 'The rivers run into the sea and the sea is not full, and\nwhere the rivers come from they go back to; and the wind goes to the\nsouth, turns to the north, and whirls about continually. Everything is\nfull of labour, and it has all been done before, and there is nothing\nfresh; everything is flat, stale, and unprofitable.'\n\nWell that is not true altogether, but though it be not true\naltogether--though it be an exaggeration, and though the inference\nthat is built upon it is not altogether satisfactory and profound--yet\nthe thought itself is one that has a great deal in it that is true and\nimportant, and may be very helpful and profitable to us now; for there\nis a religious way, as well as an irreligious way, of saying there is\nnothing new under the sun. It may be the utterance of a material,\n_blase_, unprofitable, spurious philosophy, or it may be the\nutterance of the profoundest, and the happiest, and the most peaceful\nreligious trust and confidence.\n\nThe other passage implies the opposite notion of man's life, that\nhowever much in my future may be just the same as what my past has\nbeen, there is a region in which it is quite possible to make\nto-morrow unlike to-day, and so to resolve and so to work as that 'the\ntime past of our lives' may be different from 'the rest of our time in\nthe flesh'; that a great revolution may come upon a man, and that\nwhilst the outward life is continuous and the same, and the tasks to\nbe done are the same, and the joys the same, there may be such a\nprofound and radical difference in the spirit and motive in which they\nare done as that the thing that has been is _not_ that which\nshall be, and for us there _may_ be a new thing under the sun.\n\nAnd so just now I think we may take these two passages in their\nconnection--their opposition, and in their parallelism--as suggesting\nto us two very helpful, mutually completing thoughts about the unknown\nfuture that stretches before us--first, the substantial identity of\nthe future with the past; second, the possible total unlikeness of the\nfuture and the past.\n\nFirst then, let us try to get the impress from the first phrase of\nthat conviction, so far as it is true, as to the sameness of the\nthings that are going to be with the things that have been. The\nimmediate connection in which the words are spoken is in regard,\nmainly, to the outer world, the physical universe, and only\nsecondarily and subordinately in regard to man's life. And I need not\nremind you how that thought of the absolute sameness and continuous\nrepetition of the past and the future has gained by the advance of\nphysical science in modern times. It seems to be contradicted no doubt\nby the continual emergence of new things here and there, but they tell\nus that the novelty is only a matter of arrangement, that the atoms\nhave never had an addition to them since the beginning of things, that\nall stand just as they were from the very commencement and foundation\nof all things, and that all that seems new is only a new arrangement,\nso that the thing which has been is that which shall be. And then\nthere comes up the other thought, upon which I need not dwell for a\nmoment, that the present condition of things round about us is the\nresult of the uniform forces that have been working straight on from\nthe very beginning. And yet, whilst all that is quite true, we come to\nour own human lives, and we find there the true application of such\nwords as these: to-morrow is to be like yesterday. There is one very\nimportant sense in which the opposite of that is true, and no\nto-morrow can ever be like any yesterday for however much the events\nmay be the same, we are so different that, in regard even to the most\nwell trodden and beaten of our paths of daily life, we may all say,\n'We have not passed this way before!' We cannot bring back that which\nis gone--that which is gone is gone for good or evil, irrevocable as\nthe snow or the perfume of last year's flowers. I dare say there are\nmany here before me who are saying to themselves, 'No! life can never\nagain be what life has been for me, and the only thing that I am quite\nsure about in regard to to-morrow is that it is utterly impossible\nthat it should ever be as yesterday was!' Notwithstanding, the word of\nmy text is a true word, the thing that hath been is that which shall\nbe. I need not dwell on the grounds upon which the certainty rests,\nsuch, for instance, as that the powers which shape to-morrow are the\nsame as the powers which shaped yesterday; that you and I, in our\nnature, are the same, and that the mighty Hand up there that is\nmoulding it is the same; that every to-morrow is the child of all the\nyesterdays; that the same general impression will pervade the future\nas has pervaded the past. Though events may be different the general\nstamp and characteristics of them will be the same, and when we pass\ninto a new region of human life we shall find that we are not walking\nin a place where no footprints have been before us, but that all about\nus the ground is trodden down smooth.\n\n'That which hath been is that which shall be.' Thus, while this is\nproximately true in regard to the future, let me just for a moment or\ntwo give you one or two of the plain, simple pieces of well-worn\nwisdom which are built upon such a thought. And first of all let me\ngive you this, 'Well, then, let us learn to tone down our expectations\nof what may be coming to us.' Especially I speak now to the younger\nportion of my congregation, to whom life is beginning, and to whom it\nis naturally tinted with roseate hue, and who have a great deal\nstretching before them which is new to them, new duties, new\nrelationships, new joys. But whilst that is especially true for them\nit is true for all. It is a strange illusion under which we all live\nto the very end of our lives, unless by reflection and effort we\nbecome masters of it and see things in the plain daylight of common\nsense, that the future is going somehow or other to be brighter,\nbetter, fuller of resources, fuller of blessings, freer from sorrow\nthan the past has been. We turn over each new leaf that marks a new\nyear, and we cannot help thinking: 'Well! perhaps hidden away in its\nstorehouses there may be something brighter and better in store for\nme.' It is well, perhaps, that we should have that thought, for if we\nwere not so drawn on, even though it be by an illusion, I do not know\nthat we should be able to live on as we do. But don't let us forget in\nthe hours of quiet that there is no reason at all to expect that any\nof these arbitrary, and conventional, and unreal distinctions of\ncalendars and dates make any difference in that uniform strand of our\nlife which just runs the same, which is reeled off the great drum of\nthe future and on to the great drum of the past, and that is all spun\nout of one fibre and is one gauge, and one sort of stuff from the\nbeginning to the end. And so let us be contented where we are, and not\nfancy that when I get that thing that I am looking forward to, when I\nget into that position I am waiting for, things will be much different\nfrom what they are to-day. Life is all one piece, the future and the\npast, the pattern runs right through from the beginning to the end,\nand the stuff is the same stuff. So don't you be too enthusiastic, you\npeople who have an eager ambition for social and political\nadvancement. Things will be very much as they are used to be, with\nperhaps some slow, gradual, infinitesimal approximation to a higher\nideal and a nobler standard; but there will be no jump, no breaks, no\nspasmodic advance. We must be contented to accept the law, that there\nis no new thing under the sun. As you would lay a piece of healing ice\nupon the heated forehead, lay that law upon the feverish anticipations\nsome of you have in regard to the future, and let the heart beat more\nquietly, and with the more contentment for the recognition of that\nlaw.\n\nAnd then I may say, at the same time, though I won't dwell upon it for\nmore than a moment, let us take the same thought to teach us to\nmoderate our fears. Don't be afraid that anything whatever may come\nthat will destroy the substantial likeness between the past and the\nfuture; and so leave all those jarring and terrifying thoughts that\nmingle with all our anticipations of the time to come, leave them very\nquietly on one side and say, 'Thou hast been my Help leave me not,\nneither forsake me, O God of my salvation.'\n\nAnd then there are one or two other points I mean to touch upon, and\nlet me just name them. Do not let us so exaggerate that thought of the\nsubstantial sameness of the future and the past as to flatten life and\nmake it dreary and profitless and insignificant. Let us rather feel,\nas I shall have to say presently, that whilst the framework remains\nthe same, whilst the general characteristics will not be much\ndifferent, there is room within that uniformity for all possible play\nof variety and interest, and earnestness and enthusiasm, and hope.\nThey make the worst possible use of this fixity and steadfastness of\nthings who say, as the dreary man at the beginning of the Book of\nEcclesiastes is represented as saying, that because things are the\nsame as they will and have been, all is vanity. It is not true. Don't\nlet the uniformity of life flatten your interest in the great miracle\nof every fresh day, with its fresh continuation of ancient blessings\nand the steadfast mercies of our Lord.\n\nAnd let us hold firmly to the far deeper truth that the future will be\nthe same as the past, because God is the same. God's yesterday is\nGod's to-morrow--the same love, the same resources, the same wisdom,\nthe same power, the same sustaining Hand, the same encompassing\nPresence. 'A thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand\nyears'; and when we say there is no new thing under the sun let us\nfeel that the deepest way of expressing that thought is, 'Thou art the\nsame, and Thy steadfast purposes know no alteration.'\n\nTurn to the other side of the thought suggested by the second passage\nof the text. It speaks to us, as I have said, of the possible entire\nunlikeness between the future and the past. To-morrow is the child of\nyesterday--granted; 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he\nreap'--certainly; there is a persistent uniformity of nature, and the\nsame causes working make the future much of the same general structure\nas all the past has been--be it so; and yet within the limits of that\nidentity there may be breathed into the self-sameness of to-morrow\nsuch an entire difference of disposition, temper, motive, direction of\nlife, that my whole life may be revolutionised, my whole being, I was\ngoing to say, cleft in twain, my old life buried and forgotten, and a\nnew life may emerge from chaos and from the dead. Of course, the\nquestion, Is such an alteration possible? rises up very solemnly to\nmen, to most of them, for I suppose we all of us know what it is to\nhave been beaten time after time in the attempt to shake off the\ndominion of some habit or evil, and to alter the bearing and the\ndirection of the whole life, and we have to say, 'It is no good trying\nany longer my life must run on in the channel which I have carved for\nit; I have made my bed and I must lie on it; I cannot get rid of these\nthings.' And, no doubt, in certain aspects, change is impossible.\nThere are certain limitations of natural disposition which I never can\novercome. For instance, if I have no musical ear I cannot turn myself\ninto a musician. If I have no mathematical faculty it is no good\nporing over Euclid, for, with the best intentions in the world, I\nshall make nothing of it. We must work within the limits of our\nnatural disposition, and cut our coat according to our cloth. In that\nrespect to-morrow will be as yesterday, and there cannot be any\nchange. And it is quite true that character, which is the great\nprecipitate from the waters of conduct, gets rocky, that habits become\npersistent, and man's will gets feeble by long indulgence in any\ncourse of life. But for all that, admitting to the full all that, I am\nhere now to say to every man and woman in this place, 'Friend, you may\nmake your life from this moment so unlike the blotted, stained,\nfaultful, imperfect, sinful past that no words other than the words of\nthe New Testament will be large enough to express the fact. \"If any\nman be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away.\"'\nFor we all know how into any life the coming of some large conviction\nnot believed in or perceived before, may alter the whole bias,\ncurrent, and direction of it; how into any life the coming of a new\nlove not cherished and entertained before, may ennoble and transfigure\nthe whole of its nature; how into any life the coming of new motives,\nnot yielded to and recognised before, may make all things new and\ndifferent. These three plain principles, the power of conviction, the\npower of affection, the power of motive, are broad enough to admit of\nbuilding upon them this great and helpful and hopeful promise to us\nall--'The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the\nwill of the Gentiles,' that 'henceforth we may live the rest of our\ntime in the flesh according to the will of God.'\n\nTo you who have been living in the past with little regard to the\nsupreme powers and principles of Christ's love and God's Gospel in\nHim, I bring the offer of a radical revolution; and I tell you that if\nyou like you may this day begin a life which, though it shall be like\nyesterday in outward things, in the continuity of some habits, in the\ncontinuance of character, shall be all under the influence of an\nentirely new, and innovating, and renovating power. I ask you whether\nyou don't think that you have had enough, to use the language of my\ntext, in the part of obeying the will of the flesh; and I beseech you\nthat you will let these great principles, these grand convictions\nwhich cluster round and explain the cross of Jesus Christ, influence\nyour mind, character, habits, desires, thoughts, actions; that you\nwill yield yourself to the new power of the Spirit of life in Christ,\nwhich is granted to us if only we submit ourselves to it and humbly\ndesire it. And to you who have in some measure lived by this mighty\ninfluence I come with the message for you and for myself that the time\nto come may, if we will, be filled very much fuller than it is;\n'To-morrow may be as this day, and much more abundant.' I believe in a\npatient, reflecting, abundant examination of the past. The old proverb\nsays that 'Every man by the time he is forty is either a fool or a\nphysician'; and any man or woman by the time they get ten years short\nof that age, ought to know where they are weakest, and ought to be\nable to guard against the weak places in their character. I do not\nbelieve in self-examination for the purpose of finding in a man's own\ncharacter reasons for answering the question, 'Am I a Christian?' But\nI do believe that no people will avail themselves fully of the power\nGod has given them for making the future brighter and better than the\npast who have not a very clear, accurate, comprehensive, and\npenetrating knowledge of their faults and their failures in the past.\nI suppose if the Tay Bridge is to be built again, it won't be built of\nthe same pattern as that which was blown into the water last week; and\nyou and I ought to learn by experience the places in our souls that\ngive in the tempests, where there is most need for strengthening the\nbulwarks and defending our natures. And so I say, begin with the\nabundant recognition of the past, and then a brave confidence in the\npossibilities of the future. Let us put ourselves under that great\nrenovating Power which is conviction and affection and motive all in\none. 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' And so while we front the\nfuture we can feel that, God being in us, and Christ being in us, we\nshall make it a far brighter and fairer thing than the blurred and\nblotted past which to-day is buried, and life may go on with grand\nblessedness and power until we shall hear the great voice from the\nThrone say, 'There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more\ncrying, no more pain, for the former things are passed away, 'Behold!\nI make all things new.'\n\n\n\nTWO VIEWS OF LIFE\n\n'This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man, to be exercised\ntherewith.--ECCLES. i. 13.\n\n'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His\nholiness.'--HEBREWS xii. 10.\n\n\nThese two texts set before us human life as it looks to two observers.\nThe former admits that God shapes it; but to him it seems sore\ntravail, the expenditure of much trouble and efforts; the results of\nwhich seem to be nothing beyond profitless exercise. There is an\nimmense activity and nothing to show for it at the end but wearied\nlimbs. The other observer sees, at least, as much of sorrow and\ntrouble as the former, but he believes in the 'Father of spirits,' and\nin a hereafter; and these, of course, bring a meaning and a wider\npurpose into the 'sore travail,' and make it, not futile but,\nprofitable to our highest good.\n\nI. Note first the Preacher's gloomy half-truth.\n\nThe word rendered in our text 'travail' is a favourite one with the\nwriter. It means occupation which costs effort and causes trouble. The\nphrase 'to be exercised therewith,' rather means to _fatigue\nthemselves_, so that life as looked upon by the Preacher consists\nof effort without result but weariness.\n\nIf he knew it at all, it was very imperfectly and dimly; and whatever\nmay be thought of teaching on that subject which appears in the formal\nconclusion of the book, the belief in a future state certainly\nexercises no influence on its earlier portions. These represent phases\nthrough which the writer passes on his way to his conclusion. He does\nbelieve in 'God,' but, very significantly, he never uses the sacred\nname 'Lord.' He has shaken himself free, or he wishes to represent a\ncharacter who has shaken himself free from Revelation, and is fighting\nthe problem of life, its meaning and worth, without any help from Law,\nor Prophet, or Psalm. He does retain belief in what he calls 'God,'\nbut his pure Theism, with little, if any, faith in a future life, is a\ncreed which has no power of unravelling the perplexed mysteries of\nlife, and of answering the question, 'What does it all mean?' With\nkeen and cynical vision he looks out not only over men, as in this\nfirst chapter, but over nature; and what mainly strikes him is the\nenormous amount of work that is being done, and the tragical poverty\nof its results. The question with which he begins his book is, 'What\nprofit hath a man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the\nsun?' And for answer he looks at the sun rising and going down, and\nbeing in the same place after its journey through the heavens; and he\nhears the wind continually howling and yet returning again to its\ncircuits; and the waters now running as rivers into the sea and again\ndrawn up in vapours, and once more falling in rain and running as\nwaters. This wearisome monotony of intense activity in nature is\nparalleled by all that is done by man under heaven, and the net result\nof all is 'Vanity and a strife after wind.'\n\nThe writer proceeds to confirm his dreary conclusion by a piece of\nautobiography put into the mouth of Solomon. He is represented as\nflinging himself into mirth and pleasure, into luxury and debauchery,\nand as satisfying every hunger for any joy, and as being pulled up\nshort in the midst of his rioting by the conviction, like a funeral\nbell, tolling in his mind that all was vanity. 'He gave himself to\nwisdom, and madness, and folly'; and in all he found but one\nresult--enormous effort and no profit. There seemed to be a time for\neverything, and a kind of demonic power in men compelling them to toil\nas with equal energy, now at building up, and now at destroying. But\nto every purpose he saw that there was 'time and judgment,' and\ntherefore, 'the misery of man was great upon him.' To his jaundiced\neye the effort of life appeared like the play of the wind in the\ndesert, always busy, but sometime busy in heaping the sands in\nhillocks, and sometimes as busy in levelling them to a plain.\n\nWe may regard such a view of humanity as grotesquely pessimistic; but\nthere is no doubt that many of us do make of life little more than\nwhat the Preacher thought it. It is not only the victims of\ncivilisation who are forced to wearisome monotony of toil which barely\nyields daily bread; but we see all around us men and women wearing out\ntheir lives in the race after a false happiness, gaining nothing by\nthe race but weariness. What shall we say of the man who, in the\ndesire to win wealth, or reputation, lives laborious days of cramping\neffort in one direction, and allows all the better part of his nature\nto be atrophied, and die, and passes, untasted, brooks by the way, the\nmodest joys and delights that run through the dustiest lives. What is\nthe difference between a squirrel in the cage who only makes his\nprison go round the faster by his swift race, and the man who lives\ntoilsome days for transitory objects which he may never attain? In the\nold days every prison was furnished with a tread-mill, on which the\nprisoner being set was bound to step up on each tread of the revolving\nwheel, not in order to rise, but in order to prevent him from breaking\nhis legs. How many men around us are on such a mill, and how many of\nthem have fastened themselves on it, and by their own misreading and\nmisuse of life have turned it into a dreary monotony of resultless\ntoil. The Preacher may be more ingenious than sound in his pessimism,\nbut let us not forget that every godless man does make of life 'Vanity\nand strife after wind.'\n\nII. The higher truth which completes the Preacher's.\n\nOf course the fragmentary sentence in our second text needs to be\ncompleted from the context, and so completed will stand, 'God chastens\nus for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.' Now\nlet us consider for a moment the thought that the true meaning of life\nis _discipline_. I say discipline rather than 'chastening,' for\nchastening simply implies the fact of pain, whereas discipline\nincludes the wholesome _purpose_ of pain. The true meaning of\nlife is not to be found by estimating its sorrows or its joys, but by\ntrying to estimate the effects of either upon us. The true value of\nlife, and the meaning of all its tears and of all its joys, is what it\nmakes us. If the enormous effort which struck the Preacher issues in\nstrengthened muscles and braced limbs, it is not 'vanity.' He who\ncarries away with him out of life a character moulded as God would\nhave it, does not go in all points 'naked as he came.' He bears a\ndeveloped self, and that is the greatest treasure that a man can carry\nout of multitudinous toils of the busiest life. If we would think less\nof our hard work and of our heavy sorrows, and more of the loving\npurpose which appoints them all, we should find life less difficult,\nless toilsome, less mysterious. That one thought taken to our hearts,\nand honestly applied to everything that befalls us, would untie many a\nriddle, would wipe away many a tear, would bring peace and patience\ninto many a heart, and would make still brighter many a gladness.\nWithout it our lives are a chaos; with it they would become an ordered\nworld.\n\nBut the recognition of the hand that ministers the discipline is\nneeded to complete the peacefulness of faith. It would be a dreary\nworld if we could only think of some inscrutable or impersonal power\nthat inflicted the discipline; but if in its sharpest pangs we give\n'reverence to the Father of spirits,' we shall 'live.' Of course, a\nloving father sees to his children's education, and a loving child\ncannot but believe that the father's single purpose in all his\ndiscipline is his good. The good that is sought to be attained by the\nsharpest chastisement is better than the good that is given by weak\nindulgence. When the father's hand wields the rod, and a loving child\nreceives the strokes, they may sting, but they do not wound. The\n'fathers of our flesh chasten us after their own pleasure,' and there\nmay be error and arbitrariness in their action; and the child may\nsometimes nourish a right sense of injustice, but 'the Father of\nspirits' makes no mistakes, and never strikes too hard. 'He for our\nprofit' carries with it the declaration that the deep heart of God\ndoth not willingly afflict, and seeks in afflicting for nothing but\nHis children's good.\n\nNor are these all the truths by which the New Testament completes and\nsupersedes the Preacher's pessimism, for our text closes by unveiling\nthe highest profit which discipline is meant to secure to us as being\nthat we should be 'partakers of His holiness.' The Biblical conception\nof holiness in God is that of separation from and elevation above the\ncreature. Man's holiness is separation from the world and dedication\nto God. He is separated from the world by moral perfection yet more\nthan by His other attributes, and men who have yielded themselves to\nHim will share in that characteristic. This assimilation to His nature\nis the highest 'profit' to which we can attain, and all the purpose of\nHis chastening is to make us more completely like Himself. 'The\nfathers of our flesh' chasten with a view to the brief earthly life,\nbut His chastening looks onwards beyond the days of 'strife and\nvanity' to a calm eternity.\n\nThus, then, the immortality which glimmered doubtfully in the end of\nhis book before the eyes of the Preacher is the natural inference for\nthe Christian thought of moral discipline as the great purpose of\nlife. No doubt it might be possible for a man to believe in the\nsupreme importance of character, and in all the discipline of life as\nsubsidiary to its development, and yet not believe in another world,\nwhere all that was tendency, often thwarted, should be accomplished\nresult, and the schooling ended the rod should be broken. But such a\nposition will be very rare and very absurd. To recognise moral\ndiscipline as the greatest purpose of life, gives quite overwhelming\nprobability to a future. Surely God does not take such pains with us\nin order to make no more of us than He makes of us in this world.\nSurely human life becomes 'confusion worse confounded' if it is\ncarefully, sedulously, continuously tended, checked, inspired,\ndeveloped by all the various experiences of sorrow and joy, and then,\nat death, broken short off, as a man might break a stick across his\nknee, and the fragments tossed aside and forgotten. If we can say, 'He\nfor our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness,' we have\nthe right to say 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He\nis.'\n\n\n\n'A TIME TO PLANT'\n\n'A time to plant.'--Eccles. iii. 2.\n\n\nThe writer enumerates in this context a number of opposite courses of\nconduct arranged in pairs, each of which is right at the right time.\nThe view thus presented seems to him to be depressing, and to make\nlife difficult to understand, and aimless. We always appear to be\nbuilding up with one hand and pulling down with the other. The ship\nnever heads for two miles together in the same direction. The history\nof human affairs appears to be as purposeless as the play of the wind\non the desert sands, which it sometimes piles into huge mounds and\nthen scatters.\n\nSo he concludes that only God, who appoints the seasons that demand\nopposite courses of conduct, can understand what it all means. The\nengine-driver knows why he reverses his engine, and not the wheels\nthat are running in opposite directions in consecutive moments\naccording to his will.\n\nNow that is a one-sided view, of course, for it is to be remembered\nthat the Book of Ecclesiastes is the logbook of a voyager after truth,\nand tells us all the wanderings and errors of his thinking until he\nhas arrived at the haven of the conclusion that he announces in the\nfinal word: 'Hear the sum of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His\ncommandments, for this is the whole duty of man.'\n\nI have nothing to do just now with the conclusion which he arrives at,\nbut the facts from which he starts are significant and important.\nThere are things in life, God has so arranged it, which can only be\ndone fittingly, and for the most part of all, at certain seasons; and\nthe secret of success is the discernment of present duty, and the\nprompt performance of it.\n\nAnd this is especially true about your time of life, my young friends.\nThere are things, very important things, which, unless you do them\nnow, the overwhelming probability is that you will never do at all;\nand the certainty is that you will not do them half as well. And so I\nwant to ask you to look at these words, which, by a legitimate\nextension of the writer's meaning, and taking them in a kind of\nparabolic way, may sum up for us the whole of the special duties of\nyouth. 'A time to plant.'\n\nI. Now, my first remark is this: that you are now in the planting time\nof your lives.\n\nNo wise forester will try to shift shrubs or to put them into his\ngardens or woods, except in late autumn or early spring. And our lives\nare as really under the dominion of the law of seasons as the green\nworld of the forest and the fields. Speaking generally, and admitting\nthe existence of many exceptions, the years between childhood and,\nsay, two or three-and-twenty, for a young man or woman, for the most\npart settle the main outline of their character, and thereby determine\ntheir history, which, after all, is mainly the outcome of their\ncharacter.\n\nYou have wide possibilities before you, of moulding your characters\ninto beauty, and purity, holiness, and strength.\n\nFor one thing, you have got no past, or next to none written all over,\nwhich it is hard to erase. You have substantially a clean sheet on\nwhich to write what you like. Your stage of life predisposes you in\nfavour of novelty. New things are glad things to you, whereas to us\nolder people a new thought coming into some of our brains is like a\nnew bit of furniture coming into a crowded room. All the other pieces\nneed to be arranged, and it is more of a trouble than anything else.\nYou are flexible and plastic as yet, like the iron running out of the\nblast furnace in a molten stream, which in half an hour's time will be\na rigid bar that no man can bend.\n\nYou have all these things in your favour, and so, dear young friends,\nwhether you think of it or not, whether voluntarily or not, I want you\nto remember that this awful process is going on inevitably and\nconstantly in every one of you. You are planting, whether you\nrecognise the fact or no. What are you planting?\n\nWell, for one thing, you are making _habits_, which are but\nactions hardened, like the juice that exudes from the pine-tree,\nliquid, or all but liquid, when it comes out, and when exposed to the\nair, is solidified and tenacious. The old legend of the man in the\ntower who got a slim thread up to his window, to which was attached\none thicker and then thicker, and so on ever increasing until he\nhauled in a cable, is a true parable of what goes on in every human\nlife. Some one deed, a thin film like a spider's thread, draws after\nit a thicker, by that inevitable law that a thing done once tends to\nbe done twice, and that the second time it is easier than the first\ntime. A man makes a track with great difficulty across the snow in a\nmorning, but every time that he travels it, it is a little harder, and\nthe track is a little broader, and it is easier walking. You play with\nthe tiger's whelp of some pleasant, questionable enjoyment, and you\nthink that it will always keep so innocent, with its budding claws not\nable to draw blood, but it grows--_it grows_. And it grows\naccording to its kind, and what was a plaything one day is a\nfull-grown and ravening wild beast in a while. You are making habits,\nwhatever else you are making, and you are planting in your hearts\nseeds that will spring and bear fruit according to their kind.\n\nThen remember, you are planting _belief_.--Most of us, I am\nafraid, get our opinions by haphazard; like the child in the\nwell-known story, whose only account of herself was that 'she expected\nshe growed.' That is the way by which most of you come to what you\ndignify by the name of your opinions. They come in upon you, you do\nnot know how. Youth is receptive of anything new. You can learn a vast\ndeal more easily than many of us older people can. Set down a man who\nhas never learned the alphabet, to learn his letters, and see what a\ntask it is for him. Or if he takes a pen in his hand for the first\ntime, look how difficult the stiff wrist and thick knuckles find it to\nbend. Yours is the time for forming your opinions, for forming some\nrational and intelligent account of yourself and the world about you.\nSee to it, that you plant truth in your hearts, under which you may\nlive sheltered for many days.\n\nThen again, you are planting character, which is not only habit, but\nsomething more. You are making _yourselves_, whatever else you\nare making. You begin with almost boundless possibilities, and these\nnarrow and narrow and narrow, according to your actions, until you\nhave laid the rails on which you travel--one narrow line that you\ncannot get off. A man's character is, if I may use a chemical term, a\n'precipitate' from his actions. Why, it takes acres of roses to make a\nflask of perfume; and all the long life of a man is represented in his\nultimate character. Character is formed like those chalk cliffs in the\nsouth, built up eight hundred feet, beetling above the stormy sea; and\nall made up of the relics of microscopic animals. So you build up a\ngreat solid structure--yourself--out of all your deeds. You are making\nyour character, your habits, your opinions.--And you are making your\nreputation too. And you will not be able to get rid of that. This is\nthe time for you to make a good record or a bad one, in other people's\nopinions.\n\nAnd so, young men and women, boys and girls, I want you to remember\nthe permanent effects of your most fleeting acts. Nothing ever dies\nthat a man does. Nothing! You go into a museum, and you will see\nstanding there a slab of red sandstone, and little dints and dimples\nupon it. What are they? Marks made by a flying shower that lasted for\nfive minutes, nobody knows how many millenniums ago. And there they\nare, and there they will be until the world is burned up. So our\nfleeting deeds are all recorded here, in our permanent character.\nEverything that we have done is laid up there in the testimony of the\nrocks:--\n\n  'Through our soul the echoes roll,\n  And grow for ever and for ever.'\n\nYou are now living in 'a time to plant.'\n\nII. Notice, in the next place, that as surely as _now_ is the\ntime to plant, _then_ will be a time to reap.\n\nI do not know whether the writer of my text meant the harvest, when he\nput in antithesis to my text the other clause, 'and a time to pluck up\nthat which is planted.' Probably, as most of the other pairs are\nopposites, here, too, we are to see an opposite rather than a result;\nthe destructive action of plucking up, and not the preservative action\nof gathering a harvest. But, however that may be, let me remind you\nthat there stands, irrefragable, for every human soul and every human\ndeed, this great solemn law of retribution.\n\nNow what lies in that law? Two things--that the results are similar in\nkind, and more in number. The law of likeness, and the law of\nincrease, both of them belong to the working of the law of\nretribution. And so, be sure that you will find out that all your past\nlives on into your present; and that the present, in fact, is very\nlittle more than the outcome of the past. What you plant as a youth\nyou will reap as a man. This mysterious life of ours is all sowing and\nreaping intermingled, right away on to the very end. Each action is in\nturn the child of all the preceding and the parent of all that\nfollows. But still, though that be true, your time of life is\npredominantly the time of sowing; and my time of life, for instance,\nis predominantly the time of reaping. There are a great many things\nthat I could not do now if I wished. There are a great many things in\nour past that I, and men of my age, would fain alter; but there they\nstand, and nothing can do away the marks of that which once has been.\nWe have to reap, and so will you some day.\n\nAnd I will tell you what you will have to reap, as sure as you are\nsitting in those pews. You will have the enlarged growth of your\npresent characteristics. A man takes a photograph upon a sensitive\nplate, half the size of the palm of my hand; and then he enlarges it\nto any size he pleases. And that is what life does for all of us. The\npictures, drawn small on the young man's imagination, on the young\nwoman's dreaming heart, be they of angels or of beasts, are permanent;\nand they will get bigger and bigger and bigger, as get older. You do\nnot reap only as much as you sowed, but 'some sixty fold, and some an\nhundred fold.'\n\nAnd you will reap the increased dominion of your early habits. There\nis a grim verse in the Book of Proverbs that speaks about a man being\ntied and bound by the chains of his sins. And that is just saying that\nthe things which you chose to do when you were a boy, many of them you\nwill have to do when you are a man; because you have lost the power,\nthough sometimes not the will, of doing anything else. There be men\nthat sow the wind, and they do not reap the wind, but the law of\nincrease comes in and they reap the whirlwind. There be men who,\naccording to the old Greek legend, sow dragon's teeth and they reap\narmed soldiers. There are some of you that are sowing to the flesh,\nand as sure as God lives, you will 'of the flesh reap corruption.'\n'Whatsoever a man soweth, that,' even here, 'shall he also reap.'\n\nAnd let me remind you that that law of inheriting the fruit of our\ndoings is by no means exhausted by the experience of life. Whenever\nconscience is awakened it at once testifies not only of a broken law,\nbut of a living Law-giver; and not only of retribution here, but of\nretribution hereafter. And I for my part believe that the modern form\nof Christianity and the tendencies of the modern pulpit, influenced by\nsome theological discussions, about details in the notion of\nretribution that have been going on of late years, have operated to\nmake ministers of the Gospel too chary of preaching, and hearers\nindisposed to accept, the message of 'the terror of the Lord.' My dear\nfriends! retribution cannot stop on this side of the grave, and if you\nare going yonder you are carrying with you the necessity in yourself\nfor inheriting the results of your life here. I beseech you, do not\nput away such thoughts as this, with the notion that I am brandishing\nbefore you some antiquated doctrine, fit only to frighten old women\nand children. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes was no\nweak-minded, superstitious fanatic. He was far more disposed to\nscepticism than to fanaticism. But for all that, with all his sympathy\nfor young men's breadth and liberality, with his tolerance for all\nsorts and ways of living, with all his doubts and questionings, he\ncame to this, and this was his teaching to the young men whom in idea\nhe had gathered round his chair,--'Rejoice, oh young man, in thy\nyouth. And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk\nin the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.' By all\nmeans, God has put you into a fair world, and meant you to get all the\ngood out of it. 'But,' and that not as a kill-joy, 'know thou, that\nfor all these things God will bring thee into judgment,' and shape\nyour characters accordingly.\n\nIII. Still further, let me say, these things being so, you especially\nneed to ponder them.\n\nThat is so, because you especially are in danger of forgetting them.\nIt is meant that young people should live by impulse much more than by\nreflection.\n\n  'If nature put not forth her power\n  About the opening of the flower,\n  Who is there that could live an hour?'\n\nThe days of calculation will come soon enough; and I do not want to\nhurry them. I do not want to put old heads upon young shoulders. I\nwould rather see the young ones, a great deal. But I want you not to\ngo down to the level of the beast, living only by instinct and by\nimpulse. You have got brains, you are meant to use them. You have the\ngreat divine gift of reason, that looks before and after, and though\nyou have not much experience yet, you can, if you will, reflect upon\nsuch things as I have just been saying to you, and take them into your\nhearts, and live accordingly. My dear young friend! enjoy yourself,\nlive buoyantly, yield to your impulses, be glad for the beautiful life\nthat is unfolding around you, and the strong nature that is blossoming\nwithin you. And then take this other lesson, 'Ponder the path of thy\nfeet,' and remember that all the while you dance along the flowery\npath, you are planting what you will have to reap.\n\nThen, still further, it is especially needful for you that you should\nponder these things, because unless you do you will certainly go\nwrong. If you do not plant good, somebody else will plant evil. An\nuntilled field is not a field that nothing grows in, but it is a field\nfull of weeds; and the world and the flesh and the devil, the\ntemptations round about you and the evil tendencies in you, unless\nthey are well kept down and kept off, are sure to fill your souls full\nof all manner of seeds that will spring up to bitterness, and poison,\nand death. Oh! think, think! for it is the only chance of keeping your\nhearts from being full of wickedness--think what you are sowing, and\nthink what will the harvest be. There are some of you, as I said,\nsowing to the flesh, young men living impure and wicked lives, and\n'their bones are full of the sins of their youth.' There are some of\nyou letting every wind bring the thistledown of vanities, and scatter\nthem all across your hearts, that they may spring up prickly, and\ngifted with a fatal power of self-multiplication. There are some of\nyou, young men, and young women too, whose lives are divided between\nManchester business and that ignoble thirst for mere amusement which\nis eating all the dignity and the earnestness out of the young men of\nthis city. I beseech you, do not slide into habits of frivolity,\nlicentiousness, and sin, for want of looking after yourselves.\nRemember, if you do not ponder the path of your feet, you are sure to\ntake the turn to the left.\n\nAgain, it is needful for you to ponder these things, for if you waste\nthis time, it will never come back to you any more. It is useless to\nsow corn in August. There are things in this world that a man can only\nget when he is young, such as sound education, for instance; business\nhabits, habits of industry, of application, of concentration, of\nself-control, a reputation which may avail in the future. If you do\nnot begin to get these before you are five-and-twenty, you will never\nget them.\n\nAnd although the certainty is not so absolute in regard to spiritual\nand religious things, the dice are frightfully weighted, and the\nchances are terribly small that a young man who, like some of you, has\npassed his early years in church or chapel, in weekly contact with\nearnest preaching, and has not accepted the Saviour, will do it when\nhe grows old. He may; he may. But it is a great deal more likely that\nhe will not.\n\nIV. The conclusion of the whole matter is, Begin on the spot, to trust\nand to serve Jesus Christ.\n\nThese are the best things to plant--simple reliance upon His death for\nyour forgiveness, upon His power to make you pure and clean; simple\nsubmission to His commandment. Oh! dear young friend; if you have\nthese in your hearts everything will come right. You will get habit on\nyour side, and that is much; and you will be saved from a great deal\nof misery which would be yours if you went wrong first, and then came\nright.\n\nIf you will plant a cutting of the tree of life in your heart it will\nyield everything to you when it grows. The people in the South Seas,\nif they have a palm-tree, can get out of it bread and drink, food,\nclothing, shelter, light, materials for books, cordage for their\nboats, needles to sew with, and everything. If you will take Jesus\nChrist, and plant Him in your hearts, everything will come out of\nthat. That Tree 'bears twelve manners of fruits, and yields His fruit\nevery month.' With Christ in your heart all other fair things will be\nplanted there; and with Him in your heart, all evil things which you\nmay already have planted there, will be rooted out. Just as when some\nstrong exotic is carried to some distant land and there takes root, it\nexterminates the feebler vegetation of the place to which it comes; so\nwith Christ in my heart the sins, the evil habits, the passions, the\nlusts, and all other foul spawn and offspring, will die and disappear.\nTake Him, then, dear friend! by simple faith, for your Saviour. He\nwill plant the good seed in your spirit, and 'instead of the briar\nshall come up the myrtle.' Your lives will become fruitful of goodness\nand of joy, according to that ancient promise: 'The righteous shall\nflourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.\nThose that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the\ncourts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.'\n\n\n\nETERNITY IN THE HEART\n\n'He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the\nworld in their heart.'--ECCLES. iii. 11.\n\n\nThere is considerable difficulty in understanding what precise meaning\nis to be attached to these words, and what precise bearing they have\non the general course of the writer's thoughts; but one or two things\nare, at any rate, quite clear.\n\nThe Preacher has been enumerating all the various vicissitudes of\nprosperity and adversity, of construction and destruction, of society\nand solitude, of love and hate, for which there is scope and verge\nenough in one short human life; and his conclusion is, as it always is\nin the earlier part of this book, that because there is such an\nendless diversity of possible occupation, and each of them lasts but\nfor a little time, and its opposite has as good a right of existence\nas itself; therefore, perhaps, it might be as well that a man should\ndo nothing as do all these opposite things which neutralise each\nother, and the net result of which is nothing. If there be a time to\nbe born and a time to die, nonentity would be the same when all is\nover. If there be a time to plant and a time to pluck, what is the\ngood of planting? If there be a time for love and a time for hate, why\ncherish affections which are transient and may be succeeded by their\nopposites?\n\nAnd then another current of thought passes through his mind, and he\ngets another glimpse somewhat different, and says in effect, 'No! that\nis not all true--God has made all these different changes, and\nalthough each of them seems contradictory of the other, in its own\nplace and at its own time each is beautiful and has a right to exist.'\nThe contexture of life, and even the perplexities and darknesses of\nhuman society, and the varieties of earthly condition--if they be\nconfined within their own proper limits, and regarded as parts of a\nwhole--they are all co-operant to an end. As from wheels turning\ndifferent ways in some great complicated machine, and yet fitting by\ntheir cogs into one another, there may be a resultant direct motion\nproduced even by these apparently antagonistic forces.\n\nBut the second clause of our text adds a thought which is in some\nsense contrasted with this.\n\nThe word rendered 'world' is a very frequent one in the Old Testament,\nand has never but one meaning, and that meaning is _eternity_.\n'He hath set _eternity_ in their heart.'\n\nHere, then, are two antagonistic facts. They are transient things, a\nvicissitude which moves within natural limits, temporary events which\nare beautiful in their season. But there is also the contrasted fact,\nthat the man who is thus tossed about, as by some great battledore\nwielded by giant powers in mockery, from one changing thing to\nanother, has relations to something more lasting than the transient.\nHe lives in a world of fleeting change, but he has 'eternity' in 'his\nheart.' So between him and his dwelling-place, between him and his\noccupations, there is a gulf of disproportion. He is subjected to\nthese alternations, and yet bears within him a repressed but immortal\nconsciousness that he belongs to another order of things, which knows\nno vicissitude and fears no decay. He possesses stifled and\nmisinterpreted longings which, however starved, do yet survive, after\nunchanging Being and eternal Rest, And thus endowed, and by contrast\nthus situated, his soul is full of the 'blank misgiving of a creature\nmoving about in worlds not realised.' Out of these two facts--says our\ntext--man's _where_ and man's _what_, his nature and his\nposition, there rises a mist of perplexity and darkness that wraps the\nwhole course of the divine actions--unless, indeed, we have reached\nthat central height of vision above the mists, which this Book of\nEcclesiastes puts forth at last as the conclusion of the whole\nmatter--'Fear God, and keep His commandments.' If transitory things\nwith their multitudinous and successive waves toss us to solid safety\non the Rock of Ages, then all is well, and many mysteries will be\nclear. But if not, if we have not found, or rather followed, the one\nGod-given way of harmonising these two sets of experiences--life in\nthe transient, and longings for the eternal--then their antagonism\ndarkens our thoughts of a wise and loving Providence, and we have lost\nthe key to the confused riddle which the world then presents. 'He hath\nmade everything beautiful in his time: also He hath set Eternity in\ntheir heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from\nthe beginning to the end.'\n\nSuch, then, being a partial but, perhaps, not entirely inadequate view\nof the course of thought in the words before us, I may now proceed to\nexpand the considerations thus brought under our notice in them. These\nmay be gathered up in three principal ones: the consciousness of\nEternity in every heart; the disproportion thence resulting between\nthis nature of ours and the order of things in which we dwell; and\nfinally, the possible satisfying of that longing in men's hearts--a\npossibility not indeed referred to in our text, but unveiled as the\nfinal word of this Book of Ecclesiastes, and made clear to us in Jesus\nChrist.\n\nI. Consider that eternity is set in every human heart.\n\nThe expression is, of course, somewhat difficult, even if we accept\ngenerally the explanation which I have given. It may be either a\ndeclaration of the actual immortality of the soul, or it may mean, as\nI rather suppose it to do, the consciousness of eternity which is part\nof human nature.\n\nThe former idea is no doubt closely connected with the latter, and\nwould here yield an appropriate sense. We should then have the\ncontrast between man's undying existence and the transient trifles on\nwhich he is tempted to fix his love and hopes. We belong to one set of\nexistences by our bodies, and to another by our souls. Though we are\nparts of the passing material world, yet in that outward frame is\nlodged a personality that has nothing in common with decay and death.\nA spark of eternity dwells in these fleeting frames. The laws of\nphysical growth and accretion and maturity and decay, which rule over\nall things material, do not apply to my true self. 'In our embers is\nsomething that doth live.' Whatsoever befalls the hairs that get grey\nand thin, and the hands that become wrinkled and palsied, and the\nheart that is worn out by much beating, and the blood that clogs and\nclots at last, and the filmy eye, and all the corruptible frame; yet,\nas the heathen said, 'I shall not _all_ die,' but deep within\nthis transient clay house, that must crack and fall and be resolved\ninto the elements out of which it was built up, there dwells an\nimmortal guest, an undying personal self. In the heart, the inmost\nspiritual being of every man, eternity, in this sense of the word,\ndoes dwell.\n\n'Commonplaces,' you say. Yes; commonplaces, which word means two\nthings--truths that affect us all, and also truths which, because they\nare so universal and so entirely believed, are all but powerless.\nSurely it is not time to stop preaching such truths as long as they\nare forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the people who\nacknowledge them. Thank God! the staple of the work of us preachers is\nthe reiteration of commonplaces, which His goodness has made familiar,\nand our indolence and sin have made stale and powerless.\n\nMy brother! you would be a wiser man if, instead of turning the edge\nof statements which you know to be true, and which, if true, are\ninfinitely solemn and important, by commonplace sarcasm about pulpit\ncommonplaces, you would honestly try to drive the familiar neglected\ntruth home to your mind and heart. Strip it of its generality and\nthink, 'It is true about _me. I_ live for ever. My outward life\nwill cease, and _my_ dust will return to dust--but _I_ shall\nlast undying.' And ask yourselves--What then? 'Am I making \"provision\nfor the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,\" in more or less refined\nfashion, and forgetting to provide for that which lives for evermore?\nEternity is in _my_ heart. What a madness it is to go on, as if\neither I were to continue for ever among the shows of time, or when I\nleave them all, to die wholly and be done with altogether!'\n\nBut, probably, the other interpretation of these words is the truer.\nThe doctrine of immortality does not seem to be stated in this Book of\nEcclesiastes, except in one or two very doubtful expressions. And it\nis more in accordance with its whole tone to suppose the Preacher here\nto be asserting, not that the heart or spirit is immortal, but that,\nwhether it is or no, in the heart is planted the _thought_, the\n_consciousness_ of eternity--and the longing after it.\n\nLet me put that into other words. We, brethren, are the only beings on\nthis earth who can think the thought and speak the word--Eternity.\nOther creatures are happy while immersed in time; we have another\nnature, and are disturbed by a thought which shines high above the\nroaring sea of circumstance in which we float.\n\nI do not care at present about the metaphysical puzzles that have been\ngathered round that conception, nor care to ask whether it is positive\nor negative, adequate or inadequate. Enough that the word has a\nmeaning, that it corresponds to a thought which dwells in men's minds.\nIt is of no consequence at all for our purpose, whether it is a\npositive conception, or simply the thinking away of all limitations.\n'I know what God is, when you do not ask me.' I know what eternity is,\nthough I cannot define the word to satisfy a metaphysician. The little\nchild taught by some grandmother Lois, in a cottage, knows what she\nmeans when she tells him 'you will live for ever,' though both scholar\nand teacher would be puzzled to put it into other words. When we say\neternity flows round this bank and shoal of time, men know what we\nmean. Heart answers to heart; and in each heart lies that solemn\nthought--for ever!\n\nLike all other of the primal thoughts of men's souls, it may be\nincreased in force and clearness, or it may be neglected and opposed,\nand all but crushed. The thought of God is natural to man, the thought\nof right and wrong is natural to man--and yet there may be atheists\nwho have blinded their eyes, and there may be degraded and almost\nanimal natures who have seared their consciences and called sweet\nbitter and evil good. Thus men may so plunge themselves into the\npresent as to lose the consciousness of the eternal--as a man swept\nover Niagara, blinded by the spray and deafened by the rush, would see\nor hear nothing outside the green walls of the death that encompassed\nhim. And yet the blue sky with its peaceful spaces stretches above the\nhell of waters.\n\nSo the thought is in us all--a presentiment and a consciousness; and\nthat universal presentiment itself goes far to establish the reality\nof the unseen order of things to which it is directed. The great\nplanet that moves on the outmost circle of our system was discovered\nbecause that next it wavered in its course in a fashion which was\ninexplicable, unless some unknown mass was attracting it from across\nmillions of miles of darkling space. And there are 'perturbations' in\nour spirits which cannot be understood, unless from them we may divine\nthat far-off and unseen world, that has power from afar to sway in\ntheir orbits the little lives of mortal men. It draws us to\nitself--but, alas! the attraction may be resisted and thwarted. The\ndead mass of the planet bends to the drawing, but we can repel the\nconstraint which the eternal world would exercise upon us--and so that\nconsciousness which ought to be our nobleness, as it is our\nprerogative, may become our shame, our misery, and our sin.\n\nThat Eternity which is set in our hearts is not merely the thought of\never-during Being, or of an everlasting order of things to which we\nare in some way related. But there are connected with it other ideas\nbesides those of mere duration. Men know what perfection means. They\nunderstand the meaning of perfect goodness; they have the notion of\ninfinite Wisdom and boundless Love. These thoughts are the material of\nall poetry, the thread from which the imagination creates all her\nwondrous tapestries. This 'capacity for the Infinite,' as people call\nit--which is only a fine way of putting the same thought as that in\nour text--which is the prerogative of human spirits, is likewise the\ncurse of many spirits. By their misuse of it they make it a fatal\ngift, and turn it into an unsatisfied desire which gnaws their souls,\na famished yearning which 'roars, and suffers hunger.' Knowing what\nperfection is, they turn to limited natures and created hearts for\ntheir rest. Having the haunting thought of an absolute Goodness, a\nperfect Wisdom, an endless Love, an eternal Life--they try to find the\nbeing that corresponds to their thought here on earth, and so they are\nplagued with endless disappointment.\n\nMy brother! God has put eternity in _your_ heart. Not only will\nyou live for ever, but also in your present life you have a\nconsciousness of that eternal and infinite and all-sufficient Being\nthat lives above. You have need of Him, and whether you know it or\nnot, the tendrils of your spirits, like some climbing plant not\nfostered by a careful hand but growing wild, are feeling out into the\nvacancy in order to grasp the stay which they need for their fruitage\nand their strength.\n\nBy the make of our spirits, by the possibilities that dawn dim before\nus, by the thoughts 'whose very sweetness yieldeth proof that they\nwere born for immortality,'--by all these and a thousand other signs\nand facts in every human life we say, 'God has set eternity in their\nhearts!'\n\nII. And then turn to the second idea that is here. The disproportion\nbetween this our nature, and the world in which we dwell.\n\nThe writer of this book (whether Solomon or no we need not stay to\ndiscuss) looks out upon the world; and in accordance with the\nprevailing tone of all the earlier parts of his contemplations, finds\nin this prerogative of man but another reason for saying, 'All is\nvanity and vexation of spirit.'\n\nTwo facts meet him antagonistic to one another: the place that man\noccupies, and the nature that man bears. This creature with eternity\nin his heart, where is he set? what has he got to work upon? what has\nhe to love and hold by, to trust to, and anchor his life on? A crowd\nof things, each well enough, but each having a _time_--and though\nthey be beautiful in their time, yet fading and vanishing when it has\nelapsed. No multiplication of _times_ will make _eternity_.\nAnd so with that thought in his heart, man is driven out among objects\nperfectly insufficient to meet it.\n\nChrist said, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but\nthe Son of man hath not where to lay His head'--and while the words\nhave their proper and most pathetic meaning in the history of His own\nearthly life of travail and toil for our sakes, we may also venture to\ngive them the further application, that all the lower creatures are at\nrest here, and that the more truly a man is man, the less can he find,\namong all the shadows of the present, a pillow for his head, a place\nof repose for his heart. The animal nature is at home in the material\nworld, the human nature is not.\n\nEvery other creature presents the most accurate correspondence between\nnature and circumstances, powers and occupations. Man alone is like\nsome poor land-bird blown out to sea, and floating half-drowned with\nclinging plumage on an ocean where the dove 'finds no rest for the\nsole of her foot,' or like some creature that loves to glance in the\nsunlight, but is plunged into the deepest recesses of a dark mine. In\nthe midst of a universe marked by the nicest adaptations of creatures\nto their habitation, man alone, the head of them all, presents the\nunheard-of anomaly that he is surrounded by conditions which do\n_not_ fit his whole nature, which are not adequate for all his\npowers, on which he cannot feed and nurture his whole being. 'To what\npurpose is this waste?' 'Hast thou made all men in vain?'\n\nEverything is 'beautiful in its time.' Yes, and for that very reason,\nas this Book of Ecclesiastes says in another verse, 'Because to every\npurpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is\ngreat upon him.' It was happy when we loved; but the day of\nindifference and alienation and separation comes. Our spirits were\nglad when we were planting; but the time for plucking up that which\nwas planted is sure to draw near. It was blessed to pour out our souls\nin the effluence of love, or in the fullness of thought, and the time\nto speak was joyous; but the dark day of silence comes on. When we\ntwined hearts and clasped hands together it was glad, and the time\nwhen we embraced was blessed; but the time to refrain from embracing\nis as sure to draw near. It is good for the eyes to behold the sun,\nbut so certainly as it rolls to its bed in the west, and 'leaves the\nworld to darkness' and to us, do all earthly occupations wane and\nfade, and all possessions shrivel and dwindle, and all associations\nsnap and drop and end, and the whirligig of time works round and takes\naway everything which it once brought us.\n\nAnd so man, with eternity in his heart, with the hunger in his spirit\nafter an unchanging whole, an absolute good, an ideal perfectness, an\nimmortal being--is condemned to the treadmill of transitory\nrevolution. Nothing continueth in one stay, 'For all that _is_ in\nthe world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the\npride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the\nworld passeth away, and the lust thereof.' It is limited, it is\nchangeful, it slips from under us as we stand upon it, and therefore,\nmystery and perplexity stoop down upon the providence of God, and\nmisery and loneliness enter into the heart of man. These changeful\nthings, they do not meet our ideal, they do not satisfy our wants,\nthey do not last even our duration.\n\n'The misery of man is great upon him,' said the text quoted a moment\nago. And is it not? Is this present life enough for you? Sometimes you\nfancy it is. Many of us habitually act on the understanding that it\nis, and treat all that I have been saying about the disproportion\nbetween our nature and our circumstances as not true about them. 'This\nworld not enough for me!' you say--'Yes! it is; only let me get a\nlittle more of it, and keep what I get, and I shall be all right.' So\nthen--'a little more' is wanted, is it? And that 'little more' will\nalways be wanted, and besides it, the guarantee of permanence will\nalways be wanted, and failing these, there will be a hunger that\nnothing can fill which belongs to earth. Do you remember the bitter\nexperience of the poor prodigal, 'he would fain have filled his belly\nwith the husks'? He tried his best to live upon the horny,\ninnutritious pods, but he could not; and after them he still was\n'perishing with hunger.' So it is with us all when we try to fill the\nsoul and satisfy the spirit with earth or aught that holds of it. It\nis as impossible to still the hunger of the heart with that, as to\nstay the hunger of the body with wise sayings or noble sentiments.\n\nI appeal to your real selves, to your own past experience. Is it not\ntrue that, deep below the surface contentment with the world and the\nthings of the world, a dormant but slightly slumbering sense of want\nand unsatisfied need lies in your souls? Is it not true that it wakes\nsometimes at a touch; that the tender, dying light of sunset, or the\ncalm abysses of the mighty heavens, or some strain of music, or a line\nin a book, or a sorrow in your heart, or the solemnity of a great joy,\nor close contact with sickness and death, or the more direct appeals\nof Scripture and of Christ, stir a wistful yearning and a painful\nsense of emptiness in your hearts, and of insufficiency in all the\nordinary pursuits of your lives? It cannot but be so; for though it be\ntrue that our natures are in some measure subdued to what we work in,\nand although it is possible to atrophy the deepest parts of our being\nby long neglect or starvation, yet you will never do that so\nthoroughly but that the deep-seated longing will break forth at\nintervals, and the cry of its hunger echo through the soul. Many of us\ndo our best to silence it. But I, for my part, believe that, however\nyou have crushed and hardened your souls by indifference, by ambition,\nby worldly cares, by frivolous or coarse pleasures, or by any of the\nthousand other ways in which you can do it--yet there is some response\nin your truest self to my poor words when I declare that a soul\nwithout God is an empty and an aching soul!\n\nThese things which, even in their time of beauty, are not enough for a\nman's soul--have all but a time to be beautiful in, and then they fade\nand die. A great botanist made what he called 'a floral clock' to mark\nthe hours of the day by the opening and closing of flowers. It was a\ngraceful and yet a pathetic thought. One after another they spread\ntheir petals, and their varying colours glow in the light. But one\nafter another they wearily shut their cups, and the night falls, and\nthe latest of them folds itself together, and all are hidden away in\nthe dark. So our joys and treasures, were they sufficient did they\nlast, cannot last. After a summer's day comes a summer's night, and\nafter a brief space of them comes winter, when all are killed and the\nleafless trees stand silent.\n\n  'Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.'\n\nWe cleave to these temporal possessions and joys, and the natural law\nof change sweeps them away from us one by one. Most of them do not\nlast so long as we do, and they pain us when _they_ pass away\nfrom us. Some of them last longer than we do, and _they_ pain us\nwhen we pass away from them. Either way our hold of them is a\ntransient hold, and one knows not whether is the sadder--the bare\ngarden beds where all have done blowing, and nothing remains but a\ntangle of decay, or the blooming beauty from which a man is summoned\naway, leaving others to reap what he has sown. Tragic enough are both\nat the best--and certain to befall us all. We live and they fade; we\ndie and they remain. We live again and they are far away. The facts\nare _so_. We may make them a joy or a sorrow as we will.\nTransiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and\ndelights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of\neternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our\ninmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed\neven by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will\nbe the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do you mean that they\nshall be for you?\n\nIII. These thoughts lead us to consider the possible satisfying of our\nsouls.\n\nThis Book of Ecclesiastes is rather meant to enforce the truth of the\nweariness and emptiness of a godless life, than of the blessedness of\na godly one. It is the record of the struggles of a soul--'the\nconfessions of an inquiring spirit'--feeling and fighting its way\nthrough many errors, and many partial and unsatisfactory solutions of\nthe great problem of life, till he reaches the one in which he can\nrest. When he has touched that goal his work is done. And so the\ndevious way is told in the book at full length, while a sentence sets\nforth the conclusion to which he was working, even when he was most\nbewildered. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is 'Fear God and keep\nHis commandments.' That is all that a man needs. It is 'the whole of\nman.' 'All is' _not_ 'vanity and vexation of spirit'\n_then_--but 'all things work together for good to them that love\nGod.'\n\nThe Preacher in his day learned that it was possible to satisfy the\nhunger for eternity, which had once seemed to him a questionable\nblessing. He learned that it was a loving Providence which had made\nman's home so little fit for him, that he might seek the 'city which\nhath foundations.' He learned that all the pain of passing beauty, and\nthe fading flowers of man's goodliness, were capable of being turned\ninto a solemn joy. Standing at the centre, he saw order instead of\nchaos, and when he had come back, after all his search, to the old\nsimple faith of peasants and children in Judah, to fear God and keep\nHis commandments, he understood why God had set eternity in man's\nheart, and then flung him out, as if in mockery, amidst the stormy\nwaves of the changeful ocean of time.\n\nAnd we, who have a further word from God, may have a fuller and yet\nmore blessed conviction, built upon our own happy experience, if we\nchoose, that it _is_ possible for us to have that deep thirst\nslaked, that longing appeased. We have Christ to trust to and to love.\nHe has given Himself for us that all our many sins against the eternal\nlove and our guilty squandering of our hearts upon transitory\ntreasures may be forgiven. He has come amongst us, the Word in human\nflesh, that our poor eyes may see the Eternal walking amidst the\nthings of time and sense, and may discern a beauty in Him beyond\n'whatsoever things are lovely.' He has come that we through Him may\nlay hold on God, even as in Him God lays hold on us. As in mysterious\nand transcendent union the divine takes into itself the human in that\nperson of Jesus, and Eternity is blended with Time; we, trusting Him\nand yielding our hearts to Him, receive into our poor lives an\nincorruptible seed, and for us the soul-satisfying realities that\nabide for ever mingle with and are reached through the shadows that\npass away.\n\nBrethren, yield yourselves to Him! In conscious unworthiness, in lowly\npenitence, let us cast ourselves on Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice, for\npardon and peace! Trust Him and love Him! Live by Him and for Him! And\nthen, the loftiest thoughts of our hearts, as they seek after absolute\nperfection and changeless love, shall be more than fulfilled in Him\nwho is more than all that man ever dreamed, because He is the\nperfection of man, and the Son of God.\n\nLove Christ and live in Him, taking Him for the motive, the spring,\nand the very atmosphere of your lives, and then no capacities will\nlanguish for lack of either stimulus or field, and no weariness will\ncome over you, as if you were a stranger from your home. For if Christ\nbe near us, all things go well with us. If we live for Him, the power\nof that motive will make all our nature blossom like the vernal woods,\nand dry branches break into leafage. If we dwell in Him, we shall be\nat home wherever we are, like the patriarch who pitched his tent in\nmany lands, but always had the same tent wherever he went. So we shall\nhave the one abode, though its place in the desert may vary--and we\nshall not need to care whether the encampment be beneath the\npalm-trees and beside the wells of Elim, or amidst the drought of\nMarah, so long as the same covering protects us, and the same pillar\nof fire burns above us.\n\nLove Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great\naching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ\ngives, and is. The vicissitude will really become the source of\nfreshness and progress which God meant it to be. Everything which,\nwhen made our all-sufficient portion, becomes stale and unprofitable,\neven in its time, will be apparelled in celestial light. It shall all\nbe lovely and pleasant while it lasts, and its beauty will not be\nsaddened by the certainty of its decay, nor its empty place a pain\nwhen it has passed away.\n\nTake Christ for Saviour and Friend, your Guide and Support through\ntime, and Himself, your Eternity and Joy, then all discords are\nreconciled--and 'all things are yours--whether the world, or life, or\ndeath, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are\nChrist's, and Christ is God's.'\n\n\n\nLESSONS FOR WORSHIP AND FOR WORK\n\n'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready\nto hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not\nthat they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine\nheart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and\nthou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh\nthrough the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by\nmultitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to\npay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast\nvowed. 5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou\nshouldest vow and not pay. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh\nto sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error:\nwherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of\nthine hands? 7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words there\nare also divers vanities: but fear thou God. 8. If thou seest the\noppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice\nin a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than\nthe highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. 9. Moreover, the\nprofit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the\nfield. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver;\nnor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. 11.\nWhen goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good\nis there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with\ntheir eyes? 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat\nlittle or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to\nsleep.'--ECCLES. v. 1-12.\n\n\nThis passage is composed of two or perhaps three apparently\ndisconnected sections. The faults in worship referred to in verses 1-7\nhave nothing to do with the legalised robbery of verse 8, nor has the\ndemonstration of the folly of covetousness in verses 10-12 any\nconnection with either of the preceding subjects. But they are brought\ninto unity, if they are taken as applications in different directions\nof the bitter truth which the writer sets himself to prove runs\nthrough all life. 'All is vanity.' That principle may even be\nexemplified in worship, and the obscure verse 7 which closes the\nsection about the faults of worship seems to be equivalent to the more\nfamiliar close which rings the knell of so many of men's pursuits in\nthis book, 'This also is vanity.' It stands in the usual form in verse\n10.\n\nWe have in verses 1-7 a warning against the faults in worship which\nmake even it to be 'vanity,' unreal and empty and fruitless. These are\nof three sorts, arranged, as it were, chronologically. The worshipper\nis first regarded as going to the house of God, then as presenting his\nprayers in it, and then as having left it and returned to his ordinary\nlife. The writer has cautions to give concerning conduct before,\nduring, and after public worship.\n\nNote that, in all three parts of his warnings, his favourite word of\ncondemnation appears as describing the vain worship to which he\nopposes the right manner. They who fall into the faults condemned are\n'fools.' If that class includes all who mar their worship by such\nerrors, the church which holds them had need to be of huge dimensions;\nfor the faults held up in these ancient words flourish in full\nluxuriance to-day, and seem to haunt long-established Christianity\nquite as mischievously as they did long-established Judaism. If we\ncould banish them from our religious assemblies, there would be fewer\ncomplaints of the poor results of so much apparently Christian prayer\nand preaching.\n\nFruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins. So our\npassage commences with the demeanour of the worshipper on his way to\nthe house of God. He is to keep his foot; that is, to go deliberately,\nthoughtfully, with realisation of what he is about to do. He is to\n'draw near to hear' and to bethink himself, while drawing near, of\nwhat his purpose should be. Our forefathers Sunday began on Saturday\nnight, and partly for that reason the hallowing influence of it ran\nover into Monday, at all events. What likelihood is there that much\ngood will come of worship to people who talk politics or scandal right\nup to the church door? Is reading newspapers in the pews, which they\ntell us in England is not unknown in America, a good preparation for\nworshipping God? The heaviest rain runs off parched ground, unless it\nhas been first softened by a gentle fall of moisture. Hearts that have\nno dew of previous meditation to make them receptive are not likely to\ndrink in much of the showers of blessing which may be falling round\nthem. The formal worshipper who goes to the house of God because it is\nthe hour when he has always gone; the curious worshipper (?) who draws\nnear to hear indeed, but to hear a man, not God; and all the other\nsorts of mere outward worshippers who make so large a proportion of\nevery Christian congregation--get the lesson they need, to begin with,\nin this precept.\n\nNote, that right preparation for worship is better than worship\nitself, if it is that of 'fools.' Drawing near with the true purpose\nis better than being near with the wrong one. Note, too, the reason\nfor the vanity of the 'sacrifice of fools' is that 'they know not';\nand why do they not know, but because they did not draw near with the\npurpose of hearing? Therefore, as the last clause of the verse says,\nrightly rendered, 'they do evil.' All hangs together. No matter how\nmuch we frequent the house of God, if we go with unprepared minds and\nhearts we shall remain ignorant, and because we are so, our sacrifices\nwill be 'evil.' If the winnowing fan of this principle were applied to\nour decorous congregations, who dress their bodies for church much\nmore carefully than they do their souls, what a cloud of chaff would\nfly off!\n\nThen comes the direction for conduct in the act of worship. The same\nthoughtfulness which kept the foot in coming to, should keep the heart\nwhen in, the house of God. His exaltation and our lowliness should\ncheck hasty words, blurting out uppermost wishes, or in any way\noutrunning the sentiments and emotions of prepared hearts. Not that\nthe lesson would check the fervid flow of real desire. There is a type\nof calm worship which keeps itself calm because it is cold. Propriety\nand sobriety are its watchwords--both admirable things, and both dear\nto tepid Christians. Other people besides the crowds on Pentecost\nthink that men whose lips are fired by the Spirit of God are\n'drunken,' if not with wine, at all events with unwholesome\nenthusiasm. But the outpourings of a soul filled, not only with the\nsense that God is in heaven and we on earth, but also with the\nassurance that He is near to it, and it to Him, are not rash and\nhasty, however fervid. What is condemned is words which travel faster\nthan thoughts or feelings, or which proceed from hearts that have not\nbeen brought into patient submission, or from such as lack reverent\nrealisation of God's majesty; and such faults may attach to the most\ncalm worship, and need not infect the most fervent. Those prayers are\nnot hasty which keep step with the suppliant's desires, when these\ntake the time from God's promises. That mouth is not rash which waits\nto speak until the ear has heard.\n\n'Let thy words be few.' The heathen 'think that they shall be heard\nfor much speaking.' It needs not to tell our wants in many words to\nOne who knows them altogether, any more than a child needs many when\nspeaking to a father or mother. But 'few' must be measured by the\nnumber of needs and desires. The shortest prayer, which is not\nanimated by a consciousness of need and a throb of desire, is too\nlong; the longest, which is vitalised by these, is short enough. What\nbecomes of the enormous percentage of public and private prayers,\nwhich are mere repetitions, said because they are the right thing to\nsay, because everybody always has said them, and not because the man\npraying really wants the things he asks for, or expects to get them\nany the more for asking?\n\nVerse 3 gives a reason for the exhortation, 'A dream comes through a\nmultitude of business'--when a man is much occupied with any matter,\nit is apt to haunt his sleeping as well as his waking thoughts. 'A\nfool's voice comes through a multitude of words.' The dream is the\nconsequence of the pressure of business, but the fool's voice is the\ncause, not the consequence, of the gush of words. What, then, is the\nmeaning? Probably that such a gush of words turns, as it were, the\nvoice of the utterer, for the time being, into that of a fool. Voluble\nprayers, more abundant than devout sentiments or emotions, make the\nofferer as a 'fool' and his prayer unacceptable.\n\nThe third direction refers to conduct after worship. It lays down the\ngeneral principle that vows should be paid, and that swiftly. A keen\ninsight into human nature suggests the importance of prompt fulfilment\nof the vows; for in carrying out resolutions formed under the impulse\nof the sanctuary, even more than in other departments, delays are\ndangerous. Many a young heart touched by the truth has resolved to\nlive a Christian life, and has gone out from the house of God and put\noff and put off till days have thickened into months and years, and\nthe intention has remained unfulfilled for ever. Nothing hardens\nhearts, stiffens wills, and sears consciences so much as to be brought\nto the point of melting, and then to cool down into the old shape. All\ngood resolutions and spiritual convictions may be included under the\nname of vows; and of all it is true that it is better not to have\nformed them, than to have formed and not performed them.\n\nVerses 6 and 7 are obscure. The former seems to refer to the case of a\nman who vows and then asks that he may be absolved from his vow by the\npriest or other ecclesiastical authority. His mouth--that is, his\nspoken promise--leads him into sin, if he does not fulfil it (comp.\nDeut. xxiii, 21, 22). He asks release from his promise on the ground\nthat it is a sin of weakness. The 'angel' is best understood as the\npriest (messenger), as in Malachi ii.7. Such a wriggling out of a vow\nwill bring God's anger; for the 'voice' which promised what the hand\nwill not perform, sins.\n\nVerse 7 is variously rendered. The Revised Version supplies at the\nbeginning, 'This comes to pass,' and goes on 'through the multitude of\ndreams and vanities and many words.' But this scarcely bears upon the\ncontext, which requires here a reason against rash speech and vows.\nThe meaning seems better given, either by the rearranged text which\nDelitzsch suggests, 'In many dreams and many words there are also many\nvanities' (so, substantially, the Auth. Ver.), or as Wright, following\nHitzig, etc., has it, 'In the multitude of dreams are also vanities,\nand [in] many words [as well].' The simile of verse 3 is recurred to,\nand the whirling visions of unsubstantial dreams are likened to the\nrash words of voluble prayers in that both are vanity. Thus the writer\nreaches his favourite thought, and shows how vanity infects even\ndevotion. The closing injunction to 'fear God' sets in sharp contrast\nwith faulty outward worship the inner surrender and devotion, which\nwill protect against such empty hypocrisy. If the heart is right, the\nlips will not be far wrong.\n\nVerses 8 and 9 have no direct connection with the preceding, and their\nconnection with the following (vs. 10-12) is slight. Their meaning is\ndubious. According to the prevailing view now, the abuses of\ngovernment in verse 8 are those of the period of the writer; and the\nlast clauses do not, as might appear at first reading, console\nsufferers by the thought that God is above rapacious dignitaries, but\nbids the readers not be surprised if small officials plunder, since\nthe same corruption goes upwards through all grades of functionaries.\nWith such rotten condition of things is contrasted, in verse 9, the\nhappy state of a people living under a patriarchal government, where\nthe king draws his revenues, not from oppression, but from\nagriculture. The Revised Version gives in its margin this rendering.\nThe connection of these verses with the following may be that they\nteach the vanity of riches under such a state of society as they\ndescribe. What is the use of scraping wealth together when hungry\nofficials are 'watching' to pounce on it? How much better to be\ncontented with the modest prosperity of a quiet country life! If the\ntranslation of verse 9 in the Authorised Version and the Revised\nVersion is retained, there is a striking contrast between the rapine\nof the city, where men live by preying on each other (as they do still\nto a large extent, for 'commerce' is often nothing better), and the\nwholesome natural life of the country, where the kindly earth yields\nfruit, and one man's gain is not another's loss.\n\nThus the verses may be connected with the wise depreciation of money\nwhich follows. That low estimate is based on three grounds, which\ngreat trading nations like England and the United States need to have\ndinned into their ears. First, no man ever gets enough of worldly\nwealth. The appetite grows faster than the balance at the banker's.\nThat is so because the desire that is turned to outward wealth really\nneeds something else, and has mistaken its object. God, not money or\nmoney's worth, is the satisfying possession. It is so because all\nappetites, fed on earthly things, increase by gratification, and\ndemand ever larger draughts. The jaded palate needs stronger\nstimulants. The seasoned opium-eater has to increase his doses to\nproduce the same effects. Second, the race after riches is a race\nafter a phantom, because the more one has of them the more people\nthere spring up to share them. The poor man does with one servant; the\nrich man has fifty; and his own portion of his wealth is a very small\nitem. His own meal is but a small slice off the immense provisions for\nwhich he has the trouble of paying. It is so, thirdly, because in the\nchase he deranges his physical nature; and when he has got his wealth,\nit only keeps him awake at night thinking how he shall guard it and\nkeep it safe.\n\nThat which costs so much to get, which has so little power to satisfy,\nwhich must always be less than the wish of the covetous man, which\ncosts so much to keep, which stuffs pillows with thorns, is surely\nvanity. Honest work is rewarded by sweet sleep. The old legend told of\nunslumbering guards who kept the treasure of the golden fruit. The\nmillionaire has to live in a barred house, and to be always on the\nlookout lest some combination of speculators should pull down his\nstocks, or some change in the current of population should make his\ncity lots worthless. Black care rides behind the successful man of\nbusiness. Better to have done a day's work which has earned a night's\nrepose than to be the slave of one's wealth, as all men are who make\nit their aim and their supreme good. Would that these lessons were\nprinted deep on the hearts of young Englishmen and Americans!\n\n\n\nNAKED OR CLOTHED?\n\n'As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as\nhe came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away\nin his hand.'--ECCLES. v. 15.\n\n'... Their works do follow them.'--REV. xiv. 13.\n\n\nIt is to be observed that these two sharply contrasted texts do not\nrefer to the same persons. The former is spoken of a rich worldling,\nthe latter of 'the dead who die in the Lord.' The unrelieved gloom of\nthe one is as a dark background against which the triumphant assurance\nof the other shines out the more brightly, and deepens the gloom which\nheightens it. The end of the man who has to go away from earth naked\nand empty-handed acquires new tragic force when set against the lot of\nthose 'whose works do follow them.' Well-worn and commonplace as both\nsets of thought may be, they may perhaps be flashed up into new\nvividness by juxtaposition; and if in this sermon we have nothing new\nto say, old truth is not out of place till it has been wrought into\nand influenced our daily practice. We shall best gather the lessons of\nour text if we consider what we must leave, what we must take, and\nwhat we may take.\n\nI. What we must leave.\n\nThe Preacher in the context presses home a formidable array of the\nlimitations and insufficiencies of wealth. Possessed, it cannot\nsatisfy, for the appetite grows with indulgence. Its increase barely\nkeeps pace with the increase of its consumers. It contributes nothing\nto the advantage of its so-called owner except 'the beholding of it\nwith his eyes,' and the need of watching it keeps them open when he\nwould fain sleep. It is often kept to the owner's hurt, it often\ndisappears in unfortunate speculation, and the possessor's heirs are\npaupers. But, even if all these possibilities are safely weathered,\nthe man has to die and leave it all behind. 'He shall take nothing of\nhis labour which he can carry away in his hand'; that is to say, death\nseparates from all with whom the life of the body brings us into\nconnection. The things which are no parts of our true selves are ours\nin a very modified sense even whilst we seem to possess them, and the\nterm of possession has a definite close. 'Shrouds have no pockets,' as\nthe stern old proverb says. How many men have lived in the houses\nwhich we call ours, sat on our seats, walked over our lands, carried\nin their purses the money that is in ours! Is 'the game worth the\ncandle' when we give our labour for so imperfect and brief a\npossession as at the fullest and the longest we enjoy of all earthly\ngood? Surely a wise man will set little store by possessions of all\nwhich a cold, irresistible hand will come to strip him. Surely the\nlife is wasted which spends its energy in robing itself in garments\nwhich will all be stripped from it when the naked self 'returns to go\nas he came.'\n\nBut there are other things than these earthly possessions from which\ndeath separates us. It carries us far away from the sound of human\nvoices and isolates us from living men. Honour and reputation cease to\nbe audible. When a prominent man dies, what a clatter of conflicting\njudgments contends over his grave! and how utterly he is beyond them\nall! Praise or blame, blessing or banning are equally powerless to\nreach the unhearing ear or to agitate the unbeating heart. And when\none of our small selves passes out of life, we hear no more the voice\nof censure or of praise, of love or of hate. Is it worth while to toil\nfor the 'hollow wraith of dying fame,' or even for the clasp of loving\nhands which have to be loosened so surely and so soon?\n\nThen again, there are other things which must be left behind as\nbelonging only to the present order, and connected with bodily life.\nThere will be no scope for material work, and much of all our\nknowledge will be antiquated when the light beyond shines in. As we\nshall have occasion to see presently, there is a permanent element in\nthe most material work, and if in handling the transient we have been\nliving for the eternal, such work will abide; but if we think of the\nspirit in which a sad majority do their daily tasks, whether of a more\nmaterial or of a more intellectual sort, we must recognise that a very\nlarge proportion of all the business of life must come to an end here.\nThere is nothing in it that will stand the voyage across the great\ndeep, or that can survive in the order of things to which we go. What\nis a man to do in another world, supposing there is another world,\nwhere ledgers and mills are out of date? Or what has a scholar or\nscientist to do in a state of things where there is no place for\ndictionaries and grammars, for acute criticism, or for a careful\nscientific research?\n\nPhysical science, linguistic knowledge, political wisdom, will be\nantiquated. The poetry which glorifies afresh and interprets the\npresent will have lost its meaning. Half the problems that torture us\nhere will cease to have existence, and most of the other half will\nhave been solved by simple change of position. 'Whether there be\ntongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish\naway'; and it becomes us all to bethink ourselves whether there is\nanything in our lives that we can carry away when all that is 'of the\nearth earthy' has sunk into nothingness.\n\nII. What we must take.\n\nWe must take _ourselves_. It is the same 'he' who goes 'naked as\nhe came'; it is the same 'he' who 'came from his mother's womb,' and\nis 'born again' as it were into a new life, only 'he' has by his\nearthly life been developed and revealed. The plant has flowered and\nfruited. What was mere potentiality has become fact. There is now\nfixed character. The transient possessions, relationships, and\noccupations of the earthly life are gone, but the man that they have\nmade is there. And in the character there are predominant habits which\ninsist upon having their sway, and a memory of which, as we may\nbelieve, there is written indelibly all the past. Whatever death may\nstrip from us, there is no reason to suppose that it touches the\nconsciousness and personal identity, or the prevailing set and\ninclination of our characters. And if we do indeed pass into another\nlife 'not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness,' but\ncarrying a perfected memory and clothed in a garment woven of all our\npast actions, there needs no more to bring about a solemn and\ncontinuous act of judgment.\n\nIII. What we may take.\n\n'Their works do follow them.' These are the words of the Spirit\nconcerning 'the dead who die in the Lord.' We need not fear marring\nthe great truth that 'not by works of righteousness but by His mercy\nHe saved us,' if we firmly grasp the large assurance which this text\nblessedly contains. A Christian man's works are perpetual in the\nmeasure in which they harmonise with the divine will, in the measure\nthey have eternal consequences in himself whatever they may have on\nothers. If we live opening our minds and hearts to the influx of the\ndivine power 'that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good\npleasure,' then we may be humbly sure that these 'works' are eternal;\nand though they will never constitute the ground of our acceptance,\nthey will never fail to secure 'a great recompence of reward.' To many\na humble saint there will be a moment of wondering thankfulness when\nhe sees these his 'children whom God hath given him' clustered round\nhim, and has to say, 'Lord, when saw I Thee naked, or in prison, and\nvisited Thee?' There will be many an apocalypse of grateful surprise\nin the revelations of the heavens. We remember Milton's noble\nexplanation of these great words which may well silence our feeble\nattempts to enforce them--\n\n  'Thy works and alms and all thy good endeavour\n  Stood not behind, nor in the grave were trod,\n  But as faith pointed with her golden rod,\n  Followed them up to joy and bliss for ever.'\n\nSo then, life here and yonder will for the Christian soul be one\ncontinuous whole, only that there, while 'their works do follow them,'\n'they rest from their labours.'\n\n\n\nFINIS CORONAT OPUS\n\n'Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.'--ECCLES. vii. 8.\n\n\nThis Book of Ecclesiastes is the record of a quest after the chief\ngood. The Preacher tries one thing after another, and tells his\nexperiences. Amongst these are many blunders. It is the final lesson\nwhich he would have us learn, not the errors through which he reached\nit. 'The conclusion of the whole matter' is what he would commend to\nus, and to it he cleaves his way through a number of bitter\nexaggerations and of partial truths and of unmingled errors. The text\nis one of a string of paradoxical sayings, some of them very true and\nbeautiful, some of them doubtful, but all of them the kind of things\nwhich used-up men are wont to say--the salt which is left in the pool\nwhen the tide is gone down. The text is the utterance of a wearied man\nwho has had so many disappointments, and seen so many fair beginnings\noverclouded, and so many ships going out of port with flying flags and\nfoundering at sea, that he thinks nothing good till it is ended;\nlittle worth beginning--rest and freedom from all external cares and\nduties best; and, best of all, to be dead, and have done with the\nwhole coil. Obviously, 'the end of a thing' here is the parallel to\n'the day of death' in verse 1, which is there preferred to 'the day of\none's birth.' That is the godless, worn-out worlding's view of the\nmatter, which is infinitely sad, and absolutely untrue.\n\nBut from another point of view there is a truth in these words. The\nlife which is lived for God, which is rooted in Christ, a life of\nself-denial, of love, of purity, of strenuous 'pressing towards the\nmark,' is better in its 'end' than in its 'beginning.' To such a life\nwe are all called, and it is possible for each. May my poor words help\nsome of us to make it ours.\n\nI. Then our life has an end.\n\nIt is hard for any of us to realise this in the midst of the rush and\npressure of daily duty; and it is not altogether wholesome to think\nmuch about it; but it is still more harmful to put it out of our\nsight, as so many of us do, and to go on habitually as if there would\nnever come a time when we shall cease to be where we have been so\nlong, and when there will no more arise the daily calls to transitory\noccupations. The thought of the certainty and nearness of that end has\noften become a stimulus to wild, sensuous living, as the history of\nthe relaxation of morality in pestilences, and in times when war\nstalked through the land, has abundantly shown. 'Let us eat and drink,\nfor tomorrow we die,' is plainly a way of reasoning that appeals to\nthe average man. But the entire forgetfulness that there is an end is\nno less harmful, and is apt to lead to over-indulgence in sensuous\ndesires as the other extreme. Perhaps the young need more especially\nto be recalled to the thought of the 'end' because they are more\nespecially likely to forget it, and because it is specially worth\ntheir while to remember it. They have still the long stretch before\nthe 'end' before them, to make of it what they will. Whereas for us\nwho are further on in the course, there is less time and opportunity\nto shape our path with a view to its close, and to those of us in old\nage, there is but little need to preach remembrance of what has come\nso close to us. It is to the young man that the Preacher proffers his\nfinal advice, to 'rejoice in his health, and to walk in the ways of\nhis heart, and in the sight of his eyes,' but withal to know that 'for\nthese God will bring him into judgment.'\n\nAnd in that counsel is involved the thought that 'the end which is\nbetter than the beginning' is neither old age, with its limitations\nand compulsory abstinences, nor death, which is, as the dreary creed\nof the book in its central portions believes it to be, the close of\nall things, but, beyond these, the state in which men will reap as\nthey have sown, and inherit what they have earned. It is that\ncondition which gives all its importance to death--the porter who\nopens the door into a future life of recompence.\n\nII. The end will, in many respects, not be better than the beginning.\n\nPut side by side the infant and the old man. Think of the undeveloped\nstrength, the smooth cheek, the ruddy complexion, the rejoicing in\nphysical well-being, of the one, with the failing senses, the\ntottering limbs, the lowered vitality, the many pains and aches, of\nthe other. In these respects the end is worse than the beginning. Or\ngo a step further onwards in life, and think of youth, with its unworn\nenergy, and the wearied longing for rest which comes at the end; of\nyouth, with its quick, open receptiveness for all impressions, and the\nhorny surface of callousness which has overgrown the mind of the old;\nof youth, with its undeveloped powers and endless possibilities, which\nin the old have become rigid and fixed; of youth, with the rich gift\nbefore it of a continent of time, which in the old has been washed\naway by the ocean, till there is but a crumbling bank still to stand\non; of youth, with its wealth of hopes, and of the hopes of the old,\nwhich are solemn ventures, few and scanty--and then say if the end is\nnot worse than the beginning.\n\nAnd if we go further, and think of death as the end, is it not in a\nvery real and terrible sense, loss, loss? It is loss to be taken out\nof the world, to 'leave the warm precincts and the cheerful day,' to\nlose friends and lovers, and to be banned into a dreary land. Yet,\nfurther, the thought of the end as being a state of retribution\nstrikes upon all hearts as being solemn and terrible.\n\nIII. Yet the end may be better.\n\nThe sensuous indulgence which Ecclesiastes preaches in its earlier\nportions will never lead to such an end. It breeds disgust of life, as\nthe examples of in all ages, and today, abundantly shows. Epicurean\nselfishness leads to weariness of all effort and work. If we are\nunwise enough to make either of these our guides in life, the only\ndesirable end will be the utter cessation of being and consciousness.\n\nBut there is a better sense in which this paradoxical saying is simple\ntruth, and that sense is one which it is possible for us all to\nrealise. What sort of end would that be, the brightness of which would\nfar outshine the joy when a man-child is born into the world? Would it\nnot be a birth into a better life than that which fills and often\ndisturbs the 'threescore years and ten' here? Would it not be an end\nto a course in which all our nature would be fully developed and all\nopportunities of growth and activity had been used to the full? which\nhad secured all that we could possess? which had happy memories and\ncalm hopes? Would it not be an end which brought with it communion\nwith the Highest--joys that could never fade, activities that could\nnever weary? Surely the Christian heaven is better than earth; and\nthat heaven may be ours.\n\nThat supreme and perfect end will be reached by us through faith in\nChrist, and through union by faith with Him. If we are joined to the\nLord and are one with Him, our end in glory will be as much better\nthan this our beginning on earth as the full glory of a summer's day\ntranscends the fogs and frosts of dreary winter. 'The path of the just\nis as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect\nday.'\n\nIf the end is not better than the beginning, it will be infinitely\nworse. Golden opportunities will be gone; wasted years will be\nirrevocable. Bright lights will be burnt out; sin will be graven on\nthe memory; remorse will be bitter; evil habits which cannot be\ngratified will torment; a wearied soul, a darkened understanding, a\nrebellious heart, will make the end awfully, infinitely, always worse\nthan the beginning. From all these Jesus Christ can save us; and, full\nas He fills the cup of life as we travel along the road, He keeps the\nbest wine till the last, and makes 'the end of a thing better than the\nbeginning.'\n\n\n\nMISUSED RESPITE\n\n'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,\ntherefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do\nevil'--ECCLES. viii. 11.\n\n\nWhen the Pharaoh of the Exodus saw there was respite, he hardened his\nheart. Abject in his fear before Moses, he was ready to promise\nanything; insolent in his pride, he swallows down his promises as soon\nas fear is eased, his repentance and his retractation of it combined\nto add new weights about his neck. He was but a conspicuous example of\na universal fault. Every nation, I suppose, has its proverb scoffing\nat the contrast between the sick man's vow and the recovered man's\nsins. The bitter moralist of the Old Testament was sure not to let\nsuch an instance of man's inconceivable levity pass unnoticed. His\nsettled habit of dragging to light the seamy side of human nature was\nsure to fall on this illustration of it as congenial food. He has\nwrapped up here in these curt, bitter words a whole theory of man's\ncondition, of God's providence, of its abuse, and of the end to which\nit all tends.\n\nI. Note the delay in executing sentence.\n\nEvery 'evil work' is already sentenced. 'He that believeth not,' said\nChrist, 'is condemned already'; and that is one case of a general\ntruth. The text writes the sentence as passed, though the execution is\nfor a time suspended. What is the underlying fact expressed by this\nmetaphor? God's thorough knowledge of, and displeasure at, every evil.\nWhen one sees vile things done on earth, and no bolt coming out of the\nclear sky, it is not easy to believe that all the foulness is known to\nGod; but His eye reaches further than He wills to stretch His arm. He\nsits a silent Onlooker and beholds; the silence does not argue\nindifference. The sentence is pronounced, but the execution is\ndelayed. It is not wholly delayed, for there are consequences which\nimmediately dog our evil deeds, and are, as it were, premonitions of a\nyet more complete penalty. But in the present order of things the\nconnection between a man's evil-doing and suffering is, on the whole,\nslight, obscure, and partial. Evil triumphs; goodness not seldom\nsuffers. If one thinks for a moment of the manifold evils of the\nworld, which swathe it, as it were, in an atmosphere of woe--the wars,\nthe slavery, the oppressions, the private sorrows--and then thinks\nthat there is a God who lets all these go on from generation to\ngeneration, we seem to be in the presence of a mystery of mysteries.\nThe Psalmist of old exclaimed in adoring wonder, 'Thy judgments are a\ngreat deep'; but the absence of His judgments seems to open a\nprofounder abyss into which even the great mountains of His\nrighteousness appear in danger of falling.\n\nII. The reasons for this delay.\n\nIt is not only a mystery, but it is a 'mystery of love.' We can see\nbut a little way into it, but we can see so far as to be sure that the\napparent passivity of God, which looks like leaving evil to work its\nunhindered will, is the silence of a God who 'doth not willingly\nafflict,' and is 'slow to anger,' because He is perfect love.\n\nThe ground of necessity for the delay in executing the sentence lies,\npartly, in the probationary character of this present life. If\nevil-doing was always followed by swift retribution, obedience would\nbe only the obedience of fear, and God does not desire such obedience.\nIt would be impossible that testing could go on at all if at every\ninstant the whole of the consequences of our actions were being\nrealised. Such a condition of things is unthinkable, and would be as\nconfusing, in the moral sphere, as if harvest weather and spring\nweather were going on together. Again, the great reason why sentence\nagainst an evil work is not executed speedily lies in God's own heart,\nand His desire to win us to Himself by benefits. He does not seek\nenforced obedience; He neither desires our being wedded to evil, nor\nour being weighed upon by the consequences of our sin, and so He holds\nback His hand. It is to be remembered that He not merely does thus\nrestrain the forthcoming of His hand of judgment, but, instead of it,\nputs forth a hand of blessing. He moves around us wooing us to\nHimself, and, in patience possessing His spirit, marks all our sins,\nbut loves and blesses still. He gives us the vineyard, though we do\nnot give Him the fruit. Still He is not angry, but sends His\nmessengers, and we stone them. Still He waits: we go on heaping year\nupon year of rebellious forgetfulness, and no lightning flashes from\nHis eye, no exclamation of wearied-out patience, comes from His lips,\nno rush of the sudden arrow from His long-stretched bow. The endless\npatience of God has no explanation but only this, that He loves us too\nwell to leave any means untried to bring us to Him, and that He\nlingers round us to win our hearts. O rare and unspeakable love, the\npatient love of the patient God!\n\nIII. The abuse of this delay.\n\nWe have the knack of turning God's pure gifts into poison, and\npractise a devilish chemistry by which we distil venom from the\nflowers of Eden and the roses of the garden of God. I don't suppose\nthat to many men the respite which marks God's dealing with them\nactually tends to doubts of His righteousness, or of His power, or of\nHis being. We have evidence enough of these; and the apparently\ncounter evidence, arising from the impunity of evil-doers, is fairly\nenough laid aside by our moral instincts and consciousness, and by the\nconsideration that the mighty sweep of God's providence is too great\nfor us to decide on the whole circle by the small portion of the\ncircumference which we have seen. But what most men do is simply that\nthey permit impunity to deaden their sense of right and wrong, and go\non in their course without any serious thought of God's blessings, to\njostle Him out of their mind; they _'despise the riches of His\nlong-suffering goodness,'_ and never suffer it to _'lead them to\nrepentance.'_ To the unthinking minds of most of us, the long\ncontinuance of impunity lulls us into a dream of its perpetuity. Man's\ngodless ingratitude is as deep a mystery as is God's loving patience.\nIt is strange that, with such constant failure of His love to win, God\nshould still persevere in it. For more than seventy times seven He\npersists in forgiving the rebellious child who sins against Him, and\nfor more than seventy times seven the child persists in the abuse of\nthe Father's love, which still remains-an abuse of sin above all sins.\n\nIV. The end of the delay.\n\nThe sentence is passed. It is impossible that it should not be\nexecuted. When God has done all, and sees that the point of\nhopelessness is reached, or when the time has for other reasons come,\nthen He lets the sentence take effect. He kept back the destroying\nangels from Sodom, but He sent them forth at last. There is a point in\nthe history of nations and of men when iniquity is 'full,' and when\nGod sees that it is best, on world-wide grounds or personal ones, to\nend it. So there come for nations and for individuals crises; and the\nlaw for the divine working is, 'A short work will the Lord make on the\nearth.' For long years Noah was building the ark, and exposed to the\nscoffs of a generation whose sentence had been pronounced and not yet\nexecuted; but the day came when he entered into its covert, and 'the\nflood came and destroyed them all.' For generations He would fain have\ngathered the people of Jerusalem to His bosom 'as a hen gathereth her\nchickens under her wings, and they would not'; but the day came when\nthe Roman soldiers cast their torches into the beautiful house where\ntheir fathers had praised Him, and sinned against Him, and it was left\nunto them desolate. Let us not be high-minded nor victims of our\nlevity and inconsiderateness, but fear.\n\nLet us remember too that the intensity of the execution is aggravated\nby all the sins committed during the delay. By them we 'treasure wrath\nagainst the day of wrath.' He says to His angels at last 'Now,' and\nthe sword falls, and justice is done. 'The mills of God grind slowly,\nbut they grind exceeding small.' The sum of the whole matter is, every\nevil of ours is sentenced already; the punishment is delayed for our\nsins, and because Christ has died. God is wooing our hearts, and\ntrying to win us to love Him by the holding back of the sentence which\nwe are daily abusing. Shall we not accept His forbearance and take His\ngifts as tokens of the patient tenderness of His heart? Or are we to\nbe like 'the brutes that perish,' knowing neither the hand that feeds\nthem, nor the hand that kills them. The delay in rendering 'the just\nrecompence of reward' only aggravates its weight when it falls. As in\nsome levers, the slower the motion, the greater the force of the lift.\n\n\n\nFENCES AND SERPENTS\n\n'... Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.'--ECCLES. x.\n8.\n\n\nWhat is meant here is, probably, not such a hedge as we are accustomed\nto see, but a dry-stone wall, or, perhaps, an earthen embankment, in\nthe crevices of which might lurk a snake to sting the careless hand.\nThe connection and purpose of the text are somewhat obscure. It is one\nof a string of proverb-like sayings which all seem to be illustrations\nof the one thought that every kind of work has its own appropriate and\npeculiar peril. So, says the Preacher, if a man is digging a pit, the\nsides of it may cave in and he may go down. If he is pulling down a\nwall he may get stung. If he is working in a quarry there may be a\nfall of rock. If he is a woodman the tree he is felling may crush him.\nWhat then? Is the inference to be, Sit still and do nothing, because\nyou may get hurt whatever you do? By no means. The writer of this book\nhates idleness very nearly as much as he does what he calls 'folly,'\nand his inference is stated in the next verse--'Wisdom is profitable\nto direct.' That is to say, since all work has its own dangers, work\nwarily, and with your brains as well as your muscles, and do not put\nyour hand into the hollow in the wall, until you have looked to see\nwhether there are any snakes in it. Is that very wholesome maxim of\nprudence all that is meant to be learned? I think not. The previous\nclause, at all events, embodies a well-known metaphor of the Old\nTestament. 'He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it,' often occurs as\nexpressing the retribution in kind that comes down on the cunning\nplotter against other men's prosperity, and the conclusion that wisdom\nsuggests in that application of the sentence is, 'Dig judiciously,'\nbut 'Do not dig at all.' And so in my text the 'wall' may stand for\nthe limitations and boundary-lines of our lives, and the inference\nthat wisdom suggests in that application of the saying is not 'Pull\ndown judiciously,' but 'Keep the fence up, and be sure you keep on the\nright side of it.' For any attempt to pull it down--which being\ninterpreted is, to transgress the laws of life which God has\nenjoined--is sure to bring out the hissing snake with its poison.\n\nNow it is in that aspect that I want to look at the words before us.\n\nI. First of all, let us take that thought which underlies my\ntext--that all life is given us rigidly walled up.\n\nThe first thing that the child learns is, that it must not do what it\nlikes. The last lesson that the old man has to learn is, you must do\nwhat you ought. And between these two extremes of life we are always\nmaking attempts to treat the world as an open common, on which we may\nwander at our will. And before we have gone many steps, some sort of\nkeeper or other meets us and says to us, 'Trespassers, back again to\nthe road!' Life is rigidly hedged in and limited. To live as you like\nis the prerogative of a brute. To live as you ought, and to recognise\nand command by obeying the laws and limitations stamped upon our very\nnature and enjoined by our circumstances, is the freedom and the glory\nof a man. There are limitations, I say--fences on all sides. Men put\nup their fences; and they are often like the wretched wooden hoardings\nthat you sometimes see limiting the breadth of a road. But in regard\nto these conventional limitations and regulations, which own no higher\nauthority or lawgiver than society and custom, you must make up your\nmind even more certainly than in regard of loftier laws, that if you\nmeddle with them, there will be plenty of serpents coming out to hiss\nand bite. No man that defies the narrow maxims and petty restrictions\nof conventional ways, and sets at nought the opinions of the people\nround about him, but must make up his mind for backbiting and slander\nand opposition of all sorts. It is the price that we pay for obeying\nat first hand the laws of God and caring nothing for the\nconventionalities of men.\n\nBut apart from that altogether, let me just remind you, in half a\ndozen sentences, of the various limitations or fences which hedge up\nour lives on every side. There are the obligations which we owe, and\nthe relations in which we stand, to the outer world, the laws of\nphysical life, and all that touches the external and the material.\nThere are the relations in which we stand, and the obligations which\nwe owe, to ourselves. And God has so made us as that obviously large\ntracts of every man's nature are given to him on purpose to be\nrestrained, curbed, coerced, and sometimes utterly crushed and\nextirpated. God gives us our impulses under lock and key. All our\nanimal desires, all our natural tendencies, are held on condition that\nwe exercise control over them, and keep them well within the rigidly\nmarked limits which He has laid down, and which we can easily find\nout. There are, further, the relations in which we stand, and the\nobligations and limitations, therefore, under which we come, to the\npeople round about us. High above them all, and in some sense\nincluding them all, but loftier than these, there is the\nall-comprehending relation in which we stand to God, who is the\nfountain of all obligations, the source and aim of all duty, who\nencompasses us on every side, and whose will makes the boundary walls\nwithin which alone it is safe for a man to live.\n\nWe sometimes foolishly feel that a life thus hedged up, limited by\nthese high boundaries on either side, must be uninteresting,\nmonotonous, or unfree. It is not so. The walls are blessings, like the\nparapet on a mountain road, that keeps the travellers from toppling\nover the face of the cliff. They are training-walls, as our\nhydro-graphical engineers talk about, which, built in the bed of a\nriver, wholesomely confine its waters and make a good scour which\ngives life, instead of letting them vaguely wander and stagnate across\ngreat fields of mud. Freedom consists in keeping willingly within the\nlimits which God has traced, and anything else is not freedom but\nlicence and rebellion, and at bottom servitude of the most abject\ntype.\n\nII. So, secondly, note that every attempt to break down the\nlimitations brings poison into the life.\n\nWe live in a great automatic system which, by its own operation,\nlargely avenges every breach of law. I need not remind you, except in\na word, of the way in which the transgression of the plain physical\nlaws stamped upon our constitutions avenges itself; but the certainty\nwith which disease dogs all breaches of the laws of health is but a\ntype in the lower and material universe of the far higher and more\nsolemn certainty with which 'the soul that sinneth, it shall die.'\nWherever a man sets himself against any of the laws of this material\nuniverse, they make short work of him. We command them, as I said, by\nobeying them; and the difference between the obedience and the breach\nof them is the difference between the engineer standing on his engine\nand the wretch that is caught by it as it rushes over the rails. But\nthat is but a parable of the higher thing which I want to speak to you\nabout.\n\nThe grosser forms of transgression of the plain laws of temperance,\nabstinence, purity, bring with them, in like manner, a visible and\npalpable punishment in the majority of cases. Whoso pulls down the\nwall of temperance, a serpent will bite him. Trembling hands, broken\nconstitutions, ruined reputations, vanished ambitions, wasted lives,\npoverty, shame, and enfeebled will, death--these are the serpents that\nbite, in many cases, the transgressor. I have a man in my eye at this\nmoment that used to sit in one of these pews, who came into Manchester\na promising young man, a child of many prayers, with the ball at his\nfoot, in one of your great warehouses, the only hope of his house,\nprofessedly a Christian. He began to tamper with the wall. First a\ntiny little bit of stone taken out that did not show the daylight\nthrough; then a little bigger, and a bigger. And the serpent struck\nits fangs into him, and if you saw him now, he is a shambling wreck,\noutside of society, and, as we sometimes tremblingly think, beyond\nhope. Young men! 'whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.'\n\nIn like manner there are other forms of 'sins of the flesh avenged in\nkind,' which I dare not speak about more plainly here. I see many\nyoung men in my congregation, many strangers in this great city,\nliving, I suppose, in lodgings, and therefore without many restraints.\nIf you were to take a pair of compasses and place one leg of them down\nat the Free Trade Hall, and take a circle of half a mile round there,\nyou would get a cavern of rattlesnakes. You know what I mean. Low\ntheatres, low music-halls, casinos, haunts of yet viler sorts--there\nthe snakes are, hissing and writhing and ready to bite. Do not 'put\nyour hand on the hole of the asp.' Take care of books, pictures,\nsongs, companions that would lead you astray. Oh for a voice to stand\nat some doors that I know in Manchester, and peal this text into the\nears of the fools, men and women, that go in there!\n\nI heard only this week of one once in a good position in this city,\nand in early days, I believe, a member of my own congregation, begging\nin rags from door to door. And the reason was, simply, the wall had\nbeen pulled down and the serpent had struck. It always does; not with\nsuch fatal external effects always, but be ye sure of this, 'God is\nnot mocked; \"whatsoever a man,\" or a woman either, \"soweth, that shall\nhe also reap.\"' For remember that there are other ways of pulling down\nwalls than these gross and palpable transgressions with the body; and\nthere are other sorts of retributions which come with unerring\ncertainty besides those that can be taken notice of by others. I do\nnot want to dwell upon these at any length, but let me just remind you\nof one or two of them.\n\nSome serpents' bites inflame, some paralyse; and one or other of these\ntwo things--either an inflamed conscience or a palsied conscience--is\nthe result of all wrongdoing. I do not know which is the worst. There\nare men and women now in this chapel, sitting listening to me, perhaps\nhalf interested, without the smallest suspicion that I am talking\nabout them. The serpent's bite has led to the torpor of their\nconsciences. Which is the worse--to loathe my sin and yet to find its\nslimy coils round about me, so that I cannot break it, or to have got\nto like it and to be perfectly comfortable in it, and to have no\nremonstrance within when I do it? Be sure of this, that every\ntransgression and disobedience acts immediately upon the conscience of\nthe doer, sometimes to stir that conscience into agonies of gnawing\nremorse, more often to lull it into a fatal slumber.\n\nI do not speak of the retributions which we heap upon ourselves in\nloading our memories with errors and faults, in polluting them often\nwith vile imaginations, or in laying up there a lifelong series of\nactions, none of which have ever had a trace of reference to God in\nthem. I do not speak, except in a sentence, of the retribution which\ncomes from the habit of evil which weighs upon men, and makes it all\nbut impossible for them ever to shake off their sin. I do not speak,\nexcept in a sentence, of the perverted relations to God, the\nincapacity of knowing Him, the disregard, and even sometimes the\ndislike, of the thought of Him which steal across the heart of the man\nthat lives in evil and sin; but I put all into two words--every sin\nthat I do tells upon myself, inasmuch as its virus passes into my\nblood as _guilt_ and as _habit_. And then I remind you of\nwhat you say you believe, that beyond this world there lies the solemn\njudgment-seat of God, where you and I have to give account of our\ndeeds. O brother, be sure of this, 'whoso breaketh an hedge'--here and\nnow, and yonder also--'a serpent shall bite him'!\n\nThat is as far as my text carries me. It has nothing more to say. Am I\nto shut the book and have done? There is only one system that has\nanything more to say, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. And so, passing from my text, I have to say, lastly, All the\npoison may be got out of your veins if you like.\n\nOur Lord used this very same metaphor under a different aspect, and\nwith a different historical application, when He said, 'As Moses\nlifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be\nlifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have\neternal life.'\n\nThere is Christ's idea of the condition of this world of ours--a camp\nof men lying bitten by serpents and drawing near to death. What I have\nbeen speaking about, in perhaps too abstract terms, is the condition\nof each one of us. It is hard to get people, when they are gathered by\nthe hundred to listen to a sermon flung out in generalities, to\nrealise it. If I could get you one by one, and 'buttonhole' you; and\ninstead of the plural 'you' use the singular 'thou,' perhaps I could\nreach you. But let me ask you to try and realise each for himself that\nthis serpent bite, as the issue of pulling down the wall, is true\nabout each soul in this place, and that Christ endorsed the\nrepresentation. How are we to get this poison out of the blood? Reform\nyour ways? Yes; I say that too; but reforming the life will deliver\nfrom the poison in the character, when you cure hydrophobia by washing\nthe patient's skin, and not till then. It is all very well to repaper\nyour dining-rooms, but it is very little good doing that if the\ndrainage is wrong. It _is_ the drainage that is wrong with us\nall. A man cannot reform himself down to the bottom of his sinful\nbeing. If he could, it does not touch the past. That remains the same.\nIf he could, it does not affect his relation to God. Repentance--if it\nwere possible apart from the softening influence of faith in Jesus\nChrist--repentance alone would not solve the problem. So far as men\ncan see, and so far as all human systems have declared, 'What I have\nwritten I have written.' There is no erasing it. The irrevocable past\nstands stereotyped for ever. Then comes in this message of forgiveness\nand cleansing, which is the very heart of all that we preachers have\nto say, and has been spoken to most of you so often that it is almost\nimpossible to invest it with any kind of freshness or power. But once\nmore I have to preach to you that Christ has received into His own\ninmost life and self the whole gathered consequences of a world's sin;\nand by the mystery of His sympathy, and the reality of His mysterious\nunion with us men, He, the sinless Son of God, has been made sin for\nus, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The brazen\nserpent lifted on the pole was in the likeness of the serpent whose\npoison slew, but there was no poison in it. Christ has come, the\nsinless Son of God, for you and me. He has died on the Cross, the\nSacrifice for every man's sin, that every man's wound might be healed,\nand the poison cast out of his veins. He has bruised the malignant,\nblack head of the snake with His wounded heel; and because He has been\nwounded, we are healed of our wounds. For sin and death launched their\nlast dart at Him, and, like some venomous insect that can sting once\nand then must die, they left their sting in His wounded heart, and\nhave none for them that put their trust in Him.\n\nSo, dear brother, here is the simple condition--namely, faith. One\nlook of the languid eye of the poisoned man, howsoever bloodshot and\ndim it might be, and howsoever nearly veiled with the film of death,\nwas enough to make him whole. The look of our consciously sinful souls\nto that dear Christ that has died for us will take away the guilt, the\npower, the habit, the love of evil; and, instead of blood saturated\nwith the venom of sin, there will be in our veins the Spirit of life\nin Christ, which will 'make us free from the law of sin and death.'\n'Look unto Him and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth!'\n\n\n\nTHE WAY TO THE CITY\n\n'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he\nknoweth not how to go to the city.'--ECCLES. x. 15.\n\n\nOn the surface this seems to be merely a piece of homely, practical\nsagacity, conjoined with one of the bitter things which Ecclesiastes\nis fond of saying about those whom he calls 'fools.' It seems to\nrepeat, under another metaphor, the same idea which has been presented\nin a previous verse, where we read: 'If the iron be blunt, and he do\nnot whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is\nprofitable to direct.' That is to say, skill is better than strength;\nbrain saves muscle; better sharpen your axe than put yourself into a\nperspiration, hitting fierce blows with a blunt one. The prerogative\nof wisdom is to guide brute force. And so in my text the same general\nidea comes under another figure. Immense effort may end in nothing but\ntired feet if the traveller does not know his road. A man lost in the\nwoods may run till he drops, and find himself at night in the place\nfrom which he started in the morning. The path must be known, and the\naim clear, if any good is to come of effort.\n\nThat phrase, 'how to go to the city,' seems to be a kind of proverbial\ncomparison for anything that is very plain and conspicuous, just as\nour forefathers used to say about any obvious truth, that it was 'as\nplain as the road to London town.' The road to the capital is sure to\nbe a well-marked one, and he must be a fool indeed who cannot see\nthat. So our text, though on the surface, as I say, is simply a\nsarcasm and a piece of homely, practical sagacity, yet, like almost\nall the sayings in this Book of Ecclesiastes, it has a deeper meaning\nthan appears on the surface; and may be applied in higher and more\nimportant directions. It carries with it large truths, and enshrines\nin a vivid metaphor bitter experiences which, I suppose, we can all\nconfirm.\n\nI. We consider, first, the toil that tires.\n\n'The labour wearies every one of them.' The word translated 'labour'\nseems to carry with it both the idea of effort and of trouble. Or to\nrecur to a familiar distinction in modern English, the word really\ncovers both the ground of work and of worry. And it is a sad and\nsolemn thought that a word with that double element in it should be\nthe one which is most truly applicable to the efforts of a large\nmajority of men. I suppose there never was a time in the world's\nhistory when life went so fast as it does in these great centres of\ncivilisation and commerce in which you and I live. And it is awful to\nhave to think that the great mass of it all ends in nothing else but\ntired limbs and exhaustion. That is a truth to be verified by\nexperience, and I am bold to believe that every man and woman in this\nchapel now can say more or less distinctly 'Amen!' to the assertion\nthat every life, except a distinctly and supremely religious one, is\nworry and work without adequate satisfying result, and with no lasting\nissue but exhaustion.\n\nLet us begin at the bottom. For instance, take a man who has avowedly\nflung aside the restraints of right and wrong and conscience, and does\nthings habitually that he knows to be wrong. Every sin is a blunder as\nwell as a crime. No man who aims at an end through the smoke of hell\ngets the end that he aims at. Or if he does, he gets something that\ntakes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of\nthe success. They put a very evil-tasting ingredient into spirits of\nwine to prevent its being drunk. The cup that sin reaches to a man,\nthough the wine moveth itself aright and is very pleasant to look at\nbefore being tasted, cheats with _methylated_ spirits. Men and\nwomen take more pains and trouble to damn themselves than ever they do\nto have their souls saved. The end of all work, which begins with\ntossing conscience on one side, is simply this--'The labour of the\nfoolish wearieth every one of them.'\n\nTake a step higher--a respectable, well-to-do Manchester man,\nsuccessful in business. He has made it his aim to build up a large\nconcern, and has succeeded. He has a fine house, carriages,\ngreenhouses; he has 'J.P.' to his name; he stands high in credit and\non Change. His name is one that gives respectability to anything that\nit is connected with. Has he 'come to the city'? Has he got what he\nthought he would get when he began his career? He has succeeded in his\nimmediate and smaller purpose; has that immediate and smaller purpose\nsucceeded in bringing him what he thought it would bring him? Or has\nhe fallen a victim to those--\n\n  'juggling fiends ...\n  That palter with us in a double sense;\n  That keep the word of promise to the ear,\n  And break it to the hope?'\n\nThey tell us that if you put down in one column the value of the ore\nthat has been extracted from all the Australian gold-mines, and in\nanother the amount that it has cost to get it, the latter sum will\nexceed the former. There are plenty of people in Manchester who have\nput more down into the pit from which they dig their wealth than ever\nthey will get out of it. And their labour, too, leaves a very dark and\nempty aching centre in their lives, 'and wearieth every one of them.'\nAnd so I might go the whole round. We students, so long as our pursuit\nof knowledge has not in it as supreme, directing motive, and ultimate\naim and issue, the glory and the service of God, come under the lash\nof the same condemnation as those grosser and lower forms of life of\nwhich I have been speaking. But wherever we look, if there be not in\nthe heart and in the life a supreme regard to God and a communion with\nHim, then this characteristic is common to all the courses, that,\nwhilst they may each meet some immediate and partial necessity of our\nnatures, none of them is adequate for the whole circumference of a\nman's being, nor any of them able, during the whole duration of that\nbeing, to be his satisfaction and his rest. Therefore, I say, all\ntoil, however successful to the view of a shorter range of vision, and\nhowever noble--excluding the noblest of all--all toil that ends only\nin securing that which perishes with the using, or that which we leave\nbehind us here when we pass hence, is condemned for folly and labour\nthat wearies the men who are fools enough to surrender themselves to\nit.\n\nI need not remind you of the wonderful variety of metaphor under which\nthat threadbare thought, which yet it is so hard for us to believe and\nmake operative in our lives, is represented to us in Scripture. Just\nlet me recall one or two of them in the briefest way. 'Why do ye spend\nyour money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which\nprofiteth not?' 'They have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken\ncisterns that can hold no water.' 'Their webs shall not become\ngarments.' That may want a word of explanation. The metaphor is this.\nYou are all like spiders spinning carefully and diligently your web.\nThere is not substance enough in it to make a coat out of. You will\nnever cover yourselves with the product of your own brains or your own\nefforts. There is no clothing in the spider's webs of a godless life.\n\nAh! brother, all these earthly aims which some of my friends listening\nto me now have for the _sole_ aims of their lives, are as foolish\nand as inadequate to accomplish that which is sought for by them, as\nit would be to seek to quench raging thirst by lifting to the lips a\ngolden cup that is empty. Some of us have a whole sideboard full of\nsuch, and vary our pursuits according to inclination and task. Some of\nus have only one such, but they are all empty, and the lip is parched\nafter the cup has been lifted to it as it was before.\n\nII. And so, consider now, secondly, the foolish ignorance that makes\nthe toil tiresome.\n\nThe metaphor of my text says that the reason why the 'fool' is so\nwearied after the day's march is that he does not in the morning\nsettle where he is going, and how he is to get there; and so, having\nstarted to go nowhither, he has got where he started for. He 'does not\nknow how to go to the city'--which, being translated into plain and\nunmetaphorical English, is just this, that many men wreck their lives\nfor want of a clear sight of their true aim, and of the way to secure\nit.\n\nThere is nothing more tragical than the absence, in the great bulk of\nmen, of anything like deliberate, definite views as to their aim in\nlife, and the course to be taken to secure it. There are two things\nobviously necessary for success in any enterprise. One is, that there\nshall be the most definite and clear conception of what is aimed at;\nand the other, that there shall be a wisely considered plan to get at\nit. Unless there be these, if you go at random, running a little way\nfor a moment in this direction, and then heading about and going in\nthe other, you cannot expect to get to the goal.\n\nNow, what I want to ask some of my friends here is, Did you ever give\nten deliberate minutes to try to face for yourselves, and put into\nplain words, what you are living for, and how you mean to secure it?\nOf course I know that you have given thought and planning in plenty to\nthe nearer aims, without which material life cannot be lived at all. I\ndo not suppose that anybody here is chargeable with not having thought\nenough about how to get on in business, or in their chosen walk of\nlife. It is not that kind of aim which I mean at all; but it is a\npoint beyond it that I want to press upon you. You are like men who\nwould carefully victual a ship and take the best information for their\nguide as to what course to lie, and had never thought what they were\ngoing to do when they got to the port. So you say, 'I am going to be\nsuch-and-such a thing.' Well, what then? 'Well, I am going to lay\nmyself out for success.' Be it commercial, be it intellectual, be it\nsocial, be it in the sphere of the affections, or whatever it may be.\nWell, what then? 'Well, then I am going to advance in material\nprosperity, I hope, or in wisdom, or to be surrounded by loving faces\nof children and those that are dear to me.' What then? 'Then I am\ngoing to die.' What then?\n\nIt is not till you get to that last question, and have faced it and\nanswered it, that you can be said to have taken the whole sweep of the\ncircumstances into view, and regulated your course according to the\ndictates of common sense and right reason. And a terribly large number\nof us live with careful adaptation of means to ends in regard of all\nthe smaller and more immediately to be realised aims of life, but have\nnever faced the larger question which reduces all these smaller aims\nto insignificance. The simple child's interrogation which in the\nwell-known ballad ripped the tinsel off the skeleton, and showed war\nin its hideousness, strips many of your lives of all pretence to be\nreasonable. 'What good came of it at the last?' Can you answer the\nquestion that the infant lips asked, and say, 'This good will come of\nit at last. That I shall have God for my own, and Jesus Christ in my\nheart'?\n\nBrother! if I could only get you to this point, that you would take\nhalf an hour now to think over what you ought to be, and to ask\nyourself whether your aims in life correspond to what your aims should\nbe, I should have done more than I am afraid I shall do with some of\nyou. The naturalist can tell when he picks up a skeleton something of\nthe habits and the element of the creature to which it belonged. If it\nhas a hollow _sternum_ he knows it is meant to fly. On your\nnature is impressed unmistakably that your destiny is not to creep,\nbut to soar. Not in vain does the Westminster Catechism lay the\nfoundation of everything in this, the prime question for all men,\n'What is the chief end of man?' Ask that, and do not rest till you\nhave answered it.\n\nThen there is another idea connected with this ignorance of my\ntext--viz. that it is the result of folly. Now the words 'folly' and\n'foolish' and 'foolishness,' and their opposites, 'wisdom' and 'wise,'\nin this Book of Ecclesiastes, as in the Book of Proverbs, do not mean\nmerely dull stupidity intellectually, which is a thing for which a man\nis to be pitied rather than to be blamed, but they always carry\nbesides the idea of intellectual defect, also the idea of moral\nobliquity. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'; and,\nconversely, the absence of that fear is the foundation of that which\nthis writer stigmatises as 'folly' He is not merely sneering at men\nwith small brains and little judgments. There may be plenty of us who\nare so, and yet are wise unto salvation and possessed of a far higher\nwisdom than that of this world. But he tells us that so strangely\nintertwined are the intellectual and moral parts of our nature, that\nwheresoever there is the obscuration of the latter there is sure to be\nthe perversion of the former, and the man knows not 'how to go to the\ncity' because he is 'foolish.'\n\nThat is to say, you go wrong in your judgment about your conduct\nbecause you have gone wrong morally. And your blunders about life, and\nyour ignorance of its true end and aim, and your mistakes as to how to\nsecure happiness and blessedness, are your own faults, and are owing\nto the aversion of your nature from that which is highest and noblest,\neven God and His service. Therefore you are not only to be pitied\nbecause you are out of the road, but to be blamed because you have\ndarkened the eyes of your mind by loving the darkness rather than the\nlight. And you 'do not know how to go to the city,' because you do not\nwant to go to the city, and would rather huddle here in the\nwilderness, and live upon its poor supplies, than pass within the\ngolden gates. My brethren! the folly which blinds a man to his true\naim and mission in life is a folly which has in it the darker aspect\nof sin, and is punishable as such.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the plain path which the foolish miss.\n\nHe 'does not know how to go to the city.' What on earth will he be\nable to see if he cannot see that broad highway, beaten and white,\nstretching straight before him, over hill and dale, and going right to\nthe gates? A man must be a fool who cannot find the way to London.\n\nThe principles of moral conduct are trite and obvious. It is plain\nthat it is better to be good than bad. It is better to be unselfish\nthan selfish. It is better not to live for things that perish, seeing\nthat we are going to last for ever. It is better not to make the flesh\nour master here, seeing that the spirit will have to live without the\nflesh some day. It is better to get into training for the world to\ncoma, seeing that we are all drifting thither. All these things are\nplain and obvious.\n\nMan's destiny for God is unmistakable. 'Whose image and superscription\nhath it?' said Christ about the coin. 'Caesar's!' 'Then give it to\nCaesar.' Whose image and superscription hath my heart, this restless\nheart of mine, this spirit that wanders on through space and time,\nhomeless and comfortless, until it can grasp the Eternal? Who are you\nmeant for? God! And every fibre of your nature has a voice to say so\nto you if you listen to it. So, then, a godless life such as some of\nyou, my hearers, are contentedly living, ignores facts that are most\npatent to every man's experience. And while before you, huge 'as a\nmountain, open, palpable,' are the commonplaces and undeniable\nverities which declare that every man who is not a God-fearing man is\na fool, you admit them all, and, bowing your heads in reverence, let\nthem all go over you and produce no effect.\n\nThe road is clearer than ever since Jesus Christ came. He has shown us\nthe city, for He has brought life and immortality to light by the\nGospel. He has shown us the road, for His life is the pattern of all\nthat men ought to aim at and to be. The motto of the eternal Son of\nGod, if I may venture upon such a metaphor, is like the motto of the\nheir-apparent of the English throne, 'I serve.' Lo! 'I come to do Thy\nwill'--and that is the only word which will make a human life peaceful\nand strong and beautiful. In the presence of His radiant and solitary\nperfection, men no longer need to wonder, What is the ideal to which\nconduct and character should be conformed? And Jesus Christ has come\nto make it possible to go to the city, by that cross on which He bore\nthe burden of all sin, and takes away the sin of the world, and by\nthat Spirit of life which He will impart to our weakness, and which\nmakes our sluggish feet run in the way of His commandments, and not be\nweary, and walk and not faint.\n\nTake that dear Lord for your revelation of duty, for your Pattern of\nconduct, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the Inspirer with power\nto do His will, and then you will see stretching before you, high up\nabove the surrounding desert, so that no lion nor ravenous beast shall\ngo up there, the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord shall walk,\n'and the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.'\n'Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may enter in\nthrough the gates into the City.'\n\n\n\nA NEW YEARS SERMON TO THE YOUNG\n\n'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in\nthe days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the\nsight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will\nbring thee into judgment.... Remember now thy Creator in the days of\nthy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when\nthou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.'--ECCLES. xi. 9; xii. 1.\n\n\nThis strange, and in some places perplexing Book of Ecclesiastes, is\nintended to be the picture of a man fighting his way through\nperplexities and half-truths to a clear conviction in which he can\nrest. What he says in his process of coming to that conviction is not\nalways to be taken as true. Much that is spoken in the earlier portion\nof the Book is spoken in order to be confuted, and its insufficiency,\nits exaggerations, its onesidedness, and its half-truths, to be\nmanifest in the light of the ultimate conclusion to which he comes.\nThrough all these perplexities he goes on 'sounding his dim and\nperilous way,' with pitfalls on this side of him and bogs on that,\ntill he comes out at last upon the open way, with firm ground under\nfoot and a clear sky overhead. These phrases which I have taken are\nthe opening sentences and the final conclusion on which he rests. How\nthen are they meant to be understood? Is that saying, 'Rejoice, O\nyoung man! in the days of thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in\nthe days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the\nsight of thine eyes,' to be taken as a bit of fierce irony? Is this a\nman taking the maxims of the foolish world about him and seeming to\napprove of them in order that he may face round at the end with a\nquick turn and a cynical face and hand them back their maxims along\nwith that which will shatter them to pieces--as if he said, 'Oh, yes!\ngo on, talk your fill about making the best of this world, and\nrejoicing and doing as you like, dancing on the edge of a precipice,\nand fiddling, like Nero, whilst a worse fire than that of Rome is\nburning'? Well, I do not think that is the meaning of it. Though there\nis irony to be found in the Bible, I do not think that fierce irony\nlike that which might do for the like of Dean Swift, is the intention\nof the Preacher. So I take these words to be said in good faith, as a\nfrank recognition of the fact that, after all we have been hearing\nabout vanity and vexation of spirit, life is worth living for, and\nthat God means young people to be glad and to make the best of the\nfleeting years that will never come back with the same buoyancy and\nelasticity all their lives long. And then I take it that the words\nadded are not meant to destroy or neutralise the concession of the\nfirst sentence, but only to purify and ennoble a gladness which,\nwithout them, would be apt to be stained by many a corruption, and to\nmake permanent a joy which, without them, would be sure to die down\ninto the miserable, peevish, and feeble old age of which the grim\npicture follows, and to be quenched at last in death. So there are\nthree words that I take out of this text of mine, and that I want to\nbring before my young friends as exhortations which it is wise to\nfollow. These are Rejoice, Reflect, Remember. Rejoice--the fitting\ngladness of youth; reflect--the solemn thought that will guard the\ngladness from stain; remember--the religion which will make these\nthings ever last.\n\nFirst of all 'Rejoice.' Do as you like, for that is the English\ntranslation of the words, 'Walk in the ways of thine heart and in the\nsight of thine eyes.' Buoyantly and cheerfully follow the inclinations\nand the desires which are stamped upon your nature and belong to your\ntime of life. All young things are joyful, from the lamb in the\npastures upwards, and are meant to be so. The mere bounding sense of\nphysical strength which leads so many of you young men astray is a\ngood thing and a blessed thing--a blessing to be thankful for and to\ncherish. Your smooth cheeks, so unlike those of old age, are only an\nemblem of the comparative freedom from care which belongs to your\nhappy condition. Your memories are not yet like some--a book written\nwithin and without with the records of mourning and disappointment and\ncrosses. There are in all probability long years stretching before\nyou, instead of a narrow strip of barren sand, before you come to the\ngreat salt sea that is going to swallow you up, as is the case with\nsome of us. Christianity looks with complacency on your gladness, and\ndoes not mean to clip the wing of one white-winged pleasure, or to\nbreathe one glimmer of blackness on your atmosphere. You are meant to\nbe glad, but it is gladness in a far higher sense that I want to\nsecure for you, or rather to make you secure for yourselves. God\ndelights in the prosperity and light-hearted buoyancy of His children,\nespecially of His young children. Ah! but I know there are young lives\nover which poverty or ill-health or sorrows of one kind or another\nhave cast a gloom as incongruous to your time of life as snow in the\ngarden in the spring, that pinches the crocuses and weighs down young\ngreen beech-leaves, would be. And if I am speaking to any young man or\nyoung woman at this time who by reason of painful outward\ncircumstances has had but a chilling spring and youth, I would say to\nthem, 'don't lose heart'; a cloudy morning often breaks into a perfect\nday. It is good for a man to have to 'bear the yoke in his youth,' and\nif you miss joy, you may get grace and strength and patience, which\nwill be a blessing to you all your days. For all that, the ordinary\ncourse of things is that the young should be glad, and that the young\nlife should be as the rippling brook in the sunshine. I want to leave\nupon your minds this impression, that it is all right and all in the\norder of God's providence, who means every one of you to rejoice in\nthe days of your youth. The text says further, 'Walk in the ways of\nthine heart.' That sounds very like the unwholesome teaching, 'Follow\nnature; do as you like; let passions and tastes and inclinations be\nyour guides.'\n\nWell, that needs to be set round with a good many guards to prevent it\nbecoming a doctrine of devils. But for all that, I wish you to notice\nthat that has a great and a religious side to it. You have come into\npossession of this mystical life of yours, a possession which requires\nthat you must choose what kind of life you will follow. Every one has\nthis awful prerogative of being able to walk in the way of their\nheart. You have to answer for the kind of way that is, and the kind of\nheart out of which it has come. But I want to go to more important\nthings, and so with a clear understanding that the joy of youth is all\nright and legitimate, that you are intended to be glad, and to feel\nthe physical and intellectual spring and buoyancy of early days, let\nus go on to the next thing. 'Rejoice,' says my text, and it adds,\n'Reflect.' It is one of the blessings of your time of life, my young\nfriends, that you do not do much of that. It is one of your happy\nimmunities that you are not yet in the habit of looking at life as a\nwhole, and considering actions and consequences. Keep that spontaneity\nas long as you can; it is a good thing to keep. But for all that, do\nnot forget this awful thing, that it may turn to exaggeration and\nexcess, and that it needs, like all other good things, to be guarded\nand rightly used. And so, 'Rejoice,' and 'walk in the sight of thine\neyes'; _but_--'know that for all these things God will bring thee\nto judgment.' Well, now, is that thought to come in (I was going to\nsay, like a mourning-coach driven through a wedding procession) to\nkill the joys we have been seeming to receive from the former words?\nAre we taking back all that we have been giving, and giving out\ninstead something that will make them all cower and be quiet, like the\nsinging birds that stop their singing and hide in the leaves when they\nsee the kite in the sky? No, there is no need for anything of the\nsort. 'For all these things God will bring thee to judgment': that is\nnot the thought that kills, but that purifies and ennobles. Regard\nbeing had to the opinions expressed at various points in the earlier\nportion of this Book, we may be allowed to think of this testimony as\nhaving reference to the perpetual judgment that is going on in this\nworld always over every man's life. A great German thinker has it, in\nreference to the history of nations, that the history of the world is\nthe judgment of the world, and although that is not true if it is a\ndenial of a physical day of judgment, it is true in a very profound\nand solemn sense with regard to the daily life of every man, that\nwhether there be a judgment-seat beyond the grave or not, and whether\nthis Preacher knew anything about that or no, there is going on\nthrough the whole of a man's life, and evolving itself, this solemn\nconviction, that we are to pass away from this present life. All our\ndays are knit together as one whole. Yesterday is the parent of today,\nand today is the parent of all the tomorrows. The meaning and the\ndeepest consequence of man's life is that no feeling, no thought that\nflits across the mirror of his life and heart dies utterly, leaving\nnothing behind it. But rather the metaphor of the Apostle is the true\none, 'That which thou sowest, that shalt thou also reap.' All your\nlife a seed-time, all your life a harvest-time too, for the seed which\nI sow today is the seed which I have reaped from all my former\nsowings, and so cause and consequence go rolling on in life in\nextricable entanglement, issuing out in this, that whatever a man does\nlives on in him, and that each moment inherits the whole consequence\nof his former life. And now, you young men and women, you boys and\ngirls, mind! this seed-time is the one that will be most powerful in\nyour lives, and there is a judgment you do not need to die to meet. If\nyou are idle at school, you will never learn Latin when you go to\nbusiness. If you are frivolous in your youth, if you stain your souls\nand soil your lives by outward coarse sin here in Manchester in your\nyoung days, there will be a taint about you all your lives. You cannot\nget rid of that brave law that 'Whatever a man sows, that, thirtyfold,\nsixtyfold, an hundredfold, that shall he also reap'--the same kind,\nbut infinitely multiplied in quantity. Let me therefore name some of\nthe ways in which your joys or pleasures, as lads, as boys and girls,\nas growing young men and women, will bring you to judgment. Health,\nthat is one; position, that is two; reputation, that is three;\ncharacter, that is four. Did you ever see them build one of those\nhouses they make in some parts of the country, with concrete instead\nof stones? Take a spadeful of the mud, and put it into a frame on the\nwall. When it is dry, take away the frame and the supports, and it\nhardens into rock. You take your single deeds--the mud sometimes,\nyoung men!--pop them on the wall, and think no more about it. Ay, but\nthey stop there and harden there, and lo! a character--a house for\nyour soul to live in--health, position, memory, capacity, and all\nthat. If you have not done certain things which you ought to have\ndone, you will never be able to do them, and there are the materials\nfor a judgment. That is going on every moment, and especially is it\ngoing on in the region of your pleasures. If they are unworthy, you\nare unworthy; if they are gross, and coarse, and low, and animal, they\nare dragging you down; if they are frivolous and foolish, they are\nmaking you a poor butterfly of a creature that is worth nothing and\nwill be of no good to anybody; if they are pure, and chaste, and\nlofty, and virginal and white, they will make your souls good and\ngracious and tender with the tenderness and beauty of God.\n\nBut that is not all. I am not going to travel beyond the limits of\nthis present life with any words of mine, but as I read this final\nconclusion in this Book of Ecclesiastes, I think I can perceive that\nthe doubts and the scepticisms about a future life, and the difference\nbetween a man and a beast which are spoken of in the earlier chapters,\nhave all been overcome, and the clear conviction of the writer is\nexpressed in these twofold great sayings: 'The spirit shall return\nunto God who gave it, and the words with which He stamps all His\nmessage upon our hearts, the final words of His book'; 'God shall\nbring every work into judgment with every secret thing.' And I come to\nyou and say, 'I suppose you believe in a state of retribution beyond?'\nI suppose that most of the young folk I am speaking to now at all\nevents believe that 'Thou wilt come to be our judge,' as the _Te\nDeum_ has it; and that it is this same personal self of mine that\nis to stand there who is sitting here? God shall bring _thee_\ninto judgment. Never mind what is to come of the body, the quivering,\npalpitating, personal centre. The very same self that I know myself to\nbe will be carried there. Now, take that with you and lay it to heart,\nand let it have a bearing on your pleasure. It will kill nothing that\ndeserves to live, it will take no real joy out of a man's life. It\nwill only strain out the poison that would kill you. You turn that\nthought upon your heart, my friends. Is it like a policeman's\nbull's-eye turned upon a lot of bad characters hiding under a railway\narch in the corner there? If so, the sooner you get rid of the\npleasures and inclinations that slink away when that beam of light\nstrikes their ugly faces, the better for yourselves and for your\nlives. 'Rejoice in the way of thine heart and, that thy joy may be\npure, know that for all this God will bring thee into judgment.'\n\nAnd now my last word, 'Remember God,' says my text. The former two\nsayings, if taken by themselves, would make a very imperfect guide to\nlife. Self-indulgence regulated by the thought of retribution is a\nvery low kind of life after all. There is something better in this\nworld, and that is work; something higher, and that is duty; something\nnobler than self-indulgence, and that is self-sacrifice. And so no\nreligion worthy the name contents itself by saying to a man, 'Be good\nand you will be glad'; but, 'Never mind whether you are glad; be good\nat any rate, and such gladness as is good for you will come to you,\nand you can want the rest.' 'Remember thy Creator in the days of thy\nyouth.' Recall God to your thoughts, and keep Him in your mind all the\nday long. That is wonderfully unlike your life, is it not? Remember\nthy Creator; shift the centre of your life. What I have been saying\nmight be true of a man, the centre of whose life was himself, and such\na man is next door to a devil, for, I suppose, the definition of devil\nis 'self-engrossed still,' and whosoever lives for himself is dead.\nDon't let the earth be the centre of your system, but the sun. Do not\nlive to yourselves, or your pleasures will all be ignoble and\ncreeping, but live to God. 'Remember.' Well, then, you and I know a\ngood deal more about God than the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes\ndid--both about what He is and how to remember Him. I am not going to\ncontent myself by taking his point of view, but I must take a far\nhigher and a far better one. If he had been here he would have said\n'Remember God.' He would have said, 'Look at God in Jesus Christ, and\ntrust Him and love Him; go to Him as your Saviour, and take all the\nburden of your past sin and lay it upon His merciful shoulders, and\nfor His dear sake look for forgiveness and cleansing; and then for His\ndear sake live to serve and bless Him. Never mind about yourself, and\ndo not think much about your gladness. Follow in the footsteps of Him\nwho has shown us that the highest joy is to give oneself utterly away.\nLove Jesus Christ and trust Him and serve Him, and that will make all\nyour gladness permanent.' There is one thing I want to teach you. Look\nat that description, or rather read when you go home the description\nwhich follows my text, of that wretched old man who has got no hope in\nGod and no joy, feeble in body, going down to the grave, and dying out\nat last. That is what rejoicing in the days of thy youth, and walking\nin the ways of thine own heart, come to when you do not remember God.\nThere is nothing more miserable on the face of this earth than an\nill-conditioned old man, who is ill-conditioned because he has lost\nhis early joys and early strength, and has got nothing to make up for\nthem. How many of your joys, my dear young friends, will last when old\nage comes to you? How many of them will survive when your eye is no\nlonger bright, and your hand no longer strong, and your foot no longer\nfleet? How many of them, young woman! when the light is out of your\neye, and the beauty and freshness out of your face and figure, when\nyou are no longer able for parties, when it is no longer a pastime to\nread novels, and when the ballroom is not exactly the place for\nyou,--how many of your pleasures will survive? Young man! how many of\nyours will last when you can no longer go into dissipation, and\nstomach and system will no longer stand fast living, nor athletics,\nand the like? Oh! let me beseech thee, go to the ant and consider her\nways, who in the summer layeth up for the winter; and do ye likewise\nin the days of your youth, store up for yourselves that which knows no\nchange and laughs at the decay of flesh and sense. A thousand motives\ncoincide and press on my memory if I had words and time to speak them.\nLet me beseech you--especially you young men and women of this\ncongregation, of some of whom I may venture to speak as a father to\nhis children, whom I have seen growing up, as it were, from your\nmothers' arms, and the rest of you whom I do not know so well--Oh!\ncarry away with you this beseeching entreaty of mine at the end. Love\nJesus Christ and trust to Him as your Saviour; serve Him as your\nCaptain and your King in the days of your youth. Do not offer Him the\nfag end of a life--the last inch of the candle that is burning down\ninto the socket. Do it now, for the moments are flying, and you may\nnever have Him offered to you any more. If there is any softening, any\ntouch of conscience in your heart, yield to the impulse and do not\nstifle it. Take Christ for your Saviour, take Him now--'Now is the\naccepted time, now is the day of salvation.'\n\n\n\nTHE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER\n\n'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil\ndays come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no\npleasure in them; 2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the\nstars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; 3. In\nthe day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong\nmen shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few,\nand those that look out of the windows be darkened, 4. And the doors\nshall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low,\nand he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters\nof musick shall be brought low; 5. Also when they shall be afraid of\nthat which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree\nshall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire\nshall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go\nabout the streets: 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden\nbowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel\nbroken at the cistern. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as\nit was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.... 13. Let\nus hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His\ncommandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14. For God shall\nbring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be\ngood, or whether it be evil.'--ECCLES. xii. 1-7,13,14.\n\n\nThe Preacher has passed in review 'all the works that are done under\nthe sun,' and has now reached the end of his long investigation. It\nhas been a devious path. He has announced many provisional\nconclusions, which are not intended for ultimate truths, but rather\nrepresent the progress of the soul towards the final, sufficient\nground and object of belief and aim of all life, even God Himself.\n'Vanity of vanities' is a cheerless creed and a half-truth. Its\ncompletion lies in being driven, by recognising vanity as stamped on\nall creatures, to clasp the one reality. 'All is vanity' apart from\nGod, but He is fullness, and possessed and enjoyed and endured in Him,\nlife is not 'a striving after wind.' Leave out this last section, and\nthis book of so-called 'Wisdom' is one-sided and therefore error, as\nis modern pessimism, which only says more feebly what the Preacher had\nsaid long ago. Take the rest of the book as the autobiography of a\nseeker after reality, and this last section as his declaration of\nwhere he had found it, and all the previous parts fall into their\nright places.\n\nOur passage omits the first portion of the closing section, which is\nneeded in order to set the counsel to remember the Creator in its\nright relation. Observe that, properly rendered, the advice in verse 1\nis 'remember also,' and that takes us back to the end of the preceding\nchapter. There the young are exhorted to enjoy the bright, brief\nblossom-time of their youth, withal keeping the consciousness of\nresponsibility for its employment. In earlier parts of the book\nsimilar advice had been given, but based on different grounds. Here\nreligion and full enjoyment of youthful buoyancy and delight in fresh,\nunhackneyed, homely pleasures are proclaimed to be perfectly\ncompatible. The Preacher had no idea that a devout young man or woman\nwas to avoid pleasures natural to their age. Only he wished their joy\nto be pure, and the stern law that 'whatsoever a man soweth that shall\nhe also reap' to be kept in mind. Subject to that limitation, or\nrather that guiding principle, it is not only allowable, but\ncommanded, to 'put away sorrow and evil.' Young people are often\nliable to despondent moods, which come over them like morning mists,\nand these have to be fought against. The duty of joy is the more\nimperative on the young because youth flies so fast, or, as the\nPreacher says,' is vanity.'\n\nNow these advices sound very like the base incitements to sensual and\nunworthy delight which poets of the meaner sort, and some, alas! of\nthe nobler in their meaner moments, have presented. But this writer is\nno teacher of 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,' and wicked trash of\nthat sort. Therefore he brings side by side with these advices the\nother of our passage. That 'also' saves the former from being misused,\njust as the thought of judgment did.\n\nThat possible combination of hearty, youthful glee and true religion\nis the all-important lesson of this passage. The word for Creator is\nin the plural number, according to the Hebrew idiom, which thereby\nexpresses supremacy or excellence. The name of 'Creator' carries us\nback to Genesis, and suggests one great reason for the injunction. It\nis folly to forget Him on whom we depend for being; it is ingratitude\nto forget, in the midst of the enjoyments of our bright, early days,\nHim to whom we owe them all. The advice is specially needed; for youth\nhas so much, that is delightful in its novelty, to think about, and\nthe world, on both its innocent and its sinful side, appeals to it so\nstrongly, that the Creator is only too apt to be crowded out of view\nby His works. The temptation of the young is to live in the present.\nReflection belongs to older heads; spontaneous action is more\ncharacteristic of youth. Therefore, they specially need to make\nefforts to bring clearly to their thoughts both the unseen future and\nHim who is invisible. The advice is specially suitable for them; for\nwhat is begun early is likely to last and be strong.\n\nIt is hard for older men, stiffened into habits, and with less power\nand love of taking to new courses, to turn to God, if they have\nforgotten Him in early days. Conversion is possible at any age, but it\nis less likely as life goes on. The most of men who are Christians\nhave become so in the formative period between boyhood and thirty.\nAfter that age, the probabilities of radical change diminish rapidly.\nSo, 'Remember ... in the days of thy youth,' or the likelihood is that\nyou will never remember. To say, 'I mean to have my fling, and I shall\nturn over a new leaf when I am older,' is to run dreadful risk.\nPerhaps you will never be older. Probably, if you are, you will not\nwant to turn the leaf. If you do, what a shame it is to plan to give\nGod only the dregs of life! You need Him, quite as much, if not more,\nnow in the flush of youth as in old age. Why should you rob yourself\nof years of blessing, and lay up bitter memories of wasted and\npolluted moments? If ever you turn to God in your older days, nothing\nwill be so painful as the remembrance that you forgot Him so long.\n\nThe advice is further important, because it presents the only means of\ndelivering life from the 'vanity' which the Preacher found in it all.\nTherefore he sets it at the close of his meditations. This is the\npractical outcome of them all. Forget God, and life is a desert.\nRemember Him, and 'the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.'\n\nThe verses from the middle of verse 1 to the end of verse 7 enforce\nthe exhortation by the consideration of what will certainly follow\nyouth, and advise remembrance of the Creator before that future comes.\nSo much is clear, but the question of the precise meaning of these\nverses is much too large for discussion here. The older explanation\ntakes them for an allegory representing the decay of bodily and mental\npowers in old age, whilst others think that in them the advance of\ndeath is presented under the image of an approaching storm. Wright, in\nhis valuable commentary, regards the description of the gradual waning\naway of life in old age, in the first verses, as being set forth under\nimages drawn from the closing days of the Palestinian winter, which\nare dreaded as peculiarly unhealthy, while verse 4_b_ and verse 5\npresent the advent of spring, and contrast the new life in animals and\nplants with the feebleness of the man dying in his chamber and unable\nto eat. Still another explanation is that the whole is part of a\ndirge, to be taken literally, and describing the mourners in house and\ngarden. I venture, though with some hesitation, to prefer, on the\nwhole, the old allegorical theory, for reasons which it would be\nimpossible to condense here. It is by no means free from difficulty,\nbut is, as I think, less difficult than any of its rivals.\n\nInterpreters who adopt it differ somewhat in the explanation of\nparticular details, but, on the whole, one can see in most of the\nsimiles sufficient correspondence for a poet, however foreign to\nmodern taste such a long-drawn and minute allegory may be. 'The\nkeepers of the house' are naturally the arms; the 'strong men,' the\nlegs; the 'grinding women,' the teeth; the 'women who look out at the\nwindows,' the eyes; 'the doors shut towards the street,' either the\nlips or, more probably, the ears. 'The sound of the grinding,' which\nis 'low,' is by some taken to mean the feeble mastication of toothless\ngums, in which case the 'doors' are the lips, and the figure of the\nmill is continued. 'Arising at the voice of the bird' may describe the\nlight sleep or insomnia of old age; but, according to some, with an\nalteration of rendering ('The voice riseth into a sparrow's'), it is\nthe 'childish treble' of Shakespeare. The former is the more probable\nrendering and reference. The allegory is dropped in verse _5a_,\nwhich describes the timid walk of the old, but is resumed in 'the\nalmond trees shall flourish'; that is, the hair is blanched, as the\nalmond blossom, which is at first delicate pink, but fades into white.\nThe next clause has an appropriate meaning in the common translation,\nas vividly expressing the loss of strength, but it is doubtful whether\nthe verb here used ever means 'to be a burden.' The other explanations\nof the clause are all strained. The next clause is best taken, as in\nthe Revised Version, as describing the failure of appetite, which the\nstimulating caper-berry is unable to rouse. All this slow decay is\naccounted for, 'because the man is going to his long home,' and\nalready the poet sees the mourners gathering for the funeral\nprocession.\n\nThe connection of the long-drawn-out picture of senile decay with the\nadvice to remember the Creator needs no elucidation. That period of\nfailing powers is no time to begin remembering God. How dreary, too,\nit will be, if God is not the 'strength of the heart,' when 'heart and\nflesh fail'! Therefore it is plain common sense, in view of the\nfuture, not to put off to old age what will bless youth, and keep the\nadvent of old age from being wretched.\n\nVerses 6 and 7 still more stringently enforce the precept by pointing,\nnot to the slow approach, but to the actual arrival of death. If a\nfuture of possible weakness and gradual creeping in on us of death is\nreason for the exhortation, much more is the certainty that the crash\nof dissolution will come. The allegory is partially resumed in these\nverses. The 'golden bowl' is possibly the head, and, according to\nsome, the 'silver cord' is the spinal marrow, while others think\nrather of the bowl or lamp as meaning the body, and the cord the soul\nwhich, as it were, holds it up. The 'pitcher' is the heart, and the\n'wheel' the organs of respiration. Be this as it may, the general\nthought is that death comes, shivering the precious reservoir of\nlight, and putting an end to drawing of life from the Fountain of\nbodily life. Surely these are weighty reasons for the Preacher's\nadvice. Surely it is well for young hearts sometimes to remember the\nend, and to ask, 'What will ye do in the end?' and to do before the\nend what is so hard to begin doing at the end, and so needful to have\ndone if the end is not to be worse than 'vanity.'\n\nThe collapse of the body is not the end of the man, else the whole\nforce of the argument in the preceding verses would disappear. If\ndeath is annihilation, what reason is there for seeking God before it\ncomes? Therefore verse 7 is no interpolation to bring a sceptical book\ninto harmony with orthodox Jewish belief, as some commentators affirm.\nThe 'contradiction' between it and Ecclesiastes iii. 21 is alleged as\nproof of its having been thus added. But there is no contradiction.\nThe former passage is interrogative, and, like all the earlier part of\nthe book, sets forth, not the Preacher's ultimate convictions, but a\nphase through which he passed on his way to these. It is because man\nis twofold, and at death the spirit returns to its divine Giver, that\nthe exhortation of verse 1 is pressed home with such earnestness.\n\nThe closing verses are confidently asserted to be, like verse 7,\nadditions in the interests of Jewish 'orthodoxy.' But Ecclesiastes is\nmade out to be a 'sceptical book' by expelling these from the text,\nand then the character thus established is taken to prove that they\nare not genuine. It is a remarkably easy but not very logical process.\n\n'The end of the matter' when all is heard, is, to 'fear God and keep\nHis commandments.' The inward feeling of reverent awe which does not\nexclude love, and the outward life of conformity to His will, is 'the\nwhole duty of man,' or 'the duty of every man.' And that plain summary\nof all that men need to know for practical guidance is enforced by the\nconsideration of future judgment, which, by its universal sweep and\nall-revealing light, must mean the judgment in another life.\n\nHappy they who, through devious mazes of thought and act, have\nwandered seeking for the vision of any good, and having found all to\nbe vanity, have been led at last to rest, like the dove in the ark, in\nthe broad simplicity of the truth that all which any man needs for\nblessedness in the buoyancy of fresh youthful strength and in the\nfeebleness of decaying age, in the stress of life, in the darkness of\ndeath, and in the day of judgment, is to 'fear God and keep His\ncommandments'!","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: Second Kings Chapters VIII to End and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Esther, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":261983}